Top College Basketball Transfer Makes Decision After Decommitting From SEC Program
The North Dakota Fighting Hawks didn't exactly fly high this past season. They finished a dismal 12-21, and they obviously have plenty of work to do in order to qualify for the men's NCAA Tournament next spring.
Their road to an NCAA postseason berth just got steeper. Guard Treysen Eaglestaff, their leading scorer this past season, has committed to play for West Virginia next season.
Advertisement
He will be joining a West Virginia Mountaineers team that went 19-13 and didn't reach the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Mountaineers had trouble putting points up on the board, and Eaglestaff should help rectify that problem.
Before committing to West Virginia, Eaglestaff was a South Carolina pledge. He quickly retracted from that transfer portal decision and ultimately chose to continue his college basketball career with the Mountaineers.
Eaglestaff, who has spent all three of his seasons in the NCAA with North Dakota this far, averaged 18.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals a game during the 2024-25 campaign.
Advertisement
He exploded for 51 points and hit eight 3-pointers in a win over San Diego State during the semifinal round of the Summit League playoffs last month.
North Dakota Fighting Hawks guard Treysen Eaglestaff (52). Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
He isn't a consistently deadly 3-point shooter, but overall, he's a potent scorer, and at 6-foot-6, he's a tough cover.
Perhaps playing on a team where he will have more offensive support will help him lift his shooting efficiency. He shot a decent 35.9% from 3-point range but only made 41.6% of his overall shot attempts last season.
West Virginia has Javon Small, a guard who put up 18.6 points and 5.6 assists a game last season. It also obtained guard Chance Moore and forward Brenen Lorient from the transfer portal, and both men should add some punch to its anemic offense.
Advertisement
Related: No. 4 College Basketball Recruit Receives Major Recruiting Update
Related: Duke's Jon Scheyer Suffers Major Recruiting Loss on Sunday
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
36 minutes ago
Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non-revenue sports
Sydney Moore and Sabrina Ootsburg were surrounded by hundreds of college athletes at AthleteCon when news broke that the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement had been approved by a federal judge. In a room full of college athletes, they felt like the only two people who understood the gravity of the situation. 'I'm about to get paid,' Moore said a Division I football player told her. 'Yes, you are about to get paid, and a lot of your women athlete friends are about to get cut,' she responded. Moore acknowledged that her response might be a stretch, but the sprawling House settlement clears the way for college athletes to get a share of revenue directly from their schools and provides a lucky few a shot at long-term financial stability, it raises genuine concerns for others. Schools that opt int will be able to share up to $20.5 million with their athletes over the next year starting July 1. The majority is expected to be spent on high-revenue generating sports, with most projections estimating 75% of funds will go toward football. So what happens to the non-revenue-generating sports which, outside of football and basketball, is pretty much all of them? It's a query that's top of mind for Ootsburg as she enters her senior year at Belmont, where she competes on track and field team. 'My initial thought was, is this good or bad? What does this mean for me? How does this affect me? But more importantly, in the bigger picture, how does it affect athletes as a whole?' Ootsburg said. 'You look at the numbers where it says most of the revenue, up to 75% to 85%, will go toward football players. You understand it's coming from the TV deals, but then it's like, how does that affect you on the back end?' Ootsburg asked. 'Let's say 800k goes toward other athletes. Will they be able to afford other things like care, facilities, resources or even just snacks?' Moore has similar concerns. She says most female athletes aren't worried about how much – if any – money they'll receive. They fear how changes could impact the student-athlete experience. 'A lot of us would much rather know that our resources and our experience as a student-athlete is going to stay the same, or possibly get better, rather than be given 3,000 dollars, but now I have to cover my meals, I have to pay for my insurance, I have to buy ankle braces because we don't have any, and the athletic training room isn't stocked,' Moore said over the weekend as news of Friday night's settlement approval spread. One of the biggest problems, Ootsburg and Moore said, is that athletes aren't familiar with the changes. At AthleteCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, they said, perhaps the biggest change in college sports history was a push notification generally shrugged off by those directly impacted. 'Athletes do not know what's happening,' Ootsburg said. 'Talking to my teammates, it's so new, and they see the headlines and they're like, 'Ok, cool, but is someone going to explain this?' because they can read it, but then there's so many underlying factors that go into this. This is a complex problem that you have to understand the nuances behind, and not every athlete truly does.' Some coaches, too, are still trying to understand what's coming. Mike White, coach of the national champion Texas softball team, called it 'the great unknown right now.' 