Hunter Dickinson enters transfer portal: 3 best destinations for Michigan star

Hunter Dickinson, Michigan Wolverines. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Michigan star big man Hunter Dickinson is entering the transfer portal, but where could the Wolverines standout end up for the 2023-24 season?

There was a chance that Michigan basketball star big man Hunter Dickinson was going to put his name in the NBA Draft pool. What the Wolverines did not totally consider was what actually happened on Friday as the 7-foot-1 center said that he will enter the transfer portal.

The major transfer news was reported by college basketball insider Jeff Goodman on Friday afternoon.

Dickinson has been a stalwart for Michigan since coming in as part of the 2020 recruiting class, posting 31 career double-doubles and averaging a team-high 18.5 points and nine rebounds per game. His absence will be massive for the Wolverines but, outside of Ann Arbor, the bigger question is what’s next for the big man.

Now that he’s in the portal, let’s take a look at three Hunter Dickinson transfer destinations that would make sense given his talent, program needs, his recruiting history and the situations at hand throughout the country.

Hunter Dickinson transfer rumors: 3 best destinations for Michigan star

3

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

ACC

Micah Shrewsberry can land his first big fish getting Hunter Dickinson to Notre Dame

To say that it was time for a change at Notre Dame would be an understatement. Hats off to Mike Brey for all he did for the Irish basketball program, but the 2022-23 season was an unmitigated disaster. Now they’re bringing in Micah Shrewsberry, who just led Penn State to the NCAA Tournament and a March Madness win, to help get things going in the right direction.

Whenever there are new hires at power conference institutions with good basketball history like Notre Dame, my expectation is always for the new coach to make a splash in the transfer portal, especially in this modern era. So why not make the Ann Arbor faithful even sicker by landing Dickinson for the Fighting Irish if you’re Shrewsberry?

It would be a wholly unpopular choice by Hunter Dickinson given the long-standing rivalry (though primarily in football) between the two programs but it would be one that makes sense.

When you look at Dickinson as a recruit, he was clearly interested in high-end academic institutions in addition to quality basketball programs. That’s why Notre Dame was one of the schools in the final four when the big man was making his decision as a recruit.

Things need to be jumpstarted in South Bend as Shrewsberry arrives and adding a veteran force that can be dominant in the ACC with his size and experience would make a lot of sense if he can sell the Michigan star on the move to a program he was once interested in that’s now under new leadership.