With the comings and goings — mostly goings — in the University of Hawaii men’s basketball program lately, some people would have you believe the NCAA’s transfer portal is the devil’s own doing.

To be sure the transfer portal has become a freeway for players to change schools, shaking foundations and facilitating mass migration across the landscape. Five — and counting — Rainbow Warriors alone have announced their wish to depart for other schools.

But as much as some folks want to curse the portal and rail against its impact, it is something players have long deserved and a device that, when well-mined, can help mid-major schools such as UH.

You need look no further than one of UH’s peers, Big West Conference champion UC Santa Barbara.

The Gauchos (22-5, 13-3 Big West) have embraced the portal and made it pay off with a trip to the NCAA Tournament this year. Four of UCSB’s main contributors this season, including conference player of the year JaQuori McLaughlin, came to the Gauchos as transfers.

McLaughlin (Oregon State), Mike Norris (Oregon), Branden Cyrus (DePaul) and Devearl Ramsey (Nevada) found their way to UCSB after disenchantment or disappointment at their original stops.

Consider, too, the model case of Noah Allen, who made the move from UCLA to UH for the 2016-17 season. Allen averaged just 1.2 points and 8.5 minutes a game over three seasons for the Bruins.

But in the step down to the Big West he became an instant star for UH, averaging 15.7 points and 5.8 rebounds a game. Allen was one of only two first-team All-Big West selections UH has had in the last five years.

Allen was the poster player for a good athlete who had trouble getting court time at a Power 5 program but took advantage of a second-chance opportunity to soar in the Big West.

The problem is that he is the rare one for UH. You’d like to think there are a lot more Noah Allens out there, if only UH could better direct some of the more than $120,000 it has averaged annually over five years on recruiting to ferret them out and sell the opportunities.

The transfer portal provides the opening. The portal debuted in Oct. 2018 as part of the NCAA’s grudging recognition that players, like their coaches and administrators, should have some freedom of movement.

College students in dozens of disciplines and majors have transferred at will and the major difference between them and scholarship athletes was the financial investment schools had in recruiting and retaining them.

For ages coaches and administrators have come and gone as they please, pursuing higher salaries and greener pastures while players were pretty much tied to the schools they signed with. To leave they often had to get a waiver from the school they were departing or sit out a season. Sometimes two.

Never mind that their scholarships were largely renewable annually at the option of the school and challenging a coach’s decision was often an uphill battle.

But the pendulum of athletes rights has finally swung in the players’ direction and instead of being considered chattel they now have a mechanism to become free agents of a sort. Whether they are disappointed in playing time, don’t feel coaches are helping them get better or just want a change of scenery, it is now their right.

Fact is the transfer portal, in some form at least, figures to be with us for a while. And it behooves UH, like its competition, to find ways to make the most of it.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.