Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KJ Adams OUT with INJURY: What it means for Kansas Basketball + KU Volleyball Hires Matt Ulmer!

Starting point is 00:00:00 KJ Adams is officially week-to-week, he's out versus Kansas State with separated shoulder, and KU Volleyball has a new head coach, Matt Ulmer from Oregon. This has been a good one. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Is going on. Derek Johnson here, this is Locked on Jay Network, your team every day. Is going on. Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Another bonus episode on today's edition of the show, because we're getting into KJ Adams, the news that he is officially out for the Kansas State game and week to week. We'll get into that injury news, what it means for KU, what it means for other players like AJ Storr, Ryland Griffin, Rakeesh Passmore, Flory Badunga on today's episode of the show. And also, KU Volleyball has a new head coach, Ray Bouchard, the awesome volleyball head coach for KU, retired,

Starting point is 00:00:52 and they hired Matt Ulmer away from Oregon, a big-time get for KU Volleyball and Travis Goff. So we'll get into all that on this bonus episode of the show. Let's start up with K.J. Adams out on Saturday against Kansas State with an injury. Thank you if you already checked out our Adams out on Saturday against Kansas State with an injury. Thank you. If you already checked out our preview episode for Kansas, Kansas State, we touched on it a little bit with the headline of it.

Starting point is 00:01:11 But now that he's officially out, it maybe changes things a little bit. Officially for KJ Adams, he is out for the Kansas State game and he is being listed as week to week. He is the diagnosis, I guess, is a separated shoulder which uh tough kid for kj we already knew he was a tough you know basketball player in person um and obviously playing through it the rest of the game after going to the locker room and coming back so i actually did separate my shoulder back in my athletic days which are nothing to even close or sniff to the level of where kj adams is but um it was something where

Starting point is 00:01:46 if you even made like a throwing motion you know you would feel pain you would feel a a painful tingling all the way to your fingers and i can't remember what i had there's i want to say there's like three different degrees of it i think it's very similar to like ankle injuries and that like if you have like the worst grade of it you have to get surgery because they have to like reattach the whatever it is, like the ligaments or the tendons or whatever, versus like the, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:11 a grade one or grade two, like one's a little bit worse than the other, but they don't necessarily require surgery. The fact that they are listing this as week to week. And Bill self also mentioned his presser today, like that he is progressing in the right way. Tells me that it's probably not the surgery one. i maybe it would be more of a conversation of like yeah he's having to get surgery he's out or he's not progressing right like i don't think those would

Starting point is 00:02:32 be the conversation so um could be like a two-week deal honestly i mean he's a very tough kid so maybe it ends up even sooner than that maybe it ends up being a four-week thing i don't know but like i'm kind of looking at it right now, and I'm not expecting him, obviously. He's not going to play in the Kansas State game, but I'm not really expecting him to play in the TCU game the following Wednesday as well either. Overall, though, this is fascinating because if Kansas plays poorly without KJ Adams, I think there's going to be a very interesting reaction because i think there's a large portion of the fan base that blames a lot of ku's issues on the lineups where you're clogging up the lane with kj next to hunter digginson so if they struggle what does that mean and you have the the quote from bill self uh talking about that he's been their best most consistent player over the last four games and that kind of got people's uh reaction viscerally for for a lot of ways as well whereas

Starting point is 00:03:24 if they play super well it would be interesting because then what do you do when he comes back, right? Like, let's say by him not playing allows bigger leeway and AJ Stor starts to find a rhythm or one of these other players gets more playing time, starts to find a rhythm. And then KJ Adams is ready to come back. Does KJ Adams immediately go back into the starting lineup? Does he get as many minutes as he was getting, which is around 28, 29 minutes per game? Or do the numbers go down a little bit? Like, how does that all work?

Starting point is 00:03:54 And it's going to be very fascinating to see how Bill Self handles it. I think there's one way that a lot of fans would like to see it go. That would be AJ Storr goes off or one of these players goes off. And then, you know bill self realizes that hey maybe kj should be playing less minutes i don't know that that's the realistic outcome here so it'll be very interesting how um all of this comes together but let's talk more about what it means short term for ku in the game against kansas state and who is going to see more playing time as a result of this for the Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:05:51 on a bonus episode and our KU Kansas State preview. So what does this mean in the short term? KJ Adams injured out versus Kansas State. So I think specifically in the Kansas State game, like this is still a game even without KJ Adams that Kansas, you know, you're still going to be expected to win. You still should, if you play well, should be able to win by double digits. Now, there's no guarantee they're going to play well, but this is a game that you're

Starting point is 00:06:13 heavily favored in, even with or without KJ Adams, right? Now, specifically on the matchup, I think it's very interesting because K-State does play a good amount of two-big basketball, and they're both skilled bigs. Coleman Hawkins is a very skilled big man kind of playing the four. David Gasol is a big man. So maybe it's a game where you use more Flory next to Hunter, but the problem now becomes because Zach Clements is also injured, right? And so KJ Adams is injured as well.

