Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Transfer Portal Target Deep Dive: Alabama Wing Rylan Griffen

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we deep dive into KU basketball transfer portal target Rylan Griffin. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hope you enjoyed the new intro. You can find me here, Derek Johnson, at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. And thanks for checking out Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every episode. Thank you to you for making it your first listen every day. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we are deep diving into Rylan Griffin, who is a transfer portal

Starting point is 00:00:45 target for KU basketball. We'll get into scouting report, how he'd fit in at Kansas, the latest in the transfer portal elsewhere, including some positive news for the KU women's basketball team that could also have a connection to the KU men's basketball team. First, today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $150. Win or lose, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. So we're going to start off with the scouting report information on Rylan Griffin. Then we'll get into how exactly he would fit in at KU and then the latest in the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:01:23 Let's start with this. Who is Rylan Griffin? Well, he's a 6'6 guard wing, depending on how you want to view him. Basically, he can play shooting guard, three-man most realistically. I mean, he could hypothetically play the four in a small ball lineup, which he actually did for some minutes for Alabama this past year, maybe like a handful of game. I think Ken Palm over their last like 10 games had him at like 9%

Starting point is 00:01:43 of their four minutes, so that's like three, four minutes a game. But he's like 190 pounds. You don't ideally want that, Evan. But still, anyway, you have versatility, flexibility with him. He is going to be a junior in college, two years of play so far at Alabama. And that'll give him two years left, hypothetically, of play. According to 24-7 Sports and Jayhawk Slant, Kansas did an at-home interview with him in Dallas over this past weekend which tells you the serious nature of this for Kansas so he's originally from Dallas

Starting point is 00:02:13 Texas where he was the number two shooting guard prospect and a top 50 overall prospect out of high school according to the 24-7 sports rankings he actually had a visit with Kansas when he was in high school he had an offer. Jeremy Case was his lead recruiter. Supposedly, the story goes, I could be wrong on this part, but supposedly the story goes that Kansas obviously only have a limited amount of scholarships each year, took MJ Rice over him, that he wanted to be a Jayhawk, but they took MJ Rice over him, and obviously that did not work out well for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:02:41 But maybe they can get a second chance here with Griffin on this go-around. So his first season in Alabama, he plays almost 16 minutes a game, which pretty good considering you're a true freshman on an Alabama team that ended up being the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament. He averaged about six points, two and a half rebounds. He scored double figures in eight of their games that year, five in SEC play. So you could see flashes from him as a true freshman coming off the bench. Year two, they graduate a lot of players, notably Brandon Miller and a couple other NBA guys. He's asked to do more.

Starting point is 00:03:12 He plays over 26 minutes per game. Alabama ends up making the final four, and he averages over 11 points per game, 11.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.5 steals while shooting 45.4% from the field, 39.2% on 5.3 three-point attempts per game, and 81% on free throws. He mostly played the three, though he did sprinkle in some of those minutes at the two and four. I think realistically, if you were to be brought into Kansas, you would mostly view him as a two and three type of wing. But again, it's kind of one of those guys where you're like, okay, Blake break glass in case of emergency as a foreman. It's like, you know, if, if something happens and we need somebody who's in foul trouble or

Starting point is 00:03:52 whatever, like you can get away with it in a pinch. So his numbers went up to 12.4 points per game during the NCAA tournament in which he shot 48% from three-point range during the NCAA tournament. And overall, on the Athletics' latest transfer portal rankings, as of at least Monday afternoon, he was number five overall on those. He would be KU's highest. I think Zeke Mayo's in the teens, and then Riley Kugel's in the 60s or something. So he's a player who can get threes off from all over the court. He can hit them from

