Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Bill Self Doubles Down: Zeke Mayo One of Kansas Jayhawks Bball's Best + KU Football Position Ranks

Starting point is 00:00:00 Locked on Jayhawks, Bill Self doubles down. Zeke Mayo, the best player on the team, question mark? You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJhawksonradio. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making LOD your first listen every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making LOD your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Thank you for the everydayers tuning in to each and every show. And we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We have the actual right graphic template today on YouTube. So apologies for that on the last show. But we're going to graphic template today on YouTube. So apologies for that on the last show, but we're going to be talking a little KU basketball today. Bill Self reiterating some interesting stuff on Zeke Mayo and some other interesting pieces about this year's team as we're less than three weeks away from late night in the fog. I think two weeks

Starting point is 00:00:58 from this upcoming Friday for late night for KU. We're also going to get into a little KU football here because I want to go over some pro football focus rankings about where KU ranks positionally in the conference and maybe what that can tell us or teach us for the rest of the season or for where things have kind of gone south for KU to this point in time. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, and you can make every moment more with FanDuel. Place your first $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Visit FanDuel.com to get started today. I haven't been able to find Zeke Mayo futures on National Player of the Year, but maybe if you could find it, I don't know. I mean, if you can't find it, that probably means probably getting 250 to one odd, something like that. You know, maybe a little sprinkling in there. But we talked about the podcast that Bill Self went on with Seth Davis and he mentioned Zeke Mayo as being the best player that they've had so far.

Starting point is 00:01:53 And it wasn't totally clear the context of it, of if he was talking about, because the question that was asked was about newcomers, was he talking about he's been the best player among newcomers or he's been the best player overall. And even if it is just the newcomers, it would be a significant comment to make. Also, could it have been, you know, some way of trying to boost his confidence or trying to force somebody else who's gone in competition with him to really refocus and bear down and, you know, compete even harder, whatever it is.

Starting point is 00:02:21 Like those things are all possible from a coach. But now that has happened again, which Bill Self went on the Jeff Goodman podcast. He does a podcast with Robbie Hummel, former Purdue player. And he reiterated that Zeke Mayo has like been their best player. And so now that you have it twice, now that you have this reiteration of it,

Starting point is 00:02:41 I think it almost cements the idea that this is real, that Zeke Mayo is translating, that with Zeke Mayo, I think you expect him to be a starter, so much so that Bill Self even said, quote, be hard to keep Juan, KJ, although he might have said AJ. I'm not totally sure if he said KJ or AJ. I think he said KJ, though, but be'd be hard to keep one KJ, Hunt, and Zeke Mayo out of the lineup. That was talking about predicting the starting five. And then you'd be left with the fifth starter, which, again,

Starting point is 00:03:13 if he said KJ, I think you'd assume it'd be AJ, but who knows? Maybe it could be Rylan Griffin. Maybe it could be somebody else. If he did say AJ, then that opens up an interesting possibility of, do you play an extra guard? But I don't think that's what he said. But he said Zeke's been our most consistent best guy since June. So maybe that first portion when he first joined the team,

Starting point is 00:03:34 maybe there were a few weeks where it was getting accustomed to Big 12 play, to Kansas, to everything. Since then, he has been the guy. And Bill Self also mentioned it'd be nice to stretch the defense around Hunt. Zeke provides that as much as anybody, right? They have a bunch of good three-point shooters on the team, and we already knew that Zeke Mayo was going to be an elite three-point shooter. The question was going to be, did he translate over in terms of the other stuff too, right?

Starting point is 00:03:58 I mean, he's been a good rebounder. If he's your secondary passer, ball handler next to DeJuan, you're totally cool with that because guess what? He was successful at that as a freshman playing next to Baylor Shireman at South Dakota State. And beyond that, it gives you another passer and ball handler on the floor. But if this continues to be a thing that he's talking about, he's been their best player to this point, what does that look like? Because to me, there's a very, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:04:25 the size is a little bit different. Like Zeke is an inch or two taller than this guy I'm about to bring up. But this other guy I'm about to bring up has, I think, more quickness to him, a lot more quickness to him, probably more speed to him. But in terms of just being a combo point guard, shooting guard type, you can slide into either role who can get your own shot off the bounce shoot really deep from three-point range hit threes at a high volume

