Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Improved Zach Clemence & Elmarko Jackson Affect Kansas Jayhawks Basketball's Offseason

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, interesting comments from Bill Self at the KU Basketball Banquet, especially on Zach Clements and Elmarco Jackson, what it means for the KU offseason. 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 give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show here with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:41 we have some takeaways from the KU Basketball Banquet, comments from Bill Self, specifically talking about Zach Clements and Elmarco Jackson and how those comments could possibly impact the offseason. Also some other bits of note I thought of interesting stuff that came out from the banquet for KU Basketball and how it pertains to the team and the offseason ahead for KU. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs.

Starting point is 00:01:07 These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That's why you want to be 100% certain that you have the right candidates for the job, and LinkedIn helps you find the right people for your team faster and free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply. So KU Basketball had their banquet, which is just kind of a year-end thing that they do and there are like

Starting point is 00:01:30 some big donors that go to this thing media members go to the the event and eat dinner and they have like you know video um i was not at the one this time i've been at it before though and they'll have like kind of a video i don't't know, docu-series type of thing that's 10 minutes long or so, kind of recapping the season. And, you know, Bill Self will have some comments and they'll look back at some of the good stuff. And yeah, just kind of an end of season wrap up. And then Bill Self will meet with the media afterwards and have some conversations. Well, certainly some interesting comments that were had by Bill Self. And let's start with Zach Clements in all this, where that kind of stands, because he said about Zach Clements, quote, he is the most

Starting point is 00:02:09 improved player on our team, end quote. Now, there are a lot of ways you can go with this. Is this most improved player from, you know, the middle of the season to now? Is it from the end of the season to right now, where it's only been a few weeks is it from when last season started to where we are now at this point after the season that's probably how I would kind of take that which um I mean it's it's you know it's it's one thing to look at and say oh Kevin McCuller went from like a 11 point per game guy to like a 19 point per game guy but that was last offseason when technically he would have made that improvement right so if he's the most improved player on the team I guess hypothetically is what you're saying um I mean you got to be talking about somebody who could possibly be a rotation player right and

Starting point is 00:02:55 um he said that Clements's confidence is at an all-time high right now and I think that is something that's kind of important because you you've seen if you go look back at the numbers like the idea of Zach Clements is a stretch five who can shoot but he's only shot like 25 percent from three he's only shot like I think it's like around 50 it might even be below 50 percent on free throws in his career uh you go back to his senior year in high school when he was on the same team as like Grady Dick and you're shooting like 40 percent from three and I know high school line a little bit different high school when he was on the same team as like Grady Dick and you shooting like 40% from three. And I know high school line a little bit different high school game certainly different but like it doesn't just completely go out the window. So what led to the lack of shooting? Was it a lack of confidence? I don't know. But what does this all mean? Because you do have to kind of decipher

Starting point is 00:03:37 some of this stuff. Sometimes coaches will say something to motivate a team or a player in the media when maybe they don't fully mean it. Sometimes a coach could be saying something to motivate a team or a player in the media when maybe they don't fully mean it. Sometimes a coach could be saying something to try to, I don't know, bolster maybe a player coming back, right? Like maybe this is Bill Self saying, hey, you know, we want Zach Clements to come back. And even if we don't know how much he's going to play, because we could have Hunter Dickinson back and we have Floyd Badunga coming in and KJ might even get some minutes at five. We don't know for sure Zach is going to be a part of the everyday rotation, but we want to have him back because we want to have the opportunity for him to try.

Starting point is 00:04:14 I mean, we're not that far removed from a year and a half ago when we were in the offseason and it felt like Zach Clements was going to be the starting center for KU, you know, and you want to get him to come back. So is there a little bit of that? But could it be that and could it be center for KU, you know, and you want to get him to come back. So is there a little bit of that? But could it be that? And could it be truthful for KU? But either way, I think it shows this because we do know in today's day and age of college basketball that coaches will show players the door if they don't want them back.

