Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 12.19.19

Episode Date: December 19, 2019

Surprise QB highlights KU's 18-man early 2020 class; Bill Self's favorite player to coach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Jayhawk Nation? Welcome into this Thursday edition of Locked on Jayhawks. I'm your host, Sean Kellerman, Learfield IMG College broadcaster and University of Kansas insider. This is Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, giving you insight, numbers, and a chance to hear from all the voices within Kansas athletics. Big show today. We're going to talk about Kansas' incoming recruiting class, 18 players officially signing with Kansas on day one of the signing period yesterday. We'll get a chance to talk about maybe the biggest surprise of that class, that'll be an incoming Jayhawk in the first segment. Second segment, we'll take a look around the Big 12 and the Top 25 for college basketball last night and tonight. And then we'll continue talking Kansas football as we'll get into the guys in the class

that can potentially be contributors for this team right away. And in the final segment, we'll take a look at our Jayhawks in the NBA. We'll also hear from Bill Self in our final segment. He's going to talk about Marcus Garrett and what's Marcus' legacy going to be when his time is up at Kansas after all he does for this program, as well as the Big 12. Coach Self is going to chime in on where he thinks the Big 12 conference is thus far in the early stages before we get to the conference season in a couple weeks.

Okay, so Kansas football, class of 2020. They bring in 18 signees on day one of college football's signing period and perhaps most surprising quarterback Jalen Daniels who's a dual threat prep quarterback previously had committed to Middle Tennessee State he will be a Jayhawk next year and that's just another quarterback that's going to be added to the mix of guys that Kansas already has on campus KU looking of course to replace Stanley, who they lose to graduation. They've got a couple guys in the program currently with Thomas McVitie and Miles Kendrick, but Jalen Daniels, dual threat guy. He's a two-star by rivals. He's a three-star by 24-7 sports. Les Miles saying Jalen is a six-foot-tall guy that can run and throw.

He said, I don't think there's any question that he has talent and ability, he thinks, does Miles, that Daniels can step back in the pocket, can rush the ball, and can have quarterback rushes. So he's listed at 6'207", and he had originally signed, as I said, with Middle Tennessee State, committed to the Blue Raiders back in October, and remained on board with them until yesterday. He flipped his signing to KU. We see that happen so often these days with the young kids coming in. KU had a couple guys who were previously committed to come to Kansas decide to flip as well. So it's just kind of a normal thing.

But in this case, it's good for Kansas because they're able to bring in another quarterback, add him to the mix. Army and Air Force had also both recruited Jalen Daniels. But Kansas was the only Power 5 program to offer him a scholarship. Miles, when asked if Daniels is the quarterback of the future, responded by simply saying he's certainly a choice. He's saying he's not really sure at this point. You know, what's been in the news recently for Kansas, especially the quarterback or potential quarterback of Kansas football,

is Florida quarterback, former Florida quarterback, Felipe Franks, who, of course, was injured last college football season, and then when he came back, he could not win his job back from Kyle Trask and the Gators. So Felipe Franks, who people know around the college football world, he is uber talented. He decommitted, and then recently, or I shouldn't say decommitted, he decided to transfer, enter the transfer portal. And a couple weeks back, I mentioned on this show that Felipe had actually followed Brent Dierman and Les Miles on Twitter.

Franks, who had only followed 99 people on Twitter, he followed both Coach Miles and Coach Dierman to bring that total to 101. So that's kind of when rumors started about could this be a guy that Kansas could bring in and be an impact player right away. KU could use a talented quarterback. And like I said, they've got Kendrick, they've got McVitie, and now they're bringing in Jalen Daniels. So who knows at this point, but the more options you have, the better,

and hopefully somebody can earn that job. Carter Stanley, of course, last year, he earned the job, and he led Kansas to a couple nice victories and a lot of near victories, and he really showed the heart and the toughness of a Jayhawk that you want out of your quarterback, and we'll see how these guys are moving forward. Spring game, by the way, is on April 13th, so we'll be excited for that, be able to check out some of these guys.

