Report: Marcus Adams Jr. leaves Gonzaga one month after signing with Bulldogs
Marcus Adams Jr.’s stint as a Gonzaga basketball player has ended less than a month after the Bulldogs announced he’d be joining their roster this fall.
Adams, a four-star forward who was initially enrolled at Kansas before entering the transfer portal and signing with the Zags, has reopened his recruitment for the second time this summer according to a report from On3.com’s Joe Tipton.
The forward’s reasons for leaving Gonzaga’s program weren’t specified.
Adams Jr. will not have to re-enter the transfer portal because he never officially enrolled at Gonzaga, according to Tipton.
The Southern California native was participating in summer workouts at Kansas when he decided to leave the Jayhawks’ program on July 20, telling the Kansas City Star it wasn’t “the right fit” and “I felt like it was a bit odd with the team.”
Adams Jr. entered the transfer portal and committed to Gonzaga on July 22. The Bulldogs announced they’d signed the forward on July 31.
“Marcus is a really talented player,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said in a school press release. “He can score. He can shoot. Hopefully we can tap into that and getting him into our up-tempo system is going to be a really good thing.”
Adams Jr. took an official visit to Gonzaga on Aug. 8, posting photos of himself wearing a Bulldogs uniform with the caption, “I heard Zags got dudes.”
The Narbonne High School graduate and Torrance, Calif., native averaged 28.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists as a high school senior, receiving offers from UCLA, Arkansas, Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, Mississippi State, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas, USC, Washington and Washington State.
Upon entering the transfer portal in July, Adams Jr. heard from Gonzaga and a variety of other programs including West Virginia, BYU, Oregon, Missouri, Boston College, Mississippi State and UC Santa Barbara.
Because he already used his one-time transfer, Adams Jr. may require an NCAA waiver to play during the 2023-24 college basketball season.
Adams Jr. was expected to bring outside shooting ability and athleticism to Gonzaga’s frontcourt but his departure shouldn’t seriously impact the Bulldogs’ depth at the position. The Bulldogs bring back fifth-year senior starter Anton Watson, junior Ben Gregg and sophomores Ben Gregg and Jun Seok Yeo. They signed transfer forward Graham Ike of Wyoming along with Eastern Washington wing Steele Venters.