Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Deep Dive: How Would Kansas Jayhawks Transfer Target Arthur Kaluma Fit In with KU?

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

The latest on former Creighton forward Arthur Kaluma as the Kansas Jayhawks continue to target the transfer portal. Where does Kaluma sit in the NBA Draft process, does KU have a shot at landing him, what are Kaluma's strengths and weaknesses in his scouting report, and how would he fit in for Bill Self's team. Plus, why he's similar to Jalen Wilson.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.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, deep diving into Arthur Columa, the former Creighton player who is testing the NBA draft waters. Could he come out of the draft? Could he transfer? He's already in the portal. If he should decide to come back, would he make for a perfect fit at KU? Let's discuss. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks,

part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thank you for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And you can also like and subscribe to us on YouTube.

On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, sorry for no show yesterday, but we'll do a Tuesday through Saturday this week. Arthur Columa, deep dive. I've been teasing at it for a little bit of time. He is the former Creighton player who entered the transfer portal while still testing the NBA draft waters. He just went through the draft combine, and now he just awaits his decision.

The recruiting dead period will end on, I think, May 27th. That would make it on Saturday. And then the deadline to decide what you're doing is like three or four days after that. So I would imagine certainly things are going to be speeding up here relatively quick with some of these guys that we're going to do deep dives on this week from your Grant Nelsons and some other players. But we start with Columa this week. So where are things at? So Columa entered the draft process, as as i mentioned but also entered the transfer portal to keep his options open and um he entered the portal on the very last day i believe even just

to kind of keep that possibility open um he's someone who you look at some different rankings in the pre-draft process and it would probably lead you to believe, well, you should probably come back. But you never really know. Sometimes there are certain kids where they're not even going to get drafted, and they know going in they're not going to get drafted. But they're just, if I get a two-way contract, like, cool, or I'm ready to start my professional career. He's ranked 87th on ESPN's rankings, 53rd on CBS's rankings,

and 55th on The Athletic. Now, those rankings were pre-combines. I don't know how any of that got affected. But something else to consider, when you're being projected as a late second-round pick, which for CBS and The Athletic, that is the case, a lot of times what ends up happening in the last 10, 15 picks of the draft is it gets muddled around because you'll get teams who take guys who maybe aren't in the top 60 but are willing to hey we will stash overseas for a year in europe where you know you can have me develop on somebody else's dime or um you know make a promise for me

to be taken here because of the agency i'm in the same agency as this free agent that you're trying to sign. There's some political stuff involved that a lot of times pushes some guys out of that range if you're in there. It's kind of a dangerous space to be in, but you never really know what exactly you're looking for, what you're trying to get promised. Are you trying to get promised just a two-way deal? Because then at that point, if you're Arthur Columbo, whether you get drafted or whether you're an undrafted player,

you're probably getting a two-way deal because then at that point if you're arthur kaluma whether you get drafted or whether you're an undrafted player you're probably getting a two-way deal but do you contract do you want to come back and have the chance to kind of move your way up all depends on the individual player and it's easier to know that stuff with the ku guys you've been covering all year like with jaylen wilson like he's gone regardless right and he's seen as a higher second round pick than Kaluma but with Kaluma I don't know what the idea was kind of all year for him so then he goes to the NBA combine and he measures six foot six and a quarter without shoes 222 pounds seven foot and a half inch wingspan um which is really good he had a 32 and a half inch wingspan, which is really good. He had a 32 and a half inch standing vertical, 34 and a half inch running vertical, 11.35 lane agility test, 3.25 shuttle run, and a 3.44 three quarter sprint.

