Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Lose Four Players Into the Transfer Portal: Recap, What It Means and What's Next

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

Recapping the Kansas Jayhawks basketball program losing four players to the transfer portal in Joe Yesufu, Bobby Pettiford, Zach Clemence and Cam Martin. Why it happened, what it means for KU and their scholarship count and position depth, future transfer pick-ups and why this might not be the end with more to come for Bill Self.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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, we take a look at some of the recent transfer news with four different Jayhawks transferring out of the program, at least as of now. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN 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 Locked on Jayhawks,

we're discussing the four recent transfers out of the program. Bobby Pettiford, Zach Clements, Cam Martin, and Joe Yesifu. Am I deathly afraid that while I'm recording this episode or while I'm posting this episode, that another player transfers out of the program and that we missed it on here? Yes, absolutely. But we're going to power through anyway.

First, this episode, though, is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked On. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On to get started today. Bobby Pettiford, Zach Clements, Cam Martin, Joe Yasufu, all transferring out of the program. I think in the case of all these guys, you look at it and it's unfortunate, just things never materialized. With Bobby, he was on the same timeline at this point as DeJuan

Harris. They both had two years left if they really wanted to. So from Bobby's standpoint, he's looking at possibly being a backup point guard his entire career. And now this year too, Kansas brings on El Marco Jackson, who could be playing those backup point guard minutes. Who knows, they could bring on a grad transfer who could fill in a little bit there. There's not a huge avenue for playing time for him moving forward. Seemed like he loved his time at KU, that he loves KU. You saw some of his tweets afterwards. There's the two different ways of some of these transfer things happening.

One of them, a lot of times is you know the player is just like hey i want more playing time i want more opportunity i'm going somewhere else the other one is the coaching staff basically showing the kid the door that's like hey you're not going to get any playing time here it is in your best interest to transfer somewhere else i kind of get the sense this was a little bit of that um but i think it'll work out best for bobby it just didn't materialize you had the comments from the i think it was the banquet last year the bill self said bobby pettiford's gonna be the next great point guard at the university of kansas and there were a lot of positive comments made about him and you know i thought we really saw flashes his first

year and even at moments early on in year two this past year where it was like yeah that's that's the type of thing that he does well that's going to translate like there were there were small glimpses where you would be like yeah he has that same i'm not saying he was frank mason clearly it was not but he had that same ability that frank had like the one thing that frank could do really really well was i mean frank did a lot of things well but um was change pace on your drive and when you get a guy on your hip they stayed there or they stayed behind you you would always keep them and there were flashes where bobby showed at least that one trait but we never saw the aggression enough offensively we never saw the saw the shooting

materialize that he could never really be a player you played next to dewan for long periods of time because of some of the lack of offense and he was more of just a ball mover and you know it was just a bad fit like if you would have put him on a team that had four really good scores around him maybe it would have been a better fit but because you have duane harris it just never really worked out so you wish him the best and uh we'll see where he ends up transferring i think he's back from or he's from the like carolina area i want to say right um so we'll see if he ends up going to another high from, or he's from the like Carolina area, I want to say, right. So we'll see if he ends up going to another high major or if he goes down to like a mid-major was that Clemens it's, this is one that's just unfortunate that it never worked stylistically because hypothetically, if you would have said that at some point, okay, you would have figured

out how to play with a stretch five. Like, yeah, that's very beneficial, but the shooting just never came around to make it a real possibility i think for his career zach clemens shot like in the mid-20s for percentage from three he made 10 career threes in two years at kansas and here's the one thing usually they say well sometimes if your three-point percentage isn't as good maybe it's a smaller sample you're a good free throw shooter and that can show that you have good touch that can show that you do have potential there as a shooter Zach Clemens shot below 50 percent from the free throw line in his career so I I don't know is he actually a really good shooter is he not I think we'll probably see it his next stop I've seen some rumors about oh does he go to Wichita State or something like that

um I could see him doing really well at at like a high level mid-major or something where you give him a year in the starting lineup and then in another year he's like an all-conference level player but to a team that plays more to that style bill self has adjusted the way he has played the lineups he's used the types of personnel he has used a lot over the course of the years but the one thing that has kind of been non-negotiable has been you better play defense you better be tough and especially at the center position and zach at times would struggle maybe defensively or rebounding that it just never gelled right with bill self and unfortunately they weren't able to unlock it but again you wish him well and i imagine he'll do well at some other small school maybe in uh his senior year

