Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Target: Cedric Coward is THE MOST EFFICIENT Player in the Transfer Portal

Starting point is 00:00:00 Cedric Coward could be the best wing available in the transfer portal. Does he fit in with KU? Is it a possibility for Bill Self and Company? 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 to the every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Thank you if you already checked out our By Job Leaving KU Football Transfer Portal episode from earlier as well on today's edition of locked on Jayhawks. We're breaking down Cedric Howard and having a deep dive into this possible Kansas Jayhawks basketball transfer portal target who is one of the best players and wings in the portal. He's also in the draft prospect. What are KU's chances here those sort of things and then we'll finish up with the latest news as well. KU baseball had a pretty awesome weekend and Tyron Stokes, the number one recruit in the class of 2026 also visited Lawrence this past weekend as well. You can get tickets to all sorts of

Starting point is 00:01:14 events like those things happening right in your neck of the woods here in Lawrence with game time download the game time app great and count and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with Game Time. Okay, let's start with Cedric Coward here, and Coward is a 6'6", 206-pound wing. He can play the two, he can play the three, he can play the four. I think you like him best playing the three and four. Who began his career at Willamette University, which is the Division III level,

Starting point is 00:01:43 averaged 19 and 12 per game there. Transfers up to Eastern Washington, where he averages about 7 and 5 per game in his first year there, and then sticks around and breaks out year 2 at Eastern Washington, unanimous first team All-Big-Sky selection. He averages over 15 points, just under 7 rebounds per game, almost 2 stocks per game, steals plus blocks on 57, 38, 90 shooting splits. And then he parlors that and go into Washington State. And, you know, to his credit, it wasn't even a situation where he's just like bouncing around, which I don't think anybody would blame him going

Starting point is 00:02:17 from D3 to Eastern Washington, Washington said to begin with, but he followed his head coach to Washington State. So showed some loyalty there with the same head coach for three straight years. And he had a really good first six games. I mean, he was putting up incredible numbers, which I'll get to here in a second,

Starting point is 00:02:35 his final game before he gets injured, 22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists. And then he has a bad season ending shoulder injury and practice the day after that, that caused him to miss the rest of the season and take a medical redshirt. And so this is the guy who he will be, I don't know with, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:54 does the D3 year not count with medical redshirt? Would he be a redshirt junior? Would he be a redshirt senior? I'm not entirely sure there, but about 18 points per game in those six games at Washington State. Seven rebounds, 3.7 assists per game, 0.8 steals, 1.7 blocks, 56% from the floor, 40% from three, 84% at the foul line. He's doing it from three and at the foul line on five or more attempts

Starting point is 00:03:17 per game at both. So good volume there. A little over 65% effective field goal rate, which is incredible, especially for a wing. 70% shooting percentage, which is bonkers, especially for a wing. The team was in those six games, 13 points better with him on the floor offensively, and about nine points better defensively with him on the floor. His previous season, which was a full season

Starting point is 00:03:37 at Eastern Washington, it wasn't that elongated, but they were a lot better on the floor offensively and defensively as well to kind of back that up. And on Bartorvich site a five transfer portal grade. So let's start here. Does Kansas have a shot? Well, there's a reported narrowing down of lists to like five, which was Duke, Alabama, Florida, Kansas and Washington. So on its own,

Starting point is 00:03:58 they're in that specific list. There were some other stuff that kind of came out that said that, okay, you know, some of these schools are the front runners here in Kansas, I think on one of those was one of the three was like Kansas, Alabama, and I can't remember the other one. Then there was another recent report that came out over the weekend, I think was from on three, about that. It seemed to be focusing in on these two

Starting point is 00:04:21 schools. Alabama was one of them, Kansas was not. Okay, so do we take that all as like, okay, Kansas doesn't really have a shot here? I don't know, I don't really, because here's why. Even if there's this report that comes out and it's like, oh, the focus is on these two schools right now, Cedric Coward is in the NBA draft process right now, and what that means is this going,

Starting point is 00:04:43 is it's entirely possibly, you know, could commit to a school now and then does out the testing. It's also possible that he waits out the approach to see how it's going in the MBA draft process, right? That it could take a little bit more time. And to that notion, if you were Kansas and you have Tyron Stokes on campus this weekend,

