TCU Basketball has acquired its first player in this transfer portal cycle. He is from the team that defeated the Horned Frogs this season.
University of Central Florida transfer CJ Walker announced on social media Sunday night that he will be attending TCU. Walker spent the past four seasons with the Knights, starting 49 of the 74 games he played in.
Last season, Walker averaged 7.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19 games. He had seven points and three rebounds to help UCF defeat TCU 79-77 in the Horned Frogs' final regular-season game.
Walker is a top-100 player from Sanford, Fla., who started his career at Oregon State in 2019. He averaged just four points per game before moving home. In his first season, Walker started 15 of 21 games and averaged 7.0 points and 5.0 rebounds.
The following season, he started 19 of 30 games and averaged 8.3 points and 5.7 rebounds, but in 2022 he battled injuries and appeared in only four games.
When healthy, Walker is an athletic forward who can play minutes at power forward or center. TCU lost a number of forwards, with All-Big 12 stars Emmanuel Miller and Chuck O'Bannon running out of eligibility. Swing forward Jacoby Coles also entered the transfer portal after TCU lost to Utah State in the NCAA Tournament.
Walker will join returning center Ernest Houde, redshirt freshman Isaiah Manning and two freshmen bigs David Punch and Malik Diallo in the Horned Frogs' frontcourt. Reserve big Essam Mostafa also has one more year of eligibility and could return.
TCU is expected to begin ramping up the pressure to acquire the veteran guard through the transfer portal.