Starting point is 00:04:37 They'll say, hey, listen, you're going to be buried on the depth chart. You're not going to play. You're better off transferring. And a lot of times the player will say, OK, that's a good point. I'm going to transfer somewhere else and I'm going to get more playing time. Bill Self wouldn't have made those comments if he was trying to show Zach Clements the door. In fact, this speaks to kind of the opposite there. So, you know, it's not that crazy at all that you're talking about a player in Zach Clements here

Starting point is 00:05:00 that it was a, this past year while he he was red shirting a third year player, who was a former top 50 recruit, top 40 ish recruit in the country. And now he's breaking out in year three, like that happens all of the time. So, you know, even though it was a mixed bag for Zach Clements in year one and year two, why couldn't that be the case? Right. So, I mean, and now you're talking about going into year four yes why can't he be some sort of an impact player and what does that improved zach clements exactly look like is it a zach clements where he's he's now making shots right because again the idea of him was to be the stretch five but you weren't seeing the results of it is it just the results are now

Starting point is 00:05:40 coming with what the idea is there is it that he is an improved player on the block? Is it he does have an improved postgame, that he does have an improved ability to get rebounds and play defense, right? Is it that his improvement is that maybe he has a little more mobility and you could hypothetically play him as a four? I don't think that's a great idea, but I think there's some fun lineups you could do with KJ Adams and Zach Clements where offensively KJ is the five Zach Clements is the four.

Starting point is 00:06:10 And then defensively you basically have Zach Clements at the five and KJ at the four. So what does the improved version look like? Well, if Hunter Dickinson's back, like there is going to be kind of a ceiling there because like I said, I don't think you can really play him at the four. I mean, we saw KU get beat up with Hunter Dickinson at the five on ball screens. Now imagine having a 6'10", not super nimble center type playing the four. You're going to get killed on ball screens.

Starting point is 00:06:33 So to me, he is a backup center. But could he be better than what you had last year with Parker Brown? Yeah, probably. I think there's a good chance that would be the case. Is there a chance he could just beat out Florida Badunga with more experience in the system? Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and Bill's love system and, you know, be kind of the backup five. No, that's not crazy at all. Right. Again, he was a former, you know, top 40 recruit. So, uh, yeah, I mean, you're talking about somebody who definitely could be a part of the rotation next year. If, if all this stuff is true that, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:59 he's the most improved player on the team and everything like that for KU. Then with El Marco Jackson, um, there were some other interesting comments from Bill Self. And he said, quote, you wouldn't want to bet against this kid at all in year two. Now, again, that one's a little bit more vague than the Zach Clements one, less definitive about this one thing. But still, it shows you very much that they're buying into a Marco Jackson taking that jump in year two. And again, Bill Self probably would like to have players back and like to have that option. You don't want players transferring away,

Starting point is 00:07:34 at least until you maybe bring on another player. But Self's trying to probably make sure he comes back. But again, the same thing as Zach Clements. It could be true while also being he wants sure he comes back. But again, the same thing as Zach Clements, like it could be true while also being, he wants him to come back. And I don't think it's crazy at all to say that Marco Jackson, a McDonald's All-American who started playing organized basketball three years before he came to KU at a position of point guard, especially in a Bill Self system where it is very demanding, but at a position where a lot of times it takes guys a lot longer to get going. Look back at the track record of point guards who reclassified and came into college a year early.

Starting point is 00:08:22 Elliot Cadeau for North Carolina this past year actually had a really good year. Prior to that, the list of point guards who basically joined a year early did not have a lot of success in year one. And I know that didn't happen with El Marco, but I think it speaks to the idea that experience matters more at the point guard position than it does at those other positions. So why can't El Marco, with really good athleticism and who actually had arguably the best mid-range game, if you look at some of the stats on the team for Kansas,

Starting point is 00:08:46 why can't that work out a few more feet and he become a more consistent three-point shooter? And he used the athleticism to be a better driver and score more consistently at the rim. And he ranked in like the 90-something percentile on synergy and defense. So I think the potential is there that, yeah, I have continued to say that Bill Self does better

Starting point is 00:09:04 with players returning in his program. I think that'd be great., yeah, I have continued to say that Bill Self does better with players returning in his program. I think that'd be great. What would that role look like for a Marco Jackson? Well, that's where things get a little stickier here, because you're talking about DeJuan Harris. He's going to play a big chunk of minutes at the point guard position. Zeke Mayo is going to get minutes,

Starting point is 00:09:16 whether it's as a starter or kind of that six man type was coming in, firing off the bench as kind of a point guard, two guard type. Riley Kugel is going to play some two, play some three. He's going to probably get a good chunk of minutes there, right? Then you're talking about, okay, well, what happens with LeBaron Filon coming into the program? What happens with Elmarco Jackson coming into the program? I think the more and more this goes, the more you start to wonder

