A fourth Wichita State basketball player has entered the NCAA transfer portal
Qua Grant, a two-time Division II All-American, will look for a better fit where he can showcase his scoring prowess once again.
The DeSoto, Texas native entered the NCAA transfer portal on Wednesday following his first season with the Wichita State men’s basketball team. The 6-foot-1 scoring guard has one year of eligibility remaining.
Grant is the fourth WSU player currently in the transfer portal, joining sophomore guard Chaunce Jenkins, junior forward Monzy Jackson and senior forward Joe Pleasant. While all four players were in WSU’s rotation this past season, they all averaged less than 17 minutes per game.
Grant scored more than 1,700 points in three seasons at West Texas A&M, averaging 22.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 steals while leading the team to the Division II national championship game in his final season.
He was one of the nation’s best Division II players, as his speed, size and aggression in a short frame made him a difficult assignment for opposing guards. Grant thrived in a situation where he played 30-plus minutes a game and had the ball in his hands routinely with the green light to attack.
That scenario wasn’t one that WSU found for Grant this past season, as head coach Isaac Brown used Grant as the team’s back-up point guard role for the majority of the season.
The end result was an up-and-down season that saw Grant average 4.5 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steals in 16.3 minutes per game. After shooting 52.3% from the field, 38.4% on threes and 79.5% on free throws in his final West Texas A&M season, Grant finished 35.8% from the field, 32.7% on threes and 62.5% on free throws for WSU this past season.
He had a strong start to the season, averaging 9.0 points in the first four games, highlighted by a season-high 13-point performance in WSU’s overtime loss to Arizona in Las Vegas on Nov. 19. But he would slowly fall out of the regular rotation for WSU as the conference season progressed before popping up to score 13 points off the bench and help the Shockers rally for a road win at Tulsa on March 2.
Grant showed the explosion off the dribble to break down the defense and some crafty finishing later in the season that should make him an intriguing prospect for teams in the portal.
While all players currently in the transfer portal could ultimately return to WSU, the Shockers no longer have to honor their scholarship for the 2022-23 season. Given that WSU already had one vacant scholarship spot from this past season, Brown and his coaching staff are now expected to have at least five scholarships available for their 2022 recruiting class. WSU currently has no commitments in the recruiting class.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 1:56 PM.
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