Another big name off the board: Jalen Overway to Wisconsin-Green Bay (which had great success this year with D3 transfer Justin Allen, who was their third-leading scorer). 

At this point, the biggest names left to watch are Kye Robinson, Sam Grieger, and Dorian Glogovac, all of whom will almost surely end up in D1, and Jevon Yarbrough, who has explicitly left open the option of returning and may have a slightly tougher time just due to his size. 

Noah Cleveland, unsurprisingly, is quickly snagged by D1 Illinois State.

It's definitely an advantage if you are able to rely on the transfer pool, and doing so quickly vaulted several schools who had never previously been contenders into title contention in recent years (Chicago, NYU, Trine, Case Western most notably). But there are also plenty of elite programs that have relied primarily and in some cases entirely on homegrown players who have experienced deep success in the NCAA tourney over the same time period (Trinity, Randolph Macon, Emory, Mary Washington, Wesleyan, Christopher Newport, etc.). 

D1 is now utterly unrecognizable from what it was even a decade ago as a sport, hence the need for every D1 program to have a General Manager in addition to a coach (btw, that's the role that Rutigliano is serving at Kansas State).  Just look at Michigan this year, a team almost entirely reliant on the portal.  NBA teams have far more stability at this point than D1 college teams, which are basically a collection of paid mercenaries on one-year deals with every starting caliber player on the team looking to either move up in D1 or move on to the NBA. 

D3, while impacted at the margins, is largely the same as it's always been - the best coaches stick around for many years and often decades.  The best teams are MOSTLY still built around players who were recruited out of high school and evolve as players over a number of years.  So long as D3 is not dominated by an NIL compensation model, I don't think that will change all that much. 

If you have an expansive and appealing graduate program, like the UAA schools do, that's clearly a huge advantage since you can consistently attract the TRULY elite transfers like NYU, Chicago and Case have been able to do. But since NESCAC schools largely do not, I expect NESCAC will still rely overwhelmingly on four-year players. NESCAC has a lot of advantages as a league which can compensate for the relative lack of transfers - massive financial aid resources, typically great facilities, academic prestige, and the promise of elite connections for athletic alums, being four major ones.  Conn College is really the only team over the past few years which has relied heavily on transfers, and with basically half of its returning roster currently in the portal, you can see the peril of that sort of approach. Other schools will lose the occasional elite underclassman like a Cuevas or Civello to the portal, which sucks but that is, unfortunately, something that any D3 team who manages to snag a D1-caliber hidden gem in recruiting is going to have to deal with.  And it's something NESCAC teams have been dealing with for over a decade now, going back to Duncan Robinson, Matt Hart, and Hunter Sabety. 

Transferring up from D3:

Riley Brooks, Carthage (one year) to Charleston Southern
Nick Burke, Bethel (one year) to Concordia (MN) (D2)
Dan Civello, Colby (two years) to Dartmouth
Noah Cleveland, IWU (three years) to Illinois State
Ray Cuevas, Bowdoin (two years) to Brown
Jalen Overway, Calvin (one year) to Wisconsin Green-Bay


In the transfer portal (top-tier transfers, the majority will end up on D2/D1 scholarship):

Nikolas Avaliani, Sewanee (three years)
Fletcher Bigham, Sewanee (one year)
Zay Brown, Monmouth (two years)
Chance Casenhiser, Mount Union (two years)
Ashton Davis, Southern Virginia (three years)
Luke Ellspermann, Wabash (three years)
Kabrien Goss, Montclair (two years)
Dorian Glogovac, CalTech (three years)
Sam Grieger, Lacrosse (one year)
DJ Harrell, Westminster (one year)
Parker Hovey, Hope (one year)
Tray Huguley, MUW (two years)
Silvano Ismail, St. Joe's (ME) (two years)
Shay John, Clark (two years)
Andre Klaver, Augustanta (three years)
James Lafrance, Conn College (two years)
Raphael Laurent, UMass Boston (two years)
Nasir Luna, Occidental (two years)
Santana Lynch, HSC (two years)
Tyler Mallory, Huntington College (one year)
Alex McCleery Brown, Occidental (two years)
Joe Okla, Worcester State (three years)
Raheim Orleans, Salem State (three years)
Cameron Perkins, UMass-Boston (three years, including an injury year)
Kye Robinson, Mary Washington (two years)
Kenneth Rogers, Westfield State (two years)
Dylan Watson, Conn College (one year)
Darrius Welch, Adrian (one year)
Jevon Yarbrough, Hood (one year)
Alex Zakheim, Brandeis (two years)