And you might not really have a good reference point for what those are. Here's actually an interesting reference point to me. Arthur Columa versus Jalen Wilson across those measurements. So Columa is about an inch taller he's about three quarters of an inch taller than jaylen wilson but you know pretty close enough he also has a four and a half inch longer wingspan so clearly kaluma is lengthier than jaylen but he has a one inch better standing vertical he has half an inch less running vertical so i mean you're kind of looking at similar guys kaluma just a little bit longer there and then a lot of those running drills are very very close like jaylen wilson was 0.09 seconds faster in the lane agility a lot of those

are very close so body type i basically view kaluma as a slightly less agile jalen wilson but a better um a longer athlete i guess you get a little bit more dunks in there because of the length even though the jumping is about the same and then you look at it this way too jalen wilson took a big step forward this year but jalen wilson's first two years of play at KU, solid player, but 11.4 points per game, 44% from the field, 30% from three. Arthur Columa's first two years at Creighton, 11.1 points per game, 43% from the field, 29% from three. Those are very identical to each other. And I'm not necessarily saying that you can expect Arthur Columa in year three to have the same jump that Jalen Wilson did and technically for Jalen it was his fourth year of college even though it was his third year of play but I guess my point is like

Columa is a former top 50 recruit if you look at his high school recruiting rankings they're similar to what Jalen Wilson's were too the measurements some of the the agility and the speed tests and jumping drills were similar to Jalen Wilson. And then you're talking about a guy going into his third year of play who had similar production in their first two years, who's looking to become a more consistent three-point shooter, just like Jalen Wilson was. There are a lot of similarities there to where I think if you're bringing on Arthur Columa, you can expect, again, I wouldn't necessarily expect to take the jump of what jaylen did to being a first team all-american but you can definitely expect i think arthur kaluma to take a step forward and be the best version of himself as opposed to just the guy we've seen the first

two years which still is a quality player on what's been a really good creighton team the past two years now as far as where ku is at i haven't really seen anything official about you know okay you're reaching out like any reports about oh this is that or that they have a visit scheduled or anything like that but i think you can certainly connect the dots um that it would make sense ku's looking for a bigger wing they could use somebody to fill those minutes arthur kaluma's a good player they've seen him up close and personal and that it would just make too much sense that i'm sure there has been some sort of contact how deep they are in the weeds are there you know you know, other schools are ahead of it? Are there other schools that maybe have a better shot?

I don't know. It seems like there's a lot of quiet there. Now, maybe that's because we are in kind of this recruiting dead period and maybe also because of a slower timeline because the combine was just happening. So, you know, for his camp, he's probably focusing full-fledged on that side of things. combine was just happening so you know from his camp he's probably focusing full-fledged on um that side of things you know maybe his parents are handling the college recruiting maybe he

he's just focusing on the nba draft thing and there's like a lot of leaks involved in there right since it's coming from the parents so i don't know uh but i would just assume if you connect the dots it would make too much sense for ku to to be very interested in him. And so I would imagine that they are and that he is a real target. And I think any way you look at it, any way you dice it, he has to be one of the top probably three targets that's available to KU right now. And for some people, you would probably say number one. For other people, maybe he'd be number three, depending on how you view guys like Grant Nelson or the Zion Poland kid

or Julian Phillips, who feels like a kind of lock to stay in the draft. But I don't know. We'll have a Phillips deep dive later this week. OK, we're going to get on to the scouting report for Arthur Columa strengths and weaknesses. But first, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Built Bar. Are you looking for a delicious snack? Don't want all the sugar and calories?

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So let's start with the strengths for kaluma um high level production in the big east which was the second best conference in college basketball for my money this past year i think ken palm had it the same way you had the national champion in yukon you had some other really good teams like creighton marquette um on and on and on down the list like yukon who won the title mowing through everybody finished fourth or fifth in the big east so it's a really good conference you have high level production there so you don't really have to worry about oh does it translate over to the strength of the big 12 like they were in the next best conference he averaged 11.8 points per game six rebounds per game this past season over his first two years

