The wait for head coach Darian DeVries to start picking up momentum as he builds his roster for his first season in Bloomington appears to be over. On Tuesday afternoon, Indiana scored a commitment from one of the more prolific shooters in the portal as Lamar Wilkerson (a Bailey and a Wilkerson…who said the 90s were dead?) announced he was transferring from Sam Houston to Indiana. Wilkerson visited IU and Kentucky over the weekend, cancelled his planned visit to Auburn and then committed to Indiana after discussions with his family.

Wilkerson is originally from Ashdown, Arkansas and he averaged 20.5 points per game and four rebounds for the Sam Houston Bearkats. The most impressive skill for the 6’5” Wilkerson is easily his three-point shooting. He shot an eye-catching 44.5% from beyond the arc on 7.7 attempts per contest. That means he attempted 245 three-pointers this past season and connected on 109 of them. In addition, he is an 82.6 percent free throw shooter and had 17 games of 20 points or more this past season. It is always useful to see how mid-major players performed against high-major competition and better opposition. Wilkerson had 19 points with five three-pointers against Baylor, 18 points in 32 minutes against IU in Assembly Hall, 15 points against Pittsburgh and 25 points against NCAA Tournament bound Liberty. He had an extremely impressive 5.7 BPM (Box Score Plus-Minus) on advanced analytics site Bart Torvik and a 2.36 Offensive BPR (Bayesian Performance Rating). Highly-touted transfer Adrian Wooley, a Louisville commit, was at 1.33 OBPR in the same conference.

In short, Wilkerson is a really good scoring and shooting guard that is coming to IU as a player that should fit really well in Darian DeVries’ system. His addition follows an emerging pattern with this still-forming roster: shooting. Reed Bailey is skilled on offense and can shoot the three. Tucker DeVries is an exceptional shooter. Lamar Wilkerson is an outstanding shooter and scorer. Conor Enright is a really good passer that should be able to set those shooters up for good looks. They all have questions on the defensive end. The Hoosiers will continue to focus on adding more shooting, Darian DeVries has made that clear. However, there will also need to be a focus on bringing in some players that can provide defensive stability. There is still plenty of time remaining and an exciting picture is beginning to develop.