KU Jayhawks hoops has stayed in the news since season-ending loss to Arkansas in NCAAs

The University of Kansas basketball program, in large part because of the comings and goings of numerous players, has experienced a very eventful spring and summer leading up to Monday’s start of the 2023-24 school year.

Here’s a rundown of all that has happened since the Jayhawks’ 72-71 season-ending loss to Arkansas in a second-round NCAA Tournament game on March 18 in Des Moines, Iowa:

March 20: Cam Martin became the first Jayhawk from the 2022-23 team to enter the transfer portal just two days after the season ended.

Martin, a 6-9, 230-pound super senior forward from Yukon, Oklahoma, chose Boise State as his transfer destination on April 4. At Boise State he’ll be playing with his brother Alex, who committed to play for the Broncos as a preferred walkon following his senior season at Webb City (Missouri) High School.

Cam and his brother also considered Clemson, Wichita State, SMU and Texas Tech.

Martin, who transferred to KU after playing one season at Jacksonville State and three at Missouri Southern, redshirted at KU in 2021-2022. After dealing with injury for most of the 2022-2023 season, he received a medical redshirt to preserve his final year of eligibility.

March 22: Zach Clemence entered his name in the transfer portal just four days after the season-ending loss to Arkansas. Clemence, a 6-10, 230-pound junior forward from San Antonio, Texas, chose Santa Barbara as his transfer destination on May 3.

However Clemence changed his mind on June 20 and returned to the KU program where he is expected to redshirt the 2023-24 campaign.

Clemence averaged 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds in 2022-23, his sophomore season at KU. He missed three games early in the season because of concussion-like symptoms. After injuring his knee at Iowa State on Feb. 4, Clemence appeared in just three games the rest of the way. He played nine minutes in the final 13 games of the season.

March 22: Bobby Pettiford joined Clemence in the transfer portal.

Pettiford, a 6-1, 180-pound junior point guard from Durham, North Carolina, who played in 32 of 36 games during his sophomore campaign, chose East Carolina as his transfer destination on April 11.

He was bothered by injuries in both of his seasons in Lawrence, averaging 2.2 points a game with 43 assists to 36 turnovers during the 2022-23 season for the (28-8) Jayhawks.

Pettiford played in 14 games for KU during the 2021-22 season. He had a lingering abdominal injury that hampered him basically the entire campaign, until he had surgery late in the season to repair a muscle in his pelvic area. He was bothered by a hamstring injury at various junctures of his sophomore season.

March 24: Joseph Yesufu decided to enter the transfer portal and play for a third collegiate men’s basketball program. Yesufu, a 6-0, 180-pound senior point guard/shooting guard from Bolingbrook, Illinois, played two seasons at Drake before joining KU’s program for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

As a junior last season, he averaged 4.1 points while logging 12.7 minutes per game in 35 contests. Yesufu hit 24 of 84 three-point tries for 28.6%. Overall he hit 36.7% of his shots. He had 15 assists to 18 turnovers with 16 steals.

He played in 34 games during KU’s 2021-22 national-title season, averaging 2.1 points per game.

Yesufu chose Washington State as his transfer destination on April 27. He also heard from coaches from Stanford, USC, Purdue, SMU, Boise State, Drake and others.

March 29: MJ Rice, who had an injury-plagued freshman season, announced plans to enter the transfer portal. Rice, a 6-5, 215-pound guard/small forward from Henderson, North Carolina, ultimately elected to return home. He committed to North Carolina State on April 19.

Rice averaged 7.5 minutes a game while playing in 23 of KU’s 36 contests in the 2022-23 season. He averaged 2.2 points and just over one rebound per game. Rice shot 20-for-49 (40.8%) from the field, including 3-for-15 (20%) from beyond the arc.

The former 5-star high school standout started the season with back issues, then developed kidney stones and contracted COVID-19. In the final weeks of the season, he had back spasms that kept him out of multiple games.

March 31: Gradey Dick entered his name in the 2023 NBA Draft while indicating his decision was final.

It proved to be a good choice. The 6-foot-8, 205-pound freshman wing was selected No. 13 overall by the Toronto Raptors during the June 22 NBA Draft in Brooklyn, New York.

