Transfer Portal Dominance: Murray State & Charleston
Chris Mack at Charleston and Ryan Miller just weeks into starting his job at Murray State are taking full advantage of the college basketball transfer portal.
Team rosters are starting to come together as coaching changes are finalized and the transfer portal closes on Tuesday. If you followed along with Bracket Busters last offseason, we wrote quite a few offseason reviews, discussing team’s rosters, potential, and needs. We’re excited to kick that off again once teams fully become finalized, but let’s talk about two teams that are crushing it in the transfer portal.
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Murray State
On March 17th, Murray State named Creighton Assistant Coach Ryan Miller as the next head coach of the Racers. Miller spent the last four seasons under Greg McDermott, while having past stints at Memphis, Pepperdine, New Mexico, Auburn, UNLV, and TCU all as either assistant coach or an associate head coach. He’s worked with likes of John Calipari, McDermott, Tony Barbee, and Steve Alford. His experience is already paying off for the Racers.
When there’s a coaching change, teams usually go through a rebuilding period as the new head coaches work to establish recruiting pipelines, assemble coaching staffs, and implement their own processes. Fueled with the highest NIL war chest in the Missouri Valley Conference, Miller has come out swinging and he’s not done yet. Here’s a look at who he’s nabbed in the portal:
J.J. Traynor (DePaul) - 6’9, 210lbs
5.6 points, 3.3 rebounds
Ben Shtolzberg (UC Santa Barbara) - 6’4, 195lbs
3.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists
Javon Jackson (UIC) - 6’3, 190lbs
11.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals
Mason Miller (Creighton) - 6’9, 195lbs
1.1 points, 1.6 rebounds
Frederick King (Creighton) - 6’9, 250lbs
2.7 points, 1.3 rebounds
Brayden Shorter (Washburn - DII) - 6’5, 220lbs
15.5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist
Brock Vice (North Texas) - 6’10, 240lbs
1.2 points, 0.6 rebounds
K.J. Tenner (West Virginia) - 6’0, 166lbs
2.4 points, 1.1 assists
Layne Taylor (Central Arkansas) - 5’11, 180lbs
17.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.9 steals
We’ll save a full deep dive into this roster construction in their future offseason review (make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out!), however, on paper this roster has a ton of potential. The key word here is potential because this is Miller’s first year on the job and these players have to work well together. We’ve seen plenty of strong rosters in the past fall short as they didn’t gel.
My favorite pickup for the Racers is Layne Taylor. I’ve been high on Taylor since the first time I watched him in Central Arkansas’ double-overtime win over UNC Asheville last November. He put up 19 points, 7 assists, and 5 steals in that win. Taylor might be undersized, but that didn’t stop him from being one of the top freshman outside of the power conferences last year (we even put together an article on him here). He can score with ease, he can dish it out to teammates, and he’s a menace on defense. There’s a reason he was getting interest from other teams like Wake Forest, San Diego State, Charleston, Samford, UC San Diego, and others. He’s someone to watch that could be a first-team all MVC in year one in the Valley.
From an offensive perspective, Javon Jackson and Brayden Shorter are two additional huge pieces. The offense will most likely be ran around those two and Taylor. Jackson is a rare(ish) inter-conference transfer from UIC. He shot 38.2% overall and 30.6% from beyond the arc last season and he had some monster games. He dropped 25 points with 3 assists and 5 steals in the Flames upset over Bradley and 30 points against Murray State. He stumbled a bit in the last eight games of the year as he averaged just 6.8 points, but he has a ton of potential.
Brayden Shorter is an underrated pickup, but he was a hot commodity in the portal. Lipscomb, Liberty, Furman, Milwaukee, North and South Dakota State, among many others were all vying for the wing. Washburn made the DII Final Four last year with Shorter leading the way. On the season, he shot 41.6% overall and 36.7% from deep.
They’ve added some size as well with Brock Vice and Frederick King. Neither have had ample opportunities on their previous squads, but King is a horse down low. He’s going to be a problem for teams in the Valley, and Vice was highly regarded out of high school with offers from Belmont, App state, ETSU, VCU, Kennesaw State, Chattanooga, Evansville, Washington State and Creighton.
There’s a lot to like about this Murray State team. With the returning talent of Illinois State, you better pencil in the matchups between those two teams next year.
Charleston
Following the rumors circulating that Chris Mack might be returning to Xavier, Mack confirmed that he was running it back with Charleston. He didn’t have to build an entire roster like Miller has done at Murray State, however, he’s added some tremendous pieces in the portal:
Jlynn Counter (Middle Tennessee State) - 6’3, 195lbs
10.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1 steal
Connor Hickman (Cincinnati) - 6’3, 200lbs
4.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists
Christian Reeves (Clemson) - 7’2, 253lbs
1.2 points, 1.5 rebounds
Colby Duggan (Campbell) - 6’7, 220lbs
15.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists
Mack was left to figure out how to replace players like Ante Brzovic and he’s done a fantastic job. I’ve had the privilege of watching three of these four players a couple of times in person and they are incredible ballplayers.
Connor Hickman transferred to Cincinnati following three years at Bradley. In his last season for the Braves, he averaged 14.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. Moving back to the non-power conference ranks is going to bode well for his stats this season and he’ll immediately slide in as one of the best offensive players on the Cougars.
Jlynn Counter transferred into Middle Tennessee State last season after spending two years at IU Indy. He was a huge piece for the Blue Raider’s resurgence this past year as he shot 43.4% overall and 30.4% from deep. He’s a well-rounded player that can handle being the primary ballhandler and racking up boards.
Colby Duggan is a huge pickup for Chris Mack. After showing some flashes his freshman year at Campbell in limited playing time, he soared in year two. He shot 46.1% overall and 34% from deep. Duggan was receiving interest from other schools like Butler, Providence, Ohio State, Seton Hall, San Francisco, Loyola Chicago, and others. Duggan will fit in well to replace the void that Brzovic left.
Christian Reeves was a highly regarded prospect out of high school. He appeared in 16 games for Duke across two seasons, before transferring to Clemson last year. He averaged just 5.1 minutes across 29 games. Reeves could be an excellent case of transferring down to the non-power conference ranks to find an opportunity and dominate. The center is 7’2 with a huge wingspan. I’m excited to see him get an opportunity with more minutes as he could become a huge force for the Cougars.