Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Johnny Furphy Stays in the NBA Draft: Impact on Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + Travis Goff Extension

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Freshman wing Johnny Furphy has decided to stay in the 2024 NBA Draft and skip a sophomore season. How it impacts Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball in 2024-2025 and the offseason. Best one-and-done freshmen in Bill Self's time at KU. University of Kansas Athletic Director Travis Goff received a contract extension to 2031. Plus, other NBA Draft decisions of note like Wooga Poplar.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.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)

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Johnny Furphy is officially staying in the NBA draft. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can give me a follow on Twitter at D Johnson radio, and you can find the show here with locked on Jayhawks. Anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of locked on Jayhawks,

we're discussing Johnny Furphy, who has opted to stay in the 2024 NBA draft, what it means for him, what it means for Kansas and the rest of the offseason, what it means for, I guess, the legacy of Johnny Furphy, you know, with one year versus the other one and done. Also, Travis Goff got an extension for KU to 2031, so we'll discuss that and some other notable draft decisions and how that could impact the offseason for KU on this episode of the show. Let's start right here with the Johnny Furphy news.

Furphy made it official that he is staying in the 2024 NBA draft. Took a few hours before the deadline to, I guess, make the announcement. And this is what he said on a graphic that was posted by the KU Hoops Twitter account. Playing in the NBA has always been a lifetime goal of mine. With that, I've decided that now is the time to pursue that dream. I can't say thank you enough to Coach Self, the entire coaching staff, and every single person associated with our basketball program. I have the most amazing teammates I could ever have asked for,

and I want to wish them the best of luck going forward. And to Jayhawk Nation, thank you for being the greatest fan base in the world. Rock Chalk with a signature from Johnny Furphy. So that's what he had to say about entering the NBA draft. And so for Furphy, now you wish him the best. I mean, obviously, it would have been a pretty big addition to the roster, if you could say that way, even though he'd be coming back, if he would have decided to come back.

But obviously, now that he is gone, now that he is in the NBA draft, you wish him the best. You hope he gets drafted as high as possible. You hope he goes number one in the draft. Obviously you don't expect that to happen, but you hope he becomes a lottery pick and has a really great NBA career and good luck to him moving forward. And certainly I think has a very high ceiling for what he could do

in the NBA draft when you look at the prototype, if he can figure out the defensive end of the court and I expect him to be eventually a good three point shooter and be a good athlete, which will work well in transition in the NBA, that I think he'll end up being a very productive player. Now, to what level does he become a star? Does he become a starter? Does he become a good bench piece?

I don't know, but I do expect him to have a lengthy career in the NBA. And I do wonder, him obviously staying in the NBA draft is pretty indicative that he's going to be a first round pick. That indicates to me that he has the first round promise or promises that he was looking for. And maybe going back to the idea that he worked out for just teams in the lottery, maybe that means that he does have a promise in the lottery if he's staying in the draft, and that was the case there. So I think there is a real chance that he could end up being a lottery pick here, which would obviously not be a bad thing for recruiting,

but would be really cool for Johnny Furphy as well. Now, what does this mean for the KU roster and the rest of the offseason decisions that are left that are still ahead for KU? Well, it means that they're sitting on 11 scholarship players right now without Johnny Furphy. It means that they have one less wing, one less really good score, shooter type that they could go after another one of those. And it means that basically if you wanted to, I mean, we talked about this on yesterday's episode,

you could convince yourself that KU's rotation basically already is set because you already have what you feel like is a pretty good number of guys in the rotation with DeJuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson, AJ Storr, Ryland Griffin, Zeke Mayo, KJ Adams. I mean, that's six right there. Elmarco Jackson makes a jump. That's seven. Whoever your backup center is, right? One of Clements or Flory Badunga, that eight if you're high in rickies pass more but you can easily get to kansas having more than enough guys to have a very competent uh rotation that you didn't even need furphy to come back to feel that way you would have felt even better if furphy would have came back and kansas would

