Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Ben Henshall Would be a Baller in College | Would He Make Sense for Bill Self and the Jayhawks?

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Can Ben Henshall be the game-changer the Kansas Jayhawks need? This episode explores the potential impact of this international prospect on the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team, diving into his impressive NBA Draft Combine performance and how he might fit into the team's evolving strategy.Discover how Henshall's agility and shooting skills could enhance the Jayhawks' roster. Host Derek Johnson analyzes Henshall's background, including his time with the Perth Wildcats in Australia, and discusses the competition Kansas faces from other schools like Texas Tech. With insights into Henshaw's connection to players like Alex Condon and his NBA draft prospects, this episode offers a comprehensive look at what Henshaw could bring to the court.Tune in to uncover whether Henshaw could be the missing piece for the Kansas Jayhawks and how he might reshape their future.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)

I'm a huge Ben Henshaw fan. I don't know if it's the same fit as some of the wings available internationally, but we're going to deep dive into how Ben Henshaw would fit in with KU and what he would bring to the table if he were a Jayhawk. 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 all the every dayers tuning in to each and every episode of the

show. You can find us anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're talking a little Ben Henschel. He is a international available prospect, possibly from Australia. Seems like you could be a lean to another big 12 school right now, but maybe Kansas can swoop in and make it happen.

We're gonna break down what his fit would be with KU, what he brings to the table. Just had an impressive NBA combine performance as well. Before we get into any of that, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins.

You can do that at FanDuel.com. Okay, so who is Ben Henshaw? What the heck is going on? He is a 20-year-old, soon to be 21 year old guard. So, you know, he's going to be a little bit more ready to come in right away and make an impact. I would think because of that. I don't know. He's from Australia. So, you know, we've seen that work before. Johnny Furphy with Kansas. He's we'll get into the combine performance, but he measured six, five and a half without shoes at the combine, which means if he's in shoes, which I would hope he's

going to play in shoes and basketball, he's six foot seven, basically, probably around there, six foot six, six foot seven with shoes. So very good size. But he's kind of more of a one to guard. He can play one through three because of the size can play on ball, can initiate, ca can run pick and roll with some really fun shots and I really uh like his highl fun player to watch. Uh bu

it allows him to, I think as an off ball guard, but you know, it's six seven the college game, you cou at the three. Now the dif and F Dulles or Marco Rudunovic or some of these wings that are possibly available, those guys could play the three and the four for Kansas. And maybe that's more of a need right now because how many guys do you realistically have that can play the four Bryson tiller can play the four if you want a two big lineup. Samiz Calderon can play it, but like how ready are both

those guys going to be Trey White can obviously play the four, but you're kind of out of options after that. So you would probably prefer to bring in a wing who played three or four. But if we're just removing that part of this, like I could make an argument that Ben Henschall is my favorite player of the international prospects that is available. It's just, again, the Evdolis fit makes a little bit more sense and stuff like that. Now, beyond that, this might be a bit of a moot point because it seems like Texas Tech

has been the school most recently linked to him and the school that has been the favorite for a while now. Now, maybe the fact that they've been the favorite for a while and it hasn't happened. I mean, we saw that with Kansas. Domestar was the favorite to go to Kansas for a while and it didn't happen. And then all of a sudden, there's like, okay, well, he's going to Duke instead. So maybe there's

something there that's the reason it hasn't been tied up. Maybe it's a transcript thing trying to get that figured out internationally. Who knows? He has also buddies, I think with Alex Condon, who's an Australian player, who's a starter for the Florida team that won the national title, and he's coming back to school. He announced that yesterday. And Henshaw tweeted like an emoji afterwards. So an eyeball emoji. So like, I don't know, does he have interest in maybe playing with his buddy of Florida? I don't know, but it does at

least make some sense for KU to kick the tires again, even if it's an uphill battle. See if he's gettable. See if you can, you know, pull a gangster move in the off season. See if Spring Bill can revive himself and, you know, pull one out that maybe you're not expected to. So what about Henshaw's story? He started to take basketball seriously at age 14, attended Willetton Senior High School, that according to his Wikipedia page. In 2021, he went to the Western Australian under 18 Metro team, took gold and was named the Western Australian Basketball League Player of the Year 2022. He goes to Canberra

