Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS PORTAL TARGET Deep Dive: Rodney Rice an Ideal Fit Next to Darryn Peterson for Bill Self

Starting point is 00:00:00 Rodney Rice would be an excellent fit next to Darren Peterson in the backcourt. On today's episode, we break down a transfer portal target for the Kansas Jayhawks, Rodney Rice from Maryland. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. And whether it is you get it through our YouTube page or anywhere you get your audio side of things, the podcast, thanks for joining us on today's edition of the show. And we're gonna be breaking down

Starting point is 00:00:47 another transfer portal target for Bill Self and the kids at Jayhawks. That would be a Maryland guard in the form of Rodney Rice, who is in the transfer portal after his head coach left for Villanova. Is he gonna just go with him to Villanova as he opened other schools? Kansas certainly has some contacts.

Starting point is 00:01:03 So we'll get into a scouting report on him the possible fit with KU I think it'd be a great fit. Next to Darren Peterson to spoil that a little bit. And then other latest portal news surrounding KU as well as a quick update on KU baseball who's now ranked on the season. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Game Time. And download the Game Time app, create an account and use code LOCKED on college for $20 off

Starting point is 00:01:25 your first purchase with game time. Okay, let's start right here with Rodney Rice. Who is he? He is a six foot four, 198 pound guard. I guess if you're looking at like different iterations of certain guys are point guards, other guys are combo guards, other guys are shooting guards.

Starting point is 00:01:42 Like I would view him more in the shooting guard realm of things. And he put up, you know, really good numbers for a Maryland team that obviously was sweet 16 team and was a really strong team this season. He will be a red shirt junior at his next school. Cause he started his career at Virginia Tech. Then he was out for a year with a red shirt year of injury

Starting point is 00:02:04 and then went to Maryland. So'll be redshirt junior, like I said, that gives him two years left to play, which is an added bonus, but 13.8 points per game is almost 14 points per game. Mostly shooting guard. So you're getting 2.2 rebounds, not a ton there 2.1 assists per game. That's fine for shooting guard point seven seals point one blocks per game, and then did it on 43% from the floor a little over that. In a little over 37% from three on good volume with about six per game.

Starting point is 00:02:33 Also good free throw shooter, 81% at the foul line on just under three attempts per game there. Overall, the effective field goal percentage, the true shooting percentage, both great. The on off numbers for Rodney Rice on the offensive end of the floor is plus 19 on the offensive end. That is insane. It's five points worse though on the defensive end, but overall net rating of 14 points better when he's on the floor. Now part of that is Rice is a good player. Also part of that is the reason it's the Crab Five for Maryland, the highest scoring starting five in college basketball isn't just because those five players are good, which is true. All of them are

Starting point is 00:03:05 good players. It's also because they probably don't have the best bench players in the world. So like your on off numbers are going to be better when it's like you look at a hundred Dickinson, not this past season, but the year before when he's coming out of the game, Parker Brown's coming in like no duh. The on off numbers are going to look great for, for Hunter Dickinson, right? But also a 3.6 on the Bartorvik transfer rating for Rodney Rice, which is a good number there. So you look at the strengths and questions maybe for Rice's game. On the strong side of things, you have to lead off with him being able to shoot the three ball. In the 75th percentile for three-point percentage, 37.4 percent.

Starting point is 00:03:42 In the 82nd percentile for three-point attempts per 40 minutes. So he's getting them off at a high rate. And the fact that he had to play next to, you know, Jacoby Gillespie and these other good players tells you that he knows how to operate and get his three balls without having to be the guy with his ball in his hand, the ball in his hands at all times, and without having to be somebody who has to be the focal point of the offense on each possession down the floor. That's not a necessity here for Rodney Rice.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Overall, the effective field goal percentage, though, good. I mean, this was a guy who was 69th percentile and two point percentage, I think was able to use his three point gravity to his, you know, success to be able to drive guys or cut off guys and be able to finish at the rim. But he also was a good fast break player, 90th percentile and fast break points per 40 minutes for him. So was able to accomplish that at a high level. Didn't really turn the ball over much,

Starting point is 00:04:35 90 second percentile turnover rate. And even though the assist numbers aren't super high, a little over two per game, 83rd percentile in assist to turnover rate, which again goes back in line with the idea, 61st percentile usage rate. He's not somebody who is having to create the offensive bunch.

