Kansas State Wildcats land coveted basketball transfer Achor Achor from Samford

It’s been a good week for the Kansas State men’s basketball team.

Jerome Tang added two more promising pieces to the K-State roster when the Wildcats landed junior-college transfer Chimobi Ikegwuruka on Thursday and then backed that up by securing a commitment from Samford big man Achor Achor.

Just like that, the Wildcats shot up to 11 scholarship players ahead of the 2024-25 season. They also have much talent and depth than they did at the start of the month.

Achor is one of the highest-rated transfers that the Wildcats have landed during this recruiting cycle. He is a 6-foot-9 forward who grew up in Melbourne, Australia and later matured into a productive college basketball player. Last season, he averaged 16.1 points and 6.1 rebounds for a Samford team that won 29 games and reached the NCAA Tournament.

Many in this area will remember that the Bulldogs threw a scare into the Kansas Jayhawks as a No. 13 seed in the Big Dance. Achor was a big reason why, as he stuffed the stat sheet with 23 points and eight rebounds in that game before KU escaped with a 93-89 victory.

Achor was considered by many to be one of the top remaining players in the transfer portal.

K-State landing him late in the process is excellent news for a team was in search of both talent and experience for its front court.

Though it’s far too early to know just how much of an impact Achor will make during his time in purple, a glance at Bart Torvik’s lookahead projections provide much reason for optimism. Add him to K-State’s roster and the Wildcats jump from No. 68 to No. 52 in his ratings system.

His addition should give the Wildcats a top 25 portal class, per EvanMiya.

Overall, it has been a busy offseason for Tang and the Wildcats. They lost 10 scholarship players from last year’s squad, leaving them with only David N’Guessan, Macaleab Rich and Taj Manning as returning players. Tang has since added seven incoming transfers. They are: Villanova guard Brendan Hausen, Michigan guard Dug McDaniel, Illinois-Chicago guard CJ Jones, Arkansas big man Baye Fall, Cal-State Fullerton guard Max Jones, Ikegwuruka and Achor.

They will complement K-State’s lone incoming high school recruit David Castillo.