Kansas is on the board with its first transfer-portal commitment.
Utah forward Keanu Dawes committed to KU, his agent Brandon Grier confirmed to the Journal-World on Thursday morning.
Dawes, who was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in Houston, started his career at Rice before playing two seasons with the Runnin’ Utes in their first two years in the Big 12 for two different coaching staffs. During the 2025-26 campaign, the 6-foot-9, 225-pound forward averaged 12.5 points and 8.8 rebounds.
An athletic and agile scorer in the paint, Dawes also attempted 3.2 3-pointers per game during his junior year, converting them at 31.7%. His overall shooting percentage from the field last season was 54.6%.
Dawes has improved his output each of his three seasons in college. As a freshman with the Owls, he started 23 of the 32 games in which he played but recorded a relatively inefficient 6.6 points per game with 4.1 rebounds in 23.6 minutes. After transferring to Utah under Craig Smith, he played slightly fewer minutes and only started twice during the 2024-25 season, but his shooting percentage jumped to 61.4% and so his productivity increased as a result.
Dawes visited KU beginning on Tuesday, but it wasn’t his first time in Lawrence. He had a strong game in a loss to the Jayhawks on Feb. 7 with 22 points and 12 rebounds, one of his 10 double-doubles on the year. That was a point shy of his career-high 23 against BYU on Jan. 24 and three rebounds below the 15 he has accrued twice in his career.
The addition of Dawes gives KU a key veteran frontcourt piece as it begins building its new roster. He joins returners Kohl Rosario and Corbin Allen and incoming freshmen Davion Adkins, Luke Barnett, Taylen Kinney and Trent Perry.
Could another former Runnin’ Ute make the move to Lawrence? Dawes’ former teammate, high-scoring guard Terrence Brown, was at Allen Fieldhouse for a visit of his own on Wednesday. Brown was expected to see Kentucky later in the week, but the Wildcats got a commitment from Washington transfer guard Zoom Diallo that might render that moot.
Otherwise, KU has had other reported visitors like forward DeSean Goode (Robert Morris) and guard Terrence Hill Jr. (VCU) earlier in the week and center Anton Bonke (Charlotte) more recently.
