Florida State’s transfer portal is now churning as the team seeks to improve on a strong first season under head coach Luke Loucks. Now that he and his coaching staff are completely in place, they may aggressively attack the portal, but this will result in some departures from the present squad.
According to 247Sports, sophomore forward Alier Maluk is likely to enter the transfer portal. The skilled 7-footer from New York reclassified to join FSU a year early in Leonard Hamilton’s final season and exhibited some genuine flashes as a true freshman. That made him a priority for Luke Loucks in his first offseason, who made sure to keep him.
However, he never earned the confidence of the coaching staff this season, playing in 22 games with only three starts for an average of 6. 3 minutes per game. He essentially played just 33% of the minutes he played in his rookie season, which is not what FSU required of him. They urgently required excellent center play this year, but he was unable to get regular playing time.
The highlight of his season came against Notre Dame, where he technically didn’t play any game time yet made two game-winning free throws late in the game. He had his finest game of the season against Mississippi Valley State, scoring seven points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Alex Steen was the only excellent center choice for FSU this season, but he was undersized. Because of this, Chauncey Wiggins played center for a large portion of the season.
FSU will seek to improve the center position dramatically this summer. They have already recruited four-star center Marcis Ponder, who stands at 7’0″ and weighs 300 pounds. They’d like to add an experienced center who can anchor them down low while Ponder learns how to play with his size.
This is FSU’s fourth portal entry so far, following Cam Miles, Martin Somerville, and Shah Muhammad.
