Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Visit: Can Kansas Jayhawks MAKE Gabe Dynes' Massive 7'5" Frame WORK?

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks eye 7'5" center Gabe Dynes, from USC, as a potential solution to their frontcourt depth crisis. Could Dynes' towering presence and elite rim protection provide the shot-blocking spark KU desperately needs, or will his lack of strength and rebounding pose new problems for Bill Self’s squad? Derek Johnson breaks down Dynes’ strengths and weaknesses, comparing him to Paul Mbiya and Davion Adkins, and analyzing statistics from Youngstown State and USC. Key topics include Dynes' elite efficiency near the basket, his troubling turnover rate, and whether his unique frame can translate into Big 12 success. With Kansas facing uncertainty at the center position, this episode explores if Dynes is merely "insurance" or a legitimate rotation piece. Will the Jayhawks pull the trigger on this high-risk, high-reward prospect as the offseason heats up? 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 FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-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 is a visit scheduled with a 7-foot-5 giant in Gabe Dines. Let's break him down. 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, with another episode of Locked-on Jayhawks, breaking down another transfer portal potential target for KU. This is one who has a visit scheduled this weekend for KU in Gabe Dines. We'll get to his potential fit with KU.

his scouting report and more. But we'll start right here. Dines is a 7 foot 5. Yes, 7 foot 5, 214 pounds center. So he's the weight of like some wings, but he is the height of, you know, as big of a center as there is in the country, I guess,

outside of Oliver Rue from, who's transferred from Florida. But he'll be a senior in 2026 to 2027. And so he's scheduled to visit Kansas on Saturday at the end of a handful of, other school visits right before. But he was an Allstate pick in high school. I find a hard time seeing him not being a Allstate pick in high school with how big he is.

But he goes to Youngstown state out of high school where he was on the all freshman team in the Horizon League. He also made it to the all defensive team that year playing just 13.6 minutes per game because of the defensive impact, two blocks per game in 13.6 minutes, shot 71% from the floor. And then as a sophomore for Youngstown, he once again makes the league's all defensive. team. He gets up to 22 minutes per game in route to 6.8 points, 5.8 rebounds per game, and then the 3.1 blocks per game on 70% shooting from the floor. And that allows him to transfer up to USC with Eric Musselman, where he plays 12 minutes per game over 30 games. He had six starts. He averaged about three points, 2.3 rebounds per game, a block per game on 79%

shooting from the floor. And he was a very important. very matchup dependent big man. There were some games where, you know, if the other team's playing big and you need that extra size, he's going to play a little bit more. Other games where he's going to get space off the floor and not be able to play. So like you go look at his game logs and his box scores, there's games where he has three minutes played. There's games where he has maybe even 20, you know, so it just kind of was dependent game

to game and how he was deployed and used. The metrics here, only 34th percentile in offensive RAPM, but he was in the 95th percentile in defensive RAPM. So really impactful in the defensive end. He was only in the 35th percentile in win shares per 40, only in the 40th percentile in P.E.R. 38th percentile in wins above replacement player. Now that said, if you do go back a year before Youngstown State,

everything was in the 55th percentile or better, which, you know, that can serve as a couple things, is that a warning sign of the jump up in competition of when some of these guys go from low majors to the high majors, what it can do. And that's obviously the center market. KU shopping in in general, is that a little bit scary there? Or do you view it as, hey, this guy just struggled to jump up because he's only 214 pounds at 7 foot 5, where he struggled with the strength?

And maybe that wouldn't be an issue for some of the other guys that you'd be looking at. I don't know. Could it have been a scheme thing? Who knows, right? The on-off numbers are interesting, too, because at Youngstown State, they were 17 points better per 100 possessions with him on the floor. at USC, the Trojans were four points worse per 100 possessions when he was on the floor, right? And I would boil that down to the idea that when you're in the Horizon League, you're not seeing dudes who are seven foot five very often. Whereas if you're playing at USC, you're in the big 10.

Sure, maybe you're not seeing seven five all the time, but you're seeing seven foot. You're seeing seven two. You're seeing seven one a lot more. And those players are going to know how to deal with that better. And there's going to be more size and skill and athleticism to work around. guys who are that big where there won't be as much of that at the Horizon League. So I think that kind of makes sense a little bit when you view it that way. But 24-7 sports has him as an 86-rated three-star transfer on three actually has him as

like a top 160 player in the transfer portal, which that seems a little high to me, a little crazy. But alas, this feels like a player to me who is Paul NBia insurance. What is the idea of Paul Mbia? He's this giant dude who has super long arms and you just hope that you can. and, you know, hone in the skills of basketball with the frame that he is given. That's kind of the idea with Gabe Dines. I would personally rather have Pauumbia, but if Paul and Bia enters the transfer portal,

you know, like right now, if you're counting on Paul and Bia to be your backup center, I guess right now, Paul and Bia might be your starting center, right? You need another body to come in and at least be somebody you feel like you could play eight minutes per game, you know? So let's break down more of Dyn's game and his scouting report next. This episode is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadlines 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,

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Listeners of the show, get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. And if you go to Indeed.com slash podcast now, support our show by saying you heard about it unlocked on Jayhawks. Again, you can get that deal right now. So Indeed.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for Indeed. sponsor jobs. Thanks you for joining us. Let's get to our scouting report of Gabe Dines set to visit

Kansas this weekend and we'll see if he makes it there, commits somewhere else. Let's start with the strengths. The obvious one, he's very tall. And at the end of the day, basketball is a sport where it can be good to be very tall. So, you know, that is something he can use and that leads to efficiency around the rim, for instance, right? I mean, sure, easier to do when you're seven foot five, but the dude is in the 100th percentile, so as good as it gets in the country, ineffective field goal percentage, right? He's shooting almost 80% from the floor.