Starting point is 00:04:50 Well, we've talked about this before, and it's part of the reason why Jaden Dawson is such a good fit with the transfer from the wing from Loyola, Chicago, is that he's somebody who doesn't have to have the ball in his hands to be successful and can work off a player who's really good on his hands like Darren Peterson. That kind of applies for Rodney Rice to

Starting point is 00:05:06 which you would be really nice to be able to bring in a player like that. If you are Kansas so overall just a very good offensive piece in Rodney Rice and somebody who knows how to play without the ball in his hands. That's kind of the the bottom line here. Now, maybe if you're looking for some of the questions to his game, you know, what are you getting on the defensive end of the floor? I mentioned that Maryland five points worse on the defensive end with him on the floor more

Starting point is 00:05:31 than made up for it with his offensive game and what he brought to the table, but you're not really getting much else besides that. Now you could make the argument that Kansas at this point with Flory and Peterson and Trey White, you know, the three point shooting and having an offensive player would be the most important thing to add. And he checks that box, but you look at it right now

Starting point is 00:05:51 and offensive rebound rate for Rodney Rice is just 38th percentile. Defensive rebound rate is just the fifth percentile. So that's really low on there. Steel rate only in the 16th percentile, block rate only in the 19th percentile. block rate only in the 19th percentile, and that totals up to be his Zakeem rate is all the way down to the eighth percentile. So this is not somebody who's creating a bunch of defensive opportunities necessarily. Now,

Starting point is 00:06:18 is there any chance that he is a better defender than maybe some of the stats, that maybe he's just more of a fundamentally sound defender. I think the worry you would have for KU fans would be, would this just be another Ryland Griffin, right? Somebody who scores but doesn't really do much else. What are you exactly going to get in those kind of other areas of the game necessarily? I do like Rice a little bit more than that in terms of the proven ability to play off ball and not be the focal point of an offense, I guess, so to speak. And

Starting point is 00:06:52 I do think that is important. And I like the fact that he's 94th percentile in mid-range twos in the case of Rodney Rice. And he shoots him really well from above the break and the corner that it gives you kind of multiple options there. But yeah, that would be the worry there. But I'll say this, like when you look at the comps on CBB Analytics, and you go to the Big 12, the top comp you wind up with for Rodney Rice in the Big 12 is LJ Cryer.

Starting point is 00:07:20 And I definitely think you could use an LJ Cryer. So let's talk more about what his fit would specifically be with Kansas in Rodney Rice. And if I think it would work, if I think would not, is that, you know, a little bit of a worry? I don't know. And then we get some more portal news. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Game Time. There's nothing like energy of a live game, whether it's catching a last-minute MLB showdown

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Starting point is 00:09:09 locked on college football. All right, how would Rodney Rice fit in with the team? So I mentioned, would there be any worry that Rodney Rice should be another Rylan Griffin, a guy who's a really good three point shooters previous stop, but doesn't really provide much else on the floor. I'm not as worried about it because again, I go to the idea that with Rice, he played next to Derek Queen,

Starting point is 00:09:32 one of the best players in the country, one of the best freshmen in the country, played next to Jacobi Gillespie, really good on ball point guard. He played next to a bunch of really good talent, right? At Maryland and he was able to find a fit in that. And working for a coach in Kevin Willard, who it's not the same as with Ryland Griffin coming from Nate Oates, where it's it's the system is we're

Starting point is 00:09:56 going to get up and down as fast as possible, and Chuck a bunch of threes, yada, yada, yada. Like Maryland, at the end of the day, they played at a faster pace, but they're not Alabama, you know? And so having to share it with Selton Miguel and Julian Reese and Derek Queen and Jacoby Gillespie tells me that there's a better seamless fit working off of things here. I think there's also a case to be made that the Ryland Griffin thing, part of why it didn't work isn't just the physical abilities that he brought to the floor. It's that maybe it was just from an emotional or a mental standpoint, whatever you want to say, just not a great fit between him and Bill Self, right? Like maybe kind of a two-way street there

Starting point is 00:10:37 that just didn't click as well. Maybe you reset with a different player and maybe it does fit and click a little bit more there. Um, I also like the idea that. I don't know. I guess, I guess in the case of, of Rodney Rice, like, um, this is somebody who, you know, I think you would know what you're getting into a little bit more. Like, okay, think about when you brought in Riley Griffin. Yes. The idea was bringing this guy who can score and shoot threes.

