Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REBOUND REVOLUTION: Kansas Jayhawks UPGRADE with Offseason Moves of Tyran Stokes, Keanu Dawes & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 I think it's been intentional. KU basketball is going to be a much better rebounding team next season. Also a new addition to the team, Grant Mordini. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Derek Johnson here, and today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. head to fandwell.com to get started today.

Starting point is 00:00:36 We're going to be breaking down some of the latest news. A lot going on recently in the transfer portal pertaining to KU, some KU football action as well, KU baseball, KU softball. We get to Grant Mordini committing to KU basketball, so they'll have a new player on the team, another incoming freshman. And we'll start right here with how I think KU basketball has gotten a lot better rebounding the basketball so far this off season

Starting point is 00:00:59 and why that could potentially be a path to being a better team. this upcoming year. So we look this past season and despite having Flory Budunga, Mr. you know, five million dollar man or whatever it is with Louisville, can't and you know, Bryson Tiller who that's a pretty penny too with whatever he got. But Kansas finished just 227th in the country in offensive rebound rate. That's obviously not good. Kansas finished 152nd in defensive rebound right. Now interestingly enough, the defensive rebound rate last year was better than the national championship Kansas team from four years ago. That team finished like in the 190 range, but they were actually really good at offensive rebounding was that team.

Starting point is 00:01:41 But either way, like, you know, when you're bad on both ends of the floor rebounding, it becomes a real problem, right? And it's clearly an area that they can get better. And I think they've gone out and intentionally tried to address some of those things with their offseason additions. And the hope for me would that be that they are going to be better at this, right? Now, the offensive rebounding one, I think, becomes super important for Bill Self teams, specifically for to look at the importance of these. All four of Bill Self's final four teams finished top 150 in offensive rebound rate, which isn't like that low of a bar to clear, but it's certainly a big chunk better than they were a season ago. But the 2018 team wasn't built, you know, as an offensive rebound team that was built in a much different way than his other teams. His other three final four teams, 2008, 2012, 2022, all were top 80 nationally in offensive rebound rate.

Starting point is 00:02:35 And you look a lot of the times that he has top 50, top 60 offense rebound rates. That's when his offenses have been some of the best that they've been nationally or in Bill Self's time. So it becomes very important there because it helps buoy his offense. On the defensive side, the importance is this. I think the defense is the defensive rebounding is about raising your floor, you know, know, like, think about this. Kansas this past season, I guess this is kind of opposite, but like Kansas this past season finished ninth on adjusted defensive efficiency on Kenbaum, right? So they were still top 10 defense in the country, even though their defensive rebound

Starting point is 00:03:11 rate wasn't in the top 150 nationally. Kansas had the number two effective field goal percentage defense in the country. If they would have limited opposing possessions more often, and part of that too, they weren't getting steals. So you're not getting steals, you're not getting enough defensive rebounds. The other team, even though you're doing a great job on preventing the shots from going in, they're getting a bunch of attempts to be able to do so. And that's why Kansas finished at the number nine defense this past season, as opposed to finishing as a top five defense, right? And I look at it this way when I talk about defensive rebounding raises your floor. If you were an elite defensive rebounding team and you're just an average overall first shot defense, like you're still

Starting point is 00:03:53 going to have a good defensive ranking because at the end of the day, you can't actually get a stop until you grab the defensive rebound unless you're forcing a turnover, right? And this is a perfect example. In the 2023 to 2024 season, Kansas finished 61st in the country in effective field goal percentage defense, right? They were outside the top 200 in three point defense. It didn't feel like a great defense for KU, and it wasn't a great one. Kansas still finished 20th in that 2023 to 2024 season on defensive efficiency on Ken Palm. And the reason why is they were the number one team in big 12 games in defensive rebound rate. So I say this because the idea to me is KU's brought on like some offensive talent in the transfer portal. You look at,

Starting point is 00:04:40 Kenny wasn't a transfer portal edition, but a offensive minded, you know, freshman coming in. Leroy Blighton, like I have more questions on the defensive end than the offensive end. Again, like, I think Dawes is a better offensive player. than defensive player. So like you go down the list and you're sitting there going, you know, Bill Self usually can coach up a good defense. If you can have a good defensive rebound rate with what Bill Self can provide, that should at least give your floor high enough to be a top 25, top 30, top 35 defense in the country, which should be enough if you can be a top 20, top 15 offense in the country. And so that's where this all kind of comes together. And I think

