Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Deep Dive: How Would Possible Kansas Jayhawks Transfer Target Primo Spears Fit at KU?

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Deep dive into Georgetown transfer guard Primo Spears. Visit scheduled to Lawrence. Scouting report strengths and weaknesses. How he would fit in for Bill Self with the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team at KU.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, deep dive into Primo Spears, who's supposed to be doing a visit with KU. What could he add to the team? What could he bring to the team? Would it be a good fit for 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. Eric Johnson, you can hear me as well. Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen.

Every day, we're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. Talk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find Locked on Jayhawks on YouTube. Make sure you subscribe to the show and give us a little thumbs up if you could. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be doing a deep dive into Primo Spears, the transfer from Georgetown, started his career his career duquesne went to georgetown now he's entering the portal again after patrick ewing was fired from the georgetown position and he's into the portal now i'm recording this on monday it's supposed to come out on tuesday last time i did this with a deep dive where there was supposed to be a player visit the next day it was harrison

ingram i guess i think i did it with hunter dickinson too and that one ended up okay although i think his flight got delayed uh but the time before uh was with hunter with harrison ingram and we did it for sunday released it on monday he was supposed to visit and then it got pushed back for like the following thursday and then i guess he ended up coming to north carolina so um he's supposed to be visiting starting on tuesday i believe but could get pushed back something could happen we'll'll see. Either way, we're going to do the deep dive just in case it does happen. And because it has been a name you've heard a lot of with KU. You heard a quote from Primo Spears where he said that the staff is really interested in me and coming into the backcourt and what I can provide as a winning

player. And that's certainly an interesting comment because georgetown was in the 200s on ken palm duquesne the year before wasn't very good for him either but they think that he can impact winning for this team in a better situation so where things seem to be at right now and then we'll get to the strengths and weaknesses and then the kind of final verdict on how each one of them the visit does seem to be scheduled for tuesday uh his finalist list was originally arkansas florida state tcu and kansas since then he has added mississippi state to that list um arkansas has taken a billion transfers and guards now i do think arkansas approaches it is like we don't care i know we might have told you that you're going to come in and get all this playing time we don't care we're going to keep recruiting into the

transfer portal and we're going to let whatever competition works out work out and then you know if you transfer after the next season like whatever so I uh I guess it doesn't preclude Arkansas but I feel like it would probably preclude Primo Spears if he sees what's happening and Arkansas bringing on all these guards and being like well maybe that's not the spot for me they have all these other guys florida state would make a lot of sense they're looking for more talent boom tcu was already brought in i think they just brought in another guard over the weekend which would be their third guard via the transfer portal they at least already have two they're still waiting on the decision with what's going to happen with damian baugh um and then uh with kansas you know, the list you could easily point to.

I don't know enough about Mississippi State, but you could easily point to and be like, well, Kansas is clearly the best school among all these lists. And also on top of that, you have maybe some reasons not that he wouldn't pick these other schools that it feels like there's a lot of dots you could connect to Kansas there. But would Kansas really take him? Because it's difficult to figure out for Kansas what the eligibility is going to be. Because of the fact that he was at Duquesne to start, transferred to Georgetown. This becomes his second transfer. He's not a graduate player, so he doesn't get that. He would have to get a waiver to be immediately eligible. And because the NCAA said they're not going to be just giving out those waivers, if your coach gets fired, that kind of precludes him. So maybe there is some way that he can get a waiver, right?

If there is something in the exceptions list that he can apply to, maybe Kansas knows about that. Maybe he knows about that. That could be something of interest. It's just tough. If this was a normal year where Kansas had 13 scholarships, you could still get on board with being like yeah we'll take him we'll let him sit in the program for a year let him develop and then he'll be an even better player by the time he comes around and he's eligible but because you only have 12 scholarships to begin with it becomes a difficult situation of do we just avoid any players who would have to sit out here because we basically already are having to eat that scholarship and it'd be tough to play with 11 scholarship players it's also interesting like what is the level of of interest from ku is he

an auto take if he wants to come to ku where if he says yeah i'm committing then ku says yes let's do it i don't necessarily get the sense that's the case. Or is he a backup option based on if X happens for KU, we have the scholarship open, sure, we'll take a risk with it. What would that X have to be? What would that have to be happening for that to happen? Is it related to, is he a backup option to Artario Morris? Is Artario Morris a backup option to somebody else? I don't know.

