Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BREAKING: Bill Self Lands ELITE SHOOTER Luke Barnett | What Are the Jayhawks Getting in This 4-Star?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bill Self added again. Another commit in the class of 2026. The recruiting game keeps rolling for KU basketball. Might have found one of the best shooters, a little diamond in the rough. We're going to break down the game of KU's latest four-star commit in Luke Barnett. You are Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team, day. What's going on? Derek Johnson with you here. A little bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks because KU's got another basketball commit.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Bill Self just keeps it rolling, man. Luke Barnett, a four-star shooting guard could be a little diamond in the rough, maybe one of the best shooters in the class. We're going to break down what his game brings the table, what he brings to the class specifically. And I don't look at the roster a little bit for KU next year and in years moving forward of how this could all shape together and what exactly this edition means for KU. Let's start right there with just the news.

Starting point is 00:01:02 It is that Luke Barnett, who is a four-star shooting guard from modern-day high school that's in Southern California, he chose KU over a final three of Miami and UNLV or the other two that made the final three also had offers to like TCU and some other places. He just visited KU for late night in the fog. So obviously, I mean, that's a week ago, right, that obviously left a good enough impression on him. and imagine not just the event itself, like the entire, you know, visit for him to end up coming aboard and picking KU in the very end. But he's a four-star. He's rated just outside the top 100 on both 24-7 sports and on three. I think 24-7 has him in the top 150.

Starting point is 00:01:44 I think on three has him in the top 130. This is not, you know, your five-star, one-and-done, expected recruit. But as you're building out a recruiting class, and this doesn't just go for recruiting classes, this is as you're building out a team. what's one thing you need? You need shooting. And it's pretty apparent, as we've talked about before, with the recruits, the KU has landed. They are putting an emphasis on athleticism on length.

Starting point is 00:02:09 Like those are the two things they're consistently, whether it's the transfer portal this year, whether it's the recruiting class this year, whether it's the Florida Bedunga edition. I guess you did the recruiting class in 2024. The recruiting class they put together in 2026 and even 2027 with Javon Bardwell. It is an emphasis, it seems, for Bill Self and the staff to go for kids who are athletic. with, you know, good length in some way or another. And that's all good and well, but you still have to have at least a little bit of shooting there, right? Like I always think of like the Texas Tech team that went to the national title game, lost to Virginia.

Starting point is 00:02:41 They had a Davidae Moretti, you know, to shoot the basketball a little bit. You think of like some of these teams, like you think of like some of the TCU teams that they've had where they've been really lengthy and athletic, but they just haven't had the shooting. So it's like you look at this Kansas team that we're about to see, they have a lot of length and athletic. with Melvin Council and Darren Peterson and Florida Padunga and stuff, but where's the shooting going to come from? Something from Florida Padunga because he's good at everything. But like they have the one shooter when the right, Col Rosario or Jaden Dawson. It seems like one of those guys going to be on the court. Like if they share 40 minutes together or maybe they play a little more than that, there's going to be at least one of those guys on the floor seemingly at all times. Kansas has the

Starting point is 00:03:18 shooter on the floor. Well, now you get that with Luke Barnett in this recruiting class of where you find the shooter and you can never obviously have enough of it. But the way that Kansas wants to build the roster, it becomes important to find, you know, specific role players who are going to be able to come in and be good three-point shooters. And I think Barnett is just that. Now, this gives KU four commits in the class of 2026 overall. Barnett joins Talen Kinney, five-star point card, Davian Atkins, who is a high-end four-star center, and Tret Perry, who is another player who's kind of more of the developmental type player in terms of the rankings that you're looking at, that might be more of a program

Starting point is 00:03:54 player like Luke Barnett here. And then, of course, you got Javon Bardwell in the class of 27, which he might end up reclassifying being part of 2026. So who knows what happens there. This definitely feels, like I said, more like the Perry edition where it's like, okay, this is somebody who Perry's role could be to come in and maybe he does play five, 10 minutes a game as a freshman. It's just somebody who's going to hound you for 94 feet, get rebounds, play defense, get transition buckets. You know, Barnett could come in five, 10 minutes a game as a freshman right away, even though he's not ranked in the top 100, and just hit a couple threes for you, right? But players that could make an impact for you in a specific role for years

Starting point is 00:04:31 to come. And if they develop more to their game, then there's more there that you wind up with the player. It's not a bad place to be when you have some headliners at the top that you find some of these other pieces to fit in and potentially develop down the road. Obviously, the transfer portal complicates some of this stuff because in a lot of ways, a lot of times the program guys, you were hoping to recruit and land. Maybe they end up someone. somewhere else in a couple years, but you can't, you can't go into it with the negative expectation. Something like that's going to happen. You go into it with the expectation. Hey, we got four-star Luke Barnett, one of the best shooters in the class. He's going to be, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:04 40% three-point shooter when he's a junior for us or something like that, right? That's kind of the idea there. And then the question is, do you have one more big get in you? Maybe the big get is reclassifying Bardwell. Could you still, you know, land one of the big names, one of the other five stars that are still uncommitted in the class? Like, all that kind of remains to be seen or maybe reclassify another five star from 2027. That's the question. But let's get more into Luke Barnett specifically what he brings to the table. This is a really fun edition. I'm really excited about this one. So I'll tell you why on the other side. This bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by DoorDash. And one of the things about this new edition for KU is that he delivers from

Starting point is 00:05:46 three in a very real way. Well, DoorDash, you can order from three places if you want. You can double Dash and then I don't know like get your significant other friends phone order a third thing once but it is the weekend and time to look back and crown this week's MVP on who delivered powered by DoorDash for Kansas. If we're talking basketball, you know, in late night in the fog, Darren Peterson delivered. He had 12 points led the way in scoring. Seems like the pressure is always on Darren Peterson because it's always like, oh, what's he going to do next? What's he going to do next? How good is he can you live up to the hype? And it just seems like he keeps living up to it. He keeps delivering for Kansas in a lot of ways. So super excited to see what he can bring

Starting point is 00:06:20 to the table when the regular season starts. But just like Darren Peterson delivered for Kansas, DoorDash delivers your Saturdays. With DoorDash streaks, you save every Saturday you order. Stack it up all season. You'd save up to $250, including $100 in DoorDash credits. Order this Saturday, keep the streak alive, fuel your game day, only with DoorDash. Terms Apply promo period through November 18th. Thanks again for joining us on this bonus episode, Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Luke Barnett is the latest future Jayhawks. Jayhawk commits as a four-star shooting guard. And honestly, like, this is one that I'm very excited about because as we've talked about with Kansas and Bill Self, like, how can you work the roster around some of your key players? How can you maximize that? And when you think about it, like one of the things that they've had to do in the portal, you land a Jaden Dawson, which probably was a pretty hefty price tag for bringing on a player that you're going to use in kind of that shooting role.

Starting point is 00:07:20 You think of bring it on as Isaiah Moss, right? Like, when's the last time that Kansas just had a homegrown, organic, like, role-playing shooter? Obviously, they've had, like, players like Otag Baji, who were excellent shooters, but they developed into being star an excellent shooter. I'm just saying, like, that role of being the role player three-point shooter. I don't know. It's been a while since they've had that. It feels like they've just, okay, we'll pluck this guy for one year. We'll pluck a Zeke Mayo.

Starting point is 00:07:45 We'll pluck an Isaiah Moss. And this allows you to have somebody in the program for multiple years that you're developing. And let's be honest, it's probably cheaper from an NIL perspective to say, hey, we can get Luke Barnett here and have him for a couple years and be a really good three-point shooter than next offseason having to go pay a million dollars for a transfer portal edition from a mid-major, who's a pretty good shooter that you're like, is he going to work? Is he not? I think this makes sense in a lot of ways from roster building and the financials probably to it as well. But he's a 6-480-pound shooting guard from Southern California. And this is according to 24-7 sports.

Starting point is 00:08:20 the 94th percentile, according to synergy, of points per possession while playing with the Arizona Unity in Nike's EYBL. He is lethal on catch and shoot, averaged 1.2,3 points per shot, which is fantastic, while making over 41% of his jumpers from beyond the three point line in those situations. This is like a legit knockdown three-point shooter. Looking at some of his high school stats, it doesn't have the like total number of of uh i guess three point shots or three point attempts i guess is the word i'm looking for here but it does have the makes he average 21 points per game as a junior in the 2024 to 25 season and that was him making a total of 94 threes he's made 285 threes in his high school career again it doesn't have the attempt so like for all we know

Starting point is 00:09:09 it could be on a thousand that's 28% of it he's not taking that money right like point being this kid is a knockdown three point shooter. And when you watch some of the highlights, there's actually a highlight out there where he scores like 55 points, which is school record at modern day. And keep in mind, modern day. Now, I think of them more from a football perspective where they're constantly turning out like five-star quarterbacks and stuff like that. But they've had some like dudes in basketball. Like I think some of the recent ones, like Stanley Johnson's kind of the big one. He was a lottery pick, former five-star to Arizona. DJ Strawberry, if you remember that, he was really good player at Maryland, ended up getting drafted. The Ware twins were really good college players

Starting point is 00:09:43 at UCLA. Like, they've had some guys come out of their program and have, you know, lengthy college or even NBA careers. And this kid is the one with the scoring record at modern day. And the thing that excites me most in watching the highlights, it's not just the three-point shooting and how pure the stroke looks. It's how quick release it is and how non-dip it is. Like some, you know, like Christian Brown was somebody who had more of an elongated shot. And so he was taking more set shots. And there was always a, you know, there was always like from some KU fans is like shoot it more you're a really good shooter like keep shooting it even more even Bill self would say that and I you know I do think that was something where

