Nevada basketball a finalist for Michael Finke, a 6-foot-10 transfer from Illinois

Nevada is a finalist for a 6-foot-10 Division I transfer who is eligible to play next season.

Michael Finke, who spent the previous four years at Illinois, has cut his list of potential destinations to Nevada, Stanford, Grand Canyon, Penn State and Vanderbilt, per a report from CBS' Jon Rothstein.

The 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward from Champaign, Ill., averaged 9.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game for Illinois last season. Both were career highs. He shot 49.1 percent from the field, including 30.9 percent from three.

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As a graduate transfer, Finke can play immediately at his next school. He has one season of eligibility remaining after redshirting during his first year at Illinois. Finke's father, Jeff, played basketball and football at Illinois from 1986-90.

Finke has personal ties to three of his five finalists. His younger brother, Tim, will be a freshman at Grand Canyon in 2018-19. He developed a strong relationship with Vanderbilt associate head coach Roger Powell Jr., a former Illini, when he was recruited to Illinois. And Finke played youth ball with Nevada's Jordan Caroline, also a native of Champaign.

Caroline and Finke played together as fifth-graders on the Champaign Thunder travel basketball team and also played youth baseball on the same team. They attended Barkstall Elementary School before Finke played for Centennial High and Caroline for rival Champaign Central before he transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida.

The Wolf Pack, which went 29-8 and reached the Sweet 16 last year, ended the season with no players taller than 6-7 on its roster. Nevada signed two prep forwards – 6-11 K.J. Hymes and 6-9 Vincent Lee – in the November signing period.

Nevada has one scholarship left open for the 2018 class, although that number could grow as Caroline and the Martin twins are testing the NBA draft waters without hiring an agent, which leaves open the possibility they return to school for their senior seasons.

Since becoming Nevada's coach in March 2015, Eric Musselman has leaned heavily on transfers, signing 17 such players, although only two of those were grad transfers. Those were Marshall's Shawn Smith, was medically disqualified and never suited up for the Wolf Pack, and St. Johns' Darien Williams, who was dismissed from the team midway through last season.