Fresh transfer portal rankings

Good morning! Prepare yourself for news nuggets this week on NCAA Tournament expansion. The NCAA men’s hoops committee is meeting in Park city, Utah, to discuss.

Let’s get to Monday’s news.

1. Data for another set of transfer portal rankings

Yesterday was about preseason computer rankings.

Today? A comprehensive look at all the 2024 transfer portal moves from EvanMiya.com.

Who says summer is slow?

The data for Evan’s tweet comes from here, which has more columns than he can show on the tweet — which is to say, if you want to know how St. John’s ended up No. 1, you should dive in.

The short answer is the Johnnies brought in two 5-star transfers (per Evan’s rankings) — No. 1 overall transfer Kadary Richmond and No. 19 overall Deivon Smith — brought in two 4-stars, and only lost three players in total, the best of whom was 4-star transfer Glenn Taylor.

That’s how the Johnnies ended up ahead of Louisville (12 incoming transfers, including 3 5-stars vs. 13 players who left, including five 4-stars), K-State, Vandy, Michigan and Kentucky, which has the most incoming 5-star players (4), but also had two 5-stars leave.

But … while Evan’s system accounts for player performance and overall haul, it doesn’t account for fit. That data’s trickier.

That’s why you’ll probably have some people flinch at St. John’s No. 1 overall. Richmond and Smith are fantastic players, but they’re both lead guards. How they mesh will be fascinating, and create some uncertainty about St. John’s ultimate upside. (Rick Pitino also brought in North Texas wing Aaron Scott and USC big man Vince Iwuchukwu, both of whom will vie for starting roles.)

Compare that to a team like UCLA (21st overall), which rates lower despite also brining in two 5-stars (Kobe Johnson and Eric Dailey). Both rate lower overall, and their other notable transfer (Skyy Clark) is a bench player.

Even contenders such as Duke (three incoming 5-stars) or Kansas (one incoming 5-star) don’t rate as highly, though I would argue the fit of their incoming pieces will be better than what awaits St. John’s (and would say that AJ Storr will play like a 5-star).

Also … don’t let Dan Hurley see where Evan has UConn’s transfer class. The last thing anyone needs is more ammo for the Huskies.

2. Cooper Flagg not alone in his monster week

That Cooper Flagg hype I wrote about last week? It’s already begun.

But it might be warranted.

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