Radford:
Background and 24-25 Recap:
After losing to the eventual champion in High Point out in Johnson City, it seemed like Radford was ready to run it back with Darris Nichols. Then plans changed as on March 11th, it was announced that Coach Nichols would be taking the job at La Salle. Many CBB pundits, including myself thought Radford would just promote Shane Nichols but they didn’t.
Just four days later, after an finalist list was put out there, including Kyle Getter, Shane Nichols, and JD Byers. Radford went out of the box and hire little known SMU assistant coach Zach Chu, who was most known for his time as an analytics manager for the Indiana Pacers. Many questioned if Zach could build a good roster, and I can’t lie, he did a pretty job at building this roster.
Returning Players:
G: Zion Walker
One player chose to return to Radford, star freshman guard Zion Walker. Just as Zion was really finding his stride last season, Zion Walker gets injured and misses the last 5 games off the season. Zion showed very good flashes in both games vs Winthrop where he had 30 and 17 in each of the two games, he also had a 12 point game vs Colorado State and an 11 pointer vs High Point. Zion ended up at seasons end averaging 5.9 PPG, 1.1 RPG and 1 APG in 11.3 MPG.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Won Big South Freshman of the Week twice during the 2024-25 season.
3 Star Recruit with offers from Wake Forest, Eastern Carolina, and was committed to Mount Saint Mary’s before decommitting and going to Radford.
Incoming Transfers:
G: Brennan Rigsby - Minnesota
Following two former assistants in Marcus Jenkins and Josh Adel from Minnesota, Rigsby committing was what put some people on notice to Radford. Rigsby during both his time at Oregon and Minnesota was a good 5 PPG, 2 RPG kind of player. Last season at Minnesota, Rigsby averaged 5.4 PPG and 1.9 RPG on less than stellar shooting but was good enough to be a fringe starter at Minnesota.
During his two seasons at Oregon after being a Top 15 JUCO prospect. In Rigsby’s first season he averaged 4.2 PPG and 2.3 RPG despite missing the first 8 games of the season. The next season Rigsby added on in most statistical categories averaging 6.1 PPG and 2.7 RPG while being a fringe starter, starting in 13 of the 36 he appeared in, helping Oregon make the tournament and even win a first round game over 6 Seeded South Carolina.
Awards/Notable Facts:
3 Star Recruit coming out of Northwest Florida State with offers from Oklahoma, Missouri and others before committing to Oregon.
NJCAA National Champ and scored a game high 24 in the championship game.
G: Jaylon Johnson - Tennessee Tech
One of the more highly touted Mid Major guards in the portal was Jaylon Johnson from Tennessee Tech, and it’s easy to see why, in his 3 stops at Concordia College, Southern Idaho, and now Tennessee Tech, he has produced at a high level. During his most recent season at Tennessee Tech, Johnson averaged 14 PPG, 4.8 APG and 4.3 RPG in 35 MPG on decent shooting with a 35% 3PT percentage.
Before ending up at Tennessee Tech, Jaylon spent time at both College of Southern Idaho and Concordia University. During his freshman season at Concordia, Johnson averaged 19.6 PPG and 4.5 APG in 17 games (15 being starts) including two 30+ point games vs McMurry and East Texas Baptist. After that lone season at Concordia, Johnson transferred to Southern Idaho where he again had an amazing season averaging 14.9 PPG and 4.8 RPG in 30 games, starting all but one game.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2024-25 Ohio Valley First Team All Conference and All Newcomer squad
2022-23 Region 10 Rookie of the Year
2023-24 Region 18 All 2nd Team
G: Mari Jordan - Tulane
Beginning his career at Georgia before heading to Tulane last season, Jordan was a very highly touted recruit coming out of HS being ranked as high as 95th in the 247Sports Rankings and ended up committing to Georgia. Jordan did not play for the Bulldogs before he made the move to Tulane where he averaged 7 PPG and 3.6 RPG on just under 35% 3PT shooting as a fringe starter, having started 11 games of the 32 he appeared in.
Awards/Notable Facts:
108th ranked recruit in the Class of 23’ with offers from Nebraska, Xavier and Georgia Tech before committing to Georgia.
G: Del Jones - Clemson
Coming over from Clemson, Jones was another one of Radford’s former highly ranked HS recruits as Del Jones was 145th player in the Class of 2024 according to 247Sports and once as high as 62nd. In his freshman season at Clemson, Jones averaged 3.8 PGG, 1.5 RPG and 1 APG in 32 games for Tigers. Jones showed lots of promise, actually seeing most of his playing time come early in the season, but also had large periods of playing time during conference play, including 24 minutes against Virginia Tech in which Jones scored a career high 13 points.
Del Jones was apart of some offseason news. Brad Brownell came out publicly in late July and said Radford out bid Clemson for Jones’ services which seemed to turn some heads across social media.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Held offers from Arizona State, Ole Miss, Rutgers and others before committing to Clemson.
Made the NCAA Tournament in the 2024-25 season with Clemson.
