Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Get Perfect Fit with Transfer Parker Braun + Top '24 SG Tre Johnson Has KU in Top 6

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team have landed a transfer big man in Parker Braun, the older brother of former KU star Christian Braun. Why the forward/center from Santa Clara is a perfect fit for what KU needed and wanted behind Hunter Dickinson, and what's next with scholarship usage? Plus, Class of 2024 5-star and #1 overall recruit Tre Johnson lists KU in his top 6.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas lands a commitment out of the basketball transfer portal with Parker Brown. Last name sounds familiar. It's the older brother of Christian Brown. Let's talk about him on today's episode of the show. Also a little bit on Trey Johnson narrowing down his list to six on Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Jayhawks. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence, your flagship station in Lawrence.

Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of the show, we're breaking down Kansas landing Parker Brown to come in and kind of fill a very specific role, which we'll get into here. In addition, we'll talk a little bit about Trey Johnson, who is the number one recruit in the class of 2024, narrowing down his list to six, including KU being on it. Sorry here, though, Kansas lands Parker Brown. Parker Brown began his career at Missouri.

He actually, if we want to go further back, right, he was born on, no, I'm just joking. No, if you want to go further back, he, uh, spent his high school days playing at blue Valley Northwest, which has been like the premier power program in the state of Kansas and basketball over the last, I don't know, whatever decade, two decades or something like that. And, uh, you know, someday there's going to be a, I don't know, some story or documentary that needs to be made about the state title game, um, between Blue Valley Northwest with Parker Brown on it against Lawrence High. Now they played the next year too against Free State, I believe, or maybe it was two years after, but the one against Lawrence High, you had on that Blue Valley Northwest team, Parker Brown, Christian Brown. You had a kid who ended up going to Tulsa. You had, I want to say it was Joe

Pleasant who ended up going to Abilene Christian and was on that team that upset Texas. You had a couple other kids that went to colleges, whether it was at the D1 or D2 level or the JUCO level or whatever. I mean, it was an absolutely loaded team, and Lawrence High mounted like a 15, 20-point comeback in the fourth quarter, nearly won the game. It was an unbelievable game.

I want to know how that Lawrence High team almost won the state title over that team. Shout out to Mike Lewis for a great job that he's's done there but anyway um Parker Brown started at Blue Valley Northwest and he was the older brother of Christian Brown so he was a senior when Brown was a junior and it was interesting because you know with with Christian he was like a guard I I'm obviously once he came to KU he was a wing but he was like the initiator he was the ball handler when he was in high school Parker Brown was the center and he and he was the one who was a little bit taller, and he was skinnier, and he ended up going to Missouri out of high school. I don't know if he was a walk-on originally at Missouri or on scholarship,

but he spent a couple seasons at Missouri, and then he transferred to Santa Clara and was a pretty solid big for Santa Clara. He's going to be in his fifth year of college basketball. So this is his COVID year. This will be his last year of eligibility. So it'll be one and done basically there. And depending where you look, different sizes, different heights. You look at Santa Clara's website, it lists him at six foot 10, 215 pounds, so a little on the lighter end, but plenty tall. I think College Basketball Reference lists him at 6'8". I would say when I watched him play in high school,

I don't know, that feels like so long ago, but it seemed like he was 6'9", at the very least. So I'm erring on the side that he is probably more 6'9", 6'10", like Santa Clara listed him as. But, I mean, he played 44 games at Missouri, played around eight minutes per game over those years. So he was kind of just serving as a backup role big man. And then when he transferred to Santa Clara, he got a huge jump in playing time. Santa Clara was pretty good, too.

This isn't the case of a guy going to, you know, some random mid-major and just starting on a bad team. Santa Clara was in the West Coast Conference, which is, you know, one of the better mid-major conferences. You're talking about Gonzaga, BYU, St. Mary's, right? There's a lot of good competition in there. I mean, shoot, you look at Santa Clara and they've, they've put together some pretty good rosters lately. They had the Jalen Williams kid or, or man, did he go to Loyola Marymount? I can't remember, but either way, West Coast Conference kid from last year that ended up being at OKC this year they've got the Podziemski or however you pronounce a kid who might get drafted in the NBA and Santa Clara this year finished 85th on Ken Palm which is pretty high for like the whatever they are fourth place team or something in the West Coast Conference and that was actually one spot ahead of Stanford

so if you were like yeah let's bring on Harrison Ingram and you're not worried about the jump up in competition, then you shouldn't be worried about Parker Brown either. Now, obviously, the little apples to oranges, different position, former five star recruit, the numbers better for Ingram, all that stuff, whatever. But there are actually six spots ahead of Princeton, too. I guess my point being is that don't hold it against him that he was only at Santa Clara. They were pretty good last year. And in two years at Santa Clara, he started 65 games and averaged 7.3 points per game, five and a half rebounds per game, 1.8 assists per game, 1.1 blocks per game. He shot 65% on two point shots over the last two years, and he shot 28% from three. So he can stretch it a bit, not ultra consistent.

