Inside the best fits from the college basketball transfer portal: How Kentucky, St. John’s, BYU fixed flaws

There is one overarching question circling throughout college basketball circles: Are you transferring for basketball or money reasons? Multi-million-dollar offers in this money-rush 2025 portal cycle have made it even harder to find the correct convergence between the best basketball situation and the most lucrative deal. 

Do you pick once-in-a-lifetime money? Or the best fit for your game? Can you possibly have your cake and eat it, too?

It’s a complicated, nuanced discussion.

History is clear: fit can make-or-break a transfer’s case. JT Toppin-to-Texas Tech looked perfect on paper last summer and proved to be even better than most optimists expected. Toppin won Big 12 Player of the Year, Texas Tech advanced to the Elite Eight (it easily could have made the Final Four) and Toppin earned a rumored $4 million bag to run it back.

Meanwhile, Danny Wolf to Michigan was met with pessimism, but Dusty May‘s nifty plan helped Wolf and fellow 7-footer Vlad Goldin blossom into a terrifying tandem. Wolf is slated to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, largely because he decided to trust May’s unique strategy. Go digging and you can find examples of the right fit making transfers a whole lot of money, and the wrong fit proving costly for both the team and the player.

Portal combat is still raging, but dozens of the best transfers are off the board, and roster-building choices made in April can have an enormous impact on how transfers perform next season.

Talent is almost everything, but scheme, coaching and situation matter more than ever. So, who has made good basketball decisions? No fit is fail-proof, but some look far more snug than others. Here’s the pitch on why these teams have made smart decisions to target, land and build around these players, and why these studs made sharp calls to hop on board.

1. Why Jaland Lowe is a candidate for an efficiency boom

Transferring from: Pitt | To: Kentucky

Inside the fit: Otega Oweh transferred into Kentucky with numerous offensive questions and posted the best offensive efficiency rating of his life. Lamont Butler also transferred into Kentucky with numerous offensive questions and posted the best offensive efficiency rating of his life.

Trends are only utilized when they prove your point, but there’s real proof of concept established by Mark Pope in the portal.

And here saunters in the ultra-talented Lowe, who has some offensive questions after an iffy sophomore year at Pitt and could cement himself as one of the best point guards in the SEC if history repeats itself.

This current Kentucky roster looks a whole lot different than last year. There are way more create-for-yourself slashers and way fewer guys who rely on those catch-and-shoot 3s that Kentucky’s smart system created.

That should be music to Lowe’s ears, who had to try and create advantages for Pitt’s offense on almost every single trip. Pope should be able to play Lowe off the ball, where he can attack more long closeouts and put defenders in a bind. Pitt played slower. Kentucky plays lightning fast. That’s money in the bank for the menacing Lowe. Kentucky uses dribble-handoffs at one of the highest rates in the country. That’s also right up Lowe’s alley. He was one of the most efficient, high-volume drivers (1.053 points per possession on 95 opportunities) in college basketball last year. It’s not hard to envision Kentucky dialing up a ton of its patented “Chicago” action — a pindown into a dribble handoff — for Lowe to get to his left hand and start cookin’.

Extra pace and more off-ball reps should help Lowe take higher-quality shots and lead to the efficiency bump that Butler and Oweh both enjoyed in their first seasons in Lexington.

2. The captivating, complicated appeal of Bryce Hopkins

Transferring from: Providence | To: St. John’s

Inside the fit: It’s been an eerily long time since Bryce Hopkins has hooped for an extended stretch. He’s played just four games since New Year’s Day in 2024. That’s mind-boggling.

It can also cloud the memory of just how good a healthy Hopkins can be.

Some of Rick Pitino‘s best teams have pitched a tent and just lived at the charity stripe. Hopkins’ ability to get to the free-throw line could be a major “get out of jail free” card for a St. John’s offense that didn’t make the second weekend largely because its halfcourt offense rated outside the top-200 nationally, per Synergy. Free throws can be a salve, and Hopkins shot at least six free throws in 26 of 50 games in a Friars’ jersey. That’s not baiting, it’s a skill. Don’t get it twisted.

A 6-foot-7, 220-pound wing, Hopkins should give St. John’s that jumbo forward who can pass, dribble and shoot. He opens up a wealth of options for St. John’s offense because he can be used as a screener, a post-up hub, a floor-spacer or as a pick-and-roll initiator. Pitino should have so much fun using Hopkins to create mismatches.

Mixing the transition dominance that Pitino’s teams always have with a halfcourt offensive bulldozer like Hopkins should give this marriage an incredibly high ceiling as long as he can knock off the rust quickly.

That’s the crux of it all. An addition like this gives St. John’s the ability to do so many different things offensively while having the meat and potatoes that Pitino craves. Very few teams will be able to match or exceed the physicality and oomph that the Johnnies’ front line of Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor generates. St. John’s has also added the shooting necessary to maximize Hopkins’ skillset.

Remarkably, St. John’s could lose the reigning Big East Player of the Year and wind up getting better. 

3. Why Rob Wright is BYU‘s problem-solving PG1

Transferring from: Baylor | To: BYU

Inside the fit: BYU needed a paint-touch guard, and boy, did it cash the chips in for one of the best in the country. Nearly half of Rob Wright‘s shots last year came … at the rim. The shifty, twitchy point guard should shine in this NBA-style offense. Wright has mastered the art of playing next to a superstar, so sliding into that secondary role next to the high-stepping AJ Dybantsa should be smooth. 

Wright won’t have to create a good look for BYU on every possession, but when it’s time for Wright to take over as the pick-and-roll conductor, BYU’s orchestra will have every instrument he needs to be successful. BYU has catch-and-shoot assassins who will be looming in the corner in Dawson Baker, Richie Saunders and Mihailo Boskovic. It has multiple lob threats, too. Wright will just have to toss it in the general vicinity of the backboard, and one of Keba Keita or Xavion Staton will be ready to flush it down. Dybantsa will be looming somewhere as well, just itching to attack the long closeouts Wright will generate.

This has a chance to be an extremely profitable union because BYU can cover up some of Wright’s weaknesses and maximize his strengths.

READ MORE: Nine slam-dunk transfer portal fits