{"id":706579,"date":"2026-04-09T12:12:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706579\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:12:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:12:46","slug":"5-transfer-portal-guards-indiana-mens-basketball-could-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706579\/","title":{"rendered":"5 transfer portal guards Indiana men\u2019s basketball could target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana men\u2019s basketball has fully entered its first full offseason under head coach Darian DeVries. The program has been in offseason mode for a few weeks now with roster movement and a new assistant coaching hire, but the transfer portal opening up gives the Hoosiers the chance to rebuild the roster ahead of year two.<\/p>\n

Last year, DeVries was focused on assembling both a staff and roster with just a few staffers and one player following him from West Virginia. The resulting roster came with several flaws that ultimately helped keep the Hoosiers out of the NCAA Tournament. Now DeVries has a fully assembled staff of assistants and staffers to focus solely on roster construction.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, we\u2019re going to be taking a look at the transfer portal in the coming days to see which players Indiana could go after. With a near-total roster rebuild underway, the program won\u2019t have a shortage of need.<\/p>\n

Potential Indiana transfer portal targets<\/p>\n

Centers<\/a>Forwards<\/a>Wings (coming soon)<\/p>\n

This is going to be an interesting one to separate because of the different roles guards can play as distributors, scorers and a combination of the two. DeVries tended to have strong play at point guard in previous rosters at West Virginia and Drake with Javon Small being one of the best guards in the Big 12 with the Mountaineers and Roman Penn being one of the best in the Missouri Valley with the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Both Small and Penn led their respective conferences in assist rate in league play, with the latter doing so in three out of his four seasons with Drake. It\u2019s clear DeVries wants or needs a really productive distributor in his offenses, so we\u2019ve taken that into account here.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a few guards from the portal we think could fit in:<\/p>\n

\"Jan<\/a><\/p>\n

Jan 20, 2026; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Louisiana State Tigers guard Dedan Thomas Jr. (11) drives to the basket past Florida Gators guard Xaivian Lee (1) during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O\u2019Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Thomas spent his first year at the high major level during this past season with LSU, averaging 15.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 6.5 assists while shooting 45.9% from the field and 30.2% from 3-point range in 29.4 minutes per game. He was limited due to a foot injury, playing in 16 games for the Tigers with 15 starts.<\/p>\n

What jumps out about Thomas is his sky-high assist rate of 43.4 with a turnover rate of just 11.4. He was productive with UNLV for two seasons in the Mountain West and managed to maintain that production in the SEC despite an injury.<\/p>\n

The 3-point shooting numbers give some level of pause, but there\u2019s not exactly a ton of guys running around who pass and hit shots at a rate above 40%. He\u2019d need floor spacers around him, but that\u2019d almost certainly be a priority for DeVries regardless.<\/p>\n

\"Mar<\/a><\/p>\n

Mar 21, 2026; Greenville, SC, USA; VCU Rams guard Terrence Hill Jr. (6) shoots for the basket during the second half against the Illinois Fighting Illini during a second round game of the men\u2019s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Hill Jr.\u2019s passing numbers aren\u2019t quite those of Thomas, but he took a second year leap at VCU as a sixth man this past season to help lead the Rams to an upset win over UNC in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 15 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists while shooting 46.6% from the field and 37% from 3-point range in 25.1 minutes per game for the Rams this past season.<\/p>\n

He stayed with VCU last offseason when Ryan Odom departed for Virginia with new head coach Phil Martelli Jr. electing to keep him on the roster when those around the program vouched for him on and off the court<\/a>. He was outstanding against the Tar Heels in the first round with 34 points, five rebounds and five assists while going 7-10 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

If Indiana were to pursue, he\u2019d have to adapt to Big Ten play and may assume a similar role as a bench guard. The production is there though.<\/p>\n

Markus Burton, Notre Dame<\/p>\n

\"Notre<\/a><\/p>\n

Notre Dame guard Markus Burton, center, passes the ball during a NCAA men\u2019s basketball game against Missouri at Purcell Pavilion on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in South Bend. MICHAEL CLUBB\/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Burton, however, would start immediately.<\/p>\n

Hoosier fans, especially those around the state, are likely already familiar with Burton, who won Indiana Mr. Basketball out of Penn High School in Mishawaka back in 2023. He\u2019s spent the past three seasons with Notre Dame with 68 starts in 69 games played.<\/p>\n

He played in just ten games for the Fighting Irish this past season after suffering a season-ending left ankle injury against TCU in early December. Before that, he was averaging 18.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. What really sticks out about that limited sample is that its statistical profile is comparable to that of Penn\u2019s 2020-21 season at Drake.<\/p>\n

Burton has been productive at the high-major level for awhile and has a pre-established connection with Indiana being from the state while offering both distribution and scoring.<\/p>\n

John Blackwell, Wisconsin<\/p>\n

\"MADISON,<\/a><\/p>\n

MADISON, WISCONSIN – JANUARY 28: John Blackwell #25 of the Wisconsin Badgers reacts after scoring against the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the second half of the game at Kohl Center on January 28, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

So this one is definitely a fun what-if but a huge what-if. Greg Gard and Wisconsin have done as well with the guard position as anyone in the country as of late so Blackwell\u2019s entry into the portal feels like a huge move that would necessitate a huge investment.<\/p>\n

Blackwell averaged 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 43% from the field and 38.9% from 3-point range in 33.8 minutes per game for the Badgers this past season. He\u2019s spent the past two seasons playing alongside prolific scoring guards in Nick Boyd and John Tonje, playing a bit of a Robin role to their Batman.<\/p>\n

Unlike the previous guards listed, Blackwell is more of a scorer than a distributor, but has excelled in that role over the past few seasons while developing in Madison. This is also, again, a bit of a reach as Blackwell may be looking for a more established program to spend his final season with.<\/p>\n

\"Tulane\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

Tulane\u2019s Rowan Brumbaugh (7) goes for a layup during the first round American Conference Tournament game between Memphis and Tulane in Birmingham, Ala, on March 11, 2026. Chris Day\/The Commercial Appeal \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Brumbaugh has actually been connected to Indiana<\/a>, so this could be more of a realistic option for the Hoosiers. He averaged 19.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 45.2% from the field and 36% from 3-point range during this past season with Tulane, his second with the Green Wave and third overall college season after his freshman year at Georgetown.<\/p>\n

He excelled at drawing fouls, shot reasonably well from deep on substantial volume and posted an assist rate of 25.5 to a turnover rate of 14.6. Like Burton, he\u2019d give Indiana a backcourt option as both a scorer and distributor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana men\u2019s basketball has fully entered its first full offseason under head coach Darian DeVries. The program has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,37923,19072,231,772,1544,2051],"class_list":{"0":"post-706579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-basketball","11":"tag-indiana-mens-basketball","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-basketball","14":"tag-ncaab","15":"tag-transfer-portal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116374695999657124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}