Nick Boyd PG San Diego State (Pastrana)
Keep an eye on Nick Boyd PG SD State formerly at FAU. There is a prior relationship there with our staff. Social media new follow.
Brandon Rechsteiner PG VPI (ARD)
I believe another contact, played HS BB at Etowah
Zarique Nutter Georgia State SG
6-7, 210-pound G-F
GA St Grad Transfer
Last season: 14.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.1 apg
True slasher, finishes through contact while driving, 49.5 FG%
Played at NIU for 2 seasons prior to GA State
Chase Forte South Dakota State SG (Goins)
Forte averaged 17.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists during the 2024-25 season
Treysen Eaglestaff SG North Dakota
Zachary Davis SG/SF South Carolina
Zachary Davis
6'7" 200
Guard
South Carolina
2024-25 Stats (32 Games):
8.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 1.8 APG, 38.0 FG%
Langston Love SG Baylor (Goins)
Baylor junior wing Langston Love has entered the transfer portal after averaging 8.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game this season. He is a career 38.8 percent three-point shooter, and was ranked No. 57 overall by @Rivals in the class of 2021.
WACO, Texas — Baylor redshirt junior guard Langston Love has entered the NCAA transfer portal. The Texas native spent four seasons with head coach Scott Drew’s program and has one year of eligibility remaining.
Love averaged 8.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists over 20 games this season. He was a frontrunner for the Big 12’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2023-24, averaging 11 points per game while shooting 48% from three before an ankle injury ended his season after 24 games.
A former four-star recruit from Montverde Academy, Love missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn ACL. His injury struggles continued the following year when an eye injury sidelined him for three of Baylor’s final four games, limiting him to just five minutes in the NCAA Tournament against No. 14-seeded UC Santa Barbara.
Most recently, Love’s ankle injury forced him to miss 13 of Baylor’s final 15 games in 2023-24, and a lengthy recovery from offseason surgery delayed his return in 2024-25. As a result, he appeared in only eight of the Bears' first 22 games this season.
https://www.kcentv.com/article/spor...rtal/500-cd056db8-93ef-4c3b-a544-117d4db59588
Malik Reneau Indiana PF
Reported by multiple sites
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Two Indiana men’s basketball players entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.
Guard Gabe Cupps and forward Malik Reneau have both announced that they intend to enter the portal. Indiana confirmed that it hired Darian DeVries to be its next men’s basketball coach on Tuesday.
Cupps made his intentions clear on social mediabefore IU announced that DeVries had been hired. Reneau indicated that he’d be entering the portalafter the DeVries was officially named head coach.
Reneau, a junior from Miami, Florida, put up 13.3. points, 5.5 rebounds and two assists per game in 2024-25. He appeared in 26 games and played 23.2 minutes per contest.
Reneau’s numbers decreased slightly between 2023-24 and 2024-25. Two seasons ago, Reneau racked up 15.5 points, 2.7 assists and six rebounds a game.
Mike Woodson is the only head coach Cupps and Reneau have ever played for in college. Last month, IU announced that Woodson would relinquish his head coaching duties at the end of the season.
“I want to thank coach Woodson and his entire staff for giving me an opportunity to play of the University of Indiana. I will miss the fans and all the great people in Bloomington. After discussion with my family, I’ve chosen to enter the portal.”
https://fox59.com/sports/big-10-sports/2-indiana-mens-basketball-players-enter-transfer-portal/
Brandon Walker PF Montana State
CBB Transfer Portal Spotlight
Brandon Walker
6'7" 250
Forward
Montana State
2024-25 Stats (29 Games):
14.7 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 1.6 APG, 53.0 FG%
Montana State forward Brandon Walker enters transfer portal
Montana State junior forward Brandon Walker has entered the transfer portal, he confirmed to the Chronicle on Monday.
An Honorable Mention All-Big Sky selection in both seasons as a Bobcat, the 6-foot-7 Walker has one season of eligibility remaining. The transfer portal officially opens on March 24.
Walker arrived at MSU prior to the 2023-24 season after spending his freshman season at the University of Texas at Arlington, near his hometown of Oak Cliff. After averaging 13.9 points per game for the last two years, Walker said he believes he can take his game to a larger conference. Potentially taking advantage of increased Name, Image and Likeness opportunities played a role in his decision, he said.
