Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Just How Big of a Get is Transfer Hunter Dickinson for Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Talking more about Hunter Dickinson transferring from Michigan to the Kansas Jayhawks basketball program. Just how big of a get is the center for KU and Bill Self? Will his numbers be similar to Dedric Lawson as a transfer big? Are there any reasons to be concerned about this team being similar to the 2018-2019 team and why Dajuan Harris could help them avoid that. Plus, Whose Stat Line is it Anyway featuring Ernest Udeh, Harris and more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're joined by Nick Schwert. We're going to be breaking down Hunter Dickinson coming to KU, immediate reactions, and more on Spring Bill, what this means for KU, just even more deep dive on Hunter Dickinson. We'll finish up with some whose stat line is it anyway. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Locked On Jayhawks. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can find us on YouTube. Like and subscribe to the show. Derek Johnson, you can hear me as well Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. onwn and lawrence with rock chalk sports talk nick schwert you can find him on twitter at nick underscore schwert you can hear him on 6 10 from 10 to 2 with cody and gold show as well as the wave in the wheat podcast um over with the odys. So Hunter Dickinson picks KU. And I guess at this point,

like, I don't know. Do you just like, why does Bill Self always get the number one target in the spring? I mean, you go back to whether it's freshman, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Jackson. Now you look at the transfer portal, Remy Martin, Kevin McCuller,

Hunter Dickinson. Like, is there any reason you can point to this is it just there's there's not games and if he's the best coach in college basketball he has to focus his time elsewhere like what do you kind of make of all this well i think that what's so interesting about saying that bill self always gets the number one target in spring like if i were just to say what about bill self as a whole what about bill self in terms of recruiting his history of getting his number one targets versus some other schools? It's a first world problem, but wouldn't you probably say that there have been more guys

that you felt like they've missed out on that have chosen Duke or Kentucky than Kansas when you're just talking about those elite one and done blue chip high school prospects. But then once I narrow the focus a little bit to just say, what about late in the game? What about in spring? Well, then you're right. It's not just the blue chip guys, but think about the lesser known guys that he's landed that ended up being studs, whether it's Devante or Frank Mason or Svee. These are guys he got at the last second that, yeah, they weren't all Americans, but they ended up being some of the most important players during his time at Kansas. I don't know if this is a guy who's just like in his – it's like playoff Jimmy Butler. Is this like when he gets to the spring, right, and the flowers start blooming,

all of a sudden this guy's in his bag. I don't really get it. But I think one thing that you can point to with Bill is that he's never going to sell a recruit a lie. He's never going to make them a promise and say, yep, you're going to be here next year and you're going to be the guy. We're going to run the offense through you. You're going to be the starting point guard, right? Whatever the situation is. But when it's spring and the roster is mostly set, it's a lot easier to sell these guys because you know what the team is going to look like.

Look at the case with Hunter Dickinson. Half the guys are already gone. You know what this roster looks like next year. And you can easily point to him and say, this is exactly what you're going to do for our team. You're going to come in. You're going to play 32 minutes a night. We're going to run the offense through you. You're going to get 15 post touches a game. It's really easy to sell recruits on that. Oh, and by the way, you're going to be on ESPN 25 times a year. You're going to get as much exposure as you're ever going to get. Adidas is going to cut you a big NIL check. It's a lot easier to sell guys on reality

in the spring than it is the prior year in the fall when you have no idea what the team's going to look like. I know you brought up, I don't know, a couple weeks ago when we had you on the show, that this was about as big of a recruitment as KU could have. Because even, you know, maybe there was more media fanfare, and maybe there was more hype with like Andrew Wiggins or some of these other, you know, freshman recruits that come in with ideas of going on to basketball at much higher levels beyond what they're going to do at Kansas. But then Hunter Dickinson comes in, and you immediately think he is going to be a first-team All-American candidate,

a National Player of the Year candidate, a Big 12 Player of the Year candidate. Could you make the argument that this is the biggest commitment that Bill Self has ever gotten via recruiting? I think you could make the argument, but I wouldn't go there. I think he's the best player Bill Self's ever recruited. He will make as big of an impact day one as any player KU's ever got under Bill

