Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - HEAD-TO-HEAD: Jayhawks Evaluate Mihailo Musikic vs Arkansas Center Malique Ewin & KU Big Paul Mbiya

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks weigh center options as the coaching staff targets Serbian big man Mihailo Musikic and transfer portal standout Malique Ewin. How do these potential additions stack up against Paul Mbiya and the current KU roster? Derek Johnson breaks down the advanced stats, skill sets, and eligibility questions shaping Bill Self’s frontcourt plans for the upcoming season. Shifting to football, Derek Johnson previews the KU defensive end group, highlighting breakout potential for Leroy Harris and Dak Brinkley while raising questions about depth if injuries hit the two-deep rotation. The latest Kansas baseball MLB Draft outlook and NBA Summer League reaction to former Jayhawk Darryn Peterson light up the news segment, as fans look for clues about future KU star power and program momentum. Can KU’s revamped lineup deliver defensive rebounding dominance and a big 12 title run? 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. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to 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.

How does KU target Mahilo Musikic, the center from Serbia? How does he compare to Paul and Bia currently on the roster, as well as Malik Ewan, another transfer portal target for KU? 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 going on? Derek Johnson here, this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And on today's episode of the show, we're going to be breaking down a little bit of the comparisons with Mahilo Musichich to some other KU, either players or targets.

We'll also get to some of the latest news. And we'll get to a Kansas football defensive line preview. Today's episode is brought to you by Odu. Great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get Odo. Try it for free at Odu.com slash locked on. That is Odo.com ODO slash locked on. All right, so a little fun exercise here going to be comparing Mahilo Musich, the Serbian center target.

And if you haven't already caught that deep dive, go back and check that out from Friday. Obviously, it was holiday for a lot of people. So make sure to check that out. And if you are on every day or thank you to already tune it into that one. But I wanted to at least start this with comparing Musa Kitch's game to Yuan. Because obviously, the talk has been, no, you want Malik Uin over Musichich. Like, for sure, if you can get him. obviously it might not just be as simple as who you can get over the other.

It might be an eligibility thing, right? Each have their own eligibility questions, Musa Kitch more of an age thing with Malik Uin, more of will he get his extra waiver, will he win an extra season. And so that kind of becomes a big question here when you're looking into all of this. But point being I want to do kind of cross-compair between these different players and take a statistic look. Now, obviously, it gets complicated because they're not playing in the same conference. they're not even playing in the same league.

Like, you know, and obviously is playing in the SEC or was playing in the SEC this last season, whereas, you know, you're looking at a Serbian center here is playing in the Serbian league. So, like, how do those leagues actually compare to each other? Well, I think I would put it like this, right? Like, the Serbian League is probably about a middle of the pack, slightly above average league overseas. Once you're playing in the Adriatic League games, which are basically the, you know, best of teams in that area,

then that becomes maybe a top 12 to 10 league in the world outside of the U.S. So it's a good league. And you're playing against, you know, senior players, older guys, guys on professional contracts. I think when you look at the Big 12 level here, for instance, probably better athleticism at the Big 12 level and the Power 4 level for college basketball than what he's going up against in Serbia. there's probably going to be more physicality in the Serbian league because you do have more adults and professionals. There's a little differences about the international game and stuff. But in general, I'd probably say the SEC is probably a better league than the Serbian league. So I guess take that into account when we show this year.

But when we show the stat comparison comparing U.N. to Musichich. And I wish there were any photos available here. But you're looking at Malik U.N. Avergin, more points. per game than Musa Kitch by about a point and a half per game. The rebounding numbers are the same. And if you're curious on some of the rebound rate numbers, you're talking UIN was it a 15.7% offensive rebound rate, Musickch only 7.7. So Uyn was like double the offensive rebounder that Musick was.

And that number for Ewan is like elite. The number for Musickich is more average. You look at defensive rebound rate numbers, though. Musa Kitsch at 22.1%. Uen at 15%. UIN becomes a average to below average defensive rebounder, whereas

Musa Kitch becomes a good defensive rebounder. So interesting, you end up with the same rebound per game numbers, but the rates are kind of very different in how they get there. Musik's the better passer. I think you would see that on film. You see it in the stats. Average is about half more an assist per game. And that's doing that in the league.

