IKE NWAMU TRANSFERRING TO UNLV
6-foot-5-inch guard from Mercer will be eligible to play for Runnin’ Rebels as a senior during 2015-16 season
The UNLV men’s basketball program received a signed financial aid agreement from Ike Nwamu on Tuesday, head coach
has announced.
A 6-foot-5-inch, 205-pound guard originally from Greensboro, N.C., Nwamu will transfer from to the Runnin’ Rebel program from Mercer where he played for two seasons. He has earned his degree from Mercer, making him a graduate transfer that is eligible to play as a senior at UNLV during the 2015-16 season.
“We are excited about the addition of Ike to our program,” Rice said. “He is a dynamic scorer and makes plays on both ends of the court. He brings NCAA Tournament experience and is a great teammate and competitor. We are counting on him to bring toughness and leadership every day.”
As a junior at Mercer, Nwamu led his team in scoring with an average of 15.1 points per game. He started all 35 of the Bears’ contests in 2014-15 as the team went 19-16. He shot 42.8 percent from the field, 37.2 percent from 3-point range and 76.1 percent from the free-throw line. He also averaged 3.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in an average of 33.2 minutes played per outing.
Nwamu also played at Mercer as a sophomore, averaging 8.3 ppg and appearing in 35 of the team’s 36 games. That squad upset Duke in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, with Nwamu scoring 11 points.
As a freshman, Nwamu attended Cleveland State, playing for Vikings in 2011-12. He sat out the 2012-13 season as a redshirt at Mercer after transferring. He has a career 3-point percentage of 38.3.
In high school, Nwamu was named the North Carolina 2A State Player of the Year as a senior at Westchester Country Day School, leading the team to a 30-9 record. He was also named a Ball-is-Life High School All-American.
He joins Stephen Zimmerman, a 7-foot center from Las Vegas, Nev., Derrick Jones, a 6-foot-7-inch small forward from Radnor, Pa., and Jalen Poyser, a 6-foot-4-inch point guard from Toronto, Canada, who will all be freshmen this fall, as part of UNLV’s 2015 recruiting class.
Zimmerman is ranked as the nation’s 10th-best player in the class of 2015 and was selected as a McDonald’s High School All-American. Jones is ranked as the 27th-best player in the class of 2015 and was named the Best Dunker in the country in his class by ESPN, while Poyser is the No. 1-ranked player in Canada in the class of 2015.
In addition to the young core of returning players from the 2014-15 season, the Runnin’ Rebels are looking forward to redshirts Ben Carter, a 6-8 junior forward from Las Vegas (transfer from Oregon), and Jerome Seagears, a 6-1 senior point guard from Silver Spring, Md. (transfer from Rutgers), eligible to play for UNLV in 2015-16.