Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Land Christian Reeves as New Center | How Does Adding 7'2" Center Impact Kansas?

Starting point is 00:00:00 You's got their new 7 foot two center, Christian Reeves from College of Charleston commits to KU. Let's break it down. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Going on Derek Johnson here with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. And on today's episode, we're going to be breaking down Christian Reeves committing to KU. We're getting his potential role, quick scouting report, player comps, and more with the news of Reeves joining Kansas.

Starting point is 00:00:44 Let's just start right there, the news that Christian Reeves, who averaged about 11 points per game this past season for College of Charleston, almost eight rebounds per game, over a block per game. He played 31 games, was playing 21.4 minutes per game. Now, you might be looking at, something like that and thinking, why is Kansas bringing on a center who was at College of Charleston who was only playing 21 minutes per game? Well, it is important to note that Chol Maycott is another good center that they have. I mean, Chol Maycott won the conference's defense player the year. He has earlier today committed to Georgetown. It's like they had two legit power five centers that they were rotating through, you know. But he actually came to College of Charleston, which is interestingly enough coached by Chris Mack.

Starting point is 00:01:34 But he spent two years at Duke. One of them was three games played and then a season long injury. And then you're at Clemson where he serves as a rotational backup in all of those years before coming to College of Charleston. And I think those seasons at the Power 5 schools are giving, I think people hesitations on this one, right? I think you look at some of the stats of what he did at College of Charleston. It can be impressive, but it's like how is this going to translate up? and then you see what he did where he wasn't playing a ton of Duke Clemson. And it gives you a little bit of worries of,

Starting point is 00:02:03 oh, so he wasn't playing at those schools, but now you're expecting him to play a big role on Kansas. And that definitely is a worry. You know, I'm not going to say it's something that you shouldn't worry about at all. Absolutely. It is something that could come up. But I also think it's important to know this. In my head, like I keep thinking about this.

Starting point is 00:02:20 Isn't it possible that he was going to break out as a redshirt junior, that something clicked for him, whether he was at Clemson, whether he's at college of Charleston, whether he was at Yale, wherever he was. You know, like, I've made this comp that like, can he just be Landon Lucas for Kansas? Well, Landon Lucas broke out at Kansas as a redshirt junior. Like, that's when he became the full-time starter for Kansas. So, like, who's to say that if he wouldn't have just stayed at Clemson, he wouldn't have broke out there and break out, could have been different at Clemson than it would have been at College of Charleston?

Starting point is 00:02:52 Like at Clemson, maybe he's playing 15 minutes per game. You know what I mean? But you look at some of the guys he was behind, too, and you can start to make it make a little bit more sense, too. Like at Duke, he had Kyle Filipowski, Mark Mitchell, Ryan Young, who was a veteran, solid big man for them, Derek Lively, all on the team in front of him. Then you go to Clemson. You have Ian Schifflin, who is really good player, Clemson. You had Victor Lakin, who was a starter for Cincinnati, got brought in and had a good. a year for them average like 11, 12.7 rebounds per game. And then you had Chauncey

Starting point is 00:03:29 Wiggins who started 18 games on the season before. Those were all upperclassmen who, again, all three of them started 18 games or more for their school the year before that were in front of him. So like in Clemson team got a five seat, right? So it's not like he was behind just scrubs or anything. And it's not like he didn't do well when you played. I know this is a very small sample size. But like even at Clemson, even if we just look at his numbers at Clemson, 83rd percentile offensive rebound rate, 94th percentile defensive rebound rate, 82nd percentile block rate. So again, very small sample size, and it's not as important

Starting point is 00:04:02 as what he did in the bigger sample size of College of Charleston, but it does show you that there's still at least something there, right? And so 24-7 sports has him ranked at number 171 for transfers. He is unranked at on three. The athletic in Evan Miyakawa, or the athletic he's unranked to. Evan Miakawa has him in the 300s. But this is a move to me that fortifies the center spot while also not breaking the bank. It is clear, KU did not want to break the bank at the center position.

Starting point is 00:04:30 And we can have the argument back and forth of, is that the right move? Or should KU have gone for this guy or that guy? But from a money perspective, if you're going to go into the world of, hey, you want the Mustafa Choms of the world who's picked Michigan or you want one of these big guys, well, then you might not be able to afford the big wing. Like that's just the day. So if you're working on a budget here at center, which I think KU was, I think this is a pretty good addition in the end. So let's get into his deep dive a little bit more. We get into some player comps, projected roles.

