photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Kansas guard Jayden Dawson drives during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in Lawrence.

Every transfer-portal period these days seems to bring a couple of entries from Kansas players who have ostensibly exhausted their collegiate eligibility but are apparently hoping for some sort of waiver — Zeke Mayo, Dean Miller and the like in recent years — and this spring’s basketball portal window is no exception.

Kansas guard Jayden Dawson entered the portal on Thursday after playing four years of college basketball.

He told the Journal-World he is seeking a medical redshirt for his freshman season at Loyola-Chicago, one in which he played 14 games before missing the rest of the year due to a broken hand. He said he played two games with the injury before knowing it was broken.

“But I’m just looking for a fresh start to prove myself one last time,” he wrote in a text message. “Obviously this year didn’t pan out the way I thought it would so I’m just looking for another opportunity so I can reinvent myself.”

Dawson was the first portal acquisition for KU in the spring of 2025. After playing a gradually increasing role over the course of his three years with the Ramblers, the 6-foot-5 guard from Omaha, Nebraska, averaged 13.9 points and 3.1 rebounds during the 2024-25 season and was expected to bring some perimeter shooting and veteran experience on the wing to the Jayhawks.

But he never found consistent playing time, despite showing some promising signs at times in nonconference play. Dawson wasn’t in the starting lineup early in the year, but he did position himself as the first guard off the bench and drew 24 minutes against Princeton and 28 against Duke.

Then he hurt his wrist dunking during warmups prior to KU’s first of three games at the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, attempted to play against Notre Dame and had to exit after four minutes. As a result, he was not able to take advantage of the additional playing time available in the absence of Darryn Peterson.

He only played double-digit minutes twice in Big 12 play during the regular season, both against Kansas State, and head coach Bill Self predicted on his senior day that he would win a game for the Jayhawks in March, but that never came to pass.

Dawson said in the locker room after KU’s season-ending loss to St. John’s that it had been a frustrating year for him individually, but he believed it was still the right decision for him to come to KU.

“I think I’ve gotten a lot better in so many different ways,” he said, “and obviously I haven’t been able to show that on the court, because of just limited playing time and things of that nature, but yeah, man, I wouldn’t change coming here for the world. I’ve built relationships with my brothers and these relationships are going to last a lifetime.”

Now the question is whether he will have a chance to take the court again as a collegiate player — presumably elsewhere given his portal entry and stated desire for a fresh start. It could be a difficult case for a medical waiver given that he played 14 of Loyola-Chicago’s 31 games in that 2022-23 season and was active well into the month of January.