Hoosiers Now

2024 In Review: Indiana’s 10 Most Important Transfer Portal Additions

Picking the No. 1 spot was easy, but it was difficult to only choose 10 transfers as many of Indiana’s teams in 2024 were led by first-year Hoosiers.

Jack Ankony

Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke (9) throws against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.
Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke (9) throws against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The transfer portal has become a way of life for college athletic departments in recent seasons, and it significantly benefited Indiana in 2024.

Football coach Curt Cignetti’s historic season would not have been possible without the 13 players who followed him to Indiana from James Madison, plus numerous other major contributors that joined the Hoosiers for the 2024 season. 

On the basketball court, coaches Mike Woodson and Teri Moren addressed needs for their respective teams with transfers and high school recruits. Baseball coach Jeff Mercer took Indiana to the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year, and his roster included several notable transfers.

Continuing our 2024 In Review series, here’s a list of the 10 most important transfer portal additions from the Indiana basketball, football and baseball programs in 2024. It was a challenging list to make, with many deserving candidates left off.

10. Justice Ellison

Indiana’s run game took a major step forward, going from 3.4 yards per carry and 1,441 total rushing yards in 2023 to 4.4 yards per carry and 2,146 yards in 2024. A transfer from Wake Forest, Ellison led the Hoosiers with 159 carries and 848 yards, good for 5.3 yards per carry, which ranked ninth in the Big Ten. I’d be remiss not to mention Ty Son Lawton’s contributions in the run game, complementing Ellison with 668 yards. They became Indiana’s first duo with 10-plus rushing touchdowns in the same season, combining for 22. 

What separates Ellison, though, was his performance in Indiana’s 31-17 win over Washington. Playing without starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke, Indiana leaned on Ellison in the second half. The Hoosiers wore down Washington in the run game, led by Ellison with 29 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown. Indiana split carries throughout the season, but that was Ellison’s game and he delivered.

9. Oumar Ballo

Indiana had big shoes to fill when Kel’el Ware left for the NBA, and it landed arguably the best available center in Arizona transfer Oumar Ballo. The 7-foot, 265-pound center is not as versatile as previous Indiana bigs like Ware and Trayce Jackson-Davis, but he knows his strengths and doesn’t try to do too much. Through 12 games, he’s averaging 12.4 points and 9.2 rebounds with lower offensive usage than Ware and Jackson-Davis.

Ballo is extremely difficult to stop when he gets the ball near the basket, seen through his 70.1% field goal percentage. For context, he led the Pac-12 the last two seasons at 65.8% and 64.7%, yet he has improved in that area with the Hoosiers. His free throw percentage has increased 9.1% from last season, too. He’s also averaging a career-high 1.8 blocks per game and deters several more shots on a nightly basis. Woodson did not want to address Ballo’s absence in Sunday’s game, something to monitor ahead of Thursday’s matchup with Rutgers.

8. Elijah Sarratt

At the midway point of the 2024 season, Sarratt’s connection with quarterback Kurtis Rourke felt unstoppable. In wins over Maryland and Northwestern, Sarratt racked up 14 receptions for 263 yards and a touchdown. Their timing on back-shoulder routes was so impeccable that Indiana’s offense often felt as simple as throwing the ball in Sarratt’s direction and he’d come down with it. 

The 6-foot-2 transfer from James Madison finished the season as Indiana’s leading receiver. With 53 receptions for 957 yards and eight touchdowns, he ranks 10th on Indiana’s single-season receiving yards and touchdowns chart. Sarratt earned third-team All-Big Ten honors as a junior, and he’s a big reason for the continued optimism around Indiana football going into the 2025 season.

7. Nick Mitchell

The lone baseball selection in this list, Mitchell transferred from Western Illinois to Indiana for the 2024 season. He primarily batted third and played right field as Indiana reached the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. Mitchell led Indiana’s every-day players with a .458 on-base percentage, and his .335 batting average was the second best. Though he only hit five home runs, Mitchell finished third with 49 RBI and tied for the team lead with seven stolen bases.

After the season, Mitchell became Indiana’s second-highest draft pick behind pitcher Luke Sinnard. The Toronto Blue Jays used the 136th overall selection, a fourth-round compensatory pick, on Mitchell, who posted an .816 OPS in 20 games with the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays after his Indiana career.

6. Shay Ciezki

Indiana women’s basketball had a lot to replace when it lost sharpshooting guard Sara Scalia from last year’s Sweet 16 team. Ciezki, a transfer from Penn State, has been asked to fill many of those responsibilities. Through 13 games, she leads the team with 34.3 minutes per game and ranks second at 11.9 points per game. 

