NCAA Basketball: Arkansas, UConn among 10 teams in need of a big offseason
Oklahoma Sooners
After narrowly missing out on the 2024 NCAA Tournament, marking the third-straight year under third-year head coach Porter Moser to miss the NCAAs, Porter Moser’s squad has fallen victim to transfer portal brutality.
Leaving Norman to the portal includes the likes of Javian McCollum, the team’s leading scorer, Milos Uzhan, the team’s leader in minutes played, and Otega Oweh, the team’s breakout star, John Hugley IV, a reliable big, alongside the NBA Draft declaration of Jalon Moore. That’s a hefty sum.
Although the talented Virginia Tech guard and Oklahoma native Sean Pedulla has been rumored to land in Norman, receiving a CrystalBall prediction from Kolby Crawford of VTScoop, that will not be enough to suffice the sheer volume of losses Moser’s team has gone through so far.
And the transfer portal is still open for 20 more days and the Sooners cannot afford to lose more.
Stanford Cardinal
First-year head coach Kyle Smith, fresh off a successful stint at Washington State by leading the Cougars to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008, will have his work cut out for him when leading the Cardinal in their first year in the ACC.
After the firing of Jerrod Haase, Stanford lost some notable talented players to the portal, including one of the best players available in the portal, Maxime Raynaud, alongside Brandon Angel and high-upside players in Kanaan Carlyle and Andrej Stojakovic -- both highly-rated prospects coming out of high school.
Tasked with recruiting in the portal at a school with difficult academic standards (nothing Kyle Smith isn’t used to, as he was the former coach of the Ivy League Columbia Lions) while dealing with a roster with only four players on it (currently), the only way is up in Palo Alto. A big offseason awaits.