Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Ernest Udeh Transferring + Kansas Jayhawks Lack of Center Depth + Mackenzie Mgbako Decision

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Kansas Jayhawks basketball center Ernest Udeh is transferring out of the program after his freshman season, leading to KU having a lack of center depth behind Hunter Dickinson. How Bill Self could approach filling out the position and roster with now 3 open scholarships. One could be filled by the decision of 2023 5-star and top-10 McDonald's All-American recruit Mackenzie Mgbako who will pick between Kansas and Indiana on Friday.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, Ernest Uday transferring out of the program. He announced that Thursday. Mackenzie Mbako is making his decision today, the day this is coming out on Friday. Also, Flory Badunga is visiting KU. So we're going to get to kind of a little bit of all of that on today's episode of the show. 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. 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 are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And you can also find us, like, subscribe to us on YouTube. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, lots to talk about. Ernest Uday said he was transferring yesterday, on Thursday. Mackenzie Mbako, he's deciding today on Friday. Who knows? By the time you're listening to this, because this is releasing at, you know,

super early in the morning on Friday, by the time you're listening to this, Mackenzie Mbako might have already decided, for all you know. And I will have an episode on that maybe on Monday or maybe over the weekend whenever we get to it, depending on what happens. Flory Badunga is visiting KU as well for this weekend. So plenty going on around KU. Let's start with this. Ernest Uday transferring away. Yesterday, we did the episode on Mackenzie Mbako, if he picks KU, if he picks

Indiana, all that stuff. And so then on Thursday, Ernest Uday announced that he was going to be transferring. I think this comes at a bit of a surprise. This almost feels like the Ethan Vasco one to me in football. Like when Vasco decided he was going to transfer away from KU they were like no no please don't transfer like they did not want him to transfer they were under the impression that maybe he wasn't going to transfer maybe it came as a bit of a surprise and it feels like that's the way with Uday like it feels like maybe as of this week the Kansas staff thought that he maybe was going to be back but maybe all of a sudden you know you get some tampering in the portal, different teams telling to be clear, I'm sure, you know, everybody kind of does the tampering.

So I'm not trying to point fingers or anything. Um, but that you all of a sudden get these opportunities where you're like, yeah, I mean, I can play eight, 10 minutes a game this year, be the backup on a really good team. And then maybe be the guy next year if Hunter Dickinson is gone. But you know, what if Hunter Dickinson is gone. But what if Hunter Dickinson comes back a second year? Or what if I just go somewhere right now and be the starting center, right? And then you get these offers, and it's like, oh, okay, we'll all enter the portal.

And I'm sure Kansas was trying to do their best recruiting pitch on just keeping Ernest Uday in-house because they viewed him as a vital piece of not just this season even as a backup center very important but for the future because that's what this does this hurts both long term and right now it hurts right now because now your center depth is depleted it hurts right now because you were looking at maybe having the best bench center in the country right and it hurts long term because you expected Ernest Uday to be the starting center maybe as soon as not this next

season but the season after if Hunter Dickinson left and if not you you figured Ernest Uday was going to have the opportunity to be like that next you doka level like all-american type big man of Kansas by the time he was well seasoned anded and an upperclassman. So it hurts in a lot of different ways for you here. You sort of get it. You sort of don't. You don't get it because, you know, if he does go somewhere and he has the opportunity to start right away, like you get it, he wants more minutes.

But also I think the idea was that Hunter Dickinson is only going to be here a year. Again, there might be the possibility of two years, and I guess that would change things. And maybe that just being even a little bit cloudy changes things for earnest but you would still have the opportunity to start next year for ku um it certainly is a risk though whenever you use your your one-time transfer in at this point you know now they're saying they're going to crack down on two-time transfers after your freshman year like it almost would have made more sense to me to be the backup big this year and then next

off season if hunter dickinson announces he's coming back then you transfer because then at that point you're more seasoned you're more veteran you have a better chance of winning the job the next place you go and you will have more knowledge because you only get that one free transfer right um and then at that point in time if hunter dickinson's gone then you just stay at kansas now you're making that that one free decision now right you better make it right and it doesn't mean he won't and i wish ernest the best i think he's a really good kid i think he'll end up being a really good player wherever he goes and that's gonna suck for ku watching him like seriously he has all-american level potential he has

