Rick Bowmer, Associated Press

Miguel Tomley knows his transfer decision will ruffle at least some feathers, but he’s fine with it.

After 10 days with his name in the transfer portal, the Idaho State graduate transfer landed on rival Weber State for his fifth and final season of college basketball.

“I hope people can understand that I’m doing it because it’s in the best interest for me and my future, not because I have something against ISU — because I don’t,” Tomley said. “I’ve got love for the fans, I have lifelong friends that I met here, but … Weber, going through this process, was the best idea and the best situation for me.”

Tomley, a 6-foot-3 combo guard who turns 24 this summer, spent two seasons of lesser playing time at Santa Clara before his two seasons at Idaho State. At ISU, he started 64 of 65 games and, in the 2023-24 season, averaged 14 points, three rebounds and two assists per game. On a 38.3% mark, he set the Bengals’ single-season record for 3-pointers with 85.

To Tomley, Weber State being the best situation came down to three things. On the court, WSU’s style of play and the professional success WSU guards have enjoyed for the past 10 years stood out.

Idaho State Athletics

Off the court, when the ball stops bouncing, he hopes to have some kind of FBI-like law enforcement career, so WSU’s criminal justice graduate program was a perfect fit with the degree he’s finishing this spring, which is in sociology and criminology.

“They get up and down, a lot of ball screens, just a lot of pro-style basketball,” he said. “I felt like I could excel more in a system where they kind of run.”

The native of Surrey, British Columbia, thinks Weber’s ball-screen, flowing offense will allow him to build off the back half of his 2023-24 season.

“I can score the ball and … I feel like the first half of this season, I didn’t showcase that as well as I thought I would,” Tomley said.

The numbers agree; through 15 games, Tomley averaged 10.5 points per game and shot 35.4% from 3 while committing 1.7 turnovers per contest, and Idaho State was 5-10.

When conference play resumed after the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge, Tomley averaged 16.8 points per game on a 40% mark from 3 with 1.3 turnovers per game, and ISU finished 9-10. He earned Big Sky All-Tournament team honors as the Bengals went to the semifinals; Tomley scored 28 points to beat Northern Colorado, averaged 22.3 points in three tournament games and shot 45.5% from behind the arc.

Two of those back-half games came in wins over Weber State when Tomley scored 14 points on a conservative 4-of-6 shooting effort in Ogden, then exploded for 26 points at home, making tough 3s against the shot clock to shoot 6 of 11 from deep.

“Part of my game, it’s like a microwave,” Tomley said. “You hit a second one and then the shots start falling.”

Given the current landscape, a fifth-year guard like Tomley felt destined to take some NIL money to perhaps be a sixth-man scorer at a bigger school. Tomley said he had significant interest and NIL opportunities with teams in the Atlantic 10, American, Conference USA, and West Coast conferences, but nothing felt as good as what Weber State presented.

“The ins and outs of things, stuff you can’t always see on film, my demeanor, stuff like that, (WSU coaches) got a good feel for it the past two years,” Tomley said. “As soon as they found out I was open to staying at this level, the interest they showed meant a lot to me because they’ve all seen me play.”

Tomley will likely start at shooting guard with fellow senior Blaise Threatt as the point guard, and part of the appeal for Tomley was the chance to run point with the ball in his hands with the second unit.

“I’m a scorer, but I feel like I’m a true combo guard, I can make the right reads, come out of the pick and roll … that’s one thing the staff said, they know I’m a better passer than I get credit for,” Tomley said. “They want me to come in and play with the same confidence, same swagger they’ve seen the last two years.”

WEBER’S ROSTER

Tomley, Threatt and wing Dyson Koehler are fifth-year players for WSU next season, along with fourth-year senior center Alex Tew. The three returning seniors fielded significant NIL interest to play elsewhere but are settled at Weber State. Those four, and sophomore forward Marko Sarenac, are the most likely starting lineup next season as the Wildcats replace star Dillon Jones and continue to move toward a European-style ball screen and movement offense.

Sophomore guard Viljami Vartiainen should also take on a larger role to magnify his shooting talent; he shot 43% from 3 in the final 15 games of his freshman campaign.

WSU is trending toward a senior-heavy starting lineup and a youthful bench. Tomley is currently the lone transfer committed, with sights also set on a transfer center to join Tew in the lineup. WSU will also have five or six freshmen, including redshirt shooting guard Nemanja Sarenac.

WSU has signed freshman shooting guard Trevor Hennig, who was named the MVP of Washington’s 4A classification after averaging 23.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.2 assists on 60% field goal shooting for his championship-winning team. Canadian stretch forward David Hansen is also signed.

California prep-school wing Saadiq Moore is committed, and WSU recently secured the commitment of Canadian big man Declan Cutler over Buffalo and Old Dominion. The 6-foot-10 player was the playoff MVP of the 12-team Ontario post-prep league as his Royal Crown team won the title.

WSU is also high on 6-foot-7 guard Jamil Miller, a native of Spokane, Washington, currently playing a post-prep season for Combine Academy in North Carolina. He has more than a dozen mid-major offers and will visit WSU in mid-April.

As of Friday afternoon, WSU forward Louie Jordan, wing Chris Dockery and center Handje Tamba have entered their names in the transfer portal. Jordan, a stretch forward, appeared in 40 games at WSU and shot 30.4% from 3. Dockery, a wing, redshirted one season and appeared in 11 games as a sophomore. Tamba played two seasons at WSU, averaging 1.8 points and 1.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore.