Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CENTER OPTIONS DWINDLING? Bonke Off the Board, Christian Reeves Up Next? Latest Jayhawks Portal News

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is it Christian Reeves or bust at this point for KU at the center position? You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson, with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. On today's episode, we'll get some of the latest news. KU baseball continues to kill it. We'll get to our top 10 centers that are still available in the transfer portal, I guess for now.

Starting point is 00:00:33 and we'll get things started right here with some of the recent latest KU portal news, beginning at the center position, probably most pertinent with the theme of today's show, because Anton Bonk, KU just had him in for a visit recently. He has committed to Michigan State. And it's already a center position. We'll do these top 10 centers.

Starting point is 00:00:53 It is dried up pretty quickly and one that KU doesn't seem to want to pay top dollar. Now you lose another potential option in Bonk at the center position. who, you know, was somebody who had the ability to stretch it a little bit, good rim protector, good rebounder, but at a lower level. And KU has a visit ongoing with Christian Reeves. I don't know when the visit ends at some point Wednesday or Thursday, but all of a sudden does it become more important for KU to nail that one down? Obviously, they have another visit scheduled for this weekend on Sunday with Gabe Dines. I think that would be a pretty big drop off from Reeves to Dines. So does it become important to lock down Christian Reeves? And as I was putting together my top 10,

Starting point is 00:01:32 I was honestly kind of surprised of where Reeves kind of showed up in that. So you'll have to wait and see where, you know, he is in that top 10 coming up in segment too. How about that tease for you? But KU is running out of options here, unless they're going to explore the international route, which is entirely possible. And I do think there are going to be some good options from that perspective. The options stateside are kind of running a little bit dry if you are KU.

Starting point is 00:01:59 And obviously it was big news that Paul and Biac. because it does give you, you know, what is it? One in the hand is worth more than two in the push. But K.U. You still needs another center. You know, you have Davian Adkins coming in. You have Paul M. Bia. You'd feel a lot better if you had another center that you can say, hey,

Starting point is 00:02:16 Paul Mbia and this other center are going to make up the majority of the minutes at the center position. And then, you know, you can scrounge together five to ten minutes a game of Adkins or Dawes playing at the five. But for the most part, you want the biggest chunk of that going to Mbia and whatever center you end up adding and just one less option on the table with Bonk. And again, the visit, I guess continuing on or finishing up with Reeves. Now, that wasn't the only visit that just finished up or whatever for KU, Victoria's Miller, the other one for Kansas. And Miller is somebody who was at Oklahoma State this past season.

Starting point is 00:02:56 Prior to that, he was a transfer from LSU. And was somebody that KU had some interest in from different stops. We did a deep dive on him, but he's a good score, good three-point shooter. He's a good athletic player. But you do get some athleticism there has, I think, potential on the defensive end. It hasn't always come through on that end, but I think he at least has some skills that make you think he could be a good defender. But his visit coincides after Leroyd-Blyden commits, and he's sitting there going, hey, you guys got Tailen Kinney and Leroyd-Blyden. If I come here, am I going to be coming off the bench?

Starting point is 00:03:26 And I think realistically, what KU would probably say is, hey, open competition between, you know, you three to see who's the best. And theoretically, if you come in and you're better than Leroy Blyden, you'll start over him. But it's probably a forthright conversation of there is a chance that you could be coming off the bench if you do come here. Now, if you were coming off the bench, you would still play a big role. You know, you'd still be probably the sixth man on the team.

