A narrative was brewing that you couldn't build a championship-level team with a roster chock full of transfers.
"There are no pros in the portal," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said at the 2024 Big 12 Media Days. "If they were pros, they wouldn't be in the portal. They're all college guys looking to improve."
Michigan changed the math, laying out a blueprint of what's possible when you hit four grand slams in the portal. Dusty May started four transfers (Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson, Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau) on the way to Michigan's National Championship last year. Lendeborg, Johnson and Mara became lottery picks. Michigan may be a special outlier, but that didn't stop teams from dropping big bags in free agency to acquire top-shelf transfer talent with the hope that if it all clicks, they could be playing on the first Monday in April, too.
College basketball's NIL arms race, from $5M to $25M+: Breaking down roster values, spending tiers for 2026-27
Matt Norlander
Exhibition play provided some hints about where some high-priced portal coups sit in the hierarchy of their new teams. Transfer portal rankings are irrelevant now. The stone-cold truth is that a few big-name transfers are going to flop this year. It just is what it is. Change is hard, plus some situations have changed dramatically since the spring, due to the last-second influx of 5-in-5 seniors who have successfully sued their way back into the college game.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of which transfers are primed to be the most successful, here are some ground rules:
- 5-in-5 seniors were not considered for this exercise. St. John's Keyshawn Hall, BYU's Jaxon Kohler, LSU's Donovan Dent and Texas Tech's Darrion Williams are the most impactful transfers from the 5-in-5 market. All four are All-Conference hopefuls who are currently allowed to play due to temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions. Since the NCAA is intent on appealing these court cases, there's no guarantee these game-changers will be eligible all year.
- These teams were built with real basketball in mind: All three teams needed to resemble a group that could realistically play together. Guards, wings, forwards and centers -- as God intended.
Let's dive in.
All-transfer First Team
Flory Bidunga | Louisville | C
Preseason Transfer of the Year
Bidunga was the top-rated player in the 2026 transfer portal cycle because he can be such an impactful player even on the nights when he scores six points. Bidunga will be the fire-douser for Louisville this year. We already saw it in Louisville's exhibition win at Kansas when Bidunga switched onto KU five-star wing Tyran Stokes and gave him the business. The 6-9 forward has a massive 7-3 wingspan and can guard anybody and everybody. He's one of the best four defenders in all of college basketball, next to Arizona's Mo Krivas, Houston's JoJo Tugler and Florida's Rueben Chinyelu.
Bidunga's already a useful offensive player because you can throw a lob near the square and he'll throw it down, but continuing to refine his handle will be a major X factor. If Louisville can play Bidunga at the 4 and 7-2 freshman center Obinna Ekezie Jr. at the 5, Bidunga needs to be able to deck it and slash to the tin. He only posted 30 drives last year at Kansas but averaged 1.00 points per possession on 'em. More please.
"Flory's a special player," Kelsey said, via the Courier-Journal. He has a million gifts. … When your best player is your hardest worker, you've got something. He is that."
Acaden Lewis| Miami | PG
Lewis is primed for a massive sophomore season under sharp Miami coach Jai Lucas. Lewis' handle is nasty. The lefty point guard knifed into the paint whenever he wanted for Villanova as a true freshman. Nearly 50% of Lewis' shots came at the rim, and the lefty shot an eye-popping 61% on layups. Oh, and he was one of the best distributors in the portal, delivering 5.3 dimes per game with a sterling 2.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That ability to touch the paint is so valuable, and Lewis can use his speed and vision to create something out of nothing for a Miami offense that will rely more on muscle than snipers.
Adding a knockdown, pull-up triple to his bag will take his game to another level. Lewis blowtorched a good Vanderbilt defense in exhibition play for 23 points (on just 12 shots) and 10 assists. If the first impression is any indication of what's to come, Lewis is going to be a dude for the Canes.
"Acaden is a basketball savant," Lucas said. "Some of these things I have to let go of because he can just create and make things happen."
