Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Could Kohl Rosario Reclass & Join Kansas in 2025? Deep Dive Into the 4-Star Guard's Fit with KU

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks basketball fans, brace yourselves! Could Kohl Rosario, a 2026 guard prospect, be the missing piece for KU's roster and reclassify to joining his college choice in the fall of 2025? Host Derek Johnson breaks down this intriguing possibility, analyzing Rosario's impressive high school stats, including his 25 points per game average, as well as his time with Overtime Elite and examines his potential fit with the Jayhawks. The discussion covers Rosario's three-point shooting ability, comparing him to former KU players and exploring how he might impact the team's rotation. Johnson also delves into Rosario's recruitment process, highlighting his upcoming visits to powerhouse programs like Duke, North Carolina, and Baylor.Will Rosario reclassify and join Kansas earlier than expected? Tune in for an in-depth look at this potential game-changing recruit and what he could bring to the Jayhawks' future.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.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)

Is the solution to filling out the KU roster bringing in a shooting athletic guard in the class of 2026 we can reclassify? Well, maybe there's a chance Kansas could find just that with Cole Rosario. 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 here. This is Locked On Jayhawks.

Thank you for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers who are catching each and every show, whether it's on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show or free and available wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for joining us on loj. And on today's edition of locked on Jayhawks for breaking down

Cole Rosario. He is a class of 2026 four star recruit, who Kansas has offered seems to be interested in and if there's a possibility that he could reclassify Kansas looking to fill out the rest of their roster still some scholarships available for K you would call Rosario make sense? Is it something that is entirely possible? Well, we're gonna discuss that and how he would possibly fit with this KU team on today's episode of the show. So who is Cole Rosario? And you know, why is he of interest here

on this episode of the show? Well, Cole Rosario is a six foot five 185 pound guard. He's originally from Miami, Florida. He's in the class of 2026. But I know there's been some talk that he could possibly be a reclassified candidate. To me, it seems pretty clear because I was looking back at some of his high school stats. And I guess this doesn't necessarily isn't the clearest thing because I don't know if he was taking, you know, high school classes or I don't know what you have to do.

You have to get your GED or how does that work? But he was a junior in high school basketball playing in the 2023 to 2024 season. And so this past season, he was playing for overtime elite. That would be the 2024 to 2025 season. When would technically be his senior year of high school. So age wise, and as long as I guess he was taking, I don't know, classes or online classes, or again, I don't know if it's a GED thing or how that works, he would be the right age that he

could reclassify up to the class of 2025. Now, this is a guy who has a lot of interest from a lot of other, you know, big time schools, and enough so that he is going to be visiting a lot of these other big time schools. This is a player who seems to be kind of blowing up at the right time. Now, I don't want to say he's Johnny Furphy that he's going to be this like, you know, stud player like Furphy, that he's going to be this like, you know, stud player like Furphy was that's going to kind of find his footing, so to speak. You know, at this point, I guess later in the season or whatever it is. But it is a little bit similar from the standpoint of like, OK, if you remember with Johnny Furphy, he was somebody who kind of blew up late in the

game and then Kansas was able to add him for the roster. So again, not saying he's Johnny Furphy, but you can see that similar type of path if that sort of makes sense. So this was from Dushan London, who Dushan London is a covers, you know, basketball recruiting for for 24 seven sports, CBS sports. And he posted this a couple days ago was the cold rosario has locked in the following visits organ for June 4 through the fifth. So that's coming up here. Then you'll have a couple weeks off and then he'll go to Kansas June 17 to June 18. Texas A&M after that Duke after that Baylor after that

and then North Carolina Florida State. The it says TBD first week of July. So that shows you a couple things right? Number one that shows you a couple of things, right? Number one, that shows you that, again, there's a lot of these schools. And a lot of these big schools, right? You're talking Duke, Oregon, Kansas, Texas, and M. Baylor, right? These are good basketball schools

that are interested in him. That's always a good sign. Doesn't always work out that way, but usually that can be a good sign. It does also tell us something else, though. The idea of him reclassifying is something where, okay, you would want him to get on campus as soon as possible. And again, making the comparison, Johnny Furphy, Furphy didn't join the

team till after the trip to, you know, the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, Dominican, I don't know. Anyway, he didn't join till after that. So he joined when like the school year actually started in August. And the fact that Rosario would be making, because again, summer school is basically, I think it started this week for Kansas, I believe that's right. The fact that he has visits lined up,

now there's no guarantee he goes on all the visits, right? What if he goes on one visit and loves it and wants to commit on the spot? But for Kansas, that visit is until June 17th, June 18th. So again, that's a couple of weeks into the summer semester, probably not getting a part of the summer semester, especially if he's going to these other visits to where he probably wouldn't be joining until the start of the year. So it does make it a little more complicated if you're Kansas, because it's not something

as easy to say as, hey, if this guy reclassifies and joins us, he can make an impact this year. You're talking about a kid who would be reclassifying up a year, which already is going to make things a little bit more difficult on a player, though again, age wise, it would make sense. And he's not going to have the summertime to get familiar with Bill Self and the coaching staff and playing with the rest of the team and stuff like that. That it doesn't, you know, eliminate the fact that he could be a rotation player, but it certainly makes it an uphill battle for that to kind of be the case. But still, he would be an interesting player.

And you have the scholarships if you're Kansas. And, you know, he would be both, I think, an interesting player for the short term and the long term. Now, what are the likelihood that he's going to pick Kansas? I don't know. I guess we'll kind of wait and see and see how some of the visits go and stuff. But anyway, he went to Moravian Prep. That is in Hudson, North Carolina.

Again, I believe originally from Miami, Florida. He was there again in his junior season, 2023 to 2024, and put up big numbers, 25 points per game to go with six boards. That's 25 minutes per game. Obviously you play less minutes in high school. So yeah, very good numbers in high school. And through his two years of varsity stats,

according to Max Preps, so sophomore, junior seasons at Moravian Prep, 49% from the field, 37% from three, 78% at the foul line. Those are all very good numbers. I have no idea on the level of competition they're playing against, but North Carolina tends to have some very good high school basketball players and teams. So, you know, that would at least give me hope that probably some pretty good players at some point they play against. Then again, I remember Zion Williamson was playing against, there were some games where he was like at a lower level high school like a you know, I guess what the equivalent of B would be like a two way or three a school in Kansas.

And, you know, he's planning it's like 510 white kids now obviously Zion translated just fine even though he's planning it so skits but anyway, he goes to overtime elite this past season, which is basically like the, I don't even know what to call it like a semi pro developmental type of league professional, whatever. So it's first 18 year old season, which basically would have been his senior year of high school. And he ends up playing 29 minutes per game in the regular season. For his team and OT. He averages 15.7 points 5.6 rebounds 2.1 assists 1., 0.8 blocks per game, and almost a dunk per game. Doing so 43% from the field, only 27% from three, 81% at the foul line though is good

there. Now during the playoffs for his team, obviously smaller sample size here, but he ends up averaging 13.6 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game. He does that on a 56% from the field, 41% from three and 89% of the foul line. So really starts to take his game up in the games that matter more and later in the season when theoretically you would hope that,

hey, you're getting better, right? And so in looking in the stats, the big thing here to me is what is the three point shooting here? Because this is an athletic guard. He's got good size at six, five, but kind of the, like, the big thing on Cole Rosario that's probably gonna make it like,

is he somebody who's like a borderline top 100 prospect versus is he somebody who, you know, should be a top 50 prospect when, you know, ranking updates come out, is probably how much do you believe in the three point shot and how good is that three point shot? And so you talk about him shooting 27% from three in the regular season,

you talk about him shooting 41% from three in the post season, you talk about him shooting 37% from three in his two years of varsity high school basketball. Where's the three point shots? I wanna get into a little bit of that. I also wanna get into a little bit of that I also want to get into a little bit of his recent performance that has kind of

blown things up here where he ranks in the recruiting rankings how you would fit in with KU all that coming up and more this is locked on Jhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch money ever check your bank account wonder where'd all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in,

your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn't just a budgeting app, it's a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place, so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth.

They have all in one convenience where instead of juggling multiple apps, you can use Monarch to check finances, track spending, and even plan long-term goals. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOllege. Do that at MonarchMoney.com for 50%, five zero percent of your first year.

That's MonarchMoney.com. Monarchmoney.com, monarchmoney.com, code LOCKEDONCOllege for half off your first year with Monarch Money. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks and coming up later in the week, we'll get to a little recap of the KU basketball off season, what they've done, what they've missed out on. We'll also get to some more player deep dives later on

in the week right here with locked on Jayhawk. So Cole Rosario continuing on with this I mentioned that, you know, he's a six foot 5185 pound guard, kind of a, you know, four star recruit who's blowing up with his recruitment has a visit scheduled with Kansas the possibility to reclassify in that you could maybe get some short term and long term gain out of a kid like this. But the big swing skill of just how good is he going to be is probably going to come down to how much you believe in and

how good is the three point shot I will say the fact that he averaged 2.6 stocks per game steals plus blocks. I do like that a lot in 5.6 rebounds. It tells you that he's not just someone who okay, he's a good athlete and he likes to dunk and run and transition and shoot threes. No, he's doing a lot of the little stuff as well. That that would add up to Yeah, this could be somebody who kind of rises in the upcoming recruiting rankings. But again, you're talking about 27% from

three in the regular season at OTE, 41% in a smaller sample size in the postseason, and then 37% in his two years of RC, high school basketball. So what exactly is the three point shooting? It seems like to me, in looking at the actual game logs and looking at some of the numbers, at least from OTE this season, that I would best classify as the three point shooting is like streaky as hit or miss. And that is actually kind of not that uncommon for young players. The guy I always bring up and if you're in every day, you've probably heard this many times is Ocha Gbagi. Ocha Gbagi had games where he could really get hot from three when he was a freshman,

when he has redshirt pulled, sophomore season, even some his junior season, his senior season, it became a lot more consistent. Now which I actually kind of low key struggled the last like month season outside of like the Final Four game, shooting the three ball, but it just became more consistent. And that's one of those things where like, as you get older, a lot of the things that you improve on, like, yeah, sure, you could gain a little bit of muscle or like a dope got more cut his senior year, like that stuff does happen. But for the

most part, especially for guards, your speed is your speed, like your freshman speed is similar cut his senior year like that stuff does happen. But for the most part, especially for guards, your speed is your speed, like your freshman speed is similar to your senior year speed, right? Obviously, there's variables in that. But a lot of times, some of the things that improve shooting, consistency, stuff like that. So it would make sense that that would kind of be the case. But you look at some of the box scores and Rosario had a six of nine game from three point range in the playoffs. So awesome three point shooting game six for nine in some of the box scores and Rosario had a six of nine game from three point range in the playoffs. So awesome three point shooting game, six for nine in one of the playoff games.

Yet another game of three for four in the playoffs. The other five playoff games, those seven total playoff games, one he went six of nine, one he went three of four. The other five playoff games combined, he went three of 16 from three. That's below 20% from three. So you have somebody very boomer bust

from three point range this season. And again, the older you get, probably the more consistent that becomes. Now in the regular season, he had seven games of three plus made three pointers. He had a high of four made three pointers in the regular season. So, you know, those are games

where he shot the ball very well. He also had five games where he shot below 20% on three point shots. And I'm had five games where he shot below 20% on three point shots. And I'm not pulling games where he went 0 for 2. He actually took at least four three-pointers in every game. So I'm not just pulling a game where he went 0 for 1 or 0 for 2. He took at least four three-pointers in every game.

He had five games where he shot below 20% on threes versus the seven games where he made three or more threes. So no games, I guess, there wasn't a lot of middle ground, so to speak, I shouldn't say there were none, there were just not a lot of them. He had games of three of 12. Twice. He had a one of nine game, he had an old 405, he had a two of 12, he had a four of 14. All those not so great, but he also had games of three of eight, four of nine, three of six.

We mentioned the six of nine and the three and four in the playoffs. So very much boomer bust from three point range, to say the least. He also participated in the Adidas Next Gen Euro League Games, which is basically like the OTE teams would play. I don't know if it was like the OTE All-Star team or like just OTE teams would play against someone like the youth academies over in Europe and it was a great way for NBA scouts and you know people that get to know these teams so you have like maybe you're playing against like the Real Madrid you know youth team or something like that and in that he performed very well and shot well from three he averaged 15 points per game I that was over three games, eight of 19 from three point range. So very good potential

to be a three point shooter, but it might be a little bit of a roller coaster. It might be streaky, especially earlier on in his career, all awesome, you know, other, you know, KU shooters. And again, that's not all that uncommon, but if you total up everything. So if you total up the regular season performance for him, you total up both season and you total up everything, so if you total up the regular season performance for him, you total up the postseason and you total up the next gen tournament, just to give us the biggest sample size possible. You're talking about really for this full year, Rosario shot 31%. He was 60 of 196 from three point range. So 31%. That's not gonna like be a huge boon to you, but it's not gonna hurt you either necessarily necessarily especially probably good to point out he averaged almost nine three point attempts

per game in the regular season for his team. So typically the more three point shots you're going to get up in a game, the harder it is to maintain efficiency, the less you're taking per game. That usually means you're getting more open looks and you're being more selective, right? If you only take two or three per game, it's probably because the two or three you're taking per game, that usually means you're getting more open looks and you're being more selective, right? If you only take two or three per game, it's probably because the two or three you're taking per game are the ones that are wide open. If you're taking eight or nine per game,

you are your team's or one of your team's primary shooters where your team is constantly asking you to be the, like, please keep shooting threes. We need you to shoot threes. Like you were that guy on our team. So A, you're going to be taking them off of different actions to try to get you open, that might be a little more difficult. B, that means other teams are going to scout and are going to be more ready for you from three versus somebody who might be only taken two threes and the other team might just be like, yeah, he can just

take a wide open one, you know, we'll live with it, right. So it's more difficult. And the fact that he is taken that many does show you what his team thinks of him. It does show you that he probably has potential to shoot a better number that that he does have potential that, okay, let's say he came to Kansas, and let's say he was a seventh or eighth man for you, right. And he's coming off the bench, he might only be taken two or three threes per game, just because the minutes would be

down. And because he's more in the flow of the offense as a bench player, where he's not going to be asked to do too much, he's more so the flow of the offense as a bench player where he's not going to be asked to do too much, he's more so going to be okay, standing in the corner. Oh, Darren Peterson got, you know, drew the help driving into the mid range, kicked it out to you got an open corner three, your three point percentage is going to go up in that specific role for the most part, right. So that is important to know. And it leads me to believe that I think this guy will be a good three-point shooter now

Maybe in year one, it's more of an average three-point shot again because you're an inconsistent freshman But you have some games where you go off and then maybe in you know future years He ends up being a knockdown three-point shooter But he is more than a three-point shooter and and that's one of the reasons that Duke and Baylor and Florida State and some of these schools have offered him or are trying to get him on board or have him coming in for a visit. But, you know, that will finish up there. We'll finish up there. I wasn't planning on going this long on Cole Rosario. But here we are, these fun players to talk about. So let's finish up here. What is is all to Cole Rosario's game because it is more and how exactly would he fit in with KU? Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawk. So how exactly would Cole Rosario fit in with KU? Well, yeah, 24 7 sports rates him by the way is an 89 graded three star He is the number 120 player overall on 24 seven sports in the class of 2026 and the number one shooting

guard, but he actually rates even better on the 24 seven sports composite where he is a four star there is just barely inside the top 100 overall recruits for 2026 for the 24 seven composite. But again, if you're looking at some of the offers, as this kid has and some of the recent blow up, it leads me to believe, at the very least that this is going to scouting element of it comes into play because Christian Brown and Ocha Agbaji were like right around top 100 recruits. But you found diamonds in the rough and they fit specific roles and did good things of what Bill Self wanted them to do. And he developed them and boom, they ended up being you know, first round

picks and Christian Brown is on his way to making over $100 million on his next contract with whoever signs and whether it's nuggets or somebody else, right? Not every story is going to work out that way. Like Bobby Pettiford was like kind of a just inside top 100 recruit that didn't work out right. It doesn't always work out that way. But point being, don't just discount it just because of where you know, the rating might be necessarily.