Starting point is 00:09:39 is Kansas going to play a lot of kind of three-guard lineups, and that's going to allow them to play more of these ball handler types bigger minutes over the course of the season but you know it very well could come down to whoever wins that competition between el marco and lebaron filon for who's going to be like getting true rotation minutes versus who's kind of getting spot minutes and i think that becomes very interesting and also becomes interesting in terms of if Kansas brings on another transfer guard does El Marco say okay I'm cool staying now but if you bring on another transfer guard I'm out of here at that point right like kind of what happened with like Ernest Uday and Zuby Ejifer where they're like yeah we're sticking through and everything and then all of a sudden Hunter Dickinson comes and they're like oh but now we're

Starting point is 00:10:20 reacting to this and we're leaving I don't know the answer to that but point being I do think Bill Self is right like I don't know the answer to that. But point being, I do think Bill Self is right. I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't necessarily say that it's guaranteed to happen in year two, but I do think at some point in El Marco Jackson's career, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he broke out and became like an all-conference, all-American type of player. That's how high I still think the ceiling is,

Starting point is 00:10:37 even though objectively year one was not really a success, to say the least, for Kansas. All right. How these comments kind of impact the offseason choices for KU and other bits of note from the banquet for KU on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small businesses, you want to find quality professionals that are right for their role.

Starting point is 00:11:06 That's why you have to check by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small businesses, you want to find quality professionals that are right for their role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn isn't just another job board. They help you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but you know, might be open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. Hire professionals like a professional on LinkedIn. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege.

Starting point is 00:11:44 That is linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. That is linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. So how do these comments impact the offseason here for KU? Well, certainly if you're viewing it as a standpoint of how much were they going to be able to go out there and kind of shop on the transfer portal and in the offseason, you're kind of limited in what you can do scholarship wise, because as we know right now, you have basically when you look at the three freshmen come into the program, the two transfers, Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel coming into the program.

Starting point is 00:12:22 And then the other players that you said, so five with the new coming players. You're talking about DeJuan Harris, KJ Adams, who we've already heard from, right? So that brings you up to seven at that point in time. Still waiting on decisions from Hunter Dickinson and Johnny Furphy, but hypothetically, you might have to account for those. So that would bring you up to possibly nine scholarship players. Then you are talking about Jamari McDowell. Again, you still have to kind of hear from him. And certainly interesting that we didn't have any

Starting point is 00:12:49 of those definitive comments. I don't know, maybe there were some that went through the cracks publicly with Jamari McDowell. But anyway, so there's that. So that would be 10. And then Elmarco Jackson and Zach Clements would give you 11 and 12. And so Kansas still has to burn away one scholarship from the NCAA sanctions over the next two years. They can do it this year. They can do it next year, right? They can kind of pick and choose what they want to do. So that does give you a little bit more flexibility here in terms of how you want to handle this offseason. But point being, if everybody comes back who can come back, Hunter Dickinson, Johnny Furfee, guys who could possibly transfer, then you're talking about Kansas only at this point having zero scholarships left unless they want to use 13 this year

Starting point is 00:13:31 and then only use 12 the next year, and to where then they would only have one scholarship left to go out and make some moves. And that becomes interesting because the comments from Bill Self about Zach Clements, about Marco Jackson, lean toward him basically saying, yeah, we want them to stay. And we think they could have a role on this team. And we do think that they're going to be taking even bigger steps up next season. Okay, well, if that's the case, then that's any less scholarships that you could possibly have to work with to add other players in the transfer portal. And with this stage, like, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:06 there's going to be more good transfer portal players who enter, you know, right before the deadline happens. And then when the NBA draft stuff is coming out, like there's going to be more, you know, who decided to come back to school and then enter the transfer portal, right? There's going to be some other good late minute additions. Like, are you almost better off playing a patient game and waiting it out? Because right now you do have less to kind of fill at this point. So I don't know what the

