NCAA Basketball: 8 possible grad transfer candidates to watch for 2023
NCAA Basketball transfer candidate – Yuri Collins (Saint Louis)
2022-23 season stats: 11.2 ppg and 10.1 apg
The 6’0 point guard is a throwback pass-first ball-handler that has led NCAA Basketball in passing each of the last two seasons, including over 10 apg, which is more than plenty of teams. He dished out a school-record 20 assists against Tennessee State this past year, along with 17 in A-10 play against Richmond.
Collins not only is a capable scorer as well but he’s also a two-time all-league defender as well. He has a near 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio and would arguably become the best point guard to enter the portal. And he actually did enter the portal a year ago for a brief minute before ultimately coming back to Saint Louis.
The Billikens were much better than Richmond as a team this past season, though they did underachieve compared to preseason expectations. They won 21 games and finished tied for second in the A-10 standings. However, excluding Collins, the team will have lost four of the top five scorers on the team and is set to take a step back in the league.
For a player that already entered the portal before, why wouldn’t he opt to do it again with a worse team? There are still plenty of NCAA Basketball programs that need a ball-handler to run the offense and what better is there out there at that than Collins?