Late last week, ESPN.com’s Jeff Borzello put together a list of the top 100 transfers in college basketball, whether already committed to a new school or still available in the transfer portal.
By Tuesday, the list already needed to be rewritten.
Arizona State guard Remy Martin, a two-time first team all-PAC-12 selection, announced Tuesday that he, too, had entered his name into the transfer portal.
You may remember Martin from his 21-point performance in an upset win over KU in December of 2017 at Allen Fieldhouse. Martin’s actually 2-0 against the Jayhawks, having won again at home in 2018.
While it was long known that Martin was leaving Arizona State, — he announced earlier this spring that he was pursuing feedback about his NBA draft stock — the news that Martin would look to land at another school if he does in fact decide to return to college for one more season certainly changed the landscape of an already busy transfer season.
Some reports have listed Martin, a 6-foot, 175-pound play-making guard from Chatsworth, Calif., as the best player available in the transfer portal.
Any time a player of Martin’s caliber becomes available, just about every program out there is going to at least take a look to see if he would be worth pursuing.
The talented guard averaged 19.1 points and right around 4 assists per game for the Sun Devils during each of the past two seasons and he entered the 2020-21 season as a preseason All-American.
Prior to that he averaged 13 points per game as a sophomore and 10 points per game as a freshman. And he has shot 33% or better from 3-point range in each of the past three seasons.
It’s no secret that the Kansas men’s basketball program is looking for another guard — ideally a scorer — to give its one remaining scholarship to heading into the 2021-22 season.
The Jayhawks remain in the hunt for Top 40 prep point guard Tyty Washington, who has seen his stock soar in recent weeks, and also are still alive for Georgia transfer Sahvir Wheeler, who recently included KU in his list of four finalists, and Kentucky transfer Nolan Hickman, who KU pursued hard out of high school.
Martin is as talented as any of those players, and the Jayhawks spent a fair amount of time recruiting Martin out of high school, as well.
Although he never officially listed his finalists, reports from the time he committed to ASU noted that he chose Arizona State after “seriously considering” Marquette, UConn, Kansas and San Diego State. Martin also reportedly had offers from UCLA and USC.
KU assistant Kurtis Townsend was the lead recruiter for Martin at the time and it’s at least worth paying attention to Martin’s path during the next few weeks to see if KU decides to get involved again.
A lot of it may depend on what the others do. Washington is expected to announce his choice on Saturday and Shay Wildeboor of Rivals site JayhawkSlant.com recently noted that a decision from Wheeler could come sometime in the next week, as well.
Kansas currently has one available scholarship to hand out to add to a roster that already features seven newcomers.
That number would grow if Ochai Agbaji or Jalen Wilson — or both — elected to keep their name in the NBA draft pool instead of choosing to return to Kansas for the 2021-22 season.
Both players have until July to make a decision, and, with the NBA’s pre-draft combine slated for June 21-27, it seems likely that they’ll take all the time they have available.
As for Borzello’s list of the top transfers in college basketball this offseason, here’s a quick look at some of the more notable elements:
• Wheeler is ranked 15th. Borzello wrote: “One of the elite passers in college basketball, Wheeler was a second-team All-SEC player after averaging 14.0 points and 7.4 assists this past season. He led the SEC and ranked fourth nationally in assists.”
• UNLV shooting guard Bryce Hamilton, who also has been tied to KU in the past few weeks, is ranked No. 36. A 6-foot-4, 205-pound junior, Hamilton earned second-team All-Mountain West honors after averaging 17.9 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists last season.
• Former KU guard Bryce Thompson is ranked 28th. The latest I’ve heard on Thompson is that he’s heavily leaning toward Oklahoma or Oklahoma State with Tulsa still in the mix.
• Former Drake guard Joseph Yesufu, who signed with KU last month, was listed 14th in the “Next in line” group, which essentially makes him the 114th-ranked transfer in Borzello’s eyes. While that might seem a little low to some, you have to remember that more than 1,500 players entered the college basketball transfer portal this offseason.
• Former Jayhawk guard Charlie Moore, who committed to Miami and will be playing for the fourth different school of his college career, landed at No. 97 on the list.
• New Texas coach Chris Beard has landed four of the top 27 players on the list — former Utah forward Timmy Allen (3), former Creighton forward Christian Bishop (13), former Vanderbilt power forward Dylan Disu (19) and former Kentucky point guard Devin Askew (27).
• TCU coach Jamie Dixon also has done a nice job of rebuilding his roster through the transfer portal, landing two players in the top 60, former Texas A&M power forward Emanuel Miller (29), Texas Tech SG Micah Peavy (57), and defending national champion Baylor picked up a nice backcourt piece in Arizona transfer James Akinjo, who averaged 15.6 points and 5.4 assists per game last season while shooting 40.8% from 3-point range.