Take a look at some of the other guys that Kansas brought in. Coach Miles saying he's extremely proud of the class we're bringing in. Three-star cornerback John Quay Lewis had publicly committed to the program. Many players had publicly committed to the program, but John Quay Lewis is not one of those, but he's a three-star cornerback from Florida. And Coach Miles is saying he didn't specifically single anybody out regarding this, but he said guys that we took on offense are really going to be immediate helpers. So we're talking true freshmen, and that's something that Kansas has lacked.

You go back to so many different coaches that this team has gone through with David Beatty and Charlie Weiss and Turner Gill. So many of them ended up having to go the JUCO route or feeling like they needed to go the JUCO route to be able to compete at a Big 12 level. Well, Coach Miles is bringing in some high school guys, and 18 players are coming into the Kansas program. Hopefully there's going to be more.

I know there's a couple guys they weren't able to talk about either that we'll talk about next segment, but we're hoping there's going to be a lot more in this 2020 recruiting class. Of the 18 guys coming in to Kansas or who signed officially yesterday, 11 of them are on offense. Perhaps most notably, KU added three offensive linemen. We talked last week about Kansas getting the commitment from Armage Adams-Reed, and they previously had Garrett Jones and Nicholas Martinez, Martinez-Hills from California. That's huge for Kansas because they're losing Andrew Tobey, they're losing Hakeem

Adenoji, and if you want to compete in the Big 12, you have to be able to compete in the trenches. So Kansas is bringing in three offensive linemen of their 11 offensive players who signed yesterday. That's certainly a good start. Emma Jones also brought in some receivers as well that are going to be potential impact players for this Kansas team. KU, of course, does lose Daylon Charlotte, but they will be returning a lot of guys who can be potential playmakers. Guys who we saw make a lot of plays last year, Andrew Parchment, Stephon Robinson, and then of course you've got guys like Quan Hampton who could help you in a pinch as well, but Emma Jones, he built up KU's trio of receivers in Charlotte Robinson and Parchment last year as to being one of the best receiving cores in the Big

12. I think you could definitely say that was at least in the top five, maybe the top one of the best receiving cores in the Big 12. I think you could definitely say that it was at least in the top five, maybe the top four of the 10 Big 12 teams as a receiver core. So Emma Jones developing those guys in his first year after coming over from Texas Tech. And I'll tell you about some of the new guys he's bringing in at the wide receiver position as well following this break. But certainly it's an exciting day to be a Jayhawk. It's always very exciting when you get a chance to bring in new guys who have an opportunity to contribute to the program right away and we

know at Kansas we need that we need guys who are going to come in who are going to contribute and it's nice when they're high school guys because then you get a chance to not only have them contribute right away but you get to see them develop and that's going to be huge for a growing program, which Les Miles is trying to build up to compete at a Big 12 level and reach bowl games consistently. If you're looking for a last-minute fun sports gift for the holidays, go to BreakingTea.com slash LockedOn. Breaking Tea makes sports t-shirts around teams' passion moments. Great for all fans.

Go to BreakingTea.com slash LockedOn, and then feel free to search the site for great shirts and fun sports gifts. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. Alright, there was one game in the Big 12 last night and it was Baylor taking care of business in Waco against UT Martin. Bears won it 91-63. Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell each hung 19 for the Bears, who still have just one loss, and they've got a pretty solid resume. Coach Self in our final segment is going to talk about where he thinks the Big 12 is in the non-conference season. There's a lot of action going on in the top 25 last night, and let's start with number two, Gonzaga. The Bulldogs improve to 2-1. They defeat North Carolina and Spokane 94-81.

Roy's boys are 6-5 this season, and they kind of just look like a dead fish, honestly, watching them out there. They don't have Cole Anthony. At least they were able to put up some numbers, Carolina scoring 81 points. But Cole Anthony's out four to six weeks, and he was all that North Carolina had the first couple weeks of the season. UNC was ranked in the top five, and all they had was Anthony, a guy who's projected to be a top five NBA draft pick. Well, they don't have him now, and things are not getting better

for Roy and company. They fall out of the top 25 rankings, and last night they fall to the number two ranked Zags. Corey Kispert had 26 points for Gonzaga. Number three, Louisville held serve against Miami of Ohio, 70-46. Kentucky, they lost at home last night. So not at home, rather the game was actually played in Vegas, but they did lose last night, so UNC and UK lose on the same night. Utah disposes of the Wildcats, 69-66. The carousel continues in the top ten as we see consistently teams falling. And it doesn't really matter where you're playing.

