Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BOOGIE TIME? Could Jayhawks Try for Arkansas Transfer Guard Boogie Fland and How Would He Fit at KU?

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Boogie Fland's potential move to the Kansas Jayhawks could redefine the team's strategy. Could this be the game-changer Kansas basketball needs even though he's not a wing? With Fland's impressive sta...ts from Arkansas, including 13.5 points and 5.1 assists per game, his addition might just be the spark for a dynamic three-guard lineup, but would also lead to several questions. Host Derek Johnson breaks down Fland's strengths, like his quickness and defensive prowess, while weighing the impact on current players like Melvin Council and Elmarko Jackson. The episode also touches on international prospects Dame Sarr, Luka Skoric and Ivan Bogdanovic, adding depth to the recruiting conversation. Plus, a Kansas baseball update highlights Dominic Voegele's standout performance against West Virginia. Tune in for a comprehensive analysis of how these developments could shape the Kansas Jayhawks' future.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.WayFairAfter the holiday hustle, there’s nothing like giving your home a little TLC. Give your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.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)

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Is it boogie time in Kansas? They've missed out on several other big time recruits. Is it time to turn their attention to boogie flan? You are locked on Jayhawks your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks part of the locked on podcast network your team every day. 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 every day is catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts including on YouTube, where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're talking Boogie Fland, the Arkansas transfer for five star recruit who is in the transfer portal and has decided to come back from the NBA draft.
Starting point is 00:00:52 Could Kansas get involved? Is Kansas involved? Does it make any sense? Does it not make any sense? We'll get into all that plus the latest news both around Kansas targets, maybe some new names emerging as well as with KU baseball. First, today's episode of the show is brought to you by game time and download the game tab app creating account use code locked on college for $20 off your
Starting point is 00:01:16 first purchase with game time. So boogie flan who is boogie flan well, can you fan should be familiar with them because they played him. They played him in the NCAA tournament and their final game of the season now he was just coming back from an injury. He wasn't normal guy that he normally was but we'll get to that in a second year. Let me say this first. There's been some recent reports that like, and that least loosely floated Kansas, I think there's one from
Starting point is 00:01:44 24 seven sports in some sort of small tying them together with interest here in Boogie Fland. It seems like right now, like the favorite, I don't know if it's like Florida or one of these other schools, but so I'm a little skeptical. How exactly much are they interested in this?
Starting point is 00:02:03 Is this something where they are interested? Is this something where they just called to kick the tires and are curious, you know, what's the going rate? Is this something where an agent is just listing Kansas to drive up the price? We see that all the time. You know, I don't exactly know because it does make a lot more sense for Kansas at this point in time to if you're going to get one last splash play one last splash edition, which boogie flan was count as that he's former, you know, top 25 recruit in the country who put up real production last year before his injury. If you are getting boogie flan, it probably means the rest of your additions are more role players. And
Starting point is 00:02:41 that would basically mean you're not getting another splash level wing ace, a starter level wing player, right? Everybody else you're adding are more role players, bench players, possibly fit to play a specific role. And does it make sense for Kansas to therefore say, hey, if we're picking one thing, we can only have one thing, you know, your parents gave you yet $3 to go to the grocery store and like pick out one candy bar. You know, you might be like, oh, it'd be great to have Reese's and a Snickers, but I can
Starting point is 00:03:13 only afford one of them. Which am I going to go with? And it's like, well, you know, I just had peanut butter an hour ago. Maybe I don't need the Reese's. I don't know where I'm going with this. Anyway, Boogie Plant is somebody who is a good player, but based on the current roster for KU, based on the fact that they need another wing, does it actually make sense? I don't know. Then again, if you are Kansas and you're getting to a point right now where the player pool is drying up,
