A Look At The USF Men's Basketball Roster As Team Building Begins
June 16, 2026 | Men's Basketball
Shortly after Chris Mack became the Bulls head men's basketball coach, he joked that initial team meetings would be a breeze. There were no players on USF's players — as in zero.
But in the transfer portal era, Mack's Bulls quickly addressed that issue. Now USF has 15 players of different shapes and sizes, including 12 transfers and three true freshmen. There's a blend of experience and potential. There's athleticism, high-level basketball pedigree and the grit that only comes through weathering adversity. There's definitely a fleet of proven shooters and scorers.
As Mack and his staff methodically built USF's roster, one characteristic was paramount.
"When you make wholesale changes, I think it has to start with character,'' Mack said. "You can't just start grabbing talent and feeling like, 'Hey, if it works out, it works out.' So, we made some very calculated decisions and our staff did a really good job. We did a lot of background work to get the right people here.
"We tried to outline expectations for (players) one through 15. We didn't want to have the 12th guy on our roster thinking he should be the starting point guard, so we tried to be very real and very transparent with players and parents. This (complete roster turnover) is only going to be a one-time thing. We wanted to balance the classes, so you're not replacing (many players every year). I really like the way it has come together.''
The Bulls have begun summer workouts and the process of building a team. Here's an early summation:
Shooters And Scorers
On paper, it's the quality that first gets your attention. USF has attracted several players with impressive offensive reputations.
Senior guard Sonny Wilson (6-foot-1, 175 pounds), who started 98 games over three seasons for the Mid-American Conference's Toledo Rockets, averaged a team-high 17.0 points and 4.6 assists last season. He has 1,338 career points at the collegiate level. Wilson, a second-team All-MAC selection, was Michigan's Gatorade Player of the Year out of Detroit's Jesuit High School.
Senior guard AJ Dancler (6-2, 180), once a second-team All-Northeast Conference player from Le Moyne College, averaged 15.6 points and shot 39.3-percent from 3-point range last season for Coastal Carolina. He has 1,122 career points.
"They have both played a lot of college basketball,'' Mack said. "I think Sonny was a really good get for our program. I have a lot of colleagues in that league (MAC) and they think of Sonny Wilson as a complete winner. That's all I have seen since he has gotten here.
"Sonny is a true point guard and AJ can slide over there in a pinch. AJ played for (Coastal Carolina head coach) Justin Gray, who I coached at Wake Forest, so we feel like we have some good insight into the player. Nothing in our program is given. It is all earned. But, based on the resumes of those two players (Wilson and Dancler), they're going to add a lot of quality and a lot of experience.''
The Bulls also feature sophomore guard Chris Davis Jr. (6-4, 200), who averaged 7.6 points last season for Mack's College of Charleston team. Davis was the No. 5 all-time scorer in Wisconsin state high-school history with 2,688 career points and a 40.8 points per game scoring average as a junior. You read that correctly: 40.8 points per game, which he followed up with a 35.2 points per game season in his senior season.
Then there's sophomore guard Andrej Shoshkikj (6-2, 182), a product of North Macedonia (located just north of Greece) who averaged 10.7 points per game last season at Stony Brook, while shooting 49.8-percent from the field, 45.1 from 3-point range and 96.4 from the free-throw line, missing by two tenths on his field goal percentage (in his case, one more make in his 243 attempts) from becoming just the 12th player in NCAA history to post a 50/40/90 shooting season.
"Generally, the biggest jump a player makes is from the freshman to sophomore year,'' Mack said. "I think those two guys (Davis and Shoshkikj) can make significant jumps and they're going to need to because the American Conference is more athletic than the league (Colonial) they came from.
"Both of those guys can shoot it at a really high level. Chris Davis loves the game and nobody will spend more time in the gym than him. Andrej can make highly contested shots and he has a really good feel for the game. If Andrej is open or about to get open, I would feel comfortable whether he was playing against Duke or Duquesne. Looking at his stroke, you feel like the shot is going in.''
