Potential Transfer Targets... According to AI

[bighero6ix]

Hey all, been a long-time reader here, but never much of a poster. With the season coming to an end, I thought it would be a interesting exercise to challenge AI to come up with a list of potential transfer targets. Obviously, no one has entered their name into the portal yet, so it's a purely fun, speculative exercise to see how well AI can scout talent.

Methodology
I used a few models (ChatGPT, Grok, DeepSeek, and Gemini) to see if there was any variation in players they recommended, and each one gave a different list of players. Of course, this is AI, so it's prone to errors and hallucinations, so I reviewed results eliminate any obvious errors such as lack of eligibility. For example, ChatGPT recommended Bez Mbeng from Yale, the 2x Ivy DPOY, who will no longer have eligibility after this season.

Results
Here's the list of interesting players, according to AI, and curated by me, someone with no business assessing these players. Just putting this out here for discussion. Overall, I think AI did an okay job of pulling players from the non-major conferences, but in reality, not sure how many of these guys are realistic gets / would even consider transferring. AI was noticeably lacking in trying to search for centers, as I tried prompting it differently and it spat out the same results each time.

All stats from 2024-2025 season

Player	Position	Ht / Wt	School (Conference)	Year in School (as of '24-'25)	Years of Eligibility Remaining Going into Next Season	GP	PTS	FG %	3 PT %	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	Prior Honors	AI Summary
Jaron Pierre Jr	G	6'5" / 208lb	Jacksonville State (CUSA)	RS-Sr	1 (had a COVID year and a transfer RS year)	31	21.8	42.7%	39.4%	5.4	4.2	0.8	0.4	2.8	Not announced yet	Pierre Jr. is known for his explosive scoring ability and defensive prowess. His experience and skill set align well with Northwestern's need for a sharpshooter who can also contribute defensively.
Quimari Peterson	G	6'1" / 190lb	East Tennessee State (SoCon)	Sr	1? (Transferred to JuCo for 1 year, and has only played 3 other seasons)	32	19.5	46.8%	42.2%	4.5	3.7	2.0	0.2	2.2	SoCon POY, 1st Team All SoCon, 1st Team SoCon All Tournament	Peterson's playmaking abilities and defensive tenacity make him a strong candidate to enhance Northwestern's backcourt.
Marquel Sutton	F	6'9" / 225	Omaha (Summit)	Sr	1? (Started at JuCo for 1 year, played 3 other seasons)	33	19.1	48.6%	30.4%	7.7	1.2	0.8	0.3	1.8	Summit League POY, 1st Team All Summit	Sutton's versatility and scoring prowess make him a valuable asset for Northwestern's wing position.
Alvaro Folgueieras	F	6'9" / 215	Robert Morris (Horizon)	So	2	32	14.2	55.9%	41.1%	9.3	3.0	1.5	1.1	2.2	Horizon POY, 1st Team All Horizon	Folgueiras' defensive presence and rebounding skills address Northwestern's need for a strong center.
Davion Bradford	C	7'0 / 265	East Tennessee State (SoCon)	Sr	1 (sat out '23-'24 season due to second transfer)	25	2.5	52.4%	-	2.4	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.9		Bradford's imposing 7-foot, 265-pound frame and defensive prowess make him a formidable presence in the paint. His experience in the SoCon and ability to protect the rim would address Northwestern's need for a strong interior defender.
Matthew van Komen	C	7'4 / 260	Elon (CAA)	Grad	2??? Injured throughout career, played 9 games for Utah in '19-'20(!), 13 games for St. Mary in '20-'21, transferred to D2 Hawaii Pacific where he didn't play until '23-'24, first full season for Elon in '24-'25	31	6.2	72.6%	-	8.2	0.6	0.3	2.4	1.4	CAA All Defensive	Standing at 7-foot-4, Van Komen's shot-blocking ability and experience bring a unique defensive advantage. His journey through various programs has culminated in a standout season at Elon, showcasing resilience and leadership that would benefit Northwestern's frontcourt.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Interesting exercise.

