While the transfer portal is best known for creating off-the-court drama, especially in the offseason, it also can provide on-court intrigue. As prominent players move freely about the country, form time to time, they wind up coming face to face with one of their previous schools. Texas Tech basketball fans are in store for that scenario next season as former Red Raider Pop Isaacs is set to return to the Big 12.
Tuesday, numerous sources took to social media to report that Isaacs had decided to transfer to Houston. This comes after he spent just one injury-shortened season at Creighton.
Of course, from 2022-24, the 6-foot-2 point guard played his first two seasons of college basketball in Lubbock. For the Red Raiders, he averaged 13.9 points, 3.1 assists, and 2.7 rebounds per game while starting 58 of the 59 contests he appeared in.
Isaacs was named to the 2023 Big 12 All-Freshman team, and a year later, he earned third-team All-Big 12 honors. However, he is most remembered for an off-court incident that arose during his sophomore season.
NEWS: Pop Isaacs will transfer to Houston, his agency PNW Sports Group told @TheAthleticCBB
— Tobias Bass (@tobias_bass) April 9, 2025
In 8 games played, he averaged 16.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game last season at Creighton pic.twitter.com/3ltT4xpvc1
In January of 2024, news broke that Isaacs was facing a lawsuit claiming he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl while on a Texas Tech basketball trip to the Bahamas, where the Red Raiders were playing in a tournament. The lawsuit claimed that Isaacs had sex with an intoxicated 17-year-old female in the Bahamas, but the situation was murky because the age of consent in that country is 16.
The lawsuit said that a program booster bought alcoholic drinks for Isaacs and a teammate who were in a room with two girls, ages 17 and 16, and that Isaacs and the 17-year-old went to another room, where he sexually assaulted her after she "attempted to fight him off."
The incident was investigated by the Texas Tech athletic department and no Title IX violations were discovered so Isaacs was not disciplined by the university or the team. Then, in April of 2024, the lawsuit was dismissed and Isaacs was found "not responsible" by a Title IX pannel.
Still, after that season, Isaacs entered the transfer portal. That decision seemed to be partly based on the need for a fresh start for the player and the coaching staff's desire to find a lead guard who better fit the systems that the Red Raiders wanted to implement on both ends of the court.
Isaacs landed at Creighton, where he had immediate success. In fact, to begin the year, he averaged 16.3 points per game. That included a 27-point, seven-rebound, four-assist performance when the Bluejays beat then-No. 1 Kansas.
However, that would be Isaac's final game with Creighton. Just days later, he underwent hip surgery that cost him the rest of the season. It was an injury that he fought through during his second season at Texas Tech, and it limited him to only eight games played this past season.
Now, Isaacs is headed back to the Big 12, where he will play for the 2025 national runner-up, Houston. That means that he could potentially have to come back to Lubbock as an opponent. While we don't yet know which Big 12 teams will come to the Hub City in 2025-26, should Houston have to visit United Supermarkets Arena, Issacs will likely get quite a bit of attention from the Red Raider student section.
What should concern Tech fans, though, is not Isaacs' controversial time in Lubbock but rather what he could become under the guidance of Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson. One of the top coaches in the sport, he has a history of taking talented and tough-minded guards (categories that Isaacs falls into) to another level.
What's more, Sampson has the credibility and the presence to be able to convince Isaacs to adopt the Houston culture both on and off the court. If Sampson can instill some discipline into Isaacs' game, it could unlock a new level for the former Red Raider, who at times has been sloppy with the ball and an inefficient shooter.
Certainly, the feelings people in West Texas have about Isaacs are varied. That's why it will be fascinating to see how he is received if Houston does travel to Lubbock next season. What's more, his return to the Big 12 not only makes the conference tougher, but it also gives the new bully on the block a boost as the Cougars look to get to the top of the college basketball mountain.