The Bulls also feature sophomore guard Donovan Waleskowski (6-5, 205), who played at NAIA Holy Cross College last season, earning CCAC Freshman of the Year honors. He developed into a top-notch 3-point shooter at Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School, hitting 136 of 334 (41%) threes taken in his senior year.
Toughness And Grit
Shooting is great. But Mack wants to see other qualities.
"I think our most successful teams value the defensive end,'' Mack said. "I don't know (yet) where we're at defensively. It's not only knowing what you can do, but do you want to do it? To me, defense is all about wanting (to put forth effort).
"We have a lot of players who can shoot the ball, but our quest is spacing the floor at all times and making the right decision. The great teams I've been around, they made the (extra) pass. The teams that weren't as successful, they shot an off-balance shot. The challenge in today's day and age is putting team before self. And that involves showing some toughness and showing some grit.''
In those areas, USF has acquired three players who particularly thrive in those difference-making areas.
Graduate student guard Mike James (6-5, 205), a former Orlando Oak Ridge High School player entering his sixth college season, has endured a challenging journey. He was originally signed by Mack at Louisville, but missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn Achilles tendon in his left leg. He started 64 games over the next two seasons at Louisville, averaging 10.1 and 12.6 points. He transferred to NC State in 2024-25, but missed the entire year with a preseason knee injury, then played sparingly last season for a very good Vanderbilt team that went 27-9. USF, his fourth school, is where he hopes to write a happy ending.
"It has been a roller coaster, but it helped shape me into the person I am today,'' James said. "I've had a lot of experiences, both good and bad, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. Now I'm back with the coach I started with (Mack) and I'm grateful that I have this opportunity.''
Junior forward Garrett Johnson (6-8, 225) was entering his freshman season at Princeton University when he was diagnosed with a rare aggressive desmoid tumor in his left hip. Although it was benign, doctors treated the condition with extreme care because it was too close to the sciatic nerve for a traditional removal. Johnson, who never played at Princeton and transferred to George Washington University (closer to his home in Oakton, Va.), underwent four surgeries and a year away from the game undergoing chemotherapy.
"I think there were a lot of times where I was pretty certain I would never play basketball again,'' Johnson said.
Johnson ultimately pulled through and was cleared for a return to the court. He scored 21 points in his GW debut. After averaging 13.4 points in his comeback year, Johnson suffered a torn ACL, which caused him to miss the entire 2024-25 season. He returned in 2025-26 to averaged 11.4 points for GW and hopes to become even more productive for the Bulls.
Meanwhile, there's an intriguing hometown angle for sophomore forward Joshua Lewis (6-7, 185), who took a circuitous route to the program where his heart really belonged. Lewis, a four-star recruit and the former Hillsborough County Player of the Year at Blake High School (1,590 career points, 942 career rebounds), is the son of former Bulls standout Fred Lewis. The father was team captain during one of the most glorious eras in USF basketball history (three straight postseason teams (two NCAA) from 1990-92).
Lewis originally committed to USF and coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, but when the head coach tragically passed away in 2024, he reconsidered his options. He committed to Iowa, which later fired its head coach, and then pivoted again before finally landing at the University of Louisiana. Lewis averaged 8.1 points for the Ragin' Cajuns during his freshman season, which was cut short by a torn patella tendon injury. He's expected to be a full-go for the Bulls sometime in the fall.
"I've got a lot of faith and I know that God doesn't make any mistakes,'' Lewis said. "It's like a full-circle moment. I didn't have the easiest road, but now I'm at USF. I'm ready to put my head down and go to work.''
Life On The Inside
Do the Bulls have enough size and girth to thrive in the American? Who gets the rebounds? Who does the dirty work?
Those are all legitimate questions.
Some of the answers could be found in junior forward Zayden High (6-10, 230), a transfer from North Carolina.
