Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - NCAA HURDLE: Melvin Council & Malique Ewin Updates Make for Challenging Roster Build for Kansas

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks face major roster questions as hopes for Melvin Council and Malique Ewin fade. Will Bill Self find the missing piece at center, or are slim chances with Ewan their last shot? Recruiting buzz intensifies as the team explores NIL options, potential international additions, and contingency plans for the upcoming hoops season. Derek Johnson spotlights KU Baseball’s roster shakeup, with JUCO standouts Carson and Aiden Zagryn joining the program and key returners like Mason Cook and Tyson Owens solidifying the lineup. As MLB Draft decisions loom for Tyson LeBlanc, Brady Ballinger, and Dom Voegele, can the Jayhawks build a top-tier pitching staff? Plus, football recruiting heats up with JaMarquis Hudson’s commitment and Nazir Pitchford’s departure, keeping Kansas fans buzzing about the future in both diamond and gridiron action. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!   Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.  RugietGet 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhlRugiet. Performance medicine for men. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast   FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started now.   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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A recent report from Shreis Lott of the Kansas City star doesn't sound like the possibility of Melvin Council coming back is happening. And for Malik Ewan, well, that one doesn't seem too likely either. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on Derek Johnson here? This is Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's episode of show, we'll get to some of the latest news. news with some recruiting news. We'll get to the KU baseball roster starting to take shape a little bit more in 2027.

And we'll start right here with the latest on KU basketball because there's a report that came out from Shreyes Lata from the Kansas City Star talking about a couple of recent developments kind of pertaining to the same world of eligibility, which would be over Melvin Council and Malik Ewan, a couple of players that, you know, in Huin's case, somebody that KU would love to have on their team next day. year. In the case of Melvin Council, somebody who was on their team last year and, you know, potentially trying to get another year, though that sounds like it's kind of going away. So here were some of the notes from Shreyes. And again, go read the piece in the Kansas City Star,

Kansas City.com. But to go through some of the things, like one of the things he mentioned was that things didn't go far for Melvin Council in the waiver process. And they quickly turned their attention to focusing on pro basketball. That again, you know, there just wasn't a ton of ground that kind of happened. And that is kind of the difficulty with the timeline here. And I do think that's one thing that is on the NCAA's side here and something that they're almost hoping for is the standpoint of, hey, you only have, you know, whatever, two months till the next semester starts in August, right?

And so for you to get a resolution, there's no guarantee it's going to happen by August. And it's not just the timeline of that happening. it's the timeline that gets sped up with the NBA draft is coming up here in what a week or two. And then you have decisions of where are you going to go play summer ball, you know? Are you going to play for this summer league team? Are you going to play for that summer league team? Are you going to get a 10-day contract? Are you going to get a two-way contract if you're undrafted?

Then you have to figure out, are you going to go play overseas? Are you going to sign a contract? Are you going to play in the G-Leat? Like, there's a lot of decisions you have to make from the pro aspect that if you get left out to dry, and all of a sudden you're waiting on the NCAA decision and it doesn't happen and all of a sudden it's September and you're past the school semester starting. Now you're arriving late to the pro season, your first season of pro ball wherever you're going to go play. And all of a sudden, the offers aren't there as much because a lot of the roster spots are filled. The playing time might not be there as much the situation might not be as good.

So it works against a player going through that process. And that makes it, you know, a lot more difficult depending how committed you kind of are to that. And I don't know that I was really expecting this one to happen to be clear. But I guess to me that kind of closes the chapter that, you know, if there's a new report or something else that comes out, then great. We'll talk about it. And we'll get to that because, you know,

I loved watching Melvin Council. And I do still think Kansas could use another ball handler. So that would have just kind of worked. And I do think counsel would have fit well next to Taylin Kinney or next to Leroyd-Blyden. I'm sure the playing time stuff and the. promises you probably made different players in the rotation like that gets complicated and the money stuff gets complicated. Not that you're going to have to worry about those now, but I guess point being, you know, we'll just move forward. And if it happens, it happens, it will circle back to it.

