Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Recruiting Update: Zuby Ejiofor Transfers, Mackenzie Mgbako Visits Indiana

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Recruiting update for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball from the weekend as center Zuby Ejiofor is transferring out of KU. What it means for Bill Self's team and the should college basketball roster construction in Lawrence start looking a little different? Plus, Mackenzie Mgbako visits Indiana following his visit to the University of Kansas.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 update everything that went down over the weekend. Zuby Edgeford transferring away. What's the latest on Mackenzie Mbako? And how should KU fill out the rest of their roster after the Hunter Dickinson decision last week? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. 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 the show, which you can also find on YouTube, we're going to be going over the KU Basketball Weekend recruiting update, Zuby Ejiofor transferring away, the latest on McKenzie Mbako, KU's basically highest-rated target at this point with Hunter Dickinson already committing

and how should KU, are there certain ways that would make sense to fill out the roster at this point in time? Today's episode 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. Okay, so our KU basketball weekend kind of recruiting update here. So Zuby Edgeford is transferring away. This was put in the aftermath of Hunter Dickinson committing to the team. His guardian kind of took to Twitter and said some stuff on Twitter that it was even before Hunter Dickinson committed that kind of made it seem like this was very much a real possibility. And he kind of added to it as well, kind of like talking about, oh, you know, the days of the Ochais and Yudoka Azubukis are done,

which I did find kind of funny because Ochai and Yudoka stayed for four years, you know. So like they did kind of stick it out through the program and everything. But you get what he's saying and you understand why Zuby is transferring away from the program because of you know there's really not much playing time to be had this year right I mean you're talking about Hunter Dickinson played 32 minutes per game his last two years at Michigan now if he comes to Kansas or well he is coming to Kansas. Does he play that same amount at KU or does KU have better backup five options that they need to get minutes than Michigan had to where, you know, you'd rather play Dickinson 28 or 30 minutes per game and keep him a little more rested and be able to like the

Yukon path, right? Adamasinogo was one of the best big men in the country. He was still playing what 28 minutes per game, something like that, because because clinging was that good coming off the bench they had to get him minutes and ideally that would be the situation for ku like earnest or zuby or both would have been that good for kansas that it's like well we have to get this guy on the court to where it's like yeah we're playing hunter dickinson a good 28 minutes and this other guy's playing you know six minutes or 12 minutes whatever um if you just split the difference and say 100 dickens in place 30 minutes per game that would only give you 10 minutes to play at the center position and so at that point if you're zoobie you're like well you know i i could beat out earnest realistically

though i'm either going to be even with him so we're each going to get five minutes a game or what if i'm behind him and then I'm not getting any minutes? You know what I mean? I guess even best-case scenario, you're getting 10 minutes, but I think it's more about the worst-case scenario there that you might not be playing at all. So you go in the recruitment. I thought for a bit, and I think this was the growing sentiment as the offseason kind of got going, was that Zuby and Ernest were going to compete it out

with each other maybe whoever lost the job by the end of next year would transfer away but because Dickinson comes in it maybe speeds up that timeline a little bit more and for Zuby he definitely has to pick I mean this two-time transfer rule thing now you have to be a little bit more careful if you are a player transferring after just your first year to school because now you're a lot more tied into where your next school is. I almost wonder if we're going to see more often now. If you are transferring from a school like Kansas after just year one, you wouldn't be able to get a free transfer the second time

until you're a graduate. So realistically, you're going to be at that next school for the next two years if you can graduate in three years. And so I wonder if you see more players like that go to schools that are maybe safer routes like routes that you're gonna have less competition to be the starter so that you can always transfer back up again if you do have those few good seasons but nonetheless with zuby it is unfortunate to see him transferring away he's a guy that i really enjoyed watching um really good kid fun story uh and everything

with how he got to KU and and whatnot and um good rebounder good rim protector good you know lob catcher dunker stuff like that uh didn't have the offensive polish to grab a bigger spot in the rotation last year and that's you know part of the reason why KU was going after Hunter Dickinson so hard this year that they didn't have the offensively polished centers on the roster so far. Obviously, Dickinson's also an All-American candidate, so you bring that guy in and you figure out the rest later. KU did not want Zuby Edgeford to transfer out of the program, but this is kind of the aftermath of bringing on Hunter Dickinson.

