With Hutson’s status up in air, Fresno State basketball players hitting transfer portal

Fresno State guard Anthony Holland, one of four Bulldogs to have jumped into the NCAA transfer portal while uncertainty shrouds the future of coach Justin Hutson and the direction of the program, has a new home.

The versatile 6-foot-5 guard, who averaged 6.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game last season and was one of the Bulldogs’ best at the defensive end of the floor, is headed to Washington.

Holland is the second Fresno State player to transfer to Washington in the past two years following 7-foot-1 center Braxton Meah, who left after the 2022 season. The Huskies staff includes former San Joaquin Memorial High star Quincy Pondexter.

Fresno State guard Jemarl Baker also is in the transfer portal, along with Jordan Campbell and Destin Whitaker. Four of the Bulldogs’ top six scorers from last season are either in the portal or have exhausted their eligibility.

Fresno State has made no announcement on Hutson, who is signed through 2024 and coming off an 11-20 season that ended with a first-round loss in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

The Bulldogs coach had a meeting with university president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval and athletics director Terry Tumey before the tournament, and was told that he needed to win games to bolster any case for an extension.

Hutson has won 20-plus games twice in five seasons at Fresno State and in 2022 the Bulldogs won The Basketball Classic postseason tournament, but they have finished under .500 in conference play four seasons in a row, lagging in eighth place in the Mountain West in 2022 and sixth, sixth and seventh before that.

The Bulldogs under Hutson also are just 2-19 in Quad 1 games and 4-33 against teams that finished in the top four of the conference during his first five seasons.