Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Mackenzie Mgbako Picks Indiana; Where Do the Kansas Jayhawks Turn To Now to Fill Out Their Roster?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Mackenzie Mbako picks Indiana. Bit of a surprise. Let's discuss where does KU pivot from here. Also a visit wrapped up with Flory Badunga. All that on today's episode. You are Locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. You can also find us with Locked On Jayhawks wherever you get any of your podcasts. We're also on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, Mackenzie Mbako picks Indiana on Friday night. Bit of a surprise. We'll get into that. What options are left for KU? Where do they pivot to?

Starting point is 00:00:59 And then we'll finish things up. Flory Badunga visiting over the weekend for the baseball team. Let's start right there, though. Mbako picking Indiana. It was certainly surprising for a lot of people, including myself. I think there were a lot of people that were certainly leading things to believe, and I probably am at fault for this, that he was going to pick kansas and i think that um there's a little bit of similar to the mbako decision and the uday decision to transfer

Starting point is 00:01:33 in that i do kind of believe that the staff was being led along by at least somebody in their camp somebody in their party that they were gonna in Uday's case stick around and then all the sudden last minute you know ends up transferring and in the case of Mbako that they were going to go to KU and then all the sudden last minute goes to Indiana who knows what happened there whether it was just stringing Kansas along the entire way and that Indiana was the school he wanted to go to. And it was just playing the NIL game. Right. And, and you can say like, Oh, this, this is stupid. Like, why would you do that? That's so messed up of you, all that stuff. That's just kind of the, the wild world world of recruiting. That's kind of how all this works. It's, it's very, this is why I tend not to try to get too

Starting point is 00:02:21 much into recruiting because it's just crazy crazy it's wild and stupid stuff happens all the time i mean shoot like marcus adams was going to go to ucla he probably told mick cronin he was going to go there and then the day of bill self gives him a call and he's like oh okay i'll go to ku right like it happens both ways so um i don't know what exactly happened there whether it was stringing along there or if it was the day of, like I kind of made mention of this on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, I guess Mark Cuban started following him on social media. And was that indicative of Cuban, you know, following him on social media because Cuban was going to help land

Starting point is 00:02:56 some massive NIL deal for Indiana that he was going to, you know, donate some large sum of money to whatever their NIL, you know, agency or conglomerate or whatever you want to call it is, uh, that basically was able to go out and bring on, you know, um, the player. So, uh, I don't know what exactly happened there, but this was a bit of a surprise. Now, certainly from Mbako's perspective, there's the quote that was going around about, we think we can win a conference championship.

Starting point is 00:03:22 And that was kind of funny because it was like, well, KU, like you're expected to win the conference championship and maybe you can win a conference championship and that was kind of funny because it was like well k you like you're expected to win the conference championship and and maybe you'll win a national championship um but maybe this comes down to a bit of role too uh this is something we led up to like if he you know him being in indiana now he can end being the number one or number two option right like it i do think it's a little funny because they brought in kellell where the center former five star from oregon and then they have race thompson who was a they played him at the four last year he might slide down to the five this year i don't know so it's kind of funny because you do technically have about just as much competition as you did at kansas maybe a little bit less but you go to indiana you might be the number one or number two option.

Starting point is 00:04:06 At least you're probably number three. At Kansas, you could end up being the number two option, right? If you're that good, if you're a top ten pick type of guy, you live up to the hype. Sure, it could be you and Hunter Dickinson, or maybe it makes you the third option because DeJuan's going to have the ball in his hand so often. But you could also be splitting time with KJ Adams right like you could be coming off the bench so the role is a little bit more clear at Indiana even though you

Starting point is 00:04:32 would think the winning opportunity more clear at KU certainly that'll make the trip to assembly hall for KU a little bit more interesting with the McKenzie Mbako part of it kind of hanging in the balance as well. So the bad news here with Mbako picking Indiana is this would have been the perfect cherry on top addition. This would have been the nice final piece of the puzzle for KU to fill out the rotation. You have DeJuan Harris, Artario Morris, Elmarco Jackson, Nick Timberlake, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson.

Starting point is 00:05:02 You're still looking for a backup center, but that would get you to seven rotation players, and then your backup center would get you to eight. Boom, there's your eight-man rotation that you typically go into. You needed another body. At this point, you're just looking for scholarship bodies, to be completely honest, with players transferring out. You need someone who can shoot ideally right check that box uh play wing minutes like you need another wing on your roster who can

Starting point is 00:05:30 play kind of the three and the four for you and he checked those boxes for you so um i think that you know it's it's it's a big loss in terms of feeling like you had it in a good spot, and it's a big loss in terms of, well, it is a player who has really good potential and could be a really good impact, you know, one-and-done type of freshman that could have helped you in a lot of ways. But here's also the good news for KU. Either way, whether they got McKenzie Mbako or they didn't, which obviously is the case here, Kansas is a national title contender

Starting point is 00:06:06 Kansas is number one on Bart Torvik we talked about this before I think um they've actually you know some of the ratings have been adjusted they're now number two in offense number four in defense um if they would have added in Baco I think they would have gone up to one in offense and three in defense so I mean like you're getting better I'm not trying to say that it's oh who cares no of course you care like this this is a. I'm not trying to say that it's, oh, who cares? No, of course you care. Like this, this is a big loss to not have him. But the good news is it does not change the fact that Kansas can still win the national title. Right. And there's still a lot of pieces they have to fill out now with three open scholarships. We'll see if they use them all,

Starting point is 00:06:39 but at the very least you're probably adding, you know, two two players you're for sure adding one more player um and so the good news is that kansas because of the hunter dickinson addition and because you have dewan harrison kj adams returning on the roster and because you do have good freshmen coming in and you have added a couple other good transfers with you know timberlake and stuff that you're going to have the ability to still be in that upper tier of national title contenders. Now, this is their number one on Bartorvik. Now, other sites, you know, other people ranking them, like I think The Athletic had them at number four post Dickinson, but pre-Imbaco decision, I think John Rothstein had them at number four.

Starting point is 00:07:20 So, like, they're going to be anywhere from number one through number four. But that puts you in the range of, like, the top tier of national title contenders in theory of what we think on paper so i mean in the immediate aftermath it does leave you a little bit scrambling right now because you still do have those three open scholarships um this definitely gives less debate to the well who's going to start the four is it going to be kj adams is going to be mckenzie and bacco would you play Mbaka with the three? Whatever, right? But they could bring on another wing,

Starting point is 00:07:47 and then we're going to be having those same debates. I certainly think this makes it even more likely that KJs are starting four, though. I think a lot of the discussions about, oh, would Mbaka usurp him, was because of the shooting ability and because of the potential, right? He's a five-star recruit and all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:08:05 I think the Bill Self trusts KJ so much. Some of the options that are available out there, I don't know. I don't know. I guess it depends maybe option to option. Nonetheless, though, now you have lots of space to fill. And how do you go about doing that? I think ideally of the three scholarships, right? Three available at this point.

Starting point is 00:08:24 You have nine coming in. You have three open. If you're going to play with 12, could play with 13. I guess if you really wanted to and push the scholarship stuff down the line. But at this point, no, that's not happening. So I think of the three scholarships,

Starting point is 00:08:35 you need one of them to be a starter caliber player. Doesn't necessarily have to be a starter, but a starter caliber player. So basically, that's how I viewed mckenzie imbaco imbaco could have come in and started at the three he could have started at the four or he could have been your first man off the bench but either way he was going to give you 20 25 maybe even 30 minutes per game and that's how i view it you need someone who can be a wing who can come in maybe play the three for you maybe play the four for you i don't know maybe even be a four or five minute whatever it is you need to give you a good 20 to 30 minutes somewhere in that range of night

Starting point is 00:09:10 where they're either a starter or playing kind of starter level minutes so basically one impact player would be another way of putting that as far as the other two spread it around however you want get a body to be a backup center just a body right somebody you can develop or somebody who's a role player veteran guy whatever it is just get a body and then that third one if you want to use it do whatever you want but they might just not use it and just take an extra scholarship off what they have to use over the next three years for the self-imposed sanctions that's not the worst thing in the world either but you for sure need at least two bodies at this point you need somebody who can play center you need somebody who can play on the wing if you get both out of one player then sure

Starting point is 00:09:51 that that's helpful and everything but you at least need one more impact player to really feel like you've rounded out the roster and boosted forward with what you missed by not getting mckenzie and bacco all right we're going to get on to where does ku pivot to next who is still available at this point because certainly the options are depleting a little bit after you miss out on Ibaka earlier, you missed out on Harrison Ingram on the wing. You didn't get Jalen Tyson. He wanted a different role. Maybe you stopped pushing a little bit more because you thought you were going to get Ibaka, whatever it is. Let's discuss next. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks though, is brought to you by Built Bar. Looking for a delicious snack, but don't want all the sugar

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Starting point is 00:11:31 continue to maintain like i expect kevin mcculler to go pro uh maybe we'll do later this week because this week is actually the nba draft combine kevin mcculler was invited to the combine now that's not a guarantee that you're going to be drafted sometimes there is a little politics in this like if you're going to expect to be like a top 40 pick, you just get invited. And then there's some guys that sometimes they don't get invited to the combine. They get invited to the G League combine or something like that because there are certain teams that don't want to tip their hand because maybe they have a diamond in the rough guy they like that isn't popping up on top 50 big boards or top 60 big boards. And they're like, we want him in the second round and we don't want other teams to see him. Right.