Starting point is 00:03:40 the game changers of the player pool specifically is drying up. Do you just say just give me the best player and we'll try to figure it out? Or is that a dangerous game? Because they kind of tried to do that last year and it didn't work out. I do think it's a little different with guards than it is with, with a guy like AJ store or Rylan Griffin, because guards went in March and we've seen teams run three guard lineups, like the Houston last year was in the title game doing that. And it worked. Okay, but anyway,
Starting point is 00:04:05 let's get into a specific game. Because he announced he's going to be coming back to school. He was in the draft process. So he entered school last year out of high school goes to Arkansas with John Calipari. He was a 97 rated four star recruit on 24 seven sports. He was the number 22 player in the country and he was the number three combo guard. And now 24 seven sports lists him as a five star transfer, the number one combo guard transfer and number eight overall player. He has played in 21 games in his first year of college at 18
Starting point is 00:04:40 starts at Arkansas. He had an injury back in January, I think was January 11 against Florida, the team who ended up winning the national championship. And interestingly enough, so he suffered an injury in that game against Florida, he finishes the game, he plays the next two games afterwards. And obviously, it was something where I'd imagine then it was bothering him, but he was going to try to play through it. But it was he ended up, I don't know if it was tearing or what the proper term would be, but he got surgery to repair the UCL in his
Starting point is 00:05:11 thumb. So he had a ligament that was, I guess, torn or whatever in his thumb. I can understand why that would make it hard to I mean, dribbling, shooting the basketball, your thumb is not right. It'd be very difficult to do that. So you know, I guess shows a bit of toughness that he powered through it, but it obviously affected is yet you look at those game logs from the games he played when he was injured. Things didn't go so well for him like shooting the basketball and stuff like that. So you look at the overall stats for Boogie Fland, six foot two combo guard 175 pounds,
Starting point is 00:05:40 obviously, he'll be a sophomore this next season. He averaged for the season 13 and a half points per game, 3.2 rebounds per game, 5.1 assists per game. So, good assist numbers. One and a half steals per game. Very good steal numbers there. Didn't get a block. Only 38% from the field.
Starting point is 00:05:55 That is a low number. 34% from three. That's solid on five three-point attempts per game. So, decent three-point shooter. 83% at the free throw line. Good free throw percentage on a little over three attempts per game. True shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage, neither one is very good, as you'd imagine,
Starting point is 00:06:11 with the field goal percentage being down. But the team was a lot better when he was on the floor. Arkansas was about 3.6 points per 100 possession better on the offensive end when he was on the floor, and Arkansas was about 10 and a half points better when he was on the floor and Arkansas was about 10.5 points better when he was on the floor defensively per 100 possessions. Overall, Arkansas was about 14 points better per 100 possessions when he was on the floor. He was actually one of their most impactful players, and that defensive odd-off rating is pretty spectacular for what he put together.
Starting point is 00:06:39 Now, it is interesting because I mentioned that if you look at the box score of the stats that he played with the injury, so that Florida game and the two games after, and then he comes back for the NCAA tournament, which he plays the Kansas game in the next two games, he didn't shoot well in the NCAA tournament either. I think that was him just trying to be tough, trying to be a good teammate, trying to help his team win. I don't think he was fully ready to come back. And I think the play was bothered by it a little bit.
Starting point is 00:07:05 And so it's almost unfair to look at his stats and say, like, this is the real guy of who he is. Because I look at that injury, and that's not like a rolled ankle, that's not a sprained ankle, that's not an injury where it's like, like with Kevin McColler, when he came into Kansas, the injury conversation was a real one to have
Starting point is 00:07:24 because it was like, okay, he's had all these injuries and a lot of them are, yeah, it's a sprained ankle here, it's a whatever injury here that you have to monitor that. I don't look at like, I don't see a lot of players having to get surgery on the UCL in their thumb all the time. And that tells me that it doesn't make him injury prone necessarily. It was probably just kind of a freak injury in terms of that happening.
Starting point is 00:07:47 And so if that is the case, if you can get to a point where you can be like, well, you know, I don't know if you can count on that injury happening again, then to me, I think it is fair to look at the context of how did he play when he was not injured? Because then the idea would be you could have him for a season when he's not injured. And in the game, he wasn't injured. So the stats before the injury. So you take away the three NCAA Tournament games, you take away the Florida game and the two games after.