And he played 29 minutes per game. Obviously he had a decision to make. He had a decision in the portal here with, was he going to go to another school where he could play high minutes per game and make an impact and get on the court more? Or did he want to come to Kansas where the minutes are going to be more limited, but he plays a specific role and tries to be on a winning team. And I think that, um um that was part of the discussion like there was some discussion was he going to be if he signed was he going to be a walk on or was he going to be on scholarship and i think the idea for ku was they were going to try

to get him as a walk-on in-state tuition brother played here all that stuff um and then that would be able to they'd have an extra scholarship that they'd check off the list from the NCAA IARP case to where they could be like, okay, we, we used one of the ones that we, or we didn't use one of the ones we weren't, you know, allowed to use. And now we get an extra one for a future year. But I think in the end from his camp, he was probably like, okay, well, if you offer me a scholarship, I'm, I'm comfortable coming in there and being the emergency center or playing backup minutes or whatever that role is. But if it's as a walk on at that point,

I'd rather just have a scholarship somewhere else and play 25, 30 minutes a game. And so it kind of forced KU's hand to be like, okay, fine. Here's the scholarship. Right. But here's what I find very interesting. I was looking at a synergy profile. Parker Brown ranked in the 67th percentile and post up defense,

solid numbers, lengthy, big over a block per game. But here's the real one. He ranked 86th percentile in post-up offense, including being in the 93rd percentile for his jump hook. So he's got a good hook shot. Okay, let me explain all this. You have a big man coming in because I know there's some people who looked at this as like Parker Brown. Like, why are they not getting some five-star recruit?

Why are they not getting some high-level four-star recruit? Why not this other high-level transfer center? Kansas was in a point. Kansas was in a space where they were not looking for that type of center. Because if you added a freshman center who is a four-star recruit, guess what? They're going to stick around for a year and then they're going to leave. Because that's just what happens. Or if they were going after some big man who, you know, is really good

and was on the level of an Ernest Uday or Zuby Ejifer, guess what? They wouldn't come to Kansas because you have Hunter Dickinson. He's going to play 30, 32 minutes a night. I'm not coming in there to play eight minutes a game. If I'm that good, I'm not coming in there to do that. For Parker Brown, it's a different story. And he views it as, well, I can play my 30 minutes a night, but it's going to be at a lower level, or I can really contribute at a winning level, but at a lower degree. And it's my last year of college. Like, let's do this thing.

My brother played here. I saw he had such a great time. Like, let's do it. And so for KU, you were looking for a very specific, like the way I viewed it is KU has three open scholarships. Now with Brown, they have two open scholarships. I don't know if they'll use both of them at this point, but the way I viewed it before they got Parker Brown was that they'd use one on a big man who would just be comfortable being content being a

backup big man and then one on an impact player whether that's a four man whether that's a wing whether it's a big wing whatever this checks that box it is a center that you don't have to worry about coming in and being like why am i not playing more it's a center you have to don't have to worry about coming in and disrupting the locker room it's a center you don't have to worry about coming in and disrupting the locker room. It's a center you don't have to worry about coming in and being like, oh, how is he going to translate to Bill Self being tough coaching? His brother played for the coach, right?