The other one is in this piece from Shreyas. He did mention a slightly better chance with Malik U.N. But the main tweet that Shreyes sent out, quote, chances are slim. He joins KU per a source. Now, again, what does she? slim chances mean and who exactly is the source is the source you know on the coaching staff is the source somebody relatively around the program like that can be dependent on it um is it something where chances are slim because it's it's it's already a 50 50 that he's going to even get eligible and maybe that's even too

high of a number and then if you're saying from there then once he's eligible you're divving it down to his options of where he could go to school and if you were to say there's five different options of where he could go, now you're down to what, a 10% chance of something happening. That sounds like slim chances, right? But it is interesting because in the article it was, you know, did kind of mention like slightly better chance for Ewan, but then again, if they're saying the odds of counsel or 0.01% and they're saying the odds of Ewan are slightly better, that's not necessarily huge number, right? But one of the other things that was part of this from Schreis in this piece was that it did mention Ewan has been in contact with Bill.

self. So that indicates a couple things. One, to me, that at least indicates partially that KU believes that this could, you know, happen to some degree. Like, why, if KU didn't think this was possible at all, why would they even reach out? You know what I mean? And I guess you could say, okay, well, it makes sense to get your ducks in order. It does make sense to, you know, at least check in on the situation. But to me, this kind of reads to the idea that Kansas is like, not just checking in. It's that they're doing their due diligence to make sure if he is eligible, they're in a good spot to potentially land him. Right. And so that to me does seem like, at least that based on that, like they would be at least optimistic that he's got a real shot to do it.

The other part of it is this, that the motion is real, right? That the action is real. If Kansas is going out there, if Bill Self is putting forth action to have contact with Malik U.N. to make this I don't know, a thing potentially, do we really believe it's the only one? Like if it's clear that Bill Self is saying, hey, I'd love to add a Malikian level player. And, you know, clearly to be able to reach out, they have to have some sort of money available or potentially like maybe it's a, hey, if we can get this player, would you donate to that, right? Like something like that with NIL. If that is the situation that tells me that there's got to be other. other candidates, I guess, plan B's, plan C's, plan D's, right?

Because like, if you're going after Malik Ewing, it comes with an understanding of saying, hey, we need another center, which I think is a totally reasonable place to get to. For one, it is one of the bigger question mark positions for KU just from a performance perspective, right? I like the Christian Reeves edition, really good rebounder, shop blocker. I think he'll be kind of like a Landin Lucas type of center at KU. But at the end of the day, he wasn't a rotation player, Clemson and Duke. And I do think he got better at Charleston.

And I do think there were some things working against him with players in front of him and just different things. But that is a real question and a fair one with Paulumbia. Like I love what we saw at the end of the earth, Paulumbia. He's so incredibly long that like the potential is there that like, of course I could see Paul and Bia being a really productive player for KU as their center. Davian Adkins, highly rated four star. Of course, we see kids that are ranked high all the time work well. and throughout college basketball, but at KU.

So it makes sense that any of these players could come together. But then you start coming together and getting to a point of like, what are the odds that all of them are going to work at the same time? Maybe it does. Maybe everything works just great. But wouldn't you rather get a sure thing? And Malik Ewan would be more of a sure thing. And then you add the other element of this, which is Christian Reeves injury,

which sounds like he'll be back in whatever it was, like the beginning of October, to being able to play, you know, five on five, but that's a lot of mispractice that he's going to have to where, you know, you're still missing some some key time of development and working with the team and, you know, playing for Bill Self in those practice settings, that that could matter.

So it is clear to me that this is almost trying to address a need. And so I don't know, why would Kansas only, if you're interested in Malik-Ewen, and you have the money to be able to make something like that work, why would you not have the money and opportunity to make it work with somebody else? And I get it. The transfer portal options have dried up a little bit, but what about internationally? Now, maybe that's just where Kansas isn't, you know, doesn't have as many options and doesn't

have as much knowledge over there. So that could maybe hold you back. Maybe this is just the perfect situation. And so it's one that they're just looking into because it is a situation that could potentially fall into their lap. But that to me indicates that they are still working the phone, so to speak, and that, you know, Maybe it's option one. Hopefully it works out.

But I wouldn't be surprised if there's still an option too, right? And here's part of this too, that maybe this makes them, I don't know, feel better. So this came out, I don't know, Friday, I think. So Clemson wide receiver Tristan Smith, he was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA on Friday, making him eligible for the 2026 college football season. Now, Smith was somebody who played two years of college football or two years D1. and before that he played two years of Juco ball. And so a couple things, that's not the NCAA saying he's eligible.

So this doesn't seem like a situation where Melvin Counsel or Malik Ewan would be able to be eligible versus the NCAA. It seems like a situation where a court would have to basically do what's happened with Brendan Sorsby. It would happen there for a little with Charles Betiaco or is happening here for this Clemson receiver. A local judge would have to be like, hey, we're giving you an injunction. You can play through this upcoming season. and then we'll address the court case after the season ends, and then you don't have to worry about it. Like that would be how Kansas kind of gets around this, in my opinion.

And it seems like it's just something happening ad nauseum right now in college sports. So, you know, like I said, I'm kind of optimistic. They're still going to add someone at this point because the fact that you're going after you and whether it is him and it works out or somebody else, like that is a signal to me that you're active and you do have some pieces, some things to give out that would, make you an attractive source for somebody to join KU. Let's switch gears, go to KU Baseball.

They've lost a couple of players in the portal, but some big names announcing their back, some big commits as well from the Juko ranks. We'll get to all that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos can show up fast, right? The problem is that finding the right candidate can take a lot more time

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com. Okay, so KU Baseball, meanwhile, is in a pretty good looking position at this point in time for their upcoming roster. And obviously, they have some pro decisions that still need to be made. I think the assumption, Tyson Blanc going to go pro. I think with Brady Bollinger, he could have another year. And, you know, I think MLB pipeline doesn't have him the top 200 and didn't have as good of a year this year as he did the year before.

Still seems like the pulse is that he's going to go pro. So we'll see what kind of happens there. Decisions for guys like, I don't know, Kate Baldridge and Augusto Mungariata, who I think Don't vaguely probably going to go pro as well. But for some of those guys, it's like, do you, like, do you? like let's say your seventh round draft pick what is the signing bonus end up being is that worth it and kansas isn't a school that has like you know boatloads of nil money to where if a team drafts you in the eighth round and offers you i don't know 100 000 150 000 to where you're not going to make that probably at kansas right so it becomes difficult i don't know maybe things

have changed um and that would be great if if it were but uh that certainly complicates things right but they already have had some announcements from some players coming back mason cook who uh did not go out the way he wanted to against Oklahoma, although the Sooners are just a wagon now, as you see in the College World Series, but had an unbelievable year. And up until the NCAA tournament finished the season very strong, I think the expectation he was only sophomore that he's going to get even better and he could be awesome this upcoming season, right? He already had a really good year this year. He announced he was coming back on social. Ryan Ritter, who's somebody who had a solid season in relief and figures to be somebody who's going to be competing to be one of those three starters for KU. He's back.

And then Tyson Owens, his decision was he was a sophomore. I guess it would mostly be a decision of do you enter the portal or not. But he comes back for another year. And that's huge because Owens was one of your best hitters this past season. And having him back, especially when you're losing all these really good hitters, becomes really important for the middle of the lineup. So then you're making some other additions. They've already had some big Juko commits that have come in,

but they got some other ones over this weekend. Carson and Aidan Zagrin, really good. a juco commits coming from the same school here. And they actually already had a commit from Ian Swanson, who's like a really good pitcher from this school like Gulf Coast Community College. And so these are twin brothers. Carson hit 399 with 14 home runs this season for goal. And we've seen with, you know, KU have all the success in the juco ranks.

