Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BILL SELF IS BACK | Kansas Jayhawks Offseason Gets Started with News of Returning Head Coach

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, the news finally broke. Bill Self is back for season number 24 in Lawrence. We're going to break down what it all means for KU, not just this year in the off season. Moving forward, we'll get into all of it as Bill Self is back. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:25 part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here with another episode of Locked on, on Jayhawks, thanks for making it your first listen every day. And on today's episode, Bill Self is officially back for another season with KU. We're going to break it all down. What's next on the offseason ledger?

Starting point is 00:00:44 What this means potentially for the roster and roster moves. We'll get to the biggest positives and potential questions that come with him coming back another year. And we'll just start right there with the news. This was tweeted out by KU Hoops. It's a letter, I guess, in graphic form from KU. Jayhawk Nation with renewed clarity and the ongoing support from our administration. I remain focused and committed to Kansas basketball competing for a national championship. I look forward to seeing and hearing the best fans in college basketball next season at Allen Fieldhouse.

Starting point is 00:01:16 And I found this whole thing very interesting. I mean, the part about being focused and committed to Kansas and how this wasn't a I'm coming back for one last year. This was I'm just focused and committed to, you know, basically saying I'm coming back. There's quotes about renewed clarity from self. And I think the one that really sticks out the most is the, quote, ongoing support from our administration, right? Because it seems like to me that is under the guise of, hey, I wanted to build up a nice bucket of money to be able to use in the transfer portal and this offseason. If I'm going to come back for another year, I want to do it right. You know, I want to make sure that.

Starting point is 00:02:02 that if we have another repeat of last off season when I wanted my final piece to be whatever, Darian Williams or Damesar, whoever, and I wasn't able to get them potentially for monetary purposes, I don't want that to happen. I'm getting all the guys that I want. And that's how I kind of read into that, that like that is going to kind of be the case. Now, what is the repercussion of that? I do think I know I've had some people reach out like, what do you think is going to happen with Brandon Schneider with Kay Williams basketball, kind of a disappointing season? They're going to renew it there because they're not going to pay the buyout potentially for that with having to pay more money here for this KU basketball season. Does it extend the hot seat of Lance Leopold

Starting point is 00:02:39 into it wouldn't really get hot until 2027, right? Those are probably quick reactions you could get to. But point being from the KU basketball perspective, it sounds like Bill Self is going to have everything that he could want from a resource perspective to put together a good offseason for Kansas here, right it's interesting too when you think back to how the season ended with the loss to st johns if they don't lose that way does he come back you know does that leave you wanting more both in terms of missing the second weekend once again and specifically how the game happened like i would be curious if k u actually beats st johns let's say el marco jackson makes a stop at the end k u goes in overtime and wins the game and then they lose the next game to a good duke team does bill self actually retire from the

Starting point is 00:03:25 standpoint of being like well we we made it back to the second weekend my final win was a really good one. It was a comeback win over Rick Petino, but because they lose the game, does it fuel him to come back? But again, going back to these quotes, there's nothing in here

Starting point is 00:03:36 that says anything about coming back for one more year, right? And I find that very interesting. It doesn't mean that it's not necessarily true. It could be one more year for Bill Self. But I find it interesting from a couple of reasons. One, I think we've all kind of just assumed that like Bill Self

Starting point is 00:03:52 doesn't want to be the Coach K type of guy who's getting this tour as everywhere he's going that, oh, congrats and, you know, all, everything becomes about Bill Self. He doesn't want it to become about Bill's self. So I think part of it is probably intentional there that if indeed he does want it to be his last season, he doesn't want to go out that way. But the other part of it to me is this. To me, it at least leaves the door open because he's 63.

Starting point is 00:04:16 Like we're seeing coaches in college about Rick Barnes is what in his 70s. I mean, Rick Petino's in his 70s. The only reason that self is or was, I guess, considering retirement to begin with, had more to do with the health stuff and, you know, convincing his family and doctors to come back. If Bill Self gets through this season fully healthy and he has fun doing it, who's to say that at the end of this season, Bill Self doesn't go, hey, we had a lot of success. I'm feeling healthy. I'm feeling good.

