USC continues to try to pull D.J. Wagner from Kentucky in the portal

USC is in a battle for Kentucky transfer portal prospect D.J. Wagner. He played for John Calipari last season with the Wildcats, so Arkansas hopes to make a run at Wagner and bring him to Fayetteville.

It’s quite a story: Arkansas’ current coach and Arkansas’ former coach, USC boss Eric Musselman, are both involved in a portal pursuit for a player who was a five-star prospect out of high school. This could be the high-end transfer USC needs to truly increase its upside for the 2024-2025 Big Ten season.

USC has picked up a number of transfers under Musselman, but they come from the mid-major ranks. Consider former Northern Colorado forward Saint Thomas, who was named to the first team of the Big Sky Conference in 2024. He transferred to USC. Thomas, a 6-foot-7 junior from Omaha, averaged 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game last season. He was an underrated player in the 2024 draft class and his stock could rise in 2025 with the transfer to USC.

That pickup and other transfer pickups should help USC, but to what degree? Some in the college basketball industry think the Trojans need higher-upside players in the portal. D.J. Wagner comes across as one such example.

Let the Musselman-Calipari battle continue.

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