Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Makes First 2024 Offseason Move: G/W Riley Kugel from Florida Gators

Episode Date: March 31, 2024

Florida Gators transfer guard/wing Riley Kugel has committed to Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team for 2024-2025. Bill Self's first move of the 2024 offseason adds a tough shot-creator with great a...thleticism and potential. What Kugel brings to KU, how he fits the team playing next to Dajuan Harris, and what it means for Kansas future pursuit of offseason players like Zeke Mayo, Liam McNeeley and others.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer.Amazon Fire TVFire TV recently created Fire TV Channels to deliver a constant supply of the latest videos from your favorite sports brands, all for free. That includes all of us at Locked On and most of the big pro leagues and college conferences as well. To Learn More, visit www.amazon.com/LockedOnFireTVLinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGEfor $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.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)

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The KU and Kugel now stands for something Riley Kugel has committed to Kansas as the Jayhawks have their first offseason splash for 2024. 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 give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. And thank you for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available 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 are going to be talking about Riley Kugel,
Starting point is 00:00:44 who is the guard slash wing transfer from Florida, who is now on the University of Kansas. And Kansas is their first splash, their first edition of the offseason, their first movement of the offseason headed into the 2024 to 2025 season. So we'll break it down. Who is Riley Kugel? Information on him, how he fits KU, and the impact for KU. Does this affect how they would go after other targets, other players? What does this mean for guys like Zeke Mayo and Liam McNeely?
Starting point is 00:01:11 All on today's episode of the show. But first, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. So we did an episode actually just on Friday, which was kind of a deep dive on Riley Kugel. And we went into the scouting report, who he is and stuff. Highly recommend checking that one out. And if you're an everydayer, you already did check that one out. So thank you for doing that. We're going to go a little bit more over that and go a
Starting point is 00:01:36 little deeper on some certain stuff with Riley Kugel here with his addition to the University of Kansas. He is a six foot five guard slash wing from Florida. Now I mentioned this that I think on one of his 24 seven profiles that has him as a point guard, like another has him as a shooting guard. He even played the three and a little bit of four minutes for Florida in his freshman season. So realistically he can, if you have to slot him in one through four, but I think realistically for what Kansas is going to ask him, he'll be a two and a three. So he spent two years at Florida University of Florida. He came in as a top 60 recruit nationally. So this isn't just a kid who just blew up lately. Like he was a high level
Starting point is 00:02:13 recruit coming in. He's going to have two years left to play, which that's always nice to have. And we've actually seen a lot of success of transfers in year two, like in year one transfers had success, but really the year two guys like Texas made the elite eight with a bunch of year two transfers a couple of years ago. Tristan Newton had a good enough year to win a title in year one as a transfer, but he's been, I mean, all American level good in year two. So you see this all the time. So that possibility is nice though. I'm sure from the Google's perspective, he wants to ball out good enough in his one year
Starting point is 00:02:40 at Kansas that he can go off to the NBA. And if he plays that good enough and plays well enough, I guess I should say, in that time, then I think everybody would be totally happy with that. But apparently he spent some time growing up in the Overland Park area and was actually a KU fan. He actually posted on his social media, on his Twitter, pictures of him as a kid wearing a Kansas shirt and stuff like that, which that can never hurt and never hurts to endear you to the fan base, certainly.
