The best outside shooter on a team desperate to improve its outside shooting for the coming season has announced he’s leaving the Lobos.
K.J. Jenkins, the UNM senior reserve guard who was voted by teammates as a captain in both of his seasons in Albuquerque, officially entered the NCAA’s transfer portal on Wednesday, declaring his intent to play for another program next season, his last season of college eligibility.
He posted on Instagram, “New Mexico!!!!! Thank you, forever a LOBO!”
The 6-foot-2 Jenkins averaged just 18.5 minutes per game this season as the top guard off the bench in the Lobos’ undersized four-man backcourt rotation that also included Jaelen House, 6-2 Jamal Mashburn, Jr., and 6-2 Donovan Dent.
The Atlanta native will have one season of eligibility remaining.
Jenkins averaged 7.4 points per game, and his 43.6% 3-point shooting clip was the best on the team for the season. But it grew to an eye-popping 55.4% (31-of-56) in the 17 conference games he played, the best percentage ever by a Lobo in Mountain West play with a minimum of 20 3-pointers. It was the best conference 3-point percentage of any Lobo since Royce Olney’s 59.3% clip in the WAC during the 1997-98 season.
But, despite his skills from the outside, the Lobos were simply an offense predicated on playing in the paint. Three-pointers accounted for just 26.7% of UNM’s shot attempts, well below the national average of 37.3% and ranking the Lobos 353 out of 363 Division I programs in 3-point volume.
Jenkins hit four or more 3-pointers eight times in the past two seasons. Any other Lobo did so just 12 times. He had a career-high 26 points in a loss at UNLV on Jan. 11, 2022.
He is the second Lobo this week to enter the transfer portal along with senior wing Emmanuel Kuac, who had each of the past two seasons cut short with season-ending leg injuries.
OPEN SCHOLARSHIPS: The NCAA allows Division I men’s basketball programs 13 scholarships a season.
From the start of the 2022-23 season, UNM has had four scholarships open that will be available for next season, though more will open as more current players enter the transfer portal in the coming weeks.
The open scholarships are:
• Jay Allen-Tovar (transferred in season)
• Morris Udeze (eligibility expired)
• Kuac
• Jenkins
Allen-Tovar’s scholarship was awarded for the spring semester to walk-on Safi Fino-A-Laself, but that was a one-semester deal, not permanent.
The Lobos so far have two high school players who have committed to come play at UNM for the 2023-24 season — 3-star forward Jadyn Toppin from Texas and 4-star guard Tru Washington from Arizona.
The other spots will go to junior college or Division I transfers.
