Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Transfer Targets: Arterio Morris Deciding Friday (Why I'm Out) + Jaylon Tyson Visit

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

It's a big weekend for Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball with a couple of transfer portal targets as former Texas guard Arterio Morris is deciding on Friday between KU, DePaul and Ole Miss. Why I'm out on him coming to Lawrence to play for Bill Self, and how he would possibly fit with the team around Dajuan Harris and the other guards. Plus, Texas Tech wing Jaylon Tyson is visiting the University of Kansas this weekend.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, Jalen Tyson visiting Kansas this weekend, Arterio Morris deciding later tonight. Let's discuss both on today's episode. 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, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. We're having a lot of fun with RCST Trivia over there. You can catch Locked on Jayhawks here wherever you find any of your podcasts,

and you can also find us on YouTube. Like and subscribe to the show on YouTube. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking Arterio Morris, who's deciding later tonight, it's coming out on a Friday, and Jalen Tyson, who is set to be visiting KU this weekend. So let's start with Arterio Morrisris where things are at in that recruitment so he uh his handler went to twitter and announced that he will be announcing friday friday via instagram live at five o'clock um i believe that would be central time i don't know if it's set on there but i think

we just assume he was at texas that's central time whatever so five o'clock um he obviously visited ku last week he then visited depaul uh ucf was supposed to have a visit didn't sound like that ended up happening i don't know if old miss ever got a visit but that's somebody who seems to be in discussion about a school that had interest in him and maybe he had interest and obviously chris beard recruited him to texas obviously from an on-court perspective, would be a very nice get for Kansas. I think it's funny because I'll see people being like, you only averaged four points in 11 minutes per game.

I'll fight back with those people and be like, okay, trust me, this kid's really good. But then I'll also see people be like, who cares about the off-the-court stuff? It's a full day, and I'll fight back against that as well. I'm kind of the the middleman here. I feel like with some of this stuff with arterial Morris, but you know, it certainly is an interesting time when things are being announced here.

The reason being that, you know, he just took his DePaul visit. He was supposed to, I guess, take a UCF visit, but it didn't happen. So does that tell you, you know, it's one thing. And we talked about this with like the Timberlake and the Hunter Dickinson stuff. If a guy visits another school afterwards, like that doesn't mean he's going to pick the other school. Timberlake visited UConn, ended up picking KU. But when they visit another school after, and then there's supposed to be another visit after that, and they cancel the visit, that could be indicative that the previous visit was enough to wrap it up right like that is an extra stepping stone maybe maybe not now it could be two things it could be that

the depaul visit went great it could be that you know he's got good relationships there and he's comfortable committing there and that's why he's cutting off this timeline um and i i think from a ku perspective ideally you would like to have the off the court stuff in court wrapped up to this point in time to where you'd rather take him after that happens. Right. So maybe those things line up to where you'd think, well, you could say that from KU's perspective, they brought him in last week and maybe they felt comfortable enough taking him. And they kind of viewed it as like, well, you said to us, like, you want to be just hypothetically here. I'm not saying this happened, but, you know, like maybe he said, like, hey, like, I want to be a winning player on a winning team. Like, I love coming here. And then after that, your next two visits are supposed to be DePaul and UCF. And you visit DePaul, which hasn't been a great program here lately. And then KU reaches out and is like, what the

heck, man? Like we thought you were all about winning and the winning program. And he's like, oh, you know what? You're right. I'm going to commit to you right now. Like, let's get this done. I don't know. You could convince me like any of those things happen. So I don't know what to think about the timeline, if that makes it more or less likely for KU. I'll say this, though. Things have not changed from the off-court perspective with his legal case. I will get into the basketball stuff here and why he'd be a good fit, and then we'll get into some...

