St. Mary’s (TX) F Yanni Wetzell announces transfer to Vanderbilt

It’s not every day that an SEC school gets a transfer from a Division II school, yet here we are.

Jonathan Givony of Draft Express reported on Wednesday morning that Yanni Wetzell, a 6’10”, 235-pound forward for St. Mary’s (TX), a member of the Division II Heartland Conference, will transfer to Vanderbilt. Wetzell will sit out the 2017-18 season as required by NCAA rules and will have two years to play after that.

Wetzell, from Auckland, New Zealand, mostly played tennis as a youngster and only recently took up basketball. But he averaged 15.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg as a sophomore at St. Mary’s, and he also shot 18-of-44 on threes. While transfers from lower divisions are rare, we’ve seen with Michigan’s Duncan Robinson that it can sometimes work, and Wetzell has size and can certainly play.

This now closes the book on the 2017 recruiting class, as Vanderbilt has no scholarships remaining and will be at the full load of 13 scholarship players next season (though only 11 will be eligible.)