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College Basketball Transfer Portal: Jesse Edwards, Hunter Dickinson and the latest storylines – 247Sports
The College Basketball transfer portal continues to rule the offseason. As more and more of the biggest names are taking visits, 247Sports takes a look at some of the portal’s most notable storylines and topics.
Earlier this week, Syracuse center Jesse Edwards entered the transfer portal and created an immediate buzz.
Why not? The near seven-footer has improved rapidly over the last two years. In fact, he’s currently coming off of a season where he averaged 14.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks while being named third team All-ACC and making the All-Defensive team.
He’s big, he’s fluid, he protects the rim and he finishes lobs after sprinting the court. He’s also not likely to last very long in the portal.
Edwards is already down to a final three of Gonzaga, Kansas and West Virginia. He’s visiting Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers this weekend and word from sources is that Huggins has his program in really good shape. In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Edwards commits to West Virginia sooner rather than later.
Edwards hasn’t yet entered the 247Sports Transfer Portal ranking, but look for him to make a debut in the upper tier when the portal ranking gets updated next week.
Since entering the portal, Oral Roberts guard Max Abmas has kept a relatively low profile. An electric scorer who pumped in 2,562 points during his four years in Tulsa, the six-footer isn’t the biggest guy but he’s quick and skilled.
Ranked No. 7 in the 247Sports Transfer Portal ranking, the Dallas native has been frequently linked to Baylor, Kansas State, Texas and Wichita State — where his coach at Oral Roberts, Paul Mills was recently hired.
Drilling in a little deeper, it sounds like Jerome Tang and his Wildcats — who Abmas is visiting this weekend — may be battling it out with Rodney Terry and his Longhorns. Each program has a compelling sell.
During his first year in Manhattan, Tang was the National Coach of the Year and nearly led K-State to a Final Four. He plays a very guard-friendly style and needs to replace the production of Markquis Nowell. Tang is also deeply entrenched in Texas.
Down in Austin, Terry needs some good news, especially when it comes to guards. Tyrese Hunter is in the draft and it’s still unknown if he’ll stay in or return. Former McDonald’s All-American Arterio Morris is in the portal and on Thursday, 2023 5-star commit A.J. Johnson announced that he’s heading to Australia to play professionally. Terry needs a win and he needs one bad.
While we wouldn’t rule out Abmas reuniting with Mills at Wichita, they do seem to be chasing. Also, though there are already two Crystal Ball picks in for Texas, this one appears to be in the “too close to call” stage between the Longhorns and Kansas State.
Earlier this week we wrote that Stanford transfer Harrison Ingram was making some headway with his recruitment. The former 5-star and McDonald’s All-American has in-home visits with Baylor, North Carolina, Texas A&M and Xavier set up between Friday and Sunday. At the beginning of next week, he’ll take an official visit to Kansas.
Based on the intel that has made its way to 247Sports, Ingram could be looking to decide relatively shortly after this flurry of visits.
Currently ranked No. 25 in the portal ranking, Ingram is held in high regard by college programs because of his intelligence, versatility and experience. He can really pass the ball as well as play multiple positions. And after diving into his film, many coaches are convinced he can make a major jump as a shooter.
When Ingram first hit the portal, it looked as if North Carolina was going to be the team to beat. But, now it sounds as if Bill Self and the Jayhawks are making some serious inroads. In fact, Ingram recently picked up a few Crystal Ball picks in favor of Kansas.
While I wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger on Crystal Ball picks for Abmas, Edwards and Ingram. So here are the Crystal Ball picks that I did enter on Friday.
Jalen Hill to UNLV: The No. 38 ranked player in the portal, Hill returning to his hometown of Las Vegas just makes too much sense. The Rebels are in need of a versatile forward, the staff has ties to him from his days at Oklahoma and he could make an immediate splash in the Mountain West. While I’m not quite at the point of making Crystal Ball picks for twins Kalib Boone and Keylan Boone, there appears to be some real positive buzz with the athletic frontline players who spent their first three years in college together at Oklahoma State.
