Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks OFF-SEASON RELOAD: Rakease Passmore Joins Flory Bidunga in the Portal

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Faces Transfer Portal Shake-Up! Are the Jayhawks ready to rebuild their roster with new talent? With Rakease Passmore and Flory Bidunga making headlines, the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team is navigating a pivotal moment.Explore the latest developments as Derek Johnson breaks down Passmore's decision to enter the transfer portal and the complexities of Bidunga's transfer situation. Discover potential transfer targets like Josh Dix and Lamar Wilkerson, and how they could fit into Bill Self's evolving strategy. Plus, get an update on KU baseball's impressive sweep of Oklahoma State and the program's promising future under coach Dan Fitzgerald.Don't miss this insightful discussion on the Kansas Jayhawks' path to success and the exciting changes on the horizon. Tune in for expert analysis and insider perspectives!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NissanTake your adventures to new heights in the All-New Nissan Armada PRO-4X. Learn more at NissanUSA.com.Disclaimers: Optional features. Towing capacity varies by configuration. See Nissan Towing Guide and Owner’s Manual for additional information. Always secure cargo.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE and get $50 instantly when you play $5! You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEFabricJoin the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their families. Apply today in just minutes at MEETFABRIC.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE.  Supply HouseJoin the Trade Master program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code SH5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!5-Hour ENERGYHead to 5-hourENERGY.com to find over 15 flavors to choose from, including Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Peach-Mango. Need one now? Grab a 5-hour ENERGY shot at your local grocery or convenience store—they’re everywhere! Stock up today and stay energized.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Rakesh Passmore joins Flory Badunga and Zach Clements in the portal, plus more info on Flory Badunga being in the portal and what portal targets could KU go after to try to fill those scholarships. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Thank you that every day is catching each and every show wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're going to be talking Rikies Basmore entering the portal for KU basketball. We're going to be talking Rikies Passmore entering the portal for KU basketball. We're going to talk a little bit more about the

Florida Budunga stuff. And with Budunga, Clements and Passmore now in the portal as we await, you know, other decisions and entries from KU. Where can KU turn to? Who are some possible targets you could look at on the wing and the big positions for KU? Plus, we'll finish up with a little KU baseball update, a little fun stuff there to finish because they've been killing it so far this season. Let's start right here. Rakis Passmore is entering the transfer portal.

That in a moment, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now. New customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So Passmore came in as a top 50 recruit to Kansas and he's a six foot five, 185 pound wing. Did a lot of impressive things at the prep level that got people really excited about what he could become because you're talking about this six five wing who's really athletic,

who was a scorer at the previous level. And the thought was, okay, the three point game would develop the defense would develop right because of the athleticism and stuff like that this could be one of those long-term pieces that we've seen kids you know develop so many times especially on the wing and obviously the the name that kept getting floated about was oh check Baji which you know was always such high lofty standards and everything uh the season didn't go probably as as well as i mean clearly he's transferring as well as you might have hoped. 23 games played didn't play every game played five minutes per game. 28.6% from the field

really struggled there six of 21 just two of nine from three point range is three of seven at the foul line and he had 14 turnovers compared to seven assists. There's not good not a good year for Keith Passmore to say the least at the same point in time. Should he have been given a longer luxury, a longer leash on the court? Probably at certain times, you know, there were certain times where clearly, you know, some of the transfer wings are struggling. Maybe he would have had more of an opportunity.

I think the one that comes to mind for everyone is when he came out there. And I honestly forget which game it was at this point in time, but he came out and he like immediately got an open look at a three and he shot it. And then just like immediately gets pulled. And it was like, okay, what freedom does he really have here? And you could understand why this would kind of come about for Rikki's pass more, you know, that kind of sucks. Cause I thought he was going to turn into something good.

And I kind of said all the way along, like, I know this season did not look good in the very limited sample that he was out there. But if he would have just red shirted this year, you know, if he would have redshirted this past season instead of actually getting on the court and showing us stuff that maybe wasn't ready for this level of ball yet. Okay. We've seen players come off redshirt seasons at Kansas and under Bill Self and be electric as redshirt freshmen, as former, you know, I guess top 50 recruits or like, oh, Shai Bashi, his redshirt was ripped midway through the season, but he looked really good

right after he wasn't a top 50 recruit. But still, Jalen Wilson was a guy who had to redshirt his first year that was because of an injury, but he comes back as a redshirt freshman and balls out for Kansas and really right off the bat like the champions classic and stuff. And then obviously everybody remembers with Ben Macklemore and him redshirt and stuff. So like that that has been a process that has worked. And so my whole thought process was, well, just view this season like it was a red shirt, even though it wasn't, and you would be way more excited next year for what he's passed more could turn into.

