Ready for new adventure, Caden Hinker chooses D-I Lamar for final year of basketball eligibility

Apr. 9—MITCHELL — Caden Hinker is ready to try something new.

For the former Mitchell High School star who spent four years at Augustana, that means fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing Division I men's basketball and saying goodbye to his home state.

With one year of eligibility remaining due to missing a full season in 2024-25 while recovering from multiple back surgeries, Hinker will soon be headed to Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

"I'm South Dakota born and raised, but I've always had this itch to go see and experience something new," Hinker said. "I felt like having a good year (in 2025-26 at Augustana) and having this extra year of eligibility because of my back was kind of a sign that this is the perfect time to do it.

"Playing Division I basketball is something I've wanted to do since I was a little kid," he added. "I don't think I need to prove to anyone that I'm able to play D-I, but at the same time, I've never wanted to back away from that challenge. I'm super stoked for the opportunity."

Hinker is coming off his best season as a Viking, which saw him earn first-team all-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference honors this year. Returning to the court after missing his junior season, Hinker played nearly 30 minutes per game while putting up 15.4 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds per contest for the Vikings, who finished second in the NSIC standings at 19-10 overall and 16-6 in conference play.

Several factors weighed into Hinker's decision to enter the transfer portal, but most centered around a feeling that his time at Augustana was naturally reaching its conclusion. Hinker will earn his undergraduate degree in marketing next month. Though he was afforded one more year of eligibility, several teammates, including those who he came into the program with four years ago, are graduating or moving on, too.

Once in the transfer portal, Hinker estimated he heard from as many as 45 schools in less than two weeks. He said local D-I programs such as South Dakota State, South Dakota and North Dakota all reached out to people close to him to gauge interest, but Hinker was committed to finding a fit outside of his geographic comfort zone.

"It's pretty chaotic and a little stressful, but it's also totally what you make of it," Hinker said of the transfer portal process. "For me, it was a good thing. I wanted this type of experience out of high school, so to get it now was something I was really grateful for."

Among the most important elements Hinker looked for in his search process was situations in which he could come in as a key contributor and have an impact in only one season. Plus, Hinker wanted a program that he felt could compete at a high level and coaches who emphasized relationships. Notably, Lamar was one of the few programs where the head coach, Jordan Fee, was the first person to reach out to Hinker, which helped put the Cardinals over the top in the end.

When it came to the subject of name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation, Hinker preferred not to get into specifics, saying he left much of that responsibility to his agent.

"I will say, they are taking care of me, which is something I appreciate and I think I've earned during my time as a college athlete," Hinker said.

Wanting to make a decision within the first few days of the portal opening, Hinker said he narrowed the list to two finalists — Lamar and Northern Colorado — before opting for the Gulf Coast of Texas over the Front Range of Colorado. Beaumont, Texas, located 85 miles east of Houston, has a population of approximately 115,000 people.

"I keep telling the coaches and my family that I'm so excited to get down there because I'm hungrier than ever," Hinker said. "That year off and then having a good year, now I want to go even further and have an even better year. It's been kind of eating at me here in the meantime, like I'm ready to roll."

This year, Lamar men's basketball was 12-19 overall and 7-15 in the Southland Conference, but in 2024-25, the Cardinals were 20-13 overall, 14-6 in conference play and played in the SLC tournament title game with a bid to the NCAA tournament on the line.

Hinker is part of the first class of recruits for coach Jordan Fee, who was hired as Lamar's head coach last month after the Cardinals ended their 2025-26 season, is taking over the program after two seasons on the staff at Florida Atlantic. Before that, Fee spent one season as head coach at Division II Gannon University in Pennsylvania, where he orchestrated the most extensive single-season turnaround in NCAA basketball history regardless of division or gender. He took over a 3-32 program and went 32-3 with a trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

"He's so relatable," Hinker said of his interactions with Fee. "Some of those coaches, you get on the phone, and it sounds like you're just talking to a coach. (Fee) is a genuine dude who cares about people and really seemed like he wanted the best for me, wherever I was going to land, so that was big for me."