like mark mitchell what he was at duke for their final 14 or not mark mitchell i'm sorry um shoot i'm just blanking on the center's name uh nonetheless uh they had the big center, you know, seven footer Mark Williams, Mark Williams. There we go. They have too many marks on their team. Mark Williams ends up being this All-American center for them is just this rim rolling, dunking, blocking, rebounding five man that ends up being a first round pick. I don't think the physical profile of Ernest Uday is that far off of what Mark Williams was. So I think he's going to be a stud wherever he goes to next. And now it leaves you with three open scholarships. You have only two returning players, DeJuan Harris and KJ Adams. You have four returning walk-ons, I believe, if all the walk-ons are coming back, which I think they are. Then you have four incoming freshmen,

five if you get in Baco, and then you'd have two scholarships left at that point. And then you have the three transfers coming on Bill Self thrives with continuity and now you only have those two returning scholarship players there is a lot of talent on this team there's a talent still even without earnest enough talent on this team to win a national title but I don't know that this will be as smooth of a journey as maybe we all expect. It might take a little bit longer right off the bat. Now, maybe if you are starting DeJuan and KJ, maybe that lessens the blow because at that point they're taking up such big chunks of minutes and having just DeJuan on his own, a veteran point guard to get you in the right spot,

maybe that's the most important position to have that continuity back in. So maybe it does help that learning curve, but I guess it wouldn't shock me if KU does get off to maybe a bit of a slower start than we'd imagine with all the talent where they're going to be a number one, number two, number three, preseason team. And then all of a sudden they, you know, lose a couple of games. You didn't think they would, but then maybe they're, they're clicking by March, but it is going to be probably the time.

I mean, you think back to times that they've had like an entirely brand new roster, like even the team, you know, that won the title a year ago, they brought in a bunch of transfers, I think, for that offseason, but you still had four starters back, right? A lot of times the teams that have underperformed for Bill stuff have been the ones without continuity. Like the 2018-19 team, that team had talent, right? Devon Dotson was a talented player.

He was just a freshman. Quentin Grimes ended up being a first round pick in the NBA after his time with Houston but he was just a freshman Dedrick Lawson was an All-American you had um Yudokaz Buki before he got injured right you go kind of up and down the roster with Gerald Vick before he gets like kicked off the team but they just didn't have the continuity it didn't really work and I think this one I don't know it's it's hard because right now it's easy for me to look back and be like oh of course this one has more you know talent than that one did but at the time everybody was saying that team was going to be the number one like that team was number one or number two in the preseason so at the time of the offseason where we are now to where we were then it's not dissimilar and I wonder you know I

don't think fans care at the end of the day if you're winning games like if you're winning games they're going to love the team anyway but I definitely think right now there is a a sizable chunk of fans who are like what's going on here like what are we doing um you know part of the enjoyment for some fans is seeing the growth of players across their career and seeing guys grow up in the program and getting used to them for multiple years and this completely averts away from that now obviously KU didn't want Ernest Uday to leave this is just kind of the the negative of doing business of bringing on Hunter Dickinson and I think it just gives more you know pressure to this all working if this works Hunter Dickinson's an all-american KU's a one seed you know they go deep in the tournament. Nobody's going to care about this, right? They win a title.

Nobody's going to care. But if this team ends up underperforming, they're underwhelming, you know, four seed in the tournament, you're losing the first weekend. All of a sudden, then you're going to be having questions about was it worth it? Right. And I think also you're probably going to view it as like, well, if Hunter Dickinson comes back two years then it definitely doesn't matter this move because he was probably going to transfer after

next season if he came back second year anyway so there are a lot of moving parts here and to be clear I think you still made the right move you bring on the all-american big man and Hunter Dickinson and you focus on the rest later it's an unfortunate side effect but this is what ended up happening to KU all right let's get on to uh how this is what ended up happening to KU. All right, let's get on to how this leaves the center position because now KU is very thin at that spot, at the five spot. First, though,

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If you're close to Sam's Club, you can you can grab a 13 bar box hit flavors like brownie batter puff churro puff and again you can order all your specialty flavors online or in as much bulk as you want at built.com you can thank me later all right uh on to our team in here kansas is a little bit more thin now at the center position so you have hunter dickinson you have kj adams i put this with an asterisk because they want to move kj more to the you know kind of four but i guess now this opens up the possibility and this might not be the worst thing in the world in terms of getting everybody minutes making everybody happy let's say you get mckenzie and bako at this point and you're splitting time between mbako and kj at the four well how can you get

