A high-scoring guard from Eastern Kentucky is transferring to the SEC
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Former Eastern Kentucky guard George Kimble III transfers to Vanderbilt.
- Last season, Kimble averaged 18 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.6 steals per game.
- EKU head coach A.W. Hamilton has also added players to his program from the portal.
A former star basketball player at Eastern Kentucky University has found his next college home via the transfer portal.
And he’s going to an SEC school.
George Kimble III — a high-scoring 6-foot-2 guard who spent last season with the Colonels — is transferring to Vanderbilt.
During his lone season at EKU in 2024-25, Kimble averaged 18.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.6 steals per game. Kimble averaged 29.7 minutes played in 25 games, all starts, for head coach A.W. Hamilton and the Colonels.
Kimble — who began his college career at Eckerd College, an NCAA Division II school in St. Petersburg, Florida, — missed the final seven games of EKU’s 2024-25 season with a knee injury that required surgery. Kimble will redshirt the 2025-26 season at Vandy while he recovers from that injury.
Kimble was a Second Team All-Atlantic Sun Conference selection for the Colonels last season. He ranked second in the ASUN in scoring, first in steals, first in free-throw percentage, fifth in 3-point field goal percentage and sixth in 3-pointers made. Kimble’s 2.6 steals per game also ranked sixth in the nation.
“His growth is to his credit, because of what he puts in,” Hamilton told the Herald-Leader about Kimble in January. “He watched film with me in the preseason after (every) practice. The 30 practices in 42 days. We watched film every single day together. After every game, I clip up all his clips, good (and) bad decision making, great decisions, bad decisions, every one of them. And we watch them together. He wants to be so good. He’s a student of the game. So it’s pretty special to watch his growth.”
According to KenPom, Kimble was a top-25 player in the nation when it came to the percentage of possessions used. The KenPom definition of this metric — “a measure of personal possessions used while the player is on the court” — assigned Kimble a 31.9% mark for the season.
Kimble was also a top-10 player in the nation in steal percentage — defined by KenPom as “the percentage of possessions that a player records a steal while he is on the court” — at 5%.
EKU went 18-14 overall and 12-6 in conference games during 2024-25.
Hamilton’s squad had an eight-game winning streak during ASUN play last season. That was the longest winning streak for the Colonels since 2020-21, and the longest winning streak in conference play for EKU since the mid-1960s.
Eastern Kentucky lost in the quarterfinals of the ASUN Tournament. The Colonels still haven’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2014.
Kimble will now level up and play for the Commodores next season.
Head coach Mark Byington took Vanderbilt to the NCAA Tournament last season in his first year in charge in Nashville. Vandy went 20-13 and earned a 10 seed in March Madness. The Commodores lost to 7 seed Saint Mary’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. This was Vandy’s first NCAA Tournament trip since 2017.
Despite this on-court success, there’s been plenty of player movement for the Commodores this offseason. Eight Vanderbilt players entered the transfer portal, including leading scorer guard Jason Edwards, who is now at Providence. Also departing Vanderbilt was center Jaylen Carey, who is staying in the SEC after transferring to Tennessee.
Kimble is the eighth incoming transfer for Vanderbilt. Other notable names who are joining Byington’s program are guard Frankie Collins (TCU), small forward Mike James (Louisville and N.C. State), small forward Tyler Harris (Washington), guard Duke Miles (Oklahoma) and forward Jalen Washington (North Carolina).
What does the EKU basketball roster look like for the 2025-26 season?
Just like every other college basketball program, the transfer portal is reshaping what the Colonels will look like on the court next season.
In addition to Kimble, several other EKU players are leaving Richmond this offseason. Sophomore forward Mayar Wol has transferred to Bradley after being the ASUN Sixth Man of the Year last season after averaging 8.9 points and 4.8 rebounds in 32 games.
Guard Micah Davis, center Cyril Martynov and guard Jordan Crawford (7.8 points per game last season) all also left EKU.
At the same time, Hamilton and company have bolstered their roster via the portal. EKU will be bringing in Juan Cranford Jr., a 6-foot-3 guard who was the Rookie of the Year in the Northeast Conference last season while playing for St. Francis (Pa.). Cranford averaged 10.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 steals per game for a Red Flash team that reached the NCAA Tournament.
Cranford led all scorers with 18 points in St. Francis’ loss to Alabama State in the First Four of March Madness.
EKU is also bringing in another player from that First Four contest. Amarr Knox, who hit the game-winning shot for Alabama State in that NCAA Tournament game, is transferring to EKU. Knox was a First Team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference selection last season.
Other portal additions for EKU include forward Austin Ball (George Mason), forward Jalen Cooper (Cal State Fullerton) and Asa White, a forward who previously played at the NCAA Division II level.
From the high school ranks, EKU will be bringing in MJ Williams, a point guard recruit from North Carolina, and Tyler Jackson, who is ranked as the No. 16 point guard prospect in the nation by 247Sports. According to EKU, Jackson is believed to be the highest-rated player to sign with the Colonels in the recruiting rankings era.
It’s shaping up to be a collective effort next season for the Colonels to fill the hole left by graduating wing Devontae Blanton, who played five seasons with the Colonels and finished his EKU career second in program history in scoring, fourth in assists and seventh in rebounds.
Next season, Eastern Kentucky is expected to have full use of its home gym — Baptist Health Arena at Alumni Coliseum in Richmond — following the completion of a multi-phase renovation process.
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 5:13 PM.
