Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - DOUBLE COMMITS: Atticus Richmond & Jalen Atkins Pick Kansas Jayhawks Basketball & Football Programs

Episode Date: May 10, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks bolster their basketball and football rosters with the additions of Atticus Richmond and Jalen Atkins. Can these under-the-radar commitments make a long-term impact in Lawrence? Derek Johnson explores Richmond’s KU family ties, versatile skills as a 6’8” forward, and potential development into a future contributor for Kansas basketball. Meanwhile, KU football’s addition of Atkins, a 23-year-old defensive tackle with wrestling roots, raises questions about depth following Tray'von McAlpine’s uncertain injury status. Key talking points include how Bill Self’s latest scholarship strategy shapes a young Jayhawks basketball squad, lineup flexibility with Richmond’s game, and the implications of injury for Kansas’ defensive line. Is the football program prepared for adversity? Derek Johnson breaks down KU’s recruiting trends, team chemistry, and ongoing roster decisions that could determine the Jayhawks’ 2026 success on the court and field. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join athttps://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON.   WayfairHead to https://Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.    FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

KU basketball added a player, Atticus Richmond, KU football, out of the player, Jalen Adkins. Commitments going around. Let's break it down. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Derek Johnson here and on today's bonus episode, a Locked on Jayhawks. We're breaking down Jailen Adkins, who is the newest defensive tackle for KU football, joining in 20, 26, Addis Kiss Richmond. We'll get to that as well. Newest KU basketball member joining the roster for the 2026 to 2027 season.

And let's just start right there. The double commitments now over these last couple of days. KU opened to get another commitment on Monday when Chance Thomas, a quarterback in the class of 2027 commits. So it could be a fun run of things if that one happens and already is here for KU. But these are both players that are going to join the, you know, Jayhawks for the upcoming seasons in each of their respected sports. And I think in both cases, guys that have cool stories of how they wound up here. In the case of Atticus Richmond, he is a KU family. He's got all sorts of

family members that have gone to the University of Kansas, and now he gets an opportunity to, you know, go play for the University of Kansas. And really cool there for him getting to be a Jayhawk now. From the Atkins perspective, this is a player who had a little bit of a different journey to get here. Like he's only going to be a red shirt sophomore, but he's 23 years old, which I guess, you know, with the five and five rule potentially passing, I guess that could change it, that he could potentially be a senior if that ends up happening. But this guy who was like a wrestler in high school and ended up taking some time off and got around to football and just kind of a cool pathways, different ways to get there for each of these players. and obviously different sports, but each of them, I think, also joining KU, you know, from a thematic standpoint,

you're looking at two guys that probably aren't going to be, you know, expected to be rotation guys for KU this upcoming season, but are going to be expected to, you know, make an impact on the practice fields, make those starters or practice court, you know, work their tails off. And in the case of both of them, assuming Atkins can stay a red shirt sophomore,

both of them players that would have, you know, multiple years to try to develop and turn into something down the road at the University of Kansas. So let's break down each of their games, what each of them means for their specific team that they're joining. We'll start with Atticus Richmond next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook. NBA playoffs are here and every possession matters. If you're looking to get even closer to the action, Fandwell has a great offer to get you started. Right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Turn five bucks into $150 and bonus bets just for getting started.

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That is Fandul, play your game. Don't forget, you can join the everydayer club to get the ad-free version of Lockedon J-Hawks. It is locked on jhawks.supercast.com. That is locked on jhawks. That is locked on jhawks.com. Okay, Atticus Richmond is the newest member of the KU immense basketball team. And he is a, well, he was originally in the class of 2025 from Lincolnshire, Illinois, and Stevens in high school.

Again, grew up a big KU fan. And there's been a cool kind of picture going around of him when he was really young with like Bill Self and ended up going doing a prep year, which is, you know, pretty common here. Like Grant Mordini, another guy who did that, you know, Tvante Graham formerly. Those, I love that that's the conversation of guys. I remember doing that. But anyway, it happens a relatively amount. He goes to the Newman School in Massachusetts. So I don't know.

I guess the James Naismith bath of Massachusetts to Kansas too. But he had previously committed to Columbia. obviously a member of the Ivy League. He also had an offer to Lehigh, another D1 school. And Columbia, obviously, Ivy League school. Lehigh, I'm pretty sure there's a really hard school as well. I think that's kind of like a, I don't know, I thought it was like partial military or something,

but pretty clearly a smart kid if you're, you know, getting through to those schools, right? So that's always a good thing, right? And this is somebody who has real D1 ability, right? Like, I mean, like if we're being honest, the name Atticus Richmond, that does sound like a player who we would learn about on selection Sunday, like if you were gone to Columbia,

as a junior forward at Columbia, who's a matchup nightmare for this 14-seed Ivy League team. And we'd be like, oh, Atticus Richmond, like that dude just going to like go off against some random three seed in the tournament. But he ends up at Kansas instead. He is a 6'8, 230 pound forward. I think when you see that size, 6-8-230, you automatically think at least I do, like power forward.

