Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BEST MOVE: Why Tyran Stokes Was the Jayhawks Top Choice Before Milan Momcilovic & Transfers Options

Starting point is 00:00:00 Even above some of the top portal players, Tyron Soakes was the biggest and best edition Bill Self could have made for Kansas. Plus, Cincinnati football like royally screwed over Kansas. You are locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. How's it going? Derek Johnson with another episode of L.O.J. And on today's episode, we'll get to some of the latest news.

Starting point is 00:00:32 KU. Women's Basketball making a portal edition. KU. Baseball, making some. school history. We'll get to Cincinnati football completely screwing over Kansas football and maybe some others as well. And we'll start right here with some of the latest offseason news and talking about Tyrant Stokes and why this was the biggest dish in KU could have made even over some of the big portal additions potentially that are out there. So if you missed it earlier, Tyron Stokes officially signed his deal with KU. And I would imagine he'll join for the summer. He was already out in Lawrence and doing kind of an event for a card company, you know, meeting and greetings.

Starting point is 00:01:05 students, I don't know if he was like signing stuff or whatnot, but kind of getting to know some of the different people. And I think there has been a bit of a, I don't know, it's a small subsect, but some KU fans wondering, you know, was there, is there any way that Kansas would be better off using the money they used on Stokes to go out and get one of the top transfer portal editions that are still out there? Just in terms of the known commodity at the collegiate level, right? whether you're talking about Ju-Karris or Milan-Mach-Chilevich or one of these guys that is still available in the transfer portal that is also going through the NBA draft process.

Starting point is 00:01:42 Now, I am a gigantic Alan Graves fan, and that would be the one that I think would test me the most personally, but I would still lean Stokes. And I do think it comes easier because positionality for that one. But I think one that a lot of KU fans would cling to would be the idea of, would KU be better off adding Milan-Mom-Chilevich as opposed to Tyrant Stokes. And I'm here to tell you, if you had the choice between the two in Kansas's position, you take Stokes. Now, I can see the argument in a specific team setting to take Mom Chilovich. Kansas is not one of those team settings to take Mom Chilovich, if that is the thing. Just to begin with, though, that's not really how this also works, where it is, you know, they're just both, like, this isn't The Bachelor where both of them are in the room and Bill Self is giving one of them the rows.

Starting point is 00:02:31 if you didn't get Tyron Stokes, you would be panicking, hoping that one of these transfer portal guys was not going to stay in the NBA draft process, that they were going to come out to college, the potentially you'd be having to pay even more money to lure them out of the NBA draft and get them back into college. Then you would even have to win that recruiting battle over potentially another school who would be looking to bring them in. So like, that's the thing. This isn't just an easy thing to be like, well,

Starting point is 00:03:01 Tyron Soakes or this player because that player might not have even wanted to come to you from the get-go or that player might just stay in the NBA draft process or that player might have a deal with another team. So that complicates it too and why this one makes even more sets. But here's my thing with like, like again, if we're comparing Stokes to Milan, Momchilovich, Momchilovich is the best three-point shooter in college basketball this year. He shot almost 50% on threes on high volume. And he's in the NBA draft process. So we'll see if he ends up, you know, staying in the the drop process coming off as good of a season as he had or he comes back to college for another year he's in the portal and i think with mom chilevich the three-point shooting isn't just elite in what

Starting point is 00:03:45 he's going to produce it is elite in that it really does create this level of gravity and floor openness for everybody else on the roster that makes things so much easier for your offense to operate And that is very appealing for an offense, right? And so like I said, I think for a certain team, you would be more interested in Milan-M-Chilovich than Tyrant Stokes. I'm trying to think a good example. Like Florida, for instance, right? If you're Florida and you already have all these guys coming back, you know, you got

Starting point is 00:04:17 Boogie Flann coming back, you got Thomas Hawk coming back, you got Alex Condon coming back. Well, Momchilovich can fit into a team like that and just space the floor even more for some already good players. and be kind of this super role player in a way, even though it would be on high usage from the amount of shots that he would be getting up, right? Like that makes sense. But for a team like Kansas who didn't have kind of the alpha dog,

Starting point is 00:04:41 like I'm high on Leroy Blighton and he might have a really good season for Kansas, like Taylin Kinney coming in, you know, there's big potential there. Keanu Dawes, I like his game. Kansas didn't really have the alpha dog coming on the team. And I don't mean that from a mentality standpoint. I mean that more from a who do you trust to be? be the number one option for your team and are they good enough aspect. I don't think Kansas had that guy. Ideally, Leroyd-Didon looks like one of those guys this year and he was at Toledo.