Starting point is 00:08:13 So we go through January 8th against Ole Miss. Up to that point of the season, he was averaging 15 and a half points per game and 5.9 assists per game. Pretty darn good numbers for a true freshman, right? And so in those three games in the NCAA tournament, plus the three games with the injury, Florida game and the two games after,
Starting point is 00:08:33 those six combined games, Boogie Fland was just 16 of 61 shooting the basketball. That is obviously very bad, but again, it makes sense. You think about the thumb, and I don't know which thumb it was. If it's this hand, that's on what's guiding the ball on your left hand. If it's on his right hand,
Starting point is 00:08:49 like you have some sort of presence and rotation. And if it's bothering you, it's also gonna affect you mentally, right? So 16 of 61, that is below 30% in those six games he played either with or after the injury. And it tanked his efficiency numbers. I'm not saying he would have insane efficiency numbers without him, but these would have been his numbers. Coming into those, if you discount those six games he played through the injury,
Starting point is 00:09:13 he shot 41.6% from the field, which again, not great, but for a freshman, that's not the worst thing in the world. 35.7% from three, that's good. And overall had a 54.1 true shooting percentage, which like Xavian Lee, who is committed to Florida and is seen as a good offensive player coming over from Princeton. Xavian Lee in the Ivy League, which is obviously a worse league than Flan played in the SEC last year.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Xavian Lee had a true shooting percentage of 54.9. So if you talk about the non-injury games for Boogie Flan, he was a 54.1. So much more efficient about the non injury games for boogie flan, he was a 54.1. So much more efficient there. Let's get into his strengths and questions though. In just a second, this is Lockdown Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Game Time, and you can get all sorts of tickets for game. If you're near an NBA playoff game, an NHL playoff game, those atmospheres are absolutely fantastic. The NFL schedule's out.
Starting point is 00:10:08 You can start looking ahead over there with game time. I love it with baseball, which, hey, Kansas City hosting the Cardinals, pretty big series coming up this weekend. So like maybe you already have plans for tonight on your Friday night, even though it's fireworks night. But how about on Saturday? It's 2015 World Series replica ring day,
Starting point is 00:10:25 and you can get tickets for as low as $38 over on Game Time. I have it set up for Game Time picks, include the fees, so I'm not gonna be surprised at checkout, and I'm finding, I mean, like I said, you can get in for $38, I'm looking at standing room only, I'm looking at Hy-Vee in section 405 for $44, or if you wanna take a look at those game time picks, you can maybe find where some of the good deals are.
Starting point is 00:10:49 So I'm seeing Fieldbox 147 for $81, plenty of other great deals like that over at Game Time. And if you've never used Game Time to grab seats, now's the time it's seriously a game day upgrade. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time, download the Game Time app, create an account and use code LOCKEDONCOLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply, again create an account and read code LOCKEDONCOLEGE for $20 off. Download Game Time today,
Starting point is 00:11:16 last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Boogieogie flan to make sense for Kansas. So we got into all that and a lot of conversation about the injury and stuff. What are the strengths and questions? Strengths, good speed and quickness. He's a very explosive player, very quick and fast player. And when you think of Bill Self
Starting point is 00:11:38 and he likes to talk about athletic teams, a lot of times he is talking about quickness. So he would fit in in that regard. He also has solid size for college guard. Like I don't think it's 6'2". He's like big for an NBA guard. No, if anything, he's actually maybe, you know, on the lower end of below average in the NBA.
Starting point is 00:11:54 But in college, he measured 6'2", without shoes. So that means with shoes, he's playing at what? 6'3", 6'3 1⁄2", maybe 6'4". Let's say 6'3", with shoes. He also had a 6'6", wingspan, which is solid. So like in college, if you're a 6'3, 6'3 and a half, maybe 6'4. Let's say 6'3 with shoes. He also had a 6'6 wingspan, which is solid. So like in college, if you're a 6'3 guard with a 6'6 wingspan, you're gonna actually be like a bigger point guard,
Starting point is 00:12:13 you know, in that respect. Also, I think a very good defender. He's a very pesky defender. I think you see his quickness and explosiveness show up in that area, really good at staying in front of guys and staying in their grill. All the defensive metrics love him. 2.8 defensive RAPM, that's in the 97th percentile nationally.
Starting point is 00:12:33 78th percentile in defensive windchairs per 40 minutes. I mentioned that on-off rating, that Arkansas per 100 possessions was over 10 points better on the defensive end of the floor when he was out there. That ranked him the 94th percentile. He also had an 80th percentile steal rate. Very good at getting steals. And he did it without fouling. 92nd percentile steal per foul rate. So a good defender that he would add there. Also ball handling and passing. Good ball handler, good passer. 86th percentile turnover rate. So even though, you know, there's multiple ways of being an inefficient player. One of them is being, you know, a player who's not shooting well.