“Obviously prayed about it and trusted God, and just wanted better for me and my family,” Walker said. “I’ve been a mid-major (player) my whole college career, so just wanted to experience something different, just see what’s out there and help my family in ways I can.
“Going to a higher conference, that’s the plan. But it’s in God’s hands, so whatever he has planned for me, that’s what I’ll do.”
Walker joins teammate BJ Kolly — a Division II Western Washington transfer who played scattered minutes throughout his one season in Bozeman — in the transfer portal. Kolly announced his decision over the weekend.
Walker lost his spot in the rotation with two games remaining in the regular season, with head coach Matt Logie calling the move a matter of finding the best lineups to execute “the style of play and the vision that we have.” The team won its final pair of games against Sacramento State and Idaho, racking up 39 assists and shooting 59% over that short stretch.
That momentum carried over against Idaho State in the Big Sky Conference Tournament in Boise, Idaho, when the Bobcats had 21 assists and the fourth-best shooting game (63.5%) for the program since 2001.
MSU’s hot shooting ran out in the conference semifinals against Northern Colorado, though, with the team’s 23.6% performance from the field being the worst for the Bobcats since February 2020. Even during those struggles, Logie upheld his decision to keep Walker on the bench.
“With the success we’ve had the last three games, that’s the way we were going to go down fighting,” Logie said after the season-ending loss last Tuesday, a game he was ejected from after two technical fouls in the second half.
Walker said the loss of playing time did not influence his choice to transfer.
“The decision they made, it is what it is. I respect it. I’m just glad I got to see certain guys hoop out there and play really good,” he said. “Jabe (Mullins), Pat (McMahon), Chika (Nduka), seeing those guys hoop made me happy. Obviously, it was tough, but I just had to be there for my teammates. Not a reason why I’m transferring or anything like that, but I’m just happy for those guys that they got to play and just show what they can do.”
Walker said he made the decision to transfer after the season ended. His conversation with the coaching staff, he said, was amicable.
“It was all love in the meeting,” Walker said. “I support them. They got my support for life, and I got theirs.”
Despite a difficult end to his MSU career, Walker said he is leaving Bozeman with fond memories.
“When we went to the March Madness tournament (in 2024), that group was fun,” Walker said. “Obviously this season didn’t go how we planned, but we had some fun times. Just the community, how they showed love and stuff like that, being a part of a winning culture, and being able to go have the experience at the dance was pretty fun. I’m going to cherish it forever.”
Over two seasons at MSU, Walker was one of the more heavily used and efficient offensive players in the Big Sky and the country. He shot 54.6% from the field and averaged 4.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. He also expanded his game out to the 3-point line, where he shot 34.8% overall as a Bobcat but was shooting 38.6% from deep this season.
In his 64 games for MSU, he scored in double figures 49 times. Walker memorably scored 26 points in just his third game, helping the Bobcats defeat California in November 2023 for the program’s first win over a power conference school since 2018. He also scored 14 points in last season’s First Four game at the NCAA Tournament against Grambling, and he had a career-high 31 points this past December at UC Riverside.
Walker thanked Logie and each of his assistants by name for giving him the opportunity to play as much as he did and “just letting me be me and making basketball fun again for me,” he said.
“They had a big part of me being productive,” Walker added.
After having what he called an unsatisfactory freshman season at UTA, Walker said he “had some dark days” and saw his confidence wane. His two years at Montana State, he said, helped revive his basketball career.
“Just proving to myself that I’m still the player that I’ve been since I was a kid,” he said. “So just coming in, working and killing, I just proved myself right.”
Jamichael Stillwell Milwaukee PF (From Atlanta)
(Goins)
6’8 forward who averaged 13.0 PPG and 10.7 RPG his junior season.
Destiny brought breakout star Jamichael Stillwell to Milwaukee, a journey starting in a Waffle House.
Jamichael Stillwell has an insatiable appetite for the ball when he’s on the court, woven into his identity as a basketball player. It’s who he always has been. It's who he always will be.
But when the Milwaukee Panthers’ coaching staff flew to meet with him during a recruiting visit last year, Stillwell was just plain hungry.
