Men’s basketball will welcome home D.C. native and redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr., a major addition to the Colonial frontcourt.
Buchanan announced his decision to transfer from Virginia Tech in a video released on his Twitter Friday afternoon, featuring shots of him walking around campus and posing in the Buff and Blue uniform at the Smith Center. A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, now called Jackson Reed High School, Buchanan will provide much-needed size as a forward with his 6’7” frame and will likely see the court early and often.
In his senior year at Woodrow Wilson, Gatorade named Buchanan the 2022 D.C. Player of the Year after averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and leading his squad to the DCSAA Class AA tournament championship game, where they lost on a last-second put-back to Sidwell Friends School.
The two-time DCIAA Player of the Year had previously considered GW out of high school, ranking them in his top five along with Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Rutgers and George Mason, but ultimately passed up Foggy Bottom for Blacksburg, Virginia.
Buchanan redshirted in his lone year at Virginia Tech, leaving him a full four years of eligibility under NCAA rules.
Buchanan will join fellow transfers freshman Benny Schröder from the University of Oklahoma, former Princeton forward Garrett Johnson as well as returning star senior guard James Bishop on the Colonials squad.
Four Colonials players entered the transfer portal this offseason, including junior center Noel Brown and senior forward Hunter Dean. With key starters like graduate student guard Brendan Adams and senior forward Ricky Lindo Jr. set to graduate, GW will rely on mostly fresh faces in their fight to build on their best regular season finish since 2017.
With Brown and Lindo Jr. gone, the Colonials still lack a proven big man, but Buchanan, listed at 235 pounds, will help fill in the paint.