KU Jayhawks’ KJ Adams didn’t consider transfer portal: ‘I was always going to come back’
KJ Adams silenced any rumors of his possibly entering the college men’s basketball transfer portal on April 30 when he posted a message on Twitter that remains pinned to his social media account.
“… excited to defend the title AT KANSAS!” Adams, Kansas’ 6-foot-7, 225-pound sophomore forward wrote 26 days after the Jayhawks’ 72-69 victory over North Carolina in the 2022 NCAA championship game in New Orleans.
The Twitter offering showed Adams clipping a piece of the net at Caesars Superdome in the Big Easy.
On Monday, the first day of Bill Self’s basketball camp for youths, Adams explained the reasoning behind his version of an “I’m staying” tweet.
“I was always going to come back. I was just letting people know that, because there were a lot of worries (from fans) I was going to transfer,” Adams said.
The Austin, Texas native scored 38 points total and grabbed 30 rebounds while logging 4.8 minutes a game in 37 games his freshman campaign.
“My end goal is obviously to stay here as long as I can just to be better, so there was really no discussion of me leaving or anything like that,” Adams stated.
Any worries KU fans had about Adams perhaps leaving for more playing time somewhere else were lessened a bit because of Adams’ contribution as a freshman in the national title game.
He was one of nine Jayhawks to play in the title contest. After being called upon the final 2:40 of the first half (KU trailed 40-25 at the break), he sat the bench until four seconds remained.
KU coach Bill Self inserted Adams into the game for defense on what turned out to be North Carolina’s final possession — one that ended with Caleb Love misfiring from three. KU junior guard Christian Braun defended the deep shot, while Adams also threw up a hand attempting to disrupt the shooter, who was trying to force overtime. The shot missed badly as the Jayhawks were assured their fourth NCAA Tourney title in school history.
“Obviously Coach likes to use me for defense. So when I see there’s this amount of seconds left I already have my jersey (ready) so when he calls my name I’m already there,” Adams said noting he was not surprised Self summoned him into the game.
“I was just waiting for it, but it was a little bit of a blur because I was already patiently waiting just to get in there a lot of the second half,” he added.
A confident Adams actually asked if he could guard sharpshooter Love on that final possession.
“I remember a lot of it. I remember I wanted to guard Caleb but Christian said, ‘No, I’m not letting this freshman mess this up,’’’ Adams said Monday with a smile. “So he ended up guarding him. And then I was kind of in there just making sure everything was OK but I didn’t need (to guard him) because Christian locked him up pretty well.”
Yes, Adams was happy he was in the game when the shot missed and KU’s on-court celebration began.
“Coach trusted me to put me in that last possession,” Adams said. “I feel if I can grow on that and not dwell on that because a lot of people can say, ‘You did this good; you did that good,’ but also I want to grow into some more minutes. So even though I was in in that last possession I want to grow as a player to play more minutes as I stay here.”
Being in on the final possession of a nailbiter of a title game was actually a nice way for Adams to end his first season in college.
“I feel like you come to Kansas to play in big-time moments and I feel like I was in a lot of big-time moments this last year,” Adams said. “I feel like that was what really was my true calling for coming here and getting this freshman season and not redshirting — to be in those moments to help the team and get experience that you wouldn’t get if you redshirted.”
Adams did make an appearance in all but three of KU’s 40 games.
“The first part of the season I was nervous,” Adams said, “but I feel during that part of the season at the end of the game I was ready to make an impact on that type of stage.”
Adams said a key to his earning more minutes during the 2022-23 season will be to become more of a threat on offense.
“Whatever the team needs me to be I’ll be, but it really depends on my jumper and how that evolves this summer. I think that’s really the deciding point where I’m going to be for next year,” said Adams.
He hit 13 of 25 shots during the 2021-22 season for 52%. He went 12-of-20 from the line for 60%.
“It’s just a lot of technique stuff. I have to get a lot more reps to really conquer. It’s really all about confidence for me with my jumper because I’ve had a lot of the green light for my high school career. It’s a little different when you come here and there’s a lot of guys that shoot great not just good. It’s a mental thing and more reps type of thing,” Adams noted.
Teammate Cam Martin believes Adams has a bright future.
“KJ is a freak athlete. He has so much God-given ability. He is super strong,” Martin said Monday at Self’s camp at Allen Fieldhouse. “He came in super strong from day one. You can see when he dunks the ball he gets his head at the rim. He’s a freak athlete and great defender,” Martin, a 6-9 senior transfer from Missouri Southern, added.
Adams — he arrived in town over the weekend for this week’s start of summer school — said he’s ready to work on his game the next two months. He acknowledges it’s “hard,” to move on after winning the national title, but will do so.
“Especially when you go back home and that’s all you hear about (winning it all),” Adams said. “I think everybody’s just anxious and ready for the new year.”
He acknowledged he received a lot of praise back home the past few weeks and had fun speaking with friends who attend a certain school in his hometown of Austin.
“Of course,” he said asked if he “got a lot of love” the last few weeks, “especially going back to Austin and rubbing it into a lot of Longhorn fans. I enjoyed it.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 9:08 PM.
