Cincinnati guard Shon Abaev plans to enter NCAA transfer portal

Cincinnati guard Shon Abaev plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, per On3’s Joe Tipton. Abaev was a coveted recruit in the 2025 recruiting class and a former McDonald’s All-American.

Coming out of high school, Abaev was the No. 27 overall recruit and the No. 8 small forward in his class, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was a four-star recruit as a result.

During his lone season at Cincinnati, Abaev averaged 7.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He played in 24 games for the Bearcats, logging 12 starts along the way.

His decision to transfer away from Cincinnati comes after the Bearcats fired former head coach Wes Miller following a disappointing 2025-26 campaign. They replaced him with former  Utah State  head coach Jerrod Calhoun.

On3’s Pete Nakos reported that Calhoun will have higher NIL support than what Miller was working with. This includes over $10 million in roster payroll this offseason. He’s hoping to lead the Bearcats to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since Mick Cronin was head coach in 2019.

For Calhoun, he was 55-15 at Utah State over two seasons. Most recently, he led them to an NCAA Tournament appearance as a No. 9 seed, defeating No. 8 seed Villanova in the first round before meeting No. 1 seed Arizona en route to the Wildcats’ run to the Final Four.

The NCAA transfer portal officially opens on April 7 and will be open for 15 days afterward. Thousands of athletes are expected to enter the portal during this stretch.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire . The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.