Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Deep Dive: How Would Kansas Jayhawks Recruiting Target Mackenzie Mgbako Fit in at KU?

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Deep dive into 5-star recruit Mackenzie Mgbako following his visit to the University of Kansas and how he would fit with the Kansas Jayhawks basketball program. Scouting report with strengths and weaknesses, and should he be the real #1 target for Bill Self?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, we deep dive into Mackenzie Mbako, the five-star recruit who decommitted from Duke, finished up his visit at the University of Kansas. Where do things stand? What's his scouting report? Strengths, weaknesses, final verdict. Should he actually be the number one target for KU? Yeah, I said that even with Hunter Dickinson out there. Should he be number one?

Let's get into it. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. He's locked on Jayhawks. We're going to have a ton of fun deep diving into McKenzie and Baco. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence.

Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be deep diving into McKenzie and Baco. You can also find us on YouTube. Like, subscribe to the show. All right, let's get right into it with imbaco so um i guess who is mckenzie imbaco if you don't know if you've been living under a rock or something um we talked about him a bit and like our forward rankings that were available he was our our lone tier one guy when we did that um and at the time didn't

really you know know how much kansas was going to have interest in didn't really know how much Kansas was going to have interest in, didn't really know how much Kansas was going to be able to get into the recruitment of Mackenzie Mbako. But this is a five-star recruit who was committed to Duke. Then Mark Mitchell, Kyle Filipowski decided they were coming back. Obviously, they're bringing in a really good recruiting class in total, but Mbako was leading that recruiting class. He was Duke's highest rated recruit on what is, I forget if they were number one or number two in the recruiting rankings I think number two I think Kentucky was number one um and so I mean this is supposed to be a high level kid but because Mark Mitchell plays better at the four like Duke did play him a lot at the three because they were playing those two bigs kind of together last year

probably profiles more to being a four-man with filipowski you have a lot of minutes filled up between those two at those big positions in addition to you know everybody else they kind of have on the team so uh he wanted more immediate playing time and a path to more of that to try to be a one and done because he wants to be that so he committed to duke and um obviously there's always a worry whenever you have like if you're trying to get into a recruitment of a kid who is committed to somebody who is a Nike school, right? If you are an Adidas school, which KU is, because sometimes you feel like, okay, does that mean that, you know, Nike has been kind of pushing this kid through the Nike system and they're going to stay on their kind of grassroots circuit like is this a Nike kid where Nike's kind of I think sometimes

you get the inkling that if he committed to Nike school or he committed to an Adidas school or he committed to whatever that that's going to be the path he's going to stay on that's going to be the path that he is going to go back to so he would just go to another Nike school well you look at the four schools that to be the path that he is going to go back to so he would just go to another nike school

well you look at the four schools that it was released by adam zagoria that he is going to be visiting or has at this point already visited you had st john's who had the first visit with you have kansas now kansas is an Adidas school then you're having two more visits with Indiana and Louisville those are Adidas schools so three of the four are Adidas schools so I think clearly this is not something where it's like no he has to go to a Nike school or something like that I think in fact that would kind of prove the opposite to you so that obviously is good news for Kansas and he took the visit at the university of kansas we'll see if he ends up uh visiting louisville and indiana if he ends up visiting those two then i assume you get to a decision a little bit after that i don't know if there's more schools that could tack on at some point um or who knows maybe he

loved the visit so much that he's going to cancel the other stuff and he doesn't really care and just wants to go to KU. We'll wait and see. We'll wait and see on how that goes. But the visit did wrap up for KU. It did officially happen and seems like it went well, as you would imagine. I say this all the time. A lot of times visits go well, especially when you're Kansas basketball, where you have so many bells and whistles to kind of show off and to entice a kid with. Let's get into the scouting report, strengths and weaknesses, final verdict. And that fun question I had, should he actually be the number one target for KU at this point? Let's get into it.

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over in the pharmacy section at Walmart. You can get cookies and cream, double chocolate bar, coconut puff, head to your Sam's club, get a 13 bar box with hit flavors like brownie batter, puff churro puff. You can thank me later with built bar. All right. Onto the, uh, McKenzie and Baco scouting report here. Um, this scouting report will be a little bit different than other scouting reports that I have done. A lot of the other scouting report will be a little bit different than other scouting reports that I have done. A lot of the other scouting reports I have numbers to work with.

I have, um, you know, their stats that they put up in college when you're going through the transfer portal. I have their synergy profiles to give you percentiles of what they ranked in this. And that I have the Ken Palm numbers about, Oh, did they do better against better competition or, you know, what, I don't know, like rebounding rate or something like that, that maybe is a little bit different than the rebounding numbers. I have some of those tools to use to help you guys out with these scouting reports.

