YAKIMA – In the NIL and transfer portal era of college athletics, teams can turnover almost an entire roster in one offseason after players leave the program.

Few teams, if any, are experiencing this more than the Idaho State men’s basketball squad, on which West Valley graduate Landen Birley will be a sophomore this fall.

The Bengals, who finished 5-13 in the Big Sky Conference and 13-20 overall, had to replace 13 of 15 players, with Burley and fellow wing Quin Patterson the only holdovers for coach Ryan Looney, who heads into his eighth season leading Idaho State.

“He’s basically recruiting to find a whole new team,” Birley said during a telephone interview before he heads back to the Pocatello school where classes begin Aug. 24. “Coaching is definitely a different and tougher job.”

With a roster consisting of the two returners, both of whom saw limited action last season, four high school recruits, two Division I transfers, four moving up from D-II, and a Swedish pro player, Looney is starting with the basics as he tries to guide ISU to its first winning season since the 2020-21 pandemic-shortened season.

“There are a lot of new faces,” Looney told the Idaho State Journal last month. “We’re not only trying to learn a new system on offense and defense right now, but we’re trying to learn how to practice the right way every day, too.”

Creating chemistry, and doin it quickly, is key.

“It’s crazy for sure; 13 out of 15 players, I didn’t really think there would be that many,” Birley said. “You have to build relationships with those (new) players, and you don’t have a ton of time.”

The official transfer portal opened April 6 – right after Michigan won its first championship in 37 years with a starting lineup of five transfers – and closed April 20.

Just a season in, Birley was one of the lead recruiters.

“Most of the spring we had guys on visit, pretty much right after the season,” Birley said.

With a roster pieced together, the Bengals got to work for the bulk of the summer, running drills and hitting the weight room.

Birley, who said he didn’t consider transferring from the schools that sits next to the Portneuf Range of the Western Rockies in southeastern Idaho, is focused on adding muscle to his 6-foot-4 frame, and catching up to the speed of the D-I game.

His 1,691 points sits atop West Valley’s all-time boys and girls scoring list, leading a top 10 filled with family members, including mother Katie (Borton) Birley with 1,376 points, and uncle Matt Borton with 1,331, with younger brother Austin, the second-ranked junior in hot pursuit.

Birley said the summer training should help him toward the sharpshooter role – with drives to the hoop sprinkled in – that helped him scorch Big Nine nets.

“I’ve put on some weight and muscle, and the speed of the game is slowing down,” he said. “The college game is a lot faster, and this summer I could notice the game slowing down to make the reads.”

The Bengals will continue to train once school starts, with practices officially starting in October, and their first game Nov. 2 at Pac-12 newcomer Utah State.

They, and other schools, then will see the result of the expedited roster makeover.

“I think we got a lot of athleticism,” he said of the roster with leaner and longer bigs. “Hopefully it will come together.”