Stillwell had recently gotten out of a four-day stay in the hospital due to a tumultuous bout with mononucleosis. He had lost 25 pounds in a matter of a couple of weeks and was largely alone in a town of 12,000 in western Kansas, where the only people he knew were on his team at Butler Community College.
Stillwell had started off the year as a hot commodity in the junior college recruiting circles, pulling down staggering rebound totals night after night. But then Stillwell got sick, missed a chunk of games and saw his production plummet upon returning. Coaches who had been blowing up his phone stopped texting. But not the ones from Milwaukee.
Panthers assistant coach Jake Williams, who heads up the team's recruiting, had done his homework during a JUCO caravan the previous fall. He knew the kind of player he had on his hands when healthy. By the time Williams and head coach Bart Lundy arrived to meet with Stillwell, they knew what kind of player they needed, too: a mobile, strong power forward who could fight and scrap in the post on defense.
But, just as important, they knew the player needed some food.
“We met Jamichael in the morning at a Waffle House,” Lundy said. “Fed him. Fed him some more. Talked to him. I think we were the only ones that ever came to see him.”
The staff devised a plan for the 6-foot-8 forward to regain his weight and Stillwell bought in – both to the plan and the program. When he visited the campus in Milwaukee, he was sold.
“I feel like loyalty is everything,” Stillwell said. “A lot of schools got down on me after I got sick. But Milwaukee always believed they could get me back to where I was.”
The pairing has worked out perfectly.
Stillwell has given the Panthers what they needed: a versatile power forward.
Stillwell is the leading rebounder in the Horizon League and fifth in the nation at 10.9 rebounds per game while also contributing 13.5 points. Milwaukee has gone from a team that could hardly grab a defensive board in Lundy’s first two years to the team with the best rebounding margin in the country.
And the Panthers have given Stillwell what he needed: a chance to prove himself.
To see Stillwell play, to watch him rebound like a turbo-charged border collie, is to understand his story. Observe the motor with which he competes, view the drive in his eyes as a loose ball floats toward him. That’s all you need to see to know Stillwell has taken a road less traveled to get to this point.
“I feel like nobody, or at least a lot of people, wouldn't be able to walk a mile in my shoes,” Stillwell says.
He sits back in a chair inside the Panthers’ team lounge, a tattoo on his forearms "Fear God" showing, and removes the prescription sunglasses he wears to aid with his astigmatism. Stillwell has a story, and he wants to share it
Stillwell’s basketball career began as a freshman at Frederick Douglass High in northwest Atlanta. Before enrolling at Douglass, Stillwell attended an alternative middle school, was moved to a public school in seventh grade but was placed right back in the alternative school shortly after. He didn’t always have one steady place to call home.
“I grew up everywhere,” he said. “We were moving from here to here, east to west. Any side (in Atlanta), I can come to it and everybody knows me.”
Stillwell had never played basketball competitively before enrolling at Douglass, but went out for the team at the begging of the school’s varsity coach. From the jump, Stillwell had little understanding of the game but an innate knack for rebounding. Douglass’ girls basketball head coach, Morgan Jennings, a former player at Auburn who would eventually become Stillwell’s godmother, would buy him 10-piece chicken wing combos for double-doubles.
Despite the on-court success, public high school in Atlanta wasn’t for Stillwell. He skipped class – frequently – and struggled with his grades. It all came to a head when he was suspended for gambling.
By the time Stillwell was a junior, he made up his mind to transfer. There was an upstart prep school that drew his interest. It was all the way in Fort Wayne, Indiana, far from home, but for Stillwell that wasn’t a problem.
Stillwell spent half a year at Elevation Prep in Fort Wayne before transferring again, this time to a prep school in Tennessee.
Then, Stillwell’s life was flipped upside-down again. Two people close to him were killed in the same month in Atlanta. Then, he became a father to a baby girl, Amia Kior. The dramatic changes led to Stillwell stepping away from the game altogether for a time his senior year.
But Stillwell couldn’t find it in him to walk away for good. Basketball was his ticket. He re-enrolled at Elevation Prep and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds, the type of production sure to land him a D-I scholarship.
The only problem?
“He wasn’t academically eligible,” Lundy said.
Instead, Stillwell landed at Miami Dade College, a junior college where he played one season before transferring to Butler in El Dorado, Kansas. Those stops were filled with long bus rides, no media attention and gyms often lined with only dozens of fans. For Stillwell, though, it was worth it.
