Kansas basketball lands star Wisconsin guard AJ Storr from the transfer portal

Former Wisconsin guard AJ Storr, who earned second-team all-Big Ten honors this past season — one year after being named Big East freshman of the year at St. John’s — has announced plans to transfer to Kansas.

Two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Star the report of NBA insider Shams Charania that Storr had committed to KU over Arkansas, Illinois and Texas.

Storr, a 6-foot-7, 205-pound junior-to-be from Rockford, Illinois, who entered the NCAA transfer portal on March 28, reported recently that he planned on entering his name in the 2024 NBA Draft with the option of returning to school.

According to published reports, he also considered UNLV, Kentucky and West Virginia. Storr is CBS Sports’ No. 5-ranked transfer portal prospect for men’s college basketball.

Storr started all 36 games for the Badgers (22-14) this past season, averaging 28.8 minutes a game. He averaged a team-leading 16.8 points on 43.4% shooting. Storr was 48-of-150 from 3 for 32.0%. He made 125 of 154 free throws for 81.2%. Storr dished 32 assists to 57 turnovers with 22 steals. He also grabbed 3.9 rebounds per contest.

Storr scored 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting (0-for-3 from 3) with four rebounds and an assist in Wisconsin’s 72-61 first-round NCAA Tournament loss to James Madison.

He had a season-high 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting (3-of-5 from 3) in a 70-61 win over Northwestern in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament and followed that with 20 points in a semifinal win over Purdue. He had 24 points, five rebounds and three steals in a 93-87 loss to Illinois in the title game. He hit over 38% of his 3s in the Big Ten’s postseason tourney.

He scored 28 points twice (in a loss to Nebraska and win over Michigan State) and had 29 points in a win over Chicago State. His five 3s against Nebraska marked a season high.

Storr played for Team Bahamas in a pair of exhibition games against KU last summer in Puerto Rico. He averaged 15 points and five rebounds a game versus the Jayhawks, who went 1-1 against Team Bahamas.

At St. John’s in 2022-23, Storr averaged 8.8 points a game. He hit 40.4% of his 3s. After leaving St. John’s, he chose Wisconsin over UConn, Gonzaga, Creighton and Virginia.

“With the ability to score at all three levels and a proclivity for creating his own shot, Storr has NBA-level potential but will need to improve his efficiency,” wrote Liam Hanley at Clutch Points. “The Wisconsin wing shot just 33% on field goals away from the rim in 2023-24 and his offensive rating was 38th among the 47 Big Ten players who averaged at least 10 points per game. He also finished last on the Badgers in Defensive Box Plus-Minus (-0.9) while averaging nearly two turnovers for every one assist. The potential is there and Storr frequently demonstrated his scoring ability this past season. His ability to up his efficiency and improve the other areas of his game will be the difference between another fine college season and a lofty NBA Draft evaluation.”

Storr comes from a basketball background.

According to Dexter Patterson of madison365.com, “Annette Brandy, his mother, emerged as a basketball sensation at Clemente (Chicago) Community Academy, etching her name in the record books with the fifth-highest scoring average in the history of Illinois (high school basketball).

“Following in her footsteps, Storr’s older sister, Ambranette Storr, etched her own legacy as one of the top prep scorers in Illinois.”

Storr acknowledged: “I come from a basketball household. It was only natural I fell in love with the game.”

Storr described his game by saying, “I go as hard as I can in practice. During the game, I go as hard as I can. You know, that motivates the other guys. When they enter the game, they come with that same energy to keep the intensity up. I feed off them, too. I’m out there playing for my brothers.”