Starting point is 00:14:28 answer to that is, but I do find it very interesting that that would kind of be the case. Now, maybe it comes down to this with Bill Self. Maybe it comes down to the idea that, you know, they're going to fill up 12 scholarships, not accounting for Johnny Furphy, and they're going to view it as if Furphy goes pro, we'll play with the 12 scholarship guys we have. If Furphy comes back, we'll play with 13 this year, and then we'll play with 12 the next year after that. I don't know if that would be the actual plan, but that would be something that would probably make sense to me. Then again, you could also work it to where you had 11 scholarship players and accounted for Furphy as the 12th, and then if he goes, you could

Starting point is 00:15:03 basically say, hey, we're going to try to add someone late in the portal. I don't know. A lot of different things you could do. But Billsuff did say at the banquet that they'd be looking to add three to four transfers. Now, I would assume that that is in total, including Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel, which that would also make sense, right? Because if you're counting those two to the three to four, that would mean you're looking to add one to two more. Okay. So you're adding one more with the open scholarship you have, which would get you to 13. And then you would just play with 12 the following season. And then the slashy where he says three to four, which again would be one to two left, where you'd be saying, okay, why not be definitive about it? Why not say two? Why not say one?

Starting point is 00:15:44 That slashy would be based on Johnny Furphy. Johnny Furphy comes back. It'll be three. Johnny Furphy leaves. It'll be four, right? So I think some of those numbers kind of add up and make sense. I also think it probably tells you no need to add another center at this point in time with the comments positive about Zach Clements, you know, assuming Hunter Dickinson comes back, which I don't know. I feel like that's, that's where most people are assuming at this point, but it's, I guess, not a certainty. So you never really know,, assuming Hunter Dickinson comes back, which I don't know. I feel like that's where most people are assuming at this point, but it's, I guess, not a certainty, so you never really know. But if Hunter Dickinson decides to come back, you feel pretty good at the center position, right?

Starting point is 00:16:13 Hunter's going to eat up a majority of the minutes there as a starter, and then your backups, you can throw K.J. Adams out there if you want to play with him as a small ball five. You can use your five-star McDonald's All-American, Floyd Bedunga, and you have Zach Clemens, who apparently was the most improved player from last year. You should feel great about your center rotation from right at that, so you shouldn't really need to add anybody else. There's enough bodies there, and there's enough capable bodies there that you shouldn't have to worry about it. And I also think this basically would make for the impact that, yeah, it's going

Starting point is 00:16:41 to be a lot of three-guard lineups for KU incoming because as I kind of talked about with DeJuan Harris, Riley Kugel, Zeke Mayo, you know, Elmarco Jackson, possibly LeBaron Phylon, possibly if you add another player in the transfer portal, there's a lot of guards who can play the one or the two for Kansas who are going to be looking for minutes. And if you're looking to get your best players on the court, you know, maybe Kansas is going to play a lot of three-guard lineups. So I don't think that's the worst thing in the world.

Starting point is 00:17:03 We saw Kansas do that a lot in a lot of good Bill Self years, especially in his earlier days at Kansas. You think back to the 08 team, right, where you're playing Mario Chalmers and Russell Robinson and Sharron Collins. And, you know, you're basically playing two of those guys on the court at all times. And, you know, every so often, maybe you throw a third out there and, you know, it's just something that I think allows for a lot of quickness, athleticism, and things that Kansas can do. And, like, look at Houston, for instance, this year, right? Houston played three small guards next to each other,

Starting point is 00:17:34 and they made it work in a really fun, really real way for them. So other bits of note from the banquet for KU, we'll finish up with that on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. It's playoff time in the NBA and the NHL. Baseball's in full swing, and FanDuel is your new place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $150 win or lose. You can bet on everything from slap shots to home runs to slam dunks, all on an app that is safe, secure, and easy to use.

Starting point is 00:18:13 NHL playoffs are always so incredibly fun. So you can get in on that. NBA playoffs, it's fun to, you can build a player prop with the stars and, you know, 25-plus points for Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic. And I don't know, just go all European, I guess. Giannis Antetokounmpo. And just have fun with it, right? So you can do that at FanDuel. What are you waiting for? Visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn and make your first bet

Starting point is 00:18:37 on an automatic win. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook and official sportsbook partner of the LockedOn Network. Some other interesting comments from Bill Self at the banquet. They gave the, I guess this isn't really a comment, they gave the Mr. Jayhawk Award to KJ Adams. And I find that very interesting. Not that it's like surprising or anything,

