As he entered his first season at the helm of the Indiana basketball program, Darian DeVries' transfer portal strategy was clear: Target experienced players who logged a lot of minutes playing for mid-major programs.
Using that approach, DeVries brought in Tucker DeVries from West Virginia, Lamar Wilkerson from Sam Houston State, Reed Bailey from Davidson, Nick Dorn from Elon, Tayton Conerway from Troy, Jasai Miles from North Florida, Josh Harris from North Florida, Conor Enright from DePaul, Sam Alexis from Florida, and Jason Drake from Drexel. The class was ranked as the No. 10 portal class in the country by 247Sports.
Unfortunately, that strategy didn't work. The Hoosiers endured yet another underwhelming season, finishing 18-14 with a 9-11 mark in Big Ten play and missing the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season.
Predicting 2 Indiana basketball Transfer Portal commits coming this week
Now, IU is down its top-five scorers heading into 2026-27 and DeVries figures to be extremely busy in the portal once again. This time around, it may be advantageous for DeVries to switch up his portal approach.
DeVries needs to change his portal approach if he wants to land former 5-star prospect Nikolas Khamenia
Instead of targeting mid-major players with plenty of experience, DeVries needs to consider pursuing former 4 and 5-star prospects who couldn't find minutes playing for loaded rosters on Power 4 programs. One such player fitting that description is Duke's Nikolas Khamenia, who officially entered the transfer portal on Wednesday.
NEW: Duke guard Nikolas Khamenia plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, @JoeTipton reports.
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal) April 8, 2026
Khamenia averaged 5.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last season.https://t.co/MR8QMaezvn pic.twitter.com/oETBsEMf5D
Khamenia was rated as a 5-star prospect and was ranked as the No. 15 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class by 247Sports. Hailing from Studio City, CA, he chose to attend Duke over other offers from UCLA, North Carolina, and Arizona, among others.
Khamenia appeared in all 38 games with five starts during his true freshman season. He averaged 5.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game while playing 19.8 minutes per contest. He also shot 44.4% from the floor and 34% from beyond the arc.
Duke's roster was absolutely loaded this past season, so it wasn't surprising to see the 6'8" freshman play a depth role coming off the bench. However, the potential is there to be a real game-changer and log serious minutes with a different program.
With three years of eligibility remaining, Khamenia instantly becomes a hot commodity on the transfer portal market. He is ranked as the No. 31 overall player and No. 3 small forward in the portal by 247Sports.
If the Hoosiers want to make a splash and land the former 5-star recruit, DeVries will have to switch up his transfer portal strategy. Given the fact that his previous strategy didn't work out as planned, it might not be such a bad idea.