G: Lukas Walls - Samford
Lukas Walls comes to Radford looking to improve on two pretty solid seasons at Samford, after coming off the bench in all but one game over those two seasons. Walls is a deadly 3PT shooter having shot 46.7% during his freshman season and a very respectable 38.5% during his sophomore season while undertaking a bigger work load playing over 12 MPG more in his sophomore season. During Walls sophomore season, he averaged 5.8 PPG and 3.3 RPG with the aforementioned 38.5% 3PT percentage.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Named Tennessee’s Mr. Division II-AA during his senior season in 2023.
Made the NCAA Tournament with Samford in the 2023-24 season.
G: Dennis Parker Jr - NC State
Another one of the highly rated recruits, turned Radford transfer gets, Dennis Parker comes to Radford after two pretty uneventful seasons at NC State. Parker’s freshman season was undoubtedly his best season, having averaged 4.7 PPG and 3.2 RPG and even starting 12 of his 27 games played. This past season at NC State, Dennis saw his role diminish only playing around 12 MPG compared to over 15 MPG in the season before and his stats also took a hit averaging 2.9 PPG and 2.3 RPG.
Awards/Notable Facts:
123rd ranked recruit according to 247Sports, but was ranked as high as 26th in 2021.
Made the Final 4 as a member of the 2023-24 NC State team.
Held offers from Kansas, Georgetown, Xavier, Maryland and others before committing to NC State
F: Bradley Land - Colorado Christian
Likely one of the least talked about impact transfers in the Big South and maybe across all of Mid Major Basketball, Bradley Land will likely make one of the best impacts on the team. Land whom comes from D2 Colorado Christian was one of the top scorers in D2 basketball over the past few seasons averaging over 11 PPG in the 23-24 season and over 14 PPG in the 24-25 season. Land was almost a very good rebounder averaging over 5 RPG across his two seasons at CCU while also be an over 30% 3PT shooter.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2024-25 RMAC Second Team All-Conference
2023-24 RMAC Honorable Mention
F: Louie Jordan - UMBC
One of 4 players on Radford with international experience, Jordan coming from England and having played his high school hoops at Charnwood College before making the over the pond first playing for Weber State. In his two seasons at Weber State, Jordan played sparingly only averaging about 5 MPG in both his freshman and sophomore seasons and only averaging 1.3 PPG and 0.7 RPG causing him to enter the transfer portal.
The next destination for Louie Jordan was to UMBC, where he spent the 2024-25 season. At UMBC, Jordan saw his role massively increase starting all but one of his 31 games played averaging just over 22 MPG. With that increase in minutes, Louie also saw his stats skyrocket averaging 7.5 PPG and 3.9 RPG on a stellar 49% 3PT shooting with over 120 attempts across the season.
Awards/Notable Facts:
7th best 3PT shooter in the 2024-25 season according to KenPom, 3rd best returning shooter in the NCAA.
2022-23 Big Sky All Academic
F: Tyson Brown - Georgia Southern
One of the true journey men of college basketball, having used his COVID and still playing in college basketball, Tyson Brown is entering year 6 thanks to the JUCO waiver. Brown began his career at Western Texas where during his freshman season he averaged 4.5 PPG and 4.2 RPG in 21 games with only 2 being starts, then improving to averaging a double double with 11.9 PPG and 11.2 RPG as a sophomore. After two good seasons at Western Texas, Brown transferred to Florida Southwestern for another JUCO season where he averaged 11.6 PPG and 9.4 RPG across 28 games, 23 of which being starts.
After a rare 3 JUCO seasons, Brown transferred to the D1 level to play for Rhode Island, and during his one season at Rhode Island as fringe starter he averaged 4.3 PPG and 4.1 RPG across 32 games with 16 of those being starts. After that season at Rhode Island, Brown transferred to Georgia Southern and became a bigger impact on the court averaging 7.3 PPG and 6.8 RPG across 33 games with 29 of those being starts.
Awards/Notable Facts:
2021-22 All WJCAC Honors
2022-23 All Southern Conference (JUCO) First Team
Georgia Southern Single Season FG% Record Holder (.634 in 2024-25)
Incoming Freshman:
G: Diogo Alves - Tualatin HS
One of the three freshman with international experience, Diogo Alves played for Team Brazil in 2023 South American Championships and the FIBA U18 Americas Championship, shooting over 34% from behind the arc across those two tournaments. Alves played his high school seasons at multiple elite schools including Salt Lake Academy, Lakeridge HS and Tualatin HS which is where he most recently played.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Earned a Bronze Medal with Team Brazil in the 2023 South American Championships
Also played in the 2023 Basketball Without Borders
G: Warren Keel Jr. - Putnam Science Academy
A very late August 2025 get for Zach Chu and his squad, but it’s a good one in Warren Keel Jr. Coming off a Prep National title for Putnam Science Academy, really showed out at the 3SSB 17U Circuit with 11 PPG, 3.5 RPG and 3.8 APG during the Palmetto Session. That stellar performance caused many teams to offer Keel, whom was already a Top 300 recruit in the Class of 26’, but Keel chose to reclass to Class of 25’ and play for Radford.