The Serbian league, the leaders in assist per game are getting like four assists per game. So it's not a league where you're going to get blown up with a bunch of assists, right? His assist to turnover rate is better as well. Ewan the more active defender, I wouldn't call either a, it's kind of weird because Ewan is probably the stronger post defender, and he's also the better shot blocker, 1.1 blocks per game, Musa Kitch is just 0.8. The steel numbers are double for Ewan as well.

So you're getting more impact there. Ewan probably stronger for defending in the post. I do think Musich is a more sweet. switchable defender and a better defender if he does end up switched on to somebody kind of out on the perimeter. So I do think that's an interesting conversation there. A field goal percentage in favor of Ewan who shot 59%, Moosecich at 52%. If you're looking at something like true shooting percentage, which will take into account, you know, kind of combination of everything, the free throw shooting, which Ewan was 74 to 71.

Ewan didn't take enough threes to really have a conversation there. But if you look at true shooting percentage, Ewan was at 63.7%. Musukitsch was at 59.3%. So you get an edge there for U.N. And when you go down a little bit more in some of the other, I guess, advanced stat comparisons, again, you get a better assist rate for Musich. You get a much better steel rate for UIN. You get a better block rate for UIN. The PER is much better for UIN. 23.4 to 15 for Musich. And then the wind shares per 40. You're looking at 0.18 for U.N. 0.12 for Musich. That is a decent. you know, size, number difference between the two of those. And I think, you know, most people understand that Ewan is more valuable. But to me, I hope this exercise shows just how much more valuable he can potentially be because when I look at Malik Ewan here, I look at somebody who can be like a game changer, potentially all-conference level addition if you add him.

I think he has all-conference level-edition offense. I think he can be good enough, I mean, especially with the offense of rebounding to get those rebound totals up. If he can just do enough on the defensive end and Kansas has a successful season, he's the type of player that could come in and get a third team all big 12 type of award for KU. Whereas with Musichich, I do more view him as somebody who would come in and be depth. He would fight with Christian Reeves and Davion Adkins for a backup spot. At the very least, he would give you more depth and somebody else with a big body to practice against for guys like Paul Mbia who you're trying to develop.

But I guess going through this stat, like there are certain things that are actually pretty close. there that show that, okay, this kid does have something there to look at. But yeah, I think the overall takeaway there is, yes, UIN is still the better prospect that you want to go out for. But, you know, might not be up to you. Might be up to who you can get eligible. What if we compare Musickich to Paul Mnbee? But I don't want to compare to Paul Mbia last year stats at Kansas because, A, there's just not a ton to go on there. I want to compare it more to Paul Mbia's final season in Europe.

And this is interesting because whereas UIN is playing in the SEC, which is arguably a tougher, league than the Serbian league. Again, there are certain things that are going to be harder or easier depending on the league. Mbio was playing in the French junior league. Now, the French league is really good. French second league is actually still pretty decent. I think the French second league is the highest rated of the second leagues, but he was playing in the junior league. So just the French league for like 21 and under, which is probably not as good of a league as the senior Serbian league. So he's playing, Paul Mbia was playing in not as good of a league. He was playing and not as good of the league overseas.

And if you look at some of the stat comparison here, from what Mbia did in that final season that he played in LNBia spores, more points per game, 10.5 points, 8.3 rebounds. That's better than Musa Kitch's most recent season of 8.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, much better passing numbers from Musich. Basically three times the assists. The assist to turnover rate is a little scary for Paul. That's something maybe to be a little worried about coming to this.

year. He was getting four turnovers for every one assist, whereas Musa Kitch is positive in assist to turnover ratio. Obviously, the defensive numbers, though, heavily favored for Mbia, three stocks per game, steals plus blocks, whereas Musich only 1.1's like tripling up the numbers there. They're very different centers, and you see that in the field goal percentage. Moussich might take some face-up shots, might do more on the post. And Bia's at 69% because most of all he's doing on offense is dunk in the basketball, right? Oddly enough, Mbia took three-threes, his one season. He did not make any. But three throw percentage, big advantage for Musa Kitch. And if we look at the advanced numbers on these guys, true shooting percentage, Mbia at 66%,

