Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Adds Rice Owls/Vanderbilt Commodores Transfer Guard Noah Shelby

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking KU Basketball's newest transfer portal commit, Noah Shelby. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at D Johnson Radio. You can find our show here with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcasts, 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 talking Noah Shelby, the Rice transfer, former Vanderbilt Commodore II,

Starting point is 00:00:41 who is transferring to the University of Kansas for this upcoming season, which was announced over the weekend. We'll finish up with some of the latest stuff in the offseason for KU. Thanks for joining us and making this part of your everyday listens here with LOJ. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster

Starting point is 00:01:05 and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on college terms and conditions apply. So start with some info on Noah Shelby, what the addition means for KU and moving forward in the off season for this year and next year and the latest in the off season to finish things up here on today's show. So we did a deep dive on Noah Shelby about a week ago, two weeks ago,

Starting point is 00:01:26 something like that. You can check that out and then I'll have some other info that I highly recommend checking out. Of course, if you're an everydayer, you're already tuned into that, but we'll re go over some of that stuff and add some new stuff in here as well. So he is a guard point guard. Six foot two was what he was listed at coming out of high school. Six foot three now is what he's been listed at in college from Green Hill

Starting point is 00:01:44 school in McKinney Texas he uh is friends with the played you know youth basketball or whatever prep basketball I guess you want to say with Ryland Griffin the transfer that Kansas coming over from Alabama so you'd always go to when you add to kind of the the team locker room camaraderie uh whatever you kind of want to call it. He came out of high school as the number 112 national recruit in the country on 24-7 sports, the number 18 point guard. And on the 24-7 composite, he was 121st in the country and the number 20 point guard. So like this was a kid who was very highly recruited. He chose Vanderbilt out of high school over Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor.

Starting point is 00:02:25 And this was the scouting report given to him by Brandon Jenkins of 24-7 Sports back at the time in February of 2021. Shelby is one of the better long-distance shooters in this class. He makes any man-to-man defense stretch out against any zone. He is one who needs to be shaded and accounted for at all times because he's great at catching and shooting off penetration from one of his teammates. He'll need to work on improving his athleticism and continue to hone his ball handling skills when under intense pressure.

Starting point is 00:02:52 And so you're talking about somebody who is a guard who basically brings shooting ability. Now, this addition for KU, it was reported by 24-7 Sports that he's going to be committing to the team and transferring them out of the portal. He had the unofficial visit and everything like that. It sounds like, and I don't know that this has been officially like posted or anything,

Starting point is 00:03:12 but it seems like all of the indications seem to be leading to the idea that he's going to be coming in as a walk-on and that he is going to, you would therefore think maybe red shirt this year. And so what that'll do is a, it strengthens your walk-on group and it strengthens your practice situation and, you know, strengthens, I guess, the depth of your team and everything like that. But this also allows you to say, Hey, a kid who, yeah, even if, you know, he previously at his last stop, didn't put up big enough numbers that made you think,

Starting point is 00:03:42 Hey, he'd be at Kansas on a scholarship. But by being on as a walk-on, and when you're basically trying to get rid of one extra scholarship, either this year or next with the NCAA stuff, it's basically like having an extra scholarship player. Because realistically, your 13th guy, whether he was on scholarship or not, it's not going to be part of the rotation. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:04:03 So Shelby comes in he was at Rice last season after transferring from Vanderbilt Vanderbilt his freshman year 14 games played nine minutes per game only shot 31 percent from the field most of those are three-point shots which was basically a three-point specialist going back to that scouting report 31 percent from three that year 3.7 points per game which you know honestly like getting on the court a little bit as a true freshman in the SEC, like that's not the worst thing in the world. But then you transfer down to Rice. You go to the American Athletic Conference, and it was not a very good Rice team.

Starting point is 00:04:33 They finished 229th in the country on Ken Palm. They went 11-21. And certainly for a kid who was a former highly recruited guy, was at an SEC school, transferred down. You probably expected big things from him this year. And he was a consistent player in the rotation for rice. He played 30 games. He started one.

Starting point is 00:04:51 He played 12 minutes per game, a shot 33% from three, 3.9 points per game, kind of modest numbers. You would have expected them to be a little bit bigger, but I said this during the deep dive and I'll say it again. Now, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:04 the fact that it would be a walk on and then red shirting him basically view it this way. Like realistically, if you're saying, okay, a kid who was a near top 100 recruit was in his second year at rice, he'd be a junior this upcoming season in 2024 to 2025. What are the chances he would have broken out this upcoming season? If you would have stayed at rice and averaged 13, 14 points per game. You know, I don't know where that is on a scale of you know zero to 100 i don't know even if it's 25 then you get to that point and then he enters the transfer portal after next year he's a much

Starting point is 00:05:34 higher sought after commodity that you're having to compete more to get so maybe this is a little bit of buying in early on a kid that you can get to know in the system a little bit and you do like some of the skills and you did like some of the skills in high school that you can untap some of it and you know maybe the the long-term potential and future here isn't somebody who you know is going to be a starter for you down the road but could they eventually be an eighth man a ninth man for you in a couple years like yeah that's that's definitely something that can maybe develop into but yeah it's the three-point shooting that kind of uh comes about for this kid that you like the future potential of what that could be.