Starting point is 00:04:51 shake and bait guys sounds a little bit like Devante Graham and that's the the you know ultimate outcome uh for Zeke Mayo here but again the point is if he is being their best player which Bill Self has now reiterated twice that's kind of the prototype of what you're looking at and if you're looking at adding a Devontae Graham type to a team that has an all-American big man to a team that has a pass first point guard who's good at the other stuff but isn't the best scorer in the world to a team that has all these other pieces isn't that kind of just the perfect fit so um maybe the closer we get it's not just that we're predicting Zeke Mayo to be in the starting lineup as Bill South even said there to kind of you know confirm that but maybe we're getting closer to like like if I'm picking who's going to lead Kansas in

Starting point is 00:05:38 scoring it's Hunter Dickinson but if we're having the conversation who's going to lead Kansas in scoring besides Hunter Dickinson who's going to lead Kansas in scoring besides Hunter Dickinson? Who's going to lead Kansas scoring among the perimeter players? I've always just kind of penciled in A.J. Storr to that conversation. Maybe it is Zeke Mayo. Now, he did – there were very interesting comments about A.J. Storr. Again, if you go back to the comment about the starters, it's possible he said A.J. instead of K.J. I thought he said K.J. though, but he said in talking about A.J. Storr, I think there's a reason he didn't list the fifth starter. I think it probably will be A.J. I thought he said KJ though, but he said in talking about AJ Storr, I think there's a reason

Starting point is 00:06:06 he didn't list the fifth starter. I think it probably will be AJ Storr. This feels like to me playing the mental warfare game. If you're Bill Self, right? Not trying to guarantee that AJ Storr's coming in, he's a really good player, but Bill Self wants to take him from being a good player to being a great player. And he sees that potential in him. And he sees a guy who can already be a good player scoring the ball, but can he be a good player in these other areas? And that's what I think Bill Self is trying to do by not giving him that, hey, you're being the starting lineup right now. Because he also mentioned as part of this podcast that he thinks AJ Storch should be the best offensive rebounder in the country, right? Because he thinks that he's a good wing that's super athletic, that's strong. He should be a great offensive rebounder.

Starting point is 00:06:48 And he said, I don't know that he's thinking that yet. He also said he should be a tremendous defender. Again, if you have the idea of this AJ Stor, who's, you know, 6'5", 6'6", whatever he is, who's a power wing, he's got good speed. He's got super powerful athleticism. He can jump up. Why shouldn't you be a good defender who can defend threes and fours and really make an impact? And he kind of talked about that, you know, he should be somebody who, hey, if you're NBA scouts, like you already know you can score the basketball, but what's going to, you know, light somebody's eyes up is, oh, you missed the shot. Now you're pressing the guy for 90 feet down the court because you have the ability to do that.

Starting point is 00:07:28 And so I found that very interesting with A.J. Storr in the standpoint of you can tell Bill Self is playing that game with him, as all great coaches do, because he sees it that A.J. Storr is comfortable being good, but he's trying to take A.J. Storr to that next level. So at the end of the day, I expect A.J. Storr to start, but I think he's definitely trying to. And I think it makes to that next level. So at the end of the day, I expect A.J. Storr to start, but I think he's definitely trying to.

Starting point is 00:07:47 And I think it makes sense for KU. You know, we talked about this. Like, for KU to be a better team, it's not just about the scoring and the three-point shooting, but it is about the defense. And if A.J. Storr is not a good defender, you know, that's going to certainly hurt a lineup that we saw struggle defending pick and rolls with Hunter Dickinson at the five. And if Zeke

Starting point is 00:08:05 Mayo isn't the most athletic player in the world, like I don't know that he's going to be a great defender. So if AJ store is not a good defender, it makes things a little bit more difficult on that end and like rebounding basketball, right? If KJ is not improved as a rebounder, then you're really putting pressure on the guy who's playing the three, which would be AJ store to be a good rebounder in the same vein that like Kevin McCuller was right. To kind of make up for some of that a little bit, because Hunter Dickinson is going to be a good defensive rebounder machine for your team overall,

Starting point is 00:08:35 but who else can be that good offensive rebounder, which Bill self kind of talked about. So those are some other interesting comments. He also reiterated wanting the eight starters. That's kind of been a constant theme all off season that if something happens to somebody that they still have a player they can bring in that they're good enough to start at Kansas. He added to that that it's going to be more productive for DeJuan Harris, for KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson, if they're not playing 36 to 37 minutes a night. He said, let's get their numbers down a little bit. And that's what we did

