Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Transfer Portal Target Deep Dive: Minnesota Sharpshooter Cam Christie

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, deep dive into a possible Kansas basketball transfer portal target, Cam Christie. 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 D Johnson radio. You can find our show here with locked on Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like, and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:32 And on today's edition, we are doing another deep dive on another possible transfer portal target for KU basketball with Kim Christie. We'll also get into the Jayhawks adding a walk-on to the program and in-state player averaged almost 18 points per game in the local high school level in Will Thangval. So we'll get into all that on today's episode of the show. First, it is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more with FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:01:02 Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 with any winning $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started today with FanDuel. So let's start with Cam Christie. Who is he? Information about him and then what his potential fit would be with Kansas. So Cam Christie is a six foot six listed six foot six. He just measured in at the combine at six, four and a half without shoes.

Starting point is 00:01:33 So, you know, I guess six foot six probably applicable with shoes, 190 pound guard slash wing at a six foot eight wingspan there as well, who spent his freshman season at Minnesota with the Golden Gophers. And he is now in the transfer portal and he is testing the NBA draft water. So he's kind of one of those slashies where he's doing a little bit of everything just to keep basically all options open. Now to be clear, there hasn't been any reported contact. There hasn't been any reported interest from KU, any visits, anything like that yet. But it's clear to me that Kansas is still big game hunting at this point in the transfer portal. Let's say, I guess just based on the contact with Jackson Robinson and

Starting point is 00:02:20 Muga Poplar and I don't know, kind of the sniffing around the Chaz Lanier kid. Like it's clear they're still looking at some big wigs in the portal. And Cam Christie is one of those. And he is another kind of wing two, three hybrid type player, which fits into the billing of what those other guys they would possibly be adding. So, you know, let's say Johnny Furphy and Jackson Robinson, who they're courting, end up staying in the NBA draft. It's only natural that they could try to kind of kick the tires here if Christie were to pull out of the draft process

Starting point is 00:02:52 and take the transfer portal stuff more seriously. Maybe at that point they would be like, okay, our top target with Robinson's off the board. Who knows, maybe you go for Ruka Poplar or something, but maybe you end up circling around on a kid like this he averaged 11.3 points per game last season as a true freshman at Minnesota 3.6 rebounds 2.2 assists 0.6 steals and 0.3 blocks per game the two-point percentage not great only 42 percent on twos but he was 39 percent on five and a half three-point attempts per game at a power level. So overall 40% from the floor,

Starting point is 00:03:27 39% from three on high volume and 79% at the free throw line. Now, Minnesota wasn't a great team, but they actually were a decent team. They finished top 80 in Kenpaw and they went 19 and 15 in the big boy league in the big 10. They won an NIT game.

Starting point is 00:03:44 So they did make it to the postseason and he played well against good teams his two-point percentage uh even though it still wasn't great it got better it went from 42 on the season to against top 100 opponents 44 and to ken palm top 50 opponents it went up to 46 then from three-point range against top 100 teams which by the way there were 20 of those games for him he shot 38 from three-point range against top 100 teams, which, by the way, there were 20 of those games for him. He shot 38% from three. And then against Ken Palm top 50 teams, which there were 12 games of those, his three-point percentage went up to 40%.

Starting point is 00:04:13 So he actually got better against a better competition that they played. And, you know, again, Minnesota being decent is different than some of these other transfer portal prospects that we've talked about or targets or whatever that were on teams who ranked like 180th in Ken Palmer or were on a team that went 10 and 20 in a lower level league. This was a guy who made the NIT out of the Big Ten level. You don't have to really worry about that as much. So honestly, if anything, I'm almost a little bit surprised that there hasn't been some sort of herd contact. But then again, some of this stuff could just be kind of under wraps.

Starting point is 00:04:44 Who knows? Like I always go back to the one from a couple years ago uh with kevin mcculler where when kevin mcculler ended up like picking kansas he was going through the nba draft process as well and it was like out of nowhere all of a sudden i forget if it was from him or like he's i don't know agent dads i don't know somebody somebody like just tweeted out and it was like, I think it was him. My finalists are Kansas, Gonzaga, or going to the NBA draft or something like that. I don't remember if there was a third team in there. And it was just like completely out of the blue. So you never totally know, especially with combine week, Bill Self usually goes out there. Maybe you're talking to some of these kids and certain stuff is under wrap, but this is a kid, too, who's young for his recruiting class.