Starting point is 00:06:07 And at the very least, if that's a walk-on, having a good shooter as a walk-on, that's clearly not a bad thing. Some other numbers to look at here. He struggled against better opponents this year at Rice versus Ken Palm top 100 opponents. They played 10 games, and he only shot three of 27 or 11% from three-point range. Year before at Vanderbilt in eight games of such, he shot 27%, so that's better, but still not great. That means for his career against Ken Palm top 100 teams, 18 games, only 18% from three.

Starting point is 00:06:36 So hasn't totally translated to games. And basically this is me saying, like, don't necessarily expect this to be somebody who is guaranteed that he turns into rotation player what I just said there about being a future eighth or ninth man like that is the probably higher end of the outcome here but this is kind of a low risk thing when you're not bringing on a scholarship player other numbers of note on the synergy stuff 46th percentile this past year on the defensive end in his year at right at Vanderbilt excuse me He was in the 29th percentile on synergy on the defensive end. And then this past season on some of the offensive numbers, more limited sample size, he was only in the 36th percentile

Starting point is 00:07:14 as a spot-up shooter. That's something that you would expect to get better based on the scouting report and stuff like that. But, yeah, he was only 15 of – well, I guess it was the two-point spot-up shooting now that I'm looking at it that made it bad because he was actually 15 of 40, which is 37.5% on spot-up threes. So good spot-up three-point shooter, but because he took some spot-up twos, it lowered the percentage.

Starting point is 00:07:36 Anyway, also as good as a pick-and-roll ball handler, limited sample, but ranked in the 86th percentile there. And then when you look at some of the shot types that he took, he ended up finishing in just the 24th percentile on catch-and-shoot threes. But you're seeing a little bit of the same thing, because he went 16 of 42, or 38% on catch-and-shoot threes. He went 9 of 19, or 47% on guarded catch-and-shoot threes last season. What killed him was some of the other catch and shoot stuff. But yeah,

Starting point is 00:08:08 this is basically the scouting report is this. He's a three point marksman. That's coming in as a walk on that probably is. I mean, clearly more talented than I don't know, other walk-ons you've had. I mean, last year you brought in the kid from Cal state Northridge who's since

Starting point is 00:08:24 transferred this year. And that was a more talented walk-on because that was a former D1 scholarship player. This is a D1 scholarship player, former Power 5 D1 scholarship player, near top 100 crew who's playing at a, even though it wasn't, you know, 30 doesn't really mean anything for this year if the idea is to redshirt him and it doesn't change the scholarship count. So it doesn't affect who Kansas is going after, who Kansas is recruiting, how many players can they bring in. It doesn't affect any of that. What it does affect is the practice side. And then what it possibly affects is the future. Because you look at after this season, okay, you're going to be graduating DeJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams and anybody else who has a decision about going pro

Starting point is 00:09:04 and anybody else who transfers at the end of the season, right? Having stability, having possible players to come back that you know are going to add to that stability the following season is obviously a good thing for KU. And when you look at Shelby after those first two years, he'll be a junior this year, which means if you're redshirting him one year, then he would have three seasons at your school with you, two to play, and one as a redshirt. So you're getting kind of longevity out of this with a good shooter who, yeah, best case scenario, maybe becomes a back-end rotation player by the second or third year of his career and is hitting threes off the bench and having more shooting off the bench. That's never a bad thing. Worst case scenario, it's just a walk-on that we're not really talking about unless coming in mop-up duty, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Starting point is 00:09:49 So nice pickup for KU and Bill Self, even though it's not going to get the same headlines as like the AJ Store edition or something like that. All right, let's continue on what's next in the offseason for KU and what this means for the Jayhawks on this edition of Locked on Jayhawks. First, we're brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs.

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Starting point is 00:10:51 Two and a half million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. That is linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. What's next for KU in the offseason? What this means? We'll get to the latest offseason scuttlebutt too on this episode of LockedOnJayhawks.

Starting point is 00:11:15 By the way, tomorrow, Tuesday, officially 100 days out from KU football, so we'll go over some fun KU football content for that. We're also planning to have Nick Schwert on the show later in the week and possibly another player deep dive. Obviously, if there's any other breaking news stuff to get to, then we'll get to that when it comes up.

