Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Lands Michigan Transfer Center Hunter Dickinson: REACTION

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Michigan transfer center Hunter Dickinson, the top available target in recruiting/the transfer portal, has decided to come to Lawrence to play for the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Reaction to the decision as Spring Bill Self strikes again, what it means for KU. Plus, guard Kyle Cuffe is transferring out of the program.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, they got them. Kansas lands Hunter Dickinson, the biggest transfer portal pickup in the transfer portal era, maybe ever. I don't know. That's probably a little hyperbolic, but maybe not. All-American level candidate. Let's discuss on a bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. 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 hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts and on YouTube, like and subscribe to the show. So we scheduled something for a way that came out on Thursday morning about Mackenzie Mbako, a deep dive. You can still check that out.

I highly recommend that because he is still available for Candace, and that's good knowledge for you to have on Mbako and what he could bring to the table but we found out thursday night a couple big things kyle cuff transferring out we'll get to that toward the tail end here we also found out thursday night hunter dickinson said he was going to be announcing on thursday and said goodbye to michigan we didn't know when on on thursday turns out he announced thursday morning and hunter dickinson has officially chosen kansas he will be attending the university of kansas in the 2023 to 24 season there's been some rumors out there about possible nil dealings or that it could be a two-year deal right he's he's going to be a senior this year it'll be his fourth year of college ball but his

first year was in the covet year so he could have two more years which you know i don't know that you bank on i think you almost view every player at this point in college basketball just appreciate the one year, and who knows, maybe they could transfer, they could go pro, whatever. But it does have the possibility for that, which is pretty cool.

But at the very least, you know, with Hunter Dickinson, you are going to get a very productive first year here. So Hunter Dickinson picks KU. This was one of the biggest recruits that bill self has ever been a part of andrew wiggins certainly had the pomp and circumstance you think the other big time pickups that he has gotten uh five-star recruits

transfer pickups from the lawson's to the josh jackson's of the world whoever it might be and we've always talked about spring bill and that he always comes through in spring. And what do you know? He did it again with the biggest guy who was out there, the biggest fish to fry, so to speak, with Hunter Dickinson. And he did it once again. And it is a perfect fit for this team and everything that they're going to go into. We're going to have an episode come out on Friday that'll go a little bit more in depth

about his fit with the team and everything like that and what possible repercussions could come after it because I don't think this is going to, I don't know, it might lead to a shockwave both across college basketball and maybe a little bit even inside the KU program a little. We'll kind of wait and see on that. But this is a obviously gigantic get for KU.

That is maybe even underselling it, how big of a get this is a obviously gigantic get for ku like that that is maybe even underselling it how big of a get this is for ku um let's discuss more after a quick word from one of our sponsors bill par are you looking for a delicious snack but don't want all the sugar and calories then you need to try the best tasting protein bar ever built if you're like me you want to eat healthier during the day you don't want to snack on cookies and chips and candy and stuff but it's not taste good with awesome flavors like churro peanut butter brownie cookies and cream they're covered in 100 real dark chocolate that's right real dark chocolate in addition to those amazing flavors i don't know how they do, but they taste like a candy bar while maintaining amazing macros.

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bar, or coconut puff. If you're close to a Sam's Club, head in, grab a 13-bar box with hit flavors like brownie batter puff churro puff you thank me later with bill parr all right so hunter dickinson picks ku um obviously for ku this immediately becomes your guy that we had all the questions of who was going to lead this team in scoring right it was kj adams going to get you 12 13 game with dewan boosted up to 12 13 would timberlake play enough to be that score would it be like a el marco jackson or something like that i i don't know like there wasn't an obvious answer for who would leave the team in scoring now hunter dickinson comes in and it is a very very obvious answer hunter dickinson should leave the team in scoring and rebounding, but it's a great fit for

the team overall because now you talk about for Kansas, adding Nick Timberlake was huge to have that three-point shooter. They're still not complete. They still probably need another three-point shooter. Maybe that could be like McKenzie Mbako, but all of a sudden having Hunter Dickinson, it makes every player a little bit better of a three-point shooter. It makes Nick Timberlake a better three-point shooter. You run him on the same side now if a double comes boom he's open uh now hunter dickinson's getting more assists now nick timberlake's hitting more threes because he's getting more open it makes dewan harris more open it gets right everybody maybe their percentage goes up a couple percentage points because they get more open threes having hunter dickinson on

the floor with him in the middle because he's a good passer and he's going to get double teams and he's going to be a behemoth with his stats in Bill Self-Type offense. Think back to Wayne Simeon, averaged over 20 points per game. And there have been a lot of great KU bigs that have put up double doubles per game or 16, 17, 18 points per game. Dickinson is about as skilled as any of them on the block. He can work into the mid-range. He can shoot three balls. This feels like a guy to me. I know, I guess it just happened last year with Jalen Wilson, but it's only happened three times in the Bill Self era that a player has averaged 20 or more points per game at KU.