Starting point is 00:05:09 It's just you don't know how it's going to adjust, but you needed that guy for Kansas. And so Milan-Momchilovich, as excellent of a player as he is, he is basically the ultimate role player. And I don't say that from a derogatory way. I think he can be taken that way. you can be a role player that is a all-American player you know what I mean like you can be that good at your role um I guess point being like he he's not the driver but he's going to make everybody else live easier but if milan mom chilevich is your best player now he goes from being this off ball weapon to how do we get the ball in his hands at all all times how do we get the ball in his hands you know, at all moments.

Starting point is 00:05:54 And like, Iowa State had Joshua Jefferson, you know what I mean? They had two guards in Killian Toray and Tameen Lipsi that he is able to be the perfect, I guess role player is probably, you know, not enough there because he is so good, but the perfect complimentary piece, right, where he can compliment any type of player. But if he's your number one, the compliment goes away. And some of his best skills go away. He makes lives easier for the star player. And that's where Stokes comes in, where if Kansas has Milan Mom Chilovich,

Starting point is 00:06:31 teams are just going to face guard him and be like, okay, well, we'll just see if your other guys can beat us, you know? Let's see if Christian Reeves can beat us in the post and we'll just face guard Milan Mom Chilovich, you know? But with Stokes, you now get that go-to option on the offensive end of the floor. You get somebody as well who can create and handle the basketball and dish it out for others and that becomes the best combination of star and connective piece that kansas could have asked for plus you look at some of kansas's deficiencies from a season ago k u was not a good

Starting point is 00:07:03 rebounding team this past season you know and tyrant stokes is an excellent rebounder you know i'm on chelovitch is not a good rebounder so i keep going down the list and obviously there's other pros and other guys you could kind of do this with um like i said i love allen graves but what fits k u better the wing creator they needed a wing there you have you know, all these guys or Alan Graves, who you're going to, who is more of a power forward. So therefore, you're going to be playing one of Dawes or Graves either as a small ball five or you're going to be playing Graves, maybe a little out of position of the three. Like, it's just an easier fit with Tyron Stokes. You look at Duke Harris.

Starting point is 00:07:39 I just think Tyrant Sox is a better player than Duke Harris, just in general. And Harris isn't somebody who's going to get others involved, I think, as well as Tyrant Stokes. I think, you know, I don't know, with Duke Harris, maybe that one's more interesting. team because it's more of a like for like slashing wing style but i don't know i would just take tyron stokes kind of in that situation like it's it's not like juke harris was an all-american last year he put up good stats but it was not a very good wake forest team so i go down the list man and of course it's a risk um with a freshman and not a known commodity but you know what else is a risk taking a transfer portal player that's in the NBA draft process right now so i do think that that this was the

Starting point is 00:08:18 best possible addition kansas could have made even if you include in a world where they could have just it could have just been a bidding war and they could have chosen you know as a fantasy baseball draft where it was just hey we can choose any of these players for the same exact cost you know i still would take tyron stokes in that situation if you're k u he has the most potential he has the most all around game in my eyes from this view he fits exactly what kansas needed still on the roster um so yeah i think this was the right move all the way around um if he did have any questions about it all right Cincinnati football completely screwed over the KU football program along some others in the Big 12. We'll get to that next.

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Starting point is 00:09:53 Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed, sponsor jobs. Thanks you have for joining us here on Lockdown, Jayhawks. We get to some of the latest news, KU basketball, KU baseball. But right now, I'm going to tell you about how Cincinnati football put Kansas football in a darker place.

Starting point is 00:10:14 So if you've been under a rock or just been all focused in on KU basketball transfer portal, which is totally fine and Tyrant Soak stuff, Brendan Sorsby, who was the quarterback in Cincinnati last year, had a pretty good season. It's a big payday to go to Texas Tech. And he has now gone to like rehab for gambling. And there's been some gambling stuff that's come out, which obviously is not allowed when you're a college athlete that he was betting on games when he was redshirting at Indiana in some of the games that his team was playing in. Obviously, he wasn't playing in them, but that still is not allowed.

Starting point is 00:10:53 you still have inside information. I also think he was like under 21 when that was happening. So that's probably not going to be great for him either. And there were some other things that came up as part of this as well. And, you know, it's a frenzy for Texas Tech and obviously potentially changes. I mean, they're still going to have a super talented roster. But, you know, that could be the difference for Texas Tech and being a 10 or 11 win team, being a big 12 champion and being an eight or nine win team, you know. So it does have an impact on the big 12 title race, certainly. But I look at this from last year's perspective because the big question here was, you know, if you want to play the conspiracy game, did Cincinnati know about this, but they didn't do anything? But now that he

