Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Deep Dive: How Would Possible Kansas Jayhawks Transfer Target Arterio Morris Fit in with KU

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Texas guard transfer Arterio Morris seems to be visiting the University of Kansas. How would Morris fit with the Jayhawks basketball team on the court and what to make in regards to some of the off the court questions surrounding him. What's the latest with his recruiting, strengths and weaknesses from his scouting report and final verdict on his fit with KU and if he should be a take or not.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 do a deep dive into Arterio Morris, the transfer from Texas. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday, 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. You can also like and subscribe to us on YouTube.

On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're doing a deep dive into our Terrio Morris, who is the transfer from Texas, former five-star recruit, came in the program for one year at Texas. I think he was ranked 16th on the 24-7 composite, very high potential, and he decided to transfer. There's some off-the-court stuff that we need to talk about here as part of the deep dive. We'll get into where things seem to be at right now, scouting report, strength and

weaknesses, and then the kind of final verdict, how he would fit in at KU. And for me, whether it would be a take or not. All right, let's start things off with where things seem to be for arterial morris so uh this guy who you know went to texas last season um ended up being a bench guard for the team you know he comes in as a five-star recruit but he's behind marcus carr and tyrese hunter and sergio barry rice they're six men off the bench there's not a ton of minutes to go around at the guard position so he only plays 11 minutes per game but this transfer to me is not about like lack of playing time because he would have been in line for a lot of playing time this year you would think marcus carr graduates sergi barry rice graduates marcus carr is testing the draft waters even if car comes back there's a spot next to him for a possible starting bid you would assume that would have been arterio

morris um so i i don't know what this is about obviously chris beard would have been his main recruiter i would assume he's gone now and maybe that was the the reason he you know wasn't a coach terry guy i don't know i i don't know why he is uh transferring specifically because it seemed like he was going to be in line for a lot of playing time there um This was not someone who we saw pop up on a list of, you know, arterial Morris schools that have reached out, reported interest, whatever it was, Kansas. It just kind of all of a sudden came out that arterial Morris was going to have a visit.

And yesterday that kind of came out and about and everything. And there were reports that he's going to be visiting KU. Now, what hasn't really been confirmed that I've seen is if this is a visit, like an official visit where KU is bringing him on, or if this is him visiting the school. And I think that is very interesting because this is a very complicated recruitment. It's not just about the player. We'll get into the scouting report, the strengths and weaknesses.

Arterial Morris is a very talented player with a very high potential with a chance to be a really really good player with that whatever school he ends up at next there is also off the court stuff going on and you have to be careful when you're talking about some of this stuff because um a lot of it could be alleged or still go through and going through the uh process and everything uh he was supposed to have a court date, I think, for March, but it got pushed back, I would imagine, because they were in kind of the thick of things with playing basketball and stuff. So they pushed it back.

So we're still waiting on that. But he basically, as the story goes, you know, he got in trouble for... Again, I'm trying to kind of be careful here for a situation with his ex girlfriend. He was never suspended at Texas. It was an arrest on June 2nd. So the summer of 2022. And I know there are some people in the texas area that were surprised he never did get suspended or anything like that or that he ended up playing this season um the side of arterio morris his attorney uh has been out and said that we maintain his innocence just as we have from the outset according to frisco police that morris was arrested after officers were called to the

ex-girlfriend's house she told police that she and morris had broken up the day before and that a relative who didn't know about the breakup let him inside uh the woman told police that morris grabbed her arm pulled her off a bed then grabbed the front of her sports bra which caused an injury on her neck police this according to this story on espn which is uh actually funneled through from the associated press police reported seeing a three inch abrasion on the woman's neck and arrested morris on a charge of assault causing injury to a family member, which includes dating relationships in the state of Texas. The charge is a Class A misdemeanor that carries up to one year in jail and up to a $4,000 in fines if convicted.

