Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Land Top-30 Recruit Marcus Adams Jr., a Possible Future Jalen Wilson Replacement

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bonus content with Locked on Jayhawks. KU lands a commit for the class of 2024, maybe the class of 2023 with Marcus Adams. The next Jalen Wilson. Could he be the Jalen Wilson replacement? We'll discuss on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:22 part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Onsen, you can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, this is a bonus episode. We had our full episode come out, kind of talking about the Big 12 path

Starting point is 00:00:56 for KU men's basketball and possible quarterfinal matchups, previewing whichever way it goes with either Texas Tech or West Virginia, depending on what happens tonight. But I wanted to get this bonus episode out because last night, Marcus Adams committed to KU. Is Kansas running a monopoly on good players with the last names of Adams? Many people are asking. And can this guy kind of come in and be an immediate player? Is he going to be 2023? Is he going to be 2024? What to know about him? What could his individual role be? Could he be a Jalen Wilson replacement? All that on today's episode. But first, this episode 10, talking about Marcus Adams' commitment to KU basketball, is brought to you by FanDuel. The midway point of the NBA season is here, and now is the perfect time to download FanDuel America's number

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Starting point is 00:02:19 Don't miss your chance to get your no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets when you go to FanDuel.com slash LockedOn. That to FanDuel.com slash locked on, that's FanDuel.com slash locked on to learn more. Make every moment more FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Kansas lands Marcus Adams Jr. He is listed as being in the class of 2024. Six foot eight, 200 pounds. He's a forward essentially um you look at 24-7 sports he is listed as the number 29 recruit overall in the country so top 30 recruit that would kind of put you in range in your given year of being in the mcdonald's all-american game kind of on the

Starting point is 00:03:01 edge of that he on rivals isn't listed as or on uh isn't listed as high on three has him as number 82 in the country number 21 for small forwards but it would kind of make sense and i usually trust 24-7 sports that's kind of like my go-to i know they do a good job with getting out and getting a lot of evaluations um but this guy who's kind of a late riser, so that would make sense. The rankings maybe haven't totally caught up to him. Now, he said originally, originally the plan was,

Starting point is 00:03:33 and the reason why he was in the class of 2024, he was planning on taking a prep year, meaning he was going to go to a prep school for a year like we've seen other KU players and many other players across the country do, like a Devontae Graham, where they basically go to this prep school for a year like we've seen other KU players and many other players across the country do like a Devontae Graham where they basically go to this prep school for one season where it's kind of a bridge between their high school and college years and it gives them another year of growth and development and they come in to their school you know the age of a sophomore

Starting point is 00:03:58 where they're a little bit more mature and they're maybe a little more ready to play right away but it is also possible because his original class is 2023 that he could reclassify to the class of 2023 if KU so chooses now get into that part of it in a second here because I think that's interesting if KU were to do that what that would specifically mean for both the roster and him. But this is the scouting report. Here's a few blurbs from Eric Bossy of 24-7 Sports. You can go read the full scouting report on him and the article that Eric Bossy wrote about him with 24-7 Sports,

Starting point is 00:04:37 but just a few excerpts that I thought were interesting. So he is a big wing who can also play at the four and showed off the ability to create and move or create and make deep jumpers, pound the the glass and finish above the rim in traffic that part of it is very key he's a 6'8 small forward but in today's college basketball and what Bill Self we've seen him do here with Jalen Wilson recently means that you would probably profile Marcus Adams to come into KU and kind of play that four position. More from Eric Bossy. To be clear, it is the upside that stands out.

Starting point is 00:05:08 He can be a little loose with the ball, can improve his intensity at times, and as a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeves, he can learn to not let negative plays impact him for too long. At the end of the day, though, talent is talent, and there's no doubt that Adams is talented. He plays with confidence, has a big personality, and is also obsessed with proving that he's not only deserving of the lofty ranking he earned during the season, but worthy of an even higher ranking. It's also worth noting that his younger brother,

Starting point is 00:05:33 Maximo Adams, is a talented six-foot-six wing with a smooth jumper who is among the best players that they have seen so far in the class of 2026. I do think it's funny, like, getting into the class of 2026, that means they're's funny like getting into the class of 2026 that means they're what like freshmen in high school maybe sophomores and i don't know uh there's still so much growth to be had but you know if it does help you uh you bring on this kid and helps you if he has a good time bring in another good recruit in a couple good years and you get two good players out of it then even better sure so that's kind of a fun uh note there uh but i guess for marcus adams he hasn't played like a ton of super high level ball.

