While Indiana has begun to make up ground by building its roster through the transfer portal, it is still a slow-moving process. New head coach Darian DeVries has been working tirelessly to bring in guys, but he can only do so much, in the end, it is only up to the players as to whether or not they want to play for Indiana.
The Hoosiers were in the final five of one 4-star transfer but unfortunately lost out on the player to the SEC. Miami transfer Nijel Pack, who spent his first two seasons at Kansas State before transferring to Miami for three seasons, announced that Indiana was in his top 5 schools to transfer to, but yesterday, he officially made his choice of the uniform he would wear for his final season.
NEWS: Miami transfer guard Nijel Pack has committed to Oklahoma, he tells @On3sports.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) April 7, 2025
The 6-0 senior and career 40% three point shooter, played in only 9 games this season (injury). Scored 22 points on Arkansas to start the year. Began his career at K-State.… pic.twitter.com/9mKfaGeNyd
Nijel Pack snubs the Hoosiers by transferring to the Oklahoma Sooners
The news of Pack transferring to Oklahoma over Indiana hurts as he would have been a great leader and brought a lot of experience to the court for the Hoosiers. What hurts even more is that Pack is an Indiana kid growing up in Indianapolis, just about an hour away from Bloomington. Pack could have been able to play an hour away from where he grew up, but instead chose the SEC over the Big Ten.
Pack is an excellent ball handler and sees the court very well to set up his teammates, but his shooting ability is truly what Indiana could have used the most. While Pack missed the majority of the 2024-2025 season with a nagging foot and ankle injury, his four seasons before that is what are eye-opening for anyone who looks at his stats.
In his time at Kansas State as a young player who saw a lot of time on the court, Pack averaged 12.7 points per game his freshman season and a career-high 17.4 points per game his sophomore season. It was a shock when Pack chose to leave the Wildcats after such a great start to his college career.
After he chose Miami, in his three seasons, he never averaged more than 14 points per game, but his three-point shooting percentage is what makes Pack so valuable. In his first season with the Hurricanes, Pack shot 40.4% from deep and 35.7% in his second season at Miami.
This is a tough blow for Indiana to lose out on Pack, especially when the Hoosiers only have about four or five guys on the roster at this point. Luke Goode is still waiting to hear back about his hardship waiver for a fifth season, so right now, he isn't counted on that. DeVries is working, but he needs to work a little faster to fill out this roster cause the transfer portal is beginning to thin out.