Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ESSENTIAL GROWTH: Can Kansas Jayhawks TRUST Kohl Rosario & Paul Mbiya to DELIVER in 2026-2027?

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks’ 2026-27 season hinges on the internal growth of rising stars Kohl Rosario and Paul Mbiya. Can Bill Self’s squad buck recent trends and reignite the tradition of dynamic player development that fueled past Big 12 dominance? Derek Johnson analyzes how Rosario and Mbiya’s evolution will shape the Jayhawks’ ceiling amid concerns about limited returning talent, transfer portal churn, and lagging Bayesian Performance Ratings. The episode explores rotation battles, the potential impact of Dennis Parker Jr. and Davion Adkins in the starting lineup, and updates on Christian Reeves’ injury timeline. Recruiting shakeups, including Nazir Pitchford’s flip and cornerback targets, round out the discussion. Don’t miss this deep dive into Kansas Basketball’s strategy, leadership, and the crucial factors that could define their NCAA path this season. 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!   Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.  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   FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started now.   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.

As it stands right now, the success or failure of KU basketball this upcoming season, it's going to be pretty dependent on internal development of Paul Mbia and Kolda Zarm. 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? This is Locked on Jayhawks. We're brought to you by Odu, great organizations win because operations matter, and that's why you should get Odu. Try it for free at Odo.com slash locked on.

There's ODOO.O.com slash locked on. We're going to break down some the latest news, get to a little fun either or of between Dennis Parker and Davion Adkins, but we're going to start right here with Col Rosario and Paul Mbia, who are both returning players, the only returning players for KU basketball this upcoming season. And players that I think are going to have a gigantic pendulum swing on the result of this season, how successful or unsuccessful the KU basketball will be. And I think it becomes very interesting because KU has not done a great job at,

I don't know, returning talent, having success for the Jayhawks in recent memory, right? Like you think back to so many of the Bill Self years, that was the way. It was, hey, this guy graduates or goes on to the pros, but the next guy is waiting in the wings.

and takes that next step forward. That happened so many times, and it was why KU was able to sustain so much consistent success and win 14 straight big 12 titles and have all the success that Bill Self had. But of late, over the last couple of years, the guys who have come back, a lot of them haven't grown in their abilities

or haven't had that jump that we've seen in so many other past years in the Bill Self time, right? And it obviously gets exacerbated because of the fact that, yes, those are your only two returning players, right? But it's not just that it's two returning players. It's that I view both of them as being in the top eight of KU's rotation. And there's a good chance that at least one ends up being a starter, right? Like with the Christian Reeves injury, Paul and Beaum might be the favorite to be the starter at the center position right now. I think there's a world where Cole Rosario is a starter.

I don't know that that would be my prediction right now. I would probably go with the Kinney Blighton backcourt. but it wouldn't shock me if like blighton is starting next to risario at some point in the season so that adds to the importance obviously and you know when considering how many minutes that each of them are going to play like that adds to it as well um but also the idea that there is question marks about like both guys had different paths to the season but they ended in kind of the same pool like in risario's case it was starting at the beginning of the year losing that spot, losing the rotation spot, having to work back, getting in late in the season in the NCAA tournament, and showing some positive things in a small sample size. For Paul and Bia, it was never really in the rotation and then kind of getting an opportunity at the end of the season and showing some positive things in a limited sample size in the NCAA tournament, right? And so I just have a hard time seeing KU being a good team if either one of these or both ends up not taking that jump forward. Like if you tell me that Cole Rosario is the same player he was this past season, it's just removing one extra potential three point threat, one extra good athlete, one extra player who can get out in transition for you.

I mean, the Paul and Bia one would be probably the more severe one. if Paul and Bia isn't taking steps forward, what would that mean for you at the center position and how you're decimated would you be at that position facing these other teams? So like the flip side of that is if Paul and Bia does take a step forward and is this like awesome rebounding, defensive, shot blocking rim protection center who can throw down dunks, you know,

the loss of Flory Bedunga gets mitigated a bit, right? And with Col Rosario, the positive forward on that is if Rosario, was able to take that step forward and be a more consistent three-point shooter, you have somebody who can impact the game in multiple ways with his athleticism, with his offensive rebounding, with being an opportunistic defender, and again, just adding the three-point shooting, something we know that Kansas and any team in the country would certainly need, right? But then again, the issue comes into play here,

