Pitt guard Femi Odukale transferred out of the basketball program Friday afternoon, hours after Nelly Cummings announced his commitment to transfer to Pitt.
Pittsburgh basketball guard Femi Odukale has entered the transfer portal, @on3sports has learned.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) April 1, 2022
Averaged 10.8 points per game this season.https://t.co/xWsWSZF8sP
The move isn't that shocking, as Odukale would most likely need to compete with Cummings, Nike Sibande and Jamarius Burton at guard for playing time, and both Cummings, Burton and Sibande would most likely get more time at point guard.
Odukale was a 2020 recruit for Pitt whose ceiling was as a solid point guard with length at 6-foot-5 who could occasionally shoot well and facilitate the offense. But the 21-year old junior never established himself as a consistently positive force for Pitt this season. He averaged 10.8 points per game in 2021-2022 after averaging 6.6 points as a freshman in 2020-2021.
Although those numbers did make him Pitt's third-leading scorer behind John Hugley IV and Jamarius Burton in 2021-2022, his average of 2.7 turnovers per game was a detriment that proved costly in several of Pitt's losses, while he only contributed 3.4 assists per game. There's no doubt that Odukale brought positive factors to Pitt during his time with the team, as he had impressive games with 28 points against Jacksonville, 23 points against Wake Forest and 25 points against Virginia Tech over the span of six weeks.
But rarely was his scoring a major factor in Pitt's wins. Six of Odukale's seven highest scoring games in 2021-2022 resulted in Pitt losses And even when Odukale managed to score at higher rates for Pitt, his defense was also inconsistent against opposing guards.
Still, Odukale's departure is the seventh Pitt player to enter the Transfer Portal and the third such player to leave from the program's 2020 recruiting class as Max Amadasun entered the Transfer Portal Friday morning and Noah Collier did on Mar. 15.
The 2020 class was a sign of hope for the program at the time, back when the team still had Xavier Johnson, Au'Diese Toney and Justin Champagnie as key contributors and Hugley led the freshman class as a four-star recruit. But after Johnson and Toney left the program and Champagnie left for the NBA, all who is left from those hopes are Hugley and William Jeffress.
As the third-leading scorer, Odukale will be missed if Jeff Capel doesn't find another guard who can contribute as a scorer for Pitt. But Capel may have found a replacement for Odukale as a point guard already in Cummings, and instead needs to find a shooter to more-so replace Ithiel Horton's leaving for the Transfer Portal.
Athletic Director Heather Lyke announced that Pitt would have renewed system to handle the Transfer Portal in basketball on Mar. 22, when she explained that the Athletic Department had hired two full-time staffers who would study and research the Transfer Portal and all players who could benefit Pitt from it. These developments further suggest that Pitt plans to be aggressive in the Transfer Portal to restructure its roster around Hugley for Capel's best chance to get his first winning season at Pitt in 2022-2023.
