OXFORD — AJ Storr has become one of the poster children for those who argue against the seemingly limitless movement afforded by the transfer portal.

Storr is at Ole Miss this summer, preparing for his fourth and final year of college basketball. Between college and high school, Storr will have played eight seasons at eight different schools.

However, Storr doesn’t really belong on the aforementioned poster. To properly understand his journey requires time and some nuance. Storr’s story isn’t about greed or a refusal to endure adversity. Instead, it’s more about dealing with unforeseen circumstances as best as one can.

“I’m grateful for all the situations I stepped into,” Storr said earlier this week in an exclusive interview with RebelGrove.com. “I benefited from all of them and just became a better basketball player and an overall better person.

“I don't think (the narrative surrounding his moves) bothers me that much. People really don't know the inside story about what's going on. So it just looks like I’m going to all these different schools when they don't know the insight on it. So it doesn't really bother me.”

Storr, a 6-foot-7, 205-pound guard from Rockford, Ill., began his high school career at Kankakee High School. Then COViD-19 happened and Illinois shut down in-person schooling and all scholastic athletics.

So Storr left Illinois for Las Vegas, where his father lived. He played summer league basketball with Bishop Gorman High School, but before the season began, Nevada’s high school athletic association shut down sports as well.

Storr, desperate to play basketball, transferred to Compass Prep in Chandler, Ariz.

“That was a great situation,” Storr said. “Everybody on that team pretty much went Division I. I grew as a player there. I was well coached there by Ed Gibson and I ended up graduating from there.”

At the time, Storr was 17 years old. He felt he needed a gap year, and IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., offered an opportunity. Storr claimed it and made the most of it, averaging 22.8 points per game and earning a scholarship at St. John’s.

As a freshman at St. John’s, Storr played in 33 games and started 17. He averaged 8.8 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. After the season, the Red Storm moved on from coach Mike Anderson, leading Storr to enter the transfer portal.

Storr landed at Wisconsin, where he had a phenomenal sophomore season. Storr averaged 16.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game for the Badgers, earning second-team All-Big 10 honors. Storr decided after that season to test the portal, and when Kansas got involved, Storr signed on with Bill Self and the Jayhawks.

“I think it was the opportunity to be in a program and on a team that's going to gear me towards that next level,” Storr said. “When you are playing at a place like Kansas, you're going to up against a lot of good players, which is how it is on the next level.

“Like you are gonna be battling for your position every day, battling for your spot every day. So that's what leaned me towards going to Kansas. That and, obviously, it's just Kansas University overall.”

The results weren’t what Storr was expecting. Storr started four of 34 games, averaging 10.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game for a Kansas team that lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Arkansas.

“We really didn't find out what Kansas basketball is about,” Storr said. “We didn't really get introduced to that culture. We got introduced to it, but I would say that we just didn’t really have enough time really to learn about Kansas basketball and just ingrain our talents on the program.

“Things didn't go as planned but I was still considering going back.”

Ultimately, Storr elected to get back into the portal. He knew he had just one season remaining and he wanted to find a place where he could put his best foot forward to help his professional prospects. Enter Ole Miss.

“When I looked at Ole Miss, me and my mom were just looking through the history of the programs that were recruiting me and, Coach (Chris) Beard just has a history with transfers really coming in and impacting his program right away,” Storr said. “Last year he had a couple guys come in. (Sean) Pedulla was one of their better players and he was a one-year guy here. (Beard) had some transfers at Texas Tech too. So he just has a tradition of doing well with transfer guys, so that's what led me.”

Adjusting to Oxford and Ole Miss has been easy. If there’s a silver lining to all of the moves, it’s Storr, already a strong communicator, has learned how to build new relationships with all kinds of different people quickly.

“I definitely say all this moving helped,” Storr said. “It just made me appreciate everything more, really. I think I've always been able to communicate well with people, but it definitely increased my learning about everybody's different. Everybody got different personalities. You can talk to certain people a certain way and then you gotta talk to other people a certain way. So it definitely helped.”

Storr will have a big role on this Ole Miss team, one that only returns two primary contributors — Malik Dia and Eduardo Klafke — from a team that advanced to the Sweet 16 last season.

“This is my last year of college basketball,” Storr said. “I want to enjoy this year. I definitely want to go out on a good note. I want to make it far in the tournament because I've been in the tournament twice. We got eliminated (in the first round) both years with Wisconsin and with Kansas.

“So my goal is really just to make it past the first day of March Madness. I never did it before.”

That desire is something Beard shares.

“When I first talked to Beard, he was just telling me how obsessed he is with basketball,” Storr said. “And I was like, ‘OK, every coach says that.’ When I got to talking to him more, he really is. He sleeps, eats, wakes up basketball. That's his main thing. He's a very smart coach, very detailed, and he's just really focused on winning. That's the main thing. Like everything surrounds winning.”