Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - 3 Spots Left: What Could Bill Self Do to Finish the Roster + Jayhawks Baseball NCAA TOURNAMENT BOUND

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Faces Crucial Decisions: Who Will Fill the Remaining Scholarship Spots? The Kansas Jayhawks basketball team is at a pivotal moment with three scholarship spots still open. What strategic moves will Bill Self make to strengthen the roster?Explore the potential recruits and transfer portal options, including prospects like Ali Dibba of Southern Illinois and international players like Marko Radunovic or Neoklis Avdalas. Meanwhile, Kansas Jayhawks Baseball and Dan Fitzgerald celebrate its first NCAA tournament entry since 2014, with standout performances from Brady Ballinger and Jackson Hauge. The episode also speculates on KU football's top player, considering talents like Jalon Daniels, Emmanuel Henderson, Bangally Kamara, Daniel Hishaw, Bryce Foster, Dean Miller and more.Will the Jayhawks secure the right players to dominate the upcoming season? Tune in for an in-depth analysis of Kansas sports strategies and player potentials.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Still three spots remaining with scholarships for Bill Self and KU Basketball. What the heck are they going to do? What do they still need to get done at this point moving forward? And KU Baseball in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. We're free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show and thank you anywhere you're joining us from around the country any way that you're listening to the show and on today's episode we're going to be talking more KU basketball three spots left for Bill self and KU oops what are they going to do at this point in time Daring Williams Dom a saw no longer a option for KU where do

they pivot to who are some names maybe to keep an eye on for me or also get into some of the KU baseball stuff is KU where do they pivot to? Who are some names maybe to keep an eye on from here? We'll also get into some of the KU baseball stuff is KU baseball is moving on to the NC double A tournament for the first time in over a decade. So a very big deal there. And then we'll finish up with a little thought starter on KU football. Who's the best player on this KU football team? So think about that. And we'll circle around to that later on in the show. Okay, let's start here with some KU basketball stuff. So there are

three spots left, what is still needed for Bill self and KU to get to so at this point in time, they have 11 scholarship players on the roster, the latest edition being Corbin Allen nearby from Oak Park High School. And so normally you would have 15 scholarships, Kansas still has one that they have to give up due to the self imposed sanctions or IRP stuff, whatever you want to call it. So that leaves them with 14 available. That means they have three left at this point in time, you know, to kind of go

after here, if you were Kansas, right. So for KU, with those three scholarships, I think the number one, the most important one that you would look to at this point in time, it has to be getting another starter level player, a splash level player, a star type of player. I don't know, maybe there aren't any stars left. Can you just get at least get a starter level player at this point in time to kind of round out your roster? That is the number one important most important thing at this point in time. If you have to spend enough money on the number one scholarship option that you only end up playing with 13 scholarship players this year, I would prefer that option than just bringing in, you know, three more players that are like, are we sure they're gonna, you know, be a needle mover, a game changer for this team. And now we officially know that it's not going to be Dom A's. He goes to Duke, we know it's not going to be Darien Williams, he picks NC State,

which leaves Kansas in a precarious position. There aren't a ton of options still available in the transfer portal at this point in time, especially for the positions they're looking to like, maybe you could find a guard, but could you really find your wing and the options are dwindling? I mean, we still have to wait and see what's gonna happen with some of the decisions of some of these college players, right? I mean, are they gonna stay in the draft? Are they going to come back to college, whatever it is,

right? And so you have a guy like Jameer Watkins, is he going to stay in the draft? Is he going to come back? A guy like RJ Lewis, is he going to stay in the draft? Is he going to come back? Now with both of those guys, it does seem like some of the noise around it has been Kansas isn't really recruiting either one that maybe there is I don't know if it's just you know, a bad meeting or that they don't get the sense they vibe well, or if there's some off the court stuff, or they don't think they fit well or whatever. I have a hard time believing it'd be the fit thing given where we're at at this point in time. But it doesn't really seem like those are gonna be options for Kansas, Watkins or Lewis. So maybe we move forward. What would the next option be that's available in the transfer portal? Well, if we're talking wings,

do we get our point to a tie on Grant Foster reunion at this point in time? I mean, Tyon Grant Foster is still out there. He's an older player. He bring experience, did not have a good season this past year. I mean, Grand Canyon ended up being a, think of NCAA tournament team once again, right?

