Texas Tech, Gonzaga headline early winners and losers from college basketball's five-for-five transfer portal

One transfer portal window was clearly not enough. After a cavalry of victories in court, numerous seniors have pathways back to college basketball for a fifth year of eligibility, opening the door for more free agency and player movement at the tail end of the summer.

Unprecedented times in college basketball.

The influx of five-for-five transfers provides both a "get out of jail free" card for numerous needy rosters, and a tough reality for rival coaches, like UConn's Dan Hurley, who constructed a roster this spring under the impression that the seniors would not get another year of eligibility. 

"Part of it that's frustrating to me is maybe the art of what we do has been cheapened a little bit," Hurley told reporters last week. "You could put together better teams, teams that could compete, and not have to identify young talent, develop that talent, have a vision of putting together a team over time if you develop. We did the best we could do with high school recruiting, and now you've got this selection of portal players. You put together the best team you can. You start practicing for the summer, and now, let's unleash 80 players into the sport in the first week of August. We can't go on like this. No other sport is going on like this."

The ripple effect from these transactions will be felt next March.

Let's dive into some early winners and losers from this new form of free agency, the August version. 

Winner: Texas Tech

You can always go back home.

After a one-year dalliance at NC State, Darrion Williams will be back in Lubbock next season for his fifth year of eligibility. The former All-Big 12 forward played his best basketball for Texas Tech from 2023-25, and now, he gets a chance to run it back for a Red Raiders roster that desperately needed some firepower. 

Suddenly, Grant McCasland's vision is getting a whole lot clearer. Williams and fellow five-for-five, UCF transfer forward Jamichael Stillwell totally change the complexion of Texas Tech's 2026-27 outlook. When All-American big man JT Toppin returns from his knee injury, Texas Tech will have the bones of a top-5 offense in America:

• Hofstra transfer point guard Cruz Davis was one of the best pick-and-roll maestros in the country.
• UNLV transfer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn was the second-best scorer in the Mountain West last season with immaculate shooting splits: 40% from 3, 60% at the rim, 48% on midrange jumpers. 
• Top-30 freshman DaKari Spear is a 6-5 freshman shotmaker who will have some moments this year and could be a flat-out dude in 2027-28.
• Williams might not be an NBA player, but he's an All-Big 12 difference-maker. He shot over 40% from downtown last season on high volume, to go along with his bootyball mastery.
• Texas Tech has shooting all over this roster, and when it misses, Stillwell (or Toppin) will be there to clean it up on Aisle 4. The UCF transfer is a voracious offensive rebounder. That's been his calling card for years. He was the best rebounder in the Horizon for Milwaukee in 2024-25. He was one of the best rebounders in the Big 12 last year. Stillwell had multiple offensive rebounds in 24 of 31 games for UCF. McCasland has his next winning role player.
• Oh, and then there's Toppin. The expectation is that he will be on a minutes restriction by January and work his way into a bigger role down the stretch of the season. If he can get up to speed, Texas Tech's pick-and-roll combination with Davis and Toppin will carve defenses and create a galore of advantages.
  

Texas Tech may not be done yet either, and it shouldn't be. Donovan Atwell, who shot 46% from downtown on 8.4 attempts for the Red Raiders last season, is also pursuing a fifth year of eligibility. Texas Tech doesn't need another sniper, but you're not going to turn away a guy who'd be the best flamethrower on the roster. 

This roster isn't foolproof. The lack of rim protection is clear. I'm curious about just how good this defense could be, even though McCasland usually gets excellent buy-in on that end of the floor. Texas Tech will be a better defense than its personnel would hint at, but this doesn't strike the notes of a turn-your-water-off unit. The combination of small guards, undersized forwards and little real-deal rim protection is scary in the supersized era of college basketball. Can Texas Tech land another big man? If so, this is a team that can go toe-to-toe with anybody in the country.

Send a Christmas card to the five-for-five ruling (and your local judges).

Winner: Gonzaga

If anyone deserved a roster-building mulligan, it was Gonzaga, who lost two starting guards — Mario Saint-Supery and Jack Kayil — in gut-wrenching fashion this summer. Mark Few used the five-for-five market to address Gonzaga's dire shooting concerns. Dayton transfer point guard Javon Bennett shot 35% from downtown on 7.0 attempts last season for the Flyers. 6-10 Florida State transfer Chauncey Wiggins drained 39% of his 5.8 attempted 3s for the Seminoles last winter.

But there are more goodies here than initially meet the eye. The addition of Wiggins means that Gonzaga will be absolutely enormous. Few can trot out a lineup of Davis Fogle (6-7), Wiggins (6-10), Braden Huff (6-11) and Massamba Diop (7-0) rather effortlessly. That will be one of Gonzaga's most-used lineups because you're not sacrificing anything. You get rim protection from Diop. You can automatic paint buckets from Huff. Wiggins can space it and shred it. Fogle provides the slashing. That's ideal positional size with very few overlapping skillsets.

