Times are tough in Morgantown this March, and West Virginia basketball is still reeling from one of the biggest NCAA Tournament shockers in recent history. The Mountaineers were snubbed from the March Madness bracket despite a solid resume that included six Quad 1 wins and a .500 record in one of the toughest conferences in America.
Now, after West Virginia predictably declined all invitations to some of the auxiliary postseason tournaments, the reality of the offseason in college sports has already begin. On Monday morning, guard Jonathan Powell entered the transfer portal, according to Joe Tipton of On3 Sports.
Powell had a very strong freshman season with the Mountaineers, playing in all 32 games and getting over 390 minutes of playing time per game. He finished the season as the fourth-leading scorer on the team with 8.3 points per game, and was one of the key scorers on the team after Tucker DeVries went down with an injury.
The 6-foot-6 wing will be an intriguing prospect that many teams will be looking at in the portal due to his two-way impact. He is a former three-star recruit and had interest from Alabama and Illinois during his recruiting process, so those are two early schools to watch when their NCAA Tournament runs come to an end.
Powell has some things to clean up with his offensive game, namely his efficiency. The sample size was low, but Powell finished the season just 12-for-25 from the free throw line in 2024-25 for West Virginia. However, there should be optimism that he can get that cleaned up based on his 35% 3-point clip on 182 attempts.
Powell also still has plenty of room to grow as a player as he enters his sophomore season. He spent his freshman year operating in a West Virginia offense that simply wasn’t very good and didn’t provide him with very much space to operate on the perimeter. His 3-point shooting and length on the wing will be a highly-coveted asset for a lot of big schools in the portal.
The post Standout West Virginia freshman bolts for transfer portal after NCAA Tournament snub appeared first on ClutchPoints.