And the year before they were tournament team and won a game, like he's been a solid player. But the thing about it with Ty and Grant Foster is he hasn't been the most efficient player and he's a kind of ball dominant player. Is that what you want? Now, then again, maybe if you need more scoring and you need more, you know, offensive punch,

maybe that's okay. And maybe you try to make that work. But I don't know how much of a fit that is. Still, at some point in time, you almost do have to kind of just say, crap, what other options do we have? I don't know that we're there yet, but are you inching closer to it? I don't know, it might be possible.

And that, so Louis Watkins, Grant Foster, who we all just mentioned is not really being guys that KU is recruiting for one reason or another. That's all the names left on the 24 seven sports transfer portal top 150 rankings. So if we're talking starter level player for talking game changer, you have kind of run out of those options. Now there is one other guy who's inside the top 200 that I have kind of liked I

put him on my portal target Google Sheet and stuff. I haven't heard a lot mentioned with him in the offseason. I don't know maybe he's he's committed somewhere and I haven't seen it that it was kind of a quiet commit. But I believe it's pronounced Ali Diba Ali Diba. He was an all Missouri Valley Conference guy. And again, I don't know what the hold up is here or who's going for but he was at Southern Illinois, which wasn't a great team this past

year, but they weren't like one of the worst teams in the country is originally from Sweden. He was a six five wing so he played four years of college basketball when his first year was a Chicago State, he only played five games. So I would assume he could get a red shirt for that year, right. And maybe that's the hold up maybe teams are waiting to see if he does get cleared by the NCAA before they get him. But last year at Southern Illinois, 17.2 points per game, four point eight rebounds per game, two assists per game.

He shot 49 percent from the floor, 33.7 percent from three. He's six five two oh five. I might have already mentioned that, but 66 percent of the line and also average one and a half steals per game he'd more be like a I think it I don't know a three type of wing then maybe in a four type of wing which would have been more like Darian Williams. But I don't know I think there's something there with Ali Diba that I would be interested in if I were KU like you finished the

season strong I'm looking at February 12 on so that's seven eight like nine games where he had double digits every game to finish the season, including 2924 2230. Among some of those, he also had other games throughout the season of 2026 2122 3327 26. So if you're talking about somebody who can score like this is your guy hit 12 points on four of six shooting five rebounds in Oklahoma State. In the game, it's Florida, he had 17 points on four of six shooting five rebounds at Oklahoma State in the game against Florida. He

had 17 points for rebounds on seven to 15. So honestly, I might be talking myself more and more into Ali Diba. So maybe we do a deep dive on Ali Diba at some point. I don't know. I think that one would actually make some sense for KU. But again, doesn't really seem like they've been recruiting him for one reason or another. Now, maybe that's an eligibility thing. And if it gets cleared, that kind of changes up. Beyond that, it's the international route, right? I mean, this is just a

reiteration of names we've talked about for an everyday or thank you for listening. If you're not go back and find somewhere episodes where we talked about Ben Henshaw, who's a really quick guard who can get off three point shots in a variation of ways. I really like him as a player don't know as much about the fit compared to bringing on a wing or forward. But I really like the player Declan do Roo. He's more of a project type player, like, I don't think he'd be a starter

level, but I think he could be a rotation player as a backup big and then maybe turn into something really good down the road. Marco Radunovic, he would be a starter level player for me really good wing who had really good success in Montenegro this past season. So I like him. Neoclass of Dallas, I think that's a one that a lot of KU fans who are digging into the European stuff, like that's their number one guy.

I'm kind of split between whether I'd want Radunovic or Avdolis as my number one guy, but both good wings that could come in and be starters right away. And then you have the Croatians, Luka Skoric and Ivan Bogdanovic. I think both of those I wouldn't, I wouldn't Sharpie in as starters.