The crazy thing is when you look at what, what this kid did in Carson's ag, So he was a freshman. This was the first year of college baseball. He was, what is this? He was sitting 208. He was 5 of 24 in the month of January through seven games. So first month, he's playing college baseball, right? Jukobal.

And he hit 6.13 in February, 311 in March, 4.78 in April, and then limited time. He goes 3 of 12 in May. But like Point Pine, you know, once he got more familiar with it, he was hitting well over 400 for the season. So that's a really good edition. His brother's a good player, too. And now the way you look at it with the players, obviously, like the decisions and everything, you know, if you can get Augusta Mungari at a back, like he takes down kind of your catcher spot. If not, then either you're looking at adding somebody else or Holden Grobel, who was a good

juco edition you made, Gavin Schlaugher back, who is the brother of Dylan Schlaugher back, your third baseman is a backup catcher and had some really good juco stats in the past as well. They would be competing for that job. You look at first base and obviously, you know, losing Josh Dykoff to graduation, who had a great year, going to be tough to replace. But the good news, Ryan Chase was one of the best juco hitters in the country this past season. And he will be incoming as a junior. He figures to take down that spot. You look at second base, assuming Kate Baldridge is back as a senior.

You could have him. You could have Carson Zangrin as the other guy there in the beauty of Zagrin, only a sophomore, right? And if Baldur is back and he's playing second and, you know, Zagrin playing second at Jucco, Zagrin could be a good enough bat that you just move him to, you know, whether it's D.H. Or the outfield or one of the other, you know, infield positions. Or maybe Baldridge moves to shortstop or something with what. Who knows, right? You could have Schlaughterback back as well as a senior.

That would be big. Aiden, the twin brother, he can play third base and be kind of a backup there. And then at the shortstop spot, even though you do lose, assuming LeBlanc, Jake Berkland just committed whatever a week or two ago and has really good stats coming from Jucco as well, can steal a lot of bases. He figures to probably not have as much power as LeBlanc, but give you maybe even more on the base path. So, you know, it's going to be impossible to replace what LeBlanc did,

but that's a good player to have come in for that, right? Then you look at the outfield and, again, you wait on the decision of Bollinger, but the good news here is with Owens back, he's somebody who can play center field. But if you need to move him over, like Aidan Muton, for instance, is this unbelievably accomplished player from the Jukko ranks,

came over from the same school, or will come over, from the same school that LeBlong was at, LSU, Unis. And Mouton has like all the career records over a guy like LeBron. He can play second. He can play center field. You could move them wherever, right? So just Owens moved to right to right?

Does Owen stay in center? And you move Mouton to the end, right? There's a lot of things that Dan Fitzgerolden company can do. But that's a big addition in the outfield. So you feel good, potentially about those two spots. If you can get Ballinger back, that'll be one of the best outfields in the big 12, if not the best, with Bollinger,

and Owens. If you don't, then, you know, you're looking, okay, does somebody move to the outfield? Again, is that where Carson Zagrin moves to the outfield? Do you add some other player, right? And then kind of the wild card in all this is GT Taylor. He's an incoming freshman who's being recruited by some SEC schools. He is a really polished freshman. It would not shock me at all if he's in the lineup right away as a young player, like that

good of a player. And he could kind of fill in at some different spots, right? Then you look over to the pitching staff right now with how it's looking for If we assume Dominic Vagely is gone, you're looking at three starting pitchers. And then how Dan Fitzger likes to have it, he likes to have, I think he says one of their top three at the back end of the bullpen and one other of their top five in the bullpen. Right. So I think you'll look at it, Mason Cook back to be a starter. If Mathis and Ray Rawl comes back, he was one of your starters this year, be a starter again next year. And then you'd be looking at who would be your third starting pitcher.

