Inside the decision for Kansas men's basketball guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. to medically redshirt

LAWRENCE — Kyle Cuffe Jr. reiterated this week he has no regrets reclassifying and making the jump to college basketball a year early, last year, at Kansas.

Cuffe, speaking Tuesday on the latest edition of “Hawk Talk with Bill Self,” said it was the best option for his development. He was able to learn under Bill Self, the Jayhawks’ head coach, as he redshirted during Kansas’ run to a national championship. And Cuffe could begin to lay the foundation for his own legacy at this level, like his father did at St. John’s.

But early this season, Cuffe suffered a knee injury in practice that assistant coach Norm Roberts described then as Cuffe tearing his MCL and PCL. The redshirt freshman guard’s second season with the Jayhawks would see him play in just two games, contests in November against Omaha and North Dakota State.

Because, as it was revealed this week, the decision was ultimately made for Cuffe to medically redshirt.

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“You can’t play a guy and then decide you’re going to redshirt him, then him be 100% healthy. The whole key was could he get healthy, and the answer is he’s not 100% yet,” Self told reporters Thursday. “So, it’s an easy decision to medically redshirt him in large part because he’s not healthy enough that he can be his best out there for us.”

Cuffe, who will have four years of eligibility left after this season — not three — because of this decision, explained that over the past few months he’s tried not to dwell on his unfortunate circumstance. He’s tried to view it as a blessing in disguise. In a way, it’s been an avenue through which he’s changed his approach toward eating, workouts and more.

Although Cuffe never used to watch film before he arrived at Kansas, that’s changed dramatically. Roberts and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend are among those he highlighted with helping him there. Cuffe said he’s studied his own game, as well as that of others.

Self, on the show Tuesday as well, said Cuffe’s attitude has been a 12 out of 10 as Cuffe’s worked to come back. Even though Cuffe probably won’t be 100% for another two or three months, Self said he can still help them in practice. And Cuffe is committed to being a vocal presence always, too.

“I thought I was going to be, like, alone with this,” Cuffe said. “Like, the first day or two I thought that, like, there was nobody going to be in my corner necessarily, like, trying to help me get back to where I was. But then Bill Cowgill, Ramsey (Nijem), coach, they all had my back and all my teammates, like, even friends outside of basketball.”

Had Cuffe been able to stay healthy, Self said Thursday he hopes Cuffe would have been able to contribute some. Cuffe has a level of athleticism that’s worth noting, and a history of being a 247Sports Composite four-star prospect in the 2021 class. But Self added as well that Cuffe would have had to beat someone who’s playing right now in order to do that, and at the moment, Self wouldn’t have Cuffe in that position.

In order to take that next step, Cuffe will look to continue to develop his basketball IQ. He’ll look to continue to worked toward being at full strength again. And he’ll look to continue to learn from a teammate, redshirt junior forward and All-America candidate Jalen Wilson, he hold in high regard.

“His freshman year he got hurt, and he came back a different player,” Cuffe said. “So, that’s what I’ve been trying to model myself as, kind of, in the sense of just, like, coach always talks about, all the time, how (Wilson) came back a different player after getting hurt. His mindset changed.

"And I was like, ‘I want to be like that, and eventually, like, probably surpass that.’”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Why Kansas basketball guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. will medically redshirt