Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PIPELINE: Jayhawks DOMINATE Overtime Elite Recruiting | Why it's GREAT for Bill Self and Kansas

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's official. Kansas has a pipeline with overtime elite after landing in another five, so they got Tailing Kinney. Now they've got Javon Bardwell. Plus, we learned a little bit of news that might not be so good for KU about Tyron Stokes, the number one recruit in the class of 2026. 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. Another bonus episode coming at you here on L.O.J. And thank you for tuning in anywhere at your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:42 And on today's edition of L.O.J. We're breaking down more of Javan Bardwell, the recent five-star crew committing to KU. And what it means, how it means, the KU now officially, I'm going to call it. They have a pipeline established with Overtime Elite and why that is such a good thing for KU. We'll also get into a little bit of Tyrant Stokes. Not great news for KU would be my short summary of that about Tyron Stokes. Okay, so let's start right here, though. Overtime Elite, if you're unaware of what that is, it is a league of 16 to 20-year-olds based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Starting point is 00:01:16 It was established back in 2021. And when it first happened, it was like right around when like G-League Ignite was becoming a thing. And it was kind of like, oh, is this going to be like, it was never going to be, but there were like people, getting a little too crazy with him, be like, this is going to be the end of college basketball. And it never was going to be that. But it certainly was something that was like, okay, is this going to be a hindrance to college basketball?

Starting point is 00:01:37 Well, I think we found the answer that was also going to be no. But for KU with the addition of Bardwell, it now gives them six commits who at some point in their prep career played or have played for overtime elite since just the class of 24. And it's interesting because this league has basically turned from being, yeah, okay, maybe was going to be competition for players going to college to once NIL got passed, whereas like that was kind of the big idea here, was that, okay, you go to overtime league, you night, get prepped for an NBA career and get paid, where's the college you

Starting point is 00:02:11 couldn't. Well, since NIL became and now obviously Rebshare as well, adding on to that, you can get paid in college. And because of that overtime elite has kind of shifted into being more of a, I guess, prep style league that you get paid instead of playing high school, you get more prepped for college and pro from then on. And with that happening, it feels like KU has certainly entree. trench themselves. So here's the players. Rakey's pass more, which, by the way, that was

Starting point is 00:02:34 unfortunate news that he tore his Achilles to miss the season for Maryland. But Bryson Tiller, Cole Rosario, Samis Calderon, Talon, Kinney, and now Javan, Bardwell. And it's like, those aren't, it's not like you're just adding like your walk-ons or your roster filler players, like Cole Rosario is competing to be a starter as a freshman at Kansas. Samis Calderon is competing to be in the in the rotation as a freshman. at Kansas. Bryson Tiller was like a five-star recruit. And like, you know, we've heard the Morris twin comparison for Bryson Tiller,

Starting point is 00:03:07 like very high future potentially for him. Taylin Kinney is supposed to be the star in the early going look of it right now for the next year's team for Kansas. And then Bardwell, who they just added, is also a five-star recruit. So like these are serious halls for KU to bring in these players from overtime elite. And that, like for that reason, it's a like, It's one thing. If you're like, oh, we have a pipeline in Wyoming and it's like, okay, so you're going to get like one three star recruit every now and then is like, no, overtime lead is a great spot to have a pipeline because this is basically a amalgamation, an all-star cast of players from all across the country coming in. And so you're already filtering down to be a lot of the best recruits in the game, not every good, not every one of the best recruits, but it is filtering down if you're just recruiting here.

Starting point is 00:03:56 like if you go and watch a couple league games let's say you have a weekend if you're built self and you're going and you're visiting a couple league games in the chicago area you're probably going to see a couple three star recruits you might see a four maybe you'll even see a five star but if you go for a weekend to overtime elite you're going to see multiple five stars you're going to see multiple four stars right it's it's just already filtering down so to have a pipeline here is really good in general and like they've already produced a bunch of future NBA players or current guys in college rob dillingham Alex sar the thompson twins, Tyler Smith of guys who were in the NBA, Carter Knox, Canon Catchings, Ian Jackson for guys who were in college basketball as former highly recruited players. And those lists are only going to grow even stronger in 2025, 2025, 26, 2027, and beyond with guys like Kenny and Bardwell, for instance. But from, it's just a good thing to have these relationships for Bill Self in Kansas to be able to go here and land these. And obviously Tony Bland plays a part in it with Jvonne Bardwell, for instance. But it, it's a good thing. But it's, It just seems to be coming together in a real way.