Ciezki’s brightest moments as a Hoosier include her 34-point game in a win over Baylor in the Bahamas, making 4-of-5 3-point attempts, and a 19-point effort in Indiana’s upset win over Stanford. Her 3-point shooting has dropped a bit compared to the previous two seasons at Penn State, and she struggled in losses to Butler, North Carolina and Harvard. But the Hoosiers are beginning to hit their stride with a six-game win streak, and Ciezki will be crucial to their success moving forward.

5. Myles Rice

Indiana desperately needed to improve its guard play from last season, and Rice has been the biggest factor in that area so far. The 6-foot-3 point guard is too fast for most to keep up with on the fast break, and his shiftiness is difficult to contain as he maneuvers in the lane. His 3-point shooting has taken a step forward, too, going from 27.5% as a freshman at Washington State to 31.4% with the Hoosiers, though there’s still room for improvement.

Rice’s best performances early in his Indiana career include a 23-point game in a win over South Carolina and a 20-point effort in a loss at Nebraska. Though it was an exhibition game, Rice scoring 20 points against SEC defensive player of the year Zakai Zeigler showed what he can be at his best. Indiana needs more of that. The knock on Rice so far has been his inconsistency, with six games of 17-plus points but six additional games with six points or fewer. The season hasn’t gone how Indiana wanted so far, but if you’re looking for reasons it may be better than last year turn to Rice. 

4. D’Angelo Ponds

Indiana landed Ponds in the spring transfer portal cycle, which proved to be a crucial addition as Cignetti rounded out the roster. The 5-foot-9 cornerback led the Hoosiers with nine pass breakups, along with 55 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three interceptions. His first season in Bloomington will perhaps be most remembered by his two-interception game against Washington. He returned the first for a pick-six and made an acrobatic catch against the 6-foot-4 Denzel Boston on the second.

Ponds earned second-team All-American and first-team All-Big Ten accolades as a sophomore, following his freshman All-American season at James Madison in 2023. I was always impressed by Ponds’ humble personality, as he let his game do the talking and represented Cignetti’s “never satisfied” outlook. He recently announced that he’s returning to Indiana for his junior season, giving the Hoosiers a lockdown cornerback. 

3. Aiden Fisher

In some ways, the third spot feels too low for Fisher. He was prominently featured in the middle of Indiana’s top-ranked run defense, leading the Hoosiers with 118 total tackles, along with 5.5 tackles for loss, four pass breakups, three quarterback hits and 1.5 sacks.

He played more snaps than any Indiana defender and was given the responsibility of relaying the play calls from defensive coordinator Bryant Haines. Fisher was named a first-team All-American and first-team All-Big Ten linebacker, and Indiana fans should be elated to have him back for his senior season in 2025.

2. Mikail Kamara

Another James Madison transfer, Kamara embodied the personality of the 2024 Hoosiers, many of whom were overlooked as high school recruits and doubted when they came to Indiana. Kamara let that be known in a matchup against the nearby Maryland program that did not offer him out of Ashburn, Va., making seven tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack in the Hoosiers’ 14-point win. “It was huge. It was just a staple, you know, just to tell Maryland they should have recruited me,” Kamara said, laughing after the win.

Kamara became a third-team All-American and a first-team All-Big Ten defensive lineman with the Hoosiers. He led the Hoosiers with 10 sacks, which is tied for fifth on the program’s single-season leaderboard, and his 15 tackles for loss ranked second in the Big Ten. Despite boosting his NFL Draft stock with this breakout season, Kamara gave Indiana fans a Christmas present last week by announcing that he’s returning to Bloomington for his sixth-year senior season. Kamara should garner consideration for preseason Big Ten defensive player of the year.

1. Kurtis Rourke

This was a fairly easy choice for the top spot. After transferring from Ohio, Rourke put together one of the best seasons for a quarterback in program history. He set Indiana single-season records with a 69.4% completion percentage and 29 passing touchdowns. Rourke carried a poised demeanor in the pocket, and teammates were drawn to his calm but confident leadership style. Coaches trusted him to make decisions in Indiana’s heavy RPO offense, and he took care of the ball with just five interceptions.

Had he not missed one-and-a-half games due to a thumb injury – and played several games with a wrapped up thumb – Rourke may have set the single-season passing record, too. He finished with 3,042 passing yards, which ranks fifth in program history, behind Nate Sudfeld’s record of 3,573 yards in 2015. He also finished second nationally with a 176.0 passer rating. Rourke’s season ended on a low note against Notre Dame and Ohio State, but that doesn’t erase all that he and the Hoosiers accomplished on their way to the College Football Playoff.

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Jack Ankony
JACK ANKONY

Jack Ankony is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation writer for HoosiersNow.com. He graduated from Indiana University's Media School with a degree in journalism. Follow on Twitter @ankony_jack.

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