Kansas Jayhawk News
Maybe the best news of the last 24 hours is Mbiya announcing that he was returning to Kansas for his sophomore season:
“This decision comes from the heart. Through every challenge, every doubt, and every moment of adversity, I’ve grown stronger,” Mbiya said in a statement to 247 Sports’ Dushawn London. “I’m not running from anything — I’m embracing it. I want my coaches, my future teammates, and the fans to know that I believe in this journey. I believe in who I am becoming. I’m a special player,
not just because of what I do on the court, but because of what I stand for.”
Sports Illustrated has the latest on the portal situation:
KU has played host to several new visitors this week, and they have their eyes set on a handful of available transfers who could potentially join next year’s roster alongside Utah transfer Keanu Dawes and Toledo transfer Leroy Blyden Jr.
Here’s the announcement on the KU site that covers Keanu Dawes:
Dawes, 6-foot-9, 225 pounds, played his freshman year at Rice and the last two seasons at Utah. The Houston native came off the bench in 2024-25 where he averaged 8.3 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Utes. Last season, Dawes started all 32 games played and averaged 12.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per contest. He also had 11 double-doubles on the season, including seven against Big 12 opponents. Both his 8.8 rebounds and 11 double-doubles ranked fourth in the Big 12 Conference. He had 22 points and 12 rebounds in Allen Fieldhouse against Kansas on Feb. 7 of this past season.
Melvin Council entered his name in the transfer portal hoping to get cleared by not counting his JUCO seasons:
In early April, Phog.net was told that Council and his team were applying for an additional year of eligibility. Essentially, Council’s case will likely look similar to those of Joey Aguilar, who claim the NCAA shouldn’t count JUCO seasons against Division I eligibility.
Jeff Borzello has two targets in mind for Bill Self:
With Blyden committed, Self needs a scorer with size on the wing. Vyctorius Miller (Oklahoma State) is among the players on the Jayhawks’ list for that role. In the frontcourt, Cincinnati transfer Moustapha Thiam — one of the best bigs left in the portal — is among their targets, though he is visiting Michigan this week.
Other Links!
The NBA DPOY of the year suffered a concussion in the Spurs second playoff game:
Wembanyama played just 12 minutes before being placed in the concussion protocol and ruled out for the game.
“I just know he has a concussion and he’s in the protocol,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson after the 106-103 loss, which evened the first-round series at 1. “We’ll obviously take the proper and appropriate steps.”
The Royals stopped their losing streak winning 6-5 over the Baltimore Orioles!
The Mets did not and have now lost 12 in a row:
For five innings Tuesday, the New York Mets were perfect. But for a team that suffered its 12th straight loss, the last four frames were perfectly discouraging.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is concerned with how the University of Kentucky is conducting business:
“I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky,” Beshear said in the statement Tuesday. “My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty.
The Defector link of the week covers Mike Vrabel’s press conference about his current “situation” and well:
Anyway, it is particularly disheartening to watch Vrabel give a mealy-mouthed and timid non-denial, as though there is no expectation he answer for any of this, and realize that this is probably as bad as it’s going to get for him. While Russini is being excoriated online, Vrabel has the luxury to yada-yada his misbehavior and brush off accountability for the most part. A bunch of platitudes about hard talks with the team and his family, a couple football-guy buzzwords … and we’re out. Back to football.
QOTD: I was talking with a coworker the other day and he was raving about his new battery powered vacuum for his pool. His old one had to be plugged in to power so he always had to move it around the deck and make sure it didn’t get wet, turning it into a pain to use. The battery powered one has no cords or connections, just turn it on and go. Technology can be an amazing thing. What’s something you’ve upgraded in the last few years that once you finally did it you kicked yourself for waiting so long?
