Rutgers played its final basketball game on March 13. Seventy-six days later, in the dead of night, standout forward Eugene Omoruyi announced his intention to transfer.

That was big news in college basketball for a couple of hours.

Later the same day, Kansas guard Quentin Grimes and Alabama Wing Tevin Mack withdrew from the NBA Draft and entered the transfer portal, a database coaches around the country can access to see who is changing schools.

The following day, Kentucky guard Brad Calipari entered the portal. Yes, his father John is the Wildcats’ coach.

This is the first year of the portal, which allows a player to transfer without his coach’s permission — the only person the player must notify is the school’s compliance officer, who then does the entering. Just shy of a thousand men’s basketball players have entered the portal this year. That’s more than 20 percent of Division I, enough to fill the rosters of all 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament. At one point or another, eight guys from UNLV entered the portal.

This is the next step in the freedom-of-movement evolution of college sports. Empowering student-athletes is generally a good thing, but a side effect was on display in the dead of night Wednesday, when Omoruyi announced his move on social media from his home in Canada, essentially blindsiding the Rutgers coaching staff after the spring signing period. He didn't even tell head coach Steve Pikiell face to face, informing him by phone shortly before posting it on Instagram.

Did he owe Pikiell anything? He played his tail off while he was on the banks — a coachable, model teammate who fought through injuries and held his own against the Big Ten's behemoths.

But Pikiell was the only high-major coach to offer Omoruyi a scholarship. The coach gave him starting opportunities as a freshman, recognizing his potential well before the casual observer. He developed the 6-foot-7 combo forward into one of the better two-way frontcourt forces in the Big Ten. All while handing Omoruyi the keys as the unquestioned leader in the locker room.

During those 76 days between the season’s end and the Instagram post, Pikiell booked a non-conference game in Toronto for November expressly so Omoruyi could play in front of family and friends. The opponent is St. Bonaventure, a matchup Rutgers never would have agreed to otherwise on a neutral court.

The question that lingers, of course, is why. Why would the captain and leading scorer of an improving program, one who had strong relationships with his coaches and teammates, transfer out in late May before his senior year?

Numerous phone calls on the subject over the past 48 hours yielded a common theme: Somebody convinced him that the grass is greener — specifically, that his path to the NCAA Tournament in his final season of eligibility would be easier elsewhere.

There's a strong whiff of tampering, but here’s what folks on the inside say: Tampering occurs left and right with transfers. It’s hard to prove. And if Will Wade is going to continue on his merry way after LSU got dragged through the mud in federal court, the chances of the NCAA coming down on a tamperer are slimmer than making a full-court shot.

All that's left is the reckoning. Ask anyone in the know and they will tell you: Twenty percent of the sport in the transfer portal is just the start. If the skids are greased further by removing the sit-out penalty altogether, some think the rate will soar to 50 percent.

It works both ways, of course. Rutgers already is hearing from forwards in the portal who are interested in taking Omoruyi’s roster spot. And the ability to leave without a coach's permission will allow more than a few players to escape toxic situations.

So yes, the nature of Omoruyi’s departure seems shocking. In five years, it might not. The sport's arrow is pointing one way: more movement, more wheeling and dealing, more late-May Instagram goodbyes in the dead of night.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.