Villanova lands Penn freshman Tyler Perkins via the transfer portal
In Perkins, who was Penn's second-leading scorer, Kyle Neptune lands his first big transfer for the 2024-25 season. Perkins will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Tyler Perkins might be leaving Penn, but he won’t be going far.
The freshman guard is transferring to Villanova, he announced via Instagram on Sunday. Perkins, who has three years of eligibility remaining, committed following a visit to the Main Line on Friday.
Perkins started 27 of 29 games for Penn and was second on the team in scoring, averaging 13.7 points. With Perkins gone and leading scorer Clark Slajchert (18.0) having exhausted his Ivy League eligibility and heading to Southern California for his graduate year, the Quakers will have some big shoes to fill next season.
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The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Perkins is the first transfer addition for Villanova this season, though Wildcats guard Brendan Hausen and forwards Trey Patterson, and Lance Ware are in the portal. With forward Eric Dixon declaring for the 2024 NBA draft, sophomore guard Mark Armstrong testing the draft waters, and senior guard TJ Bamba yet to announce a decision on his future, Perkins is a key pickup for Villanova’s backcourt.
The Virginia native is the second Penn transfer to the Big East in as many years. He follows Jordan Dingle, who averaged 11.6 points as a senior for St. John’s this season.
Perkins and Dingle are both part of a growing trend of athletes forgoing an Ivy League undergraduate degree in favor of NIL opportunities elsewhere. Standout Harvard freshman and Ivy League rookie of the year Malik Mack is also currently in the portal, as are Yale sophomore Danny Wolf and Brown junior Nana Owusu-Anane.
Perkins played a major role in Penn’s 76-72 defeat of Villanova at the Palestra in November, a highlight of a disappointing 2023-24 season for the Quakers that saw them fail to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament for the first time. Perkins had a team-high 22 points in the win, which marked the first time Penn beat the Wildcats since 2018.