Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? Jaylen Curry is a QUICK Guard with Strong Passing & Ball-Handling Skills

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks weigh transfer guard options as Jaylen Curry emerges as a potential bench spark. Could the quick, athletic Oklahoma State playmaker give KU’s backcourt the veteran boost it needs for the 2026-27 season? Curry’s strengths—elite assist-to-turnover ratio, transition play, and defensive prowess—offer intriguing depth, but do his shooting struggles raise too many questions? Derek Johnson provides a scouting breakdown of Curry, contrasting his playmaking and speed with the Jayhawks’ current guard rotation. Key topics include Kansas’ need for veteran leadership at the guard spot, how Curry’s Big 12 experience and steal rate fit Bill Self’s system, and whether KU should prioritize shooting or ball-handling off the bench. Don’t miss this detailed analysis of Kansas Basketball’s offseason transfer targets and potential roster moves. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast RugietGet 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhlRugiet. Performance medicine for men. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

KU already kicked the tires on one Oklahoma State guard and Victoria's Miller. Why not take a look at Jalen Curry, who is a quick six-foot-one guard from Oklahoma State? You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked-On podcast network, your team every day. What's going on and on today's bonus episode of the show? We're going to be breaking down Jalen Curry. We'll get to his potential fit with KU, scouting your board. and more. Let's start right here who is Jalen Curley. He Curry. He is a six foot one,

175 pound guard who's going to be a fourth year. He'll be a senior in the 2026 to 2027 season. Haven't seen any report at KU interest at this point in time, but you know, it's pretty clear that KU is still looking for another player to be a bench guard and based on their at least interest in guys like Victoria Miller and Abdi Bashir and Keanu Daz and, you know, Terrence Brown before him, at least showing interest, it is clear that this staff is comfortable working with transfers within the league, kind of you know what you're getting into a little bit more, right? So Curry was a high-ranking three-star prospect out of high school, according to 24-7 sports.

He goes to UMass to play for Frank Martin and immediately starts playing. He averages 7.4 points per game as a freshman. Then year two at UMass, he averages 13. 14.3 points per game with 3.9 assist per game. Really good assist to turnover ratio, nearly a 3 to 1 ratio there. He shot almost 35% from 3 point range, but only 36% from the field that season. So pretty good on 3s, pretty bad on 2s. He then transfers up to the Big 12, goes to Oklahoma State this past season, plays 33 games, seven of which were starts. So, you know, a lot of games off the bench, which you'd be asking him to do if he comes to Kansas. And he wound up

averaging 10.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists per game. A good assist to turnover ratio is like 2 and a half to 1. He also averaged 1.2 steals per game, playing 24 minutes per game. So that's clearly something that he could bring to the table. Ended up shooting much better from the floor still on the lower end, but 42%, and he was at 32% from 3 point range, almost 81% on free throws. Now, he finished the year really rough. Like some of those, season numbers looked a little bit better before the postseason for Oklahoma State. In the NIT, he played two games. He went to combine three of 17 shooting in the two NIT games.

But still, this is just a career 41% two point shooter that is not good. And a career 27% three point shooter, if we're just looking at the 16 career games, he has played against Ken Tom top 50 teams. So why am I looking under this rock, right? because there are high moments, right? He had 14 or more points on eight occasions. He had 11 games with multiple steals, including a season high of five steals against Iowa State. He had eight games where he had a combination of four or more assists and one or less turnovers.

There's a lot of things that he can bring to the table here. And you look at it metrically speaking. You're talking 87th percentile in RAPM with a good balance on the offensive and defensive sides of the court, 66th percentile in windchairs per 40 minutes, 78th percentile in PER, and 73rd percent on-rengthenown wins above replacement players. So good metrics there. The on-off numbers show that Oklahoma State was basically even with or without him,

which I guess if he's coming off the bench, he's coming in for a starter. So, you know, theoretically it's easier to, or I guess it's harder to make an impact on-off numbers when you're coming in for a starter, as opposed to your starter coming in for a bench guy, if that makes sense, because replacement's not going to be as good. But still, when you go back to your UMass, they were about 13 points per 100 possessions better when he was on the.

So overall, he's ranked 213th at on 3, 197th at 247 sports, 168th at Evan Miakawa, and then he's not in the athletics top 100 as far as transfer rankings go. But this is one that I am kind of intrigued by, interested by, because I would love for KU to get another ball handler off the bench. even if you get a wing who can shoot it, I still wouldn't hate having another ball handler off the bench. So let's deep dive a little bit more into Curry's scouting import next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandualsportsbook. The NBA playoffs are here and every possession matters during the postseason.

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and we're going to get on to our scouting port of Jalen Curry here. Let's start here, his strengths. He takes care of the basketball, 91st percentile in turnover rate at UMass, and he was still above average at it when he was at open. Oklahoma State playing up in competition. So if you're looking for an extra ball handler, you can bring in, he provides some security there, and he does it with really good passing feel.