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Starting point is 00:05:54 And if you already are somebody who checked it out and are on every day or thank you to you for doing that, you can always go back and rewatch it and get kind of a refresher. So some of this is going to be new information. Some of it's going to be kind of rehashing some of that information in a good way. But when players commit, I have some of these different superlatives that I want to go to. So what is the best skill for Christian Reeves? I think the best skill I look at is his rebounding. I mentioned some of the rebound rates were good and limited time at Clemson. He was even in the first Duke year, which again, that's also a very very.

Starting point is 00:06:24 very limited playing time, but he was in the 100th percentile on offensive rebound rate. I mean, he keeps stacking up good rebound rates, right? At Charleston, he was in the 96th percentile or better at both offensive and defensive rebound rate. This dude was an incredible rebounder this past season. And even if you're like, okay, well, how is he going to translate up to better competition? Like, I think there are fair questions to have about, you know, how does he translate up against bigger teams more often or in the power five? I don't think, I think rebounding is one of those things that you question.

Starting point is 00:06:56 And in fact, I tend to, like, rebounding is one of those things that transfers up levels to me, right? And here's the thing. If we look at just the games that Christian Reeves played against quad one and quad two opponents, he was in the 81st percent dollar better in both rebound rates and in block rate. Like the rebounding to me is going to translate. It absolutely will.

Starting point is 00:07:16 My favorite stat for Christian Reeves is, I posted this out on Twitter, but Christian Reeves is the only player. in the transfer portal that had at least a 14.5% offensive rebound rate, he was at 15.1, a 22.5% defensive rebound rate, he cleared that pretty easily at 24.5. And a 6% block rate, he cleared that pretty easily too at a 7.7 rate. With those three numbers in the transfer portal, Christian Reeves was the only guy. So, like, this is a really good mix of rebounding and rim protection that you're getting here that is cheaper than, you know, paying up for one of the big centers, right? best game of the season for Christian Reeves, 29 points, 18 rebounds. That was against Elon. He also

Starting point is 00:08:00 had a game where he had 18 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks where they beat Campbell by five. And what really stood out to me in that one is they only scored 62 points and he had 18 of them. So that makes it even more impressive. I do think if we get to this next one, biggest question, and this is one that I think applies for when he's playing up in competition. It is the shooting at the rim against, you know, I guess, bigger or more consistent size. Because even though he is 7-2 and that helps him on the glass and on the defensive end, it hasn't always helped him on the offensive end. So you look at the season-long stats and he's shooting like 65% on twos, which is really good.

Starting point is 00:08:39 But if you look at his year at Clemson, which again, smaller sample size, he only shot 50% on twos, right? A little below average for kind of a big man, right? This year, if you look at his quad one and quad two games that he was at Charleston, he only shot 51% on twos. So I think that's kind of my biggest question here is I don't know how much offense I'm expecting, but I don't know that that's like part of the appeal for me anyway. I'm just kind of sitting here going, can you be Landon Lucas? Can you come in and just make a couple like, you know, easy layups or Alley Ups, keep the defense honest, and just rebound the crap out of the basketball, play good defense? And I think that's enough for what you're looking for here.

Starting point is 00:09:21 So that is a real worry and concern. But it's like KU is not going to be throwing Reeves the ball five times a game and being like, yeah, go beat your guy in the post. Like that's not going to happen, right? Now, when you look at his best shot, he's not somebody who has a super diverse shot chart. He's an at the rim guy, shot over 70% on at the room shots. I will say, because he's 71% at the rim. He actually was assisted on a 5% less of his at the rim two is than like four he was. So, you know, it's still within the same zip code.

Starting point is 00:09:51 there, but that tells you that, you know, he can, you know, get his shot at least a little bit more than Flory on the inside, but yeah, not a ton of range in terms of where he's shooting from or anything. His best play style, I found this one interesting. KU was a really good pick and roll team this past season, and a big reason why I was because Flory Badunga, like, it wasn't a great post-up option, but he was a really good pick-and-roll, big man. Well, Christian Reeves isn't Flory in the pick-and-roll, but he is still really good to allow that

Starting point is 00:10:20 option for Kansas. Reeves was in the 81st percentile for efficiency on Biggs cutting and rolling, and he did it on a 90-second percentile of frequency. So he did it a lot. He did it very effectively and that at least keeps the floor high for what KU wants to do in the pick and roll. All right, player comps for Christian Reeves here. So CBB Analytics, their Big 12 player comp, based on his statistic profile from this past season, I found actually very enjoyable. The closest one is Mustafa Chom, who a lot of KU fans have been wanting and everything. And, you know, Chom is a better player than, than Reeves. I'm not trying to like pull somebody's chain on that, but just in terms of like, this is the, that's what this is. This is the, hey, we have

Starting point is 00:11:02 Mustafa Chom at home. You know, it's the cheaper off brand version that you're getting for, for less money to try to save money to, to filter into some other positions on the team. And actually, number two, for the closest statistic profile was Florey. And number three was Mustafa, or not, I'm sorry, Osama Gop, the center from Arizona State, who I think a lot of KU fans would once as well. I think my KU comp on this one would be a blend of Hunter Mickelson and Landed Lucas. Mickelson had more shot blocking than both Lucas and Reeves had. Lucas had a bit more rebounding, I think, then Reeves by a little bit and then Mickelson. And I think this is kind of a blend of the two.