Is he a backup option to, well, we couldn't use this scholarship on a wing like Harrison Ingram. So now we're going to go to him. It'll be interesting to see where that lies in the pecking order here for Primo Spears. I do think part of this visit isn't just about KU selling themselves. It's about him selling himself to KU about why he would be a good fit and if he could get that waiver to be immediately eligible. Could it also be a relative decision in relation to what Kyle Cuff's gonna do right I mean you have three guards right

now with DeJuan Harris, El Marco Jackson, and Nicholas Timberlake is Primo Spears decision dependent on Kyle Cuff to wear that kind of fourth guard other combo guard type if you have Kyle Cuff on the roster no reason to bring on primo spears but if kyle cuff transfers then you have that extra open scholarship maybe then you bring on a guy like primo spears right it could be based on a lot of different things whether this ends up materializing or not and then again it all circles back to the one big one what is the case for him being immediately eligible because that is a very big crux in all of this, and it'll be

interesting to see how the visit goes for that reason. I do want to get into his strengths and weaknesses because he's a very polarizing player right now among KU fans, so let's get into that next. First though, this episode of Locked on the Docks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Grand slams, no hitters, double plays are back, and

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The Big East is, I guess, you know, in football, we say power five. It's like power six in college basketball. And then there's like that next year that's close, whether it's like a, I don't know, Atlantic 10 or Conference USA. But the Big East becomes into like a joint. The power five becomes a big six in college basketball. The Big East was probably the second best conference in the country last year. Right. It was Big 12. One Big East was probably the second best conference in the country last year, right? It was Big 12 won.

Big East was probably two. So he had real production in a difficult conference with the team that ended up winning the national championship in UConn. He averaged 16 points per game over five assists per game in that legit conference. And he had some really high level games where you saw the peak play of what Primo Spears did.

26 points on 10 of 19 shootings above 50 against providence that was obviously a tournament team 21 points on 9 of 17 again above 50 against creighton which was an elite 18 how about this one 37 points and 11 assists on 15 of 31 against Xavier so nearly 50 37 and 11 against the sweet 16 team there were some high level games from Primo Spears and I think you look back and you say it's the potential here like it's added on to the strength it is the potential because he would have two years left to play I guess if he's sitting in the air three years in your program so we'll see again where that goes but at the very least you have two years left to play. He showed real improvement.

I mean, you're talking about a guy who went from good production at Duquesne to even better production at Georgetown. So not only did he go up a level, but his play got better. Now, the efficiency didn't really jump or anything, but the totals did. So clearly he got better from year one to year two. Why would he not get better from year two to year three plus you have some of those highlight games he just had inconsistencies he had some bad games he had some of those big games and to me one thing that i look at like a lot of times what players most improve on over the years that they stay in college basketball it is consistency

it's consistency it's like three-point shooting you You'll see guys go 30%, 33% to 37%, and part of that three-point shooting getting better is consistency. A lot of the things that you get better as you get older is consistency. So he's shown the high potential, high games. If he's more consistent with it, it becomes more interesting. Another strength here is he shot well on free throws. 79.5% from the free throw line, so nearly 80%. That's a good thing.

Also, you hear from scouts all the time that good free throw shooting shows good touch and that it can relate to showing that you have more potential or improvement to be had at the three-point line. So maybe he can improve that three-point shooting that right now has been a little bit inefficient. He's also a good isolation score. He ran ISO at one of the highest rates in the country 99th percentile that's not going to happen to kansas that number would go way down for mku he would be less ball dominant he would be less relied upon to do just that and there's two ways of looking at that one

is that he's a player who runs iso too much which that would be you don't want that happening because then it's you know putting the offense in the mud but the other side of it could just be well georgetown wasn't a very good team and they didn't really have the best coach in the world you know maybe he maybe it was one of those things where they just like that was just what their offense was you know what i mean like it was like hey keep running iso and you don't know if it's the player or if it's the coaching staff there, but you would figure KU would reel him in there. But what's interesting, though, is that regardless of the volume, this has no impact on volume, just in terms of the efficiency at it.

