Indiana Guard Al (Aljami) Durham has decided to transfer and join the Providence Friars for his 5th year of eligibility after playing four seasons for the Hoosiers. Although Al had initially considered playing professionally after his Senior season, he ultimately decided to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility that has been afforded to all Winter collegiate athletes.

First, Thank you Hoosier nation for 4 years full of lessons and growth that i will take on my next journey. With that being said i will be using my 5th year of eligibility and i will be a grad transfer at Providence College. @PCFriarsmbb pic.twitter.com/RbadtvACUb

— Aljami Durham (@aldurham01) March 30, 2021

Durham started 97 games out of the 123 that he played for the Hoosiers, averaging 8.4 ppg across his 4 years with the Hoosiers. For his Senior season, he finished third on the team in scoring, averaging a career-high 11.2 ppg and joining the 1,000 point club with 1,035 career-points. Durham is the 53rd player to score 1,000 points for Indiana.

Considering the teams that reached out to Durham, this was a hell of a get for Ed Cooley and the Friars.

Duke

Florida

Arkansas

Michigan

Florida State

Gonzaga

Georgia

Texas Tech

Texas

UConn

St. John’s (kidding, but they actually did reach out)

Miami

Durham was the 275th ranked player coming out of High School by 247Sports, so the fact that he ended up at Indiana is a hell of an accomplishment in itself.

Last year, the Friars lacked shooting in particular. Over his Junior and Senior seasons at Indiana, Durham was roughly a 38% three-point shooter and an 80% free throw shooter. Yes please. He is also adept at handling point guard duties which would further allow David Duke to rotate from the point to playing off the ball, something that helped Kris Dunn tremendously during his time with the Friars and would take some of the burden of of Duke with the pressure of having to always create and carry the scoring load. He’s also another big guard at 6’4” that could take some of the defensive duties off Duke’s hands at times if needed, so he doesn’t wear himself out on both ends of the court.

With Greg Gantt choosing to transfer to NC State, that eliminates any awkwardness there might have been of the jersey number 1.

Ed Cooley loves his lefties. We needed a southpaw to replace Jimmy Nichols Jr.

Lastly, he isn’t the first, and he definitely won’t be the last person to refer to Providence as Providence University. Get over it. It happens.

Oh, and I love this too…

Welcome to Friartown.