Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Most Impactful Transfer for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball in 2024-2025, Moore vs Mayo & Two-Big Bball

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

Who will be the most impactful or valuable transfer portal addition for Bill Self and Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball in 2024-2025 between AJ Storr and Rylan Griffen? Who will play more between Zeke Mayo and Shakeel Moore? Two big basketball potential between Hunter Dickinson and Flory Bidunga? Plus, just how talented is this team with Whose Stat Line is it Anyway.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we discuss which KU basketball transfer edition will be the most impactful in 2024-25. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. He's Nick Schwert. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making Locked On your first listen every day. Thanks to the everydayers catching each and every show.

We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. You can find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. Give me a follow. Give Nick a follow at DJohnsonradio at Nick underscore Schwert. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking who's the most impactful transfer addition for KU. They brought five of them in, four on scholarship. We'll get to another episode of Who Cares, talking a little KU basketball non-con schedule,

a little Big 12 realignment rumors, and a, I don't know, fun mention of a possible two-big basketball that I want to get into. And we'll finish up with whose stat line is it. Anyway, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more as the playoffs wind down, as the sports stop really happening right now in the summer. They're still making it fun because this summer,

FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a booster bonus daily. That's right. There's something for everyone every day all summer long. Visit Fanduel.com to get started. Oh, let's start right here. KU brought in five transfers, four of them on scholarship. AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo, Rylan Griffin, and Shaquille Moore. Point blank question.

Who's going to be the most impactful transfer? This doesn't necessarily mean the best player, right? Who's the most impactful transfer? And maybe those are two in the same of the group. Yeah, actually, I think I'm going to disagree with the very premise. So we're off to a great start. I don't know. How could you be the most impactful player without being the best player of the bunch?

Like if AJ store, who I would answer is the best player. If he is averaging 17, 18 points per game, he is your one, a one B option offensively. I have a hard time imagining how there would be another player that would be more impactful than that. So here would be my case. And I don't even know if this is the answer I want to go with, but this is at least we can play devil's advocate here. I think Ryland Griffin or Zeke Mayo, depending who you think would end up being the fifth starter, if we're going to assume that Hunter, KJ, Storr, Shooting Guard, DeJuan are the starters. And if you want to disagree with that, that's fine, but just play it out with this for

the sake. If you want to, let's go with Ryland Griffin, just so I can pick one name here to make it easier. If Ryland Griffin were not a good shooter, for instance, obviously we know he is, but let's say he wasn't. Do you think a lineup with DeJuan Harris, who's not a volume three point shooter, Hunter Dickinson,

who's not a volume three point shooter, KJ Adams, who is not a shooter and AJ store who shot 31% from three and AJ store is really good at like driving. He's a power wing. He's got a little bit of a mid-range game. Would A.J. Storr, would Hunter Dickinson be as successful? Would they be as impactful if they didn't have a player like Rylan Griffin or Zeke Mayo

to space the floor? No. So I understand what you're saying and how one guy can kind of open up things for others. But I think you and I both know that if we get halfway through the season, this offense is clicking, everything's going well and everything that you just kind of laid out happens, right? Where Ryland Griffin may not be your best player, but he's opening up things for guys like store, DeJuan Harris, Hunter, KJ. It doesn't matter who, if Ryland is doing all that but averaging eight points per game while those other guys

are thriving while AJ Store because of the impact right if that's the key word here that Ryland is having having AJ Store is out there averaging 20 a game I would still think that the guy actually putting the ball in the hoop is making a bigger impact. So I understand what you're saying, but ultimately five guys on the court, the guys who are doing the tangible things other than just like, Hey, he defenses have to pay attention to him, right? Like the, the, the lanes opening up a little bit more for Hunter Dickinson. Well, if Hunter Dickinson's getting the ball in those open lanes and turning around and putting up 24 every night, like that impact is greater than what the guy who is just kind

of creating the stuff is. So I get what you're saying. I agree with the general premise that he is going to open things up and that is going to have an impact on the offense. But ultimately, like I need to see the tangibility of what you do as opposed to what maybe you're doing for others. All right. What about overall? Forget just the one season. Now you have the entirety of the career. And for all we know, it could just be one season. But AJ Storr, Rylan Griffin do have the chance of being here two years.

