Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Visit: Christian Reeves is a 7'2" Rebounding Machine - Does He Fit Bill Self & KU?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Justin Reeves is a giant center. He rebounds well. He blocks shots. He's efficient. Why are people not more excited about this guy? We'll try to break it all down on a guy visiting KU on this episode of the show. You are locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:21 Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to break down Christian Reeves game. he visited or is visiting KU, whatever it ends up being. We'll get to his fit with KU, scouting report, all that and more for, you know, what if I told you you have a center who's in the 99th percentile in PER and in like the 90th percentile or higher and offensive rebound, right?

Starting point is 00:00:48 Like, wouldn't that get you interested? Yet there's a story here that makes you be like, ah, but are we sure that dude's the starting sets? We're going to break it all down on this episode of the show. Let's start right here. Reeves is a 7-2-255-pound center. So obviously he has the, if you want to get giant at the center position, he fills that role, 7-2-255. If you want to get experience on the team and at that position, well, he'll be a redshirt senior this up-con season.

Starting point is 00:01:14 And again, I don't know when exactly the visit. The word was that he was going to be visiting. I don't know if it was Monday or Monday into two or what the deal is. But anyway, visit scheduled, I guess you would say for KU. He was an 89 rated three-star out of high school as a top 150 overall player. He ended up going to Duke out of high school where he's. spent two seasons, only played 16 games over the two seasons, short minute counts, as you would imagine, actually needed ankle surgery his second year. So then he gets a medical red shirt. Then he transfers to Clemson for his red shirt sophomore season where he played 29 games, but just five minutes per game. So then he transfers again, goes down a level this time to College of Charleston in the Colonial Athletic Association. And he had a really good year. He was a third team all conference selection on a 21 win team that was coached by Chris Mack. He was a also on the all defensive team for that unit or that team that finished second in the conference

Starting point is 00:02:07 overall. Now for the season, his numbers 11.1 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game, 1.4 blocks per game on 65% from the floor. And that came in just 21 minutes per game. So you know, if he's averaging 28 minutes per game, what do those numbers look like then, right? And during conference play, the numbers actually did go up a little bit because he was averaging a little bit more minutes per game, right? He, he starts playing more as the coaches start trusting him a little bit more. So during conference play, up to 24 minutes per game, not a huge increase, but the numbers went up with it too, 12.6 points per game, 8.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks per game on 67% shooting. So really good numbers there for center who's basically splitting center minutes there.

Starting point is 00:02:48 And overall, he had eight games of 15 or more points this season. All of them came from January 2nd on, including crossing. 20 points twice with a season high of 29 against Elon. He also had 10 games of double-digit rebounds. His high of 18 was also against Elon. So I don't know, Elon must be pretty stinky down low. I don't know. But he also logged three plus blocks on four occasions.

Starting point is 00:03:11 But point being, this guy was playing his best basketball over the last couple months of the season. And, you know, it's easy to point to, hey, playing much at Duke and Clemson and now you're expecting him play a lot of Kansas. And that can be a little bit of a worry. But maybe the counter is, hey, maybe he didn't play as much at Clemson because was coming off a season ending ankle injury against Duke. And that was kind of a rehab year. And then he finally was back and ready to go as he entered a lower level.

Starting point is 00:03:35 And now that he's had some experiences of success, he's ready to come back up to the big league, so to speak, right? That would be kind of the hope here and that he is playing his best ball coming into this off season. Some of the metrics look pretty good. 60 second percentile, so at least above average in RAP. And then the rest of these are elite. 98th percentile in win shares per 40, 99th percentile in. in P-E-R, which is basically a measurement of your player efficiency. That's what it stands for, actually.

Starting point is 00:04:02 94th percentile in wins above replacement player. And the on-off numbers actually counter to that are basically a neutral with, you know, him being on the floor versus off the floor. They're basically kind of like the same team. And so, again, you're trying to wrap your head around that. Like, hey, if Kansas is recruiting the center at College of Charleston was huge. Why was he not having such a big impact for College of Charleston? And this also goes in line as well because I've seen people being like,

Starting point is 00:04:25 you want to get a center who at times was coming off the bench who was only playing 21 minutes per game for Charleston and expect him to be a dude for Kansas. You got to look at the context here because this is one of those situations where I don't know how both of these dudes ended up on a CAA team. I guess I don't know, having Chris Mack that probably helped a little bit there. But the other center for college of Charleston was Chole. I don't know if it's pronounced Maycott, Maychot, Chole Maycott. And Chol Maycott won the conference's defensive player of the year. Last I saw Chol Maycott is visiting Texas A&M or something. I mean, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:04:59 Maybe K, you should kick the tires on Chol Maycott. But like point being, it's not like he was splitting time with some scrub. He was splitting time with another dude who's probably going to end up at a power five as well, you know? And it's not like when he was coming off the court, the guy coming in for him was not very good. The guy coming in for him when he was not on the court was the conference's defense. defensive player the year. So obviously the on-off numbers are going to be nothing spectacular because the dude replacing you is at your level of play, you know? Now, 24-7 sports has him as a four-star transfer. He's top 175 on Evan Miyakaa's site and in the top 350 at on three, the athletic didn't have him