Like, he's played for good coaches too. So, like, it's something where this is such an easy fit to bring in. And look at it this way. Parker Brown, 6'10", a little on the lighter side. Okay, Mitch Lightfoot was about 6'8", a little on the lighter side. He could get pushed around at times. But overall, you know, you're playing him 10, 15 minutes a game

when David McCormick was here in his final season. And Mitch Lightfoot had a killer post hook. He was unstoppable with his right-handed post hook over his left shoulder. Parker Brown, 93rd percentile in his jump hook. Parker Brown is Mitch Lightfoot reincarnated for KU. Now, maybe he's not Mitch Lightfoot for Mitch's final season when Mitch was playing 15 minutes a game because that won't happen for Parker Brown. That would mean Hunter Dickinson's only playing 25 minutes a game,

or you're playing Parker Brown at the four, which I don't really see those things happening. But point being, you wanted somebody who could come in and be comfortable being a kind of emergency big man, a backup big man that could give you solid play when they're in, that has some things you can go to, like that post hook, that is a solid enough defender, a solid enough rim protector going to help you out in practice. And you didn't want to upset the locker room. You didn't want somebody, you know, coming in and then it's just

going to transfer in a year and you didn't want, or you didn't have the opportunity to bring on somebody who is like, Oh, they're an all conference player at this other school. They're going to transfer into your school to play eight minutes a game. That was never going to happen. So this is a perfect fit for KU. exactly what I think they were looking for at the center position. Let's get on to how he exactly fits in with the team, what his role could be on the team in just a second. First though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought

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Go to birddogs.com locked on college when you enter promo code locked on college they'll throw in a free custom bird dogs yeti style tumblr too with every order all right so bird dogs fit great how does parker brown fit on the ku basketball team so as i mentioned ku we're going to bring in a center who was like this first-team all-conference pick somewhere else. That just wasn't going to happen. They weren't going to have interest.

And you needed somebody who could have a, I don't know, not be upset if they don't end up playing. So I think there's kind of two avenues of what's going to happen here with Parker Brown. As I mentioned, I think there are a lot of similarities here with Mitch Lightfoot. You know, not the strongest guy in the world, but he's going to fight hard on defense, pretty good rim protector, and has a really good jump hook.

Like he's going to get the job done for you as the backup. Big kind of role. I think from a ceiling versus floor. From a ceiling, he plays that role really well, and he's your backup center. From a ceiling perspective, he's the first center off the bench coming in for Hunter Dickinson. And KU is able to keep KJ Adams at specifically just the four.

And then that means if Dickinson's playing 30, 32 minutes a game, that Parker Brown is playing the other eight to ten. He played eight per game, or I think it was nine over nine per game as a second year player at Missouri at the power five level. And now he's added two years of that. That's some solid games in there. Like they get 11 and nine or something like that against Gonzaga recently at the end of the season,

that that's going to be just fine. I think from a floor perspective, that's the ceiling. He's your emergency center in case of injury and or foul trouble. And maybe this is the more realistic one where Hunter Dickinson is playing those 30 to 32 minutes a night. And then KJ Adams is playing the other eight minutes as your backup five. And now you're covered at center. So you have all your minutes covered for it, but you still need somebody.

You need a practice body. You still need somebody in case. What if in that specific game, KJ Adams gets in foul trouble? What if Hunter Dickinson gets in foul trouble, which is something that Hunter has done a really good job of avoiding over the course of his career? What happens if somebody rolls an ankle and they're out for a game or they're out for a week?

Do you have an emergency center you can bring in there? And Parker Brown should be able to do just that. So either way, it's an important position for you. Either have an emergency center or he's your backup center, depending how he does, depending what you want to do and how KJ Adams does. And that's ultra important. And it's somebody who's going to, you know, they're not going to be an energy suck on the locker room because they know what they're getting into. They signed up for this. They signed up to knowing full and well hunter dickinson is here they signed up for this with you know their brother attending the university of kansas and having um i don't know i'm sure a good year for him on what to expect from the coaching staff to

just around campus stuff like that so uh we'll see if they add anybody else because they do still have two scholarships left. So I guess, would it be crazy if they tried to add another body at center or maybe tried to add a walk-on center or something? No, just to get them another body? No, it wouldn't be crazy. But I think realistically,

what I'm expecting at this point with two open scholarships, you now pretty much have the bare minimum coverage at every position. I think ideally you want to have three players that can play each position at point guard dewan harris el marco jackson arterio morris boom you have three players you can play their shooting guard you can play arterio morris el marco jackson nick timberlake uh chris johnson jamari mcdowell boom you have five players

you can play their small four you have those same five guys realistically but maybe more so nick timberlake chris johnson and jamari mcdowell and marcus adams so boom you have four guys you can play there at the four you have kj adams and marcus adams maybe you could stretch jamari mcdowell there but that's the one where you probably need somebody else so that goes in line with trying to get a big wing and then at the center now you have hunter dickinson kj adams and parker brown you have your three bare minimum kind of coverage at that position so So you have two scholarships left. For sure, one of the scholarships needs to go to an impact level player.

