Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? Can Kansas Afford Tounde Yessoufou and Would He Fit Next to Tyran Stokes???

Starting point is 00:00:01 KU big money donor, stroke the check, go out and get a player like Tuneiasefou to Perra, Tyron Stokes. It'd be a lot of fun. I promise you that. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. How's it going, Derek Johnson here? And on today's episode of the show, we're going to break down two-day yesafu's potential fit with KU, probably a bit of a pipe dream, but we'll get to a scouting reporter. as well and break down some of the basic info on yesafu so kansas obviously adding tyrant

Starting point is 00:00:41 stokes makes it to that tune to a yes food becomes even more of a pipe dream but let's entertain this right because what if a donor gets super pumped up by them adding tyrant stokes and they go you know what last year we had darren peterson still is a second round exit and at the end of the day they get outbid at the end for darian williams and i feel like if they would have had darian williams they would have made the second weekend because they probably get better than a four seed you would have helped them with offense which they clearly needed and maybe they get a two or three seed maybe they make this week 16 maybe they go further who knows right that could have been the difference in in having a deeper run so do you want history to repeat itself or do you want to be in a position where hey this time we gave

Starting point is 00:01:23 bill self his final big time piece right now this would be an expensive one but like i said all it takes is one or two donors coming together and stroke and a check so yes if it was a six foot five 215 pound wing. He'll be a sophomore in the upcoming season. Now, he's currently in the NBA draft process, and it feels like that's probably the favorite for where he goes. UCLA has also established themselves in a good position if he does come back to college. But like I said, donor gets, you know, bored of sitting on their hands. They want to give Bill self one final big piece in case this is his last season. And they sit there and go, you know what, let's just make it happen. Let's buy this guy out of the NBA draft and just, you know, really max this thing out

Starting point is 00:02:07 around Tyron Stokes and Bill Self. But he was a top 15 five-star prospect coming out of high school. He was in that loaded class of 2025. So, you know, that really means something there. Goes to Baylor. Actually breaks their freshman scoring record, which is pretty impressive because they've had some really good freshman one and done come through there recently. It gets all big 12 honorable mention honors. And for the season, he averages 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 2.6 stocks per game on 47% from the floor, 29% from 3, and 75% at the foul line. It's 7 games of 25 or more points, including 37 against BYU, against Kansas, 7 of 17 shooting

Starting point is 00:02:48 on 20 points for the game. I think he was going off from 3 in the first half. I think he had a couple 3s and then cooled off a little bit in the second half. But metrically speaking, above average in offensive RIPM, below average, average in defensive RIPM. He was 85th percentile in windchairs per 40 minutes, 95th percentile in PER, 96th percentile in wins above replacement player.

Starting point is 00:03:11 And the on-off numbers were bad. Baylor was seven and a half points worse per 100 possessions offensively when he was on the floor. They were about one point better. So overall, negative six and a half net rating for him, which was just in the 20th percentile nationally. So that's not great there, right?

Starting point is 00:03:29 But you look at the recruiting ranking, we look at the production 24-7 on three, the athletic and Evan Miyaka. All four of those have him as a top six transfer overall with a high point of three and a low point of six. So, you know, by those metrics, this is clearly one of the better players in the portal and he's probably going to get better from year one to year two. This would obviously be a take no matter what. The big question is financially and could you make it work role one? with everybody else. Would it fit next to Tarynstokes? Let's get into all that.

Starting point is 00:04:04 As we get into a scouting report next, this is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandualt Sportsbook. The NBA playoffs are ongoing, and if you're looking to get even closer to the action, Fanduel has a way to get you started. New customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins.

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Starting point is 00:05:26 He is a powerful athlete. 6'5, 200-whatever pounds, strong. He gets down and he's just one of those guys who you bounce off his chest. I think he uses the combination of the two to score a lot in the paint and transition. That's where you see him probably the most successful. He was in the 82nd percentile in two point percentage and the 84th percentile in layups, according to CBB analytics for guards. So uses the mix of power and athleticism really well on the office bend.