Self, but he's not as big as the Andrew Wiggins show. Like that was a spectacle. This guy was on the cover of GQ. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. National media was descending upon KU Media Day before the season even began just to do profiles and interviews on Andrew Wiggins. I remember going to some of those media scrubs, and they had to change the location because there were too many media members to fit them in the hallway outside of the locker room. There have been better players than Andrew Wiggins, but there's never been a bigger show than him. He was getting compared to LeBron James as being the best high school prospect since LeBron James. So it's easy in

hindsight to say, but yeah, the guy, he averaged 16 points a game. He was really good, but that team got bounced in the second round of Stanford. But we're talking about sitting here right now, the impact of getting a guy like Andrew Wiggins, that's still number one, and it's going to be tough to top. But there's no question, Hunter Dickinson will be a better basketball player in 2023 than Andrew Wiggins was in 2014, right? Whatever season that was. But in terms of the impact, like the impact beyond basketball, Wiggins is still number one, but I think Dickinson is number two because you know exactly what he brings to the table. Like you and I know there is no question to be had. There's no debate for us. Will he fit? How are

they going to use him? No, we know those answers answers we know exactly how they're going to fit we know exactly how bill self's going to use him and we know that this guy is going to be one of the three or four best players in college basketball because that's what we've seen the last three seasons okay if i if i gave you the um over under so to speak of dedrick lost it in his one year at ku now diedrich obviously sat out a year uh before because he that was you know when you didn't have the the free transfer rules and stuff um and diedrich basically put up what like 19 points 10 rebounds per game he was pretty darn efficient from the floor i mean he shot% from three on two and a half tries per game. He shot 49% from the field. Just a couple of assists per game, steal over a block per game.

It's weird looking back at those because I feel like you would almost have to take the under on a lot of those for Hunter Dickinson this year, but at the same point in time, he could be better. But I don't know. How would pair him to maybe like Dedrick Lawson? Oh'll be better he's gonna be better he'll be better statistically and he'll be better from an efficiency standpoint and he'll make the team better first off dedrick lawson remember was six nine and the big thing with that team which was a one of the worst teams that bill selves had at kansas was it they had a really tough time figuring out how to construct the front court.

What was that, 2019-20, or was it 2018-19? So that was the year when they tried to figure out, was it Doak or David McCormick that they were trying to fit him on the court with? It was Doak because he ended up getting injured and then I think it was David McCormick from there they couldn't figure out like whether to play him at the four or the five and when they played him at the four there wasn't enough spacing because of Doak and his inability to space the floor same thing with David McCormick you don't have any of those concerns now because instead of being a 6'9", 4", Hunter Dickinson is a 7'1", 5", man. No question about it, right? We know exactly what position Hunter Dickinson plays. Okay, perfect. Yes, he can do all the things offensively that Dedrick could do, but he's not at a position that's no longer a premium. Like power forward

is not a premium position in basketball. It's hardly a position for a lot of teams, right? You all basically can't play the four unless you can A, step out and shoot, but more importantly, B, defend smaller, quicker wings like a Jalen Wilson or a Josh Jackson who are playing at the four. Hunter Dickinson's not going to have to do either of those things because he is a five and he can stretch and he's a really good defender. Check, check, check. There's no weakness in his game. This is a guy who there's a reason why he's staying in college because he's a five man, but in college, that's not an extinct position like it's sort of turning into in the NBA. In college, he has a position, and he's now going to be playing with the best coach in America at tapping into that.

Maybe outside of Matt Painter, like Bill Self is going to get back to his bread and butter, which is post touches, which is high-low, and there is not a better player in the country to do it. So I think he'll have one of the best statistical seasons that any Bill Self player's had. I also think he's going to have the best season of his college career. Yeah, it could be pretty monstrous with what he puts up. There's something else I want to bring up with that 18-19 team, actually, now that I think about it.

