Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Visit: Leroy Blyden Jr. is a BEAST Shooter | Can Bill Self Bring Him to Kansas?

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks target transfer portal standout Leroy Blyden Jr.—a 6'1" guard who shoots a blistering 40% from three. Could Blyden’s explosive scoring and elite deep range be the missing piece for KU’s backcourt next to Taylen Kinney? Derek Johnson breaks down Blyden’s strengths, including his offensive versatility, clutch shot-making late in the clock, and surprising rebounding for his size. Key comparisons are made to recent Kansas guards, with Blyden’s efficient usage rate and drive-and-kick ability standing out. The conversation highlights Blyden’s 16.4 points per game at Toledo, eye-popping advanced metrics, and potential fit in Bill Self’s system. Discussion points cover how Blyden’s all-conference upside measures against other top portal options like Terrence Hill and Terrence Brown, and whether his defensive skill set can hold up in the Big 12. Will Kansas land one of the best shooters in the portal—and can Blyden deliver instant impact in Lawrence? Everydayer Club  If 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! Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. Rocket Money Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join athttps://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON. Turbo Tax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. 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.COMto 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.

Roy Blyden is a fast guard who shoots 40% from three. Sign me up. Let's break him down on this episode of the show. 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? We're going to be breaking down Leroyd-Blyden Jr. get to his potential fit with KU, scouting report and more on today's episode of the show. Let's start right here. Why are we talking

about Leroyd-Blyden Jr.? Well, for one, I think he's a really good player in the transfer portal. KU needs another guard. But it sounds like there is some real interest here from KU, according to Mike Vernon and Shay Wildebor. And then Michael Swain from Fogg.net reported that a weekend visit could be coming and that apparently Daz has the same agent as Blyden does. So KU already landing Kiano Dawes. Could that help them? He knows? here both with this negotiation and just in terms of, I don't know, having a good relationship there potentially with that agent, right? So Blighton is a six foot one, 170 pound guard. He was only an 84 rated three star out of high school in Michigan, clearly was underrated.

You go back and look at his high school stats and you're like, how's this, you know, that? But he attends Toledo this season and he was a star as a true freshman at Toledo, which by the way, like Toledo only finished two spots lower on Ken Palm than Utah did, for instance. But he was an All Mac third team performer. He was the Mac freshman of the year. He led All Mac freshman in scoring. And for the season, he put up 16.4 points, four rebounds, four and a half assists per game. He also averaged it over two stocks per game, steals plus blocks, and shooting percentage is really good.

46 from the field, 41 from three, and 85 at the foul line. 13 games this year with 20 or more points. His season high of 36 came against Western Michigan, and he had one of those 20-point outings when his team played for the Mac Championship, losing by three to an Akron team that ended up getting a 12-seed in the NCAA tournament. But he did everything he could in that game. He had 20 points, six rebounds, six assists, and four steals in the Mac championship game.

And that helped him get on to the Mac all tournament team. as well, where during the Mac tournament, he was playing his best ball too, almost 19 points per game, over five rebounds, nearly five assists, nearly three steals per game on over 50% or better from three and the field during the conference tournament. So we stepped up in the moments that really mattered that, right? He did have one game against Power 5 opponent. It was a good one in Michigan State, who obviously ended up making it to the sweet 16 as a three seed. It was only, you know, you're talking December non-con for a true freshman coming in. So there are going to be some adjustments. But he was fine in the game, 10 points, 4 of 10 shooting, two assists,

to one turnover. He had foul trouble in the game that's going to make things a little more difficult. So it's not a game that was bad. It's not a game that was great for him. But all things considered playing against a really good opponent, Michigan State, early in the season, like that's a fine performance, right? He did get to play six games in total against Ken Palm top 100 teams this year. The Mac was actually pretty good this year.

You think of Miami of Ohio, Akron, obviously winning in the league. There was a couple other good school. I mean, Toledo was like the sixth seed, I want to say, in the Mac tournament. They won over 20 games. But in those top 100 games that he played, he was just fine. He shot 58% on twos and 39% on three. So, again, a small sample size, but no issue kind of transferring up in some of the bigger games, right? Some of the metrics look good here, too.

72nd percentile in RAPM. He's got a really excellent offensive split there, below average defensive split. win shares, he's in the 90th percentile per 40 with an elite offensive split and more of an average one on defense. The P.E.R. 94th percentile. He's 98th percentile and wins above replacement player. And the on-off ratings are phenomenal too. Toledo was over 16 points better per 100 possessions when he was out on the floor. He had a plus 16.6 net rating. That was a 93rd percentile impact in college basketball. And it came with more offensive influence. than defensive. Like they were like 13 points better of the 16 offensively,

but they were better on both ends when he was on the floor. So you look at some of the sites where he's ranked 24-7 has him as a top 90 portal recruit, which that seems too low in my on three has him in the top 50. Evan Miakawa's website has him in the top 15 overall. So I guess if you were to kind of average out those three, you'd end up with a ranking around 50th. but I tend to honestly agree more with having meiakawa's stuff on him when you kind of keep an eye on the stats.