Moussich at 59. But again, just very different roles in what they're asked to do. Mbia had like double the offensive rebound rate as Moussich, and he actually had a better defensive rebound rate overseas. You look at the assist rate, double for Moussich, basically. The steel rate more than double for Mbia, the block rate almost three times for Mbia. And then the P-E-R, Mbia with 21.2, Musich with 15.0. Winchairs per 40, again, similar for the advantage of U.N. over Musickich, Mbia over Musickch at 0.17 to 0.12. So the reason I did this one is because, like, if we would have come up with this comparison

and came away with the fact that actually when they were both overseas, Musa-Kitch in a tougher league was putting up better numbers than M-Pia, then maybe when you you bring him on, maybe you do have higher hopes for the idea of what he could become and be in year one. But I think it shows, even though Mbia, you know, easier league playing at the junior level was a more statistically dominant player there, then you add in the idea that yes, Mbia does have a year in the system with Bilsoff and does seem to have developed a good amount and taken a big jump, whereas with Musichich, some of the talk has been that he's done the opposite in some of the recent years and has kind of been trending in the wrong direction. So some kind of interesting numbers

to kind of compare between the guys there. So we're going to totally switch gears, take a timeout, get to a little KU football, defensive end edge preview for the Jayhawks. We'll get to that next. Today's episode of The Show is brought to you by Odu. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together.

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That's OD-O-O-O-com slash Locked-on. Thanks again for joining us here on Locked-on Jayhawks, and we're going to continue on with our KU Football Defensive End Edge preview. If you're curious, like, hey, what's the deal with the background setup and the camera and everything today? Well, I ended up being out of town longer than I was expecting to be, so doing this show from Lake of the Ozarks. So we're out here getting things done.

Edge preview for KU football coming into 2026. Let's start here with the starting lineup projection. I think this is a position group for Kansas that has two stars in the making with Dak Brinkling Leroy Harris. But the interesting part is they play the same defensive end position to where, yes, they'll rotate and they'll both get on the field a bunch. But it's a weird situation where your two best defensive ends are not really going to be on the field at the same time outside of maybe pass rush situations, which I hope they do.

I hope on pass rush situations, it's Brinkley and Harris on the outside. Now, on more running downs, on more base downs, on one side, you have the competition between Alex Bray, who transferred in from Illinois last year. He'll be a fourth-year player this year, so he gets an extra year potentially because of the five-and-five. Decent season, you know, serviceable, and now has another year in the program, more bigger defensive end run-stopper, not really a pass-rusher. and you bring in David Santiago, who is a transfer from, you put up good production at Air Force, goes to Michigan State, and then not as good production, but still okay production, and then comes over to Kansas.

I did like his game a little bit when he transferred over and kind of diving into what he brings to the table. I do think, though, because of the familiarity, like I would be leaning toward if I was projecting it for Bray to be the starter and Santiago would come off the bench. But we know KU, whether it was last year with Bray and Finkley, whether it was, you know, years prior with. I don't know, Jeremy Robinson and Malcolm Lee, like if you want to go back a few years, whatever it is. Like, KU rotates their defensive ends at a pretty high level, especially at that strong side spot. So I think you're going to see a pretty even split for Bray and Santiago, even if Bray

ends up being the starter for kind of seniority and being in the system. At the weak side, I got Leroy Harris as the starter, Dak Brinkley behind him. But again, both guys are going to rotate and play because I think both them are going to be really impactful, really good players. And like I said, I hope on past rushdowns that they end up saying, hey, let's use almost, you know, let's use both defensive ends here and maybe not drop them into coverage and use them both as pass rushers that I think they can do a really good job at. I think the interesting battle too here is the depth developing behind it because it seems pretty clear to me,

not just who the starters are defensive end. It seems pretty clear who the backups are, right? It's Harris and Brinkley. It's Bray and Santiago, right? But what happens if, because I feel pretty good about the one, two, I feel good about the two deep for KU there. What happens if one of those defensive ends get hurt? How good do you feel about the third string becoming the second string? And that's where it's not that I feel bad about it. I like the talent of some of the players, but it's very unproven. And these are very young players behind them.

Where are they going to be ready yet? So like you bring in a true freshman Hunter Higgins, so I think he's going to have an outstanding career for Kansas and is a really talented player. But would he be ready to play as a freshman if he has to move into the two-deep, right? And it's not just him. It's a bunch of other guys who are either set. second year players like Adrian Hawley, Fitz Billing, very talented player. I think he's going to be really good for Kansas, but could that be next year or could that

have to happen this year, right? So it's weird because, like, usually when you say I like the depth, you're referring to I like the two deep, and I do like the two deep. There's question marks beyond that. Again, talented. It's just you don't know how it's going to come together. Now, I think the best player on this edge group is Leroy Harris. There's a world where Dak Brinkley takes that step up and usurps him, but

