Texas A&M (25-9, 15-3 SEC) currently has their sights set on its NCAA Tournament first-round matchup with Penn State, but the Maroon and White may already be thinking about their roster for 2023 and beyond.
The college basketball transfer portal opened just 24 hours removed from Selection Sunday, allowing programs to prepare in constructing their roster for next season and beyond. The portal, which housed more than 1,700 players alone in the 2022 cycle, is just one of many factors at play that can make or break a hopeful contender come next year.
The new rule to keep in mind this year is the newly-instituted NCAA transfer windows. While many graduate transfers have already jumped into the portal, Monday kicked off the 60-day window for the rest of the prospective transfers to join in. The one-time transfer rule still stands: if a player has not transferred yet, they are immediately eligible.
The timing is interesting given that the window opens smack dab in the middle of the tournament season. So while one team may be preparing for their first-round opponent, in the back of their minds they are already thinking about constructing their roster for 2023 and beyond.
Count the Aggies as one of those said teams, who will prepare to fill the void of two starters come next season.
Dexter Dennis and Tyrece “Boots” Radford helped A&M punch their ticket back to the big dance with a tremendous surge to close out the season. The Maroon and White finished 15-3 in the SEC with a trip back to the conference title game. But given that both of them are coming off their final year of eligibility, it means Buzz Williams and the Aggies coaching staff should leverage every resort to find sufficient replacements, including the transfer portal.
Radford (13.2 ppg) and Dennis (9.2 ppg) finished as the second and fourth-leading scorers for the Aggies this season while proving to be impactful in crashing the boards as well. The two combined to average 11.1 rebounds per game and both played a heavy role in the overall rotation. Radford averaged 30.9 minutes per game, with Dennis not far behind at 28.4 minutes per game.
Their absences will be considerably felt next year, which means Williams and his staff will have work to do in the offseason.
One guard to keep an eye out for in the portal is Nicolas Timberlake out of Towson, whose knack for finding the basket from deep would give an Aggies team an immediate boost. A&M shot just 33% from beyond the arc this season and their struggles from deep handicapped them as they sought to bounce back against Alabama in the SEC title game.
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