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Former top-20 recruit cleared to return for Kansas after serious knee injury
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- Former top-20 recruit cleared to return for Kansas after serious knee injury
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The post Former top-20 recruit cleared to return for Kansas after serious knee injury appeared first on ClutchPoints .
Kansas men's basketball got some good news on Monday when head coach Bill Self announced that guard Elmarko Jackson has been fully cleared for all basketball activities.
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Jackson tore his patellar tendon last summer, forcing him to redshirt the 2024-25 season. As a freshman the year before, he averaged 4.3 points per game to go with 1.7 assists and 1.4 rebounds. His best game of his first season in Lawrence came in a non-conference win over Wichita State, when Jackson scored 12 point on 5-10 shooting to go with two threes.
The guard out of South Kent came to Kansas as a top-20 recruit nationally and the No. 4 point guard in his class. He started 17 of the 34 games he played as a freshman.
In addition to getting Jackson back, the Jayhawks are also just a month removed from signing freshmen Kohl Rosario and Paul Mbiya. Self indicated on Monday that the team might not be done adding, either.
"We're in the process of definitely looking into another," he said, per the Lawerence Journal-World. "In my opinion, (it) needs to be a guy that can at least run a team, play a point, maybe have some experience, shoot the ball, but if something were to happen and somebody were to go down, just as an insurance policy as well. So we're looking (to) hopefully get something done with that."
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The newcomers join ESPN No. 2 recruit Darryn Peterson and a three-man transfer portal class looking to hep return Kansas to its place atop the college basketball world. After winning the 2022 National Championship, the Jayhawks have not reached the Sweet 16 the last three years and are barely over .500 in the Big 12 the last two seasons. They are coming off consecutive double-digit-loss seasons for the first time in Self's tenure.
"Is it a perfect roster? No, but I don't know if we've ever had a perfect roster," Self said of his incoming team. "But I think we've got size, we've got depth now, we've got more shooting — even though I don't know that you could ever have enough. And we certainly have more athleticism, and we're big."
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