A year after arriving at Kansas from Alabama, Rylan Griffen is back in the transfer portal.
The junior wing, who has one year of eligibility remaining, entered the portal on Monday morning, a KU Athletics official confirmed to the Journal-World.
Griffen, who had started and averaged 11.2 points per game for the Crimson Tide’s 2024 Final Four team, including an NCAA Tournament hot streak, never quite reached that level of production for the Jayhawks, even after he became a consistent starter late in the year.
He only reached double-figure scoring in eight of his 33 appearances (with 20 starts) and finished the season averaging 6.3 points and 2.1 rebounds while shooting 33.6% from 3-point range. His best performances came in KU’s blowout win at UCF, in which he went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc, and in the double-overtime loss to Houston on Jan. 25, where he hit a series of clutch shots and finished with a season-high 17 points.
Griffen struggled to finish out the year, shooting 9-for-43 (20.9%) from the field overall in the final seven games.
Griffen had been noncommittal about his future after KU’s first-round loss to Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament, stating that he loved KU and hadn’t talked to any other schools. He then showed up at a game at Haskell Indian Nations University in which incoming freshman Darryn Peterson was playing for his high school Prolific Prep, prompting some speculation Griffen might return.
Instead, he’ll look for a third school at which to wrap up his collegiate career.