I guess the big question would be how does he scale up? But I think this would be an awesome addition, right? His highlights look good, like he looks athletic, he looks quick, he can really shoot the basketball. He's still young, which tells you that there's more meat on the bone. He's played well in the key games he's had. I'm all over this. So let's dig in a little bit more with some of the, I guess,

strengths and weaknesses here for what Blyden could bring to the table. This is locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you've ever opened your bank account and thought where'd all my money go. You're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending, and bills can get overwhelming fast. That's where Rocket Money comes in. It helps you take control of your finances all in one place, tracking subscriptions in one spot. You can actually see where the money is going. You can even set your own budgets on there, get specific alerts, and stay on top of upcoming bills that you're going to be having. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel unwanted subscriptions,

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This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Thanks you for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. All right, strengths and weaknesses here for Leroyd-Blyden Jr., the guard from Toledo. Shooting is the main strength to go over. here, right? Kansas needs more shooting. This guy would help you accomplish that. He shot 40% from 3 and he did it on 5.6 attempts per game. So that's a solid number of attempts for game, 40% from 3. The shot looks super repeatable. It looks super easy to get up. Seems to always be ready to shoot. You go under a screen or he's ready to shoot in transition like always seems

to be square to the basket when you're watching some of the highlights and stuff. He had 15 games this season where he made three or more threes in a game. That was more than fellow freshman Darren Peterson accomplished this season who had 13. Now, Peterson obviously missed games with injury and stuff, but just shows you how he was able to really get hot this season. He was also really consistent, too, from the three point line. You don't really see that too often from freshman. Blighton only had four games all season long where he didn't at least make one three.

That's it. Four all season long where he didn't make a single three. That is less than the amount of times of games that he had four or more threes. He had four or more threes in a game five times. He had zero threes in a game four times. That is really, really impressive, especially for a freshman, right? Also really splash from deep. He went 29 of 64 on three balls that were 25 or more feet.

So like deep distance, right? You're opening up the spacing even more. That equates to 45% on deep. deep threes. If you needed more reason to buy into the shooting, I don't know why you would. He was also an excellent free throw shooter this year and last year at high school. And in high school, his final season, he shot 40% from the three point line. So this is just like continuing what he has done and shown.

It's not an hour season. This dude is an incredible shooter of the basketball. He also in general is somebody who you can trust to get you points late in the shot clock situation. You know, that's always a question. Who do you have to get you buckets in difficult situation? right? Well, he was in the 65th percentile, so above average, on two point shots when the shot clock was between zero to ten seconds. And he was in the 74th percentile on three-pointers

when the shock clock was between zero to ten. So he can score for you late in a shot clock situation. He's also a solid rebounder for a guard. He had 15 games with five or more rebounds. His season high was nine rebounds. So despite being smaller in stature, he'll get in there and get rebounds. And yes, you know, it's going to be harder to rebound if you're playing in the Big 12 than it is in the Mac. but it's the willingness to go get them. And some of the best, you know, Bill Self point guards have a willingness to get your four rebounds a game, right?

He had an above average offensive rebound rate for guards. He had a solid one on the defensive glass. He's also a good defensive playmaker. It seemed like he really had active hands and awareness on the defensive end. 86th percentile steel rate. KU did not get enough steals last year. He would help with that. He also had an above average block rate for guards,

which I think a lot of times when you look at block rates for guards, this isn't the be all end all. if you look at guards who have block rates and dunks, that can show a level of athleticism, which is nice to see. And so, like, I don't know in general how good of a defender Blyden is, but I do know he's at least making some plays here, right? He's also a solid passer, 85th percentile and assist rate. He also had a 90th percentile, assist to turnover ratio.

And where he really excels is driving and kicking. Not as good of a passer hitting cutters. he was about average as a pick and roll passer, but as a drive and kick guy, he was really, really excellent there. So, you know,

that could work as playing with Tainlin Kenny that you work the two off of them and he drives and kicks the Kenny who knocks down a three, right? He's also not one of these guards that speaking of playing with Kenny has a high usage rate. Like we've talked about,

you know, we'll have an episode, or at least we're planning to, who knows if he commits or something, but Alex Wilkins from Furman, we're planning to have a deep dive on him at some point. And then we just had the episode, Terrence Brown, the Utah transfer, like, these are guards who have 99th percentile usage rates. Well, that's not as a, like, and you worry about how does that work if you're, if you're a co-starting guard next to a Kenny, right?

