The mysteriously winding conclusion to Kim Aiken’s college basketball career might not be over yet.
The former Arizona forward entered the transfer portal on Tuesday, according to Verbal Commits, nearly five months after leaving the Wildcats for still-unexplained reasons and two months after he was officially dropped from UA’s roster.
A grad transfer from Eastern Washington last summer, Aiken still has a COVID-waiver year of eligibility left to play — and possibly another season if he can appeal for a waiver to restore the eligibility he used at Arizona.
Aiken played just seven games in 2021-22, making his last appearance Dec. 5 at Oregon State. After that, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said Aiken left for a personal reason. Aiken has not responded to requests for comment.
“I think we all need to respect his privacy right now,” Lloyd said on Dec. 8, after Aiken first failed to appear for a UA game. “He’s working through it. At some point I’d love to have him back with us and the sooner the better for me, but again, it’s a Kim Aiken personal issue that I really don’t have any influence on.”
But Aiken never returned to the Wildcats and in late February, he was officially removed from UA’s online roster. After the Wildcats beat Utah on Feb. 24 in Salt Lake City, Lloyd declined to say when asked if Aiken voluntarily left the team or was dismissed.
“He’s no longer with us, and that’s about all I’ve got,” Lloyd said. “I can’t even go into this stuff.”
Aiken’s UA career began facing obstacles immediately last spring. An all-Big Sky pick and the league’s defensive player of the year in 2020-21, Aiken committed to the Wildcats a day before then-coach Sean Miller was fired in April 2021. He had caught Miller’s attention during the Eagles’ 70-67 loss at Arizona early in the 2020-21 season.
“Coach Miller comes up to me and said, ‘You don’t have to prove (yourself),’” Aiken said. “I was trying to show them that I could play here.”
After Miller was fired, Aiken took another look around the transfer portal and enrolled at Washington State. He practiced with the Cougars for six weeks last summer but withdrew after he was rejected from WSU’s graduate program in political science despite having a 3.48 GPA (Aiken was also a Big Sky winter all-academic pick in 2020-21).
By then, the Wildcats had lost Jordan Brown to the transfer portal and had an opening for another forward. At 6 feet 7 inches and 215 pounds, Aiken also could fill a hybrid forward role that the Wildcats did not have otherwise.
Aiken reconnected with associate head coach Jack Murphy and Lloyd, then enrolled at Arizona in August.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Get out,’ shut the door in my face,” Aiken said in August of his early talks with Lloyd. “It was more of a, ‘Keep looking elsewhere. We don’t know what we can do right now’ and (Lloyd) was getting acclimated at Arizona. So, I don’t feel like the door was ever shut. I think it was largely left ajar.
“And, shoot, the wind just blew the door wide open when all this just happened.”
Arizona forward Kim Aiken slams home a dunk during Arizona's Nov. 1 game against Eastern New Mexico.
After he began practicing with the Wildcats in mid-August, Aiken said he could see himself playing a defensive role while hitting shots when he was able to get open in gaps.
Speaking with the Star last August, WSU coach Kyle Smith said Aiken’s loss was a big one for the Cougars.
“I think he’s just a really solid two-way player,” Smith said. “He’s a plus defender, and he’s better offensive player than people think. He really plays hard. I think he’ll start for them.”
Aiken averaged 13.5 minutes off the bench in a significant combo forward role. After playing a season-low four minutes against Michigan on Nov. 21, Aiken had 10 points, six rebounds and six assists against Sacramento State on Nov. 27, when center Christian Koloko suffered a sprained ankle.
When he was made available for comment four days after that game, Aiken said he had accepted his reserve role.
“I came in talking to Murph and saying I don’t mind coming off the bench because it’s something I have to do to learn if I want to play at the next level,” Aiken said. “Coming into practice every day trying to make guys better like ‘Zu (forward Azuolas Tubelis), I’m just trying to show my best effort every day so he can get better and provide for us on the court when he’s starting. It is definitely no problem for me. I just really want to win and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Aiken averaged 5.0 points and 3.4 rebounds for the Wildcats, playing a key defensive role off the bench, guarding big wings or forwards while also hitting 9 of 16 3-pointers he took.
After Aiken’s departure, his defensive role was taken largely by sophomore guard Pelle Larsson. Center Oumar Ballo also soaked up more minutes, even playing alongside Koloko in a twin-towers formation at times.
The Wildcats went on to win the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles with a tight three-player bench rotation of Larsson, Ballo and guard Justin Kier. However, they struggled against NCAA Tournament opponents TCU and Houston, who both had smaller, physical forwards.
Rim shots
• Arizona is one of 26 teams to have reached out to potential South Dakota State transfer wing Baylor Scheierman, the Summit League’s Player of the Year in 2021-22, according to Stadium. As a freshman in 2019-20, Scheierman had two points and a rebound in 16 minutes against the Wildcats at McKale Center.
• ESPN’s updated mock NBA Draft this week projects Bennedict Mathurin going No. 11, Koloko at 36 and guard Dalen Terry at 44. Terry declared for the draft last week, though he retains the option to return to school.