“I wasn’t tripping by taking the JUCO route,” he said. “I felt like I grinded it out. It was either I’m going to keep doing it or I’m going to go back to the city and do nothing. Ain’t nothing for me there.”
Stillwell has a complicated relationship with his hometown. It’s the city that molded him, where his mother raised him. Atlanta will always be home.
“People back home, they see what I'm doing here and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I salute you little bro.’ Like, ‘Yeah, you’re the one,’” Stillwell said. “So, yeah, I just keep that in mind and try to achieve better.”
Most important, Atlanta is where Amia, now 3 years old, is.
“I don’t get to see her much because of basketball,” Stillwell said. “It can be months without her seeing me. We’re on the phone all the time, always talking.
But there’s also other reminders for Stillwell every time he goes back to Atlanta, ones not filled with love and happy memories. It represents home, sure, but it’s also where those close to him were killed and others went down the wrong path.
“A lot of my folks got shot,” Stillwell said, his voice low and quiet, but clear. “A lot of my folks were strictly in the streets. It was their way out.”
Stillwell doesn’t go into any more details. There’s no need for him to. The tone of his voice, a paintbrush of a grim, vivid reality, says enough.
“That’s why I feel better out of town,” Stillwell continues. “There’s nothing in the city but trouble. That’s why when I got back to the city, I’m just chilling. I’ll kind of go outside a little bit, but it’s a lot of people there who envy people. They hate to see you winning.”
A follow-up question is asked: Does Stillwell ever think about what position he’d be in if he had stayed?
“I wouldn’t even be here right now talking to you,” Stillwell responds.
But Stillwell is here right now, 800 miles from home, trying to lead a program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade.
He doesn't love all the decisions he's made in the past, he says, but not this one. To go back to basketball, to keep playing through junior college, to come to Milwaukee, he has set himself up for a better future. More importantly, he’s quick to point out, he hopes he’s setting Amia up for the same.
“Right now,” he says, sitting on a campus where he posted a 3.5 grade-point average and is making a name for himself on the court, “it’s all working out.”
When a shot bounces off the rim, this is who opponents have to try and stop – a young man whose will has been forged in the fire. Not by choice, but by necessity.
It’s the road less traveled, no question about it. But the Panthers sure are glad that it winded its way through Milwaukee.
“I would say that, when Jamichael is at his peak with his energy, that we are as good a mid-major basketball team as there is in the country,” Lundy said. “He means everything.”
Corey Chest PF LSU
LSU men’s basketball’s Corey Chest, a redshirt freshman, will enter the transfer portal, according to his social media.
The 6-foot-8 forward played 26 games and averaged 6.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 20.1 minutes per game.
Chest didn’t play the final four games of the 2024-25 season due to a foot issue. Before his injury, he was replaced in the starting lineup after making 19 starts. Coach Matt McMahon employed a four-guard lineup and kept redshirt junior Daimion Collins as the lone big.
McMahon repeatedly complimented Chest’s rebounding abilities and motor this season.
“It's energy, it's effort,” McMahon said. “Nothing I can coach. He just has a natural feel for how to go chase rebounds and pursue the ball, and he continues to do it at a high level. One of the better instinctual rebounders I've been around in my time.”
The athletic forward’s best game was a 12-point and 18-rebound outing against then-No. 4 Alabama on Jan. 25.
Probable Contact
Jeremiah Wilkinson California SG from Powder Springs, GA
6'1 freshman averaging 15.1 PTS, 1.9 REB, 1.5 AST, and a 39.9 FG% in 32 games played this season.
HS Probable Contact
Dante Allen SG Montverde Academy, Florida
Statement from Dante Allen and his father Malik Allen, per Dante’s social media account:
“After careful consideration, Dante has made the decision to re-open his recruitment. Our family is forever grateful for the role Villanova University has played in our life. Dante formed a special bond with the coaching staff there. Given the recent announcement of a leadership change, we feel it is best to explore our options as Dante considers his next step.”
Keep an eye on Nick Boyd PG SD State formerly at FAU. There is a prior relationship there with our staff. Social media new follow.
