Ole Miss Basketball Adds Grad Transfer Nysier Brooks

Ole Miss men’s basketball coach signed graduate transfer Nysier Brooks to the 2021-22 roster on Tuesday. The 7-foot-0 center comes to Oxford after playing this past season at Miami, where he averaged 7.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, while shooting 51.7% from the field.

“We are really excited to welcome Nysier to the Ole Miss family,” said Davis. “Making 62 starts and playing in 130 Division I games, he brings great experience and talent to our team. We feel ‘Nas’ can be one of the very best defensive bigs in college basketball, and I am really excited to watch his growth on the offensive end. Scoring 19 points in an ACC Tournament game versus Georgia Tech this season was a glimpse of what he can do offensively. On top of that, Nysier is an outstanding young man and student-athlete who comes from a terrific family.”

Throughout his four years of Division I basketball, Brooks has played in 130 games. He has started in 62 of them, scoring 653 points with 511 rebounds and 119 blocks. The Philadelphia native has shot 52.2 percent (240 of 460) over his career, and after averaging a little over two points per game in his first two seasons, Brooks bumped his scoring average to 7.8 ppg during the past two seasons.

As a redshirt senior, Brooks started 25 out of 27 games as the Hurricanes’ leading rebounder (5.8 per game) and ranked 13th in the ACC in total boards. He produced four double-digit rebound games as well as two-double doubles throughout the 2020-21 campaign. Brooks put together a career night in an 80-76 win over Boston College (March 5), where he shot 8 of 11 from the field for a career-high 21 points. In his final game as a Hurricane, he scored 19 points on 6 of 11 shooting to go along with a 7 for 10 effort at the free-throw line. On the defensive end, Brooks led the team with 26 blocks on the year (11th in ACC), averaging 1.0 per game and recording eight multi-block games. Off the court, Brooks was tabbed as a Senior CLASS Award candidate and earned a spot on the All-ACC Academic Team.

Brooks chose to attend Miami after announcing his intentions to leave Cincinnati, while receiving offers from Baylor, Georgia, LSU, Texas Tech, UCLA, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. During his three seasons in Cincinnati, Brooks was an important member of three straight NCAA Tournament squads. As a junior in 2018-19, the Philadelphia native started all 35 games for the Bearcats, averaging 8.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. He ranked among AAC leaders in blocks (third) with the help of 17 multi-block games. Brooks added three double-doubles throughout the season to help lead Cincinnati to an AAC Tournament crown.

As a sophomore, Brooks appeared in all 35 games averaging 2.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.6 blocks off the bench. In his first collegiate start against Western Carolina (Nov. 13, 2017), he grabbed a season-best eight rebounds and added four points and two assists. Brooks was a member of the Bearcat squad that reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, finishing with an overall record of 31-5 (16-2 AAC).

Brooks made appearances in 33 games his freshman year as a reserve, averaging 2.4 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game to help Cincinnati advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Coming out of high school, Brooks graduated from Advanced Prep International in Dallas, and was listed as the No. 207 prospect by 247Sports. He averaged 8.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in his one season at API, leading the school to a top-25 national ranking.

Staff report