KU senior forward Cam Martin, walk-on Wilhite to redshirt this season, Bill Self says
Kansas senior forward Cam Martin and non-scholarship freshman forward Dillon Wilhite will redshirt this season — that is practice but not play in games and preserve a year of eligibility — KU coach Bill Self said Tuesday.
He also said on Tuesday’s Champions Classic pregame radio show it’s possible that freshman Kyle Cuffe Jr., will redshirt. But that had not been decided a couple hours before the game.
Martin is a 6-foot-9, 230-pound senior who played the last three seasons at Missouri Southern. He played his freshman year at Jacksonville State. In 2020-21 the Yukon, Oklahoma, native averaged 25.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game at Missouri Southern where he was coached by former KU guard Jeff Boschee. His senior season he made 58% from the field and 45% from three-point range on 110 attempts.
“Cam Martin has approached us. He wants to redshirt, which I think is great,” Self told broadcaster Brian Hanni on the pregame radio show.
“That gives us an experienced guy back next year when we lose Mitch (Lightfoot) and David (McCormack). He wants to do that and I welcome that. We plan on playing Zach (Clemence, freshman forward) and KJ (Adams, frosh forward.). I don’t know how much, but plan on playing them. Dillon Wilhite is going to redshirt. Of course he’s a walk on,” Self noted.
Wilhite is a 6-9 freshman from San Diego. He attended Cathedral Catholic High School.
“Kyle Cuffe is a definitely a candidate,” Self said of the freshman guard from New York. “We haven’t really decided anything. He is a little bit behind Bobby (Pettiford) and Joseph (Yesufu) obviously at this point. We’ve still got to decide some things so really Cam is the only scholarship guy we’ve made a decision on yet. That doesn’t mean anything,” Self added, “because if guys don’t play in the game tonight they can still obviously redshirt. We’ll kind of play it by ear to see if there’s another guy or two that may fall into that mix.”
Cuffe committed to Kansas in December 2020 and reclassified for 2021. He played last season for Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey. However the team had just two games because of the pandemic.
He entered college ranked No. 56 in the recruiting Class of 2022 by Rivals.com. He had arthroscopic knee surgery in September that kept him out a few weeks.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 5:58 PM with the headline "KU senior forward Cam Martin, walk-on Wilhite to redshirt this season, Bill Self says."
