Kansas basketball: What happens without Silvio De Sousa?

Silvio De Sousa will be leaving the Kansas basketball program. What does that mean for the Jayhawks going into this season?

Kansas basketball upperclassmen Silvio De Sousa will be leaving the basketball program. De Sousa tweeted the news a little past 4:15 PM today, and the announcement came as a shock to Jayhawk fans everywhere.

There may be no player on Kansas’ roster this season that’s gone through more ups and downs than De Sousa. He joined the program midway through the 2017-18 season and was a major piece of the Final Four team that year.

Then after that season, the allegations from the NCAA came. His 2018-19 season was wasted; however, De Sousa was reinstated for the 2019-20 campaign. As a rotational player, De Sousa was playing behind both Udoka Azubuike and David McCormack when the now infamous Kansas-Kansas State brawl broke out.

De Sousa received a 12-game suspension for his role, only playing in one more game the rest of the season due to COVID-19 cancellations. Now, it looks like his time with the Jayhawks is over for good. Here’s his tweet:

De Sousa mentions personal reasons as the main reason for his departure. Who’s to say what the young man is dealing with right now, all we can do is wish him the best going forward and thank him for what he’s done for the Jayhawks.

While De Sousa was not expected to start this season, he probably would have played significant minutes. Without him, we could possibly see true freshman Gethro Muscadin get some minutes, and Mitch Lightfoot could see a boost as well. Hopefully, David McCormack is in good shape too, because Bill Self may have him play 25-30 minutes per game.