Brandon Rechsteiner PG VPI (ARD)
I believe another contact, played HS BB at Etowah
Zarique Nutter Georgia State SG
6-7, 210-pound G-F
GA St Grad Transfer
Last season: 14.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.1 apg
True slasher, finishes through contact while driving, 49.5 FG%
Played at NIU for 2 seasons prior to GA State
Chase Forte South Dakota State SG (Goins)
Forte averaged 17.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists during the 2024-25 season
Treysen Eaglestaff SG North Dakota
Zachary Davis SG/SF South Carolina
Zachary Davis
6'7" 200
Guard
South Carolina
2024-25 Stats (32 Games):
8.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 1.8 APG, 38.0 FG%
Langston Love SG Baylor (Goins)
Baylor junior wing Langston Love has entered the transfer portal after averaging 8.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game this season. He is a career 38.8 percent three-point shooter, and was ranked No. 57 overall by @Rivals in the class of 2021.
WACO, Texas — Baylor redshirt junior guard Langston Love has entered the NCAA transfer portal. The Texas native spent four seasons with head coach Scott Drew’s program and has one year of eligibility remaining.
Love averaged 8.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists over 20 games this season. He was a frontrunner for the Big 12’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2023-24, averaging 11 points per game while shooting 48% from three before an ankle injury ended his season after 24 games.
A former four-star recruit from Montverde Academy, Love missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn ACL. His injury struggles continued the following year when an eye injury sidelined him for three of Baylor’s final four games, limiting him to just five minutes in the NCAA Tournament against No. 14-seeded UC Santa Barbara.
Most recently, Love’s ankle injury forced him to miss 13 of Baylor’s final 15 games in 2023-24, and a lengthy recovery from offseason surgery delayed his return in 2024-25. As a result, he appeared in only eight of the Bears' first 22 games this season.
https://www.kcentv.com/article/spor...rtal/500-cd056db8-93ef-4c3b-a544-117d4db59588
Malik Reneau Indiana PF
Reported by multiple sites
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Two Indiana men’s basketball players entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.
Guard Gabe Cupps and forward Malik Reneau have both announced that they intend to enter the portal. Indiana confirmed that it hired Darian DeVries to be its next men’s basketball coach on Tuesday.
Cupps made his intentions clear on social mediabefore IU announced that DeVries had been hired. Reneau indicated that he’d be entering the portalafter the DeVries was officially named head coach.
Reneau, a junior from Miami, Florida, put up 13.3. points, 5.5 rebounds and two assists per game in 2024-25. He appeared in 26 games and played 23.2 minutes per contest.
Reneau’s numbers decreased slightly between 2023-24 and 2024-25. Two seasons ago, Reneau racked up 15.5 points, 2.7 assists and six rebounds a game.
Mike Woodson is the only head coach Cupps and Reneau have ever played for in college. Last month, IU announced that Woodson would relinquish his head coaching duties at the end of the season.
“I want to thank coach Woodson and his entire staff for giving me an opportunity to play of the University of Indiana. I will miss the fans and all the great people in Bloomington. After discussion with my family, I’ve chosen to enter the portal.”
https://fox59.com/sports/big-10-sports/2-indiana-mens-basketball-players-enter-transfer-portal/
Brandon Walker PF Montana State
CBB Transfer Portal Spotlight
Brandon Walker
6'7" 250
Forward
Montana State
2024-25 Stats (29 Games):
14.7 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 1.6 APG, 53.0 FG%
Montana State forward Brandon Walker enters transfer portal
Montana State junior forward Brandon Walker has entered the transfer portal, he confirmed to the Chronicle on Monday.
An Honorable Mention All-Big Sky selection in both seasons as a Bobcat, the 6-foot-7 Walker has one season of eligibility remaining. The transfer portal officially opens on March 24.
Walker arrived at MSU prior to the 2023-24 season after spending his freshman season at the University of Texas at Arlington, near his hometown of Oak Cliff. After averaging 13.9 points per game for the last two years, Walker said he believes he can take his game to a larger conference. Potentially taking advantage of increased Name, Image and Likeness opportunities played a role in his decision, he said.
“Obviously prayed about it and trusted God, and just wanted better for me and my family,” Walker said. “I’ve been a mid-major (player) my whole college career, so just wanted to experience something different, just see what’s out there and help my family in ways I can.
“Going to a higher conference, that’s the plan. But it’s in God’s hands, so whatever he has planned for me, that’s what I’ll do.”