Sometimes this happens, and it sucks because you could have seen Zuby being a really good player at KU his junior season or his senior season or something. So you never get to see the fruits of your labor there. And again, this is KU. So it is, you know, such a high level win, cutthroat mentality type of thing that you take Hunter Dickinson and you have to deal with this.

Realistically, you'll have now the open scholarships in the future to be able to bring on other high school recruits or other transfers that are really good that should get you, you know, you would hope that level of play. But it certainly brings to question the roster construction at this point of college basketball for KU, if there are certain things, which I want to discuss that here in a second.

But yeah, I mean, you definitely, I think right now, Ernest Doudé would be the favorite too. And this is part of the transfer decision too. Like if Hunter Dickinson was for sure one year left and Zuby was the backup big and he would get 10 minutes this year, but then next year would be the year that he would be the starter, he's probably sticking around. The fact of the matter is that he has probably, you know,

you're not getting a ton of minutes this year. And then I guess if Hunter Dickinson goes after one year, which is possible, he comes back for two years, but I'm not banking on it. Then you have Ernest Uday possibly being the starter by that year. And then you're behind him. So it makes sense for like Ernest who now we're kind of waiting on the deadline to enter the portal is i believe thursday i don't know if that's like by thursday or thursday at midnight and um we'll see if this means anything for earnest uday but if you're earnest you can at least view this as like well the zoobie's gone now i'm gonna eat up all the backup center minutes i guess kj could play backup center minutes but seems by all accounts they want to play him at the four so i'm gonna eat up all the backup center minutes this

year i'm gonna develop i'm gonna learn from hunter dickinson maybe i'll pick up some post work and Seems by all accounts they want to play him at the four. So I'm going to eat up all the backup center minutes this year. I'm going to develop. I'm going to learn from Hunter Dickinson. Maybe I'll pick up some post work and stuff from him. And then the next year, Hunter's going to be gone, and I'm going to be the starting center, and I'll be playing 25 minutes per game. The path is there now for Ernest that it makes more sense for him to stick around.

But, yeah, I mean, with Zuby transferring out, you'll lose out on some long-term potential, and it just seems like this is the way that things are going to go now. If you come in as a freshman at Kansas and you don't play as much as you like and they bring in another transfer, I mean, because you're constantly going to be recruited at your same position at Kansas in the portal and in freshman, and if you don't like your future outlooks, you're going to be gone sooner than later from the program. I do wish him well. I think he's going to have a good college basketball career somewhere.

We'll see where he ends up going. I think he's going to be a good player at some point. Now, is it more about opportunity? Is it about development? You know, by the time he's a junior or senior, will he be able to hit the ground running this year as a sophomore? I don't know, but I mean, I'm very confident that he'll be a productive player to some degree wherever he goes next.

And now if you're Kansas, you have two scholarships open because Kyle cuff transferred. Then he brought in a hundred Dickinson now Zuby transfers. So what do you do with the roster? Let's discuss that next here with locked on Jay Hawks. First of those episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make a fast break to FanDuel during the NBA playoffs, because right now new customers can get a no-sweat first

bet up to $1,000. That's $1,000 back in bonus bets if your first bet doesn't win. You can bet on some of the action tonight. The Warriors and the Lakers are going at it. You got the Heat and the Knicks going at it. I've just been, I mean, just pounding like overs on Jimmy Butler

stats. You do same-game parlays like over points, over rebounds, over assists, put them together, you get a nice boost, and playoff Jimmy tends to perform for you. There's no better place to bet on all the playoff action than America's number one sportsbook. You get paid instantly. It's a safe and secure app.

They have great promotions every day from both their promos to their boosts, which is just really nice to have those boosts that they'll put together. Last night, there was one that hit for the Suns-Nuggets game. It was like Devin Booker, I don't know, 30-plus points, Kevin Durant, 25-plus, Jokic, 20-plus or something. Both Booker and Jokic went for like 40. So visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn, get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's FanDuel.com slash LockedOn.

FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. So how to fill out the roster for KU? And this is less about the players specifically. Like, ideally, fill out the roster. Add McKenzie Mbako and Ron Holland. No, I'm just talking about from a kind of theoretical sense at this point because Zuby Edgeford transferring away. And it brings up a couple interesting questions to me.

