With the transfer portal more important than ever the player acquisition done in the offseason has arguably surpassed traditional recruiting in terms of roster building importance. What SEC teams did the best work in the transfer portal this offseason? Let’s take a look at the incoming pieces for each team in the league to see who might be a favorite in the league.
Teams will be listed in terms of transfer class ranking according to 247 Sports. Florida’s class was ranked the fourth best, so you can decide for yourself where you think the Gators’ class stacks up once you see how the rest of the league did. In part one we will do the top six teams in the league (other than Florida), and in part two we’ll tackle the bottom seven.
Alabama
Incoming Players: Grant Nelson (North Dakota State), Latrell Wrightsell (Cal State Fullerton), Aaron Estrada (Hofstra), Mohamed Wague (West Virginia)
Alabama’s class is loaded with players that were highly productive in mid-major conferences. Grant Nelson was considered one of the best players in the portal standing at 6’10” and 215 pounds averaging 18 points and 9 rebounds per game. It’s somewhat of an interesting take for the Crimson Tide as Nelson is a below-average three-point shooter and isn’t a rim running big–usually the kind of player they look for at the position. He is an extremely efficient post up player, something that could really change Alabama’s offense. Latrell Wrightsell (16 points and 5 rebounds), and Aaron Estrada (20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists) were statsheet stuffing guards who are both excellent three-point shooters, but they come from leagues that haven’t had great records when it comes to up-transfers. Mohamed Wague was a late addition to the roster after he left West Virginia following Bob Huggins’ retirement, and while he hasn’t done much at the college level he brings size and physicality that we’re used to from Nate Oats bigs at 6’10” and 225 pounds.
Arkansas
Incoming Players: El Ellis (Louisville), Tramon Mark (Houston), Keyon Menifield (Washington), Khalif Battle (Temple), Jeremiah Davenport (Cincinnati), Chandler Lawson (Memphis)
What makes Arkansas’ class elite is the fact that they didn’t just get talented, productive players–they got players that exclusively came from quality leagues. In a world of high-major programs going after explosive scorers from mid-major conferences, Arkansas took slightly less productive players from good leagues which should result in much more transferable skills. While the ACC was down and Louisville had a disaster of a year, El Ellis was an 18 and 4 player in the ACC. Tramon Mark, Keyon Menifield, and Jeremiah Davenport weren’t top scorers on their teams but were all solid starters who brought elite defense on the perimeter. Khalif Battle is someone with major scoring punch averaging 18 points per game, and he has some pedigree as an elite shooter after the year prior he hit an astonishing 49% of his threes on over six attempts per game.
Ole Miss
Incoming Players: Allen Flanigan (Auburn), Jaylen Murray (Saint Peter’s), Moussa Cisse (Oklahoma State), Austin Nunez (Arizona State), Jamarion Sharp (Western Kentucky), Brandon Murrary (Georgetown)
Chris Beard and Ole Miss were another team that chose to go after as much proven high conference talent as possible with four high-major transfers and a Conference USA transfer leading the way. It’s clear that getting some frontcourt talent was a focus as Beard brought in Moussa Cisse, a 6’10”, 220 pound offensive rebounding monster from Oklahoma State and Jamarion Sharp, a 7’5” (not a typo) center from Western Kentucky. Cisse will bring muscle and brute strength, while Sharp will come in and present a mismatch issue for just about every team in the league. Ole Miss’ class might lack the kind of high end scoring punch they’d like to see but they have proven high-major talent which often goes underrated in the portal. Brandon Murray did score 14 points per game in an excellent Big East and if he replicates or exceeds that number in the SEC which is certainly possible then Beard would be ecstatic.
