The NCAA Transfer Portal has played a big role in the assistance of constructing the West Virginia basketball program rosters in the past few years in the Big 12. In the past three offseasons, West Virginia has lost over two dozen players to the transfer portal amid roster and coaching staff turnover in Morgantown.
Most of West Virginia's best transfers ended up transferring to other major conference schools, including just west of the border in the neighboring state of Kentucky in the SEC.
Here are three former West Virginia starters who transferred from the Mountaineers to the Wildcats in the past few offseasons in the spring portal window.
Kerr Kriisa, G
Super senior guard Kerr Kriisa spent one season at West Virginia after transferring from the Arizona Wildcats last offseason in the 2024 spring portal window. Kriisa was a welcome source of stability for the scoring and floor spacing he brought to West Virginia during the 2023-24 season in the Big 12.
Kriisa averaged a career-high 11.0 points per game, three rebounds, and five assists over nearly two dozen starts during his senior campaign at West Virginia a couple of years ago. The best shooting season of his collegiate career came at West Virginia a couple of seasons ago in the Big 12.
He shot a career and team-high 42.4 percent from beyond the arc in the 2023-24 season at West Virginia. Kriisa was a big contributor to West Virginia's shocking upset 91-85 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in January 2024. He scored in double figures with three rebounds, three assists, and a couple of steals in the six-point win over Kansas in late January last year.
After spending one season at Kentucky this past campaign in the SEC, Kriisa has committed to return to the Big 12 conference with Cincinnati for the final year of his eligibility.
Tre Mitchell, PF/C
Former starting senior center Tre Mitchell had the best season of his collegiate career for any of the major conference programs he played for at West Virginia in the 2022-23 season. Mitchell averaged a dozen points per game, seven rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block over 32 starts and 34 games played with the Mountaineers in the 2022-23 campaign as a true senior.
Mitchell scored in double figures in over 20 games for the Mountaineers, including a season-high 22 points in a double-digit win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys in late February 2023. He also scored in double figures in all three Big 12 and NCAA Tournament games for the Mountaineers a couple of years ago.
West Virginia was the second Big 12 school Mitchell played for after he transferred to the Mountaineers from the Texas Longhorns in the 2022 offseason. He also started out his collegiate career with the UMass Minutemen in the A-10.
Mitchell played the final year of his eligibility in college for John Calipari and Kentucky during the longtime head coach's final season in Lexington, during the 2023-24 campaign.
Oscar Tshiebwe, C
Big man Oscar Tshiebwe was easily the most impactful power forward/center to transfer from West Virginia to another major conference school in the past decade via the spring portal window during the offseason. Tshiebwe, West Virginia's leading rebounder and shot blocker in the 2019-20 season in the Big 12, transferred from the Mountaineers to Kentucky in the 2021 offseason.
Tshiebwe officially entered the transfer portal after stepping away from the West Virginia program due to personal reasons amid Big 12 conference play in January 2021. He ended up at Kentucky soon after entering the transfer portal a few years ago in the 2021 offseason.
One of the most dominant big men in the SEC in the 2020s in college hoops, Tshiebwe was a double-double machine for Kentucky in the early 2020s in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.
To call Tshiebwe a dominant big man at Kentucky in his first season probably doesn't do it justice for the impact he had on the program that campaign in the SEC. Tshiebwe led the nation in rebounding and led the team in scoring, becoming the first player in college hoops to average over 15 points per game and 15 rebounds in a season in over three decades (per Stathead).
Tshiebwe is easily one of the best and most impactful big men for the Kentucky program in the past decade. He was a two-time Consensus First-Team AP All-American, two-time All-SEC First-Team selection, and won the Wooden Award and Naismith Award for the best player in college hoops in 2021.