Starting point is 00:05:22 the additions have been made to try to improve the offense. So here's why I do think it's improved. That was the importance. Here's why I think it's improved. Christian Reeves graded out really well rebounding the basketball. Even if you just want to look at his Clemson numbers, which is limited playing time, but his offensive and defensive rebound rates, even at Clemson, were better than Flores were this past season. And it's actually a pretty big jump to the defensive rebounding. And if you want to look at his Charleston numbers, they're even better, which could be competition-based, could be he got a little better, could be a little bit of both. But like defensive rebounding specifically,

Starting point is 00:05:56 Flory had an 18% defensive rebound rate this year. Christian Reeves had a 24 and a half percent defensive rebound rate. Even the year at Clemson, it was 23%. So basically I would view Reeves as being a slight upgrade over Florey in terms of rebounding in general, but an even bigger jump on the defensive glass. So that would be a checkmark to, I think, this year's team, right? Then at the four, you go from Bryson, Tiller, who was not a great rebounder.

Starting point is 00:06:22 He had a 7% offensive rebound rate and a 17% defensive rebound rate. And you compare that to Keanu Dawes, who was 7.5% offensive rebound rate. So, you know, it's about the same offensively, but slightly better. But this is where the big advantage comes. Kianu Dawes had a screeching 25.8% defensive rebound rate. Again, Tiller was at 17%. So, like, you're talking like 150% of what he put together, right? So again, paper thin improvement in offensive rebound rate, insane improvement defensive rebound rate.

Starting point is 00:06:55 And like, think about this, Hunter Dickinson to show you how impressive Daw's almost 26% defensive rebound rate was, Hunter Dickinson was like a 25% defensive rebound rate guy. And he was one of the best defensive rebounders in the country. And now Kansas is getting that from their four man, not even their five man, right? And then like, I think as good of a rebounder as Trey White was and had some really good rebounding games, I do think there was a little bit of inconsistency there. even then I still view Tyron Stokes as being a better rebounder than Trey White, right? Like, I mean, Tyron Stokes led one of the, I forget if it's the Nike EYBL or the Peach Jam or whatever,

Starting point is 00:07:29 one of the big like grassroots circuits event events last off season. He led all players in rebounds, centers, powerful, everybody. He led everybody in rebound. So, you know, even though Trey White gave you something on the glass, I think you're getting an even better rebounder from the wing position with Tyron Stokes. Now, I think you would say that this past year's team probably gave you a little bit, more rebounding from the guard positions. Like Peterson and counsel were giving you over nine rebounds per game, which is pretty darn good.

Starting point is 00:07:55 But I will say, I don't think it's as big of an advantage as you might think because Blyden grabbed four a game. It's not like he wasn't doing it at all. Now, that was at a lower level. So maybe it ends up being three a game at Kansas, but it's not one of those guys who's getting you one and a half two rebounds per game. I think he'll get you three, three and a half a game. And Taylin Kinney was actually getting four point eight rebounds per game in the OTE this season.

Starting point is 00:08:16 So again, even if that goes down to three and a half or four, yes, I think this past year's team will be better guard rebounding, but like, that's not as important as KU being better rebounding three through five. And then there's also this part of it. The bench for KU this year, what we're going into, the bench isn't complete yet. But I think on paper, this upcoming season's bench should be so much better rebounding the basketball than this past year's team. Like Jamari McDowell didn't give you anything on the glass. So Marco Jackson wasn't obviously a great rebound or anything like that. Well, Paul Mbia is going to be a really good rebounder off the bench as a center.

Starting point is 00:08:52 And like, keep this in mind. When KU was taking Flory off the court, Bryson Tiller was moving to the five. And Tiller was not a great rebounder. Well, now instead of your backup center being Tiller who wasn't a great rebounder, your backup center becomes Mbia, who's a better rebounder than Tiller on both ends of the floor, right? Then you look at this. Col Rosario is an incredible offensive rebounding guard. The fact that I expect him to be in the rotation and compete for a starting spot means that that's another good offensive rebounder that you're adding to the fold versus if you're comparing Rosario to McDowell or El Marco, you're getting more rebounding with Rosario than those guys.

