A couple of familiar faces will be returning to Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon, one of them on the heels of a 28-point outing on Tuesday night.
Former KU guard Latrell Jossell and Stephen F. Austin head coach Kyle Keller both spent time with the Jayhawks in the past.
Jossell, who scored a career-high 28 points in Stephen F. Austin’s loss to Louisiana-Monroe on Tuesday, was with the Jayhawks as a true freshman last season.
He entered the transfer portal shortly after the Jayhawks’ season-ending loss to USC in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and quickly landed with the Lumberjacks back in Texas, where he attended Keller Central High in Fort Worth.
Originally from Chicago, Jossell played in just nine games with the Jayhawks — mostly all of it in mop-up time — and was also dealing with injuries for part of the season.
At the time of his commitment to Kansas, KU coach Bill Self said Jossell was better than his 3-star ranking.
“He’s very impressive,” Self said after Jossell signed. “He’s extremely fast and can really shoot. He would challenge to be as good a shooter as anyone on our team right now.”
The opportunity to take those shots never materialized at Kansas. But as soon as Jossell became available in the portal, Keller, who served on Self’s KU staff from 2008-11, jumped at the opportunity to add him to his roster.
“We are so excited to announce the signing of transfer Latrell Jossell from Kansas,” Keller said last April. “He is a hard worker, very athletic and adept at scoring as a point guard. He has won at every level at which he has competed, He will bring his tough mentality to our Lumberjack family. Latrell is someone (we) have watched for years and we are so thrilled to have him impact our program here at SFA.”
So far, that impact has been limited to 11 appearances off the bench and an average of 17.2 minutes per game. Jossell is now averaging 8.4 points per game and also has recorded double-digit steals in his 11 appearances for the 8-3 Lumberjacks.
After his Tuesday night effort, which featured Jossell making 7 of 10 3-point shots and 9 of 13 from the floor overall, the 5-foot-11 guard could soon find himself stepping into a bigger role.
Jossell was one of just four players Keller used on his bench on Tuesday night, and his 25 minutes played were also a career high.
Jossell leads the Lumberjacks in both 3-point makes (23) and 3-point attempts (53) and is shooting 43.4% from 3-point range and 84.6% at the free throw line.
While Saturday’s game will be a reunion for Jossell and a handful of his former KU teammates, the opportunity for Self and Keller to reunite has even deeper roots.
The two close friends have known each other since 1987 and, upon hiring him as KU’s video coordinator in 2008, Self marveled as Keller’s willingness to grind throughout his career.
“He has done every job imaginable, from being a student as-sistant to a graduate assistant to a part-time assistant to a head coach, and in charge of every duty you could handle in a basketball program at his various stops,” Self said at the time.
One other name of note on the SFA staff is assistant coach Dalonte Hill. Hill previously was an assistant at Kansas State and he played a huge role in brining former K-State stars Bill Walker and Michael Beasley to Manhattan.
Saturday’s game between the 7th-ranked Jayhawks (8-1) and Lumberjacks (8-3) is slated for 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