Starting point is 00:05:39 ranked. They only go to 50. But this is an interesting one because the numbers do look awesome. The previous stops, not always the case. So what gives? Let's get into the scouting report next. Today's episodes brought to you by Fandul. The NBA playoffs are here where, Every possession matters. Every matchups magnified in every game can swing a series. And right now, FanDuel is giving new customers a great way to get in on the action. You can bet just $5 and get $250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Do you think the Pistons, after falling behind 1-0, can they still win the series in like six? You know, you can find good odds for that over at FanDuel.

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Starting point is 00:06:34 plus Donovan Mitchell is going to put 25 points in some of the different games. You can head to FanDuel. You can head to FanDwell. Play your game. Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks, and we'll get to the scouting report now of Christian Reeves. I don't know if I may, I might have already said this at some point,

Starting point is 00:06:52 but I am like fighting against it subconsciously, I think not to say Christopher Reeves here. So we're going to try not to, if I don't say, if I say Christian Reeves, and I don't know, I might have already screwed up. If I, if I stick with Christian Reeves the whole way through, you're legally obligated to hit the thumbs up on the YouTube side. Anyway, strengths for Christian Reeves. Rebounding is one of them, 97th percentile in offensive rebound rate.

Starting point is 00:07:14 That's really good. What about the defensive side? 96th percentile in defensive rebound rate. Well, that's really good too, right? Okay, what about rim protection? 91st percentile on block rate. Now, again, these are these are all happening. against CAA opponents, what happens when you level up?

Starting point is 00:07:28 What happens when you play bigger and more, you know, versatile opponents? Now, I will say, obviously didn't go extremely well at his previous stops in terms of getting a ton of but at least he knows what to expect. At least he's been there for multiple years where the speed of that game is not going to be new to him. You know what I mean? Like it's possible. What if he would have just stayed at Clemson this past season and the improvements he showed

Starting point is 00:07:52 at College of Charleston happen at Clemson, except at Clemson, it's in 15 minutes per game. Would we be a little bit more excited there for Ken? I don't know what the answer would be, right? He's also got some decent post touch. He had a 62nd percentile hook shot according to Synergy. Also 94th percentile for his position layup per synergy. If you look at Hoop Explorer, it gave him a 70th percentile, points per postup opportunities. And then 99th percentile in paint points per 40 minutes when you adjust for kind of the, you know, playing a little bit less than some other guys. So he has enough of an offensive game there. I kind of think when I think of some of these, like I think back to that 2010 Duke team that won the title,

Starting point is 00:08:33 Brian Zubok or Zubeck or something like that was their starting center. The dude didn't get a ton of offensive type. They just basically asked him to be a good screener, defend inside, get rebounds. And that was good enough because they had stars around him to make it work. Can Kansas do something like that and would Reeves kind of fit that role, right? That would be kind of a question. But he's also good in pick and roll,

Starting point is 00:08:51 81st percentile on big's cutting and rolling, which is nice because KU likes to do those things, right? And then just in general, like a pretty efficient player, 90-second percentile in effective field goal percentage and for shooting percentage. He doesn't turn the ball over much, even for his position. And he gets the free throw line at a solid clip. And that leads to another strength here, which is his foul differential. He draws fouls and he doesn't give them up. And that is a nice kind of combination to have. He was in the 97th percentile in fouls drawn, performance.

Starting point is 00:09:21 40 minutes. But on the other side, he was in the 90th percentile in player foul efficiency defensively, including 96 percentile in blocks per foul. That's a lot of numbers to throw at you all at once. Point being this, he draws fouls on the other team and he doesn't pick them up. He does a good job of staying vertical and using his big frame to just try to thwart, you know, oncoming offenses that way. Some of the weaknesses here for Reeves, he's not much into the assist guy, not much of a playmaker for others. You're not really getting the passing inside from him. He's also not really somebody who can stretch the floor for you, right? Like, you look at a guy like Anton Bonk, like he could hit the occasional three or hit

Starting point is 00:09:57 the occasional pick and pop midrange. Not really the case here. He didn't take a single three or single long midrange shot. Even the short midrange shots, which sometimes are just long hook shots or like little push shots. That's like a quarter of the shot attempts he took at the rim. So you're not really getting a diverse offense or a four stretching aspect here from this one. He's also not, I wouldn't call him the most mobile or athletic big in the world.

