With the explosion of the transfer portal in college basketball, it’s made that much harder for high school basketball prospects to land a coveted Division 1 scholarship upon completing their senior year. For incoming South Carolina State Bulldogs transfer Rayniel Wright, it was precisely the reason why it took him a little longer to get to the D1 level.
Before Wright committed this summer to South Carolina State, he spent the last two seasons sharpening his game in the junior college ranks at Baton Rouge Community College and West Los Angeles College. He was a star guard at nearby St Bernard’s High School in the LA area, and he used to have the mentality that it was D1 or bust for him in terms of playing in college.
But with a shortage of roster spots for high school seniors across the country due to the transfer portal, combined with his experience, Wright now believes that junior college should be considered as a legitimate option for more players.
“JuCo is like a dog. I had the same mentality before all of this transfer portal stuff, but at this point, everybody is able to just hop in portal. Coaches don’t want the high school guys right now,” Wright told ClutchPoints in an exclusive interview over the summer. “A lot of high school guys, it’s one person on the team or two people on the team that are being recruited. I’ll say JuCo is the route for sure.”
After one season at Baton Rouge CC, Wright came back home to the LA area and suited up for West LA College for his final season of JuCo eligibility. He turned in a strong 2024-25 season which helped get him on the radar for four-year college programs.
One of the programs that turned their attention to Wright was South Carolina State, a traditional HBCU. Last season, the Bulldogs were tied with Norfolk State, record-wise, for the top record in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) at 11-3. In the conference tournament championship game, Norfolk State barely edged out South Carolina State, 66-65, to earn the MEAC bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The constant contact between Wright and the coaching staff was a big reason why he decided to transfer to South Carolina State.
“It was just Coach [Erik] Martin and Coach Bernie [Coaxum] really calling me every day, making sure I was good and trying to get me there,” Wright said. “And talking a lot about my role. My role to come in and do what I can do. That’s feed my team and be able to get mine within the system.”
South Carolina State has improved in each of the past three seasons since Martin took the helm as head coach. The Bulldogs went from five total wins in 2022-23, to 20 wins last season. It was the first winning season under Martin. And it’s a program that Wright believes he can help right away to build on that success.
During Wright’s lone season at West LA, he appeared in 26 games and came off the bench to provide the Wildcats with a strong presence on the second unit. He averaged 10.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals in a little over 26 minutes per game. He feels he can bring that same sort of play to South Carolina State as a junior.
“I’ll say relief with some of the players. Coach [Martin] was telling me that last year he had a lot of combo guards who liked to score a lot,” Wright said. “So me coming in and being a point guard is what he needed. He said he wanted the difference between the two. And also my defense and my tenacity, just being active on the court.”
The one knock that Wright has against him is something that unfortunately hinders a lot of guards, and that’s size. He isn’t the tallest player on the court, standing at just about 6-feet tall. But what he may lack in height, he makes up with his tenacity on the court.
Wright knows about the stigma that’s placed on small guards. And while he knows that it’s something he’ll have to navigate, he is confident in his talent and his abilities to be a difference-maker at the D1 level. He cited his close friend Kalib LaCount, another small guard who played D1 at East Carolina, as an inspiration of sorts to carry with him.
“To be honest, my defense helps a lot. With my wingspan, it helps a lot too because it allows me to deflect shots and get steals really easy,” Wright said. “But really, I got a friend named Kalib, he went D1. . .so that helped inspire me to think that I could do the same thing.”