Toledo transfer guard Leroy Blyden Jr. committed to Kansas after visiting Lawrence over the weekend, giving the Jayhawks another addition for next season’s backcourt. Brandon Grier confirmed the commitment to the Journal-World on Monday morning.
Blyden is a 6-foot-1, 170-pound guard from Detroit who built his case at Toledo with production that traveled well against conference opponents. He averaged 16.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting 46.1% from the field and 40.7% on 189 3-point attempts. He started 32 of 34 games for a Toledo team that finished 19-15 overall and 11-7 in the MAC before its season ended on a late 3-pointer in the conference tournament title game.
The numbers only explain part of why Kansas moved. Blyden was the MAC freshman of the year in the 2025-26 campaign and also earned third-team all-conference honors, then kept rising as the season tightened. He scored 36 points on 12-for-23 shooting against Western Michigan on Dec. 30, put together four straight late-season games against league foes with 20 or more points, and closed the regular season against Buffalo with a 20-point, 13-assist double-double.
Blyden’s path has been building for years. At University of Detroit Jesuit High School, he averaged 21.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game as a senior and finished runner-up for Michigan’s Mr. Basketball to Trey McKenney. Pat Donnelly said his skills, leadership, team-first attitude and statistics rival arguably one of the best players in U of D Jesuit and Michigan high school history, and added that he could not think of a bigger compliment.
Kansas has now added Blyden as its second transfer pickup after former Utah forward Keanu Dawes, while Kohl Rosario has confirmed a return and freshmen Taylen Kinney, Davion Adkins, Luke Barnett and Trent Perry are joining the roster. The Jayhawks are still working through the possibility that center Paul Mbiya departs, which would leave eight available spots instead of seven. For now, Blyden figures to join Kinney in the backcourt and give Kansas another guard who has already shown he can carry a team’s offense when it needs it most.
