The offseason heats up: May 27 draft deadline, portal winners, WNBA draft, and the first 2026-27 power rankings
Elliot Cadeau is coming back to Michigan. Louisville just ran the best portal cycle in college basketball. Azzi Fudd went No. 1 in the WNBA Draft. Koa Peat and Andrej Stojakovic have 9 days to decide. This week's full NCAA basketball offseason digest.
The champagne has dried and the brackets have been filed away. But the week of May 12–18 brought a full offseason agenda: an NBA Draft clock ticking toward May 27, a transfer portal that processed nearly 5,000 entries, a WNBA Draft that sent a wave of college stars to the pros, and the first credible preseason top-25 projections for 2026-27. Here's everything that moved the needle.
NBA Draft: Cadeau stays, Peat wavers, Stojakovic leans back
The May 27 withdrawal deadline is the unofficial midpoint of the college basketball offseason — players who declared as early entrants have until that date to pull out and return to school.1
The biggest decision of the week came early. Elliot Cadeau (Michigan point guard, Final Four Most Outstanding Player) officially withdrew from the draft and will return to Ann Arbor for his junior season.2 Cadeau, who averaged roughly 13 points and 6 assists during the Wolverines' championship run, was widely expected to leave but instead will anchor a Michigan squad that already appears in multiple way-too-early top-5 lists.
Two decisions are still pending and leaning toward a return:
- Koa Peat (Arizona, 6'8" forward) had a shaky performance at the NBA Draft Combine and has slipped to No. 30 in some mock drafts. NBA scouts have reportedly encouraged him to return to Tucson for another season.3 Arizona Sports reports he "fully focused" on the draft but has not ruled out coming back.4
- Andrej Stojakovic (Illinois, 6'7" wing, son of NBA great Peja Stojakovic) declared for the draft while keeping his college eligibility and has been working out intensively at the combine. Illinois and scouts both signaled a first-round outcome is not guaranteed, which typically tilts players toward withdrawal.5 He has until May 27 to decide.
The 2026 class is notably smaller than recent years — only 71 early entrants declared, down from 106 in 2025 and a peak of 363 in 2021, partly because of improved NIL compensation keeping players in school longer.6
Transfer portal: Louisville and Tennessee lead a crowded field
The spring portal window (April 7–21) is closed, but the effects are still settling. Nearly 5,000 players entered the portal during the two-week window, and the biggest-name commitments of the cycle have now largely landed.7
Louisville's haul stands above everything else. The Cardinals landed two of the portal's top three players:
- Flory Bidunga (6'9" center, Kansas → Louisville): The top-ranked portal player, who averaged 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds for the Jayhawks. Bidunga was previously reported to have an NIL package in the $5M range.8
- Jackson Shelstad (6'0" point guard, Oregon → Louisville): The Pac-12's leading assist man in 2025-26, now paired with Bidunga to give coach Pat Kelsey one of the most dramatic single-offseason upgrades in recent memory.9
The top-10 portal classes, per 247Sports, shake out as follows:10
| Rank | Program | Notable additions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisville | Flory Bidunga (Kansas), Jackson Shelstad (Oregon) |
| 2 | Tennessee | Multiple SEC-level portal pieces |
| 3 | UNC | Top-100 transfers shoring up frontcourt depth |
| 4–6 | Arkansas, UConn, Duke | Roster-mending additions |
| 7–10 | Providence, Texas A&M, Michigan, Arizona State | Volume and positional need |
Other notable portal moves this week: DJ Wagner (Arkansas guard) committed to Maryland, DJ Jones left Wisconsin (19.1 ppg) and landed at Indiana, and several ACC programs completed late additions ahead of fall practice.11
Meanwhile, Mikey Williams — once one of the most recruited high school players in the country, now a junior at Sacramento State averaging 17 points — withdrew from the transfer portal and is staying with the Hornets.12
WNBA Draft: Fudd goes first, Miles and Rice follow, champions get drafted
The 2026 WNBA Draft, held in late April, sent several national championship-adjacent names to the league.13
The first-round order:
| Pick | Player | College | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Azzi Fudd | UConn | Dallas Wings |
| 2 | Lauren Betts | UCLA | Minnesota Lynx |
| 3 | Olivia Miles | TCU | Seattle Storm |
| 4 | Kiki Rice | UCLA | Toronto Tempo |
| 5+ | Awa Fam | South Carolina | Washington Mystics |
Fudd (UConn guard) signed a rookie contract reported at $500,000 — the top slot under the WNBA's 2025 CBA.14 Rice became the first-ever draft pick in Toronto Tempo history, an expansion team entering its first season.15 UCLA — fresh off its first women's national championship — placed two players in the top four (Betts at No. 2, Rice at No. 4).