Starting point is 00:10:21 hey if you don't have the quickest release in the world maybe you're not going to take as many of them or feel as comfortable doing so um with this kid you see it on the highlights he just has the ball up and he's shooting it it's like it's essentially all of his threes are like no dip threes which are an incredibly difficult like skill level to do and it just looks like he's shooting Papa shot. Like he's not like dipping down and coming up. Like he's just, it is so repetitive and a repeating motion and it's so high up there and so quick, he can get them off in a split second. This dude is going to be a lethal knockdown shooter off the catch. Leathle. Like seriously, like, again, like it's going to remain to be seen like how are you going to defend? How are you

Starting point is 00:11:01 going to do some of the other things of the game? But that is something I feel confident in that this dude is going to have a year where he shoots 40% or better from three point range at the collegiate level. So, um, and honestly, like, that's why you're bringing him in, right? That's the deal. And, um, I think he can do that very well. And so, you know, it's almost like if you combine like him and Perry, like, have you created like a money ball in a way where it's like, you know, we can't recreate, I don't know, this dude's 400 OBP, but like, can we recreate him in the aggregate? And you're getting a six four wing with a seven one wing span and Perry. And it's like, okay, but if you play him, what's that going to do your spacing? Well, just play him.

Starting point is 00:11:39 when Luke Barnett's out there. And then you have a lethal three-point shooter with a lethal defender and transition athlete. And it's like things like that, I think this is a really good roster building from KU overall. And I'm excited to see what you can bring to the table because I don't watch every high school player. I don't read every scouting reporter on every high school player. So I can't definitively tell you this guy is a top three shooter in the high school class, but I can definitively tell you based on some of those numbers and based on how that shot looks, I would not surprise me if he has one of the best shooters in the high school class. But yeah, how does he do with the other stuff?

Starting point is 00:12:10 That'll be the determining factor how much he gets on the court with Bill Self. Let's finish up here with a little future look at the roster for 2026 to 2027 and beyond. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Supply House. You can get all sorts of items at Supply House for new repairs, get your crew moving forward. Order today and you see parts on the doorstep tomorrow. over 280,000 plumbing, HVAC, and electrical items from the most trusted brands of business. The real-time inventory and honest lead times keep you from punting projects,

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Starting point is 00:14:05 Where does that leave their roster? at this point in time. So theoretically, if every player came back that could come back, KU would only have two scholarships available for 2026 to 2027, but Darren Peterson ain't coming back. He's going pro, right? So at the very least, that gives you three scholarships available. Florey could go pro, though, again, like I don't think that's a certainty,

Starting point is 00:14:29 but probably a 50-50 there. And that's like, could Cole Rosario have a good enough season that he goes pro? That's also a possibility, but it's not a, guarantee. Could anybody transfer away off this year? Of course, like, those are all things. But that's pretty nice that you're sitting there going, yeah, we really only have three scholarships. And that's if you use the full 15. You might be content using only 13 or 14. So you can use more money on those 13 and 14 than spreading it out a little thinner over 15 guys. There's a little less work to be done in the offseason point being for Bill self.

Starting point is 00:14:58 And I think as long as this offseason took for KU to finally fill the roster, it probably is a little bit intentional. Like, again, you look at the aggressiveness of getting this kid in a visit and then having him commit a week later. It kind of tells me that Bill Self ain't playing around right now. He's just kind of being like, you know what, if we get an operator, like, no more stringing this stuff out and trying to be like, you know what, maybe we want this, maybe we want that. If we find the right fit or right situation, like, we're just going for it. We're not going to be like, hey, let's wait on this to see what happens here. Just go for it and get it done. And I think that's probably going to be helpful and probably be a little less stressful in future off seasons a little bit.

Starting point is 00:15:32 But you look at that 2026 to 27 roster. I think you're looking at the back court of like Talon Kinney, El Marco Jackson as a fourth year player, Cole Rosario potentially if he's back as a sophomore. You could have a front court of like Bryson Tiller and Floribodunga potentially or Bryson Tiller and Paul Mbighia or Bryson Tiller and Davy on Adkins. Like center position will be interesting with some decisions there. And then it's going to be really interesting to me with those youngsters with the freshman,

Starting point is 00:15:56 with both Trent Perry and with this kid that you just landed in Luke Barnett. in that, you know, are, can one of those guys crack the rotation just by having like an elite skill? You have questions about, okay, how's the rest of their game going to work out here? But the one skill we know they're good at, they're really good at. It's going to be interesting to see, yeah, like do they play off each other? Do they get in a little bit? But I do feel like a future, you know, potential thing would be that eventually Barnett is going to be like a lethal three-point shooter for you, whether it's as a small role to start. and then it grows as he sticks around at Kansas or what?

Starting point is 00:16:36 I really like this edition from Bill Self because I can really see the vision on that three-point shooting. All right, that'll do it for this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page or you can like and subscribe to the show. KU Louisville Recap coming tonight.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BREAKING: Bill Self Lands ELITE SHOOTER Luke Barnett | What Are the Jayhawks Getting in This 4-Star?

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