In the transfer portal (the rest)

Octavio Alexander, Penn College (one or two years)
Alex Andrews, Bethany (one year)
Jack Banks, Maine Maritime (one year)
Terrion Benson, Colorado College (three years)
Moussa Berete, Dean College (one year)
Tugg Bizzelle, HSC (two years)
Aaron Brooks, Eastern Mennonite (one year)
Jahmir Brown, Bridgewater College (one year)
Noah Brumfield, Wheaton (IL) (one year)
Jadon Burgess, Mary Washington (one year)
Matthew Cadogan, Brandeis (one year)
Isaiah Carr, Eastern Mennonite (two years)
Kamerin Carter, Blackburn (one year)
Emmanuel Domingo, Desales (two years)
Sam Ferge, UW-Lacrosse (two years)
Roel Figueroa, St. Joseph's CT) (two years)
Jai Guerra-Howard, Marietta (two years)
Israel Hall, Piedmont (one year)
Edward Harrison, Conn College (two years)
Kaelem Haskins, SUNY Morrisville (two years)
Jai Guerra-Howard, Marietta (two years)
Drew Hamilton, Maine Maritime (three years)
Kaelem Haskins, SUNY-Morrisville (two years)
Connor Heald, Husson (two years)
Corwin Holland, Penn State Brandywine (two years)
Jackson Huxtable, Rhodes (two years)
PJ Johnson, Conn College (two years)
Dynell Jones, Bellhaven (one year)
Emmanuel Karkari-Mensah, Elmira College (two years)
Shaun Kelley, Augustana (one year)
Liech Kong, Goucher (two years)
Caleb Laurich, Mount Union (one year)
Ty Lenhardt, Illinois College (one year)
Bristol Lewis, Platteville (one year)
Jamison Lynam, Arcadia (two years)
Devin McCaine, MUW (one year)
Andrew McCauley, Husson (two years)
AJ McClary, Marymount (VA) (two years)
Wesley McIntyre, VT State-Lyndon (one year)
Alec Mercer, Elmira College (two years)
DJ Miller, Ozarks (one year)
Bryan Moussako, NYU (one year)
Miles Parra, NWU (three years)
Aaron Pensel, Maine Maritime (three years)
Cam Pownall, Brockport (two years)
Quentin Pridgen, Clark (one year)
Tommy Reddick, Earlham (two years)
Roman Richards, UW-Eau Claire (three years)
Mikhali Roberts, Principia (one year)
Max Robertson, Manchester (two years)
Daniel Robinson, Bellhaven (two years)
Bryce Shoto, Illinois Tech (three years)
Kyren Smith, Bridgewater College (two years)
Kalib Thomas, Centre (one year)
Troy Tinch, Mount Aloysius (one year)
Giulio Volonte, Emerson (one year)
Zein Wahdan, WNEC (two years)
Nolan Waldon, Washington College (two years)
Jamel Walker, Salem State (three years)
Colbie West, Lyon (one year)
Jude Wilkins, Elmira (one year)
Jake Willems, Augustana (two years)
Tajh Williams, Warren Wilson (one year)
Josiah Wright, Conn College (three years)


Transferring to D3 schools:

Lucus Brown, D'Youville (D2) to Cornell (IA)
Chianti Clay, Sul Ross State (D2) to Rivier (one year)
Jackson Hayes, Winona State (D2) to Lacrosse
Max Hurray, West Liberty (D2) to Roanoke (two years)
Jonny Ingalls, Northern Michigan (D2) to Calvin (three years)
Tristan Joseph, Middlebury to NYU (one year)
Chris Ketchum, Millikin to Elmhurst (two years)
Trey Kleitz, Roberts Wesleyan to Houghton (one year)
Ben Miller, Hartford to Colby (three years)
Parker Renault, Piedmont to HSC (three years)


Playing a fifth year at current school:


Seniors / grad students of note with (I believe) remaining eligibility:

Jackson Cormier, Wesleyan (injury) (one year)
Alex Lee, Williams (injury) (one year)

Brown-Dartmouth will be appointment viewing for NESCAC hoops fans next season! 