In addition to, it's just easier to watch those guys in college. I might've had an eye on a few of them for several games over the course of the season. I don't really watch high school basketball, so I'm going to defer to some of the other experts or recruiting draft type of people who write up these scouting reports and go from there. But I've pieced together some stuff to give you, I think, good information on this kid. So Mackenzie Mbako, if you're looking at the recruiting rankings, he is number eight on the 24-7 sports composite list. He is seventh on the 24-7 alone list. Ninth on ESPN, number eight on on three, number eight on rivals.

So seven to nine, no matter where you look, and eighth on the composite there. We'll start with the strengths. This is from Adam Finkelstein from 24-7 sports, who did the write-up, the scout, the evaluation on him. His shot-making from behind the arc is his best asset. He can also make the types of shots that translate to the next level, pick-and-pop threes, slipping out of ball screens to make shots on the move, or creating shots with a series of sidestep or step-back shots. The mid-post has long been a staple of his individual offense,

but now he's getting some easy buckets by moving without the ball more freely. So very clearly he projects to be a very good shooter and a multitude of levels that you can use him as a shooter, right? You do pick and pop with him. You just have him slip out of ball screens. You move him off a screen away from the ball or something like that. And obviously him being good in the mid post is helpful too it just gives you another way of possibly attacking how often do

we see you know a KU player whether it was Ochagbaje two years ago or Jalen Wilson last year coming around a screen and attacking and the defense you know plays uh too far off him and they have to pull up from the mid-range area right like kind of around that free throw line so that's obviously good I was watching some highlights and uh some of the stuff on imbaco and it looked like he had a really kind of i don't know slippery game the ability to kind of uh work from that mid post to kind of spin by some guy or slip by him and get to the rim as well which i was kind of impressed with um obviously having another guy who can get those shots for you and be a shooter is going to

be very important for this team they have nick timberlake he's going to be your kind of go-to three-point shooter at this point but you need even more of it you need more than just one guy on the floor who can do that to be successful and imbaco profiles to being someone that potentially could be just that now this also from adam finkelstein from 24-7 sports physically imbaco appears to be in the best shape of his career to date and is also productive enough on the glass to hold his own at the four. So when you're looking at his size, he is like 6'8", low 200 pounds. When you look at the size, it would be someone who would probably play the three or the four.

I think KU would basically be playing him at the four. And because of his rebounding ability, like last year, I think part of KU's defensive rebounding rows, woes were a bit overinflated because they actually ended up like basically in line with the team that won the title from the year before. But for both those teams, that was not like a strength. And so ideally, if you're not going to be as good of a three-point shooting team what are ways you can make up in that well be a better

offensive and defensive rebounding team and if you have you know a lineup with Mbako or and or KJ Adams and or like Ernest Duday or Zuby Ejever that should be the start of a good rebounding team right and that's a positive now this comes from NBA DraftNet. Good size and length for position with 6'10 wingspan and about an 8'9 and a quarter standing reach. Good strength and impressive physical profile. One of the more college-ready players from a physical standpoint. That's interesting, especially because the low 200 pounds,

you would think maybe he needs to add 10, 15, 20 pounds. But certainly that's good news because, you know, if he's ready for the college game from a physical standpoint, okay, you don't have to worry about that. Also, can be a matchup problem taking smaller wings into the post, and there aren't many who can match his strength at this level. So, I mean, if he gets matched up on a three-man, take him into the post, right?

We saw Bill Self do some of that with Jalen Wilson. If he was on a smaller man, just post him up. We saw him do it occasionally like Christian Brown. Remember that in the national title game against, I forget if it was Caleb Love or R.J. Davis on him. So that is something Bill Self will utilize. Flashes solid post play, reverse pivots, fadeaways, jump hooks, effective effective slasher and initiates finishes through contact good rebounder for position that kind of goes back in line with some of the stuff we were talking about earlier there and then good tools and versatility as a defender showing ability to

switch defending up and down the lineup block shots well for his position i know some people do have questions about uh is his foot speed is quickness good enough to guard college threes i don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I think you could probably get away with some of him at the three. If you're going to have him at the three, KJ at the four, maybe like Ernest or Zuby or Hunter Dickinson potentially at the five, depending on kind of what happens. But I think mostly he would be a four man for you.

Now, what would that mean for like KJ Adams, for instance? Is he more of a five at that point? Is he splitting minutes at the four? Who's starting at the four i i don't have the answer to that that would be certainly a uh big big conversation if kansas was to land mckenzie and bacco but i think for the most part you look at him playing the four maybe he can give you five to ten minutes a game uh kind of playing the three but that also helps you that he can guard down the lineup if you do want to switch and he gets you know switched on to a big man, he can at least hold his own, even though if that's not something you want to just do each and every possession.

