It’s free-agency season in college basketball.
Well, not technically. But in the age of the free one-time transfer (as well as graduate transfers), the offseason has become a time for teams to radically rebuild their rosters. Nearly 1,700 players entered the transfer portal last year, and while those numbers might have been boosted by the pandemic, we can expect another busy spring and summer of player movement.
The Athletic is here to help you keep up with all of the transactions. We’re ranking the top uncommitted transfers and high school prospects, and we’ll constantly update this list as players come on and off the board. College players here are listed by the class in which they’ll participate in the 2022-23 season. A good rule of thumb to remember with the portal: guards are always easier to find than bigs.
As players commit, we’re updating this list with a ranking of the best fits.
Let’s go portaling (and crootin’):
1. Isiaih Mosley | 6-5 guard | senior | Missouri State
One of the best pull-up artists in all of college basketball has hit the portal. It’s tough to be a bigger scoring threat than Mosley is, a lethal scorer from all three levels that just put up one of the most efficient high-volume scoring seasons of the last decade in college basketball. He scored 20 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the field, 42.7 percent from 3 on about five attempts per game, and 90 percent from the line. The last person to put up a 50/40/90 season while averaging 20 points per game? How about we try this on for a Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish-style Trivia Time: Luke Babbitt at Nevada back in 2009-10 (shout out Larnell). He’s a professional scorer, one of those guys who would be able to get buckets no matter the talent level against him. He had two 40-point games this season, including in an absolutely sensational duel with a guy right below him on this list in A.J. Green. Mosley has some work to do on defense and could stand to be a slightly better distributor. But there is not a better scorer in the portal. He should be chased by every single team in the country. He has a case as the best transfer available in the country right now given how much you know you can trust him to just step on the floor and get buckets from Day One.
2. Pete Nance | 6-10 big | graduate | Northwestern
Immediately one of the better players in the portal. There just isn’t much that Nance doesn’t do. He would have been all-conference in any other league outside of the Big Ten, but was just stuck behind the ridiculously loaded set of bigs in that league and got underrated as a result of it. He’s a 15-point, seven-rebound, three-assist guy per game, where all of those skills show up functionally on tape. He can handle and pass out of dribble hand-offs and you can play him higher up the court. He hit 45 percent from 3 this season, a number that may be a slight anomaly, but I buy him as a 40-percent guy from distance. He blocks one shot per game because he is an excellent weak-side rotator who is always in the right spot. It’s ridiculously difficult to be a big that puts up these counting numbers on 50 percent from the field, more than 40 percent from 3 and more than 75 percent from the line, and he did it against the absolute best frontcourt competition in the country night-after-night. He’s a clear top-five available transfer if he doesn’t go through with the NBA Draft. Ultimately, I see him as a two-way grade in that process if he decides to, so it’ll just be up to him on what he wants for his life and career moving forward.
3. Malachi Smith | 6-4 guard | senior | Chattanooga
The Southern Conference Player of the Year looks like a guy who should have no issue playing at the high-major level on either end of the floor. This is a league that’s produced some good players in the ACC recently, most notably Virginia Tech’s Keve Aluma. Smith is a big, physical guard built to score who also excels on the defensive end. He averaged 19.9 points, 3.0 assists, 6.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game this year for Chattanooga, which nearly upset Illinois in the NCAA Tournament. Smith is a good spot-up shooter — 40.7 percent from 3 — and does a lot of his work off the bounce. He’s tough with a live dribble. He drives with force and is a good finisher at the basket. He’s also a good cutter and Chattanooga often played through him in the post as well. Smith started his career at Wright State and moved on after one year, then sat out a season at Chattanooga. He still has two seasons of eligibility left. He has also put his name in the NBA Draft. Surely former Chattanooga coach Lamont Paris will try to bring in his former star at South Carolina, but he’ll likely have some competition. Smith can play either guard spot and an efficient scorer like him with a game that looks like it will translate should generate a lot of interest from high-majors.