At home, on the road, neutral site, no matter what, some of the top teams in the country are falling, and it's just really all about the parity in the NCAA. Kansas, their winning streak to go along with the undefeated teams still remaining, of which there are four, Liberty, Duquesne, San Diego State, and Auburn, some of the top teams in the country, if you've got to be honest about it, just because you're not losing.

Everyone else is losing. Number eight, Oregon. They defeat Montana 81-48. Number nine, Virginia 56, Stony Brook 44. Michigan State's ranked 15th. They're trying to kind of get a little bit of momentum themselves. They win 77-72 over Northwestern. Number 20, San Diego State. Like I said, they are still undefeated.

They defeated San Diego Christian 92-48. And number 21, Tennessee, back-to-back losses for them. They lose in Cincinnati to the Bearcats 78-66. Tennessee drops both games to Memphis and Cincinnati. Three games tonight, Wofford gets another battle. They travel to Cameron Indoor to take on number four, Duke. Of course, the Terriers defeated North Carolina in Chapel Hill last week. No. 7 Maryland is on the road to take on Seton Hall.

Seton Hall is without their top player, Miles Powell, who has improved so much throughout his collegiate career, and he'll be playing in the NBA next year. Powell is injured with a concussion, so that's a huge loss for Seton Hall. They are 6.5 half point dogs at home against the number seven ranked Terrapins NC State is at number 12 Auburn and like I said the Tigers are undefeated they are 9-0 on the season all right we got talking about the surprise of KU's football recruiting class last segment which was bringing in QB Jalen Daniels a dual

threat quarterback who previously had committed to Middle Tennessee State. Talked about some of the offensive linemen as well that Kansas will be bringing in. They're going to need to bring those guys in and have them develop quickly because Kansas is going to have to be able to compete in the trenches if they want to hang up some wins in this conference. Emmitt Jones talked about last segment as well some of the things he's done as a new wide receiver coach at Kansas to develop some of the current talent in Robinson and Parchment specifically.

He's bringing in four new players. Three star targets, Stephen McBride, Tristan Golightly, Lawrence Arnold, and Malik Johnson. So those guys are names that you could look out for as guys who could potentially be contributors for this team. We know that Kansas,

they've had some talent at wide receiver even if quarterbacks has been kind of questionable and not consistent they've had some talent at wide receiver just look at stephen sims and jeremiah booker last year they were able two years ago i guess now officially they were able to get it done and stephen sims of course is now playing with the washington redskins so kansas they tend to always have somebody who can make plays on the outside, but what Emma Jones is doing is he's making it more of a core group of playmakers rather than just one or two guys.

Looking forward to seeing those four wideouts come into Lawrence as well. Seven signees on the defensive side of the ball for Kansas. Three corners and three linebackers. Kansas, of course, is losing Hassan Defense, perhaps their top cornerback, so it's going to be important that Kansas gets contributions from those guys as well. But Les Miles said, I think you'll find we're much better there than we've been, talking about at corner and linebacker. The incoming linebackers are all three-star prospects, Krishan Brown, Tyjuan Berryhill, and Alonzo Person. And then the three corners, I mentioned John Quay-Lewis last segment.

He'll be coming in. And then there are two other guys as well, Deuce Mayberry and Karan Prunty. They are coming in as well. So those guys can hopefully be contributors as well. Okay, so we talked about some of the guys that Kansas cannot talk about. These guys, notably four-star linebacker Brennan Scott, remain unsigned, but they're still committed to Kansas football. So what Coach Miles has said is if they've committed but decided not to sign,

we say, what's the hesitation? Why aren't you signing? But sometimes these guys just need a little bit of time. They want to come up for another visit, something like that. So they remain committed. But he thinks the majority of everybody that they did bring in officially yesterday in terms of signings, that he thinks the great majority of college athletes are faced with signing periods they'd much rather get over with early. And that was the case. KU also has commitments unofficially from three-star corner Jacoby Bryant, a three-star defensive lineman, Kenyon Caldwell, three-star defensive end Chris Jones, and then that two-star Topeko quarterback

