UNI men’s basketball bringing in replacements after losing 7 players to transfer portal

CEDAR FALLS — The transfer portal, and the player movement phenomenon created by it, finally made its presence felt in the UNI men’s basketball program this spring.

After having been seemingly immune to the plethora of transfers programs across the country have faced for the past half decade or more, Ben Jacobson’s team had an unprecedented seven players enter the portal since the end of the 2023-24 season.

Nate Heise and Bowen Born headlined UNI’s group of seven transfers.

Heise — an 2023-24 All-Missouri Valley Conference third team honoree who led UNI in scoring this past season — committed to Iowa State in early April, while Born remains uncommitted despite sources confirming a recent visit to Colorado State.

Michael Duax, Landon Wolf and Ege Peksari were the other members of the Panthers’ backcourt who entered the portal.

Duax and Wolf have since committed to Florida Gulf Coast and Illinois State, respectively, while Peksari remains uncommitted.

Forwards Cole Henry and Drew Daniel complete the group of seven departures with Henry committing to Green Bay and Daniel to Division II Minnesota State-Mankato.

Heise and Born’s public statements of their entry into the transfer portal were similar to the five other Panthers who entered, offering high praise of their experience at UNI.

That praise has potentially played a factor in the ability for Jacobson and his staff to avoid questions of the seven-player exodus being the result of some sort of internal strife in the program. Instead, it’s simply been the result of the coincidence of numerous players in one offseason utilizing their freedom of movement and ability to earn name, image and likeness revenue.

With two incoming freshmen in Will Hornseth and Redek Born, Jacobson and his staff suddenly had at least four roster spots to fill and have landed three commitments so far.

Max Weisbrod — a 6-foot-4 guard from Division II Northern Michigan — committed in late March. A DeForest, Wis., native, Weisbrod was the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year for the Wildcats this past season after averaging 17.2 points per game.

Along with his ability to score, Weisbrod played plenty of point guard at Northern Michigan and finished second in the GLIAC in assists. He arrives in Cedar Falls with two years of eligibility remaining.

Three weeks later, Loyola-Chicago transfer Ben Schwieger announced his commitment to UNI.

Schwieger — a 6-7 guard from Aurora, Ill. — saw his role for the Ramblers diminish significantly this past season after earning Atlantic 10 Conference All-Rookie Team honors in 2022-23.

Schwieger averaged 9.2 points per game as a redshirt freshman, appearing in 30 of 31 games and starting the final 26. He has two years of eligibility remaining.

Another roster spot was recently filled by Cade Courbat — a local product from Cedar Falls who accepted an offer as a preferred walk-on.

Courbat is a 6-8 small forward who averaged 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds for a deep and balanced Tigers offense.

Those three acquisitions leave either one or two scholarships available, as Redek Born was initially slated to redshirt this season as a walk-on before going on scholarship ahead of the 2025-26 season.

Sources confirmed to The Gazette that Virginia transfer Leon Bond III recently made an on-campus visit to UNI. Bond is a 6-5 small forward from Milwaukee with three years of eligibility remaining. He played in 24 of the Cavaliers’ 34 games this past season and averaged 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds.

Should Bond commit, Jacobson and his staff may decide to put Born on scholarship right away, or continue with his original four-for-five plan and likely pursue a point guard with the remaining available scholarship.