the lack of internal development of late. Again, the long track record of what Bill Self has done at Kansas has been excellent, right? You go from, you know, the 08 team where you have a bunch of dudes on the team, then, okay, Cole Aldridge needs to step up with Sharon Collins too, and both of them do. And then you lose Cole and Charon and you need the Morris twins to step up and both of them do. And you lose, you know, both those guys in T-Rop, who was their understudy needs step up and he does. Right. And then you look at the point guards like, oh, Frank Mason has a great year. Then he leaves. DeVonte Graham needs a step up and he does. You know, and for so many years, we've had that. but you think of some of the recent examples of players coming back probably since 2023 like jalen wilson took that next step up into being a first team all-American so that would apply kevin mcculler was taking that step into 2024 as being an all-american but obviously he was injured so we didn't really get to see it but like duan harris's career just kind of plateaued like he was kind of the same guy his final year he was in like his third season

uh k j adams like same thing like he was pretty much It's the same guy his junior years. He was his senior year, you know? We just haven't seen it as much. And then you think about some of the role player guys who in years past, in the early years and the mid years of Bill Self at Kansas, developed into, you know, whether it was a Travis Relifer developing down the road. And part of that is, you know, nowadays, transfer portal,

you don't have as much time or patience with some of these on both ends, both the player end and the coaching end. But even if you're just talking about guys who, you know, maybe started to break out as a sophomore. Like we, it just didn't really move forward with El Marco Jackson. I think Jamari got better, but it wasn't to a point where KU was comfortable bringing him back

at whatever price it would have been to be part of the rotation again this year, right? And this was put out several weeks ago from Cobra stats on Twitter. And it was a tweet that said over the last 10 seasons, players from Houston, Yukon, Purdue, and Gonzaga have made the biggest year-over-year jump. in Bayesian performance rating. You might be like, what the heck is Bayesian performance rating?

You might have seen BPR. That's the stat that's used by Evan Miyakawa's website for like an all-encompassing, you know, how impactful are you, right? Those are schools that are in those year-over-year jumps. And you think about that, like, oh, Houston specifically, like just from a Big 12 local perspective and how they've been able to continue doing what they're doing, right? So I actually reached out to COBRA stats and asked, him, okay, well, where's Kansas on this list? And the answer is 53rd with an average BPR increase of 0.99.

So 50 third for a program that you expect to be near the top and like everything is obviously not good enough, right? And I think two things to kind of break down there. One, what has gone wrong for Kansas in development? And two, what if we apply that average increase to Rosario and Mbia? Is it enough? right. So number one here, I think in development, there's been an over emphasis on cycling guys in and out. You know, oh, we can recruit over them with the transfer portal, tell them to leave or whatever, as opposed to maybe even overpaying a guy to stay and saying that, hey, I know you're worried about what your role could be if you come back another year here, we'll overpay you to give you another chance to, you know, do this. And then you can leave at the end of that year or something,

right but also you're not going to do that if it's just a flat out miss like if it's a player that you don't think is worth doing that why would you do it right and that's part of this too is it's not just a development thing it's a miss and recruiting thing where it's like yeah we can make this player better but the starting point and the end point are not going to be good enough regardless so like i'm not going to double down on developing something that isn't going to be to the level that we want it to be anyway right and then when you take guys who did return for multiple years as starters. Again, guys like Dewan Harris, KJ Adams,

O'Marco Jackson, you know, not really getting a ton better over the years. So like it does seem like it's a combination of things, you know. The second part of this is if you do add that basically 0.99, so basically one BPR, it would give Cole Rosario a 2.48 this upcoming season. If you added to what it was last year, I don't think it would be good enough for KU because Jamarra McDowell was a 2.46, right? And I think you need Cole Rosario to be better than Jamari McDowell was on this year's team for Kansas. With Paul Mbia, his BPR was so low, it doesn't really even change much.

So obviously you need that one to go up. And part of an average, when we're saying the average is 0.99 over the last 10 years, it is an average. Meaning, you know, on average, if it's a one point increase, that means one player got a zero increase, like they didn't really change much, and another player got a 2 point increase, right? So I don't know, maybe it's MPA goes up 1.5. Maybe it's aria goes up. Point being, KU needs to buck the trend. The trend right now is that KU is not doing a good enough job at this.

And going back to the idea that it is of the utmost importance for this team to develop these guys and for them to have a jump forward in their play this season, that only happens if you do buck this trend of internal improvement and how much those players grow from one season to the next, right? There just isn't another way around it. So I'm going to be very interested to see what the seasons are for those two guys because very much the success or the difference in ceiling, the difference in Florida for what this team could be with a good Polymia and a good Colorsario versus what they were last year is night and day of what we're talking about

potentially for the Jayhawks in the 2026 to 2027 season. Let's continue on here. I got a fun hypothetical. who's more likely to start a game this season. Davy on Adkins or Dennis Parker, Jr. We'll get to that next. We're brought to you by Indeed. Workplace Chaos can show up fast.

