Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Basketball Hires Tony Bland as Assistant | 5-Star-Recruits Like Tajh Ariza a Package Deal???

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks Basketball makes waves with Tony Bland hire from the Washington Huskies. Will this controversial move reshape the program's recruiting landscape?Bill Self's latest coaching addition brings a wealth of West Coast connections and a checkered past. Bland's involvement in the FBI's college basketball investigation raises eyebrows, but his recruiting prowess could be a game-changer for the Jayhawks. The episode explores potential impacts on Kansas' recruiting strategy, particularly for high-profile targets like Taj Ariza. Could this signal a shift towards pursuing more elite freshmen talent?Tune in for an in-depth analysis of how Bland's hire might alter Kansas Basketball's future and its pursuit of top West Coast prospects.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Rugiet150,000 men have made the switch →https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEUse code LOCKEDONNFL to get 15% off your order!DripDropRight now, DripDropis offering Locked On listeners 20% off your first order. Just head to https://dripdrop.com and use promocode LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Stock up now before the heat hits hard.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.PrizePicks — Run Your Game.Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEOpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlbGametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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)

Did Bill Self just give the NCAA a middle finger with their latest assistant coach hire? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is a bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks because Kansas basketball has a new assistant coach. And thank you every day or catching each and every episode of the show. No matter how you're listening, whether it's through our audio side of things or on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Well, we're going to get into it today as KU Basketball has hired Tony Bland as a new assistant coach, certainly not Bland in the hire. He is a longtime coach who was involved in the FBI stuff about a half a decade ago. And honestly, like, it's not really something that I care about at this point in time because the stuff they were getting in trouble for over that stuff. was stuff that is legal now, right? But it is objectively funny, knowing that Kansas was involved in that stuff, that they got punished in their own right for it,

that they would go out and get somebody who was in that, you know, same thing. And I just envision as like Bill Self's on the phone with Tony Bland, like, in his office. He's just got like a poster board. I don't know, maybe it's not a poster board. Maybe it's like a dartboard with the NCAA on it. And he's just like flipping them off as he's talking Tony Bland about finalizing the deal. Anyway, awesome. Again, I think this is a good high.

everything now with the FBI stuff is legal. And anyway, reinstate KU's 2018 Final Four. I digress. Here's the news. This is what Pete Thamel posted earlier today. He said, sources, Kansas is expected to hire veteran college basketball assistant Tony Bland as an assistant coach. Bland spent last year at the University of Washington.

He's a veteran West Coast coach who worked earlier in his career as an assistant at San Diego State and USC. USC dismissed Bland in 2018 for his role in the federal investigation in college basketball. He pled guilty to one count of conspirators. He re-entered the sport at the college level. When Danny Sprinkle hired him at UW in May 2024, he served a three-year NCAA show cause. KU extensively vetted Bland's entire background.

The school went through what sources called an extensive of a background as they've ever done. Bland helped Washington put together the country's number six NCAA transfer portal class this year. Per ESPAN's rankings, Bland brings strong West Coast ties from growing up in L.A. And working as this still a skill development coach in Southern California.

California. And so, yeah, it's just a ton of ties to the West Coast. Again, as somebody who grew up in Los Angeles, he went to Syracuse initially in college, played for Jim Beheim, and then after a couple of years transferred to San Diego State. And we think of San Diego State now is like this consistent like mid-major power. I think he took him to their first NCAA tournament in the early 2000s in like over 15 years. So coached by, you know, Steve Fisher there. So there's some good ties with the coaches he had. And then obviously, yeah, He was an assistant coach with Andy Enfield, the USC. He was an assistant coach with San Diego State, I think, with Steve Fisher before that. He coached at the high school level in L.A. and then most recently, Danny Sprinkle with Washington. And obviously, this move comes after Chase Buford, who was an assistant coach for Kansas, left for a similar role with the Denver Nuggets. So he fills that role in the part where he has the background in, you know, coaching skill stuff.

That's great from a overseas player development stuff. It certainly seems like there is going to be some. recruiting boosts that KU gets, especially on the West Coast with adding bland. And that could come as soon as a class of 2026. There's a couple of interesting five-star recruits, including one Taja Reza that I want to get into in a second year. But I do want to talk more about the FBI stuff because it is pertinent to the story and why I don't really care, to be completely honest, as far as this, you know,

oh, should that have prevented KU for making the hire. I don't really care about it. And I'm ready to move past it, but I do think we need to at least talk about it. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by prize picks. And with prize picks, you can get in on the week zero action in college football this upcoming weekend. The daily fantasy platform that lets you turn your football predictions into real rewards. Preseason's already heeding up and college football isn't far behind. Whether you got your eye on a big name quarterback or breakout running back, prize picks makes it easy to get in the game.

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before the heat hits hard. There's joining us on this bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. So could some five stars be on the way with Tony Bland now on board? We'll get to that next. in a second here on the show. Don't forget to check out our daily shows here with Locked on Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcast. So I did want to go over a little on the FBI stuff because, again, he had a three-year show cause from it.

He was let go from USC essentially because of it. And it is objectively, like, ironic. And to me, kind of funny that like KU, a program who was involved in this FBI stuff and was punished as a result of it, which, again, if Sylvia, if it was what, three, this is what's stupid. But the RevShare thing that passed was because former players sued the NCAA to be like, well, we deserve some money, you know, because we would have been getting it. And they basically said, okay, you're right.