Walker joins teammate BJ Kolly — a Division II Western Washington transfer who played scattered minutes throughout his one season in Bozeman — in the transfer portal. Kolly announced his decision over the weekend.
Walker lost his spot in the rotation with two games remaining in the regular season, with head coach Matt Logie calling the move a matter of finding the best lineups to execute “the style of play and the vision that we have.” The team won its final pair of games against Sacramento State and Idaho, racking up 39 assists and shooting 59% over that short stretch.
That momentum carried over against Idaho State in the Big Sky Conference Tournament in Boise, Idaho, when the Bobcats had 21 assists and the fourth-best shooting game (63.5%) for the program since 2001.
MSU’s hot shooting ran out in the conference semifinals against Northern Colorado, though, with the team’s 23.6% performance from the field being the worst for the Bobcats since February 2020. Even during those struggles, Logie upheld his decision to keep Walker on the bench.
“With the success we’ve had the last three games, that’s the way we were going to go down fighting,” Logie said after the season-ending loss last Tuesday, a game he was ejected from after two technical fouls in the second half.
Walker said the loss of playing time did not influence his choice to transfer.
“The decision they made, it is what it is. I respect it. I’m just glad I got to see certain guys hoop out there and play really good,” he said. “Jabe (Mullins), Pat (McMahon), Chika (Nduka), seeing those guys hoop made me happy. Obviously, it was tough, but I just had to be there for my teammates. Not a reason why I’m transferring or anything like that, but I’m just happy for those guys that they got to play and just show what they can do.”
Walker said he made the decision to transfer after the season ended. His conversation with the coaching staff, he said, was amicable.
“It was all love in the meeting,” Walker said. “I support them. They got my support for life, and I got theirs.”
Despite a difficult end to his MSU career, Walker said he is leaving Bozeman with fond memories.
“When we went to the March Madness tournament (in 2024), that group was fun,” Walker said. “Obviously this season didn’t go how we planned, but we had some fun times. Just the community, how they showed love and stuff like that, being a part of a winning culture, and being able to go have the experience at the dance was pretty fun. I’m going to cherish it forever.”
Over two seasons at MSU, Walker was one of the more heavily used and efficient offensive players in the Big Sky and the country. He shot 54.6% from the field and averaged 4.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. He also expanded his game out to the 3-point line, where he shot 34.8% overall as a Bobcat but was shooting 38.6% from deep this season.
In his 64 games for MSU, he scored in double figures 49 times. Walker memorably scored 26 points in just his third game, helping the Bobcats defeat California in November 2023 for the program’s first win over a power conference school since 2018. He also scored 14 points in last season’s First Four game at the NCAA Tournament against Grambling, and he had a career-high 31 points this past December at UC Riverside.
Walker thanked Logie and each of his assistants by name for giving him the opportunity to play as much as he did and “just letting me be me and making basketball fun again for me,” he said.
“They had a big part of me being productive,” Walker added.
After having what he called an unsatisfactory freshman season at UTA, Walker said he “had some dark days” and saw his confidence wane. His two years at Montana State, he said, helped revive his basketball career.
“Just proving to myself that I’m still the player that I’ve been since I was a kid,” he said. “So just coming in, working and killing, I just proved myself right.”
Montana State forward Brandon Walker enters transfer portal
“Obviously prayed about it and trusted God, and just wanted better for me and my family. I've been a mid-major (player) my whole college career, so just wanted to experience
www.bozemandailychronicle.com
Jamichael Stillwell Milwaukee PF (From Atlanta)
(Goins)
6’8 forward who averaged 13.0 PPG and 10.7 RPG his junior season.
Destiny brought breakout star Jamichael Stillwell to Milwaukee, a journey starting in a Waffle House.
Jamichael Stillwell has an insatiable appetite for the ball when he’s on the court, woven into his identity as a basketball player. It’s who he always has been. It's who he always will be.
But when the Milwaukee Panthers’ coaching staff flew to meet with him during a recruiting visit last year, Stillwell was just plain hungry.
Stillwell had recently gotten out of a four-day stay in the hospital due to a tumultuous bout with mononucleosis. He had lost 25 pounds in a matter of a couple of weeks and was largely alone in a town of 12,000 in western Kansas, where the only people he knew were on his team at Butler Community College.