Starting point is 00:11:05 Um, but it was kind of like, okay, but we want him to, we're going to try to get him to be a better defender too. And, and not that you wouldn't do that with any player you bring in, but you know, maybe we'll even play him some as a small ball four and he's going to come in and start. And then he doesn't end up starting and it goes in and out of the lineup. With Rice, it feels like more of like a, okay, yeah, he would start type of thing. And also at that same venture, it's almost like with Griffin, you brought him in and you weren't totally sure what the role would be, what the roster would look like,

Starting point is 00:11:37 what the starting lineup would be, what the rest of the roster was gonna fill out around him. At this point, I feel like you have a little bit better idea what the starting five is going to be. It's like, okay, you have Darren Peterson kind of running the point as a combo guard, right? You have Florid Badum get the five. You have Trey White at one of the wing positions, whether it's playing the three or playing the four. And then right now you'd have either Elmarco Jackson or you know if you wanted to run the two point guard system or Jaden Dawson at the wing right and maybe that would be a starting five. Well you bring Rice in

Starting point is 00:12:10 one of those guys is gone and it makes more sense from the standpoint of you start going okay with Darren Peterson he's a freshman as good as I think he's going to be you don't know how he's going to shoot from three could be 33% could 34%, it could be elite and everything else, but the three could just be average, right? You don't know. A lot of times that happens with freshmen. With Flory, obviously not really a shooter. With Trey White, fine shooter in certain areas, but not super high volume necessarily. If El Marco is your other starter, if you were to say, El Marco is the starter and Dawson's coming off the bench. Well, El Marco is not really known for his three point shooting, you know, maybe it changed with the season off and the injury and maybe the injury where he

Starting point is 00:12:51 couldn't really do maybe as much athletically allowed him to just stand and shoot and maybe that's better. Who knows? But you get to more of an easier avenue to be like, no, they just need like a good three point shooter. And then part of what Dawson provides is that with a little bit of defense. But I think with Rice, you get more of the offense. So yes, that that maybe is a worry in the back of your mind because it doesn't help solve, you know, the defensive end of the floor. It doesn't solve this or that. I'm also not entirely sure that Rodney Rice isn't a better defender

Starting point is 00:13:20 than maybe he gets credit for based on some of the statistics based on the on off numbers because you look at Maryland as a whole and this was a difference too right you go back to 2023 Alabama and that team or I'm sorry 2024 Alabama and that Alabama team that made the final four finished 111th in the country in derating on Ken Palm adjusted defensive efficiency country in derating on Kenpom, adjusted defensive efficiency. This Maryland team that Rodney Rice was a part of just finished sixth in the country in defensive rating and adjusted defensive efficiency, right? So, you know, the team success tells you that it's maybe a little less of a hindrance. So that's why I'm not as worried about it. And also to the idea that like if

Starting point is 00:14:03 hindrance. So that's why I'm not as worried about it. And also to the idea that like if you can't be scared off of like, you can't let let one or two instances of bringing on Ryland Griffin and Nick Timberlake, bringing on these guys just scare you from never bringing on a good three point shooter again. You know what I mean? Like, yes, it makes you more wary to bring on guys that are more complete players i.e. Jaden Dawson and Trey White, but it can't scare you off from bringing in a good three point shooter ever again. And I like the fact that Rice can play off the ball.

Starting point is 00:14:30 I think if you did add Rice, to me, the starting lineup then would be Peterson, Rice, Trey White, Florid Badunga, and then it's at that point, are you starting Jaden Dawson and playing basically three, six, four, six, five guards with White and Badunga, maybe a little smaller, or would you start on Marco Jackson if Dawson come off the bench? Or would you bring in another transfer

Starting point is 00:14:51 who's more of a wing and then have the starting lineup be Peterson with Rice at the two, and then you have White in another wing, and then Padunga or White and Power Forward or whatever it is, that is the case. But yes, if Rodney Rice were interested in coming to KU, I would expect him to start. And I think he'd be a great fit overall for KU.

