On Saturday, Hawaiʻi Men's Basketball Center Mor Seck announced on social media that he will enter the transfer portal. Seck is the first UH player this off-season to leave the program via the transfer portal.

Seck played in 19 games last season before a knee injury in January ended his season early. Seck became a fan favorite to the Stan Sheriff Center crowd with his athleticism and ability to get blocks and authoritative slam dunks over any player.

Seck told Spectrum Sports Hawaiʻi's Brian McInnis that he felt his talent was not going anywhere and that he was back to his level from his freshman year. He also felt that he had no choice but to leave.

Seck's best performance came in UH's 2023 home finale against UC Irvine where he scored 14 points and 16 rebounds in the 72-67 win on Feb. 25, 2023.

Seck had nothing but love for the state of Hawaiʻi. He enjoyed the food, the people, and the lifestyle. He is unsure where he will go but wanted to challenge himself by switching schools. He will have two years and a redshirt option available.

My Reaction:

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Words cannot describe how disappointing this news is! I thought Mor would be the heir apparent to Bernardo da Silva's role after he got over that knee injury.

Unfortunately, no college is immune to the transfer portal, especially the University of Hawaiʻi. Seck's departure is why I have that love/hate relationship with the transfer portal. A team loses great players like Seck who can leave people thinking, "Man, am I glad I got to see that guy play all four years!"

There was a time when I thought UH would avoid the craziness of the transfer portal. In the last few weeks, the transfer portal has hit Big West schools hard. UC San Diego lost Bryce Pope and Francis Nwakorie to the portal; Cal State Fullerton lost Max Jones and Beryl Kabamba; UC Riverside also lost Vladimer Salaridze, and Cal Poly lost Kobe Sanders. Ajay Mitchell is rumored to leave UC Santa Barbara to draft for the NBA.

If there is one thing I'm never doing, I'm never losing hope! Sure, it's been since 2016 that we made it to the NCAA Tournament, but finding quality players is never easy! Finding a quality point guard like Junior Madut or Roderick Bobbitt is not easy, and it's not impossible either! This team will have to do some real "Easter Egg Hunting" to find new guys to replace the now seven guys we're losing.

While Seck having a change of heart and returning to UH seems unlikely, there's always that possibility. The UH Football team lost Matt Shipley to the transfer portal and almost lost Quarterback Brayden Schager this past off-season, but Schager had a change of heart and chose to stay at UH for his final season.

For now, we can only hope that Harry Rouhliadeff puts on about 15 lbs. in the weight room and that Coach Eran Ganot can find another big guy who's just as athletic as Mor Seck!