College basketball transfer portal rankings: The 76 best available men’s players

College basketball’s transfer portal has been open for about a week, and there are more than 900 men’s Division I players who have entered so far. That is a lot of ground for you to cover, so we’re here to point you in the direction of the names you most need to track. Welcome to The Athletic’s transfer portal rankings.

This is a living, breathing document that will continue to be updated as more players hit the portal and, frankly, as we further evaluate the players already in it. Every day, our conversations with college coaches begin with us asking each other if we’ve begun scouting a certain player. Often, we all admit we simply haven’t had the time yet. The sheer number of players in the portal has required around-the-clock work to get eyes on everybody that is necessary.

All this happens while there are still teams playing games that matter. They must split time between their postseason runs and evaluating transfer portal options to avoid falling behind. The time period crunch is ridiculous for colleges and players as they try to figure out their futures.

It’s tough on our end, too. While our goal every year is to create the best, most comprehensive transfer portal scouting product, it takes time to evaluate each player and we haven’t reached everyone yet. If you don’t see a player ranked that you believe should be, be patient. If that player is good enough, we’ll get to them eventually. We began by ranking more than 60 players, and we expect that number to balloon in the coming days.

Our rules for when a player becomes eligible for the list are simple: Either the player himself must announce he is entering the portal, or his name must actually be in the portal. If you are curious about only the players who have committed or remain available, you can filter for either using one of the search sidebars. Once the player commits, we have and will add a separate section within the player’s write-up with thoughts on how they fit with their new school.

A few other rankings notes for these are worthing bringing up.

First, positional scarcity is taken into account. The easiest player type to find in the portal, as you’ll see below, are scoring guards. The hardest types are versatile wings and bigs who can play on both ends of the court. That’s why, for the most part, you will see us rank wings and bigs more favorably.

Second, years remaining in school play a key role in our rankings. Players with potential to play more than one season for their new school are given a boost.

Here are The Athletic’s evolving 2024 transfer portal rankings.