Starting point is 00:11:49 And let's not forget, like, Mickelson started several games for those, some of those like Frank Mason teams. He was, I think, the starter for when they won the gold medal at the World University Games. Landon Lucas was the starter for, you know, the end of the 15, 16th season when they were the best team until they ran into Villanova in the Elite 8 and was the starter on the 1617 team that was another one seed. So, like, as long as you have the talent around it, that can absolutely work. Now, my overall comparison here beyond kind of that one for the KU won were probably Brian Zubak, who was a center for Duke. And again, Reeves started his career at Duke. Actually, won the National Championship as a starter in 2010. He was a 7-1, 260-pound big, kind of similar measurables to Reeves.

Starting point is 00:12:34 And he wasn't really a huge score. He averaged 5.6 points per game on the Duke team that won a title. But he's a great rebounder, almost eight rebounds per game. He was good enough for him protector and defender. He was playing like 19 minutes per game. And he was just a, hey, you have a bunch of good players around me. I'll be a perfect complimentary role player to them. I think that's where you're kind of going for here with Reeves.

Starting point is 00:12:57 Let's get to that projected role, though. Next, this is Lock on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadline stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill is still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for Indeed sponsor jobs, which helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for with the right skills,

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Starting point is 00:14:06 We'll have another episode coming out about, you know, talking about the moneyball approach that KU, it seems like is employing at the center position, looking at the roster overall now and how this move potentially. you know, leads to the ripple effect for the rest of the offseason moves and what they still need for KU. But Kansas is adding Christian Reeves from Charleston, what is the potential role here for Reeves? Well, I think it comes down to this, right? I think you look at Reeves and Paul and Beah and those two guys become the main competitors for the starting center spot. Obviously, Davy on Adkins coming as a freshman, he'll be part of that too. I just don't have the expectations

Starting point is 00:14:43 that he's going to win that job. But hey, if Adkins comes in and, you know, overperforms, what you might think and, you know, lives up to some, some freshman hype. That would be a good thing for Kansas because, you know, that just means you have another quality player that you can add in there. I would not count out Paul Mbia from winning this job. I really wouldn't, right? I do think regardless, though, whether it's Paul Mbia, whether it's Christian Reeves, who wins the job, I think both guys are going to be playing pretty similar minutes, you know.

Starting point is 00:15:09 Maybe the guy who wins out the job is playing 20, 22 minutes per game and the losers playing 15 to 18 per game. But like there's a good chance that like they end up being pretty equal. And one's playing 19 minutes per game and the other's playing 17. You know what I mean? And then you can use, you know, in that scenario where one's playing 19, the other is 17. You either have four minutes you can give to Adkins or you have four minutes where you can play small

Starting point is 00:15:36 where you move Daws to the five and you play more of a kind of race car package on the offensive end of the floor. As far as what he brings at the table and helps with KU, I think he moves up your floor. in terms of a pick and roll offense that you get a little bit of that back that you lost. I think he also gives you a real, like he does improve. Okay, I would put it this way. Between, let's say it is Reeves is your starter next to Dawes.

Starting point is 00:16:02 That is a much better rebounding front court than KU had last season. So if we're looking at it from that perspective, did Kate, like the front court of Florian Tiller is better than the front court of Reeves and Dawes. but the difference is on some nights you were getting nothing from Tiller and I think this one will be more consistent and this one will be a much better rebounding one. Reeves isn't the shot blocker floor he is, but he at least gives you a little bit of some of that that you lost there. And he also gives you more size than you had. I mean, the combination of playing in BN. Reeves at the five is going to give you more like

Starting point is 00:16:42 actual just physical imposing size at the five. We'll see how much that matters, but that is something to kind of look at there. All right. That'll do it for this episode of the show. You can find a podcast anywhere you get your shows, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, wherever. And we'll see you next time for that impact of the Rees edition to the offseason outlook and roster. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Land Christian Reeves as New Center | How Does Adding 7'2" Center Impact Kansas?

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