Grad Transfer Ehab Amin Set To Visit Rutgers Basketball on Sunday

With the Rutgers men’s basketball team still having one available scholarship for next season, there has been plenty of speculation in how head coach Steve Pikiell will fill the spot. On our podcast earlier this week, we discussed that Rutgers is still recruiting heralded wing Aundre Hyatt, who still hasn’t decided if he’ll play college ball this fall or the next. However, it always seemed that finding a graduate transfer player was the most likely outcome for next season. On Saturday night, Andrew Slater of The Athletic tweeted that Rutgers is hosting Texas A&M-Corpus Christ guard Ehab Amin on Sunday.

Amin missed all of last season due to a hip injury that required surgery. The prior year, his junior season, Amin was the second leading scorer on a team that went 24-12, averaging 16.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.4 steals, and 2.9 assists in 33.7 minutes per contest. He shot an impressive 53.8% from two-point range on almost 10 attempts per game, but just 28.9% from three-point range on just over 4 attempts per contest. Amin shot 71.6% from the free throw line on 4.5 attempts per game.

The 6’4” guard graduated this past May, opting to transfer for his last season and verbally committed to Nevada after receiving a ton of intitial interest when he first announced he was leaving Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Nevada made the Sweet 16 last season and is loaded with talent. However, when the Martin twins announced they were returning, there wasn’t room left on next season’s roster for Amin and when he decommitted on June 1st, the Wolfpack were still one player over the limit.

Despite missing last season due to injury, Amin is easily one of the best grad transfers available and it’s impressive that Rutgers was able to get him on campus to visit. Although he received a lot of initial interest from many high major schools, rosters are more composed in June than in April, meaning there are less teams with spots available for Amin next season. Slater referenced potential visits to Oregon and Louisville, but nothing is confirmed.

Amin is an intriguing player thats more of a wing who can attack the basket off the dribble and led the nation in steals two seasons ago. He would add a lot of experience, defense, and scoring ability to the Rutgers backcourt next season, while giving Pikiell flexibility in still having one scholarship available for the 2019 class. Whether Amin decides to close his recruitment soon or extend through the summer remains to be seen.

Another grad transfer that Rutgers was linked to this past week is Iona’s Shradrac Casimir, per Jon Rothstein. While there hasn’t been any word that the 5’10“ guard is set to visit yet, it remains a possibility. Casimir shot 45.8% from three-point range on 4.3 attempts per game this past season and is shooting 43.4% from behind the arc for his career.

Give credit to Pikiell and the coaching staff, who continue to prove resourceful in indentifying and more importantly, generate legitimate interest from quality players on every level they recruit. Landing a graduate transfer as highly regarded as Amin would be a coup for Rutgers. Casimir, while I have concerns about his ability to hold up physically in the Big Ten, would be a solid add as well. Hopefully, Rutgers will end up one of the two soon, bringing the roster to 12 active scholarship players for next season and allow for them to train with the team all summer.

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