Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Dessert off the Menu? Suemnick to Seton Hall? Where Does Bill Self Turn to Fill Jayhawks’ Roster?

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks Basketball faces recruiting roadblocks including getting international talent eligible. Will international prospects save their offseason?Derek Johnson analyzes KU's struggles to secure key recruits, including 7-foot French center Brice Dessert's eligibility issues and getting players through the student visa interview pause. The host breaks down Pat Suemnick's commitment to Seton Hall, Neoklis Avdalas picking Virginia Tech, and explores Kerem Konan as a potential Turkish League addition to Bill Self's roster. Johnson weighs the risks and rewards of pursuing overseas talent amidst dwindling domestic options.Tune in for an in-depth look at the Jayhawks' evolving recruitment strategy and its impact on their upcoming season. Can Kansas overcome these hurdles and build a championship-caliber team?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGEfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Well, it's not looking good for Kansas right now because they might be struggling to get a certain player to eligible from overseas. What does it all mean for the Jayhawks as they continue to look overseas for more players, some other players recruiting elsewhere? It just seems like that saying, oh no, keeps happening for KU basketball this off season. 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 Derek Johnson here. This is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making your first listen every day. Thank you for every day is catching each and every episode of the show. Refrain available anywhere you eat your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of it, we're going to be breaking down some KU basketball offseason talk. We're going to be breaking down Bryce dessert, maybe no longer an auction, other options that KU was at one point in time linked to or maybe picking other schools.

And so where does KU go from here? Maybe a new option emerging from Turkey, but we're gonna get into all this on today's episode, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins, do that over with FanDuel. Okay, let's get started here. So Bryce Dessert was the like seven foot center from France

that seemed like KU was recruiting to a high level. In fact, some of the recent rumors and scuttlebutt had seemed like Kansas had gotten into a really good position and do a really good spot with Bryce Dessert that it seemed like Kansas was in the driver's seat. In fact, there were some rumors that he had even committed to KU that wasn't you know, I never really like say these things are official till they're public for a reason. And then this is kind of why so

like, who knows? Is he actually committed? If it's not happening, then is he technically whatever, but that he was willing to get to that point that Kansas and him were pretty far along. And so if that is the case, again, that's kind of the rumor here, say whatever, then why is it not happening? Well, turns out the visa process is kind of a pain in the butt. So right now what is going on, because currently, there's a lot in the news about the visa process and the student visa

process getting over to the US and that Harvard's not allowed to do it anymore, that's in the news and that there's 12 countries overseas that are banned from doing it. Now, those don't apply to Kansas, those don't apply to France, which is where Bryce deserves from. And it doesn't apply to a lot of the countries

where Kansas is recruiting. It's mostly countries that is not as much the case. So, you know, you wouldn't think it would be that necessarily. But what is of, I don't know, pertinent note right now is the fact that so I do believe Bryce dessert was making money. And I don't know how this all works with the NCAA with Europe with like players who are working there with their pro teams, and they're getting paid by the pro teams.

How does that work out before they go to the NCAA? Or is it okay now with this new ruling with the house settlement, with NIL and all that sort of thing? I don't know how that works. I don't know the process of trying to get a player eligible and how that works, but it's happened in other places. In other places, we've seen players be ineligible because of that. So, you know, that could be part of it. I have no idea. Another part of it,

right now the student visa process is on hiatus. It is paused at the moment. And that's one of those things where it's like, okay, it could start up any day now, right? It could start up today. It could start up next week. It could start up in two weeks from now. It could be a month. I don't know. But the fact of maybe that, okay, if he doesn't have, I don't know. But the fact of maybe that, okay, if he doesn't have, you know, if he doesn't already have his student visa approved, and you're kind of in a okay, we don't know what it's going to start up. And if you don't know when it's going to start up, you also don't know when you're going to get an appointment. Like, are there other people who have been backlogged out that they already have when it does start up again, they'll be the first ones get appointments. And maybe you were late to the game there. I don't know, like, there's a lot of different ways that this could kind of possibly go. And then there's also the element of like, I don't know if this has any impact too. But like, you think about Kansas athletics cutting whatever it was 30% of the staff and, you know, saving like $3 million to the budget with with the staff that they

cut. I again, no idea here, but like, were there any compliance people that were cut to where taking on the process of getting a player eligible who maybe you have more questions about or maybe it's gonna be a longer process? Do you not have the firepower? Do you not have as much manpower to do it? Again, I have no idea if there was anybody in that office let go or not.