John Blackwell | Duke | SG
Patrick Ngongba may be Duke's highest-usage player, Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje may be Duke's best NBA prospect, but John Blackwell looks like the heart and soul of this Blue Devils' club already. The Wisconsin transfer has been a seamless fit in this Duke ecosystem. His jumper is automatic. He's quickly established himself as the best 3-point shooter on the team, and Blackwell mixes in sharp cuts and get-off-me drives to become such a headache offensively.
When Duke needs a bucket in late-clock situations, Blackwell is going to get the call from Jon Scheyer. Duke hasn't played a game that counts yet, but Blackwell already looks like an A+ addition.
"John is the same way all the time," Scheyer said. "He's not afraid. He's been a great connector for us, which has been a great thing, which I thought we were getting. But the way he is with our young guys, he's uplifting, which I think is important."
Tounde Yessoufou | St. John's | SG
Yessoufou averaged 17.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and a pair of steals for Baylor last season, but he's going to level up into a complete player at St. John's. Ex-EuroLeague point guard Quinn Ellis is a big part of the sell. Ellis can touch the paint and generate advantageous situations for Yessoufou to attack tilted defenses. Ellis makes life comfortable for a talented hooper like Yessoufou, who can already make tough shots but now gets some easy ones in the portfolio as well.
Yessoufou already looks like he is going to turbo smash the Big East.
"He has great upside; he's got a lot of dog in him, he's a scorer," St. John's coach Rick Pitino said. "He's got to get better at rebounding the basketball, which he is a good rebounder statistically, but he's got to get better. He's a good shooter; he's got to become a great shooter. He's a good 1-on-1 player; he's got to become a great 1-on-1 player if he wants to be the lottery pick that he said he did to come here. I told him the other day, 'You're good in so many areas, but Tounde, as the book read, good is the enemy of great. And if you want to reach your potential and truly be a lottery pick, you've got to become great in a lot of areas.'"
Milan Momcilovic | Kentucky | SF
Momcilovic is the best shooter in the sport. Shooting 49% from 3-point range on over 7.0 attempts is lunacy. Momcilovic garners an absurd amount of attention from opposing defenses. Don't be surprised if Momcilovic's shooting numbers come down a tad (draining 49% of your triples for two straight seasons would be historic), but Kentucky's offense should be able to use Momcilovic as a screener/decoy to create easier shots. Adding more cutting and honing his decision-making will be essential.
Momcilovic's unguardable Dirk-esque baseline fadeaways already have Kentucky coach Mark Pope saying outlandish stuff.
"He doesn't take bad shots because every shot he takes is impossible," Pope said after Kentucky's exhibition win against Little Rock. "He just makes impossible shots. Like, his shot selection was really hard tonight, but he just makes them. We had a minimalist play set; we only had seven (offensive play sets) the whole night. We limited ourselves, so there wasn't a lot of creativity out there, but he is just a problem. His gravity is so elite, and you gotta chase him."
All-transfer Second Team
Dedan Thomas | Houston | PG
Thomas is an excellent fit for this Houston team. Houston's offense values point guards who play clean basketball and can get shots on the rim, so its elite offensive rebounders can go do their thing. That's Thomas' game. He is exceptional at taking care of the basketball. He posted a 3.7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio last year at LSU. That isn't an outlier either, even if it's boosted by playing a weak non-conference slate. Thomas was at a 2.45-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in 2024-25 at UNLV. Those are exceptional numbers.
Durability will be a question, though. Thomas has missed significant chunks of each of the last two seasons. He's a little slight at 6-1 and 170 pounds, and he will be tested defensively in the rough-and-tumble Big 12. But he's a veteran with high feel in ball screens, exceptional vision and plenty of pull-up jumpers in his bag. If Houston combo guard Mercy Miller has the breakout year that many expect, Thomas is the reason why. He makes everyone better.
PJ Haggerty | Texas A&M | SG
Paint touches, paint touches, paint touches. That's what Bucky McMillan craves from his lead guards, and Haggerty is the best in the business at it. Haggerty shot 65% at the rim last year at Kansas State on a whopping 245 attempts. Over 40% of Haggerty's shots came at the rim in each of the past three seasons for three different teams. That's just what he does. It will be sticky at Texas A&M. If he plays 30 minutes a game, Haggerty is scoring north of 20 points because he's a heat-seeking missile in the open floor.