Starting point is 00:11:33 So make sure you subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcast. So obviously with Shelby coming in as a walk-on, this doesn't have an effect on adding any scholarship players. Kansas still at 11 scholarships with the dangling 12th of Johnny Furphy in the draft process. Seems like Kansas is going pretty hard after another player to try to give them their 12th scholarship guy, and then that dangling 13th one would be Johnny Furphy.

Starting point is 00:11:59 But it seems like they might be going after even above and beyond further than that. Like maybe it's not just the 13th guy. Like maybe they are trying to find contingency plans that Furphy stays in the draft, but maybe they're just expecting that at this point. Cause it seems like that's kind of where the arrows are pointing that they do want to play with 13. And I guess from a standpoint of,

Starting point is 00:12:22 if you're bringing in a player who can be here for multiple years, in one sense, it does like add up to basically say, hey, let's bring it. Let's use the 13th scholarship this year as opposed to next year, because you can bring in a player who when you're shorter on scholarships the following season, now they've been in the program with a year under their belt. I don't know. That's one possible thing. But or maybe you just load up as much as you can and bring in as many players who can win now as possible and don't care about the years and figure that, well,

Starting point is 00:12:49 the following year if you have to play with 12 scholarships, whatever. We'll worry about that when we get there and we can still build a really good roster with 12 as opposed to with 13. But, yeah, this has no effect on the scholarship counts and who they can go after and who they cannot go after, all that sort of stuff. Again, this just kind of gives them more freedom and flexibility the following year.

Starting point is 00:13:07 And I don't know if the idea would be, maybe it could even be something like that. I don't think this is the idea, but like, could it be a situation? What if KU only does play with 12 scholarship players this year and they end up not filling the 13th? And then the following season, you are sitting and needing a 13th scholarship player, which can be a lot harder because you have to find the right guy who's willing to come in and kind of realize that hey I might not be part of the rotation maybe you just give Noah Shelby a

Starting point is 00:13:36 scholarship the following season and it's basically like you have 12 scholarship players this year and next year or 13 this year next year depending on which way you look at it on which side of the aisle there with with Shelby as a walk-on or scholarship player um kind of awaiting the end results now of the combine and the pre-draft process too uh but certainly sounds like KU is kind of in the thick of things for you know a guy like Jackson Robinson and uh some of these other players they're kind of targeting and going after in the transfer portal. So, yeah, basically, this doesn't it doesn't block anything from happening from here on. This doesn't turn into a situation where it's, oh, they brought in another guard. Now they have to bring in a wing or now they can't bring in another scholarship player.

Starting point is 00:14:20 It has no effect on anything like that. It just adds a little bit more to the team. Like I said, with with Ryland Griffin, too, if you look at it there, Ryland Griffin can have this year and another year. Now maybe Ryland Griffin balls out so much this upcoming season, you know, based on the trajectory he's taken his first two years, that he ends up being an NBA draft pick at the end of the 2024-25 season. It doesn't matter, but you know, that that's probably appealing for both guys too, that hypothetically both could be here a couple years, be in the program with each other for guys who are kind of friends and have played together growing up.

Starting point is 00:14:51 And, yeah, the ceiling outcome for Shelby, maybe they are part of the rotation together by 2025 to 2026, because by then KU will be graduating to Juan Harris. Maybe Marco Jackson's back for another year at that point. KU's in on some of these big 2025 recruits at kind of the guard position, the lead guard positions with like Darren Peterson and Darius Acuff and some of these guys. So certainly would be interesting there and where that kind of plays out. All right, what is the latest in the offseason for KU?

Starting point is 00:15:22 We'll get to that coming up in just a moment. The latest scuttlebutt on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. It's winner take all time in the NBA and NHL. We got golf going on right now, and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 to bet on spreads, money lines, player props, and more. You can even get in on some futures like the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl.

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Starting point is 00:16:17 FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook and official sportsbook partner of the LockedOn podcast network. We're back here with Locked On Jayhawks. What's the latest going on in the offseason for KU? I was reading that FanDuel ad, and there was a giant strike of thunder next to me. It's freaking me out, but we're keeping going, keeping going. I'm just glad we didn't lose power on this episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Like I said, there's been kind of a lot of, I guess, rumblings going around the Jackson Robinson side of things as he's been at the combine along with Johnny Furphy because it seems like it's really setting up to be a Kansas Kentucky Arkansas race should he come back to school but I don't know it seems like he could just stay in the NBA draft too right like I don't know that he would be somebody who would get drafted maybe he would I mean six seven wing who can really score from a lot of levels like that is very appealing to NBA people um but definitely somebody who I could see being like hey we might not draft you but we will definitely give you a two-way contract as an undrafted player and that can be a you know

Starting point is 00:17:18 dangerous life in terms of uh what is your guarantees and stuff like this but it can be a fruitful one if you make it count. So you can understand that kind of working, but yeah, should he come back? You have the Kentucky element where Mark Pope, the former BYU coach is now at Kentucky. I do find it interesting that two of his former BYU players have now transferred to Louisville, which is Kentucky's big rival, obviously, right?

