Northern Illinois transfer Xavier Amos commits to Wisconsin Badgers: Report 

The Wisconsin Badgers have secured former Northern Illinois forward Xavier Amos, as per an announcement by head coach Greg Gard. Amos played two years for the Huskies before entering the transfer portal as one of the better choices in the big man pool.

Here`s what Coach Gard had to say about the newest addition to the roster:

"We are really excited to welcome Xavier Amos to the Badger family," Gard said. "His size and skillset are very versatile, and we are very excited about what he can do both on the offensive and defensive end."

Gard continued:

"After meeting with Xavier and his family, we knowthis is a great fit for our program. Being from Chicago, he also has familiarity with Badger bsketball. We feel that Xavier will blend right in with our culture and our vision."

Xavier Amos appeared in 25 total games for Northern Illinois this past season, starting in all of them. As part of the Huskies` main rotation, the 6-foot-8 sophomore out of the Windy City averaged 13.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in just under 31 minutes per game.

While his numbers look decent enough, perhaps it`s his potential to be a two-way player that made Wisconsin set on signing him ASAP.

He was a good rim protector for Northern Illinois, averaging a thus-far career-high 1.3 blocks per game. Couple that with him also being a roughly 38 percent shooter from deep, and the Badgers definitely had a good pickup numbers-wise.

The pickup follows Central Arkansas guard Camren Hunter, whom the Badgers also landed from the portal shortly before signing Amos.

With the two recent pickups, Wisconsin has secured two potential leaders to help them go deeper in the NCAA Tournament. This year, they earned a 5-seed but lost to the Oregon Ducks in the first round.

Wisconsin basketball`s recruitment efforts this year

Getting two great additions is something that the Badgers desperately needed, considering how many people they already lost before even starting to look into the portal (via Bucky`s 5th Quarter).

All in all, seven players have left Wisconsin in the offseason, including sweet-shooting guard Connor Essegian and long-time starter Chucky Hepburn.

Hepburn has taken his talents to Louisville, while Essegian has signed with the Nebraska Cornhuskers to be one of their new three-point snipers after the departure of crowd darling Keisei Tominaga.

For now, though, Wisconsin still needs to fill more spots and the clock is on their side to pick up whomever they can.