St. Bonaventure transfer guard Melvin Council commits to Kansas

St. Bonaventure transfer guard Melvin Council was searching for a new home in the transfer portal. On3 has learned he’s found it, choosing to join the Kansas Jayhawks.

Multiple other teams were interested in his services, like the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Georgia Bulldogs. It’s easy to see why, as he averaged 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists this past season. It was his second season of college basketball, after he spent his first with Wagner.

Originally, Council thought it was in his best interest to return to St. Bonaventure. Evidently, something changed for the star guard, and he entered the transfer portal. Now, there’s a myriad of teams that courted him for the 2025-26 season, and Kansas won out.

“I’m not in it for the money, I’m in it for the culture, family, and fans,” Council Jr. said, regarding the matter via the Olean Times Herald. “I will have to talk to my mom and my dad, but most likely I do feel the best thing is to come back and play another year at St. Bonaventure.”

One thing is for sure, this wasn’t a decision Council took lightly. St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt made some pointed comments about the transfer portal at the end of their season, and it was evident Council had to be sure before entering his name into the portal.

“At Bonaventure, you can’t have one foot in and one foot out,” Schmidt stated. “Either you’re in or you’re out, and if you’re out, you’re out. And we do that because we built this program and we don’t want anybody using us.

“There’s no way a kid is gonna put his name in the portal and try to look for other schools and now he’s not happy with those schools and so he wants to come back to Bonaventure. Our program is too special for that.”

Moving forward, Melvin Council will be joining his third team in as many seasons, but he’ll be on his biggest stage yet at Kansas. His time at Wagner and St. Bonaventure helped build him, and we’ll see how he uses the lessons learned in the future in the Big 12.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.