Starting point is 00:12:08 So sometimes, I don't know, you get more of the veteran players in there. Kevin McCuller wasn't in it last year. He was in the G League one, not the NBA. But realistically, you look at where he's being kind of mocked and he's pretty much expected to be a second round pick. Now, if you're a second round pick, that doesn't guarantee you get a guaranteed deal. And he had two way contracts offers last year, multiple multiple of them but wanted the probably guaranteed deal right so is that the same this year is he just done with school is he done with i i don't know um but i continue to maintain

Starting point is 00:12:35 that i don't expect him back could things change absolutely and whatever type of opportunity and nil opportunities you were offering to mckenzie and bac. Hello, Kevin McCuller, come on down. Except because he's a known commodity, and I think Kevin was a very liked player, the NIL opportunities probably go even up more because of the local aspect of it, where local businesses might be more willing to get involved there. But nonetheless, if you could add Kevin McCuller back,

Starting point is 00:13:00 that would be great. He'd be somebody who could play the three for you or play the four. Certainly, you'd be hoping the shooting would be better, but he would fill a lot for you, and you feel like you'd have a pretty darn good defensive team at that point in time, but I don't know how realistic that is. Ron Holland, that one doesn't feel that realistic either. It seems like either G League night or Arkansas Arkansas I think I saw Oregon floated around there that seems like it's one of those I guess um Nike supposedly he Nike kid committed to Nike school in Texas this is something we talked about with Mbako um it was interesting that he went from

Starting point is 00:13:36 a Nike school at Duke to then okay now he's in on all these like you know Adidas schools and stuff um but with Holland it seems like that path is staying more to the Nike side. So I don't know how realistic Holland is, but that would obviously be a great pivot if you could get into it. Arthur Columa is a very interesting one. Transfer from Creighton. He's played two years at Creighton. He lit up Kansas in the second round of the 2022 NCAA tournament.

Starting point is 00:14:00 Kind of a hit-or-miss scorer and shooter. The defense has been hit or miss for him over the course of his career as well it's good positional size six foot seven could play the three or the four played a hair an iota of minutes at the five even so i guess he could be your your emergency five because you're still trying to add more depth there too um so he would be one that would make a lot of sense and at this point a lot of these options that we're going to go through, actually pretty much every option we're going to go through, none of them are really shooters.

Starting point is 00:14:30 That's what really sucks about not getting Mbako, is that he would have been the one fit that you could have had at three or four that would have been a really good shooter. Like with Kevin, high 20s, low 30s, percent three-point shooter. Ron Holland, known as more of like the super athlete. Arthur Columa, 31% last year. This next guy, Julian Phillips, like shot like 24 percent from three at Tennessee now he was a freshman sometimes there's big jumps freshman sophomore he actually shot well from three in his like high

Starting point is 00:14:54 school career and prep career so maybe there's more to Phillips they're uh super super good athlete super super good defender but also with Phillips like Columa might be a second round pick but there's a case for him to come back and especially if you were to come back kansas and have a breakout junior year maybe he could be a first round pick like i think i saw that one of the scouting reports that he does have potential that if he had that you know all-american type year he could be a first round pick um with phillips he might be a first round pick already you'll you'll see some draft boards that have him i think it was was like CBS has him 19th.

Starting point is 00:15:27 And then others have him like in the second round because he's a bit of a project right now. So it's like, what do you want to invest in as an NBA team? If he does decide to come back to school, which I feel like he's probably leaning toward just staying in the draft at that point, he becomes an obvious option, but again, not really a big shooter there. David Jones from St. John's is somebody who put up, you know, point he becomes an obvious option but again not really a big shooter there david jones from saint johns um is somebody who put up you know solid numbers at a big east level so that obviously

Starting point is 00:15:51 grabs your attention um he put up like 13 points like six seven rebounds per game um he is six foot six you can play him at the three you could even fill him in at the four a little bit of time uh he's an experienced player and everything but also not a good shooter shot 39 from the floor last year and 29 from three for the second straight year that was one year after he shot seven percent from three so again like that doesn't fill that need like basically what i'm saying is don't expect whoever ku adds at this point unless there's somebody that we don't know about, maybe an international player. I don't know that whoever they add at the three or four is probably not going to be somebody who comes in and you're like, oh, they're a sharpshooter from the outside. Like you might be able to convince yourself that, OK, well, they've done enough from three.