Seems like Conn College, unique among NESCAC schools, could be living by the portal, dying by the portal.

Last year, three of Conn's top five scorers were all higher-level transfers: James LaFrance, Greg Cantwell, and PJ Johnson.  Now, three of the four returnees from Conn's top five guys are all in the portal: LaFrance, Watson, and Johnson.  Edward Harrison and Josiah Wright, both of whom played limited minutes, are also in the portal.  Not sure if it's a product of unhappiness or just the way of the world when you rely upon transfer players so heavily.  Perhaps Conn has some more high-profile transfers coming in, but it's hard to find guys like that consistently when you don't have graduate programs to offer.  If all three players in the portal do not return, Cantwell will be the only returning Conn player who averaged six or more PPG last year, and I'd expect Conn to have some major struggles next season.   

One other bit of transfer news: it appears that former Midd hooper Tristan Johnson will be playing at NYU next year.  NYU has utilized the transfer portal probably more effectively than any other D3 school.  Certainly a huge advantage to be a 30,000 plus major university, with loads of grad programs to offer, located in NYC!  They are operating more like a D1 school than a D3 school in terms of having absolutely massive turnover just about every off-season now. 

As reported here previously, it does indeed appear (based on social media) that ace recruit Nolan Ames has decommitted from Colby.  Rough last month for a Colby program that had seemed poised to take a major leap. 

Nice late commitment to Williams, combo guard Devan Williams out of Milton Academy, who scored 2200 career points and is ranked 19th in MA by NERR. 

The Ephs really struggled to get scoring and playmaking from the backcourt last year after Alex Lee went down, with no guard averaging even 7 ppg, and between Williams and some other backcourt recruits who seem like capable scorers down the line, and some young guards who gained a lot of experience last year and should improve significantly, I expect the Ephs to have a far deeper and more explosive backcourt next season and into the future.   

Just curious, lumbercat, where are you seeing Civello connected to Bucknell?

First incoming-to-D3 transfer of real note I've seen so far: Max Hurray, who was a rotation player at very high-level D2 program West Liberty, transferring to Roanoke.  He was an all-state player in PA who had at least one D1 offer out of H.S.  Added to Roanoke's returning core, including likely pre-season all-American Jackson Bell and two other starters, I would expect them to be a pre-season top 10 team next year. 

If Colby could get Gilbride that would be a massive coup, and with his Maine ties he's probably be a lifer in that job.  He absolutely maximizes his talent at RPI (and is also a good recruiter in I'd say a pretty difficult place to recruit to, both geographically and because of academics).  You know when you play RPI they are going to, no matter what, make life very, very difficult for you on the defensive end.  The good news for any NESCAC program is even if you screw up on a hire, coaches from around the country are desperate for basically any NESCAC job. 

So much has yet to happen, more guys may go to the portal, guys in the portal may opt to return, incoming transfers will make a huge impact, but man, I pity next year's top 25 voters based on how things look right now. 

1. MWU - two starters in portal including their do-it-all superstar; could any others follow? 
2. Emory - two all-American guards graduate, plus some depth from a team that was thin to begin with
3. Trinity - loses a loaded senior class including two all Americans and a third all-league player
4. CNU - seems to have almost everyone back
5. Chicago - loses a loaded senior class including multiple all Americans
6. St. Thomas (TX) - loses two starters but seems to bring a lot back
7. IWU - its superstar is in the portal, if he returns, loaded, but not a guy who can be replaced; also loses another important starter
8. Tufts - loses two elite frontcourt players including an all-American
9. RMC - loses two key starters but they always just reload, and most of a deep roster returns
10. Gustavus Adolphus - graduate two starters but return (as of now) probably the pre-season POTY favorite in Barnette
11. La Crosse - lose a ton and their superstar is in the portal
12. Endicott - lose a ton including an all-American
13. Hood - do-everything superstar is in the portal
14. Wash U - seem to return a lot, although do lose a few seniors
15. Wesleyan - returns a lot but does lose three key seniors including a first-team all-league PG who ran the show
16. Redlands - graduates four starters including two all-American level guys

I haven't looked beyond that but that's a top 16 which is mostly decimated.  IF all the big names in the portal do not return (typically a few end up coming back to their current squads, but the portal guys from these teams are going to get a TON of interest), I could see a very strong pre-season top five from that group of CNU, RMC, Wash U., Gustavus, St. Thomas, in some order.  After that, though, it seems like it's anyone's guess ...