Here's your money. And yet Silvio DeSosa and KU, which fell in that time range, are still punished for it and still lose the final four, even though those other players in that time range are getting money out of it. It's so stupid. KU should be reinstated for it. And so from that perspective, too, like Tony Bland has been cleared. He's paid his due. and to be honest like I even before this stuff became legal like I don't know like these players have

been uh you know exploited is too harsh of a term but like players for the longest time were worth more than they were getting out of just a scholarship specifically with like you know college basketball and football and stuff so like I was like whatever you want to pay them give money whatever um but now especially that it's legal it's like okay whatever but to be clear this is what happened to. The charges allege that Bland and others allegedly received benefits from financial advisors and others to influence student athletes to retain their services. And here's the number on this, right? You think of these giant figures that go around today in NIL, $250,000, a million like, you know, AJ DeBonds a $5 million or whatever it ends up being. This was a mere $4,100 is what

this was all about, which again, feels like absolute peanuts. compared to what is legal now. But it ended up causing the Anthony Melton, who's been in the pros, I guess, ever since, to be suspended from the team. USC got a fine out of it and the probation and yada, yada, yada. He did not serve jail time, by the way. I know, you know, that was a thing that was up for grabs of some people.

And there was a guy that did serve jail time. He was not part of that. And so, again, not really something that I care about. I'm ready to move past it. He served his time. Like, it is what it is. This isn't something. If anything, I'm just like, oh, this dude's a player in the recruiting game.

and this guy is clearly loyal that he was going down with the ship. And that's a good thing to have in the assistant game. And this guy clearly, you know, is somebody who I think Bill Self is going to trust on the recruiting trail. And now that you can float these funds publicly and, you know, legally and over the table and above board, I like this higher. So let's talk about some of that recruiting stuff because there's some interesting five stars and high level prospects. The maybe KU has a better chance to get now that Tony Bland is their assistant. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is also brought to you by Open Phone.

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Thanks for joining us on this bonus episode, Lockdown, Jayhawks. And again, don't forget to check out our regular episode that came out on our Tuesday today. We're also have a season-long KG football props episode coming out on Wednesday. Okay, so one of the big things Tony Bland is his recruiting. And you saw the mention from Pete Thammell that Washington just had a big time trainth for portal class coming in. And he was obviously a big part of that. You look at the recruiting class upcoming in 2026. And there's a lot of good players from them.

the West Coast and from California. And for Kansas specifically, there's already a lot of players they've already offered in that general range. The biggest one becomes Taja Reza at the time because there was also news today. And it's hard not to connect the dots that Areza, who yes, that is the son of Trevor Reza, the former Los Angeles Lakers NBA champion and former Houston Rocket. And I forget where else he was on. I don't know, maybe the Orlando Match, whatever.

So he added a visit to Kansas for. late September. He has visits for Oregon, North Carolina, USC, and then there's one that's going to be coming for Texas. The fact that he didn't have one scheduled to Kansas before, and now he does right after this hire, when Areza was, guess who he was coached at one time in high school by Tony Bland? Bland coached him his freshman in sophomore seasons. It's hard not to connect the dots there and say, this puts Kansas, you know, I don't know if it puts them in the driver seat, maybe it does, but it at least puts them in the running when maybe they weren't as far in the running before. And Areza is a five-star recruit. He's from California. He's a six-nine wing.

He's the number three player at his position, number nine player in the country. And yes, he has those good bloodlines and lineage. Something else I find interesting, there was a recent comment from Bill Self at his most recent press conference talking about sometimes freshmen are easier to coach now than some of the older transfers because they don't know, like they don't have a way they've done it before at the college game that you can kind of break it down and build it the way you want to a little bit better. And I can't help but think with probably the fun Bill Self is having Coach Darren Peterson. Is he going to try to go maybe more of the John Shire, Coach K, Coach Kalapari freshman route moving forward as opposed to going all in on the transfers like he's done with

some other guys in the past where he's like, you know what? I would rather spend if I have two million to spend on a player, three million on a really good high school player than I would out of the transfer portal ranks. And certainly a guy like Tony Blaine helps you that. Beyond that, here are some of the other recruits that KU has offers out to that are in the class of 2026 just from the West Coast. And for what it's worth, I'm just going to give the town that it says they're, I don't think it's where they're from, but where they are now on 24-7 sports. So Areza, obviously, five-star recruit. Others from California include Tyron Stokes, the number one overall recruit. He's in California right now.

Number four overall recruit, Christian Collins, who by the way, Bland was also a head coach for. the number two point guard in the class, Brandon McCoy, the number 11 center in the class, Josh Irving, and the number 17, small forward, Maximo Adams. All of those are in California. If you want to count Arizona to the West Coast as well, number five shooting guard, Ikena Aloisier, and number nine shooting guard, Cameron Holmes,

along with number 16 shooting guard, Kayla House are all in Arizona. A lot of talent on the West Coast, a lot of talent that KU and Bill Self has already offered. You add Tony Bland, maybe it helps you close the deal on a couple of these kids, and maybe this just winds up being, you know, one of KU's better recruiting classes coming up in the class of 2026 fueled by Tony Blant.

So good hire, I think, for Bill Self and KU men's basketball. All right, that'll do it for this bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for L.O.J.