By Chris Marler
There are only three days left of the basketball transfer portal’s door being open. We get a weekend full of visits and more commits coming. Here’s our daily portal update for Saturday April 19.
By the numbers
Friday saw 34 players enter the portal with 25 committing. The total players in the portal jumps up to 1,193 and 312 have committed to a new school. That number is still relatively low at 26 percent of the Division I players finding a new home.
That wildest number that was reached was 4,500. That’s because the combined number of players in Division I, II, and III passed the 4,500 mark on Friday. That’s more than football from the previous cycle.
The Ole Miss-LSU rivalry isn’t dying out anytime soon
It was a shock that LSU freshman guard Jada Richard entered the portal in the first place. Her destination was far more shocking.
Richard chose Ole Miss as her transfer destination. The Rebels have gotten off to a really strong start with six players brought in since the portal opened. Their seventh was quite possibly the crown jewel. Richard started 34 games last season for the Tigers and averaged 9.5 ppg.
The back and forth between LSU and Ole Miss has been a wild one over the last six months since Lane Kiffin left Oxford for Baton Rouge. This will only add fuel to the fire, and in the latest installment, it was the Rebels who got the last laugh.
BREAKING: LSU transfer Jada Richard has committed to Ole Miss.
The 5-7 sophomore averaged 9.5 ppg and 3.3 apg this season.
TRACKER: https://t.co/wYv1Ze6704 pic.twitter.com/m7YQmhot7L
— Talia Goodman (@TaliaGoodmanWBB) April 17, 2026
One is the loneliest number
Vanderbilt got two pledges from players on Friday, and Georgia landed one, as well. That means that LSU is now the only team in the SEC that is without a single commitment from the portal.
They’re not in the worst company, as six other programs are also currently sitting at zero. LSU, along with TCU, Duke, St. John’s, SMU, Stanford and Iowa, are without a commitment.
Of the 78 programs that make up the high major conferences, 71 have at least one commitment. The issue for LSU is that while there may be six other teams without a transfer portal commitment, all 77 other teams in the country have at least one player returning from last year’s squad or coming in from their recruiting class.
LSU is the only program in the country without a single player coming in at all.
BREAKING: LSU transfer PF Michael Nwoko has signed with Xavier, @PeteNakos reports⚔️https://t.co/0re1g76cPu pic.twitter.com/Rp1tbKWzAo
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal) April 8, 2026
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