So when I watched this player, some of the highlights I saw, this guy who can hit spot up shots, he likes the corner, which I think works well, because again, you're scaling down the role a little bit. He can score and transition. To me, those are kind of his top scoring assets right now. He's got good bounce, he can dunk, I would call him a good athlete.

He can even throw down lobs as a guard. I mean, obviously, it helps he's six five, but he's got good bounce. And I think you see that too in the shop. Point eight blocks per game tells you that he does have good hops. He gets some good blocks for guard, especially, and good size for guard. It's not just the the hops, but again, being six five, I think the combo of that and his vertical kind of allows him that you would feel comfortable if he he was a guard in there at the three, you would feel comfortable with it. Maybe makes most sense for him to be a two, but you would feel fine with it if he is in there as a three. He's also solid passer, I mean, over to assist

per game, you saw a little bit on the film. Honestly, just just kind of seems like someone who a guy going back to the rankings conversation to me should be ranked higher. And at the same point in time, I'm not going to just like blow helium in this they're like, I also don't think as we get into the fit conversation here, like clearly he would add more shooting potential to this team when he is on when he is he's having his good shooting games, that would add something to the team and he could play

more in those games, he would add more rebounding specifically from the guard position, right? I mean, if you have questions about okay, how many big men does K you have? Well, you want some of your guards to be able to rebound. He does that. He also would continue the theme of having good positional size and being somebody who I think could be a good defender. Now, when you look at overtime elite, like the defensive structures, and sometimes just the structure in general

of some of the basketball teams and games there is not good at all. So that kind of takes some getting over, so to speak. But the fact of the matter is that Rosario, again, was putting up good steel and block numbers, that at least gives me hope. And because he has the size and athleticism that he could end up being a good defender. Those would all be good things. But yeah, I mean, he's not gonna come

in right away, I would think and just be like, he's not gonna be the most he's still gonna be a young player. He's still gonna be somebody who was a little bit raw. Even though I think maybe he should be ranked higher than he is, or he will end up ranked higher than he is right now. He's still not like a McDonald's All American. And we even see McDonald's All Americans come in and struggle the playing time or struggle to find that footing right away. So it's one of those things where it's like if you told me Kansas landed Cole Rosario and they reclassified him to 2025. I think I would be convincing myself that he would be in that

diggy coy Jalen Coleman's role, Coleman Land's role for this year, that he would be like your eighth or ninth man, where in a specific game, if he's having one of those hot three point shooting games, he's going to play more, right? And the beauty of him versus, you know, a guy like Diggy Koi is again, very big size difference. And also probably more rebounding and probably more defensive potential. But are you going to reach that potential in year one? Or are you going to reach that potential in year three? Because that's going to be the big impact in how much you're playing, right. But

that's still a useful role that Kansas is still looking to fill. And if you're able to fill that with a guy that I think could be a really good player down the road, and you're able to fill a short term position right now. And then you're talking come the following season when he's a sophomore, maybe even the season after that when he's a junior. And he could potentially like to me be a starter level player down the road. I mean, it's an obvious take to me, you know, it scratches one itch for for this year, a smaller itch and scratches a bigger itch for down

the road. So I'm all in on Cole Rosario again, how much does Kansas have the opportunity to bring him in? Like, is he interested in some of these other schools? Is he going to reclassify in the end? I don't know. But this would be a take for me. And I can see the vision here for for Bill Self and Company and a lot of these other schools of what they're looking for. That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown J-Ox. Thanks so much for joining us and thank you that every day is catching each and every

episode of the show, wherever your podcasts or on our YouTube page. See you next time for another edition of LOJ.