Vanderbilt guard Karris Bilal plans to enter NCAA transfer portal

Vanderbilt guard Karris Bilal plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3’s Joe Tipton confirmed. The Commodores’ season came to an end Friday with a loss to Saint Mary’s in the NCAA Tournament.

Bilal did not make an appearance at Vanderbilt this past season as a true freshman. The Commodores put together an impressive first season under Mark Byington to make the NCAA Tournament, although things ended Friday afternoon with a first-round loss to St. Mary’s.

Bilal played high school basketball at Atlanta (Ga.) Riverwood, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 269 overall player and No. 43-ranked point guard from the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, an equally weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

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

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

Vanderbilt put together an impressive run in Byington’s first season as head coach, finishing 20-13 overall and 8-10 in SEC play. The Commodores made their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017 in the process, finishing right in the middle of a loaded SEC.

The conference was widely viewed as the best in the country this season and had 14 teams reach March Madness. When it comes to getting away from the physicality of the SEC, Byington acknowledged it would be an adjustment. However, he pointed out St. Mary’s was also going to be very physical.

“There’s things we need to worry about and things that I think will take us away from being successful,” Byington said. “First thing, the physicality. There’s not a more physical team in the country than Saint Mary’s. So hopefully the SEC has prepared us to play against Saint Mary’s because they’re really good at it. But us worrying about whether it’s going to be more calls or less calls or whatever else, I think it’s going to take us out, and we’ve got our hands full trying to box out and trying to score and trying to do different things there.

“Is it going to be different? It probably will be. But we’ll adjust. We’ll figure it out along the way. We’re a deep team. We’ve been in foul trouble a good amount, and sometimes we haven’t. It really is kind of just keeping number one, keeping our important things, worrying about us, and then let the referees do their job, too.”