Starting point is 00:09:29 So I think overall, like this is going to be a team that's a little bit better on the offensive glass than last year's team, but a lot better on the defensive glass than the year before's team. And so again, if you can just get the offense to be top 15, top 20 with the right personnel, and Bill Self just figures out the defense enough, the combination of having Bill Self and a good defensive rebounding team means, you know, maybe you don't have the highest ceiling in the world on the defensive end without Flory anymore, but the floor should still be pretty high on that end of the court for KU. All right, Grant Mordini is the newest Jayhawk. What does he bring to the table? We'll get to that next.

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Starting point is 00:10:58 We'll get to some of the latest news, including some portal announcements, KU Football Recruiting News and some other sports. KU has a new player, though. And that would be one, Grant Mordini. He is a 6'10 forward slash center. I'd call him a 4 slash 5. Originally played high school in Illinois, just completed a prep year at Avon Farms High School in Connecticut. So I would imagine that'll mean he'll be a 19 year old freshman.

Starting point is 00:11:25 No available stats on anything I could find from his high school days or his prep year days. That makes this a little bit more difficult to talk about. He's also unranked by the recruiting services. So again, a little more difficult to talk about. He did have an offer to UMKC. I wish I could provide you more there. I will say this, like I did go watch the highlights and the video and stuff on him. runs the court really well for a big man.

Starting point is 00:11:46 I mean, he's like 610, 210. So, you know, he's going to look to probably add some weight to himself, but he runs the court well for a big man. And it's not just he runs the court well in terms of he's fluid. It's that he runs the court well and seems to have a really good understanding of filling his lane and where to be not to clog it up, but to get the open pass. And I think that's a nice kind of skill to have. It can get up for some nice dunks, does have a good amount of athleticism.

Starting point is 00:12:09 I think solid jump shot, like they seem to have, I mean, He clearly had range to the three point line. It seemed like there wasn't something weird about the jump shot. It seemed like he was able to kind of do some of those things. Now, he is also a little bit on the thinner side, as I mentioned, 210 pounds. And as you imagine him, you know, going up against Reeves, who's a huge dude. And in BN practice, he's going to have to get some weight on him a little bit. But also was, you know, you watch a lot of the highlights and there are some fun ones in there.

Starting point is 00:12:37 But there's some where he's just like ripping away an offensive rebound against a dude who's probably like 6-3 that's guarding him. and he throws down a dunk. So I don't know how much we learned from some of those specific highlights against who they were playing. But the point is, is this. Like, I mean, if we want to talk like, oh, he, you know, tall center that's mobile, like, could he develop into something? Could he develop into a rotation player by year three or year four?

Starting point is 00:13:01 Especially now that you, you potentially have the five and five where he can stay even longer and develop even longer. And I mean, sure, if you want to get your hopes up, like that would be a fun thing to have happen. And we've seen it before. It's been a while since we've seen it before. since we've seen kind of the walk-on or walk-on adjacent player eventually turn into a rotation player a la Christian Moody or I don't know, like Conor Teehan or something like that. But, you know, if you want to get your hopes up for that, you can.

Starting point is 00:13:28 I just would view it more of this, right? If that happens, great. If by the time he's a fourth-year player, he's your eighth man and you developed into that awesome, right? That's found money. But this is a practice squad ad that is basically a walk-on. There's no more walk-ons anymore. Well, the walk-ons got grandfathered in, but there's no more, you know, future walk-ons. You have 15 scholarship spots and you're not going to pay, like, I don't know, maybe you give

Starting point is 00:13:53 him a $10,000 NIL deal just to be like everybody's getting money or something. I have no idea. But more than likely, I'd imagine it's just a, you're on scholarship and that is your payment. And I don't know where the line is. Like, okay, you always fill out a roster with 15 guys. Well, they only go to 13 or 14. and maybe the last one or two or three are essentially not walk-ons, but they're scholarship players that aren't getting NIL money

Starting point is 00:14:17 to where you're saving more money to focus on the top, you know, nine or 10 in the rotation or whatever it is. That's kind of what you're looking at here. And somebody who can come in and give you a little something on the practice side, and I think you can do that. I think it's smart, too, to bring in a player like this who can play the four or the five. So you're running scout team drills,

