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Update 5:39 p.m.: Jhaylon Martinez, Isaac Lindsey join Yap in portal
The exodus continues, as two more UNLV players joined Donavan Yap in the transfer portal on Wednesday.
Hours after Yap declared his intention to transfer from UNLV, fellow rising sophomores Isaac Lindsey and Jhaylon Martinez entered the portal.
Lindsey, a 6-foot-3 guard, did not play in 2020-21 due to a hip injury (the same injury that cost him most of his senior year of high school). Martinez, a 6-foot-11 center, also did not play as a freshman, with a source attributing his lack of playing time to Martinez not being able to pass the team's regular conditioning tests during the season.
Yap, Lindsey and Martinez comprised half of UNLV's 2020 high school recruiting class. The other three freshmen — Nick Blake, Devin Tillis and Reece Brown — earned varying levels of playing time throughout the year, but as a whole the class disappointed, leaving new head coach Kevin Kruger in the position of having to make up for it on the transfer market. UNLV has already reached out to one transfer, North Dakota point guard Tyree Ihenacho.
Donavan Yap is first UNLV player to enter transfer portal
This is expected to be an offseason of heavy roster movement for UNLV — again — and freshman Donavan Yap got things started on Wednesday by entering the transfer portal.
Yap, a 6-foot-3 guard, was a 3-star recruit in the Class of 2020 and 247Sports rated him as the No. 5 prospect in the state of Nevada. As a senior at Arbor View, Yap posted 21.0 points, 5.9 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game, and his deep range made him an intriguing prospect for UNLV.
He struggled to earn minutes as a freshman under UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger, however, appearing in just five games and logging 19 total minutes. Yap launched 12 shots in that limited time and made two, while missing all five of his 3-point attempts.
Due to the NCAA waiving eligibility for all players this season due to COVID-19, Yap will have four years of eligibility remaining at his next school.
There was ample opportunity for Yap to seize a rotation spot in 2020-21, as starting point guard Marvin Coleman suffered a season-ending injury early in the year. But even as the team struggled to identify a primary ball-handler — Bryce Hamilton, Caleb Grill, David Jenkins and Nick Blake all took turns running the offense — Yap remained on the bench.
New head coach Kevin Kruger has identified that as a position of need, and on Tuesday the team reached out to North Dakota point guard Tyree Ihenacho.
Yap likely won’t be the only UNLV player to test the transfer market. Freshmen Isaac Lindsey and Jhaylon Martinez didn’t see the floor at all in 2020-21, while junior guards David Jenkins and Bryce Hamilton also have decisions to make.
Senior Mbacke Diong has played four years and had a Senior Night ceremony late in the season, but could choose to exercise his extra COVID-19 year and return for one more college campaign in 2021-22, either at UNLV or elsewhere.
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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