The NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal opened at midnight on April 7, just minutes after the national championship game between the University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut ended. The abruptness of the portal’s opening forces teams to plan for potential incoming and outgoing transfers during the season, before they officially lose players and sign new ones in the short weeks after the season ends.
By the end of the first day, over 1,000 players had already entered the portal, and according to ESPN, coaches expect over 3,000 to enter before the portal closes in two weeks, on April 21. The number of portal entrants jumped to 2,700 in 2025 after reaching over 2,000 players in 2024. The portal’s growing allure means that coaches cannot afford to assume their players will return for the following season and must constantly think about replacements.
Ed Cooley, head coach of the Georgetown University men’s basketball team, said the transfer portal can be overwhelming.
“You’re never prepared — that’s too aggressive of a word, ‘never’— the portal is open all year round, let’s not kid ourselves,” Cooley told reporters at the NCAA Final Four. “It’s just a very, very different time right now, having young players, young people move from school to school to school to school.”
Cooley has gotten a firsthand reminder of how chaotic the portal can be over the last two weeks. As of April 8, seven players from Georgetown’s 2025-2026 team have announced their decisions to enter the portal. Throw in the graduation of graduate guards Jeremiah Williams and Langston Love and the uncertainty surrounding senior center Vince Iwuchukwu’s medical waiver (Cooley has said Georgetown plans to apply for an extra year of eligibility for the star center), and Georgetown may have to replace a large percentage of its minutes from last season.
The Hoyas are losing the most at guard. Georgetown’s two starting guards during the 2025-2026 season, juniors KJ Lewis and Malik Mack, both entered the portal. The duo combined to average 62.3 minutes and 28.5 points per game.
Lewis, who transferred to Georgetown from the University of Arizona, leaves after only one season with the Hoyas, while Mack played his sophomore and junior seasons on the Hilltop after transferring from Harvard University. On top of their departures, Williams and junior guard DeShawn Harris-Smith are graduating and transferring, respectively, both after just one year at Georgetown.
These departures leave rising junior Kayvaun Mulready, who announced April 7 that he would be returning for his junior season, as the only returning guard who logged significant minutes last season. Mulready’s minutes picked up halfway through the season, along with his play. He sank crucial shots in the Hoyas’ Big East Tournament upset over Villanova University on March 12.
First-year Gabriel Landeira, a Brazilian guard who redshirted this season, also confirmed his return to the team April 9, but it is unclear how big a role Cooley sees Landeira playing. Georgetown will need to bring in at least two guards from the transfer portal to fill out the position.
At forward, Georgetown is losing sophomore Isaiah Abraham to the portal after just one season. Best remembered for his leaping block in the Hoyas’ victory over Clemson University in November, the Gainesville, Va. native started in 31 games for the Hoyas, averaging 4.8 points per game.
Sophomore forward Jayden Fort also announced April 1 that he was entering the transfer portal. Fort recorded the fifth-most rebounds per game for Georgetown despite only averaging the ninth-most minutes played. Unlike this year’s other portal entrants, the 6-foot-9-inch Washington, D.C. native was recruited by Cooley out of high school.
Sophomore forward Caleb Williams, a D.C.-Maryland-Virginia-area high school recruit like Fort, who averaged 8.8 points per game and started 33 out of the team’s 34 games last season, announced his intention to return to the team April 8. The Hoyas also have two first-year forwards, Alex Constanza and Justin Caldwell, coming in, but still need at least one more forward to replace the outgoing players.
Center could be the position with the most continuity for the Hoyas. Sophomore center Julius Halaifonua announced April 6 that he will be returning to Georgetown for his junior year. The 7’0 New Zealand native’s first-year season was cut short due to injury, before he averaged 9.5 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per game in 28 starts this season.
Sophomore center Seal Diouf has not announced whether he will remain on the team for the 2026-2027 season.
Georgetown’s 2026-2027 roster currently includes just six players who could play significant minutes next season: Halaifonua at center, Mulready and Landeira at guard, and Caleb Williams, Constanza and Caldwell at forward. While there is no deadline for players to commit to new schools, teams have already begun competing for many of the portals’ top talents.