Starting point is 00:03:04 I had him when we were doing our offseason rankings rankings i officially slotted him in i mentioned this on friday didn't have him initially there because i wasn't sure uh the interest from kansas knowing that hey he had some struggles coming off the bench in terms of how he reacted to that at florida didn't like that so much that from the kansas perspective if they are interested it means that they would have to be interested as a starter i'll'll get into that in a moment, at least what I would think. It maybe doesn't guarantee it, but certainly from what I think from that perspective and to where I was like, okay, is that something Kansas is interested in? So I didn't have him on there, good or bad. But once you found out Kansas was interested and he was in the final four, I put him on a tier two,
Starting point is 00:03:41 which tier two for me, tier one, I was only secluding. I mean, there's very few guys that even have in tier one for any of the different positions is that not just somebody who's going to come in right away and be a starter, but somebody who's going to come in right away and be like, you're projected to be like all big 12 first team. You're projected to possibly be an all Americans. Like what Hunter Dickinson was last year for Kansas. I am in tier two, which I still viewed to be like, yeah, you, you could end up being up being an all-conference player. You could end up being a starter. In fact, you probably will start, and you're still a really good player. And so that's where I had him. And his freshman year at Florida, 9.9 points per game on 46-38-66 shooting splits, including him averaging over 12 points per game in SEC play, over 15 points per game from February on of the season,
Starting point is 00:04:25 and over 17 points per game in the last 10 games of the season for Florida that year. If he were to transfer it after his freshman year, this would be a tier one guy, but it's just because tier two, the production was down a little bit. Sophomore year, 9.2 points per game, 39 from the field, 31 from three, 70 from the free throw line. Now that does include some highlight games. He had 25 points against Baylor. He had 24 points at Wake Forest. He had 22 points in a win against Auburn and he had 11 points coming off the bench in their tournament game against Colorado. But of course, season was a bit tumultuous because at one point kind of midway through, he did get sent to the bench. Florida was a better team this year than they were a year ago. They brought in some extra guard talent with like Zion Pullen and Walter Clayton.
Starting point is 00:05:09 And for whatever reason, things were a little more inconsistent. I think Todd Golden maybe didn't love the, I don't know, whether it was an effort thing or a defensive thing or gambling on defense and going for the big plays more than just the basic plays or the inconsistent shot making because the shots weren't falling as much this year and you have other good guard options. And then it ended up him going on the bench about midway through the season.
Starting point is 00:05:34 He had a stretch where I think maybe missed some games. I don't know if that was off the court disciplinary, not off the court, but not handling the bench issues well. There were a couple of games he played like back to back where he had like three and six minutes. Those weren't great, but seemed to the bench issues well. There were a couple games he played like back-to-back where he had like three and six minutes. Those weren't great, but seemed to correct that by the end of the year. Again, he came off the bench in the NCAA tournament and had 11 points. And, you know, he's a 20-year-old kid.
Starting point is 00:05:54 Sometimes for a guy who's probably been like the best player everywhere, he's gone top 60 recruit and then has a great year as a freshman at Florida, and then you're expecting to have another great year and possibly be an NBA draft pick. That can be frustrating a little bit, and maybe just the change of scenery is kind of what you need and everybody needs to make everything happier because by all accounts like I I think sometimes we can get too caught up in the idea that oh this guy was a you know a problem for the head coach because he didn't like that he was going on the bench and yeah in an ideal world
Starting point is 00:06:23 you know every player that you have is going to accept their role in whatever that ends up being and not cause problems for the coach or other players or whatever at the end of the day though if that's your biggest problem like it's yes you want to get that worked on and yes you hope that that's not the case kansas and it might not even matter he might be a starter and everything but like that's way better than having like an off the court issue you know like you can might be a starter and everything. But like, that's way better than having like an off the court issue. You know, like you can still be a great person and just like once your competitive switch goes on, you do not do well in those situations, right? And so, you know, we know Bill Self
Starting point is 00:06:57 actually likes it a little bit when players, like you go back to certain guys like Russell Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor and Frank Mason, guys who talked back a little bit to Bill Self in certain ways that there is a certain line there that you can't cross. But like, as long as you're doing certain things well, and you're being tough, like, I don't know, Bill Self actually does like a little bit of that, that brushback in a certain way. So this past year, what led to some of the differences besides that maybe it was more of a
Starting point is 00:07:21 mental thing or overcoming, you know, some friction here or there that led to the differences in the year. One of the big things I looked at, the amount of contested shots, guarded shots he was taking, dribble jumpers he was taking, was very similar from year one to year two. It's just one year, they went in way more efficiently than the other. This past year, he also struggled inside. He was in the 47th percentile, so basically about average in efficiency at the rim, but he was only 26th percentile in efficiency in the paint, where he shot just 31%. So some of the floaters didn't go down as much maybe this year. Defense was not great. It wasn't like horrible, but 35th and 38th percentiles from freshman to sophomore year per synergy.