Miles, who transferred to TCU for her final college season after playing at Notre Dame, was taken third by Seattle. She averaged over 20 points per game in 2025-26 and was one of the most decorated players of her college generation.16
Of the 45 total draft picks, 29 made Opening Day WNBA rosters — a jump that reflects both league expansion and the improved readiness of this class.
Women's basketball offseason: Cori Close's extension and a pointed NIL warning
UCLA locked up head coach Cori Close with a four-year contract extension through the 2029-30 season, announced Tuesday.17 The deal, which averages a reported figure well above her previous contract, came days after her Bruins routed South Carolina 79-51 for the national championship.
But Close used the attention to raise an alarm about NIL economics. "We just have no boundaries at all," she told reporters. "There's no salary cap. There's no competitive equity."18 Close's critique reflects a growing divide: programs with large NIL collectives are stocking rosters at a pace smaller programs can't match, and several mid-major coaches echoed her concern in separate interviews this week.
On the women's transfer portal side, all top-25 ranked portal players have now committed. The final to land was Kiyomi McMiller, who committed to Florida, closing out the most active women's portal cycle on record.19 The top movers:
- Audi Crooks (6'3" center, Iowa State → Oklahoma State): ranked No. 1 in the portal
- Jordan Lee (guard, Texas → South Carolina): No. 2, a direct reunion with coach Dawn Staley
- Kymora Johnson (guard, Virginia → next program): No. 3 in early rankings
Coaching carousel update: NC State finds its answer, Will Wade moves to LSU
The men's side has seen over 51 coaching changes this cycle (women's: 61), with several of the late-stage openings now filled.20
The most notable hire of the week: NC State named Justin Gainey as head coach on March 30, filling the vacancy left when Will Wade abruptly departed for LSU. Gainey — a former NC State player who had been serving as associate head coach at Tennessee — replaces Wade after a single season in Raleigh.21
Wade himself landed at LSU, replacing Matt McMahon — returning to the program where he won an SEC title before a compliance scandal ended his first tenure there.22 CBS Sports graded Wade's initial LSU roster-building as incomplete, noting his early signing class carries no former NC State players.
Way-too-early 2026-27 rankings: who's building something real
Multiple outlets have released early top-25 projections, and while they'll shift dozens of times before November, the consensus around a few programs is already forming.23
The most consistent top-10 names across polls (On3, ClutchPoints, USA Today, Instagram consensus):
| Tier | Teams appearing in majority of polls |
|---|---|
| Contender tier | Duke, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, UConn |
| Strong second tier | Tennessee, Michigan State, Arkansas, Houston, Alabama |
| Climbing | Louisville (Bidunga/Shelstad haul), Arizona (if Peat returns) |
Michigan appears in the top 2 or 3 of most polls, largely because Cadeau's return makes the defending champion the rare team that actually got better rather than losing its best player. Louisville's meteoric rise — from outside the top 25 to a projected top-5 in some lists — is entirely portal-driven.
For women's basketball, South Carolina is the early No. 1 in ESPN's way-too-early rankings even after losing several key players, owing to coach Dawn Staley's sustained recruiting and Jordan Lee's transfer arrival.24 Oklahoma State, which landed Audi Crooks from Iowa State, is a notable riser.
Dates to watch
- May 27: NBA Draft withdrawal deadline — Koa Peat and Andrej Stojakovic decisions expected by this date
- June 23-24: 2026 NBA Draft (Washington Wizards hold the No. 1 pick)
- October/November: 2026-27 college basketball season tip-off
References
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- 4Arizona Sports: Koa Peat falls to 30th in NBA mock draft
arizonasports.com
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- 8Sporting News: Transfer portal tracker 2026
sportingnews.com
- 9Pro Football Network: College basketball transfer portal tracker
profootballnetwork.com
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- 12
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- 15Yahoo Sports: Kiki Rice impresses Tempo head coach
sports.yahoo.com
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