Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - INJUNCTION QUEST: Kansas Jayhawks Chase Melvin Council Jr. Return—Will NCAA APPROVE Comeback?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Can Kansas squeeze in this tight timeline to get Melvin counsel back for another year? Does it make sense for Kansas? Hopped on with Isaac Shade of Locked on College basketball earlier. Break it all down. Here was that conversation. You are locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:29 All the rules are broken in college basketball and we don't know who's eligible when or where or why, but come. on five and five please help us get this figured out most recently that means that melvin council junior who had his waiver request denied all of a sudden he might be back in lawrence kansas i don't know what to make of this i'm confused i need somebody to help me and thankfully derrick johnson from locked on jhocks is here to make some sense out of this mud dj great to be together buddy help me understand what's going on i mean i hope i can help because i'm honestly a little confused myself. The interesting thing about counsel is that, you know, he doesn't even fit into the

Starting point is 00:01:10 five and five ruling. So like this isn't a situation because he played two years of Juko and then he played one year at Wagner, one year at St. Bonaventure, one year at Kansas. So, you know, by the, by the actual five and five rules, he can't sue to be like it should be retroactive. He's suing under the guise of and basically now it just comes down to can Kansas find the right, I don't know, court or judge to make this thing happen to get an injunction that we've seen so many other schools use to basically say, hey, it was already basically, the reason Melvin Council even had last year to begin with is because one of his juco years did not count. It was the Diego Pavia, not ruling, but I guess that kind of opened the door for some of these other juco guys.

Starting point is 00:01:56 And now you're seeing some other players saying, hey, if Diego Pavia and the other players, that one year of juco didn't count, why should any years of our juco count? Like, why should they get special treatment for their juco years? And I don't know, I think there is a little bit of fairness there of like, if we're just going to do the thing where the juco year doesn't count, then why should any of the juco years count? What makes that one special as opposed to the other? So that's kind of what it just comes down to.

Starting point is 00:02:25 Are they going to be able to get this done in the next, you know, month before classes start? I don't know. I'm a little skeptical. But it at least opens the door again. again after the waiver was initially denied. And because that makes so much sense, too, with what you said about like, yeah, because it doesn't even work for five and five because it's not that he played four

Starting point is 00:02:43 years and he's done. He's been in some form of college basketball for five years already. And so, yes, if we can basically forget that those Juko years ever happened, then we could understand how you might see something go down here. Derek, let's live in this hypothetical world where, Melvin Council is part of the 2627 Kansas Jayhawks, which is crazy to think about, but okay, let's do it. What does that mean for Bill Self's Club?

Starting point is 00:03:13 And I ask that both because I think there would be some positives and some potential negatives. What does it mean on both sides of that coin? Yeah, so I mean, just from a roster standpoint, they have two open spots right now. They do have a commit from Mahalo Musich overseas, but until that gets eligible, I'm kind of counting it as an opening.

Starting point is 00:03:31 it would fill one of those spots. There's some talk of could they get Javon Bardwell to reclass a five-star who's committed in 27. I think if they add counsel, that would be kind of no longer a discussion. And then when you look at the roster, you have a couple point guards on there with Talen Kinney and Leroyden, who comes over from Toledo. And I'm high on Blyden's game and what he can bring to the table. But that is a big adjustment going from the Mac to the Big 12. and is he going to be better as kind of a off ball guard that can occasionally be on the ball. With Talen Kinney, he comes in as a five-star recruit, I guess, kind of dependent where you look, as a point guard.

Starting point is 00:04:10 And, you know, it's interesting because counsel is very different and brings a very different skill set than those guys. When you look at Blyden, he is a really good three-point shooter offensive piece. Had good steel numbers, but because he's smaller, he gets targeted on the defensive end of the floor. When you look at Tailen Kinney, he is a really good pass. He shot it well at previous stops. And he's somebody who maybe isn't the most athletic point guard in the world. Well, when you look at counsel, he's a really fast athletic point guard. He's not as good of a shooter as Kinney or as Blighton are.

Starting point is 00:04:43 But he is somebody that can get downhill. He is somebody who is a leader. He is somebody who low turnover numbers. And so I do think it is actually a good fit with playing like counsel next to one of Blyden or Kinney. because you have the defensive guy with counsel and you have the offensive guy with one of the other ones. And I think that can be helpful. And for a Kansas team that doesn't have any other ball handlers besides those two,

Starting point is 00:05:09 that is a good thing to potentially bring on Melvin counsel. And it would be an experienced player, it would be an upperclassman in a room that is pretty young. I mean, there were some rumors going around that basically playing backup point card behind Blyden. And Kinney right now is Dennis Parker Jr. who is not a point guard at all. I think he was in the fourth percentile in assist to turnover ratio a season ago. So like that shows you that they could use another ball handler, right?

Starting point is 00:05:36 The question becomes if counsel is coming back, I've seen some people being like, oh, I'd love to have Melvin counsel back. If he could be their sixth man. If he's coming back, he's not KU's six man. Bill Self is going to start him. He's going to play, you know, 28, 30, 32 minutes per game. The question then becomes who goes to the bench, right?