But first, we do have to take a quick break. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make a fast break to FanDuel during the NBA playoffs because right now new customers can get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's $1,000 back in bonus bet if your first bet does not win. They have great promotions every day. They have great boosts every day.

It's a safe and secure app, super easy to use, super nice interface when you're looking at all your bets, easy to track what's out there, and you get paid instantly there's no better play that on all the playoff action during the nba playoffs than america's number one sports book visit fanduel.com locked on and get a no sweat first bet up to one thousand dollars that's fanduel.com locked on fanduel an official sports betting partner of the so now that i think about it with the 19 team because of i guess not just the dedrick lawson comparison which as you talked about a lot of differences there but i think still some similarities and if you remember that team went into that season they

were either number one or number two in like every preseason poll because it was just like yeah oh my gosh look at this collection it was you have all these transfers in you have this great freshman recruiting class coming in you have some returning players with like legerald vick and i think marcus garrett was coming back into year two on that team that you know it looked like that was just going to be this ultimate collection of talent and i look at this team and it's kind of very similar right you just have four returning players at this point you have a good green class coming in a freshman you have a bunch of interesting transfers program is there any worry that when you look at them being put you know number one or number two in

these preseason polls that they could repeat what they did in 2018-19 and it wouldn't be as good or is just having a player like dewan harris that that team didn't have is that enough for you to be like no i'm not worried about it they're gonna live up to the hype i think it's the combination of harrison uh i almost said hunter mickelson hunter dickinson do you think hunter if hunter mickelson were the starting five men on this team do you think they'd be a preseason top 10 team in the country? Like without Hunter Dickinson, obviously, correct, right? Yeah.

Yeah, Hunter Mickelson instead of Hunter Dickinson. I think so, just because you trust Bill Self that they're like a default top 10, but they're definitely at the end there. They're like number nine. Yeah, man, those were scary days. Those were scary days back in like 2015 when like none of the freshman big men would work out and so it was just like what what are you gonna say back to you has what other big medic you have a gold medal as a

starting center that's true that's true in terms of most decorated big men you know hunter dickinson's probably getting slept on or hannah mccherson see'm going to make this mistake a lot. I think it's the combination of DeJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson. I bet you that's a big reason why Hunter Dickinson chose Kansas. It's not just one guy. Yeah, Deidre Glosson was a really good offensive player, but the pieces didn't fit on that team. It was a lot of hype around that freshman class, but let's look back at that team. That was the year where LeGerald Vick was incredible to start the year. And he won KU a lot of games with late game heroics, and he had some really good shooting nights. The problem was LeGerald Fick had a

difficult time fitting into the players around him, right? He just did not mesh with the system. He did not mesh with the coaching staff. He didn't mesh with their supporting cast. Okay, so he exits the fold and then you've got Devon Dotson who doesn't really stretch the floor, Quentin Grimes who really had trouble playing alongside Devon Dotson who doesn't really stretch the floor Quinton Grimes who really had trouble playing alongside Devon Dotson he had trouble playing off the ball also not a floor stretcher Vic was your best shooter that's when I think Ochai came in and he was good to start the year but he was a freshman and he was far from the player that he became as a senior the front court pieces didn't fit you couldn't figure out whether to

play Dedrick at the five where he was a liability defensively. Then you move him over to the four. There was no floor spacing. That team had so many issues and none of the pieces fit together. When you compare that to at least the outlook for 2023-24, I say, okay, well, I know the point guard and the big man will fit together. I know that DeJuan Harris is going to be one of the best facilitators in the country, one of the best pure point cards in the country. I know Hunter Dickinson is going to be a top five player in the country,

