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Mizzou has been a hot mess, and ended up firing their coach, Kim Anderson. In came Cuonzo Martin, and out went a few players, including KJ Walton, a former 4 star recruit out of Indianapolis.
When the dust settled, he decided on Ball State, according to this tweet from Evan Daniels of Scout.com.
Missouri transer KJ Walton just committed to Ball State, per a source.
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) May 9, 2017
This was probably confirmed a little over an hour later by Mr. Walton himself.
Blessed with the opportunity to keep playing this game
— Kj Walton (@Kj_Walton1) May 9, 2017
The 6’3 guard decided to come to his home state and play in Muncie. According to this story in The Star Press, he is good friends with Tahjai Teague and they were teammates on the 2015 Indiana All Stars. He was also already familiar with Tayler Persons and Jeremie Tyler.
Per the article, he already feels at home, and is looking forward to representing the Cardinals in his home state.
This is huge. The combo guard averaged 6.7 points last season, and 3.3 rebounds. While that may not seem that impressive, it was up from 5.3 in his freshman season. In his sophomore campaign, his minutes and production were all over the place. If he truly is at home in Muncie, and comfortable, look for him to have a fantastic season in 2018.
While nothing is written in stone, the super sophomores from last season, Tayler Persons, Tahjai Teague, and Trey Moses should be seniors, and he could be the 4th piece of the puzzle for a special campaign for coach Whitford’s Cardinals.