Western Kentucky’s men’s basketball program had another key contributor off this past season’s squad enter the NCAA transfer portal Monday.

WKU confirmed graduate senior guard Braxton Bayless entered his name in the portal, becoming the seventh player off the 2024-25 to enter the portal since the season ended with a 64-61 loss to Florida International in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament on March 11 in Huntsville, Alabama.

Bayless, a 6-foot-2 graduate guard who transferred to WKU from Niagara, played just one season for the Hilltoppers. He was originally slated to run out of eligibility, but was gained an extra year after the NCAA granted a waiver allowing former junior college and other non-Division 1 players an extra season of eligibility in 2025-26.

Bayless, who played two seasons at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College under Hank Plona — who just completed his first season as WKU’s head coach — joined a team looking to repeat the success of the previous year when the Hilltoppers won the CUSA Tournament and ended an 11-year drought by reaching the NCAA Tournament under former coach Steve Lutz (with Plona serving as his top assistant).

Instead, a string of injuries derailed the Tops — the season-ending losses of forward Babacar Faye and talented freshman guard Julius Thedford being the most damaging — as WKU finished 17-15 and 8-10 in CUSA before the early postseason exit.

Faye and Thedford, the team’s second- and third-leading scorers, are also in the transfer portal. Leading scorer Don McHenry, a two-time All-CUSA pick during his two seasons as a Hilltopper after following Plona from Indian Hills to Bowling Green, is also in the portal along with fellow Indian Hills transfer guard Enoch Kalambay. Forward Tyrone Marshall Jr., who spent three seasons at WKU, also gained an extra year of eligibility and entered the portal April 1. Oft-injured forward/center Fallou Diagne, who missed the entire season rehabbing from knee surgery, also entered the portal.

Bayless earned regular minutes with the Tops this past season. The Ankeny, Iowa, native played in 32 games with 17 starts. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in 22.5 minutes per contest. Bayless led the team in assists with 68 total for the season and finished with a team-high 3-point percentage at 43.4%.

The high point for Bayless came in WKU’s 64-63 win against Louisiana Tech on Feb. 22 at E.A. Diddle Arena, when he posted a career-high 27-point performance including a go-ahead bucket with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation to help lift the Tops to the victory.

Coupled with the graduation losses of guards Khristian Lander, Jalen Jackson and Tyler Olden, the Tops must replace nearly 90% of the scoring off a squad that averaged 74.8 points per game this season.

Still on the roster from this past season’s squad who saw game action are guards Jack Edelen (2.9 points per game) and Jaylen Dorsey (0.7 points), plus forwards Blaise Keita (2.5 points) and LeeRoy Odiahi (1.9 points).

Guards Teagan Moore and Terrion Murdix also remain after both missed the entire season due to injury, along with true freshman guard Kade Unseld. Guard Cade Stinnett, a Bowling Green native who transferred from Centre College, also spent this past season with the program as a redshirt.

Plona has already added two players from the transfer portal — Evansville guard Cam Haffner and Stonehill forward Louie Semona — and the Tops added incoming freshmen shooting guard Armelo Boone (Woodford County) and forward Lawson Rice (Butler County) during the early signing period.