Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Examining Jalen Wilson's Case for College Basketball's National Player of the Year

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

Examining the case for Kansas Jayhawks' Jalen Wilson to win National Player of the Year in College Basketball. Where does he sit, comparing his numbers and what he's accomplished so far to other KU greats like Frank Mason, Ochai Agbaji, Wayne Simien, biggest hurdles to him winning the award like Zach Edey, is there even a path to claiming the Naismith or others?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.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. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL 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, we go over the candidacy of Jalen Wilson for national player of the year. Where does he sit? How realistic is it? What is his case that if you're trying to make it for him to win the award, and is there anything he can do to surpass what Zach Eadie has done so far this season? That on today's edition 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 also with Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday on KLWN, your flagship station in Lawrence from 3 to 6 every day on KLWN. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day, free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be going over Jalen Wilson's National Player of the Year case, the biggest pros for him being in it where he kind of sits right now um we're also going to be taking a look at you know what he needs to do is it is it possible

for him to even win this award and surpass a guy like zach edie with all that zach edie has done and i also want to take a look at uh you know um which i guess guess, which KU player, which KU player under Bill Self recently that has been a National Player of the Year candidate, like he compares favorably to, does he compare at all, do any of the recent ones, we'll go over that on this edition of the show. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sports,

the official sportsbook partner of Locked On. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On today to get started. So on today's edition of the show, going over this Jalen Wilson stuff, the biggest pros to Jalen Wilson being a National Player of the year candidate and what he can do. Now, depending where you look right now, Jalen Wilson is, you know, he's certainly up near the top of the national player of the year race. When you look at a stadium, they just did a, and this was before the Texas game, which he had just two points, but stadium did a poll of a bunch

of different media people of their top 10 list for national player of the year. Jalen Wilson came in at number two. Ken Palm has him at number three for his national player of the year race, only behind Trace Jackson Davis at number two and Zach Eadie at number one. You look at FanDuel, they have betting odds. Zach Eadie is by far the favorite, minus 1,000. Jalen Wilson in at number two at plus 850.

Then you go to Trace Jackson Davis, plus 2,000. Zulus Tubelis at Arizona is at a great year, plus 4,000. Brandon Miller at Alabama, plus 6,000. Chris Murray is 120 to 1. So there are big drop-offs between people, and the big reason why is Zach Eady seems to be running away with this award. But the only guy who is within single-digit odds at that point is Jalen Wilson on FanDuel so the biggest pros for why Jalen has gotten to this point kind of candidacy well Kansas is competing for the toughest

conference in college basketball and honestly the path to this big 12 title for KU or for any team in the Big 12 is about as tough as any conference in college basketball history. Now, I'm not going to declaratively say it's the hardest conference win ever in college basketball history. I don't know. Some of those past Big Easts were pretty brutal. But, you know, this one is a little bit different because you have the round robin, you play everyone home and away,

whereas in maybe some of those past Big East because the conference was so large you might only play one of the best teams that you're competing with just one time and you might get them at home right um so i don't know either way it's one of the toughest paths that you could envision for winning a conference title and you're competing in that league and putting up these numbers against really good competition some of the best teams in the country and he's performed admirably against some of the tough competition the texas game kind of being the lone exception now this was before the kansas state game earlier last week so before the kansas state game the iowa state game in texas game which those are three more games that you had to add to this but this was from college basketball reference. Jalen Wilson leads all Division I players with 157 points scored

against AP top 25 teams this season. So again, you add the 26 points against Iowa State, you add the game against Kansas State, you add the two points against Texas, that number goes up. I don't know if anybody's competing there. Maybe part of that is pure volume because Kansas is playing a lot more ranked teams, but so are the other Big 12 teams. He's been so important for KU in some of these big games

and performing well in some of these big games. The counting stats, just absolutely ridiculous. Another case for him, about 21 points per game. That is one of the highest marks in the entire country among Power 6 players, and it is top 20 among all players. He is leading KU in rebounding at eight and a half per game he is averaging two and a half assists per game and he's chipping in some steel and block numbers too there are only five players in college basketball averaging at least 20 points eight