Starting point is 00:05:03 that is your number one priority. You play that out any way you can. And if Tyron Stokes on campus this weekend, that is your number one priority. You play that out any way you can. And if Tyron Stokes decides that he's not going to reclassify or he's going to go to another school or whatever, then all of a sudden you have some of that money that you're able to come back to Zedra Tower and say, hey, listen, we want you, you become our primary target. But if Stokes wants to come to KU, then you just move on, right? And so to that notion, it's easy to be like, well, you know, it's being focused on with these other two schools as opposed to Kansas. But if Stokes were to move on, then Kansas would probably put a bit of a harder full court press on him. And maybe that allows

Starting point is 00:05:40 it to come into things, right? And as much as you might say, oh, well, this is the report right now. Okay. Well, there were reports for weeks and weeks and weeks that Kevin McColler didn't want to come back to school or that he wasn't going to come back to school, that he was going to go off to the NBA and then he ended up coming back for another year. So you never know with some of the stuff and how it's going to happen necessarily, I guess point B. But anyway, the strengths of his game, efficiency offensively, 99th percentile last year in effective field goal percentage.

Starting point is 00:06:06 Nine, and again, some of these stuff, you look at the stats last year, like, I could have just been a hot six games at the early part of the season, which is usually the easier part of the season. So I'm also gonna bring up some numbers from the year before when he played a full season in Eastern Washington. He was in the 90th percentile

Starting point is 00:06:20 in effective field goal percentage that year. For his career, so taking all his years at the Division I level, 38.6% from three, 83.3% at the free throw line. That's a much bigger sample. The last two years are most impressive because the three-point volume goes up. And in the 38 games he played between Eastern Washington and the sixth last year, he shot almost 39% on over four three-point attempts per game, which like out of comparison, Christian Brown, the title winning year,

Starting point is 00:06:46 the year that got him into a first round draft pick, Christian Brown in 2022 shot 38.6% from three. That's the same percentage as Coward over those last, I guess two seasons of 38 games, but Brown did it on 3.3 attempts per game. Coward did it on 4.3. So like that shows how good of a shooter he is. But true shooting percentage,

Starting point is 00:07:07 he had a 70 true shooting percentage, which I mentioned and as that is insane, even though it is only six games, if we take career numbers at the division one level, that's 72 games and his career true shooting percentage is 69.7. Yudoka Azabuki, Yudoka, I'm going to dunk everything in your face super efficient Azabuki at a career 68.6 true shooting percentage.

Starting point is 00:07:33 That is insane the efficiency. He also has a diverse offensive game. He can post it up a bit. 99th percentile and post up points per possession as a good up and under working through on a pivot, spin fade away, little hook shot. You can overpower smaller guards. He's also 87 percentile catch-and-shoot. He can make threes of the defender closing out. He scores in the fast break. He is in the 95th percentile points per possession.

Starting point is 00:07:56 This is a ball handler. He shot almost 77 percent at the rim his last year Eastern Washington. So again, that's bigger sample size, which was 91st percentile. He was in the 82nd percentile this past year in the limited sample at wazoo. He was above the 90th percentile this year and the previous year in Eastern Washington in both in the paint. So that kind of floater range and mid range field goal percentage. He was in

Starting point is 00:08:19 he shot 33% on above the break threes in Eastern Washington 37 and a half percent on above the break threes in Eastern Washington, 37.5% on above the break threes at Wazoo. And he shot a combined 16 of 33 or 48% on corner threes over his last three seasons play. And then on deep threes, which CBB Analytics classifies as 25 or more foot threes, he was 17 of 48 from three over his last three seasons, which is a little over 35% from three.

Starting point is 00:08:46 Also 99th percentile free throw percentage in 23 to 24 and 82nd percentile free throw percentage this past season by his position. He did all of this with a 57th percent usage rate last year at Wazoo in the six games he played. So I just listed a litany, a litany rewind this if you need to rewind this, undownload it, redownload it, rewind this and go back and listen to that long list of things that I talked about where I was like, yeah, he does he scores in all this

Starting point is 00:09:16 myriad of different ways. He also brings defensive activity, super high block numbers. The steal rate was 82nd percentile and 57th percentile in Eastern Washington. In two years, it was only 20th percentile wazoo. But again, smaller sample was six games. The block rate was 64th percentile and 99th percentiles the last two years respectively, fourth position.

Starting point is 00:09:39 So total it up 63rd percent a team rate last year 99th. This past season, so let me rephrase that 63rd percent Hakeem rate last year 99th. This past season, so let me rephrase that 63rd percentile Hakeem rate his last year at Eastern Washington 99th in the six games at Washington State. So how good of an overall defender is he? I don't know Eastern Washington 144 games in his two seasons there, but they were led more by the offense. The defense finished 210th and 262nd in Ken Palm.

