Kansas State Basketball: Antonio Gordon Enters the Portal

As reported by numerous sources, Bruce Weber announced the departure of sophomore forward Antonio Gordon from the program this morning.

Bruce stated, “Antonio has entered the transfer portal. I appreciate his contributions to our program the past two seasons, especially this season with all his health-related challenges. We wish him the best as he moves forward in his college career.”

Generally speaking, it’s never a positive to lose a player to the transfer portal, and Antonio carved out a niche as a solid rebounder late in the season. He averaged 5.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in the 2020/2021 season, while mainly playing power forward for the Wildcats.

This loss is somewhat offset by the impending return of Montavious Murphy from injury in 2021\2022 season (assuming he stays with the program, and I have no reason to believe he won’t at the moment). Murphy has the ability to pick up the slack on the glass, which is where Gordon was most valuable.

This departure also opens interesting possibilities for Kansas State to enter the transfer market themselves and look for a different skill set at the power forward position. I expect Coach Weber to look for a “stretch 4” to better spread the floor for Davion Bradford. As we witnessed in the Big12 Tournament, surrounding Bradford with more perimeter oriented players allows the big man more space to operate both in the post and in the high pick and roll. It also opens up the baseline for Gordon and Miguel to attack the basket from the wings. There are several intriguing players in the transfer portal right now, and more players are getting sucked into the vortex every day.

Obviously wish Antonio nothing but the best, but I don’t see this as a significant blow to next years squad.