This is mostly a time for men’s college basketball fans to fret — about players lost to the transfer portal, about desirable targets in the portal that their team didn’t get, about players their team did get, because how much money did that cost and is it going to tick off the previously highest-paid star player?
And if you get too excited about what looks like a dynamite 2026-27 roster in the making, there’s always a Kentucky fan eager to throw $22 million worth of cold water on the whole thing. This is actually a nice diversion for Kentucky fans who spend most of their day wondering if Mark Pope will ever win another game.
Some staffs are handling this free agency period extremely well, though. And some puzzling examples of #PortalBrain. My favorite was the Michigan State fan on X who responded to a post about the large haul of scorers Rick Barnes is bringing to Tennessee by posting side-by-side pictures of Barnes and Tom Izzo, accompanied by the words: “Adapt or die.”
Egads. Barnes had to essentially rebuild his entire roster. Yes, he appears to be doing it well, but that doesn’t mean it’s his preference. Izzo, meanwhile, had retained every eligible member of what will be a preseason top-five team until Divine Ugochukwu got into the portal right before it closed Tuesday night. And a perimeter defection seemed obvious given the freshman guards arriving.
Michigan State is clearly better next season, on paper, than Tennessee (and that was true before Izzo added Charlotte center Anton Bonke on Wednesday and filled the lingering roster hole). If its key players had all hit the market, what a collective dollar figure that would have fetched.
Today’s best teams use the portal, but retention isn’t celebrated enough. Everyone values old teams. But old teams that grow old together are both precious and rare.
I get it, though. #RetainBrain isn’t as fun. Here are 10 other thoughts with the portal closed and with several top targets as yet unclaimed.
1. Those uncommitted free agents include four of The Athletic’s top six players in the portal (check out our rankings now that we’ve added rankings for 51 through 100). Former Wake Forest 21.4-point-a-game scorer Juke Harris is the biggest catch remaining, but all three favored landing spots — Michigan, North Carolina and Tennessee — have added and/or kept serious talent on the wing. This could be a refreshing change for him, of course. But I wonder if a juke is coming, and if you’ll accept an apology for that.
JUKE HARRIS CANNOT BE STOPPED 🤯
📺 @accnetwork x @WakeMBB pic.twitter.com/1oWkb7Jllp
— ACC Men’s Basketball (@accmbb) February 26, 2026
2. Speaking of Dusty May’s defending national champion Wolverines — the obvious primary reason Michigan State fans are freaking out — there’s a lot still to determine, but a strong chance to repeat is guaranteed. And Michigan might end up as the preseason favorite. Adding former Tennessee big man J.P. Estrella, the one loss that had to sting for Barnes, was crafty. And he could be a depth piece depending on NBA decisions. With Harris in play. With Moustapha Thiam in play. With Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney running the backcourt. With five-star guard Brandon McCoy Jr. on the way.
3. I enjoyed this piece from Matt Norlander on May in the wake of the title and the absurdity of the portal opening a few minutes after the national championship game ends. The title-winning coaching staff has time for half of a celebratory Dos Equis after cutting the nets, which is too bad. On the bright side, title-winning coaches in the old days could stick their chests out on the summer circuit and expect a bump with high schoolers who could help future teams. Now you can flash your cut of the net on a Zoom call and tilt things (presuming the money works) with a guy who can help you immediately. The Dos Equis is half full, national champions.
4. The fifth of Pappy Van Winkle is half empty, Kentucky fans. There’s no spinning Pope’s roster construction mistakes of a year ago, nor his roster construction misses — so far — this spring. There’s still time and talent available for the Wildcats and Kansas to make like the other two blue bloods, Duke and North Carolina, and improve their rosters as blue bloods do.
But Pope has whiffed on Rob Wright … and Terrence Brown … and Isaac Celiscar … and Donnie Freeman, who chose St. John’s and Pope mentor Rick Pitino. I’d ask Kentucky fans to keep an open mind, but there’s limited room with Billy Donovan occupying so much space, as he will until he takes another job. If he doesn’t this summer? Pope might need to go 40-0 next season.
5. Making it worse, as always in college sports, is the rival flourishing by comparison. Now, #PortalBrain might exaggerate the difference between Louisville and Kentucky, forgetting that Pope brings back quality players such as Malachi Moreno and Kam Williams. But you can’t deny what Pat Kelsey and the people who fund his efforts have done.
Former Kansas center Flory Bidunga, our top-rated player in the portal, will play for the Cards along with guard Jackson Shelstad (Oregon), wing Karter Knox (Arkansas) and skilled big Alvaro Folgueiras (Iowa). These aren’t just talented pieces; they seem to mesh, and Brendan Marks dug in on why Shelstad fits Kelsey’s offense.
6. Marks also broke down why Somto Cyril from Georgia to Miami is a big deal, and that’s one of the portal classes I think might deserve a bit more love. Others include UCLA (Filip Jovic, Sergej Macura, Jaylen Petty and Azavier Robinson); Iowa State (Leon Bond III, Bully Johnson, Taj Manning, Ryan Prather Jr., Tre Singleton); and Alabama (Cole Cloer, Jamarion Davis-Fleming, Drew Fielder, Brandon Garrison).
7. My underrated individual add is Belmont big man Drew Scharnowski going to Duke. Yes, just what the sport needs, for Duke to unearth some overlooked talent. I thought Scharnowski should have been a bit more celebrated among the portal bigs. For one thing, his coach at Belmont has pretty much been the foremost supplier of talent to successful high majors. And he was a sophomore last season with room to get stronger and expand on his skill. I’m guessing this ends up more than a depth add.
8. Of the classes that are getting a lot of attention, it’s harder for me to get as excited about Indiana. Lots of talent coming in, but lots going out as well. Markus Burton is an exciting bucket getter from Notre Dame. Samet Yigitoglu from SMU brings a massive 7-foot-2 body and post scoring. Was Alabama transfer Aiden Sherrell worth all the fuss? We’ll see. Maybe this is unwarranted skepticism, but that happens sometimes with basketball teams at football schools.
9. Michigan’s Morez Johnson Jr. and North Carolina’s Henri Veesaar are among players who haven’t yet made NBA decisions, but as it stands, the All-Retention Team: UConn guard Braylon Mullins, Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner (who hasn’t announced a return but all signs point to one), Duke forward Patrick Ngongba and Florida forwards Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon.
10. One thing people can’t remember when they talk about the good old days of college basketball: Anyone ever talking this much about the sport this deep into April.