Starting point is 00:04:58 And I've mentioned this before. I can't help but think the money situation isn't better by doing it this way, by having a, here's what I mean by this. I'm not saying it's cheaper. Like, for all I know, it's more expensive. I have no idea because these players, in theory, playing for OTE, if you're already getting paid, do you have a higher, you know, expectation of what you get? I have no idea.

Starting point is 00:05:20 I have no idea if you're getting more or less or if it doesn't matter completely. Like, it's just about where you're ranked and your star ranked. and yada yada yada the the reason that i think it's helpful for a money perspective isn't about how much you're spending on the player it's the clarity of spending on a player you know we hear about this a good amount that like agents okay so it's not the NBA where okay the a this player got a 40 or 40 million dollar contract that's not public and now we can make a player comp to say hey based on his stats based on his performance this is who we think he's like and that's how how much he should be making. You get agents fake bidding to coaches and GMs being like,

Starting point is 00:06:01 hey, this school offered us this. And there's not really the way of like checking about it. And so it does become a lot more bidding in the darkness and can become more difficult in figuring that out. Now, if you have a bunch of recruits that you're continually getting from the same place, it's probably a lot easier to negotiate because you can sit there going, hey, we just brought this player who is a little bit better than this other player we're trying to get and he got this much. So we want to give him a little less. Or, you know, this player we think is even better than that other player we got. So we'll give an extra 500,000. We'll give an extra million dollars on the offer. Whatever it is. I made the comparison earlier that it's like it's

Starting point is 00:06:39 it's like going to one grocery store. It's like going to Costco for all your shopping where you get an idea of what the costs are for each and everything as opposed to going to one place for your meat, going to another place for your, uh, your produce going to another place for, I don't know, like, for getting toothpaste or whatever, like, it just creates more headaches. And so going back to the same, well, I wonder if that just makes things at least easier for KU to, to not get in like super lengthy bidding wars. And that's why you end up with earlier commits from some of these players. But regardless of what's going on into this, if Kansas winds up having a ton of success here in the next few seasons this year, next year, the year after, you're going to be able to circle back to

Starting point is 00:07:17 overtime elite as a reason why from once the near death of college basketball to now the life of KU basketball to say the least. All right, while that's all good news, I don't know that I'd say the same about this latest news about Tyrant Stokes. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda. We'll be zipping to that Tyrant Stokes news here in just a second with Mazda. You can move through life or you can find the things that move you. It's your choice. You can choose to get out there, choose your people. You can choose to go for it, like, really, go for it. Just choose to do something that moves you. Mazda crafts cars for those who choose to do more than simply move. Mazda, move and be moved. So what is this ominous

Starting point is 00:08:06 Tyrant Stokes news as this is locked on Jayhawks? Thanks for making it your first list every day. And don't forget to check out our bonus episode on Jvon Bardwell committing to KU. We've had other commitment episodes this week. We had KUUCF preview talk to get ready for that one as well here. So Tyrant Stokes signed a multi-year deal with Nike. And here's what he said in the release. He said, partnering with Nike means I'm joining a family or joining a team, a family, and a legacy. I'm going to be surrounded by high level talented people who will keep me working hard to be at the top of my game. I also want to work with Nike to connect with young athletes and give feedback on our footwear and apparel, not just from me, but from

Starting point is 00:08:45 my community um there's certainly examples of players who i don't know maybe sign with like puma or under armor and then they go to a school that's not under armor but that's a little different there's there's a very limited amount of schools that are like under armor i don't think any of them are puma at this point in time so it's like you have to kind of be able to cross um over if that is the case i would be curious to know and i i don't have the full list of the players that have done this in front of me, how many players sign a deal with a shoe brand and then end up not going to a school that is associated with that. Now, Darren Peterson signed the deal with Adidas. And if he did not pick Kansas, the, I don't know, maybe the most rumored other school at the time was at Ohio State

