Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ON THE BOARD: Keanu Dawes to Kansas | What are Jayhawks Getting in Utah Utes Double-Double Machine?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Kansas Jayhawks are on the board. They get a commitment from Keanu Dawes. It is not just big because they are on the board. It's big because Keanu Dawes is a really powerful player that can help solve one of their big issues from a season to go. You are locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 What's going on? Derek Johnson with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks, a little bonus show for you, is Keanu Dawes has committed to Kansas. He becomes the first commit in the portal cycle for KU on a roster that certainly needs some commitments from the portal cycle. So able to get that first one under their belt with Dawes and is a big one. We're going to break down his game, projected starting role, the top info on Dawes and more. Let's just start right here.

Starting point is 00:00:57 So it started to kind of leak out last night that he was supposed to have a visit to Arkansas. today and that that had been canceled. And so you start connecting the dots and wonder, okay, is it because he's committing to KU? Then this morning, I think it was Jonathan Gavoni of Draft Express, who tweeted out the confirmation that he had committed to Kansas in the end. This one kind of came together very quickly. And I think this one hopefully serves as a bit of hope from the stamp of how quickly it

Starting point is 00:01:26 came together, both with the visit, then with the commitment, that even though up until this point, Kansas hadn't, you know, had a ton of success yet of how quickly things can come together that they can potentially continue to do this for some other guys, right? So this is a big deal. Dawes will be a senior. He is 6'9, 225 pounds immediately comes in. He's a guy who can play the four or the five for you. Had a really good season at Utah this past year, averaging, about 12 points and nine rebounds per game on efficiency numbers from overall. He can shoot the three just a little bit. And he had some big games against good opponents.

Starting point is 00:02:03 I mean, Arizona and Houston, he's putting up like 15 and 8, 15 and 9 against Kansas. He's putting up 22 and 12. He continued to play well in the bigger games. But one of my favorite things about Keanu Dawes is also that he was an unselfish player. Like, I mean, first of all, he does have good passing numbers for Ford. So, you know, that kind of speaks to it as well. But like I go back to when Utah upset Kansas. back in the 2024 to 2025 season in Utah.

Starting point is 00:02:33 And in that game, he took one shot and he had 10 rebounds. And clearly he was just, you know, from a standpoint, hey, whatever I can do to help my team win. I find that very intriguing in an addition that you can make when you don't always know what the attitude of certain players are adding from the portal. It seems like this is a pretty good bet on somebody, both from a physical standpoint and from the mental makeup of what you're kind of bringing in here, right? So obviously the importance here is twofold.

Starting point is 00:03:02 For one, KU losing Bryson Tiller to the transfer portal, you needed a new starting four man if you're KU. And so the importance there is that DOS can come in and be your starting four man. I also think that they just needed to get some momentum, right? I mean, the fans were restless. The other thing is when you're recruiting these other players, they see the, you know, when the agent does too, They see that nobody else is on the roster. They don't know who else is going to be on the team. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:03:33 They want to know like who else is going to be on the team. They don't always want to be the ones to dip their toes in the pool first, right? So now you have proof of concept to tell some of these recruits, hey, look, your life is going to be a lot easier if you join this team because we got a dude who's going to grab a ton of rebounds. He's going to be a good passer, a good teammate. He's going to try and get you some assists. And just in general, like getting some good momentum going,

Starting point is 00:03:57 getting some positive news in the news cycle going, right, whether it's for the fans, whether it's for the recruits, all of those are important things here that KU is able to accomplish. So let's get to some of the top information on DOS. This is Lockdown J-Hawks. This episode is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadline stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill is still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsor jobs, which helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for, the right skills, experience, location. So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. So if you're hiring, spend less time searching and more time interviewing for candidates

Starting point is 00:04:43 to check all the boxes with less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of the show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Locked on Jayhawks. Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsor jobs. So when you watch Dawes on video, you see a very powerful athlete. He's a good athlete for a four or five. I don't know that he's a good enough athlete that you want him switching like it's we've seen KU switch one through four one through five. I don't know that you want him switching onto like point guards and shooting guards.

Starting point is 00:05:32 I wouldn't go that far from an agility aspect. But from a standpoint of other fours and fives, he is a good athlete. He gets up, throws down a ton of dunks, seems to have a plain style that, you know, there were questions about the relationship between Bill Self and Bryson Tiller and maybe a little bit of the S word, the soft word, right?

