Kansas basketball is bringing in a familiar face as a non-scholarship player — one of the team managers, Patrick Cassidy.
The Kansas Jayhawks will convert Patrick Cassidy to a walk-on player after serving as one of the team’s managers for the past few seasons. Cassidy, a graduate of Columbus Unified High School, is a 6-foot, 185-pound guard.
Before he arrived at KU, he was a multi-sport athlete who also served as his school’s quarterback on the football team. Cassidy also competed on the baseball team. However, he likely won’t pursue any other extracurricular activities, considering playing for Bill Self is more than enough for him.
Cassidy is pursuing a degree in finance and will stay on the team for just one season, as he is expected to graduate next spring.
JUCO transfer Justin Cross joined the team last week, so Cassidy is the second walk-on addition of the offseason. They join Wilder Evers, Michael Jankovich, Dillon Wilihite, and Charlie McCarthy as KU’s walk-ons.
Sports in Kansas wrote this about Cassidy during high school:
"“Cassidy, a 6-foot-0, 165-pound, senior, point guard, is coming off a 92-point tournament performance over three games at the St. Paul Tournament to open the 2019-2020 season as the Titans went 3-0 to win it. One of those games, he racked up a career high 39 points. On the season, he is averaging 28 points per game as the team is off to a 3-1 start. Cassidy, who has unlimited range as a shooter, averaged 18.2 points per game as a junior last season on his way to earning Sports in Kansas 2nd Team All-State honors in the loaded 3A classification. He also averaged over 14 points per game as a sophomore back in 2017-2018. Cassidy is at 826 points and the way the season is going could get that 1000-point milestone pretty fast this season.”"
from manager → to walk-on 😎
— Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) June 5, 2023
introducing @patrickrcassidy 👇 pic.twitter.com/kGvjS5q8Bv
KU always has a likable group of walk-ons, and Cassidy should fit right into the bunch.
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