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Thanks yet for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. You can also check out the Everyday Air Club where you can get the ad-free version of the show, locked on Jayhawks.com. Okay, here's a fun hypothetical here. We might be throwing some of these in over the course of the summer here. Who's more likely to start a game for Kansas this year? Davy on Adkins, incoming freshman center or Dennis Parker Jr., incoming transfer from Radford. I think here's the case for both guys, right?

In the case of Parker, he's obviously the upperclassman more experienced of the two, the case for Parker is that he comes in. He's a good-sized wing. I think he'll be one of the better wing defenders. I mean, it'll be one of the better defenders in general on this KU team by being a bigger wing defender who is experienced

and I think is solid on that end. He's a really good rebounder, so he fits in with that billing. And also that allows him to, you look at some of the wing shooters KU has brought in, whether it's Nick Timberlake or Jaden Dawson, that it hasn't lived up to the billing for KU. Well, part of the problem there is when those guys weren't making threes, which unfortunately they were not making threes at their normal clip prior to Kansas,

how else are they going to impact the game? And that, I think, is the beauty of Parker. He is a really good rebounder for his position. He is a good defender. He also can get to the free throw line. So he is somebody who can still find a way if the shots not fall, in that game to make an impact on the game and stay in the lineup. Now, obviously, if you're talking about him starting, that talks about a ceiling outcome.

And the ceiling outcome does involve him also shooting well from three. Like, if he's shooting 31% from three, that still might be enough for him to be a rotation player. That ain't going to be enough to be a starter. Now, what if he does, you know, you're looking at Radford shooting in the high 30s from three, what if he does shoot 38% from three this year and you're like, shoot, this guy is one of our best shooters. He's one of our best rebounders and he's a good defender and it gives us more length and versatility with getting to start another wing next to Tyrant Stokes. You know, enough so to where if you're playing a team who has multiple wings, you don't have to always put Tyrant Stokes

on the better offensive wing, you know what I mean, so that you can give more time to Stokes to, I don't know, he doesn't have to exert as much energy on the defensive end to make a bigger impact on the offense event, right? And so I think the world where Dennis Parker ends up starting is a world where, you know, what if Taylin Kinney does come in and he is a freshman and it does take a little bit of time and growing pains and you say, hey, Leroyd-Blyden's going to be our starting point guard. And then it comes down to, okay, we got Stokes at the three, we got Daz's at the four, we got center at the five, you're saying, okay, do we start again, Taylorin-Kinney, do we start Cole Rosario at the two? Or do you?

Do we start Dennis Parker Jr. at the two and go with a lineup that would be really bad. I mean, outside of Blyden, obviously, Blyden smaller. But then you'd be running, you know, 6, 6 at the 2. You'd be running 6, 7 and athletic at the 3, 6, 9 and athletic at the 4. And then, again, depending on the center, 7 foot and long arms and a good rebounder and defender at the 5 potentially with Mbilla or Reeves. That could be a really fun lineup potentially for KU. But again, it all is dependent on Parker, shooting.

So that would be the case for how he ends up being a starter. As far as for Davy on Adkins, I think his case is more so about some of the things that are kind of already happening in his favor. One of them is injury, right? If there's guys in front of him who get hurt, that opens up playing time. And so Christian Reeves is supposed to be back for the start of the season, but he's supposed to not be back to like contact drills till October. And the timeline was given that could be early October, but it also could be mid-October.

Let's say it's mid-October. you start the season two weeks later. It's not just about like, okay, you can come back and you can start practice. Like you still got to like get into the rhythm of things, get into the rhythm of playing with others. And we saw it with Shaquille Moore who, you know, when he was on the court, he was actually decently impactful player for that KU team, but was never able to sustain it with the injury and came late because of the injury.

And that's what you hope. Obviously different injuries to what Reeves is dealing with. His was more of like a foot, tried to play through some stuff. but, you know, what if that opens up an opportunity where Reeves isn't able to go the first couple games for KU or he does have to play more limited minutes? And what if Adkins does play really well in those opportunities and gets a chance to shine? I don't really think there's a chance that Adkins would be your starter night one, but is there a world where he would get it later in the season? The other part of this is potential eligibility stuff with Paul Mbia, not that he's ineligible. he was ruled eligible last year.

There's been some talk about some stuff they're going to vote on here at the end of the month that it could make things more difficult for players coming over from internationally. It wouldn't just be a Kansas thing. It would be if they make this rule change, it could impact Kansas and a lot of other schools, honestly, would probably impact other schools more than it would Kansas. And if that happens, then all of a sudden, that's one less guy potentially in your way. And, you know, all of a sudden, you're closer to doing that, right? But also, so Mbia is definitely bigger.