Starting point is 00:05:58 I also think you see him use it on the glass. He rated out really well rebounding. 97th percentile in offensive rebound rate. Now, a little bit of that is the Scott Drew Baylor system. They constantly crash the glass, and that's part of what they want to do. So theoretically, if yes, if who goes to a system like Kansas, that doesn't crash the glass as hard, the offensive rebound rate goes down. But I think in general, he's still a good enough offensive rebounder that it's still going to stay pretty strong, right?

Starting point is 00:06:26 68th percentile as well, so solid on defensive rebound rate. So just a good rebounder from the guard position, which allows you to, even, though he is only 6-5, because of his power, his rebounding, you can play him at the three. Also a good defensive playmaker. I wouldn't say he's a great team defender yet. I think he's still figuring out some of those things, but he at least is making plays. He was in the 91st percentile on steel rate. He was in the 86th percentile in block rate among guards.

Starting point is 00:06:52 So he's going to get you plays. And for Kansas team, they needed more steals last year, he would help with that. Mid-range shooting, another thing for him, 97th percentile in mid-range efficiency on a 95th percentile frequency. So this is somebody who can score in that middle area and hit those mid-range shots for you, which I don't want to be a mid-range heavy team. That wouldn't be the way I'd want to go. But it is important to have players that can do different things because if you get

Starting point is 00:07:17 matched up with a team that is going to make you shoot more mid-range, you want to have an answer to that. And he would help you with that. Some of the weaknesses here for Tune de Yesafu, three-point consistency. Again, just under 30% from three on the season. I will say to his credit, he did shoot 30. 33% from three in Big 12 play. And he did shoot well on mid range and long mid range,

Starting point is 00:07:39 which would make you think that with another year under his belt, like I said, we constantly see guys, I've said this many times, I'll say it again, we see guys get better at shooting as they stay in college basketball. I think there's a real expectation for me that the shooting goes up next year now to what level are we talking?

Starting point is 00:07:56 Are we talking to use a 33% three-point shooter next year? We're talking to he's 37%. Like those are different conversations. But I would at least be viewed. him as like an average three-point shooter for next season. He's also not really a playmaker for others, only 28th percentile in assist rate, not really a great passer. This is also kind of one of the notes that's against him if you read some different

Starting point is 00:08:15 scouting reports of, you know, should he stay in the NBA draft or not? I've actually seen several places mentioned that like he would benefit from having another season back at school, but also this is a weaker draft class and not a ton of guys declared. So you can make that decision. Then again, he'd make a lot of money coming back to school, right? And then the last weakness year is the team did not have a ton of success. I mentioned some of the on-off numbers were not good for him.

Starting point is 00:08:39 They were only 17 and 17 on the season. They finished 50th on Ken Palm. And again, that's not the BL end all. Like Keanu Dawes was on a bad Utah team. And I still think Keanu Dawes is a winning player and a really good player, right? There can be bad players on good teams. There can be winning players on bad teams. There can be losing players on good teams, right?

Starting point is 00:08:57 it's not a blanket approach. But what worries me with this one is that, like if we're diagnosing the team impact, if you had Scott Drew, who's at this point going to be a Hall of Fame coach, and listen, I'm not the biggest Scott Drew guy in the world, but like he won a national championship there. He's made multiple league guys. Like he's probably going to go in the college basketball hall of fame one day. If you have that as your head coach, if you have Cameron Carr,

Starting point is 00:09:25 who's going to be like first round pick in the NBA draft, You have two guards who averaged over 10 points per game. You have Dan Skillings, who has at least been a decent big 12th player. And then you have this dude who's a fringe first, second round pick in the NBA draft, who's putting up big numbers. Why are you not even sniffing the NCAA tournament? Again, that might not be a yesafu thing, but it's just like if you're supposed to be one of the two best players on that team that actually has, I'm not saying that should be one of the 10 best teams in the country, but shouldn't that at least be an NCAA tournament team? And then you do factor in the bad on off numbers.