Starting point is 00:15:11 So yes, this is a definite take if he decides to come. But you know, maybe he just wants to follow his coach to Villanova. Maybe he wants to, you know, join up with Jacoby Gillespie, who went to Tennessee and one of his former teammates. Who knows what exactly he wants, but he is available. And certainly would be an interesting ad for Kansas. All right, some interesting latest news around the portal, including with Nigel Pack, KJ Lewis, Abdi Bashir,

Starting point is 00:15:33 also KU Baseball is killing it. Let's discuss all those next. And thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. So some other latest portal news going on around, I think Nigel Pack is a very interesting one, because obviously KU fans remember him from when he was at K-State and, you know, had that unbelievable performance in Manhattan. And then KU had that crazy comeback to come back and win against. Well, he had Kansas on his, I guess, short list of teams that

Starting point is 00:16:07 Jeff Goodman sent out on social media. He ended up picking Oklahoma in the end, which goes there and probably gets to be the guy assuming Fears is going to go pro here. With Kansas, you know, you're more of a secondary ball handler with Darren Peterson out there. So I don't know if that was more of his decision more of a Kansas or a little bit of both, but Kansas did have at least some interest in him. He ends up

Starting point is 00:16:32 going somewhere else. Abdi Bashir, speaking of Kansas State in Kansas, ends up having Kansas on his some sort of interest list as well goes to Kansas State. This is one that I think it's probably for the best doesn't wind up at Kansas because this is one, unlike Rodney Rice where it's like, oh, this dude takes 17 shots a game, 10 threes per game, needs the ball in his hand, doesn't really do anything else. That is gonna drive Bill Self crazy.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Like in the specific role of being this three point shooter, fine with Abdi Bashir, but I don't think Bill Self would wanna use him that way. He wants players that can compete on both ends of the the floor and stuff so he ends up with Kansas State which is perfect because it's a situation where I think it works out that you know I don't think it would have been a great fit with Kansas at the same point in time he's going to go to Kansas State and when Kansas plays him he's probably going to nail x63s that's just kind of how it works obviously but I do think that is probably a good thing for for KU KJ Lewis goes to Georgetown, somebody

Starting point is 00:17:26 that I was keeping an eye on, there was some KU contact, at some point really athletic guard did like everything well, except for shoot the basketball. But that's kind of important thing when you're shooting art. And the fact that Kansas has flooring back Trey white, not a volume three point shooter, as we kind of mentioned earlier, you probably couldn't afford to bring on KJ Lewis. Hypothetically, if you would have had a three and a four who were both knocked

Starting point is 00:17:48 down shooters, maybe added Josh Dix, right? Maybe Flory ended up staying in the portal and you added a five who would shoot a little bit, then Lewis might make a little bit more sense. But given the current roster wouldn't have made sense anyway. Amari Monroe, who we had a deep dive on on a previous episode, he ended up going back to Quinnipiac. Didn't mean to rhyme that, but I found that very interesting because I think it was later in the day from when Kansas

Starting point is 00:18:13 made the addition of Trey White. I could be off with that. It was a couple of days ago, but it was either later in the day or beforehand. And I can't help but think that maybe in his mind, he was thinking, I am interested in the Kansas one. But then when they added Trey White, it was like, okay, well, now that opportunity is not there. I'm just going to go back to school. Maybe that was a reaction.

Starting point is 00:18:35 Maybe it wasn't, but I did find that interesting if you're just kind of connecting dots there. So he returns back to school at Quinnipiac. But, you know, honestly, there is something cool about like a player putting up good numbers going back to his school because it's like, okay, that makes March madness more compelling once you get to that point in the season. And then two other ones were real quick hits here that K you had some reported contact again, you'd never know exactly to what level these are. But honor Hoff is a guard for I think it's Charleston, who just is an unbelievable three point shooter,

Starting point is 00:19:06 like over 15 points per game, really good three point shooter, would be very interesting for KU in kind of the Rodney Rice role, if that's kind of the player you're looking for here. And so there was some important contact there, but a long list of suitors. The other one is at the center position,

Starting point is 00:19:21 Jayden Quaintance, and this was according to Sam Kaiser of 24-7, Sam Kaiser of 24-7 hoops. And somebody very interesting here in Quaintance who was not eligible, I believe, for this year's NBA draft got injured at the end of the season, like an ACL injury. And his camp has come out and said that like, we're expecting him to be cleared by September. And the injury was like late February, I want to say.