Morris was released from Denton County Jail on June 3rd. He posted a $3,500 bond. He was allowed to remain with the team, and Texas officials said that the matter was turned over to campus Title IX office. So ended up not being suspended or anything. We're still waiting on that. Obviously, you know, that would be bad

if you brought on a transfer commit, and then all of a sudden they were convicted in court and were, you know, to jail for a year, like said, that could possibly happen. But there's no meaning that that would or would not happen. We don't, like said, the possibly happen. But, um, there's no meaning that that would or would not happen. We don't really know what's going to happen. It's, it's going to court and, uh, we'll see what ends up happening there. Obviously with some of these, you know, domestic violence type of issues, there are times when it's, it's hard to prove

and it's hard to, we see all the time, like, um, the, the i guess accuser ends up getting off scott free whether it's because you know there wasn't anything they did wrong or just because it was too hard to prove in the court of law even though they did do something wrong so i don't know i don't know where you know i i'm doing surface like digging on this stuff for arterio morris um i'm sure less than maybe some other people have but i would just think that makes it very complicated because if you are a team that a school that's going to take him on there is a certain pr hit that you are going to have to suffer through now if you're kansas you've been through this before you've been through this with legerald vick uh you've

been through this with past players that maybe you've kicked off the team um and you know i i don't know that you necessarily love the pr of going from the ncaa irp stuff to then all of a sudden you know and right before that you were dealing with whatever the josh jackson stuff and legeral vick stuff to then going through this i'm not sure that's great but also like kansas is obviously a uh well-established team like bill self is very comfortable in his position that he can probably take this risk a little easier than maybe some other schools or other new coaches. And I think what makes it interesting with the visit is, if it's official or not, is if it's official,

it would be KU reaching out to the kid. I almost get the sense that, you know, most often visits are about you trying to sell your school, sell your program to the player coming in. I view this visit as Artial morris and his camp is trying to sell themselves to bill self why should we take you let's talk about this let's dig deeper on the issues what happened here like what are we getting ourselves into and there will be some sort of a vetting process with all this done by ku because the talent

get on the court very good possibility to be a very good Kansas player, but the stuff off the court, it very much scares you. It very, very much scares you. So we'll get into the scouting report and then we'll get into the verdict side of things, but I'll just say this.

Yeah. I don't necessarily love the off the court stuff. And I am a believer in, you know, giving second chances and stuff like that. But, um, I like,

is this a second chance? If, if it's maintaining innocence and not shown remorse and not do anything about it, is there nothing actually that happened wrong? So he has no reason to show remorse is, um, this situation where he is becoming a better person of it.

There's so many questions that come off of this that I don't have the answers to that hopefully KU and Bill Self and staff are going to get to. But on the surface, it does not look great to me, but you know, we'll get into the scouting report here in a second. Alright, this is Locked on Jayhawks and we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

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If you don't win, you can pick your favorite player to hit a home run that specific day you can get a pitchers over or under on strikeouts you can build your favorite team game parlay with your favorite matchup of the day or some different players you think are going to get hits home runs doubles whatever it is that day so don't miss your chance to get a no sweat first bet up to one thousand dollars when you join fanduel today just go to fanduel.com Just go to FanDuel.com slash LockedOn to sign up. FanDuel, an official partner of Major League Baseball. On the scouting report of the player,

because as I said, there are the off-the-court stuff that you have to kind of work through as a staff to figure out if this is a kid that you feel comfortable taking, or if it's someone that you're avoiding at all costs. But the on-the-court player is very, very good here for Artario Morris. You look at the stats, and you're like, oh, he averaged 11 minutes per game

and he scored four and a half points per game at Texas. And you're like, well, how good could he be? But again, he was behind Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter, Serge Ibari-Rice. There weren't a ton of minutes to go around. When you saw him on the floor, you did see real good flashes of what he could do. We even saw that in the Big 12 tournament game, the championship between Kansas and Texas. He hit a couple big shots for them. He's a a former top 20 recruit number 16 in the 24-7

composite five star who does have those real flashes um you look at the standards for him it's it's pretty um encouraging his comp on 24-7 sports was Ja Morant. Yeah. Now, funny enough, next to the comp of Ja Morant, it has a projection. It says second round pick. I'm just sitting there like, wait, wait, what? Comp, Michael Jordan. Projection, undrafted.

Like, what? If he's Ja Morant, he's going to be, you know. So anyway, I thought that was kind of funny. But this was the scouting report from Brandon Jenkins. Morris is an elite point guard prospect who is a raw talent that has the upside to potentially be the best player from the 2022 class. Morris has popped to his game and is elusive with his handle with his handle or when breaking down defenders, his short area quickness and burst coupled with his shiftiness grant him the ability to get wherever he pleases in the half-court game.