Another key UMW player, Jaden Burgess, enters the portal.  That and other updates included:

Transferring up from D3:

Ray Cuevas, Bowdoin (two years) to Brown


In the transfer portal (top-tier transfers, the majority will end up on D2/D1 scholarship):

Nikolas Avaliani, Sewanee (three years)
Fletcher Bigham, Sewanee (one year)
Riley Brooks, Carthage (one year)
Zay Brown, Monmouth (two years)
Chance Casenhiser, Mount Union (two years)
Dan Civello, Colby (two years)
Noah Cleveland, Illinois Wesleyan (three years)
Ashton Davis, Southern Virginia (three years)
Luke Ellspermann, Wabash (three years)
Kabrien Goss, Montclair (two years)
Dorian Glogovac, CalTech (three years)
Sam Grieger, Lacrosse (one year)
Parker Hovey, Hope (one year)
Tray Huguley, MUW (two years)
Shay John, Clark (two years)
Andre Klaver, Augustanta (three years)
James Lafrance, Conn College (two years)
Raphael Laurent, UMass Boston (two years)
Nasir Luna, Occidental (two years)
Santana Lynch, HSC (two years)
Tyler Mallory, Huntington College (one year)
Alex McCleery Brown, Occidental (two years)
Joe Okla, Worcester State (three years)
Raheim Orleans, Salem State (three years)
Jalen Overway, Calvin (one year)
Cameron Perkins, UMass-Boston (three years, including an injury year)
Kye Robinson, Mary Washington (two years)
Kenneth Rogers, Westfield State (two years)
Dylan Watson, Conn College (one year)
Darrius Welch, Adrian (one year)
Jevon Yarbrough, Hood (one year)
Alex Zakheim, Brandeis (two years)


In the transfer portal (the rest)

Octavio Alexander, Penn College (one or two years)
Alex Andrews, Bethany (one year)
Jack Banks, Maine Maritime (one year)
Terrion Benson, Colorado College (three years)
Moussa Berete, Dean College (one year)
Tugg Bizzelle, HSC (two years)
Aaron Brooks, Eastern Mennonite (one year)
Jahmir Brown, Bridgewater College (one year)
Noah Brumfield, Wheaton (IL) (one year)
Jadon Burgess, Mary Washington (one year)
Matthew Cadogan, Brandeis (one year)
Isaiah Carr, Eastern Mennonite (two years)
Kamerin Carter, Blackburn (one year)
Sam Ferge, UW-Lacrosse (two years)
Roel Figueroa, St. Joseph's CT) (two years)
Jai Guerra-Howard, Marietta (two years)
Israel Hall, Piedmont (one year)
Kaelem Haskins, SUNY Morrisville (two years)
Jai Guerra-Howard, Marietta (two years)
Drew Hamilton, Maine Maritime (three years)
Kaelem Haskins, SUNY-Morrisville (two years)
Connor Heald, Husson (two years)
Corwin Holland, Penn State Brandywine (two years)
Dynell Jones, Bellhaven (one year)
Emmanuel Karkari-Mensah, Elmira College (two years)
Shaun Kelley, Augustana (one year)
Liech Kong, Goucher (two years)
Caleb Laurich, Mount Union (one year)
Ty Lenhardt, Illinois College (one year)
Bristol Lewis, Platteville (one year)
Jamison Lynam, Arcadia (two years)
Devin McCaine, MUW (one year)
Andrew McCauley, Husson (two years)
AJ McClary, Marymount (VA) (two years)
Wesley McIntyre, VT State-Lyndon (one year)
Alec Mercer, Elmira College (two years)
DJ Miller, Ozarks (one year)
Bryan Moussako, NYU (one year)
Miles Parra, NWU (three years)
Aaron Pensel, Maine Maritime (three years)
Cam Pownall, Brockport (two years)
Quentin Pridgen, Clark (one year)
Tommy Reddick, Earlham (two years)
Roman Richards, UW-Eau Claire (three years)
Mikhali Roberts, Principia (one year)
Max Robertson, Manchester (two years)
Daniel Robinson, Bellhaven (two years)
Bryce Shoto, Illinois Tech (three years)
Troy Tinch, Mount Aloysius (one year)
Giulio Volonte, Emerson (one year)
Zein Wahdan, WNEC (two years)
Nolan Waldon, Washington College (two years)
Jamel Walker, Salem State (three years)
Colbie West, Lyon (one year)
Jude Wilkins, Elmira (one year)
Jake Willems, Augustana (two years)
Tajh Williams, Warren Wilson (one year)
Josiah Wright, Conn College (three years)


