Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL NEED? Should Kansas Target Newly Eligible Christoph Tilly to Fill Jayhawks Center Spot?

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks eye Christoph Tilly amid transfer rumors—could the 7-foot Ohio State standout be the missing piece at center? Tilly’s proven passing, playmaking, and post-up ability offer a dynamic fit next to Keanu Dawes, sparking excitement about offensive flexibility and lineup options for Bill Self’s squad. The conversation focused on Tilly’s statistical impact, questions around eligibility, and how scholarship availability could affect a potential move to Lawrence. The discussion explored strengths and weaknesses, including Tilly’s shooting range, defense, and rebounding, while weighing the Jayhawks’ need for rim protection. Can Kansas land Tilly and elevate their March Madness ambitions? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. .   The Game Don't miss this chance to celebrate 40 years of The Game with 40% off your entire order. Visit https://TheGameCaps.com and use promo code LOCKEDONat checkout. 5-Hour ENERGY Bring on the sweetness with Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots—available online now at https:/5hourENERGY.com or on Amazon. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMto play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.  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.

Kansas had some interest in Christoph Tilly last off season. Well, you might be getting eligible once again. Does he make sense for Kansas at the center position? 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 up? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to be doing another bonus episode talking a little Christoph Tilly on today's episode of the show.

We'll get to his potential fit with KU scouting report. and more. So Tillie is a 7 foot 240 pound big man who was an unrated recruit coming out of Germany, goes to Santa Clara, and they just continue to be this, you know, player producing factory. And in totality, over three seasons, he averaged 9.2 points, 4.1 rebounds per game. Then he transfers last off season. And there were some links to KU that there was some, you know, maybe mutual interest that it could be a real possibility, which honestly is a little unfortunate because I think Tilly would have been a perfect fit

next to Flory Budunga with his ability to have a little bit more offensive game. And, you know, putting Tilly next to Flory would have allowed Tiller to come off the bench. You would have Tilly and Tiller. That would have been actually like really good for Kansas. So honestly, it's a shame that he ends up going to Ohio State last offseason, but he ends up having a really good year for the Buccas. guys where he helps them go to the NCAA tournament.

And in that tournament game against TCU, and we know they had, you know, some good big men with like David Punch and Xavier Edwards and stuff, he had 10 points, six rebounds, six assists, and three stocks against TCU. For the season, you're talking 32 games played. He averaged 11 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and half a block per game, shooting 48% from the floor, 23% percent. from three on a little less than two threes per game and 73% at the foul line um you know first career over a thousand career points 53 27 73 shooting splits there right metrics are great from

ohio state last year 92nd percentile in r a pm 80th percentile in winchairs per 40 and wins above replacement player 75th percentile in p er and overall the buckeyes were nine point eight points better per 100 possessions when Tilley was on the floor. If you just look at Big 10 only play when some of these things neutralize and you're playing more common opponents and you're guaranteed to be playing a higher floor of opponents, right? Ohio State was up to 13 points better per 100 possessions in Big Ten play when he was on the floor. And all four seasons of college basketball he had is three years at Santa Clara, the one year at Ohio State, he was a positive impact.

in terms of that net on off rating. Now, as far as the eligibility stuff goes, right? Tilly is a benefactor from the Wisney versus NCAA ruling that is allowing this extra year here. So as long as that goes through, he'll have a year. If not, then you're looking at trying to get another route, trying to get, you know, somewhere else to make it kind of a possibility, right? He did enter the transfer portal back in April. So you don't have to worry about this whole ghost transfer thing or

suing to be eligible than avoiding the ghost transfer thing. But again, like I said, he did enter the portal back in April. So good news there. And of course, he could just go back to Ohio State. That's probably the most prominent rumor that if he gets that extra year, that would be the case. But he does have his options open from being in the portal. And so, you know, maybe you have a chance to strike that, right?

I would be all over this, right? It obviously depends on the scholarships being open. What's going to happen with Mahalo Musich. What's going to happen with the internal guys? Trey White and Melvin Council, right? Like, how many scholarships are you going to have? But if you're going to have a scholarship for a big man, Christoph Tilley would be a really good addition for KU,

especially this late in the game. All right, let's get to a scouting report and potential fit with the team next. This is locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by Fandul. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today, Fandul's giving you a free chance to call your shot with daily dingers. It is easy to play. You just make your free pick for who you think is going to hit a home run in their game.

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We'll get to his strengths and weaknesses. Let's start with the strengths. Number one, passing and playmaking from the five spot, right? Like, this is why I think he would have been a really good fit next to Flory as well, is because he can do these things. But it's interesting because you can kind of invert your offense a little bit at times using him as an initiator at the top. Like he was in the 86th percentile in assist rate.

among forwards with an 88th percentile assist turnover ratio. So he does a good job taking care of the basketball. He's a good passer from the big man spot. And what that does is if he's at the top and you're taking the opposing center away from the rim and he can just kind of dice you up, like that's a great thing to have. He was also in the 99th percentile in adjusted efficiency hitting cutters. So again, that shows how valuable his passing was. and it just allows you, like I said,

to kind of run some unique actions offensively. Like think about now Tyron Stokes if the center is pulled away from the rim and using Tyron Stokes as a, you know, the top tier athlete cutter getting a pass from Christoph Tilly and having to just finish over a forward. Like that's a pretty fun action to be able to run.