Starting point is 00:19:45 I don't know when the surgery was, if it was late February or early March. Either way, you're talking about a situation here. I've got Terry in his ACL and saying it's going to be cleared like six months later. Now, everybody who's a Kansas fan obviously remembers Brandon Rush. You know, Terry in his ACL and coming back

Starting point is 00:20:01 and eventually being cleared early in that season. So maybe it is something where he has a similar injury to Rush and he can be back at that point in the season. Also possible that, because he wasn't gonna be eligible for this draft anyway, that, you know, Quaiten, they would float that out there possibly to see if a team would be willing to bring him on just so that he can be on a team for a year and get medical treatment and be around

Starting point is 00:20:27 a team. And if he does make it back in time for the season at some point, great. Does he get an NIL check too with it? Like that would certainly be great. So very interesting that because if he is healthy, this is a guy who looks like a first round draft pick, right? Again, not eligible for this year's draft, but in the 2026 draft looked like it for Arizona State. Absolute stud. He was a year young for his class and what he was doing this past season. Now, was that contact by KU pre-Flory Budunga coming back? Was that a maybe insurance in case Budunga ended up leaving? Because having a player like that, you don't normally bring him on to be your backup big when your starting center

Starting point is 00:21:03 and Flory is going to be expected to play 25, 28, 30 minutes per game, right? Then again, you start to think about it more and you go, wait, but maybe, okay, we've seen this before, Bill Self, coach Brandon Rush, when he was coming back from that too, if their party, if Jayden Queens, his camp wants him to be not rushed and wants him to be slowly brought along. What better situation than for Kansas to basically say, hey, we'll bring you on. We've got good medical help here. We'll slowly bring you along because we're not desperate.

Starting point is 00:21:35 We got Flory Budunga. And then once you get back, once you're back, if you are fully healthy, if you never get back, like, cool, we took the risk. It didn't work. But if you do get back fully healthy, now we can basically play, split up the center minutes, you get 20, Flory gets 20, and then you play 5-10 minutes of two big basketball together where both of them end up playing 25-30 minutes a game and you have two possible future first round draft picks at center who can play a little bit next to each other. Don't hate the idea if that's possible, but if the NIL check is really

Starting point is 00:22:04 big, does it make sense to use the funds there on a backup center who might or might not play at some point versus going after a wing or guard? So that's where it becomes a bit of a hurdle there. But it certainly would be intriguing and fun to talk about if they did it. The last one to talk about here is KU baseball who remains absolutely scorching hot right now just swept UCF and they just keep winning games. They're now in first place in the big 12. There's a bunch teams three losses at the top.

Starting point is 00:22:29 There's a big series upcoming in like 10 days against Kansas State, but now they're ranked in not just like one poll, they're 19th in baseball America, they're 22nd in D one baseball's poll 22nd in the USA Today coaches bowl, 22nd in the NCBWA and 24th in the perfect game ratings. And so KU baseball just continuing to do very big things right now. Brady Bollinger looks like a legitimate golden spikes, which is basically the Heisman for baseball candidate

Starting point is 00:23:02 right now, the way that he is slugging, the way that he is hitting, and Kansas looks like a legit team. And now they're having Dollar Hot Dog Night, if you're listening to this on your Tuesday, I guess it is tonight, against Nebraska. So they're going to continue to get fans in, they're going to continue to have fun,

Starting point is 00:23:17 and just been awesome to see what Dan Fitzgerald has done. Travis Goff's going to have his hands full figuring out that ex-contract for Dan Fitzgerald and keeping up the facilities and everything with KU baseball. They certainly deserve it on on both fronts of things. And again, Travis Goff will have an episode later in the offseason talking about you know, windbills off for tires. What is our updated shortlist of

Starting point is 00:23:39 coaches? The fact that you have Travis Goff who continues to nail these hires Lance Leipold, Dan Fitzgerald, Matt Ulmer, I think he's going to do great with KU Volleyball. Nate Lee, they win the Big 12 tournament in his first year as the KU Soccer Coach. The amount of great hires that he has already made should give you all the confidence in the world he's going to make the right decision about who the future KU basketball coach is too. And really cool to see what KU Baseball has done here. So far this season will continue to update as they go along. 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. See you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS PORTAL TARGET Deep Dive: Rodney Rice an Ideal Fit Next to Darryn Peterson for Bill Self

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