The KU was going to try to wait this one out. It becomes kind of problematic because you're hoping he's waiting too and there's other schools that are going to be out there that are like well like a depaul for instance it's like we don't normally get this level of talented kid we're fine not waiting and we'll make you strike right now and it speeds up the timeline for kansas because if he was cleared of everything in court it'd probably be an easier explanation for kansas to a lot of people to be like well court didn't convict him why should we either now to be clear I I don't think that should apply because um

basketball is not a law thing it's a privilege and also you have you know different levels of circumstances with with basketball right like guys have been kicked off the team for doing things that maybe they don't get in trouble with the law before right makes sense but anyway um if you are ku and you want him so bad and he wants to commit now does make it tough but you're kind of putting a pickle if you're ku where you're like well he wants to commit this early he has the opportunity from depaul and that could be a timing thing too where he said i'm gonna commit to depaul unless you guys are comfortable taking me right now and ku was like god gosh we really wanted to wait but we like you that much okay let's do it and then all of a sudden boom this timeline comes up friday um i don't know it could be something of note because originally it was supposed to be in like two weeks and then it ends up being friday

so the timing is is very interesting um and as I said last week, you should check it out if you want to learn more about Artaria Morris, because I'll go back into the on-court fit and stuff here. But if you want a deeper view into it, we did an Artaria Morris deep dive

on a locked on Jayhawks from last week. As I said last week, for me, this is a non-take. On the court would be a great fit for KU. I hate the off the court stuff on one hand you could say that the staff will have talked to him and his party and will have gotten more details all true but also when people say well the the staff and Bill Self they know more than we do so if they're comfortable taking him I think it's fine sometimes i wonder people

saying that who are fans if that is just them coping with their own mind so that you don't have to go through your tangled webs in your mind of why you're rooting for someone who did something like that right um to where you're basically in your own mind justifying something like this to be like well he's comfortable so i'm gonna put the blame on him if it's bad right like he was comfortable enough doing it but do we actually think like the ku staff reached out to both parties here do we actually think the ku staff reached out to the the police department in the local area got the full story from arterio morris's camp do you think they they were fully transparent they said every little detail do you think they just you know flowered it up a little bit right how they

might know more than us that's fair do they know the full story do they know enough or are they just listening to the parts of it where they want to take this kid i don't know um still though bill self has booted guys from the teams in the past this isn't like bill self has been running a program that you know is is unorganized and stuff he's had no problem if somebody has crossed the line booting them off the team and i think you give your respect for for bill self to that right like jr giddens i had the i think it was a battery charge he got you know mutually departed from the team and ended up going to new mexico brandon green had all sorts of stuff that ended up causing him to go off same with like legerald vick right it's it's not like bill self has always just kind of laid down and

accepted whatever happened no like he is proactive on this stuff so maybe that does give you more reason to trust bill south if you would bring on somebody like this but also at the same time all those guys doing those things that eventually got them off the team at ku they happened on ku's watch this did not so i wonder how much ku is viewing it as a we don't have as many details and b you know he didn't do anything wrong for us, so why should we value it? Honestly, that is kind of similar a little bit to how the Chiefs do things sometimes, right? Like with the Tyree Kill situation, and sometimes the Chiefs will bring in guys who have had issues off the field. But if they don't do them with the Chiefs, if they do do them with the Chiefs, you get a cream hunt, right?

He gets released from the team. But if you don't do them with the Chiefs, they view it as we're giving you the second chance. We're going to try to rehabilitate you. And as long as you don't mess up under our watch, we're going to have a good relationship. Maybe that's something similar to how KU is viewing this. But then you get into the crime. Was it full-fledged hitting a significant other? No. Based on the reports allegedly i guess i should say in all this so that's a positive right there are different levels of things but it is allegedly dragging a woman out of bed and on the floor and pulling them close to you so you can probably yell

um or something to that notion right allegedly based on all these reports and and the police documents and stuff is that okay either no it's not and i think it's easy sometimes for fans just be oh you're just dragging them like yeah it's not that big of a deal put yourself in the shoes put yourself self in the shoes of the significant other or or even if you did that to your significant other what would happen imagine dragging someone out of the bed in the fear and the screams in their eyes. Imagine that. Seriously. Now, does someone typically only do these things once? I don't know. Were there videos of Morris with a gun waving around threatening as well? No clue. Seems like that kind of stuff got scrubbed

from the internet. There's a lot of talk about it on the internet, but why is it scrubbed? Like, how would it be possible to scrub stuff in today's day and age on the internet? All fair questions. Is it because it wasn't him in the video? Is it because that video of somebody waving a gun, was it not arterial Morris or was it him, but from a different situation where it wasn't him in regards to this girl?

