Chaos assessment: Spring transfer portal winners (Utah, BYU, Washington) and losers (Arizona, Cal, Oregon State) ...Middle East

Approximately 2,500 players have entered the transfer portal this spring, a record number that stretches the imagination.

And that’s just for men’s basketball.

The football portal has been open in April, as well, with roughly 700 players taking advantage — this, on top of the more than 3,000 players who entered during the December transfer window.

How many will emerge with a satisfactory landing spot?

The portal closed Tuesday for basketball and slams shut on Friday for football, but that’s merely for entering. Once inside, players have the remainder of the spring to select a school — or until all the roster spots are taken.

The Hotline has tracked the comings and goings closely with help from frequent doses of Dramamine. Although final judgment should probably wait until May, we can offer a preliminary assessment of the winners and losers across the West.

Remember, players in the portal who have not committed elsewhere often have the option to return to their original school.

Winner: Utah basketball. With so much focus on the portal developments 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, let’s not ignore the progress made by Utes coach Alex Jensen, who was hired a month ago and has made the most of his time. Jensen began rebuilding the roster with Fairleigh Dickinson guard Terrence Brown, Syracuse guard Elijah Moore and  Auburn forward Jahki Howard. Those aren’t big names, but consider: Brown scored 27 points against Villanova, Moore had 24 against Tennessee and Howard was a four-star prospect in high school who received scholarship offers from Kansas and Connecticut. That context changes the optics just a tad, no? Jensen has more roster restructuring ahead, but his first month has been impressive.

Loser: Utah football. Meanwhile, the Utes were hit hard and late by football defections, particularly at receiver:  Zacharyus Williams and David Washington entered the portal this week. The double whammy further depletes Utah’s wideout options next season as the program shifts playbooks and philosophies under new offensive coordinator Jason Beck. Any perceived weakness in the receivers will embolden opponents to devote eight or nine defenders to stopping quarterback Devon Dampier.

Winner: Washington basketball. Admittedly, a stellar portal season for UW was not on our Big Ten basketball bingo card. But coach Danny Sprinkle, with immense help from donor-backed NIL efforts, has remade the roster and positioned the Huskies for a run at the NCAA Tournament next season. Combine Indiana’s Bryson Tucker with USC’s Wesley Yates III, Lipscomb’s Jacob Ognacevic, East Tennessee State’s Quimari Peterson and Rutgers’ Lathan Sommerville and the result is the No. 10 transfer class in the country (according to 247Sports). Which means one thing: Sprinkle needs to win.

Loser: Arizona basketball. Few teams — not just in the Big 12 but anywhere — were hit as hard as the Wildcats this month. The damage isn’t measured by the quantity of departures but, rather, the quality. Arizona lost do-everything guard KJ Lewis to Georgetown and big man Henri Veesaar to North Carolina. That’s 22 points and 10 rebounds per game in conference play — poof! Add the loss of Caleb Love (to eligibility) and the Wildcats are in reloading mode. If Carter Bryant stays in the NBA Draft, coach Tommy Lloyd faces perhaps the most significant offseason remodel of his Tucson tenure.

Winner: UCLA football. The biggest story of the spring transfer window — in either major sport — unfolded in Knoxville and Westwood, with quarterback Nico Iamaleava leaving Tennessee for UCLA after the Volunteers rejected his play for more NIL cash. The former five-star recruit must refine his skills and decision-making, but he raises the ceiling for an offense that sputtered last season and a program that’s struggling for traction in its new conference.

Loser: USC basketball. Coach Eric Musselman landed one of the top available players this week when Maryland guard Rodney Rice committed to the Trojans. Hours later, Musselman lost his top scorer, guard Desmond Claude, to the portal. Were Claude the only defection, USC’s portal season would be firmly in the neutral category. But Musselman lost a chunk of his expected rotation, including Wesley Yates III (to Washington), Saint Thomas and Rashaun Agee. The Trojans now need Rice to attract other high-level players. Otherwise, Year 2 in the Big Ten won’t be any better than Year 1.

Winner: Brigham Young basketball. At this point, the Cougars have just one incoming transfer, but he’s a whopper: Baylor point guard Rob Wright, a five-star talent who averaged 11.5 points and 4.2 assists as a freshman last season and should slide into the void left by Egor Demin’s departure. In other words, coach Kevin Young needed a maestro to take charge of his offense and found one of the best — reportedly for $3 million in NIL payments. BYU was made for this shopping-spree era with its wealthy donors. And it appears the university, despite what it would like the public to believe, is plenty willing to do whatever it takes to construct an elite roster.

Loser: Stanford football. The Cardinal has lost players to Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Arkansas this spring while acquiring one player, cornerback Breylan Thompson, from Yale. Talk about a trade deficit.

Winner: Washington State football. That’s right, we’re counting the Cougars as a winner — a conclusion the Hotline could deeply regret by October. But our contrarian approach is rooted in the following context: Of the 20-something players who have entered the transfer portal under first-year coach Jimmy Rogers, exactly zero subsequently signed with FBS teams. Many are uncommitted, while some have moved to a lower level of competition. Put another way: The Cougars could become a first-rate example of addition by subtraction if Rogers manages to produce a winning season.

Loser: Gonzaga basketball. The exodus began with Dusty Stromer, included Michael Ajayi and concluded with Ben Gregg — three rotation players who averaged at least 17 minutes per game. Coach Mark Few has proven to be a Portal Master of the highest order and must work his magic once again to backfill the roster with enough talent to offset the attrition. (And yes, we’re aware Gonzaga doesn’t have football.)

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Winner: Arizona State football. Some wins are the result of not losing. Such is the case with the Sun Devils, who won the Big 12, made the CFP, weathered the winter portal period and then, somehow, managed to retain all their key players this spring. Which stands in stark contrast to …

Loser: Cal football. Despite GM Ron Rivera’s insistence that the Bears “have a plan,” there’s little evidence to date of adequate replacements for tailbacks Jadyn Ott and Jaivian Thomas and tight end Jack Endries, who entered the portal last week in wham-bam-boom fashion. Cal’s NIL resources aren’t deep enough to compete with the elites, but they are more significant than you might expect. And there are talented players available at the desired positions. Which means it’s all about executing Rivera’s “plan” in coming weeks. We’ll reassess the status of every team mentioned here, if necessary, next month.

Loser: Oregon State basketball. One of the easiest calls listed here. The Beavers lost their top three scorers, Michael Rata, Parsa Fallah and Nate Kingz (combined points per game: 42) to Baylor, Oklahoma State and Syracuse, respectively. What did you expect? OSU’s NIL budget is barely enough to cover two reserves and a $5 Meal Deal at McDonald’s.

Winner: Oregon football. The Ducks have lost a grand total of one player to the portal this spring: cornerback Rodrick Pleasant, who played sparingly in 2024. If any program west of Columbus has fared better than Oregon with the portal over the past two years — not only with talent acquired but also talent retained — we haven’t found it.

Loser: Colorado football. Offensive lineman Zach Owens entered the portal on Wednesday, becoming the second impact offensive lineman to depart this spring. (A week earlier, center Cash Cleveland exited.) It’s not all about the attrition. Coach Deion Sanders has added several talented players, including Auburn safety Terrance Love. But the net loss along the line of scrimmage is, at least for the moment, guiding our assessment of yet another fascinating spring in Boulder.

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