MBB: The 2026 Transfer Portal

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brevity

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I was really hoping to wait a little while longer to start this thread, but if players want to get a headstart by announcing their intentions to transfer, then so should we. The NCAA officially announced that the transfer portal would be open to enter for 15 days, starting with the day after the national championship game. For men's basketball, that's April 7-21. There are exceptions in the event of a coaching change.

What I wrote last year still applies:

Let's try to restrict this thread to discussing players who have actually entered the portal or officially declared their intentions to do so. Let's NOT make comments like "We should totally poach this guy who might be happy where he is."

Just share ones here that you find newsworthy, for Duke, the ACC, or in general, and try to provide links whenever possible.

@crote got the ball rolling with Virginia Tech's Neoklis Avdalas deciding to stay in the college ecosystem.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2037516610047541714

Here are some more early declarants of interest:

ACC players

Akbar Waheed III, Boston College to ???
Jake Wahlin, Clemson to ???
Ryder Frost, Notre Dame to ???
Sir Mohammed, Notre Dame to ???
Garrett Sundra, Notre Dame to ???
Izaiah Pasha, Virginia Tech to ???

Non-ACC players

Cade Bennerman, Northwestern to ???
Gavin Doty, Siena to ???
KJ Lewis, Georgetown to ???
Paulius Murauskas, Saint Mary's to ???
Jackson Shelstad, Oregon to ???
All Wright, Xavier to ???

Look, there's a decent chance that Gavin Doty follows his coach Gerry McNamara to Syracuse, and that Paulius Murauskas follows his coach Randy Bennett to Arizona State, but don't state that as fact here unless it's being reported. Identify your speculative comments as speculation, and don't speculate at all about someone who hasn't transferred or declared their intent to do so. Otherwise DBR becomes like every other sports message board out there, hell-bent on making the world a dumber place.

We don't need to cover everything. Verbal Commits already has a list of 510 players. At some point, after the portal officially opens, I will start my annual roundup of Ins and Outs for all 18 ACC teams.
 
HoKogan said:
Sorry, we've have a lot of thread complaining in earnest before, sometimes justified but other times I'm like....you don't have to read it if you don't want to. I think it was the Football Offseason thread.
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What we need now is a subthread of people complaining about people having to read the posts of people complaining about the meta joke about people complaining about people complaining about a thread that they do not have to read.

Anyway, I think Avdalas will be a great pickup for whoever lands him. He's the rare international freshman who is roughly freshman aged (he turned 20 last month, so a little on the old side for a freshman but not a pensioner like De Ridder), so expecting a leap isn't ridiculous. A 6'9" guard who is top 10 in the ACC in assists is something. If he can improve his outside shot (31% on good volume this season) he's going to be a real problem. Not sure he'd be the right fit at Duke (I suspect a post player will be the portal priority once the roster for next year shakes out).

Meanwhile Tech has zero committed incoming freshmen. Seems listless over there.
 
crote said:
What we need now is a subthread of people complaining about people having to read the posts of people complaining about the meta joke about people complaining about people complaining about a thread that they do not have to read.

Anyway, I think Avdalas will be a great pickup for whoever lands him. He's the rare international freshman who is roughly freshman aged (he turned 20 last month, so a little on the old side for a freshman but not a pensioner like De Ridder), so expecting a leap isn't ridiculous. A 6'9" guard who is top 10 in the ACC in assists is something. If he can improve his outside shot (31% on good volume this season) he's going to be a real problem. Not sure he'd be the right fit at Duke (I suspect a post player will be the portal priority once the roster for next year shakes out).

Meanwhile Tech has zero committed incoming freshmen. Seems listless over there.
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Jon needs a handle on who will return to complement our recruits. He is a little busy presently. It appears he will need to find a strong post player or two after the tourney is done. I trust Jon and the staff, since they have an excellent track record to date.
 
JGDUKE2008 said:
Any change Duke takes a run at him to start at Center or are we after bigger fish?
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Unless we hear some legitimate source talk about a kid being connected to Duke, there are just too many players in the portal to make speculation like this make sense.

And, other than maybe a couple guys, I doubt most of our roster has made a decision yet about what they are doing next season -- draft, return, or portal.
 
JasonEvans said:
Unless we hear some legitimate source talk about a kid being connected to Duke, there are just too many players in the portal to make speculation like this make sense.

And, other than maybe a couple guys, I doubt most of our roster has made a decision yet about what they are doing next season -- draft, return, or portal.
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Maybe I'm just bored and desperately trying to avoid any recollection of Sunday, but we know Jason is meticulous in his wording. If Cam is one, wonder who the other is? :ROFLMAO:
 
JasonEvans said:
Unless we hear some legitimate source talk about a kid being connected to Duke, there are just too many players in the portal to make speculation like this make sense.

And, other than maybe a couple guys, I doubt most of our roster has made a decision yet about what they are doing next season -- draft, return, or portal.
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Say Pat decides to come back? Do they still pursue another big?
 
Somto Cyril, a Center who played at Georgia the past two years, plans to enter the portal: Link

Led the SEC in blocks and led the country in dunks.
 
JasonEvans said:
I've got no intel here at this time. No parsing is necessary for now
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JasonEvans said:
Unless we hear some legitimate source talk about a kid being connected to Duke, there are just too many players in the portal to make speculation like this make sense.

And, other than maybe a couple guys, I doubt most of our roster has made a decision yet about what they are doing next season -- draft, return, or portal.
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The transfer portal opens April 7th (just after the championship game) and closes April 21st. There will be a large number of players entering. Don't these dates make it critical that Jon and his staff know who is going and who will return? We know now who ages out and will know if any of the potential returnees enter the portal. We are certain that Cam is a high lottery pick. That leaves a group of players who may or may not go to the NBA. What process will Jon use to identify his returnees so that he can optimize the programs opportunities in the portal?
 
Saratoga2 said:
The transfer portal opens April 7th (just after the championship game) and closes April 21st. There will be a large number of players entering. Don't these dates make it critical that Jon and his staff know who is going and who will return? We know now who ages out and will know if any of the potential returnees enter the portal. We are certain that Cam is a high lottery pick. That leaves a group of players who may or may not go to the NBA. What process will Jon use to identify his returnees so that he can optimize the programs opportunities in the portal?
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He's probably having individual meetings with each player right now and throughout this week.
 
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