Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Offseason Impact of 4-Star PG Labaron Philon Asking Out of NLI

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, LeBaron Phylon, top five point guard in the class, is decommitting from Kansas, asking for his letter of release, what it means for KU's offseason. 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. Find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can give us a follow here with the show, anywhere you get your podcasts with Locked On Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:35 and find us on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're on a podcast platform that allows you to give us a five-star view. Give us one if you could. It very helps us out on our end of things. LeBaron Phylon has requested his release from his National Letter of Intent with Kansas, and we're going to be breaking that down on today's edition of the show,

Starting point is 00:00:55 what it means, what KU is losing out on Phylon, how it affects Kansas for the rest of the offseason, how it affects their team in 2024 to 2025, and the effect on who's going to be the future point guard one for Kansas. We discuss all that on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by Monopoly Go. I admit it.

Starting point is 00:01:13 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 or Google Play Store today. All right, so we're going to start with what Candice is kind of losing here with LeBaron Phylon, and thank you to the Everdares tuning in to each and every episode. Don't forget we had an episode come out that talked about, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:38 Kobe Brea, and I think that'll circle around into this one coming up here in a little bit. But Phylon, who is he? He is a four-star point guard in the class of 2024. So he was going to join as an incoming freshman this offseason. He was a six-foot-four guard. He's listed as a point guard, but if you want to call him a combo guard, whatever. Originally from Branson, Missouri.

Starting point is 00:02:01 Basically everywhere you look, he's somewhere in that like 26 to 33 range in recruiting to basically top 35 recruit in the country. And on 24-7 sports and the 24-7 sports composite, he was the number three point guard in the class. It was a very big deal when they landed him as it should be. And as it will be for the next school that ends up landing LeBaron Phylon, it is a big deal. He is one of the better recruits in the country. Here's the scouting report. According to on three, he a quick on quick lead guard.

Starting point is 00:02:31 He has long arms and a projectable flame frame with wide shoulders. Phylon has a quick handle that gets him into the paint. He can knock down a jump shot with three point range and consistency. There's confidence and competitiveness with Phylon. He needs to add strength as he has a slight frame. There's upside on the defensive end. He can move his feet guarding the ball and is quick to get into the passing lanes. There's natural smoothness he has on the ball with an upside to continue getting better.

Starting point is 00:02:53 Now, we saw this happen last year. That in today's day and age with the transfer portal, from his perspective, you can understand it. Obviously, there's a chance that he could come into Kansas right away and beat out a Marco Jackson, or maybe he is just that talented and that good, and he's even ahead of a guy like Zeke Mayo or something in terms of what you're talking about in the pecking order. There's a chance that you could do all that, but I don't know.

Starting point is 00:03:19 The odds are going to be a little bit against it there, and there's also a chance that you don't beat out Zeke Mayo, that you don't beat out a Marco Jackson Jackson, who for what it's worth, Elmarco was ranked higher as a recruit than LeBaron Filon is, and now has a year in the system, unlike him. Now, every recruiting class is made different and everything, but point being, there would be a chance that LeBaron Filon goes to Kansas and he gets buried on the depth chart. He doesn't play much in year one, which I know we love the kids who stay and develop. And I still do think there is a soft spot in my heart and many people's

Starting point is 00:03:51 hearts for the kids who are willing to say, you know what, screw it. I'm going to compete. I'm going to deal with it. I'm not going to chastise a kid. I'm not going to hold it against a kid for thinking the opposite. I'm just going to hold up a kid who wants to do that. And so if he wants to go, you totally get it because yeah, you could be buried in year one. And in a world where the transfer portal, as much as it has led to freedom for players, it's also led to freedom for coaches to basically be like, Hey, if you're not as good as I think you are, even early on,