who you guys have probably heard about, Devontae Harden Jr. as well. That's another QB that unofficially is with Kansas. KU can sign and add to the 2020 roster a maximum of 25 scholarship players. And as I said, there are 18 right now. There are a couple guys who were previously committed to KU that decided to flip yesterday and are no longer tied to the Jayhawks. Three-star defensive end Kari Coleman flipped and signed with Big 12 rival TCU. Jalen Richardson, who previously was planning on coming to Kansas, he is from Schlegel High in Kansas City, Kansas, made public that he signed with Northern Iowa.

He clarified, said he didn't decommit from KU. Rather, the KU staff informed him that it would not be able to honor him with a scholarship as planned. And then two-star wideout Luke Grimm shared that his scholarship expectations with KU had also changed, leading him to reopen his recruitment. So those are some of the main guys that Kansas has brought in, a few that they lost as well. Yesterday's first signing period for Kansas football and of course college athletics will continue to keep you updated should anything change, should Kansas officially get guys signed up as well as we look to continue to build this program to where they can be able

to compete at a Big 12 level and bring Kansas football back to the limelight of getting to bowl games and making the seasons a lot more fun. We had a lot more fun last season than we were used to in the past because we got to see a couple nice victories and a lot of really, really close losses where Kansas competed in games that many thought they would not be able to. And under Brent Diemer, there were a lot of games where Kansas football was fun again. Now, there were some clunkers as well, but Kansas football was fun there for a while, and we've got to get back to that because that makes the fall a lot more enjoyable, especially when you're waiting for basketball season. If you have a football program that you can put out there and consistently compete at a high level.

We think we've got the right guy in Coach Les Miles to make that happen eventually. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Alright, as always, let's take a look at our Jayhawks in the NBA action last night. Best performance came from Joel Embiid, though his Sixers lost at home to the Heat 108-104. Embiid, 22 points and 19 rebounds in that game. Andrew Wiggins, the Timberwolves are struggling. Wiggins continuing to score at least.

He had 27 points and 7 rebounds. And then three other Jayhawks in action. Devontae Graham, there are 38 minutes. He kind of took a backseat to Terry Rozier in this one game. Devontae's been stealing all the headlines in Charlotte. The Hornets lose by two to the Cavs. Dite in 38 minutes did have nine points, and he dished out nine assists. Rozier dropped 35 in that game.

The Pistons have Sfee and Keefe. Sfee scored eight points in 16 minutes. Keefe 2 points, 4 boards in 16 minutes as well. That's the only action from our Jayhawks in the NBA last night. Just one game tonight featuring a Jayhawk, and it's Ben McLemore. He and the Rockets are at the Clippers late game West Coast tonight as well. That's a look at your Jayhawks in the NBA. Let's take a look at the Big 12 standings now.

The Jayhawks, of course, are 9-1, riding this nine-game win streak. There are three other teams who are 9-1. Number 10, Baylor. Number 25, West Virginia. And Texas, who has won five straight. The Longhorns are also 9-1. Oklahoma State and TCU are 8-2. Number 24, Texas Tech and Oklahoma are 7-3. And then Iowa State and K-State are both 6-4. So a couple teams that maybe it's a little bit surprising they're at the bottom of the conference, but maybe not so much. And Iowa

State and K-State. Oklahoma of course, they've lost back-to-back games to top-tier mid-majors in Wichita State and Creighton. So the Sooners have three losses. That's kind of a thing with Oklahoma, isn't it? They never, it seems like, can be consistently good. They're going to lose those games to top-tier mid-majors, I guess.

And it's not a stab at Lon Krueger, but it just seems like Oklahoma is not really a team that scares you in terms of basketball, ever. So we'll see if they're able to put things together. They've got some nice pieces, Austin Reeves and Christian Doolittle, of course, but that's kind of where the Sooners are at right now. But as I talked about, Baylor, KU, Texas, and West Virginia, they're leading the conference at 9-1.

