Returning stars are the lifeblood of successful teams in college basketball. Yes, incoming transfers and even some freshmen make massive impacts and can lead teams. But the data shows just how important having a returning core of players is for consistent success, and bringing back your best player(s) year over year is something that separates the good from the great. Today, I’ll rank the top 10 returning players for Pac-12 teams. This list is comprised only of players who are returning to their 2025-26 team for the 2026-27 season. No transfers, even those that are transferring within the conference, will be included. I’ve already put together a top-five list of transfers in another article, which you can read at your leisure. 10. Carey Booth (Colorado State) 6’10” 215 lbs, F, Sr. | 10.7 Pts, 5.6 Reb, 1.0 Blk in 2025-26 Carey Booth is probably my favorite underrated player in the Pac-12. He stood out in terms of impact and growth last season with Colorado State, especially when the Rams were without both Kyle Jorgensen and Rashaan Mbemba. He’s a bit wiry for a center, but he’s athletic, can shoot from the outside (40.7% from three last year), and will have

The new-look Pac-12 is introducing seven new teams to the conference for the 2026-27 men’s basketball season. Alongside these new teams, a host of newcomers, brought in via the transfer portal, will be showcased to fans of the reformed Conference of Champions. In days gone by, transfers were mostly supplementary to the returning players, guys who had been with their teams 2-3 years, who would be the real stars. In today’s reality, transfers are becoming the stars. It’s worth getting to know these newcomers’ names because they’ll probably be on the all-conference ballot come season’s end. With that in mind, the following are the top five incoming Division I transfers to the Pac-12 and its schools according to their average portal recruitment rank from EvanMiya.com, On3 and 247 Sports. 5. DeShawn Gory 6’6″ 165 lbs, F, So. | Oregon State (via Fresno State) | 13.7 Pts, 6.2 Reb, 2.0 Ast in 2025-26 Transfer Rankings 132nd by EvanMiya 294th by On3 219th by 247Sports Does this count as an in-conference transfer? DeShawn Gory is going from one of the new members of the conference, Fresno State, to one of the legacy members, Oregon State. However you want to classify this move,

Ace Reiser became the fifth member of Utah State’s 2026 transfer portal recruiting class, joining the Aggies after spending his freshman season at the College of Southern Idaho. In that lone year, Reiser accomplished quite a bit. He helped lead CSI to a national runner-up finish and, for his individual efforts, earned JUCO All-American honors. Despite the recent narrative that junior college recruits are of higher quality, due in part to chaos around changing eligibility and the COVID years given to players, Utah State hasn’t drawn (directly) from the JUCO ranks much in the last few years. Only one player has come directly to Logan from a junior college team in the last six years. That was Kalifa Sakho, who came to USU from South Plains College to play under Danny Sprinkle. Before that, Craig Smith brought on guys like Kuba Karwowski and Alphonso Anderson to be role players for the team. Let’s dive into what helped make Reiser one of the few (though now more common under first-year head coach Ben Jacobson) exceptions to Utah State’s lack of direct JUCO recruiting. Biographical Info/Stats Height: 6’0″ Weight: 165 lbs Class: Sophomore (3 years of eligibility) Hometown: South Jordan, UT High School: Alta (Utah) Previous College: College of Southern

According to multiple reports over the course of a few months, from CBS college basketball writer Jon Rothstein, Utah State will be participating in the 2026 edition of the Acrisure Series multi-team event. Source link

For the first time in half a decade, Utah State and BYU will face each other in men’s basketball. The two programs announced a two-game series that will span this upcoming season and the 2027-28 season. Source link