have been hands down preseason number one had that been the case but you still feel good about where they can go but it does leave the option open that you could add another impact player to kind of fill the shoes of potentially what that would have been coming back. So it means for the KU off season, they have a decision to make. I certainly think that it means you're going to add another scholarship player. The question then becomes though, do you add the impact player? Is it dependent on, you know, if it's this player, then we'll do it. If not, then we're just going to go this route. And then the question after that becomes, do you add more of a developmental guy? And could the developmental guy be your 12th scholarship

player where that would be your final addition? Or would you try to add an impact guy to be your 12th and then add a developmental guy who's your 13th? And obviously you still have to get rid of one scholarship with the NCAA stuff. So you could just do that at this point. You'd still add one player and do that at this point for the following season. But there is an advantage to saying, hey, we're going to play with 13 scholarship players this year, play with 12 the year after. And therefore, because we know we're going to be losing all these players like DeJuan Harris, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson, and so forth. And anybody who makes an early NBA decision and stuff, anybody who transfers Zeke Mayo, we know that we're going to be losing a lot.

If we bring a developmental player now, it'll help them be more ready to play the following season after we're going to lose all of that. So that kind of becomes the big impact here for the offseason for KU. And certainly they've already added a lot of good shooting and scoring with Storr and Mayo and Griffin, but you certainly, it doesn't hurt to add even more now that you don't have Johnny Furphy and to possibly add another wing now that again, you don't have Johnny Furphy. This is kind of an interesting question. Where does Johnny Furphy rank among all-time Bill Self one and dones I mean there have been some really good one and dones that Bill Self has had at Kansas obviously it's not obviously as long of a list as what Duke and Kentucky have done where they've

really steered into that and they have two three four five one and dones really every year for the sake of this conversation I'm not going to count Ben McElmore. I just want to talk about guys who are one and done one year at Kansas, then they went off to the NBA. So I'm also not counting guys who like Quentin Grimes, who to be clear, I'd probably have furphy ahead of him anyway, who was like a one and done technically at Kansas, but transferred to another school. I think the nature of the term one and done is about one year to school and going off to the NBA. Now, Macklemore because he had the red shirt year,

you know, it makes it a little bit difficult. I'm not going to count him for the sake of this. So obviously I think it's pretty definitively behind both in terms of, I guess, like talent, where you're going in the draft statistically impact on the team Joel Embiid Andrew Wiggins Josh Jackson like those guys are ahead of Johnny Furphy in this discussion here I also think he is obviously ahead of guys like Shaq Diallo who never really cracked the rotation, Cliff Alexander, and low-key, both those guys, if there wasn't the NCAA stuff, Cliff Alexander might have been at Kansas for a second, third year or whatever, and turned into a really productive

player. Sheck Diallo, if he didn't have the NCAA stuff at the beginning that kept him out of, I guess, like practices and games, maybe he would have developed into a little bit more. Low-key, Cliff did average seven and five over a block per game, 17 minutes, solid rotation player. But yeah, Furphy was definitely better. So Furphy definitely better than those two, definitely behind Embiid, Wiggins, and Jackson. Then it becomes kind of interesting with some of these, like Xavier Henry, for instance. I think people sleep on how good Xavier Henry was. He averaged 13.5 points per game, which was second on a team that had Sharon Collins

Cole Aldridge the Morris twins Tyshawn Taylor it was a loaded team he was second on that team in points per game he shot 46 percent from the field 42 percent from three and 78 percent at the foul line with four and a half rebounds one and a half steals per game and again that's four and a half rebounds per game on a team that has Cole Aldridge and the Morris twins where they're like taking up all the rebounds so you average more points assists steals blocks than Furphy on a better team and shot better from three on higher volume um even if I comp like Henry to Furphy's big 12 stats it's it's obvious Henry's obvious Henry is head of Johnny Furphy in this discussion uh what about Grady Dick that was a discussion we had in the middle of the season was which is the better

player and there was a moment in Johnny Furphy's kind of hot streak. He had that like 20 whatever point game against Cincinnati where some people would argue Furphy there. I continued to say Grady Dick. And I think when all was said and done, it's easier to look at the stats and say, yeah, it's definitely Dick. Honestly, Grady Dick to me was a more complete version of Johnny Furphy last season. Or put another way, Johnny Furphy was a more raw version of Grady Dick. I actually think Johnny Furphy might have a higher ceiling than Grady Dick that I could see him having a better NBA career. I think both are going to have good NBA careers because they,

especially with Grady, his three-point shooting is going to keep him in the league in a big way, especially since he's kind of a big wing. I think Furphy has another gear he can maybe get to with his athleticism. But I think in terms of even if I compare Grady Dick to Furphy's big 12 numbers, like Dick still averaged more points, assists, steals, same amount of blocks, less fouls, and 4% better from three on one and a half attempts more per game. And he had more options to his offensive game. Like he could hit a mid-range. He could drive occasionally.

