On Monday night, the Wisconsin Badgers signed another player into the transfer portal, and that’s what happened Northern Illinois forward Xavier Amos. Amos entered the transfer portal on March 27 and is the second player to commit to the Badgers program through the transfer portal for next season.
Another player who applied through the portal was Camren Hunter, quarterback of the Central Arkansas Bears. Amos was a sophomore for the Northern Illinois Huskies last season. He is 5 feet 7 inches statuesque, weighs 215 pounds and is from the Chicago, Illinois area. What’s also intriguing is that he left his home state to join another basketball program.
1000% committed. pic.twitter.com/jvcmxrZLVX
— Xavier M. Amos (@WYoungX1) April 29, 2024
It was also intriguing that he chose to choose the Wisconsin Badgers over a basketball program like the Illinois Fighting Illini in the BIG10 conference. In addition to Illinois, other basketball clubs that were interested in acquiring him were the Virginia Cavaliers, Kansas Jayhawks, Texas Longhorns, Nebraska Cornhuskers, California Golden Bears, Xavier Musketeers and others.
He averaged 13.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.2 APG, 1.3 BPG and 0.8 SPG last season at Northern Illinois. Last season, Xavier Amos shot 49.6% from the field and 38.5% from three, but only shot 64.8% from the field.
Getting a very good three-point shot in the transfer portal was crucial for head coach Greg Gard and the Wisconsin Badgers basketball program. Amos could very well replace Tyler Wahl next season.
Wisconsin Badgers transfer Xavier Amos played against two BIG10 conference teams a season ago for the Northern Illinois Huskies
Last season, Northern Illinois played two teams from the BIG10 conference. They faced the Northwestern Wildcats on November 27, 2023 and the Iowa Hawkeyes on December 29, 2023. He scored 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Northwestern last season.
The Wildcats were one of the better teams in the BIG10 Conference last season. The Badgers beat them last season in the BIG10 tournament. Both Wisconsin and Northwestern qualified for the massive dance a season ago, while the Iowa Hawkeyes did not.
Against Iowa, he scored just six points, grabbed three rebounds and had three assists. The good news is that Xavier Amos has indeed faced some BIG10 competitions and there will be many more in 2024-2025. He was just a sophomore a season ago and will be eligible to play for the next two seasons. After the two signings they landed, the Badgers were left without a one-year loan. They wanted players who would play there for at least two more seasons.