Starting point is 00:06:37 That how much can you play Flory next to Hunter just from a standpoint of you need to preserve both guys because you know a they're going to have to be in for each other or b in case of foul trouble right I mean we just saw foul trouble hit both guys against Iowa State so can you not play the two big lineup of Flory and Hunter as much now that KJ Adams is out um than you could in the past where you know we're going to see more more small ball lineups so to speak for ku and then who ends up starting in this game right going back to that idea you know i i think in theory if zach clements was healthy my my guess my estimation of who would start would probably be flory but because you

Starting point is 00:07:17 don't have that backup center and you don't want him getting in foul trouble early uh my guess at this point would be rylan griffin's going to be the other starter um but you know do they do they go hey aj store is a little bit bigger than rylan griffin um he's he's a bit more of a muscular athlete like is that more helpful playing the four against another big man i think that'll be very interesting to see who that ends up being bill soft said uh at his presser between three guys to me those are the three guys store pass more and uh flory i don't think you'd start david coy because i mean zeke mayo would be at the four that's kind of non-negotiable and then uh i i don't think it would be even though we're going to get into this guy i don't think it'd be rickies pass more i think he could play more but i don't see him you know just jumping

Starting point is 00:07:57 into the starting lineup but i think yeah beyond the starting i mean the more important conversation is where do the minutes go it's not as much who starts the game it's more do where the minutes go so kj is averaging like 28 and a half minutes per game let's just call it 29 um do we see a couple of those go to hunter dickinson where you're basically saying you know you're going to be in there longer and we're going to play more two big basketball flory do we see you know five to ten of those go to flory badunga do we see five to ten even 15 of them go to aj store do we see five to ten of them even 15 of those go to flory badunga do we see five to ten even 15 of them go to aj store do we see five to ten of them even 15 of them go to rylan griffin what if we just see you know 15 go to rylan griffin and 14 go to aj store and they just say you know of the 29 minutes we lost with

Starting point is 00:08:36 kj it's all going to those two players you know what i mean or do we see rickies pass more play some real minutes because uh bill self is presser said that rickies passmore seven minutes against iowa state were as good as anyone's production per minutes for ku the other night now low bar because that was not a great game for for a lot of individuals for ku but you know i i thought there were some impressive things that he did and and what if this is the runway for rickies passmore is yeah he hasn't looked totally ready for it in the early going of the season but now it's been a couple months he's gotten some extra time with practice time like what if this is the breakout coming for rickies pass more right we're all wondering oh could happen for aj store could happen for this guy that guy what if it happens for rickies pass

Starting point is 00:09:16 more and the way that i almost view this for for ku and i think bill self is probably viewing it can you just get one of these guys to break out in this time that you're going to be missing with kj adams right whether it is rickies passmore whether it is aj store whether it is more consistent minutes for for rylan griffin right whoever it ends up being can you just find somebody out of this that you say okay we need to be playing them that way moving forward and they took advantage of this opportunity but based on how we spoke about passmore i'd expect him to get some of those minutes so like if i'm predicting what's going to happen, again, if we want to call it 29 minutes for KJ Adams, I'm going to say that five of them go to Flory.

Starting point is 00:09:54 Let's say that 10 go to Store. Let's say that seven go to Griffin and then seven to Passmore. I don't know. Maybe, maybe it's a little bit different. Maybe it's like a five to flory, 10 to store five extra to Griffin's. That'll get him in the mid twenties.

Starting point is 00:10:13 And then you have nine to, to Ricky's pass more. So I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how they kind of work this all out. But again, KU's next game after this one is TCU on Wednesday. So there is extra time in between this one. It's not the Saturday,

Starting point is 00:10:24 Monday turnaround, but I don't know. I don't imagine that's going to be the case. What will be interesting is their next Saturday game, not the case they won one after, that is going to be against Houston. And in theory, like maybe it's been a little over a week by then, but like do you really want him coming back against arguably the most physical team in the country in Houston?

Starting point is 00:10:42 And all of a sudden you get your shoulder knocked again, and then it's back to the basics. So I don't know. Maybe it could be, if you're just looking at that, like at least three games without KJ. But we do know for sure it is without one game for KJ Adams. All right, a whole lot of new games for KU Volleyball's new head coach, Matt Ulmer.

