College basketball transfer portal's 2023 recruiting winners, losers – 247Sports

Which college basketball programs are transfer portal winners coming out of the 2023-24 recruiting cycle? Thanks to this week’s College Basketball Recruiting Weekly, National basketball analysts Adam Finkelstein, Eric Bossi and Travis Branham combed through roster additions and departures to determine which coaches have improved — and unfortunately seen their lineups weaken — since the end of the season.
Former UNC guard Caleb Love is the highest-rated player left available in the portal, but his recruitment remains a mystery. Love is the No. 16-ranked player in the transfer portal and is a hot commodity when it comes to scoring punch as an elite lead guard. He de-committed from Michigan earlier this month, leaving Juwan Howard grasping at straws with a weakened roster.
Most of the nation’s elite transfers have made their decisions known and are impacted within this winners and losers package.
Final Top 150 player rankings for 2023’s college basketball transfer portal
According to 247Sports national experts, here are the three teams who passed the eye test and three others who failed in this year’s portal cycle.
Transfer Portal class ranking: No. 27 overall
Director of scouting Adam Finkelstein: “I’m going with a group I think is going to be much better because they were really bad last year and that is Louisville. Obviously this is a combination of portal and high school. In fact, they have if I’m not mistaken five commitments from the high school ranks, one JUCO and then a couple key portal additions. Skyy Clark is going to be the guy coming in from Illinois who will run the show. Then Tre White from USC, someone who I think will have the green light early and often as the focal point of this offense. Been really a complete roster rebuild for Kenny Payne, nine new players who will be Cardinals next year. Start to finish in terms of the most improved team, I’m going with the Cardinals.”
Transfer Portal class ranking: No. 8 in Big 12
National basketball director Eric Bossi: “Man, this kills me to say this because I think he’s one of the nicest guys in the industry and somebody that I have a ton of respect for, but Oklahoma State really got hit hard with the portal, losing some really key players whether it’s Avery Anderson going to TCU, Keylan Boone going to UNLV and Moussa Cisse going to Ole Miss. You have those guys combined with those guys with a really good high school recruiting class coming in, you’re feeling pretty good about things next year, but you lose those guys and replacing them in the portal has not been easy.”
Transfer Portal class ranking: No. 2 overall
National recruiting analyst Travis Branham: “Without question, it’s West Virginia, they have No. 2 overall transfer portal class. Getting a top 5 transfer in Jesse Edwards big man out of Syracuse, also getting quite a few bucket-getters. Raquan Battle, tremendous pick up I think, and think Kerr Kriisa out of Arizona. (This is) a team that finished toward the back end of the Big 12 Conference this season, so next year, with this transfer portal class, I anticipate them making a very big jump.”
Transfer Portal class ranking: Last in SEC
Travis Branham “Gotta go with Kentucky on this one. They do have the No. 1 recruiting class in 2023 incoming, but this is a team in this offseason that has basically been at the mercy of Oscar Tshiebwe and Antonio Reeves. There’s so much riding on these two and they’ve not landed a single transfer as of yet. With those two guys, even if one opts to go the draft and not return, that’s an extremely big hit to the Kentucky program, especially this late into the portal. There’s not many more we’re anticipating can move the needle. As of today, sounds like there’s only about seven scholarship players in line for the 2023-24 season for Kentucky and that could really be a big, big miss if (those two) stay in the draft.”
Good news for Tshiebwe is that the two-time Kentucky All-American and former national player of the year shined at this month’s NBA Combine. The bad? The likely improvement in his draft stock means the SEC’s enforcer in the middle could be staying in the draft and not returning to the Bluegrass. Tshiebwe declared for the draft April 7 and recently graduated from Kentucky, but is still entertaining the idea of a return. He could potentially earn significantly more through NIL deals than being a second-round selection and has until May 31 to withdraw from the draft.
Transfer Portal class ranking: No. 1 overall
Eric Bossi: “I’ve got to go with Kansas, they are No. 1 in our transfer portal rankings, so it makes sense to start with them. They lost an awful lot in the portal and probably need to replace some parts, did go big with Hunter Dickinson, the best player in the portal. We know what he can do. There’s not much question about what he’ll be able to do playing for Bill Self and how he utilizes big men. I think Arterio Morris is probably the most interesting guy to watch, former McDonald’s All-American and five-star prospect who kind of floundered a little bit at Texas as a freshman. Let’s see can he be humbled from that experience and go to a new place and prove to be the guy that he was. If he can do that, then this portal class can really pop when Kansas needs them to.”
Transfer Portal class ranking: No. 8 in Big Ten
Adam Finkelstein: “Don’t like doing this, but it’s pretty obvious that Michigan has not had a great portal season. We just talked about Caleb Love committing and then de-committing, Hunter Dickinson, he’s going from Michigan to Kansas, but on top of that, they have Papa Kante, four-star big man out of high school ranks de-committed, Kobe Bufkin, someone at the beginning of the year was not expected to be on the NBA radar, he’s going to the draft along with Jett Howard. All the sudden, this Michigan team that missed the NCAA Tournament last year is without some of the weapons they were anticipating being able to build around in the 2023-24 season.”
Transfer snafus, NIL shortcomings and a challenging roster are the primary reasons why Michigan has questions under Juwan Howard, notes basketball reporter Isaac Trotter. When Bufkin and Howard get selected in the NBA Draft later this summer, Michigan makes history with three-straight drafts with at least two players drafted. That hasn’t happened in the Big Ten since the draft switched to two rounds in 1989. The problem? The Wolverines don’t have scoring punch on their roster to replace them this fall.
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