Starting point is 00:04:18 I'm not going to be patient about it. I'm just going to go bring in this transfer portal kid who we know has done it at the D1 level. And you're going to constantly be over-recruited to where if you don't get playing time in year one, it's not like it was, you know, 15 years ago, where it's like, oh, if you don't get playing time in year one, you'll probably get some playing time in year two. By year three, you might be a starter. By year four, you might be an All-American. No, it's like now, well, you'll just get recruited over in the transfer portal if you don't perform in year one. And then you may never hit the court and then you're gonna have to transfer anyway so um it is an unfortunate loss because i had heard good things about lebaron phylon's leadership ability and i was excited

Starting point is 00:04:53 for his future at kansas this is just kind of how things go now as we saw last year when kansas was ultra aggressive in the transfer portal and it led to chris johnson it led to mar Adams, although I don't know, maybe it didn't lead as much to Marcus Adams. That might have been other stuff kind of going on. But anyway, led to some freshmen you had leaving without end up actually playing for you at Kansas. Now, I do think the one difference here, though, while you look up and Marcus Adams is transferred, whatever it's been like four times at this point three times at this point and Chris Johnson didn't really play for Texas this past year and now had to transfer down a little bit while you look back at those and you're not overly

Starting point is 00:05:35 spurned with what kind of happened there this is one of those where I could see LeBaron Phylon go to whatever school and you know in a couple years you look back and you're like oh man that would have been cool to have him in a Kansas uniform but that said it does equip Kansas and it does equip Spring Bill with another bit of artillery because they have another scholarship to work with now possibly let's discuss how this affects the KU offseason how this affects the 2024 to 2025 Kansas Jayhawks and how this affects the future of the point guard starting position under Bill Self at Kansas and in Lawrence. First,

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Starting point is 00:07:10 of the LockedOn Podcast Network. All right, so how does this affect the KU offseason now? Because as much as I was excited for LeBaron Phylon, it felt like this was a distinct possibility from the word go that, yeah, you have DeJuan Harris and you have Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel and, you know, Elmarco Jackson, guys that could possibly be ahead of you. Who knows? Maybe Jamar McDowell takes a big step in year two. If they're going to end up adding Rylan Griffin, that's another player who could be playing, you know, some minutes at the two because he figured Phylon

Starting point is 00:07:40 would have played his minutes at the one and the two. So you're talking about, you know, how does this affect KU this offseason? How does this affect KU this season? Well, let's start with the offseason. This, first of all, means Kansas has another scholarship to play with. And as we did our Kobe Brea deep dive earlier this week, Kobe Brea, please check out that episode if you missed it, 49% three-point shooter at Dayton. And it's not just

Starting point is 00:08:05 about Kobe Brea it's about adding anybody else really because if you're under the assumption that Kansas is going to land Rylan Griffin which seems to be a lot of people expecting that but again recruiting is weird and you never know what happens till the very last minute so whatever but regardless of what you think is going to happen there you know Kansas does not have a ton of scholarships open to a point where before LeBaron Phylon left, Kansas had, I guess you would say, 12 scholarship players. A 13th would be either Rylan Griffin or Johnny Furphy coming back from the NBA, if I'm right, because DeJuan Harris, Riley Kugel, A.J. Storr, Hunter Dickinson, Elmar Marco Jackson, Zeke Mayo, Rakeesh Passmore, KJ Adams, Floyd Budunga, Jamari McDowell, Zach Clements, that's 11 right there, right? So Griffin would be 12. When you had Phylon,

Starting point is 00:08:52 I guess that was your 13th, if you had Furphy back, right? So point being, you don't have a lot of room to work with, with a number of scholarships to bring on other players. And sometimes this stuff just works itself out to where now you can say, okay, well, without LeBaron Phylon, you know, that leaves Kansas. If Johnny Furphy stays in the NBA draft, that would leave Kansas with 11 scholarship players. Let's say you land Ryland Griffin on Friday. That would give you 12 scholarship players. You could be done there. But as we know, due to the NCAA stuff, they have to give up a scholarship, but that could be this year or that could be next year.