He's also excellent at getting to the foul line, 94th percentile, in free throw attempts per 40 minutes, and knocks them down. a clip over 70%. So I was able to really take advantage of getting those extra free throws. You can also shoot threes, which is nice from the center spot, right? It's not a not a requirement. And certainly not something that Kansas really has with Mbia and Reeves.

I have it, I think, a little bit with Davy on Adkins if he's in there at five. But what that does is it allows for more gravity. Again, career 27% shooter from three point range. So it's not that he shot them super. well, but he does it at least enough that ideally you have to respect it and it opens up spacing a little bit on the floor, right? And then he has really good postup ability. And that's one thing here where it's like, okay, you don't know the offensive impact that you're going to be getting from the center spot this year at Kansas. That would not be the case with Christoph

Tilly. 89th percentile in adjusted efficiency in posting up after he rated out in the 88th percentile the year prior at Santa Clara. So he's a good post-up big man that you can throw the ball to on the block. Now, some of the weaknesses, like I said, he didn't shoot the three super consistently. He also does struggle at times at the rim, despite being a good post-up player. He was only in the 37th percentile, so below average in terms of field goal percentage at the rim. He was really good in the floater range, right?

So the floater range where you're taking maybe some hook shots if you're a little further away. and that makes sense, but, you know, just kind of being challenged at the rim, sometimes he struggled with that, right? Rebounding, that's not as much as Forte. Part of it is, you know, on the offensive end, if he's going to be further away from the hoop at times, throwing passes and stuff, he's not going to be in position as much to get offensive rebound.

So that makes sense a little bit, 39th percentile on offensive rebound rate. The defensive rebound rate, a little closer to average, 48th percentile, but the way you look at it, he's a below average rebounder. And that would be something that you kind of have to adjust to. And then I would say he's average to below average in getting steals and blocks. Like I think in general, I actually view him as a solid defender. I think the team impact stuff would show that. I think that he does a good job positionally.

I think he does a good job of knowing where to be. It's just that he's not the biggest like vertical athlete. And I think that hurts him as well in the shooting at the rim. And he's not going to be somebody who gets a ton of blocks and steals. it's going to be more so like solid fundamental defense as opposed to getting some big things there, right? And so that is going to limit your ceiling as a defender, but I still think he's fine overall on that end of the floor. So what exactly would be his fit with KU? Let's get to that next.

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Download the GameTime app today. Thanks to joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. All right. So Christoph Tilly, after going over all his scouting board and everything, what would be his fit with Kansas? To me, he would come in and be KU's most proven five man, and I would expect him to start at the five, right? I think his flexibility at the five would fit next to the strength and the power and athleticism of Keanu Dawes. I think that the ability of him to kind of space out and pass would work well with Dawes and Stokes kind of diving to the rim. The fact that he's more of a below average rebounder, the good news is that Dawes is an excellent defensive rebounder.

You would have questions as an offensive rebounding team. The other big question here would be, do you have enough rim protection with Tilly at the five next to Keanu Daws, right? Like, I think overall as a team, because you'd be throwing in Mbia or Reeves for the backup five minutes, because Stokes would be able to get some, I still think you'd be okay from a rim protection standpoint. But when that specific lineup is out there, you know, that's only like a combined like one block per game from your four and five men, right? Is that going to be enough in that situation? I do love in general, too, the flexibility that, you know, because of his versatility a bit, like if you really wanted to steer into playing big, when Keanu Dawes was on the bench,

you could even play a lineup where Tilly's at the four next to him be at the five and kind of play that Twin Towers look, right? So I do like some of that stuff. I do like in general that he would be KU's most proven big man. I mean, I'd be fully in here, right? The question more so becomes the scholarship. to me, like what's going to happen with some of these different scholarships? What's going to happen with like Mahalo Musich, for instance? Can you get out of that to potentially get somebody like this?

Do you even have enough money to get somebody like this, right? That would kind of be a big question as part of this too. So there's a lot of kind of questions that would certainly come of it. But, you know, if you're just talking about the offensive ability of a lineup with Tilly at the five who can post up and pass, with Dawes and Stokes cutting around it and both being able to shoot threes off of it with, you know, Leroyd-Blyden and Taylin Kinney or whatever. And, you know, who knows if you can add somebody else.

But that's a really exciting offensive lineup. It really is, right? So, yeah, I'd be all in on getting Christoph Tilley if you could. But there are some hurdles that you kind of have to go through to get to that point. All right, let it over 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 to the show. More deep dives to come.

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