Starting point is 00:18:58 because KJ does seem to kind of embody in a lot of ways what you want from a team, just in general. Like a guy who, no matter what you're going to ask him, year one, you're asking of him to maybe not even play over the course of the game and then come in in the last minute of the game after you haven't played for the first 39 and defend your tail off, and he did it. And then in year two, you're talking about a guy who, okay, we don't really like what we have here at the center position.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Hey, could you play center? I know you're only 6'7". Can you make that work? And he made it work as best as he could. And then this year, you're moving positions again. You're going back to the four. You're trying to play with another big man in Hunter Dickinson and trying to adjust on the fly. It's never really a perfect fit because you don't have the shooting around KJ

Starting point is 00:19:41 and Hunter Dickinson to maximize playing those two together necessarily. And you still kind of just do what needs to be done and whatever is asked of you in a real way. And of course, KJ Adams isn't a perfect basketball player, but it's like it's max effort. It's the hustle plays. It's the plays that get the crowd going. It's the fist pumps. It's the care level. He just cares. And that's why I'm never going to have a problem with, with KJ Adams. And he's honestly,

Starting point is 00:20:12 they probably my favorite player to watch on the team in a really real way. And I know it's not the perfect fit. And I've talked about this a lot that playing KJ next to Hunter Dickinson is not the perfect fit. And in an ideal world, maybe you'd only have one of the two, but KJ Adams is the embodiment of, I think, what you're looking for here. And that's a guy that I think is well-deserving of this award and some of the stuff he had to deal with off the court.

Starting point is 00:20:36 But I think the summation of all this is think about how highly Bill Self thinks of KJ Adams, right? So all these conversations you might have, whether it's on social media or message board or whatever, about what is Kansas going to do next season with KJ Adams? And yeah, maybe KJ will be fine only playing 15 minutes per game next season, you know, and they can get these other, that's not going to happen. Bill Self trusts KJ Adams. The guys he trusts get playing time. Now, I do think it actually is a real conversation for KJ not necessarily to be a starter.

Starting point is 00:21:10 I think if you were asking me right now, I'd probably lean to the idea that Bill Self, how often do you see a guy not start the next year after he starts? And on top of that, you're talking about the guy who won the Mr. Jayhawk. And again, it goes back to that trust conversation. So if I was making a guess, I'd still put KJ Adams in the starting lineup. And I'd have him be, you know, playing 25 ish minutes per game, something like that. But do I think there is going to be, you know, could he average less minutes per game than last year? Yes, I absolutely think so. Because I think the team

Starting point is 00:21:39 will be deeper. Could he play a little less to less basketball instead of it being, you know, 35 minutes of too big basketball this season, this past season? Could it be 20 minutes, 15 minutes of too big basketball next season? Yeah, that could definitely happen here. So I can see the minutes going down. Like, could he come off the bench? Yeah, I do think that is something that probably is a conversation based on what happens in the offseason, what KU adds, how everything fits together. But is KJ Adams not going to be a giant part of the rotation is kj adams not going to be playing 20 plus minutes per game 22 25 plus minutes per game no i don't think those are the answers

Starting point is 00:22:14 to that and uh proof kind of in the pudding there in terms of the trust level with bill self which always is kind of number one on the uh important factors there the other part was uh this is just kind of a big quote that bill self said our shortcomings this year will be addressed and we'll be as good as we've ever been in the very, very near future. That feels very similar to, in a different way, the end of the USC loss,

Starting point is 00:22:37 where he talked about needing to overhaul the athleticism and stuff. And they didn't totally overhaul the athleticism. Like you brought back four or five starters, kind of the one big addition he made remy martin like he was very athletic because i think when bill soft talks about that part of it it's just like quickness and speed and he did add that but the rest of the team was was pretty much the same um but like you know when he's making declarative statements like that like obviously it is something that that he is putting emphasis on and I think we'll get Kansas fans very

Starting point is 00:23:06 excited. All right. That'll do it for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. We're going to be back tomorrow for a Ryland Griffin deep dive. He's a transfer from Alabama. That certainly would be a nice addition for KU as a sharpshooter. We'll have plenty more episodes this week on locked on Jayhawks. Make sure you're subscribed anywhere.

Starting point is 00:23:21 Your podcast, including on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Improved Zach Clemence & Elmarko Jackson Affect Kansas Jayhawks Basketball's Offseason

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.