DJ Horne to NC State: This is another pick that seems to make too much sense. Horne is from the Raleigh area, knows the ‘Pack staff very well and fits with the way Kevin Keatts loves to use his guards. He’s on campus this weekend and that could be fun for the NC State fans to get a commitment from the 70th ranked player in the portal. Also, adding him to Jayden Taylor would be a nice pairing.
Ryan Nembhard to Arizona: I know. Not exactly going out on a limb with this one, am I? Nevertheless, the fit between the Creighton transfer and the Wildcats is a great one for Nembhard. Also, he’s likely quite comfortable with Tommy Lloyd after his older brother played for him at Gonzaga. This one looks to be a pretty safe bet. While I am good with making the pick for Arizona, I wouldn’t completely rule Gonzaga — who he is taking a visit to first before seeing Arizona — out of this one just yet.
Jayden Nunn to Baylor: While I’m not quite as certain in my pick for the VCU guard as I am of the others I just made, I’ve heard enough good things swirling to go ahead and place the prediction. When Scott Drew’s teams are at their best, they have guards who can really disrupt defensively and that’s where Nunn specializes. There are plenty of minutes to be had.
The top ranked player in the transfer portal, Hunter Dickinson continues to make waves. Even if he’s not personally giving out many hints about what is happening.
Plenty of schools continue to be thrown around with him. But given the visits that 247Sports has confirmed that he has lined up — at the time of publishing this article — it does look as if Georgetown, Maryland and Kansas are emerging as potential frontrunners for the accomplished Michigan recruit.
The big man who has averaged 17.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game during his three-year college career will be back in the DMV-area this weekend. While there, he is expected to visit with both Georgetown and Maryland in an unofficial capacity. Both the Hoyas and Terps have been expected to be major contenders since the moment Dickinson hit the portal on Final Four weekend and they remain strong suitors.
Dickinson has also set up his first official visit and is expected to be in Lawrence to see the Jayhawks late next week. This comes as no shock since the Jayhawks have a pretty good history of prioritizing low post play.
Villanova is the other school that keeps coming up the most and the thought is that Dickinson visits there as well. However, until other visits are set up, we’ll continue to look at the three he is seeing as the schools who are out in front of the pack.
Out in Lubbock, Texas Tech fans are looking forward to seeing what new head coach Grant McCasland is going to do on the recruiting front. Retaining promising freshmen Pop Isaacs and Robert Jennings was a great start. Now, McCassland and his staff are ready to start hosting visitors.
The first two scheduled to hit campus are Nevada forward Darrion Williams who arrives on Sunday and Grand Canyon guard Chance McMillian who will get into town on Monday.
The Mountain West’s Freshman of the Year, Williams is a versatile forward who can play at the three or the four and he’s physically ready to make the jump to the Big 12. He saw Iowa State last weekend and ranks No. 54 in the portal ranking.
A tough guard who averaged 10.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, McMillian could be a tremendous glue piece in the backcourt and his shooting (44.4% from three last season, 40.7% over his career) would be key in helping the offense get the spacing that will be needed.
While the number of players in the transfer portal has swelled to over 1,400. The past week was a relatively slow one in terms of big names entering. Outside of Jesse Edwards — who has already been covered in this column — the most talented player to make himself available this week was Florida State sophomore Matthew Cleveland.
A 5-star prospect in the class of 2021 who was the ACC’s sixth man of the year as a freshman, Cleveland averaged 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds as a sophomore. He’s a long and athletic wing who improved significantly as a three-point shooter (from 17.6% to 35%) during his second year of school. For teams that like to play with four on the perimeter he can play the wing or as a small ball four man.
Given that he’s from Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a school that immediately popped up in connection with him. Also coming up immediately was Auburn who has done incredibly well in the Atlanta area. Missouri has also been brought up because assistant coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young was the one who landed him at Florida State. Those three schools make sense, but early intel is that Cleveland is going to be pretty wide open.
Michigan could be another one to watch and several others like: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, NC State, Texas, Texas A&M and more have reached out thus far.
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