Dante Harris Withdraws From Transfer Portal, Returning to Virginia as Walk-On

Matt Newton | May 31, 2024

Dante Harris drives the ball during the Virginia men's basketball game against Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum. / Brian Bishop-USA TODAY Sports

Dante Harris is headed back to Virginia. Six weeks after entering the transfer portal, the redshirt junior point guard has reportedly withdrawn his name from the portal and appears to be returning to UVA next season, as first reported by Matt Zenitz of 247Sports on Friday evening. As Virginia has filled every one of its scholarship spots for next season, sources confirmed to CavaliersNow that Harris will be on UVA's roster as a walk-on.

Virginia basketball guard Dante Harris, who entered the transfer portal in April, has withdrawn his name from the portal, @247Sports has learned.

He transferred to Virginia last year from Georgetown, where he averaged 11.9 points per game during the 2021-22 season.… pic.twitter.com/e6EWK0Q0SW

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) June 1, 2024

A 6'0" redshirt junior guard from Washington, D.C., Harris joined the Virginia men's basketball program as a mid-year transfer from Georgetown during the 2022-2023 campaign and redshirted the rest of that season. Slated to be UVA's backup to Reece Beekman before possibly taking over as the team's lead point guard moving forward, things didn't quite pan out for Harris, who missed 10 games from late November to mid-January with an ankle injury.

Even when Harris was on the court, he didn't quite live up to his own or Virginia's expectations for the Most Outstanding Player of the 2021 Big East Tournament. After averaging 11.9 points and 4.1 assists as Georgetown's starting point guard in 2021-2022, Harris struggled to get into a rhythm as a Cavalier, averaging career-lows of 2.5 points and 1.4 assists. Even his three-point percentage, which was never a strength for Harris (shooting 27.5% on 3.5 attempts per game in 2021-2022), cratered to 10.0% on less than one attempt per game.

Though this was not at all the way Harris or Virginia saw his time in Charlottesville panning out, his return to UVA for another season does give both parties another chance to write a better ending to his story.

Virginia added a couple point guards to its roster this offseason in Kansas State transfer Dai Dai Ames and Florida State transfer Jalen Warley, who join redshirt freshman Christian Bliss. It's unlikely Harris will see much time on the court next season, but there's no downside to having him as an experienced presence in the locker room. For Harris, he gets a third year to develop in UVA's program and the chance to finish out his degree from the University of Virginia.