Starting point is 00:05:25 You know, a lot of times the players who you'll get as freshmen, they'll play as, like, 19-year-olds. In some cases, they might even, like, turn 20 over the course of the season because there were players that were maybe given a year of prep school or maybe held back a year early. He is still just 18 years old, is Cam Christie. Like, today, he is 18 years old. He doesn't turn 19 until like end of July,

Starting point is 00:05:47 which means for the entire 2024 to 2025 season, he will be 19 years old, which is basically what is similar to, I'm sure, I don't know. I'd love to know like with Floyd Badunga and Rakeese Passmore, like what if they're going to be 19 years old as freshmen, but you have a kid who's young

Starting point is 00:06:04 and has a year of college basketball experience under his belt and the reason i bring that up is it leads to further belief that he will take a big jump next season right because if you're viewing somebody who okay they're even younger and they already have production like in theory each of your younger, you're going to have more progression. And there's going to be more of the, I guess, ball of clay, so to speak, to sculpt. And especially like in the overall game and two-point scoring. But also that three-point shooting as a true freshman,

Starting point is 00:06:38 as an 18-year-old playing in the Big Ten, to shoot 39% from three on five and a half attempts per game, that's pretty, pretty darn good from what you saw from Cam Christie. Now, when we look at some of the synergy numbers of note, defensively, he ranked in the 50th percentile on synergy. So basically a dead on average defender last season. But I talk a lot about one of the biggest things that improves from freshman to sophomore to junior year and stuff as you stay in college basketball is your consistency and your shooting.

Starting point is 00:07:07 Like those are typically two things that improve a ton. A lot of times, if you come in as a good rebounder, you're going to stay a good rebounder each and every year. Like maybe you'll get a little better rebounding, but for the most part, that's pretty similar. You're a good shot blocker.

Starting point is 00:07:18 You're going to probably be pretty similar to what you were as a shot blocker each and every year. But one of the other things that tends to get better too, the further you stay in college basketball, is your defense. And there's different levels for different guys. I can go back to a recent example like Jalen Wilson, who was not a very good defender early in his college career. And then I think by the time Kansas was making their title run in 22,

Starting point is 00:07:40 over the course of that last, the tournament, plus the last couple couple weeks of the season you go back to their I think it was the regular season finale on senior day where they won an overtime against Texas they kept trying to get switches onto him and attacking him and he was making defense stops like he eventually became a good enough defender and then you know at least above average at least you know doable there on that end of the court as you stay in college that kind of goes and a lot of it is just kind of figuring out the scheme and figuring out what's being asked of you and figure out the mental side of things and just a little fundamentals like oh if I have this foot

Starting point is 00:08:13 here when this screen is about to happen like that's going to really help me there and so like I point to a guy like Johnny Furphy who we're probably not going to see that happen stays in the NBA draft but like um you know he's somebody who tried hard on the defensive end this past year but there were a lot of defensive breakdowns it wasn't from a lack of effort which makes you think that hey in year two year three eventually he would have got better at it like that's just something that comes with age so if he was already a dead on average defender this year makes you think he can at least be above average next season. He ranked in the 69th percentile in spot up shooting this past season did Cam Christie. He was a 26 to 72, good for 36% on spot up threes.

Starting point is 00:08:55 So, you know, that's actually below his season average there, but that's still good enough. 90th percentile as a pick and roll ball handler. He was in the 62nd percentile in transition 64th percentile off of handoffs and then there were only 16 off screen attempts but he did rank okay there as well overall he was in the 84th percentile with his jump shot so just all jump shots were good for him 83rd percentile in catch and shoot opportunities with the jump shot so obviously somebody who was really good at that 42 of 106 that's good for almost 40 percent on catch and shoot threes

Starting point is 00:09:30 that includes him going 37 percent on catch and shoot guarded threes and almost 43 percent on catch and shoot unguarded threes he also also shot 39 and a half percent on dribble three pointers on over 70 attempts so he can get his own shot and make his own shot the biggest issue for him was scoring inside he was in the eighth percentile at the rim and the third percentile on layups so if he can just become like an average player driving at the rim which I mean he's six six I don't know maybe he just adds more weight maybe that comes with experience but even then if you're just a knockdown three-point shooter and you can be kind of a three-and-D player, that would fit in perfectly for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:10:08 And I think there's potential there for a lot more with Cam Christie, whose brother is in the NBA, whose dad was a former semi-pro basketball player. So, I mean, you're talking about somebody here with Cam Christie who we haven't heard any KU contact, but I think it would make a lot of sense if they certainly did. Let's talk about what his fit would be like with KU on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. It's win or take all time in the NBA and NHL. PGA Championship is this week. You got MLB ongoing. You got the NFL schedule coming out so you can get your football futures in.

