Another week in the college basketball offseason is in the books, and although rosters have started to settle in, there were still teams that made improvements in the past seven days. This will be the first week that there have not been ten winners, but there were five teams that made a jump this week.
#5 - Kansas State
After landing Desi Sills last week, Jerome Tang stayed busy and landed another pickup in the transfer portal in Hofstra transfer Abayomi Iyiola. Abayomi averaged 7.1 PPG and 7.1 RPG last year and should be providing the Wildcats with some much-needed depth down low.
#4 - UNLV
After losing many key pieces from last year's team, Kevin Kruger landed former top 100 recruit Shane Nowell. Shane only saw brief action in 19 games last year at Arizona but will have an opportunity to start and be one of the go-to options for the Runnin' Rebels this year.
#3 - San Diego
Steve Lavin continues to add to an intriguing Toreros roster by landing Weber State transfer Seikou Sisoho Jawara. This will not be Jawara's first time in the WCC as he started his career off at LMU before transferring to Weber State following his freshman season. Last year, the newest Toreros averaged 12.2 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 3 APG, and 1.2 SPG. Jawara should play a key role for Steve Lavin this year.
#2 - Memphis
Penny Hardaway has once again rebuilt his roster into a team that will be expected to be playing in the NCAA tournament come March after landing both Emmanuel Akot and Keonte Kennedy in the transfer portal this week. Akot averaged 10.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 2.8 APG at Boise State last season while Kennedy averaged 14.1 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 1.8 APG, and 1.8 SPG at UTEP. The Tigers still have roster spots to fill, but if Penny Hardaway were to walk into the season with the current roster, they should be heading to the big dance.
#1 - North Carolina
While Memphis had a week that deserved to be ranked number one, North Carolina won the week for me after landing Northwestern transfer, Pete Nance. Nance is a top-five transfer this year and many would consider him the best transfer after averaging 14.6 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.7 APG, and 1.1 BPG last season. The fifth-year senior will replace Brady Manek in the starting lineup and should officially give the Tar Heels the number one spot in the top 25 heading into the season.
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