I used to be so anxious about the extinction of the California Condor. As a kid from the cornfields of Romeo, Michigan, I’m not sure why I was so attached to this topic, but for some reason, those birds really got to me.
Now, I view high school recruits the same way. In a world where rosters are built through the transfer portal, kids who sign and stay are today’s California Condor.
Oakland has long survived on the backs of high school recruits. Kangas. Nelson. Bader. Felder. Although no stranger to the pre-portal transfer game, Kampe started to pound the pavement hard in the mid 2010s to bring in some big names. Martez Walker (Texas), Kendrick Nunn (Illinois), Jamal Cain (Marquette) and Sherron Dorsey-Walker (Iowa State) all turned in their game-worn uniforms to start wearing the bear.
Lest we forget the original elite transfer, Rawle Marshall, who became the first Grizz in the NBA.
Today, the portal provides the prizes and last year’s Oakland team was a collection of transfer players. In fact, the most common starting lineup featured four players not previously on the Oakland roster. Michael Hogue, Ziare Wells, Isaac Garrett and Brody Robinson all packed their bags and set sail for their first, and last, season on the Rochester campus.
Recruits now feel like players from a bygone era, where players came and stayed, became fan favorites, celebrated senior night and watched their jerseys head to the rafters. In today's game, the portal IS the plan rather than the fallback.
Nassim Mashhour is an OU exception.
As a freshman walk-on, he played in 31 games, forcing his way into a guard-heavy lineup featuring DQ Cole, Isaiah Jones, Jaylen Jones, Malcolm Christie and Jayson Woodrich. As the 2024-25 season progressed, Mashhour gained confidence and minutes. His late-season breakout included five threes at IU Indy on February 12, then scored a career-high 24 points against Detroit Mercy on February 16, leading to Horizon League Freshman of the Week honors. It also helped fuel Oakland optimism to start the 2025-26 season.
Then sophomore success started showing up.
Mashhour went from a freshman reserve to starting each of Oakland’s first 10 games. He averaged 9.3 points in 27.4 minutes and shot 37.7% from downtown. He dropped a season-high 15 at Purdue and buried three “of course” triples at Houston.
Little did Nassim and OU fans know that game No. 10 against Toledo would be his last of the season.
It was the Nassim Mashhour season we didn’t get to see.
Now he gets another shot at it. What year does that technically make him? I have no idea. I get lost in the redshirt thing.
Joining him in the backcourt is fellow non-transfer Warren Marshall, plus imports in Ryder Bradley, RJ Taylor, Deuce Hamilton, plus combos in Brady Swartz and William Kassi.
The names around Mashhour may keep changing. That’s college basketball now.
But Mashhour is still here.
And in the age of the transfer portal, maybe we should appreciate our California condors while we still have them.
Words by Air the Bear · September 26, 2026
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