Starting point is 00:11:32 transferred away and went to tech, they self-reported it or something. Who knows? But this is not good for Cincinnati. This came out from Yahoo Sports earlier on Wednesday. The Cincinnati Athletic Department was alerted in August to QB Brendan Sorsby's gambling prior to the 2025 season and could face NCAA scrutiny according to Matt Hayes. Senior Associate Athletic. director, Zach Stipe, released statement saying Cincinnati Athletics has no comment at this time, which reads to me as, oh, no, we're screwed. Let's get the lawyers. That is very not good for Cincinnati because I don't know, like what's going to happen with, like, are they going to lose games? But here's why it really stinks for KU. If that report, because clearly again, they were notified

Starting point is 00:12:12 by it in August, right? Is that something where they should have sat him to do a internal investigation or just in general or reported it to the NCAA then. And I mean, I think the answer is probably yes. And how would that have affected the season for Cincinnati? Who knows? But I can tell you this much, Kansas wins the freaking Cincinnati game. I don't even know who the Cincinnati backup quarterback is. And KU's defense did not play well in that game against Cincinnati.

Starting point is 00:12:46 But I can tell you this, Brendan Sorsby played really well in that game. And again, there were some throws that he was making to go. guys that were just like wide open but there were still some plays in there where he had to make like a nice throw or throw while he was getting hit in the pocket or something like that and he made some really nice plays and i would just like to think that brend and sorsby's backup i mean breton soarsby's a guy who um if you would have came out in this NFL draft would have been either like late first or second round pick most likely um i'd like to think there would be a pretty sizable drop off to the backup and that he would have at least missed another throw or two that would have led to

Starting point is 00:13:19 Kansas winning that game. Again, Kansas' offense could not be stopped by Cincinnati. So I have confidence if Swordsby would not have been playing that season for Cincinnati and therefore the Kansas game, that Kansas would have beaten Cincinnati. And why does this all matter? Because that was the difference between Kansas making and missing a bowl game. Kansas got cheated out of making a bowl game. Seriously. Like if you win that game, you're six and six now. And I don't even know, like maybe you're even better than that because it felt like that was the beginning of the wheels falling off for Kansas a little bit. And the K-State loss with as, you know, kind of pitiful as it was, was a loss that it felt

Starting point is 00:13:58 like, okay, the wheels are fully off at this point. So maybe it wouldn't have mattered. Maybe you still finish six and six if you, you know, win the Cincinnati game and then everything from the K-state. But there's also a chance that the lack of confidence or the wheels falling off at the end of the season, if you know your bowl eligible earlier on, maybe you still have. hope and maybe you know Kansas does have a little extra umph or or lack of doubt in the back of your mind and wins one of these extra games that that were close for them right maybe it does end up leading

Starting point is 00:14:29 to a seven win season but again that's neither here nor there at the very least you beat cincinnati and you're a six and six team and you were going to a bowl game and you can say oh like well they could have accepted the bull bid at five and seven that they got offered and i agree they should have accepted the bull bid but at the end of the day they didn't and part of the reason why was They weren't expecting to get a bowl invitation. If they're six and six, they would have expected to get a bowl invitation. And I would imagine they would have taken at that point because they would have still been, you know, together as a team and not have disbanded, so to speak, right? I mean, that's serious damages.

Starting point is 00:15:07 This is not a Kansas program that's going to bowl games every year. This isn't Alabama where they're like, ah, we don't really care for it, five and seven or six and six. Like, either way, that's short of what our expectations are. For Kansas, a bull game is a huge freaking deal. I mean, think of the extra brand recognition you get of making a bowl game alone. Think of how it would have changed Jalen Daniels legacy. I mean, like getting back to a bowl game, like instead of going out with Utah being the last game, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:15:37 I guess it's possibly he could have opted out of the game. But then again, if you know your bowl eligible going into that Utah game, what if Jalen doesn't have as bad of a game as he had against Utah? because maybe the pressure's off because he knows, hey, we're going to a bowl game either way. Like, what if that was part of it, him throwing some of the interceptions? So, like, that changes potentially. Think of the extra practices for this team. Like, think of from a standpoint of some of the young guys or the players who are going to be asked to play a bigger role on this year's team,

Starting point is 00:16:03 how those extra practices and game reps could have potentially mattered coming into this offseason. And shoot, man, think about the recruiting aspect, whether you're talking high school recruiting of being able to make a bowl for the third time in four years of recruiting in the transfer portal even, to tell guys who are going to be one-year players, hey, we just made a bowl game this past season, and we want to get even better. But at least you have a better jumping off standpoint from where you were from a season ago. There's serious damage here from what Cincinnati did to the Kansas football program. And I don't know if there's any other teams on their schedule who also finished five and seven that they beat.

Starting point is 00:16:40 But at the very least, like there are other schools that, you know, probably feel like they could have had a better season if they would have had the Cincinnati win, that's for sure. And for Kansas specifically, I mean, missing a bowl game for a second straight year compared to making a bowl game for the third time in four years for a program that historically doesn't have a ton of bowl appearances. There's a huge difference for this Kansas football program. So yeah, that's not cool by Cincinnati to say the least. So reprimands on Travis Kelsey. Let's finish up with some of the latest news. KU Women's basketball has another new player.

