Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target: Dai Dai Ames Can Score - Could Kansas Add a Former K-State Wildcat?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sounds like KU has some interest in a former Kansas state wildcat. Does it make sense with Day Day, Day, Ames? 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 on today's episode, bonus show with Day Day Day Ames, the subject of our portal deep dive, sounds like,

Starting point is 00:00:34 Kansas kind of interested. Are they the front runner? Where are things at? And does he make sense for KU? We'll get in all that on today's episode of the show. Let's start right there because there has been some talk of interest to what extent, not totally sure, but it seems like KU is at least intrigued here. And, you know, Dylan Edwards joining the KU football team.

Starting point is 00:00:53 I guess the dam has been broken that, you know, we can transfer among rivals now, right? I guess Parker Brown technically opened that up with Kansas, Missouri. But it does sound like right now, Tennessee. might be viewed as the front runner for Ames, but those things can switch on a dime pretty quickly. And you know, you had another 100,000 on offer. Who knows what happens, right? But he's a 6'2-190 pound guard who's going to be a true senior

Starting point is 00:01:18 in the 2026 to 2027 season. He is a Chicago kid, which, you know, it feels like we haven't had that in a while. I don't know. I'm sure I'm blanking on somebody. And there's somebody in the last like two years that's from Chicago that I just can't think of. But like for the longest time, that was like a recruiting hub for Bill

Starting point is 00:01:34 self, like some of his favorite players and some really good players came from Chicago. It doesn't feel like that's been a thing as much as of late. But anyway, he goes to Kansas State out of high school. He plays 31 games, makes 16 starts, averages a little over five points per game. He had kind of an up and down first year with K State. He only shoots 35% from the floor. Did shoot pretty well from three, which was mostly his main role, 32%, which is okay for a freshman. And yes, he did play well in the two games against Kansas.

Starting point is 00:02:02 He averaged eight points per game above his season average. average on three of five from three in the two months. He transfers to Virginia for his sophomore season where he goes for 8.7 points, about two assists per game, strong shooting splits with the Cavaliers, 46% from the floor, 40% from three point range, 83% at the foul line. Now that Virginia team was not very good. Case A team he played on, I think he made it to the NIT. This year, he goes to Cal. He trades coasts of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And you wouldn't think, oh, Cal has been like really bad in recent years. He got him to 22 wins. That actually is pretty impressive what he helped them do this year. 17 points per game, 2.2 assists per game.

Starting point is 00:02:46 He shot 46% from the floor, 38% from three with over four tries per game, and then 85% at the free throw line. So I mean, you're talking about for his career, somebody who has over 300 career takes from three, over 1,000 career points. He's a career 37% three-point shooter. And those are all things that are intriguing to me, right? He had 12 games this past season, scoring 20 or more points. He had a season high of 31 against Wake Forest in the ACC tournament, also 29 against Georgia Tech, 27 against Florida State. Now, one thing that's not great is during conference play, he only shot 31% from three.

Starting point is 00:03:25 So that number went down against teams who were going to scout you better. But it was good his other seasons in conference play. So I think that was probably just like a weird thing that happened. I think the split that would worry me a little bit more is for his career, he's played 53 games against Ken Palm top 100 opponents. And his two point percentage in those games is about 46%. Like his career average is like 50%. So it is dropping a bit there.

Starting point is 00:03:51 His three point percentage in those 53 top 100 games drops to 33%. And I do wonder if his shorter stature has kind of hurt there against better competition. So there is something to keep an eye on. Those aren't like horrible numbers. They're not as good as the normal ones, right? When you're playing in the Big 12, those are going to be your games every night. So metrically speaking, 91st percentile in RAPM with an 8th percentile or better on both ends of the floor. 72nd percentile on winshares per 40, where he's average or better on both ends.

Starting point is 00:04:23 75th percentile in P.E.R. 58th in wins above replacement player. The on-off rating isn't great. The team at Cal was actually six point. points worse per 100 possessions with him on the floor this year. Notably, almost five points worse per 100 possessions on defense alone. But again, sometimes even these on-off numbers can be fueled into by weird things that happen or if you have a good backup or I don't know, just like one or two bad games that changed that like if you just get blown out and you were on the court, let's say you have like a 40 point loss to Duke and you were on the floor for longer than

Starting point is 00:04:58 people behind you, it's going to look worse, you know. So there are ways that those can get And you look at the year before Virginia, Virginia was six points better per 100 possessions and he was on the floor. Same with Kansas State the year before that. So, you know, overall, if you look at it over the course of his career, on average, the teams are a couple points better per season when he is out on the floor. This is the one I think you can totally understand KU being interested in from a standpoint of like a guard who's quick, Bill Self a lot of times has success with those.

Starting point is 00:05:32 guys. He can make shots. He can hit threes. And those are things that I'm interested in. So it doesn't need to get a lot more complicated than that. But let's try to complicate it, get to his strengths and weaknesses a little bit more next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda. Moving the game forward for those who know the score never tells the whole story. You know, one of my favorite moments of the season was toward the season then when Paul Mbia is just bawling out against Cal Baptist. And it just felt like it came out of nowhere. but the development that he showed to get to that point and start making an impact in the NCAA tournament,

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Starting point is 00:07:20 today with TurboTag. Thanks you for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks Day Day Day Ames. What are strengths and weaknesses? Let's start with the strengths here shooting top quartet of college basketball players in effective field goal percentage, true shooting percentage. He was in the 84th percentile field goal percentage. He had an above average two point percentage for guards. He had a strong three point shooting mark. He's also an excellent free throw shooter, just a good shooter all around the floor. It's also a really strong midrange shooter.