Spears ranked in the 68th percentile, which is listed as very good on synergy in isolation settings. So it's a good isolation player and even though he wouldn't be doing it nearly as much as kansas what was one of the issues last year not just the shooting of last year team it was having enough guys who could create in late shot clock situations where they could create their own shot in an isolation type setting and make a shot he would be able to do that for you so those are all good things that yes if you could take that out of him a little that he's not doing it too much to you know make bill self pull him and give him headaches because he's not running play and he's

running iso but if you can harness that like you did with remy martin there's potential there now remy was a lot more efficient coming in than what primo spears has been in his time at at georgetown and duquesne but that's the type of like archetype of player that you'd kind of be looking for there even though again he's not nearly as good as remy was coming in uh he's also strengthier spot up shooting 63rd percentile so above average good kind of rating he was 12 of 34 on spot up shots from three point range which is 35.3 so if he's going to be doing less on the ball because you have dewan harris and he wouldn't be running as much of the point guard he would be

asked to do a little bit more spot up shooting than he had to do at georgetown a little more spot up shooting a little less isolation he actually shot pretty well on spot up shooting better than the percentage would indicate just overall for him. He's also 6'3". I think that goes in a strength here. If you're going to be a guard oriented lineup, let's say without Harrison Ingram, you're going to, you know, this next year, instead of being one guard and three wings or, you know, two guard and two wings, what if they're going to play a lot of lineups with three guards and just one wing because of what the roster allows them to do with you know playing some nick timberlake at the three playing some on marco at the two well you need another guard in that situation but they'd have to have good height to where they could play the two and you wouldn't feel super undersized one through three and primo spears at six three does provide that at the very least for you i do have uh one before i get to the weaknesses like kind of in limbo neither strength nor weakness that

would be his defense uh he was in the 54th percentile so above average slightly in man defense on synergy but he was just in the 44th percentile so below average in overall defense so he's basically like an average defender. Now, this is another one of those things you can convince yourself two things. One, it's very hard to be a really good defender when you are asked to carry the entire load on offense, which he was basically able to do. It lessens your impact and energy on the defensive end of the court. Maybe because he would be a secondary tertiary option on kansas you know fourth fifth option on the floor he would be able to devote more energy to the defensive side of the

ball and that defense could get better again he has six threes an athletic guard and obviously you know bill self is probably going to get more out of you on that end and he's going to require it on the defensive end so maybe you could convince yourself he ends up being an above average or good defender in his role at KU. But coming in, the defense is more kind of average ish for Primo Spears. What about weaknesses for Primo Spears? Well, he's used to being the star of the show, running a ton of isolation, running a ton of pick and roll. Sure, he'd run the occasional pick and roll at Kansas. Sure, he'd run the occasional isolation.

Sure, he'd help you get a late shot clock but can he be okay doing that stuff you know less frequently and being in a different role than he was at Georgetown that's going to be a key because if if he is too ball dominant that's not going to work out when you're next to DeJuan Harris and when you're you know not the the first second or third best player on the floor so that's a real question. Was that a coaching thing at Georgetown? Was that a Primo Spears thing? I don't know.

Weakness was efficiency as well. He only shot 40% from the floor. He only shot 30% from three-point range, and that's back-to-back seasons too straight that he was at 30%. And I think to this notion, are the stats real? Like the counting stats, right? Because the efficiency was not very good. Are the counting stats of averaging 16 and five, which does look really good. Are those real numbers?

Like, are you really that guy? Or is it just somebody had to put up numbers on a bad team, right? Somebody has to score. Somebody eventually is going to put up the numbers for every bad team. Georgetown was 219th in the country on Ken Palm. That was one spot behind Howard, which was KU's 16th seed. So which one is it? Now, I will say, to counter this, Ted,

let's say that his role at KU would be to come in and be a backup point guard, shooting guard type who plays 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes in a given game. Basically, the Joe Yesifu role for this team, like a guy who can theoretically make open shots for you, create his own shot, be another ball handler for you, that Joe Yesifu role. Well, even as inefficient as Primo Spears was last season at Georgetown in his first two years of college, those numbers were actually still a good amount more efficient than Joe Yes yes if it was last year

for kansas like spears had almost double the per and two percent better true shooting percentage in a tougher role to be in than what joe was so at the very least if you view it as well he's an upgrade over joe yes if he's an it upgrades your bench that's one way of looking at it but for him to be an upgrade or or a boost to overall beyond just like a slight upgrade on the bench, the efficiency would need to go up. He's also not great in transition. 21st percentile. Kansas likes to get out in transition. So that's something to keep a note on.