Starting point is 00:17:15 KU baseball and KU softball continue rolling on. And some former KUJHawk news will get to all that next on Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks again for joining us here on Lockdown Jhawks. You can join the Everydayer Club to get the ad-free version of the show, locked on podcasts. Dot everyday or Lockdownjahawks. Dot supercast.com. Lockedjahawks.

Starting point is 00:17:37 Supercast. com. Kansas on a Wednesday, which becomes a really interesting Zoom call. So we're going to have a deep dive on Bashir coming out on Thursday morning, getting into his game, one of the best three-point shooters in the portal, also one of the worst defenders in the portal. So it is a polarizing potential addition for KU and among KU fans. So we'll get into that deep dive tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:18:04 Who knows if it is just KU really want Obdi Bashir or do they feel like victorious Miller is slow playing them and they're trying to heat that back up? and they're like, hey, well, we'll just go to this guy. Do they want both players potentially? You know, max out your bench with some former Big 12 starters. That'd be kind of a cool thing. So I'll keep an eye on that. But again, keep an eye out for that deep dive coming out on Thursday morning.

Starting point is 00:18:26 Meanwhile, KU Women's basketball got a new player in Michaela Cunningham. And this is, I think, the third transfer portal edition for KU so far. I think all of them have like roots in the local area. And Cunningham is from Salina. So again, a player coming back home. You know, I wonder how much, I can't, I'll put it this way. With the money that KU probably has had to use to make sure they retain Samaya Nichols and Jaliyah Davis, like that's going to be, they're going to carry your team in theory.

Starting point is 00:19:01 Between that and how much they've probably had to spend on some of these other sports, I don't know how much money Brandon Schneider has to throw around in the transfer portal. I think you're seeing that a little bit here with some of the transfer. again, getting players who are local who probably want to come back home to play. So you can probably get them a little bit cheaper here. None of these players were, you know, like all conference first team picks or something. But again, you have two players who have the potential to do that at Kansas already. So you are just trying to kind of fill out the roster in a way.

Starting point is 00:19:29 And this will be an interesting one with Cunningham. She's a 5 foot 10 junior guard. She will be a senior. It was just at Southern. So it is going to be jump up in competition. A good passer, 3.8 assists per game. Not much of a score, 5.4 points on just 3.3. 35 percent, but 1.8 steals per game. So you're getting defense and ball handling out of her.

Starting point is 00:19:49 And prior to being at Southern, she had two years at Lindenwood in the Missouri area where she averaged, you know, 7.6 points per game. Again, a steal and a half or more per game, around three assists per game. But not the biggest offensive player. I think basically what you're looking at now is between this and the Colorado edition. Maybe one of the two wins a starting spot and the other one comes off the bench and then you've got one of those guards next to some I Nichols you know you've got Jalia Davis in the post we'll see what happens at kind of the center position and some stuff there so roster continues to be fill out they have the Xavier edition that could be starting on the wing for them as well so I think it's coming together for

Starting point is 00:20:31 KU I don't think it's going to be like a top 10 roster anything like that but if if Davis and Nichols continue to get better and do what I think they can do this year it should at least be an NCAA tournament team. And then we got two teams that at this point should be NCAA tournament teams as well. KU softball won 10-0 against Wichita State. They're now sitting at 33 and 16 looking good right now as well. KU baseball won 14 to 1 against Wichita State. They're now sitting at 34 and 11 on the season and made a little bit of school history.

Starting point is 00:21:03 This is from KU stats and info. Kansas went a perfect 9-0 this year against their four regional opponents. Nebraska, they went 2-0, Wichita State 2-0, Missouri 2-0 and Kansas State 3-0. It is the first time ever in KU baseball history. So just add more history to what Dan Fitzgerald is doing. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Travis Goff has made some really excellent hires for the University of Kansas. I would argue Dan Fitzgerald is the best of those great hires that he has made for the University of Kansas.

Starting point is 00:21:35 This continues to do amazing, amazing things. last bit of news here, Corbin Allen, former Jayhawk, entered the portal weeks, I don't know, a week or two ago, whatever it was. He is now committed to Appalachian State. So it'll be interesting to watch him and, you know, root him on and cheer him on and hope he does the best. There was some, I think, rumors of how could he end up at like UMKC? Maybe you wanted to get away from home, but I think that'll be a good addition for Appalachian State. And I think he'll develop into a good player at that level of play. All right, that'll remember this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:22:06 So you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We can like and subscribe. Abdi Bashir Deep Dive coming tomorrow. And we'll see you then on L OJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BEST MOVE: Why Tyran Stokes Was the Jayhawks Top Choice Before Milan Momcilovic & Transfers Options

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