Awards/Notable Facts:
227th ranked recruit in the Class of 26’ according to 247Sports with offers from Fordham, Rutgers, Texas A&M and more.
Won the Prep National Title with Putnam Science Academy in 2024-25.
G/F: Frederik Erichsen - Ratiopharm ULM
One big thing for Radford this upcoming season is POSITIONLESS basketball, and there is no better example of that than Frederik Erichsen. Erichsen comes to Radford after playing overseas in the Basketligaen (Highest level of Danish basketball) in the 23-24 season and both the G-Pro B and select games in the G-BBL (Highest level of German basketball). During his season playing in his home country of Denmark, Erichsen averaged 7.2 PPG and 1.7 APG for the Bakken Bears, and 11.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 2.5 APG for the Bears Academy team.
In the 24-25 season Erichsen moved to play for Ratiopharm ULM and their development team, OrangeAcademy spend most of his time with OrangeAcademy. Erichsen averaged 13.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG and 2.4 APG for OrangeAcademy and in select games for ULM he averaged 2.3 PPG and 0.7 RPG.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Erichsen played for the Denmark National Team in U16 and U18 competition, even playing 3 games for the Denmark National Team in EuroBasket Qualifiers.
Helped Bakken win the 2023-24 Danish Championship
C: Gabriel Ferreira - NBA Latin Academy
The final of the Radford freshman commits comes from a place that Radford assistant Conor Dow knows very well, the NBA Academy. Gabriel spent a total of 3 seasons with the Latin Academy, in the most recent season (2024-25), Ferreria averaged a double double with 15.5 PPG and 10.1 RPG, while also adding 1.6 BPG with over 38% 3PT shooting. Gabriel also appeared on the Brazilian U17 and U18 teams along with playing in the BWB Borders Event.
Awards/Notable Facts:
Won a Bronze Medal with Brazil U17 in the South American U17 Championships.
Was a 2023 BWB All Star and Won Defensive MVP in that same season.
Roster Prediction:
Roster Thoughts/Ratings:
Guards: A-
Jaylon Johnson: You know exactly what you are getting with Jaylon Johnson, around a 10-15 PPG and 4-5 APG leader, he has followed that model at both JUCO stop and at Tennessee Tech. I just don’t see this changing, maybe gets to the lower end of the career averages just thanks to be backed up by very talented stars, but Johnson will still be one of the best guards in the Big South this season.
Del Jones: Jones is almost the opposite of Jaylon Johnson, you really don’t know what you are getting, but it’s clear that Jones has potential. Brad Brownell doesn’t want to keep players for no reason. Clearly Del Jones had potential in at least two coaches eyes, and with a good coach like Brownell wanting to keep Del, I then also feel inclined to think Zach Chu has a similar vision of Del Jones.
Mari Jordan: Mari Jordan is one of the maybe 2-3 guards I could have had in this spot, that’s just how loaded Radford truly is with talent. I chose Jordan over guards like Walker, and Parker because he had over 7 PPG at Tulane and likely will take another leap forward, but whether it’s Jordan, Walker, Parker or someone else, Radford has maybe the highest upside for a backcourt in the Big South, with a very good floor.
Forwards: A-
Louie Jordan: Jordan should be a shoe-in to start this season, you just can’t keep someone with his shooting ability off the floor. Even if Jordan sees a 5% dip, he will still likely be the best shooting big man in the Big South and maybe all of mid major basketball.
Bradley Land: I really love Bradley Land, he is probably the transfer that I want to see play at this level the most. The RMAC is no slouch of a D2 conference but Land also had a very high usage rate at CCU. I don’t think Land will be averaging 14 PPG like he did at CCU but I think he’s a good 7-8 PPG starter at the D1 level.
Frederik Erichsen: I think Euro players and just overall foreign players are the future of College Hoops and I think Erichsen might be the best freshman in this conference. This is due in part to I don’t see many freshmen playing, but I also think Erichsen is UBER talented, but his best ability is to play 1-4 and everyone knows availability is the best ability.
Tyson Brown: Brown will likely be the starting big man for Radford, and this is likely to make up for Louie Jordan’s lack of rebounding ability. Brown is a glass cleaner with still a very serviceable offensive ability. Brown could very well be on double double watch depending on his work load, if he gets above 25 MPG, I think 10 and 10 isn’t too far out of the cards for the graduate transfer.
Bench/Depth: A-
Thoughts: As I alluded to while talking about Mari Jordan, I really think Radford has a deep guard room. Zion Walker, the lone returner, showed very good flashes especially with two amazing games vs Winthrop. Dennis Parker is one of the best defenders in Per 40 stats, Lukas Walls is an amazing Catch and Shoot guard, and then three pretty interesting freshman with Keel and Alves.
The forward depth, does leave a little to be desired with Gabriel Ferreira being the only forward I didn’t mention but that doesn’t cause too much concern for me. The forward group they have all pretty talented and Ferreira is still very good in his own right, especially as a freshmen, it’s rare to have this level of big men on your bench, especially at the mid major level.