Dick also had a better D rating. Get your mind out of the gutter on that one. So I think Grady Dick was definitely the better one and done than Johnny Furphy. But that doesn't preclude Furphy from having the better NBA career, even though, again, I think both will have productive NBA careers.

So again, that's behind somebody else what about Josh Selby he low-key shot 38.4 percent from three I didn't remember it being that good from three on 3.6 attempts per game Furphy finished it closer to 36 percent on four attempts per game and that's in big 12 play so uh he was actually a better three-point shooter but Furphy was better as an overall player and everything else. Selby did have to deal with the still-toed boot issue, which I feel bad that he had to deal with that. But yeah, I'd take Furphy ahead of Selby for sure.

This is a really interesting one. What about Kelly Oubre versus Johnny Furphy's one-and-done seasons? Very similar season arcs. You had two guys in the case of Oubre who was coming off the bench, Furphy coming off the bench. Now, Oubre, I think, joined the starting lineup earlier than furphy did but both started the season off the bench then eventually became starters and eventually became during certain stretches of play you know one of the best players on the team like there was that little i don't know month-long stretch for furphy where you could have argued that especially because kevin was injured and he had

some of that you were dealing with, was one of the three best players on the team or something. With Oubre, you could have argued that at different points last season too, or that season that he was at KU, and both teams were on teams that lost in the second round of the tournament. This is crazy to me, actually, because you don't think of Johnny Furphy and Kelly Oubre being super similar players. You know what I mean?

You think of Furphy more so being a three-point shooter. You think of Kelly Oubre being, being like super similar players. You know what I mean? Like you think of Furphy more so being like a three-point shooter. You think of Kelly Oubre more so being a slasher, but the production is very similar. Oubre 9.3 points, Furphy 9. Oubre 5 rebounds, Furphy 4.9. Both were at one or less assists per game. Oubre 1.1 steal and 0.4 blocks. Furphy 0.9 steals, 0.3 blocks. Oubre 35.8% from three. Furphy 35.2% from three. Oubre a plus 19.4 net rating. Furphy plus 19.8. It is crazy how similar they were. Furphy took more threes and shot more efficiently on twos and free throws. But Furphy was only taking twos that were like dunks and wide open layups. Oubre was the better defender. Oubre was the better slasher.

I think this one is kind of a total wash, I guess, because the defense I would lean Oubre, who had the better season, but you could convince me it's Furphy. I think either way, though, if we're going with the all-bill self one-and-done freshman team, you got Xavier Henry, Grady Dick, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Jackson, and Joel Embiid. Then again, that lineup doesn't include a point guard.

So if you're going with like actual positionality, would you have to include Josh Selby with like Josh Jackson, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and then one of like Grady Dick or Xavier Henry at the two, which by the way, I do think that's kind of interesting. Keep that as a note for later that there haven't been as many great one and done point guards with Bill Self. Is that just coincidence where he's had guys like Chalmers and Dotson who were really good as freshmen, but they stayed for multiple years? Is there an interesting conversation about

that Self doesn't get those point guards usually, or that it doesn't really translate that easily? Because I think that becomes very interesting because you look at what their possible point cards can be for 2025, 26. It seems like they're going to go in that direction. So maybe that guy just becomes the easy candidate for that list, but that's a conversation for another day. So Furphy off to the NBA. Hey, Travis Goff got an extension through 2031. Let's discuss that next on Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Game Time.