This is just me spitballing like reasons why this is maybe falling through. Maybe this is just as simple as this. Because if you think about it, you do have a timeline here, right? The school year starts in about two months. So like if you wanna get a player, like Bryce Desert for instance,

eligible for the start of the school year, he has to be there for the start of the school year. So you have a certain amount of time. And if you don't think it's gonna be there in time, you're almost using your time, your recruiting, your resources, your NIL, like your plan to NIL to give somebody on a player who might not end up being there. And that is a big risk to take, especially considering Kansas

only has 10 scholarship players. And so if you're the staff, you basically get to a point where you're like, we can't take this risk. We have to move on and go for somebody else because, yes, there's the scenario where we stick with it. And then in six weeks from now, we're able to get him eligible. And boom, we beat the clock and everything's great. There's also the situation where it's been three months,

he's not eligible yet, and you're still waiting. And now it's the start of the school year, and you don't have this kid, and you have all that NIL money you were going to use on him to be an impactful player that could have gone to a different impactful player that you just don't have. So it's kind of a big issue. And this is something where, okay, if he was Kansas's 14th roster edition, where they already had like a majority of the roster set, and it was just like, we're just looking for one final cherry on top piece, you probably take the risk to make this work in any way you can, because it would be more luxury. To where the... And honestly, like, you could make a case to me,

given the lack of great options that are available. I mean, we're going to talk about this later, but like Neoclass of Dallas is off the board and stuff like that. That you could make the case to me that like, maybe you just say, you know what, we're going to try to work through the eligibility anyway, we're going to take the risk. Because I do think Price to Zert is a very good player.

I think you would have been one of the eligibility anyway, we're going to take the risk because I do think Price Dessert is a very good player. I think he would have been one of the best centers, one of the best backup centers in the country. I think him and Flory would have made for one of the best center rotations in the country. To me, it would have been, and he would have filled in a lot of things that you were missing, the physicality, the strength, elite rebounding. In a lot of ways, I would have taken the risk to say, okay, worst case, well, I guess worst case is ineligible, but like, you know, somewhere on the scale of if worst case is a zero and best case is a 10, somewhere around the one to two range would be, okay, he's not eligible for the first semester,

but we do at least extend our clock out by saying, hey, let's just get him eligible by December so that he can at least play in the second half of the season to when you kind of have like Silvio de Sosa come on board, right? It's not the most desirable outcome, but I think he's that good of a player. And with the lack of options available, I wouldn't have hated fighting for it a little bit more and trying to go through that process. But I do understand the mindset of saying, hey, we do still need like another impact player. And with having Darren Peters and knowing you're only going to have one year of him, you really want to take the safe

options to build the roster around him. Right now it is. It's kind of disappointing how the offseason is gone for KU, right? Again, I like the fits and some of the individual pickups they've gotten. I like each of those in a vacuum and what they're going to do, but they role players don't fit into a role as well. If they're being asked to be star players, if they're asked to be playing bigger roles than what they are supposed to be doing. So we'll see how it all kind of comes together and works. Maybe some

of these players will overperform what what may be the expectation like what if Jaden Dawson instead of just being a good three and D role playing wing? What if he comes in and he's just like a stud starting guard, like what Iowa State got when they brought in like Curtis Jones and Keyshawn Gilbert, you know, I know one of them has been six men for them. But anyway, point being, I don't know, we're kind of just back to square one, is point being here. And it's unfortunate because it feels like KU has swung and missed at like every possible level of how you could swing and

miss in this off season, being outbid on somebody. Like if this was a big bingo board, that one would be checked off. Losing somebody because he just wants to go to another school, that would be checked off with, I guess like Damisar. I guess if you wanted to say like being affected by an NBA draft decision, that would be bingo board saying with Dom Mesa are because of the Cedric Coward situation of him deciding to stay in the draft and kind of blowing up at the combine and everything like that. Like, I don't know, just losing out on guys where maybe you weren't as aggressive as you should have been early in the offseason because you wanted to play a more patient game. Like it's just been every trying to get a player to reclassify maybe in Tyron Stokes that it just wasn't going to

happen. Like they international, whatever, every different Avenue you could go to to recruiting it feels like they've they've in some regards swung and missed and there still is some time but now the player pool is really doing million and I am starting to actually get worried. Yeah, let's get into why because even the backup backup option it felt like with a guy like Pat Swemnick who was a former transfer from Oklahoma State in West Virginia, he's no longer on the board. So let's get to all that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts and can't miss moments. Whether it's a game winning shot or breakout player,

