College basketball men’s transfer portal’s 4 winners, 3 losers, and 1 wildcard

The reality of modern college basketball is that every player is a free agent at the end of each season. To compete for a national championship, it isn’t enough to simply out-bid the NBA to keep a star on campus. A program also has to convince its best players to stay out of the transfer portal, and then handpick the right pieces to push its returning core to the next level. Michigan did it all flawlessly this past season to cut down the nets, but every year is a new challenge with different kinds of talent available on the marketplace.

The transfer portal frenzy has mostly settled by now. The only impact players available are still testing the NBA Draft process. At this point, we have a pretty good feel for what the rosters look like heading into next season, and there’s already a clear national hierarchy forming. Read our early top-25 rankings for next season.

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It’s time to name our winners and losers from the transfer portal. This is less about the schools who retained their top pieces like Florida with Thomas Haugh, Illinois with David Mirkovic and the Ivisic twins, or UConn and Braylon Mullins, and more about the schools who are bringing in (or losing) the most top-end talent.

Winner: Gonzaga

Gonzaga’s shot at making a deep NCAA tournament run ended last year the moment star forward Braden Huff suffered a dislocated kneecap during a Jan. practice. The Zags still won their March Madness opener before falling to Texas in the round of 32, but they didn’t look like the same team. Mark Few has now reloaded for next season after beating out St. John’s for star big man Massamba Diop, who comes over from Arizona State. Size is all the rage in college basketball these days, and almost no one is bigger than the 7’1 Diop. The big man is a stout rim protector, shows surprisingly good touch as a mid-range scorer, and has impressive movement skills for someone his size. Huff’s return should make this one of the best frontcourts in America, and there’s…

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Publish date : 2026-04-30 14:53:00

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