Starting point is 00:10:20 old, you know, he's not Florida Bedunga running up and down the floor. I think that's kind of fair. And then the biggest question here for all of this is just how much is this going to translate up? Because again, you're going from playing two years ago, five minutes per game at Clemson to now, you know, what does that mean if you come to Kansas, right? And to his credit, it's just six games that's a really small sample size, but six games against quad one, quad two opponents. He had a 95th percentile offensive rebound rate, 80th defensive rate with good block numbers. So in the games, he played against better competition still performed well, though the field goal percentage did drop the 51 percent, pretty sizable drop off against the better

Starting point is 00:11:06 opponents. So I don't know that I actually have an answer of how well this will translate up, but you're getting to a point at the center position if you're Kansas where it's like, if you're not going to spend the big money on the big dudes, you're going to have to take a dice roll. and maybe this is the dice roll you take. Don't forget, you can join the Everydayer Club and get Locked on Jayhawks ad free at Lockedonjahawks.com. What is the fit and potential role here for Reeves? I think, first of all, the fit with KU would be to come in.

Starting point is 00:11:36 And right now, if it's like if Paul and Beaumia returns and you have Christian Reeves, those two are competing, I guess you could throw Davy on Adkins in there, but I feel like it would more so be those two guys with the advantage for who's going to be the starting center who comes off the bench. I think realistically, both of them would play very similar minutes. and I almost wonder if you get a situation where it's like, okay, the winner of the battle plays 20 minutes per game, the loser plays like 15 minutes per game,

Starting point is 00:12:00 and then you play five minutes per game of DOS at the five where you play a little small ball five for just a handful of minutes just to see how the other team reacts, like maybe it ends up being a good thing in a specific matchup for you, right? The biggest question with all this, because this is not a normal, like, I'm not in love with the idea of Reeves as a starter. I would like Reeves as a backup center for KU.

Starting point is 00:12:20 I'd feel good about that. I'm not in love with it as a starter, but what if we get to a point where, again, like, the, the options left of the center position, you got to pay a lot of money. And for KU, are you better off beefing up your roster one through four and on the bench and just trying to get by at the center position, just being average at the center position. Like, can you make it work that way? And, you know, to Bill Self's credit, like, he's had some teams that have done really well with guys at the center position that have had clear flaws in their game. Like, 2023, they get a one seat in the NCAA tournament with KJ Adams, is their five. You think of the years they get back to back one seeds with Landon Lucas, is their five men. And I like Lynn.

Starting point is 00:13:01 He was a really good defender and screener and rebounder, but isn't that the idea of what you'd be going with Reeves here? You know, I almost look at it like this, too. To me, like Reeves feels like a bigger version of Mitch Lightfoot, right? Lightfoot was able to come in, hit a hook shot, grab the occasional offensive rebound, be a pretty good shot blocker for his size. but he had clear limitations too, right? And that's how he Reeves, I'm like, okay, Reeves could be a good rebounder.

Starting point is 00:13:24 I think Reeves probably better rebounder on both ends of the floor than Lightfoot. He's bigger. You're going to get a little shot blocking, a little bit of post-scoring. It's not going to be prolific, but you were able to make those things work. And so it is tough to tell what translates from the time at Duke and Clemson. But I just wonder this, like going back to Landon Lucas, for instance, I'm trying to think. So Landon would have been a senior in the 2016, 2017 season.

Starting point is 00:13:46 So that would have been the year that he really took. off, right, Landon at Kansas was his redshirt junior season, right? Because that would have been the 15, 16 season. And he would have played some for them in the 14, 15 season with the rotation of Biggs. But the season he really took off as the starter would have been in the 1516 season. So again, that would have been his redshirt junior season. So it's easy to say, because Reeves was a redshirt junior this season when he started to take off. And it's easy to say, well, did he just take off because he was playing worse competition? Or did he take off because he? he did something did spark in him the light bulb did go off and he happened to be playing

Starting point is 00:14:23 worse competition when those things collided right i would be willing to take this risk and bring him on and say hey if he ends up being our backup center i feel good about it um if he explodes and plays really well and is your starter you know you just hope to beef out the rest of the roster around him um but this is one that i like don't love if it's the idea to be the starter i guess if that kind of makes sense all right that'll do for this episode of locked on jhawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with another episode of the show.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Visit: Christian Reeves is a 7'2" Rebounding Machine - Does He Fit Bill Self & KU?

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