NBA finals are coming up. We're still waiting to see Celtics is brought to you by GameTime. The NBA Finals are coming up. We're still waiting to see. Celtics is going to be versus the Mavericks or the Timberwolves, probably Mavericks, who are up 3-1. How cool would it be to go to a game? Whether you're in the area or coming from out of the area, you want to make a trip, GameTime makes getting NBA Finals tickets even faster and easier.

Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer it gets to the tip-off, and they have killer last-minute deals all in prices, views from your seat, and their lowest price guarantee. GameTime takes the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets. Their last-minute deals allow you to save up to 60% off buying last-minute for sports, concerts, comedy, and theater near you. You might be in a place where maybe you're traveling just during the summer, and you're like, yeah, should I go to a baseball game?

You know, have a couple cold ones and maybe some hot dogs and just enjoy the nice weather and the crack of the bat and everything like that. But I don't know about getting tickets. Well, game time is going to take the guesswork out because you're going to see where you're sitting. You're not going to have to worry about, oh, do I have to print out this day? Like you can get it all last minute on game time. You can get a 15 minutes before the game right on game time and just walk in.

You can make a last minute decision if you see the right seats and places that you're looking for. So take the guesswork out of buying NBA Finals tickets or whatever you're looking for with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your firstK-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E, for $20 off your first purchase. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, continuing on here, Travis Goff gets an extension for KU, and then we'll finish

up here with other draft decisions of note. So the extension by Goff is a new seven-year contract, according to ESPN and the school with Pete Thamel, through 2031. And he went from being the Big 12's lowest-paid athletic director at a base salary of around $750,000 to making an average of $1.6 million over the next seven years, according to ESPN, which puts him near the top of the conference. So a couple things of note there, certainly. One, the idea that he was making one of the lowest numbers of the Big 12 before this, just in terms of the base number.

Obviously, bonuses, which I'd imagine Travis Goff would be getting a lot of bonuses based on some of the things that has been accomplished by KU in his time here. I think it's very interesting to me because not that we didn't necessarily know. Travis Goff is a KU alum. You have an opportunity to become an athletic director in a power conference at a school like Kansas. It is obviously a very appealing job.

But I think that furthers the idea to me, because I didn't know that at first that he was one of the lowest paid in the conference when he first took the job, I guess, that he really wanted the job. I mean, if he was willing to, you know, because sometimes you might want a job, but then the contract negotiations, it's like, oh, you're going to make me one of the lowest paid? Like, I think I'm deserving more of that. And again, maybe that was his first athletic director job. He had been, what, an associate or whatever before. So maybe that's just how it goes.

But to me, that is almost endearing because it creates or furthers the idea of like how much he wanted to be a part of this university. And so obviously this is very well-deserved for Travis Goff, who has been an outstanding athletic director. You know, for my time, since I've been watching KU, covering KU, which obviously not as long of a, I guess I would say, tenure as many others who have been doing it, but bar none, the best athletic director that I've seen at Kansas. And again,

that list is not very long from what I've been covering from Shayhan Zanger to Jeff Long to now Travis Goff. And maybe that makes it a little bit better that the bar was set low, but even if, even if it wasn't set low by those previous guys, like Travis Goff would be knocking out of the ballpark. This is very well deserved. Everything that he has done from, you know, keeping Lance Leipold happy, right? Hiring Lance Leipold, making sure that he's getting these contract extensions and having the proper communication with him to make things

work, having to deal with the changing college atmosphere and nil and i mean he deserves a lot of crap i know the schools aren't supposed to be i i don't know what the rules are of of schools and being buddy buddy with their nil can i mean obviously there's a certain level of connection and we know there's a bigger connection than maybe they can legally put pen to paper because of the dumb ncaa, even though whatever we know all this and that point being, I think Travis Goff is probably also to be celebrated for helping Kansas have one of the better NIL games in the country, right? I think Kansas has a really good NIL setup.

And I think Travis Goff is, is one piece of helping make that a thing that is possible. Travis Goff getting the funding and getting everything going for the football stadium, you know, having that whole thing. And yeah, I've, I've been the, that everything's been an a plus from the football stadium. Do I love everything? No, but guess what? It's still great that he's doing it and the football stadium needed an upgrade and he has done that and he is getting it to that point.

