Kansas basketball: Who’s most likely to transfer after this season?
A Kansas basketball recruit said that the staff mentioned the possibilities of transfers after this season, so which Jayhawks are most likely to leave?
Kansas basketball has had its fair share of transfers for multiple reasons varying from playing time to discipline. Sometimes fans can see the players transferring from a mile away, other times it comes as a shock.
An article posted by New York Times writer Adam Zagoria on his blog featured an interview with four-star recruit Donovan Williams, a shooting guard in the 2020 class out of Nebraska. Williams currently has offers from Nebraska and Texas plus interest from Kansas State, Oregon, UCLA, Oklahoma, and others.
While Kansas hasn’t offered Williams, he said that he might come to Lawrence for the Oklahoma State game next Monday.
Williams was quoted in the article saying:
"“They said that they’ll probably have a few guys leaving next year with graduation, a couple to NBA and also transfers. So they really need a guy like me who can spread the floor and shoot the ball. They are looking forward to recruiting me and they’ll be at my game tomorrow.”"
The graduation and NBA parts make sense, but there aren’t any overly obvious answers to who would be transferring at the end of the season, so let’s break down Kansas basketball’s roster and try to guess who’s the most likely to leave (redshirts will be omitted).
Almost no chance of transferring
Going into his junior year, David McCormack is an extremely unlikely candidate to transfer after this season. He’s started in games both as a freshman and sophomore and he’s clearly going to start next season with the graduation of Udoka Azubuike. There’s really no reason for him to leave unless it’s personal, which doesn’t seem plausible.
There’s almost zero chance Marcus Garrett transfers after this season. This one doesn’t need much explaining.
Christian Braun has really shined so far in his freshman season, even getting to start in some games. Yet when he hasn’t started, Braun has played significant minutes for Kansas and it’s hard to imagine him transferring from what is essentially his home school after one season, especially given that it was successful.
Transferring is a possibility
After being sidelined by an injury a whole two minutes into his college career, Jalen Wilson may look to try something new. The freshman has talent and would have been a big help to the Jayhawks this season given his ability to shoot, but a disappointing start to his time at Kansas may cause him to consider leaving.
Silvio De Sousa has had a rough time at Kansas outside of his freshman season. He spent an entire year sidelined by the NCAA, and we all know what went down at the Kansas State game. Whatever your opinion is on the stool incident, there’s no denying that it hurt Silvio’s reputation. A fresh start somewhere new could be a possibility for De Sousa after this season, given that he struggled to find playing time this year and he may want to get a change of scenery.
Freshman Tristan Enaruna seems like a possible transfer candidate given he hasn’t played as much in relation to Christian Braun, who was a lower-ranked recruit. As a four-star recruit, Enaruna may not have seen himself as more than a two-year college player, but as of now it’s looking like three or four at Kansas.
light. Read. KU is the best team in the nation with a win at Baylor
At the end of the day, this could all mean very little.
With the most important part of the season coming in the next month, the team is probably more focused on winning games right now than what they’ll do after the season. Time will tell soon enough who’s committed to Kansas basketball and who’s not.