Starting point is 00:04:25 really deep range. He can handle it a little bit. He's a decent athlete with length who plays off of two feet. He can dunk and play hard in transition. And you look at some of the advanced numbers and here's some stuff that's really going to, I think, intrigue you, so to speak. 88th percentile overall on offense. He's a very efficient player. And this kind of goes in track with what Alabama does. They shoot a lot of shots at the rim. They shoot a lot of shots from three. In fact, like Nate Oates is like, no, you ain't shooting mid range shots. So he is kind of an analytic dream in that sense. And he's going to get up a bunch of efficient shots because of it. And so he has been an efficient player. And I think that would be nice to have coming to Kansas. So it included him being 90th percentile in half court situation so this isn't just a case of hey you know Alabama

Starting point is 00:05:08 is a fast team they're running gun like is he only just putting up these points because they're just outrunning opponents he's getting over no 90th percentile in half court sentence he was also a 90th percentile in spot up opportunities featuring him going 36 of 90 or 40% on spot up three pointers. He was in the 57th percentile in transition. So basically average above average there. 73rd percentile is a pick and roll ball handler. So he can even, you know, initiate some sets for Kansas and has been efficient there. 96th percentile in handoffs, which Kansas likes to do that with the old classic chop

Starting point is 00:05:44 play. And if you go under on a handoff, he will just straight up shoot it. And a lot of times it goes in. He's also 94th percentile off screens, though that one more limited attempts, just 18 attempts, oddly enough. He was only fourth percentile in isolation scoring. So not really a big isolation score, which yes, only 14 attempts. You could say, oh, that's just a small sample size. Like anything could happen. But I think the small number of attempts kind of shows you that that's not really his forte of his game. So, you know, we've kind of talked about things Kansas needs to add in this offseason.

Starting point is 00:06:13 One of them is shooting, which he accomplishes. Another is off the dribble scoring, isolation scoring, however you want to say it. Well, that's not as much his game, but you added that with Zeke Mayo. You added that with Riley Kugel. And hypothetically, if you add more shooting, it's going to make the floor even easier for the guys like Mayo and Kugel. 400 against him if he's back for guys to operate in those one-on-one scoring situations that is going to make them better. So yes, it is still absolutely a fit there.

Starting point is 00:06:39 But back to the good, he was 91st percentile in jumpers overall. He was 84th percentile per synergy on catch and shoot opportunities which featured him going 58 of 146 or 39.7 percent from three on catch and shoot opportunities and it also featured him you might be wondering okay some guys are good only when they're unguarded which can be fine because maybe the role that kansas is going to be asking you to play if you have Hunter Dickinson getting doubled in the post and whatever is to only shoot unguarded threes. I mean, how many unguarded threes did Nick Timberlake have this past season that just

Starting point is 00:07:12 didn't go in? But he shot them well unguarded and guarded. He shot 37% from three unguarded catch and shoot opportunities, and he shot 42% on unguarded catch and shoot opportunities. So good at both there. He ranked 87th percentile in dribble jumpers, and he ranked in the 78th percentile on runners, which was a good counter. If a team tries to run you off the line, do you have a counter? His counter was, okay,

Starting point is 00:07:35 he'll attack the closeout and he can throw up a runner that he hit at a very high efficient rate. So that was good to see. He also shot 64% at the rim, according to Synergy, which was also in the 78th percentile. And if we look at CBB analytics, they classify shots at the rim a little bit different than Synergy. I think Synergy goes to like seven feet or something like that out. I could be wrong on that, but they do go a little bit further out. CBB analytics splits it up.

Starting point is 00:08:02 They go at the rim is four and a half feet or less. And they go in the paint. Twos are the ones that are in the paint, but outside of four and a half feet or less. And they go in the paint. Twos are the ones that are in the paint, but outside of four and a half feet. So on no perceived analytics on the ones under four and a half feet or in, he shot 74% at the rim. So he takes efficient shots. He finishes around the rim. You know, a lot of that Alabama getting transition opportunities and taking advantage. And he ranked in the 94th percentile there.

