Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - GERMAN PHENOM VISITING? Deep Dive Into Kansas Jayhawks Target Fabian Kayser & Fit with Bill Self

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks position themselves as international recruiting powerhouses as elite German prospect Fabian Kayser visits Lawrence. Could Kaiser become the next foundational wing for Bill Self’s powerhouse program in the class of 2027? Derek Johnson spotlights Kayser’s advanced skills, pro experience with Real Madrid’s esteemed youth academy, and potential fit in Kansas’ future starting lineup. Listeners get a comprehensive scouting report on Kayser’s size, shooting prowess, passing creativity, and high-level international resume, with insights into how he compares to NBA star Franz Wagner. The conversation covers Kansas’ evolving recruitment landscape, the significance of recent decommitments, and whether Kaiser could help fill the void left by top prospects. Don’t miss this strategic breakdown of Kansas basketball’s global vision and what Kaiser’s commitment could mean for the Jayhawks’ quest for future championships. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. .   The Game Don't miss this chance to celebrate 40 years of The Game with 40% off your entire order. Visit https://TheGameCaps.com and use promo code LOCKEDONat checkout. 5-Hour ENERGY Bring on the sweetness with Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots—available online now at https:/5hourENERGY.com or on Amazon. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMto play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.  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.

Kansas has an elite international prospect visiting. Let's break him 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. This is Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's episode of the show, we are breaking down Fabian Kaiser,

who is visiting Kansas and is an elite international prospect. We'll break down his game, where he fits into the, recruiting ledger sounds like more of a future recruit bulligan to all that on today's episode of the show including his scouting report so according to both 24-7 sports and jhoxlant german wing fabian kaiser is making his official visit to kansas i believe it was set for august 20th so that would be today on a thursday i guess depending when you're listening to this right um but at the very least i guess it would be this weekend or something right uh now i think the idea like i said it sounds like the reports are for him to be a part of the class of 2027

So that would mean, you know, next year's class, right? But, you know, who knows? Could you at least discuss the possibility of being 2026? Could it be something where you could say, hey, if we can't get this worked out with, you know, Melvin Council and Trey White getting our final two scholarships, would you be interested in joining a little bit early here? But I don't know, it does feel like it makes the most sense for him to stay in 27 anyway, both from his perspective, like he continues to develop.

I guess you could point to guys like the Costa Rica kid going to use. and the Boomchee Boomchie kid going to Duke that they are basically going to their school for two years before they can go to the NBA. And so you could do something like that. But yeah, it does sound like this would be more of class of 2027, right? And for Kansas, like, that makes sense, though, too. You had Javon Bardwell on board as a five-star commit for you in the class of 2027. He obviously reclassified and then decommitted from KU because he wants to, you know, start. His clock was going to start regardless, so he wants to get that going and get paid to do it. And I don't blame him for doing that. That's not the case with Kaiser, right?

His clock doesn't start already this year, right? So the beauty of it is it gives Kansas the chance they've done a really good job of basically bringing in, you know, you look at Darren Peterson being kind of the center of the universe for KU last year. You look at Tyron Stokes being the center of the universe this year for this team. Could Fabian Kaiser be that guy in 2020? for Kansas, right? So he was born in March of 2009, meaning that right now he is 17 years old. He won't turn 18 till the NCAA tournament next year. So when you look at him joining the class of 27, he would be the normal age of most freshmen coming in. NBA draft room has him as a projected mid first round pick in the 2028 draft. NBA draft point has noted him as a top three international player in his class. I mean, this would be, huge get at any point in time for KU, whether you're talking 26, 27, 28.

And certainly it would be huge from a standpoint of ramping up international recruiting and showing that you're a big boy player overseas as well. So let's get to the potential scouting report here for Kaiser and the potential fit what it would look like for KU in the future. This is locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by Kalshi. Before the season even kicks off, everyone is making a prediction. Who's lifting the trophy at season's end, right?

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On to our scouting report here for Fabian Kaiser, he is a 6'8 wing who is German-born. And, you know, this is one of those where he's in a very respected program, right? So how the professional European ball works is these European professional clubs have these basically youth academies, right? And so you've probably heard of Real Madrid before from a soccer perspective because they're, you know, one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world. They're also one of the biggest basketball clubs in the world outside of the NBA, right? So very highly respected program. And he's been in the youth academy with them that that tells you that, again, it doesn't guarantee that you're going to be good or anything. But this isn't like major league baseball or something or the NBA where you're drafting players.

How the European system works, whether it's basketball or soccer, the best clubs are going to. to get the best young players because they have the most money to be able to sign them and the best money to be able to get the best scouts and stuff, right? So if you're at one of the better clubs, that usually is a good sign. He played for the U-18 team for Real Madrid in 2024 to 2025. And then he played for the Real Madrid League of U-Team, which is the under-22 league there. And across 23 games this past season in that league with 18 starts as 16-year-old, right? So, you know, even though it's the under 22, he's still younger in that league. He played 22 minutes per game while averaging 10 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.6 stocks per game

while shooting 39% from the floor, 32% on solid volume from 3, and then 93% at the foul line, right? Like we look at Sveemichaelic was a 16-year-old at Kansas and he couldn't really get on the floor. This is basically the equivalent of that. He was able to produce, albeit not the most efficient, basically in their level of collegiate play in their professional league, right? But he was also as part of the Adidas Next Gen tournament, he was one of five players named to the all tournament team. Joaquin Bunchy Bunche, who is the big time Duke prospect coming in. He was one of the other players on that list that you might recognize. And in that tournament, Kaiser went for 13 points, five and a half rebounds and nearly six assists per game.