rebounds and two assists per game and that have three or more win shares so there's only five players in college basketball doing those things three of them play for small schools in josh cohen at saint francis jake stevens at chattanooga drew pember at unc asheville the only other power six player doing that is azulis tubelis at arizona He's a national player there, candidate as well. Now, sometimes you can have fun with those stats, and, you know, like Zach Eady is doing the points and the rebounds and the windchairs. He's just barely missing the assists, right? But everything that Jalen has done

puts him as a real candidate for this award. He's the best player on one of the best teams in the country, putting up ridiculous stats, and the tear that he had been on up until the Texas game, pretty ridiculous. I mean, he had five games in a row where these were his point totals in each game. 38, 30, 23, 22, and 26.

Over that five-game span, he was averaging 27.8 points per game. Unfortunately, the team went just two and three in that stretch even if you include the texas game though it's 23 and a half points per game so even with that two point out or outing he had 23 and a half points per game over the last six of which kansas has played a remarkably difficult schedule like this six game schedule we had matt tate on our show with rock chalk sports talk the other week and he was saying you know that six game stretch upcoming that was right before the six gram stretch game stretch started with you know kansas state and um kentucky and now texas and i was saying this can state again like that's a tougher six game stretch than you'd probably face if you

go on to win a title and play six games in march because you know you don't have the one letdown game but maybe playing a 15 or 16 seed and um all those games are tougher than maybe playing a if you go on to win a title and play six games in March because you don't have the one letdown game of maybe playing a 15 or 16 seed. And all those games are tougher than maybe playing a 7, 8, or 9 seed, right? Like where that path is insanely difficult and he's put up ridiculous numbers over the course of it. And yes, you could say they didn't win all those games,

but also if they just execute a little better down the stretch against Kansas State, now you win that game and it's because Jalen has 38 points. And it's not really his fault necessarily if they lost some of those games that he went off in. He tried to carry them, and they did even get a couple wins because of it in a very difficult stretch. I think the overall consistency is another mark in Jalen's favor

of why he is a national player of the year candidate. I know that sounds weird after the Texas game when the consistency wasn't there and he only had two points, but that was his first game all season where he had single digits. That was his lowest point total of the year. He has only had less than 14 points twice. He had 11 points against Indiana. He had two points against Texas. Every other game, he's at 14 points or more.

He has been remarkably consistent for this team. And then I think the last part, just how much he matters to this Kansas team. Like we saw against Texas, he struggled. Everybody else stepped up, and they still won the game. It is a team game at the end of the day. And if every other player on the team is playing well and you struggle, you're still going to be okay because it is a team game. But he matters so much to this team

because what happens when everybody isn't stepping up which has happened a lot this season and for the most part you're not going to get every single player firing on all cylinders so what happens when that happens well he's helped to carry the team to the finish line or been one of the top players consistently for this team think about the games games that, you know, he had some of those big moments where he helped carry you to the finish line. Southern Utah, you would have been upset if not for him. He put up like 30 something points in that game. The Duke game. Grady did that spur at the end of the game, but what allowed them to be within striking distance for the spurt, Jalen had 25 points when nobody could really get offense going against Duke Wisconsin he goes for 29 and 14 yes

Bobby hits the game-winning shot but he was the one keeping you in it to even be in that situation Harvard game has those last great five minutes where it's a close game he helps you pull away then this most recent stretch he has been so critical to this team with a team that doesn't have a ton of consistent shot graders. You know why he's averaging so many points and taking so many shots per game? It's because Kansas doesn't really have a lot of other guys that can make magic happen or can make shots off the dribble. A lot of them, it has to be created for them or off back cuts or off somebody passing them the ball jalen's kind of the one exception to the rule so he matters so much to this team i believe this year the maintenance of his past

year is your leading rebounder on a team that you have to be you know you have certain struggles they are rebounding he's just so important for what this team the biggest reasons why he's here, to comparing him to some past KU players who have been in this same vein that he was a fair candidate. But first, so the Locked On Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel. This year, the only app you need at your Super Bowl party is FanDuel,