Starting point is 00:03:51 If you're the sixth man, you're playing 20, 25. I don't know. If you're a sixth man who is closing, you're playing 30 minutes per game even as the sixth man. So, like, you can still have a pretty large. impact on the team if you decide to come and be the sixth man. But what monetary commitment does that need to come with? I mentioned on a recent show, I know some schools. I don't know if this is the case with everyone. I'd assume it's not, but I know some schools and this does have to mean that,

Starting point is 00:04:18 you know, you have the money to be able to do it, which that's part of what makes it more difficult to do. But like Duke, for instance, we'll pay guys who have the opportunity to go be starters at other power four schools, power five schools, to be their backup and play good minutes under the guys of we're going to pay you more than you would get paid to be a starter at that other school. And you're going to have an opportunity to win a championship and, you know, I don't know, be in a role where NBA scouts are going to see a lot, like stuff like that. There's a lot to the selling point. But you can't expect if you're offering, again, just going to throw out a random number here,

Starting point is 00:04:54 I have no idea what it would be to bring in Victoria Smiller. Let's say KU offers $1.5 million to Victoria's Miller. And Miller has a $1.4 million offer to be a for sure starter at another Power 5 school. What would you take in his situation? I don't know. Maybe you're a Kansas fan. So like you're going, if you're listening to this, there's a good chance here. You're a Kansas fan.

Starting point is 00:05:18 But like, realistically, you're probably taking the one that's starting, even if it's an extra $100,000 now. where does the where does the seesaw get you know overtilted one direction right if kansas offers 1.8 and the next best offer for a starting opportunity is 1.3 is the extra 500k worth coming off the bench where i'm still going to play a big role but i won't start yeah probably it so there's a level there that kansas might have to overpay here if you want to bring in miller if you feel like he is that good to be your six man now maybe if you view it and say hey there's still a lot of other good guards available here. Let's kick the tires on those. But that's kind of dependent on what are the cost conversations of those. What is what would overpaying compare to a normal pay of what

Starting point is 00:06:06 somebody else is asking potentially. You just don't entirely know here. So that won't be interesting to see where it wraps up. Do we see Kansas bring in and look at some other guards? Or do we end up seeing victorious Miller being a Kansas Jayhawk? I think you'd be a good fit for Kansas, but I mentioned that in the deep dive and you can check that out. on one of our previous podcasts as well. There was also some recent news about KU having some interest in another potential shooting guard, and that was Joe Sonson, Sanon, who this is a very long list. This was one of those tweets where it's like, okay, which of these schools is serious about

Starting point is 00:06:38 this and which was just like a very brief, like received interest. But Sam Kaiser of 24-7 hoops sent out a very long list, a lot of big schools on there for Sanon with Kansas being one of them in terms of having interest. Now, this is a very interesting player, and I'm setting up to do a deep dive later in the week on Sanon because of both the reported interest and because of, I guess, how much of a, I don't know, it's like, I'll just put it this way. Analytically, this is one of the worst targets I have on my board in Sanon based on the season he just had. But from a talent perspective, from a recruiting perspective, from a potential perspective, he would be, I mean, he's a former top 25 recruit. like he would be one of the higher ones. So you have this conflicting, I guess,

Starting point is 00:07:24 congregation of what comes together to make his game. Like you have the good, which is that he's like a career 35% three-point shooter in his first two years on pretty good volume. And they does have a good amount of athleticism to make it work. The bad has been, his on-court impact has not been very good. And he only shot 34% on twos at St.

Starting point is 00:07:43 John's this past season and doesn't really do much else besides score. But again, you're talking about a player who former top 25 recruit, A lot of times those guys break out if they haven't already in their junior season. So that would just be one kind of interesting to see if it does go anywhere. I think after his freshman year at Arizona State, his freshman year was better than his sophomore year. He still had some warts, but it was better at Arizona State.

