Sunday, May 04, 2025
As the music is about to stop in the NCAA men’s basketball game of musical chairs and the dust begins to settle on all the portal mayhem, here’s a quick summation of all the Big East acquisitions that have taken place since its commencement on March 24th of 2025
This is part one of a two-piece look at the state of the Big East rosters in the period of explosive, annual change in college basketball.
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#1- Butler
Like many teams in the Big East, it seems like a bomb went off at Butler in terms of roster construction once the Portal opened on March 24th.
Most of the defections of 4 of their top 5 scorers left by the old-fashioned means of senior graduation. Five other players defected through the portal. The only double-digit player returning is Finley Bizjack, a promising 6’4” 195 lb guard, who averaged 10.3 points and 2.4 assists in 2024-25, entering his junior year. He also appears to possess a great stage name if he ever wanted to make a stab at Hollywood.
Eight of Butler’s 15 players on last year’s roster were acquired through the portal.
So far this year, Butler has acquired the following five players out of the portal:
#1- Yame Butler (not a misprint) G 6’5” 210 lbs
Last year at Drexel: 13pts; 4.6 rebounds; 1.8 assists
#2- Jalen Jackson SR, G 6’2”
Last year at Purdue Fort Wayne: 19.2 pts; 4.4 rebounds; 3.1 assists
Named 1st team All-Horizon League
#3- Michael Ajayi – SR, F 6’7” 228 lbs
Started out at Pierce College, then Pepperdine, where in 23-24 he led the WCC in scoring at 17.1 pts/game
Last year at Gonzaga: 6.5 pts; 5.4 rebounds;
#4- Drayton Jones 6’11” SO, C
Last year at South Carolina State: 13 points; 5.5 rebounds; 1.7 Blocks
#5- Yohan Traore, 6’-10”, 225 lbs Sr F
After stops at Auburn, UC Santa Barbara,
Last year at SMU: 6.1 pts; 3.2 rebounds
#2-UConn
Dan Hurley and staff received some good news recently as promising young rising Sophomore G Solo Ball announced he would be returning to UConn, as well as senior Alex Karaban, eschewing the NBA for now and stating that he’ll most likely come back for a final season. Also, Tarris Reed, this year’s 6’10” 260lb Jr., is expected to return for his senior year.
That gives Hurley a solid base to merge with the following Portal acquisitions
#1- Silas Demary Jr G 6’5” 180 lbs
Last year at Georgia:
13.5 pts; 3.9 rebounds; 3.1 assists; 1.7 steals
#2- Malachi Smith Gr G, 6’0” 170 lbs
Last year at Dayton: 10.4 pts; 5.3 assists; 1 steal
Coach Hurley will also have the enviable task of finding some minutes for three incoming McDonald’s All-Americans
#1- Darius Adams 6’5” SG from La Lumiere School( IN)
#2- Braylon Mullins 6’4” SG from Greenfield-Central HS (IN)
#3- Eric Reibe 7’0” C from the Bullis School (MD)
UConn also secured the commitment from a highly touted Australian prospect, Jacob Furphy, a very skilled 6’6”, 220 lbs wing.
Seems like the rich keep getting richer.
#3- Creighton
Head Coach Greg McDermott has a huge task replacing three key graduating seniors in Ryan Kalkbrenner (19pts; 8.7 rebounds; 2.7 Blocks), Steven Ashworth (16.4 pts; 6.8 assists), and Jamiya Neal (12 pts; 4.4 assists), along with Pop Isaacs ( 16.3 pts; 3.9 assists) being lured away in the portal by Houston.
They’ve done very well reloading in the portal, however, starting with two of the top players from Iowa University
#1- Owen Freeman So F 6’10” 230 lbs
Last year at Iowa: 16.7 pts; 6.7 rebounds; 1.8 Blocks
#2- Josh Dix Jr G 6’5” 192 lbs
Last year at Iowa: 14.4 pts; 2.8 assists
Coach McDermott was also able to secure a commitment from the leading scorer from the University of Charlotte:
#3-Nik Graves, Jr G, 6’3” 170 lbs
Last year at Charlotte: 17.5 pts; 2.7 Assists
#4- Blake Harper Fr. G, 6’5” 210 lbs.
Last year at Howard: 19.5 pts; 6.2 rebounds; 3.4 assists
#5- Austin Swartz, Fr. G 6’4” 200 lbs.