Starting point is 00:09:03 when we last projected the lineup. So I think that kind of makes sense more and more as we did that. And then the last interesting comment that I wanted to at least touch on real quick, he mentioned Ricky's pass more as an Ochagbashi type, but he said he won't quite be there as a freshman. He said, it's going to take some time. So our last projection, we didn't necessarily have him getting minutes. We gave minutes to spot minutes. I think if you're looking at the spot minutes that are going to be available for KU per game that, you know, eight of the spot minutes could go to this guy one night, four of the spot minutes could go to this guy or, you know, all whatever allocation of spot minutes could go to this guy each and every night, whatever it is.

Starting point is 00:09:37 I think if you're looking at the pecking order of who could get those spot minutes, you probably would slide Ricky's pass more down, maybe below like David Coyton, Zach Clements in terms of what's the hierarchy, what's the pecking order here out of all this. But it doesn't change at all that I think Ricky's Passmore is going to be a tremendous player should he stick around at Kansas. All right, let's get on to where KU ranks positionally in the Big 12 in football and offense and defense according to pro football focus and what it can kind of tell us because I think there's some interesting rankings here for KU football. This episode of the show is brought to you by Roy, and it's time to highlight my Roy Player of the Week. Roy is a new platform that lets fans make contributions directly to their favorite athletes.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Download Roy for iOS or Android and enter a referral code, locked on, and you'll automatically be entered into a sweepstakes 25K cash. No purchase necessary void or prohibited this week we've selected Bryce Cabledew you know last week we picked Devin Neal for this uh very deserved not just for season game all that stuff career with Bryce Cabledew he had an excellent game he graded over 90 overall on pro football focus last week helping protect Jalen Daniels and for Cable Dew he had an awesome game in protection overall but it's not just about that you know sometimes all the skilled players

Starting point is 00:10:50 get all the shine let's give a little love to the uh the the offense alignment up front so if you were impressed as I was with his performance on Saturday or somebody else's you can show him love too just hop on Roy and throw in a few bucks if everyone pitches in just 10 bucks that's a pretty fast for Bryce Cable do or whoever else. Now you have the chance to show your appreciation for again, Bryce Cable do or any other players you want to talk about their standout performance as well as we'll continue to bring to the program, get off the sidelines and get into the NIL game with Roy.

Starting point is 00:11:23 Thanks to the everydayers tuning in to each and every episode. Thank you to you for listening. If this is your first time, please subscribe if you could. Okay, so we're going to get into a little KU football talk here. Where KU football ranks different positions compared to their big 12 counterparts? Because it's one thing when you hear me going over the pro football focus scores or talking about, hey, this player is this great. How does that compare to the rest of the conference to give you an idea about what's happening for KU? Well, let's start with quarterback. Jalen Daniels, it does not rank very well, as you'd imagine, 14th in the conference in total QBR. So again, not great, but you could have obviously told that with your own eyes. Running back, Devin Neal ranks fourth. Daniel Hyshaw ranks eighth.

Starting point is 00:12:06 That is among 24, so that's basically saying KU has two upper half starters in the Big 12. I also think Devin Neal, even at being ranked fourth, probably underrated, and I think a big reason why he is so good at vision and cutting and knowing when to cut and where to cut. It's one thing for if you're grading somebody, like if you're pro football focus, to be like, oh, this guy tangibly, he stiff-armed this guy, he spun by this guy, he broke a bunch of tackles.

Starting point is 00:12:28 It's a lot harder for them to give you a positive grade if you just had really good vision and you never had to get touched to begin with. But anyway, for the receivers, Luke Grimm ranks fifth in the conference, so he's having a really good year by that. I found this interesting. LJ Arnold's 28th, so about middle of the pack because there's 56 who are eligible by the snap counts here

Starting point is 00:12:48 Quentin Skinner's down to 53rd now how much of these receivers is being hurt by hey if you're not getting as many opportunities from the quarterback it's going to go down but like you know there's been some key drops in there from both those guys and Skinner and Arnold including this past week and so as much as Jalen has struggled, as much as Jeff Grimes has struggled, I do think the receiving core hasn't been as good as it was maybe a year ago or two seasons ago as the overall, as the whole. But how much of that, as we kind of talked about recently, is you lose your confidence, you lose your rhythm

