Three months after college basketball’s transfer portal window opened, player movement has finally slowed down. The final wave of portal activity, mostly with players who returned to school after testing the NBA draft waters, is largely over, which makes it a good time to take stock in the offseason as a whole. With transfers likely to score more than 50% of all points in college basketball this season for the first time, how a team does in the portal is now arguably more important than the high school recruiting class rankings, which are analyzed at length every offseason. Here’s a look at the 10 best transfer recruiting classes in the country.
1. Kansas
The Jayhawks have had an action-packed offseason and may not be quite done yet with three scholarships still available. Reeling in Hunter Dickinson alone made this class a winner, as Dickinson is not only the best player in this year’s portal but also one of the most accomplished transfers in portal history. He gives Bill Self the interior presence the Jayhawks lacked a season ago and should get plenty of easy baskets in Self’s offense with point guard Dajuan Harris setting him up. Self also added a three-point specialist in Towson transfer Nick Timberlake, who was pursued by some of the nation’s biggest programs and took a flier on once-touted recruit Arterio Morris, who departed Texas after one season but has a reputation as a big-time scorer.
2. Villanova
Kyle Neptune needed a big spring after missing the NCAA tournament in his first season succeeding Jay Wright at Villanova, and delivered. Defensive versatility and shotmaking were the two main issues with last year’s Wildcats, and Neptune addressed those flaws with a trio of high-level wings to plug into the rotation. Washington State import TJ Bamba is fresh off averaging 16 points per game in the Pac-12 on 38% from beyond the arc, and former Maryland wing Hakim Hart is highly versatile and a proven producer on NCAA tournament teams. The cherry on top was adding Richmond transfer Tyler Burton, an athletic wing playmaker who had tested the NBA draft waters each of the past two years. With Justin Moore and Eric Dixon returning, Villanova has a chance to return to the top of the Big East in 2023–24.
3. Gonzaga
The Bulldogs entered the offseason with three clear holes: point guard help, a wing shooter to replace Julian Strawther and a post scoring weapon for the post–Drew Timme era. Check, check and check. Mark Few beat his protégé in Tommy Lloyd for Creighton transfer Ryan Nembhard, perhaps the best point guard to hit the portal and the brother of former Zags star Andrew Nembhard. Former Wyoming big man Graham Ike is capable of carrying a load offensively on the block, and Eastern Washington transfer Steele Venters won Big Sky Player of the Year in 2022–23 and is a career 40% three-point shooter. That trio helped Gonzaga land in Sports Illustrated’s preseason top 10 in its most recent update.
4. Florida
Todd Golden also needed to make up ground after missing the NCAA tournament in his first year with the Gators. Per analytics-based EvanMiya, Florida has the No. 1 transfer class and the No. 1 overall transfer activity (players coming in and out) in the nation. The biggest moves came in the backcourt, adding two of the best mid-major players in the country in Walter Clayton Jr. (Iona) and Zyon Pullin (UC Riverside) to boost a unit that lacked playmaking pop-up a season ago. On the interior, Marshall transfer Micah Handlogten was a game-changer on both ends for the Thundering Herd a season ago, while Tyrese Samuel (Seton Hall) and EJ Jarvis (Yale) add veteran stability. This looks like a potential top-25 team.
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5. West Virginia
The Mountaineers rapidly transformed their roster this spring, making several huge splashes to vault themselves into the conversation at the top of the Big 12. The biggest fish reeled in: Jesse Edwards, who was a walking double double at Syracuse and immediately forms one of the better frontcourt partnerships in the Big 12 with returner Tre Mitchell. The Mountaineers also addressed the point guard position with Arizona transfer Kerr Kriisa, an excellent ball-screen passer, and added scoring pop with Montana State’s RaeQuan Battle. These big moves pushed the Mountaineers into the top 20 of SI’s June top 25 after being unranked in April.
6. Houston
The Cougars made only two moves in the portal, but Kelvin Sampson added two high-level guards in LJ Cryer and Damian Dunn, making Houston one of the winners of the cycle. Cryer joins Houston from Baylor, where he won a national championship in 2021 and averaged more than 15 points per game a season ago. He helps soften the blow of the departure of Marcus Sasser, particularly on the shooting front given Cryer shot more than 40% from three in each of the past two seasons. Meanwhile, Dunn is a bigger playmaker with more than 1,000 career points to his name and ranked in the top 100 nationally in free throw rate. Cryer, Dunn and Jamal Shead give Houston an elite backcourt trio for its first year in the Big 12.
7. St. John’s
Rick Pitino retained just two scholarship players from the Mike Anderson regime in Queens and needed a monster transfer class to have a competitive team in Year 1. Of his 12 new players, 10 are transfers, the most in the nation. Four of those 10 followed Pitino from Iona, headlined by point guard Daniss Jenkins, who could start at point guard for the Red Storm assuming his waiver for immediate eligibility is granted. Penn transfer Jordan Dingle, the leading returning scorer in Division I, was a game-changing addition in the backcourt, and it’d be hard not to like the long-term upside of additions like RJ Luis (UMass) and Zuby Ejiofor (Kansas) with three years of eligibility left each.
8. Ole Miss
Chris Beard rapidly rebuilt a roster that was among the SEC’s worst with a portal-heavy approach, adding length and athleticism in droves to boost the Rebels’ defense in addition to proven scoring production to complement returner Matthew Murrell. Brandon Murray (Georgetown, LSU) and Allen Flanigan (Auburn) are interesting additions on the wing with a history of scoring against SEC competition, while Jamarion Sharp and Moussa Cisse form one of the best rim-protecting center duos in the nation. The pivotal piece: Arizona State transfer Austin Nunez, who could be handed the keys at point guard.
9. Cal
Even the most optimistic of Cal fans couldn’t have anticipated this strong a start to the Mark Madsen era in Berkeley. But the transfer portal gives even the most moribund of programs a chance to turn things around quickly, and that’s exactly what Madsen has done after inheriting a team that went 3–29 in 2022–23. The Texas Tech transfer duo of Fardaws Aimaq and Jaylon Tyson are needle-moving additions—Aimaq was a top-rated transfer at this time last year leaving Madsen at Utah Valley before an injury-plagued year in Lubbock, while Tyson is a high-level shotmaker on the wing. The Bears also revamped the backcourt, adding Jalen Cone (Northern Arizona), Mike Meadows (Portland) and Keonte Kennedy (Memphis). Shooting for .500 isn’t much at most places, but getting to that threshold would be a major accomplishment after a historically bad year in Berkeley.
10. Kansas State
Jerome Tang added one of the most impactful transfers in the nation last year in Keyontae Johnson and struck again this spring with two high-profile additions. He filled the hole left by Markquis Nowell with yet another dynamic small guard in North Texas transfer Tylor Perry, who led the Mean Green to an NIT championship in 2022–23. Then, the Wildcats made waves late by landing Arthur Kaluma from Creighton, a potential NBA prospect with plus length and athleticism who’ll shoulder a bigger scoring role in the Little Apple. That duo should help Tang’s team overcome the loss of the 35 combined points per game Johnson and Nowell scored a season ago.
