Kansas State transfer Ugonna Onyenso signs with Virginia

Former Kansas State big man Ugonna Onyenso has signed with Virginia out of the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Onyenso began his career playing under John Calipari at Kentucky.

Onyenso spent two seasons at UK, and one with Kansas State. He appeared in 64 games over that stretch, averaging 3.0 points (59% FG), 3.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game.

He originally reclassified to commit to Calipari’s Wildcats as a four-star prospect and Top-30 recruit in the class of 2022. Onyenso played his first two seasons at UK where he posted 3.2 points (54.3% FG), 3.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks. That included a career-best year as a sophomore with stats of 3.6 points (55% FG), 4.8 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per game.

After Calipari left for Arkansas, Onyenso decided to transfer along with most of the entire team. However, he also declared for the 2024 NBA Draft. After several weeks mulling his option, Onyenso committed to Kansas State as one of their seven transfer additions last offseason.

However, this season didn’t work out for Onyenso or Kansas State. Onyenso put up just 2.8 points (70% FG) and 2.4 rebounds as a junior. The Wildcats then didn’t get the returns on those investments with a losing record of 16-17 overall for their first such mark under Jerome Tang.

Onyenso is now set to join a new-look Virginia squad under first-year head coach Ryan Odom. Odom has been the head coach at VCU for the past two seasons. In his debut campaign with the Rams, Odom led the team to a 24-14 record and an appearance in the NIT. However, Odom and company took a leap forward this season and were the regular-season and conference tournament champions of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Following Tony Bennett’s departure before last season, the Cavaliers hired Ron Sanchez to serve in the interim role. He led Virginia to a 15-17 record and an 8-12 mark in conference play.

Evidently, Virginia wasn’t satisfied with Sanchez’s success this season. Now, they’ve hired the 50-year-old head who also has coaching experience at Utah State (2021-23), UMBC (2016-21) and Lenoire-Rhyne (2015-16). He led the former two schools to one NCAA Tournament a piece during his tenure.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Industry recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.