Starting point is 00:17:46 And that almost feels like to me, to go to the rival school across the country and end up at the rival school, that almost feels like sticking it to the coach. I don't know if that says anything about anything, but maybe that's there. Go back to Arkansas, where he began his career with Jackson Robinson and go with Calipari or with Kansas and obviously a little bit familiar with the Big 12 after this past season with BYU. So that one certainly heating up, especially should he decide to be forthright and come back to college as opposed to staying in the NBA draft. Also, there was a four-star decommit from Stanford, a guard in Elijah Crawford. And according to rivals, he has heard from Kansas. So this would be one where we're going back to the idea of,

Starting point is 00:18:34 do you fill 13 scholarship players regardless? And what if you brought in for your 13th, you brought in a player who could be more of a development player, where you figure, hey, if we're bringing in a 13th roster player this year, they're probably not going to play much this year anyway. So why don't we get somebody who we can kind of sit in the system, maybe to play some spot minutes here or there and some of the blowouts and stuff, but for the most part, doesn't play a ton this year and helps set up, helps develop their game for the following season. Now, what you have to go with in today's day and age, it's very different than 10 years ago. 10 years ago, 20 years ago,

Starting point is 00:19:03 that was common practice. Everybody did that. Why would you not fill up your, your roster amounts, your scholarship amounts, because you want to get as many players you can get in the system and develop as possible. Now there is a little bit of what's the point sometimes, because you do end up doing that. And you're like, Hey, we're going to bring this kid into the system. We're going to sit him for a year. We're send for two years develop him and then by year three he's gonna be a player well guess what by year two year three either one of the camps whether it's the player camp or the coach camp the coach is like yeah we don't think you're good enough we're showing you the door or the player is like hey i'm not giving you playing time here i'm out or

Starting point is 00:19:40 sometimes the two cross over so that can be a little bit of a different game now, but point being, that one kind of becomes interesting there. And then also keep an eye on Javon Small, who hasn't actually signed. Kind of similar, different situation, at least from what I'm kind of gathering. But remember when Riley Kugel committed to Kansas, but then he didn't actually sign yet. Javon Small committed to West Virginia,

Starting point is 00:20:03 what was it, a couple weeks ago, a week and a half ago? He hasn't actually signed yet. Javon Small committed to West Virginia, what was it, a couple weeks ago, a week and a half ago? He hasn't actually signed yet. I don't know if that means anything. I would still prefer if you were choosing between some of the guys we did deep dives. I won't even count Cam Christie, who we did a deep dive on last week because we haven't actually heard any reported connections with KU. And honestly, Cam Christie might end up staying in the NBA draft and be like top 40 pick in the NBA draft but um between I guess Jackson Robinson, Wuga Poplar and Javon Small honestly if I want to add Chaz Lanier in there I would have small fourth on that list but I don't want that to be taken as like I don't think he'd be a good addition I think he would be a good addition it would just be fourth among those things it's like if I go out to get ice

Starting point is 00:20:44 cream you know and I try to order my first three things. It's like, if I go out to get ice cream, you know, and I try to order my first three flavors and they're like, oh, sorry, we're out. And then the fourth flavor, they're like, yeah, here it is. Like, I'm still going to be happy. It's ice cream. I'll be happy, but not going to be my favorite one. Right. I just like the ability of wings a little bit more versatility. I think that small is probably the worst defender of Robinson Poplar linear and small, and he's a smaller guard. So, you know, but again, I think he'd be a good addition and a good player to add. Just you prefer kind of those other ones.

Starting point is 00:21:12 At least I do. All right. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Check it out. We had a Javon Small deep dive a couple of weeks ago, so you can check that out on the show anywhere. You get your podcast and maybe you already did. If you're an everyday or out there.

Starting point is 00:21:23 All right. A hundred days from KU football tomorrow. we'll talk about it on that episode and plenty more KU basketball KU football contents make sure you subscribe to the show checking out our podcast anywhere you get it wherever you get it and we'll see you next time with LOJ

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Adds Rice Owls/Vanderbilt Commodores Transfer Guard Noah Shelby

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