Iowa State Basketball Secures Commitment From Northern Iowa Transfer

The next few days are going to be incredibly busy for the Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball team as they are preparing to host several players who entered the transfer portal this cycle.

However, one of them, Leon Bond III, didn’t need to wait until he made it to Ames for his weekend visit to decide Iowa State is where he wants to play basketball next season. As he shared on his Instagram account, he has committed to the Cyclones.

Bond is a junior who has spent the last two seasons of his collegiate career down the road with Northern Iowa. T.J. Otzelberger is certainly hoping that he can have a similar impact on the program as Nate Heise, another former Panthers player who ended up finishing his career with the Cyclones for two campaigns.

A product of Wauwatosa East High School in Wisconsin, Bond actually began his career with the Virginia Cavaliers. He spent his freshman season playing alongside the current Iowa State starting center, Blake Buchanan, who came to Ames ahead of the 2025-26 season.

Leon Bond commits to Iowa State

Northern Iowa guard Leon Bond III speaking to media. — Mar 19, 2026; San Diego, CA, USA; Northern Iowa guardLeon Bond III (35) answers a question at a press conference ahead of the first round of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Viejas Arena. | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

Their head coach that season, Tony Bennett, has a good relationship with Otzelberger, which helped seal the deal on Buchanan. It is fair to assume that he gave a glowing review of Bond as well to get him to go from Northern Iowa to the Cyclones.

There are certainly some similarities between him and Heise, which makes him a logical replacement in the rotation for the do-it-all guard. Bond is listed at 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, giving him the size to defend multiple positions on the perimeter.

His performance on that end of the floor is what will truly stick out. Bond was selected to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Defensive Team and has been an impact performer on that end throughout his collegiate career.

He has had a Defensive Box Plus/Minus of at least 1.1 all three seasons in college, something that will translate well under Otzelberger. His 2.0 DBPM was 15th in the MVC with a defensive rating of 98.6, which was fifth.

While defense is certainly his calling card, he is no slouch offensively. He averaged 11.9 points per game on a .473/.362/.750 shooting split this past campaign. 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.7 blocks per game were averaged in 32.8 minutes.

This is a great start to the transfer portal period for Otzelberger and Iowa State. They have landed a player who can be plugged right into their rotation, taking over the same key role that Heise played the last two seasons.