Starting point is 00:06:06 Like he hasn't been playing on the top, like grassroots circuits or against insanely high high school competition, but he's been putting up ridiculous stats. He had one game where he had 50 points and 20 rebounds in the same game. So clearly a high upside player. But the reason that maybe some of the recruiting rankings haven't caught up yet is because he was maybe more of a late bloomer and because of the fact that he hasn't been playing on these high level circuits and you know sometimes you can take that as a negative of like well we don't know if he's that good because he

Starting point is 00:06:38 hasn't shown it against the high level competition sometimes that can also be a good thing like sometimes you get a lot of diamond in the rough players who you just didn't get to see on those circuits you can go either way and so for that standpoint it's it's a little bit of a cautious risk for bill self and company so there was actually the stories out you can check it out like shreyas lotta had a good piece in the kansas city star about his commitment and you know as of as of Tuesday he was going to commit to UCLA but he got a phone call from Bill Self kind of last minute who was talking about like how much he really wanted him and you know I I wonder I wonder if KU was going to play that we we heard a lot of these stories last week during Jalen Wilson senior day that Jalen originally committed to Michigan and what happened

Starting point is 00:07:25 there and then eventually with John uh John Beeline going to the NBA that he reopened his commitment and he picked Kansas what happened was Jalen wanted to commit early in the process and Kansas basically said hey we want to kind of keep our options open we want to it's not that we're not going to eventually take you it's just we want to keep evaluating you we want to kind of keep our options open. We want to, it's not that we're not going to eventually take you. It's just, we want to keep evaluating you. We want to keep evaluating some other recruits across the country. And then once we get into maybe the spring period, we'll officially settle it down who we want to go with.

Starting point is 00:07:57 And for Jalen, he said, no, I kind of want to commit right now, you know? And so it didn't work out with Kansas. And obviously Kansas got a second chance and ended up taking him and I wonder how much of that served as a lesson at all where Bill Self was like you know what we were going to do the same thing here we were going to wait and see but now he's going to commit to UCLA let's just fire uh fire it off let's let's not make the same mistake again and not have to worry about something happening so that we can get this kid that we think is is going to be pretty good and the risk to it is yeah what if he's he's not ready what if um the competition wasn't very good and he comes in well then he probably comes in and

Starting point is 00:08:35 red shirts and if he doesn't like his playing time right away he transfers away that's just the nature of college basketball to be clear i'm not expecting that to happen i think this kid's very talented um but that's kind of the risk you have to take as a coach anytime if there's a kid that you're like well you know i i think we want to really go into it but you know let's let's wait and see with some of this stuff um nowadays with the transfer portal and everything you almost just take those risks and and realize that it can be more of a short-term thing. So as far as with Adams, we're still so far out if he does stay in the class of 2024 that you never know what's going to happen. A kid could decommit. He could choose somewhere else. He could come to KU and the roster

Starting point is 00:09:16 could be completely different. It could have a lot of similar faces. It's hard to project, you know, how good will he be by 2024, right? Will he take another step forward? It's hard to project if that is the case. If you do look to 2024, you could potentially have a senior year KJ Adams on the team. You could have some junior versions of some of these young centers with Ernest Uday and Zuby Edgifer. Again, you don't know who's all going to be around, who goes to the NBA draft, who goes in the transfer portal, right? You don't totally know who does KU add

Starting point is 00:09:49 via the transfer portal. But when you look at those positions, then when you look at the wing position, you would assume Grady Dick is gone by then. MJ Rice could be a junior by then. I don't know. Jamari McDowell could be a sophomore. Chris Johnson could be a sophomore chris johnson could be a

Starting point is 00:10:05 sophomore so there's going to be some guys you're competing with on the wing but in terms of logical players to play the four position it would pretty much just be kj adams and marcus adams at that point in 2024 and in the case of kj it kind of depends like what is the future development? What are they going to play him at for KU? Are they going to keep him at the five or is he going to slide to the four next season when Jalen Wilson's gone? And then basically Marcus Adams would be his backup. So basically that also goes into the picture.

