By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
After riding the pine for three years at Arizona and Baylor, Will Kuykendall came to a decision: he didn’t want any regrets. It was time to shoot for the moon.
“I want to bet on myself now,” said Kuykendall, a rising redshirt junior with two years of eligibility remaining. “I could’ve stayed at Baylor if I wanted to but I talked with [head coach Scott Drew] and the staff and they agreed that I’d regret it if I didn’t see what all I could do.”
Kuykendall entered the transfer portal this April following an “unbelievable” season at Baylor. The Big 12 veteran is now looking to downsize in schools with hopes of making his last two years of college basketball memorable.
Before playing for two prominent Power Five programs in Arizona and Baylor, Kuykendall didn’t see college basketball as something that was on the table for him — until it fell right in his lap.
The Californian guard spent his high school years at St. Joseph’s High School in Santa Maria, Calif., where he averaged 5.8 points and 2.7 assists per game. Entering his senior season lacking the eye-popping number most recruiters look for, Kuykendall assumed that his basketball career would end with his high school graduation.
“I had made a lot of good memories playing basketball my whole life,” Kuykendall said. “We saw a lot of winning, including going to the state championship, but at the end of junior year I had no offers and wasn’t playing AAU ball either.”
Kuykendall was spending his senior year applying for colleges, working for his uncle and enjoying his final season of basketball, with little mind of playing college ball.
College coaches regularly attended his practices to watch his teammate (and fellow Baylor Bear) Tounde Yessoufou. Kuykendall tried to showcase himself in practice but assumed no team was focused on him. That is, until a standout 15-point performance against Sierra Canyon brought Kuykendall into Arizona’s sights.
“They were in practice after my game against Sierra Canyon and I figured I had nothing to lose so I went at it,” Kuykendall said. “It was actually crazy. The coaches told me that if I ever wanted to walk on at Arizona that they’d have a spot for me.”
Up until that winter afternoon, Kuykendall had no expectations of playing college basketball.
“I got in the car and drove to the gas station and my mom met me there … I remembered just hugging her and telling her that Arizona wanted me,” Kuykendall said. “I just started crying and couldn’t stop. I can look back at it all now and easily say that was definitely the Holy Spirit moving right there.”
Kuykendall redshirted his first year at Arizona and spent the second on the end of the bench. While getting minimal playing time, the guard took advantage of his time in Tucson to learn from the talented rosters around him.
Kuykendall played alongside five current NBA players during his time at Arizona, including Portland Trailblazers guard Caleb Love and Miami Heat wing Pelle Larsson.
“That was an absolutely stacked roster and I learned so much from them,” Kuykendall said. “I hadn’t seen any college teams before so I thought that everybody was as dialed as much as some of those dudes were. Caleb [Love] became one of my best friends while I was there and man, he had us living in the gym.”
At the end of his second year, Kuykendall was itching for meaningful minutes and knew it was time to hit the portal.
“I knew I was hitting the portal and I was ready to downgrade and get some actual playing time,” Kuykendall said. “Tounde had told me that he’d see if there was a walk-on spot for me at Baylor, merely to use to possibly negotiate a scholarship for me if I were to return to Arizona.”
Yessoufou soon called his former teammate back to tell Kuykendall that Baylor had a scholarship spot for him. Not long after, the Arizona transfer took a visit to Waco and knew before it was over that he wanted to be a Bear.
“I knew I needed to be here almost immediately,” Kuykendall said. “Coach Drew kept having to remind me that there were still parts of the visit I hadn’t seen yet because I was already telling him I wanted in.”
Throughout the season, Yessoufou echoed his excitement to have his former teammate on the court with him again, as Kuykendall was reunited with the NBA Draft prospect.
“That’s my brother man,” Yessoufou told The Lariat in October. “I’m always happy to see him succeed, and man, when we get on the court together … you don’t even want to know what we can do.”
Kuykendall’s Baylor experience wasn’t much different to his experience at the end of the bench in Arizona. Instead, the guard found new value off the court.
Living alone for the first time, Kuykendall knew that he was going to have to go out of his way to get plugged in Waco. A cousin that was an alum connected the transfer with some fraternity guys she knew, allowing Kuykendall to thrive in a world outside of basketball.
“I met a bunch of dudes that were all so kind and cool,” Kuykendall said. “Outside of all the basketball stuff, it helped me so much mentally to be able to have friends that I could unplug and just be away from all the pressure stuff that comes with basketball.”
Pressure was high for the Bears this season, as a culmination of injuries and roster replacement led to a tumultuous 17-17 season, the program’s worst finish since 2007. While the ball didn’t always fall the way of the green and gold, Kuykendall thinks the team found something more valuable in each other throughout the season.
“We sat down and had to ask ourselves, ‘Is this our purpose, and are we really going to let this affect who we are as people?’” Kuykendall said. “We had to learn what we could do and who we are together. Through that we found our faith and our identity as a team through Jesus Christ. I see it all as a blessing as well as the opportunity to look at things through a different lens.”
In his one year with the program, Kuykendall credits his experience as leading him to grow not just as a basketball player but also in his faith and in his relationships with the people around him. On a team that was criticized for struggling with on-court chemistry, Kuykendall says he found some of his best friends in the locker room.
“Isaac Williams, for starters, is one of those dudes that’s going to be in my wedding someday,” Kuykendall said. “Mikey Rataj also is probably one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. He was like a big brother to me and I learned so much from him … He was never afraid to call me out on something, and that meant a lot.”
Now with two years of collegiate eligibility remaining, Kuykendall is looking for a new school with the intent of downgrading to a smaller program. The 6-foot-3 guard has talked to a handful of smaller Division I programs including Cal Baptist, Cal Poly and Concordia as he hopes to return home to California.
“After learning from so many great people the past three years, I know it’s time to bet on myself and see what I can do,” Kuykendall said. “My priority is returning home to family but I’m not closing any doors yet. That’s not supposed to be on me. It’s the Lord’s job to open and close doors, and I’ll follow.”
