Kansas Jayhawks junior guard Joseph Yesufu enters NCAA basketball transfer portal

Kansas junior combo guard Joseph Yesufu has decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal and play for a third collegiate men’s basketball program, Kansas Athletics confirmed to The Star.

Yesufu, a 6-foot, 180-pound native of Bolingbrook, Illinois, played two seasons at Drake before joining KU’s program for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

As a junior this past season, he averaged 4.1 points while logging 12.7 minutes per game in 35 contests. Yesufu hit 24 of 84 threes for 28.6%. Overall he hit 36.7% of his shots.

He had 15 assists to 18 turnovers with 16 steals.

Yesufu had back-to-back season-high 14-point games against Tennessee (Nov. 25) and Texas Southern (Nov. 28) He came off the bench to record three steals against Oklahoma State on Feb. 14. Yesufu finished with three assists and three rebounds in eight minutes versus Oklahoma on Feb. 11.

During his sophomore season, Yesufu averaged 9.2 minutes per game. He grabbed four rebounds against West Virginia in the Big 12 Tournament. He had nine points against Kansas State. Overall, he played in 34 games during KU’s 2021-22 national-title season, averaging 2.1 points.

“Joe is a really, really good player,” KU assistant Kurtis Townsend said last season on Bill Self’s Hawk Talk radio show. “He can shoot the ball, is athletic. He’s not that big. He’s low to the ground, really strong. The biggest thing is he’s a tough kid yet one of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet, just a great kid.”

Yesufu the fourth KU player to enter the transfer portal since season’s end, joining Zach Clemence, Cam Martin and Bobby Pettiford. KU is bringing in four perimeter players in freshmen-to-be Elmarko Jackson, Chris Johnson, Jamari McDowell and Marcus Adams.