Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Lands Alabama Transfer Wing Rylan Griffen: Analysis of KU's Addition

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Rylan Griffin, the sharpshooting Alabama transfer, is officially a Jayhawk. 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 find me on Twitter at D Johnson radio. You can find our show with locked on Jayhawks anywhere. You get your podcast, including on our YouTube page, like,

Starting point is 00:00:31 and subscribe to the show. Certainly helps us on our end of things on today's edition of locked on Jayhawks. We're talking Ryland Griffin, officially a Kansas Jayhawk, how he fits in with the team. Because last time we talked about him in a deep dive, that was before AJ store committed to KU and before LeBaron Filon asked out of his

Starting point is 00:00:49 national letter of intent. So some changes to the KU roster, how does he fit in with the team? And is the offseason done or close to being done now for KU? We're going to discuss that on today's episode of this show. First, it is brought to you by Monopoly Go. I admit it, I have a competitive side and is a big fan of Monopoly Go, the mobile hit twist on classic Monopoly. So join your friends and download Monopoly Go, now free on the App Store and Play Store today, regardless of what your phone situation is.

Starting point is 00:01:18 Okay, so this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, as we talked about, if you're an everydayer and tuned into the episode, which was our Football Friday, even though it came out on Thursday, there's a reason for that. It's because I am currently away for a wedding. So I'm actually recording this ahead of time, which means if I guess this is me talking to the future. I don't know. This episode might never come out, but if it does, that means Ryland Griffin is a Jayhawk. I went ahead and did this ahead of time just in case that it did happen as there was rumors talking about that he could be announcing on Friday. So if you are listening to this and this is public,

Starting point is 00:01:50 that means that Rylan Griffin ended up being a Jayhawk after he was courted by KU from kind of the get-go of his entrance into the transfer portal. There were Alabama fans clamoring that there was poaching, that there was tampering going on from KU. Well, you can eat it because for, I don't know, maybe that's a little too rude, but I'll say this. There were like Kobe Bryant, Alabama poaching, tampering rumors too, right?

Starting point is 00:02:13 And it's just what happens in today's day and age. Regardless of what happened, doesn't matter. Ryland Griffin is now a Jayhawk. He is a six foot six wing who will be a junior for the 2024 to 2025 season after spending two seasons at Alabama. He played 15 minutes a game as a true freshman at Alabama. That was the team that was the number one overall seed in the tournament, made the Sweet 16. This most recent season, he averaged over 11 points per game while shooting 45% from the field, 39% from three on high volume for a run-and and gun Alabama team that made the final

Starting point is 00:02:47 four. He played the two and the three for the Crimson Tide. He was up to over 12 points per game in the NCAA tournament, 48% from three, including a big overall effort in the North Carolina game where he played really good defense on RJ Davis, though that's not exactly what he was most known for. It was for being a scorer and a three-point shooter. We did that Rylan Griffin deep dive a week ago, so I would still recommend checking that out if you missed it because it has a lot of good stats and a lot of good info and scouting report on his profile and a lot of good synergy stats. So go back and check that one out, and if you're an everydayer,

Starting point is 00:03:20 you already tuned into it. But I will rehash some of those stats here, not all of them, and then I'll actually give you some new stats here as part of this with Griffin being a Jayhawk. So 90th percentile in spot-up shooting, according to Synergy, 40% on spot-up threes. 73rd percentile as a pick-and-roll ball handler. Helps if he's playing the two because then you become that other initiator for the offense if you want to give DeJuan a little bit of a breather or something. 96th percentile in handoffs.

Starting point is 00:03:45 If you go under a handoff, he will just shoot it in your face, and Kansas likes to run the chop, play with handoffs. 84th percentile in catch-and-shoot. He went 40% on catch-and-shoot threes. He was 37% on guarded catch-and-shoot threes and 42% on unguarded catch-and-shoot threes. Both really good. According to Evan Miyakawa, among 123 players

Starting point is 00:04:05 in the SEC last year who played 500 or more possessions, he was sixth in the conference in offensive BPR. So it was basically offensive value was top 10 in the conference a season ago offensively. Now the defense remains some questions here. You look at synergy. He was only in the 36th percentile on defense a season ago, which would basically make him below average there. And he was only among the 123 qualified SEC players by Evan Miyakawa, 500-plus possessions. He was only 105th there. So those aren't great.