Starting point is 00:09:28 And so they could say, hey, we still have a scholarship open. Do we just leave it there in case Furphy wants to come back? Or do we go out and get a Kobe Brea? Do we go out and get a Max Shunga or one of these other players who's available in the transfer portal of Javon Small, something like that, right? Those are entirely possible, and now they are possible because this happened. For all we know behind closed doors, I mean, that becomes kind of interesting

Starting point is 00:09:52 that we probably won't find out, was this more of a LeBaron-Fylon decision? Was this more of a Bill Self decision? Was this more of a Bill Self decision to say, hey, we want to get the more win guy now, and I don't know how much you're going to play. I'm just going to be honest with you. If you want to stick through it, then I'll be happy to have you, but I'll help you out if you want to find a new school. Or was this more from the LeBaron-Fylon camp where it was just,

Starting point is 00:10:13 hey, we just want to find somewhere with more playing time? I'm assuming it's more of the latter if I'm picking one, but again, that is just kind of a complete guess. But yeah, now Kansas does have a scholarship to get more creative with, and it doesn't even mean that they have to use it. Because again, if you had Rylan Griffin on Friday, you'd be at 12, and you could just say, hey, we're contemplating 12, and we'll just leave the 13th open in the case that Johnny Furphy

Starting point is 00:10:35 does decide to come back from the NBA, which, I don't know, that might not be the overwhelming consensus right now. Obviously, it also means now that there's less competition, I guess, or maybe more minutes available. Although, again, if he was going to be behind all these other guys, I don't know how many more minutes, but less competition for guys like Elmarco Jackson and Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel and Jamari McDowell probably has a bigger impact on like McDowell and El Marco in terms of that playing time and the role on the team and everything but it could have a an impact on Zeke Mayo and Riley Google to the standpoint

Starting point is 00:11:11 of like you know maybe if LeBaron Phylon was going to play 10 minutes a game now that 10 minutes is gone could all of that just go to the next guy to fill in could that go to El Marco Jackson could it go to Jamari McDowell or would those minutes just get divvied out and then here's an extra three minutes for Zeke Mayo here's an extra three minutes for Riley Kugel and an extra four minutes for Marco who knows right but it does kind of lighten that up at least a little bit at least until again if there's another guard that kind of gets added on because going back to that first part if they do use the scholarship to land someone good who's actually better right now than what LeBaron Phylon would be, whereas Phylon might be better long-term, then it actually could

Starting point is 00:11:49 lead to the opposite. It could lead to less minutes to play right away for some of these guys and even more competition. So it is funny how quickly those things can kind of turn on a dime. KU also has now one less possible point guard, but it's not something where it's like, okay, now you have to recruit a point guard in the portal. Now, maybe they would, right? Maybe there are some players out there who you would say, hey, I'm interested in bringing you on. We maybe have some minutes in the backcourt, right? I know John L. Davis is still out there, but I don't know how likely that one would kind of be. Maybe a Javon Small, who was at Oklahoma State last year um I don't know Max Sholga is kind

Starting point is 00:12:25 of a combo guard Primo Spears if you're looking for for maybe a bench guard Jaden Stone Jalen Leach Leland Walker guys who could maybe play a smaller role and just give you another body there the the guard position that are uh still available out there but you should be fine if you don't want to do that if you're just like hey let's bring on Rylan Griffin and Kobe Brea and just bring on wings because DeJuan Harris we know is going to play a lot of minutes at the point. Zeke Mayo can play point guard and Marco Jackson can play some point guard. And it's like in a pinch if you had to play, I guess, like, I don't know, a lineup where Jamari McDowell was your fourth point guard where you had to come in for three minutes

Starting point is 00:13:00 because somebody was in foul trouble. Like, would that be the end of the world if he's surrounded with a bunch of talent? No, probably not. So, yeah, I think they would be fine there. Now, it is hard to say how this affects KU's level of play and how this affects how good they are or, you know, what level can they get to for this upcoming 2024 to 2025 season because you don't exactly know what you're getting from a freshman.

