Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS PORTAL NEWS: Abdi Bashir Chase is ON + James White Interest Real or Not for Jayhawks?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Could KU be inching closer to landing Abdi Bashir, plus a new name of reported interest for KU? And KU football has a commit from a 2027 running back. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Derek Johnson here. And on today's episode, we're going to break down KU baseball, continuing to demolish teams. We'll get to Trace Stewart, the newest commit in the class of 2020. 27 for KU football.

Starting point is 00:00:37 And we'll get started with some of the latest portal news, including relating to Obdi Bashir, KU target and another potential target. And James White is a couple of other players as well signed. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Just head over to fanduel.com to get started today. So latest portal news for KU, and I think the first big one is we've talked about Abdi Bashir.

Starting point is 00:01:03 We did a deep dive episode on him. and thank you to the everydayers who already caught that. But he zoomed with NC State the day after he did a Zoom call with Kansas. And, you know, I don't know if there's plans for other Zoom calls or visits or anything after. But Paul McNeil is going back to NC State. And that is news that has since come up since Bashir zoomed with both of these schools. And why is that important? Well, Paul McNeil, if you remember the deep dive we did on him as well,

Starting point is 00:01:33 is a player kind of in the ilk of Abdi Bashir. They're shooting guards who are unbelievable shooting the three ball, but are not very good on the defensive end of the floor. Now, I think McNeil is probably even better than Bashir at the other elements of basketball and is at least a little bit more passable on the defensive end than Bashir is, which would be the difference of why McNeil is somebody who, I don't know, there's a different tier, different level of what you kind of view them as. But that said, very similar players.

Starting point is 00:02:05 And I think the immediate reaction be one of two things. One, would NC State really want McNeil and Bashir on the same team? Now, maybe if you're talking Bashir is the backup to Paul McNeil so that if you're NC State, you're in a position where no matter what, if Paul McNeil's on the court or when he's taking a breather, you have an elite shooter on the floor. Okay, that could make some sense. But by all accounts, it sounded as if the idea was for Obdi Bashir

Starting point is 00:02:32 to be a potential starter for NC State. And that would be the potential hiccup for Kansas recruiting him that, you know, he has the opportunity to be a somewhere between the sixth through eighth man at Kansas. Well, if he's starting at NC State, he's starting in another power four. And then is the money similar? Is he getting more money because he'd potentially be a starter at NC State? Like that kind of becomes the big question. What would he be doing?

Starting point is 00:02:54 Well, this could possibly change things because it's not just that, you know, does NC State want both of them? Maybe they do want both of them. But now that they have McNeil back, does that put Bashir in a situation where he would have to be coming off the bench. And if he's having to come off the bench at either school, I feel like it makes more sense to come off the bench at Kansas, where you have the opportunity to probably do a little bit more,

Starting point is 00:03:16 where the team is supposed to be a little bit better, right? I think that would be a good thing for Kansas. Now, I know there's still some people who are, you know, defectors against the Obdi Bashir stuff and listen, like I get it. Like I said, it's a very bad defensive player talking about when he was at the CAA, He ranked 106th of 109 defenders in the Colonial Athletic Conference. It wasn't much better this year in the Big 12 when you're looking at Evan Miaqa's defensive ratings. But I'm just viewing it as a standpoint of like, hey, if you're talking sixth through eighth man and you're talking about one of the best three-point shooters in the country, you could do worse than adding guy like Abdi Bashir.

Starting point is 00:03:52 And yes, I would be very worried about the fit of a player like Abdi Bashir with Bill Self in terms of like that seems to be the problem there. It's the people who are saying, I'm worried about this not working are the ones who are saying, okay, he's a good three-point shooter. But if he's not on the floor, it doesn't matter how good of a three-point shooter is. And his bill self can actually put him on the floor consistently, knowing the holes in his game. My contest to that would be, and I think it's a very fair argument and one that makes me trepidacious, but I'm also in a situation where I just want the three-point shooting. And I don't know that there's a ton of other great options left. But my contest to that is a lot of the guys who have had problems with that translating, Ryland Griffin, Nick Timberlake, you know, Jaden Dawson, those were guys who were brought in

Starting point is 00:04:37 under the guise of compete to be a starter, if not start. Like with Ryland Griffin, he was starting games. Timberlake started some games. Jaden Dawson at the beginning, like in the offseason, the talk was come in and be a starter. And then quickly it became, hey, Col Rosario needs to start. And looking back, that was probably more of a negative that Jaden Dawson, couldn't start than it was Colorsario was ready to start if that kind of makes sense. But that can kind of change your mantra if you're expected to be a starter.