Starting point is 00:04:40 But one year prior, he was 32nd among the 124 qualified defensively by defensive bpr and evan miyakawa's site and the synergy numbers were much better in year one so you have one good sample size but it was him playing a much smaller role you have one not as good sample size in a bigger role at alabama part of that too could you know, a rising tide raises all boats. I don't know. I completely messed up that team. Whatever it is, it's the opposite because the Alabama defense was really bad. And so you're going to be put in some bad situations. So I don't think we have a full scope of how he is as a defender. Obviously he did really well in the RJ Davis matchup, but for most of the season, maybe it wasn't great. We'll see what it is at

Starting point is 00:05:22 Kansas. If he can just be an average defender, I think you gladly take that. So this is an interesting thing that you can find on CBB analytics, and you can basically go to a player's profile and you can see how they did statistically at everything, shooting the basketball, where they shot well from, you know, the different areas, how they did as a passer, turning the ball over and defensively and some of the stats and everything put together. And they have basically a, you can compare how this player, who are the most, who are the closest statistic profiles to their full game in the country, in a specific conference or whatever. So I want to do this for him as far as big 12 comparisons. What are players that he

Starting point is 00:06:06 compared to? And none of these are like, oh, he's a 98% comparison. But there's some of these where it's like, oh, he is 85% of his statistic profile is very similar to this player. And so I think this gives you kind of an idea of what you're bringing to the table with some other players in the Big 12 that you might have familiarized yourself with. So here are some of the, I'm not going to go over all of them, but these are just some of the players who were in his top 10 for statistic profile comps of the Big 12, according to CBB Analytics. The number one was Traven Nell from BYU, who was like one of the best shooters in the conference and in the country. Rivaldo Soares for Oklahoma. He was injured in the second time that the KU played

Starting point is 00:06:46 Oklahoma, so maybe you don't recognize him as well, but he was awesome in the Big 12 portion of the season. Langston Love for Baylor. He had that injury for Baylor, which was unfortunate for kind of their tail end of the season, but he was having an unbelievable year. I think at one point he was shooting like 50% from three in Big 12 play. Travion Tennyson from TCU is one of the statistic comps. We saw up close and personal what he did in Allen Fieldhouse and what he could do when he was getting going. And then Max Acemus from Texas was another one who was in the top 10 on this list. So again, it's not a perfect comp and there are some things that are ebbs and flows. And obviously it'll be a different

Starting point is 00:07:18 style of play for him at Candice than it was at Alabama. And obviously another year of growth, he should be even better this year as long as he can adjust to the system and everything but I don't know I thought some of those were kind of interesting and what's the common theme because here's the thing you would have taken any of those players on KU this past season you're saying oh you can add Trayvon Nell or Trayvon Tennyson or you know Max Aismith or Langston Love wouldn't that have been kind of perfect for Candice was looking for this past season? So I think all those are great. And overall, too, if you do a search query for Big 12 players in the 2023 to 2024 season, who averaged at least 11 points per game, shot over five three-point attempts per game,

Starting point is 00:08:02 and made at least 39% of their threes. Rylan Griffin qualifies for all those. The list in the Big 12 was only three guys deep. Darius Johnson at UCF, Jalen Bridges at Baylor, and Kirk Carissa at West Virginia. Griffin would have joined that list. And even if I expanded that search query, because sometimes I make fun of it too.

Starting point is 00:08:24 It's like, oh, he became the first player to score 10 points with three rebounds and exactly two steals on one of four shootings since Bo Rogers in 1935. Right? Some of that stuff can be a little silly. So I opened up the search criteria a little bit more. What if we looked at Big 12 players this past season who shot at least 37% from three? Again, Griffin was over 39%, but at least 37% on four or more attempts per game.

Starting point is 00:08:49 Again, Griffin was over five attempts per game and averaged at least 10 points per game. He was over 11 points per game. The only added names you would get on that query on that list would be LJ Cryer at Houston, Javon Small at Oklahoma State, which is slowly becoming another KU target, Simus Lukosius at Cincinnati, Chance McMillan at Texas Tech. And Traven Nell at BYU. So by looking at this,

Starting point is 00:09:14 and I don't know, you could have just looked at the stats and kind of deciphered this yourself, but I think this was another kind of cool way of looking at it. Ryland Griffin immediately is one of the best shooters in the conference, one of the best shooters in the power five for a team that what do they need? Exactly that. All right, let's continue on how he fits into KU, especially now that AJ Storrs part of the roster for KU on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience.