Starting point is 00:08:22 And then in the 62nd percentile and paint twos. But this guy's a three point marks marksman make no mistake about it he took almost double the amount of three-pointers as he did two-point shots and of his jump shots he took 10 jump shots that were not three-pointers he took 191 jump shots that were threes as far as where he made them, 38% about in above the break threes. That's 78th percentile. And 44% on corner threes. He also made 14 three-pointers. I love this stat. He made 14 three-pointers of 25 feet or long,

Starting point is 00:08:55 which is classified by CBB Analytics as a long three, the ones that are further out. He made 14 of them. Kansas as a team last year made 28. So he made half of their production from there. And yes, at the end of the day, a three is worth a three. Why do you need to take it longer? Like just take the most efficient shot.

Starting point is 00:09:10 But there is an element of it where if you're taking deeper threes, another team has to guard you further from the court. And the further they have to guard you from the hoop means there's more openings, means there's more spacing, means that there's more opportunities for other players, like a post player, to operate down low with that bigger spacing. Now here's more opportunities for other players like a post player to operate down low with that bigger spacing now here's kind of the weird one he was only in the 36th percentile on defense according to synergy so that would put you kind of below average and he was only in the 30th percentile in pick and roll defense ninth percentile in spot up defense so I don't know if

Starting point is 00:09:39 that means he got lost off the ball a lot or if that was a team problem for Alabama where he was getting dinged for other players making mistakes and maybe he was over helping or somebody else was supposed to cover him up and didn't I don't know because as a freshman he was in the 71st percentile in overall defense he also went freshman year almost a two defensive BPR on Evan Miyakawa to barely above zero 0.04 defensive BPR on Evan Miyakawa to barely above zero, 0.04 defensive BPR on Evan Miyakawa in his sophomore year. And on one hand, you know, you wonder if it's simply just the difference in what Alabama was on defense, right?

Starting point is 00:10:13 Maybe he was just like an okay defender. He's just kind of a guy. He's just an average defender. And so if you're just kind of an average player, like you're going to go on that end of the court, you're going to go with the flow of what your team is. In 2023, Alabama was the number three defense nationally, according to Ken Palm. This season, Alabama was 111th.

Starting point is 00:10:31 So was it just the team context thing, and he got screwed over trying to cover for other guys' mistakes? Or maybe if he has to be your third or fourth best defender on the floor, it can be great. But if he has to be your first or second defender on the floor, it's not good. I don't know. But on the other hand, he literally ranked last in Alabama among their 10 players who qualified on defensive BPR per Evan Miyakawa. So that's not, that's,

Starting point is 00:10:55 if you take him into context with the other players, he was last there. Maybe it's as simple as he had a lesser role in year one. So you have more energy, right? When you're a freshman trying to make your mark to exert on defense. Whereas in year two, you're asked to do more offensively, you're playing on a super fast team, it can get tiring, that doesn't have a ton of great defenders, it's easier to have that number go up a little bit. A lot of people have pointed to the Sweet 16 game where he was like the primary one guarding R.J. Davis, and R.J. Davis went four of 20 from the floor, who was National Player of the Year candidate, and so maybe it just means when it matters more, he's able to lock down. I'm not entirely sure what to think of the defense. That is a good example. Some of those stats say a bad

Starting point is 00:11:33 example. But still, Kansas, if they want Ryland Griffin, they want him for the offense. They want him for the sharp shooting. They want him for the scoring for the three-point shooting. If he is an average defender from the wing with elite shooting, you take it and run and have a big smile on your face. All right, let's talk about how he'd fit in with Kansas in just a moment on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. It's playoff time in the NBA and NHL.

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Starting point is 00:13:36 Download Monopoly Go now free on the App Store and Google Play Store today. How does Rylan Griffin, the transfer from Alabama fit in with KU? We'll get to that latest in the portal, some KU women's basketball transfer news that could have a correlation possibly to KU men's basketball. Let's start with this. So as I mentioned earlier, I think ideally for Griffin, you're viewing him as playing kind of a two and three. It'd be kind of similar to Riley Kugel.