What I mean by impact level player has to be somebody playing 20, 30 minutes a night. Could be a starter. Could be somebody who's just playing a lot of minutes off the bench. You need one of those. And preferably, specifically, probably has to be somebody who can play the four position. So it's either a big wing power forward if you want to play too big basketball whatever it is um so i think that when you look at it you look at one scholarship for sure being used and then the other scholarship at this point it wouldn't shock you if

they just said ah we'll only use one of our two remaining scholarships we'll play with 11 scholarship players and that way we'll have used two of the three self-imposed scholarships up in one year and give us more flexibility and options for the uh two years ahead but love this fit for ku this is kind of exactly what you were looking for it's not an overly sexy ad but you weren't looking for that at this point in time sometimes it's okay like sometimes you can't fill out your roster with you know 10 all conference players you need to fill out your roster with 10 all-conference players. You need to fill out your roster with certain role guys, and Parker Brown is perfect for just that.

Let's finish things up with Locked on Jayhawks. On Trey Johnson released a top six. Spoiler alert, Kansas is in it. So finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, Trey Johnson is the number one recruit in the class of 2024. He is a 6 foot five shooting guard he is um really good shooter scorer he just released his top six kansas is in it uh i i think what people have been kind of saying is that i get like i guess his dad played at baylor

uh then transferred to midwestern state a lot of people have been kind of saying that baylor and maybe kentucky like those are the top two in the race here but kansas certainly in it i think i saw he visited like four times to kansas which that's that's a lot um i don't think he'll reclassify uh i guess hypothetically he could and he was the open scholarships but i i don't think that's really a discussion and specifically he's someone who i i guess we're going into the scouting report like this is the number one uh on like every recruiting site right now for 2024 now keep in mind the 2024 class is seen as kind of weak it's possible that if johnson like for instance were to reclass into this year he might end up the seventh eighth ranked recruit in the country so it is a little bit different but really good score he He has a really good shooting stroke,

good footwork, just kind of an advanced game, good mid-range, good three-point shooter. The comp on 24-7 sports was Devin Booker. So that is quite the high praise of Trey Johnson. He's got good length at six foot five. He can shoot over defenders. I mean, you can play him at the two or the three. Somebody who's put up good stats at the high school level and the prep level and you know has performed well in big games but obviously needs to add strength and maybe some more defense to his game and stuff so i don't know how much that translates to being a reclassify option anyway even if that were a discussion which as i mentioned i don't think really right now it is um but yeah clearly somebody who you would love to get and if you fast forward a year to next season's team well nick timberlake is going to be gone he's a six-year player who's gone

okay you clearly would be needing to add a shooter and realistically he's the number one recruit in the country so it wouldn't really matter who you graduate or who you bring back because you're just going to be like hey you're the number one player in the country let's add you no matter what right but certainly there would be a real hole that they could fill with with him with Timberlake gone who knows with like El Marco Jackson or Arterio Morris if they have a good enough season to kind of go pro afterwards but you clearly would have spots at the guard position even though DeJuan Harris would be back but he's not really a point guard so they would make it work and yeah again if you're the number one recruit in the country

they kind of make it work and work from there so I don't know that KU is necessarily the favorite right now, but also depends how early in his recruiting process it is. He just narrowed it down to six. Some guys we see wait till the following spring, right before they're going to enter college to commit. But it seems like with the way that things are speeding up and already narrowing down to a top six, maybe this is one of those guys that is going to commit this summer,

if not in the fall. And it's going to be an earlier one to kind of come there, but you'd imagine KU continues to push hard. And with the news of them having to visit a couple of weeks ago, Trey Johnson, and then Flory Badunga this last week, certainly they've got a couple of interesting players out there for the class of 2024,

along with many others they've contacted to or offered scholarships to. All right. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on J. We will be back on Friday's episode to talk about Kevin McCuller, as he will be in the midst and slightly wrapping up his NBA Combine performance. I think it goes through Sunday, but we'll get to the latest on Kevin, his decision. Is it more possible that he comes back now? Is it more possible that he leaves?

How big of an addition would it be if he comes back? All that sort of stuff on next episode of LOJ. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube, like and subscribe to the show. Thanks and have a good one. Later.