Of course, the Big 12, unlike some of the other conferences, the Big East, the ACC, the Big 10, who are getting conference play started so early. A lot of the Big Ten and ACC games have already happened. It's going to be after the first of the year until the Big 12 gets their intra-conference games going. But even that seems a little earlier than it used to be, but still the 18-game conference slate is coming up.

January 4th will be KU's first game, and that will take place against West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse. Time on that game has not been announced. It will either be 3 o'clock or 7 o'clock. Bill Self recently was made available to the media, and of course this was after Texas Tech knocked off No. 1 Louisville. Baylor, a couple of nice victories as well. Here's Coach talking about how he thinks the league has done.

I think overall it's done really well. But I also think we've had some tough losses, just like we've lost ours. And Tech's lost a couple that they probably didn't think they would lose. But you stop and think about it. Baylor winning twice against top 20, Arizona and Butler. Iowa State beating Seton Hall, who I think was 13 or 14 at the time, and then, of course, Tech defeating number one. I think that's pretty strong. So I don't think that there'll be any league that has a better non-conference than what we will have. Of course, that still remains

unknown because we don't have the completed Big East and the SEC challenges, but I think our league's done quite well. Well, the Big East-Big 12 battle has not gone the Big 12s away thus far. Big 12 is just 2-5 following Oklahoma's loss to Creighton on Tuesday. Two games remain. Texas is at Providence on Saturday as well as, of course, Kansas at Villanova. So best-case scenario, Big 12 can go 4-5 in the Big 12 Big East battle. And like Coach said, Big 12 SEC challenge, that's going to take place later as well.

Kansas faces Tennessee at Allen Fieldhouse in that challenge on January 25th. So hopefully a couple wins on Saturday can help those numbers a little bit. But Kansas has done it, of course, with a lot of different talented guys. Devon Dotson, Yudoka Azebuki. We talked about how Ochiai's had great games. We saw great things from David McCormick on Saturday against Kansas City. But one guy who's kind of the glue on the defensive side of the ball in particular is Marcus Garrett. Marcus, a junior, he's the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. He just does everything for this team. He stays locked in, and Bill Self loves coaching him. Recently, Coach Self was asked, hey, when Marcus leaves, he maybe won't have scored the most

points, pulled down the most rebounds, but when he leaves after hopefully this year and then next year as well, two more years with Marcus, what will Marcus's legacy be? He's as fun a player as I've had to coach. I think legacies so much are, you know, here may be a little different because you think of Tyrell Reed's legacy or Brady's legacy or Travis's legacy, you don't think of guys that scored a ton of points, you think of winners. And I think that will be his legacy is that he is a true winner. I also think this, though. I think his ceiling is higher than those other guys.

So I think if he tightens some things up from a shooting standpoint, which he's got to, I mean, it's a ways out there that he's got to do. But, I mean, I think if he could tighten some things up, he could play this game for a long time, just get in the right situation. So I'm hopeful that, you know, this will spring forward to him into a nice career. But, you know, all that remains to be seen. But I just love coaching him. I don't think I've had a better understanding with some player that I could think it,

and I know he's thinking the same thing without saying it. I mean, I really think that he sees it the same way I see it, and that's fun to coach. Just an awesome clip from Coach Self there talking about Marcus Garrett and how whenever he leaves, which is hopefully going to be in 2021, leaving this basketball program, he will leave a, and he will be remembered as a winner. I can't wait to continue to watch Marcus make plays for this team, be a leader as he's already grown into quite a leader as well, and obviously Coach loves him.

Kansas and Villanova, we're going to preview that game on tomorrow's show with the Hawks and the Wildcats, who of course battled last year at Allen Fieldhouse, a three-point KU victory. But Kansas still kind of stinging a little bit as the Wildcats knocked out Kansas in 2016 and 2018 in an NCAA tournament. And those ones were ones that hurt, so anytime you get a chance to pay them back a little bit more, you hope that that's the case. It'll be the number one Jayhawks and the number 18 Wildcats Saturday in Philly at 11 a.m. Like I said, on tomorrow's show, we'll hear from Bill Self. We'll preview that game as well.

Thanks so much for tuning in. This is Sean Kellerman signing off Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.