4. AJ Green | 6-4 guard | senior | Northern Iowa
Green is one of the most skilled guards in the country and built to score. He can get his jumper off in a phone booth. He needs little time or space and can shoot it off the bounce or catch with accuracy. He knows how to use a ball screen and change speeds, allowing him to get to his spots to score. He also can make all the passes and reads out of ball screens. He’s got an assortment of finishes with either hand and is tricky with fakes, allowing him to get to the line frequently, where he’s a career 90 percent foul shooter. The expectation is that he’ll join his father Kyle Green at Iowa State. The elder Green joined T.J. Otzelberger’s staff a year ago. He’d slide right into the Izaiah Brockington role as the primary scorer. He also has the passing and ball handling skills to play point guard, so he could help eat up some of the minutes of the gaping hole left by Tyrese Hunter’s departure. Green has a year of eligibility remaining. Northern Iowa went 28-8 in the Missouri Valley in 2020 and 2022 and just 7-11 without him in 2021. Assuming he doesn’t stay in the NBA Draft — he’s also testing the waters — he’ll be a huge addition wherever he lands, but it’d be surprising if he leaves the state.
5. Patrick Baldwin Jr. | 6-9 forward | sophomore | Milwaukee
Baldwin is a real conundrum for coaches. A top-five prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, Baldwin chose to go play for his father at Milwaukee and carve out his own path. It went poorly. He had a terrible season, averaging 12 points and six rebounds while shooting 34 percent from the field and 26 percent from 3 in 11 games before shutting it down with an injury. Some of that is contextual. Baldwin’s guards at Milwaukee were horrible this season, totally incapable of getting him the ball in advantageous positions to make plays. He took only a handful of uncontested looks the entire season. Any team that gets Baldwin at the high-major level will have a much easier time getting Baldwin chances, if only because the talent around him will be better. Teams won’t be able to sell out all they have to stop him coming off of off-ball screening actions to get free. I’d love to see him at an actual basketball power next year. I think that’s where he’ll be best utilized. He needs to get tougher, and be willing to fight through the difficult moments. But I think if he’s in a better situation, that’ll shine through. He’s huge at 6-foot-9, and he’s a good shooter regardless of what the percentages say. Any person who saw him at the high school level will tell you that. Of course, all of this is dependent on him coming back to college. Multiple sources on the NBA personnel side still see him as a first-round grade despite his tough season, and I still have him as a top-25 guy in the class because I buy the shooting that much.
6. Leonard Miller | 6-10 wing | post-grad | Fort Erie International
Miller is considered the best prospect remaining in Canada, a 6-foot-10 playmaker who has high-major schools chasing after him due to the upside he has as a scorer. It’s worth noting that he’s draft-eligible this year, but has recently announced a list of 10 options he’s still considering, including the G League Ignite and Overtime Elite. On the college front, it’s a who’s who of interesting potential landing spots, from Gonzaga, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas down to TCU, where his brother Emmanuel is a starting forward. He has kind of a unique game, as he’s a legit creator off of the bounce with real attacking capabilities at 6-foot-10. There really aren’t many guys with this level of size and are this coordinated and capable in that regard. He also has a pretty smooth shot, although one that he’ll need to keep working through as he moves up to playing at higher levels of athleticism and speed. He’s not a crazy athlete in terms of explosiveness, but his balance and fluidity are very high level. He’s a genuine high-major talent who could start very quickly, but there is some real uncertainty as NBA teams and coaches try to figure out his game, as he just utterly dominates the talent level he currently plays at due to his length and skill. The ceiling makes him worthy of a top-10 spot on this list, though. He’s extremely gifted and has potential to be a 15-point-per-game scorer next year in the right collegiate situation.
7. Courtney Ramey | 6-3 guard | graduate | Texas
Ramey is just an easy fit into any backcourt as an absolutely terrific 3-and-D player who profiles exceedingly well next to a creative guard. Ramey locked up some of the Big 12’s best players this season for Texas, including potential Kansas lottery pick Ochai Agbaji. On top of that, he has hit 37 percent of his 3s over the course of his time in college, and has shown the occasional ability to play some point because he’s a reliable decision-maker (even if he’s not necessarily the most natural playmaker or ballhandler). A third-team All-Big 12 selection in 2021, Ramey isn’t officially in the portal yet, but he has announced through his father’s Twitter account that he’ll be entering the 2022 NBA Draft as well as exploring his transfer options. If that’s the case, we would anticipate him being highly sought after as a solid power conference starter who can reliably take tough assignments and make shots. He’s the kind of scalable player to any situation who helps teams win games.