Unfortunately, that is no longer a thing, they're not going to get to experience the luxury of that. And this isn't the same as like a, I don't know, an MJ Rice, I guess, transferring to me, like, this is one where I think Rickyikies Passmore is going to be a dude. It could be in two years, could be in three years. I don't know. Maybe it is as soon as next year, depending on where he goes. But like, I still believe in the long term of Rikies Passmore. So it stinks to lose him.

And this kind of combines with what we were talking about with Flora Bedunga leaving. You know, this idea that something that I believe, but I don't think can actually work in practice. What I believe is that Bill Self does best when he has players that he develops within his own roster, within his own system. And when, and that is, those are the teams that he does best. And yeah, there might be a sprinkling of, you know, a one and done here or a train through is really good here, but it's not the core of it. The core of it is the guys that have been in his system that have developed that way. And so guys like Rikis Paswoor that I think could develop in something good guys like Floyd Badunga who, you know, I think would be a star player as soon as next year

are no longer on the roster for K you are in the transfer portal. And I guess Badunga could come back. We'll touch on that in a second here. But it's it's something where they're leaving. And, you know, is there certain fault to the staff and some things? Yeah, maybe. And again, like the perfect example of Passmore coming out in that situation, like that wasn't great. And maybe how you handled that at the same point in time, I just can't help but wonder, is it even possible to do that? Like if Kansas were like, Hey,

we're gonna go heavy on high school kids this year. And they're like, we're gonna bring in seven high school recruits and we're gonna say, hey, maybe we're gonna take some of our lumps this year. This is just a hypothetical, not that this is gonna happen this year, but like in a hypothetical world, that you brought in seven freshmen,

you're like, we're gonna take our lumps this year. And the next year we're gonna be better. And in two years from now, we're gonna be rocking. I don't know that you can bank on that because all the seven high school recruits you bring in by year two, half of them have transferred, if not more. And then by the time you get to year three,

you might only have one of them left, you know? So like, is this even a possible way to build anymore? It might just be figure out the transfer portal or there isn't another option, you know? And I guess there are some schools that have been able to, like Marquette hasn't really gone big into it. Like Michigan State adds one or two, like here or there,

but they haven't really gotten big into it. But I don't know, it doesn't seem like that's happening at this point for Bill Self. So maybe it's just not really a possibility. So sucks to lose Keith Bass more on the wing because I did think he was going to turn in something, but I can understand why that went about.

Now with Flory, there's been kind of more more talk more conversation, we had some episodes we posted over the weekend about him leaving. And we had a quick follow up to that about the quote that was out there from his guardian talking about, oh, but he has potential to come back. I just wanted to touch one other thing on this. Like, let me be very clear about this. I like Flory, I think he's a good kid. And I had somebody reach out to me and was like,

you know, give the kid a break. I mentioned in those podcasts, I like Flory, I think he's a smart kid, I think he's a good kid. I don't think that what is happening is on him. And at the end of the day, if Flory, the kid himself was like, you know what? I just want to leave, this wasn't the best fit for me. I didn't like yada, yada, yada and whatever.

Like, cool, I can understand that. And the same way I totally understand this for Keith'smore thing. My problem is when you have a handler who is this basically guardian of this kid who was living in Africa and for came over what? I don't know the exact timeline here. Three, four years ago, something like that.

And is now taking advantage of the situation so they can get a payday. They didn't do anything. Flory Badunga is the guy who has done stuff. Flory should be the guy making these decisions and reaping the benefits for himself. It should not be the handler. And there's this stuff out there

that you might be hearing or seeing that, okay, well, Flory, this isn't about money. This isn't about NIL. This is all about, you know, fit, what happened at the program and stuff like that. And okay, there might be some truth to that. There might, like the fact that this season was such kind of a disaster

and there were clearly some locker room troubles for this team and stuff like that. Okay, those are fair and valid points. You kind of lose me when you talk about that their party doesn't think Bill Self can develop a big man because Bill Self loves playing through a big man and there have been a ton of Bill Self big man that have gone on to the NBA, whether it's one and done freshman or it's guys that he has developed over two or three or four years. So I don't really buy that at all. But here's what it comes down to for me. When I see stuff out there that's like, no, it's not really about NIL. That is such baloney, man.

