These days, the surest way to sully your name in college basketball is to restrict players from contacting other institutions when they want to transfer out of your program. Coaches at Saint Joseph’s, Maryland, and Wisconsin have all suffered publicity blows in recent months after their institutions limited certain athletes from freely talking to other teams, keeping them from earning scholarships elsewhere.

Last week Southern Illinois even took the unusual step of publicizing an athlete’s grade-point average as evidence of why he shouldn’t be allowed to leave. (The Salukis require players to have a 2.6 GPA to transfer so it doesn’t harm the team’s Academic Progress Rate. The player in question, Treg Setty, has a 2.5.)

Critics question why athletes aren’t granted the same freedom as coaches, who can move in and out of programs without penalty. Players, on the other hand, often…

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