Starting point is 00:05:06 And then now you're coming off the bench. Now you're missing threes. You're getting pulled. And it's just like you're you feel like your expectations or your your stock is sinking. Well, if the expectation for Bashir is to come off the bench all the way through from day one and he ends up coming off the bench and you get pulled in a game, like your mentality stays the same because you knew what you were signing up for. Now, there's another name of news, and this player makes me feel like Obdi Bashir is Michael Jordan. If this is the, you don't get

Starting point is 00:05:35 Bashir, this is who you're going after. Now, again, we see some of these with some of these lists that is it just an agent putting the name of the team out there because, well, okay, so first of all, let's get to the name. James White is the name. James White, very controversial player. And it was reported out by a couple different places that Kansas is one of the teams showing interest in James White. Now, again, a lot of times you see these tweets out there, the team has reported interest. It could be as simple as a phone call. It could be, hey, you're our fifth option, but we at least wanted to touch base on it. It could be, you know, setting up a visit.

Starting point is 00:06:14 There are different ranges of which teams are offering scholarships, which team are making them a priority, which teams are just checking in. there's even the element of if you were an agent and let's say you're Kansas and you want a different player from that agent and the agent goes, hey, we'll talk, you know, we'll talk on that player. Could you do me a favor and say that you're interested in this other guy I have? So it boosts up his capital for another school. And from Bill Self's perspective, he's just like, yeah, man, I just want the other player you're talking to. And, you know, if this handicapped somebody else because they overspend on a player, like, sure, that's fine with me.

Starting point is 00:06:50 right so there are different levels of this so i don't actually know if k u's interested in james white but if we take it at face value and say that they are interested in james white that would not be a good thing because so i i have this uh i have a google sheet basically with like a bunch of the the transfer portal players that are in the portal um and i put together some of their stats so it's easy reference for me right and i have players that either k u has had reported interest in players that i think would be interesting uh players that i think are just good portal players just to kind of take a look at and compare and stuff, different varying levels of player, right?

Starting point is 00:07:23 Just a lot of players in there to get a lot of comparison. And basically, I have like this all in one, I don't want to call it a metric because it's just like basic math, but it's compiling a bunch of different metrics into an all in one number. So you're talking about compiling, you know, Evan Miacawa numbers with on-off numbers, with P.R, with wind shares, with RAPM, a lot of these different numbers and put together. Point being, I have a solution here. You know, you have different ranges of players.

Starting point is 00:07:49 I have some players who are, you know, pretty low on those numbers. Like, I have some players who are in the 30s, you know, which are really high. I have some players, I have one player on here who's like as low as two. Well, James White, I have all the way at negative five. I have nobody else in the zero to negative range. And here's the reason why everywhere James White is, you might look at the Ross Tats and go, oh, this would be a good backup to Obdi Bashir because he averaged 19 points per game, seven rebounds per game.

Starting point is 00:08:15 And this is before even getting to the off-the-court stuff. Okay, but that's about it, right? The efficiency wasn't great. You're talking about his RAPM was negative 4.3. If you look at the impact or the lack of impact he's had on the floor, his four years of college because he was at like Ole Miss, he was at UAB. Every single year he's been in college,

Starting point is 00:08:36 the team has been at least eight points worse per 100 possessions when he's been on the floor, all four of his seasons. And his last season there, he was on a four-win team, and they were still like 11. points worse per 100 and he was on the floor. So, I mean, on a team that bad, you would think you would be able to have a positive impact because the bar would be so low and it wasn't there. And then you get to the standpoint he didn't play last year. You might be wondering why, because he was under investigation for a gambling suspension that cut his season short at New Orleans in 24,

Starting point is 00:09:08 25. This comes after a year before when he was at Ole Miss, or I'm sorry, when he was at UAB, when he left after seven games for personal reasons. I do not want to touch this one with a 10-foot pole if I'm Kansas. So, yeah, it makes the Obdi-Bashir thing, like, even more, like, of a want for me just to avoid this situation. So we'll see what kind of happens there, right? And honestly, like, the longer we go, the first when I heard the Ob-D-Bashir news, I was, again, I was open to it because I'm at a point where I'm just like, hey, Tyron

Starting point is 00:09:37 Stokes, and now just get your bench pieces and get something interesting there. It wasn't my favorite to bring on Bashir, but the more we get into this, the more I'm kind of talking to myself into it. So I am at this point, like, go get to Abdi-Bashir, like, make it out. happen, make that the bench piece. So that would be good for KU. Now, Bill Self also spoke on some of the recent editions who signed Grant Mordini. He said, we're excited about Grant coming to Kansas at 6 foot 11.