to attend the Australian Institute of Sport. He played for the BA Center of Excellence in the NBL one which is I believe like so the NBL is like their top league in Australia which is a top 10 league in the world. It's not as good as like the Spanish League or the Greek League, but it's still one of the better leagues in the world. And I think the end bill one is like the junior version of that. So then 2023 Henshaw led the Western Australian under 20

team to the gold medal and won the Bob Staunton medal as the most outstanding player of that tournament. So a very decorated junior level, I guess player you would say there. And then on 2023 in April, he signs a two-year deal with the Perth Wildcats who are in the senior league, in the National Basketball League, the NBL of Australia,

which is again a top 10 league in the world. Like the NBL is tougher competition than the NCAA. It's grown adults, it's men. I mean, we see guys come over, like Alex Tsar came over as a top two pick and he was a young player. competition than the NCAA. It's grown adults. It's men. I mean, we see guys come over like Alex Sarr came over as a top two pick and he was a young player. We see players who are older who Australian players who are, you know, part of their national team or stuff who are, you know, it's a tough league to play and it's a physical league. So then he

joins the Otago Nuggets as well for the 2024 New Zealand NBL season. I would just assume those seasons were, you know, opposite timelines. And then early in the 2024 New Zealand NBL season. I would just assume those seasons were opposite timelines. And then early in the 2024 to 2025 NBL season with Perth, he finally got into the starting five for the Wildcats. And then this April, he eventually moved to the US and has been undergoing the NBA draft process, which again, the international guys have until June 15 to decide whether they're staying in the draft or

pulling themselves out of the draft. You look at the stats for Henshaw and again, he was 19 years old in his first year at the senior level where if you combine his games between the Otago Nuggets and Perth, he played 34 games over the Australian NBL, the New Zealand NBL, and the NBL Blitz, which I think is just like a tournament they have. 19 minutes per game, 11 points per game. So I mean, 11 points in 19 minutes per game.

That's some efficient work there. Four rebounds per game, 2.4 assists per game, one steal per game. All those are good numbers, especially 19 minutes per game. He shot 43% from the floor, 33% from three, and 86% at the foul line. And again, this is against, you know, some of the top competition that's out there. Or, you know, the top competition in Australia. And this is against, you know, adults who are basically

playing. I wonder who's on the Perth roster right now. We'll get to that in a second. So then this past season, he's a 20 year old, the only place for Perth. And again, through the NBL and the NBL Blitz, 35 games played. His minute total ups to 24 minutes per game this past season. And Perth is known as one of the better teams. Like they finished third in the NBL this year, they finished second the year before that.

Like they have plenty of, I guess, like championship seasons and stuff looking through that. But nine and a half points per game. So the points actually goes down. The reason why the efficiency went down, he went from shooting 43% to 39%. The three point percentage actually went up a little bit. 33.3% versus 32.9%.

Free throw percentage, the same 85.7%. So very good free throw shooter. 3.6 rebounds per game, 2.6 assists per game. But the turnovers went down this year. The steals went up 1.1 per game and 0.3 blocks per game. Now the field goal percentage, not great there, but again, mind you, he's a 20-year-old playing in a professional league and he's shooting a lot of threes. So if his main focus, so to speak, is shooting threes, of which, you know, he took 156 three pointers this season for Perth and he took 291 total shots. So more than half his shots are threes. So if more than half your shots are threes,

obviously, your three point percentage is going to be closer to your field goal percentage. Like, oh, look, Devonte Graham's senior season at Kansas, I think he shot under 40%. It was right around 40% because most of his shots were threes, right? So that's kind of part of it with with Henshaw. So I wouldn't pay attention to that necessarily too much. When you look at the highlights for Henshaw, though, you end up with somebody who has a very good pull up game. He uses that in transition. He uses it off the dribble. He uses it off of pick and roll. He uses it in the mid range. He uses it from three very good pull up game diverse there. It also shows itself I think in the form of a strong floater. Very good floater game and what he's able to do. He also can play and shoot off the ball. Like he's not just an on the

ball player. Very good off the ball and can get threes off over hands as well. Like this isn't just a player who's only shooting wide open threes on spot ups, he can get a corner three and a guy can have a pretty good contest where he's got a hand in his face, even through the contest after he was initially open and he still knocks it down. So that's something you like to see. He also shows that he can shoot it from very deep range. I think some of the highlights show he works well off handoffs too, which is obviously a good thing for Bills self system.

