The college basketball offseason started for the Jayhawks sooner than most had anticipated, and with every college basketball offseason you have quite a few burning questions to answer. One of those questions is who stays on the roster, and who goes off to pursue greener pastures? Transfer portal season is here for KU, and with plenty of players already expected to leave, the chaos has already ensued 3-fold.
Bobby Pettiford, Jr., Cam Martin, and Zach Clemence all entered their names into the transfer portal today, and with how unproductive and under-utilized due to said unproductivity it's no surprise there's predicted to be more. Pettiford averaged 2.2 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists a game on an average of 12 minutes played, Martin didn't play due to injury, and Clemence was outclassed in every aspect by every big on the roster aside from his shooting ability, which also wasn't anything spectacular. I think all three of these guys develop better elsewhere and I wish them the best in that effort.
As of now, only Ernest Udeh and Zuby Ejiofor are predicted to stay on for Kansas, the rest of this past year's bench is potentially leaving. Joe Yesufu, Kyle Cuffe, and MJ Rice are the other players anticipated to leave. Yesufu averaged 4.1 points, 12.7 minutes, and 1.2 rebounds a game and will more than likely be the most sorely missed out of the group. With this being his second transfer as well, we'll have to see what happens. Rice has a lot of potential although he didn't exactly rack up minutes or points this past season, I would personally like to see him come back to try his hand again. Kyle Cuffe? Cuffe barely played and the minutes he did play KU was in garbage time, so there's not a ton to miss there playing-wise. Good kid though and hopefully he finds a spot where he can compete.
This is an unfortunate reality of college basketball and college sports in general. Not everyone is cut out to make an impact, especially on teams that ooze talent such as Kansas. That doesn't mean these guys won't excel, it just means they feel they do not have the tools and abilities to excel at KU, so they transfer away. There are guys that show a ton of promise but need to be in the right environment to do so. I've talked a lot about the transfer portal being overused in articles' past but overall, it IS a good thing when used correctly and not abused (Cough, cough JT DANIELS), just like coaches moving on from programs can be good too. You can only hope for the best for guys that truly gave their heart to the program.
This "spring cleaning" of sorts is also not bad for KU either. Self has had some successes in the transfer portal and could certainly make a splash this offseason, completely revamping the bench into a force to be reckoned with once again. Remember, for big name programs like Kansas a lot of it isn't necessarily rebuilding, it's reloading what was already a talented roster. Kansas will still compete for the Big 12 next year whether they go crazy in the transfer portal or not, the freshmen class being brought in is stacked, the starters such as Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams, and potentially even Gradey Dick (This is not likely but it's fun to dream) have all shown they can play well, and the Kansas coaching staff is one of the best, if not the best in the entire nation. A lot of people see a large number of transferring players and automatically think the sky is falling, when in all reality you just need to have faith in a coaching staff that has had success for decades now. Shoot, look how well Kansas State and Missouri have done with their transfer pickups, and that's with a first-year coach mind you. KU will be fine and I am excited to see which transfers they end up pursuing to fill those roster gaps.
Burn Notice: 7/10 Lots of reactionaries on Twitter today, you'd think there was a fire at Allen...
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