Caden Pierce won’t play another game for the Princeton University men’s basketball team.
Pierce announced on Tuesday that he will sit out this season while completing his degree and enter the transfer portal for his final season of eligibility.
“What I am learning as I continue to grow is that the ‘only constant in life is change,’” Pierce wrote in his message. “Whether that is teammates and coaches who I came in with leaving, or the broader landscape of college basketball evolving, all of these factors have led me to sit out my senior year of basketball at Princeton this upcoming season.”
Pierce’s decision to opt out of his senior season comes after a very difficult junior campaign in which he battled injuries — he later reaveled he had torn ligaments in his ankle — and saw his production drop from the previous season in which he was the Ivy League Player of the Year. After the Tigers concluded a disappointing 19-11 season with a semifinal loss to Yale in the Ivy League Tournament, Pierce watched as his two best friends and classmates — Xavian Lee and Jack Scott — transferred out and longtime associate head coach Brett MacConnell didn’t have his contract renewed.
The eight Ivy League institutions have regularly frowned on the use of collectives in the NIL space and also chose not to opt into the NCAA House settlement denying them the opportunity to for revenue sharing payments to go directly to players. His best friend Lee is reportedly set to rake in close to $6 million between NIL, revenue sharing and outside endorsements at Florida.
“This was a very hard decision for me, as Princeton is my home and where I will earn my degree next May,” Pierce said. “I am forever grateful to Coach (Mitch) Henderson, my teammates, and the broader Princeton Men’s Basketball community for the opportunity they provided me these past three years.”
Pierce averaged 11.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game last season, down from the 2023-24 season in which he was named Ivy League Player of the Year after posting 16.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per contest.
Pierce was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2022-23 as a starter on the team that reached the Sweet 16.
He was also the 39th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and finished his three seasons with 1,069.
“If you would have told me that after my junior year our team would have won multiple Ivy League titles, won games in March Madness, and earned a trip to the Sweet Sixteen, I would have said those are dreams and goals that became reality,” Pierce said. “If you would have told me that winning team championships would also bring me individual awards such as Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and multiple All-League honors, I would have said that went past any of my college hoop dreams.”
Pierce can now take his time to survey the landscape and determine his next move. MacConnell, the former assistant and close confidant, just joined the staff at Stanford, so expect the west coast ACC school to be heavily linked to the Glen Ellyn, Ill., native.
Pierce’s opting out leaves Princeton with no seniors on the 2025-26 roster. The top returning players are juniors Dalen Davis, Jackson Hicke and sophomores Malik Abdullahi and CJ Happy.
Originally Published: July 8, 2025 at 4:51 PM EDT