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College basketball's most disappointing transfer portal hauls from 2022 cycle – 247Sports
Jay Wright has made a seamless transition to CBS Sports as a college basketball analyst, and the former Villanova Hall of Famer coach peeled back the curtain to describe just how hard it can be for transfers at new schools. During Sunday’s Ohio State-Michigan game, Wright routinely begged for West Virginia transfer Sean McNeil to get more involved in the Buckeyes’ offense.
Wright described how McNeil was second-guessing when it might be the right time to shoot, and how hard it can be for veteran transfers to join young teams and assimilate into the team. Ohio State’s offense was desperate for McNeil to be more aggressive, according to Wright. But McNeil was desperately trying to defer to other players on the team to prove he’s not some ball-hog, shot-hunting transfer who only came to Columbus to get his numbers. Wright noted that the tug-and-pull between a desperate team and an unselfish veteran creates hard-to-fix situations for a coaching staff.
It’s easy to circle the transfer portal hauls that look good on paper. But Selection Sunday is less than five weeks away, and it’s painfully obvious which transfers have not been able to find their groove at their new schools.
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Here are the eight most disappointing transfer portal classes from the 2022 cycle.
Talented top-50 transfers like Andre Curbelo and David Jones were supposed to help St. John’s make major noise in the Big East. St. John’s has certainly made noise but not the good variety. St. John’s sits at 14-11 overall and 4-10 in Big East play. Curbelo has clashed with the St. John’s staff both privately and publicly. Jones has put up a decent stat line, (12.7 points, 6.5 rebounds) but his efficiency numbers tanked and he was removed from the starting lineup. St. John’s NCAA Tournament hopes are on life support.
Veteran transfers like Manny Bates, Eric Hunter Jr., Ali Ali and Jalen Thomas came to Butler to round out the rotation with veterans and raise the floor of the program. New Butler coach Thad Matta has had some bad luck (injuries have ravaged the roster) but frankly, his transfers have not been good enough even when Butler has been at full strength. Hunter shot over 43% from downtown last season at Purdue but he’s slipped back down to the low-30s from distance. Injuries have once again burdened Bates. Ali missed 11 games and hasn’t looked close to the player who tore it up at Akron last year. Butler sits at 12-13 overall and 4-10 in Big East play. It has just one win over a top-50 team all season.
Texas Tech coach Mark Adams barely got to see the team he put together in the transfer portal. Texas Tech’s A+ preseason lineup of Pop Isaacs, De’Vion Harmon, Jaylon Tyson, Kevin Obanor and Fardaws Aimaq has played just 61 possessions together this season, according to Pivot Analysis. Aimaq has been plagued with injuries. Shorthanded Texas Tech has taken some major lumps in the terrific Big 12, and a team that many believed could compete for the conference title is destined for a last-place finish. Long-term, Texas Tech got some pieces out of the transfer portal that should be enormous weapons down the road (Tyson is going to be a star, folks) but overall, this Texas Tech roster has been too wounded to compete at a high level in college basketball’s best league.
Ohio State didn’t need any of its three transfers to be stars, but it’s been way worse than Chris Holtmann could have predicted. West Virginia transfer Sean McNeil has been good offensively when he’s gotten opportunities. The sharpshooter is shooting 38% from downtown and averaging 9.4 points per game, but he’s barely involved in the offense. McNeil has less than six shots in four of the last five games. McNeil has a stunningly-low 15.2% usage rate. Oklahoma State transfer Isaac Likekele and Wright State transfer Tanner Holden have been even worse. Likekele came to Ohio State to have a bigger offensive role and help improve the Buckeyes’ perimeter defense. None of those things have happened. Holden was a DNP-coach’s decision in Ohio State’s loss to Michigan. He’s completely out of the rotation now. Ohio State has had just one game this season (a 93-77 win over Ohio State) where two of its three transfers cracked double figures in the same contest. The Buckeyes have free fallen down the standings after looking like a dangerous contender early in the season.
Wyoming dipped into the Pac-12 for three big transfer additions, but it went bad in a hurry. UCLA product Jake Kyman and USC transfers Ethan Anderson and Max Agbonkpolo all missed time with injuries and when they returned, their spot in the rotation was tenuous. In Wyoming’s 84-64 loss to San Jose State, Kyman and Agbonkpolo played just two minutes. Anderson played six minutes. All three players abruptly left the program following the game. A Wyoming season that had so much promise in the preseason –– remember, it was a team that was flirting with Top 25 status –– has crumbled.
The Hoyas added way too much talent out of the transfer portal to be 6-19 overall and 1-13 in Big East play. Georgetown’s seven-highest scorers are all transfers. Primo Spears, Brandon Murray and Jay Heath have teamed up to be double-digit scorers in the backcourt. Murray, one of the jewels of the 2022 transfer portal cycle out of LSU, has had some enormous dunks and eye-popping highlights. But it hasn’t translated to winning at all. It seems like only a matter of time until Georgetown makes a coaching change.
Louisville whiffed in the transfer portal before the season started and then it somehow got even worse. The Cardinals sit just 3-21 overall and 1-12 in ACC play. Louisville now ranks outside the top 300 teams on KenPom. Prized Tennessee transfer Brandon Huntley-Hatfield has not made a monster impact. He has just seven games this season with more than 10 points. Huntley-Hatfield has missed seven games with a foot injury. Louisville’s utter refusal to add a transfer guard has destroyed any shred of momentum Kenny Payne hoped to build in Year 1.
South Carolina is the worst team in the SEC by a wide margin, and its transfers have not been good enough this season. Meechie Johnson and Hayden Brown have been staples in the starting lineup all year long. Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk opened the season in the starting lineup but that changed during SEC play. Johnson is shooting just 34.9% from the field this season, including just 32% from 3-point range during conference play. Brown has struggled to make an impact against top-50 teams this season. South Carolina is mired in the middle of a frustrating 8-16, 2022-23 campaign.
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