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Kansas fans received a bit of a curveball last week when Lagerald Vick’s mother revealed that Vick pulled his name from the NBA Draft pool and never signed with an agent. But his chances of rejoining the team in Lawrence don’t sound great.
“Lagerald and I talked at the end of the season, and it was a situation where he was going to do his best to prepare himself and put himself in position to stay in the draft,” Self told ESPN’s Jeff Borzello. “And if he didn’t stay in the draft, there was certainly the option for him to transfer.”
If that doesn’t exactly sound like he’s rolling out the welcome mat with Kansas’ final scholarship, Self also said the door hasn’t closed on a potential Vick return.
“I haven’t made a final decision on the situation, but the talk we had at the end of the season would be that he would go somewhere else if he decided to stay in school,” Self said. “That was something we talked about; we kind of agreed on that.”
As the head coach of the USA U-18 team, Self won’t be back in Lawrence until mid-June, but he said he expects to discuss Vick’s status with the senior-to-be.
“He should look into whatever he wants to do, or look into other schools or whatnot,” Self said. “But there will be a point in time when I get back that I’m sure we’ll sit and down [sic] and we’ll visit and talk about the situation.
“But I have not planned on having him back since the season was over.”
Will Self take Vick back? The math has changed. Kansas has pursued shooters with the Jayhawks’ final scholarship, most notably Albany transfer Joe Cremo. And while Cremo chose Villanova, Vick could potentially represent the kind of proven outside shooting that Kansas currently lacks.
On the other hand, Kansas does appear to be pretty tight on the wings. Quentin Grimes, the No. 2 combo guard and No. 8 overall player, is likely to fill one wing spot, while sophomore Marcus Garrett and transfer K.J. Lawson could battle for the other. And that doesn’t count Sam Cunliffe or incoming freshman Ochai Agbaji, or even the possibility of Kansas playing Charlie Moore and Devon Dotson alongside each other in limited minutes.
None of those players currently match Vick’s 37.3 percent career three-point percentage (Moore, at 35.2 percent, comes closest). And while some of those players could emerge as shooters over the next year — Grimes shot 39 percent from three in his junior and senior high school seasons — Vick could provide a bit of a security blanket as a shooter who’s already familiar with the team and the system.
Vick’s chances of rejoining the team don’t seem great, given those Self quotes. But it’s still a situation that bears watching over the next few weeks.