The Kansas Jayhawks have added All-Big Ten forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who played four seasons at the Purdue Boilermakers before getting picked by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of the NBA draft, filling their biggest perceived hole on the eve of the college basketball season.
Jayhawks coach Bill Self announced his transfer Monday, hours before the release of the men’s preseason AP Top 25 poll. The 24-year-old Kaufman-Renn has enrolled in classes at Kansas and began practicing with the team on Sunday.
“He reached the national championship game, the Elite Eight and the Sweet 16 at Purdue, and has been extremely well-drilled and well-coached,” Self said in a statement. “Even though it’s late in the process, because of his basketball IQ, we think his transition will be quicker than most put in the same circumstance.”
The 59th overall pick in the June draft, Kaufman-Renn intends to play another season of college basketball after the NCAA’s sudden and chaos-inducing rule change designed to allow student-athletes to play five seasons over a five-year span.
The rule was not intended to include players who had finished their careers this past season. But the gray area it created has led to a wave of lawsuits across the country, as athletes in all sports seek another year of eligibility. Kaufman-Renn was granted a preliminary injunction earlier this month, making the 6-foot-9 power forward eligible to play for Kansas for the time being.
Kaufman-Renn graduated from high school in 2021 but didn’t suit up his first season at Purdue because of a knee injury. He played the following four seasons, appearing in 147 games, and helped Purdue reach the national championship game two years ago.
Jayhawks guards Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White also have won preliminary injunctions to play another season for them.
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Kaufman-Renn joins a lineup headlined by Council and White alongside Tyran Stokes, the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation, and fellow five-star freshman Taylen Kinney. His addition also fills a need in the post, where Flory Bidunga’s transfer to the Louisville Cardinals and Bryson Tiller’s departure for rival Missouri Tigers had left a glaring hole in the roster.
Kaufman-Renn averaged 20.1 points and 6.5 rebounds as a junior and 14.2 points and 8.3 rebounds this past season at Purdue. He also appeared in five games for the Timberwolves during the NBA’s summer league, averaging 6.6 points and 3.8 rebounds.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