Starting point is 00:13:23 And, yeah, you never really know what you're getting with any new player, right? Like as much as I think AJ Storrs is going to come in, hit the ground running and be this awesome scorer for KU. Sure, there's a chance that he comes in and like Remy Martin, perfect example, like multiple time, like all Pac-12 performer, averaging like 20 points per game at Arizona State. And yes, at the end, he was this dominant player. And there were flashes at the beginning.

Starting point is 00:13:44 Like you think of the Champions Classic game where he scores like 15 off the bench. and yes at the end he was this dominant player and there were flashes at the beginning like you think of the champions classic game where he scores like 15 off the bench and i think it was the uh it was tarleton state or stephen f austin i don't know somebody that they played that um they had to kind of win close late and he came up with some big shots there were moments but it wasn't an automatic translation right so there there always is questions about when you have something new how it's going to translate but that is even magnified when it becomes a freshman, because how many freshmen do we see come in that end up being way better than their recruiting ranking? And how many freshmen do we end up seeing who end up being, you know, players who don't really even play in year one, right? I mean,

Starting point is 00:14:20 you think of like Grady Dick, for instance, like he was ranked in the low teens, but based on his performance, like he was basically like a top 10 recruit for my money. I mean, he was like the Gatorade national player of the year. So if you're just talking about impact in college, which I know the recruiting rankings, a lot of them are based on career. So they are factoring in, you know, where's your ultimate potential in the NBA and everything, which is not going to be as applicable to the college game. But if you were just ranking recruits for, I think that'd be interesting. I would love for there to be a recruiting website where it just ranks recruits based on their college game. Because I think that would be a different way

Starting point is 00:14:51 of looking at things that would be kind of a nice between the two that you could look at. Because again, Grady Dick, from that standpoint, especially if you're talking about hitting the ground running in college, probably would have been a top five recruit in the country from the college perspective. Now he was still like a lottery pick. Right. So it's not like he would have been that much further, but like point being, you have other guys where like, I remember, I think it was like, I don't know, like Tyrese Halliburton or something like that for Iowa state. I forget if he was a one and done or two and done,

Starting point is 00:15:18 but like he hit the ground running right away for Iowa state. He was ranked in like the forties or fifties or something like that. And clearly he was better than that. I guess he turned into an NBA star too. So maybe that was one that was just wrong overall. But I don't know. I guess you don't really know is the point I'm trying to make here, what you're going to get from LeBaron Phylon. And so it's hard to say what exactly you're missing out on. It could be something where if he hits the ground running right away and let's say he goes to another power five school and he averages 12 points, four assists per game and he's shooting, you know, 34% from three and he's a solid defender and a good athlete and everything. You're going to be looking up and they're going, man, you missed out on something there.

Starting point is 00:15:56 And maybe that would have been better than what you're getting from a couple of your guards. But there's also a chance that, because we've seen it before with so many freshmen, and think about just some of the recent classes where guys were unable to crack the rotation or were really able to establish being players on the team, and that that could have happened to LeBaron Phylon too. And if that's what was going to happen this year, then you're not really missing much out of this. So yes, there's a chance he beats out on Marco Jackson and was super talented and played 15 to 20 minutes a game. There's also a chance he was buried on the depth chart and wasn't really a part of that rotation. Now, I will say, I don't know. It's hard to, it's easy to, with the known commodity that El Marco struggled last year,

Starting point is 00:16:41 to say, hey, the new thing with LeBaron Phylon is going to automatically be better. But like I said, El Marco Jackson was ranked higher in recruiting rankings than LeBaron Phylon. And he has a year of Bill Self under his belt. Now, different styles, different types of players and every recruiting class is made differently. But yeah, there's no guarantee how it would have hurt. So it's hard to say this will hurt KU for this season because what if they use the scholarship

Starting point is 00:17:02 to get a player who's more win now, you know? But it's also hard to say that this helps them either because what if you do use that scholarship on somebody else or what if you don't use it at all and what if Phylon ends up being really good at his next stop? But one thing that this does have a real big effect on is who's going to be the starting point guard once DeJuan Harris graduates. Let's talk about that on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Scoreboard's not looking good.