He's like seven foot. Adkins is more like four or five. He's like six, eight, six nine. The thing about it, though, is like if you're just talking recruiting rankings, Paul Mbia was ranked outside the top 200 on 24-7. Adkins is a top 100 guy is one year technically enough to overcome that. Could be. And it could just be that Mbia was underranked or that Adkins was overranked.

but you know that at least tells you a story of like well in theory by one one number one place to look at he is the most talented guy in the center room for k u so is it possible yeah absolutely right or um if reeves is hurt all it takes is paul and bia having rolled ankle himself and adkins is your starter so i do think the better case is for parker to be your starter but um i will say this like parker has to compete with col risario to win that you know first i guess kind of wing off the bench job and then he would have to be definitively better than when KU is playing Taylin Kinney next to Lee Roblin, Blighton essentially, right? And then he has to be able to guard, you know, twos, like smaller guards, not just threes and fours potentially. So I do think the answer here is Parker. With Adkins, it is a little bit more of break glass in case of emergency as a potential

starter, but I do think things are starting to line up that it at least is worth a little bit more of a conversation now because of the Reeve surgery and because Paulumbia has just kind of arrived to the game to KU. We'll get to that a little bit more and some other latest news next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by Odu. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect to a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odo comes in. Odu is an all in one business management. software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform, from sales

and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place. Helping your team move faster, stay organized, and focus on growing the business instead of just managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports, just like it is in business, right? I mean, think about this too, right? as we talk about the offseason moves for Kansas,

and can they add another player here? Can they add one more center to make the competition just a little bit better and maybe get that guy to get them over the top? Wouldn't it be nice to have a system in place like Odu that has the ability to kind of understand like, okay, this is the exact type of player we need. Like we need a center who does this,

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You can find a show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. I did mention this on the previous side of the break. Paul M. B.S supposedly is back today for KU. He had not been back with the team yet, was back overseas internationally. And some people starting to freak out about, you know, not seeing him in highlights or anywhere around KU, but good news that was reported by, I think it was like Gary Bador late last week, that he would be back or supposed to be on Monday.

As I'm recording this, it's supposed to happen. I guess if it ends up that he's not there, then maybe it becomes a Bolver story, right? Speaking of overseas, Ellie Evans, KU basketball player and winner of the three-point shootout in the women's game this past season, ended up signing in Italy overseas. So she goes overseas and Bia comes back from overseas. Meanwhile, the College of Baseball National Championship is in game three, Oklahoma, North Carolina.

And it's just the craziness that Oklahoma made it to this point. I mean, Oklahoma won away from winning the title, even if they don't win the title, to get to the final two, it's just funny because looking back on it, you see, you're like Georgia Tech is leading the country, and runs per game. They're the two seed.

You would have to go on the road to face them like just an absolute, like, blessing it felt like that Oklahoma upset them. You get to host a super regional. It's the worst team. Well, it turns out Oklahoma is just one of the best teams in the country. And it's kind of between a rock and a hard place because who knows, for all we know, if Georgia Tech beats Oklahoma, maybe Georgia Tech is playing for the title game right now and said, right?

Georgia Tech was a really good team. They might have just ran into a bussaw. Kansas was a really good team. They might have just ran into a bussaw. And it definitely continues to stink that like KU got seated where they were because, you know, had they been a few spots higher, are they able to make a different type of run? Who knows? But it is funny because it wasn't even the seated team that they got that like Oklahoma has just been that good. And I think it does make you feel at least a little better because of the fact that Kansas lost by as much as they did in those two games against Oklahoma.

That it's just like, no, they're just playing as good of baseball as anybody in the country right now. bit of news is from a recruiting standpoint. So Nazir Pitchford flipped. We talked about that on a previous episode to North Carolina. And the unfortunate part of that for Kansas is because they got him to commit, because Kansas is a very loyal recruiting type of team, they basically shut it down with some other corners to be like, hey, we got our guy like, sorry, the scholarships filled. Well, then all of a sudden he flips.

And now you're reopening up. And it's hard to go back to that kind and be like, well, actually, do you want to come here? And they're like, well, no, because like you went with somebody else. Well, so they tried to get on the board with this Dylan Northcutt kid who I think came in for a visit. He ends up picking Syracuse and commits Syracuse. So that just means that Kansas's attempts at getting a corner in the high school class will either, you know, continue to carry on here or they're just going to have to use an extra one on the transfer portal. Got to be honest, though, I don't necessarily hate the fact that if you have to use an extra one on the transfer portal, because you've been able to find guys who I'm not just talking about guys you've brought in. to like play right away.

You think of Roman Pearson this past year. I'm talking about guys that you've brought in like Juliel Hurley, who are redshirt freshman, redshirt sophomore, who are former highly recruited guys. You have an opportunity to develop. And that would be more of in tune with like when you bring in a high school kid. So if that's the route you go, I think that's fine too.

If you're KU and you've had some success bringing some of those guys in. All right. That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page or you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time.