You're probably looking at a competition between Ryan Ritter, who would probably be. would be the early favorite right now. Madden Seidel as well. And then you bring in a couple Jucco guys, Ian Swanson, who has incredible strikeout numbers and Logan Harrell, who's a big starter to kind of compete for those spots, right? And maybe you could even say like Colin Smith or Manning West, if West decides to come back,

could be in that competition as well, right? Let's say it was Ritter, and you went with Cook, Nehrawl Ritter, and let's say you could get Bode Ray back for his redshirt senior year. Then you'd be looking at, I mean, the depth of the bowl, pen on paper could be in just pitching in general for k you could be freaking awesome next year because like i said even if you have cook nairal ritter as you're starting three with ray as your

closer the guys you would have in between with sidle a guy who started games for you this year with harrell and swanson coming in with colin smith coming in um with keaton fen coming in with bringing back potentially burkitt and west i mean emerson mcnite if he can take a step forward is kind of a lefty or maybe you can add a left like there's some real things you can do with that pitching staff. In the, like, here's a fun question. If you could bring one back, like let's say you do have enough of an NIL check. Some KU baseball donor steps up.

It says, I have whatever. You would need 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, whatever number it is, to bring back one player for KU who's teetering between the pros or not. Dom vaguely and Brady Bollinger, who do you go with? I think it would be a very tough decision because if you bring back vaguely, I already really like the pitching. now it'd be incredible. And I could, you know, then you look at Ballinger and it's like, well, then you would have another core piece back of your lineup.

So ideally, that's a situation that you get to where you do bring one back. But we'll wait and see. Regardless, though, I think they're in a good spot with some of the returning players and some of the additions they've made to the Jucco ranks and just the way they've done things as a staff so far. Let's get some of the latest news. This is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Ruggiette throughout the NHL finals, which has been awesome. Every shift matters, every moment's intense, and everything comes down to execution when the pressure is at its highest. And just like athletes must be ready to perform when the puck drops, a lot of guys that, you know, have that same sense of readiness and confidence.

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Ruggiat, performance medicine for men. Thanks again for joining us. Don't forget you can join the everyday air club lock on jhawks. Dot supercast.com to get the ad-free version of the show. Some of the latest news found this one. I've found this one. It's seeing Luis Suigo decided to withdraw from the NBA draft. He is going to Villanova.

which becomes interesting because I guess just one less potential option you could go to in the international market. But also you're playing Villanova this year and Luigi Suigo. Sorry. Is it now I'm messing with myself in the head? Anyway, with Swigo really talented big man, like seven foot three, can shoot it a little bit, can pass it a little bit. I think there's been some of day Mara comparisons. I don't know that he's that level player. And it did take Mara a few years to get going.

But like point being this very talented big and KU's going to have to play against him because they're coming to the field house the week of Thanksgiving. So that'll be quite the test for that position at the center spot for KU that we do have a little bit of questions about. Meanwhile, some recruiting news for KU football, Jamarke's Hudson, who is almost a four-star recruit, like very high-end three-star linebacker has committed to Kansas after visiting over the course of this past weekend. And that's obviously big news and good news. And we have a bonus episode of that. Check that one out. If you want more info on Hudson and why it is such a big deal for Lance Light Pulling Company. But the downside news is Nizier Pitchford, who was an 86 rated three-star recruit,

but I think was, for me personally, I thought was a little underrated as a recruit, ends up decommitting from Kansas, although I guess there's more Kansas decommitted from him. And to find out more about the story, go to that episode that I was referring to about the recruiting news, because that is certainly a wild one, but basically one in, one out for KU, different positions and everything. So the class sitting at 16 guys and looking, pretty good right now for KU football in the class of 2027. Okay, here is the trivia question for today.

Let's see what we got here. So this was Friday's question. It was a football question. It says, this Jayhawk defensive end earned all Big 12 first team in 2004. Again, this Jayhawk, all Big 12 defensive end earned those honors in 2004. And the correct answer is David McMillan. I don't know. For some, I think maybe a little bit of a,

uh, uh, the underrated, forgotten, you know, stud there on the defense line. Here's a question for today. What opposing school was Bill Self's first NCAA tournament victory against for Kansas? So what was his first NCAA tournament victory at Kansas? Who was it against for KU? I don't know for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find a show anywhere. You get your podcast, including on our YouTube.

page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time.