Starting point is 00:10:41 If Marcus Adams comes in in 2023, because no matter how you look at it the the 2023 recruiting class with Johnson McDowell and Marco Jackson none of those three guys are better suited to play the four than Marcus Adams is so whether it's class 2023 or 2024 he is the best four-man option from the two classes so far and you're losing Jalen Wilson who is your four you're going to need guys to fill those minutes I kind of think they're going to start moving KJ to the four next year I don't know that for sure he could stay at the five and if that is the case then that's a whole lot of minutes that you're going to have to replace there if he does move to the four though and you put like an Ernest Uday at the center then you would need somebody to play backup four minutes and somebody to be a backup wing as well,

Starting point is 00:11:27 or maybe even be a starting wing with all the starters you're losing, with Kevin McCuller and Grady Dick in addition to Jalen. And maybe you could have a guy like Marcus Adams come in, and if he's good enough, he can start on the wing and sometimes play the four. Otherwise, he comes off the bench as both a wing and a four, and there's a couple ways to get him on the court. If he does reclassify to 2023 could be something where yeah let's see how this goes competition wise and in the the camp portion of it and if it if it doesn't work out where he's

Starting point is 00:11:57 probably not going to get a lot of playing time this year you redshirt him kind of similar to what happened with when kyle cuff came aboard, if it does work out and right away he's good enough after reclassifying in 2023, he plays. Or maybe he just sticks around. Because if he does reclassify to 2023, this is the point I wanted to circle back to, Kansas right now is basically even on scholarships for 2023 because you have three recruits coming in with Johnson McDowell and Elmarco Jackson

Starting point is 00:12:27 you basically um are going to be losing Jalen Wilson Kevin McCuller um I I almost assume you lose Cam Martin I guess he could come back for another year now that he's red shirting originally he was going to be, but that would have been your three for three. And then if Grady Dick goes, then you'd have one opening. But I guess the potential of Cam Martin coming back, if Grady, Jalen, and Kevin are gone and you bring in four guys, that means somebody's got to go, right? So I guess that's the possible impact of that. But I think that the idea here is this kid can be what Jalen Wilson has been for KU

Starting point is 00:13:07 at that wing position, a taller wing that can play for you at the four, that can be a good scorer at that four position and do a multitude of different things. I don't know that he would replace him right away. With freshmen, it is kind of a – you don't know. Some guys aren't ready to roll till they're juniors. Some guys it's as a freshman, like it's, it's just hard for certain guys. Um, so you don't know how you would totally get that. And it also depends on what's the future for KJ Adams.

Starting point is 00:13:37 Is it at the four? Is it at the five? But clearly there would be a lot of minutes. If you want to say, well, uh, Marcus Adams joins as a freshman in 2024. Then he comes back for his sophomore year in 2025 when kj adams departs then he's the clear away guy to be the starter at that four so at some point in time you would imagine that's the case obviously he has dreams of being a one and done he said that in the article with shreyas i'm sure that's the case for

Starting point is 00:14:00 a lot of freshmen and for a lot of them they get to live it out for others it takes a little bit of time there's nothing wrong with that but he sounds like a very fun-loving kid that he's going to be really into it with the fans. He loved his visit out to Lawrence. I think he's got a very bright future kind of filling that role. We've seen what Jalen Wilson's been able to accomplish at KU, and Marcus Adams could be one of the next players to be one of those all-Big 12 player of the year or something like that for KU.

Starting point is 00:14:26 That's going to do it for this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We will be back with our next episode probably Friday morning to recap whatever happens in the KU quarterfinal game against either West Virginia or Tech. You can hit me up at DJonsonradio. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts or on YouTube. Have a good rest of your day. See you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Land Top-30 Recruit Marcus Adams Jr., a Possible Future Jalen Wilson Replacement

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