Story by
Grand Forks Herald
For basketball programs in Summit League, ever-changing rosters become the new normal
- Story byGrand Forks Herald
- For basketball programs in Summit League, ever-changing rosters become the new normal
Aug. 29—GRAND FORKS — Johnny Tauer's first 21 years coaching at St. Thomas were defined by Division III dominance and virtually no roster turnover.
Then, in 2021, the St. Paul school transitioned to Division I and joined the Summit League. Only five players entered the transfer portal in the first four years following the upward move.
Advertisement
This offseason? Six.
It's not just St. Thomas. UND lost nine players to the portal. North Dakota State lost eight.
The Summit League, an eight-team conference that's home to all four DI basketball programs in the Dakotas, lost over 50 players to the transfer portal this year. The portal isn't just a supplemental resource for Summit League programs — it's become a necessity.
The Grand Forks Herald compiled statistics on the 49 players who transferred into the Summit League for the 2025-26 season and played five or more games, then broke them down by division to find out where the conference is finding its next wave of talent.
Advertisement
The statistics illustrate that talent flooded into the conference from nearly every division of college basketball. There were eight transfers from the Power 4, which includes teams competing in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. Mid-major programs — every Division I school outside of the Power 4 — produced 18 transfers.
Eleven came from Division II programs, nine from junior colleges, two from the NAIA and one from Division III.
Nine transfers didn't play at least five games. Of those, five came from mid-major programs, two came from the NAIA and one each from D3 and junior college.
Four of the six 2025-26 First Team Summit League players were first-year transfers. The Player and Newcomer of the Year, Denver's Carson Johnson, was a first-year Division II transfer from Minnesota State Moorhead.
Advertisement
Tauer, hired in 2000 as an assistant and promoted to head coach in 2011, stressed — as did three other Summit League coaches — that a player's previous level didn't play a major role in the recruiting process.
"We certainly pay attention to where somebody's been, the pedigree, but I don't think we care at all," Tauer said. "There's examples (of success) for D1 high-major, D1 mid-majors, D2, D3 and JUCO. It's really trying to find the best players and the best fits."
Tauer didn't recruit Nick Janowski in high school. But when Janowski entered the transfer portal after a redshirt season at Nebraska, Tauer quickly reached out.
While Tauer was working on a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he would often play pickup basketball with Nick's dad, Brian.
Advertisement
Nick Janowski ultimately committed to St. Thomas, where he earned Summit League Freshman of the Year honors and a spot on the All-Summit League first team in 2025-26.
"I think that relationship certainly helped," Tauer said. "People have likened the transfer portal to speed dating. If you like that analogy, when you have some mutual connections, you already know somebody in their circle, that builds a certain level of trust."
Power 4 transfers were among the Summit League's best players this season.
The eight players from the Power 4 in the Summit League last year who played in five or more games averaged 10.6 points and 24.3 minutes per game. Janowski and Omaha's Paul Djobet, who came from Miami, each landed on the All-Summit League First Team.
Advertisement
"If you're a guy who ends up at the Power 4, the majority of the time you're obviously very talented," Oral Roberts head coach Kory Barnett said. "You've known what it looks like to be able to compete on a daily basis at that level, which is really, really hard. So when they come to our level, they bring that competitive energy, and to me it's all about the mindset that you bring. ... If you come down and think, 'Hey, I'm from the Big 10, I'm just going to go hoop in the Summit,' that's not how this works."
The Summit League's transfers from the top tier often either had previous connections with the coaching staff or were looking to move closer to home.
At Oral Roberts, Connor Dow transferred from Oklahoma State and Ofri Naveh came from West Virginia. They became starters for the Golden Eagles and averaged over 10 points per game.
When Barnett spent a season as an assistant at West Virginia in 2024-25, he coached Naveh. Dow is a native of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, less than 30 minutes from the Oral Roberts campus in Tulsa.
Advertisement
They both fit the Golden Eagles' desired profile.
"Finding kids that are faith-based, who not only are just like, 'Hey, I'll go to ORU, play basketball,' but that know what ORU is, who want to represent it in the right way, that's really important to us," Barnett said. "It makes it to where we have to throw pretty much everything else out. I really don't care where they're from. ... If they fit who we are and what we're building, then awesome."
Beyond Janowski, St. Thomas had two additional Power 4 transfers in 2025-26: Isaiah Johnson-Arigu and Austin Herro.
Tauer recruited Johnson-Arigu at nearby Totino-Grace High School, and St. Thomas had previously recruited players from Herro's AAU program.
Advertisement
On average, Division II players weren't as productive as Power 4 players, averaging 7.4 points, 1.1 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 18.4 minutes per game. The players who found success, however, were outstanding.
Many had prior connections to the coaching staff.
Carson Johnson transferred to Denver from Minnesota State Moorhead to follow his former coach. He was clearly the best Division II transfer last season and arguably the best addition in the league.
The Pioneers hired Tim Bergstraser in 2025. He brought four players with him.
Johnson wasn't the only standout from the group who came along with Bergstraser from Moorhead. Logan Kinsey also became a starter for Denver, averaging 11.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. Shaun Wysocki was a contributor off the bench as well.
Advertisement
Beyond the MSUM transfers, Bergstraser added Zane Nelson, a graduate transfer from Division II's Missouri Western State. His 13.3 points per game were the second-highest among first-year Division II transfers in the Summit League last year.
The mid-majors had similar success. Though the transfers averaged slightly fewer points (6.5), minutes (17.2) and assists (2.6) than their Division II and Power 4 counterparts, there were multiple high-level standouts.
Ty Harper, a transfer from Youngstown State, led Oral Roberts and all first-year mid-major transfers with 17.8 points per game. Barnett previously recruited Harper while coaching at Nevada.
South Dakota's Jordan Crawford, Denver's Jeremiah Burke and North Dakota State's Markhi Strickland were the only other first-year mid-major transfers who averaged double-digit points.
Advertisement
At a press conference following UND's 70-62 loss to North Dakota State in the Summit League tournament championship in March, Fighting Hawks head coach Paul Sather was asked if the strong season was something to build on.
"You hope so, right?" Sather said. "Every year now, you start with a new team. Just being real — free agency starts."
Sather's comments proved prescient. Between graduating seniors and departing transfers, the Hawks enter the 2026-27 season with just three players from 2025-26.
Building a target list is one of the first steps of the offseason rebuild. Once the portal floodgates open, the next step is often eliminating targets. Are they interested? Are they the right fit? And, in the age of NIL (name, image, likeness) payments, what price demands do they seek?
Advertisement
Many players — if not most, according to three of the coaches interviewed for this story — have agents when they enter the transfer portal.
"You don't always love to lead off the conversation with the money piece," South Dakota State head coach Bryan Petersen said. "But pretty early in the process, you've got to have an idea of what either the representation or the players are looking for, and you see if it matches."
The Division I portal did not open until March 24 in 2025 and opened on April 7 in 2026. Some of the first players approached by Summit League teams are junior college and Division II athletes — those who can be contacted before that window.
JUCO athletes are heavily recruited by Summit League programs, and a handful became strong contributors last year. Three averaged over 10 points per game.
Advertisement
Ultimately, Summit League coaches agree that talent can come from anywhere. The transfer portal's shifting landscape has widened the talent pool, but fit still matters as much as ability.
"Throw the JUCO, portal, all that stuff out," Sather said. "You're building a roster of guys that you think are to the level that we need, and the kind of people that we need. ... These are guys that could play at this level. You just start recruiting that."
