LAWRENCE, Kan. – Forward Jalen Wilson has signed a National Letter of Intent to play men’s basketball at Kansas, KU head coach Bill Self announced Wednesday.
“I’m very excited about Jalen’s commitment to us,” said Self. “He’s been a Kansas fan for the vast majority of his young life and is certainly a guy who is used to winning after being a part of a great high school program at John H. Guyer High School. He will bring great size, skill and versatility playing both as a big and a small, but more importantly he’ll bring incredible toughness.”
Rated No. 47 in Rivals.com’s Class of 2019, Wilson is a 6-8 scoring wing who played on the No. 2 team in Texas’ District 6A at John H. Guyer High School.
“We missed out on the opportunity to sign Jalen the first time around when he committed to Michigan,” Self said. “He’d been up here to campus and was a guy we were very interested in but he made another decision. When Coach (John) Beilein left for the NBA and they asked for the release, that opened up the opportunity for us to try again and to get it right, even though it was the second time around.”
Wilson averaged 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists last season on the way to Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Class 6A all-state and all-regional honors in 2018-19. He helped the Wildcats to a 32-5 record and a regional championship game in the Texas state playoffs.
A four-year varsity player at Guyer, Wilson was a part of three District 6A championship teams. He averaged 16.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists as a junior in 2018, which earned TABC Class 6A all-state, all-regional and District 6A co-MVP honors. As a sophomore he averaged 16.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists and guided Guyer to a 25-6 record and a trip to the Bi-District final. As a freshman, he posted 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game as Guyer went 30-3 and advanced to the District 6A Area final.
Wilson also played on the Gauntlet AAU circuit in the spring of 2018, averaging 19.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