And if that's the case, then I guess it clears you for that situation. But then you have a lot more questions pop up to be like, wait, this happened in another situation. What's going on here? So I don't know the answers to like all those questions I just asked. And it sucks. And it's tough for me because I do believe in second chances. He has not been convicted in court. At least, you know, we don't have a court date yet.

So could go either way. Right. And it makes it tough. But we also know there is some gray area here with what people get away with in court. And also that because it has to be, you have to be like 100% proven without a doubt. And just because someone gets a second chance does not necessarily mean that someone deserves the privilege of playing for KU basketball, of going from Texas to Kansas, of improving their situation. Technically, I just really, really don't want to see Morris in a KU uniform like point blank.

But it feels like that's something that is a real coin flip possibility at this point in time between them and DePaul. So I guess part of me is just trying to rationalize. And like I said, there are certain parts of this that I can rationalize too. But I hate that. Let's just get into the basketball fit next. I don't really have anything else to talk about. I've talked ad nauseum about this for the off the court stuff.

So you might agree, you might disagree, but that's kind of my take on it. All right. How he would fit at Kansas. We'll get to that next with Locked on Jayhawks. But first, this episode of the show is brought to you by Bilt Bar. Looking for a delicious snack, but don't want all the sugars and calories? Then you got to try Bilt Bar. It's the best tasting protein bar ever.

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because I think when we did the arterial Morris deep dive last week, I, I can't remember if it was before or after Nicholas Timberlake had committed, but now you do have that part of it. Basically you would have four guards to play those one through two spots, but you would also be able to play some of Nicholas Timberlake at the three. Heck, maybe you could even stretch out Marcoson to being a three at certain lineup situations because of the fact

he is so athletic and kind of lengthy and everything i mean six foot three it's not like he's like super undersized at 5 11 like kiante george was playing the three for baylor last year at 6 4 uh you know that happens all the time in college basketball so really you would have four guys to play two and a half spots. I guess you could look at where maybe you would say like, oh, there's a hundred minutes to divvy out between the 40 minutes at the one, the 40 minutes at the two, and maybe like half the time at the three. Right.

So if you a hundred minutes divvy out, DeJuan Harris gets 35 minutes per game. You're left with 65. Let's say that El Marco Jackson gets 25 minutes. You're left to 40. Let's say that, or I don't know, El Marco gets 22 25 minutes you're left to 40 uh let's say that i don't know el marco gets 22 and now you're left with you know 43 minutes and 20 go to nicholas timberlake 23 go to arterio morris and they're all in that 20 to 23 25 range outside of dewan harris that's very

doable for you to accomplish that as far as the minutes go he would come in um i think that right now i'm viewing el marco jackson as being the guy even even if you expect one to play 32 35 minutes a game it's not a ton of backup point guard minutes to be had but right now i'd view el marco to be that guy that would fill in there i don't know if it would still be el marco or arterio morris but one of them would do it and then you would have a lot of two minutes with both of them kind of playing as that extra ball handler out there now more i i think that with morris too you're looking at like not an elite shooter but somebody who can shoot 33 from three this past season shot over 40 from three over the final two months of the season

so started to improve that. And if he was shooting 33% as a freshman, it's natural to think, because one of the things that improves the most, the longer you stay in college, is your shooting. It's natural to think that maybe he could bump up to 34%, 35%. Now, it wasn't a ton of volume for him, so it could just be 33% on bigger volume. But 34%, 35%, you know, on a little bit bigger volume, that should be enough. I think for this Kansas team, just get to that 34 kind of percent range, especially with

his athleticism. And the big thing there is the defense. You look at synergy. He is in the 83rd percentile in overall defense, 85th percentile in man to man defense. So a really good defensive pressuring guard. If you have our Terry O'Morris and DeJuan Harris as your two pressuring guards and I'll Marco Jackson's athleticism coming in there too. I mean, that is an unbelievable front court and it helps further cover up. If Nicholas Timberlake isn't the best defender and allows you to play him even more as a floor spacer, which is obviously very important because this team needs more floor spacing and needs more shooting. So, like I said, I I'm not a fan of the off the court stuff but if you did take that away and if you have the answers to explain away that stuff and you can do that

then the on-court fit is fantastic and again i know you look at the stats and you have four points in 11 minutes like you look at bart torvik you add him to the roster on the roster cast it changes them from the number nine team in the country to the number nine team in the country. So on one hand, you could view it as like, well, is the off the court stuff worth the difference of not really changing much? But that's based on last year. And there is natural progression from a guy who was a five star recruit, was the 16th overall player in the country to get better in year two. Additionally, he also didn't have as big a role because he was behind Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter, Serge Ibari Rice, right? Like, it's not like he was behind nobody's there.