8. Emoni Bates | 6-9 wing | sophomore | Memphis
The highest-profile transfer in the country, Bates is one of the most hyped prospects to come through the college basketball system in a long time. He chose to attend Memphis a year early — he is not even draft eligible following his freshman season due to his age — in hopes of getting better development. Unfortunately, the season turned out disastrously and has ended in him departing. It is not unfair to say that Bates was just not ready for the collegiate level, and ended up being one of the most harmful players in the country to his team this past season. He was an inefficient scorer, didn’t make great reads in ball screens, and was completely out of his depth defensively in terms of making the right reads and rotations. Penny Hardaway played him at point guard at times, and the results were poor. Bates sat out games due to injury from late January until the NCAA Tournament started. In those games where Bates was out, Memphis was a clear top-10 team in the country by most metrics. In the games where Bates played prior to that, Memphis was ranked outside of the top-60, per Bart Torvik’s database.
You can’t put all of that at Bates’ feet, but he was a significant factor in the Tigers’ early struggles this year. Still, he’s an 18-year-old with some real shot-making prowess from distance and dexterity with the ball. The upside here is high if he’s willing to really come in, do the work, and improve upon some of the nuances of the game that he currently lacks right now. He needs to move without the ball well, lock in on his team defense and learn the right rotations, and become a team guy. If he’s willing to do that, he’s a top-five player in the portal. He could average over 17 points per game in the right spot with some development. He’s that skilled of a shot-maker. If teams find that this year didn’t necessarily work toward humbling him into understanding these factors, he’s probably not worth recruiting. This one is all about the terms Bates expects his transfer recruitment to be on. This is an incredibly important decision and offseason for Bates. He and those around him need to make the right decisions, or he runs the risk of setting himself up for a much more difficult professional pathway. Ranking him on something like this is going to be pretty foolhardy. Some coaches will likely just avoid the situation, whereas others will dive headfirst in and take a swing.
9. Efe Abogidi | 6-10 forward | junior | Washington State
It’s tough to find forwards with two-way upside like this. Abogidi, originally from Nigeria by way of the Australian NBA Global Academy, burst onto the scene as a breakout freshman in 2021, averaging nine points and seven rebounds per game. But more than that, it was his combination of shooting and shot-blocking that caught scouts’ eyes. Abogidi blocked 1.3 shots in his first year while hitting a 3 every other game, not a normal skill set. This season, Abogidi’s minutes were a bit more hit or miss than in that first season — in part due to a preseason knee injury that forced him to miss the entire preseason and held him back throughout portions of the season — but his close to the year showcased some real growth that will make him a highly sought-after player in the portal. He averaged 11 points, seven rebounds, 1.3 steals and over two blocks per game while shooting 52/36/82 in his last 11 games. He has tremendous defensive upside in the right situation that allows him to roam a bit around the rim and be a weak-side terror with his 7-foot-4 wingspan. However, the knees remain a factor. Abogidi suffered a very serious knee injury — tearing his ACL, MCL and meniscus — in 2017 that actually held him out for almost two years as he underwent three surgeries. Teams that recruit Abogidi should be certain to have a backup option. But as long as they have that infrastructure in place, he’s a no-brainer add across the country as a big man that helps you win games on both ends of the court.
10. KC Ndefo | 6-7 forward | graduate | Saint Peter’s
The star of Saint Peter’s magical run to the Elite Eight as a 15-seed, Ndefo is one of the most dynamic defensive players in all of college basketball. He’s the three-time Defensive Player of the Year in the MAAC, and frankly should be a multi-time MAAC Player of the Year if defense was properly accounted for within awards like this. He’s an utterly outstanding player on that end, a twitchy, switchable perimeter defender as a 4 man. But more than that, he’s an elite rim protector despite being 6-foot-7. He’s unbelievable rotating over from the weak side and even swats some jumpers. Offensively, Ndefo does have some weaknesses. He’s not a great shooter. But he is a capable driver and he passes well as a secondary piece. He’s a no-brainer high-major starter, in my view — especially for a team that has a strong, floor-spacing 5 man. All you have to do is watch the way his game translated to playing against high-major players in the NCAA. It felt completely translatable. He should be among the more popular options in the portal for analytically-inclined teams that are willing to value the defensive end properly.
11. Keion Brooks Jr. | 6-7 forward | junior | Kentucky
Brooks is a former five-star recruit who has been a reasonable role player at Kentucky for a few years, but has never really seemed to put it all together. If you look at the counting numbers and his contextual situation, you can see some real appeal here. He started all 33 games he appeared in for Kentucky last season, and averaged 11 points and four rebounds. He is physically ready to play in any league in the country. But the cracks show the more you watch him. He has never really improved as a shooter out to the 3-point line, and he loves to settle for terrible midrange jumpers that end up being inefficient looks. He doesn’t make a ton of high-level passing reads. But he does have some real defensive versatility. Brooks is a good 4-man for someone, but probably was never going to get a primary role at Kentucky. There are probably some programs in the Big Ten that could use Brooks in a bit of a more primary role if he wanted to go a bit closer to his Indiana home, but to be effective in that situation he needs to be willing to continue improving his skill level as a shooter and distributor.
