High Impact Up-Transfers: What does Ti'lan Boler bring to Memphis?

The transfer portal is fascinating to me. There’s so much going on and I think people would genuinely be surprised how many staffs are just as in the dark as the average fan with respect to knowledge on some players. Everyone knows about the P5 (it’ll be 2029 before I’m used to P4) transfers who find a new spot, whether it be at the Power level still or transferring down.

We had over 1,000 players enter the portal this past season. The first player (Aliyah Matharu, Florida) just entered the transfer portal for this season. It is so easy for things to go under the radar, and I hate that, because there are so many players that can go under noticed or under valued because they don’t have the same cache if they’re not coming from a Power program with multiple stars attached to their name out of high school.

In a new series I’ll be doing the next couple days/weeks, I want to dive into some players that transferred up from a low/mid major to a bigger program. It’s easy to see how a Power program player finds success transferring down. I think where I find the most joy as a scout is when a program brings in a player that they clearly focused on the fit and potential with. You don’t just “bring in talent” and hope it works to build a successful team: analyze the player, determine their strengths and weaknesses, and look at how they might translate to your system.

I’m really excited about what Alex Simmons is building in Memphis, and Ti’lan ‘Tilly’ Boler, a grad transfer wing from Jackson State, perfectly fits Simmons’ vision for this team and adds needed versatility and scoring punch to this squad.

Second-Side Creation

At Gardner-Webb, Simmons crafted one of the best pick and roll teams in the nation, her 2023 team ranking in the 91st percentile in Division 1 in Pick and Roll efficiency (including passes). They were so good at spreading the floor to open up driving lanes to attack the basket and exemplified what I think is so key: Shooting isn’t just shooting, it’s spacing. You need it to make everything else work/click.

While it’s impossible to replace Madison Griggs’ production, I think this team will shoot better as a whole this year, opening more of what this system is about: attacking the basket.

That GW team ranked in the top 10% in the country in free throw rate.

Back to this team though, with Deedee Hagemann at the point (another fantastic pick-up), Boler fits seamlessly on the wing. With the lead ball-handler to put dents in the defense, Boler is going to feast off the catch and on secondary actions.

She’s adept with rejects, attacking in space, and driving baseline either to score or draw a foul. Boler plays with a force that’s so deadly off the second-side, and it’s easy to envision how she can be used off motion and spotting up to attack mismatches.

Boler shot 44.6% on drives at Jackson State last year, a very good mark for someone attacking off the bounce on high volume. She has a great penchant for getting into her pull-up two, nailing some difficult shots in traffic, and getting into a pretty impressive finishing bag.

As a fifth year senior, I’d love to see her continue to rep out her pacing and reads off drives. She’s so good getting downhill, but adding some additional counters outside the pull-up would be pretty big in adding to her ability to play further on down the line (and add even more depth to this Memphis offense). Boler is such a strong driver, but just under 90% of her logged drives came via her left hand. That’s not a problem per se, but it did stand out in some games where she got very heavily scouted and struggled going right when that was the only option, so that will be noteworthy this season.

Her pull-up two is a very good shot for her (roughly 40% on high volume), but those added reads will make some of those shots even more deadly as an option rather than being forced into it.

Off-ball Value

Boler is a very good cutter, using her vision and athleticism to find open lanes, something I think she’ll have much more opportunity to tap into this season. That stood out so much in the UConn game during the NCAA Tournament and Jackson State’s tough non-con: Boler is a very fluid first step athlete that could clearly hang at the Power level.

She shot roughly 31% on catch and shoot 3’s last season, and is very capable of knocking down open shots as well as some off more complex actions as opposed to standstill. With some cleaning up in mechanical consistency, there’s an even higher ability there, but she’s absolutely a player that has to be guarded when open.

She’s a good free throw shooter, has shot over 32% on 239 attempts since becoming a full time starter in college, and I’d imagine there was a heavy diet of shot repetition in the off-season.

I have no questions about Boler’s defensive abilities, having contributed at a high level to one of the best defenses in the country last season. The only place my mind goes is wondering how quickly she adapts to a defensive system without a pro level rim protector on the backline. I think she’ll thrive, someone with length and the feet quick enough to guard multiple positions, and there’s room to become even more of a playmaker on defense herself.

South Florida was tabbed as the favorite for the 2025 season by the Coaches poll, and understandably. However, this Conference was a bloodbath last season, and I’d expect much of the same. This Memphis team will be in the mix, and factor in more heavily than I feel they’re being projected right now.

Adding high quality transfers with good identification for fit and need is an essential part of that.

Updates

First off, thank you for reading! If you haven’t already be sure to sub to the newsletter!

Check out the initial 2025 WNBA Draft Board, I will have 2026 dropping on Friday.

Also, look out for the Big 12 preview dropping with Jamie Steyer Johnson tomorrow. We went deep on the top and middle of the conference and have a ton of good stuff in there. Continuing on the Big 12 train, I’ll have my Film Room with Kansas State guard Serena Sundell dropping on Thursday, so get excited for that!

If you want to support me and my work further:

• Subscribe on my Patreon

• Sub to this newsletter

• Send me feedback!