Zuby Ejiofor vs. KU is a notable story. But we’re thinking about it all wrong
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Transfer era shifts power — players gain choice; teams recruit the portal.
- Zuby Ejiofor chose immediate playing time over KU’s long-term development plan.
- KU endures short-term costs: roster tradeoffs and recruiting the portal.
The most prominent player standing between Kansas and its first trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in four years is one of its own.
Or he used to be, anyway.
Zuby Ejiofor leads the St. John’s Red Storm in scoring. He leads them in rebounding. And he even leads them in assists, despite playing in the post. He’s a seasoned veteran in the world of college basketball, a senior playing in Rick Pitino’s system for three years now, and it seems relevant to mention the initial sprinkles of that seasoning came at Kansas.
A little. Ejiofor played only 5.1 minutes in his freshman year. That was the crux of the reason for his departure from Lawrence to Queens. He wanted to be on the court rather than watching and waiting from the bench.
It’s an intriguing storyline tucked into a second-round game that already features two Hall of Fame coaches — KU and St. John’s will meet here in San Diego at 4:15 p.m. Central Sunday for a trip to the Sweet 16. A player leaves one program, blossoms at the next and now meets that program with some pretty high stakes.
But there’s another way we should describe this story.
Normal.
It will be, anyway, because it’s symbolic of where this sport now exists.
Nearly two-thirds of Division I basketball players have transferred at some point in their college stay, according to some estimates. Nearly one-third of them entered the transfer portal last year alone — that’s more than 2,000 players in one circuit.
This particular transfer is a former Bill Self recruit whose best years came elsewhere, after he left Lawrence, all while Kansas hasn’t exactly looked like Kansas.
That’s why we’re intrigued, right?
There’s a problem with that framing. It’s a little too simple.
This isn’t strictly a KU story. Teams’ roster-building decisions aren’t all that’s changed in the last five years.
So have, at last, players’ opportunities.
The reason Kansas didn’t look like Kansas the last couple of years isn’t that they failed to promise Zuby Ejiofor he would start during his sophomore season over incoming transfer Hunter Dickinson, because he wouldn’t have.
It’s that they now have to choose between the two.
The foundation of the Self tenure has always been mixing the two together — the present and the future, the cake and the icing. He’s been as good as anyone at developing his own talent from year to year.
They’ve recruited stars, but they’ve more notably developed them. Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich. Frank Mason and Devonte’ Graham. Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun. Those six players combined for 27 starts as freshmen, and Agbaji accounted for 16 of them after opening the year as a redshirt.
They stayed.
They developed.
Kansas made Final Fours and won national championships.
Ejiofor chose a different route. And so after years of turning to underclassmen to fill voids left by NBA picks and college graduates, KU has turned where everyone has turned to backfill its roster — the portal.
But the players too have turned there.
“Coach Self said it too — he wanted me to stay. I feel like he had visions for me long-term,” Ejiofor said. “But I wanted to go on the court as fast as possible. I wanted to play. I didn’t have too many opportunities there.”
It worked out. He made a great decision. Ejiofor has turned into a star at St. John’s. He’s the player around whom KU will have to build its defensive plan Sunday.
But guess what? It took a minute for it all to click there, too. Ejiofor started only one game as a sophomore, his first year in Queens. Played just 11 minutes per game. He’s been terrific since and stands as one of the portal-era success stories.
There doesn’t have to be a story of failure on the other end of it.
The story is a changed system, and even if it’s in need of further adjusting, it’s changed for the better for players. They’ve earned the right to pick their paths.
This is the same path that KU would have not only preferred for Ejiofor but the path on which it’s built its success in past seasons. Ejiofor said Self was “pretty crystal clear” that he planned to recruit the portal for an immediate boost and hoped Ejiofor would see a long-term vision.
The players no longer need to be patient. Those who crave a more immediate return are now entitled to seek it — as they should have been long ago.
This isn’t a team’s new blueprint. It’s a new long-term reality.
And it presents a short-term twist.
KU is just 2-2 in the NCAA Tournament since Ejiofor bolted, and that includes the opening-round win Friday against California Baptist. Another win Sunday would give the Jayhawks their most successful tournament in four seasons.
They just have to get past a player they once envisioned helping get them there.