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Starting point is 00:11:12 Fanduel, America's number one sportsbook and official sportsbook partner of the LockedOn Podcast Network. Alright, getting into how Cam Christie would fit in with KU, and then we'll finish up with KU's newest addition to the walk-on program with Will Thangvall on the team. So, first of all, as we kind of talk about here with the scholarships,

Starting point is 00:11:34 it seems like to me, KU playing with 11 scholarships now that, you know, the Riley Kugel thing ain't happening. It feels like to me whoever gets the 12th scholarship will be their final scholarship player with the one exception that the only way they would go up to 13 scholarship players would then be Johnny Furphy coming back. I don't think they're going to be like, hey, we're going to add Wuga Poplar, and we're going to add Cam Christie and Jackson Robinson. I guess it's possible they added a developmental player, but I don't know. It feels like to me this next edition will be the final one outside of just kind of waiting and seeing what happens with Johnny Furphy. And that way you can either knock out the final scholarship or not.

Starting point is 00:12:12 Obviously, this would be more competition for a starting spot. This would be more competition for the players who are going to play the two and the three. Maybe there's a chance Christie could even give you some minutes at the four. He's got a 6'8 wingspan, but I think ideally he would be playing the two and three and most of your four minutes would be allotted to like KJ Adams and AJ Storr but you would have Kim Christie would kind of go in that same area as like Ryland Griffin as being like okay can play the four if you need to in a certain lineup for a handful of minutes right where you

Starting point is 00:12:45 just have a bunch of guards around 100 egginson who's just going to be gigantic in the lane anyway right um but that would be competition for real minutes with again all those guys who would possibly play minutes at the two and three so you're talking el marco jackson and zeke mayo and rylan griffin and aj store playing some minutes at the three rickies pass more right like you're talking guys who are going to play along that wing, and it would certainly be interesting to discuss the starting lineup. If you added a Cam Christie who was a starter at Minnesota, certainly his expectation would be to be a starter.

Starting point is 00:13:15 Now Bill Self's not going to show him the red carpet and be like, yes, you're guaranteed to start. But it would become an interesting conversation because that would either mean, right. If, if again, going back to the idea, DeJuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson locked into the starting lineup from there, you're talking about, okay, if you're under the belief that KJ Adams is going to be in the starting lineup, then that would mean, let's say you added cam Christie,

Starting point is 00:13:40 or this applies for, you know, any other big time transfer KU at would add at this point jackson robinson wuga poplar cam christy whatever so you have one of those players you have an aj store you have a rylan griffin you have a zeke mayo that would mean there'd only be two spots for those four guys which of those two are coming off the bench right and maybe you're comfortable with like one of those coming off the bench that like that you feel like that would be the easy answer. Okay, who's the other one, right? Because then that becomes a lot more interesting.

Starting point is 00:14:09 And then you get to the point of, well, does it make more sense to have KJ come off the bench and have, you could start Cam Christie with Rylan Griffin with AJ Storr or Wuga Poplar. Again, they replaced the name Cam Christie with any of these other targets still out there. That becomes the big question of what would Bill Self do with KJ Adams. And honestly, the answer to that is going to have a probably real profound effect on the transfer they bring in and how happy everyone is. Like, seriously, it very well might. So I don't know. Just kind of interesting. Obviously, this is a definitive take for me.

Starting point is 00:14:46 Talking about a guy who put up real production, shot the ball very well as a young, true freshman in the Big Ten, at a power level, was on a team that had a winning record, went to postseason tournament, even though it wasn't the NCAA tournament. Minnesota hasn't been a great basketball school. The fact that they were in the NIT, I'd imagine that was their first time playing postseason basketball in general, whether it was NIT or NCAA, since like maybe Tubby Smith was their head coach.

Starting point is 00:15:08 No, I guess Richard Patino took them to a couple of tournaments and they had a couple of good teams there. So, but still, it's been a handful of years, right? So, yeah, this is a definitive take. The question to me becomes then, and again, there hasn't been any KU contacts that maybe just says it could be one thing or another it could be about the connections from the player it could go back to high school recruiting and you know maybe there wasn't a great relationship whatever it is um but if I was ranking him on the list of my personal

Starting point is 00:15:37 preference between you know the guys we've kind of deep dove that are still out there right now Jackson Robinson, Wuga Poplar, Chaz Lanier I have said recently that I would have Wuga Poplar one Jackson Robinson two and then Chaz Lanier would be my third I think I would put Cam Christie in it in it third but you could convince me to put it ahead of Jackson honestly you could convince me to put him number one because I do think you could convince me to put it ahead of Jackson. Honestly, you could convince me to put him number one because I do think you could argue that he has the highest ceiling of what type of jump he could make from year one to year two, whereas you could argue that Robinson and Poplar and Lanier,

