Penn State basketball lands Georgetown transfer Qudus Wahab

Penn State just landed a huge piece up front for its 2023-24 basketball team. On Thursday afternoon, former Georgetown and Maryland center Qudus Wahab announced on his Instagram page that he’ll play his fifth and final season of college hoops with the Nittany Lions.

Wahab is exactly the type of player PSU was missing last year. Heck, you could argue Micah Shrewsberry was one Wahab away from being a real threat both in the Big Ten and in the NCAA Tournament. Sure Penn State was dangerous and could put together a blitzkrieg from three in a matter of seconds, but they ultimately were severely handicapped by having next to no inside presence whatsoever.

If nothing else, that bruising paint presence is returning to the lineup with Qudus Wahab. Think Mike Watkins with a little less bite and a little more skill. He’s a big fella and an enforcer, but Wahab has flashed moments of go-to ability on offense.

Let’s rewind to March of 2021, when Georgetown hoops experienced one flash of revival amid the otherwise disastrous Patrick Ewing era — all thanks to a sophomore Qudus Wahab. During that Big East Tournament, Wahab averaged 14.3 points and 8.6 rebounds to lead the Hoyas to the Big East tourney title as an eight seed to earn an NCAA Tournament trip.

That was the high water mark for him as a player so far. He rode that success in ’21 to a spot at Maryland, where he and fellow high-profile transfer Fatts Russell linked up but failed to pan out like the program hoped, which prompted a move back to GT for Wahab. A year later and Ewing is fired, so Wahab has found a new home.

Penn State really nabbed a good one here. He’ll be dependable and has the upside to pop in year five like so many other transfers have. Like, say, Jalen Pickett. But let’s not let expectations run amuck, now.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.