Utah Utes basketball transfer portal watch: Tracking where departing players land for 2026-27 season

The offseason came early for the Utah men's basketball program.

While several teams the Runnin' Utes faced during their 2025-26 campaign continued their quest for the national championship, Alex Jensen, Wes Wilcox and the rest of the staff had their full attention turned to the transfer portal as soon as the first round of the Big 12 tournament concluded.

In fact, the first whiff of a portal entry from Utah's ranks came less than 24 hours following the team's loss to Cincinnati in the conference tournament, as Elijah "Choppa" Moore started a slow trickle of departures out of Salt Lake City in the lead-up to the official transfer window.

Whether that slow drip turns into a gushing stream will be determined over the coming weeks.

Last year, Utah had 10 players leave and find new homes via the portal, leaving Jensen and Wilcox to rebuild the roster from scratch. It didn't help that essentially the rest of the Big 12 had a head start in that department, given Utah officially hired Jensen roughly 18 days prior to the portal being open.

That said, the Utes will be operating on a different timeline this offseason, but only time will whether their front office capitalizes with new some much-needed additions (and key retentions).

Here's a look at the Utah players who've announced their portal intentions.

Utah's Outgoing Transfer Portal Class

Player (Position)	2025-26 stats	New School
Jakhi Howard (F)	1.3 ppg, 1.5 rpg in six games	?
Elijah "Choppa" Moore (G)	Played in one game	?
Alvin Jackson III (G)	Did not play due to redshirt	?
Keanu Dawes (F)	12.5 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2.2 apg in 32 games	?

When Does the Transfer Portal Officially Open and Close?

The NCAA announced a tweak to the portal calendar in January: Players will not be allowed to enter the portal until the day after the NCAA Tournament ends, which happens to be April 7.

The window in which players are allowed to enter the portal has also been shrunk down from 30 days to 15. And as a reminder: There's no deadline for players to commit to a school after they enter the portal).

Of course, neither change has stopped players from announcing their intentions of portaling ahead of the official start date. Unlike years past, though, teams aren't having to hold Zoom calls and schedule on-campus visits during their preparation for the NCAA Tournament. Also, most of the players who have already made made it known that they're going into the portal weren't on NCAA Tournament squads anyway.

As has been in the case in previous offseasons, players can enter the portal outside of the regular window if a coaching change is made. In those instances, players will have 15 days to decide whether they want to leave or stay put five days after the new head coach is hired or publicly announced.