Starting point is 00:16:16 older players, maybe they are more of what they are, which is a good player to be clear. You would gladly take those guys. But with Christie, there could be that another level. There could be that next level to make him a a good player to be clear like you would gladly take those guys but with Christie there could be that another level there could be that next level to you know make him a really good player so honestly you know the more I talk about this let's do it Cam Christie in a number yeah let's do it Cam Christie number one on the target list maybe that's just me being recency bias here but I think he's a really good player uh the three-point shooting being that good as an 18 year old in the Big Ten and being already an average defender where you'd imagine that's only going to

Starting point is 00:16:50 get a little bit better I think there's a lot of fun stuff that you could do uh with a lineup out there you know having another shooter and and what Cam Christie could kind of bring to the table and you know with with Jackson Robinson even though he did do it in the Big 12, still a power-level guy, his numbers did go down in Big 12 play, right? And with Hugo Poplar, he was asked to play a bigger role in this year's team, and this Miami team wasn't as good. So he was a starter on the Final Four team, but that wasn't as big of a role. Now, maybe that'd be the role he'd be asked to play at Kansas. But I don't know.

Starting point is 00:17:19 I'm talking myself more and more into Cam Christie here the longer we go here. So I don't know. By the end of this episode, maybe I'll be like, he's going to be an All-American. All right, let's finish up with KU's newest edition, officially from the walk-on level of Will Thangvall. All right, this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you to the Everdayers tuning in to each and every episode.

Starting point is 00:17:42 And we'll have a Football Friday episode of the show coming up tomorrow, ranking KU's three toughest and three easiest games for the upcoming 2024 season. So be on the lookout for that and check out any of the previous episodes that you've missed, some other deep dives that we've gone over,

Starting point is 00:17:58 some other KU basketball content, plenty that we've talked about recently here on the show. Kansas has a new addition to the roster, Will Thangval. He will be an incoming walk-on to the team. He's a 6'4", 185-pound guard from – I never know how to pronounce this school, so apologies. It's the school in Wichita, Capone, whatever, Mount Carmel High School. He was a really good player, 17.6 points per game as a

Starting point is 00:18:26 senior. They won the 5A state title. He was named the Sports in Kansas 5A Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He's a good shooter. He's a good scorer. His brother's actually going to KU for the track and field team, so that'll be cool that, you know, they get to kind of experience KU athletics together in a way. So good addition for KU. Anytime you add real talent to the walk-on program, like it doesn't hurt. It's not taking up a scholarship and everything. And Kansas actually has like a legit walk-on team, you know?

Starting point is 00:19:00 So Chris Carter, who was the transfer, came in from Cal State Northridge, ended up entering the transfer portal. So he's gone. But obviously you're losing Michael Jankovic to graduation. But Patrick Cassidy, Dylan Wilhite, Justin Cross, who was on a JUCO like national championship team, Wilder Evers, Charlie McCarthy. And then you add on this kid as well. And if they ever had the Noah Shelby kid, like that would make this walk-on unit one of the better ones that I can remember at KU.

Starting point is 00:19:32 I mean, there's been maybe better individual walk-ons, but like as a unit overall, and I don't know how much that helps. It certainly can't hurt. Helps in practice. That's for sure. And who knows if this is the type of kid? I mean, I mentioned this is the type of kid i mean i mentioned this on previous episode we tend to do this with walk-ons who are like you know decent enough players that

Starting point is 00:19:50 like hey maybe by year four maybe by year three they could at least be a rotation player and though it has happened is you know in the bill self era it is something that is more rare so i don't necessarily count on it. You know, we never got to see this play out fully, but Garrett Lewinstra was like a 20-point per game score at Free State High School. He came into Kansas and walked on. Now he transferred after his first year, ended up going to the D2 route and had a nice career over there. So we never got to see, you know, what that would materialize from KU by the time he was an upperclassman. But I view this one to be kind of similar but either way your walk-on program your practice unit the team you're going up against just got a little bit better for KU and

Starting point is 00:20:32 you know you always need a good walk-on to come in at the end of the game fans to cheer for that has the ability to hit the three that is going to make KU cover the spread or is going to make the crowd erupt and certainly seems like Will Fangvall would classify into that make KU cover the spread or is going to make the crowd erupt. And certainly seems like Will Fangvall would classify into that for KU. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:20:54 We'll be back tomorrow for another edition of the show with Football Friday. This has been LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Transfer Portal Target Deep Dive: Minnesota Sharpshooter Cam Christie

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