The most important date with the college basketball transfer portal is not March 24, when it opened. It’s April 22, when it closes and undergraduates who didn’t submit their names are bound to their current teams for the 2025-26 season. San Diego State starters Nick Boyd and Magoon Gwath entered the portal Monday. By nightfall, two teammates had joined them — forward Demarshay Johnson Jr. and walk-on guard Cam Lawin — although they were expected to depart and are not consequential for next season’s roster build. The bigger news is that no one else has walked into SDSU’s compliance office and submitted paperwork. Two days down, 28 to go. “As of right now, the rest of the roster is staying,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “But I’m also not naïve enough to think players aren’t still getting calls with offers. Players are getting poached all the time. That’s just the world we live in.” Despite the shock of losing an all-conference point guard as well as the Mountain West freshman of the year, six players who have been key rotation pieces remain on the roster, not counting 7-foot redshirt freshman Thokbor Majak and incoming freshman Tae Simmons. That’s a solid core of eight players, assuming Miles Byrd, a second team all-Mountain West selection, does not turn pro. The 6-foot-7 redshirt sophomore announced on social media Tuesday night that, as he previously indicated, he is provisionally entering the NBA Draft while maintaining his collegiate eligibility. That also includes a preseason all-conference selection in Reese Waters, a starting guard in BJ Davis, arguably their most versatile player in Taj DeGourville and a pair of improving bigs in Miles Heide and Pharaoh Compton. Majak, although still raw offensively, gives the Aztecs a shot blocker to help replace Gwath. And Simmons is the kind of bruising rebounder that this team missed last season. It puts the Aztecs in better position than the rest of the Mountain West, which, no surprise, has already been decimated by graduation and portal combat. Of the 15 all-conference players, eight are out of eligibility. Of the other seven, five are in the portal: New Mexico guard Donovan Dent, Wyoming guard Obi Agbim, Nevada forward Nick Davidson, UNLV guard Dedan Thomas Jr. and SDSU’s Boyd. The only two who aren’t: Byrd and Utah State guard Mason Falslev. Gone are the Mountain West Player of the Year (Dent), Newcomer of the Year (Agbim), Freshman of the Year (Gwath) and Defensive Player of the Year (Gwath). The Mountain West Coach of the Year, New Mexico’s Richard Pitino, is reportedly heading to Xavier. Two of the three honorable mention all-conference selections are in the portal as well, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the one who isn’t, Colorado State guard Kyan Evans, follow former Rams coach Niko Medved to Minnesota. Fresno State has 12 players, basically the entire roster, in the portal. Dutcher is reluctant to discuss what’s coming back until after April 22 because, in his words, “you just never know in this new world we live in.” And you don’t. A year ago, Elijah Saunders was regularly assigned to host recruits on visits because he was viewed as the best salesman for the program. Two days before the portal closed, he jumped into and transferred to Virginia for an estimated $400,000. Dutcher and his staff, though, are much further along in the process of roster construction than the previous two years, when the portal opened a week earlier (the Monday after Selection Sunday) and his team was still playing deep into March or, in the case of 2023, into April. They also have less to replace. Before the season ended, they were already meeting with players about NIL contracts for 2025-26, and several are thought to have signed them. Boyd and Gwath had the courtesy not to drag out the decision process, allowing the coaches to be active in the portal early instead of, in the case of Saunders’ 11th-hour departure, picking through the remainder bin a month from now trying to fill a specific need. The Aztecs currently have five available scholarships. Dutcher has typically used only 12, not wanting to jeopardize chemistry with too many players expecting minutes, so figure they’re eyeing four transfers. “The first week, everybody in the portal thinks they’re going to get this dollar figure,” Dutcher said Tuesday afternoon on “Jon & Jim” on 760-AM. “Some people panic and overpay these guys. Then the next week will go by, and the dollars will drop. And then at the end, if you don’t have a roster, the dollars will go up again. There’s a cycle to it. “We’re evaluating every day. We’re watching tape of 800 kids. We know what our needs are. I feel like I’ve got a kid added. I don’t want to say anything yet. I’ve got another kid visiting. We’re proactive. We’re working.” No matter who stayed or went, the primary need was always going to be a rebounding beast, given their deficiencies in that area all season. That addition would most likely would slot in as the forward without Gwath, who is No. 11 on ESPN’s ranking of the top available transfers. A backup point was already on the wish list before Boyd entered the portal. Now they need at least one and possibly two, depending on how they plan to deploy DeGourville, who often ran the point but can play the 2, 3 and even 4 positions in a small-ball lineup. There will be plenty to choose from. In 2023, 175 players entered the portal on the first day. Last year, it was 291. This year, more than 700. By Tuesday evening, it was approaching 1,200. Four are from SDSU. The bigger question is, will there be any more? In past years, Dutcher has drawn a hard line on players speculatively entering the portal, essentially ruling out any return to SDSU. He isn’t quite as definitive this year while maintaining a realistic perspective. “What percentage of players actually return to the school they leave once they put their name in the portal?” Dutcher said. “I wouldn’t close the door. But the whole thing is, how long can you wait? Because the more you wait, the more you miss out on other players. “Yeah, anything is possible. But those decisions have to be made fairly rapidly. We can’t wait too long, because that money has to be committed to other places in order to put a competitive team together.” ...read more read less