Indiana basketball projected to land an insane transfer portal haul
The Indiana Hoosiers are trying to hit the reset button after failing to make the Men's NCAA tournament last season. But head coach Mike Woodson is apparently working to fix that problem for the Hoosiers -- and perhaps keep himself off of the hot seat.
As Jared Kelly of 247 Sports noted, top recruiting expert Travis Branham has the Hoosiers projected to land a top transfer player and overall transfer class. Barnham logged three Crystal Ball predictions for Indiana basketball, including the top-ranked player in the portal, Arizona center Oumar Bello, along with former Stanford guard Kanaan Carlyle and former Washington State guard Myles Rice.
All three are ranked Top 15 in the 2024 transfer portal class.
Three transfer Crystal Balls for Indiana in the last 24 hours from 247Sports’ @TravisBranham_.
— Jared Kelly (@Jared_Kelly7) April 12, 2024
Myles Rice begins his IU official visit this weekend. Oumar Ballo next up on April 14-16. Then Kanaan Carlyle on April 19-21.
Things are happening at 17th St and Fee Lane. #iubb pic.twitter.com/fw6x16uFFh
Ballo is a double-double machine who's leaving Arizona's program after a strong career with the Wildcats. The center will be using his sixth year of eligibility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Carlyle and Rice, meanwhile, are 4-star transfer portal prospects with boatloads of experience to supplement the Hoosiers backcourt.
Indiana basketball predicted to land star-studded transfer class
These players will obviously help Indiana in the 2024-25 season. The more pressing question for Woodson, however, would be if these moves and success next year would help take him off of the hot seat coming into the season.
Obviously, landing this type of transfer portal class would drastically improve the chances of Woodson sticking around with the Hoosiers. While Indiana missed out on March Madness this past year, there are solid pieces already in Bloomington with Trey Galloway, Mackenzie Mgbako and Malik Reneau. With that core possibly having Bello, Carlyle and Rice added to them, things could get quite interesting in the Big Ten race.
Even though the Hoosiers might not be national title contenders by any means, the program can finally break the seven-year Sweet 16 drought if things go right in Bloomington. Woodson still has a lot of work to do if he wants to get off the hot seat but things could get very interesting if those transfer projections are right.
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