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PROVO — As he prepares for what should be his freshman season of college basketball, BYU forward Marcus Adams Jr. will likely be looking for his fourth school after a difficult year, both on and off the court.
KSL.com confirmed Monday that the former four-star freshman from Torrance, California, re-entered the transfer portal after a tough season in Provo that included a drawn-out waiver, an injury and the sudden death of his father.
Adams played in just one game for the Cougars in 2023-24, totaling one field goal in seven minutes with two rebounds, an assists and two personal fouls for a BYU team that went 23-11 with the Cougars' first NCAA Tournament bid in three years and a fifth-place finish in their inaugural season in the Big 12. He traveled with the team to every game, including BYU's first-round tournament loss to Duquesne.
The former four-star recruit rated as the No. 29 player in the Class of 2024 by 247Sports before reclassifying to 2023 saw time after a West Virginia judge invoked a temporary restraining order across college basketball that prevented the NCAA from enforcing its regulations against playing multi-time transfers, an order that was eventually extended through the end of the 2023-24 season.
Adams was on his third school, even though he didn't play in two prior, since winning John R. Wooden high school player of the year honors for the Los Angeles city section open division as a junior at Narbonne High. After graduating a year early, he initially signed with Kansas and Gonzaga, but entered the transfer portal during a lengthy spring and summer that saw him eventually commit to and enroll at BYU.
"He's awesome. He's young, a lot younger than the rest of us, which is a credit to him to come in at a young age and jump into the swing of things," BYU point guard Dallin Hall said of Adams. "He's just picking it up and trying to be a sponge, take it all in. He has good energy, loves to laugh, loves to have fun, and we like having him around. He's a great addition, and we're excited to see what he gives us out there."
But that was only the start of a rough year for the teenager in what should have been his senior season of high school basketball.
Adams struggled with a foot injury through the year, eventually leading to his decision to redshirt the 2023-24 campaign. His father, Marcus Sr., who played basketball at UNLV and appeared in six games during the 1977-78 season, then suffered a stroke midway through the season, according to a GoFundMe set up to support the family. His sudden passing hit Marcus Jr. hard, and left his wife, Delfina, Marcus Jr.'s mother who speaks limited English, to raise two boys on her own.
Adams' younger brother, Maximo, is a Class of 2026 prospect at Serra High in California.
Adams' grandmother also passed away around the same time as his father, he told BYU collective CougConnect.
All of it added up to Adams' desire to return closer to home.
Players are not bound to leave a program once they enter the transfer portal. The move opens up a scholarship for the Cougars, who were already graduating starting wing Spencer Johnson and walk-on forward Tredyn Christensen.
Jaxson Robinson, who earned Big 12 sixth man of the year honors after leading the Cougars in scoring primarily off the bench, was also a senior last year but could return for one final season of eligibility provided by the pandemic-altered season of 2020-21. Noah Waterman was also a senior, but recently received a waiver for a medical redshirt from the NCAA for a prior season that will allow him to return for another year.
The Cougars have added two high school recruits in 6-foot-8 power forward Isaac Davis from Idaho Falls and former Farmington star Collin Chandler, who was called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone.