Starting point is 00:04:46 I'm still 64. Like other coaches could be coaching for another 10 years from where I'm at. I'm going to come back another year. Now, is that likely situation with the health stuff? Probably not. But like, I did find it interesting kind of the phrasing. to be like, hey, I think we can all, it's probably like a relatively safe assumption to be like one last ride for Bill Self, but I don't think it necessarily is, right? So let's get to some of the

Starting point is 00:05:09 biggest positives, biggest questions and how this has an impact on the roster, potentially with retaining players, potentially with bringing players in. We'll get at all that next on Locked on Jayhawks. I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball, and this is Mazda's Women's Basketball snapshot, celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. All four number one seeds, Yukon, UCLA, Texas, and South Carolina have completely dominated the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament. Yukon rolled with a 98 to 45 victory over Syracuse behind AZ Fudd, who had a 34-point explosion,

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Starting point is 00:07:30 the official sports partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thanks you for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. So Bill Self is back for another season at KU. And I mean, just like what are the biggest positives of this for KU? For one, the greatest coach in KU basketball history, a history that features a lot of great coaches,

Starting point is 00:07:50 is Bill Self. And so I think getting that opportunity to send him off right, as opposed to, you know, losing the way they did in the second round, that could obviously be a positive for KU and for Bill Self and everything like that. I think roster continuity has to be one of these. Now, we are in an era where you're not going to bring everybody back. There's going to be players transfer away. Some of them are going to be Bill self decisions. Some of them are going to be player decisions looking for greener pastures or whatever. But like, are you going to have more

Starting point is 00:08:23 player continuity? Are you going to have more roster continuity by having Bill Self back than by not having Bill Self back, yes. So how many players does that end up being? Is it going to be a couple? Is it going to be four or five versus if you didn't have Bill Self and you brought a new coach, would you have no returning players? You know what I mean? But it also goes to the recruiting class, right? If Bill Self were to retire and you would get a new coach, who's to say that Talen Kinney would still come to KU or Davian Adkins or whatever as part of these recruiting classes, and you don't know, they might. But at the end of the day, you would think this leads to a little bit more roster continuity for Kansas. Obviously, you have to find good players, and that's going to be the

Starting point is 00:09:00 biggest key here. But we do know that Bill Self's best teams have tended to err on the side of having a little bit more continuity over the other. But also, the best Bill Self teams tend to have really good players over the other. So it is kind of that walking line of the players where it's like, okay, like, yeah, you want to get floored but don't go back. What do you do with some of the guys who have struggled a little bit who would give you continuity, but haven't been, you know, necessarily as good. I think this also gives you the best shot at landing Tyron Stokes. it seems like Stokes has built a pretty good relationship with the KU current staff and who is, you know, there right now for Kansas. And so if self-ops not to retire, or I'm sorry, if self does retire, does Stokes just, you know, sign on the dotted line immediately to go to Kentucky?

Starting point is 00:09:48 But now that Bill Self is back, it seems like Bill Self has been fighting the good fight against Nike so far to try to land Tyron Stokes to this point in time. does this increase the likelihood that Kansas is going to potentially land stokes? I certainly think it increases the chance. And certainly like I would have viewed it this way. If Bill Self would have retired, I would have put the odds at KU landing, Tyron Stokes at less than 1%. Now that Bill Self is back,

Starting point is 00:10:15 I don't know. Is it a 50-50 decision? Is it above that? It seems like you look, I don't know. The Kentucky thing is difficult because you see Kentucky fans all over the internet and social media and there's con. Any player who has ever entered the transfer portal or who has ever been a good high school recruit is being linked to Kentucky and somewhere or another.

Starting point is 00:10:33 So who knows exactly. But this gives you your best shot at him. You now have more time to evaluate some of the coaching candidates for whenever Bill South does retire. And obviously from the standpoint of like Tommy Lloyd and Dusty May, guys that we felt like would have been a home run higher for KU had Bill Self retired, those guys you don't need the extra evaluation. And for certain guys, it becomes trickier. Like if we are going to talk about some of the questions of this, it's what's going to happen to the guys who maybe had lower buyouts. Is that going to get jumped up with their contract where they're going to be tougher to get in a year? But there are other coaches too who this benefits KU to get another year under the belt in terms of kind of evaluation.

Starting point is 00:11:13 Now, T.J. Othelberger was was pretty adamant about staying at Iowa State, but like what is he going to do after potentially losing, like, potentially like all of his starters. He's going to be losing a lot of good players. so this will be a good test, you know, to kind of evaluate him. What about Ryan Odom at Virginia? What if he has another good year after winning 30 games at Virginia? Does he shoot up the board? What about over at Iowa with Ben McCollum, right? Like, what if Ben McCollum misses the tournament next year without Bennett Sturts versus the flip side?