Starting point is 00:10:07 So is he that great of a defender? Is he more of just a steel and block defender, which still has its value? I don't entirely know. But like, at least you're getting some defensive activity there. And I see a athletic lengthy wing. And I'm like, yeah, there's no reason you can't be a good defender, right? rebounding also brings that six games, he was 91st percentile and a rebound rate at wazoo. He was 91st percentile, the rebound rate at wazoo. He was 91st percentile the rebound rate at wazoo. If you go off the previous year 75th percentile

Starting point is 00:10:30 and the rebound rate and 32nd in over rebound rate at Eastern Washington passing he was 73rd percentile and it's just a turnover rate and then team impact. Like I said, the on off numbers are really good and it was almost seven points better on offense over six points better on defense. If you just look at the bigger year, his full season at Eastern Washington. And this was from the athletic little excerpt there. He's a team player who will make the right pass and picks his spots wisely

Starting point is 00:10:55 inside the offensive attack. He has long arms and he has the ability to play multiple positions. He'd be a great fit in just about any system because of his shooting and skills. So what are the questions here? How would he fit in with KU? Let's discuss that next. This episode of Locked on J-Hawks is brought to you by Supply House. Get the supplies you need from the site made for the skilled trades, Supply House. Whether you're into plumbing, HVAC, or electrical work, Supplyhouse is the reliable way to order products online. Their easy-to-use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help

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Starting point is 00:12:29 Then we'll get to the latest news of Tyron Stokes and KU baseball. Okay, so the big question here, I think number one has to be, what is the health level here, right? I mean, you're talking about a guy who just played six games. He had a bad season ending shoulder injury

Starting point is 00:12:42 that caused him to have surgery. Now, I don't think of like shoulder injuries the same way I do is like Achilles or, you know, ACL injuries as much where it's like, how is this going to impact you coming back or you can have the same step and stuff. It's different. But still the shoulder obviously, it impacts you shooting the basketball, right? So is it going to be the same kind of coming off that like that is a real question. And and you know, it doesn't mean that he's more injury prone.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Is it just one weird freak injury? Like, how does that kind of all work out? Also, the other big question I have, how is he going to perform consistently against strong competition? He's had some good games against good opponents, but hasn't been consistent. And he started his career at Division 3. I don't know what the reasons for that were, but obviously you're making big jumps year over year, right?

Starting point is 00:13:31 And so in nine career games against Ken Palm top 100 opponents, 63% on twos, which is still good for what it's worth, but it's also well below his career number, which is 71%. And here's the kicker, in those nine games against Ken Palm, top 100 opponents, only four of 25 from three. That's 16%. Still nine games, small sample,

Starting point is 00:13:54 especially over basically two and a half seasons. What if we look at the 16 career games he's played against Ken Palm, top 100 opponents, right? Then that's a little bit more games, still a small sample, but it's about half a season, right? 61% on twos, so about 10% lower than his career number, and only 10 of 42 on three is 24%. So those aren't great.

Starting point is 00:14:14 What about this? Again, the 2.0 percentage is still good there. It's just lower than his season average. So in 2023 to 2024, which was his last season at Eastern Washington, he played seven games that year in the non-con against Power 5 competition. Played Utah, Ole Miss, Cincinnati, Stanford, Washington State, USC, and Washington. He had 21 points against Stanford. So again, there were some games you can pull out. But if we total up the seven to just average out in those seven games versus power five opponents that year, he averaged 11.4 points, 5.3

Starting point is 00:14:47 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.1 blocks, 0.4 steals per game. Those are fine numbers, you know, that 11 and a half points over five rebounds per game, but that's solid, right. But the idea here is you're wanting a star and based on the overall numbers, you see a star so when you see those numbers compared to it you'll wonder okay does this guy go from being like a possible all conference player to being just a good role player you know and that's the question here because the efficiency goes down those seven games you played against power five opponents at eastern washington

Starting point is 00:15:20 that year only 42.8 field goal 24 from three So I don't know what to think here, right? Because you can also look at it and say all seven of those power five games came before Christmas of 2023. He's had a lot of time since then to get better, right? And you saw it his first year from D3 up to Eastern Washington, he averaged seven and five. It took him a year to adjust. Then he had the great year the next year, right? Maybe it just took him some time to adjust. And maybe he was going to have that adjustment period at Washington State, but didn't get that chance. Are you gonna have that afforded to you at Kansas? I don't know. At the same point in time, you look at