not top five offensive player. That's who Dedrick Lawson was. He is going to be a force down low that everybody's going to be able to play around. And I have a hard time believing unless just like two through four don't fit whatsoever. Like let's say you put KJ at the four and he can't really stretch that much. And then all of a sudden there's some spacing issues offensively. Okay, we'll see who the other wings are going to be. Like maybe Nick Timberlake has a tough time adjusting to playing high-level basketball. We can go down these lines, but a lot of things would have to go wrong,

much like they did in 2019. Not just one thing, not just two guys don't fit, but basically all of these other pieces are going to have to not fit for it to overcome what you have in your point guard and your five man which i think are just like a perfect match don't you think those two guys alone are going to create one of the best one two punches in america yeah i think uh you probably have the best point guard center combo, the Big 12. Looking at it on paper, who else you have there, you probably have, if not, I mean, at the very least, you're on the shortlist there well. We get to this point in time, and you've got like one spot remaining on your roster,

and maybe you get this kid from Duke, the five-star freshman. Maybe you get another transfer. But what we do this time of year is we say, oh, you know, all KU really needs is another shooter. Or we'll say all they need is a playmaker. They need just like a bouncy playmaker guard. Oh, you mean a future NBA player? That's what everybody is referring to when they say that. Get me a springy 6'5 guard with like a 40-inch vert who can shoot threes

and create his own shots off the bounce. As if there's a bunch of those dudes out there. But we do it every single year, Derek. What was it? They need more shot creators. They need more playmakers. Like every team wants those. You realize that every team in America is like, yeah,

we could use some more guys that could create their own shots off the dribble. But they rarely get them because there's so few of them that exist. So yeah, I would love for KU to go get one of those guys to really raise your floor offensively, but without it, I think they'll just be on the same playing field that everybody else in the country is on. All right. I want to finish up. We got a fun edition of Whose Stat Line Is It Anyway? with Locked on Jayhawks. So on today's Whose Stat Line Is It Anyway? We're having fun with Synergy.

You are aware of what Synergy is, the online website. It gives percentiles for where these players rank, what they do well, specific plays. Okay, okay. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? Yeah, I do, but I'm not. I haven't familiarized myself with the uh the recent numbers so this will be a complete shot in the dark for me good well that's the point we're trying to get you to guess random things

okay uh all of these are current players you have a one in whatever how much they have 11? 11? I guess they'll be able to. Who knows? Which they have, I think, more walk-ons returning than scholarship players. No, is it the same? I don't know. Either way. Current KU player.

This KU player, last season, ranked in the 98th percentile in pick and roll. They were in the first percentile, though, in offensive putbacks. 90th percentile in pick and roll just an all pick and roll as 98th so they as the roller I don't know and decide and you said they were just the first percentile in offensive yes

really the worst you could be who is terrible at offensive rebounding? Well, I mean, at this point, I would be, it's a simple numbers game to say it's probably someone who was not on the team last year, though I feel like KJ Adams couldn't have been in either of those extremes. I have a hard time believing he was the first,

because he was a decent offensive rebounder. To be clear, this is offensive putbacks. This is offensive putbacks. So it's not, it's like, did they make the shot or miss it after they got the offensive rebound? Yeah, okay. I'm going to say it, I don't feel good about this,

but I'm going to say Ernest Uday. You nailed it. Ernest Uday is correct He was 19 of 21 In role as the role man Because he was just getting all these lobs He was 2 for 9 on putback attempts You know, that makes sense Because I like Ernest

And I think he's got some potential But It's not hard to figure out why he didn't Play a ton last year Makes sense because I like Ernest, and I think he's got some potential, but it's not hard to figure out why he didn't play a ton last year. He's long, but he's not springy. He's not bouncy, and that's what you kind of need to be good at putbacks is you need to have that ability to sort of be able to jump over other dudes, and he's not really that guy. All right, this is current ku player 94th percent in spot up shooting he was a fourth percentile so there were 96 percent of college basketball was better than him in both overall and man-to-man defense last year okay i think i

know this one uh only because i feel good about the first stat you gave i don't know anything about his defense but is this nick timberlake this is nick timberlake he shot 45 on spot up shots including 43 on spot up shoot on spot up threes you knowonents took over 200 shots against him shooting 44% from three and 45% from the floor. Well, no big deal because Bill Self isn't someone who puts a premium on being able to guard your man. So I'm sure he'll transition to Kansas really nicely. Well, that's the one thing because you'll remember this name. Do you remember

