North Dakota State basketball has seen five players enter the transfer portal so far and within the last week, four have found new homes. Boden Skunberg is the lone exception but has heard from an abundance of schools including UCF of the Big 12. The five portal entrants are the most since the 2022 offseason when five players entered the portal.
Sophom*ore guard Lance Waddles was the first to find new quarters, committing to Summit League-foe Omaha last Tuesday.Through two seasons in Fargo, the6-foot-3 guard played in 58 games while averaging 4.6 points per game in 13.2 minutes per game. Waddles' averages and shooting splits were up from his freshman campaign, raising his scoring average from 3.8 PPG to 5.4 PPG and his shooting splits to .438/.313/.684.
Due to his offensive skillset, Waddles saw an uptick in minutes once February rolled around. He most notably scored nine points on 3 of 5 shooting in a huge overtime win against South Dakota State and nine days later scored 10 points and buried a pair of threes in a win over Omaha. However, Waddles averaged just 9.5 MPG in the final six contests.
He joins an Omaha team that finished 14-17 and in sixth place in the Summit League standings under Chris Crutchfield but was vastly improved from a three-year run where the Mavericks went 19-67 from 2020-23. However, the program has seen the departures of six players in the transfer portal, including first-team All-Summit performer Frankie Fidler, and big man Nick Davis to graduation. Waddles' shooting could help out a Mavericks team that finished last in the Summit League in three-point percentage.
Enough said?‼️@CoachCrutchUNO @KyanBrown #committed pic.twitter.com/xRydMRa7Aa
— LanceKabob (@WaddlesLance) April 2, 2024
Following his teammate to Omaha is junior forward Josh Streit. On the same day as Waddles made his announcement, the 6-foot-9 big made his commitment to the 'Big O' for his final season. The Watkins, Minn. native stuck around in Fargo for three seasons but saw his role on the court diminish. As a freshman, Streit played in just 17 games, averaging only 4.5 minutes per contest. He saw much more action on the floor in 2022-23, averaging 1.8 PPG and 3.1 RPG on 71-percent shooting on just 39 field goal attempts.
This past season, Streit did not exceed more than six minutes in a game in the past two months of the season and saw his minutes cut in half from his sophom*ore season. Known as a hard worker and a guy who gives tremendous effort and a rebounding presence, Streit could bolster Omaha's defense which finished just seventh in the Summit League a year ago.
The third now-former Bison to find a new home was Sam Hastreiter, who will continue his collegiate career just across the river at MSU-Moorhead of the NSIC he announced last Saturday. Like Waddles and Streit, Hastreiter's minutes were even more sparse throughout the season. The 6-foot-7 Lincoln, Neb. native played in just 11 games this past season and sawplaying time for less than two minutes in nine of those 11 games. The remaining two games came against non-DI schools Wisconsin-Stout and Oak Hills Christian.
In his first year at NDSU, Hastreiter displayed his high-level shooting, knocking down 43.6 percent of his three-point shots including a career-high 24 points on a percent 7 of 7 from deep in just his third collegiate game against Pacific. He finished his Bison career averaging 2.9 PPG and 2.1 RPG in 40 career gameswith 48/43/68 shooting splits.
He joins a Dragon team that finished third in the NSIC behind UM-Duluth and D-II champion Mankato with an 18-4 league record and 25-6 record overall. The strong-shooting wing adds a sparkto Tim Bergstraser's team that finished second-to-last in the league in three-point percentage (29.8 percent). Hastreiter, like Waddles, has two years of eligibility remaining.
Committed!!@MSUM_MBB pic.twitter.com/wgZ0729Jfm
— sam hastreiter (@sam_hastreiter) April 6, 2024
That leaves the most recent Bison to go portaling, also in the state of his two former teammates, Andrew Morgan. The 6-foot-10 Waseca, Minn. native has chosen to play his final season for former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg at the University of Nebraska, he announced Monday. Morgan was named to the All-Summit League second team following the 2023-24 season after averaging 15.6 PPG and 5.8 RPG in league play on 62-percent shooting, good for second in the league. He also improved his free throw shooting, an issue from his sophom*ore year, from 54.9 percent to 70.3 percent.
Morgan reportedly chose Nebraska over Minnesota, which is just over an hour from his hometown but both had his major and was blown away by the facilities. Morgan also had an in-home visit with Hoiberg and traveled down to campus last Wednesday right before the dead period according to Huskers247. Morgan joins a program that is coming off its best season since former NDSU head coach Tim Miles was in town but hasyet to win an NCAA Tournament game. The Huskerssaw a mass exodus once the portal opened but could see three of its top four scorers return. Morgan is the third consecutive player to transfer to a Power-4 school and the second to Nebraska after Sam Griesel did so in 2022.
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Without question, the Summit League has a portal problem and hashad a head-scratching45 players enter the transfer portal thus far. SDSU's Zeke Mayo committing to his hometown Kansas Jayhawks and Omaha's Luke Jungers committing to Iona are the only other players to announce their new destinations.
The Bison currently have just seven players on track for the 2024-25 roster from last season - Damari Wheeler-Thomas, Jacari White, Tajavis Miller, Noah Feddersen, Jeremiah Burke, Darik Dissette, Eli Bradley - and four new commits in Treyson Anderson, Isaia Howard, Andy Stefonowicz and newly-signed Carson Smith. Smith is the son of Utah head coach Craig Smith, who was also previously the head coach of Utah State and South Dakota and an NDSU assistant from 2004-07.
— Carson Smith (@CarsonS67635575) April 1, 2024100 Committed!!?
Thank you to Coach Richman and the NDSU Coaching staff for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. Thank you to all of my Coaches who have helped me and most importantly, THANK YOU to my family who have always supported me! @CoachRichman @NDSUmbb pic.twitter.com/1s2yAMZAfk
Teams are allotted 13 scholarshipsand while the Bison have kept their eyes on several players, Northern State transfer and West Fargo native Jacksen Moni is the only player with an official offer. Moni has one year remaining and has six other offers. The portal is open through May 1.