Starting point is 00:14:36 and you're playing a team that week who, has a stretch five, he can, he can play that role on the scout team versus if you're playing a team with two bigs, he can play the four in the two big lineup on the scout team as well. And like I said, if he develops in anything like right there, or if he, you know, does a Corbin Allen and he's there as a practice player for one year and then he leaves after the year, it's like, okay, well, good for you and wish you well at your next stop, right? So where this puts KU now in terms of their updated roster and scholarship situation is they're 11 scholarship players right now, which means you could potentially have four more scholarships

Starting point is 00:15:11 if you want. Like I said, I don't know that KU will actually fill all 15. I mean, maybe if you're getting more Grant Mordini's, you could do that with one or two more players. But I could see them rolling in with 13 or 14 players. I think realistically, they still need one more player to be a part of the rotation to come off the bench. And I think it needs to be somebody who can score for them, whether that's a three point shooter or a guard, something like that. I mean, ideally, I'd like to see one of those. And I'd like to see them, you know, take a swing on a, a solid upside European player. I don't know how possible that is unless more funds kind of come in.

Starting point is 00:15:43 And then maybe it's another either developmental player or a lower cost player to kind of fill out the lineup from there. That's kind of how I'm looking at this at this point in time. As far as your big man situation, it gives you plenty of depth at kind of the center spot. I would say, I know Mordini kind of a four, five. Adkins is probably a four or five as well. But theoretically now, I mean, you've got Reeves. Daws, Adkins, and Morgini, who could all give you minutes at the five, not that that would be expectation for all of them to get minutes,

Starting point is 00:16:16 or at least can be in practice at the five for you, that you are much deeper at the very least with bodies at that position than you were this past season. So, yeah, that gives, you know, KU a couple more spots to work with, but yeah, definitely the off-season one you need out a little bit here. All right, let's finish up with some of the latest transfer portal news, including a player that KU just zoomed with. some news on him, a player that I would have liked to see KU go after, picked another school.

Starting point is 00:16:42 We got some KU football recruiting news and plenty more to get to. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget you and join the Everydayer Club where you can get the ad-free version of the show. It is locked on jhawks.com. That is locked on jahawks. That's supercast.com. You can give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Jayhawks or at D. Johnson Radio as well. Some of the latest news.

Starting point is 00:17:05 We'll start with KU basketball, Obdi Bashir, who we just did a deep dive on. and thank you to the everydayers who already caught that one. Bashir, really good three-point shooter questions on the defensive end. So he's zoomed with Kansas on, what was that, Wednesday, and there was news that came out that he was zooming with NC State on Thursday afternoon. Now, he previously had an on-campus visit to St. John's that didn't seem to go anywhere there. This one becomes interesting because Kansas is probably offering more of an off-the-bench sniper role. NC State probably offering more of a potential starting role, right? And so this is where the,

Starting point is 00:17:45 what is he want comes into play. And this is also where what type of money does get? Like, is this a situation where KU can offer him more money to come off the bench than NC State would offer him money to start? You know what I mean? Like, like theoretically, could you offer him a million to come off the bench of Kansas versus he'd be getting 750K from NC State? I don't know. Those numbers might be low. Who knows? But you think, like, could you make that move? Do you have enough money to make a move like that at this point in time? You might not after the additions that you've already made at this point.

Starting point is 00:18:15 And maybe, you know, if it does end up being a all money is equal, then it just comes down to Bashir, do I want to start or do I want to come off the bench for a team that is probably going to be better? You know, that's a situation he has to get to. He is from Omaha originally. So it would be more in his area to come to Kansas. So we'll wait and see what kind of happens with that one. I do find it interesting too because obviously a lot of debate with Bashir and victorious Miller.

Starting point is 00:18:42 It doesn't seem like there's been a lot going on with Miller. Like it doesn't seem like I'm seeing him like I was zooming or visiting these other schools. Is he slow playing this because he's sitting there going, I want to start at a power five. But if that's not there, then I'll sit back and take the KU offer to be their sixth man or whatever. And maybe that offer just isn't going to come at this point. And he has no other option. But I don't know. That'll be kind of interesting.

