Idaho State men’s basketball coach Ryan Looney is getting close to completing a near-total rebuild of his roster for next season.

With three new recruits on board this week, Looney has only one more roster spot to fill to reach the NCAA-established limit of 15 players. With only three players and a total of 41 points returning from last year’s roster, Looney and his staff had a lot of work to do this spring.

They made headway with the signings early this week of guard Macarhy Morris, 6-0, from Division II Concordia Irvine in California, and forward Ike Palmer, 6-6, from USU-Eastern junior college. Then on Thursday, 6-5 guard Ty Virgil, who redshirted as a freshman at Pepperdine, announced his commitment to ISU on social media.

They join eight previously announced recruits: four high school players, two Division II transfers, a junior college transfer and a foreign professional player. The only returners from last year’s roster are little-used guards Quin Patterson and Landon Birley, and forward Trey Arland, who redshirted with an injury.

Here’s a look at the three new recruits:

Morris played a season at Lewis-Clark College in Lewiston, averaging almost 15 points a game, before transferring to Concordia last season. There the Long Beach, Calif., native averaged 16.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game on 47% shooting from the field, 35% from three-point range. He also recorded 25 steals.

Palmer, a native of South Jordan, Utah, averaged 17 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while playing under former ISU coach Bill Evans. He shot almost 48% from the field, 78% from the foul line, and recorded 46 steals.

Virgil sat out his freshman season at Pepperdine after averaging 22.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.2 steals his senior year in high school at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona. He also shot 44% from three-point range.

Looney is hoping to fill his final roster spot with a commitment this weekend. So far, his roster for next season looks like this:

Post Players

• 6-10 Malik Johnson
• 6-10 Malachi Johnson
• 6-9 Bryce Lowenbach
• 6-9 Kenyon DeMuynck

Wing Players

• 6-5 Eli Garner
• 6-6 Jovan Dulay
• 6-7 Trey Arland
• 6-6 Ike Palmer

Guards

• 5-10 McKay Amundsen
• 6-2 Nathan Amoran
• 6-4 Landon Birley
• 6-3 Quin Patterson
• 6-0 Macarhy Morris
• 6-5 Ty Virgil

Basketball NotesSpeaking of Bill Evans, he was fired after six seasons as head coach at USU-Eastern. The 77-year-old Evans was replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Easton Ralphs, who worked as a graduate assistant and student manager under Evans during Evans’ tenure as ISU head coach.

In addition to filling his player roster, Looney will have an assistant coaching slot to fill with the departure of Devin Kastrup to become head coach at Highland Community College in Freeport, Ill. Kastrup has been on Looney’s staff for two seasons after arriving from Cloud County Community College in 2024.

In the “where are they now” category: Martin Kheil, who was ISU’s third-leading scorer in his first season with the Bengals, has transferred to Iona in New York state, according to the Verbal Commits website. Former Bengal and University of Idaho point guard Kolton Mitchell, meanwhile, is headed to Ohio University after leading the Vandals’ Big Sky Tournament champions in scoring last season.