Lamar Wilkerson viewed as “critical piece” in IU basketball’s transfer portal rebuild

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Darian DeVries was introduced as IU basketball’s new head coach in a press conference on March 18 in Bloomington.

Within 10 days, most of the remaining roster from IU’s 2024-25 season had entered the transfer portal.

As the calendar turned to April, the Hoosiers were without a transfer portal commitment outside of DeVries’ son, Tucker.

In early April, IU struck with a commitment from DePaul’s Conor Enright on April 2, followed by Davidson’s Reed Bailey on April 6.

More than a week later, on April 14, Indiana still had just three portal commitments as DeVries worked tirelessly to build a roster and a coaching staff.

April 15, however, delivered significant news that was pivotal to the program’s roster building for the 2025-26 season.

Fresh off an official visit to Kentucky, priority target Lamar Wilkerson of Sam Houston spurned the Wildcats in favor of the Hoosiers, a statement recruiting win for DeVries that helped open the portal floodgates for the Hoosiers.

In an interview with the Field of 68, Wilkerson revealed that DeVries made a trip to see him in Texas on the day of his decision and to solidify his commitment.

“He actually flew out here today to come see me, and so that was big man, that was major,” Wilkerson explained. “I want to go where I’m a priority, and that’s where Indiana makes me feel like a priority.”

Following the commitment by Wilkerson on April 15, Indiana landed six more commitments in the next two weeks.

In a recent interview with Inside the Hall, DeVries acknowledged the importance of landing Wilkerson’s commitment.

“Yeah, that was a big commitment for us, because as we’re going through the portal, everybody’s wondering like, ‘who am I going to play with?’ ‘Who are my teammates?’ ‘What’s our team?’ ‘I want to win,'” DeVries told Inside the Hall. “Getting those first couple guys to commit and now you have something tangible that you can sell to other recruits.”

Wilkerson, a 6-foot-5 guard with one season of eligibility remaining, was one of the premier shooters in college basketball last season.

He averaged 20.5 points, four rebounds and 2.1 assists in 34.9 minutes for the Bearkats while shooting 44.5 percent from beyond the 3-point line.

Wilkerson’s 109 made 3-point field goals ranked 13th nationally.

As the rest of Indiana’s roster filled out throughout April, it became clear that DeVries’ talk of assembling a roster full of shooters had substance behind it.

In addition to Wilkerson, Indiana landed several other high-usage 3-point shooters in its portal class.

Jasai Miles made 78 3-pointers last season at North Florida. Nick Dorn made 74 triples last season at Elon. Drexel transfer Jason Drake made 40 3-pointers. Tucker DeVries made an average of more than 83 triples in his first three seasons at Drake.

Taking – and making – 3-pointers will be a priority for IU basketball next season for the first time since the Tom Crean era.

No piece on the roster is more proven in that regard than Wilkerson.

“I thought for us, for how we want to play, his ability to shoot the ball and space the floor, he’s an elite-level shooter, and that’s that was something that we prioritize,” DeVries explained. “So to be able to get a guy like him to get things started, I thought was a pretty critical piece as we were putting it together.”

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