Starting point is 00:13:09 One of them is being a player is turning over too much. Another is a player who does both. Flan shot under 40%. That makes them a bit inefficient there. Though, again, if you go off the pre injury numbers, it's a little better. But the there isn't a turnover issue here. Again, 86%ile turnover rate, 95th percentile of assist rate,
Starting point is 00:13:27 99th percentile in assist to turnover rate. He also was good from the mid range. He shot 65th percentile in the mid range and he shot 71st percentile in the paint. Very good touch on his floater. You can see that touch working for him. And I think that translates when he's shooting at the free throw line too,
Starting point is 00:13:45 where he shoots well, 81st percentile in free throw percentage. Fast break scoring, 81st percentile in fast break points per 40 minutes. Also, I think shooting the basketball, like I said, good from the mid range, good from the free throw line. And he was at least above average from three,
Starting point is 00:14:02 56th percentile, three point percentage. So above average. And he did percentile three point percentage so above average and he did that as a freshman and usually we see shooting get better so if he goes from 56 percentile above average 65th percentile or something in three point shooting that wouldn't surprise you he also shot 44 on corner threes so that shows you that you know if he's having to play a little more off-ball maybe he gets more of those looks if he's with kansas playing next darren peterson and that would be something to keep an eye on he also also shot 33% on deep threes. That is also above average. So it showed ability to hit him from deep range. And here's where it gets interesting to me
Starting point is 00:14:34 in the strengths column. He had a 74% effective field goal percentage. That is very, very, very good on catch and shoot. 99th percentile nationally. So it sounds like he's somebody who would be able to adjust playing off ball a little bit more than he played at Arkansas. I think in a real way, if we get to the fit of the team, the guys who would suffer the most from having him in terms of having the ball in their hands
Starting point is 00:15:01 would probably be Melvin Council and Omarco Jackson more than it would Darren Peterson, because I think that it would be like okay Peterson and Flandre are the you know Frank and Devante Mario and Russ Robb again not comparing their style of play but just in terms of who's gonna handle the ball the most right but he can play off ball and that is exciting what are some of the questions though for Flandre the shot selection is one of them that's part of the reason why the shooting percentage was as low as it was, at least the field goal percentage,
Starting point is 00:15:29 not the three point percentage. Sometimes settles too often for contested jumpers, sometimes settles too often for off the dribble jumpers. And he was only 22nd percentile in points per possessions off the dribble. He was also just 38th percentile in isolation scoring. And when I see his package, his, that sounded weird.
Starting point is 00:15:46 Apologies for that. Anyway, when I see his phrasing, when I see the touch that he has, when I see his floater game, when I see his quickness, his dribble skills, I see the makings of a player who should and could be good in isolation scoring and off the dribble scoring. And maybe that just comes with another year of college basketball for him. should and could be good in isolation scoring and off the dribble scoring. And maybe that just comes with another year of college basketball for him. But so what what that tells me with those percentages being down is that he probably got a little too greedy
Starting point is 00:16:16 with some of the shot selection that hurt it a little bit there. Right. But I do think there's more potential there. He also very much struggled at the rim, was not good at the rim. Forty point five percent at the rim was not good at the rim. 40.5% at the rim according to CBB analytics, then four and a half feet. That is just in the sixth percentile nationally for guards. So he did not finish well at the rim. Maybe that's something that you can work on. I don't know. But yeah, that kind of led to him not being the most efficient player in the world. 31st percentile in field goal percentage, 21st percentile, 2 point percentage,
Starting point is 00:16:45 33rd percentile in true shooting percentage. Now again, if we go back to the injury conversation, if we just take his numbers pre-injury, the 54.1 true shooting percentage, it goes from, if you include the injury numbers, he was 33rd percentile in true shooting percentage. And actually, if you take out the injury games, he's 57th percentile in true shooting percentage nationally. If you take out the injury games, he's 57th percentile for true shooting percentage. So if you do take out the injury stuff and you buy into that, he actually was average to above average inefficiency in true shooting percentage. And again, did that as a freshman on a team that played too big, so probably not the best spacing. So it just kind of depends. It's a choose your own adventure book, how you want to view it. Do you want to view it half glass full or half glass empty, right?
Starting point is 00:17:27 And then also not a good rebounder. 27th percentile offensive rebound rate, 35th percentile defensive rebound rate for guards. So he would not be somebody that, you know, that is important to bring up because if you are making a swing on boogie flan instead of bringing on another wing, you know, the other wing in theory is gonna help you with rebounding. And so you'd like the guard you bring in to be good at rebounding. That's not really the case for Boogie Flynn.