Maybe you'd pencil in either one, but I do think both would come in and at least be rotation players. And then the last one is and I don't know how to pronounce this one Ogden Stankovich, which that guy feels like more of a rotation player like a, a mid major type player right now that maybe you bring in to be a end of the bench player that can develop into something that increases your depth. So those are some international game names, I guess, to kind of keep an eye on. Now, number two on the scholarship list, you spent too much time on number one is a backup big man. And at this point in time to like, it'll kind of just depend on number one, I think that's the holdup here. If you spend a bunch of money on number one, your number two ends up your backup big ends up being somebody more like Pat Swemnick, where it's like, okay, this will save a little bit of money. If your number one option is not

somebody who you feel like, I don't know, you're giving like a ton of money to necessarily, then maybe you spend more on a backup big Luis Sugo has been somebody who has been mentioned as a very good backup big man from Italy, but that one's gonna take more money. So like, if you spend less on your first scholarship, maybe that's an option. But if you spend more, maybe it's more of a kind of veteran who can just be a body for you on the inside. And then the third scholarship

that you need to add. So you have your starter level player, you have a bench big, the third is just a bench piece that can be a back end rotation or fringe rotation player. So if the number one scholarship player, your starter level player is a guard, number three should be a wing. If your first player that you bring on with number one where the scholarships is a wing, this should either be another big man or a guard. If it is a guard, I think you want it to be a three point sniper. If it's a wing, you want them to be a versatile wing who can either defend or shoot threes or do both. But if they can do both,

they probably would be starter level player anyway. So I guess there's a chance maybe you look for more of like a power forward type that can start at the force of true power forward, and also give you minutes as a backup five. But even that like isn't sitting there, you know, logically, a ton in the portal. So it definitely feels like it's reliant on the international market, the European market for where Kansas is going to go. And and I guess get ready to speak I

don't know Italian, Spanish, German, whatever Bill South needs to speak, you know, brush up on it to make it happen. Our KU baseball is in the NCAA tournament for the first time in over a decade. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where'd all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's easy to lose track.

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Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawks. So KU baseball is going to the NCAA tournament we're going to talk about and don't forget you make locked on college football or locked on college basketball your second listen every day. So KU baseball wrapped up at the big 12th tournament, they won their first game good comeback on Oklahoma State. And then they fell to TCU they just some early things you give up some some C&I singles early in the game TCU builds a

lead you leave the bases loaded and forget if it's the fifth or the sixth and then TCU just kind of opens it up from there and move takes you out. Now the good news is it gives Kansas a little bit more time to rest, I guess, one extra day and a little less picture usage. That's positive. You're right. Especially knowing that, like, I think part of the idea with the Big 12 tournament was and you saw some national baseball writers talking about this. They're like, if if Kansas or whoever, which ended, you know, Arizona,

TCU, like one of these top team, West Virginia wins the big 12 tournament. I think that'll get them enough to be able to host well, turns out none of the big 12 teams were listed as one of the top 16 teams to host. So theoretically, even if Kansas won the big 12, 12 tournament, I don't know that it would have changed. They got the two seed in their pod. I don't know that that would have changed, you know, so actually, maybe actually works out okay. But anyway, 43 and 15

overall season, unbelievable regular season and big 12th tournament for KU 20 and 10 record in conference play should have had at least a chance of winning the big 12th title. But now they move on to the NCAA tournament. And it'll be the first time in the NCAA tournament since 2014. So you're talking about over a decade of time here for KU to get to that point. And we know they're going to be in the Fayetteville, Fayetteville, whatever Arkansas regional with

Arkansas now their first game will not come against Arkansas Arkansas is the third ranked overall seed. And that's what stinks here is that it feels like Kansas was if you're telling me that Kansas was, you know, close to being a team who was a top 16 seed, right? Maybe they were in that 17 to 25 range in terms of what you are, kind of stinks that they end up with, you know, the third overall team as their host, I get it, part of it is like geography based, but that's basically saying, let's

say Kansas was the 23rd ranked team on the seeding line, or what the committee was saying for, you know, deciding where everybody would be. That would mean Kansas would be kind of like a six seed in basketball. I know that doesn't that's not how it works in baseball, but like basketball seeding terms, they'd be a six seed Arkansas would be a one seed. So imagine giving your six seed the second round matchup for Arkansas. Anyway, the whole thing that doesn't make sense to me, but