Now with Zeke Mayo and Shaquille Moore, they're done after the end of the year. They'll be graduated. But I feel like with store he is popping up in like the second round on some mock drafts i don't think he's been at the same school since like i don't know he just hasn't been he was at a different school every year of high school and so far every year of college so i don't know that you bank on him being around year two maybe it's different because you're kansas you're kind of the top of the food chain there but if i were to tell you like who has the most impact in career at Kansas in the same way that you would have gone back to the class of 2013 and said, oh, well, of course it would be

Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, but it ended up being Frank Mason. Would you give the nod to Ryland Griffin in that sense? I think you could go even further than that. 2014, Devontae Graham, right? Ended up being the best freshman in that class. 2019 with Quentin Grimes and Devon Dotson, David McCormick, national champion. Going back even two years ago, Grady Dick, Kevin McCuller. Only one versus two years, but I don't think anybody would argue

that Grady Dick had a bigger impact than Kevin McCuller did. So that is the lock of the century. I don't even care who the the century. I don't even care who the guys are. I don't care what they do, how they play, their archetype is. You tell me player A is going to be at Kansas for one year. Player B is going to be at Kansas for two years. And Bill Self is the head coach. If that's all I know, I am always going to take the player that's going to be there for two years. And I don't know what all you would chalk that up to. Maybe that's the case a lot of places, but I think specifically Bill Self,

we talked about trust last week and also just what he asks you to do. This is not a free flowing scheme. If you want to call it that at Kansas, like if you're talented and you're knocking down shots and you're breaking guys down off the dribble, getting to the hoop and scoring, but you don't know where to be onerald Vick was on a tear to start the year. And then all of a sudden after nine games, he was gone. There was a game. I think it was Stanford and non-con he hits a game winner and Bill Seltzer pissed. Yeah. Oh yeah. He sent it to overtime, but they had a set. They called a timeout. They had a set and legerald vick went off script and we can argue like who's wrong who's right but the fact remains you need to be in the right spots you need to know this playbook and know what the coaches want and sometimes that takes time so i think yeah to that

sense if you just told me this year it's aj store but if you just told me I got two years of Ryland Griffin, I would be really excited, not even knowing what we're going to see from him this year, just because of the track record that this coaching staff has with these types of guys about what would be in store for 2025. Just knowing that you get him for an extra year, he's going to be that much more knowledgeable, that much more comfortable. All right. So obviously Shaquille Moore and Zeke Mayo haven't really applied as much to those first couple of questions. I feel like that's becoming more of a interesting debate. I mean, if you would ask most people three weeks ago, I feel like heavy majority had Zeke Mayo playing more. Feels like tide's starting

to shift that Shaquille Moore might be impressing the coaching staff. We know Bill Self loves defense. Shaquille Moore is a good defensive guard. Still, they need the three-point shooting. Zeke Mayo obviously helps with that. Who do you think ends up playing more? Is it close? Zeke Mayo, Shaquille Moore? Yeah, I'm not really sure. I think that ultimately it's going to come down to who can play best alongside DeJuan Harris. I know we like to get into, oh, your backup point guard. When's the last time KU had a backup point guard? It was probably DeJuan Harris. Like you just don't see, if Bill Self has a guy at the point, he's going to play 35 minutes a night. It's going to happen. So it's more about who can coexist alongside him. And I think that's going to be a guy who can play without the ball.

How comfortable are you as someone who's probably had the ball in your hands, the entirety of your basketball career, being an off the ball, moving off ball screens, trying to get open, trying to free yourself up and knock down shots. So I would still lean towards Zeke Mayo in that regard, but it's going to be really interesting because the, the adjustment from the level of play that he was coming from at South Dakota state, that's a, that's a huge leap. That's one that we just saw last year with

Nicholas Timberlake struggle quite a bit with. So it's, it's good competition. Um, Bill Self's a man of his word, right? Like we heard his comments before the season even ended last year, he was thinking about next year. And it's not just about, let me get these pieces because every coach has a great plan on paper. It's about, you know, these are my pieces, but I'm not going to let anybody get comfortable. I'm not letting anybody come into Lawrence and just think that like, oh, cool. I'm transferring to Kansas and I'm going to start.

I'm going to play 30 minutes a night. Like this is my spot. Even if that was their plan, they're going to make you earn it, which that's the name of the game. I know that there was this conversation. We even talked about it in the offseason. Like, oh, he's telling all these guys they're going to start. And it's really funny right when the transfer portal opened

and they signed Zeke and they signed AJ store, even when Riley Kugel was on board, we were like, Oh, well, I mean, that person, that guy'll start right. We, how many times did we say that? That guy was, we don't know anything. We don't know anything because they don't know anything. And did they tell players, Hey, yeah, you're going to start. Sure. Did they mean it? I highly doubt it. But this is how you build great teams, is you get a lot of talented players in there and have them duke it out.

All right, let's get to who cares. We're going to talk a little Big 12 realignment, KU basketball non-con, and some more KU hoops on Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. I love sports, love them so much, but you never want them to stop. And it feels like they kind of are stopping right now with fewer games going on. But FanDuel lets me keep the sports going whenever I want. All I have to do is open up the app and dream up bets anytime I'm in the mood.

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day all summer long. So head over to FanDuel.com and start making the most of your summer. FanDuel, official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball and of the Lock on podcast network. All right. On to another episode of who cares. I'm going to give a couple topics and Nick is going to discuss,

and I will too, which one we care more about. So KU basketball is non-con schedules out. They're playing Duke in Vegas. They're playing North Carolina in Allen Fieldhouse. Which of those do you care more about? Any game that's in Allen Fieldhouse. By the way, weren't we kind of promised a home and away before the Vegas thing happened? I thought that was the rumor last year, and then somehow that fell through. College basketball has fans of individual teams, but unlike college football, the NFL,

the NBA, there aren't a lot of people who are just college basketball fans. Like, yeah, I got my team, but also I want to watch all the blue bloods. I want to watch all these great matchups. We get it in college football all the time. Like college football has it figured out beginning of the season, two teams, national championship contenders who can't really afford to lose. Unlike college basketball, these games in non-con mean nothing. They don't, they're just entertainment, which is great for us as fans. I don't know why we don't see more of these historic programs playing at each other's historic arenas. So I'm going with KU North Carolina at Allen Fieldhouse. We see enough.

We see enough of the Champions Classic. It's great. But I want to see you in these incredible college basketball venues. And not to mention, it's great for the fans of those programs. So it's like being a Kansas fan, and you've never seen Duke in Allen Fieldhouse. You've never seen North Carolina in Allen Fieldhouse. You've never seen North Carolina and Allen Fieldhouse. It's kind of a travesty because unlike college football, who any given year, we can have a great matchup. Like an Ole Miss game in September could be a great matchup.

There's like six teams who would qualify for those sorts of matchups. KU, Duke, North Carolina, they all belong in that list. So give me the game in Allen Fieldhouse all the way, man. I normally would be with you. It's just that Cooper Flagg is seen as this like, you know, the next whatever Anthony Davis level prospect, right? That type of guy where he could come in and be this first team, all American college basketball and Duke could be really good because of it. I think for that reason, I'm going with the Duke game. I also think stylistically that will be wild. Like if Cooper Flagg's playing a small ball five, being guarded by Hunter Dickinson, how's that going to work? Dude, did you see the videos of Cooper Flagg

practicing with the USA Select team? Anthony Davis scoring over Anthony Davis. He's backing down Drew Holiday, one of the best defensive guards of all time. I can't imagine what he's going to do to Hunter Dickinson. But that explanation is great, but it doesn't make me more excited. It makes me more fearful to see that game. Okay, next one.

