Winthrop star and Big South Player of the Year DJ Burns enters the transfer portal
Another key player appears to be leaving the Winthrop men’s basketball program.
Winthrop star forward DJ Burns has entered the transfer portal, a source within Winthrop athletics confirmed to The Herald on Wednesday afternoon. The news was first reported by Verbal Commits.
Burns is departing after a special junior season that saw him average 15.0 points a game and shoot a conference-leading 63.5% from the field en route to being named 2021-22 Big South Player of the Year.
Burns is now the third player from Winthrop to test the transfer portal waters.
Russell Jones Jr. entered the transfer portal in mid-March, just a few days after the Eagles’ season ended one win short of a third-consecutive Big South tournament championship. Jones shortly thereafter joined Western Carolina ahead of the 2022-23 season, where he will play under former Winthrop assistant coach Justin Gray.
Josh Corbin, who took a break from the team midseason due to undisclosed personal reasons, also entered the portal shortly after Jones did.
Burns’ departure is particularly stinging for the Eagles. The 6-foot-9, 275-pound forward is a Rock Hill native and was the highest-rated recruit out of high school to ever land in the Winthrop basketball program.
On the court, he gave Winthrop an interior scoring threat that’s rarely seen in the Big South — a league comprised mostly of guards and 3-point shooting.
The path Burns took to Winthrop and his rise thereafter has been well-documented: He played basketball at Rock Hill public charter school York Preparatory Academy. There, the lefty gentle giant found himself being courted by college basketball programs across the country. Winthrop was the first school to offer him a scholarship. South Carolina and Virginia followed.
But Burns ultimately chose Tennessee, the top-ranked college basketball team at the time, in June 2018.
After a year in Knoxville, though, he transferred to Winthrop — a decision that was celebrated like a “homecoming.” And he immediately made an impact at Winthrop. He averaged 11.9 points a game as a freshman and 10.1 points a game as a sophomore.
As a junior, under new head coach Mark Prosser, his role expanded. He averaged a career-best 20.8 minutes, 15 points and 4.3 rebounds a game.
Burns has two more years of eligibility.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 12:59 PM.
.jpeg)