Stillwell had started off the year as a hot commodity in the junior college recruiting circles, pulling down staggering rebound totals night after night. But then Stillwell got sick, missed a chunk of games and saw his production plummet upon returning. Coaches who had been blowing up his phone stopped texting. But not the ones from Milwaukee.
Panthers assistant coach Jake Williams, who heads up the team's recruiting, had done his homework during a JUCO caravan the previous fall. He knew the kind of player he had on his hands when healthy. By the time Williams and head coach Bart Lundy arrived to meet with Stillwell, they knew what kind of player they needed, too: a mobile, strong power forward who could fight and scrap in the post on defense.
But, just as important, they knew the player needed some food.
“We met Jamichael in the morning at a Waffle House,” Lundy said. “Fed him. Fed him some more. Talked to him. I think we were the only ones that ever came to see him.”
The staff devised a plan for the 6-foot-8 forward to regain his weight and Stillwell bought in – both to the plan and the program. When he visited the campus in Milwaukee, he was sold.
“I feel like loyalty is everything,” Stillwell said. “A lot of schools got down on me after I got sick. But Milwaukee always believed they could get me back to where I was.”
The pairing has worked out perfectly.
Stillwell has given the Panthers what they needed: a versatile power forward.
Stillwell is the leading rebounder in the Horizon League and fifth in the nation at 10.9 rebounds per game while also contributing 13.5 points. Milwaukee has gone from a team that could hardly grab a defensive board in Lundy’s first two years to the team with the best rebounding margin in the country.
And the Panthers have given Stillwell what he needed: a chance to prove himself.
To see Stillwell play, to watch him rebound like a turbo-charged border collie, is to understand his story. Observe the motor with which he competes, view the drive in his eyes as a loose ball floats toward him. That’s all you need to see to know Stillwell has taken a road less traveled to get to this point.
“I feel like nobody, or at least a lot of people, wouldn't be able to walk a mile in my shoes,” Stillwell says.
He sits back in a chair inside the Panthers’ team lounge, a tattoo on his forearms "Fear God" showing, and removes the prescription sunglasses he wears to aid with his astigmatism. Stillwell has a story, and he wants to share it
Stillwell’s basketball career began as a freshman at Frederick Douglass High in northwest Atlanta. Before enrolling at Douglass, Stillwell attended an alternative middle school, was moved to a public school in seventh grade but was placed right back in the alternative school shortly after. He didn’t always have one steady place to call home.
“I grew up everywhere,” he said. “We were moving from here to here, east to west. Any side (in Atlanta), I can come to it and everybody knows me.”
Stillwell had never played basketball competitively before enrolling at Douglass, but went out for the team at the begging of the school’s varsity coach. From the jump, Stillwell had little understanding of the game but an innate knack for rebounding. Douglass’ girls basketball head coach, Morgan Jennings, a former player at Auburn who would eventually become Stillwell’s godmother, would buy him 10-piece chicken wing combos for double-doubles.
Despite the on-court success, public high school in Atlanta wasn’t for Stillwell. He skipped class – frequently – and struggled with his grades. It all came to a head when he was suspended for gambling.
By the time Stillwell was a junior, he made up his mind to transfer. There was an upstart prep school that drew his interest. It was all the way in Fort Wayne, Indiana, far from home, but for Stillwell that wasn’t a problem.
Stillwell spent half a year at Elevation Prep in Fort Wayne before transferring again, this time to a prep school in Tennessee.
Then, Stillwell’s life was flipped upside-down again. Two people close to him were killed in the same month in Atlanta. Then, he became a father to a baby girl, Amia Kior. The dramatic changes led to Stillwell stepping away from the game altogether for a time his senior year.
But Stillwell couldn’t find it in him to walk away for good. Basketball was his ticket. He re-enrolled at Elevation Prep and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds, the type of production sure to land him a D-I scholarship.
The only problem?
“He wasn’t academically eligible,” Lundy said.
Instead, Stillwell landed at Miami Dade College, a junior college where he played one season before transferring to Butler in El Dorado, Kansas. Those stops were filled with long bus rides, no media attention and gyms often lined with only dozens of fans. For Stillwell, though, it was worth it.