I feel like that's going to happen with Hunter Dickinson. He is just such an automatic fit to everything Bill Self wants to do and being able to run through a big man. I mean, they were in the 99th percentile of post-ups ran when they had David McCormick. You have Hunter Dickinson, who I don't mean this is a disservice to David McCormick, who was a really good big and probably should have won final four MOP. But David McCormick was like an all-conference caliber center. Hunter Dickinson is an all-American caliber center. It is not crazy to think Bart Torvik now has Kansas, the number one team in the country with Hunter Dickinson.

I still think on, on a lot of the preseason polls, you'll might see them number two behind Duke, who would be number one. But if you're talking about one of the top five teams, one of the top three teams in the country, maybe the best team in the country, a guy who has a chance to put up 20 and 10 on nationally televised games all over with Kansas. That's not just an all American. That is a national player of the year, legitimate threat and candidate. So like, this is as big, like as much as the freshmen recruits mattered, like you brought in Andrew Wiggins and he averaged 17 points per game.

He was second team, all American. It's not often that you can land via recruiting whether the portal or freshman a first team all-american level player with this level of production it is very hard so that is why this is such a big get for ku um obviously this slides kind of some of the centers down the roster now it's like well you have a little less pressure on what is the development of year two going to be on some of those centers and it opens things up for everyone else it makes things easier to play kj adams at the four right i mean now that you have hunter dickinson who shot 42 from threes last year limited attempts and i don't think he's going

to be chucking up five or six threes per game but is he going to take two or three threes per game probably and that makes it more doable to play him next to kj adams along with what now it looks like with your lineup. You're going to be able to play like Nick Timberlake at the three. You're going to be able to play like two quick guards at the one and two that the floor spacing should be okay for you if you're playing KJ at the four and Hunter Dickinson at the five. This is just such a mammoth get to in addition to just keeping the momentum going forward for KU and recruiting and what this means as a program and what this means as far as how the donors are investing into NIL to kind of prove it and get Hunter Dickinson. And this certainly sends shockwaves across college basketball.

We'll dive a little bit further, much further, into what this pickup means, Hunter Dickinson, what possible, I don't know know any hesitations are there um how big of a fit he is and everything on on tomorrow's episode of locked on jayhawks but this is more of a bonus episode i do want to finish up here in just a second with the news of kyle cuff transferring out with locked on jayhawks there's also from last night kyle cuff is transferring out of ku and basically because of Hunter Dickinson going, normally Hunter Dickinson picking them this morning

would have meant they are full up on scholarships, right? They had one remaining. Dickinson picks them. They're out. But because Kyle Cuff is transferring out of the program, now even after Hunter Dickinson picked KU, they still have now one scholarship open. Could that be Kevin McCuller coming back?

Could that be McKenzie Mbako committing? Could it be someone else that is either in the draft process that we haven't heard from entering the portal or Ron Holland or whoever? I don't know. Now, there's a chance there's even more scholarships that open. What if any of the other centers want to leave now that Dickinson's here?

What if one of the freshmen, like we saw theris johnson social media thing what if that ends up coming to fruition and you open up another scholarship there that uh we don't know who all like there could be even more scholarships i guess is what i'm saying but the very least you do have your one now which brings up the possibility for kansas to have the dream scenario for a lot of fans which was adding hunter dickinson and mckenzie Baco. Now you can do both. We've said all along, like the scholarship numbers will work themselves out. This is part of it.

I will say, I just want to kind of do a little ode to Kyle cuff here. Like this kind of sucks. It's, it's the nature of the beast and you understand it in the same way that players have been given freedom to kind of transfer away. Coaches have been seemingly given more freedom to kind of guys off rosters. It's kind of worked both ways there.

And it sucks for a player like Cuff who really enjoyed the University of Kansas. He enjoyed being at KU. He enjoyed being a Jayhawk. And in an era in the transfer portal where a lot of guys will transfer because they want elevated playing time or opportunity at another program to be clear i don't think there's anything wrong with that

but i think it makes you celebrate the guys that do want to stick around and fight it out for more playing time even more so it sucks that i got that who could at least at the end of your bench you know if he's 11th or 12th man, he's probably not playing anyway. Bring that camaraderie and school spirit that could help unify a locker room. It sucks that he's no longer part of the roster. It sucks because he did want to fight it out, that he was comfortable kind of working into his role. And we don't see that a ton anymore. So I'm not celebrating him leaving.

I think it sucks to be completely honest, but it is the nature of college basketball. It has become kind of a big business. And I guess it does open you up to bring in one of these other big-time players and certainly add even more talent to the roster. But I really do wish Kyle Cuff well. I hope he goes to his next school and absolutely kills it because he seems like a really good dude and kind of sucks that he's leaving. But the show must go on, I guess, for KU.

All right, tomorrow's episode will be a full-fledged deep dive into Hunter Dickinson picking KU. This has been a bonus episode of Locked on JX. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. Find us on YouTube, like and subscribe to the show.

See you tomorrow. Later.