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the official sportsbook partner of the NFL comparing Jalen Wilson and what he's done so far to some of the other recent KU basketball seasons under Bill Self that earned into the air type light um you can expand it a little more in just a second but um everybody knows the stat or has heard the stat a time or two about you know there's only been a couple players in Bill Self's tenure who have gone on to average 20 or more points per game

it's a list of two guys that's it two guys Bill Self has been here have gone on to average 20 or more points per game. It's a list of two guys. That's it. Two guys. Bill Self has been here since the 2003-2004 seasons. 20 seasons at Kansas. Wayne Simeon and Frank Mason. That's it. Very short list.

Jalen Wilson, right now, is on that list. Here is the list of players at KU, going back before Bill Self, to the Roy Williams era, since 1992. This is far back. His basketball reference will let me go. So since 1992, it gives you 30 years to even average 16 points, seven rebounds per game for a season, which to be clear, Jalen is averaging about five more points than that

and about a rebound and a half more than that. So he's blowing past both of those marks and that'd be pretty exclusive over a 30-year list you got like a couple handfuls of guys and in the case of all of those couple you're looking like, legit dudes. Josh Jackson, Marcus Morris, Thomas Robinson, did it twice. Reference did it twice. Nick, Deidre Glosson, Drew Gooden, and Ryan Wilson. Good.

Or. Right. What to tighten this up to instead of 16 points seven rebounds per game what if i tighten this up dating back to me basketball plus seven rebounds per game now you you have a 30-year-old list with only five qualified seasons for it. Deidre Glosson, Rafe LaFrance, Drew Gooden, and Wayne. That's it. That's the list. That is pretty remarkable stuff. And among that list of Dedrick, Rafe, Drew, and Wayne,

Jalen is averaging more points per game than any of those other players on that list. It's also interesting if you compare it to, you know, Ochag Baji, Frank Mason, and their kind of national player of the year seasons. Frank averaged a little more points. Ochai was at a little under 19. The rebound numbers obviously favor Jalen than both those guys.

The assist numbers favor Frank. Turnovers are about even. The seals and blocks are similar to Ochai. The big thing that's different between what Frank and Ochai did is the efficiency. Jalen's shooting 47% on twos, 35% on threes. Frank was at 50%,

47 in those two areas. Ochai was at 53 and 41. So it's really the efficiency. You look at the O ratings, Ochai and Frank's were better. The D rating, actually Jalen Wilson has the best D rating there. But the, the true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage,

better for both Frank and O'Chay. But it's interesting. You look at the numbers. If we just compare, because I think Franks are just better because of the efficiency. O'Chay might be better just because of the efficiency. But if you're just looking at the counting stats between Jalen to O'Chay, Jalen at 20.7 points per game. Ochai at 18.8.

Jalen at 8.5 rebounds per game. Ochai at 4.4. Jalen at 2.5 assists per game. Ochai at 1.6. Jalen at.8 steals per game. Ochai at.9. Jalen at.6 blocks per game. Ochai at.6 also.

So those things are actually very similar across the board for those two guys, but certainly the efficiency better for Ochai. But Jalen has meant so much to this team. But again, that list. Players to average 19-7 for Kansas since 1992. Deidre Glossin, Rafe LaFrance, Drew Gooden, Wayne Simeon. Right now, Jalen Wilson. Pretty impressive stuff from what Jalen has done so far.

