Heel Tough Blog: UNC Lands Top-20 Transfer Guard For First Portal Commitment

Tipton Edits

After a busy weekend contacting potential transfer portal targets, Michael Malone and the Tar Heels have landed their first transfer, in the form of Neokilis Avdalas, a 6-9 guard, who played professionally in Greece, before arriving in college basketball, playing for Mike Young and the Virginia Tech Hokies, In his lone season in Blacksburg, Avdalas averaged 12.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists, while shooting 39% from the field, and 31% from behind the arc. In Tech’s road loss at UNC in late February, Avdalas scored 19 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. 

This is a major get for Michael Malone and the revamped UNC coaching staff, which is still being finalized to this point. Per 247Sports, Avdalas is ranked as the No. 20 overall transfer in the 2026 transfer portal cycle and is the No. 3 shooting guard. After having great positional size with his Denver Nuggets teams in the NBA, you can tell that it is a priority for Malone as he makes his transition to the college level, and he can now work on rebuilding the UNC roster around Avdalas. 

He is expected to have three years of eligibility left.