The transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away.
Texas is a great example.
On Sunday, the Longhorns added three heralded transfers from the portal — namely Tramon Mark (Arkansas), Jayson Kent (Indiana State) and Julian Larry (Indiana State). Then, on Monday, Texas lost both Tyrese Hunter and Dillon Mitchell to the portal. So that’s three players coming and two players going.
It’s a net negative, I think.
Which is why the Longhorns are down to No. 26 in Version 5.0 of the 2024-25 CBS Sports Preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings. Will UT coach Rodney Terry eventually replace Hunter and Mitchell with quality transfers? Yes, probably. When he does, I’ll adjust again. But, for now, Texas is a team projected to lose six of its top eight scorers — six players, by the way, who combined to average 63.3 points per contest, among them leading scorer Max Abmas — from a roster that earned a No. 7 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, and that’s a lot to replace in a league like the Big 12.
Houston remains No. 1 in the Top 25 And 1 based on a projection that has the Cougars returning eight of the top 10 scorers — everybody besides Jamal Shead and Damian Dunn — from a team that won the Big 12 by multiple games and secured a No. 1 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Kelvin Sampson’s program is bringing back four starters and adding Milos Uzan, a 6-foot-4 transfer from Oklahoma who started 56 games for the Sooners over the past two seasons.