kevin martin transfers away this is one that just didn't seem like it. It went right from the start. You brought him in and the idea was for him to be like one of your backup centers, maybe even usurp Mitch Lifefoot for the championship team. But he ended up having to redshirt because he was kind of beat out by Zach Clements in camp. Then he came back and he actually had a pretty good summer and workouts. And I think at one point he started one of the first like scrimmage that they had with

each other. Now, how much does that mean? I don't totally know because Bill Self did say publicly in the media that, yeah, we just have, you know, A, B, C, and D. They're all like right next to each other. So it could have just been, hey, you're going to start this scrimmage. This guy's going to start this scrimmage. And there might to start this scrimmage and there might not been much to lean into it was just a test of everything but even when he did kind of come in and play wasn't able to like carve out more minutes he had to do with the shoulder injury all throughout his time so unfortunate for him that you know maybe he could have ended up being at the very least the the center that would have been ahead of maybe like Zuby and Zach Clements that what if you would have been able to give you good minutes in that

Arkansas game if everything worked out and maybe you're still playing although the way UConn looked who knows if how much further that would have gone but um yeah so Cam Martin that one just didn't totally work out I'm sure you know he's applying for his medical redshirt I think he'll get it and he'll be able to get his seventh year of school somewhere else and then Joe Yassifu Joe Yassifu uh really really nice kid really fun kid to cover, kind of a soft-spoken kid, but fun to talk to, very polite, well-mannered, and yeah, just a very nice kid. So it was unfortunate it didn't work out because if he would have come into Kansas and been that offensive guy we saw the final few months he was at Drake, it would have definitely worked out, and there would

have been absolutely a role for that on this team. And this past year's team i mean maybe that's what they needed like if that was the guy they had maybe this team is a type of team that would have got the number one overall seed and that would have been the one kind of flaw that that they could have avoided from a guy who can create shots off the dribble they can make three point shots when he's hot and that can score for you off the bench but the efficiency never came around for joe he couldn't ever consistently hit his open shots that he was getting and the three-point shooting never came around to where it was at drake he was never like a great two-point shooter at drake i mean he's undersized guard but the three-point shooting is what happened when he became that kind of phenom

in the end of february to march that his last year at Drake. So I'd imagine he's going to transfer down and I could see him, you know, maybe with less pressure, less weight on his shoulders. He, Bill self said he was such a coachable player, sometimes too coachable that, uh, you know, he would overthink things or he would, you know, get pigeonholed too much into what the coaching staff was saying, as opposed to just thinking, not thinking the game and just going out and performing with his athleticism and shooting. And I wonder if he goes to a smaller school where you don't have the weight of kansas like

think charlie moore charlie moore was a solid player cal transferred to kansas he couldn't figure it out of kansas the shots weren't falling he got limited attempts and then he goes and he goes to i think to paul and he was pretty good and then he goes to miami and he is a starting player and one of the better players on a team that went to the Elite Eight. That's how I view Joe Yesifu. Maybe not that exact career path, but maybe just a change of scenery could be good for him. And I wish him the best because he really is a really nice kid. So where this leaves KU in terms of the scholarship numbers, what it means for each position group. Is there more to come?

Let's get to that coming up shortly here with Locked on Jayhawks. But first, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The tournament is heating up, and now is the perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first bet doesn't win. Just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use.

Then you can bet on everything from the money line to point scores, three-pointers drained. I'm all aboard San Diego State plus 7.5 right now. I think they're going to keep it close. I think their tempo, their defense, I think it could be kind of an ugly close game. I think Alabama gets through maybe, but I wouldn't be surprised if they pull the upset. I think 7.5 is too much. Plus, FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance

and a bigger payout with same-game parlays. Don't miss your chance to get a no-swe sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets when you go to FanDuel.com locked on that's FanDuel.com locked on to learn more make every moment more with FanDuel an official sports betting partner of the NBA what this means for scholarship count and each position group at Kansas. So Kansas had 13 scholarship players on this team. Already you are going down because of the self-imposed sanctions. You're going to go down to 12 next year.