(Please play defense this year.)
Paulius Murauskas | Arizona State | PF
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Murauskas's decision to follow Randy Bennett from Moraga to Tempe shows that he knows where his bread is buttered. The physical 6-8, 235-pound forward immediately gives Arizona State a fulcrum to build around. He uses powerful backdowns to create leverage in the halfcourt, and Murauskas is a willing playmaker who can find cutters or shooters. Murauskas-to-Arizona State is such a high-floor move for both parties. At minimum, he will be a plus rebounder for his position with rock-solid defense, inside-out scoring and plenty of creation.
The shooting has ticked up every single year, which is promising for what's to come in his senior season. Murauskas shot over 39% on 43 unguarded catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last year. He needs to take and make more 3-pointers because bully ball won't work against Big 12 athletes every single night.
David Punch | Texas | SF
Punch is a needle-moving addition. The 6-7, 245-pound forward is a straight dawg. The TCU transfer was one of the best defensive players in the portal. He owns nearly a 7-foot wingspan, and that showed up on the defensive end with deflections, steals and blocks. Partially by scheme and personnel, Texas' defense did not force takeaways last year, rating 355th nationally in turnover rate.
That will change with Punch in the mix.
His switchability and aggressiveness will bring an edge to this Texas defense. He can root out centers, battle power forwards, switch onto slippery guards and everything in between. Punch adds plenty of secondary rim protection, rugged rebounding and real utility offensively because he's a willing passer, sharp cutter and a physical mismatch threat. Punch only made 11 3-pointers last year, but he impacts winning whether the jumper is going in or not.
There's plenty of optimism that Punch could also be more of a threat as a shooter next season after an offseason eye surgery. Punch was one of the hidden secrets in college basketball this time last year.
They know his name now.
Punch is set for an All-SEC campaign in 2026-27.
Moustapha Thiam | Michigan | C
Any talented big man who gets to play with a wizard passer like Elliot Cadeau should be due for a big season. Michigan is certainly banking on it for Thiam, a Cincinnati transfer who is all of 7-2 and possesses a massive 7-6 wingspan. Cincinnati had a top-10 defense when Thiam was on the floor, holding opponents to just 48% at the rim, which ranked third-best nationally, according to hoop-explorer. Thiam can control the boards, protect the rim and move well enough on the perimeter to play multiple coverages defensively.
The beauty and curse of Thiam is that he is equally talented and exasperating. Thiam's decision-making is so weird. He'd stop-and-pop for jumpers at awkward spots on the floor. He's capable of making 3-pointers (38 combined in two years at a 29% clip), but jumpers need to be a cherry on top, not the primary part of his game. If Michigan can develop Thiam into an enforcer and eliminate the possessions where he just floats on the perimeter, he can be a terrifying two-way difference-maker who will be in the NBA in 2027.
All-transfer Third Team
Isaiah Johnson | Texas | PG
BALLER. Johnson was one of the youngest freshmen in the country last year at Colorado and still eviscerated the Big 12 to the tune of 16.9 points and 3.0 assists with impeccable shooting splits (38% from 3-point range, 57% from 2-point range and 82% at the free-throw line). The 6-1 guard isn't the biggest, but he mixes speed and strategy to be a total terror. Johnson shot a mind-blowing 68% at the rim on 72 halfcourt attempts a season ago. The craft, the body control, the stop-start, the creative finishes. Johnson has all of it. He'll pressure the rim by land or by sea for Texas.
Some question whether Johnson is a traditional point guard, but that's not much of a concern for me. The days of an old-school, pass-first point guard are dead and buried. It's more about creating advantages, and Johnson does just that with feathery drives, slick pull-ups and turbo jets in transition. Johnson carried a huge burden for Colorado last year and only turned it over 1.4 times per game while posting a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That's excellent stuff, especially in a Big 12 that featured some elite defenses.