Starting point is 00:16:36 Maybe they can improve this year and get to X range and that'll be OK. Oliver and Kamlo, we've mentioned his name several times, transferred from Tennessee. He would more so be a four. Now he could give you coverage at the five because he's like six, nine, like 235 pounds. You can play him at the three a little bit, but that might get a little clunky, but he could mostly play the four for you. He could, like I said, back up some five, even where you want to do small ball. And that could be doable, but again, not really great shooter. Although his shooting compared to some of these other guys actually is probably better than than a lot if you just look at the percentage um but

Starting point is 00:17:09 also there's been kind of rumors the whole way through like is he just going to play overseas back in his uh home country of finland uh for some of the stuff that i've previously previously discussed about like if you are an overseas player like pretty much a lot of these overseas countries only have a certain amount of roster spots on their professional teams. I don't know what countries are like this. Finland might be one of them where it's like you can only have three American players on your team. So if you have a player who has dual citizenship, which Kamo does, again, I think it's from Finland, then then he doesn't count to that and then they can add another player in that situation so uh definitely becomes interesting and then quichotte johnson

Starting point is 00:17:49 kind of in the same vein as um in comma like he can be a four or five man he's like six seven like well built not really a shooter though so uh that one would more be in the vein of like wanting a veteran player who could come in and just be a role player and give you added depth or something like that but you're kind of running out of options here so those are your wing options basically and then you get into a different conversation which is what if with that impact player instead of bringing on a wing do you bring on a power forward do you bring on a power forward and go back to playing too big basketball, to playing high-low basketball that Bill Self was playing for so often at the beginning of his career?

Starting point is 00:18:31 And by doing that, if you bring in a power forward, it would give you another body that can play center. So it would check off the power forward. It would check off the center. And then basically you would be committing at that point to our one through three positions is going to be filled by DeJuan Harris, Artario Morris, Elmarco Jackson, Nick Timberlake. Those four guys are going to play through three positions is going to be filled by Dwan Harris, Artario Morris, Elmarco Jackson, Nick Timberlake. Those four guys are going to play those three positions.

Starting point is 00:18:49 So Grant Nelson is a very good transfer. I wonder about the fit, but if you are going to be fine with just like, you know what, let's just pivot to that playing two big basketball. He's about as good as you could get to play the two big basketball. Now I would have my serious concerns about the defensive foot speed of playing, you know, two kind of bigs at this point on that end of the floor do you get run off the court against three-point shooting teams and stuff but offensively they could make it work Grant Nelson's a really good passer really good post score can stretch it a little bit from three like they could make that work offensively with Dickinson it would just be about could they figure it out on the defensive end of the floor and you might say well i i don't

Starting point is 00:19:25 know it feels like bill self has kind of abandoned the two big basketball at this point let's not forget 2018 2019 that was what four years ago five years ago um they were gonna play dedrick lawson next to udoka azubuke and udoka azubuke at that point in time as a junior was i don't know maybe a little bit more mobile than hunter dickinson but it wasn't by a lot it wasn't until his senior year he became super mobile and then with dedrick lawson he's not as mobile as grant nelson would be so like you could convince yourself of that it would give you coverage as another center like if dickinson's playing 32 minutes a night at center let's say kj's playing the other eight or something,

Starting point is 00:20:05 or you could play Grant Nelson the other eight and play him next. Whatever it is, you could have coverage there with an extra body at center, but Nelson would maybe start at the four. KJ's the super sub off the bench at that point. I don't think you would want to play him at the three there. So that's interesting. And if you want to go in that same vein, Damian Collins, he is a power forward coming from Kentucky,

Starting point is 00:20:22 maybe more potential than the stats show because he was a former highly recruited guy. So you do have some options here, but they're definitely thinning out and there's not as many like for sure that make a ton of sense like Mbaka would have because of the shooting and the kind of switchability aspect of it. All right, let's finish things up with Kansas having a visit with Flory Badunga on Locked on Jayhawks. Finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, Flory Badunga visited KU. I believe it started Friday and went through the weekend. He is a five-star in the class of 2024. We are going to do a Badunga deep dive on tomorrow's show.

Starting point is 00:20:58 And I think it's really interesting to see what KU does here. They have the open scholarships. Can you get him to reclassify? You could use a backup center, right? And from his perspective, do you view it as, well, it's extra NIL money for me to come there as opposed to my final year of high school. And then I could be the starting center the next year if Hunter Dickinson ends up going. And if he ends up sticking around, then I'll just use my transfer and be a basically one-year player at the school and then i'll go pro or something like that like he's the number three recruit in the country now worst case scenario if this is a recruit about the future that's great too because

Starting point is 00:21:32 he's a really good player he's kind of risen up uh some of the scouting report boards and now you've had visits over the last whatever week and a half two weeks with uh badunga and trey johnson who are the number one and number three recruits in the class of 2024. So if you try to set yourself up well for either of those, if not both of those, then that would certainly be huge from the KU recruiting aspect.

Starting point is 00:21:55 But we'll get more into Badunga on tomorrow's Deep Dive. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube, like and subscribe to the show.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Mackenzie Mgbako Picks Indiana; Where Do the Kansas Jayhawks Turn To Now to Fill Out Their Roster?

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