SEC Basketball: Ranking the top 20 incoming transfers for the 2024-25 season
By Justin Wiles
Each spring the transfer portal gets larger and larger. This year more than 1000 players entered their names in the portal, most looking for a system to improve their game and many others just looking to continue a lifelong love of playing basketball.
The portal has provided the SEC with some of its best players in recent years. This past year alone eight of the top ten scorers in the conference came from the transfer portal at one point. All 16 teams are adding multiple players from the portal, some like Auburn are just filling out a couple of needs on the roster, but others like Kentucky and Vanderbilt are doing a complete overhaul of the roster after an offseason coaching change.
This upcoming season will feature many new faces to SEC Basketball, some that are known from other high-major programs and others that dominated the mid-major conferences. There will be nearly 80 players joining SEC teams this year, with varying skills and experience. While the transfer portal is by no means an exact science some coaches have continued to find the right players to improve their team each year.
Over the past couple of seasons, players like Mark Sears and Dalton Knecht have transferred into an SEC school and taken the conference by storm. Will someone from this year's transfer class have as large of an impact as those two players? It’s still too early to tell, but with the quality of players joining the conference, it wouldn’t be a surprise.
This list of players, based on their previous performance and new team fit, is a ranking of the top 20 incoming transfers. Much like recruiting or the transfer portal, this ranking is pure speculation since it is still unknown how the rosters will gel, but these players, arguably, have the best chances of making a positive impact on the league.
Honorable Mentions: Alijah Martin (Florida), Cam Carter (LSU), Ansley Almonor (Kentucky), DJ Wagner (Arkansas), Malik Dia (Ole Miss), Igor Milicic Jr (Tennessee), Jayson Kent (Texas), Jason Edwards (Vanderbilt).