There are some rumors circling around of Florida State and Clemson joining the Big 12. That or KU football's roster attributes that are officially out now for college football 25. What do you care more about? Okay. So this is a, this is a bit of a cheat answer, but because you've given me a NCAA football 25 scenario, three weeks in a row in this segment, I'm going to go with Clemson, Florida State, which is kind of exciting in and of itself, but I'm very excited for KU in this game. I've already played as them. They're very fun. The offense is great. You've got stars on both sides of the field, but Florida State and Clemson

joining the Big 12, while it makes absolutely no sense to me, maybe it's just a shift in where we kind of thought this power dynamic was in college football. Maybe it won't matter 10 years from now when every single school that's not in the big 10 or the SEC is either in one of those conferences or left hanging out to dry. But at least on the surface, the idea of getting two historically successful college football programs in a conference that just lost two historically successful college football programs in a conference that just lost two historically successful college football programs is at least intriguing to me.

Yeah. I'm interested in the ratings, but like, regardless of what the ratings were in college football, like I was still going to play the game. So I guess it doesn't impact that the Florida state. Yeah. Because if they sucked, I would just do a rebuild, right? I'd be like, Hey, Cinderella story. Give me three years. Now it's just like, Hey, maybe we can compete for a title in year one. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Last one here. Uh, this is just one thing, but in general, do you care about, or I guess maybe put another way, do you care enough to put stock into this? This was an excerpt from a recent article on fog.net. Michael, there's great work over there. This is what the excerpt says that I'm talking about,

whether you care to put stock into this. One thing self-mentioned this summer was the balance KU was working to find with Badunga and Dickinson. So Flory Badunga and Hunter Dickinson. KU was working to find out if Badoonga can play alongside of Dickinson or if the two have to play at different times. Hmm. I remember distinctly when Silvio, I think it was 2019 and bill talked about this exact same thing trying to figure out if silvio could play alongside david mccormick or if they were gonna have to like stagger their

minutes i think you know what the answer ended up being but it makes me wonder like is is that actually what you're trying to do? Or do you know that you have a really talented young freshman who's not going to play as much as he wants? So you're getting it out there now that like, Hey, no, we want to play you. We're trying to figure out a way to get you on the court, man. Like, so that's why when you get there, you can just be like, Oh, he just wasn't ready yet. Sorry. Like we wanted to, we wanted to. Well, yeah. And then you can kick the can down the road all season right it's not like it's going to become a weekly topic of conversation but it is it is an interesting dilemma because and a lot of times when when ku

has went out and got highly touted freshmen it has been like oh devon dodson i mean you're the starting point guard right away same thing with quentin Grimes Josh Jackson Grady Dick there was a spot pegged for you in the starting lineup and in a lot of cases you're one of the main guys on this team Flory Badunga despite having you know similar accolades to all those guys right I think he's probably a higher rating than Grady was, than at least Devon Dotson and David McCormick from a few years before that. So it's an interesting dilemma, but it also kind of reminds me of those years in like 2014, 2015, 2016, where he was bringing in a top 10 big almost every single year.

And yet those guys couldn't find a way onto the court, whether it was cliff or check the aloe. A lot of people talked about the, what if with Billy Preston, I'll tell you what the, what the, what if would have been, it would have been,

Oh, what if he would have played, then he would have suffered the same fate as every other McDonald's all American big guy under bill self, which is just like, you're not going to play because everything we talked about earlier with having to earn the trust and taking time to get comfortable in a bill self system i think it goes double for big guys because that

is his bread and butter like post touches big men think about all the guys he's had come through here so it's even harder for those guys and by all accounts florida dunga very talented very athletic rangy but like that kind of is the description for a lot of these dudes that we've seen come through KU in the past. Yes, in an ideal world, that's how that's the type of big guy that Bill Self wants. But he also wants him to be perfect. And I just think it is going to be tough for him to get on the court this year. There's just so many little things he wants his big guys to do, like screen really well,

finding the right angles for his shots. Sealing off defenders for guys who want to drive. And it's a lot easier for a dude who's been playing college basketball for four years to figure that stuff out than a guy who's playing college basketball for the first time. The one thing that makes me give this credence is, I mean, you mentioned the Silvio and Dave stuff. The one that comes to mind for me is that, do you remember Yudoka Azubuke started six games next to Landon Lucas? Yeah, we called it the girth lineup. Remember that? Yeah. That is a big, slow, immobile lineup. Because this wasn't senior year Yudka who was down to like 10%

body fat. This was freshmen, baby fat, you doka who couldn't move at all. I'm shocked that we didn't think there wasn't more outrage over that at the time. And then we saw them try to do you doka and David McCormick. So you know what, the more I think about it and Dave and Dedrick even see, this is what you have to separate in your head. When we're talking about this stuff, we're not just talking about, does it make sense? But of course it doesn't make sense. It's will bill self be able to help himself. He has two talented big guys and he's like, we can figure this out. I know it's never worked before, but maybe it'll be different this time. You know what the realization I just had?

Like, I mean, KJ Adams dribbles more and passes better than Flory Badunga probably does. But theoretically, if you're Bill Self and you're going, well, I'm going to start KJ at the four, how is it that different starting Flory? Like in theory, it's the same idea. It's another player next to Hunter who can't really shoot, but Flory should actually be a better rebounder and shot blocker. I don't know. Oh, he'll be an infinitely better rebounder and blocker. I think that's the thing.

I'll bring it up every single week if I need to with KJ. He's not just short, but even for his size, he has short arms. So he's undersized, which already is a disadvantage. And then at that point, even for for his frame his arms are short so like defensively he's not doing much he's very active that's why a lot of times if you're not paying like very close attention to one player you can be like oh kj is all over the place like all over the place isn't exactly what you're going for you want a guy who's just effective so we know how much Bill self cares about defense

specifically post defense Hunter despite being very large is not a great shot blocker so I think you're right man this is starting to get scary I I'm I'm now convinced that Bill's talking to myself it's happening it's gonna happen it's gonna happen all right let's finish up who's stat line is it anyway unlocked on Jayhawks? Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show. And don't forget, you can check out all sorts of stuff all over our Locked on podcast network for whatever team or conference you're looking into. So whose statline is it anyway for today? If you remember, KU won the title a couple of years ago,

and they mentioned that stat about the RSCI, which is basically a recruiting score index, which takes a look at all the major recruiting sites and puts together one. So since 2001, Kansas became the first national champion, and it's held true since, since the start of RSCI, to have less than four players in their rotation that were RSCI top 100 recruits. They only had two of them. It was David McCormick at 30, and it was Jalen Wilson at 51. How many does Kansas have on this year's team? In the top 100?

Yes, and they don't have to obviously all be in one class, right? They can stagger around. Okay. Let's go Hunter dickinson aj store um you've got three guys wait did they so you said hunter was 37th aj store was 89th so there's two of them flory flory 18th. He's actually the highest rated. Rakees Passmore. Rakees Passmore is 39th.

Only two spots below Hunter. KJ Adams. KJ is 66th. I don't know what Rylan Griffin was coming out of high school. I know Zeke wasn't top 100. I know neither one of those, the two guards they've added more or. Yeah, Shelby from Rice. He wasn't.

Yeah, Shelby. Noah Shelby. He wasn't top 100. So I'm going to go five. Correct answer is eight. Eight of them. Now, technically, it'd be seven. Elmarco's out for the year. Elmarco's actually the second highest rated at 20 that doesn't count that's

cheap that's still seven seven without el marco so you have flory was 18th zach clements 43rd rylan griffin 38th rickies passmore 39th kj 66 AJ store 89th. Is this team even more talented than you might've thought? Oh, it's, it's definitely very talented. It's now a matter of, will it all come together? But it's, it's an interesting mix of, of guys who've been here now in the, in the case of like KJ and Hunter. And I mean, Dwan, yeah, he's not top 100, but this is a really fluid mix of a little everything. We used to just talk about freshmen and upperclassmen. Well, now it's like freshmen,

upperclassmen, and then these transfer guys who aren't quite either one of those things. And this, this team has a good amount of all of that. All right. He's Nick Schwert at Nick underscore Schwert. Nick, where can you find a work?

What do you got going on right now? Uh, what I got going on right now is I'm going to log off. I'm going to go, you know, fire up a little dynasty, maybe start as an O coordinator at Kansas and see where things go on the college football.

25. Love it. At T Johnson radio here. That'll do it for this episode of locked on Jay. Tomorrow. We are going to be discussing four bold predictions for the KU football season upcoming. This has been locked on Jay Hawks.

See you next time.