Amari Whiting enjoyed this past weekend’s Iowa Basketball visit so much, that she was sad to leave. The Oklahoma State transfer now knows she’ll see everybody again soon after verbally committing to the Hawkeyes on Wednesday.

“I got to hang out with all of the players that were in Iowa City, and I literally connected with all of them. It was super fun,” Whiting said.

The Burley (Idaho) High graduate chose the Hawkeyes with one year of eligibility remaining. The 5-foot-10 guard averaged 9.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 steals in starting all 34 of OSU’s games. She shot .425 from the floor, including .321 from behind the arc, and .716 on free throws.

“My personal goal is to just get better as a player and hopefully give myself a shot at playing pro. As far as a team goes, we all wanna win and go as far as we can in the tournament,” she said.

Whiting played two seasons at BYU before moving to Stillwater last year. OSU lost in the second round of this season’s NCAA Tournament to eventual-champion UCLA. It was her first time in the Big Dance.

When it came to her last college ride, finding a place capable of a deep run next March was of utmost importance to Whiting.

“Iowa has a team full of girls that just wanna win and play the right way. And that’s who I am,” she said. “They also develop their girls and believe in them to get the best out of them. I just fit in with the girls really well. It was easy to talk to them and get to know them. And overall the visit just was a lot of fun with everybody.”

While she finishes up the semester at Oklahoma State, Whiting will be training for success in her new home. She’s excited for it.

“Just the people part of the program, they’re all so nice. And (coach) Jan (Jensen) is big on culture, so you could just tell that they were good, genuine people. Their basketball history speaks for itself. I wanted to be a part of that and develop as a player. Jan showed me just that,” she said.

Whiting joins former Georgia guard Dani Carnegie, who signed with Iowa on Wednesday, in the 2026 Hawkeye portal class. Five-star forward McKenna Woliczko is a 2026 California prep coming in this summer. The program is replacing four players lost to the portal, along with out-going seniors Hannah Stuelke, Kylie Feuerbach and Taylor McCabe.