UNLV star basketball player enters transfer portal
Last week, UNLV basketball standout Bryce Hamilton entered the NBA draft. This week, Hamilton entered the NCAA’s transfer portal.
Hamilton on Thursday became the eighth Rebels player to enter the portal since the season concluded last month. The 6-foot-4-inch junior led UNLV in scoring the past two seasons and averaged a career-high 17.9 points in 2020-21, along with 6.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
Stadium’s Jeff Goodman reported that Hamilton intends to leave UNLV. Hamilton did not immediately respond to the Review-Journal’s request for comment.
Hamilton came to UNLV by way of Pasadena, California, where he became a four-star prospect and one of the best players on the West Coast in the high school class of 2018. He played sparingly as a freshman, but emerged during his sophomore year as one of the best players in the Mountain West.
In 2018-19, he averaged 16.0 points and 5.5 rebounds en route to All-Mountain West first-team honors. He was also named to the second team in 2020-21. He announced last week that he was going to explore the NBA draft process without an agent in order to solicit feedback from league personnel.
Hamilton joins fellow rotation players David Jenkins Jr. and Caleb Grill in the transfer portal. Jenkins averaged 14.8 points in 29.2 minutes and Grill averaged 9.1 points in 33.2 minutes. The three combined to account for more than 60 percent of UNLV’s scoring last season.
Freshmen Isaac Lindsey and Devin Tillis previously entered the portal, committing to Wisconsin and UC-Irvine, respectively. Freshmen Jhaylon Martinez and Donavan Yap remain in the transfer portal, along with junior forward Edoardo Del Cadia.
The Rebels have also added three players via the transfer portal in the last week — all of whom played previously in the Big 12. Point guard Jordan McCabe transferred from West Virginia, big man Royce Hamm from Texas and forward Victor Iwuakor from Oklahoma.
Other rostered players include wing Nick Blake, forward Reece Brown, forward Moses Wood and point guard Marvin Coleman.
Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.