Starting point is 00:08:00 But he's a great athlete, and we're going to get to a scouting report here from the Athletic which kind of mentions that yeah maybe some of the offensive struggles led to playing worse defensively I think that if he can just be an average defender that's kind of all you're asking for because you know you have a good defensive point guard and Dwan Harris and you got a good defensive coach in Bill Self you're looking for the offensive playmaking I think there's a lot of comps you can make here to Wayne Seldon, right? Wayne Seldon was even higher on the recruiting rankings than what Kugel is, but you have two guys who are like six foot five. Seldon could play as kind of an off guard. He could bring the ball up a little
Starting point is 00:08:35 bit. He could initiate the offense a little bit. For the most part, he was a two and a three. And his last year there with, you know, Devontae Graham and Frank Mason. He's a three. And he's a six-foot-five power wing who's a good athlete. I think Kugel's an even better athlete than that. But the efficiency wasn't there the first two years. I think as you get older in college basketball, the shooting and the consistency, those are two things that get better. And I think that's something you're looking at that Selden broke out his third year,
Starting point is 00:09:03 his junior year at Kansas. And I think that's something you could kind of point to and expect from Riley Google. So, I mean, this is a huge high upside swing. You're kind of hoping to buy low on like it's, it's the classic dip down that you know, you're expecting kind of the pop back up. And one thing I really like about this guy beyond the fact that he has shot making potential, which this team needs more of, he has excellent athleticism, which this team needs more of. He plays up in big games, big game player in 25 career games against Ken Palm top 50 opponents.
Starting point is 00:09:32 He shot 41.4% from three. So this dude steps up in the key moment and that's always endearing to a fan base. So this is a, from the athletic who has their updated like transfer rankings. He was ranked, uh, I think 45th, 46th on there on there uh he said the six foot five scoring wing is arguably the best athlete in all of college basketball this is specifically from sam vasini by the way he does great work uh no i'm not exaggerating few players possess his blend of power explosiveness and coordination he's built like an nba player and moves like one his first step is lethal many including me thought he had a shot at the at being a 2024 first-round NBA draft pick. And then it goes on to say, man, he had the bad season.
Starting point is 00:10:10 He was removed from the Gators' starting lineup after 11 games. His shot selection and decision-making during that time were horrendous. He committed too many turnovers. And then his reads weren't good enough, which he let the offensive struggles affect his defense, though he at least brought more energy later in the season. And then it kind of finishes up here saying that they have Google ranked this high based mostly of the previous year performance, but his upside is tantalizing.
Starting point is 00:10:34 And he said it would make sense for a big school to take a swing. So you can read the full blurb on that on the athletic and highly recommend checking that out and Sam's work and everything. But I made the Caleb Love comp on Friday's show that there are similarities that Caleb Love had this. And I think for Caleb Love, it was year two that he had his great year at Carolina when they went to the title game. But anyway, he had a great year at Carolina. They go to the title game. He goes off in the tournament, decides to come back for another year, and it just doesn't work. It wasn't a great fit with the roster they had.
Starting point is 00:11:02 Things dip off, whether it was on the court, off the court, coaching staff, whatever it was. Things just dipped off for Caleb Love. Then he decided to transfer, new change of scenery, worked for Carolina. It worked for Caleb Love. It was a good thing for both, team and player. Goes to Arizona, wins Pac-12 player of the year.
Starting point is 00:11:18 Now, I know Caleb Love had a really bad Sweet 16 game, and that's not ideal, but he won the Pac-12 player of the year, and he helped Arizona get a two seed and a really high seed and make the second weekend of which kansas was not able to do i heard another good cop from uh shout out evan riggs who was talking to me about this and he said malik newman some similarities there that yeah newman it wasn't a great fit for him in mississippi state and you know he had kind of underwhelming stats after coming in as a five star to mississippi state comes to kansas at that point you had to sit out a year as the transfer portal and then he obviously you know had a bit of an up and down year but still solid stats and I mean, stats after coming in as a five-star to Mississippi State, comes to Kansas at that point, you had to sit out a year as the transfer portal.