I'm really high on Harris's game. He can rust the passer. He's got some run-stopping ability. He can knock down passes. He had like eight pass deflections this past year, which are like numbers that a good corner would put up in a season for KU. Just a really aware player. And the way he took off last season,

after not really knowing what to expect, like, is he really going to play that much after transferring in from the FCS level? He ended up being a really important defensive player for KU. And I think he takes another step up this year. I think he'll be the best player at that as position. for Kansas. My guy, the guy I'm all about, I mean, honestly, like, I am super high on Lerah Harris, so he would probably just classify as my guy as well. But I've been really high on Dak Brinkley, even going back to last year, I was high on his abilities and that, you know,

things we're going to kind of get going for him. And he ends up having a good finish to the season against Arizona. It sounds like he had a good spring as well to where he's somebody that I look at and go, okay, if he takes another step forward, you're talking to a former four-star recruit who had some other really big offers and we all, you know, got excited for DJ Warner. Dak Brinkley ends up being the one staying around. Like he could be the one that turns into something special too for Kansas. A future piece to watch. I mentioned a couple names already. Adrian Hawley and Hunter Higgins. I think those are the one to watch. Holly has really good length and he's now in year two in the program. So maybe a little head of Higgins there. But Higgins,

local kid, really good D.N. recruit who should be able to do a little bit of everything. KU's got a couple good ones. And they've got some other. ones on the 2Dep as well that could have a bright future as well. I think the biggest strength is the unit is the pass rush potential. Like when you look at being able to throw out Leroy Harris, who I look at it and say, okay, you had four and a half sacks last year. Can you get to five or six or seven sacks this year? I think he'll be a good pass rusher. I think Dak Brinkley will be a good pass rusher this year. Now, Bray didn't really give you much. Can you get anything from Santiago? Obviously, once you start throwing the defensive tackles in there,

I think there's some good pass rushers. I do you think. KUsD line has a good chance to rush the passer better this year than they did a season ago. Now, the biggest question as a unit, like I said, it's kind of can the youngsters step up in case anybody on the two deep gets hurt? Because if anybody on the two deep gets hurt, one of those youngsters is now in the two deep and then all of the sudden you are at least rotating in, like backup defensive linemen play. They're going to rotate in to keep everybody fresh. That is a huge question. The other question is, can for the weak side guys, we know they have the pass rush, can they hold up against the run? And I think both guys did well against the run last

year, but can you hold up over the course of the entire season now, right? When you look at the strong side guys, you know, we know they're more run-stopping guys. Can you hold up against the past? Can you be good pass rushers as well? I think those would be the big questions there. And then the overall question here, is the edge group better, worse, or the same than it was a season ago. I would say if they do stay healthy, then it's going to be better than last season. Because I think Leroy Harris will be better than he was a season ago. I think Dak Brinkley would be better than he was a season ago. But obviously, it's not just about that. It's about who he lost him last year, right? Dean Miller didn't have a great season last year, right? I think he had some

injury stuff in camp leading up to it that, you know, maybe just started things off on the wrong foot there. But I guess I would put it this way. I view Leroy Harris this year as better than Dean Miller was a season ago. And then I think Dak Brinkley, can he be what Leroy Harris was last year, right? I think that's very pliable to do. Then you look at the strong side spot, just as Finckley was pretty good for you. I think Bray will be better than he was a season ago. I don't know that Santiago will be quite as good as what Finkely was,

but you also look at some of that young talent, which even though it is a question, it is talented. And it feels like a defensive end, I don't know, maybe you can at least just be like, hey, like go seeball, hit ball, you know, go hit the quarterback, right, to where you can get away with some youth playing there a little bit more, to where I do think this unit's going to be a little bit better than next year. And a big reason why, though, is just goes back to the idea that I do think one of Harris or Brinkley could very well break out to be an all-big 12 player, right?

I don't think that would be that crazy. So I do like the edge unit and overall the D-line for Kansas, which would go to the defensive tackles on another day. All right, let's continue on with the show. We'll get you some of the latest news. This is Locked on Jayhawks. What's going on, Derek Johnson here? Episode for you today.

We'll have plenty more coming this week. Might be some other weird backgrounds. We'll get out a lot over there. But we'll continue to bring you the show because we love doing it. All right, latest news. By the way, keep a lookout this weekend is the MLB draft on Saturday. So it's like, I think it's the first three or four rounds on Saturday. And then it's like the rest.