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Starting point is 00:10:54 because, if anything, you know, this would have just meant less playing time for Phylon, probably less the other way. But then again, maybe if Phylon would have been like a 10-minute-per-game guy or 15-minute-per-game guy, like maybe that means Rylan Griffin plays 24 minutes as opposed to 28 or something, wherever those minutes get allocated elsewhere. But even with AJ Storr aboard, I expect Rylan Griffin to start. Now, I guess hypothetically, if Johnny Furphy came back, maybe it's a better conversation where it's like, okay, I guess here, let's divvy it out this way because I think AJ Storr

Starting point is 00:11:24 could start at the three or the four. The way I view it is this way, because I think AJ Storr could start at the three or the four. The way I view it is this. DeJuan Harris is locked in to start. DeJuan Harris is going to be a starter for KU. Hunter Dickinson, if he returns, is locked in to start. Storr, to me, is locked in to start. Is that going to be at the three? Is that going to be at the four? Whatever. But that's three starters. I think Ryland Griffin will start. And that just comes from a couple things. One, I think he's a good basketball player. Two, I think he fits a lot of what Kansas needs. And three, you don't see a guy often go from a, hey, I was a starter on a Final Four team. to a school who is actually by some metrics worse than our school this past season and now not starting right that doesn't happen often no again like there will be open competition like bilsoff's not just going to hand them the keys to be the starter but if i'm guessing rylan griffin will end up being a starter and then the real competition there becomes i guess hypothetically

Starting point is 00:12:18 you could say griffin versus el marco jackson versus zeke mayo versus i guess riley kugel although at this point uh who knows what's going to kind of happen there. But what you could say, like, if we're comparing Riley Kugel, for instance, and again, there's some rumors in Scuttlebutt about, you know, what's going to happen if they're going to be able to bring him on. He hasn't signed yet, whatever. But, like, hypothetically, you could say, well, two years ago, Riley Kugel was the much better player in the same conference than Rylan Griffin.

Starting point is 00:12:44 This past year, Griffin was the better player than Kugel. But what does that mean? So like, would it be unthinkable if that were to happen in the competition? So those guys would be in competition. There would also be the competition of, are you wanting to start KJ Adams at the four or not? Because then that depends if KJ's starting at the four, then AJ Storrs starting at the three.

Starting point is 00:13:00 And then the two guard position is between Griffin and El Marco and Mayo and Kugel, which I would give the edge there to Griffin personally. Then again, you could also have the discussion of, well, are we going to bring KJ Adams off the bench? And then AJ Storr is going to start the four. Rylan Griffin is going to start three and we'll start Zeke Mayo at the two, or Rylan Kugel at the two, or El Marco Jackson at the two or something like that, right? Or insert another transfer that you could bring on at one of those other positions. That's entirely possible too. But I see Ryland Griffin, regardless of which machination. To me, the big question, like I view it as DeJuan's going to start, Stor's going to start, Ryland Griffin's going to start, Hunter Dickinson, if he's back, is going to start. The competition to me becomes,

Starting point is 00:13:40 does KJ start or do you start another guard with one of those other guys? But KU has a lot of good players and they have a lot of good competition now, which means that you should have a much better bench than you did a season ago. And we are kind of guilty of this each and every offseason. The idea that, you know, we always talk about the potential of a player and, you know, this player is going to bring this and oh my gosh, like that guy's going to be so good and he's coming off the bench. And then a lot of times we get into the season and that doesn't end up being the case, right? We kind of saw that the last two years at Kansas, but it feels a little more certain this time because it feels like you have more real production,

Starting point is 00:14:16 more proven college production coming off the bench this go around. Then some of those past years where the bench production was freshmen or guys making a jump to their sophomore year that you were expecting a big leap and it just didn't happen this one feels more like it's like okay well if you have Zeke Mayo coming off the bench like I feel pretty good about where that's going to be right or or one of these other guys are bringing in another transfer whatever it ends up being but obviously from Griffin's perspective he becomes one of KU's top scorers I think interesting discussion who's going to lead Kansas in scoring next season? I mean, Hunter Dickinson would probably be the prohibitive favorite there, but AJ Storrs is going to score a lot.

Starting point is 00:14:51 Like Rylan Griffin took a huge jump from freshman to sophomore year and was a great shooter. What if he takes another jump to his junior year and he becomes like Ochagbaje at Kansas, where you're just constantly getting him like threes and having him leading the team in scoring? I don't know. Basically, I guess you would say this. Like if Hunter Dickinson's like even odds to lead

Starting point is 00:15:08 the team in scoring and AJ Storrs like plus 150, if you're getting Ryland Griffin at like four to one, I might get in on some of that action, right? Would be kind of the way that I would put that. But I think if he does take that another jump, it's not unthinkable that he ends up being one of the two or three best players on the team. And heck, maybe Ryland Griffin already is based on the value he's adding to the team with the shooting. He provides more versatility, too. He provides more athleticism.

Starting point is 00:15:31 He provides more NBA and ceiling potential. But most of all, it is just that shooting. You needed more shooting, and this guy comes in and does just that at a very high level. He's a better three-point shooter than anything that Kansas had last season. And he is good enough to play big minutes for KU this next season. He makes DeJuan Harris better. He's going to allow him to get more assists and open up the court for him to hopefully finish better around the rim.