So just filling up the statute. Also, three and a half stocks per game across the four games. And then you're looking at somebody who's played a lot of international basketball too, right? like he represented Germany at the 2024 U-17 World Cup. He was for Germany at the 2024 U-16 Euro championships and the 2026 U-18 Euro championships, right? So a lot of experience. And I think that's one of his strengths that you would be a lot of experience at a high level of basketball for his age. That would be a strength coming over, right?

Size is another one here. You're talking about somebody who's six foot eight as a really one through three. There are times when he can play as a lead initiator. I think you mostly view him as a two through three wing, a shooting guard small forward type. He's got good size wherever you put him one through three. I think the three point shooting is something you look at being a strength. I know 32 percent doesn't look like a huge number in what he shot this past season. But again, he's doing that when he's 16 years old.

Like you look at Svema Kailuk, Svi shot 31 percent from the floor when he was a 16 year old at Kansas. And then he ended up being one of the better shooters that we've seen in the Bill Self era, right? When you look at the release, when you watch his footwork, especially, like very good at turning his shoulders, getting them on frame. He can shoot off the bounds. He can shoot if he's running, pick and roll, and the guy goes under his screen. He can really shoot off the catch. I think the idea here is that, you know, by the time he would be at Kansas, again, class of 2027, another year under his belt, another year older, more time to develop. He would be a really good three-point shooter at some point during his collegiate or professional career.

He's also good at grabbing and going. Grabbing a rebound, which, you know, again, you're talking to a guy who can get you, you know, five, six rebounds per game and really good at using that in transition, throwing passes ahead, taking it himself, really good transition starter. He also has some of that on ball ability because of both, I would say, solid ball handling for a guy of his size and very good passing. He has some, if you go watch some of his highlights, he has some really fun passes like trick passes behind the back between the legs. like fitting tight bounce passes into tight windows fun passing there and part of the reason i think the passing is is a strength for him he seems to show really strong awareness um and i think that that pays off on the defensive end you see him makes him like you see some of the stock numbers are pretty good the steals and blocks he's able to be a good team defender knows where to be in help

um knows how to help a team defense succeed right and like i said earlier he just in general seems like somebody who is beyond his years in kind of level play. Now some of the weaknesses, I don't think he's the most explosive athlete in the world. He's not the quickest. He's not the fastest. He doesn't jump the highest. It more than good enough that he can throw down some dunks and, you know, that for a six foot eight guy, it's decent.

But he's not somebody who is like Tyron Stokes where he's six foot seven and a freak athlete. He's six foot eight. And, you know, it's not in that same way. He's also somebody that at times can. I don't know if it's making lazy passes. I don't know if it's testing things. I don't know if it's, you know, just being a younger player, but he can be a bit turnover prone at times,

which you see for players at this level. So I don't know, I'm kind of getting like Franz Wagner vibes here, which is that racist because I just pegged him to another German player, but it's like you have, you have this wing in Franz Wagner, who is like, what, six foot eight, six foot nine? I wouldn't say Wagner's the most like explosive athlete in the world, but he's a smooth athlete, right? He's got good size.

he can handle a little bit, just does a little bit of everything well. And overall, that is a, what, top 50 player in the NBA right now, top 40 player who's really good for Michigan when he was with the Wolverines. I think that's what I'm kind of looking at here for Fabian Kaiser. So that's very exciting to me. Like, that would be a really, really helpful player for any team in the country. So how exactly would he fit into KU in the future? We'll get to that next.

Thanks again for joining us here on Lockdown, Jayhawks. How would Fabian Kaiser fit in with KU? Well, let's say that you did get him to reclass the 26. Again, very much not expecting that. I think at that point, like, I don't know, he'd probably be coming off the bench because you have so much experience, but probably be ahead of guys like Cole Rosario and Dennis Parker Jr. on the wing. Maybe it'd be your sixth man or something like that. Again, I don't think that's going to happen.

So realistically, he joins in 2027. Tyrant Stokes is gone. Of course, you can bring back Dennis Parker Jr. and Cole Rosario. Now, if either one falls out of the rotation, they're probably transatl, friend so then they're not coming back. But I think this is a good enough player that you would probably penciling in to being a starter in 2027. The difficulty there, though, is like if you're projecting the starting line up right now,

like we're waiting on what's going to happen with, you know, say, Tray White and Melvin counselor or whatever, I guess it wouldn't matter because they'd be gone for 27 anyway. You know, if you're looking at the potential guys who could start this year, Leroyd-Blyden, second-year player, Talen Kinney, first-year player, Keanu Dawes gets an extra year now. Dennis Parker Jr., who we mentioned, gets an extra year now. Rosario would have more time, right? There would be competition of returning players for those starting spots.

Now, I would, again, project him to start and would kind of fill into that Tyrant Sokes role, different players. I don't think he can be as a dynamic and I don't think he'll be as good as Tyrant Stokes, but this would be a great place to start. And I think if you're comparing them between the line of Tyron Stokes to Javon Bardwell, he's probably somewhere in between there, I think it would fill the Bardwell spot nicely and get you back in tow in 2027 recruiting and feel like, you have something going forward there.

So this would be a big time get if Kansas can land this kid. So we'll see what happens with the visit this weekend for Fabian Kaiser to Lawrence. All right. I'll do it for this episode of the show. You can find your show anywhere your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. We'll get to another deep dive coming up later this weekend on Kaba Keda, who is recently available and plenty more football basketball content coming at you on L.OJ. See ya.