TCU basketball lands first transfer portal commitment, a forward from Central Florida
TCU basketball has landed its first player this transfer portal cycle and he comes from a team that defeated the Horned Frogs this season.
University of Central Florida transfer CJ Walker announced on social media that he was committing to TCU Sunday evening. Walker has spent the last four seasons with the Knights, starting in 49 of the 74 games he appeared in.
This past season Walker averaged 7.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19 games. He chipped in seven points and three rebounds to help UCF upset TCU 79-77 in the Horned Frogs’ regular season finale.
Walker was a top-100 recruit out of Sanford, Florida that originally started his career at Oregon in 2019. He averaged just four points a game before transferring closer to home. In his first season Walker started 15 of 21 games while averaging 7.0 points and 5.0 rebounds a night.
He improved his averages to 8.3 points and 5.7 rebounds the next season, with 19 starts in 30 appearances, but Walker was limited to just four games in 2022 as he battled injuries.
When he’s healthy Walker is an athletic forward that can play minutes at power forward or center. TCU lost a number of forwards with All-Big 12 star Emanuel Miller and Chuck O’Bannon exhausting their eligibility. Swing forward JaKobe Coles also entered the transfer portal after TCU’s NCAA Tournament defeat to Utah State.
Walker will be joined in the Horned Frogs frontcourt by returning center Ernest Udeh, redshirt freshman Isaiah Manning and two incoming freshmen bigs, David Punch and Malick Diallo. Reserve big Essam Mostafa also has one more year of eligibility and could potentially return.
Expect TCU to start turning the pressure up on landing some veteran guards out of the transfer portal.