Can you ask it what to do with Luke Hunger?

 

[bighero6ix]

Interesting exercise.

Can you ask it what to do with Luke Hunger?

Assessment
Played limited minutes, struggles with physicality against Big Ten frontcourts. Rebounding and rim protection are issues.

Recommendation
Encourage transfer. He needs playing time to develop, and Northwestern is likely bringing in a more Big Ten–ready center.

 

[Davidgolds5]

Assessment
Played limited minutes, struggles with physicality against Big Ten frontcourts. Rebounding and rim protection are issues.

Recommendation
Encourage transfer. He needs playing time to develop, and Northwestern is likely bringing in a more Big Ten–ready center.

What about our Clayton?

 

[Skunkpilot]

What about our Clayton?

Needs to learn how to shoot. Fine form for his airball yesterday.

 

[bighero6ix]

What about our Clayton?

Leaning towards transfer as the timeline for Collins to reload probably doesn’t match Clayton’s development arc.

 

[PURPLECAT88]

Al who? Gore? Michaels? Yankovic?

 

[Baz=Heisman]

Hey all, been a long-time reader here, but never much of a poster. With the season coming to an end, I thought it would be a interesting exercise to challenge AI to come up with a list of potential transfer targets. Obviously, no one has entered their name into the portal yet, so it's a purely fun, speculative exercise to see how well AI can scout talent.

Methodology
I used a few models (ChatGPT, Grok, DeepSeek, and Gemini) to see if there was any variation in players they recommended, and each one gave a different list of players. Of course, this is AI, so it's prone to errors and hallucinations, so I reviewed results eliminate any obvious errors such as lack of eligibility. For example, ChatGPT recommended Bez Mbeng from Yale, the 2x Ivy DPOY, who will no longer have eligibility after this season.

Results
Here's the list of interesting players, according to AI, and curated by me, someone with no business assessing these players. Just putting this out here for discussion. Overall, I think AI did an okay job of pulling players from the non-major conferences, but in reality, not sure how many of these guys are realistic gets / would even consider transferring. AI was noticeably lacking in trying to search for centers, as I tried prompting it differently and it spat out the same results each time.

All stats from 2024-2025 season

Player	Position	Ht / Wt	School (Conference)	Year in School (as of '24-'25)	Years of Eligibility Remaining Going into Next Season	GP	PTS	FG %	3 PT %	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	Prior Honors	AI Summary
Jaron Pierre Jr	G	6'5" / 208lb	Jacksonville State (CUSA)	RS-Sr	1 (had a COVID year and a transfer RS year)	31	21.8	42.7%	39.4%	5.4	4.2	0.8	0.4	2.8	Not announced yet	Pierre Jr. is known for his explosive scoring ability and defensive prowess. His experience and skill set align well with Northwestern's need for a sharpshooter who can also contribute defensively.
Quimari Peterson	G	6'1" / 190lb	East Tennessee State (SoCon)	Sr	1? (Transferred to JuCo for 1 year, and has only played 3 other seasons)	32	19.5	46.8%	42.2%	4.5	3.7	2.0	0.2	2.2	SoCon POY, 1st Team All SoCon, 1st Team SoCon All Tournament	Peterson's playmaking abilities and defensive tenacity make him a strong candidate to enhance Northwestern's backcourt.
Marquel Sutton	F	6'9" / 225	Omaha (Summit)	Sr	1? (Started at JuCo for 1 year, played 3 other seasons)	33	19.1	48.6%	30.4%	7.7	1.2	0.8	0.3	1.8	Summit League POY, 1st Team All Summit	Sutton's versatility and scoring prowess make him a valuable asset for Northwestern's wing position.
Alvaro Folgueieras	F	6'9" / 215	Robert Morris (Horizon)	So	2	32	14.2	55.9%	41.1%	9.3	3.0	1.5	1.1	2.2	Horizon POY, 1st Team All Horizon	Folgueiras' defensive presence and rebounding skills address Northwestern's need for a strong center.
Davion Bradford	C	7'0 / 265	East Tennessee State (SoCon)	Sr	1 (sat out '23-'24 season due to second transfer)	25	2.5	52.4%	-	2.4	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.9		Bradford's imposing 7-foot, 265-pound frame and defensive prowess make him a formidable presence in the paint. His experience in the SoCon and ability to protect the rim would address Northwestern's need for a strong interior defender.
Matthew van Komen	C	7'4 / 260	Elon (CAA)	Grad	2??? Injured throughout career, played 9 games for Utah in '19-'20(!), 13 games for St. Mary in '20-'21, transferred to D2 Hawaii Pacific where he didn't play until '23-'24, first full season for Elon in '24-'25	31	6.2	72.6%	-	8.2	0.6	0.3	2.4	1.4	CAA All Defensive	Standing at 7-foot-4, Van Komen's shot-blocking ability and experience bring a unique defensive advantage. His journey through various programs has culminated in a standout season at Elon, showcasing resilience and leadership that would benefit Northwestern's frontcourt.