So I guess technically you're one over on scholarships if we just look at it this way. But then, you know, Jalen Wilson, Kevin McCuller, they're going pro. So now you have one open scholarship uh grady dick probably going pro so you probably have two open scholarships then now you have four players leaving the program via transfer okay now you would have six open scholarships but then you're bringing on four freshmen marcus adams reclassifies into the class of 2023 he joins the class with chris johnson el marco jackson

and jamari mcdowell so now you would have two open scholarships and basically you can go hunting in the transfer portal there have been a few names that maybe have already been lined up for ku to certainly keep an eye on here in a few weeks um some wings that can shoot the ball and everything. So certainly keep an eye on some of that stuff. There have been a lot of guys entering the transfer portal. You'll see some reported interest of Kansas in some of these different players. Now, to what level that is, we don't totally know. It could just be a simple phone call.

It could just be a, hey, are you interested in Kansas? It could just be, hey, keep an eye on us, whatever. It could just be sometimes, we've seen this before, where a transfer puts Kansas on their list just to beef up the list when it doesn't actually happen, but Kansas isn't going to respond because it just looks bad from the PR game. So it's hard to totally tell who they actually are going for, who's option one.

I've seen that before. I remember one kid who KU told, like, we will offer you a scholarship contingent on if this other kid does not commit here right and then the guy who gets that basically contingency offer has the choice of do i wait around to see what happens do i just pick somewhere else um so you don't totally know how the order and the hierarchy works and all this for which ku player or which players ku is most reaching out to but i certainly am i get the sense that if they're going to bring someone in from the from like a mid-major it's going to be under the guise of you can compete with el marco

jackson for maybe that that number two spot or you can compete for one of these starting wing spots or whatever but realistically we're bringing you in to be a rotation role player whereas i think for the starting positions, the players that are going to come in and fill starting roles on this team or fill the biggest roles in terms of minutes and scoring and stuff, they're specifically going to hone in on guys from other power fives because when you brought in Joe Yesfoon, Kim Martin, it didn't work from lower levels.

And you did bring in Kevin McCulleruller from uh you know another power five and it worked he brought in remy martin it didn't work till the end but it did work very very well at the end he was from another power five to where i think ku would just rather say yeah we just want to know what we're getting into against power five level competition so i think that will be the biggest thing to look out for there but right now like i said that would mean if grady dick goes pro which i assume he will that would mean you have two open scholarships to work with in the transfer portal but again there could be more to come that more stuff opens up here for ku what it means for each position group as far as the the kind of guard position bobby pettiford and joe yesifu leaves an opening in the guard position

i think el marco jackson will come. I think he could start right away. But whether he does or not, you still need another guy who can handle maybe some of those combo guard minutes. And yeah, Chris Johnson could do it too. He could also play a little bit on the wing. I think it wouldn't be crazy if KU went after someone in that position group. Losing two centers with Clements and Cam Martin, even if you do have Uday and Zuby. And i think the idea is to move kj more to the four but i guess you still could use him

as a five in certain lineups in certain situations but maybe they go after another five but without a doubt the position that they're going most for and this isn't even affected by those four guys transferring is just wings that's because kevin mcculler jaylen wilson going pro grady dick uh most likely going pro with mj rice like is he going to transfer what's going to happen there you might not really have any returning wings on your lineup that that is certainly going to be a go-to position for ku to hit in the transfer portal but yeah now that both bobby and joe are gone i wouldn't be surprised if they do bring in you know maybe somebody who is kind of a a combo guard or a more shooting guard

type that you can bring off the bench that can be a good three point shooter for you. Fit a certain role, fit a certain niche, maybe coming off the bench to give you insurance or to compete with El Marco Jackson. Because at the end of the day, even though I'm high on El Marco Jackson, I think he's going to come in and start and hit the ground running. He still is a freshman. And, you know, we've seen stories both ways where, I mean, just look at this past year. Grady Dick, amazing. MJ Rice struggled to get on the floor. So you never totally know until they actually do come by.

All right. Is there more to come? We'll discuss that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. And this episode is brought to you by Built Bar. The Built March Madness bracket is here. We know you have a favorite bar or puff, and now's your time to make it count. Go to BuiltMarchMadness.com to vote for your favorites.