Dick announced his decision live and in studio on ESPN’s NBA Today show. Dick, 19, averaged 14.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in 2022-23, shooting 40% from three-point range.

April 6: Kevin McCullar announced his decision to enter his name in the 2023 NBA Draft with the option of returning to KU.

McCullar, a 6-7, 210-pound senior shooting guard from San Antonio, Texas, who averaged 10.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game during the 2022-23 campaign, revealed plans to exit the draft and return to KU for a super-senior season on May 24. He attended the NBA Combine where he received input from NBA teams prior to announcing his decision to head back to Lawrence in pursuit of an NCAA title.

April 19: Towson’s Nick Timberlake, who entered the NCAA transfer portal on March 9, chose KU as his transfer destination over North Carolina and UConn.

Timberlake, a 6-4, 205-pound senior shooting guard, averaged 17.7 points (on 45.5% shooting), 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in 2022-23. Known for his 3-point shooting, the first-team all-Coastal Athletic Association selection hit 92 of 221 three-point attempts during the 2022-23 season (41.6%). He hit 49.5% of his two-point tries. He made 84.5% of his free throws and had 79 assists to 78 turnovers.

Timberlake averaged 35.7 minutes a game in 33 game for (21-12) Towson. The Braintree, Massachusetts native scored 34 points versus College of Charleston, 32 against Hofstra, 31 versus Hampton and 29 against Delaware.

April 28: Texas’ Arterio Morris announced plans to transfer to KU over DePaul, Mississippi and others.

Morris, a 6-4, 195-pound sophomore combo guard, who entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal on April 10, averaged 4.7 points and 1.4 rebounds a game his freshman season at Texas.

He hit 41.4% of his shots including 32.5% of his 3s (29 of 87). He was 78.6% from the line. Morris dished 20 assists to 23 turnovers while playing an average of 11.7 minutes a game in 38 games. He was in the rotation at Texas last season but played behind Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter, and Sir’Jabari Rice.

Morris arrived at Texas as the No. 15-ranked player in the recruiting class of 2023 according to Rivals.com. He initially chose Texas over Arkansas, Kansas, Memphis, and others. As a transfer he visited both KU and DePaul.

May 2: Former KU big man Joel Embiid was named the NBA’s most valuable player. The Philadelphia 76ers standout had finished runner-up in the NBA MVP voting in each of the two previous seasons.

Embiid became the second Jayhawk to be named NBA MVP, joining Wilt Chamberlain, who was so honored four times: 1960, 1966, 1967, and 1968.

May 3: Kyle Cuffe, who played in two games during the 2022-23 season after redshirting KU’s national-title campaign, put his name in the transfer portal.

Cuffe, a 6-2, 185-pound redshirt freshman combo guard from Harlem, New York, who was plagued by injuries in two seasons at KU, chose Syracuse as his transfer destination on May 19.

Cuffe, who played six minutes in two KU games (North Dakota State and Omaha), redshirted in 2021-22 and practiced with the team during the Jayhawks’ national championship season. However, in 2022-23, he suffered a torn MCL (medial collateral ligament) and PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) in a knee during a mid-November workout and was unable to practice for most of the season.

May 4: Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson, who has been called the most impactful player to ever enter the transfer portal, chose KU as his transfer destination.

Dickinson, a 7-1, 260-pound senior forward, averaged 18.5 points and 9.0 rebounds as a junior at Michigan. He has two years of eligibility remaining at KU. Dickinson chose Kansas over Kentucky, Maryland, Georgetown and Villanova.

May 5: Zuby Ejiofor reacted to the commitment of Dickinson by announcing plans to enter his name in the transfer portal.

Ejiofor, a 6-9, 240-pound sophomore forward from Garland, Texas, ultimately chose St. John’s as his transfer destination on May 16. He went from playing for one Hall of Fame coach in Self to another in Rick Pitino.

Ejiofor averaged 5.1 minutes a game in 25 games his freshman year at KU. He scored 31 points, grabbed 43 rebounds and blocked 15 shots as a Jayhawk.

May 11: Ernest Udeh also entered his name in the portal out of concern for his playing time following the addition of Dickinson. Udeh, a 6-11, 250-pound sophomore forward from Orlando, Florida, who averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds a game during the 2022-23 season, announced plans to attend TCU of the Big 12 Conference on May 31.

