A few days ago, former Kansas forward Zach Clemence announced that he was committed to Texas A&M, where he will continue his college career with two years of eligibility remaining.
I know Kansas fans generally don’t care much about guys who are no longer on the roster, but this one seemed worthy of a quick write-up.
The reason?
Because Clemence has been on a wild ride since becoming the first player to commit to KU in the 2021 recruiting class.
That’s four years ago now. And if you think about what Clemence has done since then, it’s pretty incredible.
In Year 1 with the Jayhawks, he played as a true freshman — 5 minutes per game in 24 appearances — and was a small part in KU’s run to the 2022 national title.
In the three seasons since then — 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 — Clemence appeared in a total of 28 games (20 as a sophomore and 8 this past season) while redshirting twice and almost leaving once.
Just after the 2022-23 season, Clemence entered the transfer portal and found a home at UC Santa Barbara. He never made it west, though, and, instead, returned to KU for the 2023-24 season, which he redshirted as part of the plan to return.
That brought us to this season, when Clemence returned to KU instead of departing but spent most of the 2024-25 campaign nursing an injury and opening up the medical redshirt option, which will give him two years of eligibility remaining.
I always thought it was strange that Clemence settled on Santa Barbara as his school of choice after leaving KU the first time. And I think landing at a place like A&M is more in line with the level he’s capable of playing at if given the chance.
In fact, it's a little better than I thought he'd do. I was thinking mid-major potential or, if we're talking about staying close to home in Texas, a place like SMU or Rice or UTEP even.
So, clearly, landing at an SEC school with the chance to contribute is a big time opportunity for Clemence.
Clemence came to KU with a ton of confidence, a solid outside shot and a 6-11 frame that he has since grown into.
247 Sports ranked Clemence as the 28th best power forward available in the portal this offseason and the 190th-ranked player overall.
Those numbers seem about right, and it’s going to be all about fit and opportunity for Clemence from here on out.
If he finds first-year A&M coach Bucky McMillan (formerly the coach at Samford) to be one who values athleticism, length, floor spacing and outside shooting, he could be staring at a match made in heaven. There have been reports about a lack of depth in the Texas A&M frontcourt, so that alone could lead one to believe that Clemence is in line for much more playing time than he has received to this point.
He’ll have to play well and make shots to earn his minutes. Obviously. But a case can be made that he’s far more ready today to contribute right away than he was as a wide-eyed, high-energy freshman when he came to Kansas back in 2021.
He has grown and matured physically and mentally and believes he has gotten better during the past couple of seasons at Kansas, even while not playing much.
It’s unlikely that we’re looking at a Zuby Ejiofor situation here, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Clemence could be a quality contributor for the Aggies next season.
As far as his ties to KU go, he’ll always have that championship ring and the memories from that season, and he exits as the last remaining tie to the Jayhawks’ most recent title team.
He also is expected to graduate from KU next month.
It never quite panned out for Clemence at KU the way he and others had hoped it would. But he’ll be an easy guy for Kansas fans to keep an eye on and root for at his next stop.
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