MANHATTAN — The successes kept coming Thursday for Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang.
Just hours after signing promising college forward Chimobi Ikegwuruka, the Wildcats struck transfer portal gold by signing coveted big man Achor Achor from Samford.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Achor, who is coming off a great senior season, was one of the big names remaining in the portal. Most importantly, he fills a missing piece on a Wildcat lineup loaded with guards but not too big.
Achor, from Melbourne, Australia, excelled in 2023-24, his second season at Samford, by starting all 33 games and averaging 16.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. He shot 58.6%, including 43.5% on 62 3-point attempts.
Achor began his career at Chipola College in Florida, where he helped the Indians to two Final Four appearances in the NJCAA Tournament. In his first season at Samford, he started just once in 30 games and averaged modest 6.1 points and 3.5 rebounds.
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Achor is the seventh transfer to sign with the Wildcats, bringing the roster to 11 players with just two spots to fill. He also provides the Wildcats with the veteran big man they desperately needed to pace the return of super senior David N’Guessan.
The only other player on the roster is 6-11 Arkansas transfer Baye Fall, a 2023 McDonald’s All-American who appeared in just nine games as a freshman for the Razorbacks.
Ikegwuruka, who committed Thursday, also gives them a 6-6 interior presence, averaging 19 points and 10.3 rebounds as a redshirt freshman second-team All-American at Ellsworth (Iowa) Community College.
It’s been a busy offseason for Tang and his team, which returns just three players – N’Guessan and freshman forwards Taj Manning and Macaleab Rich – from last year’s team that went 19-15 and lost in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament. . . In addition to Achor, Ikegwuruka and Fall, the Wildcats signed former Michigan guard Dug McDaniel, Illinois-Chicago guard C.J. Jones, Villanova guard Brendan Hausen and Cal State Fullerton guard Max Jones.
Arne Green lives in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett Network. He can be contacted at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball arrests senior Achor Achor from portal