"I think he's hungry,'' Mack said. "I think he showed some things in the (limited) opportunities he had at Carolina. He's more than capable of being an impact player for us. And he needs to be one. It's more like, 'Hey man, we're counting on you' and not just 'Whatever you give us is great.' I think he relishes (those expectations). He sees light at the end of the tunnel and I think that has spurred him to work even harder.''
High averaged 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in his last nine games at UNC, including 15 points and seven rebounds against Pittsburgh, then 13 points and 10 rebounds against NC State.
"The (USF) coaches here have a really good feel for my abilities and I think they have a great plan for me,'' High said. "They made coming to USF an easy decision.''
The Bulls also feature redshirt freshman center Tiefing Diawara (7-feet, 240), a native of Mali who played four games last season at Syracuse; junior forward Richard Goods (6-9, 225), who averaged 7.7 points and 5.9 rebounds last season at Stony Brook playing alongside Shoshkikj; and senior forward Reph Stevenson (6-9, 225), who had 1,037 points and 647 rebounds in three seasons while earning All-North Coast Athletic Conference honors at NCAA Division III DePauw University.
The Freshmen
Three USF players will come directly from the high school ranks. Mack said freshman forward Jake Feldhaus (6-8, 220), who earned Kentucky Mr. Basketball honors last season, might be best equipped to contribute immediately. He averaged 20.7 points and 13.0 rebounds for Madison Central High School in Richmond, Ky., which finished 30-4.
"He has a college body already,'' Mack said. "He's very physical and doesn't shy away from contact. He's athletic for his size, can shoot it and he's a pretty good passer, too.''
Feldhaus, also a standout golfer who could have played Division I in that sport, might have a familiar-sounding name. Fans of a certain age might remember his father, Deron Feldhaus, a 1,232-point scorer for Kentucky and key figure on the "Unforgettables,'' a core group of players who led the Wildcats to the 1992 NCAA Tournament East Region final (where Duke's Christian Laettner famously won the game on an overtime buzzer-beater).
Jayden Johnson (6-6, 210), a four-star prospect from Louisville's Trinity High School, came to USF over offers from Arizona State, Cincinnati, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas A&M, USC, West Virginia and Xavier. The all-time leading scorer at Trinity with 1,488 career points, he was two-time Kentucky All-State selection.
Combination guard Darren Moore (6-2, 170) of Olney, Md., is coming from a Massachusetts prep school where he earned first team all-conference honors and posted 20 points in a game against renowned prep power Hargrave Military.
Putting It All Together
So how does it work? How do you mold 15 new players into one cohesive team? Mack said it happens practice by practice, brick by brick, beginning with these summer months.
"We have a good feel (as a staff) for what we'll be running on both ends of the floor, but our players don't (yet), so there's a lot of teaching,'' Mack said. "We want them to have a feel conceptually on how we want to play, but there will be times when they're out of sorts. That's OK. It's a long process.
"I'm not coaching the coaches. Our coaches know exactly what they're doing," Mack said of a coaching staff on which every member has either previously served on one of his staffs or played for him, including two members – Christen Cunningham and Dante Jackson – who have done both.
"It has been exciting to watch," Mack said. "You're watching freshmen adjusting to college. You're watching seniors who have been really good players and now they're figuring out how to lead the other guys while learning themselves.''
Off the court, the relationships have begun as well. The new players have taken notice of USF basketball's recent success — two American Conference titles in the past three seasons — and hope to build on that.
"I think with 15 new guys, you've first got to start with bonding time,'' James said. "We've got to spend time with each other and get used to each other. You've got to learn what makes dudes go and what doesn't make them go. It takes time for sure and that's what this summer is all about. This is how college basketball is these days. We've got good guys on this team and a really good staff. It's not always easy, but we're beginning to figure it out and I think this team is going to be a lot of fun.''
–#GoBulls–
Joey Johnston
Athletics Senior Writer