We know that the chop play, the weave play that they like to run. So you got to be able to work off those handoffs looks pretty fast when he gets in the open court specifically, like he looks like he can pick up some speed. He clearly has good quickness. We'll mention we'll get to that in the NBA combine part of it. And then he's a good passer in pick and roll. I would say, you know, two and a half assists per game, really the last couple of seasons as a secondary ball handler handler like solid stuff there, especially when you're playing closer to 20 minutes per game. But good passer on pick and roll, good passer on the dribble drive and a good secondary kind of initiator and creator for you. Let's get into how he did at the NBA Draft Combine, how he would fit in with KU next. This is Locked on J-Hawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

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every so often I run into somebody who sees me on the street, so to speak. And it's like, Oh, are you the guy from Locked on Jayhawks? And shout out Asa for making mention of that. But yeah, so I was looking actually at the Perth roster, so to speak, and it's not really anybody that I recognize. Dylan Windler would be the one. Oh, Christian Doolittle, he played at Oklahoma. Those guys are on the roster for them.

But it ends up being kind of an older roster in general for a lot of these teams. And you know, to even be part of the rotation, if you're playing 20 minutes per game in the Australian League, probably means you can play 20 minutes per game for Kansas, right? Now, as far as how he tested the NBA draft, this was back on February 27th for what it's worth. Sam Vassini on February 27th had his, this was Sam's, the reason I'm mentioning one from February, you know, that's so long ago. Sam has released mock drafts since then,

but he hasn't released a top 100 big board since then on the athletic and on the most recent of that, Ben Henshaw was 58th on the top 100 list. Now I haven't seen him pop up in one of the mock drafts since, so maybe he's closer to 65th, 70th, something like that, but still, if you can add a possible top 70 player, that would be pretty cool, wouldn't it, right? Here's some NBA draft,

Scouter Reports draft digest says, the poise Henshaw plays with is impressive. His solid positional size and great foundation makes good decisions and has deep range from beyond the arc. On the defensive end, it will be interesting to see how his effectiveness translates. That's the side of floor that's the most difficult to project. NBA Draft Room says,

Henshaw is a nice prospect who flashes some NBA level skills. He's got a good frame and size and a good looking three-point stroke. He has a nice pull-up game to go with his outside shot, is a heavy defender, or a heady defender, excuse me, shows good awareness and gives good effort, but doesn't project as a high level defender at the NBA level. Sounds like somebody who maybe not gonna be the best defender

at the NBA level, but at the college level can be a good defender. I think he can be a good defender at the college level for sure, because okay, let's get into how he tested. Six, five and a half without shoes. So that's third among the 25 guards who tested and again, that means basically in shoes, he's 6667. So if we're talking about defense length does

matter, he would be long on the defense vent. 6 6 and a half wingspan, that's 19th of 25 guards. So does not have very long arms that would not help you on the defensive end, but he is tall. Eight foot three and a half standing reach that is tied ninth among 25 guards. So he can know you know, he's above average in that regard. Very small hands though, eight inch hand length, which tied last among guards and eight inch hand width, which tied last among all 71 players who measured

at the NBA draft combine. So tiny hands, but maybe that helps him shoot the basketball. I don't know, we keep it consistent. His athletic testing, this is why I think he can be a good defender. You combine him being basically six, seven in shoes. He ran a 10.49 lane agility drill.

That is first among all 68 players who tested for the lane agility drill at the combine. That's obviously first among guards. So even some of the smaller guards who might be like six, three, six, four, they weren't as agile as Henshaw. And so what that tells me is you have a six, seven guy smaller guards who might be weren't as agile as Henshaw very quick and can shoot

He also ran a 3.00 second three point oh seven seco So again, I think some of the agility comes in there. He had a thirty-inch standing vertical that's fifteenth of twenty-five guards and then he had a thirty-six and a half inch max vertical which is sixth among twenty-five guards and twelfth among everybody of the sixty-eight who did the max vert at the combat. So what you have here is you have a player who is tall, has a good standing reach,

has small hands and a short wingspan, has excellent quickness, has a very good max vertical, so on a running start, not the best jumper just from standing still though. It's kind of a weird amalgamation there, but there are some very good athletic traits nonetheless. Now as far as the shooting drills at the NBA draft combat, you would think you would excel at these based on his profile and he did very well. 23 of 30 off the dribble, which tied eighth among all 72 players there.