of Creighton over 11 points per game and also two years of double digit point scoring at Creighton as part of that. He gets a lot of his scoring just by doing a bit of everything, which going back to the Jalen Wilson comparison is a little bit reminiscent there, right? Like Jalen might hit like a mid range shot and then he might drive to the ramp. Like his, his bread and butter was driving to the rim. And I don't know that Columa has a bread and butter as reliable as Jalen's was with driving to the rim, And I don't know that Columa has a bread and butter as reliable as Jalen's was with driving to the rim, but Jalen would get some in transition. He would hit the occasional three,

right? Like with, with Columa, he just does a little bit of everything. He's kind of a, a Jack of all trades in terms of scoring the basketball to where you don't necessarily view him as being like, Oh,

he's, you know, he's Grady Dick. He's going to score 15 a game by just being a knockdown shooter. He's going to score 18 a game because he's just bigger and stronger than everybody in the post. He's going to score 20 every game because of his driving ability or like a Devon Dotson. No, he's just does a little bit of everything. He's solid enough as a cutter.

He's solid enough at attacking closeouts. He's solid actually as a post-up guy. He knows where to be. He's not a great shooter, but he shoots it enough. It honestly is very similar to the first two years of Jalen Wilson he can score a little bit in transition he's just kind of found ways to get points and fill up the stat sheet at the end of the day and you're looking for him to take that next step this year but at the very least he's a high floor player because of that because

he just finds to kind of impact the game he's also has a great ball fake. There was talk last year that you would hear from certain national people that the best ball fakes in college basketball, it was Arthur Columa and Serge Ibari Rice at Texas. I don't know how much that means, but I mean, it meant something. It created openings for Serge Ibari Rice all the time. So that's one way too, that Arthur Columa can get open and help things out there with his shot fake ability uh but a strong tournament performer as well he's been somebody who steps up in those big moments that would be added to the strengths here in six career ncaa tournament games over two years he has scored 79 points and grabbed 45 rebounds that on average is over 13 points and seven and a half rebounds per game. So he's raised both of those numbers during NCAA tournament play when competition is at

its most important. And best of all for him during that NCAA tournament career is his 24 points and 12 rebounds against Kansas in the 2022 second round. He went off in that game and almost led Creighton to an upset over KU. I mean, if not for KU getting Remy Martin back, they'd probably lose that game in large part because of Arthur Columa. So this is a player who has played really well in those big moments and in those NCAA tournament games, and specifically against KU,

which, you know, you look at it from the standpoint of, oh, who's the last transfer into Kansas who played really well against KU? Would that be Remy Martin? Well who played really well against KU would that be Remy Martin well that worked out for KU so I don't know maybe there's something there he's a good rebounder too uh as I mentioned six rebounds per game seven and a half in tournament games in Big East only games last season he ranked 15th in offensive rebounding rate and 13th in defensive rebounding rate really good for a four man especially when he's been playing next to a seven-footer in Ryan Kalkbrenner. So again, if you were able to add Arthur Columa to the mix of Hunter Dickinson,

who's a good offensive and defensive rebounder, that's really good. And then KJ Adams is at the very least a good offensive rebounder when you have your center out there. Maybe that helps you with the defensive rebounding. So boom, you should have a good rebounding team. He's got good size too, 6'7", 220 pounds. And because he's, he's a pretty good athlete. It gives you the ability. You can play him at the three. You can play him at the four because of his size and kind of strength ability. And you can even get away with having him as an emergency center. I don't

think that would ever be in the plan for KU to play him at the center, but in a world where KU is down on scholarships, having versatile players that can cover you and be an emergency player at a position is so crucial. So think about it this way. KU right now is Hunter Dickinson, Parker Brown, KJ Adams, all guys who can play the five. And what happens if one of those guys gets injured and he's out for a week and now all of a sudden another one gets in foul trouble? At that point, you're down to one center. Who would be emergency center well Arthur Columa can be your fourth center in that instance they played a Creighton did a very small sliver of minutes with Arthur Columa at the five this season so he does have some experience doing that where he can be your

