As soon as William Kyle III entered the transfer portal, it felt like he would be a perfect fit for the Nebraska basketball team. The problem is that he’d be perfect for plenty of other teams too.
Kyle is a Bellevue, Nebraska native who has spent the past two seasons playing for South Dakota State, really well I might add as he won the Summit Defensive Player of the Year Award. That was in addition to being a First-Team All-Conference selection.
Kyle was also the Summit Tourney MVP. He averaged 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds this past season, plus 1.6 blocks and 1.7 assists. He doesn’t shoot the 3-ball. Literally. He hasn’t attempted a single 3-pointer in his two-year college basketball career.
But Derrick Walker didn’t shoot 3s and was perfect with Fred Hoiberg. Kyle made 62.3 percent of his field-goal attempts last season and would provide an elite defender, plus some rim protection.
Kyle is 6-foot-9. So is Josiah Allick. He won’t be back next season and you could easily see Kyle slide into that role as a starting four. There will be heavy competition for Kyle but according to Mike Sautter, Nebraska basketball will host him for an unofficial visit on Monday. Texas A&M and Wake Forest will also do in-home visits on Friday.
The Huskers have had success with in-state transfers in each of the past two seasons and Kyle could be the next to come back home to Nebraska and be a star.
More transfer portal rumblings
After C.J. Wilcher departed for the transfer portal, it left Nebraska basketball with five scholarship openings. Fred Hoiberg will be active in the portal, as he always is, but one target is off the board and that’s Koren Johnson of Washington, who eliminated the Huskers after releasing a top five that didn’t include them.
Yet, there are two new targets to monitor. Cade Tyson, one of the best shooters in college basketball, from Belmont, entered the transfer portal and Nebraska reached out. He shot 45 percent from deep last season and made 2.6 3-pointers per game.
Tyson would be a perfect fit with Fred Hoiberg, but a ton of programs have reached out including Kansas, Villanova, and Auburn, among many others.
Nebraska basketball has also reached out to transfer J’Vonne Hadley out of Colorado. He’s a 6-foot-6 guard who has played three seasons. He averaged 11 points per game last season and shot 41 percent from 3-point range although he wasn’t a high-volume shooter.
Hadley started 34 games last season and averaged 1.4 steals per game for the Buffs, who made the NCAA tournament. He’s also got tons of suitors too.
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