Thus far, the Texas Tech basketball program has made no moves in the transfer portal. That could change in the upcoming days, and one name that Red Raider fans should be aware of is Donovan Atwell.
A senior-to-be who has spent his first three seasons at UNC Greensboro, he is reportedly set to visit Texas Tech beginning this Friday (according to Sam Kayser, a college and high school basketball recruiting analyst). One look at his profile shows why he might be a great fit in the offensive system that head coach Grant McCasland likes to deploy.
Atwell is a 6-foot-5, 187-pound guard who earned third-team All-Southern Conference honors this past season. He averaged 13.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in 2024-25 when he started all 32 games for the Spartans.
What makes Atwell so intriguing is that the lefty is a deadly outside shooter. That's a skillset that could make him invaluable to a Texas Tech roster that must replace three of its four leading 3-point weapons from this season, Chance McMillian, Kerwin Walton, and Elijah Hawkins.
UNC Greensboro guard Donovan Atwell will visit Texas Tech beginning on April 11th, he told @LeagueRDY.
— Sam Kayser (@247HSHoops) April 7, 2025
Atwell is a 6-foot-5 guard who has spent the last three seasons at UNCG. He’s started all 64 games the last two seasons. Native of Huntersville, North Carolina.
Averaged… pic.twitter.com/xa3dNcLOnP
For his career, Atwell is a 39.3% shooter from beyond the arc. In 2024-25, he was successful on 39.8% of the 241 shots he took from deep.
His total of 96 made 3s on the season dwarfed what the top Red Raiders made this year, as McMillian and Christian Anderson made 71 each to tie for Tech's team lead. Even more impressive is that Atwell made 25 more 3s than Tech's leaders despite playing five fewer games than the Red Raiders.
Atwell is the definition of a catch-and-shoot guard. He averaged only 0.8 assists per game, meaning he didn't create much for his teammates. What's more, he had only 67 two-point attempts this season, meaning that a stunning 78.2% of his field goal attempts were from 3-point range.
Now, that is not as severe as Walton's numbers were. He hoisted 159 shots from downtown while putting up only 27 2-pointers which translates to 85.4% of his shots being of the 3-point variety.
Still, Atwell and Walton have similar games in terms of style. However, Atwell averaged 7.3 more points per game this season. Of course, he also didn't play in the Big 12, where putting up points is far more difficult than it is in the Southern Conference.
Another difference between Atwell and Walton appears to be on the defensive end. While no one would call Atwell a defensive stopper, he did average 0.6 steals per game and posted a defensive win share (an estimate of the number of wins a player was responsible for by just his defense alone) of 1.3. Meanwhile, Walton came up with just 0.2 steals per game and had a defensive win share of only 0.7.
It is being reported that the price for landing an impact college basketball player via the transfer portal this year is through the roof, with some of the top targets expected to command $3 million or more. Atwell likely won't cost near that much, given that he isn't coming from a power-conference program. Thus, he could be considered a potential bargain.
He might also be able to fill an important role for Texas Tech next season, if he and the Red Raiders reach an agreement. Regardless, though, the fact that Tech is targeting a player of this skillset says quite a bit about where the program feels its greatest needs are at this time.