Rutgers Women's Basketball lands Kansas State transfer forward Imani Lester

The Scarlet Knights landed a commitment from former Kansas State forward Imani Lester, she announced on Instagram on Thursday. After spending two seasons as a Wildcat, Lester joins the program with two years of eligibility remaining.

Across two seasons at Kansas State, the 6-foot-4 forward averaged 2.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game.

Embed content not availableManage privacy settings

JOIN TODAY AND GET 30 DAYS FREE! | THE ROUND TABLE FORUM | RUTGERS FOOTBALL 2025 RECRUITING CLASS | RUTGERS HOOPS RECRUITING

A highly-touted recruit out of Raleigh, North Carolina, Lester was the 57th-ranked player in the 2022 class and ranked as the class's 8th-best post player out of North Raleigh Christian Academy. She produced early on in high school, joining the varsity team in seventh grade, and had scored 1,000 career points by her freshman season.

Lester was also named to the Charlotte Observer North Carolina first-team Super Team as a senior after helping lead the Knights to an NCSIAA state title, puttting up 23 points, 15 rebounds, and four blocks in the championship game. She was also a volleyball standout at North Raleigh.

Following her high school career, Lester committed to play at Louisville. After not seeing any game action as a freshman, she opted to enter the transfer portal, committing to Kansas State five days later.

In her redshirt freshman season, Lester averaged 1.5 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 0.7 blocks in a limited sample size of 6.1 minutes per game. She played in 19 games and earned a start in her final game of the season, a win over Oklahoma State in February. She played 12 minutes in that game and 20 minutes in the previous game against No. 12 Texas, both season highs.

Lester saw a bump in playing time and statistics in her redshirt sophomore season, as the Wildcats went 28-8 and made the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament as the Spokane 4 Region's fifth seed. They fell to USC 67-61 without JuJu Watkins, after suffering a torn ACL in the previous round.

In 10.8 minutes per game - nearly double from her freshman year - Lester averaged 2.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.6 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game, playing behind standout forwards Ayoka Lee and Temira Poindexter. Lester entered the transfer portal on April 8th.

While Lester did not light up the scoreboard on offense, she made her mark on the defensive end, particularly at the rim, where an area the Scarlet Knights sorely need help after losing senior standouts Destiny Adams and Chyna Cornwell to graduation.

According to Bart Torvik's metrics, Lester's 5.2% block rate and 4.6 Defensive Box Plus/Minus each ranked second on the team behind Lee. Her DBPM also ranked ninth in the Big 12 among players who saw at least 25 percent of their team's minutes. She was the only player in the top ten (other than Lee, who missed 13 games due to injury) to play less than 48 percent of her team's minutes, showcasing her impact in a small sample size.

On the flip side, Lester finished her two-year tenure in Manhattan with a 94.8 offensive rating (100 is average) and a -0.8 Offensive Box Plus/Minus, though had the second-lowest usage rate on the team as a sophomore.

At Rutgers, Lester will likely compete for the starting center role immediately, becoming the sixth transfer portal addition in the spring cycle. She joins incoming freshman PreciousGem Wheeler and juniors Janae Walker and Yacine N'Diaye as center options.

All three have had limited sample sizes at the collegiate level - the trio combined to average 6.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in 29.8 combined minutes per game - so they will likely have a relatively even rotation of minutes.

Lester provides another interior force, this one with experience in the Big 12 defending the rim on one of the nation's top defenses.

She becomes the 12th player on the roster, leaving three open spots.