NCAA Basketball: 20 early team winners of 2023 transfer portal offseason

5. Houston Cougars

The Cougars had arguably the best backcourt in NCAA Basketball last season, led by the trio of Jamal Shead, Marcus Sasser, and Tramon Mark. Sasser has gone pro, while Mark transferred over to Arkansas. We’re assuming that Shead will return from the NBA Draft process and if he does, could have two even better guards to work with.

Houston landed two quality guard transfers so far. One is LJ Cryer, who averaged 15.0 ppg this past season at Baylor. The All-Big 12 guard and former national champion shot 42% from three-point range and had 30 points against Creighton in the NCAA Tournament.

The other pickup was Damian Dunn, who comes over from Temple. He was one of the best scorers in the AAC in the last three years, coming off scoring 15.3 ppg on 41% shooting from the field. He’s capable of some high-powered scoring games, including going for 34 points against Cincinnati and even a career-high 38 points against Vanderbilt.

These are two capable scoring guards that can come in and help Houston have a smooth transition process at the Big 12 level. And they can create their own offense with ease, which will only make Shead’s life easy as a distributor.