Starting point is 00:14:00 Like that's how I'm viewing Riley Kugel right now for Kansas, where it's like, yeah, at a pinch, you know, you played a tiny bit of four, like a handful of minutes here at florida like same kind of thing there if you had to and you had to play you know a lineup of duan harris and zeke mayo and um i don't know another guard marco jackson or something or lebaron phylon and then riley kugel is technically the four and you have a seven foot center and hundred egginson or something or you can get away with that for, for a certain amount of time. That's kind of the same view for Ryland Griffin in terms of the,

Starting point is 00:14:28 the positionality and what he can do. I think it would be stiff competition between him and Kugel hypothetically for starting spot, but you know, it's too hard to say right now, like, Oh, where would this guy fit in?

Starting point is 00:14:41 Who would start here there? Because there's so many decisions that still have to happen. It's not even so many. It's like, it's really one main one with Johnny Furphy that has to happen. I know we're still waiting on a hundred Dickinson too, but that one's a little more cut and dry. And that like,

Starting point is 00:14:54 okay, if a hundred Dickinson's not the starter, then it's like, Oh, they'll probably just go to the portal and bring in another center or something. You know what I mean? Whereas with like Furphy,

Starting point is 00:15:02 if Furphy comes back, he's going to start, right? If Furphy doesn't come back, that's another starting spot that is open now so I think the way you view it like DeJuan Harris is going to start um if Hunter Dickinson's back he's starting at the five and then I think the rest is kind of a little bit up in the air like maybe uh you'd be leaning that probably KJ Adams starts because again and how often does Bill self not have a guy start, especially going into senior year. Then again, you know, maybe this is the one exception because there's a lot different.

Starting point is 00:15:33 I think about this one than, than maybe some other ones when you're looking at fit and style and some of that stuff. But anyway, you're, you're trying to figure that out. And so would those guys be, you know, Zeke Mayo, would it be rather Google starting? Would it be Ryland Griffin starting? Whatever it ends up being like whoever comes off the bench, I think there's minutes for everyone, and I think there's a lot of minutes to go around. KU isn't super deep on the wings right now,

Starting point is 00:15:53 and Griffin is a wing, so that would certainly help in that area for you. I think he'd be the best spot-up shooter on the team. Chance that Zeke Mayo could end up being the best spot-up shooter on the team, but given the levels of competition that we've more certainly seen Rylan Griffin go against, I'd probably choose Griffin in that conversation. I'd probably say Zeke Mayo the best off the ball or not off the ball, off the dribble three-point shooter on the team, and then Griffin would probably be the best spot-up shooter, but both are really good at both. And point being, you're talking about trying to overhaul your shooting

Starting point is 00:16:27 from last season. You've already added to it in a big way by adding Zeke Mayo. If Riley Kugel gives you the type of guy he was more as a freshman, you've added to it there. And if you add this kid, you add to it even more. Enough so that with those three players, like that's almost enough to like just be good enough at three-point shooting that I't know that how much more Kansas can have to work on. Obviously, you still continue to, you know, you never say no to shooting and all that sort of things.

Starting point is 00:16:50 But think of it this way between Griffin, Mayo and possibly Furphy returning. That could be three elite shooters. Now, obviously, Furphy could go pro, but if all goes right with Riley Kugel, like he can be kind of a top scorer. And then, I mean, if you're able to surround that with like an elite post-up big man and Hunter Dickinson, that could be a really exciting offense. So I think in, in a ceiling talk with Ryland Griffin, you're talking about in, in him hitting his ceiling. Like, I don't know, I've seen some 2025 NBA draft discussions that have talked about him being a possible NBA draft player. Like he's a former top 50 recruit. He's gotten better every year that he's been in college. I know that's really only one year over to the next, but there's no reason he couldn't be a guy who

