Freshman combo guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. added to Kansas Jayhawks basketball redshirt list
The Kansas’ men’s basketball redshirt situation has been finalized two games into the 2021-22 regular season.
Coach Bill Self confirmed after KU’s 88-62 victory over Tarleton State on Friday that Kyle Cuffe Jr., a 6-foot-2 combo guard from Harlem, New York, would redshirt — that is practice but not play in games this season.
Cuffe helped gather rebounds for the team during warmups, but did not suit up for the Tarleton State game. He also did not play in Tuesday’s season opener against Michigan State in New York.
On Tuesday it had been announced that senior forward Cam Martin and freshman walk-on forward Dillon Wilhite would redshirt in 2021-22. Thus KU will have 12 scholarship players available for games this season.
“I know you won’t think that’s a big deal with Dillon, but actually I think Dillon’s going to be a pretty good player,” Self said Friday of the 6-9, 240-pound San Diego, California. native. “Now I’m not talking about (Joel) Embiid or Markieff (Morris), but he’s going to be a guy that will be an efficient player for us in a similar way that Teahan has been or somebody like that.”
Chris Teahan is a fifth-year senior at KU. His brother Conner also played for the Jayhawks.
Self didn’t speak in detail about Cuffe on Friday, but has several times already this season and preseason.
“He’s doing fine, but he’s not ready yet,” Self said of Cuffe, who had arthroscopic knee surgery in September. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. The kid should be a high school senior. He may be further along than what he thought he would be, but he’s not ready to be an impact player for us, especially early in the season. He is a little bit behind Bobby (Pettiford) and Joseph (Yesufu) obviously at this point.”
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.
On Tuesday, Self said of former Missouri Southern forward Martin: “Cam Martin has approached us. He wants to redshirt, which I think is great. 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.”
Martin spoke to the media on Thursday. He said: “Being able to have a year playing against great competition and learning the system, learning how coach wants us to play, that’s the biggest advantage to me.”
He said he is now guaranteed of completing a master’s in sports administration during the 2022-23 school year. He’d have been two credit hours short of the degree had he spent just one season at KU.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Freshman combo guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. added to Kansas Jayhawks basketball redshirt list."