Starting point is 00:11:39 What if Ben McCollum gets a sixth seed after losing Bennett Sturts? Those can do different things to where you would view him on your coaching board. There are certain coaches, like Brian Hodgson, for instance, who has success, then goes to the USF, makes tournament in his first year. He's under 40 years old. He's going to Providence now. What if he kills it a Providence in your one? This gives you a little bit more time to evaluate your future coaching decisions and who you would potentially be interested in there to fill that position once Bill Self retires. And yeah, like I said, like maybe you lose a Tommy Lloyd to North Carolina, for instance, but in general now you would also not be having to bid against North Carolina

Starting point is 00:12:16 and higher in the same cycle as them. So I think all of those are good things for KU. Now, as far as some of the questions I have with Bill Self coming back. I think one of them is this. What is the offense going to look like? It's three straight years for KU that the offense has been outside the top 50 on Ken Palm. Is that a players thing? Is that a Bill Self thing? Is it a little bit of both? And what is it going to mean this off season? Again, going back to the quote Bill Self gave about the support from the administration, you think there's going to be a good amount of money for Bill Self to work within the transfer portal. What is he going to do with it? Because if he has the off season he had a couple years ago where you're just blowing that money on AJ store and Rylan and they're not good

Starting point is 00:12:54 fits for for KU, then it's not going to matter. But if you do have what you did this past off season mixed with a little bit more money, I do think that is a recipe for success. Because again, you hit on Melvin Council and Trey White. Yes, it didn't work with Jaden Dawson, but hitting on two of those three in that kind of price range is a good result for KU. Obviously, you would have liked to get more out of, you know, Cole Rosario, Jaden Dawson, from a three point percent. perspective. But at the end of the day, if we look back to last off season and say, like, again, going back to the idea that Bill Self just maybe wanted that one more addition, let's say they would have gotten Dary and Williams. I've talked a lot about this. I get it. Williams didn't have the

Starting point is 00:13:33 best defensive season or rebounding season. But what was the problem for KU this year? I mean, rebounding was a problem. But what was the other problem for KU was the offense, right? And Dary and Williams still scored. He still shot 40% from three. If you would have had Dary and Williams, which if you would have had more money, you probably would have had Darien Williams. Now all of a sudden, Bryson Tiller is becoming a super sub off the bench and he gets to show his,

Starting point is 00:13:55 like, I guess it's a little bit easier to be productive in a smaller role potentially for Tiller than being asked to play 25, 30 minutes every night, which he was and kind of hit that wall at the end of the season. There's a very real chance if KU lands Dary and Williams, that last off season would have been successful enough for KU to at least get a three seed, right?

Starting point is 00:14:13 And then you're not playing St. Johns, who came into that game winning like 20 of 21 games in the second round, right? And then maybe you are in the sweet 16. And then who knows what happens from that point on. So I do think if Bill Self follows the same path, he had this offseason, but now you have a little bit more money to land that one final extra edition. I do think that can work for KU, but it is a question. And at the end of the day, this is how I'm hoping it goes.

Starting point is 00:14:37 I think Bill Sell, they've had eight straight years in the top like 20 or 25, I forget on Ken Palm on defense. But now they've been three straight years. outside the top 50. I am hoping that Bill Self says, hey, I can still coach defense, you know, and especially if you're able to get Flory Bedunga back, say, I'm looking for offense so the players can carry the offense and my skills will carry the defense. That'll be a big question. How can you fix some of the deficiencies, the rebounding, the steel numbers defensively, the offense in general. So let's get a little bit to what the next steps are in the offseason for

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Starting point is 00:15:48 to begin. Futures and clears swap trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC, a registered future commission merchant and swap firm. Thanks for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. You can get the ad-free version of the show. Use code March to get it for free your first month. Lockdownpodcasts.com slash every day. All right, so Bill Self is back for another season. And what are the next steps in the offseason for KU? Well, now the next steps become who is back for KU. I do believe that Bill Self had, I don't know if they're still doing them, but I believe it had already started the exit interviews he would have with the player where they

Starting point is 00:16:29 would go over what are things you need to work on in the off season. What did you do well this year? What are areas you're looking to improve? Does it make sense for you to come back? Does it make sense for you to transfer and kind of go over some of those different things? So I think you'll start seeing some of those pour out. I'd imagine a bit of a holding pattern for some of the players to see if he was going to come back or not. Now that he is back, I bet you negotiations can kind of begin, right? So it's obviously a two-way street, which players want to transfer away from a standpoint of, I want a bigger role.