KJ some more minutes don't really want to play him at the three okay now he's filling in those you know eight to ten minutes per game off the bench of Hunter Dickinson so now he's playing you know 15 20 minutes as a four now he's playing eight to ten minutes as a five and he's getting somewhere between you know 23 to 30 minutes per game minutes sufficed right um but this leaves you without much coverage there and if you do want to just play kj at the four and not at the five then you only have one guy with hunter digginson you're gonna play hunter 40 minutes per game no you're not now clearly they have three scholarships available two if they get mckenzie and bacco so you still have room to go out there and bring on another body at the station

uh flory badunga who is visiting this weekend we'll do a deep dive on badunga i was i was planning on doing one today but because of all this other news we're going to do the badunga deep dive on monday after he visits ku is there any chance you can get him to reclassify i don't think it would have made sense for him to reclassify before but now that earnest has gone in and to be clear he has said in an interview he is not reclassifying now that said if your badunga in kansas comes up and says hey look at the roster if you come in here and reclass you're going to play eight to ten minutes per game and you're going to make a bunch of nil money it's not going to be as many as much as you're playing your your final year of prep ball but you're going to make a lot more money doing it and then guess what either way if you played your one year prep ball and then came in here in

the 2024 to 25 season you might be the starting center then if dickinson is gone versus if you reclass you'll still be that guy but now you'll have a year under your belt in the system you'll have some nil money under your belt like maybe you can convince him along those lines um so maybe that's an option of you to get there uh obviously kj now getting some minutes at the five right that could help you cover a little bit but what happens if like like if kj adams for instance you know were to roll his ankle and he were to be out a couple weeks you're gonna play hunter dickinson all 40 minutes you're gonna play mackenzie Mbako who's 205 pounds at the five. You can play Marcus Adams. Who's like 195 pounds at the five. No, no, that's not going to work. So you need to bring on another player, whether it's a freshman, who's a developmental guy who you can just kind of have as a body, um, or you bring on another

transfer. I think that regardless of what you're looking at, you're going to be looking for somebody with a very particular set of skills as Liam Neeson once coined. I think the positive here is that you now go into those recruiting conversations with players knowing what to expect. And what I mean by this is that, you know, with Ernest and Zuby, they were awaiting the Hunter Dickinson decision. And now that Dickinson is in tow, anyone that you recruit, whether from the high school level or the transfer level, therefore knows what is in front of them, right?

With Ernest and Zuby, they were walking through a dark tunnel. They couldn't see what was in front of their face, which was Hunter Dickinson was eventually going to come to KU with any player you bring on now. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel. They can see Hunter Dickinson standing there. So they know if they commit to Kansas. Yeah, there is Hunter Dickinson in front of me, which means they would be having to make the conscious decision to say, I'm fine being a backup five or I'm fine developing for a few years or whatever that would be to make it acceptable for them

that they feel like they can be the backup. Now, maybe you could bring on a player who could play the four and the five, right, to where then their minutes, you know, they're getting back up five minutes, but they're also playing four minutes or something like that. But if you're bringing on McKenzie and Baco and you alreadyj adams and marcus adams then you're all of a sudden infringing on on their minutes does that make them unhappy right it becomes a whole thing so i think ideally you're basically looking for a like i don't know mitch lightfoot jalen coleman lands tarik black dwight colby type of hybrid and what I mean by that is you want someone who's going to come in to play

the center to give you another body. They can technically be the third string. Maybe they even become the second string. If you're not playing any minutes of KJ at the center. And do you tell them, yeah, you're, you're,

you're going to, if you work your tail off and you play really well, we can get you 10 minutes per game. But, um, outside of that, it's going to be tough with hunter dickinson and then it basically means for the player what i meant by all that like mitch lightfoot was fine like liked being a

program guy being around the program he was fine if you needed him for five minutes off the bench or 10 minutes off the bench or whatever dwight colby kind of the same thing before he ended up transferring away which maybe that makes that a moot point um tarik black coming in is like a veteran player who understood his role like that partik black coming in is like a veteran player who understood his role like that part of it jalen coleman lands veteran player coming in understood his role wanted to be a guy who was on a winning team regardless of what that role was right you're looking for somebody like that you're now you could understand if you bring in somebody who um is comfortable being the backup and developing for you like if they have multiple

years if you can bring on a transfer who has multiple years left and you say hey develop as the backup big this year and then next year potentially hunter dickinson's gone you can be the starting center right like that can be an avenue but i think the best avenue to go to is finding a guy with that particular set of skills where he is comfortable being a backup big man but now you know what's in front of you with Hunter Dickinson, and that certainly could limit the type of players that they go after. But you're basically looking for that role player. You're looking for another body because that's just kind of what you need

at this point at center. You're not looking for an impact player necessarily because then it's going to not work out because they're not going to get all their minutes at this point. You're looking for somebody to come in and be a body, be that depth in case of injury in case of foul trouble to where you only don't have two centers on the roster because that is not good going into a season all right let's finish things up with mckenzie and bacco he's deciding on