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Starting point is 00:19:18 So this next season, don't really have to worry about that as much, right? As we talked about earlier, lots of options. DeJuan Harris can play point. Zeke Mayo can play point zeke mayo can play point um marco jackson can play point right you certainly have uh all the options there but what about after the season because zeke mayo will graduate duane harris will graduate well it'd be easy to say if if marco jackson you know performs well this season that he would be the guy at the point guard position. But what if Elmarco Jackson does the same thing, looks like the same guy he was this past season?

Starting point is 00:19:50 How confident are you going to be that that would be your starting point guard? You wouldn't be at that point. Now you are hoping for that big jump this year. Obviously, we just had an episode on Monday talking about the Darius Acuff Jr. visit, and he's the number one point guard in the class. If you land him, you feel like, okay, that's probably the guy guy and maybe it's el marco and him starting together or maybe it's just him starting right um but but i think it gives you one less option is kind of the point here

Starting point is 00:20:15 one less possibility of something happening one less where you know right now it was like okay maybe it would be el marco maybe it'd be lebaron phylon whoever wins out on that competition maybe it'll be a guy like a cuff maybe it'll be a transfer portal pickup you just have lots of options and and you still do have lots of options but it's one less option with lebaron phylon who was somebody who you know i thought could be a player for this team kind of long term but i'll say this el marco jackson has a real chance this season to establish himself as the go-to point guard for 2025 to 2026, come his junior season. Like this year for El Marco is huge because if, like I said,

Starting point is 00:20:52 if he is kind of the same guy, maybe he ends up transferring at the end of the year or maybe he's over-recruited or something. Maybe KU goes in the transfer portal in addition to whatever they do from the high school ranks. But if El Marco looks good, right? And that might not even be in a gigantic role. Like El Marco could look really good in a 15 to 20 minute per game role this year, but we see it all the time. Like this is going to be taking it to the extreme, but you'll understand what I'm saying because it's happened so many times at Kansas, especially in

Starting point is 00:21:17 the earlier days. You think like Thomas Robinson, the years he was behind the Morris twins, where yeah, maybe he's not playing 30 minutes a game. He's not playing 25 minutes a game, but in the stretches, he's out there. You're like, this kid's going to be really good when he gets the bigger role. You know, it was the kind of the case for Zach Eady when he was at Purdue behind, uh, oh gosh, what was the name of their other big man? I almost wanted to say Caleb Swanigan, but it's not anyway. Um, they had that or like Cole Aldridge when he was playing a much smaller role behind, you know, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Khan and all these big men that KU had where he's basically the fifth big man. But it was like you saw it in the flashes where it was like,

Starting point is 00:21:49 this kid's going to be good. That's what you're going to be looking for from Marco this year. Because when you have DeJuan and Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel and all these guys, he might only play 15 to 20 minutes per game. But if he looks really good in doing it, you're going to go into that next season being like, yeah, we feel good that he's our guy or that he can start next to, if you bring in a transfer guy or a cuff or one of these other guys. But if he doesn't look good, then yeah, you're probably looking at new blood

Starting point is 00:22:12 there at the point guard position where it wouldn't be somebody returning, which could be a little bit scary for Kansas where, you know, Bill self does well with, I guess, trusted experience in his system, especially at that point guard spot. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back to do some more LOJ. We have a football episode coming out.

Starting point is 00:22:36 We got Football Friday coming out, and maybe we'll have some Ryland Griffin news at some point later this week. That'll do it for this episode. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Offseason Impact of 4-Star PG Labaron Philon Asking Out of NLI

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