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Reports: Oklahoma Sophomore Enters Transfer Portal

The last of Lon Kruger's players are now gone as Kingfisher guard Bijan Cortes has reportedly decided to leave Porter Moser's squad.
John E. Hoover|
Reports: Oklahoma Sophomore Enters Transfer Portal
Reports: Oklahoma Sophomore Enters Transfer Portal

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Oklahoma Sooners

The last vestiges of the Lon Kruger era are now gone.

Bijan Cortes, Oklahoma's sophomore guard from nearby Kingfisher, has reportedly decided to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, according to a Twitter post from Verbal Commits.

Last week, guard C.J. Noland entered the portal. Noland and Cortes played their first two seasons under Porter Moser, but they were also members of Lon Kruger's final recruiting class as OU's head coach. Freshman Bennie Schroeder also has entered the portal.

Cortes actually left the team briefly during the 2022-23 season, missing two games due to personal reasons — which  Moser publicly supported.

However, Cortes and Moser apparently couldn't make the situation work for both parties short of a transfer.

Cortes played in 29 games this season and made one start, but he was 10th on the team in scoring at 3.2 points per game. He averaged 17.1 minutes per game as a sophomore.

Noland played in 26 games with eight starts, and was ninth in scoring at 3.2 points per game while averaging 14.3 minutes.

The Sooners missed the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row and finished at 15-17, their first losing season since 2016 and the first time they've missed back to back tournaments since 2009-10 and 2010-11.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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