Mitch Lightfoot, Chris Teahan will return for Kansas Jayhawks in 2021-22 hoops season
Kansas senior men’s basketball players Mitch Lightfoot and Chris Teahan will return for another season of college basketball at KU, they reported Friday on Twitter.
Lightfoot, 6-foot-8 from Gilbert, Arizona, and Teahan, a 6-3 walk-on from Leawood, Kansas, will take advantage of the NCAA awarding another year of eligibility to all players in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Teahan said in a video posted to Twitter.
“The show goes on,” stated Lightfoot, who redshirted in 2019-20 and will be at KU for six seasons.
“Man, 2,500 doesn’t hit quite like the 16,300 does,” Lightfoot added, referring to the amount of fans allowed to attend games this season.
Teahan joked to Lightfoot in the video: “I can’t believe they thought they were going to get us out of here that easy.”
Of electing to stay, Lightfoot said in a release: “This year, given all the challenges with COVID-19 and what else has been going on, it was the best interest for myself to come back for a sixth year and get the most out of my time at KU. One of the words of wisdom Coach (Bill) Self had for me was, ‘Everyone is in a hurry to grow up and it should be the other way around. We should stay young and get the most out of it.’ I took that to heart and am looking to do just that.”
Teahan joined the KU team 2017-18. He and Lightfoot were part of Kansas’ 2018 Final Four team that won the Big 12 regular-season and league tournament titles.
“Throughout the year, it didn’t feel right, going to the Fieldhouse without 16,300 there. That wasn’t the way I wanted my career to end,” Teahan said. “Coach Self initiated the conversation asking what my plans were for next year and I said I wanted to come back. He agreed that would be a good decision.”
KU indicated in a release it would honor senior Marcus Garrett and senior manager Jon Felton prior to Saturday’s 7 p.m. home game against Baylor. Garrett said Friday that he was likely to leave KU after this season to pursue a professional career, though he reiterated he had not made a final decision yet and would talk with Self again after the season.
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Mitch Lightfoot, Chris Teahan will return for Kansas Jayhawks in 2021-22 hoops season."
