Prather commits to Iowa State with one remaining season of eligibility.

Alex Busse | Cyclone Alert, 247Sports

AMES – Iowa State basketball appears to have hit on every single one of its top transfer portal targets.

Robert Morris transfer Ryan Prather Jr. has committed to Iowa State, joining Leon Bond (Northern Iowa), Taj Manning (Kansas State), JaQuan Johnson (Bradley) and Tre Singleton (Northwestern) to move to Ames and play for T.J. Otzelberger. Prather’s commitment means Iowa State went 5-for-5 with its transfer portal visitors.

Prather started his career at Akron, where he redshirted his first season. After playing sparingly as a second-year player, he moved to the Horizon League for the last two seasons. In 2025-26, he experienced a breakout season, earning All-Horizon League honors for his 15.7 points per game with 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Prather buried close to 37 percent of his 3-point attempts during his redshirt junior season with the Colonials while attempting a career-high volume.

Nine times this winter, Prather scored at least 20 points, including a career-high 29-point performance in an 11-point win over Detroit Mercy in late February that included 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. On seven different occasions this season, Prather connected on at least five 3-pointers in a game for RMU, who went 22-11 and 13-7 in conference play.

A Clarksburg, Md., native, Prather finished his high school career as Clarksburg’s all-time leading scorer in just three seasons. He ended his career at Bishop Walsh (Md.) and later played a season of prep school at Liberty Heights Athletic Institute.

In 2026-27, he’ll enter his fifth year of college, but because of the year of prep school, he is the age of sixth year senior. Prather will turn 24 in January of the 2026-27 season.  

The 2026-27 season is Prather’s last season of eligibility.

Why it matters: Iowa State’s coaching staff continues to be dominant on the recruiting trail when it comes to identifying, pursuing and landing top targets. The Cyclones have five commitments in short order out of the transfer portal when a majority might not have one commit and most don’t have two commits.

What it means: Adding Prather should give Iowa State close to a full deck of cards for the upcoming season, but one major question still hangs over the roster. What is going to happen with Milan Momcilovic? The All-Big 12 shooter is coming off of, arguably, the best shooting season in college basketball. Momcilovic is expected to declare for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility. If he returns to Iowa State, the Cyclones will look every bit of a preseason top 10-15 team.

How he fits: The shooting prowess for Prather is certainly there, and that could be important with transfer targets Tre Singleton and Taj Manning both lacking as floor spacers. Plus, Killyan Toure is still growing as a shooter and Blake Buchanan and Dominykas Pleta didn’t show any shooting ability from the 3-point arc this past season. With the status of Milan Momcilovic a bit up in the air next season, Prather’s shooting ability would be extremely welcomed at Iowa State next season. So would his experience and maturity.

If Iowa State wanted to have a bigger lineup, they could play Prather alongside Toure, Batemon and/or Momcilovic, should he return. If Iowa State wanted to play with multiple perimeter shooters, they could play Bradley transfer JaQuan Johnson, with Prather, Batemon and Momcilovic around a big man on the interior.

Prather could also act as an additional playmaking threat for Iowa State. He had a high assist rate and low turnover rate while playing a significant number of minutes at Robert Morris last season. If Prather continues to grow in that area, Iowa State would have a jumbo-sized guard creating and leading the offense in various actions. Prather had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the country last season (4.4), so if he can effectively adjust to playing at a higher game speed, Prather would provide quality playmaking value.

A lot of the other players Iowa State is targeting in the transfer portal seem to fit a specific positional need. Prather is different. He has more versatility, and his value could increase if Momcilovic returns.