Starting point is 00:08:05 A lot of people were like, oh, this dude could be a stud. He was a huge pickup for St. John's last off season. So would you have a chance to kind of buy low here on Sanon having kind of a bounce back season, so to speak, especially if you don't land a victorious Miller, would getting a Sanon to come in and be like, hey, dude, you know, you can come off the bench for us, low pressure and recoup your, your, you know, uh, stock, so to speak to where if you have a big enough season, we'll either, you know, increase your pay the next year or you can go somewhere else and get that big opportunity. But maybe for his perspective, he's just going, hey, I want to, you know, transfer to a

Starting point is 00:08:41 lower end high major where I can be the guy as opposed to like one of many at St. Johns. I don't know, but certainly want to keep an eye on. And then we also heard from Bill Self on Leroy Blighton, who's now officially signed, and I guess therefore is officially a Jayhawk. Here's what Mosef had to say on Blyden, quote, we felt Leroy was one of the very best guard prospects in the portal, period. He had a great year at Toledo and was the freshman of the year in his league. He can score. He shoots it with range, and he's efficient. He can be the lead guard and a scoring guard.

Starting point is 00:09:09 His ability to make plays and get his shoulders past you is something we really need. So, you know, very complimentary there. again, like one of the very best guard prospects in the portal period. That tells you that this guy wasn't just one of the best available at the time. He was one of the guys they were searching and trying to get probably from the very get-go. I also noticed the athletic. They had a top 50 board available transfer prospects. They've since updated that. They've looked into more guys. They've gotten it up to 100 now. It's some of the athletic editorial guys, C.J. Moore, who does great work, Sam Bacini, who has great draft work, all kind of contributing on it. And they have now,

Starting point is 00:09:46 looked over Leroyd-Bliden. He is in the top 45 on that list. They were very complimentary about his level of play, about his ball handling, about his shooting, even about his quick hands on the defensive end of the floor. So the more and more I see and read on Leroyd-Bl, and the more excited I come to the point of what he could potentially be for Kansas, not just this year, but still just the sophomore. And I'm trying not to do this because in today's day and age with the transfer portal and NIL, it is really impossible to look more than a year ahead, let alone two years ahead. But like the idea that you could potentially, you know, have the back court of Leroyd-Blyden and Taylin Kinney, who is more of an undersized guard. I don't know how much of a chance he's

Starting point is 00:10:30 going to have to be able to be an NBA guy, you know, early, that you could have that backcourt for multiple years is pretty enticing to me for what that can mean with Bill's self. And hopefully it's pretty enticing in year one as well. And who even knows? Well, this will be Bils off last year? And then does it even matter? So again, there's so many things there that could be hurdles. But it's not the main focus. It's just a nice additive, I guess. Let's get to our top 10 centers left in the portal until one of them commits away, which will probably happen while I'm even recording this. But we'll get to that next. This is locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos,

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Starting point is 00:12:12 And we're going to get to our top 10 center still available in the portal, at least until you listen to this and one of them commits, but whatever. Don't forget you can join the Everyday Air Club, too. Get the ad-free version of the show at Lockedon, jahawks.com. Okay, I should mention this. I do not include these guys in the top 10, and I'm sure there would be other ones, too. Obviously, they're trying to potentially pass the five-year thing. I don't know if players would be grandfathered in.

Starting point is 00:12:36 That could add some players to the portal. I also, guys like Malik Ewan, who is applying for an extra year. and then Gerald, Gerald, Colanel, Colonel, I don't know how it's pronounced. He was like the defensive player the year in his conference at Stephen F. Austin Ewan was a guy K, who had some interest in when he was at Florida State, transferred to Arkansas, had a pretty good year for the Razorbacks this past year. Both those guys would be on the list. Both one would be in the top eight on the list, but they're both applying for an extra

Starting point is 00:13:02 year. So I didn't include them on this just yet. But, you know, if that does happen, just know that they would become guys of interest. I also included one honorable mention flyer pick, just because, because this is one that I'm, there's not much there in terms of production. But just hear me out for a second. The honorable mention pick is C.D. Gway, again, probably mispronouncing that, he will be a sophomore.