Starting point is 00:15:54 kind of NBA draft circles. And this is a guy who I mean, this was from Sam Vassini of the athletic who had him at number 44 in his latest top 100. And this was back in December when the severity I guess of his injury wasn't maybe as known or maybe other players hadn't emerged as much. Vasini had him in his top 25 back in December. And here's a little blurb he had about him. Coward declared for the draft last year and impressed NBA teams and workouts, but returned to school and transferred to Washington State to play for his former coach in Eastern Washington, David Riley.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Coward is one of those guys who just does a little bit of everything at 6'6 with a 7' wingspan. He shoots it well, passes well, and defends at a solid level. So, maybe this isn't like, some of the efficiency numbers in the stats would tell you this is a star. Maybe the struggles against better competition tells you that it's more of a role player. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It's probably a star role player, if that kind of makes sense. Like you will star as being a role player,

Starting point is 00:16:50 and that can turn you into an NBA draft. But like I think like Andre Jackson, that you're a Yukon, right? And I don't mean to compare their games. It's very different, but just in terms of what that can bring to the table. So what would add to the team? I think you'd be that kind of final piece that you're looking for, because you would add shooting. This team needs more shooting, right?

Starting point is 00:17:08 He would add that level of shooting. He would add rebounding. You want more rebounding? Great. I also love the idea that he's really good posting up. And the idea of that, okay, as good as I think Flory is gonna be this season, it's not unknown what you're going to get in terms of offensive post-ups from him.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Well, you have a player here in Coward who can give you some of that post up opportunity on offense. It also would give you another wing. It would make you more switchable. It would give you another player with a big wingspan. That's what you got with Flory. That's what you got with Peterson. I'd imagine that's what you have with Trey White. So that would be kind of exciting to add all of those things. But what it wouldn't solve, I mean, I guess if he gets hurt, what's the wing depth, right? You'd be spending a lot of NIL money, make this, this should probably be your final big move.

Starting point is 00:17:50 And then what wing depth would you have? You'd still need even more shooting if you're Kansas, right? Because even if you had shooting here, you'd still probably need more. And then what if he's not quite as good against better teams, right? What if he does end up being more of a role player and you paid him to come in and be a star because you had to pay him big bucks to keep him out of the NBA

Starting point is 00:18:09 draft and you could have used that, you know, allocated that differently and used money on a good backup big or whatever, some of these different things in. So those are, those are some of the things that might not solve, but how they fit in the role and how he would fit on the team. I think if he did commit to KU, you know, if that was a thing, I would expect the starting lineup to feature him and White

Starting point is 00:18:30 as kind of your three, four, where they can just kind of be interchangeable. I'd imagine offensively, Coward would be more of the three because he'd be the better shooter. But you would still, which honestly could work out, because then if you had a guard on him who was a three, you would just post him up on him

Starting point is 00:18:44 and that would be great for honestly could work out. Cause then if you had a guard on him, who was a three, you would just post him up on him. And that would be great for, for KU offensively. And then on the defensive end, like, it would just be kind of interchangeable with, with white and him. I guess he has a little better block numbers in the big wingspan. Maybe he's more of the four defensively and whites more of the three defensively.

Starting point is 00:19:00 But I don't think it really matters so much on the defensive end where you're mostly switching this stuff anyway. And then I think another beauty of this with the role is, I mean, obviously he's already on like NBA draft radars to where like, I think the expectation would be if he does stay another year in college, okay, he's gonna go pro after that,

Starting point is 00:19:18 but you never know how this stuff works. And the idea of that, okay, if the D3 year doesn't count and his last year at Washington State ends up being a medical redshirt, that means he technically would have two years left of NCAA play. And that's enticing too under the idea that you could possibly get a kid who, yeah, what if it does take him time to adjust against better competition and he just ends up being like a good role player, which to be clear, having another good role player around

Starting point is 00:19:43 Darren Peterson and Floyd Badunga, who does some things that your team needs would still be very helpful. And then you could be back for another year and kind of have that really special season if you needed him to. So that's another kind of added piece to the puzzle that you would kind of get with this year. But again, it doesn't sound like KU is in the top two at this moment in time, even though I do think that, yeah, if the Stokes News doesn't go their way, that gives you a pretty big pile of money you could probably assume that you could be like, hey, I know we're not in the top two right now. But what do you think about this check? Now are we in your top two? And it's like, okay, maybe, right? Okay, some of the latest news. I just mentioned Tyron Stokes. Let's talk more about him and KU baseball had quite the weekend sweep in K-State.

