Kansas State guard Dai Dai Ames to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal

Kansas State’s Dai Dai Ames will enter his name into the transfer portal.

This news, per On3’s Joe Tipton, comes via Jack Lieb, Ames’ agent at Fraction. He also clarified that, while Ames is entering with a ‘do not contact’ tag, Ames’ portal recruitment will be “fully open”.

Ames spent one season in Manhattan as a freshman this past year. In that time, he appeared in 31 games for the Wildcats, including starts in just over half of those with 16.

While with K-State, Ames averaged 5.2 points, a pair of assists, and 1.1 rebounds. He did so while shooting 35.3% from the field and 32.9% from three.

Ames had several decent outings while with the Wildcats this last season. His best turned out to be the final one, though, after scoring 16 points (6-8 FG, 4-5 from three) with five assists and three rebounds in a 91-82 loss to Iowa in the opening round of the NIT.

Ames, a native of Chicago, played high school basketball at Kenwood Academy. He was a four-star prospect there as the No. 68 overall recruit in the 2023 cycle. That’s according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He also rated as a Top-15 PG in the class and the No. 2 player out of Illinois behind only PG Jeremy Fears (Michigan State).

Ames was the top recruit for Kansas State for their No. 25 class in the previous recruiting cycle. He arrived alongside a pair of fellow four-star prospects in RJ Jones and Macaleab Rich.

Ames is now the latest portal transaction for the Wildcats in the offseason, including being their fifth departure. Ames joins Jones as members of their recruiting class to transfer from the program. Cam Carter, Dorian Finister, Jerrell Colbert, and Ques Glover have also entered. Of those players, Carter (LSU) and Finister (Sam Houston State) are the only ones have already committed elsewhere.

As for additions, Kansas State has added four quality pieces in the portal thus far. Dug McDaniel (Michigan), CJ Jones (UIC), and Brendan Hausen (Villanova) are the trio of guard who are coming in. The most recent was then F Baye Fall (Arkansas) over the weekend. McDaniel is the most impactful of that quartet as the No. 25 transfer overall and the No. 5 PG per On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.