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the official sports betting partner of the NBA and the Locked On Podcast Network. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked On Jayhawks. Actually, an episode ready to go, talking about like if this was gonna be a possible thing, the international algebra, and we had to scrap it because one of the things we talked about in what was a previously recorded edition

that we're gonna talk about now is Pat suemnik. By the way, thanks for tuning in to the show. Don't forget to make lock on college basketball and lock on college football your second listen every day. So Pat suemnik represented somebody who was still out there for Kansas that had visited Kansas back in, I don't know, it feels like years ago at this point in time, but I think it was like, April May, probably May, I don't know. Anyway, but visited Kansas. He kind of an experienced player played at West Virginia and Oklahoma

State before, not like the flashiest player, nothing too crazy, but would represent a body somebody that could come in and, you know, at least be okay. He's just an experienced player who's not going to be just a disaster when he's on the court. He's just going to be there, right? And for Kansas that doesn't really have the back of big depth, right? It's Flory and Bryson Tiller right now, that's it. And Tiller's coming off, not playing basketball for like over a year, you know, organized basketball, I should say.

You know, I like Tiller, but you need more than two guys, right? So it represented an opportunity to lengthen your depth and at least give you some more experience there. And it kind of felt like, okay, maybe if this doesn't work with dessert, you just get suemnik. Or, and I was even kind of pining a little for this that, okay, maybe you go out, you have three scholarships left. You say, one of them we're going to use on either a guard or a wing, whatever works out best with the best

deal and best whatever, preferably somebody who can shoot. So you bring on one of those, right? And then you, with the other two scholarships, bring on, say, a Bryce Dessert, who can shoot. So you bring on one of those, right? And then you with the other two scholarships bring on say a Bryce Desert who can be that stud high level backup center who can even play next to Flory for certain lineups because he's that good. And then you bring in the last scholarship a player like Swemnick who increases your big man depth to allow you to play too big basketball. Because the problem is if you bring in Bryce Dessert and then you're playing too big basketball with Dessert and Flory, now you're back to the situation of you only have one back of big man and Bryson Tiller. Whereas bringing on Swemnick would allow you

to play more too big basketball with Dessert and Flory. So I liked the idea of doing that, but I liked the idea of at least having him out there in case you didn't land what you needed to to where you could bring him on as kind of that safety fallback plan. And there's a lot of I think probably other better options out there. But it's nice to have that safety fallback plan. And so now that's not an option because he has committed he has signed with Seton Hall like he is going to the pirates.

And so I think there's two ways of viewing this like the glass half empty kind of view of this is that Kansas took too long like I mean I wouldn't blame him at all if because again if he visited in May like he Probably was hoping to have this situation figured out by now to where he was probably sitting there going You know, let me know what you want to do And he probably felt like he was just being strung along because of this situation with, okay, are you trying to get these players eligible? What are you going to do? And the glass half empty is that he basically said, okay, well, you know, I'm just not going to be strung along anymore. And I'm going to go somewhere else. And that's going to suck for KU. Now there is the glass half full approach to this and the glass half full approach to this. If you want to view it this way, you

could read between the lines and maybe that would have full approach to this. If you want to view it this way, you could read between the lines and maybe that would be a possibility, right? If you compare seeing all the Kansas obviously Kansas, you know, probably has more money to offer Kansas, you know, it's the better school like probably gonna have a better season, yada yada yada. Maybe seeing all is a little bit bigger of a role for him. But even then this late in the game for school like Seton Hall, okay, maybe he's playing 12 minutes per game at

Seton Hall versus at Kansas, maybe it's five to eight, right? But again, you're getting paid more probably at Kansas. One way of reading between the lines would be, you know, maybe he didn't just pick Seton Hall because he was being strung along, maybe he picked Seton Hall because the staff finally was able to echo in to him, hey, we're gonna go like we're gonna go in a different direction, we're gonna get this other guy. And maybe that's the grass half full. Now Now you would hope that wasn't a conversation they had