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Starting point is 00:12:09 KU Volleyball is a new head coach, and it's a pretty big name in the volleyball world. Matt Ulmer comes over from Oregon, and Oregon has been a very good volleyball program. They were one that he took over for, and he kept

Starting point is 00:12:24 them running in a positive way he had a three elite eights and i want to say eight seasons there at the helm of oregon and um that would be big time to come to ku he uh also is a very down-to-earth guy based on a lot of videos and interviews that i've kind of seen it seems like one of those guys that like never has a bad day you know and it seems like he really relates well to his players so like i'll be interested if if any oregon players transfer over to kansas right because um you know they obviously have some good players and uh maybe they have those great relationships now the key will also be can you keep the some of the current players the kus because they've recruited really well over these final years of the ray bouchard era can you keep them in tow? But a ton of success at Oregon for Matt Ulmer, who started

Starting point is 00:13:07 his career as, I think he played volleyball for his mom at Carthage College or something like that. He was an assistant coach there. Then he was an assistant coach and eventually the beach volleyball coach at Long Beach State. Then he won a beach volleyball national title there. He ended up taking over as the Oregon assistant coach in 2014 for a couple years. And then in 2017, he is named the head coach there, where he spent from 2017 to 2024, so eight seasons. And over the course of those seasons, here's what he did. He went second round of the tournament, Elite Eight, Miss Tournament,

Starting point is 00:13:39 Sweet 16, first round, Elite Eight, Elite Eight, Sweet 16. So, I mean, you're talking about a guy that is consistently going to the ncaa tournament and on top of it all he's consistently winning games in the ncaa tournament there's only one year that you can point to where he made the ncaa tournament and he didn't win at least one tournament game and ironically enough that was the year that they played kansas in the first round they were the higher seeded team they played at creighton and kansas pulled the upset there uh and that was a ton of fun. But that's just kind of funny how that all ties together. But the point being, he's been very consistent.

Starting point is 00:14:10 He's been knocking on the door. He's been so close to making that first Final Four. Obviously, KU would love to go back to another Final Four, but this is a home-run hire in terms of what they're bringing to the table. And obviously, you've got to – I mean, Travis Goff has continually done a phenomenal job with hiring of these coaches. Like, that's the thing where whenever Bill Self does retire, right, whenever Lance Leipold does retire, I have so much confidence in the world as long as Travis Goff is at the helm that they are going to get, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:35 that next head coach who puts them in a good position because I think he has done an outstanding job, right? And, you know, this is another one of those and the fact that it's not just that he identified a good target but it's also the fact that he was able to convince him to come over just think about it you've got a guy in matt olmer who is doing having all that success at oregon right it'd be tough to leave a place like that he's coming from the big 10 where they have all this money going around like uh you know not that kansas is is strapped for money or anything like that but the big 10 money is different than big 12 money right um you look at it from a perspective of

Starting point is 00:15:09 like having nike right there and the the abilities that would probably lead you in recruiting and in the nil game right and part of you makes you wonder like okay well why is he leaving that to come to kansas well um he is uh originally from like the midwest i think he grew up in the chicago area so like this is closer to home for him you know maybe part of it is wanting to be come to Kansas well um he is uh originally from like the Midwest I think he grew up in the Chicago area so like this is closer to home for him you know maybe part of it is wanting to be closer to like his his family maybe he still has family that is back home and obviously it's much closer KU has a huge alumni base in the Chicago area maybe that's part of it right maybe even though Oregon has all this NIL money again this is just all reasons I'm speculating I don't know if any

Starting point is 00:15:42 of these are true or if one specifically is more true than the others but even though oregon has all this nil money what if they're just funneling it all to football basketball on track or something like that right and with kansas you're getting more of a guarantee of that i don't i don't know maybe that's part of it um maybe he's tired of looking at the oregon basketball court no i'm just out but um it could be a lot of different things right um maybe it's being that oregon being in the big 10 like that is a lot of travel and and i think he has like a young family like young kids and stuff that's probably very taxing on a young family that when he has to go on the road to play rucks or when he has to go all the way to ohio to take on ohio state or take on michigan right it's probably

Starting point is 00:16:23 a lot easier when they were in the Pac-12. Now for Kansas, the trips are going to be a little bit shorter. So maybe that's part of it too, right? There's a lot of reasons this could happen. But regardless of how it came together, home run higher for Travis Goff. And obviously very big shoes to fill. Ray Bouchard, a phenomenal job. But I think it was said very well. My friend Adam Gervetta, he posted this on social media and said that props to Ray Bouchard for putting the program

Starting point is 00:16:47 in a place like this that you could be set up to make a hire like Matt Ulmer and, you know, hit the ground running with that one. So great job there for Travis Goff and KU. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back to recap the KUK State game over the weekend. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KJ Adams OUT with INJURY: What it means for Kansas Basketball + KU Volleyball Hires Matt Ulmer!

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