Indiana men’s basketball redshirt freshman guard Jakai Newton entered the transfer portal, he announced in an Instagram post Monday.
Newton is the fourth total player to enter the portal after the end of Indiana’s 2024-25 season, following in the footsteps of junior forward Malik Reneau, sophomore guard Gabe Cupps and sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako, who's entering both the NBA Draft and the transfer portal.
Mgbako and Newton are the first two players to leave Bloomington following the introduction of Darian DeVries as head coach March 19.
Rated as a four-star consensus top 150 overall recruit in Indiana’s 2023 recruiting class, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound guard redshirted the 2023-24 season as he was still rehabbing a knee injury sustained during his senior year of high school.
He played his first minutes as a Hoosier on Nov. 10 against Eastern Illinois University, logging 2 points, two rebounds and a steal in eight minutes played.
Following his debut, Newton played twice more before finding himself out indefinitely following knee surgery. He would only play once more the rest of the season, contributing four minutes in the Hoosiers’ blowout loss to Illinois.
Newton, who earned Academic All-Big Ten honors this season, entered the transfer portal after managing 6 points, three rebounds, a steal and no assists in 18 total minutes logged.
If given a medical redshirt for the 2024-25 season, Newton will have four years of eligibility remaining.