Texas landed a gem.
Kayden Mingo | Baylor | PG
Mingo has made a major Year 2 jump. The Penn State transfer guard looks every bit the part of an All-Big 12 performer for the Bears. He transforms Baylor's point guard play from a weakness into a strength. Mingo's game is rim pressure, creation and good point-of-attack defense. But now, he looks way more comfortable getting to his stepback jumper.
Baylor has surrounded Mingo with a ton of shooting and a lob threat in big man Juslin Bodo Bodo. Destroying Florida and Illinois in the preseason may only be the start.
Stefan Vaaks | Illinois | SG
Vaaks is a heckuva offensive player with in-the-gym range. Making pull-up 3-pointers is an essential trait for lead guards in this Illinois offense, and Vaaks ranked 12th nationally, averaging 1.4 made pull-up 3-pointers per game last season. The 6-7 guard has a total strap, but Illinois needs him to be more of a complete player. Defense and rebounding are important. Plus, Vaaks posted just 69 drives in 31 games. Illinois wants way, way more than that in a new offensive scheme that has ditched ball screens and is prioritizing pace and winning in isolation. Shoot more layups; stop taking so many contested jumpers. That's the pitch.
Vaaks is currently coming off the bench for the Illini as a sixth man. That may limit his All-America case, but if he mixes more layups and trips to the charity stripe with his knockdown jumper, Vaaks will be an elite offensive weapon.
Aiden Sherrell | Indiana | PF/C
Sherrell is one of the most talented bigs that has donned Indiana threads in years. Size, skill, mobility, touch, rim protection, with a little playmaking? Sherrell has it. The Alabama transfer has gotten lean to play on the perimeter more often in Indiana's double-big lineups. That adjustment period to playing a new position is nothing to scoff at, but Sherrell has the talent to make it pop.
Na'jai Hines | UConn | C
Hines' nickname is 'Baby Shaq.' Pretty apt descriptor! The 6-11, 265-pound center is a husky monster in the paint, who ranked 19th in offensive-rebound rate and was a sneaky-good low-post scorer for Seton Hall. That stuff is exactly what UConn needs from its centers in its layered offensive system. Hines' superpower is his hand-eye coordination. His timing and anticipation defensively are outstanding. He ranked second nationally in block percentage, despite not being an explosive vertical athlete.
Dan Hurley's development with big men is impeccable, and Hines can be a flat-out handful if he cleans his body up. I'm slightly worried about how often Hines could foul in this new UConn scheme that hard-hedges ball screens so aggressively, but if he stays out of foul trouble, Hines is going to obliterate many teams.
Kentucky's surprise, Arkansas' gnarly freshmen and a colossus Duke-Kansas duel headline exhibition takeaways
Isaac Trotter
Preseason risers and fallers
- Faller: No. 8-rated Wake Forest transfer wing Juke Harris was a major coup for Tennessee, but this Vols' team is all out of whack right now. Tennessee's pecking order is still not established, with Harris, Dai Dai Ames, Jalen Haralson and Terrence Hill Jr. all trying to figure out who is the top dog. Harris should be fine, but the growing pains have been on full display.
- Riser: UCLA's Jaylen Petty has the green light. The undersized scoring guard is a total bucket for the Bruins. He'll be in the mix to lead UCLA in scoring.
- Riser: Louisville is using Oregon transfer Jackson Shelstad more as an off-ball scorer than an on-ball pick-and-roll maestro. I like the move. Shelstad is a scorer first, passer second. Louisville looks primed to tap that button often.
- Riser: NC State transfer Cole Cloer looks like a hit for Alabama. The big wing has a good handle and can make some reads. Most importantly, he can shoot that thing. He's a real player for Nate Oats.
- Faller: Gonzaga big man Massamba Diop still has the talent to do big-time things, but the clearance and emergence of Spanish big man Izan Almansa could limit the ceiling. Gonzaga will have to find minutes for Almansa. Diop was a huge transfer portal win for the Zags, but there will be nights when Almansa gets plenty of tick at the 5. Depth is a good thing, though.
