QUINCY – Three of the seven Quincy University men’s basketball players who entered the transfer portal have found new homes.

Guard Jake Hamilton is moving on to the University of Missouri-St. Louis, center Mason Wujek is headed to Emporia (Kan.) State and Jamil Wilson will play for the University of Tennessee Southern.

The 6-foot-3 Hamilton, a state champion at Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, started 25 of 27 games this season and averaged 28.4 minutes, 9.0 points and 4.7 rebounds. He led the Hawks with 35 steals and dished out 53 assists as a sophomore.

UMSL finished second to Missouri S&T during the regular season and lost to Lincoln University in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament championship game. The Tritons advanced to the finals of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional, losing to Lake Superior State.

The 6-foot-8 Wujek played in 75 games over three seasons, averaging 6.2 points and 3.5 rebounds. Emporia State posted an 11-18 record and finished in a tie for ninth last season in the 14-team Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Wilson, a 6-foot-7 forward, appeared in 31 games in his first two seasons at QU but did not play as a junior. Tennessee Southern, a member of the Southern States Athletic Conference, went 13-15 this season.

Still in the portal are junior guard El Sieger, sophomore forward John Kelly III and sophomore guards Anthony McGhee and Willie Wilson.

Sieger, who transferred to QU from Morton College, finished second on the team in scoring this season at 12.6 points per game. Kelly played in 28 games as a freshman and just 17 games this season, averaging 5.9 points and 4.0 rebounds. 

The 6-foot-4 McGhee played in 34 games over two seasons in a limited role off the bench. The 6-foot-1 Wilson played in three games after transferring from Western Nebraska Community College.

The Hawks graduate only one senior in forward Todd Bieg.

Richardson looking for new home, Thomas finds new home

Two other former QU players are on the move again.

Zion Richardson, a 6-foot-4 guard who led QU in scoring during the 2023-24 season, announced on X he is entering the transfer portal after one season at Division I Cal State-Fullerton.

Richardson, 24, averaged 7.6 points in 21 games for the Titans, who finished with a 6-26 record. He spent two seasons at QU after one year at Wofford in 2019-20.

Guard Orlando Thomas is transferring to Langston (Okla.) University. The Lions won 26 games and reached the round of 16 in the NAIA national tournament in March.

Thomas spent two seasons at QU, primarily as a reserve. He played for Webber International University, another NAIA school in Babson Park, Fla., last season. He averaged 19.9 points per game for a team that finished with a 6-21 record.

Liberty’s Arnold, Illini West’s Robertson qualify for NJCAA Tournament

Liberty High School graduate Blake Arnold and Illini West High School graduate Colby Robertson have qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II golf tournament scheduled for May 20-23 at Swan Lake Golf Club in Plymouth, Ind.

Arnold, a sophomore at Danville Area Community College, finished in fourth place individually in the Region 24 tournament in Springfield with rounds of 75, 71 and 75. As a freshman, Arnold helped Danville reach the national tournament as a team for the first time in program history, where the Jaguars finished 15^th. He was a three-time state qualifier at Liberty.

Robertson made history as the first Sandburg men’s golfer to be the Midwest District medalist and will be joined at the national tournament by teammate Tanner Wake after Tuesday’s completion of the Region 4 Championship at PrairieView in Byron. Robertson finished the 54-hole tournament at 10 over par and beat Black Hawk’s Leo Fiscus on the second hole of a playoff to become the Chargers’ first region champ.

IHSA small school baseball tournaments moving to Champaign

A scheduling conflict with the Peoria Chiefs, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, has forced the Illinois High School Association Class 1A and 2A baseball state finals to be moved from Dozer Park to Illinois Field in Champaign.

“Major League Baseball scheduled games at Dozer Park on June 6-7, and the Chiefs didn’t catch the conflict until it was too late,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a press release. “The Chiefs efforts in working with MLB to remedy the situation ultimately were not successful.”

The finals have been played at Dozer Park since 2011.

New Public League executive director wants basketball tournaments in Chicago

Should the IHSA consider moving the boys state basketball tournament to Chicago?  Devon Morales Sr., who is taking over as executive director of the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Sports Administration, believes so.

Morales, principal at Clemente High School since 2021, is succeeding retiring acting executive director Mickey Pruitt. Pruitt, who had been Public League sports’ No. 2 official, replaced David Rosengard when Rosengard was let go last September.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports Morales has broad experience with Public League sports as a student (he played football and wrestled at Schurz), as a parent (his son played football at Kenwood), as a coach (football, wrestling, 16-inch softball) and as an administrator with stops at South Shore, Marshall, Chicago Academy, Corliss and Austin before Clemente.

The IHSA contract with Champaign to host the boys basketball state tournament runs through 2029. Bringing the tourney to Chicago is “something I would love to do,” Morales told the Sun-Times. “I know there are procedures and protocols with the IHSA. I would be there front and center listening. I do know one of the criteria they look for, we have. We have access to (enough) hotel rooms. I think we check that box without a doubt.”

Former QU player now coaching at Forreston; former QU assistant lands job at Arizona

Former QU basketball player and assistant coach Robert DeVries has been named the head boys basketball coach at his alma mater, Forreston High School.

DeVries, a 2015 Forreston graduate, was an assistant last season under Jake Groom, who resigned. As a high school senior, he quarterbacked the Forreston football team to the Class 1A state title and helped the Cardinals to a fourth-place finish in the Class 1A state basketball tournament.

DeVries went on to play basketball at Lakeland Community College and QU. A guard, he appeared in 23 games for the Hawks over two seasons. He later was a graduate assistant and assistant coach for QU for three years.

In another coaching move, former QU women’s basketball assistant Jenna Knudson recently was hired by as an assistant at Arizona. Knudson was a graduate assistant before serving two years as an assistant coach for the Hawks. She spent the last two seasons on Kaci Bailey’s staff at Drury.