because they thought they were going to get Bryce dessert. Maybe they feel good about getting another player. And you know, there is another player that it sounds like they've had some contact with, Kerem Konin. I don't know if that's the proper way to pronounce it. He's a, he was a former wing. Now he's like a big man. We'll get into that in a second here. But he's somebody like, what if you feel good about him or maybe some other player we haven't even heard of like man, maybe it's working in the shadows a little bit, right? And maybe it's another player that they feel good that they've gotten a commitment and he's already submitted his papers or he's already gone through the process that they feel like they're going to be able to get eligible without much, you know, tug of war, so to speak with the NCAA and getting them cleared and everything. And if that is the case, then if we wanna read between lines,

the glass half full view is that Kansas just told Zouemnik, no, we're moving in another direction. So he was like, okay, cool. Then I'm gonna pick this other school. That's the positive way to look at it. Negative way to look at it is, oh no, they're screwed and all their options keep going other places and they keep running out of options

and keep having to go further and further down the list. That kind of sucks. So let's get into Kerem Conan. Let's get into his game a little bit. And also, yeah, I should probably mention the Yokeless Evdolis is off the board, I guess he committed to Virginia Tech. Now, I think it was listed as he committed, didn't say he signed. So I guess hypothetically, if you came in with like a godfather offer, could you flip him? I guess that's entirely possible. But it also sounds like if Dallas wants to play more on the ball and wants a bigger role, which is why he would pick Virginia Tech, even though he's

a potential like late first early second round pick that he wants to have the big role. And that would probably be something that's not as viable at Kansas. And that would stink because of Dallas is somebody where it's like, okay, if you're not spending a bunch of money on an elite backup center in Bryce dessert, do you pivot with some of that money to get the best wing you can?

Well, the best wing you can that's on the market internationally or in the transfer portal is Neoclass Evdolis. So Marco Rudunovitch, make it happen if you're Kansas. I don't know how possible that is or how much they're really looking into that. But let's get into Karem Conan. He would bring disabled a little brief synopsis on him coming up next.

This is Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us again on LOJ. Sorry again, it's not our normal studio setup and everything like that. I'll be back later this week. But don't forget to make Lockdown college football or locked on college basketball your second listen every day. It does feel risky though with how this Bryce dessert thing has kind of gone.

At least they're reporting on it, the rumors on it, so to speak. It does feel scary. It does feel risky that you have to keep going to international recruits at this point, knowing it could be the same hold up, right? Like maybe you have to now narrow your pool where when you're talking to agents, you're talking to players, you're doing scouting overseas,

you have to check the box of, it's like when you're shopping online and you're like setting your filters and you're like under a hundred dollars, right? It has to be this length or like has to be this color. You're setting all your filters. And now after this dessert thing, you're setting a new filter where it's like, okay, player has to have this color. You're setting all your filters. And now after this dessert thing, you're setting a new filter where it's like,

okay, player has to have their paperwork figured out or whatever it is to where now, yes, you can still find a player that way, but now that the search is, you know, getting siphoned down, it's thinning out a little bit to where, you know, your pool of players, not just your pool of overall players, the pool of good enough players that you want to play at Kansas, and to make an impact at Kansas has really dropped down in a real

way if you're forced to kind of go in that little channel. And I think there is a little bit probably on the staff that like, going back to how they played this offseason, they did slow play this offseason at the beginning, they were kind of banking on okay with the NCAA settlement that that was going to lower prices on the market. Turns out that didn't really happen because that got pushed back so far. It also put them in a situation where because they were slow playing it, it feels like they're getting to the European market too late. It feels like they should have gotten to the European market earlier. In fact, this goes back probably to the idea where

it's like, you know, it wouldn't hurt to have a GM who like is working on this stuff in January when Bill Self is focusing on the game plan of the season. I know Bill Self recruits in season, but like, you can't put your full focus on the recruiting in season. This is why I think it would be helpful to have a GM. But you know, nonetheless, that doesn't seem like something that's going to happen with the current iteration of the staff. But anyway, who is Kerem Conan? Again, probably mispronouncing that, but he is a wing. He's 20 years old. He will

be 21 in October. So for the start of the season, he would be 21 for the college basketball season. Now, if you go to his real GM page, which is a site that you can find like international stats and stuff like that, he's listed as a six foot six small forward. He's from Turkey originally. But if you look at some of his other sites, some of his more recent stuff, he's listed as a six foot nine like power forward that can play the center,

that can really play three through five essentially. And so here's my theory on that why there'd be the difference. through five, essentially. And so here's my theory on that why there'd be the difference. His real GM page goes back to when he was 17 years old in 2021 to 2022. I wonder if he was a six foot six small forward when he was 17 years old. And now he's just grown three inches by then and now he's six, nine. And now he's more of a four or five man that can play the three. But anyway, he he's been playing in the Turkish shop league, which

