After a disappointing first season in Bloomington, the Indiana Hoosiers are facing plenty of roster turnover heading into the 2026-27 season. Indiana is losing its top-five scorers, including guard Lamar Wilkerson, who carried the Hoosier offense for most of the season.
Wilkerson led the Hoosiers and finished 2nd in the Big Ten by averaging 20.9 points per game this past season. He also broke the Indiana program record for most points scored in a single season of Big Ten conference play with 464. That kind of production is hard to replace.
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However, the perfect replacement for Wilkerson could come in the form of Providence guard Stefan Vaaks, who just became available through the transfer portal following Providence's move to fire head coach Kim English.
Providence's Stefan Vaaks needs to be a top priority for Darian DeVries and Indiana
On Tuesday morning, On3's Joe Tipton reported that Vaaks plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens next month. Vaaks is coming off a stand-out freshman season with the Friars, as he averaged 15.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game en route to claiming Big East All-Freshman team honors.
Owning a 6'7" frame, Vaaks could be the perfect player for DeVries to target in an effort to replace Wilkerson's scoring production.
NEWS: Providence guard Stefan Vaaks plans to enter the @TransferPortal, source told @On3. ⁰⁰The 6-7 freshman averaged 15.8 points per game this season. Was Big East All-Freshman team. https://t.co/edKBsMnjJk pic.twitter.com/dMVxs5yKVr
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) March 17, 2026
Hailing from Tabasalu, Estonia, Vaaks played professionally in with BC Kalev in the Estonian-Latvian Basketball League before heading to Providence. During his freshman season, he started 22 of Providence's 31 games. He shot 40.3% from the field and 35% from beyond the arc, while also posting a strong free throw shooting percentage of 83.9%.
Vaaks is an elite scorer who can score in a variety of ways, and put up 20 or more points in 10 games this season. His best performance of the campaign came in the first round of the Big East Tournament when he scored a season-high 28 points to lead the Friars to a win over Butler.
Indiana has plenty of scoring production to replace next season
The Hoosiers have plenty of scoring production to replace, and Vaaks could make for a nice fit in Indiana's back court.
Indiana's senior group of Lamar Wilkerson, Conor Enright, Reed Bailey, Tayton Conerway, Tucker DeVries, and Sam Alexis accounted for nearly 78% of minutes played and over 84.1% of the scoring this past season. Of the seven players slated to return, only Nick Dorn and Trent Sisley averaged double-digit minutes per game this past season. That leaves DeVries with plenty of work to do in re-vamping Indiana's roster for next season.
Bringing in a guy like Vaaks could be extremely benficial for DeVries as he heads into Year 2 at the helm of the Indiana basketball program.