Joe Cremo? Yeah. Where'd he go? Villanova? well that's that's the one thing because you were you'll remember this name do you remember joe cremo yeah where'd he go villanova villanova and it was like oh he's this floor spacer come that might have actually been for that 1819 team and uh really good shooter from albany he only played fifth game at villanova because he could like defend but he could like i i think ideally you want nick timberlake to play 25 30 minutes a game because that means you have a floor spacer out there with the rest of your roster because if you have questions about kj play next to hunter or whatever but if the defense isn't there he's only going to play 15 20 minutes per game i like it most you see that's what's that's what's so funny about the transfer portal. It really is the same as recruiting,

especially when you're getting guys from like Towson and Albany. It's like, no, this is the same as high school recruiting. Oh, you tore it up at a lower level. What are you going to do when you're now literally, you're on a team that is the favorite to win the national championship? You are thought of as being the best team in basketball. So simply having like a good jumper and spring, like those make for great highlight tapes, Derek.

Springy, good, you can finish at the rim. He's a good shooter. Like, oh, wow, this guy's flashy. Getting absolutely torched on defense. You're not going to play. You're not going to play if you're a liability on defense. Yeah. I mean, Isaiah Moss got the defense to maybe like below average, and that was enough because the rest of the team couldn't shoot.

So maybe that'll be him or it could be Joe Cremo. I don't know. All right. I don't think you'll get this one. 36th percentile as a pick and roll ball handler. So below average, not, you know, I guess 36th percentile below average. I don't know. 72nd percentile in spot up shooting going 18 of 44 or 41% from three. Why don't you think I'll get it? That's it. You just don't think I'll get it? That's it?

You just don't think I'll get it? No hints. No clues. Okay. 41%. There's only one guy that I know shot 41% from three. This is just spot up threes, to be clear. Yeah.

I know this wouldn't really fit the position, but I'm going to say you're fudging the numbers a little bit and you're giving me a screwy sample size. And I'm going to say the answer is Hunter Dickinson. Not a bad guess. Cause he issued 42%. This is actually. 34th percentile pick and roll 36th yeah wouldn't have thought so

i feel like that now all of a sudden i'm having concerns i was feeling really good about just you know pick and rolling teams to death with hunter dickinson and duane harris now all of a sudden i have questions now i guess the the question to that becomes is it because i i don't know enough about synergy i mean is that because it's it's not taken into as much of accounts like when he's assisting like he's not as good of a score or is it taking into account um at the end of the day like how many times did kansas miss lobs or like you know KJ developed a good pick and roll game with him but it's not like KU had the dynamic with Ernest or Zuby or Zach Clements just every time roller that like Hunter Dickinson would be yeah and I mean I think that yeah is that taking into account

obviously it's turnovers when he's trying to hit the roll man, when he's trying to finish by himself, it doesn't take into account the other four players on the court and how they're executing on those plays. It's just a success rate that he's involved in. So it doesn't tell the full story, but I do wonder, like if you add Hunter Dickinson into the mix, how much does that raise the game of DeJuanris who now has i mean two legitimate threats in kj and dickinson who are the perfect types of players that you want to be using or hitting in those situations he is nick schwert you can find him at nick underscore schwert on twitter anything you want to plug upcoming no uh i'm i mean as as a lot of people know i am beginning my career as a break dancer

next week so i'll be performing in and around the kansas city area so you know catch me on your local street corner with a piece of cardboard i'm gonna put on a show all right looking forward to that uh you can find locked on jayhawks wherever you get any of your podcasts youtube that'll do it for the show see you next time bye