DePaul men’s basketball head coach Tony Stubblefield landed his first commitment via the transfer portal on Friday. 

Junior guard Tyon Grant-Foster, a transfer from Kansas, will be attending DePaul next season, he announced on Twitter. He will be immediately eligible to play after the NCAA passed a new transfer rule on Thursday. 

“After conversations with my family, I have decided that next year I will be attending DePaul University, I would like to thank all the coaches who reached out and still believed in me,” he wrote on Twitter.

Grant-Foster only spent one season with Kansas, averaging 3.1 points per game on 39.1 percent shooting from the field and 13 percent shooting from in the 3-point line in 22 appearances during the 2020-21 season. He joined the Jayhawks last year after being the No. 1 junior college recruit from Indian Hills Community College in Iowa. 

The 6-foot-7 forward led Indian Hills in scoring (16.5) and blocked shots (48) during the 2019-20 season. Combined with those numbers, Grant-Foster led the school to a 30-3 record before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the remainder of the season. 

“I think he’s a guy that can be an immediate impact player for DePaul,” Indian Hills men’s basketball head coach Hank Plona said. “He’s a 6-foot-7, extremely long, extremely quick both sides position kind of a new age basketball player that can play maybe a little bit of one, two, three, four. He’s a guy that can play and guard just about any position.” 

In Grant-Foster’s limited time at Kansas, he did showcase his athleticism and ability to get to the basket. His best game came against Omaha on Dec. 11, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Grant-Foster also had eight points, eight rebounds and two blocks against North Dakota State six days earlier. 

“He certainly has a knack for the ball and aggressiveness to be able to score the ball at all three levels: at the rim, mid-range and from three,” Plona said. “He certainly is a guy that’s worked on his game and worked on his body, and he’s become a very, very high-level player. I still think his best basketball is in front of him.”

Stubblefield tried to recruit Grant-Foster to Oregon last year, but the Kansas City native picked the Jayhawks over the Ducks and several other schools.

“Coach Stubblefield, when he was an assistant at Oregon, came out here to recruit Tyon, probably came to our gym three or times,” Plona said. “And I know they have a relationship and I know that coach Stubbs still has that belief that Tyon can potentially be an All-Big East player and a potential NBA prospect.” 

Grant-Foster is the first player that Stubblefield, who was hired on April 6 to replace Dave Leitao, has been able to recruit to DePaul as he’s trying to rebuild a roster that has seen nine players enter the transfer portal. 

“I think his potential is just obvious,” Plona said. “Not a lot of 6-foot-7 guys with a seven-foot wingspan that can run and jump like he does. He has a beautiful looking jump shot that he elevates on. So, I think as a prospect he jumps off the board. He has a presence, explosiveness and a uniqueness to his game that is hard to find.

Senior guard Charlie Moore was the most recent player to enter the portal, which leaves the Blue Demons with only one returning starter — junior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty. He announced on his Instagram earlier on Friday that he is coming back to DePaul.