Nevada Basketball: Pack land Oregon State transfer Jarod Lucas

The Nevada men’s basketball team secured another impact transfer to add to its backcourt this weekend!

The Wolf Pack landed Oregon State transfer Jarod Lucas, who ESPN dubbed a top-80 transfer, Lucas announced via a social media post Saturday evening.

Lucas, who spent three years with the Beavers, averaged 13.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists last season, shooting 41.5 percent from the floor, 38.6 percent from deep (6.1 attempts) and 87.1 percent from the free-throw line. Over his three-year career, he tallied 10.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists on 39.1/38.0/88.2 shooting splits — good enough for a 56.9 career true-shooting percentage.

Listed at 6-foot-3, Lucas registered six 20-point performances last year and nine for his career, including a career-high 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting with six 3s against USC on Jan. 13, 2022. He will absolutely help Nevada in the shooting department, where the Pack struggled to fashion much production a season ago.

The Hacienda Heights, Calif., native netted at least 70 3s apiece in each of the last two seasons. Only five Pack players — Marcus Marshall, Caleb Martin (twice), Kendall Stephens, Jazz Johnson (twice) and recently-departed Desmond Cambridge — have reached that threshold since the start of the 2013-14 season.

Lucas considered offers from Mountain West’s own San Diego State, in addition to LSU, Washington State, Alabama and Texas A&M, among others. Here’s what ESPN’s Jeff Goodman said about Lucas, who was listed as the 76th-best transfer (at the time of this publishing).

“One of the few bright spots on a 3-28 Oregon State team, Lucas was one of the more efficient scorers in the Pac-12. Averaged 13.5 points and shot 38.6% from 3-point range this past season, and had five games of 20-plus points.”

Here is what Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report wrote about Lucas Friday:

“Considered one of the best – if not THE best – shooter in the Pac-12, Lucas was Oregon State’s leading scorer this past season, averaging 13.5 points per game. He made 38.6% of his three-point shots and 87.1 percent of his free throws. He made 73 three-point shots in 2021-22 as a junior and 77 in 2020-21. He scored 27 points in a loss to USC this past season, when he made 6 of 10 three-pointers.”

Lucas’ committment came days after the Pack secured Elon transfer Hunter McIntosh, who averaged north of 13.0 points per game with the Phoenix across three seasons. McIntosh and Lucas are the third and fourth additions to Nevada’s 2022 class, respectively, and are the only non-freshman newcomers thus far.

The aforementioned pairing will help ease the transition from All-Mountain West guards Grant Sherfield (entering the NBA Draft waters plus transfer portal) and Desmond Cambridge (graduate transfer to Arizona State). Sherfield could theoretically return, and if he does, the Pack could feature one of the conference’s best backcourts once again. Well, it might again anyways!

Nevada currently has 11 scholarship players on roster for the 2022-23 season; here’s a list of them below:

Guards: Daniel Foster, Jalen Weaver, Trey Pettigrew (freshman), Hunter McIntosh, Jarod Lucas

Wings: Kenan Blackshear, Tre Coleman, Darrion Williams (freshman)

Bigs: Will Baker, KJ Hymes, Nick Davidson

The Pack have yet to make the transfer official.