Starting point is 00:15:54 He makes A.J. Storr better because, you know, now A.J. Storr might have more driving lanes or more true one-on-ones. He would make Hunter Dickinson better because that's going to allow either for less double teams in the post or more assists for Hunter Dickinson if he gets doubled because it'll be a more consistent knockdown shot from the outside than the amount of times that Kansas missed wide open threes after Hunter Dickinson or DeJuan Harris passed out of like a double team or out of traffic. It's a huge pickup for KU that would fit any team. Every single team in the country is looking for wings. Every single team in the country is looking for wings.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Every single team in the country is looking for guys who can shoot because you know what, no matter what, regardless of the role, whether it's a small role off the bench or a big role as one of your top players, every team needs more of those guys. And so this is a huge gift for KU. And on top of all of this, he seems to have a passion for Kansas that it seems like he wanted to go there from the get-go. He has Final Four experience now. And he was on a number one overall seed as a freshman. There's a lot to love here.

Starting point is 00:16:57 I think now the question just becomes, what does this mean for the rest of the offseason for KU? Because I guess technically, Kansas has 13 scholarship players now with Ryland Griffin. If you're counting Johnny Furphy, they have 12. If you're not counting Johnny Furphy, if you're saying he's staying in the NBA. So I guess therefore is the offseason done? Let's answer that momentarily on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:18:08 download Monopoly Go, now free on the App Store or Google Play Store today. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, and again, I'm recording this at a time, so if it happened, that means that it happened, and that's exciting. I will make note real quick of this Sunday, I believe, is, or maybe it's the Saturday yeah this Sunday nope Saturday I don't know

Starting point is 00:18:30 whatever is the NBA draft early entrant uh like date that you have to uh put your name into by like the the early deadline so which means Hunter Dickinson we should be knowing by the latest this weekend what he's going to do so uh when we decide that or figure that out, we'll have an episode on that early next week. But as far as the offseason goes, Kansas is now sitting with 12 scholarship players, not counting Johnny Furphy, who is retaining his collegiate eligibility, but certainly seems like there is a lean toward him going pro. I remain to be seen that, I don't know, it sounds like a lot of the guys who are much more in the know than me and are experts seem to think that he is going pro, but everybody thought that

Starting point is 00:19:12 with Kevin McCuller too, and it ended up he came back last year. It seemed like that was the way it was going with Ochagbashi. He decided to come back. Things change, I guess, the way of putting it. So I'm just leaving my mind open to whatever can happen. But Kansas can play with 12 or 13 scholarship guys, depending on how they want to handle the NCAA sanctions. They can either play 12 this year and 13 the following season or 13 this upcoming season and 12 the season after that. Which, after LeBaron Phylon departed,

Starting point is 00:19:45 they now have that kind of extra one open. Unless you think Furphy can come back, then you would be at the 13 mark. Of course, Johnny Furphy could stay in the draft and you'd have one and or someone else could leave, which I guess there seems to be a lot of scuttlebutt circling back to the Riley Kugel stuff about if that's going to fall through and if he's not going to actually end up being a Jayhawk.

Starting point is 00:20:08 So I guess point being, the way I see it, you do have room for at least one more addition. Whether you do view the Johnny Furphy one as possibly being open or the Kugel one possibly being open or somebody else could possibly leave as part of a ripple effect of the Griffin decision. Maybe the Kugel part would be kind of part of that, just kind of circling through and tying things together there. And you just make things work as you go. So I guess the way I would say it, like it would have been one thing if LeBaron Phylon, if that news never came down, then we probably would be waiting to see if there was a ripple effect from Ryland Griffin coming in, if Ryland Griffin coming in led to anybody leaving. But now that the LeBaron-Fylon news already happened before the Ryland Griffin news,

Starting point is 00:20:48 and maybe they were in conjunction, maybe LeBaron-Fylon was informed of what was going to happen with Ryland Griffin, and the announcement wasn't public yet, it means KU is not done. And I'd imagine there's going to be plenty more kicking the tires with guys like Kobe Brea, maybe a guy like Javon small, maybe someone else, maybe, maybe it's not even players in the portal. Maybe it's a player who's entering the draft process and,

Starting point is 00:21:11 you know, decides to exit or something. I don't know, but spring bill will continue on and the off season is not done quite yet, but this is quite the pickup with Ryland Griffin. That'll do it for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere. You get your podcasts,

Starting point is 00:21:24 including on our YouTube page. Hopefully no more breaking news till next week, but we'll be back to talk about it when I do get back in the tune of things. So see you then on the next edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Lands Alabama Transfer Wing Rylan Griffen: Analysis of KU's Addition

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