The Spire

Brendan Grudberg ‘28

Staff Writer

The Holy Cross Men’s Basketball team, coming off of a somewhat disappointing 11-22 campaign, had just one player – Jaden Kirkwood – set to graduate this spring. However, in 2026, graduating seniors are only half, or perhaps even less, of the battle with roster turnover inherent to collegiate athletics. 

Five players from Holy Cross’ 2025-25 roster are confirmed to be in the transfer portal, including four consistent starters. Let’s go over what the Crusaders will be losing with these players departing, and the efforts they’ve made thus far to plug those holes as Coach Paulsen and Company prepare for a crucial 2026-27 season.

As of now, the five Crusaders leaving in the portal are juniors Gabe Warren, DeAndre Williams, and Will Aljancic; sophomore Tyler Boston, and first-year Aiden Disu. All five of these guys played consistent minutes for the Crusaders this year, with Aljancic being the only one not to start, and all but Disu have decided on their future landing spots.

Considering age and production, Tyler Boston was probably the Crusaders’ most valuable asset, so it’s no surprise that he sought out bigger opportunities in the transfer portal. By most measurements, Boston was the Crusaders’ best player last season. He led the team in scoring and assists with 14.2 and 3.6 per game, respectively, scored the ball efficiently with a 56.1% true shooting percentage, and played the most minutes per game with 32. 

Boston decided to commit to Seattle University of the West Coast Conference for his remaining 2-3 years of eligibility, depending on if his injury-shortened rookie season grants him a redshirt exemption. Boston will join a team whose two lead guards were both seniors, creating an avenue toward legitimate playing time in a conference that sent three teams to the NCAA tournament last year (though WCC powerhouse Gonzaga is gone to the revamped Pac-12 next year). The Crusaders will miss Boston’s devastating combo of speed and composure at the point guard position, but returner John St. Germain will bring a veteran presence to the vacant minutes at the 1.

Gabe Warren is also a brutal loss for the Crusaders, as he got especially hot towards the end of last season, fully realizing his strong in-between scoring game at the wing position. Warren landed at Conference-USA member New Mexico State University, a program with lots of prestige, having made 26 NCAA tournaments and one Final Four in its history. 

Warren joins a team whose top-five scorers in 2026 were all seniors, as well as promising sophomore guard Gabe Pickens, with whom Warren played his senior high school season with at Dream City Christian in Arizona. This will be Warren’s third D1 school in four seasons, and his senior year with the more prestigious program at NMSU will give him as good a chance as ever to reach the NCAA tournament.

As for the other rising seniors, DeAndre Williams and Will Aljancic, both have likely decided to spend their senior years elsewhere because of wanting more opportunity. 

Aljancic, a 2025 offseason transfer from D2 Findlay, will return to the D2 level after his lone season in D1, committing to Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fl. 

Williams, meanwhile, has been a rotation piece in all three of his seasons as a Crusader, but averaged four less minutes per game this season and had more of an off-ball role, with his assists cutting in half. The question mark for Williams is what his role will look like at his new school, the University of Maine. 

Whether Williams plays more like a point guard or a shooting guard for the Black Bears, the America East, Maine’s conference, is not a huge step up from the Patriot League competition-wise, so Williams should have no trouble adjusting to his new colors. Williams joins a transfer-riddled team whose most notable returner is likely NBA superstar rookie Cooper Flagg’s less heralded twin brother, Ace.

The final confirmed transfer is first-year Aiden Disu, who, while not committing to a school yet, may be the most sought after Crusader in the portal. Disu averaged 15 points and 5 rebounds on blazing 56/48/83 splits over the season’s final 9 games, and his prototypical size and athleticism for his position make him an attractive prospect for any mid-major college. 

We’re one year removed from seeing Holy Cross star rookie Max Green jump all the way from the Patriot League to Northwestern of the Big Ten (before re-entering the portal following this season), so the precedent has been set for star first-year Crusaders to make a big jump after a strong start to their collegiate careers. 

Disu’s exit is particularly concerning since as of right now, Holy Cross has not landed commitments from any frontcourt players, whether in the portal or from high school. That can change before September, of course, but Holy Cross will need big steps up from either Chuck Hare or Declan Ryan to replace the impact left by Disu, who was the Crusaders’ de-facto starting center for much of 2025-26.

As of right now, the Crusaders have landed four commitments to fill these vacant roster spots for next season: transfer guards Arius Alijosius and Kole Hanson from D2 schools, Lewis University and the University of Minnesota–Duluth (UMD), and incoming first-year guards Tristen Wilson and Jaelon Germany. 

Alijosius has the potential to be a home-run recruit for Coach Paulsen. A 6-4, 200lb guard, Alijosius is a pure sniper, making 41 percent of his threes on 7.6 attempts per game, many of which were shot at an insane degree of difficulty. Having spent his first two seasons at D2 Winona State, one of which was redshirted and the other in limited minutes, he broke out at Lewis and brings a beautiful lefty jumper to a team who didn’t have many knockdown shooters in its 2025-26 rotation. If you want to get excited about Crusaders men’s basketball, find his transfer highlight tape at @AriusAlijosius on X. You’re in for a treat.

The other transfer guard, Kole Hanson, is coming off a season at UMD averaging 15 points per game on just 26 minutes. Since he’s not much of a passer at 6 ‘2”, Hanson projects to be another scoring option for the Crusaders off the bench as opposed to the starting point guard, though that could certainly change.

The incoming first-years look promising as well. Wilson, a Maryland native, committed back in September and brings a tough shotmaking ability as well as positional size for the point guard position. 

Meanwhile, Jaelon Germany of Crowley, Tex. committed very late in the cycle, having decommitted from the University of Denver in December before committing to Holy Cross in late March. Germany, the 2025 Arizona Class 2A Player of the Year, returned to his home state of Texas for his senior year and continues the emerging Texas to Holy Cross recruitment pipeline that has emerged over the last three seasons. He brings a smooth handle and 3-level scoring ability to a team losing four of its top five scorers, and will compete for minutes at the guard position alongside his fellow commits and returners St. Germain and Jude Haigh.

Plenty of dominoes have fallen for the Crusaders just two weeks into the transfer portal madness, and judging by their small class of newcomers, they aren’t done looking for new talent yet. The guard position has been the biggest loss in the portal, with the only returning guard from last year’s rotation being St. Germain, but it’s in the frontcourt where they have yet to supplement more talent. 

Coach Paulsen has found multiple transfers from the D2 and JUCO level throughout his tenure, and I expect that to be the same as he addresses his squad’s remaining needs for the 2026-27 season. Regardless, the holes left by those transferring this year cannot be understated, and it will be interesting to see how those now former Crusaders perform in their new environments.

Featured image courtesy Holy Cross Athletics