SEC Shakeup: South Carolina's Jair Bolden Plans To Transfer

Notable SEC news includes Jair Bolden's plans to transfer and Vic Shaefer accepting the Texas coaching position.

The SEC newswire has been ablaze this week as a number of announcements have come on the men and women’s side.

Most recently, South Carolina guard Jair Bolden reportedly entered the transfer portal and looks to use his final year of eligibility to play elsewhere.

South Carolina’s Jair Bolden will be leaving as a grad transfer, source told @stadium. Started career at GW, averaged 8.5 points last season.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 8, 2020

The guard started his career at George Washington and averaged 8.5 points this past season under Frank Martin.

During his teleconference call earlier this month Martin had said he wasn’t aware of anyone on the team planning on transferring, but at the time he had not yet been able to hold his end of season meeting with his players.

He did mention that Seventh Woods will be more of a factor this upcoming season and the departure of Bolden should make his role that much more important.

On the women’s side, Mississippi State head coach Vic Shaefer announced he was heading home to Texas to coach the Longhorns after the school parted ways with Karen Aston.

The search to fill the spot of the South Carolina women’s biggest rival begins and already several names have been tossed around.

Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell came up due to Starkville being just 30 minutes from his hometown of Louisville, MS. Mitchell heard the chatter and took to Twitter to quiet the rumors.

Hey #BBN, let me say this loud and proud for all to hear: I’m the head coach @KentuckyWBB and my heart, family & life are devoted to UK! I will be there for as long as they will have me! I want to make that CRYSTAL clear! Grateful to God that I am allowed the privilege! 😺🔵⚪️💙

— Matthew Mitchell (@yocoachmitchell) April 6, 2020

WBBTeedUp posted a tweet Tuesday saying a source informed them that an ACC coach with Final Four experience is expected to be paid $2 million for the job. By process of elimination this led many to believe Louisville’s Jeff Walz had been offered the job, but Rick Bozich of WDRB reported that Walz said he had not in fact received an offer.

Some notable names coming up as replacements:

-Current Mississippi State assistant coach Johnnie Harris .

- Cormer Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors.

-CurrentOld Dominion coach and former Tennessee player Nikki McCray-Penson .

-CurrentOhio State head coach Kevin McGuff.

-CurrentArkansas coach Mike Neighbors.

The coaching change at Texas has also caused a number of players to put their names in the transfer portal. Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin joined WBBTeedUP to discuss the transfer portal situation.