Starting point is 00:20:27 had quite the weekend sweeping K State. This episode of Locked on J-Hawks is brought to you by Game Time. And you might be looking for tickets right now to Royals games. You might be out of town or in the area. I don't know for all I know, like if you're in everyday or you're listening to this, this keeping you you know, to your former college days at KU, but you live out of state. And maybe you want to go to a playoff hockey game or a playoff NBA game, right? And those are great environments to go to. Well, with Game Time, it makes it fast and easy to get playoff tickets, even when demand is sky high.

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Starting point is 00:21:20 Redeem code LOCKEDONCOllege. For $20 off download game type today. Last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. Thank you for joining us here on LockdontJHawks. And don't forget to make Lockdont College of Basketball your second listen every day. So Tyrant Stokes was just on campus in Lawrence visiting KU, the number one prospect in the class of 2026.

Starting point is 00:21:47 And is it going to be something where he's willing to reclassify? Is it going to be something where Kansas is going to have an opportunity to bring in back-to-back number one recruits? I don't know, is Kansas in good position? Is he going to pick another school? There are a lot of questions

Starting point is 00:22:02 that still come out of this, obviously. But again, the alarm bells were raised when he decided not to play AAU basketball. And so even if it's a difficult thing to get this all to work and to get him to reclassify, you know, there are certain things where it's like, okay, well, why is this that there hasn't been an answer to, right? So I don't know.

Starting point is 00:22:23 We'll see where this kind of goes here. But obviously, Kansas having a visit like I'd imagine he had a good time I'd imagine because a lot of kids have a good time when they come visit Kansas, right. So we'll see where this goes. But it'll be pretty big news. Regardless of what happens and who knows because the last offseason if you remember around this same point in time I don't might have been April might have been May I don't remember exactly but like there it might have been June Darius Acuff jr. Who was the

Starting point is 00:22:52 one of the other you know five star point guards in the class he ended up it'll be going to Arkansas this next season he visited Kansas to and I remember there being some stroke like oh could he reclassify right and then it ended up he didn't reclassify and he ended up picking Arkansas. Anyway, and that, you know, we don't need to reopen that recruitment necessarily. I'm just bringing that one up to be like, it feels like there's like one guy every offseason that we hype up this future five star prospect that might be

Starting point is 00:23:19 visiting and it's like, oh, but he could he reclassify? And it doesn't always work that way. Right. But it seems like there might be a little smoke with the I don't know. Well, we'll see with Tyron Soakes and certainly be interesting. How about KU baseball too, by the way, swept Kansas State over the weekend. And I think they were down 3-1 in all three games at one point. But they ended up coming back and winning 5-3 on Friday night, 6-3 in the first of the doubleheader Saturday and then 6-5 in the second doubleheader. I want to catch by Derek Cerda to finish things off at a center field sliding to preserve the win in that third game. And it's not just the importance of sweeping arrival, it's the importance

Starting point is 00:23:55 of what that means for the Big 12 standings because K-State came into the week, I think, third of the Big 12 in Kansas was a few spots behind after getting swept by TCU. Now you get three back against a good opponent, you moved to 12 and six in the conference. And now you have at Utah, which will be very interesting. I mean, sure, the Kansas hitters are going to love playing at altitude. You have the Cincinnati series, and then you're at home against BYU and at West Virginia. That's all you have left for the big 12 season. Now some important noncon games in the middle to

Starting point is 00:24:23 your first Missouri at Missouri, you're at Nebraska this upcoming Tuesday, but this has the big 12 season. Now some important non-con games in the middle to your first Missouri at Missouri you're at Nebraska this upcoming Tuesday but this has been an unbelievable season. It just keeps continuing 31 and 10 12 and six in conference play just feels like with every win you rack up you're getting closer and closer to you're securing that bid in the NCAA tournament but like that shouldn't be the limit for this team. It shouldn't just be the NCAA tournament because the way they are playing, they can do some serious damage if they get there, as long as they keep playing like this. And certainly been fun to watch.

Starting point is 00:24:51 And the multitude of ways they can do it, the way they can get to other teams, bullpens late in games, the way that heading never goes away, the way that they're able to come back from deficits. And you see moments of like brilliant starting pitching like Friday night against K-State too. It was really cool to watch and Dan Fitzgerald continues to work wonders this year and as a program leader for KU baseball.

Starting point is 00:25:14 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Don't forget to check out our By Job Transferring bonus episode as well and see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Target: Cedric Coward is THE MOST EFFICIENT Player in the Transfer Portal

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