Starting point is 00:09:31 because that was like the hometown school for him. And they're Nike. So maybe that would have bucked the trend. But he did end up going to Kansas and they have the Adidas on there. And so like, I can't think of off the top of my head, a guy who has signed a shoe deal with either Nike or Adidas and ended up going to the other. I could be wrong. And please, if there is an example, because it's just, this is just ignorance on my part, at D. Johnson Radio, hit me up on Twitter and let me know if that is the case. Make me feel better about this situation. But certainly the comment, too, of like, I'm joining a team, a family, a legacy surrounded by high level talented people. Like, those comments make it feel like it's not just signing the deal with Nike. It's you're going to be around

Starting point is 00:10:10 to Nike. And if you are Nike, are you signing him to as big of a deal if he ends up going to an Adidas school? I don't know. I guess anything is possible in recruiting because it is the Wild West in a lot of ways. But like to me, because it's funny, a lot of the recent scuttlebutt seemed to be that Kansas was trending in a good spot with Tyron Stokes. And looking back at this being signed with some of that coming out, does that, was that just a ploy by his camp by his party to let leak that stuff out there so that Nike would come in with a bigger offer, right? Is that entirely possible to try to close the deal there? Or was it true? Like, was Kansas trending in the right direction? And Nike said, you know what? Enough of this.

Starting point is 00:10:53 We're sending in the Godfather offer. We're going to squash this right now. We're getting this done. And they were like enough of where we're close to losing him to Kansas. We have to come in over the top. Maybe one of those two situations happened. I don't know. But I guess I'm viewing it this way because even though it seemed like some of that stuff was happening i think the other two schools that are trending the i mean louisville was up there that's a hometown school but they're also adidas so you look at kentucky and oregon those are two of the schools that are up there seemingly with kansas and louisville those are both nike schools so just based on this information that's how i'm reading it i'm reading it that he's going to go to one of those two kentucky or organ if i'm wrong

Starting point is 00:11:27 i'll gladly take aig on my face and be happy to watch in the number one recruit in a kansas uniform. But that's kind of the vibe and the way that I feel like this is kind of trending right now, unfortunately, for Kansas. All right. So if they don't get Tyrant Stokes, where does the recruiting class go from here? How do they pivot if you're Bill Self and staff? Today's episode of Lockdown Jayhawks bonus show is brought to you by DoorDash. It is the weekend. Time to look back and crown this week's MVP from last weekend on Who Delivered. Powered by DoorDash, just like you can win every Saturday with DoorDash streaks, saving more. Every day. time you order these players and coaches delivers when it matters most let's break it down for

Starting point is 00:12:06 kansas we're going to actually shift to basketball and we're going to go with bill self you know what we're going to go tony blant you don't hear his his name as much tony bland delivered in a big way this week because tony bland has a great relationship with uh jvonne barwell and um when you look at you know that addition there with bardwell a five-star recruit tony bland being a big part of it you hired him to help with recruiting certainly and it seems like he certainly has and it's out a very positive impact for you. And so that is literally for Kansas delivering a player to the program. And just like Tony Bland is delivered for Kansas, DoorDash delivers your Saturdays with DoorDash Streaks. You save every Saturday you order. Stack it up all season and you can save up to $250,

Starting point is 00:12:47 including $100 in DoorDash credits. Order this Saturday, keep the streak alive, fuel your game day only with DoorDash. Terms apply promo period through November 18th. Today's episode is also brought to you by Peloton. Peloton's shaping the future of fitness. with the brand new Peloton cross-training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. It's their most advanced equipment yet designed to give you real-time guidance and endless ways to move, whether you're running, lifting, or cross-training with your favorite instructors. This is training reimagined.

Starting point is 00:13:16 Peloton is built for breakthroughs with tools that help you plan, stay motivated, and reach peak performance. The personalized class recommendations, keep you engaged. You get workouts tailored to your vibe and energy level each week. And if you want to do something that, you know, is a little more off the beaten path, you can check out one of the distance run or bike rides where you can pick like five kilometers, 10 kilometers, go as much as you want. You can view a scenic one.

Starting point is 00:13:38 You can just ride if you want to. And you can even pull up like Netflix or YouTube TV on there and watch some stuff. So you're kind of focused and that while you're getting yourself in shape. So let yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton cross training and Trud Plus today at one peloton.com. Thanks for joining us on this bonus episode of the show. Again, check out our bonus episode, Jvonne Bardwell, committing to KU, also had previous episodes of KU's other two coming.

Starting point is 00:14:08 They're just landing commits left and right. We've also had some preview stuff for KUUCF. So check that out on the channel here. Make sure you like and subscribe on YouTube with Locked on Jayhawks. All right, so where does KU pivot if they can't and don't land Tyron Stokes? I think the big question you have to ask here to start this is like what are we talking about here are we talking about by not if you don't land tyrant stokes is it a position thing like you want to bring in another player who's more of a wing four man

Starting point is 00:14:38 or are we talking a money thing where it's like hey you have enough to land one more prized recruit so you'll if you don't rent stokes you'll only be able to land one more are we because like if we want to play like monopoly here that's probably the wrong game but like if We want to play just like, it ain't my money. Let's make it happen. Bring in all of them. Bring in all the uncommitted top 20 recruits. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:15:04 But like that's probably not realistic from both a playing time perspective from a what you can offer the players in terms of monetarily and yada, yada. So there's two players that certainly come to mind for me, Caleb Holt and Christian Collins. To me, I think Christian Collins is the one who is the easy answer for the pivot for Bill self in Kansas. Because when you look at Caleb Holt, he's a shooter. shooting guard. When you look at Christian Collins, he's more of a foreman. In fact, when you look at power forwards, the number one ranked power forward on 24-7 sports is Stokes.

Starting point is 00:15:33 The number two is Christian Collins. So like it just is a parallel. It lines up in a lot of ways there. Whereas there's no problem with bringing on another shooting guard. But if you're looking to next year's roster, where are you going to have more playing time to offer? Are you going have more playing time at the guard position? And I guess that's a silly way of doing this. Because if they're a top five, top 10 prospect in the country, you make it work for them. So, like, I don't want to, I guess they got, give that crossed up. But does the player view it that way? Does the player go, you already have, have Talon Kenny, you already have Marco Jackson

Starting point is 00:16:04 could be back, like what happens with Cole Rosario? There could be some dudes on the outside, whereas it's like, okay, the only real wing foreman KU has on the roster right now is Trey White. He's graduating at the end of the year. Sure, they could play too big basketball next year with like Bryson Tiller. But there'd be a lot of minutes available for Collins, certainly. now with Collins beyond the fact that same position there he's a number eight player Caleb Hold is number five by the way on 24-7 sports but Tony Bland has serious ties with Christian

Starting point is 00:16:33 Colin I believe he coached him at the prep level at one point so you would think that is the automatic one not automatic that they get them but the automatic top target becomes Christian Collins if you don't land Tyron Sokes and then maybe Caleb Holt is the other one that he kind of look to there. And then outside of that, if you don't land either one, you just go a little bit more and say, okay, Alex Costanza and Maxmo Adams. They're both top 25 recruits. You know, we're interested in both. We had both visit, but right now they're kind of on the back burner because we want to see what happens with these people. And if these guys end up going somewhere else or don't want to come here, then we can up our offer maybe a little bit to one of those guys to where, yeah, we didn't

Starting point is 00:17:11 get that top 10 other recruit, but we got in another really good player to kind of join them. And then the other piece of this is just, okay, if you're unable to land that final, like, big recruit, it already is a good recruiting class for 2026, but then at that point, do you just say, okay, now we're going to have Devon Bardwell, the five star in the class of 2027. We'll just have him reclassify into 2026, and he'll become that other big piece as part of the class. I think all those would be kind of on the table for KU. All right, that'll know for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:17:40 You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time with L.O.J. Thank you.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PIPELINE: Jayhawks DOMINATE Overtime Elite Recruiting | Why it's GREAT for Bill Self and Kansas

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.