Starting point is 00:09:58 He will add depth at the center position and be a guy that makes us better every day in practice. He's been well drilled and well coached. Then he later goes on in the blurb. We got some stats, 12 and a half points, eight and a half rebounds, 1.8 steals per game, 58% from the floor and had seven double doubles. So good stats and everything. But yeah, the quote kind of talking about, you know, be good every day in practice.

Starting point is 00:10:19 Like that kind of tells you everything you need to know with the potential role. We also heard Bill Self talk on Christian Reeves, who officially signed. I think that Christian will have an immediate impact for us. He really didn't have an opportunity to play a ton until college of Charleston. And what was so impressive is he averaged over 11 points and eight rebounds a game with a hurt shoulder all season long. It's exciting because he's dealt with so many injuries. And for the first time in his college career, we can see the potential because it's the

Starting point is 00:10:41 first time he's really been able to play. I think that's a double-edged sword on that quote. the standpoint of, okay, he had a injury, a season-ending injury at Duke, and then he was coming off that injury at Clemson, and clearly he was playing through an injury at College of Charleston, that worries me a little bit. Do you have a guy who's injury prone here at a position that you can't really afford that you've played money ball to begin with? You can't really afford injuries there to be. So that is worrisome. The flip side is, does that explain some of the, you know, him not breaking out at Clemson or Duke or something, is that he has had to do. deal with some of these injuries, right? And I think that is kind of a fair contort. So, you know, I do think Reeves is going to get the job done for what they're asking of, be a good defender, be a good rebounder. Clearly, it'll play through the injury that shows a level of toughness, though, right? And for Bill South, toughness is super important. And I think that does at least show you into a peek behind the curtain of that he will be a good Bill Self fit

Starting point is 00:11:37 from the toughness element, right? All right, let's get to a little KU football news. They added a commit in class of 2027. Next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook. The NBA playoffs are here and every possession matters. If you're looking to get even closer to the action, Fandual has a great way to get you started. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet wins, turn five bucks into $150 in bonus bets,

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Starting point is 00:12:54 Thanks for joining us today on the show. Don't forget and join the Everydayer Club, which you can join as well at Lockedonjahawks. Dot supercast.com. That's locked on jhawks.com. You can get the ad-free version of the show. Our KU football has a first running back commit for the class of 2027, and that would be one, Tray Stewart.

Starting point is 00:13:16 Trace Stewart is a running back from the state of Arkansas. And interestingly enough, that's who this football recruitment came down to. It was Kansas and Arkansas in the end. Now, he had some other really good offers as part of this, but Arkansas was the other big one. And Kansas has taken some lumps against Arkansas and some recent years in different sports, but didn't have to worry about that this go around. They win the commitment here. Originally from Little Rock here, he plays at Little Rock Central High School.

Starting point is 00:13:46 school. And again, like I said, offers from Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Missouri, Miami, and more. Though some of those offering him as different positions, this is where it gets kind of interesting. He's listed as an athlete by 24-7 sports, and he's actually ranked as a linebacker over on 24-70s, the number 90 linebacker in the class. But it seems like the intention, again, is to play running back at Kansas. Now, on three does list him as a running back where he's the number 74 running back in the class. He's also the number four player in the state of Arkansas. But, but he's a number three, Holtz sites have him in the mid three star tier. That's a top 1,000 national recruit.

Starting point is 00:14:21 And that always is kind of a good line for me that I'm looking at, hey, did you bring in a top 1,000 recruit here? That's usually like a, you know, you get players outside the top 1,000 who are good all the time. But that can be kind of a good, you know, cutoff point for Kansas that can be a differentiator in classes, right? Good stats, as you'd imagine. I think I saw somewhere like over 1,200 all-purpose yards, over 7 yards per carry as a junior in high school. and obviously, you know, expecting to have kind of big senior season upcoming here. He's a big running back. Like I guess if you're talking about him being a lineback or running back, that's kind of what you would expect.

Starting point is 00:14:54 Six foot two, two, two hundred and five pounds. I think you kind of see that on film from a standpoint of when he gets to that second level, if you try to tackle him head on or shoulder high, it doesn't usually go well. Like he's able to shred those guys off and just keep going. Like you almost like if you don't go low on a guy like that, you're not going to bring him down. And with the speed and the force that he runs with does a really good job breaking arm tackles and those those I guess upper body tackles a little bit more. Right. I also think he has a really good acceleration.

