Kansas recruit Darryn Peterson watches during the first half of the Jayhawks’ home game against West Virginia on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Providence, R.I. — The Kansas men’s basketball team will get an earlier start to its offseason than it ever has in the transfer-portal era following its uninspiring first-round exit from the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

The window for players to enter the portal opens on Monday and closes on April 22, though of course there are always numerous exceptions, particularly when it comes to players whose teams have undergone coaching changes — of which there are sure to be many among high-powered teams this offseason, following key moves like Darian DeVries’ from West Virginia to Indiana.

For KU, this offseason will be all about ensuring it has pieces in place to surround incoming freshman guard Darryn Peterson, a consensus top-three player nationally and ESPN’s projected top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, whom head coach Bill Self has called the best player he has recruited during his time in Lawrence. Self said upon Peterson’s signing that he could also be “a catalyst to draw other players to our program.”

The Jayhawks plan to reevaluate their approach to finding the exact right players. As Self said after Thursday’s 79-72 loss to Arkansas, KU doesn’t have the same excuse for an underwhelming finish that it did last postseason, when it was debilitated by late-season injuries to Kevin McCullar Jr. and Hunter Dickinson.

“This year our roster was good enough to be competitive,” he said, “but it probably wasn’t the roster it needed to be to be talked about in a way that the best teams in America are talked about.”

KU won one combined tournament game over the course of back-to-back years in which it had been the nation’s preseason No. 1 team.

With four of its five starters exhausting their eligibility — including one in brutal fashion, as KJ Adams injured his Achilles and exited the Arkansas game with just over three minutes remaining before KU collapsed against the Razorbacks — the Jayhawks will need to add experience in order to regain their place among the nation’s elite. It was, after all, still just three years ago that they won the national title, though it may feel like a distant memory.

Kansas’ Bryson Tiller, a redshirt freshman, shoots around prior to Kansas’ tipoff against UCF on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

A look at the roster

Self and his staff already know they have three freshmen coming in, with Peterson and forwards Samis Calderon and Bryson Tiller, and Self has said he believes KU recruited three future pros.

The other two prospects might not be on the same accelerated timeline as Peterson. Tiller, a power forward from Atlanta, gave himself something of an edge by enrolling early — he has been with the team since early January — but hasn’t been able to participate much in practice due to a long-term ankle injury and spent the Jayhawks’ last few games wheeling around on a mobility scooter, first in a cast and then in a walking boot.

Calderon, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward from Espirito Santo, Brazil, is a somewhat less heralded project with plenty of length, a reputation for strong defense during his Overtime Elite tenure and a well-regarded shooting touch.

Which players from the current roster will join this trio next season remains to be seen.

The full list of scholarship players with additional eligibility includes junior wings Rylan Griffen and AJ Storr, redshirt junior forward Zach Clemence, sophomore guards Elmarko Jackson and Jamari McDowell, freshman center Flory Bidunga, freshman wing Rakease Passmore and senior guard David Coit.

Griffen and Storr did not remotely match the expectations with which they signed in the portal and could certainly be candidates to seek greener pastures elsewhere, though neither said much about his future after Thursday’s loss.

Griffen, who had started on Alabama’s 2024 Final Four team, eventually rose to a high volume of minutes for the Jayhawks, starting 13 of their final 15 games, but averaged a mere 6.3 points per game on 37.2% shooting and 33.6% from deep on the season. He was better in all three categories for the Tide.

“I feel like I could have shot the ball better, I feel like I could have made more plays, helped my team, definitely feel like I could have shot better,” he said on Thursday. “… That’s something that I’m really, really, really taking pride in this summer and making sure it doesn’t happen ever again.”

He said he didn’t know his plans for next year and added, “I haven’t talked to anybody. I love Kansas.”

Storr, who has played at a different school every year of his basketball career since high school and told Slam magazine prior to the year he expected to be in the 2025 NBA Draft, experienced an even greater drop-off from his prior production during his first season at KU. After averaging 16.8 points per game as a sophomore at Wisconsin, he only reached that mark a single time during the 2025 season, against UCF during the Big 12 tournament.

Storr was asked following KU’s elimination what his pair of strong late-season performances had done for his confidence and his “college career moving into the pros.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m really just thinking about the loss. Shoutout to all the seniors that played their last game out there. Thankful for those guys. I’m just looking to work hard this summer.”