Starting point is 00:17:01 I want more opportunity. What players are going to transfer away? Because KU says, hey, we like you here at this price. But if you're asking for more money, you're gone. And so that player ends up being gone. And then what players are going to transfer away that Bill Self says, yeah, I think we just want the scholarship open or we want the money freed up, right? And that kind of becomes the big question.

Starting point is 00:17:19 Now, the one that everybody is going to be keeping an eye on the most is Flory Badunga, because Flory has options. He'd go to the NBA. He could transfer about any other team in the country, but he's probably going to have a very big price attached to it. Is there a number that Bill Self will see and go, that might be a little bit too high? Or with the enhanced, I don't know, administration gifts that he's basically being given here, is he just going to view it as no, I'm getting him back to be the backbone of the defense. and then that way we can just go all out on offensive players in the portal or something. Like, who knows what the idea and strategy is there.

Starting point is 00:17:54 That'll be the one that is, I think, most telling and pressing. I think the one that outside of that just becomes the most interesting to me is what on earth do you do with Bryson Tiller? Because, again, Self has had the most success with returning players and Tiller at least showed flashes. The flip side is, are we sure the Tiller personality and how he plays are a mesh with Bill Self? And again, it all comes down. it's no longer, you know, do you just want him back or not? It's do you want him back at that price?

Starting point is 00:18:22 What if the price is this? What if the price is that? Those things kind of come into play here, right? So they'll figure that out. And then kind of as part of that is Tyrant Soakes, question mark, what's going on there? When is he going to commit? Who is he going to commit to? And that has a huge impact on what they want to do the rest of the off season, because even

Starting point is 00:18:39 if Bill's love has more funds to work with, it still is a limited number, whatever that number ends up being this year. And so if you're if you're banking on, hey, we are hoping to land Tyrant Sokes. You have to have that money reserved in case he does come because what happens if you spend all your money on other transfer additions? And then Tyrant Stokes says, okay, I want to come there. And you're going, man, I wish we could have you, but we already spent all our money. You know, that would be a bad situation. So you're almost in a holding pattern waiting for what Tyron Stokes is going to decide.

Starting point is 00:19:12 Now, who are they going to target from there? I think from a player perspective, it makes sense to bring in another guard to play next to to Talen Kinney. Though I do think for you Lance Stokes, there is an element of Stokes being kind of a point forward on offense that maybe you could just go Stokes, um, Kinney as kind of offensively your two main guards and just bring in another wing or two more wings or depending if you want to play too big basketball or not, that's another decision they're going to have to make in the personnel department.

Starting point is 00:19:39 Um, and then filling out the depth, I would like to see them add at least one, if not two, like bench shooters, bench scores. It feels like that was kind of lost on this year's team. Obviously, they got a little bit of it from Jamari McDowell when they were playing in home games, but you didn't get enough of that in some of the other games. And then you're working to the visits and commits. Obviously, Tuesday, April 7th will be when the transfer portal opens up. Grad transfers can already visit.

Starting point is 00:20:02 Grad transfers can already commit. We saw that over at Tennessee. And then kind of amidst all of that is what's going to happen with the staff. Are any staff members going to leave for another position? Are any staff members going to be? retained versus not retained. What are they going to do from that perspective? So now a lot to come in the offseason, but we're at the exciting part now where we can say we are in the off season and the ball can get rolling because we know who the head coach is going to be and what to look for.

Starting point is 00:20:28 And as I continue to do these, you know, transfer portal deep dives, now I can, I've been kind of referencing it, but now I can like definitively be like, yeah, this is a bill self player. This is not a bill self player because we know he'll be the coach. All right, that'll do it for this episode of the show. We'll have another one breaking down the McDonald's All-Americans performance of Taylin Kinney, Tyrant Stokes, and more coming at you tomorrow. We'll have more player deep dives coming at you. If there's any player you specifically want to have a deep dive on, just hit us up on Twitter at LO underscore Jayhawks and we'll try to get around to that player as soon as possible. I'd see you next time on another edition of Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BILL SELF IS BACK | Kansas Jayhawks Offseason Gets Started with News of Returning Head Coach

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