Starting point is 00:11:45 And then he obviously had a bit of an up and down year, but still solid stats, and then just went off in March for Kansas and is now a legend in Lawrence for what he did in March. So I think there's some similarities you can have there. And like I said, I think there's some Wayne Seldon comps as well, just in terms of the career arc and everything like that. So I think for Kansas now, you have another guard. And the beauty of this is it doesn't pigeonhole you in any way. You can play Kugel at the two, you can play Kugel at the three, which means, do you want to add another guard?
Starting point is 00:12:13 Do you want to add another wing? You don't have to be like, well, we just added this guy and he plays this position. So now we can't add this other guy too. No, it's like, okay, let's just add whichever one's better. And then we'll move Kugel to the two or the three, whatever's better there. I expect Kugel to be a starter for what it's worth. I want to tell you why in just a moment, because I've seen a couple people, I don't know, this maybe is more of a vocal minority or something, be like, okay, I'd love him if he's coming off the bench. I don't think that's something that's going to happen. So let's discuss that, how he fits in with KU,
Starting point is 00:12:41 and the impact on the rest of the offseason for the Jayhawks on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite sporting event shouldn't be stressful. GameTime is fast and easy. It's an awesome way to buy tickets to sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. They have killer last-minute deals on tickets with their best price guarantee. You can stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hyped for the fun.
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Starting point is 00:13:29 time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code locked on for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed okay so uh how does Riley Kugel fit in with Kansas well as I was kind of talking about here I expect him to be a starter now whether that's starting as kind of the two guard or is the three guard I think kind of depends on a decisions like what is Johnny Furphy gonna do uh b decisions of what else is gonna happen in the transfer portal in the offseason. Guys like Zeke Mayo and Liam McNeely and some of these other targets that we've kind of talked about.
Starting point is 00:14:10 What's going to happen there and where do the chips lay? Now, I will say, I'm not saying that it's like a guarantee that he starts because I don't think Bill Self would really guarantee it. Like, he really does want competition. He made the comment, I think it was to Fran Fraschilla, like that they mentioned was during the big 12 tournament, where he was like, he wants eight starters for five spots. So from that perspective, maybe he's viewed as somebody who's competing for a starting spot, regardless, he's going to be in the rotation. And also the plan when you brought in Remy Martin, who had even more college production and more, you know, college awards, I guess you would say then Riley Kugel was for him to start. He ended up coming off the bench for KU, right? So as much as I'm about to say this,
Starting point is 00:14:44 I do know that there is a world where it is flexible and goes the other way. But here's my thing. Why would you bring in a guy, if this was your plan, a guy who, okay, he's a really good athlete, he does all these things well, but the knock that went against him, the thing that caused him to have problems this year at Florida was that his role got diminished and he came off the bench and that he did not handle coming off the bench well. So why would you in turn, if you're Kansas say, you know what, this guy did not like coming off the bench and he did not play as well coming off the bench. Let's make him a bench player. I made this a comparison on Twitter. So if you saw it, this will just be a rereading it, but like, it's like the a bench player. I made this comparison on Twitter. So if you saw it, this will just be rereading it.
Starting point is 00:15:26 But like, it's like the equivalent of this. Let's say you own a restaurant, okay? You own a restaurant and you're looking to hire a chef. And you go to this other restaurant and you love this chef. Everything you order on the menu, you love. You love the, I don't know, the lobster. You love the soup. You love a bunch of the other things on the menu.
Starting point is 00:15:43 But every time you get a steak from that other restaurant, you're like, eh, it's overcooked or it's not seasoned right. I just, I don't know, the lobster. You love the soup. You love a bunch of the other things on the menu. But every time you get a steak from that other restaurant, you're like, ah, it's overcooked or it's not seasoned right. I don't love the steak. I love everything else. I love this chef, but I don't love the steak. And then you hire that chef for a position to cook steaks at your restaurant. It's like, why would you, like, don't you want to go and play into the strengths of what you're bringing on?
