College Basketball: Transfer Portal Entries to Monitor Following the National Title

Just because the season is over doesn't mean the drama is. In the midst of some seismic shifts in the sport, here are a few transfer names that any college basketball fan should know.

Mar 7, 2024; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach Jerod Haase talks with Stanford / Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

College basketball's 2023-24 season ended on Monday night in Phoenix, Arizona, with the Connecticut Huskies securing a second-straight title by thrashing an additional 1-seed in Purdue. A team hasn't repeated in college basketball since 2008, when Billy Donovan's Florida Gators accomplished the same feat.

The offseason never sleeps, though. The second after elimination, coaches are back in the laboratory, whether it be watching film or recruiting. And with the influence of the transfer portal on college basketball, recruiting is a skill that has to be absolutely maximized to succeed.

UConn this year had a vastly important transfer piece in Cam Spencer (Rutgers), and last year, added Tristen Newton from East Carolina, who won both national championships with the Huskies.

After Enfield left USC for SMU, Mussleman left Arkansas for USC, and Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, it's a real musical chairs of coaches. The same can be said about the transfer portal.

Without further adiu, here are some fun transfer portal names to watch.

Robbie Avila | Power Forward | Indiana State (Soph.)

A man that went viral a few times this year for broad comparisons to passing bigs like Nikola Jokic or Domantas Sabonis, Cream Abdul-Jabbar, or Robbie Avila, helped lead Indiana State to its best season quite literally since Larry Bird played there in the late '70s.

The comparisons, while loose, weren't just because of a couple of flashy passes. Avila truly produced this season as a sophomore, averaging 17.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game on 53.6% FG and 39.4% 3PFG.

This is a vast improvement over his previous performance as a freshman on deep shots, where he shot just 33.7% – not only that, but he improved his free-throw percentage a whopping 10 percentage points, going from 70.5% to 80.8% in one year.

Due to his flashy play style and real numbers, Avila will be a guy that gets plenty of high-major offers.

Schools that make sense: Creighton, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa State.

Kanaan Carlyle | Point Guard | Stanford (Fr.)

Stanford point guard Kanaan Carlyle is an Overtime Elite product that played his freshman season at Stanford under coach Jerrod Haase.

Upon the Cardinal's firing of Haase, a mass exodus ensued, with most of the team opting for the portal.

Carlyle is an explosive point guard that on the year averaged 11.5 points, 2.7 assists, 1.0 stocks, and 2.7 rebounds per game, though he had his struggles with efficiency on the year.

Part of that was shot selection – he has a lot of confidence – but part of it was lacking spacing on the Stanford offense. This makes it difficult to facilitate any kind of consistently good looks, as creating separation essentially can't be reliably achieved.

While his shooting hasn't been ideal, Carlyle has huge upside in his game, and could very well be a star next season wherever he plays.

Sources are saying that Carlyle is leaning towards playing for Indiana next season, though nothing is official.

Mark Mitchell | Forward | Duke (Soph.)

Duke, despite a pretty impressive season, still fell short of its Final Four goal despite the amount of talent on the roster. Of course, that's just college hoops – Kevin Durant didn't make it past the Second Round of the NCAAT his lone year at Texas.

A portal entry from Duke, Mark Mitchell is a 6-foot-9 forward prospect that in 2023-24 put up 11.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, but saw a noticeable drop in efficiency from deep and the free-throw line.

In his freshman campaign, Mitchell was a very reliable shooter, hitting 35.2% of his attempts from beyond the arc. This past season, he dropped down to a concerning 27.5%, albeit on just 1.2 attempts per game. The other thing to note also is that his free-throw attempts doubled, but his percentage tumbled 13 percentile points from last year – he went from 76.3% FT to 62.3% FT.

Obviously, that's concerning. But what should also be considered is the fact that Mitchell's game isn't really particularly reliant on stepping out and hitting from beyond the arc, though it's always a nice weapon to have. Mitchell's game is more at the rim than it is on the perimeter – he takes 72.8% of his shots near the rim according to Synergy Sports.

With his pedigree and production, watch for Mitchell to be one of the more sought after players in this transfer class, even if he doesn't have a ton of media hype because he wasn't the star at Duke. He could legitimately star elsewhere, and could be a real part of a contending team.

Because he's such a recent entry, there isn't much speculation on where he'll end up, but it should be noted that he's from Mission, Kansas, and played for Sunrise Christian, so the Jayhawks should probably be a contender.

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