He is at his best when playing downhill, where he is an instinctual player when finishing creatively at the rim. Thanks to his length, he can also be leaned upon as a multi-positional defender. As he learns to play with a consistent killer instinct and polishes his overall game, mainly his jumper and decision-making, Morris could potentially take off and be mentioned in the conversation for the best lead guard in the class so I mean athleticism is at the utmost here you're talking about an ultra athletic player we always look at KU and go how can you get more athletic especially after some of the the recent teams or feeling like maybe you didn't have enough well if you add arterial Morris and you have him and El Marco Jackson, who are as athletic as they come in the backcourt,

and you have KJ Adams and Ernest Uday and Zubi Ejder for throwing down lobs, all of a sudden your team becomes a lot more athletic with those types of players. And having guards that can get into the paint and just kind of beat their guy off the dribble, that is so crucial and critical to go far in the NCAA tournament. He has those skills. He also has good size. He's 6'3". that that's not a necessity. We've seen KU play two little guards together, but realistically like, you know, Devante Graham was, was still

what? Six, two Frank Mason was maybe five 11. Um, DeJuan Harris is still like six one and has, you know, really good arm length and everything. You could get away with playing a six foot guy. If he was that good of a player next to DeJuan. But ideally, they'd be on the higher end of height for that kind of combo guard, point guard size. And 6'3", gives you more than good enough height, especially with that athleticism, to play next to DeJuan Harris. And if you have El Marco Jackson, DeJuan Harris, Artario Morris,

that is an unbelievable three-guard rotation of guys who can all fill in at the point guard and guys who can all play together in different lineups and you can really work 80 good minutes out of that like i mean that there has been like like dewan and or not i'm sorry frank and and davante is probably a better you know duo than dewan and morris slash el marco especially because el marco would be just a freshman but in terms of having three guards do you have to go back all the way to like 08 when k you had russ rob mario and charon um for as good as you'd feel about the three guards not just the two guards now i guess you could still say well give me frank

davante and just even a walk-on because those guys were that good. But you know what I mean. Like, it would be a very, very good three guard if Artario Morris came along and hit with the potential that you think he could be. Other parts of strength here, the defense, because he's really athletic, he's got good size, and that athleticism and size translates

to the defensive side of the ball. It was a limited sample, obviously, with him playing less minutes per game, but he was in the 83rd percentile on synergy in defense. And it's one thing for that to be a small sample size and to be like, well, he, like, for instance, if the scouting report said he's not a good three-point shooter and then he came out there and he was like 10 of 20 from three,

it'd be like, well, he did shoot well from three, but it was only 20 attempts. It's a limited sample size, and the scouting report says maybe he's not no the scouting report says he's a good defender and the athleticism translates to the defense and he was good on defense so yes you expect him to be a really good defender he plays really hard on the basketball court those are all positives here he also shot it well to finish the year you look at over the course of the the season the shooting was you know average below average from three point range but to finish off the year something clicked again limited sample size because he wasn't playing as much as some of

those other guys but he was 11 for 24 from three point range in the final two months of the season shot 40 percent in one of the final two months shot 50 percent in one of the other final two months so the shooting coming around and he also has three years left to play. Possibly that could be a strength here because you know, he was just a freshman. So hypothetically you could have multiple years, this guy, but also if he does, if things do click and he hits, he's probably gone after one to two year of those to the NBA draft because he is a potential first round pick in terms of what his game could provide. As far as the weaknesses, obviously the off the court past that, that is without a doubt, something of a weakness.

It's not just the story and what's trying to be cleared there, but it's also, you know, there's some stuff about maybe some videos being out there that I, I don't know if they are or not. I don't know if those have been scrubbed. I don't know if the, his attorney team and stuff is,

is, you know, gotten those cleared away. Cause maybe there are legal purposes of why those are not allowed and, in what regard, but yeah, those are obviously big concerns to worry about. But then again, you could argue for KU if in court he gets cleared of everything and there's no wrongdoing issued by court. You could make the argument for KU if they're to say, well, okay, we weren't around for it. If the court says he's clear, why should we say something opposite?

You could make that argument. Now, I don't know that I would, but you could. Other weaknesses here, he's not as experienced as maybe some other options out there, I guess you could say, but I don't really worry about that. And the other part of this, would he be happy competing for like, like not being the true point guard? Because that's part of it. Why trying to get under the skin? Why did he transfer from Texas?