there's actually a ESPN article that I think like Fran for Sheila helped to do, where he ranked like the top, there was top 12 leagues in the world outside of the NBA. Number one was the Euro League, which is just a mix up of the best teams in each like European League playing against each other. So that makes sense, right? Number two is the Spanish League. Number three is the Turkish League. So the Turkish League is one of the best leagues in the world. And in

fact, like you could probably make the argument that the Turkish League is probably better competition than college basketball, right? Again, it's professionals, it's players who are 30 years old or 26 years old, they're in their prime, they're playing the best basketball, they're getting paid to do it, they're physical, right. So you have to look at it with a grain of salt where you say, okay, this player is playing 12 minutes per game last year, but it's with professionals, right, that

scales up when you go to the big 12 when you go to the NCAA. So he started his career at a Bacictus Ecripix, which was in the Belgrade League. Then when he was 18 years old, he goes up to Bacictus C Kryptus with I think the Belgrade League and some of their U-19 leagues as well with the U-18, with his 18 year old season. Then when he was 19, he eventually is part of the Turkish League and with Basictus Kryptus. I don't know, I guess TOFUS U-18. I don't know. There's

all sorts of clubs here. I'm getting confused here. Anyway, at 19 years old is when he really starts to make inroads with the senior team because he plays 61 games between the Turkish league, the Euro cup, the supercar. They have all sorts of competitions they're playing in. They place 52 games this past season is 20. So you're talking about somebody who has played over 110 games. I mean, if you factor in the nine games a year before that, basically, I don't know, he's almost played like 130 games, essentially, of professional basketball. Like that's an experienced player. So this past season, he plays 12 minutes per game,

averages 3.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.3 steals, 0.4 blocks, 0.4 turnovers per game. He shoots 49.1% from the floor, shoots 18.2% from the floor, shoots 18.2% from three, and 62.5% from the free throw line. So automatically when you look at some of those numbers,

okay, let's say we were scaling up 12 minutes per game, just to get a better idea. If he was playing 30 minutes per game, and I know it doesn't always work this way, right? It's harder to produce over longer stretches, yada yada. But just give us an idea. If we pro- rated out his numbers for his 12 minute per game numbers

and say he was a 30 minute per game player, he'd be closer to averaging about eight points, seven and a half points per game, somewhere in that range. He would be averaging like six and a half rebounds per game. So good rebounder, not a big scorer. He'd be closer to assist in the half per game and he'd be getting about a block per game, those 30 minutes.

You look at his totals in terms of shooting from the different levels. So I mentioned just 18% from three point range. It's very low volume. He was two for 11. So it's not something he did a ton. I would almost imagine him as like, like you remember Parker Brown could hit a three

for KU but he was in like 20% from three it's like okay, maybe he'll take one in a game if he goes in and goes in like that could kind of be criminal. Same with like Mitch Lifefoot. It was like Mitch Lifefoot might hit a three ever now and again, like not going to be a staple of his game. He's not going to take more than like one in a specific game. But that's that's kind of how I view Conan there. On two point shots specifically, that would mean he was 53 of 101. So that's kind of how I view Conan there. On two point shots specifically, that would mean he was 53 of 101.

So that's barely about 50%. You would like for a big man to be shooting better than that at the rip. Now then again, that's where the professionalism comes in. You're a bit of an undersized big at six foot nine. I don't know where the wingspan is though. Like he might have an insane wingspan where it makes up for that,

but you would like the two point shot to be a little bit better. So I guess point being like, if you land this kid, probably be a pretty solid addition. Again, if you're playing on a good club in Turkey, which he is like you have to have some sort of promise in terms of your potential and be some sort of a good player. So I think it'd probably be a good addition. I don't think it'd be near the level of

my excitement for Bryce dessert. I think that would be a different level of type of player, but he would at least fill a hole and I think you'd be better than like adding to MNIC if we go back to that. But you got to get it done. And we keep talking about these players, you got to get it done. They don't get it done. So maybe this will be the one we'll wait and see. So more to come at you here with Lockdown Jayhawks. But that'll do it for this episode of the show. You can find our show anywhere podcast including on our YouTube page. We'll be back later this week. We'll have an actual deep dive on the Turkish Center.

So we'll talk more about him later in the week. But thanks for joining us on this episode and see you next time with LOJ.