NCAA Basketball: Top 25 offseason team winners from 2023 transfer portal

5. West Virginia Mountaineers

Incoming transfers: Kerr Kriisa, Noah Farrakhan, Jeremiah Bembry, RaeQuan Battle, Quinn Slazinski, Akok Akok, Jesses Edwards

If you’ve been following West Virginia’s roster movement this offseason then you still don’t probably know who is on the roster. So many players have come and gone both right after the season and after Coach Bog Huggins was forced into early retirement after his multiple incidents. And there’s still an open spot left after landing Farrakhan, a double-digit scoring transfer from Eastern Michigan who’ll likely have to sit out.

Yet the rest should be eligible, including the star addition to the roster, Edwards. He averaged 14.5 ppg and 10.3 rpg last season at Syracuse, including nearly three blocks a game. Having him and former Georgetown forward Akok will give the Mountaineers an elite interior frontcourt on that end of the court. And to provide some spacing is Slazinski, a stretch forward from Iona who originally started his career at Louisville.

In the backcourt, Kriisa will be the x-factor. He was the starting point guard of an Arizona team that won 60+ games in two seasons and has multiple triple-doubles in his career. But he’s also very inefficient as a shooter at times. The hope is that Battle, who averaged 17.7 ppg at Montana State and led them to the NCAA Tournament last season, can be that go-to guy on offense.

Add redshirt freshman Bembry over from Florida State and there’s some depth for West Virginia to work with. Considering everything that has happened to the program this offseason, it’s a fairly good roster haul. The question now is how will all the pieces fit together on the court.