IU transfer portal hot board: Priority positions, names to know

BLOOMINGTON – College basketball’s transfer window will emerge from its Final Four-enforced slowdown at the end of this week, when the dead period lifts and visits can resume.

Indiana, still light six scholarship players with plenty of work to do, will dive right back in. The Hoosiers are lining up visitors for the coming weekends, with a heavy emphasis on positions and roles of need. IndyStar examines those needs, and some names to know as IU’s roster-building efforts accelerate.

Needs

● Backcourt impact: An already thin guard rotation lost Xavier Johnson (eligibility) and CJ Gunn (portal) once the season ended. Trey Galloway gives Mike Woodson proven ball-handling and creativity, but he cannot run a one-man show.

Indiana needs shooting and scoring punch, both, here. Players who can get on the ball and make plays, for themselves or others, and players who can stretch the floor in ways last season’s roster too often could not. IU has a handful of out-and-out point guard targets, suggesting Woodson would like to share Galloway’s offensive load.

● Backcourt depth: Simplistic, yes. But there’s an extent to which Indiana just needs bodies in its backcourt. Galloway and Gabe Cupps are the only guards returning to play at least 50% of available minutes last season. The growth of Anthony Leal’s role in Big Ten play shouldn’t be overlooked, but it’s not by itself a cure-all.

● Floor spacing: It’s long past time Indiana had the tools necessary to shoot 3-pointers with both accuracy and efficiency. That means adding at least two players with an established track record shooting the ball well. It also means bolstering the roster with players used to the kind of volume the Hoosiers so desperately need.

● Rim protection: Whether Woodson intends to play Malik Reneau at the four or the five next season remains unclear. But the Hoosiers need length and rebounding impact in any event, whether from the bench or in the starting lineup. Woodson has always valued a shotaltering center who could rebound at volume, particularly at the defensive end. Whether that player starts or sees major bench minutes, IU needs at least one big addition here.

Names to know

We’ll group these names by position, and list them alphabetically. The usual disclaimer: This is by no means an exhaustive list, and it will be updated. The portal moves fast. Circumstances change rapidly in college basketball. Just ask Mitch Barnhart. Let’s roll.

GUARDS

It’s not surprising to see a lot of IU’s focus right now trained on the backcourt. As previously discussed, the Hoosiers need both depth and impact as they rebuild their guard rotation, and that could mean trying to take as many as four guards out of the portal this cycle.

Kanaan Carlyle

The Stanford transfer made honorable mention All-Freshman Team in the Pac-12 last winter, averaging 11.5 points and 2.7 assists per game. He appeared in 23 games for the Cardinal in his lone season in Palo Alto, making close to 78% of his free throws along the way. Carlyle shot just 32% from 3 (a clean 32-of-100), and he needs to improve his finishing on 2s as well. But he would add some creativity — he finished conference play last year 11th in assist rate and a remarkable third in possessions used. He’s comfortable with the ball in his hands.

Carlyle has a visit scheduled for next weekend.

Minnesota Golden Gophers forward Pharrel Payne (21) rushes up the court against Indiana State center Robbie Avila (21) on March 24 during the second round of the NIT at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute. The Indiana State Sycamores defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers, 76-64.

Ryan Conwell

Will Indiana get involved with the Indiana State transfer? Conwell was a crucial piece of the Sycamores’ remarkable season, averaging 16.6 points per game and shooting better than 40% from 3. The Pike grad started his college career at South Florida before transferring to Indiana State, and now he’s in the portal following Josh Schertz’s exit for Saint Louis. It stands to reason some of Schertz’s players will follow him from Terre Haute, but if Conwell is interested in IU, it seems likely IU would reciprocate. He checks a lot of boxes for the Hoosiers.

Connor Essegian

Essegian is an interesting case. He was a revelation for Wisconsin two years ago, averaging 11.7 points per game while shooting a tick under 36% from behind the arc. All that dried up last winter, when the Central Noble grad saw his minutes average cut from 27.4 per game to just 7.3. Essegian never found his 3-point shot or his scoring touch as a sophomore, and he didn’t play double-digit minutes in any of the Badgers’ last 11 games. He undeniably ticks certain boxes (shooting chiefly among them) for Indiana, but the Hoosiers would need to be confident last season was the exception, not the rule.

Connor Hickman

There’s an argument Hickman might have been a high-major guard out of Bloomington South in 2021, if COVID hadn’t disrupted that class’s recruiting timeline so dramatically. Hickman landed at Bradley, where he scored 953 points and hit 37.3% of his 3-pointers across three seasons. Last winter was his best — Hickman averaged 14.5 points and nearly three assists per game, for a 23-win Bradley team that finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference and reached the NIT.