Starting point is 00:13:24 So he was just a freshman this past season at Arizona. It's like a six foot 11 wiry big man who the idea is kind of a rim runner, block shots, throws down a lot of dunks, kind of a florrie prototype of player, not saying he is florrie. I don't think he's that versatile or that good. but at Arizona he didn't play a ton and it's easy to be like, well, he didn't play him. But the reason he didn't play a ton, like look at the guys he's behind. And with like you look at Henry Vassar like transferring North Carolina blowing up,

Starting point is 00:13:56 you look at Morowski's transferring away from Arizona going to St. Mary's blowing up. I would almost trust Tommy Lloyd's evaluation and be like, do you just take C.D. Gway and say, hey, we're expecting you to blow up this year and there's clearly some talent there. that would be kind of a honorable mention pick. And maybe you could get him on the cheaper and pair him with Paul Mbia. And then you have Davian Adkins. I don't know, maybe you'd bring in one more body just to be sure, but that would be an interesting one. Number 10 on the list, again, kind of in that lane, but a little more playing time here in terms of the developmental side is Andrew Osasui.

Starting point is 00:14:31 So this is a player who was just a freshman at St. Bonaventure. So he was Adrian Wojornowski. Again, limited time. He's only six nine. I would prefer him to be a little bit bigger. Here's what's really interesting here. 14% offensive rebound rate is incredible. Like, that's a really good number.

Starting point is 00:14:48 Like, we were talking JP Estreya earlier in the offseason. He was just like a 15 and a half and he was like one of the best in the country. So 14 really good. Also, 16% block rate is also incredible. I'm trying to think a good example here. Okay, you think of like, I don't know, Flory for instance, right? What is Florey? Florey this past season was at a 9% block rate.

Starting point is 00:15:15 And this dude, again, in limited time, 16% block rate. So Ossui would be more of a gamble again. He's a little more undersized. He's a little more raw, but certainly an interesting prospect. So I have him in a number 10. Number nine on the list is Luke Bamgoy from Texas Tech. Not the best rebounder. Again, a little small.

Starting point is 00:15:33 He's listed at 611. I don't know if that's fully 611. He's also listed 220. be under that, to be honest. But he's not, again, the best rebounder. He is a really good rim protector, though. Over 10% block rate, again, better than Flory. He can throw down dunks.

Starting point is 00:15:47 He can jump up high. But that's kind of what you're getting there. Like, he does have a big impact on the defensive end. Not very much offensively. It would basically just be saying, hey, you want the same style as Flory, which is the worst player. But I guess if you're working on a budget, that could be one option you go to. Number eight on the list, this one would be complete opposite of Floree.

Starting point is 00:16:04 Ben Defty, he will be a junior from Boston. and he's a little more of a husky big, right? If you want your more huskier guy, he is seven feet tall, he's 255 pounds. He averaged 15 points, about seven rebounds per game. Okay, offensive rebounder. He's a good defensive rebounder. It does more on the defensive glass than the offensive glass. Okay, rim protector, really, really good touch around the rim, though.

Starting point is 00:16:27 69% on Tuesday this past season. He had a big impact on the offensive end of the floor. I mean, a 26 PER is really, really good. like among the guys that I'm going to be talking about here in this list, that would be second on the list. The guy who's first in PPR among the guys I'm talking about is actually Christian Reeves, which we'll get to here in a second. But yeah, he would be an interesting one that would be a change of pace. More of your big dude who can just kind of like bang if you're facing another like, you know, ginormous big man and can get you a few buckets down low. Now, how will it translate up?

Starting point is 00:17:00 He didn't do the best against some of the bigger opponents. So I don't know. That's kind of the big question holding him back because analytically, Defty would be even higher on the list. Number seven, I have Jaden Hastings on here. He's a center from Boston College. Again, a little more undersized. You're talking 6'9.

Starting point is 00:17:16 He is on the huskier side, though, at 240, which I love my husky bigs. Good offensive rebound rate, over 11%. Okay on the defensive glass. Again, okay as a shot blocker. But again, good touch around the rim. Good free throw shooter over 60%. And had a big impact just on the floor. Like Boston College was like 20.