Transferring to D3 schools:

Chianti Clay, Sul Ross State (D2) to Rivier (one year)
Max Hurray, West Liberty (D2) to Roanoke (two years)
Chris Ketchum, Millikin to Elmhurst (two years)
Trey Kleitz, Roberts Wesleyan to Houghton (one year)
Ben Miller, Hartford to Colby (three years)
Parker Renault, Piedmont to HSC (three years)


Playing a fifth year at current school:


Seniors / grad students of note with (I believe) remaining eligibility:

Jackson Cormier, Wesleyan (injury) (one year)
Alex Lee, Williams (injury) (one year)

BTW, per an online source, there are over 800 (and counting) D3 guys in the portal, so this represents only a small fraction of the guys who are at least testing the waters.  I assume, of course, that the vast majority end up returning to their current teams, and maybe the guys who are going more public with it are likely to be the most interested in actually transferring? 

While I agree that Watson is the more important player for Conn, I do think Lafrance would be a huge loss.  Espinosa and Lafrance were their only volume three point shooters last year, accounting for half the team's three point production between the two of them.  Clar and Cantwell would then get all the defensive attention that Lafrance and Espinosa did on the perimeter, and it's not clear if they have any major perimeter threats ready to step up behind them.  In all their portal guys DO depart, and if Conn has no major transfer coming in this year, I'd move them way back in terms of a prognostication. 

As a general matter, it's not a great sign for whatever is going on at Conn that so many guys are looking to leave.  It's not like these guys are sure-thing D1 players like a Cuevas, losing players like that doesn't raise any red flags.  And I note that one of last year's rotation FYs, Matt Leaver, also transferred to another D3 school. 

From the transfer board, interesting to see that Colby has a transfer coming in, Ben Miller from Hartford, who was a double-digit scorer as a FY:

https://x.com/_benmiller1/status/2041248124732137966?s=61

Kind of odd that this is happening with no coach, but perhaps this was all locked down previously and he's just announcing it now. 

Speaking of transfers, Dylan Watson isn't the only Conn College player in the transfer portal.  James Lafrance, who just transferred to Conn last year, is in as well: https://x.com/JamesLaFrance2/status/2031108862691127575, as is Josiah Wright, who played limited minutes as a FY: https://x.com/Coach_Kaj/status/2032523863188197448.

If both Watson and Lafrance depart, Conn will be a very different team, as that would mean last year's three leading scorers are all gone ... but perhaps they will bring some more transfers in.  Certainly seem to be operating differently than any other NESCAC school right now. 

The guys who HAVE gotten D1 scholarships have generally fared very well.  Some have become really high level players and almost all have been solid contributors.  Just from recent years, some examples:

Aaron Nkmurah (Worcester State) was his conference POTY AND defensive POTY this year at Tennessee Tech
Miles Barnstable (Whitewater) had a great year at St. Thomas, then transferred to an even higher level program (Tulsa) where he played the most minutes and was a top-three scorer on a 30-8 team.
Tobias Harris (Brandeis) averaged 11.2 on 44/41/90 shooting at Iona this year. 
Justin Allen (Carnegie Mellon) averaged 14/4/2 on 48/25/83 splits this year for Green Bay
Brody Fox was Citadel's best player by far last year, leading them in scoring among other statistical categories, and John Adams also ended up starting nearly every game with more modest stats. 
AJ Rohosy was a starter for Stanford (!) this year, averaging 8 and 6. 

There are other examples as well, including the true outliers like Duncan Robinson and Cedric Coward who both ended up in the NBA of course, but if you can play, you can play.  If you are a D3 all-American level player, especially as an underclassman, the odds are you will be able to make major contributions at the D1 level.  Now, not every guy expecting to get a D1 offer gets snapped up, but these coaches are elite talent evaluators and they aren't offering a D3 guy unless they are confident they will be a major contributor right away.