And then the biggest weakness is, I guess, I don't know, efficiency would probably be the biggest one. But will he be eligible? Right. We talked about that earlier. Will he have to sit out here? Will he be eligible? Because that could be the biggest one, but will he be eligible, right? We talked about that earlier. Will he have to sit out a year? Will he be eligible? Because that could be the crux of whether KU would want him or not.

Let's finish up with how he would fit in at Kansas in terms of the roster, what KU has at those guard positions, and the final verdict here for KU. All right, finishing things up. How would he fit at Kansas? So, obviously, he would be, like, behind slash next to DeJuan. You look at DeJuan Harris, he would be your starting point guard. You look at the starting two position. At that point, if you brought on Primo Spears,

it would be a competition most likely between Primo Spears, Nick Timberlake, and a Marco Jackson. Maybe we even see three of those guards play together. You know, I brought up on yesterday's show that if you're going to play, like you could kind of model yourself after that 2021 Baylor team now I don't know that you'd have as much talent or as good at it but the Baylor team had Mark Vital at the four who wasn't a shooter you had a non-shooting five man with like Jonathan Chamuachachua and um Flo Thomba like at the five position or maybe it was somebody else um for them who weren't shooters.

They were just dunkers, good defenders, center position. Well, that'd be Kansas if you don't land Hunter Dickinson, right? It's Ernest two days. You'll be added for dunkers, good defenders, rebounders, shot blocker, stuff like that. KJ, not really shooter at the four position. But if you have three guards around him, right? If you're starting to one and El Marco and Nicholas Timberlake, maybe you can make that work. So he would be trying to fit in in some role.

I would assume he would probably be either the third or fourth guard. I would almost assume that he would be the fourth guard at that point. And if you are the fourth guard, if Kansas is going to play a lot of that way, clearly you view it as, well, there's 80 minutes to go around at the one and two position. But maybe they would play 10 minutes with one of those guards at the three positions. Maybe you have 90 minutes to divvy out between four guys.

Let's say DeJuan gives you 35. Now you're down to having only 55 minutes left. Let's say El Marco gives you, I don't know, 22. Let's say Nicholas Timberlake gives you 20. Now you're down to like 13 minutes. But again, that's kind of a Joe Yesifu role with what's left over. But beyond that, if El Marco is a one and done, then that leaves another guard option spot

open for 2024 nicholas timberlake has one year left that would leave another guard option spot open for 2024 to 25 so then maybe he's the fourth guard this year but then in 24 25 primo spears becomes your second guard if he impresses enough to work his way into the starting lineup so um for that reason because there is the long-term goal i think the verdict for me if he can get immediately eligible if you'll feel comfortable with that to me he's not the top option but i wouldn't be upset at all i you know i went into this and and kind of assuming that 40 only 30 for three i don't love it like for me this would be a no take after doing more of the deep dive on this after digging in a little bit more he would be a take for me again if you don't want to say he's the top option i'm cool with that like there are probably other guys that you look to

give in those scholarships maybe it is again dependent on kyle cuff like kyle cuff stays maybe this is no take kyle cuff goes maybe it's definitely a take at that point again based on if he can be eligible um because he could be a starter by year two, could be a nice bench piece this year to help upgrade your bench. I think those are certainly interesting things to keep an eye on if this visit ends up happening and we'll see how it goes. All right, coming up on tomorrow's show,

maybe we'll do another deep dive, maybe on like Jalen Tyson or something like that. But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can catch me later today, three to six, Monday through Friday on a KLWN with RockShox Sports Talk. Don't forget you can find Locked on Jayhawks wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can hit me up on Twitter

at DJohnsonRadio and you can find me on YouTube. Like and subscribe to the show. Have a good one. See you next time.