Starting point is 00:13:20 when the quarterback is struggling, and then it's hard for you to get it back. I don't know. But overall in the country, KU receiving grade ranks 57th. That is 10th in the Big 12, and it is a far cry from where they ranked overall the last two years. As far as tight end, Jared Casey ranks eighth among 38 qualified in the Big 12. Trevor Cardell is 17th. So, you know, neither one of those is like outstanding, but you figure 16 teams in the Big 12, Casey's eighth puts you in the middle of the pack and then you have 17th so that basically means your second string tight end if

Starting point is 00:13:49 you viewed it as you know 1 through 16 was all starters for the big 12 teams that would basically mean you have the best backup so like theoretically that actually looks okay the unit might be better than you might expect based on the production or the lack of production we've seen in the passing game which tells me performance focus actually it okay, probably is more about the offensive coordinator, the quarterback, not getting them involved than it is on them necessarily. What about the center position? Okay, this one I found interesting. I actually tweeted this out the other day, but the KU offensive line, astoundingly great grades on Pro Football Focus right now. Bryce Foster's the number one center

Starting point is 00:14:25 in the Big 12. Michael Ford is the number one guard in the Big 12. And then you have Kobe Baines, who is sixth for guards. He's ranked among 37 qualified. So if both your guards are top six, that's great. Your tackle, Logan Brown, is third. Bryce Cabellew, after that awesome performance last week, is ranked fifth. All of your offensive linemen are ranked in the top six of their position. And when you're looking at the guard and tackle spots, think about it. That's two guards and two tackles for each team. So it's not just 16 starters. It's 32 starters across the Big 12 plus any backups that are rotating in.

Starting point is 00:14:56 That's remarkable. And overall right now, Kansas is sixth in Big 12 pass blocking, first in run blocking. This offensive line has been great. I don't know if it's been quite as good as it was a season ago because he had Dom Poonie, but it's been pretty darn good. And so I think when you look at it and go, okay, then what's the issue here? If the offensive line is blocking really well, the running backs are playing well.

Starting point is 00:15:20 The receivers haven't been as good, but Luke Grimm still grades out well. The tight ends actually grade out okay. Again, this all circles back to the passing game, the quarterback, the offensive coordinator, whatever is causing that issue, whether it's a combination of both or more blame to one guy, it's killing everything. Because even from the blocking perspective, if the other team loads the box all five ku offense alignment could get a positive grade on a running play and it could only get like five yards because they block the guy they're supposed to but there's too many guys in the box that they can't block two guys each and then you end up with a five yard gain on a play where if you're passing the ball well maybe

Starting point is 00:15:58 there's six or seven guys in the box and then maybe that's a 10 yard pickup maybe that's a 15 yard pickup maybe that's a 60 yard touchdown i don't know let's get to the defense side of the ball though too before we get to uh more overarching takeaways today's episode is brought to you by fanduel sportsbook hey nfl fans you can start the season with a big return on fanduel america's number one sportsbook so when you get a hunch in the middle of the game you can check out the latest stats view live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets

Starting point is 00:16:31 guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet that is at fanduel.com you can get early futures for KU basketball for national player of the year if you think KU is going to pull the upset this week at Arizona State you can bet on that player Player props for the game. Chiefs on Monday Night Football against the Saints.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Playoff baseball. Bobby Witt to hit a home run. Or, you know, Seth Lugo to have over strikeouts. Make a parlay. Make a combination. Have fun with it at Fanduel.com, the official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Podcast Network. I'm finishing things up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:17:05 We just got to the offensive side of the ball where they rank compared to the Big 12. What about the defensive side of the ball? So as far as the interior defense alignment, how about this one? Blake Harreld ranks sixth in the Big 12 right now. Tommy Dunn ranks 10th. Keenan Caldwell ranks 18th. Now, DJ Withers ranks 21st.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Caleb Taylor ranks 27th. So that is among 57 qualified on the interior D-line. So a couple of takeaways there. One, the fact that Harold, Dunn, and Caldwell are your three highest graded, and those are your three lowest in snaps on the interior of the D-line. Does that mean that they're putting the wrong guys in more often than the rest? Or does it mean it's easier to be efficient if you're playing less snaps? I probably lean toward that because the grades aren't all that different. Like think about it this way. You see players all the time, like college basketball, for instance, a guy might average 10, 12 points per game. They're not being asked to do as much,

Starting point is 00:17:59 right? That might be the fourth score on the team, the third score on the team. And they might be shooting like, you know, 40% from three, 50% from the four. Then the next year, the top two guys in front of them graduate. What typically happens? That guy sees his points per game go up. Maybe he gets up to 18 points per game, but you see the efficiency drop. Maybe it goes down to 36% from three. Maybe it goes down to 45% from the field because you're having to take tougher shots.