And from Lance Leipold and the hires that he's made, the hire of Dan Fitzgerald, who's done great things for KU baseball, just barely missed the NCAA tournament, and what a great year it was for them in year two already with Dan Fitzgerald. And you think of some of the great athletic successes they've had from volleyball and some of these other Olympic sports too that, you know, it's a team effort. There's other coaches and athletes that go into part of this as well. But when you're like the leader of the program, a lot of it, you know,

does come back to you a little bit. And so Travis Goff has been an A-plus hire for KU so far. I don't think there's any other way of getting around that. And so this is a well-deserved raise in extension for even if it's a guy that, yeah, okay, this is his alumni. Like, is he really going to leave? Whatever. You take care of that guy because it's the right thing to do. And he certainly deserved that for everything that he has done for this athletic department. So really good news for KU because they have the right guy in charge of leading the athletic department. All right, let's finish up with other draft decisions of note

that could impact the KU basketball offseason on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every episode of the show. Coming up on our next episode, we're going to have a football Friday. We're going to predict the KU season leaders for 2024 on the football field. We'll get into the Bryce Cohan edition, the transfer receiver from Syracuse. Big visit weekend with Bryce Foster, the Texas A&M Center, and Lincoln Cure, who is the five-star recruit from in-state, is going to be visiting this week.

And then we'll be 90 days out as a Friday from the start of the football season. So obviously Johnny Farfee staying in the NBA draft that has a big impact on KU and moving forward with the offseason not that it seemed to be a surprise or anything for Bill Self or based on where things might have been going but now there's decisions to be made because certainly wouldn't expect Kansas to only play with 11 scholarship players. That means they're going to be adding somebody else and there's a chance they could add two more players. Well, certainly if they're adding an impact player, any other players who have made the decision to come back from the NBA draft and not stay in the NBA draft, those would be impact players. They were good enough to test the NBA draft waters.

I guess you don't have to be that good to test the NBA draft waters. Bronny James wasn't really playing much and he is, I don't know, going to get drafted now. Anyway, I don't mean to, I don't know, that'll be good for SEO that I can drop Bronny James in this, I'm sure. No. So anyway, point being, there are other decisions that have an impact on where Kansas could go, what offers Kansas could make, who are they going to kick tires on? And so I wanted to get to an update on some of those. So Wuga Poplar, the transfer from Miami, he decided to return to college, which makes sense. You look at some of the mock drafts that were out there, was supposed to be undrafted. and pretty much everyone that we went over the other day it sounds like he's going to be visiting visiting Oregon next week now one that hasn't been a KU visitor or anything like that there was reported interest at one point in time probably depends on

I guess what happens with one of these other big names for KU then Jalen Wells who was somebody I was going to do a deep dive on actually next week. It was a transfer from Washington State, kind of a bigger wing at 6'8". He decided to stay in the NBA draft, so that's possibly one less option. Kim Christie, who we did the deep dive on, what was it, a couple weeks ago, a week ago, he is staying in the NBA draft after transferring from Minnesota. But the big one here is jackson robinson jackson robinson who uh entered the transfer portal from byu testing the nba draft waters i still don't know i am recording this on wednesday night it is 10 o'clock here on wednesday night he has less

than an hour to decide what he is going to do i have a baby to take care of so i have to record this episode and i'm sorry i cannot wait any longer to see what's is going to do. I have a baby to take care of, so I have to record this episode, and I'm sorry I cannot wait any longer to see what's going to happen with Jackson Robinson. So I don't know entirely yet, but the fact that it is waiting till the last moment makes me wonder, and I think this is something we brought up the other day, what if any reports or rumors that he was leaning towards staying in the draft process was actually more indicative to try to get, I guess, NIL money or to try to get a bidding process between, you know, some of these schools of like, yeah, I don't know if we're

going to stay in the NBA draft unless you can meet this number, unless you can surpass this number. Well, now the number is this, you know, and the fact that you're taking it up to the deadline makes me wonder, well, okay, let's keep those bids coming in. It's like the trade deadline and the MLB or the NFL or NBA, whatever. Usually you don't see deals happen until teams get to the very last moment because that's when they hit their most desperation. So wait and see on Jackson Robinson. Sorry for that.

All right. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with LOJ.