KU coach Bill Self likes Zach Clemence’s ‘progress’ amid forward’s redshirt status

Kansas forward Zach Clemence stood in the far corner of the spacious, 23-year-old, air-conditioned gymnasium on the campus of Academia del Perpetuo Socorro Catholic School on Friday morning, accepting passes from a team manager and sinking a barrage of 3-pointers in rapid succession.

Clemence, a 6-foot-11, 230-pound junior from San Antonio, who recently changed his mind about transferring to Cal-Santa Barbara and has returned to the Jayhawk fold, then participated in the scrimmage portion of practice — one in which he grabbed a defensive rebound, dribbled all the way to the other end and cashed a deep 3 from the wing.

This is just hours after he hit two 3s in five tries and scored eight points with three rebounds in KU’s 106-71 exhibition win over the Puerto Rico Select Team on Thursday at Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum.

“I think Zach has made a lot of progress. He’s had a really good summer and certainly is making the most of the situation,” KU coach Bill Self told The Star after practice. “I am real excited for Zach. He is showing me, and I think the rest of his teammates, he can really be an effective player at this level. He’s been great in all aspects.”

Clemence, in a post-practice interview, said of the 3-point drill that he aced: “I’m happy to be back, happy I’m getting better, happy to make shots, too. I mean that (drill), we do it every day. If we keep doing that I’ll try to get better at shooting.”

He was equally humble about dribbling the ball like a guard and then finishing with a 3 while playing for the red team (scout team) Friday.

“I happen to be 6-10. It’s easier for me to grab the rebound,” Clemence said with a smile.

Clemence, who was not all that enamored with his play against Puerto Rico — “I shot a couple (3s). I should make more than two,” he said — has currently taken on the role of “making everyone better. Coming back I’m just trying to make the team better.”

That figures to be as a redshirt.

When he changed his mind on transferring to UC Santa Barbara on June 20, he and Self decided it’d be best to redshirt this season — that is, practice but not play in games. He’s set to return for his junior season in 2024-25.

Right now, nothing has changed regarding his redshirt status, despite Clemence’s apparent improvement from a year ago when he did not make the regular playing rotation.

“No,” Self said, asked if he and Clemence could decide to pull the redshirt. “Well, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I won’t say never. In case somebody gets hurt or something, but our plans are to redshirt him. He knows that.

“He could contribute (now), but the situation was, he wants to see if he could improve enough to be a guy that could play very meaningful minutes at Kansas. The reality of it is with Hunter (Dickinson) and KJ (Adams) both here, if they stay healthy, nobody’s beating those guys out.”

Clemence stressed that he’s “happy to be back here as a Jayhawk. Just because of this: family,” he said, pointing to his teammates. “It’s been nothing but great.”

Clemence — who averaged 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds in 20 games (5.6 minutes per game) his sophomore campaign — said he’s looking forward to Saturday’s 4 p.m. exhibition clash against the Bahamian National Team, which could boast NBA big men Deandre Ayton and Kai Jones, who are on the roster.

“Go out there and win,” Clemence said of the Jayhawks’ goal. They’ll also play the Bahamian Nationals at 11 a.m., Monday, in the final game of the Puerto Rico tour. “It will make us better, help us get ready for the season.”

Would he be intimidated if, say, the 25-year-old Ayton, plays? Ayton was the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

“No. He is a basketball player at the end of the day. So are we. He just makes a little more money than we do,” Clemence said with a smile.

He hopes former Oklahoma Sooners guard Buddy Hield plays in the game.

“Buddy went to Sunrise (Christian Academy as did Clemence). We have a little (thing in common),” Clemence said. “He came back every once in a while, and we’d see him there.”