emergency center but pretty much all of his minutes would be logged at the three or four and right now for Kansas you don't really have a small forward on your roster. You're looking for more guys to play minutes at those three and four positions. So it would be kind of a perfect fit for KU with his size and his positionality. He also has room to get better. He's headed into his junior year. He was the RSCI number 42 recruit in the country. Again, that compares, compares you know with Jalen Wilson there um so he's not some prospect though who came into Creighton as like a three-star recruit and you know he's just been having solid seasons and this is kind of who he is no like there there's clearly room and and I don't know yeah some some recruiting backup there some recruiting potential

that you would think yeah he can take kind of a next step forward it also means as a part of that with him being a junior it's not just that this could be a breakout year for him as we've seen so many ku players have whether it's jaylen wilson or wayne selden or whoever it's also that means you could potentially have two years left to play for him now i think ideally for him if he's transferring in he's probably going to try to do the kevin mcculler jaylen wilson thing where he's here for one year and then he goes to the draft. But you still have that in the back of your mind. This was on his page from The Athletic with his transfer recruiting or whatever. It says he made only gradual improvements from his freshman season, but the idea of what he can become is still intriguing. Columa is a rangy athlete with good ball skills for his size.

There's potential for him to be an all-league type performer and potentially a first-round draft pick. Not many guys can move like him with explosion and smoothness. He needs to be a more consistent defender and improve his jumper to get there. He's actually better shooting off the bounce than the catch. He was on a team with a lot of weapons, so the counting numbers may not look as flashy as some players with his talent on worse teams. He could play either forward position and fit into just about any scheme

all right next part of this scouting report is not sure i'm not sure about the defense you heard there the defense can be inconsistent he ranked in just the 12th percentile on synergy in all possessions and in man-to-man on defense that's not very good however his freshman season in 2021 to 22 he ranked in the 82nd percentile in both of those so one year you have really good numbers on synergy one year you have really bad numbers on synergy um Creighton was a really good team this past year and really the last two years but a lot of that was because of Ryan Kalkbrenner protecting the rim so I don't know that we have a great read on on what Kaluma is as a defender but if he can just be I guess that shows right there part of the scouting report that was given he needs to be a

more consistent defender well boom that shows it right there he's just been inconsistent as a defender well sometimes when he's good sometimes when he's bad if you can get that more consistency or just get him to be a consistently average defender uh maybe that's good enough for you um now on to the weaknesses i think so far spot up shooting you heard that the athletic uh piece there he shot 38.2 percent on uh off the bounce shooting compared to 30 percent um off the catch, according to Synergy. He ranked in just the 16th percentile as a freshman in spot-up shooting. He was 8 for 50, which was good for just 16% from 3 on spot-up 3s on their own. But overall, spot-up shooting 2s and 3s, he was just in the 16th percentile. And then again, spot-up 3s as a freshman, just 16%.

So not a good spot-up shooter. He did improve as a sophomore, but still only to the 35th percentile in then again spot up threes as a freshman just 16 so not a good spot up shooter he did improve as a sophomore but still only to the 35th percentile in spot up shooting and specifically on spot up threes as a sophomore he went 22 of 74 good for just 29.7 percent from threes in those spot up occasions so it's not somebody who's been a good spot up shooter which ideally you would like that to be the case because you have a team with Hunter Dickinson and DeJuan Harris where they could spray it out to perimeter shooter who is spotting up and hitting those threes. Then again, he improved from 16% spot up threes to almost 30% spot up threes year one to year two. If he can take another jump to year three to 35%, 36%, maybe that's enough for you. Another possible weakness here, not super efficient.