Like I said, that other stuff might be a part of it, but I don't think it's like a 50-50 part of it. I don't think it's a 70-30 part of it. I think it might be, I don't know, 20-25% part of it at most. The biggest part of this is the NIL. And I feel very comfortable talking about this. If you've listened to the show, I don't go into a ton of the, the, oh, this is what I'm hearing on the streets or this is, cause that's not my game.

I react to what is said. I react to what has happened. I'm telling you right now though, I have talked to a good amount of people on this one and I feel very comfortable sticking my neck out on this. This dude, this, this handler of him again, I'm not blaming for you for this because you're a kid who comes over from from Africa, and you've played this game for a few years, like, you don't really aren't in the weed of things in the weeds of things and how this all works. And so this is all about an NIL

payday. And there there was real contact with his handler and other school or schools before the season ended. Like maybe as far back as January, you know? And there's team in the final four. That might be true about there's a team. I don't know. I guess I don't want to get into the team specific, but I guess I dropped one right there.

Nonetheless, this whole idea, anything you hear out there that, oh, it's actually about this. Again, that might be partially true, but that is their camp spinning the story to make it seem like that's the biggest thing. When in reality, the biggest thing is that NIL paycheck. And you can't convince me any other way. And if you want to believe that camp, okay, man, go look at some of that because there have been some private stuff that I've had shared with me of like dodgy stories or incoherent, I guess maybe not incoherent, but differentiating stories like, oh, this happened. And then, you know, in another conversation, no, that didn't happen. It actually happened this way, things like that. And then there's even some public quotes that are now out there that go back and forth. There's even some stuff that his handlers

posted on the message boards that looks super like, what are you doing, dude? To where if you want to trust in that shady character and the stuff that he's spinning about, I don't know what to tell you, man. This is about a payday and the idea that you would enter into the portal with the idea of, oh, but we can come back to Kansas.

I said this before and I'll say it again, because I think Bill Self met with him. And I think that was a story that was coming out too. They're like, oh, Bill Self met with him before and we weren't going to leave until he met with him. And then he met with him and now we decided to leave. That ended up not being true. That was told by the handler and it was not true. They actually met. I think there was a report that they met like yesterday

or today or something like that. And that was actually the meaning. So this is just what I'm talking about. That it just kind of a lie in that way. Would Bill self, you know, love that Floyd Bernunger back. I think he would at the same point in time. Can he trust the handlers here, the guardians here? Is that gone?

And what precedent does it set for any other player who's with KU to just be like, no, you know what, I'm going to enter the portal then too, and see if I can get more to come back to Kansas. And, you know, if this was truly a situation where you're reaching out to other colleges and schools and having them reach out to you beforehand, then the idea that you would enter the portal and then say, oh, but we might go back to Kansas. Don't you think that makes that other school go,

oh, he could go back to Kansas. We better pay him even more than what he wants. So I'm not buying into any of that kind of narrative that's going around there. But nonetheless, like I said, I think wherever Flory goes, I think he's gonna be great. And I'm gonna be rooting for Flory, honestly, wherever he goes. I hope that he goes off to the NBA down the road to be great. And I'm going to be rooting for Flory, honestly, wherever he goes.

I hope that he goes off to the NBA down the road. I hope he does great. Not going to be rooting for that handler though. Not going to be rooting for that guardian because I think that guy's kind of a leech. All right. Let's go on some possible targets on the wing and down low for KU. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. March Madness is here

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of the Lockdown Podcast Network. I continue on the show. Don't forget to make a Lockdown college basketball your second listen every day. And thanks for joining us here on Lockdown, Jay Hawks. I should say like continuation from that last conversation. I know it sounds harsh, but like, again, I don't have a problem if a kid wants to maximize theirs. And that's why

