Duke forward and former Gonzaga recruiting target enters transfer portal

One of life’s well-known proverbs can now be directly applied to the world of college basketball recruiting: If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs heavily pursued a handful of elite 5-star recruits in the 2024 and 2025 classes, including Zoom Diallo, Isiah Harwell, and Nik Khamenia.

Advertisement

Those three ended up spurning Gonzaga for Washington, Houston, and Duke, respectively, but all three are available for recruitment once again, having each entered the NCAA transfer portal.

The latest of the bunch is Khamenia, a 6’8 forward from Los Angeles who Gonzaga aggressively pursued for multiple years before he committed to the Blue Devils. The Zags brought him on campus for a visit at Kraziness in the Kennel back in 2023, and again for Kraziness a year later in 2024.

However, a late push from Duke resulted in the top-15 recruit and McDonald’s All-American heading east to Durham to play for Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils, where he appeared in 38 games and averaged 5.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists in 19.8 minutes this past season.

Advertisement

Khamenia was an efficient role player for Duke, shooting 60.6% on two pointers and 34% from three on 2.7 attempts per game.

He scored a season-high 14 points on three different occasions, first at home against Louisville on 5-6 shooting in just 15 minutes, then at home against Syracuse in mid-February, and finally against Clemson in the ACC Tournament, where he played 31 minutes and grabbed six rebounds while shooting 3-6 from three.

Considered a potential one-and-done talent due to his size and floor spacing ability, Khamenia will now look to boost his draft stock at a new program – and should have no shortage of suitors.

Fit at Gonzaga

Gonzaga has just four returners on the roster in Braden Huff, Davis Fogle, Mario Saint-Supery, and redshirt Parker Jefferson, after losing five players to graduation and another five to the transfer portal.

Advertisement

Huff can play either the four or the five,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/duke-forward-former-gonzaga-recruiting-180804083.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-04-08 18:08:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.