Udeh averaged 8.3 minutes a game in 30 games during his freshman season.

May 17: After losing Udeh and Ejiofor to the transfer portal, KU picked up a versatile big man in Santa Clara’s Parker Braun.

Braun, a 6-10, 215-pound senior and the brother of former Jayhawk Christian Braun, chose KU as a transfer destination over Arkansas, Saint Louis, BYU, Wichita State, Cal, Iona, Kansas City, South Carolina, Southern Illinois, Denver, Grand Canyon, SE Missouri, Arizona, Oral Roberts, Montana, Vermont and others.

Braun entered the portal on April 25. He averaged 7.7 points and 5.8 rebounds a game last season for the Broncos. Santa Clara went 23-10 overall and 11-5 in West Coast Conference play. The team advanced to the NIT, in which it dropped a first-round game against Sam Houston.

June 2: Justin Cross, a 6-9, 215-pound junior forward from John A. Logan College in Carterville, Illinois, announced plans to attend KU as a nonscholarship player. Cross as a sophomore averaged 2.8 points and 4.4 rebounds a game while logging 4.5 minutes per game in 35 games for the national junior college champion Vols (33-2).

Cross hit 31 of 66 shots for 47%. He was 36-of-44 from the free-throw line (81.8%). He was 0-for-4 from 3-point range. John A. Logan won the 2023 NJCAA Division I title. The No. 1 seeded Vols (33-2) defeated reigning national champion Northwest Florida State 73-70 in the title game on April 11 in Hutchinson, Kansas.

June 3: Former Montverde Academy combo guard Chris Johnson asked out of his national letter of intent with Kansas. The 6-5, 180-pound native of Fort Bend, Texas, ultimately chose Texas as his transfer destination on June 26.

He initially committed to KU over Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi last August. Kentucky and Auburn also had expressed interest at the time of his commitment. The former Houston Defenders AAU player signed a letter of intent with KU on Nov. 9, 2022.

June 6: Patrick Cassidy, a former KU men’s basketball manager, was added to the 2023-24 roster as a non-scholarship player.

Cassidy, a 6-1, 185-pound senior point guard from Columbus, Kansas, also played football at Columbus High School.

June 8: The Big 12 announced that KU and Houston would meet in a men’s and women’s doubleheader during the 2024-25 season in Mexico City. The games will be played in December 2024. Following the launch of Big 12 basketball in Mexico, Big 12 women’s soccer and baseball will participate in exhibitions against clubs from the region.

The Big 12 said it would explore establishing a football bowl game in Monterrey, Mexico starting in 2026.

June 10: Chris Carter, a 6-4, 180-pound redshirt freshman guard from Cal State Northridge, announced plans to transfer to KU as a non scholarship player.

Carter, who was unranked as a graduating high school player out of Shadow Hills High in North Indio, California, redshirted the 2022-23 season at Cal State Northridge. He entered the NCAA transfer portal on May 10.

June 12: Former KU guard Christian Braun became the 15th Jayhawk to win an NBA title when the Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game Five of the Finals.

Braun was the No. 21 selection in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Nuggets. Braun, a 6-6, 220-pound wing, played in 76 regular-season games, starting six for top-seeded Denver during his rookie season. He averaged 4.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and shot 49.5%, including 35.4% from 3-point range, during the regular season. Braun played 19 playoff games and averaged 13.0 minutes, 3.2 points, 2.1 rebounds with a 53.3 field-goal percentage.

June 15: It’s announced that KU and Wichita State will meet in a regular-season men’s basketball game for the first time since January 1993. The announcement’s made by the Kansas City Sports Commission and KU and WSU athletic departments.

The two teams agreed to square off at a yet-to-be announced time on Saturday, Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

Kansas leads the all-time series with Wichita State, 12-3. The Jayhawks have won five of the last six meetings. This will be the first regular-season matchup between the two schools since Jan. 6, 1993, a Kansas 103-54 win in Allen Fieldhouse. The next series matchup was the most recent, with WSU winning 78-65 in Omaha, Nebraska in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

June 22: KU’s Gradey Dick and Jalen Wilson were selected in the 2023 NBA Draft in Brooklyn, New York. Dick, a 6-8, 204-pound wing, was the No. 13 overall pick (by Toronto). Wilson, a 6-8, 220-pound small forward, was the 51st overall pick (by Brooklyn).

