With the window for National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball players to enter their name into the transfer portal closed, men’s basketball head coach Brian Earl and his staff have a clear picture of the challenge on their hands.
The Tribe’s three leading scorers from the 2025-26 season — -junior guard Reese Miller (12.1 points per game), junior forward Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi (11.9 points per game) and junior forward Kilian Brockhoff (10.7 points per game) — have all entered the transfer portal and announced their new schools.
Miller will be returning to his native Texas to join Texas at El Paso, Fasasi will be joining fellow Mountain West Conference school New Mexico and Brockhoff will be joining Eastern Michigan.
The departures do not stop there, however. Sophomore guard Ryan Jackson Jr. — who led the Tribe in shooting percentage at 65.1% while improving his scoring average from 1.6 points per game in his freshman campaign to 7 points per game in the 2025-26 season — has also entered and will be joining Miller at Texas at El Paso.
These portal entries place the Tribe’s roster in an increasingly perilous situation, given the fact that the team also lost eight players to graduation and eligibility limits. Graduating seniors include three-year starter and guard Chase Lowe and guard Kyle Pulliam, who was one of four Tribe players to average a double-digit point tally in the 2025-26 season. Graduate student Jo’el Emanuel also proved to be a valuable contributor off the bench.
These departures leave just two remaining players from the 2025-26 season: sophomore guard Colin Ndaw and junior guard Ethan Connery.
Earl and his staff have been quick, however, to fill the gaps left by the outgoing production. The Tribe has already received six commitments from the transfer portal: Nilavan Daniels, Tre Blassingame, J.T. Roland, Staš Sivka, Jesse McIntosh and Josh Baldwin.
The current group of transfers reflects the roster-building approach that Earl has taken thus far in his time at William and Mary, with McIntosh and Sivka bringing international experience and Roland coming from the Division II ranks.
While the 2026-27 season will be Earl’s third at the helm, for all intents and purposes, he is starting fresh as he looks to lead the Tribe to its first NCAA tournament appearance.