One, you know, obviously you want to bring in another player here. You have 10 scholarship players at this point. You want to bring in another player who can be a part of that rotation. Realistically, is there any thought in the world to being like, well,

maybe we'll just, let's say you add McKenzie and Baco that could do your 11 scholarship player. What if you just sat out and decided to be like yeah maybe maybe we don't need to give the scholarship out to a 12th guy because if we bring in another center to be a body what if earnest views that as oh great more competition or somebody else you're recruiting in front of me and then he jets off right or what if like you know you just upset somebody that caused the freshman to decommit when in reality you were just trying to bring on somebody who is depth? What if you just played without that scholarship this year?

And then at that point, you would have used up because you have to for the self-imposed sanctions. You can't use three scholarships over three years. But if you use two of them this year, one of the next two years you would be full up on scholarships and the other you'd only have to lose one there's a possibility um but i think in terms of what this means for roster development okay think about this so you have bobby pettiford come in for you know two years and um dubia defer come in for a year and all these guys who you know tristan and aruna's of the world right that come in for maybe a year or two it doesn't work out they get over recruited and they ship off elsewhere

as opposed to being somebody who is going to be a depth player and then maybe starts by their like senior year like for instance fiatus uh mckay luke he uh didn't really play much his freshman and sophomore year right i mean by the time he was a junior he was part of the rotation and then as a senior he really took off but it feels like those days are kind of gone at this point like sure there will be exceptions to the rule and stuff but i almost wonder if it makes more sense from a roster building standpoint moving forward to really only bring it like okay you bring in your freshman? Just because you want to see which ones hit and which one eventually can earn that spot. But does it make sense to bring in big classes of freshmen anymore? Like, does it almost make more sense to bring in transfers?

Because if they've already used their one transfer role, like guys with multiple years left as transfers, because if they've already now transferred into your program, that means they've used their one free transfer, right? So like, are you better off bringing in a guy who has two years left or three years left of eligibility into your program as a transfer? Because you know, if they're going to have to transfer again, they're going to have to sit out a year and that's probably going to be distasteful to them that they're not going to want to transfer it's going to be have to be like a last resort for them and to that standpoint if you want to have guys who do stick around in the program for a few years to where you can develop them maybe your best odds isn't to bring in a freshman who like again you're taking on your el marco jacksons you're taking on like your marcus adams those players

where it's like yeah they could probably make a real impact in year one to where if they do come back for year two they feel like yeah i'm gonna be a starter right like you take those guys for sure but the guys who are in your non-top 50 recruits or maybe your non-top 100 guys where you've taken those on in the past is almost like a home run swing to be like yeah we don't know if it'll hit but if it does it'll be great and a lot of times it has hit for KU with you know Christian Brown and Devante Graham and Frank Mason but lately with the way that things work if you're not ready to play right away in year one it's not going to be something where it's like oh well you might not be ready to play in year one but by year three or year four you'll get on the court because it doesn't matter because then by year three or year four you're

going to be like I haven't played I'm gone christian brown got on the court in year one davante graham got on the court in year one so i this is less about like the recruiting rankings i guess i probably phrased that wrong and being like if it's not top 50 recruit no it's not about that it's about will you be at least a role player by year one right that's kind of the thing and if it's somebody who you're going to bring in and you're like they're a project they're not going to be a role player in year one, but we're hoping they will be by year three. There's no point in that because they're just going to be transferred by them. And so to that notion, are you better off just bringing on a kid who is a freshman or was a freshman, was a sophomore and transferring and has multiple years left to play? And by transferring to you, you know, has to stay there a few years unless they want to sit out a year, which they're not going to want to do. And I wonder how much that becomes a viable option moving forward. But then again, the alternative is maybe, maybe the KU staff, maybe, you know, there are certain teams in college basketball that actually would prefer to just keep doing this

because it gives them more of an opportunity, right? It's, it's hard to run a kid off, so to speak, if he's going to have to sit out a year at his next destination. It's not as hard to run off a kid if he hasn't used his transfer yet and he's going to transfer somebody out somewhere else and be eligible to where you can basically run him off and then have more of free reign to what you want to do with the roster that year so maybe maybe they would prefer to just keep bringing on freshmen and deal with the turnover and having to run kids off and stuff but if you are wanting to really develop kids inside the program and not have them leave after a year or two,

I think your best bet might be what I just said. You're still bringing on the kids that you feel like will have the role in year one. If they are new freshmen players or something like that, but if they are more projects, long-term don't expect to get the benefits of the long-term because they probably won't be around and there'll be somebody else's long-term project. You're better off getting the kid who went to another school than was their long-term project

and is now going to be hitting the fruits of their labor by the time they transfer into you, if that kind of makes sense. I want to finish off an update on McKenzie and Baco. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Finishing things up with an update on McKenzie Mbako. So Mbako, top 10 recruit. I think 24-7 Sports came up with their updated rankings, and they have him updated as number 10.