And this goes in line kind of with the shooting, just 26.5% from three as a freshman, 31% from three as a sophomore. If he does keep that uptick going, then you are looking at that solid junior season. Again, back to the Jalen Wilson comparison, 33-34% on higher volume, but he has been kind of

a streak shooter. Now as a freshman, Columa was really good on two-point shots. He was over 52%, but it dropped to 49% as a freshman, Columa was really good on two point shots. He was over 52%, but it dropped to 49% as a sophomore. He's not necessarily inefficient, but I don't think he's viewed as being efficient either, which again, that's kind of similar to Jalen Wilson. And then the last part of this, he can be boom or bust, goes back to the inconsistencies as a shooter, as a defender. And you see that reflected in the scoring totals game to game. Kaluma last season had 11 games with 14 or more points.

He had a season high of 27 points against BYU. He also had six games of seven or less points, including four games where he only scored four points or less. So you had some low lows, you had some high highs in there, and that's what you're going to try to refrain. But typically, you know, there are only, there are certain things that are and are not going to improve as you stay through college. Most often your athleticism, that's going to kind of be who you are when you come in. Like maybe you add some weight or something, but realistically that's

going to be about the same. Your shooting usually. Like maybe you add some weight or something, but realistically, that's going to be about the same. Your shooting usually improves the longer you stay in college. Your consistency usually improves the longer you stay in college. Your defense might improve the longer you stay in college. So those are all good things to make you think you can make those types of jumps because those are the things he's looking to make a jump in coming up. But as of now, those are some of the questions.

I will finish things up with how he would fit in and kind of final verdict here with Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make a fast break to FanDuel during the NBA playoffs because right now new customers can get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's $1,000 back if your first bet does not win. You can bet on playoff Jimmy right now. That's always been a profitable bet. You can go bet on the same game parlay,

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You could hypothetically start KJ at the 400 at the five and Kaluma at the three, but I don't know if that's enough shooting. I think realistically what I would expect is that Columa would come in and start at the four and that would move KJ to being your basically sixth man I know typically we view six men as like guards who can come off the bench and just score for you I'm just viewing it as like who's going to play the most off the bench and I know you would hope that KJ Adams would not view that as a huge demotion or take it as a slight. He might. But here's how I view it.

You have 80 minutes to divvy out between the four and the five positions. Let's say Hunter Dickinson plays 30 a game. Let's say Arthur Columa gives you 28 minutes a game. You're still at that point left with 22 minutes to give KJ Adams. And if Columa is only playing 25 minutes a game, now KJ can play 25 minutes a game too, right? You can still get him a lot of minutes as both the combo, the backup five and the backup four that he's just kind of the super sub coming in.

Maybe you even do fit out an extra five minutes where Columa is at three cages at the four and hunters at the five, just to get those guys a little bit more minutes. So you can figure it out and everything wouldn't be shocking if KJ did still start at the five just to get those guys a little bit more minutes. So you can figure it out and everything. Wouldn't be shocking if KJ did still start at the four, but I think that would be kind of my expectation. And then, like I said, you would have somebody who could be your emergency fourth string center, which would give you a little bit of extra coverage there and would also give you a small forward type.

Like, let's say you are playing Duke, and let's say Duke is rolling out a lineup of Mitchell at three, Filipowski at the four, and a center at the five. Maybe in that lineup, you can get away with Kaluma at the three and KJ at the four. And, you know, so it gives you just more positional versatility. But I would mostly view Kaluma coming in as a four and probably being a starter at that point in time. Overall, the verdict here, obviously a take for me. You have two scholarships open. If you're trying to get one more

impact player and just being like oh if we do happen to get a second commitment from a good player we'll try to make it work but i i think he's definitely a take if you're having to pick and choose like hypothetically if you were like hey we have either grant nelson or arthur kaluma i think that becomes a more interesting discussion but i think it's very clear to me that kaluma is one of the best available players for you to go after right now, and if he's willing to commit, and you can get him in tow, do it. On sight and seen. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

We'll do a Julian Phillips deep dive. We'll also get to a Grant Nelson one later in the week. This has been Locked on Jayhawks. Find us wherever you get any of your podcasts or on YouTube. See you next time.