ATHENS – Former Georgia basketball player K.D. Johnson broke his silence with a 5 p.m. social media drop on Wednesday. He is transferring to Auburn.
That could mean the Bulldogs and coach Tom Crean will face three of their former players in SEC play next season: Sahvir Wheeler with Kentucky, Tye Fagan with Ole Miss and now Johnson with Bruce Pearl’s Tigers.
Currently, all three players will require a waiver from the SEC to be eligible to play next season. The conference still has a intraconference transfer policy that requires a one-year residency at the new school before being eligible to compete. However, the anticipation is that the SEC will waive that rule eventually in deference to the NCAA’s rule for immediate eligibility one-time transfers.
That’s three starters and 36.7 points per game off the Bulldogs’ 14-12 team from last season.
Johnson was Georgia’s second-leading scorer with 13.5 points per game and leading 3-point shooter at 38.7%. He played in only 16 games as a freshman. He missed the first 10 games because he failed to meet academic initial-eligibility requirements when he signed out with UGA of Hargrave Military Academy. Johnson is originally from Atlanta, where he attended from Southwest DeKalb High School. He was a 4-star recruiting prospect.
Wheeler met with Kentucky media and was asked if he considered the SEC’s intraconference transfer policy.
“I wouldn’t have made the move if I felt like I was going to have to sit out this year,” Wheeler said. “But I think that rule is going to pass. Hopefully it will; I’m pretty sure it will. At the end of the day, I was just looking for the best opportunity for me whether I was going to play this year or I wasn’t.”
Johnson was one of nine Georgia players to enter the NCAA’s transfer portal after last season. The Bulldogs have since replaced them with six transfers and three freshman signees.
Players have until July 1 to enter the portal.
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