Kansas forward Zach Clemence (21) puts up a shot during warmups prior to tipoff against Arkansas on Saturday, March 18, 2023 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas forward Zach Clemence has entered the transfer portal, a KU Athletics spokesperson confirmed on Friday morning.

This is Clemence’s second time in the portal after he previously left KU and committed to UC Santa Barbara following the 2022-23 season, only to reverse course and return to Lawrence over the summer.

He then took an unusual mid-career redshirt and returned to action last fall, averaging 1.4 points and 1.4 rebounds in eight appearances before suffering a groin injury that kept him out of action for the remainder of the season.

Because of that injury, Clemence, though listed as a redshirt junior this year, may still have two seasons of eligibility left to play.

Clemence, a 6-foot-10 San Antonio native who attended Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, never occupied more than a peripheral role for the Jayhawks after arriving as a freshman prior to the 2021-22 national championship campaign. He scored in double figures twice: with 11 points against Stony Brook as a freshman and with 10 against Oklahoma as a sophomore. In all, he played in 52 career games across four seasons, one of which was his redshirt year.

With his departure from the roster, KU no longer retains any players from the title-winning team as it heads into the 2025-26 campaign. Clemence is also the first Jayhawk on scholarship to enter the portal in nearly two years, since KU did not have any such departures following the 2023-24 season.

In the short term, the Jayhawks will look for frontcourt depth behind Flory Bidunga, who just completed his freshman season, to go along with early-enrolling freshman Bryson Tiller, who is still in the process of recovering from a long-term ankle injury.