The transfer portal has taken over college sports and given coaches at big-time programs a whole new way to build a championship-contending team. Kansas basketball is no exception.
Instead of waiting for a five-star freshman to develop into a winning player late in the season or hoping a young player makes the jump in his second season on campus, coaches can go out and get another team’s best guy.
Last season, the UConn Huskies road Tristen Newton, a transfer point guard from ECU to a national title against a San Diego State that was built almost entirely on transfers like Matt Bradley and Darrion Trammell.
This season, there was some big-time movement in the transfer portal, and these five transfers will define the 2023-24 college basketball season.
How Kansas basketball and four other teams have used the transfer portal to their advantage.
No. 5: Caleb Love – North Carolina to Arizona
Love nearly ended up at Michigan after a very disappointing season at North Carolina. The Tar Heels came into the year as the No. 1 team after a run to the national championship game in 2022. Even with essentially the entire roster back in Chapel Hill, it was a tumultuous year that ended with the Tar Heels missing the NCAA tournament.
It wasn’t that bad of a season for Love who led the Tar Heels in scoring. He averaged 16.7 points but on 37.8% shooting. He’s a gunslinger of a shooting guard, who can get hot enough to carry his team to the Final Four, but if he’s cold he can shoot them out of any game.
It originally looked like Love was heading to Michigan, but that fell through and he ended up out in the desert. Arizona is No. 12 in the preseason AP Poll after getting upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament as a No. 2 seed last season.
The Wildcats need to replace the scoring of Azuolis Tubelis who averaged 19.8 points and replenish a backcourt that saw Courtney Ramey and Kerr Kriisa finish their collegiate careers. They might have accomplished both of those goals with one player in Caleb Love. It’ll be up to Tommy Lloyd to rein in his talented two-guard and get more consistently efficient play out of him than UNC did.
Love will play next to Pelle Larson and fellow transfer guard Jaden Bradley who came over from Alabama.