Starting point is 00:15:29 When he gets in the open field or I don't know, like it felt like he could hit his top gear at a decent amount of time. But once he got to that top gear, he can really scoot in a straight line. I don't know that he's the most shifty running back in the world. He's more in line of like the classic, I think KU running backs that they've recruited, which is the one cut kind of running backs. Like I feel like with Daniel Hyshaw and Devin Neal and, you know, Harry Stewart, even though he's transferred away. And a lot of the guys they bring in are these one cut running backs who are, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:04 they're not the shiftiest guys in the world. Some of them have more power than others. Some of them have more speed than others. some of them have more vision than others but like the idea is pretty similar they're going to be running backs that can and you see this in the wide zone right like you might be moving to the outside you make that cut boom you're off you're getting to full acceleration going forward um you're finding in the right hole you're finding the right cut cut back and then boom you're going forward right and they haven't been afraid to get the bigger body running backs that can fall forward and get

Starting point is 00:16:32 you those extra yards and this feels very much like a classic kansas lance lightfold running back that we've seen during the time it is funny because when you look at it for this year's team upcoming, like I look at the transfers they brought on, Yassine Willis is that kind of guy as well, of more of the Daniel Hyshaugh mold of it, whereas Jalen Dupree, who is hurt right now, and that's unfortunate,

Starting point is 00:16:54 is more of that mold of a Devon Neal type of the one cut runner. Don't mean he's going to be Devon Neal, but just in terms of the style of runner that he is. Dylan Edwards, I feel like, is the one kind of exception to the rule that we've seen for KU of being a like kind of scat-back, like agility, speed-based guy first. But this, like I said, does feel like another move for Stewart of the classic prototype

Starting point is 00:17:18 of what you're looking for in terms of the offense that they want to play. I also like the versatility he shows, obviously, you know, being somebody who some teams are offering as a linebacker, there's some highlights of him running routes and making contested catches downfield. It feels like one of those players who, if theoretically things didn't work out at running back, you could move him to another position and it would work at another position. Not to say that's going to happen because I do think he's a good running back. I just mean like it feels like you have options here, I guess.

Starting point is 00:17:49 I feel like the path to him succeeding, there's a lot of positions he could succeed at. I guess is kind of the point here, right? But the running back position remains one of those that is good, I think, now and in the future for KU. I mentioned some of those names earlier with Edwards who could sell another year. And I guess with this whole five thing, that could kind of change up what happens here. Cori and Mockrey seems to be getting rave reviews as a young running back for KU. Obviously, we await the injury stuff with Jalen Dupree. You look at you seeing Willis.

Starting point is 00:18:17 He could have another year still. So KU is in a good position at running back, not just for this year, but with a lot of those guys having multiple years that could potentially get added on with that five and five rule. And then you have the potential future guys coming in who are either already there or like this edition here. This also becomes the third commit in total for KU. in the class of 2027. So not quite moving as quickly or as fast as they did in some of the previous classes. And maybe we're going to see a bunch come here in the summer. I don't necessarily know that it's, I don't know, like it might be, it might be like intentional. You know,

Starting point is 00:18:58 they might be slow playing it a little bit more. And now with the potential of the five and five, like maybe that's part of it because they want to see what exactly they all need. They don't want overspend on a high school class knowing that, hey, you could potentially have more guys coming back another year that you're going to have to pay money on. Like, there could be reasons to it. But I do like the three commits that gotten so far. Derek Gonzalez is 6'280 pound offensive tackle from California. He's an 87 rated three star.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Dang Tong from the Kansas City area is incredibly fast and electric and kind of, you know, I talked about the running back mold that they're bringing in these one cut guys who can get to top end acceleration. Tong kind of fits the billing of his. It seems like they're adding like one or two super speedsters at their receiver position the last couple of years. And it feels like that that's certainly a emphasis for them in the recruiting game. So interesting, though, that all three commits right now are on the offensive side of the football. You know, that could just be correlation versus causation.

Starting point is 00:19:54 But yeah, I like the Stewart edition. And he adds to what should be a really good KU running back room for both now and in the future. All right. Some of the latest news, including KU baseball being a wagon next. Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. Derek Johnson with you. You can give us a follow at L.O. underscore Jayhawks on Twitter at D. Johnson Radio on Twitter as well. And KU baseball man just continues to stack up wins.

Starting point is 00:20:23 It is now 10 wins in a row for KU. And I've lost count at this point. It's like 20 of 21, 19, 20, 21 of 22. Like I said, lost count. I do know it's 10 in row, though. And they are sitting pretty. They just had another big 12 sweep. They're now 18 and 2 at home.

