By Tyler Olsen & Elliot Kwitek
The NCAA Transfer portal is a large part of recruiting in college sports, predominantly in Football and Basketball. The Transfer portal impacts schools in a variety of ways, but smaller schools are arguably affected by the portal more than bigger and more prominent colleges.
Going into the offseason, both the men’s and women’s teams have come off a winning season that improved their record and team play from the previous year. The men’s team went 18-14 this year compared to a 3-29 record the previous year. The women’s team went 27-7 and made the NCAA Tournament, but was eliminated in the first round. Last season, they went 28-6 but did not make the NCAA tournament and were eliminated in the second round of the WNIT tournament. After these teams have shown large improvements from the year, attention now turns to the recruiting and transferring changes these teams have made so far.
Starting the men’s team, they have had six players announce that they are entering the transfer portal for this upcoming season. They are Elijah Jones, Clarence Cummings III, Rich Byhre, Ryan Wade, Noah Reynolds, and Jacob Antchak. Elijah Jones is still looking for a new team to play for in his final year of eligibility in college basketball. Cummings III, Wade, and Antchak have yet to transfer to any team as of late, but UWGB’s star player and Horizon Newcomer Player of the Year Noah Reynolds announced that he is transferring to Texas Christian University for the next season. Reynolds averaged 20.0 PPG, 3.7 REB, 4.5 AST, and shot 51.1% from the field last season for the Phoenix.
Rich Byhre committed to St. Thomas, Minnesota in early April. Byhre said, “The fit at GB wasn’t best suited for the way I play, and I felt that there was a better fit for me out there, and I want to play my last year with no regrets.”
Though many players are experimenting with the portal this offseason, Green Bay has successfully secured commitments from Scottie Ebube, Cole Henry, and Chevalier Emery Jr., all of whom have announced their intentions to play for the Phoenix in the upcoming year. Cole Henry spent the last five years at Northern Iowa and has one season of eligibility remaining.
Henry averaged 3.0 PPG and 1.8 REB per game in 32 games and averaged around 12 – 15 minutes per game. Ebube is coming over from Southern Illinois and will be going into his junior year now with the Phoenix. Ebube played in 31 games and started one last season, he averaged 6.0 PPG, 3.6 REB, and 11.5 minutes per game. During the announcement, Sundance Wicks, the head coach, was excited at Ebube’s decision to transfer to UWGB. “It’s insane when you dive into the film for a guy who is six-foot 10, 275lbs, how explosive he is, how light his feet are,” Wicks said. Chevalier Emery Jr was a standout player at Neenah High School, leading them to a WIAA Division 1 state title in 2022. Emery earned a scholarship out of high school to play at Merrimack College, an NCAA Division 1 school in North Andover, Massachusetts. He appeared in 14 games and only averaged 3.1 minutes per game. After his first season, he entered the transfer portal and ended up at Dodge City Community College. He averaged 18.7 points in 17 starts last season and shot 45.3% overall (107-for 263) and 41.6% from 3-point range (52-for125) while playing 30.6 minutes per game.
After the current transfer situation for the men’s team, their recruiting class is just starting to shape together. The Phoenix have only added Bennett Basich so far into the offseason. Baich is a 6-foot-4 guard who played at Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wisconsin. Arrowhead won a WIAA State Tournament Championship in 2022-23. Basich scored 15.9 points per game, 9.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game this past season.
The women’s transfer portal is less active this offseason so far. No players on the team have entered the portal, but they did land two separate sister duos this offseason; the first duo is Kristina and Julianna Ouimette. Kristina has been recruited by the Phoenix while her older sister Julianna has announced her transfer to UWGB. Kristina originally had a verbal commitment to Lehigh University to play with her sister there, but her sister then transferred to UWGB, and she followed her here.
Kristina Ouimette, ranked ninth in the state in scoring with 27 points per game and second with 7.8 assists. She added 7.3 rebounds, 4.2 steals, and 2.4 blocks while shooting 48% overall and 41.1% from the 3-point range. She is also a two-time player of the year in the Great Northern Conference and has been an all-state selection each of her first three seasons. Her older sister Julianna spent her freshman season at Lehigh University, where a stress fracture in her foot had her only play in five games and 18 total minutes.