you get Creighton in your first round matchup, which that's going to be difficult on its own. Creighton is a team that won 41 games this season, they went 17 and four in the Big East. So that's going to be a tough first game that'll be on Friday, seven o'clock over in Fayetteville. And then if they win that they play the winner of Arkansas and whoever they're playing is the four. If they lose, they play the loser. So how the pods work is it's double elimination, right? So you have a 14 pod,

again, hosted by Arkansas here. And it's double elimination. So everybody goes to you lose twice. So if you can win those first two games, that's the key in a lot of this, because then you get set up where you basically get less games than the rest of the opponents. And then you're basically playing in the pod championship game, where you're playing somebody who has one loss where they have to beat you twice in a row. So that is the key. Can you win these first

two games as KU and it's always difficult? Like, what do you do with your pitchers? Right? Do you spend your ace in the first game? Do you spend your ace in the second game to say that, okay, listen, if we lose, we're now in an elimination game. So we need our ace. Or if we lose our first, if we win our first game, excuse me, then that second game comes so important. Because if we win the second game, we're in that basically championship game already and have that leg up. So

kind of in order, do you save them for the third game, possibly in risk not even having them? Or do you say, okay, we're going to use you for the second if we lose the first, but if we win the first, we're gonna save you for third. I don't know. There's a lot of different things you can do but it's been a great season for KU regardless obviously people are gonna want them to go further people want the Omaha Hawks right and I wouldn't count this team out at all the amount of comeback wins this team has

had I think 26 comeback wins this season Brady Ballinger has a unbelievable 693 slugging 16 home runs Jackson how he who was injured for that game and didn't play in the TCU game. Now they said that he would have played if it was an NCAA tournament game, they need him back though 19 home runs. And then Brady Council, the son of Craig Council has 12 home runs. That is a mashing line of notes a lot of other players for KU they hit 100 home runs this year, and only gave up 57. That's a really good place to be. But yeah, what do they do with

the pitchers if you are KU? You know, Dominic vaguely has had kind of ups and downs throughout the season overall 534 ERA. But that doesn't necessarily ring to what he is there are days where he can give you eight innings of shutout baseball. There are other days where it isn't working as much so far this year, right? So the pitching is kind of I think the big question for how is that going to show up for KU in the series, especially when you look at the you know, Arkansas and

stuff. So like Arkansas, for instance, Zach Root, and Landon Badelshis, I don't know how to pronounce it. Those are their two most started pitchers, both those have 12 or more starts, nobody else is more than nine, both of them have above four eras. And the guy with the hard name to pronounce is over a five era. Arkansas isn't in this position because of pitching. Now some of those numbers inflated when you're playing against SEC competition, which is really good. Arkansas's

pitching is fine. It's Arkansas's hitting that has caused a lot of their opponents, I guess issues to this point in time. So you look right now in Arkansas is fifth in the NCAA and OPS they have a 975 OPS on base plus slugging, but the four teams in front of them, they're non power conference teams High Point, Austin P New Mexico, East Tennessee State, New Mexico also gets to play in altitude there. It's Arkansas then Tennessee then Georgia, if you're talking about the top three teams in the country who

are power schools for that. Then if we sort the home run list, you had to put Georgia, High Point, Tennessee, East Tennessee, State, Southern Illinois, Austin Peay, Arkansas. So again, Arkansas is top three in the country in OPS and home runs. This is a team that is a powerful team. They don't have like a ton of steals necessarily, but they're a power hitting team. From the pitching perspective for Arkansas, they are, let's see, 16th in the country in ERA that actually seems better than it is. So they must have a good bullpen because again, the like I said, the starters and neither one jumps off the page. So I guess just good depth of starters for Arkansas overall. Let's see with Creighton, they are 15th in the country in era getting to play a little bit of an easier schedule with the Big East, but Creighton is not top 100 in the country in home runs hit. And let's see where they are in OPS here. Doing this on the fly. Yeah, they're not with top 100

and OPS. So Creighton more of a pitching team. Kansas is a hitting team that can get hot pitching. Arkansas has a good good depth of pitching but not maybe that number one ace type of guy you think of an incredible hitting so should be a fun series. And I guess KU fans can easily make it down there it's driving distance away. And maybe they can do what Kansas State did when they went down to the Fayetteville regional I forget if it was last year or two years ago I think that was last year when they got out of there with the the pod

