Princeton star Caden Pierce, the 2023-24 Ivy League Player of the Year, plans to redshirt next season in order to finish his degree before entering the transfer portal and playing his final season elsewhere in 2026-27, he told ESPN.
Pierce informed coach Mitch Henderson of his decision last week. It's the latest development in what has been a busy offseason for the program, which saw first-team All-Ivy League guard Xaivian Lee transfer to Florida and Henderson shuffle his coaching staff.
"This decision is nothing against Princeton," Pierce said. "Princeton is forever my home, the school that believed in me coming out of high school. Everything we accomplished is far more than I could have ever imagined. What went into the decision: some of my teammates were leaving, two of our assistant coaches weren't retained. And obviously the current landscape of college basketball is always sitting in the back of your mind. Those things kind of guided my decision."
Pierce, who is represented by Priority Sports, plans to enter the portal as soon as he's able to in the fall in order to give himself a comfortable timeline for his recruitment.
"It takes away the speed-dating process of the postseason transfer portal," he said. "It's going to be interesting because I'm not going to have a sense of what the complete roster makeup is going to be for the coming year. Then again, going through the transfer portal process, you never really know. It's going to be more of a high school recruiting process, I'd like to think. Because I won't be involved with the team, I can take some visits here and there, move at a slower pace, it won't have to be so rushed."
Pierce, a 6-foot-7 forward, started 89 games during his three seasons with the Tigers. He played a key role on Princeton's Sweet 16 team as a freshman in 2023, winning Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and grabbing 16 rebounds in the team's second-round NCAA tournament win over Missouri.
He broke out as a sophomore, averaging 16.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists en route to winning Ivy League Player of the Year. Among the 22 low- and mid-major conference players of the year in 2023-24, Pierce was the only one to return to the same school the following season. He had opportunities to transfer elsewhere following the campaign but opted to go back to the Tigers for his junior year.
Pierce battled injury issues last season, suffering an ankle injury in late December that resulted in two fully torn ligaments and two partially torn ligaments. He battled through the pain during Ivy League play, putting up 11.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists, being named second-team all-conference.
"I probably could have sat out and recovered a little bit more," said Pierce, who added that he hasn't done any serious basketball movements in the last two months in order to get his ankle healthy. "But I'm a competitor."
While plenty of Ivy League standouts have left to play their final season elsewhere due to the conference's longtime ban on graduate students participating in athletics, not many have voluntarily redshirted as a senior before leaving. Brown forward Nana Owusu-Anane underwent shoulder surgery last October before entering the transfer portal in December and ultimately landed at Grand Canyon this spring.
Pierce leaves later this month to represent Team USA on its U23 3x3 team but will then have several months without competitive basketball.
"I'm prepared for it to be difficult, but I won't know how difficult until I'm in that situation," he said. "I can't remember the last time I took a year off from competitive basketball -- probably before I started playing basketball. I hate that I have to step away from a place I love so much. Princeton's my home."