Starting point is 00:05:52 I don't think that's going to be any indication of Dawes. I think it's going to be the furthest thing from it. I think he is going to be kind of the opposite of that. Now, when we look at the biggest strength of Dawes, There are a lot of strengths here. I think just in general, you look at his interior presence, but if we're to circle one big thing, it's the defensive rebounding for Dawes.

Starting point is 00:06:12 He was in the 98th percentile this past season in defensive rebound rate. And I've mentioned the stat before, but it bears repeating because it is kind of a jarring stat. The difference, the gap between how much better of a defensive rebound rate, Keanu Dawes had than Flory Bedunga is wider than the gap between Flory and Melvin Counsel or Darren Peterson. That is how good of a defensive rebounder Keanu Dawes was. And when you look at that being an issue for KU this season, he comes in. And you can't solve an issue with just one guy,

Starting point is 00:06:43 but you certainly made a huge step in the right direction to help solve that. Obviously, you got to figure out who your center is going to be and, you know, how you're rebounding is from the three position and stuff like that. But this is as good of an addition as you could make to help solve the defensive rebounding from a season ago. So that would certainly be the biggest strength. if you are looking at what the biggest question is, I guess defense would be the big one. Like, he's not somebody who gets steals.

Starting point is 00:07:08 He's not somebody who gets blocks. I do think he's a physical enough defender. And defensive rebounding at the end of the day is a part of the defensive side of the ball because you're finishing out the possession. So that is important to know. I don't like, I think he's a fine defender one-on-one in the post. I'm sure he's a pretty good defender because of his strength and ability and toughness and stuff. But yeah, you're not really getting steals and blocks from that.

Starting point is 00:07:31 So is that something that at the follow up to this is can you get a center who does get blocks so that you do have the rim protection from somebody else down there? My favorite stat from Keanu Dawes here, I mean, I mentioned the defensive rebounding. That's certainly fun. But it's honestly the on-off numbers for Keanu Dawes. You're on a Utah team that was not super good. Obviously, it was one of the worst teams in the Big 12. But that doesn't mean you can't be a winning player on a bad team.

Starting point is 00:08:00 And here's the perfect example. Utah was getting outscored a lot, right? Well, when Keanu Dawes was on the floor, he had a plus 17 net rating. Utah with, when Keanu Dawes was off the floor, Utah was getting outscored per 100 possessions by over 20 points. When Dawes was on the floor, they were only getting outscored by about three points. So you go from when Dawes is off the floor to being one of the worst teams in the power five to when he's on the floor, you're competing in these games.

Starting point is 00:08:28 That is the difference there. Dawes was a very, very impactful player. And you look across the board. Utah's numbers were severely better on offense, on defense. They played a faster pace, had better effective field goal percentage, had a little bit better of an offensive rebound rate, had a much better turnover rate, better free throw attempt rate, all of them when he was on the floor.

Starting point is 00:08:48 They also had a much better defensive rebound rate. They forced more turnovers. They didn't foul as much. Like, he just made a huge impact to winning in so many different ways, just because Utah didn't win the games didn't mean he didn't impact them in that positive way. So those would be some of my favorite stats. Now, when you look at some of his top playing style, things that he really excels at. So he was in the 90th percentile on inside out game.

Starting point is 00:09:15 And I think that comes with his passing ability, right, to where if you throw the ball inside to him, he's a good enough scorer on the interior, shot really well at the rim that if you over-emphasize that, he can kick it out and somebody can knock down a three because of it. But the other one is this. It wasn't on as high of a frequency as his inside out game. He was in the 43rd percentile for the frequency of how often he did it. But he did it at a 98th percentile efficiency. That is his post-up game.

Starting point is 00:09:44 This dude is a really good post-up player. And we know that Kansas had times last season where they wanted to get the ball inside to a postman with Tiller or Badoonga, but Tiller would end up taking a fadeaway jump shot that sometimes looked really good and went in. but a lot of other times it didn't. Or to Florey who would end up taking a line drive, 10 foot hook shot that wouldn't go in, right?

Starting point is 00:10:03 And they needed a little bit more from the post-up presence. You're getting that here from Keanu Dawes, who again, 98th percentile in post-up efficiency. And then when you look at the top shot location for, you know, where does this guy, you know, like to shoot and where does he do well? So at the rim, I've seen different numbers at different sites. I've seen some at like 72, 73, side I'm looking at right now has him at 74%,

Starting point is 00:10:29 which is really, really good to be clear. That's like what Flory was shooting, and he's like just dunking everything. But the other zone that I find really interesting here that he's really good at is DOS was 65% in kind of the middle mid-range spot, that kind of like free throw line, elbow line area. So has that ability to hit that mid-range jump shot

Starting point is 00:10:47 at a higher efficiency than you've seen from KU4s and fives in several years here. This is just a really good player and I think a really good fit as well for KU. So what is his projected role? What else does KU need to do with the roster? We'll get to that next. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money.