Starting point is 00:09:56 It is just something to consider. Like I would view him as a really good player for next year, but is it something to consider of when you look at what you're going to have to pay him to come out of the draft and where some of these portal rankings have him, you're going to have to pay him like, we think you can be an All-American next year money. And what if he's more of a third-team all-conference pick money? You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:10:17 Do you feel like you lost out on something there? So what is the fit with KU? Does it make sense if they can afford it financially? We'll get to all that next. Don't forget you can join the Everydayer Club Lockedonjahawks.com. As locked on jahawks.com, you can get the show ad-free, locked on jahawks. com. Okay, so this is one that, you know, I've, you tuned to Yesafu, Milan, Mom Chilvitz.

Starting point is 00:10:43 Like all these guys who are your top available highest rated transfers would have been in the situation that if you did not land Tyron Stokes would have been your pivot to one of those guys, throw the Stokes money there and bring one of these vows. into your team to be the guy, right? Now it becomes a different situation. It becomes a, can you avoid the Darien Williams situation from last year and bring on that level of player to supplement what you have in Tyrant Stokes. And the biggest question with that becomes the money situation. Right now, Kansas would not have the money to be able to make that move. But all it takes is one donor seeing the vision or getting excited about this and writing the check to make that last move, right? And whether it is for a guy like Yesafu or a guy like Mom Chilovich or one of these other players, you know, that's part of it too, right? Like the donor might have an opinion on, yeah,

Starting point is 00:11:34 I'm not a big yesafu fan, but I'm a big fan of this guy. So if you're going to do it for that guy, I'll write you the check. But if it's for this guy, right, that can be part of it, right? That's kind of the thing that Bill Self has to, you know, you're not just recruiting players, you're recruiting donors as well, right? Um, as far as let's say, let's say all these things in line up. Let's say against the odds, Kansas had the money and the opportunity to bring Yesafu back from the NBA. How would it fit on the team next to Tyron Stokes? I think you'd be looking at KU having to play small, which I'm not against, to be clear. I know they've said this before, like college basketball last year, it was giant ball, right?

Starting point is 00:12:14 That doesn't mean it's going to be like that every year. It doesn't mean it's going to be like that forever. Sometimes the best way when everybody tries to replicate the champion is to do something else. because you can find more value in doing something else, right? The good news is, and here's the beauty of it, if you're playing small where you have Stokes at the four and Yes, Ifu at the three and Dawes at the five, that's still an incredible rebounding team. Like, Dawes, incredible defensive rebounder, one of the best in the country.

Starting point is 00:12:43 Stokes is going to be a really good rebounder, no matter if you play them at the three or the four. Yes, if who, like I said, good rebounding guard. So that's the beauty of a lot of times if you're playing small, you're giving up rebounding. Would not be the case. That small ball lineup of yes, food, the three Stokes of the four, Dawes of the five,

Starting point is 00:12:59 is probably a better rebounding lineup, even though they'd be playing small than this past year's Kansas team had. So, yeah, I think it would still work. And then you'd have your two guards. You would have your Blyden, Kinney, or if I guess Rosario were to usurp one of them into the starting lineup,

Starting point is 00:13:13 that'd be your situation. Now, I guess you could say, do you play big if you want to steer into that and say one of Bluyden or Kinney would be coming off the bench, and then you have Yesafu at the two, Stokes at the three, Daws at the four, Reeves, or Mb at the five. Would that have enough shooting though to get by, right? So I guess here's the end of the day.

Starting point is 00:13:33 If KU can figure out the money to add a player like this, I'd prefer a meal on Momchilovich over a tuned day yesafu, but if you can get one more of these level of players, I ain't going to care who you got because that would just lift you from a team that right now is looking like it's going to be trending toward being a top 20, top 15 team, top 12 team. If you can add a piece like this toward trending toward being one of the top, you know, five or seven teams in the country. That's kind of the difference here. So yeah, of course, this should be a take for me.

Starting point is 00:14:05 But do they have the money to do it? That remains to be seen. All right. I don't know for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find a show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. More deep dives coming up. More portal episodes, more KU football episodes. Plenty coming at you.

Starting point is 00:14:19 make sure subscribe to the show.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? Can Kansas Afford Tounde Yessoufou and Would He Fit Next to Tyran Stokes???

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