You would have thought he would have been in line for a lot of playing time and opportunity at Texas this next season. Is he going to be comfortable coming into a situation where you have Dwan Harris, who's going to play 35 minutes a game at the point guard spot. And you're going to have El Marco Jackson and McDonald's mcdonald's all-american competing for two guard minutes and who knows maybe you're going to even add another combo guard out of there um out of the portal or something like that and are you going to be comfortable competing for basically

number two guard minutes where you might not be playing 30 minutes a game like are you going to be comfortable doing that i think the other weakness still tightening up the shooting as much as he did shoot well over the final two months of the season overall shot just 33 percent from three uh but you expect a guy going into his sophomore year who had that boost at the end of the year maybe he can get up to 35 36 percent three and that would be more than enough with his athleticism and ball handling all right we're going to finish things up how would he fit at kansas and the final verdict if he would be a take or not uh from this end of things with locked on jayhawks finishing things up how would he fit at kansas so obviously he would come in you wouldn't expect him to be the starting point guard that would be

duane harris um i think it would be a competition between at that point if he came in el marco jackson and uh arteria morris of who would get the backup point guard minutes, right? Those, however long, let's say DeJuan plays, you know, 35 minutes a game, that's five minutes. If he plays 32 minutes a game, that's eight minutes, right? So whatever that is, it would be a competition between those two guys to play the backup point guard minutes. Jackson comes in more as a combo guard. Morris can play combo guard, but he came in listed as a point guard. So maybe he would have the edge there and then you look at the the two guard spot you would be having 40 minutes to basically divvy out between a marco jackson and arterio morris in this situation

maybe any minutes like kyle cuff or i don't know if you grab a wing who can play those two minutes for you um so there wouldn't be like necessarily a situation where you would probably have 30 minutes a game to play. Realistically, it could be, what if El Marco plays 25 minutes at the two and Morris plays 15 at the two and five is a backup point guard, he's getting 20 minutes per game. But there also is a scenario.

We did see times last year where KU played, it wasn't a ton, but DeJuan, Joe, and Bobby all next to each other on the floor. And with a lineup of Arterio, Morris, DeJuan, Joe, and Bobby all next to each other on the floor. And with a lineup of Artario, Morris, DeJuan, and El Marco, that's a much more opportune lineup to do that type of three-point guard lineup because El Marco and Morris have insane athleticism, and all three are little guards, even if they're 6'3 or lower, have good arm length and stuff like that.

You can make it work a little bit more to where maybe you could stretch out an extra five minutes of a lineup like that a game. And maybe El Marco and Arturo Morris are both getting 25 minutes per game. But he'd obviously be somebody who plays a lot for you, whether it's in a backup role or starting at the two position and getting 25 plus minutes per game. So the role would be you would expect him to be a real contributor on the team in terms of how his role would be. And it would also allow you to have those three kind of combo guards or three point guard types

to fill up your one and two minutes, which would alleviate needing more wings because instead of needing wings to play the two, three and four positions like they did last year, you would only need wings to play the three and the four because you'd be filling up all your two minutes with combo guards. Final verdict, though, though on the court this is an absolute take on the court this would be a top five available player in all positions you know maybe not in terms of what he did last year or what he's expected to do maybe next year but when you look into the idea of the potential and having three possible in terms of fit for ku like hunter like Hunter Dickinson, obviously number one. You know, I don't know who would be number two or number three, whatever, Max A.

Smith or this wing or whatever. But he would be top five in terms of just on the court play, arguably in terms of fit for KU and what you would be getting for the long haul. Out of the train, don't really want to deal with the off the court stuff for me it's a no but i'm not in those conversations i'm not in the room with bill self and the coaching staff and and the people who are going to be vetting arterial morris and if they feel comfortable enough through that vetting process now you would hope it's not just one of those things where now we're going to lightly vet him but you know we're not going to overly do it because we just think he's that good and we don't really care that much you hope that it is a real vetting process that um it is and then for what it's worth there have been good things said about

the teammate he was and stuff at texas and you know if if you're getting a guy who um ends up being like a really good person from bad like we saw jaylen wilson he had the dui he learned from it he became a really important leader on the team obviously different situations and i don't want to like cross compare crimes and stuff like that but there are avenues where people can get better from stuff and if that happens and the info isn't as bad here and the court clears him and everything it makes it more likely and doable here that i can i guess understand it but for me i just really wouldn't want to deal with some of the off the court stuff but you know that's me i know some

fans are like you know we don't care like if we trust bill self everything's fine and they're going to come to whatever logical conclusion they want to come to so we'll see what that ends up being but uh obviously a great on-court fit. You have the worries about some of the off-court stuff that we'll see what the resolution of that holds. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back with 100 Dickinson deep dive

on tomorrow's episode. You can hit me up on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can listen to Rock Chalk Sports Talk three to six Monday through Friday on KLWN. You can listen to Locked on Jayhawks wherever you get any of your podcasts or on you can subscribe and like the show. Have a good rest of your day.

We'll see you tomorrow on LOJ.