friday again like i said by the time you're listening to this he might have already decided we'll finish there with lock on jay hawks the mckenzie and bacco decision coming on friday he did not mention what time the decision would necessarily be five-star recruit top 10 player in the country it's between ku and indiana i think ku is in a very good spot here i am under the assumption again keyword assumption that he is going to pick ku but again recruiting is weird and we've seen before, like KU has been the Cliff Alexander. KU was on the positive end of that. We've seen before, you know, weird transfer recruiting decisions where it would just was surprising. It was out

of the blue. Right. So you never know with recruiting and who's to say like a last minute NIL deal doesn't come about for, you know, some random, right? You just never know in recruiting. It really is the wild, wild west. But I am under the assumption as of right now that I think KU is in a very good spot for McKenzie Mbako. So we'll just put it there. I think that, you know, I don't know. I don't think this had any impact on Ernest transferring away.

I think that was just this decision that he probably came around to because I don't view Mbako playing any five minutes. I guess, again, in that emergency scenario where both your centers are in foul trouble or one's in foul trouble and one's hurt, somebody has to play the five, and it's like, okay, I guess we'll play small ball, and maybe he would be the best decision there. But realistically, he's not imposing on Ernest Uday's minutes. So I don't think it really did have any impact there, but obviously this becomes even more prevalent for KU to land him now, right?

Because now you have three scholarships open, and if you don't land in Baco, it becomes a couple things. One, it becomes you have one less talented player on the roster, obviously not ideal, but two, it becomes where are you going to use all your scholarships on, right? Even if you land in Baco, there's a chance that ku doesn't use both of their remaining scholarships at that point like are you going to find enough fits are you better off just if you do land in bako that would be your 10th scholarship player bringing on an 11th scholarship player to be that

kind of backup center and then just saying you know what we're going to eat two of our scholarships this year as part of the self-imposed three scholarships that we owe and then just saying, you know what, we're going to eat two of our scholarships this year as part of the self-imposed three scholarships that we owe. And then that way we can have a full scholarship roster one of the next two seasons after this year and one of the other years we're only going to have to lose one. Like that might make some sense at this point in time. And if you don't get Mbako, then you're really scrambling for being like, how are we going to fill out this roster with scholarship players at that point? That'll be very interesting to see how that all works out.

But should KU land Mbako, obviously he comes in. We'll have plenty of debates. Who's going to be the starter, KJ or Mbako? Honestly, I don't think it matters that much. I think both guys probably would play around 25 minutes a game. You could easily work it where, let's say, especially now, if KJ is going to be getting your backup center minutes. Let's say KJ gets eight minutes at the center position.

Let's say he plays 20 minutes at the four. Boom. He's playing 28 minutes per game. Let's say Mbako plays the other 20 minutes per game at the four. Let's say he gets 10 minutes at the three. And then you still have 30 minutes at the three to give out to Nick Timberlake or Chris Johnson, Jamari McDowell. If you wanted to play DeJuan, Arterio, and Del Marco all together at the same time, maybe for five minutes, right? You still have time there. And that way, both guys are getting 28 and 30 minutes per game so

there is enough minutes for for both to go around even if one technically is going to be coming off the bench as a super sub or sixth man they're both going to be basically starters now who would finish the game i don't know that's a wonderful question usually it's the guy that bill self trusts kj adams has his trust not that he wouldn't mckenzie and Mbako, but that's kind of been ingrained with KJ Adams. But then again, if you're looking for shooting, if you're looking for offense in that situation, maybe it would be McKenzie Mbako. But he certainly would be a good fit for KU because of his shooting ability and ability to play as kind of a three or four man, fill up some minutes for you there, be athletic,

and just keep kind of the recruiting cycle going your way. So it seems like every time it's like a whack-a-mole, like every time you whack one, a new one pops up right now with KU and the recruiting and the transfer portal with players going in, players going out, all that sort of stuff. So I'm sure we'll have plenty to discuss on Monday, including that McKenzie and Baco decision, which, as I said, who knows? Maybe he's a Jayhawk right now.

Maybe he's a Hoosier, but I'm kind of expecting the KU part of it. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find anything you missed, including Mackenzie Mbako deep dive from about a week or two ago and our Mackenzie Mbako show from Thursday, where we talked about if he picks KU, if he picks Indiana. So you can check out either of those wherever you get any of your podcasts, or you can find them on YouTube. Like and subscribe to the show if you

could certainly helpful on my end of things that'll do it for this episode be uh back on monday also you can hear me rock chalk sports talk monday through friday three to six on klwn and lawrence later