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to vote for your favorite bar or puff, and pick up a box while you're there. You can vote every day in March. So hop in and support your pick. So are there is there more to come for KU now in the transfer portal? I think there probably is. I think that when you look at it, MJ Rice feels like the ultimate toss up because that whole thing this season seemed like a bit of an enigma.

But if you remember, he was a guy who, even after he committed, it was like, is he going to play in the G League Ignite? Is he going to end up going overseas? Is he going to end up coming to KU? And I think some of those, in addition to you have a five-star coming in who just couldn't really get on the floor, crack the rotation, usually you see those guys transfer away that it didn't work out. But I wouldn't be like that. Usually you see those guys transfer away that it didn't work out.

But I wouldn't be like that shocked if you see all these wing minutes going away in front of you and you're like, man, I have a chance to really make a mark this next season. So I don't know. I would lean toward, if I'm guessing, I would lean toward probably transfers, but I guess it really wouldn't shock me at this point one way or another because if you're Kansas, look at it this way. Yes, it didn't go according to plan this year. Every player you're going to be getting in the transfer portal has some sort of flaw there's a reason that a lot of the players you would be getting in the transfer portal are

transferring as opposed to going pro right because if they were supposed to be first round draft picks they would be in the NBA draft MJ Rice clearly has some flaws and things he has to work on in his game and it wasn't perfect this year but if things hit for MJ Rice former has some flaws and things he has to work on in his game, and it wasn't perfect this year. But if things hit for MJ Rice, former five-star recruit, super athlete, six-foot-five wing, if things click for him, he has the body type potential and athleticism to be a first-round pick. And that's not the type of guy you get in the transfer portal. So I think if he does want to stay and he does want to work hard at it

and everything, then, yeah, you keep keep him on so that one's certainly interesting um and then the the other one that i would i i think zuby edgifer and earnest due day will be back obviously you assume dewan harris and kj adams will will be with the team and everything you don't expect anything crazy there um and then that that kind of just leaves kyle cuff at that point which um i do feel like it was unfortunate because he did have the injury that kept him out. And to be clear, before the season started and as the season started, Cuff was behind Bobby Pettiford and Joe Yesifu. So it didn't work out for them. Like, who's to say that it would have worked out for him? struggled and neither one grabbed a foothold really in the rotation consistently if Kyle Cuff doesn't have the injury what if he gets you know has a few good games early in the season and

starts to mount more good games and he ends up being the guard in front of them and then maybe this is a different conversation here so I don't I don't totally know how they view that because of that but certainly it's felt like kind of an uphill climb for him to get playing time these past few years and it might be the same next year so he would be one that I like kind of an uphill climb for him to get playing time these past few years, and it might be the same next year. So he would be one that I would kind of guess, if I had to, would transfer away as well. But you never know with some of these guys. We go back to the conversation of, yeah, is this a player saying, I want to leave for more playing time, or is it the coaches?

And if it's the coaches, and they say, hey, it's in your best interest to leave. We don't know how much playing time you're going to get this year. What if the kid just says, screw that. I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm a competitor. I'm staying. You can best interest to leave. We don't know how much playing time you're going to get this year. What if the kid just says, screw that. I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm a competitor. I'm staying. You can't make me leave. And I am going to prove you wrong.

And then you can't really get into that PR battle where it's like, well, coach pulled my scholarship because that looks bad for recruiting. So there is always that avenue. And I'm not saying that anybody's doing that for KU. I'm just throwing that out there that I guess you possibly could. But yeah, right now it feels like KU is going to have a lot of transfers to bring in, which if you are worried about it, don't be. Texas has, I think, six transfers in their eight or nine-man rotation.

Kansas State has nine of nine. You go down the list of some of these teams in the Elite Eight, or I think UConn has four of them. Gonzaga has three or four. A lot of teams have transfers in and KU brought in four transfers, not this past off season, the off season before when they ended up winning the title. That's going to do it for this episode of locked on Jay Hawks.

You can catch me as well. Rock truck sports talk Monday through Friday, three to six on KLWN and Lawrence. Give me a follow on Twitter at D Johnson radio. Have a good rest of your day. Find your podcast, wherever you find your podcast here with LOJ and also on YouTube. See you.