Top Transfer Portal Additions: Analyzing Fits
Proivdence Friars Guard Stefan Vaaks dribbles the ball up-court
The transfer portal has become one of the most controversial and polarizing subjects of discussion in all of sports, as in recent years it has become arguably the most important aspect of team building across college sports. This offseason has been one of the most controversial of all, as players and coaches are getting braver and braver with how they are trying to push the boundaries of eligibility, leading to teams like LSU, who currently has a full starting five of players who are not currently eligible to play college basketball next season. Coaches like Will Wade, Nate Oats, and Scott Drew have faced immense scrutiny in recent months from college basketball purists with the way they’ve bent the rules with players like Charles Bediako and James Nnaji. Beyond that, we will be analyzing the fits of some of the most noteworthy portal classes for this upcoming season.
Louisville adds Flory Bidunga, Jackson Shelstad, Alvaro Folgueiras, and Karter Knox
Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals are coming off a relatively disappointing season where they came into it ranked as a top 10 team in the country and came out of it as second round exits at the hands of Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans. One of the big storylines of their season was the health of superstar freshman Mikel Brown Jr., a projected lottery pick in the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft, who missed 14 games this season with various injuries. Regardless, Pat Kelsey has revived a Louisville basketball program that looked dead to rights just a few years ago and has them looking like a force to be reckoned with once again during the early parts of portal season. The Cardinals have lured in four of the top 50 recruits in the transfer portal already, as well as bringing in a few key depth pieces and five star recruit Obinna Ekezie Jr. Junior sharpshooter Adrian Wooley returns for Kelsey and the Cardinals and will be surrounded in their projected starting lineup by Flory Bidunga: one of the best players in the portal from Kansas, Jackson Shelstad: a talented pure point guard from Oregon, Karter Knox: a former 5-star versatile forward that has huge upside, and Alvaro Folgueiras: a hero in Iowa’s miraculous Elite Eight run last season who brings a veteran presence and a solid complimentary piece to any contending team. In Pat Kelsey’s high-pace system, these players all fit extremely well together, with Shelstad being the main driving force behind this pace. Assuming they stay healthy, we will see Kelsey’s system run like a well-oiled machine as this lineup compliments each other extremely well in terms of playstyle. The Shelstad-Bidunga pick and roll will be something teams have to worry about, especially if we see Flory take another leap on offense, and they are surrounded by three really good shooters that have all shown the ability to get hot at times in their college careers. Karter Knox has also shown flashed of being an elite isolation scorer, something that we could see Pat Kelsey unlock in a big way at Louisville. Size has been at a premium in recent years in college basketball and Louisville is absolutely loaded in that aspect. You can expect this Cardinals team to start off a bit slow as with all their moving pieces, they could take a moment to gel. We could be looking at this season’s version of Michigan.
Duke retains 4 key rotation pieces, pairs number 1 recruiting class with John Blackwell and Drew Scharnowski
Jon Scheyer may have assembled the greatest college basketball roster we have ever seen on paper for this upcoming season. The depth and star power of this Duke team is unlike anything we have ever seen at the collegiate level. The Blue Devils will open the season as the National Championship favorites with a roster headlined by Wisconsin Transfer John Blackwell, fresh off leading the Badgers to a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament while averaging 19.6 points per game, returners Dame Sarr, Caleb Foster, and Patrick Ngongba from their Elite 8 roster last season, and 5-star freshman Cameron Williams. Off the bench, Scheyer has another 5 players that most programs in the country would be happy with as their starting five, with weapons like Cayden Boozer, 5-stars Deron Rippey Jr. and Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, 4-stars Bryson Howard and Maxime Meyer, and portal addition Drew Scharnowski. Duke has been running a similar system every year for the past decade or so, with their offense running through blue chip forwards like Cooper Flagg, Zion Williamson, Marvin Bagley, and most recently Cam Boozer. It will be interesting to see how their philosophy shifts this year, as we have not seen Duke have a guard as talented as John Blackwell since Luke Kennard or maybe even before that. It will also be interesting to see how Blackwell adjusts to not having the ball in his hands as much as he did at Wisconsin, as he will be surrounded by so much talent in Durham. As far as Scharnowski goes, Scheyer found a diamond in the rough and a perfect Maliq Brown replacement in the Belmont transplant, who does all the little things well and will be an early sleeper for ACC DPOY. What Scheyer has done with this roster is a testament to not only how bought in his players are once they come to Duke, but also the national consensus on what it means to be a part of ‘The Brotherhood.’ The balance that this lineup has is what stands out, as Duke has another star freshman forward in Cam Williams, who they can run their offense through if things break right for him, but also has Blackwell who has been an offensive engine before and will take some pressure off of everyone’s offensive shortcomings in this Duke starting five.
Illinois retains 5 rotation players, adds Providence transfer Stefan Vaaks and 2 top 50 recruits
Illinois is fresh off of a Final Four appearance and appear poised to be a favorite to get back there this year, retaining 3 of their 5 starters plus their top 2 bench pieces from last year’s roster while adding top portal entrant Stefan Vaaks and bringing in 5 star freshman Quentin Coleman. Andrej Stojakovic appears poised to take on a larger role on offense with projected lottery pick Keaton Wagler departing, who was a three star recruit in last year’s class. Stefan Vaaks looks like a prototypical Brad Underwood wing, in a very similar archetype to Keaton Wagler, and the Illini will look to him to help replace some of Wagler’s production as well. Vaaks is such a great fit for Underwood’s system because of how good of a playmaker he is for a primary shot creator. He projects to slot in as a secondary ball handler and will help Illinois as they look to make another deep run into March, this time with loftier expectations. There is also a real possibility that Brad Underwood is not done adding, as Illinois doesn’t have a real Kylan Boswell replacement on the roster, and we could see them add a point guard late in the cycle, likely from the international recruiting pool, as they have already established themselves as one of the premier destinations for international recruits.
Throughout this portal season, we have seen a lot of NBA-level talent move around and it will be incredibly interesting to see how next season shakes out with one of the more talented groups of upperclassmen we have seen in recent years at the forefront of college basketball headlines instead of talking about the incoming freshman class as much. With the 2026 NBA draft class being as stacked as it is, college basketball fans have been spoiled with the returns of players who would normally be slam dunk first round picks. Programs like Duke, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and others were among those lucky enough to bring in or retain NBA level talent with players going through the draft process and coming back to school. As we continue to progress through this era, keep an eye on players like Milan Momcilovic, Tyler Tanner, and Tounde Yessofou and the paths their careers take after deciding to come back to school instead of going to the NBA Draft.
