SAN DIEGO – Chance Gladden, a sophomore point guard, has signed an athletic aid agreement to attend San Diego State and compete for the University’s men’s basketball program starting in the 2026-27 school year. The official announcement was made by Aztecs’ head men’s basketball coach Brian Dutcher on Thursday.
In the 2025-26 school year, the native of Raleigh, N.C., played his freshman season at Boston University (BU) and arrives on The Mesa with three years of eligibility. In 31 starts and 33 total appearances last season, the 6-4 Gladden averaged 14.4 points, 4.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds in 33.4 minutes per game. He shot 47.6 percent from the field, 34.7 from beyond the arc and 86.7 percent from the line. For his efforts was named a third team All-Patriot League performer and garnered a spot on the league’s All-Rookie Team, the first player from BU to earn both honors in the same season since the 2012-13 campaign. Gladden was the only Patriot League freshman, under 6-8, to average 14 or more points per game last year and the only freshman in the conference, regardless of height, to compile his three shooting percentages.
Named to the Patriot League All-Tournament Team, in which his 4th-seeded Terriers reached the championship game for the first times since the 2019-20 season, Gladden averaged 17.7 points, 2.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 51.4 percent from the floor, 55.6 percent from distance and 66.7 percent from the line in three games.
In 24 of his 31 starts he reached double figures in the scoring column, including eight games of 20 or more points and a career-high 34 in a double overtime game at Bucknell on January 31, where he was successful on 17-of-18 free throw attempts.
BU was 11-3 in the 14 games in which he totaled five or more assists, which included a pair of double digit assist games: a 12-assist/10-point double double against Lehigh, the program’s first points/assists double double since the 2016-17 season, and an 11-assist/14-point double double at Army.
His 150 assists ranked 92nd in Division I and 12th among the nation’s freshmen. That total would have tied the SDSU Division I freshman record, which was set by Raymond King in 1996 and his combined total of 731 points, assists and rebounds last season would have slotted him into second place on the program’s Division I freshman list behind Kawhi Leonard’s 834 from 2010.
The only times an Aztec finished a season with at least 150 assists since the start of the 1996-97 campaign were in 2019-20, when Malachi Flynn totaled 163 and 2003-04 when Wesley Stokes had 175. In its Division I era, since 1970-71, San Diego State has only had nine players total 150 or more assists in a season.
A 2025 graduate of Ravenscroft High School in Raleigh, N.C., the two-time team MVP averaged 29 points per game as a senior and 26 points, six rebounds and four assists per game as a junior, according to the school. He once scored 57 points in a game at the John Wall Holiday Invitational, the program’s single game scoring record, and at the 2024 John Wall Holiday Invitational, he averaged 30.3 points and 12.7 rebounds. For his efforts he was named the event’s Most Outstanding Player for the second time.
In both his junior and senior seasons, he earned all-state honors from the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA) and the Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference (TISAC) Player of the Year.
Gladden is the third player to join San Diego State through the 2026 transfer portal. He joins Nick Anderson and Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry, who signed athletic aid agreements earlier this month, as well as Aztec returners Elzie Harrington, Tae Simmons, Latrell Davis and Thokbor Majak on the 2026-27 roster.