Starting point is 00:17:32 averages north of 15 points per game, especially if you land him and like Furphy goes pro. Now Furphy comes back and Hunter Dickinson comes back. I don't know, maybe it's tough to get 15 points per game, especially at a slower tempo team than you were at last year with Griffin. But like still the ceiling here is he is an elite three-point shooter. He is a starter. He's averaging 12 plus points per game on very high efficiency and really impacting winning in a very real way. It's hard to say what the floor would be for him

Starting point is 00:17:59 because normally when we talk, what's the ceiling? What's the floor? I don't know. You have the conversation of is the floor coming off the bench and still being a rotation player coming off the bench it's hard to say that would happen with Ryland Griffin he was just the starter for a final four team at another power school in Alabama so I feel like the floor for Ryland Griffin like I guess I would put it this way among the group of Ryland Griffin Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel I'm not necessarily saying that Rylan Griffin is going to be the best of those three players. He just might. I just think all three players have high ceiling and

Starting point is 00:18:32 high potential to be the best player of the group. But I would probably feel most confident that Griffin would have the best chance of starting of those three. And it doesn't mean the other two couldn't start too, based on who comes back, who who goes, doesn't mean that one of the other two couldn't start whatever, right? I'm just saying from a standpoint of if you had to pick one of those three to have the best chance of starting, if you brought in Griffin, that would be my pick for the guy I'd be most confident in there. So from that standpoint, I guess the floor here is him being the fourth or fifth option as a starter playing around 25 minutes a night as a really good shooter, but not really doing much else. And if that's your

Starting point is 00:19:10 worst case scenario where, you know, the middle ground is somewhere between those two and there is a real chance you hit the ceiling of a very talented player here where you are getting an all-conference player who's shooting at a really high level and is giving you positional versatility and is adding to the spacing like I mean this is an obvious take right because you know for me we talked about the Colby Rogers deep dive uh about a week ago and that was a the decision there was he's a take but it's kind of a wait to take right you kind of have to almost wait to see what happens with the rest of your roster I don't think that's the case with Ryland Griffin Ryland Griffin is a take and he's a take, but it's kind of a wait to take, right? You kind of have to almost wait to see what happens with the rest of your roster. I don't think that's the case with Ryland Griffin. Ryland Griffin is a take and he's a take right now. Now, maybe the one conversation you have to have is, would we rather have Ryland Griffin or AJ Storr? Because right now you only have one open

Starting point is 00:19:57 scholarship. But then again, if you bring one of these guys on, is there an increased chance that a guy like Jamari McDowell or Elmarco Jackson leaves because you brought in another guard and then you have another scholarship open? Or what could happen with Johnny Furphy's decision, right? So I guess my point here is this. I think with Rylan Griffin, this is not just a take. It's a, if he's willing to say yes, it's not a, hey, we have to wait to see what this decision is. I would just say, let's just sign this thing up now and get this thing rolling. All right, let's continue on. What's the latest in the portal for KU and maybe some AJ Store news. First, this episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role,

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Starting point is 00:21:39 So some transfer targets have gone off the board since we've last talked. Micah Peavy is headed to Georgetown. That was one where KU showed some interest, but I never totally saw the fit because he's a really good player, but Kansas needs shooting, and that's not really my PV. So if KJ Adams or Hunter Dickinson, one of the two, wasn't on the roster, then yes, you could bring in a PV. But you've kind of allotted that spot for – you can almost be afforded like one guy who maybe isn't a clear shooter and you can make it work.

Starting point is 00:22:08 It's tough to do if you have multiple of those guys. So that always made sense. Jeff Inwonko, who was like a JUCO recruiter, kind of blew up. He's going to Cal, so that went off the board. Colin Boswell, who I don't think we ever got a chance to talk about that, transferred from Arizona. I was high on him, but he's originally like from Champaign, Illinois, or something like that, or nearby. And that seemed like the likely destination all the way along.

