Charlotte 49ers basketball loses key player as NCAA basketball transfer portal opens

If the lack of a Cinderella story in this year’s March Madness hasn’t proven enough, Monday’s opening of the transfer portal puts today’s age of college basketball in perspective — it’s not kind to the mid-major level.

For the fourth straight season, the Charlotte 49ers’ leading scorer has entered the transfer portal.

Head coach Aaron Fearne talked about the lack of sustainability following Charlotte’s (11-22) loss to Florida Atlantic in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, and Nik Graves, who sat beside Fearne during the extended rant, was the first 49er to put his name in the portal Monday.

Graves took charge as the team’s primary ball-handler in his junior season, taking nearly double the number of shots per game and jumping his scoring output from 10.4 to 17.5 points per game — good for sixth-best in the league.

Now, with a season of film as the number one option and one season of eligibility remaining, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound guard is off to chase an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament and boost his NBA Draft stock — something Charlotte is longing to bring back to the Queen City.

“We want to get back to playing in the NCAA Tournament and having success in these tournaments, but you’ve got to have the resources to bring in talent,” Fearne said after being eliminated from the AAC Tournament. “We have a fantastic track record over the last seven years, producing and developing the players that we have — and look where they are playing now.

“Jahmir (Young) is playing in the NBA. We’ve got some guys this year that have moved on from our program and will be knocking on the door of the NBA at the end of this season — I think we developed them unbelievably well,” Fearne continued. “(Nik Graves’) development over the past three years has been sensational. That’s a big selling and recruiting point, and we can prove it — look at the guys who are out there.”

Graves’ development was evident despite the eight different starting lineups and lack of talented depth. Charlotte didn’t win a single game in 2024-25 when Graves didn’t score in double figures.

Yet again, Fearne and Charlotte’s athletic department will be hunting for a new face of the program — for at least the next 12 months.