12. Emmanuel Akot | 6-8 point wing | senior | Boise State
It seems like this decision to hit the portal is more about keeping all of his options open. It was recently reported by Boise beat writer B.J. Rains that Akot will also declare for the draft, so it seems like this is entirely about seeing what the best option for him is next season across the board, be it professionally or in college. If he does decide to move on, teams will be getting a unique player. Akot’s numbers — 10 points, three rebounds, three assists with a below-average 51.1 true-shooting percentage — don’t blow you away, but he’s an extraordinarily versatile chess piece. He essentially ran the offense at the point this year for Boise State, allowing Marcus Shaver to stay off the ball and take advantage of his scoring abilities. There were times where Akot slid down to the 5 (and everywhere in between). He’s capable of defending all of these positions as well. Ultimately, Akot really struggles to elevate and finish, so his value offensively at a higher level than the Mountain West will be dependent upon him continuing to hit 39 percent from 3 this season. But any high-major looking for a versatile starter who can plug a lot of gaps, play on the ball occasionally, and defend at a high level could do worse than bringing in Akot essentially as a veteran, one-year plug-and-play starter. He could help a good team win some games as long as the jumper stays steady.
13. Justin Powell | 6-6 guard | sophomore | Tennessee
A cautionary tale of what can go wrong if you choose the wrong landing place as a transfer. Coming off of a great start to a freshman season that was cut short by injury at Auburn, Powell transferred. Instead of finding another place with all sorts of offensive freedom — the kind of scheme he thrived in, with his skill as a ballhandler and shooter — Powell chose to go to Tennessee. Rick Barnes and the Tennessee program are a lot of really great things, but it’s not one that was ever going to get the most out of Powell, or provide him with the kind of situation that worked for him. At the end of the day, Powell is a big guard who can handle the ball and can really score from beyond the arc. You have to insulate him defensively, and he is going to have to be willing to put more effort into becoming salvageable on that end of the court. But he’s big, and he can shoot, and guys like this tend to find success. Ultimately, where he ends up completely depends on what kind of role he wants. If he wants to have free rein and totally run an offense, maybe somewhere like Western Kentucky makes sense. But if he’s willing to be more of a secondary ballhandler and high-level shooter in a free-flowing offense, I do think he is something of an underrated asset still to a high-major program.
14. Felipe Haase | 6-9 center | graduate | Mercer
A Chilean big man who started his career as a role player at South Carolina before blossoming into an All-SoCon-level big man at Mercer, Haase will be very popular for teams looking to find a floor-spacing center. He hit 40.2 percent of his 325 3-point attempts over his two years at Mercer, and really showcased some ability to make decisions as an offensive initiator and passer. He reads the game really well and has skills. He has some inherent limitations defensively if he chooses to move back up to the high-major level. But as a sixth-year big essentially on a one-year deal that has hit 41 percent from 3 at the high major level for a season before moving back down and rounding out his game, Haase should be very fairly popular for coaches that need a degree of skill. I think he’s a high-major starter at a mid-tier school that has a chance to make the NCAA Tournament.