'My athletic director, Chris Del Conte, said it's like sailing out on a flat world and coming off the edge; we just don't know what's going to be out there yet, especially the way the landscape is changing,' he said at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. 'Who knows what it's going to be?' Jake Rimmel got a crash course on the settlement in the fall of 2024, when he said he was cut from the Virginia Tech cross-country team alongside several other walk-ons. The topic held up the House case for weeks as the judge basically forced schools to give athletes cut in anticipation of approval a chance to play — they have to earn the spot, no guarantees — without counting against roster limits. Rimmel packed up and moved back to his parents' house in Purcellville, Virginia. For the past six months, he's held on to a glimmer of hope that maybe he could return. 'The past six months have been very tough," he said. "I've felt so alone through this, even though I wasn't. I just felt like the whole world was out there – I would see teammates of mine and other people I knew just doing all of these things and still being part of a team. I felt like I was sidelined and on pause, while they're continuing to do all these things.' News that the settlement had been approved sent Rimmel looking for details. 'I didn't see much about roster limits," he said. 'Everyone wants to talk about NIL and the revenue-sharing and I mean, that's definitely a big piece of it, but I just didn't see anything about the roster limits, and that's obviously my biggest concern.' The answer only presents more questions for Rimmel. 'We were hoping for more of a forced decision with the grandfathering, which now it's only voluntary, so I'm a little skeptical of things because I have zero clue how schools are going to react to that," Rimmel told The Associated Press. Rimmel is still deciding what's best for him, but echoed Moore and Ootsburg in saying that answers are not obvious: 'I'm just hoping the schools can make the right decisions with things and have the best interest of the people who were cut.'
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non-revenue sports
Sydney Moore and Sabrina Ootsburg were surrounded by hundreds of college athletes at AthleteCon when news broke that the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement had been approved by a federal judge. In a room full of college athletes, they felt like the only two people who understood the gravity of the situation.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Josh Pearson delivers a storybook performance in Game 1 of super regional
Josh Pearson delivers a storybook performance in Game 1 of super regional When Josh Pearson's name was called, he was ready. The veteran outfielder was tabbed to bat leadoff in Game 1 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional vs. West Virginia. The move was one of several lineup adjustments made by head coach Jay Johnson as the Tigers prepared to face lefty Griffin Kirn. The shuffle included moving Derek Curiel, the typical leadoff man, to the No. 7 hole. Johnson was rewarded for the move with Pearson and Curiel having big days, combining for nine of LSU's 16 RBI. Pearson had two of LSU's biggest hits. He started the rally in the fifth with a leadoff single. The next inning, he hit a grand slam. Seeing Pearson's name atop the lineup caught some by surprise. Pearson saw just four AB's in LSU's regional and had just two hits since May 4. That's usually not the resume of a leadoff hitter in a Super Regional with a trip to Omaha on the line. But Johnson had no doubts. "He's a good player. He's a good hitter. Character, makeup, toughness, raised right, best parents in the world," Johnson said. It can be tough for rotational players to find a rhythm being in and out of the lineup -- but not for Pearson. "He's always ready when we call his name," Johnson said, "He had a good series at South Carolina. He started two of those games. He's the best. He's just the best." Pearson said Johnson texted him on Friday night to tell him he would be in the lineup, but Pearson didn't learn he was batting leadoff until he showed up at the ballpark. "Really, nothing changes. Every day, I kind of show up to the field as if I would be in the lineup at some part of the lineup," Pearson said. Pearson has been around for a long time. He's one of the few holdovers from LSU's 2023 national title team and has been with Johnson since the start at LSU. "Will be odd not having him here. I mean, because that's my only guy. I mean, the four years together, like, that's it," Johnson said. Curiel, a standout true freshman, took a liking to Pearson early. "I'm super proud of Josh," Curiel said, "Josh has been a leader on this team since day one, since I've gotten here. He kind of taught me the ropes, you know, and I look up to him a lot. Two years ago, last year, watching him on TV, I wanted to be his teammate. I wanted to be his friend and he's been like a brother to me." If that was Pearson's final game at Alex Box Stadium, it was a heck of a way to go out. But with the way Pearson swung the bat on Saturday, don't be surprised if he gets a chance to do more damage on Sunday. "It's been awesome. These have been the most fun four years of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm going to miss the box. I'm going to miss playing in the box. We've still got one game tomorrow, so we're going to make the most of it for sure.
