Kansas basketball guard Bobby Pettiford Jr. confirms he has entered the transfer portal

LAWRENCE — Bobby Pettiford Jr. is no longer set to be a part of the future of the Kansas men’s basketball program.

Pettiford confirmed Wednesday with multiple social media posts on Twitter that he has entered the transfer portal. The move comes a handful of days after the Jayhawks’ 2022-23 season ended with a loss against Arkansas in the NCAA tournament’s round of 32 on Saturday.

It means Pettiford intends to spend the rest of his college career elsewhere, just like Kansas super-senior forward Cam Martin revealed Monday.

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“Forever Rock Chalk,” Pettiford, a sophomore guard, posted in one tweet. “Always will have a special place in my heart.”

Pettiford first joined the Jayhawks ahead of the 2021-22 season with a lot of potential. Head coach Bill Self said before Pettiford even played a game that he'd be one of the next really good guards at Kansas. But Pettiford wouldn’t finish his freshman season due to injury and saw his sophomore year affected by injury at times too.

Pettiford averaged 1.4 points, 0.9 assists and 0.9 rebounds per game in 14 appearances as a freshman during the Jayhawks’ national championship campaign. He averaged 2.2 points, 1.3 assists and 1.2 rebounds per game this past season in 32 appearances as a sophomore. And while that’s a trend toward a more significant role as a junior, what he could be next year will be explored somewhere else.

It’s unclear what type of role Pettiford would have had next season, with redshirt junior guard Dajuan Harris Jr. returning and talent like incoming freshman Elmarko Jackson joining the backcourt. With how much turnover there’s expected to be ahead of the start of next season, even if Pettiford was staying it’d be too difficult at this point to project his role before the roster is even finalized. But what is clear is the Arkansas loss seems set to be Pettiford’s last appearance in a Kansas uniform.

“You fight all year, you prepare all year, … you go through ups and downs, people just talk about you, they hate on you, you want to prove them wrong,” Pettiford postgame Saturday, as he reflected on everyone’s emotions in the locker room following the season-ending defeat. “You just want to fight for your brothers. And then obviously we’ve had ups and downs with players being injured, coach Self being day-to-day, week-to-week. So, I mean, we’ve just been through a lot of adversity.”

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: KU basketball's Bobby Pettiford Jr. has entered the transfer portal