I think they go up to 20 rounds on Saturday. Sunday. So that'll be very interesting for KU players. Where do they get drafted? What's the signing bonus? What's the offer? KU baseball is going to have a lot of players that could potentially be drafted. Obviously, Tyson LeBlanc could be somebody who you could see go on day one. Dom vaguely, Brady Bollinger might be borderline of that. Where do those players go day two? And then, you know, do any other players, like Augusto, Mungarieta, for instance, did they go high enough and get a good enough signing bonus that they could wind up, you know, going to their MLB team, or do we see them come back to KU? So it's going to be a big step forward in knowing or having a better,

clearer picture of what the KU baseball roster could look like next season for Dan Fitzgerald. Obviously, they expect some key players back and have really, once again, hit the Juco ranks hard and brought in some seemingly really good players. But getting some of that talent back, that's kind of borderline right now, whether they're going to go or stay, would go a long way to kind of getting back to the point that you got this year in making a super regional. Meanwhile, NBA Summer League has also gotten going. So Jayhawks participating everywhere there. Some Jayhawks trying to make a roster.

Still waiting on some free agent news from some of the different Jayhawks that are available and out there as well. But the big news in the NBA Summer League world was Darren Peterson making his summer league debut for the jazz. And funny enough, they played their opening game on the Utah Uts court, which he got to play Utah at home. Wait, did he even play in that game? Anyway, point being, he goes off. He had 28 points. He shot like above 50% from the floor. Did have a lot of turnovers.

He mentioned in the post game. He didn't like his defense, stuff like that. But the scoring looked like it was transferring over once again. And it's a weird spot to be in because I, like, I am rooting for Darren Peterson to succeed. Let me be clear with that. I am rooting for Darren Peterson to succeed. I do think that a lot of the story and the narrative that, ended up happening were his camp's fault. But I blame his agent and his camp more than I blame him.

I think he is just somebody who, you know, he called himself a loner at one point, which that's probably going a little bit more far than what it actually is. But I think he's just somebody who wants to play basketball, go home, play video games, you know, hang out with friends. Like, he's not somebody who's going to like, oh, like, I'm going to go out to the Hawk tonight. And I'm just going to, like, live it up, have a good night, every night, and be social with everyone. But I just don't think that's really what he wants to do. And so, like, I am rooting for him to do well. And I think from a KU perspective, it works well if Darren Peterson does well.

Because, you know, you get into a playoff setting, and Darren Peterson's averaging 25 a night. He goes to the free-thor line, pops up the graphic. Like, oh, he's averaging 25 a game in this playoff series. And it says, you know, 10th year in the NBA, and it says college, Kansas. That doesn't hurt from a recruiting perspective, right? It also wouldn't hurt to have another big name because for so long, Paul Pierce was the big name from Kansas. And KU's had, obviously, a lot of guys go to the NBA, whether it was a cup of coffee or, you know, have a long career, have a double-digit career like a Dorel Arthur, but maybe not be stars, Nick Collison, right?

It helps from a recruiting perspective to have that. So, yes, I am rooting for him. At the same point in time, I say all that to be like, there is still a part of me. And I'm sure some others feel this way, too. there is a part of me that's like, oh my gosh, this is so hard to watch when he's going off. Because there's a part of me that's like, the better he does at the NBA level, the more time he doesn't miss games, the more time he doesn't have creatine problems, the more time he doesn't go out with cramping, the more time I'm going to be like, man, could you imagine? Could you imagine if KU would have gotten the full version of him without all these issues? Like, what are we talking about here?

What would it have done differently for the season? And it'll always be an annoying what if to where, like, it's almost a situation where, like, I don't even want to watch it in the end. Like, I don't want to watch his NBA games because I'm just going to be thinking the what ifs. I just want to view it from the side and just check it on his box score the next day and be like, oh, good. He had 30 points. Good for him. Because it is tough.

And it's a weird habit. So, again, I'm rooting for him. It's just a very, like, oh, man, could you imagine if that, yeah. So anyway, that'll do it for today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere of your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back at you on tomorrow's episode. We're going to talk about some defensive rebounding dominance being built together by the KU Frontline.

We'll also get to more player previews. Lerick Blyden set for later this week. Mike gets some other ones as well, Football Friday upcoming. So make sure you're subscribe to the show. We're almost up to 5K subscribers. Help us get there. And we'll see you next time for another day. of Locked on Jayhawks.