South Alabama still has five scholarship spots to fill on its 2024-25 basketball roster, but Jaguars coach Richie Riley is thrilled with the two players he has already landed through the transfer portal.

Most prominent is 6-foot-6 guard Barry Dunning, a former Mr. Basketball at McGill-Toolen Catholic School in Mobile. He played his freshman year at Arkansas and this past season at UAB before deciding last month to return home and play for the Jaguars.

“We’re excited to bring Barry home,” Riley said prior to a speaking engagement in Mobile on Tuesday. “It’s been a long time coming, two years and two different schools. We recruited Barry really hard the first time when he went to Arkansas, recruited him the second time too and now he’s coming home. He’s excited to play for the City of Mobile. He’s excited to play for South Alabama. Our university is very important to his family. And so I’m excited to coach him.

“I think his best basketball is ahead of him. He’s not gotten a ton of opportunity the last couple of years to be out there and learn in live action. So I’m excited to get him in, in the summer and get to work.”

The Jaguars have also signed guard Dylan Fasoyiro out of Division II Daemen University in New York. The 6-foot-6 Fasoyiro, who has one year of eligibility remaining, averaged 17.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game and shot 41.7% from 3-point range last season.

Fasoyiro continues a Division II pipeline for the Jaguars, who have succeeded with the likes of Isaiah Moore, Samuel Tabe, Isiah Gaiter, Kayo Gonçalves and Owen White in recent years. Mining the Division II level has become a necessity for the Jaguars, given that most Division I transfers are now looking for an NIL payday when they transfer.

“He’s just a winner,” Riley said of Fasoyiro. “He won 25 games this past year. Their team went to the Sweet 16 in Division 2. He was their best player at Daemen, averaged 17 a game, and did it in a really efficient way. He’s a strong guard, really compact and very, very tough. I love his winning habits. … He’s a Division I player that was playing Division II last year.

“Again, we’re in a changing landscape. Those SEC guys that we used to get that averaged eight or nine points in the SEC, those guys aren’t — it’s a different landscape; I’ll just leave it at that.”

South Alabama returns six players from last year’s roster, including veteran forwards Julian Margrave and Elijah Ormiston and guard Judah Brown. Also back are youngsters Ethan Kizer and John Broom, the latter of whom redshirted a year ago.

One other player set to return is guard Maxwell Land, who suffered a catastrophic knee injury just nine games into last season. Riley said Land, who averaged 10 points per game prior to tearing his MCL and ACL and patellar tendon during a December game at Jacksonville State, is on track to be back on the court by summer’s end.

“He’s ahead of schedule,” Riley said. “… He’ll be back probably moving around, doing skill work with no contact by the end of the summer, I would think. And then once we get to the fall, he should be ready to go. He’s done a great job with his rehab and his attitude.”

South Alabama lost only one player to the transfer portal in April, but it was a significant one. Point guard Marcus “Smurf” Millender, who averaged 9.7 points, 3.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 32 games as a freshman last season, has transferred to UT-San Antonio.

That’s something of a lateral move for Millender, though it does take him closer to his hometown of Houston. Riley said he’s hoping to use the promise of playing time to land a replacement for Millender.

“We always wish our guys the best of luck,” Riley said. “Again, I keep saying in this climate, but it’s completely foreign to anything we’ve seen the way the recruiting is now at this level. So we wish those guys the best when they do move on.

“We’ve got opportunity here. We’re going to bring in at least two ball-handling guards that hopefully have some experience. We would like to get a little bit bigger, as far as size at those guard spots, than we were a year ago. Also, we’re trying to balance the classes. We don’t want to bring in eight guys with one year left. I don’t think that’s a good way to do it. I think we’re on the right track.”

The NCAA transfer portal closed May 1 for new entries, though players can still sign with their new school at any time. Summer classes begin at South Alabama on May 29, so ideally, the Jaguars’ roster would be set by then.

The rapid escalation of NIL payments in recruiting has made that difficult on programs such as South Alabama, Riley said. It’s also made for a quick philosophical shift for Riley and his staff.

“It’s the wildest spring I’ve ever been a part of as a college basketball coach,” Riley said. “The landscape of college basketball has changed dramatically. I think everybody can see that, but you can’t see it through a lens like a coach sees it until you’ve been in those shoes. The transfer portal, obviously, the numbers are high, but when you throw in NIL and all the things going into what recruiting is now, it’s a drastic change. So I think all of us coaches, especially at the mid-major level, are out here doing our best evaluations trying to find guys that make sense for us.

“We’re trying to be patient to make sure we get the right ones.”