The other sister duo that the Phoenix announced will be playing for them are the Ketterhagen twins; Ady and Riley Ketterhagen both wanted to play with each other in college and are now in Green Bay next year. Both Ady and Riley Ketterhagen had successful sophomore campaigns, with Ady reaching the 1,000-point plateau and being named the Big East- South player of the year in addition to the 2024 Lakeshore Elite girls basketball player of the year. Riley was a unanimous first-team all-conference selection like her sister and honorable mention all-Division 3 by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association. The Ketterhagens are from and play for Oostburg, a village in Sheboygan.
This offseason started almost immediately for UWGBs women’s basketball team after the team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to the Tennessee Lady Volunteers 92-63 on March 23. On April 10, one of the most decorated coaches in women’s college basketball, Kevin Borseth, announced his retirement. Borseth coached 37 seasons, 21 of those with Green Bay. In those 21 seasons, he led Green Bay to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances and 16 Horizon League titles.
The search for the Phoenixes fourth head coach in program history began, but the fans and players did not have to wait long as on April 23, it was announced that Kayla Karius was hired and named the next head coach of Green Bay women’s Basketball. Karius previously was the head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of South Dakota where she led the Coyotes to back-to-back winning seasons in the Summit League, including a 23-13 record last season and ended with a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the WNIT Tournament. Karius has stated that her excitement for this position in Green Bay was “amazing,” as Karius played for the basketball team from 2007 to 2011. “I’m thrilled to be returning to my Alma Mater and honored to be only the fourth head coach of Green Bay Women’s Basketball,” Karius remarked. “This is the premier women’s basketball program in our state and is located in one of the most innovative and booming communities. I look forward to carrying on a strong tradition of championships on the court and excellence in the classroom. Thank you to Chancellor Alexander and Athletics Director Josh Moon for entrusting me to lead this storied program.” Kayla is excited to lead a great basketball team and to replace long-time head coach Kevin Borseth, who recruited her when she was a student in 2007. Karius grew up in the Sheboygan area and graduated from Green Bay in 2011.
The men’s basketball coaching situation this offseason has been very eventful. From Sundance Wicks’ 5-year extension and his leaving to coach for the University of Wyoming, the hiring of Doug Gottlieb to replace him, to Zach Malvik getting hired as the head coach of the UW Eau-Claire Blugolds to Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball, Jordan McCabe, getting hired for the Phoenix, it has been a whirlwind for the Phoenix Athletic Director Josh Moon.
Sundance Wicks came into a 3-29 program and made it a winner in just the first season at the helm of the Phoenix going 18-14. Moon said, “Sunny has done such an amazing job in year one, we are thrilled that he will continue to lead the Phoenix for the foreseeable future.” It wasn’t just the play on the floor that helped secure Wicks the extension. The Phoenix men’s basketball team finished the Fall Semester with a 3.25 GPA, the second-highest in the program’s history. Since taking over, Sundance has already built a culture off the court, which translates to winning on the court. However, on May 12, it was announced that Wicks would be abandoning his contract extension in favor of coaching the Cowboys at the University of Wyoming. The university or Wicks will be paying UWGB $705,000 to buy him out of his new contract. Wicks said in a statement in part: “I have so much love for Green Bay and how we life our people up. The rise will not stop now! Thank you for your LOVE and BELIEF Phoenix Phamily. Go Be Great Green Bay!”
Shortly after the Wicks announcement made headlines in Green Bay, sportscaster and talk radio host Doug Gottlieb was announced as the new head coach for the Phoenix men’s basketball.
Zach Malvik was recently hired as the new head coach at UW-Eau Claire. Malvik oversaw the offense this season and was a huge part of the success. Eau-Claire took an interest in Malvik and his offensive mindset early in the hiring process and keyed in on him as one of their top candidates to fill the head coaching position after the resignation of former head coach Matt Siverling. Malvik’s departure from his first head coaching job left a key position open for the Phoenix, and they needed to fill it soon with offseason workouts starting .Jordan McCabe is a former high school basketball standout from Kaukauna, WI, and was hired by the Phoenix on April 30th to fill the void left by Zach Malvik. McCabe started his coaching career at West Virginia last season after finishing up his basketball career where he played for West Virginia and the University of Las Vegas, respectively. West Virginia let go of their coaching staff after going 9-23, leaving Mccabe without a job. McCabe’s contributions to basketball will affect how the Phoenix recruits in-state talent.
The outlook for next season is that both the men’s and women’s teams will improve from this past season as both are having to adjust to new players and coaches on both teams. The transfer portal may be closed, but recruiting never ends, so the news of high school recruits announcing that they want to be a Phoenix will still be going on throughout the rest of the offseason. Despite major changes both on and off the court, the Phoenix are determined to start strong for the next season.
