With the transfer portal playing such a huge role in how college basketball rosters are built these days it is more difficult than ever to know the different rosters in your league. For that reason we will be breaking down the transfer portal classes of every single team in the SEC with a multiple part series. Here is part one:
Kentucky
Denzel Aberdeen (Florida)
Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama)
Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State)
Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh)
Kam Williams (Tulane)
Reece Potter (Miami OH)
Many people will say that Kentucky has one of if not the best transfer portal classes in the country and it boasts a lot of proven high-major talent alongside some upside swings to round it out. Of course, we have to start with Denzel Aberdeen, a player who Kentucky targeted to bring championship pedigree as well as some defensive toughness to shore up what was a very offensive group a year ago. Also tasked with helping the defense is Mouhamed Dioubate, an athletic forward who has struggled to score in his college career but brings a lot on the other end. Perhaps the biggest pickup, and also the biggest question mark, is Jayden Quaintance. Some of you will remember that name from when Florida recruited the big man who was one of the top bigs in the 2024 class, and someone who was made even more valuable by the fact that he was too young to go one-and-done to the NBA so he was destined to play two years in college. His freshman campaign with Arizona State was going really well until he suffered a torn ACL, something that puts his starting point with Kentucky into question. Assuming he gets back to full strength, he will be one of the top centers in the country.
Another big pickup was Jaland Lowe who will be leaned on in the scoring department after putting up 16.8 points and 5.5 assists per game for Pittsburgh. Lowe struggles to shoot the three but can get to the paint whenever he wants, and that proven production at the high-major level was what drew the eye of Mark Pope.
One of the highest upside pickups was Kam Williams, a 6’8” forward from Tulane who filled up every statistical category averaging 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.1 block per game–and this was as a freshman.
Size is always hard to get, so Kentucky went to the MAC to find 7’1” Reece Potter at Miami OH who wasn’t all that productive–but Pope wanted size in the system.
Auburn
Kevin Overton (Texas Tech)
KeShawn Murphy (Mississippi State)
Keyshawn Hall (UCF)
Elyjah Freeman (Lincoln Memorial)
In the midst of the greatest stretch in Auburn basketball history the Tigers lost a lot of talent last year, and it might have been tough for them to bring in the same level of talent through the portal. You might remember Kevin Overton from his game against the Gators in the NCAA Tournament, a reserve wing with good size who averaged 7.8 points per game.
KeShawn Murphy spent the last three years with Mississippi State, and after his first two seasons saw him as more of a project with potential at 6’10”, things did come together last year with him averaging 11.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, and that’s production you’d expect he repeats given that he’s staying in the same league.
Keyshawn Hall will be expected to bring a lot of offense after he did something last year that nearly every transfer is unable to do–increase his production while jumping up leagues. In 2023-24 with George Mason Hall averaged 16.6 points per game which earned him a transfer up to UCF in 2024-25 where he averaged 18.8 points per game. Now, doing this jump again to the SEC could be even more difficult–but we’ll see if he’s up to the challenge.
One of the most interesting transfers in the SEC is Elyjah Freeman, an extremely rare Division-II to SEC transfer. Freeman played for an excellent DII team in Lincoln Memorial where he averaged 19.3 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. A 6’8” forward, Freeman is versatile and hungry, and a good season from him could change the way a lot of high-major teams look at D-II basketball.
Oklahoma
Xzayvier Brown (Saint Joseph’s)
Derrion Reid (Alabama)
Nijel Pack (Miami)
Tae Davis (Notre Dame)
Porter Moser doesn’t necessarily have the recruiting resources of a lot of SEC teams so it’s always interesting to see who he is able to reload with, and this year saw him get a lot more proven high-major talent than ever which speaks to just how dominant the SEC is in terms of 2025 recruiting.
Xzayvier Brown is a 6’2” bucket getter from Saint Joseph’s and will have two years of eligibility remaining after an excellent start to his college career. As a team Saint Joseph’s has underachieved recently relative to their talent, but Brown has been able to prove his own acumen averaging 17.6 points per game last season. At just 165 points the physical challenge of the SEC could be notable, but he plays the game fearlessly.
Derrion Reid is yet another athletic wing who has started his career at Alabama, put in a couple of successful years in a complementary role, and then goes elsewhere looking for more touches. At 6’8” and 220 pounds with good explosiveness, he’ll bring the kind of athleticism the Sooner roster needs.
Nijel Pack is a name you will probably recognize for one of two reasons–one, because he’s been in college forever and will be in his sixth season, or two, because his name was attached to the first major NIL related recruiting story when he moved from Kansas State to Miami in 2022. Whatever the case may be, Pack is as reliable a player as there is in college basketball and he’ll now get a sixth year after playing just 9 games last season before suffering a season ending injury. In five years, all at the high-major level, he has averaged 12.7, 17.4, 13.6, 13.3, and 13.9 points–so it’s safe to say you can pencil him in for rock solid production at Oklahoma.
Tae Davis will also add to the length at Oklahoma as a 6’9” forward who showed some nice touch as a junior scoring 15.1 points per game at Notre Dame.
Overall, this is a solid group for Oklahoma who should help Porter Moser field a scrappy team.