photo by: AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Loyola Chicago's Jayden Dawson (1) and Saint Louis' Tim Dalger (5) dive after a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, in St. Louis.

After starting fresh following a slew of departures, the Kansas men’s basketball team has begun the process of building a new roster.

The Jayhawks’ first transfer addition of the offseason is former Loyola-Chicago guard Jayden Dawson, who committed to KU on Friday evening, according to multiple reports.

Dawson announced the news via an Instagram post by On3’s Joe Tipton. He will join the Jayhawks for his senior year after three seasons with the Ramblers. Dawson is a native of Omaha, Nebraska, who was a three-star recruit out of Omaha Central High School. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, he averaged 13.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in his final season with Loyola-Chicago, which concluded on Tuesday with a loss to Chattanooga in the NIT.

He entered the portal a day later and didn’t take long to make Lawrence his new home.

“Kansas reached out the first day I hit the portal and it just felt like an instant fit for me,” Dawson told Shay Wildeboor of JayhawkSlant.com. “Bill Self seems like a great, genuine dude. He reached out, he was the main recruiter for me throughout the whole process, and it just felt like the best opportunity for me to get to what I’m trying to do and showcase what I can do.”

Dawson gradually progressed from coming off the bench in his injury-shortened freshman year to starting 15 of the 26 games he played as a sophomore to starting all of his 32 games as a junior (he missed about a month of the season with an ankle injury) as the team’s leading scorer.

He posted the best scoring performance of his career in his final postseason with the Ramblers: Against San Francisco on March 24, he tallied 35 points on 14-for-27 shooting. On the whole, Dawson shot 150-for-366 (41.0%) during the 2024-25 campaign and 86-for-237 (36.3%) from deep.

Dawson told JayhawkSlant that he sees himself as a combo guard and that the idea of playing alongside five-star incoming freshman Darryn Peterson appealed to him.

“(KU coach Bill Self) thinks me and him complement each other’s game really, really well,” he told Wildeboor. “And so I liked it. I mean, I liked the sound of that. It sounded real interesting to me, especially from where I’m trying to get to. I mean, that’s only going to bring more attraction to me. So it definitely got my interest a lot with that.”

Dawson now joins a backcourt that at this juncture is the strength of KU’s fledgling roster, headlined by Peterson along with returnees Elmarko Jackson and Noah Shelby (a walk-on last season). KU’s wings include Jamari McDowell and Samis Calderon, and its lone post player at present is Bryson Tiller.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Loyola Chicago guard Jayden Dawson shoots during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Creighton Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. Creighton won 88-65.