Starting point is 00:20:38 home this season, 37 and 11 overall, and 20 and 4 in Big 12 play after they sweep Arizona, 4 to 2 on Friday night, 7 to 2 on Saturday, 11 to 5 wrapping things up on Sunday. It is so incredible what they're doing. I continue to be amazed here. And now they're in a situation where if they can get to 23 wins in the Big 12, so they have six more Big 12 games remaining. They're verse West Virginia next week. They're at BYU the week after.

Starting point is 00:21:06 If they just win three of those, they would clinch at least a share of the Big 12th title. Now, if they win four of them, or if they win three and, you know, whatever the magic number, I guess, would be three, right? Because team could lose and it opens things up, right? So they're in a good position to try to claim the Big 12th title. This was a really good thread put out by at KU Stats and Info, which at KU Stats info, excuse me, which is one of the best follows for me. They send out really good stats stuff. But so the record for KU through 48 games ties their school best. 1993 was the other one.

Starting point is 00:21:50 93 was the team who made it to the College World Series, I believe. This is also the first time that KU has had back-to-act 37 win season since 93-94, which I believe they made the NCAA tournament both of those years. KU has tied its program. record of 20 wins in conference play and they still have six games to go, which is really cool. Also, this one is crazy to me. I don't know how this is possible. The Jayhawks are the first big 12th team with 20 conference wins in back-to-back seasons since Nebraska in 2000 to 2001. That is wild. How did like, I don't know, Texas had some good teams in there. TCU's had some

Starting point is 00:22:29 great team. I don't know. Was the conference schedule shorter in the past? Maybe it's harder to get there. I don't know. That seems like one of those where I'm just like, how is that possible? It is obviously really cool history for KU. KU is also 12 and O in Big 12 home games at Houghlin this year. That is the longest Big 12 home winning streak for Kansas in program history. And also, KU has 24 comeback wins this year. Kansas is also 30 and O when they lead after six innings. So it's a nice combination of they have the ability to come back,

Starting point is 00:22:59 but they also have the ability to shut the door at the end of the games. And yeah, just remarkable things what they're doing on the diamond right now. Of course, not the only team performing well on the diamond. KU softball only win one of three over the weekend, but we talked about this before. They were on the road against a top 15 team in the country in Oklahoma State. And so the fact they even get one win super helpful for their resume, their RPI, everything making to the NCAA tournament. Now they're the four seed in the Big 12 tournament. They got UCF in their first game upcoming.

Starting point is 00:23:30 I think right now, I'd imagine they're going to be good for the NCAA tournament regardless. but you know if you don't want to leave anything up for chance do a little bit of damage in the big 12 tournament too but um really good chance for both kU baseball and kU softball to make the tournament in the same year and if kU baseball can keep taking care of business good chance they'll be hosting as well uh last bit of news here comes from the big 12 and this is news that i'm hoping won't end up applying to kansas uh it was uh ross dallinger who tweeted out big 12 has approved its private capital deal with redbird capital the first such a range from a major NCAA conference.

Starting point is 00:24:06 Schools have a chance to opt in for around 30 million in Capital League gets at least a $12.5 million infusion as part of a strategic partnership. I've been very vocal. I'm anti-private equity on this stuff. A lot of times companies get bought by private equity or a big share gets in and all the sudden things go to poop. Products gets worse that they get more expensive. The fans are the ones that suffer or the people buying the product or the ones that suffer

Starting point is 00:24:30 the most. It's just never nearly as good. things get more expensive. And here's the other part of this that I think makes it really dumb, right? I get KU is in a position where they have a shortfall and they need money. And I hope that it doesn't lead to the desperation here because I believe in reading this, it mentions that, again, like, this is not just free money. This isn't just private equity being like, here's your money, like, enjoy it, have fun. We just want to see the Big 12 succeed. This is private equity giving you the money and then you have to pay it back with a 10% interest rate.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Okay, think about that. That is that, I, what I would hope that's more than your mortgage rate. It's a very high interest rate that you're going to be paying back. So this isn't just, hey, you're getting some free money right now. This is money that's going to lead to a problem down the road. So I hope this is an on take for KU and many other teams in the country and in the Big 12 because I continue to say private equity in college sports in the Big 12 is not a good thing. All right.

Starting point is 00:25:26 That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere, podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll have a deep dive as well coming up. up on Tunday Yasifu. This is LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS PORTAL NEWS: Abdi Bashir Chase is ON + James White Interest Real or Not for Jayhawks?

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