Former UConn men’s basketball forward and national champion Jaylin Stewart has announced his commitment to transfer to SMUon Instagram.
The junior from Seattle was a key piece off the bench for the Huskies the past three seasons, making a few starts due to injury as well. He averaged 4.0 points on nearly 50% from the field in 14.2 minutes per game across 104 appearances at UConn in three seasons.
Stewart started 12 games this past year for the Huskies, most of which came while Braylon Mullins was coming back from an ankle injury during non-conference play. He scored a season-high 11 points on opening night against New Haven and, during his sophomore year, scored a career-high 16 points twice, against UMES and Memphis.
He dealt with some injury issues late in the season, missing the final three games of the regular season, all of the Big East Tournament, and the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament due to a knee injury. He returned and scored seven points in the last four games of the season, including a three in the Final Four against Illinois.
Returning to UConn to finish out his career was certainly an option for Stewart, but with Jayden Ross fitting better in the rotation and newcomers such as Colben Landrew and Nikolas Khamenia at similar positions, he would have faced another offseason of uncertain playing time in his last year. He’ll have an expanded role with the Mustangs in the ACC for sure.
SMU is coming off a year in which it snuck in to the NCAA Tournament as the last team in the field, losing in the First Four in Dayton to Miami OH. The Mustangs’ top four scorers were seniors, so there’s a lot of opportunity for Stewart there.
It would have been nice to see J-Stew finish his career in Storrs, where he could play all four years with fellow classmates Ross and Solo Ball, but from a basketball standpoint, his decision is understandable.