Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Evansville lands former Kansas guard Sam Cunliffe

Iowa State v Kansas

LAWRENCE, KS - JANUARY 9: Sam Cunliffe #3 of the Kansas Jayhawks lays the ball up against Cameron Lard #2 and Hans Brase #30 of the Iowa State Cyclones at Allen Fieldhouse on January 9, 2018 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Tuesday afternoon guard Sam Cunliffe announced that he will be transferring from Kansas to Evansville, where he’ll play for first-year head coach Walter McCarty.

Cunliffe, a Top 100 recruit who began his collegiate career at Arizona State, appeared in 15 games last season for Kansas and averaged 1.9 points in just under five minutes per game. Playing time was tough to come by for Cunliffe once he became eligible to compete at Kansas, and that was likely to be the case again in 2018-19 given how loaded the Jayhawks are on the perimeter.

Three of Kansas’ four incoming freshmen are perimeter players, and Memphis transfers Dedric and K.J. Lawson can play on the wing as well. Add in senior LaGerald Vick, who originally had no plans of returning to school after entering his name into the 2018 NBA Draft, and guards Marcus Garrett and Charlie Moore (a transfer from Cal), and Bill Self will have a lot of options from which to choose this season.

Cunliffe joins an Evansville program that will have to account for the loss of its top three scorers from a season ago, including a guard in Ryan Taylor who averaged 21.3 points per game. Cunliffe won’t be able to help the Purple Aces in game action this season, but he’s a talented option McCarty can use as a feature option as he looks to build a program that can consistently contend in the Missouri Valley.