I don't hold any of this against Flory. I do have a problem when somebody who's not actually the one playing the game is benefiting off this. That's where it kind of comes into me that I guess we'll leave it there. And, and to be clear, like, is KU probably totally clean here? Like, is KU not contacted or work back channels to try to figure out if other kids are going to be available and have interest in Kansas, probably in season, they probably have to. So honestly,

maybe the big bottom line here is just that like college basketball is this dark, chaotic world. And it kind of was before even NIL in just a different way. And now it's just going to continue to be that way. And now the tournament kind of stinks. It's all blowouts and chalky and stuff. And now it's just going to continue to be that way. And now the tournament kind of stinks. It's all blowouts and chalky and stuff. And I don't know college basketball, what is happening to the sport we once loved anyway, off my get off my lawn takes here. Okay, let's get to

moving on. Where does Kansas go from here? Right? Clements in the portal, but doing good in the portal, pass more in the portal. If you want to hold out hope, I did have somebody, I think Jim from Indianapolis reached out to me and was like, well, Zach Clements entered the portal before and came back, so why couldn't Flory, I think different situation there, right? With Zach, it was kind of a mutual understanding, hey, you go to this other school

and you will get more playing time. You're not going to play here, right? And that bared itself out a few years after he came back to Kansas. With this, it's more of a loss of trust. It's more of a shattering of relationships. And it's not as much about like before he's not for he's not leaving to get more playing time.

He was going to be the starting center on Kansas this next season. Right. So not quite about that. Nonetheless, you lose all those three guys. And that means obviously you're going to be looking for bigs, you're gonna be looking for big depth, and you're also going to be looking for guys on the wing, you were already probably looking for big depth and wings. But maybe the level of it changes a little bit with with pass more leaving, maybe it changes that you need

multiple wings, one to be maybe a starter level wing, one to be or at least a top like six or seven guy in the rotation wing, and one to be maybe a developmental wing, right right a couple ways you could go with this. When I'm looking at some of the wings obviously Josh Dix is the one that's still out there waiting to see what happens there he continues to visit other schools the transfer from Iowa he's more of a two three type wing Lamar Wilkerson really good three point shooter from Sam Houston State which Kansas is recruiting according to draft express. So there would be a name possibly. Victoria Miller is somebody that,

I don't know if KU recruited much coming out of high school. I think they might've, but he's a six, five sophomore from LSU, maybe makes a little bit of sense there. There was a report from Luke Chaney of 24 seven sports that Kansas had some sort of contact with Chandler Jackson of Florida State, which that would be more of your developmental wing when you look at the numbers there. I continue to kind of like as, if you're just looking at like a ninth or 10th guy, like maybe Billy Smith makes a little bit of sense, six, seven wing from Bellarmine and before that Miami of Ohio. If you're looking at

more of like just three, four type wings though, Blake Harper for Howard, Elijah Freeman, I really like him from, even though he's coming from D two. If you want just like a rebounder, Mr. Dean from USC Upstate, legit Jones, somebody who's interesting kind of a three and D wing, I would be very, he honestly would have been a perfect player to fit around like Hunter Dickinson, obviously Hunter gone now, but Jones would certainly be interesting to me. Sam Lewis, good shooter from Toledo, although I can't remember he might have just

committed. You've also got some guys like I mentioned this name when when Indiana made the coaching move, he had a really bad first season. But if you're looking for a developmental wing to take the place of what keys password was, do you look at Bryson Tucker, who was a former like top 40 recruit out of high school that KU recruited again had a very bad year at Indiana. How much are you willing to bank on your development ability? Is that somebody that you would be interested in? I think some reported interest are like Abdi Bashir, who's just like a, a chucker three point launcher

shot threes at a high level. Didn't really do anything else, but you know, Kansas doesn't need shooting. R.J. Lewis is a big name that just entered the portal to from St. John's and that would be one that would be a home run get if Kansas would get him and that would have been a home run get whether you had a pass more stolen the roster or not. Maybe even Caleb Glenn from like Florida Atlantic or Louisville. Knorr Davis from southern Illinois Rashad King, Quentin mincy, maybe some names that I'm kind of keeping an eye on. I know I'm going fast not diving

too deep in this but it's just because there's so many names out there. What about at the big position? But I do think bottom line, I guess, if you're looking for the wings right now on the roster, it is a, it's an empty canvas in terms of all positions, right? Really the only position that you have players are guards. And you are waiting on the decisions from Rylan Griffin,

and AJ Stor, and Diggy Coit. But as of right now, it feels like the noise around that is there's a lean ever like with Storr, I feel like he's gone. The other ones, it feels like they're they're lean out the door. And so if the only players coming back are Jackson and McDowell, those are both guards. McDowell more of like a two guard. Jackson more of a combo.