“I wasn’t tripping by taking the JUCO route,” he said. “I felt like I grinded it out. It was either I’m going to keep doing it or I’m going to go back to the city and do nothing. Ain’t nothing for me there.”
Stillwell has a complicated relationship with his hometown. It’s the city that molded him, where his mother raised him. Atlanta will always be home.
“People back home, they see what I'm doing here and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I salute you little bro.’ Like, ‘Yeah, you’re the one,’” Stillwell said. “So, yeah, I just keep that in mind and try to achieve better.”
Most important, Atlanta is where Amia, now 3 years old, is.
“I don’t get to see her much because of basketball,” Stillwell said. “It can be months without her seeing me. We’re on the phone all the time, always talking.
But there’s also other reminders for Stillwell every time he goes back to Atlanta, ones not filled with love and happy memories. It represents home, sure, but it’s also where those close to him were killed and others went down the wrong path.
“A lot of my folks got shot,” Stillwell said, his voice low and quiet, but clear. “A lot of my folks were strictly in the streets. It was their way out.”
Stillwell doesn’t go into any more details. There’s no need for him to. The tone of his voice, a paintbrush of a grim, vivid reality, says enough.
“That’s why I feel better out of town,” Stillwell continues. “There’s nothing in the city but trouble. That’s why when I got back to the city, I’m just chilling. I’ll kind of go outside a little bit, but it’s a lot of people there who envy people. They hate to see you winning.”
A follow-up question is asked: Does Stillwell ever think about what position he’d be in if he had stayed?
“I wouldn’t even be here right now talking to you,” Stillwell responds.
But Stillwell is here right now, 800 miles from home, trying to lead a program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade.
He doesn't love all the decisions he's made in the past, he says, but not this one. To go back to basketball, to keep playing through junior college, to come to Milwaukee, he has set himself up for a better future. More importantly, he’s quick to point out, he hopes he’s setting Amia up for the same.
“Right now,” he says, sitting on a campus where he posted a 3.5 grade-point average and is making a name for himself on the court, “it’s all working out.”
When a shot bounces off the rim, this is who opponents have to try and stop – a young man whose will has been forged in the fire. Not by choice, but by necessity.
It’s the road less traveled, no question about it. But the Panthers sure are glad that it winded its way through Milwaukee.
“I would say that, when Jamichael is at his peak with his energy, that we are as good a mid-major basketball team as there is in the country,” Lundy said. “He means everything.”
Destiny brought breakout star Jamichael Stillwell to Milwaukee, a journey starting in a Waffle House
It hasn't been an easy road for UW-Milwaukee breakout star Jamichael Stillwell. It's been worthwhile, though.
www.jsonline.com
Corey Chest PF LSU
LSU men’s basketball’s Corey Chest, a redshirt freshman, will enter the transfer portal, according to his social media.
The 6-foot-8 forward played 26 games and averaged 6.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 20.1 minutes per game.
Chest didn’t play the final four games of the 2024-25 season due to a foot issue. Before his injury, he was replaced in the starting lineup after making 19 starts. Coach Matt McMahon employed a four-guard lineup and kept redshirt junior Daimion Collins as the lone big.
McMahon repeatedly complimented Chest’s rebounding abilities and motor this season.
“It's energy, it's effort,” McMahon said. “Nothing I can coach. He just has a natural feel for how to go chase rebounds and pursue the ball, and he continues to do it at a high level. One of the better instinctual rebounders I've been around in my time.”
The athletic forward’s best game was a 12-point and 18-rebound outing against then-No. 4 Alabama on Jan. 25.
LSU basketball redshirt freshman Corey Chest, a New Orleans native, enters transfer portal
LSU men's basketball wing Corey Chest to enter the transfer portal.
www.nola.com
Probable Contact
Jeremiah Wilkinson California SG from Powder Springs, GA
6'1 freshman averaging 15.1 PTS, 1.9 REB, 1.5 AST, and a 39.9 FG% in 32 games played this season.
HS Probable Contact
Dante Allen SG Montverde Academy, Florida
Statement from Dante Allen and his father Malik Allen, per Dante’s social media account:
“After careful consideration, Dante has made the decision to re-open his recruitment. Our family is forever grateful for the role Villanova University has played in our life. Dante formed a special bond with the coaching staff there. Given the recent announcement of a leadership change, we feel it is best to explore our options as Dante considers his next step.”
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