Now, I do have, before I get to weaknesses here, I do have something that I put in the not sure category. I read off from Adam Finkelstein, him talking about the three-point shooting and the different ways that he can get off a shot and being used in the pick-and-pop game and everything. But what I put in the not sure category is the shooting consistency it is clear he has the potential to be a really good shooter right but is it college ready or is it just a projection like grady dick was both college ready and projected out to be a good shooter in the nba with imbaco

is like oh gosh uh tyrese maxi for instance came to Kentucky right I think he shot like 26% I don't know he's in like the 20% 29% from three at Kentucky he goes to the NBA and he's immediately like this knockdown shooter he projected to be a really good shooter and maybe part of it was just that at Kentucky he wasn't really set up and like they weren't running a ton of great offense and he wasn't getting great shots and maybe it was spaced better in the NBA. That could be part of it. But I guess with him Baco, you do wonder like, what if he's just a low thirties, high 20% three-point shooter. And then by the time he's in his third year of the NBA, he eventually is like a great three-point shooter. Is it just a projection or is it what he was actually projected to do at college? And I think the reason why,

so in his high school career, he made 122 career three-pointers in 72 games. So a little under two per game. He made 31 in 16 games at the high school level as a senior. So about two per game. He shot 43% from the floor in 2021 at the Nike EYBL, 43% from the floor in the 2022 Nike EYBL, which that's not like horrible, but that's not like jump off the page numbers either. in the last year's nike ybl in 2022 he was just 26 percent from three so again there's the 26 and you're like wait i thought he was known as being a great shooter but then again he shot 6.8 three point attempts per game for that 26 which i mean that is that is like very high volume for i don't know in uibl if they play 40 minute halves or if it's like high school where it's like 32 minute

or not halves uh 40 minute games if it's 32 minute games or something but um 6.8 attempts per game is a very good number so that either means one of two things that either means he was just chucking up threes which would lead to a lower percentage or they kept running plays for him to get open threes because he is a good shooter and nike ybl i mean it's not like it's not like this is like a 50 game sample or something like that right um so the attempts per game tell you that there is confidence there that there is confidence from the coach and his teammates that he is a good shooter and then maybe it was just a bad three-point shooting game for him maybe uh we talked with kevin flaherty on rock chalk sports talk um earlier this week and he kind of talked about how yeah i mean you get him into a college system like he projects to be a good

shooter with a better system with bill self and stuff around him that's setting him up for more open threes so uh the counter to that would be his free throw shooting has been under 70 percent both years at the Nike YBL. Sometimes that shows touch and projection. So I have no idea what to think. Is he a really good shooter? Is he just somebody that projects to be a good shooter? I don't know.

You take the risk with it and you hope that the shooting does come around. I mean, Josh Jackson wasn't known as being a good shooter and he ended up shooting like 37%. I think Bill Self, if you're talented enough, we'll be able to figure it out for you. Now onto the weaknesses side of things here. This is from Adam Finkelstein with 24-7 Sports. His swing skills are his defensive versatility

and shot creation abilities, both of which are rooted in his mobility, foot speed, and ability to play low to the ground when necessary. If these two areas develop, both his versatility and overall projection will go to new levels. So, again, there's that part about defensive versatility. Can he guard against threes? Shot creation ability would just be like,

can he create shots off the bounce? Sounds like to me more of right now a guy that is a kind of spot-up shooter from the outside or somebody you can post up and let, you know, kind of do certain work on the interior, in the mid post, in the high post, in the low post, stuff like that. Which that, I mean, when you're talking about a freshman, they're not going to have a fully

complete game. That is still a very versatile offensive punch that he could bring to the table for a Bill Self offense. But yeah, the defense, the versatility and the foot speed part, the mobility, does that prevent him from playing the three? And if that prevents him from playing the three, that can limit how much he could play. Because if you're playing KJ Adams at the four, you know, which one of them starts first of all. And if it is KJ, we haven't seen a lot of bill self players ever go from starting to not

starting. It's a very short list. I, I mean, I think Sasha con, but that's like partially like, I think he offered to do it or something like that. I forget Brady morning star. Maybe might've done it. Like it's, it's a very short list of guys who something like that. I forget Brady Morningstar maybe might have done it.

It's a very short list of guys who have done that. And even if KJ's not starting, he's going to play a sizable role on the team. So if KJ's playing 25 minutes per game, let's say he plays five minutes at the center if you're moving him away from that, but he still plays some small ball center, and then you're playing him 20 minutes at the four, that means you only have 20 other minutes at the four to give out. So maybe Mbaka gets that, but then where does he get his other minutes?