win over Arkansas. All right, who is KU football's best football player? Fun little discussion to finish up the show. Next, joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawks and wanted to finish out the show today. A little fun discussion because I was just thinking about this over the weekend for some reason. Anyway, who is KU football's best player, you know, because I

think you can have an argument for a lot of different guys on the team. And last year, you could have had an argument for different guys in different ways like Devin Neal is incredible. Kobe Bryant's, you know, all American level corner and stuff. This year, I think it could end up being a newcomer, honestly, like with the group of if you gave me, I don't know, Emmanuel Henderson, Justice Finkely, Bengali, Kamara, I think there's a chance that one of those three players could actually wind up being the best player on this

team. I don't know that'll necessarily be the case. But like, it could be Jalen Daniels. But also Jalen was very inconsistent last year. And before last year, he's had the injury bug. So like Jalen would be in the conversation, but it's not like a home run slam dunk for who is the best player on the team. Daniel Hyshaw could end up giving KU the best production on the team, that's for sure.

But I don't know for sure. You look at the offensive line, maybe the answer here is Bryce Foster. I think that would be the best argument I would have so far. Maybe Kobe Vains or Calvin Clements jumps into that. I think Foster right now though, if you're talking who is the best offensive player on this team, I would probably lean Bryce Foster at this point in time. And then defense side of the ball, I mean, Dean Miller was all big 12 second team.

I think Finkeley will be good. I think Kansas has a lot of good defensive tackles. I just don't know which one is going to be the best and which one could possibly break out to be like an all big 12 level player. So it's like, I'm not gonna pick one cause I just like like five or six of them. And I don't, I don't know what, you know, it's like picking your children.

I don't know which one to choose. I only have one child, so it makes it easy. Nonetheless, Bengali Kamara, I think the hype might be that he's gonna be there, but it still feels weird to do that with a new player in the same way that it does with Emmanuel Henderson, even though I think Henderson is in store for what's going to be a huge season at the receiver position for KU. Could you make an argument for somebody like Taylor Davis or Jalen Todd, who will both be sophomores this upcoming season, one a redshirt

sophomore, one a true sophomore, that one of them as former, you know, four star high end three star type of recruits who have so far done well gotten early playing time as freshmen could take a huge jump and wind up being the best player on KU. Yes, you could make that argument. But I guess going through this, it's not an easy slam dunk. And I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, right? Like, on one end, it's bad, because you want like a super high level talent that can change games for you. And I think if all is right, if Jalen Daniels is playing at his

ceiling, and he's he's healthy, I think it is Jalen Daniels, but we saw the inconsistencies last year. So I think the answer to that right now, I would go with more of the known commodity, commodity, and I would go with Bryce Foster. But again, if you told me at the end of the season, it is one of Bengali Kamara or Emmanuel Henderson or something. I could totally envision that happening. And I think, again, like, is that good or bad? That some of the newcomers can be in that

discussion. Again, maybe it's a little bit bad that you don't have, you know, the readymade replacements. Last year, Kansas brought so many players back and they ended up missing the bowl game. So it doesn't always work that way. And the plus side of it is, if you have all these newcomers that you can argue, you have two or three of these newcomers

that you can argue are the best player on the team, that also probably means you did a pretty good job in the transfer portal. That also probably means you did a pretty good job in the off season in identifying targets and identifying what you need and finding good players and finding players that are going to fit what you do, and could have big seasons in Lawrence. So I don't know, just kind of a fun

discussion. I think the best answer for KU, if it does end up being Jaylen Daniels, that would be the best possible thing to happen because quarterback is the most important position on the field. And so if it does end up being Jaylen Daniels, I think that would be a great sign for KU because that probably means they would have a great season at the end on the field. And so if it does end up being Jaylen annuals, I think that would be a great sign for KU because that probably means they would have a great season at the end of the day. But yeah, right now, I guess I'd go Bryce Foster. So Bryce Foster, the face of the program coming

into the season. I don't know for this episode of locked on J Hawks, you can find our show anywhere you podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back later this week, we're gonna get to some more player deep dives, we're gonna get to some more player deep dives, we're gonna start doing some European player deep dives. How about that get you ready for the overseas market for KU. So we'll do that and more upcoming right here with locked on J AXE