Calhoun’s roster is starting to round out

One thing for certain, the Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team will look a lot different come the 2026-27 season. Wes Miller is in now in Charlotte, all of the eligible players hit the transfer portal, four followed Miller down to Charlotte and that allowed Jerrod Calhoun to have a clean slate to cook up Cincinnati success. 

Calhoun started the portal meticulously, he landed Utah State forward David Iweze, then followed with Wake Forest and Towson wings Myles Colvin and Tyler Tejada. Boom, the team is staring to get a base. Colvin and Tejada will be apart of the main scoring punch as they were top guys on their previous teams. People were getting antsy, but Calhoun and staff had a plan. George Mason big man Riley Allenspach adds inside outside abilities, which will be nice to see under this new offensive scheme. Then adding another Utah State transfer in forward Adlan Elamin, who has the potential to be special. The same day Akron and Moeller High School graduate Eric Mahaffey committed, he's a guy at Akron that has really improved his overall game and a nice athlete. Next he got commits from North Dakota State combo guard Trevion Carson and Utah State point guard Elijah Perryman. Carson is a dog on the defensive end has good shooting lines, Perryman is a guy in limited minutes performed at a very high level, knowing the system should limit the Big 12 curve.

With the nice additions the fans still wanted more they wanted a high level point guard and a physical big man, boom the point guard question was answered once Tulsa's Tylen Riley committed, picking Cincinnati over Oklahoma. This was a huge get for the Bearcats as it allowed them to have a lot more flexibility in the backcourt which is needed in the tough Big 12. Next they got a commitment from Boston College big man Jayden Hastings, which adds physicality, rebounding and shot blocking to the fold. Iweze, Allenspach and Hastings will do the heavy lifting at the big man spots, but they have a few guys who can be stretch fours at times in Tedaja, Elamin and Mahaffey. Tedaja and Elamin will probably log more minutes at the four spot, but Mahaffey will be able to do spot minutes there, they all have the capability to play the three as well which depending on the lineups you might see a lot. (With the season months away we are just going through scenarios)

The Bearcats were sitting at 10 players, it was noise of a top high schooler possibly coming to town and boom they land Georgia Tech combo guard Akai Fleming. Fleming ended the season strong with Tech and will be a guy that could make a huge sophomore jump. Yesterday, they landed Mount Union big man Deshaun Vaden who Mike Fuline coached (recently joined the staff).

Calhoun has roughly three more spots, from what it seems it will be two scholarship spots and another walk on. Personally, it wouldn't hurt if they can find a low costing physical big man that could be a foul trouble guy and the second maybe a good shooting wing that wants to develop. Personally unless something crazy happens the heavy hitters are already on the Cincinnati roster, it will be up to Calhoun and the staff to get them up to speed with the system and allow them to gel.

This team has the chance to be the best free throw shooting Bearcats team we've ever seen if they can be close to their previous numbers. Also, if Calhoun can bring the magic he's brought from his previous spots #BearcatNation has a chance to be very happy this Fall/Winter.

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