And then you would have T tiller coming off the injury. You would have Calderon coming in and then Peterson as a freshman. That's a lot of guards. So you would need a lot of wings point being, but you would also need a lot of big men, you would need a starting level big man. Are you going to play two bigs, right? Because then you need somebody who could play the four and somebody who can play the five and then you'd also need somebody for added depth as the backup position.

So this is just one where you're going to have to throw even numbers at it at those forward positions, more of like the power forward types. Michael Ritage, interesting for Morgan State, six foot nine. Good shooter, good finesse game wasn't the best on twos, but good defensive rebounder. I don't know how good his defense is. Maybe a little bit slower, but if you get a good defensive five, I think you make that work and he's

a very interested player that that, you know, might make a lot of sense for KU. Caleb Banks would be one of interest from from Tulane who put up almost 15 points per game and over 4 threes per game. Maybe a little bit on a different level. Taylor Bull Bowen from Florida State. If you just want like a lengthy kid that you can play as kind of a 45 and you could get a more.

He's only 195 pounds at 610, but you could get more of like a bigger player to play the center and kind of use those together. Markle Sudden. There was some KU contact transfer from Omaha. Really good numbers in raw numbers, 19 points, eight rebounds per game, but only 16th percentile and a team rate, which is not great for the defense. And the floor and the efficiency numbers in the games against good teams. Not that great. Kamari McGriff is interesting. KU contact, according to John Rothstein, he's transferred from UNC

Wilmington and 11 and a half points for him. He played really well in the game in Allen Fieldhouse when they played him. And he was solid in the NCAA tournament against Tech. Eight points, three half points for him. He played really well in the game in Allen Fieldhouse when they played him. And he was a solid in the NCAA tournament against Tech, eight points, three rebounds for them. He would be more of a, I would think kind of a depth piece for them there. And in terms of like the true centers, maybe names to keep an eye on right now,

I continue to bang the drum on Magoon Gwath. I think that dude's gonna be a stud. And I kind of thought that you could have made it work with him in Florida to begin with. Now if Flory's gone, to me, it'd be a home run if you can of thought that you could have made it work with him in Florida began with now before he's gone. To me, it'd be a home run. If you can get Magoon, what you'd be swapping one guy in Florida, who's probably a future first round draft pick for Gua, who is also probably a future first

round draft pick, whether it's in a year or two from now. So that would be kind of interesting there. I mentioned in one of the weekend podcasts, I didn't like the fit of Malik Renault next to Florida, because neither would really shoot. But if you're fit of Malik Renaud next to Flory Bedunga because neither would really shoot. But if you're going to play Malik Renaud at the five, I like Malik Renaud as kind of an undersized, undersized being 6'9", five man,

because I think that's where he's at his best. If you wanted to play like a fast lineup where you had a big wing at the four and Renaud at the five, I wouldn't hate that necessarily. Also, Morris Johnson, really like him from Illinois, young player, really good rebounder, Quincy Ballard. If you want to bring in a experienced player, he'll be a Richard senior

formerly at Wichita State, Florida State. He had really good rebound numbers, really good at the rim. That would be, I think, a home run for KU to bring in down low to. I guess KU had some interest in Noah Williamson, not as big of a fan as that one, but he is a center with good touch and gets the free throw line a lot and can shoot the three ball at least a little bit. Maybe Imani Hansberry who entered from West Virginia, Christoph Tilley from Santa Clara. There's been some interest according to a couple different places there with with Tilley and him. I don't know if that was intended to be a starter off the bench. And obviously things change a little bit now. Maybe some developmental bigs you can bring in like an Anthony Robinson from Virginia or Dion Jahe Thomas who I think both have

had some sort of reported interest from Southern and McNeese State. Like if those are your developmental guys or just your depth practice guys, I think that would make a lot of sense. So there are some names out there. There's going to continue to be names pouring into the portal. KU has a blank canvas for better or for worse. And you know, on one hand, I kind of sit there going, well, you have the blank canvas to build it exactly how you want to around Darren Peterson now. And that's kind of what Duke did with Cooper Flag. I was thinking about that more though.

