SEC school where two Virginia Tech men's basketball transfers went to named portal loser

The 2024 NCAA basketball transfer portal has been rather nuts. Some surprising names have entered or are about to change schools for the 2024-24 season. One school that saw a mass exodus was Virginia Tech and men’s head coach Mike Young.

The veteran has had to work long hours to build a roster for next season with his staff after Sean Pedulla, Lynn Kidd, MJ Collins, and Tyler Nickel entered the portal along with John Camden. Four of the five players have committed to another school for next season and Young has been able to begin to fill out his roster with transfer. He has Ben Burnham from the College of Charleston, Rodney Brown from California, Hysier Miller of Houston, and Toibu Lawal committed to coming to Blacksburg. One school where a pair of former Hokies transferred to was recently named a loser of the transfer portal.

Vanderbilt named a loser of the 2024 basketball transfer portal

It was somewhat of a surprising decision, both Collins and Nickel decided to enter the transfer portal and after spending time together at Virginia Tech last season, they will again be teammates at Vanderbilt in the SEC. 

New coach Mark Byington got Collins and Nickel to commit to the Commodores, but at the very last minute, Vanderbilt lost Ven-Allen Lubin to the portal, which left a massive hole on their roster as he recorded some impressive double-doubles during his time in Nashville after coming over from Notre Dame.

Collins and Nickel will likely both get an expanded role with Vanderbilt, but it doesn’t feel like they are in a better position in terms of winning. It remains to be seen how things play out, but for now, money talked over a chance to win and that’s what college sports is turning into in 2024 right before our eyes.