It also tied fourth among the 25 guards that participated. He was 14 of 25 in spot up. So that wasn't as great tied 18th of 25 guards. But again, you watch his highlights and he's hitting a lot of spot up threes like I don't think like that could just be one bad day

where normally you go sixteen of twenty-five and you had fourteen. I don't know. He also was ten of ten on his free throws. He was one of sixteen players to make all ten of his free throws. So you have again a player who is a good shooter and again thirty-three percent at the NBL where you're getting pushed by guys who are ten years older than you when you're coming off screens and stuff. 33% at the NBL and theoretically you get better at it as you get older. That could be 35, 36,

37, 38% at Kansas, right from three especially because it's gonna be I guess would it be a shorter three-point line? I don't actually know there. Very good free throw shooter. He can operate with the ball. He can play off the ball. He has three-point line? I don't actually know there. Very good free throw shooter. He can operate with the ball. He can play off the ball. He has very good quickness that you don't have to worry about

the athleticism. He continues the theme of kind of height on the team. I think he's a very fun player. Again, I don't know that he fits in as well as maybe an Avdolis or Radunovic, but let's talk about that fit coming up

next right here with Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on this coming up next. We'll talk about that fit coming up next right here with Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the show. Don't forget if you haven't already and thank you to everydayers who already have. We had an episode doing a deep

dive on Neoclass Abdollah. We uh we had some other content talking about the KU basketball offseason. What still needs to be done and plenty more coming at you uh here on Lockdown Jayhawks tomorrow's episode for Friday

to get you ready for KU baseball making the NCAA tournament. We have a preview episode previewing their pod with Arkansas Creighton North Dakota State and then obviously Kansas. We're going to talk a little bit about it. Break

down the stats and also we're going to be joined on that episode by uh the voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney. So you're not going to want to miss that episode and again, thank you to every dayers who already caught all these episodes or will catch the upcoming episodes. Okay. So how would Ben Henshaw fit in with Bill Self and the KU basketball team? Well, first of all, let's start. What would he add? Shooting. This is a Kansas team

that is in need of more shooting and this guy who's taken a lot of three-pointers. Again, you're talking about basically a little over a hundred and fifty threes and thirty-five games this past season, you know, four or five three-point attempts per game thirty-three percent you scale that down to playing at the collegiate level you add in another year of him working on his shot and getting older and getting more consistent getting

better at it. You also add in the fact that, I mean, just in general, like if you're taking four or five threes per game in 18 to 20 minutes, I mean, that scales out to in like a 30 minute period where you're taking like seven threes per game. What does that tell you? He's taking a high volume of shots. Some of those shots are going to be difficult because he's basically, if you're taking a high volume of shots, that means your team needs you to take a lot of shots. And so other teams are going to key on you in the scouting report, right? And so that makes it more impressive that a 33% on his volume of threes might be better than somebody who's taken, you know, two threes per game and is shooting 36%. So all this tells you

that he is a good three point shooter that if he came to Kansas I think a very fair expectation would be to be above a 35% three point shooter which right now how many of those guys can you reliably say is on this Kansas roster? Jaden Dawson he was right around there maybe Darren Peterson but again if he shot 34% from three that wouldn't be crazy I don't know you don't have a lot of obvious answers to that and I think Henshaw to me if he joined Kansas would be the best three point shooter on the team so he would add shooting to the team.

