One day after eliminating blue blood programs Kansas and Kentucky from his list of finalists, South Dakota State transfer Baylor Scheierman picked another program that wears blue to finish his college career.
The 6-foot-6, 47% 3-point shooting guard who originally hails from Nebraska is headed back home next season to play for the Creighton Bluejays.
Ranked No. 4 in the ESPN.com transfer rankings, Scheierman told ESPN that he chose Creighton and because of the style of play that Bluejays coach Greg McDermott has utilized throughout his time in Omaha.
“They are an unselfish team who really share the ball, and that’s what I’m used to and I enjoy playing that way,” Scheierman told ESPN. “They also let their guys play free and loose, and I feel like I play my best in that type of system. They have a great group of guys coming back that are very talented and know how to play the right way, and I think us together can do something special. Also, the opportunity to come home was an offer I couldn’t resist.”
Already a preseason top-10 type of team, Creighton could vault into the top 5 with the addition of Scheierman and a returning group that pushed national champion Kansas all the way to the final seconds in a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Fort Worth, Texas in March.
Scheierman is still testing his NBA draft status and will have to pull out of the draft pool by June 1 in order to be eligible to play at Creighton.
But with the NBA’s pre-draft combine set for May 16-22, he should have plenty of time to make his decision, and it sounds as if he views his two options as a win-win scenario.
“I told my parents at the beginning of the process that if I’m going back to school, I’m doing this to ultimately put myself in a better position for my pro aspirations,” he told ESPN.
With Scheierman off the board, Bill Self’s Jayhawks are still in the running for three of the top eight players in ESPN’s offseason transfer rankings.
Iowa State point guard Tyrese Hunter is ranked third and Missouri State guard Isiaih Mosley and Texas Tech guard Kevin McCullar are ranked seventh and eighth respectively.
Hunter has Kansas in his final six. Mosley appears to be willing to take his time with his decision after hearing from more than a dozen power five programs since entering the transfer portal. And McCullar, who is all-in on his effort to get drafted this summer, has said that he will choose between KU and Gonzaga if he pulls out of the draft.
The biggest question for the Jayhawks is whether there will be room for another player or two.
Incoming freshmen Gradey Dick, Zuby Ejiofor, MJ Rice and Ernest Udeh are taking the four scholarships that came open after the departures of seniors Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack, Remy Martin and Jalen Coleman-Lands.
That means someone would have to move on in order for Kansas to add another player. Underclassmen Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson are candidates to do so, with both testing their NBA draft stock.
And it’s always possible that another player could elect to transfer out, opening the door for a spot to be filled. To date, there has been no talk of any such movement among players expected to return to Kansas for the 2022-23 season.
