Portal Season 2026

[Scrub]

WLU's Hayden Abdullah is in the portal

(as well as a couple of deep bench pieces)

[Scrub]

Charleston's Matthew Shelton just added as well.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Charleston's Matthew Shelton just added as well.

We should start a new thread and just post anybody staying lol

[Scrub]

Just for kicks, I pulled up the full MEC All-Conference list. Between First-team, Second-team, and Honorable Mention, there are 20 young men on the list.

7 of those players have exhausted their eligibility (pending appeals). They were senior or graduate level players. So they obviously won't be returning.

That leaves 13 All-Conference performers who could return.

Of the 13 who could conceivably return, NINE of them are already in the portal (the 9th having just entered this morning--Matt Gray from D&E).

That leaves exactly FOUR All-Conference performers returning to their 2025-2026 teams (as of today--obviously the portal grows by the day).

The 4 who are slated to return as of this moment are:
Jamie Muldowney WLU
Myles Montgomery WLU
Cameron Williams WLU
Braden Chapman Charleston

The portal watch is on to see if any of those 4 get picked off as well. It clearly doesn't pay for a coach to "coach up" All-Conference performers. His reward for doing so is signing their exit papers.

[Columbuseer]

Just for kicks, I pulled up the full MEC All-Conference list. Between First-team, Second-team, and Honorable Mention, there are 20 young men on the list.

7 of those players have exhausted their eligibility (pending appeals). They were senior or graduate level players. So they obviously won't be returning.

That leaves 13 All-Conference performers who could return.

Of the 13 who could conceivably return, NINE of them are already in the portal (the 9th having just entered this morning--Matt Gray from D&E).

That leaves exactly FOUR All-Conference performers returning to their 2025-2026 teams (as of today--obviously the portal grows by the day).

The 4 who are slated to return as of this moment are:
Jamie Muldowney WLU
Myles Montgomery WLU
Cameron Williams WLU
Braden Chapman Charleston

The portal watch is on to see if any of those 4 get picked off as well. It clearly doesn't pay for a coach to "coach up" All-Conference performers. His reward for doing so is signing their exit papers.

Thanks for doing the research. Very informative data.
Great insights, as usual.

[Scrub]

Another (expected) Hilltopper has entered the portal. Xavier Harris. Never quite cracked the rotation. Easy to see that he would jump.

[boatcapt]

Yep. And, the poachers don't even wait for the season to end.

IUP had players getting calls mid-season.

The poaching will stop when the NCAA steps in and starts hammering programs. This sort of started a number of years ago when a number of high profile WLU recruits who had signed LOIs with the Toppers ended up going elsewhere after being "recruited" by other colleges. It has now progressed into "representatives" contacting players in season and recruiting them. And I would imagine that given the NCAAs unwillingness to even threaten action, would it surprise you if a departing coach going to another program didn't call the best players into his office on his last day and tell them that if they enter the portal after he leaves, he will offer them day 1.

Great college basketball world we live in now with players little more than one year mercenaries always open to a "better offer."

[boatcapt]

Another (expected) Hilltopper has entered the portal. Xavier Harris. Never quite cracked the rotation. Easy to see that he would jump.

So that makes four.

Kent's departure along with Spadafora graduation washes the final vestige of Howlett out of the WLU program.

[TheBigCat2192]

The portal watch is on to see if any of those 4 get picked off as well. It clearly doesn't pay for a coach to "coach up" All-Conference performers. His reward for doing so is signing their exit papers.

If we want to get technical, there are no exit papers anymore. Transferring moved from the old "request to transfer" to a "notification of transfer" system in order to be more student-athlete oriented, and you no longer need the signature of the HC or (more rarely) AD. All a student-athlete has to do is submit the appropriate paperwork to the compliance office.

[DownLow55]

[QUOTE=boatcapt;n935964]

So that makes four.

Kent's departure along with Spadafora graduation washes the final vestige of Howlett out of the WLU program.[/QUOTE]

Well kinda...if you are discounting him signing Montgomery, Williams, and Davis

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
current wlu portal count - 6
Abdullah
Hurray
Harris
Burton
Hill
Kent

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Big-name departures at Cal.

Antoine Arnett
Jordyn Buchanan
Dalman Alexander

[Bballfan]

Great college basketball world we live in now with players little more than one year mercenaries always open to a "better offer."

I like to look at it like unlimited free agency. Absolutely ruining college sports. All just a money grab.

[bballfan03]

Big-name departures at Cal.

Antoine Arnett
Jordyn Buchanan
Dalman Alexander

Haha but no Bryson Lucas yet

[bballfan03]

I like to look at it like unlimited free agency. Absolutely ruining college sports. All just a money grab.

Most definitely is free agency