After Dusty May left Florida Atlantic to take over Michigan’s program, plenty of the top remaining players from the Owls’ 2023 Final Four team departed as well.
But they didn’t all follow their former coach to Ann Arbor. They scattered to various programs.
Florida Atlantic’s top four scorers from last season – all of whom had vital roles during the Owls’ Final Four run a year earlier – are now playing elsewhere. They’re among the most notable of the hundreds of transfers on college basketball rosters across the country.
In the era of the transfer portal, Florida Atlantic’s ability to keep the nucleus of its Final Four team together for one more year was remarkable. The team’s eventual breakup after its 2024 NCAA Tournament first-round overtime loss to Northwestern seemed inevitable.
May’s first Michigan team will include Vladislav Goldin, a 7-foot-1 center who made 106 starts at Florida Atlantic and posted double-figure scoring averages each of the last two seasons. After playing in the NCAA Tournament the last two years at FAU, Goldin believes he’s capable of getting back there at Michigan.
“This team is probably the most talented I have ever played on, so many talented guys,” Goldin told reporters this offseason. “It’s insane talent. I’ve never seen it before.”
Some of Goldin’s other Florida Atlantic teammates opted to go on their own.
Johnell Davis, who led Florida Atlantic in scoring each of the last two seasons, will be playing for John Calipari at No. 16 Arkansas.
“He’s a Hall of Fame coach and he wins everywhere he goes,” Davis told reporters. “I’m excited to play for him.”
Nick Boyd transferred to San Diego State, the team that ended Florida Atlantic’s 2023 Cinderella national title hopes with a Lamont Butler buzzer beater in the NCAA semifinals. Alijah Martin, who scored 26 points in that Final Four loss to San Diego State, transferred to Florida.
Here’s a look at some of the other most notable transfers in college basketball this season. Their former schools are in parentheses.
The 7-footer arrives at No. 17 Indiana after playing four seasons at Arizona. Ballo earned first-team all-Pac-12 honors each of the last two seasons. He averaged 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds last season after collecting 14.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in 2022-23. Ballo has averaged 1.3 blocks per game each of the last two seasons.
When West Virginia hired coach Darian DeVries away from Drake, his son followed him to Morgantown. DeVries, who is 6-foot-7, was named the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Conference player of the year and was the league tournament’s most outstanding player each of the last two seasons. He ranked 10th in Division I in scoring (21.6) last season and was the only Division I player to average at least 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.5 steals per game. That followed a 2022-23 season in which he had 18.6 points per game.
Hawkins was an Associated Press all-Big Ten second-team selection last season in his fourth year at Illinois. He averaged 12.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks. Big 12 coaches have selected him as the league’s preseason co-newcomer of the year. Hawkins declared for the draft last spring and participated in the NBA Draft Combine before deciding to play one more season of college basketball.
Osobor comes to Washington after playing two seasons at Montana State and one at Utah State. He earned honorable mention on the AP All-America team last season and was named the Mountain West Conference’s player of the year and newcomer of the year. The 6-8 forward collected 17.7 points per game and 9 rebounds per game while shooting 57.7% from the floor at Utah State.
After earning first-team all-Big East honors from the league’s coaches and second-team honors from the AP while playing for Seton Hall last year, Richmond stayed in the conference but switched schools. The 6-6 guard played one season at Syracuse before spending three seasons at Seton Hall. Richmond had 15.7 points, 7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.2 steals per game last season.
This 6-2 fifth-year senior was selected as the Big 12’s preseason co-newcomer of the year along with Hawkins. He joins No. 8 Baylor after making 108 career starts at Duke. Roach was a Duke team captain each of the last two seasons. Roach averaged 14 points per game last season, 13.6 in 2022-23, 8.6 in 2021-22 and 8.7 in 2020-21.
___
This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Oumar Ballo's last name.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP collegebasketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball —