Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Marcus Adams Jr. Asks Out of NLI; What's Next for the Wild Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Offseason?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Marcus Adams asks out of his national letter of intent, the wild, wild offseason for KU basketball just continues to get even more crazy. We're going to discuss what this means, repercussions of it, where does KU go from here, how it impacts the rotation, all that and more on today's edition of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Eric, John, you can hear me as well.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us, like and subscribe to us on our YouTube page. And thank you to all the everydayers out there for tuning in to all the shows each and every day and making this a part of your morning, afternoon, or whenever you listen.

Starting point is 00:01:12 So the big news of the day, Marcus Adams is out, came in as a four-star, highly rated four-star recruit. Kind of depends where you look exactly where he ranked, but pretty consistently, you know, top 70 recruit in the country. And you'll look at, um, you know, top 70 recruit in the

Starting point is 00:01:25 country. And you'll look at like 24, seven sports, top 50 recruit in the country, someone who reclassified, uh, he, he originally was on commitment day sounded like he was going to and um then bill self came a calling and um i think from ku's perspective they might have initially when they were recruiting him wanted him to stay in the class of 2024 but maybe for him he was like i want to reclass up to 2023 and get this thing going now so i'm going to go to ucla and then on on the of recruiting, and this is me kind of speculating that KU called now this part, we do know that Marcus Adams said there was a last minute phone call with Bill Self and you know, that's what got him to, to commit to KU. Um, and so maybe it was like, Hey, we will take you in 2023. And then that was like, okay, well then you are my number one school at that

Starting point is 00:02:23 point. And then it was last minute change ends up coming to ku top 50 or something that's where he's dominating this like all-star game but uh all the all the teams that he's kind of playing at his high school level he's playing at a lower level of high school so the question was clearly the talents there you can see the scoring ability and the acumen and the athleticism and you know all this stuff that would make him a really good prospect possibly um But it was a question of how that would pare down once you played against tougher competition because he wasn't playing on a very difficult high school level compared to maybe some of these other players.

Starting point is 00:02:55 So was it going to be a harder learning curve for him coming to KU? Here's what he posted on his Twitter page. I want to thank Jayhawk Nation and Coach Selfin Townsend for being a great help in my development and time here. Your support showed me a lot. To the fans, thank you for all the help with the media and the in-person love. I would like to request a release from my national letter of intent in order to find out where I truly belong.

Starting point is 00:03:17 It was a hard decision. I decided it would be better for my family. I will reopen my recruitment as well. Thank you, and please respect my decision um i do think here like thank you to the coaches for being great help in my development here it's like well you're here for like two weeks how much development did you get uh nonetheless uh i've seen some fans like go after him on social i mean don't be that guy really don't be let him be. Let him do his thing.

Starting point is 00:03:49 You know, let him decide where he wants to go, all that sort of stuff. It didn't work out. What could have happened, though? Because this is not something that you see happen too often. I mean, he joined the team. He got here about a week after week out of the other guys got here and he was here for i don't know what a month didn't make it to boot camp and is leaving the team so what could have happened i almost want to call this the jack whitman you remember jack whitman he was a big man who came in and uh transferred to ku spent similar time, I don't know, maybe a month,

Starting point is 00:04:27 maybe two of the offseason with KU, and then I was like, nah, you know what? This ain't for me. I ain't doing this. Now, what could that be? Could that be that you – because there is a difference between Bill Self, the recruiter, and Bill Self, the coach, right? Bill Self, the recruiter and Bill self, the coach, right? Bill self, the recruiter, he's going to be honest. He's going to be like, we're going to coach you hard and you know, nothing's going to be given. You're going to have to compete.

Starting point is 00:04:55 You're going to have to earn everything that you get in playing time. You do have to earn, earn. Um, he doesn't lie about that, but it's one thing when you hear that, I think, as a recruit, and then you're like, how hard can it really be? And then you actually get in there, Bill Self's yelling at you, and it's a really hard practice, and you're playing against a bunch of really other good players, and you realize, okay, this is a little bit different, right?

Starting point is 00:05:20 And for some guys, that's just not their cup of tea. Now, this isn't ideal. I thought Marcus Adams was going to be a really good player down the road for Kansas. I thought that he could maybe crack the rotation this year and that by year two, year three, he could be like legitimately like that all conference player for KU down the road. So you don't love this. You also don't love. I know he has a younger brother who is seen as being maybe even better than he is in the class of, I think, 2025 or 2026. That probably goes out the window now with that recruitment.

Starting point is 00:05:53 But also, like, you would rather get this out of the way now than this be a problem over the course of all season. Like, if he was going to pout in the locker room and if he was going to be a problem for the coaching staff all year long, you'd rather just kind of rip the Band-Aid off here as opposed to having to deal with that all season and then he transfers at the end of the year after being kind of an energy suck on the team and that's not i'm not saying that's necessarily the case of what he was doing i'm just saying probably best for all parties if you realize this thing isn't going to work best for him that

Starting point is 00:06:18 he can start his career someone else somewhere else best for ku that you don't have to worry about uh it kind of bringing the team down, so to speak. So I don't know if that's what it was. I don't know if it was because of being coached harder than he thought it was going to be. I don't know if it has something to do with him getting here. And you mentioned in an interview, I think it was Ashrae Slata of the Kansas City Star when he committed,

Starting point is 00:06:42 that he intends to be a one-and-done. To be clear, a lot of freshman players say say that I remember Ernest Uday said that before the year. And obviously that's not something that ends up happening. I think a lot of these guys who are even four-star recruits, top 100 recruits think that I'm so close at this point and going to Kansas, like, of course I'm right next to making it to the NBA. Right. And don't realize that it is a harder path. If you're not not one of those top 15, five-star kind of guys to make it straight to the NBA. But that does tell you that maybe he had the thoughts of coming in,

Starting point is 00:07:13 like, oh, I'm going to be a starter. Of course, I'm going to be a starter. I'm going to be a one-and-done. And then he gets here, and he's playing against some of these guys, and he's like, man, these guys might be better than me. Like, I might be a back-end rotation player, and it's like maybe i'm looking for another spot so it could be that it could be the coaching hard thing maybe you weren't meshing well with the team i i don't know what it could possibly be uh but you know there are a couple different things you could

Starting point is 00:07:37 kind of hit on um that then you go back to the idea that yeah the the lack of competition at his high school level um maybe it was a tough for learning or and you do have the stories like you think back to joel mb and you know he gets dunked on by toric black on the first day of practice and he's asking bill self if he can red shirt and bill self's like no just stick with it like you'll figure it out eventually it's still early on in your career that's a you know 22 23 year old um but some guys you know you lose that confidence right away and you need to go somewhere else. Again, I don't know what exactly went into that decision for Marcus Adams,

Starting point is 00:08:14 but it certainly creates more roster parity in a year where there has been more roster parity than any year that I came with KU basketball. And even if you think back and like I I almost feel comfortable being like this is the wildest offseason ever did I ever cover or do I have a lot of idea what went on during the offseason in some of the years in the 80s or 90s or 70s or 60s no not really but also those years like you just figure a lot of those guys stayed in school longer like that was just the name of the game. There wasn't this rampant of a transfer portal or guys going pro early.

Starting point is 00:08:49 You think about how many guys transferred out, how many guys transferred in. You've had two freshmen now ask out of their national letter of intents. You're still recruiting. You still only have 10 scholarship players. You have less scholarships. You're still recruiting guys on July 17th. It's pretty crazy what's going on out here. Let's talk next about where it comes from here.

Starting point is 00:09:10 What's the response on Dean move, the Jayhawks and bill self and how this could impact the rotation. We had our, our minutes projection rotation, I think a week ago on locked on Jayhawks. So we'll do a little bit of an update to that here with the show. First of this episode of a Hawks is brought to you by fan duel sports book take your first swing at betting mlb on fan duel and get 10 times your first bet amount in bonus bets up to 200 that's a lot of free cash just bet 20 bucks and you'll land 200 in bonus

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Starting point is 00:10:33 What's the responding move? There's been a lot of talk about KU recruiting this Fernfie guy, or Funfie, I forget how to pronounce it, from Australia. So we'll see if that goes anywhere. Looking to the international route, I'm trying to think. I think the last time KU went the international route was probably Sfee. I'm missing someone off the top of my head. And that worked out well for KU, obviously more of a long-term guy.

Starting point is 00:10:58 Sfee ended up being, he didn't really play as a freshman or a sophomore. He started to get some minutes as a sophomore, but wasn't firm part of the rotation. And then by year three, he was a firm part of the rotation. Then by year four was an absolute stud. Right. So that really worked out for KU from that standpoint. You know, it would have been that land. If you'll Horton, the guy who from UCF, Pittsburgh and some of these other schools to Kane, I think who ended up transferring to Texas and not taking his visit to Kansas.

Starting point is 00:11:28 This would have that would have given him extra insurance for this. Now, it's not the biggest. I don't know, loss in the world in terms of just this year, because. Mark, is that probably going to be a starter? And, you know, I had him projected for 10 minutes per game so like you can easily fill that in a lot of different ways you can easily fill that with the guys you currently have on your roster that you know it did sound like Marcus Adams like maybe it was more of a struggle was more of a step up in terms of those first few practices that he was

Starting point is 00:12:01 having at Kansas now again I've talked about sometimes with freshmen, like even with Grady Dick last year, like I heard stories about during the off season and practice, like the Grady Dick, there were some scouts there, like NBA scouts and like, yeah, this guy's probably going to be a two and done. And that was kind of Bill Self's thought too, but then something clicked. So who's to say that Marcus Adams in another month or two of practice, something would have just clicked, right? You don't know that to be the case, but it could just be filled like, oh, Jamari McDowell or Parker Brown or whatever. another month or two of practice, something would have just clicked, right? You don't know that to be the case. But it could just be filled like, oh, Jamari McDowell or Parker Brown or whatever. But that does possibly present you with some minutes to give out to somebody coming in, or it could be a developmental player.

Starting point is 00:12:35 You go the long-term route and basically say, well, I don't know how much Marcus Adams is going to play this year. Let's get somebody who is going to be more comfortable being in that long-term role. We don't have to worry about they're upset with their role um you could bring in a veteran player we always talk about the jaylen coleman lands role a veteran uh kind of grad transfer comes in with the expectation of being like yeah there's some games i'll be in the rotation some games i might only play five minutes some games i might play 10 15 but i just want to be a part of a winning roster set myself up for basketball afterwards, get some good connections, be on a winning team, that sort of thing. How many guys

Starting point is 00:13:08 are out there that fall into that? Because that is more of kind of a rare situation. I don't know that kind of remains to be seen, but now you're back to 10 scholarships if you are KU. And the idea here is to play with at least 11 possibly 12 i mean it seemed very clear they were going for a 12th guy before marcus adams you wonder if marcus adams moving makes ku just say yeah you know if we get back to 11 okay let's just sit this time right because at this point it feels like every time you get back to 11 and you're like well could we add a 12th then you go back down to 10 but i do think it's complicated a bit by the Artario Morris situation. So Moria is scheduled for a trial on August 2nd.

Starting point is 00:13:50 He won't be with the team, I guess, unless there's a, if there's some sort of settlement between now and then that could allow him to get out and go to Puerto Rico. I don't know. I don't know. But if he has to stay put and do his trial, he wouldn't be in Puerto Rico. So you'd only have nine scholarship players there, which I do think it would be difficult at this point for KU to probably add another scholarship player before then and get them on the Puerto Rico trip. So maybe you'll be seeing some walk-ons actually

Starting point is 00:14:17 get some minutes in that game, like Jankovic or, you know, the quarter kid coming over from csun um but i think you know if you if you're ku you're definitely adding one player to 11 scholarships just it's we're already running out of options to get that 11 scholarship guy you know how are we going to get to 12 so i think ideally ideally kansas would like to get up to 12, but because you're running out of odds, I feel like 11 is probably the most likely situation, even though they'd like to get to that 12th. The 12th to me might be more indicative of what's going to happen

Starting point is 00:15:03 with the arterial more, right? Like your 11 scholarship guy might be more indicative of what's going to happen with the arterial more right like your 11 scholarship guy might be more indicative of adding another rotational like kind of wing type uh developmental guy which you know can kind of be your market if you do add it that could be indicative what happened with or what went down at this point if you add them after it happens the arterio morris situation to where it's like it's insurance in case there's some sort of suspension or or something that that hurts it long term so that's kind of my view on on how they're going to take the scholarships at this point seem like there's a lot of like like we had over the uh you know june and may and stuff a lot of guys where it's like oh this is transfer is transfer target. We're doing transfer deep dive.

Starting point is 00:15:49 It doesn't feel like there's as many targets or like names that are kind of floating out there right now with KU, which again, goes back in line with me thinking that, yeah, maybe 11 will be more likely just because you are kind of running out of your options here. But yeah, talking about guys that they can reclassify in the class of 2024 may be. And I feel like by now, anybody who's been in the class of 2024. Maybe. And I feel like by now, anybody who's been in the transfer portal, it's like, well, like if Kansas wanted them, they would have already circled to them by now. Right. So it's got to be either somebody who would have to reclass in 2024, I would think a European prospect or maybe a grad transfer who is finishing up summer class here in the next couple weeks and then is going to graduate and transfer those would be the ones that I would kind of be looking

Starting point is 00:16:31 to here which makes it hard to diagnose exact names because with some of those grad transfers you don't know are they going to graduate and transfer are they not and I'm not going to go through a list of every graduate transfer in college basketball or every graduate player that has the opportunity to transfer, I should say. All right, let's finish things up with how does this affect the rotation for KU basketball with Locked on Jayhawks? Finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, how does this affect the rotation for KU basketball? We did our minutes projection about a week or so ago, two weeks ago on the show for, you know, how would the minutes be allocated and we kind of

Starting point is 00:17:06 divvied everything out that it basically you had your top seven guys of el marco jackson arterio morris dwayne fuller kj adams nick timberlake and hunter dickinson And that left you with one more rotation spot for about 10 minutes per game. And there were ways to shave off minutes, you know, get a few off this guy or that guy to make that maybe a bigger role, maybe, you know, 15, 18, 20 minutes per game, right? If you really wanted to and constrict minutes in other ways. but basically there is that spot for an eighth man and and that was kind of the conversation of like you know marcus adams or jamiro mcdowell or parker brown um this is going to be something i'm going to teeter on like all offseason i feel like and to be clear at the beginning of the like before anything happened in the offseason i was okay i think marcus adams will be that guy then we got

Starting point is 00:18:02 a chance to hear from jamiro mcdowell see him practice a little bit, camp scrimmages. And I was like, oh, no, it's going to be Jamari McDowell. He fits that perfect role, 3 and D type wing. That's the type of guy that gets on the floor. He can play those 10, 15 minutes per game. And because he fits a certain role, it makes more sense. Then I saw another camp scrimmage, and you saw the talent of Marcus Adams' scoring acumen.

Starting point is 00:18:21 I was like, ah, I'm back on Marcus Adams. Parker Brown, to this point, hadn't been at the camp scrimmages. So maybe that was impacting my decision, too. So I went back to Marcus Adams is scoring acumen I was like I'm back on Marcus Adams Parker Brown to this point hadn't been at the camp scrimmages so you know maybe that was impacting my decision too so I went back to Marcus Adams and that's why I gave him the 10 minutes per game now Marcus Adams obviously gone and I think beyond him just being gone so obviously he can't and won't get minutes um I think probably the practices might have been indicative of that yeah he might not have been that guy anyway right if he's leaving and doesn't feel like he's going to get a ton of playing time and he was having maybe a tough time, that maybe it was Jamari McDowell or Parker Browns to lose at that point.

Starting point is 00:18:53 It would be easy for me to just go back to Jamari McDowell. I kind of want to actually go to Parker Brown now. Like, I think there have been some good reviews about Parker Brown so far in the practices and stuff for KU that I'm kind of leaning toward now. You mix it around where it's like, okay, Hunter Dickinson gets 30 minutes at the five. Parker Brown's your backup five for those 10 minutes per game. He's part of the rotation. Now KJ is playing all of his minutes at the four.

Starting point is 00:19:17 He's getting, you know, his 25 minutes per game or whatever it is at the four. The other 15 minutes of the four go into like Kevin McCuller and Kevin's playing his other whatever 15 minutes per game at the three and then Timberlake Morris Jackson and DeJuan are eating up the one two minutes and the rest of the three minutes like that uh seems to make sense for me I still wouldn't be shocked if it's Jamari McDowell and like I said ask me again in two weeks maybe I'll say Jamari McDowell gets those 10 minutes and he's the eighth guy in the rotation. But I think right now I'd lean toward the experience of Parker Brown. And like I said, I do think there have been some, some good reviews there that he might have been ahead of Marcus Adams for this year, at least to begin with. So it is a tough move

Starting point is 00:19:57 because I did think the potential in the long-term outlook of Marcus Adams was good, but you know, maybe he wasn't looking to the long term. And like I said, you don't want any unhappy parties. So maybe this is for the best long term. We'll see where KU goes from here. Maybe we'll discuss some of those possible options that if we can find some on a coming episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Coming up on our next episode, though, we're going to be joined by Nick Schwartz. It's been a bit since we've gotten to talk to Nick.

Starting point is 00:20:24 So we'll talk to him about this kind of KU basketball wild offseason. We have some crossover KU football, KU basketball questions with him. And then later this week, too, we're going to do a recap of Big 12 Media Day for KU football and things we learned and biggest takeaways for that from last week. All right. This has been Locked on. We'll see you next time. You can follow any of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:20:48 You can find it on YouTube. Like and subscribe to the show. Give me a follow on Twitter, at DJohnsonRadio. Have a good one. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Marcus Adams Jr. Asks Out of NLI; What's Next for the Wild Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Offseason?

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