Now, the immediate thought would be, well, if he's shooting that well, why do you not just get him the ball every possession he's in on offense? And we'll get to that in some of the weaknesses here. But when he does shoot it, it tends to go in, right? Offensive rebounding, really good offensive rebounder because he's just so tall, he can reach over the other dude, right?

Without it being over the back, because he's just like, that's just where his arms go. It's not like he's like fouling the guy to get it. 81st percentile in offensive rebound rate. So for something for Kansas that was not good enough this past season, he would at least help in that area. And then rim protection, 95th percent on block rate, that would work well because you look at Keanu Dawes,

who's expected to be your starting four man. Daw is not really known for being a shot blocker or a rim protector. So you'd have a player like Dines who would be able to give you some block shots and rim protection on the interior as one of the better shot blockers in the country. Now some of the weaknesses here for Dines, oddly enough, he's not a good defensive rebounder. He was only in the 13th percentile in defensive rebound rate. So not only was he a not good defensive rebounder. He was like a very bad defensive rebounder, which again, like you could get more on board with this package if both the rebound rates were incredible.

The fact that he's so bad on the defensive glass, I think speaks to a little bit of he's not the most nimble of foot to where maybe can struggle to agilely get to block someone out for instance, and players are able to run around him to get offensive rebounds. He's also a turnover machine, right? So this is the thing that he's in the second percent out. It was one of the worst numbers in the country at his position for turnover rate. And this is the thing where I go back to what I was saying. He's shooting 78 percent. Why is he not getting more shots up?

You know, why is this not a Taco Fall situation for instance? Well, there's a couple of reasons. And one of them is because it seems like he's turning it over too much. So other teams, I'm assuming, are double teaming him. And then he coughs the ball up or they have an easier time stripping it away. And then he's not able to get a shot up because it turned it over, right? And I think this is the other reason here. He doesn't have the prerequisite strength to get in good position to get more of those shots up,

which is bad because the percentages of the shots going in are so high that you would want him taking more shots. That tends to be a good shot when the ball is going up for a 7-5 dude when he's four feet away from the rim. but if he's not able to get the shots up because he's turning it over, or he's not able to get the shots off because he's not strong enough. Again, only 214 pounds at 7 foot 5, right? Like that's a string being, man, that you're not going to just establish post position every time down the floor. Like if you have a strong defender who just does a really good job of preventing him

from getting early position to where he's catching the ball and would have to take an eight foot hook shot as opposed to being at the rim, then he's not going to take that shot. So he's only in the seventh percentile on usage rate. And I think that would show why that he hasn't had the prerequisite strength. You know, if you add, I don't know, 40 pounds to him, then maybe he can dominate inside. But like, that's not a realistic thing to be like, hey, dude, can you go out of 40 pounds this off season like that? No, you can't expect that to happen.

Right. I also think he's a little bit on the slower end, right? Tough in space on defense, tough, not the best like transition big or running the floor and transition more of kind of a half court play. at both ends of the floor. And then the free throw shooting is rough. 35% this past season, 43% for his career. So there are certainly some warts here, and that's how you wind up with a player who,

you know, average under three points per game, despite being seven foot five. But KU needs some help at the center position. So is this a take? Does this make sense to bring in Gabe Dines? Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual, and the NBA playoffs are here. I am sad after the Nuggets lost game to,

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right now Kansas needs bigs right here's the thing though this is no go for me and I don't know what my expectations are for Davy on Adkins who fell a little bit in the recruiting rankings but he was playing through some injury stuff but I'm sitting there going I mean first of all this we like with Adkins so as I'm recording this right now I don't I don't know what's going to happen with Paul Mbia maybe Mbia maybe is in the transfer portal by the time this this comes out maybe he's not I don't know but I'd rather have him be a to be clear like pretty easily I think on a point where I'd just rather have Davy on Adkins play if you need somebody to come in and give you five to eight minutes just just give it to Adkins instead of dines is kind of where I'm at to be completely

honest um I think there's a good chance you could get the same amount of ability if not more while also trying to groom along another young player that you have to try to get better right so that's kind of where I'm at with this one I do understand the thinking of being like, hey, we need to get bodies in here. But I do find this whole thing interesting from the standpoint of when the visit is occurring, right? Because if you look at him being the last visit, KU being the last visit of like a four or five visit week for Dines this week, it does, I guess it's helpful for both parties,

right? From the Dines perspective, he gets to now as he's visiting these other schools, say, hey, if you don't close me with the right, you know, I don't know what offer he's looking for. Is it a playing time thing? Is it a money thing? if you don't give me this, I'm going to make it to Kansas on Sunday. And who knows what they're going to offer me with money. And if you let me get on campus and Lawrence, like there's a good chance I'm going to like what

I see. So you better wrap me up now. It puts a little pressure on the schools visiting before him to, you know, make sure that that they lock him down if they're interested at him. From the Kansas perspective, it gives them more time to figure out, hey, you know, by this Sunday, Kansas will have a better idea of, hey, what's going on with, with all these centers that they have been targeting or been getting. visits by or had interest in the current roster to where they're going to have a better idea of

just how desperate do they need to get at the center position? Because if you are in a point of desperation, then maybe you do make this move just to get a potty in there, right? But if you are not, then maybe the visit just never ends up happening, right? So we'll be one to watch over the weekend for sure. All right, that'll be over this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time with L.O.J.