Starting point is 00:17:34 Boston College wasn't very good, but they were like 20 points better per 100 possessions when he was on the floor. So Hastings in at number seven. Maybe he'd be a good budget, big man. But again, he doesn't fill the list if you want like a seven footer. Number six on the list would. And that is Julius Halifonua. Don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.

Starting point is 00:17:52 I believe he's originally from New Zealand. I could be wrong on that. Goes to Georgetown. He'll be a junior this upcoming season. He is a seven footer and like 260 pounds. So he gives you real size down there, about nine and a half points per game at a power. or five level that is good to see, but not a good rebounder. Only 4.4 rebounds per game, below average defensive rebound rate.

Starting point is 00:18:12 Again, not getting up there in the offensive rebound rate. He does have good feel as far as a passer goes, but he's also a really bad rim protector. Like, among all the guys I have on this top 10 list in terms of shot blocking, he is the worst block rate on the list. So that's a little scary. But again, from an offensive perspective, he's one of the better ones on this list. 65% on twos. It wasn't taking a ton of threes, but he was at least taking.

Starting point is 00:18:34 taken him, 27%, really good free throw shooter for a big, 75%. And you look at some of the wind shear numbers, like offensive winchairs were really good for him. PER was over 23. So this is a guy that you would be going more for offense if you wanted to say, hey, Mbia, we feel good about his defense. We don't know about the offense. And you want to say, hey, let's bring in a big who's more offense than defense, then maybe Halifonua makes sense from Georgetown. Back to the defense, though.

Starting point is 00:18:59 Number five would be Chul Maycott. He's the going to be a junior from Charleston. And again, it was the two-man rotation of Christian Reeves and Chole Maycott at center that was actually really good for Charleston. And Maycott is a okay defensive rebounder, pretty good offensive rebounder, but an incredible shot blocker. I mentioned the really high number for Osesui at 16%. That was limited volume Maycott in bigger minutes, over a 14% block rate. He won the conference's defensive player of the year. He's also kind of a big dunker on the offensive end, over 63% on twos, but did have good touch at the free throw line too.

Starting point is 00:19:33 maybe showing a little bit more there. Maycott would be an interesting one, but he's seven foot like 200 pounds. So you're going to get pushed around against stronger bigs. Four on the list, I do have Christian Reeves. I got to be honest, when I started this list, when I started writing in, I was like, man, where is Reeves going to show up? This was higher than I thought, which is two things. One, I think it's a good thing about Reeves.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Two, I think if KU lands him, two, I think it shows you the lack of available centers at this point in the portal. Reeves, though, is seven foot two. He's one of the biggest ones on there. 255. Awesome offensive rebound rate. Awesome defensive rebound rate. OK as a shot blocker.

Starting point is 00:20:09 Really good two point percentage and had a really big impact on the floor. I mentioned the PER super efficient, 28.3, best among everybody I'm talking about on this top 10 list. So I did have Reeves in at number four. Now, there is a tier jump to the top three. And three on the list, I have Mustafa Chum. I go back and forth seemingly every day between the guy I have three and two, which I'll just spoil now, would be Masamba Jop. And for what it's worth, it sounds like Jop could be going to, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:20:37 like Gonzaga or St. John's or something like that. So I don't know how available he truly is. But here's the back and forth on between the two. Like both of them around 13 points per game, Chaum averaged more rebounds, had a slightly better offensive rebound rate. Chom was the much better defensive rebounder, though, than Jop. But you get a little more shop blocking with Jop.