Starting point is 00:17:50 So how exactly would he fit in with KU? Like I said, more speed, more quickness, more athleticism, another player with a plus wingspan, another player with more defense, all those things would fit in well with what KU has built. He would give you more ball handling. He would give you even more passing. He would give you more pro potential, right? I mean, I don't know that he's being seen
Starting point is 00:18:08 as like a first round pick, but he's somebody who is definitely could be seen as like a future NBA player. And I think that there's a chance to add real shooting. Again, you see some, some potential there for what he did as a freshman that it could really explode in year two, but it also, you know, it doesn't help you with the rebounding. If the shooting doesn't come together in year two, you might have a bit of a problem as a team there. I think the biggest question here with adding him or not, because the fit on the team, it's two questions.
Starting point is 00:18:37 It's how does he fit on the team in terms of impact on other players and the opportunity cost of not bringing on another wing? Again, if you bring on Boogie Fland, you're probably not getting Darian Williams. You're probably not getting RJ Lewis. You're probably not getting Jameer Watkins. And maybe they're not going to get some of those guys anyway. But that's kind of where you have to get to. If you do feel like you're in a situation where you might not get Darian Williams, if you do feel like you're in a situation where you don't want RJ Lewis, if you do feel like you're in a situation where this or that, like you're in a situation where you don't want RJ Lewis, if you do feel like you're in a situation where you know this or that, then is this a better than the alternative of just taking a
Starting point is 00:19:09 player who can play on the wing where it's like, ah, I guess we'll just play him there because we kind of have to that kind of becomes the big question here. But yeah, how would this affect guys like Council and Dawson and Marco in terms of their minutes? I think it would make it so that Dawson would basically just be a three for KU. I think it would also make it to the KU would play some three point guard lineups you would have Peterson El Marco council and flanned you would have basically four guards and Five if you want to count Dawson
Starting point is 00:19:36 You basically have those five players would be playing three spots at all times between the one through three And I guess you could make it work because on the defensive end, Peterson, because of his length and wingspan, Peterson could just guard threes on the defensive end of the floor, even if he's your one on the offensive end of the floor. But it leaves you with just one wing. Trey White would be your only wing. I guess he meets Calderon,
Starting point is 00:19:57 but like, I don't know how ready he's gonna be to play. Right? So leave you with one wing and it would leave you with not a lot in the front court to deal with, right? And it would be like, who is your, like, are you going to have lineups for Jayden Dawson's your four? That's the big issue that this provides. Now, maybe if you bring on boogie flan, you know, we've talked about bringing on
Starting point is 00:20:14 player for the dinghy coy, Jaylen Coleman, lands role. You wouldn't need that if you had boogie flan cause you had another guard. So maybe at that point you can say, okay, you're adding boogie flan. And then with that scholarship that was gonna go to the D.E. Koi role, it's now gonna go to a Mario little role if we want to pass KU player, a wing who can come off the bench and rebound, defend, and do a little bit of everything, right?
Starting point is 00:20:36 Maybe that's how you adjust. So I actually, you know, I came into this being like, I don't know about another guard, especially under 40%, but then when you look at the context of the injury, I'm kind of in on Boogie Fland, like in terms of, I think it'd be fun. And having a guard who's super quick and can show some potential from three to shoot is exciting with Bill Self. It's not as high up there for me. I'd still prefer a wing for what that would do for you and for needing another wing on the team. But if you're between taking, again, I'm taking Darian Williams over Boogie Fland, yada, yada, yada, and some of those players in that list. But if you get to a point, I don't have a player off the top of my head,
Starting point is 00:21:15 but let's say those are all A-level, A-graded wings, and you have Fland as an A-graded guard. If you have the choice between a C-graded wing or Boogie Fland, you take Boogie Fland and you deal with some of your deficiencies in terms of not having another wing out there, right? Like in that situation, if it's a B rated wing, maybe somebody international versus flan, what do you do there? I don't know, maybe I would lean flan, but then you have to, like I said,
Starting point is 00:21:37 be willing to go in the portal and get a backup wing to just give you more depth there. So interesting conversations to kind of say the least. I watched some of the latest news, some names have emerged internationally for KU and also on top of that KU baseball had a big opportunity against West Virginia, at least their first game against West Virginia. We'll discuss that next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Wayfair. The days are getting longer, the weather's warming up, and people are spending more time outside,
Starting point is 00:22:07 which means it's the perfect time to refresh your outdoor space. Whether you're working with a big backyard or a small balcony, Wayfair is everything you need to make it feel more like you. Wayfair's massive selection of outdoor selections make it easy to transform any space
Starting point is 00:22:20 into your ideal summer setup. From comfy conversation sets to sleek dining tables and outdoor decor, they've got it all. And at prices that fit your budget. The delivery is free and hassle, even for the big stuff, and the mix of styles they offer Wayfair just makes it super easy to find pieces that match your vibe without spending a fortune. Shop a huge selection of outdoor furniture online this summer. Get outside with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. That's Wayfair.com.