Those are really good guards for Texas. So as far as the on-court fit, he would be a really good player for KU. All right, we're going to finish up here with Locked on Jayhawks. Again, if you want more on Artario Morris, check it out on our deep dive from last week, how he would fit in with Kansas. But we'll finish up with a quick bit on Jalen Tyson. So Jalen Tyson is supposed to be visiting. I think it was reported a combination of a couple of different places. I think Jayhawk Slant said he was coming in on Friday.

I think Michael Swain with 24-7 Sports said he was going to be going through Sunday. So it sounds like a weekend, full weekend visit for Jalen Tyson. And there were a couple like crystal ball picks on 24-7 for Tyson to go to Cal. He had his visit with Cal last week. He's got like Fardaz Amak, his former teammates there. I think one of their former coaches. He just has good relationships there. Everything else, though, you think about for Kansas, the NIL money,

the opportunity to win, he would still be. Now, maybe at Cal, I guess you could argue that the opportunity is more like maybe at Cal, he averages 15 points per game. At Kansas, maybe it's 11 or 12. He probably would still be a starter at Kansas or play starter-level minutes, so it's not like the role is that different. But the facilities, the crowd, the fan support, all that stuff is going to be better at KU than Cal. The one thing that could keep him at Cal is the relationships.

That's something you can't always overcome. Sometimes somebody's personal relationship with a coach or another player or something is just enough for them to go there. And they want to just feel comfortable. And if that's what happens, then that's what happens. And there's nothing that KU could have done to overcome. But the fact that he did not just shut everything down and is visiting KU even after the Cal visit says that he's probably still at least you know left the door open a little bit right and if you leave the door even a crack open for spring bill with everything that KU has at their disposal from

resources that's going to make it tough for other teams. Supposedly, he's also heard from Georgia Tech, Missouri, Arkansas, who hasn't, Alabama, Louisville, Creighton, Nebraska, and BYU. Kansas is very clearly the top school on this list. I guess you could say Alabama after last year, but obviously Kansas is the blue blood there of that list. He would be a perfect fit for KU if they can bring him in. You could play him at the two. You could play him at the three. You could even get away with playing him some minutes at the four

um you wouldn't want to do that a ton he's only like six six like low 200 pounds maybe six seven a kind of slender build but he did average over six rebounds per game he can hold his own there and if you're playing a really big you know center with a Ernest due day or Zuby, it's, you know, it's, it's not the same as if you played him as the four with KJ at the five, right?

So you could probably get away with more of that. If Ernest or Zuby is in there, or who knows if you land Hunter Dickinson, right? Then it becomes more of a possibility, but he can kind of play up and down the lineup for you. Be a good rebounder. He was a really good defender at Texas tech last year.

Really good shooter, really good spot up shooter. He can hit from all three levels for you. Be a good rebounder. He was a really good defender at Texas Tech last year. Really good shooter. Really good spot-up shooter. He can hit from all three levels for you. And the conversation we had on the other show about who would lead this team in scoring if Hunter Dickinson doesn't come, Jalen Tyson could be the type

of guy that would come in and maybe be that guy. He would be a possibility for it, or he would give you more scoring punch. And you could make the argument. Obviously, it still isn't great that you missed out on Harrison Ingram, but if it ends up you having that scholarship to land Jalen Tyson, you can make the argument Jalen Tyson is

a better fit for this team. So we'll see how that visit goes, and then maybe we'll do a Jalen Tyson deep dive on Monday's show. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked On. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. Hit me up on Twitter, at episode of Locked On. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. Hit me up on Twitter, at DJohnsonRadio. You can find us on YouTube as well.

Like the show. Have a good one. We'll talk to you on Monday after a busy weekend for KU. This has been Locked On Jayhawks.