Wichita State basketball player Joe Pleasant is third Shocker in NCAA transfer portal
Joe Pleasant’s time with the Wichita State men’s basketball team may only last one season.
The Overland Park native will explore his future options for his final collegiate season in the NCAA transfer portal, it was announced Wednesday morning. Verbal Commits reported the news first and it was confirmed by The Eagle.
Pleasant is the third WSU player currently in the transfer portal, joining sophomore guard Chaunce Jenkins and junior forward Monzy Jackson. All players are able to return to WSU, although WSU no longer has to honor their scholarship for the 2022-23 season.
After a standout three-year career at Abilene Christian, including the game-winning free throws to beat third-seeded Texas in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA tournament, Pleasant never found his groove with the Shockers in the 2021-22 season.
Pleasant, who was a double-digit scorer for ACU in the Southland Conference, averaged just 2.6 points and 2.8 rebounds this season for WSU with season-highs of eight points and seven rebounds. Although he was a fixture in coach Isaac Brown’s lineup, starting 24 times, Pleasant averaged 16.8 minutes per game.
While he was more involved in the offense at ACU, Pleasant was asked mostly to be a screener in WSU’s ball screen offense and camp out in the corners waiting for catch-and-shoot threes. But Pleasant never looked comfortable in his new role at WSU. His 10.6 usage rate was the lowest for a WSU rotation player since Evan Wessel’s junior year in 2015.
After shooting 49.5% from the floor in his three years at Abilene Christian, Pleasant’s field goal percentage dropped to 36.8% at WSU. And after shooting 46.5% (20-for-43) on three-pointers last season, Pleasant made just 30.8% (8-for-26) of his triples this season.
Even with those offensive struggles, Brown still preferred Pleasant in the starting lineup because he trusted the veteran on the defensive end. That experience (81 career starts) will be a selling point for Pleasant on the transfer market.
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