When you play that big, Gonzaga will have a chance to be a very good rebounding team, which pairs perfectly with Bennett, whose sneaky superpower is that he doesn't turn the basketball over. Bennett rated in the 86th percentile nationally with a minuscule 9.6% turnover rate, per CBB Analytics. More shots equals more second-chance opportunities.

If this is Gonzaga's new starting lineup, it's an advanced metrics darling.

• PG Javon Bennett, 84th percentile in win shares.
• Wing Davis Fogle: 99th percentile in win shares.
• Wing Chauncey Wiggins: 70th percentile in win shares.
• F Braden Huff: 99th percentile in win shares.
• C Massamba Diop: 66th percentile in win shares.

Gonzaga is well on its way to being a top-15 club again, even after some brutal luck with the Saint-Supery development this offseason. 

Gonzaga PG Mario Saint-Supery signs massive deal with EuroLeague's Valencia, leaves Bulldogs in limbo

Isaac Trotter

Loser: North Carolina

On the bright side, you cannot describe North Carolina's frontcourt as slim anymore. Michael Malone scooped up South Dakota transfer Cameron Fens, a husky 7-foot, 255-pound big man, to finalize UNC's frontcourt picture. Fens looks like a polar bear compared to Sayon Keita, the 18-year-old slenderman, who will combine to make up the 5-man platoon for the Tar Heels. 

Fens is big, broad and physical. He was one of the best rebounders in the Summit League last year, and that should be his path to playing time for UNC. The Tar Heels do not profile as an elite rebounding team at the moment, but Fens should help plug that hole. 

But the defensive questions are clear as day. Fens struggled mightily to guard in space last season for a South Dakota defense that could not force tough shots. Opponents shot 58% at the rim against South Dakota when Fens was on the floor. He is going to be put into the action time and time again in the ACC.

You can see why Malone made this move. Fens gives UNC a security blanket on the nights that Keita can't handle the physicality. Malone now has a bit of a changeup in his arsenal with Fens, who can match up against burly centers far more easily than Keita, who is only 215 pounds. All of that is fine. But the opportunity cost could come back to haunt UNC down the road. Florida's Micah Handlogten and Villanova's Duke Brennan were two other five-for-five centers who were available. While they were more expensive and could've been a tad harder to land, they also would've raised UNC's floor (and ceiling) in a substantial way. Fens feels more like a stopgap, not a massive solution.

Malone is going to have his work cut out for him to build this roster into a legitimate nasty defense. While UNC does have positional size, it doesn't have a killer on-ball defender. It doesn't have an elite defensive wing. There are questions at the 5-spot, specifically with Keita's physicality and Fens' mobility. 

If Malone can cobble this group into a top-20 defense, he'll be worth the $7.5 million UNC is forking over in 2026-27.

Winner: Tennessee

It's been a bit of an odd predicament with Tennessee this spring. The Vols are going for it in what could be Rick Barnes' last dance, but for the first time in years, I was the low man on Tennessee nationally. I ranked the Vols' seventh in the way-too-early SEC tiers (do I have to re-do them now that we have so many fifth-year additions?). Seventh in this SEC still is the equivalent of a top-25 team and a No. 4 or No. 5 seed (the league is going to be that good), but the concerns about the frontcourt were jarring.

Here's the passage that got some heat in my mentions: "Tennessee is a clear offseason winner and will get a ton of hype, but I don't think this frontcourt is good enough to be a true National Championship contender."

Clearly, Barnes wasn't too satisfied with that big man group, either, so he did something about it. Landing Vanderbilt transfer big man Jalen Washington isn't some needle-moving development, but it's exactly what this roster needed. Washington averaged 8.9 points and 5.6 rebounds for an awesome Vanderbilt club last year. Crossing enemy lines is certainly a choice, but he will help Tennessee.

A frontcourt trio of Washington, DeWayne Brown II and Loyola-Chicago transfer Miles Rubin isn't the most-talented big man group in the country, but you can win with it. Tennessee can go big with two of the three on the floor rather effortlessly. Washington gives Tennessee the option to play some five-out lineups, opening the paint to invert the floor for Jalen Haralson's effective backdown game.

I feel way, way better about Tennessee now than I did two months ago. They needed another body in that frontcourt. Now they have it. If you wanted to rank Tennessee as a top-15 outfit, there would be no argument from me anymore.

Winner: Mark Mitchell

The players are an obvious winner from this predicament, but All-SEC forward Mark Mitchell is a clear differentiator. Mitchell, somewhat surprisingly, was left out in the cold during the 2026 NBA Draft process after stuffing the stat sheet to the tune of 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists for Missouri last season. The five-for-five ruling opens up a chance for Mitchell to cash in on another year of college basketball. 

There's not quite as much money at this stage of the process, but not for a player of Mitchell's ilk. He is anticipated to command over $5 million to play college basketball. There are some hoops to jump through from a legal standpoint, but Mitchell is expected back in the college ranks in 2026-27.

Keep an eye on Kentucky or a return to Missouri.

🏀 Notable five-for-five transfers so far