Starting point is 00:22:28 So he's going to Illinois. Colby Rogers, we had the deep dive on. He's headed to Memphis. So that one off the board for Kansas. Darlene Stone Dubar, who I know was a big on a lot of people's radars. I was kind of back and forth on it because to me, he was more of like a stretch four than he was a three man. And he was only in like the 12th percentile defensively on synergy but he was a great three-point shooter but i just didn't totally know the fit based on the defense and if he's playing more four than three i didn't know how that would interact with with kj and everything but uh he goes to tennessee and then dylan mitch entered the portal today that's one where i think good player but not a fit for ku because you have kj on the roster he's kind of the same good player, but not a fit for KU because you have KJ on the roster.

Starting point is 00:23:08 He's kind of the same idea. Really good athlete, not really shooter. Though Tyrese Hunter from Texas entering the portal to me, that one's kind of interesting. KU was in it last time. I think they had a visit with Tyrese Hunter. Really good defender, kind of a streak shooter from three. He's a decent enough three-point shooter that you could make it work. And that'd be a really good defensive backcourt with him and DeJuan Harris. But like, I I don't know KU's already brought in some guards you're looking at other ones where you can bring in more shooting so I don't know how likely that is but I don't know what I'm kind of keeping my eye on to say the least now here's a possible huge move that could happen for the men's team that relates to the women's team and it's also a big move for the women's team because the the women's team you lose three starters off of last year's team

Starting point is 00:23:43 Wyvette Mayberry decides to come back for her COVID year, her extra season, and pair with Samaya Nichols, who will be a sophomore and certainly should be in line for a pretty special season as she looks to take another jump in her sophomore year. But outside of that, you lose your three starters. And last year for Kansas, their bench was a bit of a struggle for KU. Now, you had some young players who come back this year and should be better for KU to help fill those gaps,

Starting point is 00:24:06 but there are going to be gaps to fill, whether it's in the starting lineup or off the bench. And so enter Sanaya Copeland, who is a 5'7 guard. She's originally from Kansas City, Kansas, went to one of the Olathe schools. She was at Wisconsin for two years. She's now transferring to KU Women's Basketball. So that's a big deal to bolster their roster. She played 30 minutes a game there at Wisconsin, who was right around a 500 team,

Starting point is 00:24:29 but obviously in the big 10 level, uh, average a little over seven points over two and a half rebounds over two assists per game. She took nearly five threes per game. So that showed confidence there. The efficiency wasn't great there under 30%, but it clearly showed confidence there that, you know, with another year under your belt, more consistency, more shots up in the summer, you know, maybe you're getting 33% on high volume, which would be obviously helpful. And KU needs more guards because you lose Zakiya Franklin and Holly Kerskieter at the guard positions. I do think it'll be interesting why that Mayberry is a bit of a shorter point guard and Copeland at five foot seven. How much are you going to play the two together? Is this to bring in another starting guard? Is it to have a good bench guard come in

Starting point is 00:25:10 with Copeland where you can improve your bench from last year is a little bit of both. Either way, you needed more talent and you needed some experience and Kansas got both those with that. Now, beyond the KU woman's angle, though, Copeland is the girlfriend of Wisconsin transfer A.J. Storr. And Storr is one of the top players in the portal on the men's side. He's more of a scorer, hasn't done a ton else. The three-point shooting was really good at St. John's. Then it went down at Wisconsin because he had to take more of them, and more of them were difficult shots.

Starting point is 00:25:40 But I think the shot translates well that with another year under his belt, it will get better. But he's a tough bucket maker and getter. Again, doesn't really provide much else, but he's a really, really good player and certainly makes it a little bit more interesting what would go down there and how this would all relate to Ryland Griffin. Can you take on both guys? How would that all kind of work? Either way, it's a good problem to have, to say the least, for KU. All right, we'll get to a deep dive of AJ Storr at some point here in the coming week or two on Locked on Jayhawks. Make sure to subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcasts,

Starting point is 00:26:15 including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with LOJ.

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