Or what if KU does get a Tyrant Stokes now he's handling the ball too? How does that work for a ball to arm and a guard? Can they play off the ball? That's not as much the case here with Blyden. Blyden's usage rate was basically what Melvin Council's was. So it's not one that, like, you can't play. him off the ball. And because of his shooting, that allows that as well, right? Now, I don't know that he's like the best athlete in the world in terms of that there's a lot of things that can go into

athleticism. Strength, I don't know that that's, you know, it for him. I don't think he has the highest vertical in the world. But if you're just talking about athleticism from a speed factor, an ability to kind of hit the gas pedal in the open floor or to speed by your guy in the half court, I think he has more than enough there, that he has enough speed to make it work at the big 12 level. And you see that in the open court. He's able to sprint and buy guys, he's 96% on fat in per 40 minutes. Now, what's some of the weaknesses here for Blighton? I think the big one is how is he going to translate up?

All of these things look nice is, you know, how much of it is being aided by playing in the Mac, right? I think in general, you're looking at a smaller guard here. How would the two point shots transfer over, right? On the season, he was above average on two point percentage and layups. So that's good that he's starting from a point that was a, at least above average, but does the jump in size cause it to be below average? Now, I will say this. Like, Devonte Graham, you go back and look, he shot like 40% on twos, his final season at Kansas.

But he was such a good three-point shooter and passer and did all these other things that he's a first team all-American, you know, and I'm not going to put that tag on Blyden to come in and do that, but like the path is there that have a lot of success with Bill Self. The other weakness I would say is, and this is probably further with the translation stuff, What are we talking about on defense? Again, good steel rates, solid athlete, but he's a smaller guard. Is he ever going to be a plus defender, right? Can he at least be neutral?

You know, the question of if you do have a, if he is a below average defender next to Kenny and now no Florida Bedunga, what does that do for your guard back court? Now, at the end of the day, I continue to say that like Bill Self will figure out the defense, give me offensive guys, and this would classify for that. But clearly this is a take, right? What level are we talking here compared to some? some of these other guards we've talked about. We'll get to that next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Rougiette.

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And they also offer go long designed to help with body with both performance and control. It's all about confidence and feeling like yourself again. Head to rougiette.com slash locked on NHL and get 15% off your ED treatment. That's rougiette.com, RUG-I-E-T dot com slash locked on NHL for 15% off Fruget performance medicine for men. Don't forget you can get the Locked on Jayhawks show ad free by joining the every day or club at locked on jhocks.supercast.com locked on jhawks.com. Okay, so this is clearly a take for me. And this is a high level take for me. This would be a player that would come in and I think

clearly can play with Tainlin Kinney as the on guard or the off guard, whatever you need him to do. He would provide a level of three-point shooting that we haven't seen from a KU. I mean, it depends. Like, do you consider Peterson a shooting guard or a combo guard or you know what I mean? Do you consider Oachai-Baji a guard or a wing. I view O-Chai more as a wing, but if we're not including Peterson and O-Chai and saying that there are more wings or shooting guards or whatever, Blyden would have a chance to come in and be the best shooting like lead guards that KU has had probably since Devonte Graham, right? And I think when you're looking at the comparison of like some of these guards, like to me, Blyden and Brown, like that's not even a debate.

Like to me, it's funny. I was mentioning some of the guards available in my top tier of players. we're now at a point where I have two left in that top tier. It's Terrence Hill and Leroyd-Blyden. And then I have that next tier and that would include like guys like Terrence Brown and stuff. So to me, it's mostly like Hill or Blighton. I think it's interesting because Bliden has a little more juice, a little more speed to him. I think Hill has a little bit more shiftingness, craftiness with the ball in his hands. I think Hill in general is the better overall score.

But I think Blighton is the better three-pooter. I don't know. It depends on the moment whether I'm leaning Hill or Blyden. I came into the show thinking, I kind of lean Hill, but I don't know, at times I lean Black, whatever it is,

if you bring in Hill or Blyden, I'm going to be super excited about it. Because I think, I legitimately think either Terrence Hill or Leroyd Blyden can come in and be an all-conference level player for you at the guard position right away. That's how highly I think of both players. So, yes, either one would be a huge take.

Blighton would be a huge take for me for KU and certainly he would make me feel a lot better about the three-point shooting on the team. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on 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. And we'll see you next time with another deep dive

or breaking news for KU. See you then.