Clearly somebody who, if he comes in and everything hits and plays really well, he could be like the lottery pick type of guy, but also not somebody who maybe is seen as like a surefire that he would come in and automatically turn into that type of player, right? We've seen players that go a little bit slower, and who knows which one that would be for Mbaka. But nonetheless, it would be a very big gift for KU because, you know, right now you're looking at it and you're trying to kind of just add that one final piece here. He'd be a good fit around Hunter Dickinson because of his shooting potential at kind of a three, four-man spot. You could play him at both those spots where you're looking for extra minutes.

And Marcus Adams looked really good in that, whatever it was, all-star event. Nobody was really playing defense, but he did look good. You saw pure shooting form from really deep. You saw the dunking ability. Again, he wasn't really getting guarded. Nobody was really playing defense there, but you did see some of the tools that make him enticing.

How ready will he be as a freshman after reclassifying? Now, this was his original age range, but he wasn't playing against super high competition. I don't know. I'm excited to see what Marcus Adams can do. He is very intriguing to me. But with KJ Adams, how is he going to fit at the fourth? Marcus Adams, how is he going to make that jump up?

McKenzie Mbaka, you get some extra coverage at the four. You get another versatile player which never hurts. So he visited KU. It sounded like the visit went great. It sounded like there was going to be a chance that he was going to go to KU and seems like he wants to kind of go through all his options

just to make sure that he has everything in front of him, that he has all the options up in front of him and he can make a kind of logical decision. seems more like the recruitment of nicholas timberlake whether it's because imbaka feels that way his family both whatever um to where timberlake went on all his visits then he evaluated then he chose right this isn't one of those guys where it's like he's going on the visit which everyone's last that's where he's going to. Right. So he visited KU after he visited St. John's. Then over this past weekend, he visited Indiana. Obviously, he hasn't committed

to Indiana. So that goes back in line with the idea that, you know, he's going through all his visits. He's going through his options. Then he's going to decide. But now he's scheduled to have a visit to Louisville, which is his final visit scheduled of the four for, I believe, Friday is the scheduled visit time. I think this upcoming weekend. Now, we'll see if he ends up taking that one. If he ends up canceling that one, then that tells you, well, it's one of these three other schools. I kind of get the sense that it would be KU or Indiana at that point. I don't know.

I think KU probably feels pretty good about where they are with Mbako. Now you never do totally know though, when a kid does have an open mind and goes through all his visits, I guess stuff could change. Right. Um, but we'll see if he ends up doing the Louisville thing. If he cancels it, then I think that probably tells you the timeline of his decision would probably be like this week. Right. I mean, if he cancels a visit for friday probably coming sometime in the next couple days but if he ends up going on his visit on friday then you're probably looking at the decision at that point the following week the next week and that might not be the worst thing in the world for ku um just in terms of going back to the transfer things you know you get past the transfer portal being closed at may 11th um but that i guess

wouldn't affect any any possible freshmen so who knows it almost feels like at this point even though kansas has open scholarships like everybody they bring on it's almost forcing somebody else out elsewhere but it does still feel like kansas has a really good shot at mckenzie and bacco and we'll just kind of wait and see on where some of those other visits go and everything like that but certainly he would be a very good fit for ku and would be able to kind of be that final piece to push you over the edge, so to speak, that you'd be looking for. Obviously, they're already number one on Bart Torvik.

It would make them even better on Bart Torvik. I think they'd move up a little bit more in their offensive rating, even though they'd go from number one to a better number one defensively. I think they'd jump from number four to number three. And we'll keep an eye on Mbako as the week goes on. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back for tomorrow's episode with Nick Schwert to talk more about the Hunter Dickinson decision,

some other KU basketball stuff, whose stat line is it anyway. Fun show planned for tomorrow with Nick. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can catch anything you missed on the Locked on Jayhawks podcast wherever you get any of your podcasts from some of the past weeks. Check out the McKenzie and Baco deep dive. Check out the stuff on Hunter Dickinson.

You can also find us on YouTube. Have a good rest of your day. We'll see you tomorrow with LOJ.