Well, can he play the three? That's kind of part of it to figure out if that works or not. This also from NBA DraftNet. Above average athlete, but isn't incredibly explosive. He can get wild with the shot selection and has tunnel vision at times, bailing out the defense, has a habit of picking up his dribble early, holding it for a few seconds, then go up with a contested shot sometimes from distance while it works at times at this level he has a tendency to put his head down and force his way to the rim

has room to improve offensive technique overall his players will match his physicality at next levels very high volume shooter at a not so efficient rate now Jalen Wilson wasn't like not efficient but he wasn't like super efficient so I almost view it as like if you bring Mbako in he's just fitting into that right but I think with with potential to maybe shoot better from three than Jalen did but I don't know that you would expect it I mean Jalen took a ton of threes and he was shooting like 33 percent so I I don't know um now as far it. I mean, Jalen took a ton of threes and he was shooting like 33%. So I don't know. Now, as far as how he'd fit the final verdict, should Mbaka be target number one?

Let's get to that next and finish things up with Locked on Jayhawks. All right, finishing things up. So how he would fit, like I said, I think you'd be playing him mostly at the four. Maybe you would try to get him some extra minutes at the three position to both help you out in terms of lineup versatility and to just find him extra minutes and to make sure that KJ and the big men are all happy getting the minute allotments that they need as well. But I think mostly you'd be looking at him at the four. He would have to, it'd be, it'd be a fight

between I think him and KJ Adams to start at the four. My expectation at that point would be KJ starts the year at the four, and then we'll see if Mbako could ever usurp him or eventually become the guy that's starting at the three. I think that you could make a real argument he should be target number one. There is enough here that I think Mbako represents a high ceiling, lower floor prospect. We've seen enough prospects come in and struggle to find their footing in year one under Bill Selfen at Kansas. There's a chance that Mbako comes in and that he is an inefficient year one player and that he would eventually be a really good player, whether it would be him in the NBA or in year two or year three at Kansas, and he's

eventually an All-American. But then in year one, you're still taking that large jump, making those adjustments at the collegiate level that we've seen from a lot of other guys. And if that happens, it really hurts if at that point he was your number one target and you were expecting those big things and it didn't work out to that level and it was more of a role player than like a potential star player right but if it does work out the ceiling there is he's one of your best shooters and he provides that at the four position he helps you space the floor he's a you know top 10 recruit that ends up being like a first round pick, continues your help in recruiting,

and can be one of the favorites to maybe even lead the team in scoring because it's kind of a crapshoot for who that would be, sans Hunter Dickinson. So there's a lot to like there. I think the argument for why he would be target number one, and I'm recording this before hunter dickinson has announced anything so if dickinson announces something and then this comes out then this is going to sound stupid talking about but could you make the argument

that the hunter dickinson show the kind of circus around the player that maybe i don't know are other current players on ku going to be a little unhappy with how this whole thing's gone and seeing the public money and being like, why am I getting that type of money? And being like, why are you bringing this guy in? I wanted to earn my spot, stuff like that. I don't know. Maybe with Mbako, I don't think you have to worry about any of that. So I think you could make that argument. You could make the argument that the potential is higher because what if this guy looks like a top five pick in the NBA draft? And at that point, his skills maybe are the best player you could get out there. So I think there's a lot moving to answer that. I would probably say, no, you do have Hunter

Dickinson as the number one, but I think clearly Mbako to me is the number two. I don't know. Ron Holland gets interesting in there too. He's slightly ranked higher as a recruit. I think Ibaka has better shooting ability than Ron Holland, but Ron Holland may be more switchable, better athlete. Maybe you would argue Ron Holland there. I don't think the Ron Holland one is as realistic. It feels like that one's going to be like G League United or one of these other schools. With Ibaka, it feels like this one is more realistic. So that does make me want to put him either number one or number two on that target list, depending on what you think about the other stuff with the whole Dickinson commitment. Whereas Mbako, it's a little more quiet of a commitment, and I think that can be good

for team chemistry. Maybe I'm overvaluing that. I know Bill Self tends to figure that stuff out and probably shouldn't worry about it. But there is a part of me that thinks that with Mbako. So obviously, verdict, 100% of take. Do everything you can to get Mbako. He would be a great fit for KU. Whether it's him coming off the bench and earning his way to being a starter

or starting right away in the starting lineup, he would be able to give you the potential of shooting at that position, gives you another big time recruit, which that's never bad. If that helps funnel over into the next year and help you bring in more recruits, if you have success and the guy goes into the NBA. But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can catch us wherever you find any of your podcasts or on YouTube. I can subscribe to the show.

We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.