Obviously he would add free throw shooting. That would be good for for late game situations. He would add more scoring to the team. Again, you're talking about 11 points per game two years ago, nine points per game last year, and about 24 minutes per game. So again, if you're talking,

if he ends up playing closer to 30 minutes per game, you know, maybe that's around 12 points per game somewhere in that range, right? But again, that's against the NBL. You factor that into college, maybe he could be a 14 or 15 point per game score, something that Bill Self mentioned in that recent athletic article from CJ Moore that he is kind of looking for. So he'd give you 12 to 14 points per game. I think he would give you more scoring. He would give you more ball handling, right? I think you could play him at the three because of his six, seven size and him playing at the three, but still having guard quickness. That'd be an awesome thing for the defensive end. It would continue your positional size. It would continue your positional

versatility. It would give you another option to handle the ball when Darren Peterson goes to the bench. It would also just give you another option who can pass, who can be a good teammate who can move the ball. And you basically would have a three point guard line like if you have a lineup out there with Darren Peterson next to either Council or Marco, and then Henshaw at the three, that's essentially three point guards in some way, like in some way, Henshaw is a little bit like Zeke Mayo, to where Zeke Mayo was this six, five bigger guard. Henshaw is a little bit like Zeke Mayo. To where Zeke Mayo was this 6'5", bigger guard.

Henshaw's even bigger than that. Again, 6'5", and a half without shoes for Henshaw. I think Zeke was a more proven shooter and probably an even better shooter than Henshaw. But with Henshaw, I think you have even more to the game. You have even more because of the quickness and even more athleticism than I think Mayo had to where you could view it

that way again, like he would basically be Mayo at times was the three for Kansas. And I think that's how it would be with Henshaw. Now Henshaw has been a good rebounder. Like I said, I don't know that you want him playing much for with a six, six wingspan, but a good rebounder for three. So if you are having to not have a lot of good four options, you want your one through three guards to be able to rebound and Henshaw I think would add that to the table as well. Now what he wouldn't add is again another

true wing, somebody who can play the four. We mentioned this earlier, you don't have a ton of guys on this team that can play the four, right? So Mies Calderon might be able to but is he going to even be part of the rotation? Is he going to be ready yet for that? Maybe he will and maybe his athleticism will show out and he'll be, you know, a great player right away for KU. But it seems like some of the scouting reports have mentioned him being more of a developmental guy. And if he's a developmental guy, you know, maybe this year is more about development

and he's not in the rotation for another year or two. With Bryson Tiller, yeah, you can play him a little bit at the fore because he's a very skilled big man, play him next to Flory. And I think that will happen for stretches for KU. But I also don't think Kansas wants to play primary to big lineups. So that's only going to be a kind of change up a curveball lineup. Right. And so now it's just OK, well, Trey White, are you going to play 30 minutes per game at the four? What happens if you get in foul trouble or injury? Then who plays the rest of the minutes of the four?

And that becomes the problem with Ben Henshaw. Now, the quick workaround to that is if you just bring on Ben Henshaw, you just say, hey, we still have two scholarships remaining at that point. We'll use one of them on a backup big, we'll use the other on a backup wing. We'll just use the other on either a backup wing or a power forward, right? That's something you can absolutely do, and I wouldn't hate that because I do love me some Ben Henshaw.

So overall, I do still think I would rank if I had my international prospect. I'd probably have Avdolos number one. Again, I'm still think I would rank if I had my international prospect. I'd probably have Avdolos number one. Again, I'm kind of floating around. I haven't done a deep dive yet on Marco Radunovic. We'll do that on an upcoming episode. He could be number one, number two, number three. He'd be in that range just on surface look of Radunovic.

But Henshaw would be in the top three for me in terms of the impact I think he can have, how good of a player I think he is, and some of the things he could bring to the table. It just would be perfect if he could also play the four. I just don't know how much of that is necessarily the case. I guess you could say if there were lineups that KU throughout where Rylan Griffin was the four Henshaw is actually better suited to play the four than like Rylan Griffin was.

So maybe it could be doable here or there. And again, I do love me some men Henshaw and I do think wherever he goes, if it is Texas Tech, if it is Florida, to get a job. Maybe it could doable here or there and again, I do love me some men and I do think wherever he goes, if it is Texas Tech, if it is Florida, if if Kansas could swoop in and get him, I do think this is

going to be a very productive player at the collegiate level. Now, is it all going to work out? Will he wind up at college? Will he stay in the draft like those are all questions that kind of remain here but if he does come to college and if it

does work out, I wouldn't hate Kansas getting involved. Alright, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll see you on Friday's episode. You're not going to want to miss it. Join by voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney, talking some KU baseball, previewing their NCAA tournament appearance, first tournament

appearance since 2014. Can they upset the Razorbacks of Arkansas? See you next time with LOJ.