Nebraska Men’s Basketball Coach Fred Hoiberg announced on Wednesday that former Iowa guard Ahron Ulis (pronounced Aaron YOU-liss) will transfer to Nebraska for the 2023-24 season.
Ulis, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard from Chicago, spent the last three seasons at Iowa and started 27 games in the 2022-23 season, averaging 6.1 points, 2.1 assists and 1.6 rebounds per game. Ulis had a career-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting at Michigan State on Jan. 26. He will be a senior with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
“Ahron is a player we’ve gotten to know well having faced him five times over the last three seasons,” Hoiberg said. “He brings a lot of valuable Big Ten experience to our program. Ahron possesses a very competitive defensive mindset, while offensively he is a talented ball handler and playmaker who is good in transition. In 2022 when Iowa won the Big Ten Tournament, he shared his team’s Top Playmaker Award. Ahron has been to three NCAA Tournaments and comes from a great Marian Catholic high school program in Chicago. We’re excited about the winning mentality he will bring to our team.”
Ulis scored in double figures five times for the Hawkeyes last season, helping Iowa reach the NCAA Tournament for the third time in his career. Over a three-game stretch against Ohio State, Michigan State and Rutgers in late January, Ulis averaged 15.0 points per game on a 60.7 field goal percentage.
Ulis played in 17 games as a freshman for the Hawkeyes in 2020-21 and 35 games in 2021-22. In his second year at Iowa, he was second on the team with 73 assists and was co-winner of the team’s Top Playmaker Award. In his three seasons at Iowa, Ulis had a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio, and he shot 31.0 percent from 3-point range and 78.0 percent from the free throw line.
At Marian Catholic, Ulis was a two-time East Suburban Catholic Conference (ESCC) Player of the Year and was named to the AP All-State Class 4A First Team as a senior. He led Marian Catholic to 78 wins in his final three seasons as starting point guard, including 27 victories as a junior, the third most in school history. Ulis led Marian Catholic to its first third-place finish at the Illinois 3A state championship, as well as sectional and super-sectional championships in 2019.
Ulis’ older brother, Tyler, was a standout at Kentucky and was drafted 34th overall by the Phoenix Suns in 2016.