KU’s Kyle Cuffe Jr. enters name in 2023 NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal

Kansas freshman men’s basketball guard Kyle Cuffe Jr., who played in just two games during the 2022-23 season after also redshirting KU’s national-title campaign, has decided to enter the NCAA’s transfer portal.

Cuffe, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound native of Harlem, New York, placed his name in the portal Wednesday, KU officials confirmed to The Star.

Cuffe — he played six minutes in two games (vs. North Dakota State and Omaha) as a Jayhawk — redshirted in 2021-22 and practiced with the team all season. However, this past campaign he suffered a torn MCL (medial collateral ligament) and PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) in one of his knees during practice in mid-November.

He missed most of KU’s 2022-23 campaign, and it has been a while now since Cuffe has played meaningful minutes in an organized basketball game.

He attended Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey. Because of Covid-19, Blair was able to play just two games in 2020-21. Cuffe averaged 25.0 points, scoring 28 and 22 points, respectively in those games.

In 2019-20, he averaged 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Blair Academy posted a 24-3 record in 2019-20. He was ranked No. 56 by Rivals.com following his senior season of high school.

Cuffe’s dad, Kyle, was a forward at St. John’s from 2000-01 to 2003-04 and played professional overseas and in the G League.

“Kyle is as he appears to be. He is a nice sweet kid who happens to be gifted athletically,” KU coach Bill Self said during this past season. “He is still young. He should be a freshman. He came to school a year early. He is extremely talented. He is a great athlete. I think he’d agree he’s still learning the game the way we play it compared to what he was coming in as basically a high school junior. He will have a bright future playing. His attitude is a 12 when it comes to him trying to come back (from injury) and be in a situation to practice. ... I am proud of him. He knows we respect his mindset, how he’s come back from injury.”

KU has had six players enter the portal since season’s end. Five have already picked new schools.

The five are: Bobby Pettiford (East Carolina), Cam Martin (Boise State), Zach Clemence (Santa Barbara), Joseph Yesufu (Washington State) and MJ Rice (North Carolina State).

KU has added two players from the portal thus far. They are: Nick Timberlake (Towson) and Arterio Morris (Texas).

The Jayhawks, who have two scholarships left to award in the recruiting Class of 2023, have just four returning scholarship players from last year’s team. They are: Ernest Udeh, Zuby Ejiofor, KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris. KU also has signed freshmen Marcus Adams, Elmarko Jackson, Chris Johnson and Jamari McDowell.