IU basketball transfer portal names to know: Louisville wing Josh Nickelberry

Indiana is taking a look at a former four-star talent seeking a fresh start after a run of bad luck.

A 6-4 sophomore from Fayetteville, N.C., Louisville guard Josh Nickelberry missed nine games this season due to injury or illness, including four late season games. He made a three-pointer in seven of his nine games off the bench, averaging 2.8 points per game. He saw his first action of the season at Pitt on Dec. 22 after missing the first five games while recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.

Nickelberry saw an average of 3.7 minutes of action while playing in 15 of the Cardinals’ 31 games his freshman year. He dealt with an ankle injury as a freshman. For his two year career at Louisville, Nickelberry appeared in 24 games and averaged 1.5 points in 7.3 minutes per contest while shooting 23.1 percent from behind the arc.

Indiana’s interest in Nickelberry has been reported by several outlets going back to last week. Adam Zagoria was the first.

Nickelberry was ranked No. 101 in the final 247Sports Composite for the class of 2019, 50 spots ahead of Armaan Franklin.

As a recruit, 247Sports’ Evan Daniels gave this assessment of Nickelberry in October, 2019:

“Fine size (6’4”), average length and impressive vertical leaping ability. He built his calling card early in his career as an athletic scorer. Has good shot mechanics and there’s potential as a shooter, although his percentages don’t reflect that. An OK ball handler, but more of a straight-line driver at this stage. Potential as a defender, as he does possess fine quickness/speed. Long-term areas for improvement include consistency as a shooter, ability to break defenders down off the dribble and efficiency.”

Nickelberry averaged 26.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game as a senior in leading Northwood Temple Academy to a 20-14 record and a runner-up position in the 1A NCISAA North Carolina state championship.

He finished his high school career with 2,904 points, making him the second-leading all-time scorer in the history of North Carolina high school basketball. He scored 886 points as a senior.

According to a report by 247Sports’ Dushawn London on Monday, Indiana, Clemson, Grand Canyon, Boston College, Wichita State, Elon, Georgia State, Texas A&M, and UNCW are some of the other schools that have reached out to Nickelberry.

He also considered North Carolina, NC State, Michigan, Xavier and UConn before signing with the Cardinals.