Starting point is 00:16:03 You know, so from that perspective, I guess I would just view it from Riley Kugel's perspective. He's probably going, wherever I go next, I want to make sure I'm a starter because I did not like coming off the bench here at Florida. And from Kansas' perspective, they're probably going, hey, we need more athleticism and shot creation. This kid has a really high potential. And, you know, he didn't like coming off the bench. Well, let's bring him in and he'll start, you know? So that's just kind of my take on, on that. And I think that makes the most sense from the kid's perspective,
Starting point is 00:16:30 moving forward, they, they still at minimum have two open scholarships. So there's still plenty to do in the off season. That's at minimum. That's if Johnny Furphy comes back, that's if Hunter Dickinson comes back, that's, you know, if El Marco Jackson and Jamari McDowell stay, that's if all these things happen, they still have two open scholarships. And that's if Artario Morris's scholarship did count to last year's team. If it didn't, you still have three open scholarships. Then if any of those players leave, it's three, it's four, it's five open scholarships. So there's still plenty of room for Kansas to add at this point, kind of in time. So I think on the court, it checks two of the
Starting point is 00:17:00 biggest boxes for KU. If you were asking me, what are the biggest boxes for KU to check in the off season here? I mean, obviously this stuff can move because depending on who stays, who goes, all that sort of stuff, it's going to switch a little bit. But I do think the last game of the season added in a new box, which was like, you need more defensive versatility and perimeter defense. Yes, that's totally fair. But the biggest ones for me all along were athleticism and shot creation, tough shot making. I would also add shooting in there, which I think is separate from shot creation and making like shot creation is somebody who can create a tough shot when like the shot clocks winding down or
Starting point is 00:17:35 in a one-on-one situation and ISO situation, because it's hard over the course of a game. You're not going to be able to always just dice up a defense with passing and ball movement and stuff like that. Right. You have to, it sometimes just be able to get a big boy bucket, you know? So that's different than just like shooting, which is more of like spacing the floor and somebody being able to, you know, sit in the corner and knock down an open shot. Like those are similar things, but they're different. So those are the big boxes for me, really the four big ones.
Starting point is 00:17:58 And he checks the athleticism. I mean, just heard the athletic scouting report and the shot creation thing. And I think that's what he really adds. Both of those two. I will say too, though, he actually was excellent in corner three-point shooting. 45% on corner three-point shots last season at Florida. He makes tough shots. He takes, he can get to them, especially more his freshman year than his sophomore year. And I think the potential and the ceiling of what this kid could be, if you get everything
Starting point is 00:18:22 clicking, I mean, he could be a first-round draft pick type of guy. He could be the type of guy who puts up 15 points per game. And yeah, Caleb Love, one Pac-12 player of the year, like that he's in some of those discussions, right? I think some of the biggest questions, though, it is defense. I mean, 6'5", athleticism, like there's no reason he can't be a great defender. But as I point to the synergy numbers, 35th percentile as a freshman, 38th percentile in defensive side of the ball
Starting point is 00:18:45 in his sophomore season. I think just the consistent shooting and the shot selection, I think a lot of times shot selection, taking bad shots too often can result in inconsistent shooting and can result in inefficient play. And so year two, he just didn't see as many shots go in as he did year one and some of the same shots. But a big reason why, it really came down to one zone. Riley Kugel shot 21% on mid range twos last season. That is really bad. Year before he shot 50% on mid range twos. That is excellent. So like, it's not just
Starting point is 00:19:18 that you saw swing where like one year was pretty good. One year was below average. It's like one was like elite. One was like not very good, right? So what are you going to get? Is it going to even out? Is it going to go back to his freshman year? What are we going to see? You also saw just 28% on above the break threes for Riley Kugel. Keep that in mind. 28% on above the break threes, 45% threes in the corner. Think about that for a second. What happens when you're taking corner threes? More often than not, it's in the flow of the offense. It's ball movement to get you up in the corner or you're standing corner threes more often than not it's in the flow of the offense it's you know ball movement to get you open the corner or you're standing in the corner and somebody left you and you got open shot an open three it's in the flow of the offense a lot of times above the break