Last year at U of Miami: 5.9 pts; 1 assists
It seems like Coach McDermott imported a lot of firepower to make up for the loss of all of the team’s meaningful players from last year’s squad.
#4- DePaul
As expected, DePau,l like a lot of teams, were hit with mass defections and graduations, so off to the portal they went.
One of the more interesting prospects Coach Chris Holtman was able to obtain was a foreign player from Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Amsal Delalic. He’s a 6’8” 210lb wing who played limited games and minutes last season for Pittsburgh due to an injury. Previously, Creighton and VCU recruited him out of Europe the year before, and this year out of the portal, Clemson, Utah, OK State, Wisconsin, and Utah State, reportedly made offers.
#1- Amsal Delalic, 6’8” 210 lbs Last year at Pittsburgh: 3.8 pts; 2.0 rebounds
#2- Brandon Maclin Jr, G 6’5” 215 lbs.
Last year at Raddord: 10 pts; 4.3 rebounds; 2.2 assists
#3- RJ Smith So G, 6’4” 175 lbs.
Last year at Colorado: 6.2 pts; 2.5 rebounds; 1.7 assists
#4- Jeremy Lorenz, So F, 6’8”, 220 lbs.
Last year at Wofford: 8.0 pts; 3.8 rebounds; 1.7 assists
#5- Kaleb Banks, Jr, F, 6’7” 215 lbs.
Last year at Tulane: 14.7 pts; 6.7 rebounds; 1.3 Blocks
Tulane’s 2nd leading scorer and leading rebounder last season
#6- Khaman Maker, 7’2”, 220 lbs
Last year at St John’s: Maker is from South Sudan, only played one minute in one game, so I’m sure he’ll be a redshirt freshman at DePaul
# 5- Georgetown
I’m sure at this point our old friend Ed Cooley is waiting with baited breath upon the final outcome of the whole NBA draft situation concerning his young prodigy and best player 6’10” 255lb F, Thomas Sorber.
Ed has mentioned that he is a great kid with a solid work ethic, and he’s considering staying in college for one more year to work on his game with the idea of further helping his draft stock towards the Lottery. Of course, a lot can happen between now and late June.
As stated by Rick Pitino, the portal is now the emphasis on obtaining talent, and at this point in time, Georgetown has no High School recruits in the fold.
Georgetown has lost five players to the Portal and has also secured five players recently out of the portal
#1- KJ Lewis, So G, 6’4” 205 lbs
He’s from Duncanville, Texas, and was coached in HS by Micah Peavey’s father, so obviously Georgetown had an inside track in recruiting him
Last year at Arizona: 10.8 pts; 4.6 rebounds; 2.9 assists
Heavily sought after by Kansas, UCLA, NC State, and Ole Miss
#2- Langston Love, Jr G, 6’5”, 210 lbs.
Last year at Baylor: 8.9 pts; 2.8 rebounds; 1.2 assists
Very highly recruited out of Monteverde Academy (FL)
#3- Isaiah Abraham. Fr F, 6’7” 205 lbs.
Last year at UConn: Only appeared in 9 games in limited minutes, but was highly recruited out of St Paul V1 High school in the DC area.
#4- DeShawn Harris-Smith, So G, 6’5” 215 lbs
Last year at U of Maryland: Only 15.4 minutes/game, 2.5 pts/ game, but like his above-mentioned HS teammate at St. Paul V1, he was a very highly recruited player (top 30) out of HS who has yet to find his stride in the college game.
Cooley is obviously trying to establish a recruiting beachhead in the DC area by hoping to develop these local talents.
#5- Vincent Iwuchukwu Jr. F, 7’1” 235 lbs.
Last year at St John’s: Modest numbers of 2.7 pts; 1.7 rebounds in only 7.1 minutes of PT/game, but like the names mentioned above, he was also highly rated as a recruit out of high school (ranked top 25 prospect).
The idea, I’m sure, is to see if Coach Cooley can turn the right key that leads to the big man’s upside development, especially if Sorber is unable to resist the lure of the NBA.
Kevin Stacom is one of the most accomplished Providence College basketball players in history. An All-American at Providence, Stacom was a second-round NBA draft pick, played six years in the NBA, and won an NBA championship as a member of the Boston Celtics.
After his playing career, Stacom coached at the college level and served as an NBA scout for nearly 30 years for the Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks.
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