(Ranking at time of commitment)
No. 1 Tyrese Hunter (Iowa State to Texas)
No. 1 Yohan Traore (HS to Auburn)
No. 2 Nijel Pack (Kansas State to Miami)
No. 3 Kendric Davis (SMU to Memphis)
No. 3 Baylor Scheierman (South Dakota State to Creighton)
No. 4 Malik Reneau (HS to Indiana)
No. 4 Kevin McCullar (Texas Tech to Kansas)
No. 5 Brandon Murray (LSU to Georgetown)
No. 6 Skyy Clark (HS to Illinois)
No. 7 Tristen Newton (East Carolina to Connecticut)
No. 7 Norchad Omier (Arkansas State to Miami)
No. 7 Kenneth Lofton (Staying in NBA Draft)
No. 7 Josh Minott (Staying in NBA Draft)
No. 8 Trevon Brazile (Missouri to Arkansas)
No. 8 Andre Curbelo (Illinois to St. John’s)
No. 8 Matthew Mayer (Baylor to Illinois)
No. 11 Julian Phillips (HS to Tennessee)
No. 11 Will Richard (Belmont to Florida)
No. 11 Johni Broome (Morehead State to Auburn)
No. 11 Osun Osunniyi (St. Bonaventure to Iowa State)
No. 11 Grant Sherfield (Nevada to Oklahoma)
No. 12 Terrence Shannon (Texas Tech to Illinois)
No. 12 Antoine Davis (Staying at Detroit)
No. 12 Kyle Lofton (St. Bonaventure to Florida)
No. 12 Ricky Council (Wichita State to Arkansas)
No. 13 Mark Sears (Ohio to Alabama)
No. 14 Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Tennessee to Louisville)
No. 16 Michael Jones (Davidson to Stanford)
No. 17 Tanner Holden (Wright State to Ohio State)
No. 17 Umoja Gibson (Oklahoma to DePaul)
No. 18 Donald Carey (Georgetown to Maryland)
No. 19 Yuri Collins (Staying at Saint Louis)
No. 20 Jalen Bridges (West Virginia to Baylor)
No. 20 K.J. Williams (Murray State to LSU)
No. 20 David Jones (DePaul to St. John’s)
No. 21 Terry Roberts (Bradley to Georgia)
No. 21 Bryce Hopkins (Kentucky to Providence)
No. 21 Jahmir Young (Charlotte to Maryland)
No. 21 Frankie Collins (Michigan to Arizona State)
No. 22 Fardaws Aimaq (Utah Valley to Texas Tech)
No. 22 Noah Carter (Northern Iowa to Missouri)
No. 22 Adam Miller (Staying at LSU)
No. 23 Jalen Graham (Arizona State to Arkansas)
No. 23 John-Michael Wright (High Point to Oklahoma State)
No. 23 Dexter Dennis (Wichita State to Texas A&M)
No. 23 Kario Oquendo (staying at Georgia)
No. 23 Darin Green (UCF to Florida State)
No. 23 Souley Boum (UTEP to Xavier)
No. 23 Xavier Pinson (LSU to New Mexico State)
No. 24 Alex Fudge (Florida to LSU)
No. 24 Antonio Reeves (Illinois State to Kentucky)
No. 24 Keyshawn Bryant (South Carolina to USF)
No. 25 Payton Sparks (staying at Ball State)
No. 25 Javon Franklin (South Alabama to Georgia Tech)
No. 26 Ben Vander Plas (Ohio to Virginia)
No. 27 Landers Nolley (Memphis to Cincinnati)
No. 27 Tre Mitchell (Texas to West Virginia)
No. 28 Tyreke Key (Indiana State to Tennessee)
No. 28 Jermaine Couisnard (South Carolina to Oregon)
No. 28. Caleb Asberry (Texas State to Oklahoma State)
No. 29 Devin Carter (South Carolina to Providence)
No. 29 Jarkel Joiner (Ole Miss to NC State)
No. 29 Sean McNeil (West Virginia to Ohio State)
No. 29 Manny Bates (NC State to Butler)
No. 29 Jamarion Sharp (Staying at Western Kentucky)
No. 30 De’Vion Harmon (Oregon to Texas Tech)
No. 33 Jake Stephens (VMI to Chattanooga)
No. 33 Franck Kepnang (Oregon to Washington)
No. 33 Jaren Holmes (St. Bonaventure to Iowa State)
No. 33. Andre Kelly (California to UCSB)
No. 34 DJ Burns Jr. (Winthrop to NC State)
No. 35 Dawson Garcia (North Carolina to Minnesota)
No. 35. Jarod Lucas (Oregon State to Nevada)
No. 36 Elijah Harkless (Oklahoma to UNLV)
No. 36 Al-Amir Dawes (Clemson to Seton Hall)
No. 37 Ali Ali (Akron to Butler)
No. 37. Khalil Shabazz (Staying at San Francisco)
No. 38 Eric Hunter (Purdue to Butler)
No. 39 Morriz Udeze (Wichita State to New Mexico)
No. 41 Tristan Enaruna (Iowa State to Cleveland State)
No. 41 Dre Davis (Louisville to Seton Hall)
No. 42 Cam Spencer (Loyola Maryland to Rutgers)
No. 43 Eric Gaines (LSU to UAB)
No. 43 Tyree Appleby (Florida to Wake Forest)
No. 44 Isaac Likekele (Oklahoma State to Ohio State)
No. 47 D’Moi Hodge (Cleveland State to Missouri)
No. 48 Efton Reid (LSU to Gonzaga)
(Top photo of Emoni Bates: Jamie Schwaberow / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)