And I'm sure he will play, you know, a lot of the four for Kansas specifically in terms of how he profiles. Like you watch some of the tape, you see some interviews like, it's the guy who can play the three as well. He can play on the wing. He can play the three. He can guard the three. He can shoot the three ball a little bit. So he can play either position and like going back to the idea of what is his role going to be. You know, this first year, his role is going to be, you know, develop and be a practice guy.

And obviously from a standpoint of like, you know, go bust other people's chops and try to outperform that, of course. But realistically, this would be one that is, you know, you're taking your lumps, I guess, in year one, and then you're trying to develop into eventually a rotation piece for KU down the road at some point, right? Like, that's probably the goal here for Atticus Richmond, right? The idea he can believe that it would be a three or four is really helpful, though, from a standpoint of like, if he's playing scout team, you can do different things with him based

on who you're playing and what type of lineup they have, right? He can play different position. It just makes kind of nice for KU. Plus, you know, Kansas from a standpoint of like their roster construction doesn't have a ton of fours on the roster, right? Like Keanu Daz obviously comes in and I expect him to start at the four. You know, Davian Adkins is he a four? Is he a five?

It just gets kind of eye of the beholder. Trent Perry is a wing. You might play at the four. But like, you know, Richmond becomes one of the other guys who does profile. easily more at the four position. And this is a good player. Like this is one of those guys. Again, he had other D1 offers.

But like there was a kid who just went to Washburn where Brett Ballard is coaching as a D2 player. And I think it was his, I forget if he was redshirt freshman or sophomore or freshman season or whatever this year for Washburn. But he had like a walk on opportunity to go to Creighton. And he ended up, you know, going to Washburn, obviously here this past year. And Washburn had a great season. It fell a bit short in the tournament for that.

but like had an unbelievable season. He had an unbelievable year. He entered the transfer portal and I forget where he wound up, but he's at a D1 school. And that's kind of how I'm looking at this year. Like, this is the type of guy in watching him. Like, if you would have gone to like a lower level D1 or D2, I think he would have blown up.

I think he would do very well there. I mean, average 14 points and 12 rebounds per game on really good efficiencies with the Illinois wolves at the AAU level in 2025, though. You never really know with some of those AAU competitions. Like, are you playing, you know, I don't know, what are you going against, right? But this past season for his prep squad, he goes 8.8 points, 5.2 rebounds per game, 1.8 assists per game, 54% from the floor, 29% from 3, 55% on free throw.

So I think this is a smart move for KU. It's not one that I expect to impact the rotation this year. But if he winds up being in the rotation by the time he's a junior or something, or I guess with the 5 and 5 by the time he's a fourth year player or something, like that is a great result here for KU. But at the very least, this is somebody who wants to be at KU, is a KU fan. is going to help KU get better each and every day in practice. And, you know, whether he sticks around and develops or whether it's just for a year or two.

And then he transfers away to get more playing time elsewhere. Like those are the type of ads you need if you're Kansas. And having guys who are going to be, you know, on the roster, but just be like happy to be there and going to work their tail off because they're happy to be there. Like, that is a good thing to try to, you know, have in your locker room. Right. So there's the addition of Atticus, Richmond. As far as where it leaves KU, they now have two scholarships available, 13, scholarship players. Interestingly enough, seven of the 13 scholarship players are freshmen. Now,

of those seven, you know, how many are going to be part of the rotation? Two, maybe three, you know, but that is a very young team that KU is going to be working with here. Although I guess you could say that, you know, two of the freshmen with Richmond and Mordini, they are 19, so they're a year older. So I guess that helps a little bit with that standpoint. But of the two scholarships remaining for KU, do I actually expect them to fill both of them? Honestly, probably not really. So it wouldn't shock me if they're done at this point, to be completely honest, maybe they wait to see if like one player has their price drop down or something because nobody's picked them up yet. Or maybe they can have a Euro player drop in their laps. I still think it'd be helpful for KU to use those two scholarships

from a standpoint of add another ball handler, even if it's like a Gengala level player that you're not necessarily expecting to be part of the rotation, but can just give you another ball handler in practice or in case of emergency, and then maybe add just another center body just in case as well, because with the Reeves surgery that's been officially, you know, put into place by Bill Self and stuff, I think that would make sense if you're going to use them, but we'll see if that ends up happening for KU. All right, KU football made a defensive tackle edition as well. We'll get to the good and bad news of that next. Today's episode is brought to you by Rocket Money.