You're talking to 89th percentile assist rate or better the last two seasons at both Oklahoma State and UMass. And you watch some highlights that he can fit some passes into tight windows. He's a very good passer, right? And interestingly enough, at UMass, he didn't have a great attack and kick numbers or and roll passing sats. Sometimes that can just be the guy you're throwing it to isn't very good. But this past year at Oklahoma State, he was actually in the 83rd percentile or better at both attacking and kicking and pick and roll passing.

He's always been an excellent passer, though. He finds cutters again, like on the highlights, I thought he was really good at throwing entry passes in. I thought he was just in general, a really good passer, right? And having that to come off your bench might not be the worst thing in the world. He also was in the 93rd percentile or better the last two seasons. So again, one at UMass, one at Oklahoma State, in assist to turnover ratio. So you're getting playmaking, you're getting passing without the expense of, you know, having turnovers as part of it. He also plays very fast.

They say quick athletic guard. He's fast. He's quick. I really love the speed bursts that he shows on tape. He's able to get out and transition a lot. And I think some of the result of that, he was in the 77th percentile. and adjusted transition points per possession. So he's able to score in transition.

He's able to use his speed to, you know, pass to other players. It also allows him to get to the rim and get to the free throw line, not the best two-point shooter because of the lack of size, but it did at least result in him being in the 79th percentile or better each of the last two seasons in free throw attempts per 40 minutes. Then you look at this too. He was also solid on the defensive glass. So even though he has a smaller guard, he will, you know, make plays there.

He's not just a net zero there. He's a pretty decent rebounder for his size. He also is in the 81st percentile in steel rate. So you look at Kansas last season not being a good enough team at forcing turnovers or getting steals. Curry would help offset that a little bit this year. Weaknesses. I think shooting efficiency is the big one here, right?

33rd percentile and effective field goal percentages a year after he finished in the 17th percentile at it, right? Generally not somebody who's going to take a large diet of jump shots and hasn't shot them super well. Now, he shot close to 35% from three, his final year at UMass. Could you get that more at Kansas and it be okay, right? But the two point shooting is really rough. He was in the 11th percentile among guards in two point shooting, his final year at UMass. He did raise that against bigger and better competition to Oklahoma State, where he was in the 41st percentile in two point shooting at Oklahoma State. So, you know, at least that's getting closer to average. And he was actually

above average. If you just look at layups, it was the mid-range shooting that killed him, both in terms of the amount he was taking and the efficiency there. But yeah, in general, he is a smaller guard. He's listed at 6-1 and honestly watching on film, I don't even know if he's that tall. So like, even though he's a feisty defender and he can get steals, there are going to be times where the other team is able to use that size against him, right? So this is a really interesting player because I want KU to have a scoring guard off the bench. He's more of a passing defense and quickness guard that sets the table for others. So does this make sense?

What would the fit be for KU? We'll get to all that next. Today's episode's brought to you by Indeed. Workplace chaos. Deadline's stacking up. Inbox overflowing. And one position you have to fill is still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire,

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Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire this a job for Indeed, sponsor jobs. You can join the everyday or club, too, where you can get the ad-free version of the show. Just go to locked on jhawks.supercast.com. That is locked on jahawks.com. Okay, so this becomes an interesting one to me because it's like with Curry, I would like to have another ball handler for Kansas, right? I think Stokes will be handling the ball and initiating the offense a lot for Kansas.

Obviously, you have Leroyden and Talen Kinney, but still, it's like with Blyden expecting big things, you don't fully know how it's going to translate up with Taylin Kenny. Again, big expectations. McDonald's All-American, but we've seen freshmen come in with high expectations and struggle before. And so I think it would be a good thing for KU, especially to get a veteran, keep in mind, even Blyden's only a sophomore. Kenny and Stokes will be freshmen.

If those are the main guys handling the ball, it might be good to bring an adult in the room and a veteran who can be a calming presence, right? And I think it would be really smart to do that with Jalen Curry. He would add the team. I think he'd really give KU a quick guard, which, you know, would be a little bit different of a change of pace that you could have with Talon Kinney. He would give you more of a steel element that you're looking for.

He would add to the transition play. He's come off the bench before his first year at UMass and last year at Oklahoma State that I think he'd be fine and comfortable in that role. I'm not sure how much the shooting helps you. But if you totally believe in Col Rosario's shooting and are saying, he's going to be our main shooter off the bench. We just need another guard. Then I think this one makes sense.

The other side of this is if you can find a way to afford one of the wing shooters, you know, a Abdi Bashir, a Dennis Parker Jr., one of those players and Jalen Curry, I would absolutely love that because then you're adding best of both worlds here. So I think in general, if this does come down to, they only have enough budget to afford one of those two things. Just give me the best shooter in general. But in an ideal world, you're getting. both of those out of one player or you're getting both players potentially.

So I certainly wouldn't hurt or I wouldn't hate adding Jalen Curry. Again, I wish the shot was a little bit better. But I think there's a lot of positives you could bring to the table if you're bringing Curry off the bench and what he could bring to KU and kind of help bring along some of the younger guards. 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, we can like and subscribe. Check out all our other deep dives on Parker, on Bashir. We'll have upcoming ones as well. And don't forget check out our regular show as well right here with Locked on Jayhawks.