Zuby Ejiofor is not looking ahead and he’s not looking in the past on the eve of the NCAA Tournament.
It’s a moment Ejiofor has been waiting for since he arrived at St. John’s but with Kansas and the Red Storm in the same building on Wednesday in Providence, and the potential for the two to play on Saturday, it’s human nature to reflect on the past.
“They have done a great job with him,” Jayhawk head coach Bill Self said about Ejiofor’s two years with the Johnnies.
“I followed St. John’s more than normal just because of Zuby. I think that Rick [Pitino] over time has done as good or a better job as anyone has done in developing guys.”
Ejiofor, the Big East Most Improved Player as well as an All-Big East First Team selection, is averaging 14.6 points per game this season after posting only 5.2 minutes per game during his freshman season at Kansas.
“We did not want Zuby to leave,” Self continued. “He was terrific in the time that he was with us. It was just too short.”
During the time that Ejiofor entered the transfer portal, Kansas already had its attention on Hunter Dickinson, the 7-foot transfer from Michigan who was tabbed as the best player in the portal that spring. The Jayhawks landed him and proved that Ejiofor made the right decision by departing.
“Things didn’t go the way I planned, and Hunter made the decision to commit to Kansas and me and my family made the decision that was best for me at that stage,” Ejiofor said on Wednesday.
“I’m entirely grateful for my time at Kansas. So now I find myself in a better situation for myself, and over these past few years, I couldn’t have imagined going to a different program where I can develop under Coach Pitino and all the standards that he put out for myself.”
Ejiofor’s ex-teammates at Kansas are not surprised at the success he is having with the Red Storm.
“When you get recruited by KU, the potential is always supposed to be there,” Dajuan Harris Jr., a fifth-year guard at Kansas, said. “He always worked hard every day at practice and it’s showing now what he’s doing.”
“Hopefully we can match up against him.”
First Kansas would have to beat Arkansas on Friday night and St. John’s needs to take care of Omaha, then everyone’s attention can turn to the Jayhawks and the Johnnies.
“Zuby’s a really good guy, a great player, and a lot of upside. I knew wherever he was going to go he was going to strive and be a good player like he is now,” KJ Adams explained.
It’s all left up to the teams to determine if the matchup will come to fruition.
“That’d be a pretty exciting game…He probably wants his revenge,” Harris concluded.