LSU
Incoming Players: Jordan Wright (Vanderbilt), Jalen Cook (Tulane), Will Baker (Nevada), Carlos Stewart (Santa Clara), Daimion Collins (Kentucky), Hunter Dean (George Washington)
Following a last place finish in the SEC Matt McMahon knew he needed to make significant changes and he did a solid job of bringing in a six-man class with a diverse set of talents. Jalen Cook is the most electrifying of the group coming to Baton Rouge following a season at Tulane where he scored 20 points per game while chipping in 5 assists bringing in some much needed punch to the LSU offense.Rounding out the point guard rotation is Carlos Stewart, a 15 point per game, 40% three-point shooter from Santa Clara will bring some shooting and scoring off the bench. The Tigers will also appreciate the efficient offense of 6’11” Will Baker from Nevada who isn’t a high usage big but can knock down the occasional three while also cleaning up offensive rebounds and dump off passes around the rim. Coming from other teams in the league are Jordan Wright who was a solid multi-year starter for the Commodores and Daimion Collins who didn’t get his footing at Kentucky but has a high level of athleticism that LSU will hope to unleash fully. Look for the Tigers to improve on their last place SEC finish from a year ago.
Georgia
Incoming Players: RJ Melendez (Illinois), Noah Thomasson (Niagara), Jalen Deloach (VCU), Russel Tchewa (South Florida), RJ Sunahara (Nova Southeastern)
In his second year at Georgia Mike White is looking to put his stamp on the program and that’s with defense going after some players he thinks can play his style of aggressive basketball on that end of the floor. RJ Melendez struggled offensively at Illinois but brings length and athleticism to the defensive end at 6’7”. Jalen Deloach, a 6’9” forward from VCU, is a very versatile defensive player who is loved by a lot of analytic models due to his ability to come away with steals and blocks. Last season he averaged 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals, and doing that in the A10 suggests that it could transfer well to the SEC and if so he’ll be one of White’s most trusted players. Russel Tchewa, a South Florida transfer, is reminiscent of another South Florida transfer the Gators had a few years ago in John Egbunu. Tchewa is 7’0” and 260 pounds and he averaged 11 points and 9 rebounds for the Bulls making him a similar size with a similar level of production that Egbunu had before coming to the Gators. Tchewa doesn’t move as well as Egbunu and isn’t as athletic, though he brings a massive frame that can dominate physically in the paint on both ends. Noah Thomasson scored 20 points per game at Niagara while shooting 39% from three, and while he’s a shifty guard with a knack for scoring he doesn’t have a great first step and we have seen first hand in Florida White’s issues to have some of these styles of players translate to the SEC. Finally, Georgia brought in one of the most interesting transfers of the cycle in RJ Sunahara. Sunahara comes from Nova Southeastern who just finished a dominant Division 2 season that saw them go 36-0 on their way to a National Championship where they were hardly tested along the way. Sunahara was a key player averaging over 17 points per game and at 6’8” he’s got solid length to go alongside an excellent feel for the game. It’s not often high-major programs dip into the D2 ranks for a player but it has been done before and Sunahara likely won’t look out of place.
Vanderbilt
Incoming Players: Ven-Allen Lubin (Notre Dame), Evan Taylor (Lehigh), Jordan Williams (Texas A&M), Tasos Kamateros (South Dakota)
Historically Vanderbilt has been a difficult transfer destination due to their academic requirements but Jerry Stackhouse has done a tremendous job bringing in talent recently. Ven-Allen Lubin is a player that the Gators had a lot of interest in during his transfer recruitment as the freshman played high school at Orlando Christian and was a high four-star in the class of 2022. He only averaged 6 points per game for Notre Dame, but as an excellent recruit who got some high-major experience as a freshman he should contribute right for the Commodores. Jordan Wright was also a high-four star player who didn’t get much run at his first stop (Texas A&M) but Stackhouse will hope to get him into form at Vanderbilt. Evan Taylor and Taso Kamateros will be relied upon to bring some offense as Taylor is a score-first 6’6” wing with good size and Kamateros is a catch and shoot player who knocked down 40% of his threes last year and will be used in a lot of Stackhouse’s off-ball screening actions.
That was part one, look for part two here at Gator Country in the upcoming week.