NCAA Basketball: Top 25 early winners from 2023 offseason moves

25. VCU

The Rams were back in the NCAA Tournament last season, making their third NCAA Tournament trip under Mike Rhoades. The 27-win season was the best punctuation mark after winning the A-10 regular season and tournament titles in what was Rhoades’ final campaign with the Rams. He’s off to Penn State and former UMBC and Utah State coach Ryan Odom recently took over this program and has things looking great already.

While a few of VCU’s more talented players left for Penn State and other spots, they’ve efficiently filled a few of those holes already in the Transfer Portal. Odom takes Max Shulga and Sean Bairstow with him from Utah State, both of whom averaged double-digit points last season for the Aggies. Their most recent addition was point guard Jason Nelson, who had a very solid rookie season across town at Richmond. They’re also bringing aboard Joe Bamisile, who was All-A-10 just two seasons ago at George Washington and got a former Top 100 recruit in Roosevelt Wheeler, a center who barely contributed in two seasons at Louisville.

The VCU staff has not sat on their hands and will have the Rams in fine shape moving forward. VCU has been one of the best programs since joining this conference just over a decade ago and that doesn’t seem to be stopping under Odom’s leadership. He did great work during his five-year stint at UMBC and is in more familiar ground back on the east coast. There’s plenty of talent and potential in this batch of transfers and it’s an impressive early haul for a mid-major program.