Starting point is 00:20:57 You also get more versatility with Jop. He's the quicker. player. You get a little bit better. I don't know. The three-point shooting is pretty similar between the two. I think Jop is a little more projectable though, right? He is a year younger. He's somebody who I think to me, I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's because he's younger because he's more mobile because he's faster because the free throw percentage is better or what. I just in my head, I see Jop as having a higher ceiling than Chom. So I have Jop at two. I have Chom at three, but I think either way, those guys are on the same tier and right next to each other. So you might be wondering, like, who is the

Starting point is 00:21:29 best portal center available at this point then. Number one on this list I have, that would be international big men. It's kind of cheating a little bit because I guess technically it's not the transfer portal, but whatever. I think this might be the best route at this point for KU to find somebody, right? It seems like the numbers on Jop and Chom, it's going to be super, super expensive. And maybe you go with Reeves because, again, I do think, I don't know, I might be a little higher on Reeves than maybe some other people.

Starting point is 00:21:54 But the international route, some really good players. Luis Suigo, who has put up some really good numbers. She's like 7273, has been kind of a wanted big man internationally for last offseason, this off season. Say on Kada is somebody that I think KU might have had some sort of whether Zoom or visit or whatever last year. Lanky Center plays for FC Barcelona, which is one of the best international clubs overseas. You got Momo Faye, who is like a Senegalese center who last mock draft I saw from San Francisco. Sam Vassini had him going 45th. So like, can you persuade him to, you know, I like Neoclus Avdales, for instance,

Starting point is 00:22:33 last year was projected to go in the second round and Virginia Tech persuaded him to come out to college, paid him a big amount of money. Like, could you do something with that like a player like Mo MoMA Faye or like Michael Ruzich, who's projected go 53rd on Sam Vassini's mock draft and be like, hey, you're going to get more money to play for us for a year and try to move yourself into the first round, then you was the second round pick who might get draft and stashed, you know, can you look at some of these draft big, boards and find somebody that way.

Starting point is 00:22:58 I think there's going to be some good options there that you can go internationally. The problem, though, I don't know how well connected, you know, Bill Self is. Maybe that's something what Jack Vaughn can help out for KU. All right, we're going to finish up with some of the latest news, another big win for KU Baseball. Today's episode of the show is also brought to you by the Everydayer Club, which you can join at locked on jhawks. Dot supercast.com and you can get the show ad free. Okay, KU Baseball takes down Nebraska 9 to 7 in a top 25 showdown. the it was a sellout it was an awesome rowdy environment shout out to the k u students and the burner

Starting point is 00:23:35 versus shown up to the game and and making it loud and making an impactful thing for k u and man they just keep going bombs away it's just like the home run hitting the power of this team is just so fun so incredible to watch and um they get another big win this is super helpful to their rpi to their their case of potentially hosting i mean if you get that crowd for a regional i mean that is such an advantage for KU who had to go on the road last year to try to do it. So they have another series this weekend as they continue on Big 12 play. In other KU Olympic sports news, Nate Lee, the KU woman soccer coach gets a five-year extension to his contract.

Starting point is 00:24:13 Well deserve there. He's done an excellent job with the KU women soccer team so far. And then a former Jayhawk, Sharon Lokiti, who was a former national champion. I forget if it was in the 5,000, the 10,000 or something, but she was just really good at KU running. She won the Boston Marathon last year. She wins it again, back-to-back Boston Marathon champion. So shout out to Sharon Lokiti, a big deal there. And then the final one here, I haven't gotten to this already,

Starting point is 00:24:38 but the KU men's golf team won the Hoosier Collegiate this past weekend. So Gary Woodland wins a couple weekends ago on tour. Now the KU.M.M.S. Golf team wins this past weekend. A good week or two for KU. Golf, both collegiately and professionally. All right, that'll do for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere.

Starting point is 00:24:57 you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We'll have a bonus episode of a deep dive of Juke Harris, one of the better players in the portal. Does he make sense for KU? Is he a Tyron Stokes backup plan? We'll get to all that on that bonus episode to make you check it out, as well as all of our other deep dives and episodes right here on Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CENTER OPTIONS DWINDLING? Bonke Off the Board, Christian Reeves Up Next? Latest Jayhawks Portal News

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