UNLV lands portal commitment from DePaul wing Jaden Henley

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Monday, April 15, 2024 | 2:49 p.m.

The UNLV basketball program landed its first commitment from the transfer portal on Monday in veteran wing Jaden Henley. 

Henley, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, averaged 8.6 points per game at DePaul in 2023-24. He made the announcement via Instagram, and UNLV’s official social media accounts posted the news shortly thereafter.

Henley visited UNLV over the weekend and was one of the top recruiting targets of head coach Kevin Kruger. The Ontario, Calif., native was originally a 3-star prospect in the Class of 2022 and rated as the nation's No. 195 player by 247Sports.

He committed to Minnesota out of high school (over an offer from San Diego State) and played his freshman year with the Golden Gophers, starting 18 of 31 games and posting 5.3 points and 2.2 rebounds.

He transferred to DePaul last offseason and saw his numbers increase moderately, as he started 23 of 32 games and averaged 8.6 points and 2.7 rebounds.

Henley has two years of eligibility remaining and will likely be able to suit up immediately for UNLV in 2024-25.

UNLV had a big opening at the shooting guard and small forward positions after the graduation of starters Luis Rodriguez and Keylan Boone. Henley should be considered a favorite to step into one of those starting spots next year.

One area where UNLV will hope for improvement will be Henley’s long-range shooting. As a freshman, he shot a promising 37.8% from 3-point range on limited volume (1.2 attempts per game). After relocating to DePaul, Henley upped his attempts to 1.6 per game while his accuracy dropped to 26.9%.

UNLV now has three open scholarships to fill. Henley joins high-school recruits Pape N’Diaye and James Evans and junior college big man Jeremiah Cherry as part of UNLV’s incoming class.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.