Starting point is 00:07:51 He shot 49% on short midrange and 47% on long midrange. That is really good according to the shot charts. Overall, he rated out in the 92nd percentile and efficient. in the mid-range. And then he also scores well in transition. He rated out in the 96th percentile, though on a little bit lower volume there. But it makes sense because he's got good touch and he is a quick and fast guard. He avoids turnovers at a solid rate too, something that, you know, is kind of nice. Like if he can, I don't know, like that is something we're just having another ball handler out there who can be trusted is certainly a positive, especially if you're trying to be a veteran guard next to

Starting point is 00:08:31 Palin Kinney, right? He also has a strong ability to drive and kick. Doesn't always drive just to score. He was at the 78th percentile this year in terms of in the 97th percentile at Virginia. Both those numbers are good, but elite at Virginia that one year there, which the difference could have just been, you know, more guys made the shot at Virginia and the one year sample size. But just in general has a very good level of speed and quickness that I think plays up to what Bill Self would want and likes from that position and has the most success with at Kansas. Some of the week. though for day to aims he can struggle at the rim and i think this is where the lack of size kind of comes in it's interesting because isaiah johnson is not the biggest guard johnson though has been excellent at the rim and that kind of makes him a unicorn for a smaller guard like him tyler tanner some other guys who were smaller guards who finish well at the rim um with aims that's not as much the case he only shot percent on at the rim field goals according to CBB shot charts and just give you a reference like melvin counsel struggled a bit there this season he was at 53 percent so you're not that far off from that number now to ames credit he does have a strong pull-up game he does have a strong floater game to kind of counter that a little bit but that is something to potentially worry about right uh the other question is what does he do besides score maybe you'd just be bringing him in to be a mercenary and score the basketball but as we know sometimes that doesn't end up being the best situation with Bill Self, right? Because if scoring isn't

Starting point is 00:09:59 all the way there, if you're not shooting at an elite level, what else are you going to do to have Bill Self keep you on the court? And even then, if you are shooting it well, but you're doing these other things poorly, is self going to take you off the court, right? So he's only in the seventh percentile in offensive rebound rate. He's only in the sixth percentile in defensive rebound rate among guards. He is only a slightly above two assists per game. He has a below average rate of getting to the free throw line. He doesn't get steals. He's only in the 13th percent on Hakeem rate, which is a combo of block and steel rate. He's pretty much kind of a one trick pony. He does that one trick very well, which is score the basketball, right? But he's not doing a ton

Starting point is 00:10:38 else to impact things. Here's the other part of that too. As good of a shooter as he's been, he doesn't take, I don't think, enough threes. He was only in the 25th percentile among guards in three point attempt rate. And he was only slightly above average. nationally in three point attempts for 40 minutes. So you have this guy who's main skill would be to be a shooter and a scorer, but throughout his career, he's been a very efficient three point shooter, but he hasn't been one that is launching them at a super high degree of frequency, right? So I think those would be some of my biggest questions.

Starting point is 00:11:10 Do I think overall this is a fit and a take for KU? We'll get to that next. Our episode's 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, sponsored jobs, which helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for, skills, experience, location, so you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's a stat that says it all.

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Starting point is 00:12:24 stuff supercast.com. Okay, so what is the read here on Ames? Because from a scoring perspective from somebody who can create their own shots, somebody who can be efficient, those fit all of things I've been asking for from the guard position for KU. So I think in general, like this is one that I'm very comfortable taking, that if they end up with day to aims, I'll be fine with it. Especially you do need a veteran guard next to Taylin Kinney, the ability to score and be

Starting point is 00:12:49 efficient, like I said, those are nice things to have. I have no issue with making this addition. I don't know that I'd call him a plus defender, but I don't know that I'd call him like a negative defender either, right? I think he's just fine there. The only thing I'll say is this. I do feel like this is one of those things where it's the opportunity cost, right? In a vacuum, even with the lack of other things he does in his game,

Starting point is 00:13:11 because I want the scoring so bad, I'm totally comfortable with making this mistake. But my other thing is, are there better additions to be made out there? And this is, too, where the, you know, the costs, and those sort of things and how you get along. Like, not every player you're going to want is going to want to go to you. Not every player you're going to want is going to have the highest offer to you, right?

Starting point is 00:13:35 Like, there are other things that go into this. So you do have to check the list here. But I just, I look at that point guard and combo guard position right now in the portal. And I see a lot of guys that I'd be really comfortable taken, you know? And so from that perspective, I think he'd be a solid addition. But I would also be left wondering, but could you, you have made an even better edition, if that sort of makes sense. It'd be like a B great edition. Like you got the job done, you got your degree, you passed the test, all those sorts of things.

Starting point is 00:14:05 But you might be wondering in the back of your head, you know, if I would have studied five minutes longer than night before, I could have got an A. I could have been valedictorian or whatever, you know, that's just kind of where I'm out with this. So overall, I think it'd be a fine addition for KU, but I'm also like, what about Terrence Hill Jr.? What about Isaiah Johnson? You know, what about some of these names that are out? out there that are like really good point guard combo guards. I think that's just kind of the opportunity cost question that comes with this. Now, if it's a standpoint of like, we're going to add one of those guards and somebody else

Starting point is 00:14:35 to be our we can sometimes play three guards or have one guy come off the bench, sure. But I don't know that day to Ames is signing up to come off the bench. And who knows, maybe that's part of the conversation too. I feel like wherever he goes, he's going to probably be a starter, though. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. Check out all our player deep dives and latest portal news right. here on LOJ.

Starting point is 00:14:56 See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target: Dai Dai Ames Can Score - Could Kansas Add a Former K-State Wildcat?

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