Starting point is 00:05:56 Is it an easier, sell for Leroyd-Blyden to go to the bench, I think it is because he's the transfer up from Toledo. Can you convince him to be the sixth man? Whereas with Talen Kinney, when you recruited him, and he's made public comments about this, the idea that like he was told he's going to get the keys to the car when he comes to Kansas, basically, right? And so you end up in a difficult situation where it's like, well, what if Leroyden is better than Tailen Kinney? But do you just have to start Tailen Kinney in name, even if they end up playing the same amount of minutes? That would be one possible negative of this is the what is the kind of immediate i don't i don't know like walker room

Starting point is 00:06:32 reaction to that sort of thing yeah yeah and then the other one is kind of the shooting i i do think they are they are better equipped this year to deal with the shooting or the lack of shooting from melvin council at times around them than they were last season last season you had darren peterson tray white shot really well from three but it was basically like the corner from three they didn't really have a ton of other consistent three point threats this year's team i think has enough who are at least average to better three-point shooters that they can make it work. And like I like what you said there about the potential downside is what does that mean about who goes to the bench? And the other one that comes to my mind is what does it mean for who goes farther down the bench than they already were, right?

Starting point is 00:07:14 To going from like 15 minutes a game to three to five. Like that's in maybe even tougher pill to swallow in some regard is I thought I was going to have a legitimate top. eight rotational role on this team and now I'm not even in the picture really. So to your point about calling it, how did you phrase it like a locker room situation? Yeah. Like yeah. And I don't mean it from and I know you, you took it the same way I did. But like Melvin counsel was loved by all the other players by fans and everybody last year.

Starting point is 00:07:47 Not from that standpoint. But yeah, like how does like you said like right now, I don't know, is Cole Rosario or is Dennis Parker Jr. you're one of them could be the eighth man right now for kansas and to your point especially for bill self who usually plays a pretty tight rotation if all the sudden you're moving one of kinne or blighton to being your sixth man that moves one of those guys down to a ninth man and typically in a bill self rotation it only is going to be an eight man rotation so yeah there's a lot of guys and you know even even some of the young players who might be thinking like if you're luke barnet

Starting point is 00:08:16 maybe you are kind of the ninth man right now you might be thinking hey maybe i have a chance to crack into some minutes well that opportunity goes down a little bit if you're you bring in Melvin counsel. But, you know, I keep coming back to this like KU is a blue blood. And at this point in time, like college sports are a professional type of sport. And, you know, you try to get the roster as good as you can. And these guys are getting paid. That's kind of just the truth of how things are now. That's right. And it's not like you've got moves afforded to like, if you're one of those guys that are 9, 10, 11, you're stuck. You can't suddenly be like, well, I guess I'm out of a train. I mean, you could, but you're not going to play immediately. And that's

Starting point is 00:08:53 the reality of it. So chips on the table, the dust settles. Derek, let me ask you two very different questions here. If you were Bill Self and you could have like let's say this does get done and it does get approved, would you want him, Melvin Council, or is it too complicated? So that's the, could you, would you? But then I want to know from you as well, when the dust settles, what do you think actually will happen? So I'm all in on this. I mean, I loved watching Melvin Council. and some of the concerns about the shooting, the low field goal percentage, there's been some good numbers that have gone around here. And one of them was he took the most shots on the team last year when there was five or less seconds on the shot clock.

Starting point is 00:09:36 He took 39 of them. Second on KU was 15. If you look at the zero to 10 second range, he took like 140. Second on the team was like 70. So really there were not a lot of guys on KU who were comfortable taking the shot when the shot clock was one. knee down. And that really tanked Melvin Council's field goal percentage. He only shot 28% in those final five seconds. He only shot 31% in the final 10 seconds of the shot clock. So I think being on a team where I think you'd have more guys that could do that, whether it's Leroyd-Blyden or whether it's

Starting point is 00:10:08 Tyron Stokes or Keanu Dawes, to where that would help some of his efficiency, at least a little bit, kind of boost up. I would like the ability to bring defense to the back court. I would like the ability to bring his speed and relentlessness. And I do think he is a good fit at least on the court with those other guys. And it would just put less pressure on some of those young guys coming in. At the end of the day, like, give me as much talent as possible here and kind of figured out. So I'd be all in on doing this.

Starting point is 00:10:35 Now, do I think it's going to happen? I don't know. I'm kind of on the skeptical side that this ends up actually happening because we are like a month away from classes starting. It feels like this news is coming a little later than you would want. with, you know, trying to get into this thing. It feels like there's just a lot of hurdles for him. Like I said, it's not the normal eligibility case.

Starting point is 00:10:58 It's not like he fits into the five and five thing that's kind of going around and working right now. So I'm skeptical that it'll end up happening, but I'd be all about it if it could. I love it. Derek Johnson, you're the best, man. As always, really appreciate your insight and wisdom on all of this. Excited to chat more as we get into the lead up into the season. And as you said, school's about a month away from now.

Starting point is 00:11:20 And then it's basically go time. I cannot wait. Everybody, please make sure you go check out Locked on Jayhawks and Derek's great work everywhere. You can find you. You can follow them on Twitter at at Jayhawks. And it's what, D. Johnson Radio 35. At D. Johnson Radio. Don't even have to worry about the numbers anymore.

Starting point is 00:11:39 I have no clue where those numbers came from in my head. I was a big Kevin Durant fan growing up. So maybe that's why. You know, I was just reading. I was osmosing that out of you or something like that. All right, DJ, appreciate your brother. We'll talk again soon. Ah, see you, Isaac.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Thank you.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - INJUNCTION QUEST: Kansas Jayhawks Chase Melvin Council Jr. Return—Will NCAA APPROVE Comeback?

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