Interesting. What query did you put in? How did you factor in academics?

 

[hdhntr1]

Leaning towards transfer as the timeline for Collins to reload probably doesn’t match Clayton’s development arc.

He helps us for next year, Following year with the hopeful development of West, he might not but for next year he would. And with KJ developing, hard to see a valid starting PG coming in

 

[bighero6ix]

Interesting. What query did you put in? How did you factor in academics?

I'll share the query below, for academics on my initial screen I just wanted as broad of a search as possible. So I mainly asked AI to screen for rising sophomores or seniors (likely to be graduating) given NU graduation rules around # of minimum quarters / easier to grad transfer.

I did some follow-up queries to filter out for athletes who were on academic all-conference, but didn't find any players worth putting on here. What's interesting is that AI did pretty well in screening for students with high academic history outside of academic all-conference honors, e.g., high school valedictorians, grad school GPAs, etc.

Query
Role that you play:

You are a college basketball scout with intimate knowledge of player statistics, strengths, weaknesses, and playing styles across every single NCAA division 1 program.

Context:
Northwestern University men’s basketball team has gone through a down year this season, losing 2 of their best players to injury, most likely missing the NCAA tournament, and will graduate most of their key starters including all-around forward Brooks Barnhizer, sharpshooter shooting guard Ty Berry, and center Matthew Nicholson. However, the team will return power forward Nick Martinelli, the 2024-2025 Big Ten leading scorer and most likely a first-team all Big Ten selection. Criticisms of this years’ team have been around their defense and sporadic scoring. The team will need to fill gaps at center, shooting guard, and also point guard with high ability to score and defend.

Task:
You have been hired by the Northwestern coaching staff to identify players across the college basketball landscape who could be potential transfer targets for the school based on their statistical and non-statistical performance during the 2024-2025 college basketball season. By non-statistical performance I mean how they played in the system they played in at the school they were at in 2024-2025 and how comparable that is to Coach Chris Collins’ system/style at Northwestern.

Format:
Please provide in a table format a list of high priority transfers with the following data from the 2024-2025 season:
Player Name
Position
School
Conference
Year in School
Years of Eligibility Remaining
Games Played
Points per Game
FG %
3 point percentage
Rebounds per Game
Assists per Game
Blocks per Game
Steals Per Game
Previous Honors Earned (e.g. academic all conference, all conference team selections, award watchlists, awards won, etc.)
Summary of Why they would be a good fit for Northwestern

Restrictions:
Northwestern has some strict recruiting standards when it comes to academics. Most likely, the school would only be able to target on the older end: graduate transfer students or on the younger end: students who just finished their freshman year. As per NCAA rules, please only consider students who still have at least 1 year of eligibility.