With the selections of Dick and Wilson, KU now has 87 all-time NBA Draft selections, including 29 in the Bill Self era. Since the NBA adopted a two-round draft in 1989, Kansas has had 28 first-round selections and 42 total draft picks.

July 16: Marcus Adams, a 6-8 wing from Torrance, California, announced on social media his request from his release from a national letter-of-intent with KU.

Adams, who chose Kansas over Syracuse and UCLA, ultimately chose Gonzaga as his transfer destination.

July 18: Former Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins died at the age of 78. Perkins was KU’s AD from June 2003 until June 2010. His career in college athletics spanned more than 40 years.

July 23: KU’s alumni basketball team, Mass Street, was defeated in a Round of 16 TBT game in Wichita.

Eventual champion Heartfire defeated the Jayhawks 73-60 in the winner take all, $1 million tournament’s round of 16. Earlier, KU defeated We Are D-III 70-67 on a Thomas Robinson bucket that gave the Jayhawks the Elon Ending’s target score.

In round two, the Jayhawks beat Missouri’s Show Me Squad 69-65. A Robinson free throw gave KU the target score in that contest.

July 24: KU and North Carolina announced the signing of an agreement to play a home-and-home hoops series starting in the 2024-25 season.

The first game is set for Allen Fieldhouse on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. The following year the two teams will meet on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. The teams have met 12 times, but just once in Allen and never in the Dean Dome.

Aug. 1-8: The Jayhawks went 2-1 on their summertime trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

KU defeated Puerto Rico Select in the first exhibition game of the trip (106-71 on Aug. 3), then went 1-1 against the Bahamian National Team. The Jayhawks beat the Buddy Hield-led Team Bahamas squad 92-87 on Aug. 5, then lost the rematch two days later, 87-81. Hield and Eric Gordon played in that second contest.

Hunter Dickinson led the Jayhawks in scoring (19.0) and rebounding (7.0) in the three games. Kevin McCullar contributed 13.6 points and 6.3 boards. Arterio Morris averaged 13.5 points in two games. KJ Adams went for 13.0 ppg and Elmarko Jackson 10.6 ppg.

Aug. 2: KU’s Self announced the addition of Doc Sadler to his Jayhawk hoops support staff as senior adviser.

Sadler was on the coaching staff at Oklahoma for the 2022-23 season, as a special advisor to the head coach. Sadler served as director of basketball operations at Kansas for the 2012-13 season. He’s been a head coach at Nebraska, Southern Miss and Utah.

Aug. 3: Self announced the signing of Australian high school sensation Johnny Furphy to a letter of intent.

Furphy, a 6-8, 202 pound-freshman wing, plays for Centre of Excellence (CoE) — Basketball Australia’s developmental program, hosted at the Australian Institute of Sport alongside the NBA Global Academy.

Known as a great athlete and deadly 3-point shooter, the 18-year-old Furphy reclassified for the 2023 class. He burst onto the scene at various NBA Academy events, including the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta in early July. The NBA Global Academy has produced recent Australian NBA Draft first-round picks Dyson Daniels and Josh Giddey.

Aug. 13: KU landed a verbal commitment from Flory Bidunda, a top five-ranked player in the high school recruiting class of 2024.

Bidunga, a 6-9, 220-pound senior forward from Kokomo (Indiana) High School, chose KU over Duke, Auburn and Michigan,

The decision shocked many — if not most — of the national recruiting analysts who believed Auburn had pulled ahead and was the current leader for Bidunga’s services. He also considered Indiana, Kentucky, Florida, Cincinnati, Purdue, Michigan State and others during the recruiting process.

Aug. 18: It was announced that KU and Illinois will meet in an exhibition game on Oct. 29 at U of I, with proceeds from the game being donated to the Hawaii Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund. The fund provides financial resources toward relief efforts following the devastating Maui wildfires.

The exhibition game is set for 5 p.m. and will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

That’s a lot, and news surrounding the KU program doesn’t figure to slow down anytime soon. A decision by the IARP on the NCAA infractions case against KU is expected in the near future. And Late Night in the Phog is set for Oct. 6 at Allen Fieldhouse.