Redshirt freshman walk-on guard Amarion Nimmers announced that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal. Nimmers will have four years of collegiate eligibility remaining.
The 6-foot-2, 173 pound guard from Rock Island, Ill., exits Iowa City after just one year on campus without any career appearances.
“Thank you, University of Iowa for giving me the opportunity to play here and believing in me. With that being said, I will be putting my name in the portal to weigh my options with immediate eligibility at any level. I will always be a Hawkeye,” Nimmers wrote in his social media graphic.
Respect my decision. 4 years of eligibility remaining. Immediately eligible at any level. https://t.co/YieAUzmHgx pic.twitter.com/MJqN8Y1BMP
— Amarion Nimmers (@nolimitmarrr) August 3, 2023
Per 247Sports, Nimmers chose a walk-on opportunity with the Hawkeyes out of Rock Island High School over a scholarship offer from Eastern Illinois. Nimmers was also receiving interest from Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, North Dakota, Northeastern, Pennsylvania, Purdue University Fort Wayne and South Dakota.
In addition to entrenched playmakers Tony Perkins and Payton Sandfort, Nimmers was also battling the likes of sophomores Dasonte Bowen and Josh Dix and freshman Brock Harding for serious playing time.
Iowa just finished a series of practices ahead of its 2023 overseas trip to France and Spain.
When Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery met with the media ahead of its foreign tour, he made a point to mention Nimmers as one of the players that he wanted to get ample playing time to during its international trip.
“As a matter of fact, what I’m going to do is each one of my assistants is going to coach a game. So, we have three games. So, Matt (Gatens) will coach a game, Sherman (Dillard) will coach a game, Courtney (Eldridge) will coach a game and we’ll have different combinations.
“Young guys, old guys. We’ll try to get guys like Amarion some playing time. I want everybody to go over there and feel like they have ample opportunity to play. And the other thing is, so if you don’t play today, that means tomorrow you’re going to play 38 minutes or 35 minutes,” McCaffery said.
In the end, Nimmers likely feels there’s a better path to playing time somewhere else.
He will make some program very happy. Nimmers broke single-season records for points in a season (744) and in a game (45) at Rock Island. He averaged 23.9 points per game during his senior season with Rock Island.
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