Starting point is 00:22:48 W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. With Wayfair. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Happy Friday to you here. We'll get you the latest news around KU.
Starting point is 00:23:02 Tyron Stokes, who is the number one recruit in the class of 2026. We've had plenty of talk about him here on Lockdown J-Hawks. Thank you to Everyday Hairs, if you already caught some of that talk about him. Well, he told this to Jacob Polacek for Kentucky Sports Radio that he is returning to AAU basketball. And so that was a big thing
Starting point is 00:23:21 that like a lot of people were connecting dots that, okay, maybe he's going to reclassify and him not playing a basketball is like, why else would he do that? You know, and through the whole process, they were adamant that they weren't going to do it. And then all of a sudden, like, it was like, oh, but then he's postponing the Kentucky visit. And it's like, oh, okay, maybe it's this back on, right? But then that happened. So I think if anything like that's just further proof that he's staying in the class of 2026, which is unfortunate for KU because it feels like they would have had a better chance to get them for 2025 than 2026, but maybe they can still get them for 2026.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Who knows, right? Now I mentioned some names emerging from international links. This is from Jake Lieberman. On X, he said a pair of 6'9", high-major Croatian prospects, who go by Luka Skoric and Ivan Bogdanovich, are heavily involved with Kansas, Cincinnati, Yukon, St. John's, and Virginia Tech. I watched a little bit of highlights from both players today. I think Bogdanovich probably has a little bit more proven production, but it kind of depends what you want to go for. Like both are similar in a lot of ways, but
Starting point is 00:24:35 they're also like, I almost view Bogdanovich more as like a wing type of forward who can play the three and the four, and I almost view Scorich as more of a power forward type of forward, who does have some wing skills that you play more at the four than anything. And there's certain things I like better about scourage, like his passing ability, there's certain things I like better about Bogdanovich, like his kind of shake and ability to maybe get into a shot a little bit more. So that'll be interesting. And
Starting point is 00:25:04 we're going to talk a little more about the overseas stuff because I think there's some interesting names emerging. And it feels like if you get further away from this Dom-A sort of thing, like maybe the international route just is the best way to fill out this roster at this point for KU. Now the last piece of news here, KU baseball, Dominic Vaguely was dominant.
Starting point is 00:25:20 He seven in the bench, shuts out West Virginia, bullpen completes the rest and kids beats West Virginia three zero. Again, West Virginia came into the week in first place in the big 12. There was Arizona state in second, one game back of West Virginia and then Kansas and another were two games back
Starting point is 00:25:37 and then there's a couple of teams one game back of Kansas. So at the very least, the minimum Kansas trying to accomplish this week, I guess is getting a top four seed, because the top four seeds get a buy in the first round of the big 12 tournament. So if they can win one more against West Virginia on either Friday or Saturday, I mean, at that point, then you're putting the onus on one of those teams behind you to have to sweep their opponent over the weekend to get into a tiebreaker with you. And then it just comes down to, you know, how'd
Starting point is 00:26:03 you do in the regular season series, right? Which it'll depend which team it is, if Kansas has it or not. But for KU, you have an opportunity in front of yourself. If you win these next two games and Arizona State only wins two of three, then you would at least get a share of the Big 12 regular season championship. And if you won these next two and Arizona State, you know, won zero or one games this weekend, then you would win the Big 12 championship. And if you won these next two and Arizona State, you know, won zero or one games this weekend, then you would win the Big 12 championship. And from where this kids program has been, it's pretty cool that we're on the last week of the regular season, we're even to that
Starting point is 00:26:33 point. But there's gonna be plenty more baseball to come for KU Friday and Saturday, the 12th tournament. And I don't know, at this point, it feels like they're a lock for the NCAA tournament, right? I guess you never truly know and you can't rest on your laurels, but I'm excited to be watching some postseason baseball with Kay. That will be it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page back at you if anything happens this weekend.

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