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Starting point is 00:11:48 Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com slash locked on. That is rocketmoney.com slash locked on. Thanks you for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. So what is the projected role? And we will have another episode coming out later today. We'll try to get it out tonight on Thursday night about how adding Keanu Dawes affects the Jayhawks roster and the rest of their transfer plans.

Starting point is 00:12:13 Obviously, this is the first of what needs to be many for KU with the open spots on the roster. But also, if you want even more on Keanu Dawes, like an even deeper dive into things, we did do a transfer portal deep dive on DAZ just a couple of days ago. so I highly recommend checking that one out, even if you've already watched it. You could rewatch it and kind of get refresh yourself with some of the interesting stats and numbers around Dawes. But when I look at the projected role for Dawes, he is a four man. So he comes in and is your starting four. And now I think you look at it and say, okay, you've got two of your five starters, right?

Starting point is 00:12:45 You got Taylin Kinney is one of the guard spots. And now you got Dawes at one of the four spots. Can you find another guard? Can you find a wing? Can you find a starting center? And who knows where Colversario factors into this is, is he going to be viewed as more of a starter or more of a rotation piece. I would lean toward thinking it'd be more of a rotation piece, kind of in the rotation as that six through eighth man somewhere in that range.

Starting point is 00:13:06 But that's kind of what you're looking at now for KU. The beauty, though, of Daws, not just being your starting four. And I think Daws gives you probably like, Dawes isn't an elite three point sure. It is 31%, but it's more than enough for forward. But he is your best free throw. He is your best mid range and three point shooter that you've had starting at the four positions since Jalen Wilson, right? And on top of it, he is probably the best defensive rebounder that you've had on your roster since Jalen Wilson, too. I guess Hunter Dickinson was a really good defensive rebounder too. Best defensive rebounding four man since Jalen Wilson. So those are all good things. But the beauty is DOS can also play five in a pitch. It's not going to be the lineup. KU starts with, I would imagine.

Starting point is 00:13:49 Although, who knows, what if you bring in a center and it doesn't work out? And then you figure out later in the season, our best lineup is playing small, even though that's, you know, zinging to what college basketball is zagging to right now. But you can play with him at the center for five to ten minutes game. It could be playing with him at the center for five to ten minutes a game just to, you know, lengthen your depth and keep your other centers, whatever, or get other guys minutes or whatever. It could also just be matchup dependent, right?

Starting point is 00:14:16 Like what if you're playing a team that does want to space you out a little bit more, does play five out and you say, hey, this game will play 15 to 20 minutes of DOS at the five to try to keep up with their pace, but then if you are playing a bigger team with more height and more size, you say, well, this game, we're not going to play any of Dawes at the five, right? You can make it matchup dependent based on who you're going up against. But Dawes played the five well for Utah. Like, he played all of his minutes at the five over the last five games of the season for Utah,

Starting point is 00:14:41 and his net rating was still plus 13 per 100 possessions over those last five games. So, like, he can still play that position really well because of his defensive rebounding can present a bit of a matchup problem for the other team when he's on offense, with his mobility and stuff. So I love this edition. It basically gives you your starting for, it basically gives you what can be like your third string center as well. If you can have Paul M.

Starting point is 00:15:05 Bia back, which again, he still hasn't officially entered the transfer portal. And then you land a starting center edition with Davy on Adkins coming in, too. You'd be set at the center position. So I also view this as being like, I don't think you want DOS to be the best player on your team. But if DOS is like your third best player, you're going to probably feel pretty good about your roster.

Starting point is 00:15:25 So we'll see where it goes from here for KU. They need to get some scores. They need to get some shooting around this. But this is a great first edition with Dawes, who I do think with this setup with Kansas. I mean, he's averaging 12 and 9 a game last year. What if he averages 14 and 10 for a coach that's going to get him the ball on the inside? This could be an all big 12 level edition for KU if things go right.

Starting point is 00:15:48 All right. That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ON THE BOARD: Keanu Dawes to Kansas | What are Jayhawks Getting in Utah Utes Double-Double Machine?

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