Clemence is another wild card this offseason. Though he started his career with the 2021-22 season, he will have two years left if he can get a medical redshirt, as he did not play after KU’s Dec. 14 game against N.C. State due to a groin injury.

Coit, meanwhile, received the gift of another year of college basketball as a result of the NCAA’s blanket waiver for former junior-college players who would have exhausted their eligibility following the 2024-25 season. He has already expressed his desire to return for next season and seems like a good bet to stick around, having earned the trust of KU’s coaching staff in big moments throughout the season.

Kansas guard Jamari McDowell and Kansas guard Elmarko Jackson have a laugh during a team practice on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. Photo by Nick Krug

The Jayhawks have long been excited about the future of Jackson, with Self saying following his freshman campaign, “You wouldn’t want to bet against this kid at all in year two.” That second-year jump went on hold indefinitely after Jackson tore his patellar tendon in an offseason scrimmage.

The guard from Marlton, New Jersey, has spoken optimistically in radio interviews about the prospect of playing with Bidunga and Passmore next season, and he and McDowell, who redshirted for non-injury reasons after Self praised his improvement last offseason, have the chance to make a bigger impact than they did when thrust into action on a shallow roster during the 2023-24 campaign.

Kansas forward Flory Bidunga (40) pulls back to attack the basket against Arkansas forward Jonas Aidoo (9) during the first half, Thursday, March 20, 2025 at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas guard Rakease Passmore (4) elevates from the free throw line for a dunk during NCAA Tournament practices on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. Photo by Nick Krug

If he returns, Bidunga, a center from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will figure as prominently as anyone into KU’s future plans. He finished his freshman season averaging just 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds but was already a top Big 12 shot-blocker and demonstrated his sky-high potential in a series of midseason starts while Adams was out with a shoulder injury.

“I think he’s gotten better, but there’s a big two or three steps he can take,” Self said on Wednesday. “To your point, he’s very young in the game. He’s got to develop some ways to score more points.

“Right now, he’s a rim-runner, a lob threat, scores off of putbacks and in transition, but he’s got to get where he’s a better scorer, but I think his ceiling is as high as anyone in our program, and I think his ceiling is one of the highest we have had at Kansas for the last several years.”

His classmate, Passmore, embraced the opportunity to come to KU and compete for minutes even after the Jayhawks added Griffen and Storr as transfers. Those two largely pushed him out of the rotation during the 2024-25 season, though, and the athletic freshman from Palatka, Florida, played just 54 minutes in 13 appearances during Big 12 play.

Most of KU’s walk-ons are likely to get squeezed out of the roster by impending NCAA roster limit changes, especially with KU limited to 14 spots instead of 15 next season due to leftover penalties from the Independent Accountability Resolution Process, and given the prospect of two-sport athlete Jaden Nickens joining the team following his 2025 football season. Guard Noah Shelby, who previously played at Vanderbilt and Rice, is probably the top candidate among walk-ons to maintain a spot on the team.

Which sorts of players could KU pursue next season?

With a handful of young, multi-year, off-ball guards likely to accompany Peterson in the backcourt next year, the Jayhawks likely won’t look to add on the wing specifically in the same way they did last offseason.

As is usually the case with the transfer portal, getting veteran experience into the Jayhawks’ system will be a priority. Here are a few key roles KU might look to emphasize:

• Pure point guard. This is something the Jayhawks haven’t had to worry about for the last four years as long as Dajuan Harris Jr. has been around. And while Peterson will have the ball in his hands as often as possible, and Jackson has potential as a secondary ball-handler, a veteran with experience running a collegiate offense and some athleticism on the defensive end, even if he’s not necessarily a premier scorer, would be a valuable piece.

• Starting-caliber frontcourt player with some shooting range. Tiller can step out from the post and shoot, but he’ll also be a freshman big man coming off a significant long-term injury. Even with Bidunga still in the fold, the Jayhawks will need at least one post player with a complementary skill set — preferably also a solid passer out of the paint — to help fill the void left by Dickinson’s departure.

• Knock-down shooter, positional fit notwithstanding. Zeke Mayo finished the year 19-for-31 (61.2%) from deep in the Jayhawks’ final four games and converted 89 of 211 3s at a 42.2% clip on the season. That level of volume won’t be easily replaced, as it’s essentially what Coit and Griffen produced combined, but at a greater level of efficiency. KU will need to find someone, preferably a competent defender, who can drift out to the perimeter and spot up when Peterson and other teammates draw attention with drives to the hoop.