We're going to finish things up with the biggest hurdles to Jalen trying to win the national player of the year award that right here with locked on Jay Hawks. So the biggest hurdle, it's a very big guy, both figuratively and literally that would be Zach Eady. The biggest hurdle them winning the award is just the Zach Eady exists this

season, right? I mean, last season, maybe it ends up going his way i mean oscar sheway was putting up ridiculous numbers too so he would have been a pretty big hurdle to clear too for jaylen's i don't know uh but in some other years maybe it'd be a little easier than the guy like zach edie who was averaging you know 22 points per game 13 rebounds shooting over 60 percent from the

field the true shooting percentages and efficiency numbers are just off the charts and he's on the number one team in the country that is quite the haul to try to overcome and that's why Zach Eadie is minus 1000 on FanDuel to win the national player of the year and nobody has shorter odds than Jalen Wilson behind him at plus 850 it is very clear that Zach Eadie has emerged as the go-to candidate and by far candidate in that regard. So that is the biggest hurdle for him. I think if KU doesn't win the Big 12,

you don't really look at having a shot here because if you're looking at Zach Eadie being that giant hurdle, the tough part is if you're trying to make the case for Jalen over Zach Eadie, it's really hard to do. And you, you pretty much can't, to be honest, because Zach Eady is getting more points per game.

He's getting more rebounds per game. Jalen's getting more assists per game, but it's, it's less than like one assist per game. Zach Eady shooting better from two point range. And you might be saying, well, Jalen shoots three Zach Eady doesn't.

That's why we have numbers like true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage, because it, it waits the threes being more. Zach Eadie is still much more efficient from the floor. He's getting more blocks per game. You know, like Zach Eadie is also on the number one team in the country. He's on a better team than Kansas. You could also argue that the players around Zach Eadie are worse than the

players around Jalen Wilson. So it's hard to make the argument for Jalen over Zach Eadie, I think, is the point here. So that becomes a very big hurdle. So how does that change? What is the path for Jalen trying to win the award? I think clearly he's established himself as being a first-team All-American, but winning the National Player of the Year award,

I think for one, KU would have to win the Big 12. As tough as a conference as we've ever had, and if you win that award, that is one thing that you could have over Purdue. The Big 10 isn't as great this year, and there's not really that number two. I don't know, maybe like Indiana is kind of emerging into that right now. But there hasn't been as much of the depth of the conference, and there's a big drop-off between Purdue and those other schools. Whereas the Big 12 has all these insane teams teams and you're going through a tougher path that you could say well even though my stats aren't quite as good I went through a tougher schedule than you did to try to get there so it's more impressive so that would be one winning the Big 12 I think you also

got to hope that Purdue falters a bit obviously they lost over the weekend to Indiana and you know they're going to need them to probably lose a couple more times i think for ku if you can finish you know as a big 12 champ purdue is going to win the big 10 but maybe you can finish as a higher seed than them or ranked higher than them and that the counting stats and efficiency like you need the efficiency to continue to go up for jaylen you need them to get back to the terriers on in the five games before Texas. Then that would certainly help because it's tough to see Zachy. Like it's one thing for a guy who's a really good shooter to be like, well, maybe you could just have two bad weeks of shooting.

Zachy D seven, four. He's not going to have like two bad weeks of shooting. So it's hard to see the numbers going down. So pretty much this all comes down to you need, if you're Kansas to basically go on a tear here, win the the Big 12 probably win it outright Jalen Wilson gets on another tear again and Purdue falters loses a couple times down the stretch Zach Eadie's numbers are good but they're not you know putting up 30 and 15 on some of these games and then maybe Jalen can overtake him but even then it's it's kind of a tall task to do so

more likely than not Zach Eadie is going to win this award, but Jalen Wilson definitely deserves credit as one of the top candidates, as a first team All-American, and I think he will get both of those things, even if it's an uphill battle to win the specific National Player of the Year award. That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to

be comparing KU basketball players to some Super Bowl stars. That'll be a fun one, and then on Friday's show, we'll preview the KU Oklahoma game. You can also find me on Rock Chalk Sports Talk. You can hit me up on Twitter at D Johnson Radio. Subscribe to the show wherever you get any of your podcasts. Because subscribe to us on YouTube. You can find us there, too.

And I'll see you on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today from 3 to 6 on KLWN and Lawrence. Till then, have a good rest of your day. Bye.