Starting point is 00:18:20 You're having to take a bigger load, more volume. Teams are keen on you more. That's kind of probably how this is going. It's easier if you're a defensive tackle to give a hundred percent effort each and every play. If you're playing 15 snaps, 20 snaps, then it probably is if you're playing 30 or 40, but I do find that interesting, but nonetheless, the overall takeaway is that 57 qualified. That means all five of KUSD tackles in the rotation are in the top half of the qualified defensive tackles in the Big 12. That's actually like really impressive. So that unit has actually been very good for KU. As far

Starting point is 00:18:50 as the edge, doesn't grade nearly as well. Jeremy Robinson's 23rd. Dylan Woodkey is 33rd. Dean Miller's 37th and DJ Warner is 50th. That is a 57 qualified. One thing I find interesting here though is between Warner and Miller so Miller's PFF grades in the four FBS games is a 60.1 it drops down a little bit because his best game was against Lindenwood for Warner in those four FBS games it's 56.2 so you're getting a little bit closer between the two of them but over the last two weeks Dean Miller has a 56.2 PFF grade. If you just averaged out the previous two, DJ Warner has a 58.9. I don't think it's going to be long before we start seeing DJ Warner playing more than Dean Miller at some point in time, the way this is kind of going. But yeah, that unit, you're not getting as much as you might have hoped.

Starting point is 00:19:40 Linebacker, JB Brown's ranked fourth in the Big 12. Cornell Wheeler is sixth. And then this is the bad one. Tywin Berryhill is ranked 50th of 50 linebackers in the Big 12. Yeah, just sigh. And you hope Cornell Wheeler gets healthy soon. Corner, Colby Bryant's ranked eighth. Mello Dotson's ranked 20th.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Those are both still solid. There's a lot of corners that are eligible for this, but still kind of underperforming given the true talent there. Is it a few bad games? Is it poor scheme? This is something we recently talked about. Like, is KU playing a scheme that benefits more average corners that helps protect them, whereas when you have really good corners,

Starting point is 00:20:21 you should play a more aggressive scheme on the outside? That's my opinion. But yeah, you probably could get a little bit more production there, but still that's not like a disaster or bad or anything. As far as safety, this leaves something very much to be desired. Marvin Great ranks well. He's above a 70 overall. There's a lot of highly graded safeties in the Big 12.

Starting point is 00:20:40 So that actually puts him 15th. But then you have Devin Dye, who's 41st. OJ Burrows, who's 46th, and Jalen Dye, who's 52nd. That is among 52 qualified. So it's been a rough year for the safeties, save Marvin Grant. You could probably argue, if you're looking at the worst position group of the team, it's probably between quarterback and safety right now.

Starting point is 00:21:01 I guess you could throw D-end, but I think there's at least a little bit more quality there. So maybe you wouldn't pick safety just because Marvin Grant's at least been good. But I don't know this exercise. We went through it. Like there were a lot of good grades for KU players. There were a lot of good ranks for KU players. And honestly, it just kind of leaves me more perplexed. It leaves me more optimistic in other ways that like, Hey, you still have a good team. Like the record, the wins will come eventually if you keep doing the right things. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:21:26 But also even more frustrated because they shouldn't be a one in 14. And kind of further clearing up the same thing that we've been talking about. That like, they are a passing game. They are, you know, good offensive play, good play calling away from having a much better record. If the Kansas could just pass the ball consistently

Starting point is 00:21:44 and be efficiently there, they'd be a really good team. But instead, it's kind of a giant mess. So you can have your own takeaways from that. And glass half full, glass half empty. But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back on tomorrow's show. A little more KU football, a little mailbag. And Jalen Daniels or Jeff Grimes?

Starting point is 00:22:05 Which of the two should be changed out first? We'll discuss that on tomorrow's episode. This has been LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Bill Self Doubles Down: Zeke Mayo One of Kansas Jayhawks Bball's Best + KU Football Position Ranks

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.