Starting point is 00:19:06 Now, one guy that I did a deep dive on a couple days ago and really like his game, Dwayne Aristote, he is heading to Oregon, picked another school. I don't know, especially with KU getting Stokes, like it would have been a tough fit in terms of if you're bringing on Aristode, because he's going to be a starter for Oregon, I would imagine. Like, sure, if you could have convinced him to be your six man, that would have been great. I think realistically, if you're bringing on Aristote, the idea would have been for him to start, and then you're having to start a small ball lineup, which might be fine. I think Aristote at the three, Stokes at the four and Dawes at five would have been, you know, fun and would have worked just fine.

Starting point is 00:19:41 But I also don't know if, you know, probably pretty expensive addition. So just one more kind of off the board there. Now, little KU football recruiting news hasn't been a ton so far of movement in this upcoming class for the KU football team. Well, Trace Stewart is a running back in the class. And he's a kind of mid-tier three-star recruit. He's going to be announcing on Sunday at 2.30 picking between Kansas and Arkansas, the two nemesis that usually is not gone well for Kansas recently. Go at it once again. So we'll see if KU can get one up on Arkansas in this one.

Starting point is 00:20:19 So keep an eye out for that one on Sunday. And then we got the weekends ahead for KU baseball and KU softball. I think I saw KU baseball already sold out for Friday night. They're starting a three game set against Arizona. Friday is at six. Saturday is at 2 p.m. And then Sunday will be a noon game against Arizona. For KU softball, it is their regular season finale.

Starting point is 00:20:41 They are going to be in a three game set on the road against 13th ranked Oklahoma State. So if you can even win one game there, you're feeling okay. If you can steal a series there, you're going to be feeling great going into the big 12th tournament after that. Also some news here, KU Women's Golf got a seven seed in the Ann Arbor Regional. So heading into tournament play here. I did want to mention, I mentioned on a recent episode how Travis Goff has made a lot of great hires so far for Kansas and Dan Fitzgerald might be the very best. I think honestly, like if I were doing power rankings, I don't know. I'd have to feel like it's really hard.

Starting point is 00:21:16 Like Nate Lee's done a great, like everybody he's hired has done great. You know, I know it hasn't gone well in the last two years for KU football, but from where it was where it is now, like it is still a good hire with what they did with Lance Leipold. But point being, Lindsay Cool would also be in the conversation for the best hire by Travis Gough so far. Because it is the fourth consecutive NCAA tournament selection for KU Women's Golf. Prior to making these four straight NCAA tournaments, KU Women's Golf had one all-time appearance in the NCAA tournament. And now she's made four straight. So she was hired July 21. I think she was actually Travis Goff's first hire as a head coach.

Starting point is 00:22:01 I mean, talk about hitting the ground running with what he brought in with Lindsay Cool. And man, she has been killing it for KU Women's Golf. So definitely some credit both to Cool, to KU Women's Golf, to Travis Golf, all that. Last bit of news comes from college basketball. This was sent out by Matt Norlander earlier today. Duke's multi-year deal with Amazon starting with huge games versus Yukon, Michigan, in Gonzaga will pay the school millions annually. Sources told CBS sports,

Starting point is 00:22:30 other organizers had been trying to get Duke, but none could match the prime video payout that awaits. This is going to start to be a thing, isn't it? We're going to see some of these different streaming services trying to get in some college basketball inventory, start to find these blueblots. You know, if you're Kansas, do you? Like, we already know Kansas is part of the players era tournament,

Starting point is 00:22:47 which is on HBO. What if HBO just skirts around it and goes, hey, KU, you want to play some good games against good opponents, and some we'll buy out the right. or, you know, one of these other streaming services, Netflix or something like that. Like, that would be a good way of bringing in some money if you're a program. It's obviously a good way for Duke to bring in a lot of money and they're already, you know, sitting well in terms of the money.

Starting point is 00:23:07 So we'll see if other teams, I mean, I'm sure a lot of other teams would love to follow this path, but not every streaming services, like, you know, no offense to like pick on this school here, but like if Wagner approaches Netflix, like Netflix isn't going to be like, yeah, we'll pay you millions of dollars to come on. But if Kansas does, maybe they would. And I don't know how that works in terms of the like broadcast rights and, you know, working with certain ones and how that all works. But yeah, I wonder if that's something that will be down the road for KU here to get a little extra money into the athletic department as well. All right.

Starting point is 00:23:40 That'll do it for this episode of Locked on 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 on LJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REBOUND REVOLUTION: Kansas Jayhawks UPGRADE with Offseason Moves of Tyran Stokes, Keanu Dawes & More

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