Duke didn't just build it around Cooper Flag. They also had Con Caniple coming in, who's going to it around Cooper flag. They also had con canipple coming in. Who's going to be probably a lottery pick and common Malawatch coming in. Who's going to, I don't know if he's going to be a lottery pick, it could be a first round pick for sure. Kansas doesn't have that luxury with a couple other first round freshmen coming in with Peterson.

Now Kentucky had to do a full roster reset and they made the sweet 16th and they didn't have a player as good, at least on paper the hype as what Darren Peterson is going to be. So maybe there's the hope that Kansas can still make this thing work. All right, a little update on KU baseball has been killing it. This is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us here on the show locked on Jayhawks here

and a little update on KU baseball in just a moment. The NCAA tournament is here and so is the bracket breakdown. Locked On Podcast Network and Amazon Fire TV channels are teaming up to deliver NCAA tournament coverage like never before. Watch studio shows featuring former players and Locked On's local experts as they guide you through every upset, buzzer beater and bracket matchup. Stream it all for free on Amazon Fire TV channel. Search bracket breakdown to see it all for free.

It's your team every day. So thanks for joining us here on Locked on J-Aux and finishing up a little KU Baseball talk who just over the weekend got a three game sweep over Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State has these awesome facilities and they've had some really good years recently in baseball.

This year has not been one of them. They're now just one in six in Big 12 play. But is that just because they play Kansas, right? One in three isn't like that bad. You can easily get out of that, right? So maybe it's just Kansas is a wagon. Either way, even if they're not very good, that's what good teams do. They take care of the bad teams, right? And the Saturday game actually got to go by the Saturday game for a little bit there. I had to leave with the baby and everything, but I ended up missing the walk-off, unfortunately. So I guess maybe I was the bad luck charm.

I don't know. They were winning big when I left. Whatever. They won 11-2 on Sunday to kind of wrap it up, but gives them five straight wins. Now the overall record 23-6. They're sitting at 6-3 in Big 12 play, which puts them in a tie for third with Arizona right now. K-State and first eight and one. So that'll be a fun series when those two play. And last year they played in Manhattan. This year they get to play in Lawrence, which will be nice for KU.

And the crowd support has been amazing. The student support has been amazing. It's been cool. They're doing like the dollar dog nights on the Fridays. Really awesome to see how much the student body though has impacted this. And they are going to be into it on April 18th through 20th when they are hosting Kansas State. So next up, they got South Dakota State back at home on Wednesday night at 6, and they're going to be on the road at UCF for three games set this weekend.

Then back home versus Nebraska the following Tuesday at TCU the week after that, and then Wichita State and then the Kansas State series. After that, it's going to be fun to see what this team can do. It's going to be fun to see if this team can can punch through to the NCAA tournament. Certainly feels like they're on the right path right now. You got to keep winning to make that happen. But it's been an awesome start to watch. And they've been really fun, both in terms of the support from people

and the player stories themselves to what they are doing, that it is, you know, I don't know. Like, I hope this all comes at a perfect time because Dan Fitzgerald is a very good coach, very good recruiter. And the baseball stadium, the baseball program needs, you know, renovations. It's it's something where I don't know if it's expansions or moving or what.

But like that is got to be on the shortlist. I know he's mentioned it before for Travis Goff and like having this type of success and fan support coming together. I mean, the pun intended here, it's a whole run for being able to continue the progress of this program, because you don't want this to just be a one off where Kansas has this great season this year. And then they don't make the tournament for the next three years. It doesn't feel that's what Dan Fitzgerald is building.

They've gotten better each and every year where he's been in the past. He's been able to help build some some awesome runs at different schools. And I think he's going to do that here at Kansas. And the fact that all this is happening at the same time makes me think that the program is going to be joining what the team is doing at some point in the near future in terms of kind of coming along and coming on the up and up. I don't know for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks

you can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back at you later this week to talk more transfer news, most likely. So whether it's players coming in, players coming out, deep dives, we got you covered here with Locked on Jayhawks. See you next time.