Hickman has already held an inhome visit with IU, and plans to reciprocate with a campus visit soon.

Tony Perkins

IU fans know Perkins well. He enjoyed a superlative career at Lawrence North before playing four years for Fran McCaffery at Iowa. Perkins was particularly good across the past two seasons, scoring in double figures in each year and acting as the key playmaker for the Hawkeyes’ impressive offenses. Perkins has never shot better than 33.3% from 3, but he’s been a reliable 3-point shooter and an underappreciated guard rebounder (a skill Indiana could use on its roster).

Expect Perkins to visit Bloomington at some point this month.

Myles Rice

The reigning Pac-12 freshman of the year, Rice pulled the strings for surprise package Washington State during the Cougars’ best season in a decade and a half last winter. He averaged 14.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in his first competitive collegiate season. Rice was not just one of Washington State’s best players — if not the Cougars’ best — but also among the Pac-12’s best creators. If there’s a ranking to Woodson’s wish list at point guard, Rice probably sits at the top. Maybe others are there with him, but Rice is among the Hoosiers’ greatest priorities. IU is seen as a genuine contender for his commitment, alongside a small handful of other suitors. He would be a major add, and will likely visit campus at least.

Leland Walker

Another Indianapolis native on this list, Walker popped up early in the portal cycle in connection with Indiana. The North Central grad averaged 15.4 points and 4.1 assists per game last season as a sophomore at Eastern Kentucky, and his two-year numbers suggest he’s ready for a step up in competitive level. Things have since slowed with Walker and the Hoosiers (not uncommon in a calendar that moves in fits and starts), but there are plenty of ways Walker fits what IU needs.

WINGS/FORWARDS Ben Humrichous

It’s been a remarkable rise for Humrichous. The Tipton native was playing at Huntington University two years ago, then spent last year starring at Evansville before portaling this window. In 23 games with the Purple Aces, Humrichous hit 53-of-126 3s (42.1%) while finishing 2s at a respectable rate and taking on an increased load in conference play. A 6-9 forward with tweener skills, Humrichous finished last season with a true shooting percentage of 0.613, which would’ve ranked him second among Hoosiers behind only Kel’el Ware in 2023-24.

Adou Thiero

Thiero was once a target for Indiana from the high school ranks. After two seasons at Kentucky — the second more productive than the first — Thiero is in the portal, and it’s no surprise to see IU among the schools interested. Thiero has a fascinating backstory as a lateblooming high school recruit still perceived to be scratching at his potential in college. He may only need one more year, with NBA teams eyeing him as a potential draft prospect in 2025.

Cade Tyson

Officially listed as a guard/forward, Tyson is one of the most intriguing and sought-after up transfers in the portal right now. The 6-7 North Carolina native averaged 16.2 points and 5.9 rebounds last season at Belmont, hitting 46.5% of his 3s. That was after shooting 41.7% from distance as a freshman in Nashville. Does Indiana still need the kind of impact wing presence Tyson would provide, with Mgbako back and Tucker in the fold? Tough to say, but best practice if Tyson was interested would probably be to take talent first, ask questions later.

CENTERS Aaron Bradshaw

This is about as speculative as we’ll get on this list for right now, but it’s not a dangerous assumption Indiana will at least put out feelers with a one-time top-10 prospect who played high school basketball with Mackenzie Mgbako. Bradshaw averaged just 4.9 points per game as a freshman last season at Kentucky, but with John Calipari’s shock exit to Arkansas, Bradshaw affirmed weeks of speculation when he officially entered the portal Monday. Will IU get seriously involved? Still too early to say, but Bradshaw could certainly do worse than walk the Kel’el Ware path to Bloomington.

Pharrel Payne

IU’s staff will know Payne well, having planned for him these past two seasons at Minnesota. Payne was rarely a volume scorer in the post in Minneapolis (though he did average 10 points per game last winter). But he was an outstanding rebounder at both ends of the floor — third in the conference in offensive rebound rate in Big Ten games, 13th in defensive rebound rate — and a functional shot blocker as well. He also finished nearly 64% of 2s across a pair of seasons with the Golden Gophers. Whether Indiana recruited him to start or serve as a key reserve, he fits a lot of what the Hoosiers need from a player in his position.

Payne will visit Indiana this month.

Amari Williams

A senior with his COVID year remaining, Williams has been on Indiana’s radar since he hit the portal last month. Williams averaged 12.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game last season, and he’s been a remarkably efficient defensive presence for most of his career. He finished top-30 nationally in defensive rebound rate in each of the last three seasons, and he’s never posted a singleseason block rate lower than 8.3%. Williams is expected in Bloomington next weekend. He certainly ticks a lot of the boxes Woodson needs at the five.