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KU Football makes a new edition with Jalen Adkins. I'll tell you the good and bad part of this. The good part is you added another player. The bad part is what does this necessarily mean in terms of the injury to Trayvon McAlpine? So let's start here. Atkins is a 6'3 280 pound defensive tackle from Oklahoma. He went to, and again, a really good piece by Jack Ritter over at Fog.comnet in 247 sports, kind of profiling his pathway to getting here and somebody who was, you know, wanting to potentially be a wrestler,

and then take some time off. And now he's 23 years old. But he goes to Northwest Oklahoma State. Red shirts there, transfers to Coffeyville Community College, played one season. So he'll technically be a redshirt sophomore in 26. But again, if that five and five passes, I think you would be a fifth year. Maybe you can get him to a fourth year. But regardless, this is a player who gives you a little bit more depth at defensive tackle,

especially based on potential injury to McAlpine. He had offers to Bryant, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Kentucky, Towson, so much of like FCS. schools. And the McAlpine injury is a big part of this because I don't know if KU would, maybe KU would have wanted more depth just in case regardless. But with the McAlpine injury, it certainly I think made it more appealing for Kansas to go out and get another defensive tackle. And we haven't officially heard what the injury or severity is for McAlpine. There's been some rumors that it's pretty severe and it could be pretty bad. And I can't help but wonder if you

make this move, is that an indication that McAlpine is going to miss sizable time, if not the whole season? Like, what was this injury he suffered? And that would suck for KU because I loved the Trayvon McAlpine signing. And I think he'd be an excellent player. And, you know, what else sucks with it is like if they pass the five and five, so McAlpine is already a redshirt senior. That means if they pass the five and five, I believe he wouldn't even have a chance to be

like if he missed all season to be like, oh, I'm just going to take a medical red shirt and come back. I think he would expire his five years. So you wouldn't get any like that would, that would be horrible for both McAlpine and for Kansas. So that would really stink. So I hope that's not the case. But regardless, you know, it's not that Adkins would be somebody to replace McAlpine. It's that other guys would have to replace McAlpine and then who replaces the guys replacing him. Right.

So like Blake Harold, do expect to be a star defensive tackle this year? who moves up to start next to him, right? Because I think the expectation was going to be McAlpine. Is it Biggie Small or Biggie Smalls? Is it Eamon Smalls, the defensive tackle from UAB? Is it Marcus Calvin, who, you know, I thought showed a lot of good flashes last year, right? Who wins that job between one of them, too? I think that becomes a question.

And then it's like, okay, the other one is one of your rotational guys. Do either of Debreel Kande or Kevin Oatis earn a rotational spot? And then is this a player who, can either earn a rotational spot or at the very least add some more depth there in case of injury or and or in practice for what's kind of departing there, right? And obviously you hope to develop him even more. But when you're looking at the scouting report here for Adkins, you're talking 14 tackles, three and a half tackles for loss. He had a sack as well for a seven and three three and three defensive end in a three defense alignment set. So I'm sure that made him even more

appealing for what D.K. McDonald wants to do and be versatile with on the front. Um, seems to have pretty good ball recognition in some of the highlights I was watching. He seemed to have a really good motor and a solid jump off the line of scrimmage and seem to be a good tackler on tape, although, you know, I'm watching highlights here. So it's not going to, like, show him missing tackles. But he just seemed to have a very good bear hugging form, I guess. So, you know, seems like a solid addition for the defensive tackle room. It seems like somebody who really wants to be at Kansas.

It seems like a very good dude who has a cool story to get here. Like, these all seem like that's the beauty of both these additions, right? talking basketball and football. These seem like great locker room additions as well for KU, which is, you know, always a part of it as well. So I mentioned some of the defensive tackle room, right? Like Harold McAlpine Smalls Calvin, if McAlpine's healthy, you expect all four of those to be in the rotation.

If not, it's those three. And then which of Conday and Oatis kind of, you know, break out from there. And then, you know, could a player like this with Jalen Adkins join that fold of Condé and Oatis to, you know, compete with those guys? What about a guy like Cheese Hammond, who redshirted his first? year does he start to get a little bit of playing time because of some of the injuries here as well um but you know i think this makes sense for kansas you can never have enough defensive lineman and uh certainly if there's a big injury to one of your guys as well made even more sense to bring one along all right

that'll do for this episode of locked on jhawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our youtube page happy mother's day to uh all the mothers and uh we will see you on monday right here on locked on jhawks