Starting point is 00:19:53 threes are more so when you are taking like a contested three or three off the dribble or kind of a you know heat check type of three it's above the break right and so it makes sense that for a guy who you you know, you're trying to work on maybe the shot selection a little bit, the big difference in discrepancy there. So if he can hone in the shot selection a little bit, and which I think will be helped by having a pass first point guard and DeJuan Harris, who's going to set him up for better, you know, opportunities and everything, this kid can be awesome for Kansas. And I think he brings a lot of fun stuff with the shot creation and the
Starting point is 00:20:26 athleticism that this team was certainly missing. All right. Impact on the rest of the off season for KU with this move on locked on Jayhawks. Fire TV is your destination for sports from live games to highlights to in-depth analysis. Fire TV offers amazing viewing experiences with smart TVs, as well as the fire tv stick that
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Starting point is 00:21:18 NBA getting to playoffs, and lots more. Not to mention great news, entertainment, gaming, travel, cooking videos. Check out Fire TV channels on fire tv and alexa devices so what does this mean for the offseason for ku because i think it'd be easy to see and be like oh you're bringing them right to the google does that mean uh el marco jackson's going to transfer does that mean that uh zeke mayo is not going to be able to come here or that one of these other guard you know transfers that you like or as part of our targets or that KU is at an interest in, like, they're not going to come because they got their guard. No, I don't think so at all to any of those, because the, first of all, I think for the most part, Bill Self is looking to play like three main guards
Starting point is 00:21:56 at the one and two position, right? You play DeJuan Harris, 30 minutes, you play your starting two guard, you know, whatever, 25, 30 minutes. And some of those minutes can be at the two. Some of them can be at the three. And then you have a backup guard who can play the one or the two. And they get 15, 20, 25 minutes, right? And then you have three guards basically taking up the majority of those two spots. I think that's pretty ideal for Kansas. Well, if you have DeJuan starting at the one and Riley Kugel starting at the two,
Starting point is 00:22:20 well, then you have a competition between El Marco and LeBaron Phylon. Let the best man win. And the winner gets that third guard spot, which is still playing pretty hefty minutes. And then the fourth guy is maybe more spot minutes here or there, right? There's still that opportunity. I mean, from the perspective of, well, you can also play Kugel at the three, right? If Kansas is like, hey, Zeke Mayo put Kansas in their final four.
Starting point is 00:22:41 If Zeke Mayo wants to come to Kansas, boom, you play DeJuan at the one. You play Zeke Mayo at the two. You play Riley Kugel at the three and you have a ton of playmaking and shot creation from your guard positions there right and then if if it's like oh Furphy wants to come back and Liam McNeely wants to come to KU then it's like okay great we'll play Kugel at the two and we'll play two wings with Furphy and McNeely at the three and the four whatever it is right I mean there's so many decisions that still have to be made from Hunter Dickinson to, you know, I don't know who's going to be added to the team and all that sort of stuff.
Starting point is 00:23:09 But my point being is this. Because of Kugel's flexibility, whether he can play the two or the three, if you're Bill Self, you don't have to be like, well, now we're just looking for the top wing or now we're just looking for the top combo guard. You can say whichever one we deem to be best and that wants to come here between a combo guard or a wing, we'll add and we can make it work now because we have the flexibility to do it in the lineup.
Starting point is 00:23:32 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back on Tuesday for, I keep promising we're going to get to this big targets episode. We've got our wings and our guards, but news keeps coming out since then. So we'll get to it eventually. I'll put it that way. We keep having breaking news. It's not a bad thing, but certainly we will get there when we get there.
Starting point is 00:23:49 All right. This has been locked on Jayhawks. Still plenty more to come. Zeke Mayo put Kansas a final four cliff. Omar Rui. There's some talk there about Kansas kind of heating things up a little bit too. So you're going to want to make sure you're subscribed and catching every
Starting point is 00:24:01 show here and every day, or as part of locked on Jayhawks. See you next time, anywhere you podcast or on our YouTube page.

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