Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Riley Kugel Won't Be Transferring to Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + KU Football Adds TE Leyton Cure

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Riley Kugel will not be a Jayhawk, and KU football added a tight end addition in Leighton Kier. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show with Locked On Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:36 And on today's edition of the episode, we're talking Riley Kugel, who officially will not be coming to Kansas after committing to them out of the transfer portal, what it means, impact on the rest of the offseason for KU. We will also be talking about KU football, adding Leighton Cure, who besides being an interesting player in how he could impact the team this year and maybe in the future, he's also the brother of the number one in-state recruit for 2025. So lots to talk about on today's episode.

Starting point is 00:01:02 This is technically our Thursday episode, posting it a little bit early because all the breaking news. And this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That is $150 with any winning $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started today. All right, let's start with the Riley Kugel stuff, and then we'll get into how it impacts the team, bet, visit Fanduel.com slash locked on to get started today.

Starting point is 00:01:29 All right, let's start with the Riley Kugel stuff, and then we'll get into how it impacts the team and then finish up with the Lincoln Cure news. So Riley Kugel not coming to KU. This is according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports earlier today. Riley Kugel won't play at Kansas. And Gary Bedore of the Kansas City Star, he kind of confirmed it with some sources as well. Riley Kugel's dad was kind of confirmed it with some sources as well. Riley Kugel's dad was kind of on Twitter talking about what happened here. This was unfortunately something that doesn't come as a shock after, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:54 they had the commitments from a couple other transfers with Zeke Mayo and A.J. Storr and Riley Kugel at the time, and Storr and Mayo signed on the dotted line. And even though Riley Koole committed before them, there wasn't news that he signed. And so it was kind of a lead up of, okay, what's going on here? Then there was certainly some smoke and word around the block was that, this is kind of what his dad said and everything, that it was a credit transferring issue of him getting into KU and all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:02:23 And obviously there was the podcast with Andy Katz where Bill stuff kind of talked about Riley Google and that in itself should have been assigned because if you talk about a play, like that's technically an NCAA role, what are NCAA rules at this point? But anyway, and also I think this is kind of a stupid one to begin with, but you can't talk about a player who's committed to you. They have to be signed before you can talk about them. So the fact even talked about him and mentioned his name was probably a sign

Starting point is 00:02:47 of what was to come. Now, I do want to say there were some people that have been kind of speculating, oh, is he backing out of the commitment because KU brought in all these players? Like he was the first one to commit out of the portal to KU, and now he's going to have more possible roadblocks for playing time and competition. Is he afraid of the competition? No.

Starting point is 00:03:04 He kept like retweeting those different transfer portal pickups for KU as they almost break a table to the left of me. And he kept, you know, being interested in it. He seemed like somebody who was willing to fight for that competition level. And I don't even know that this is about like grades necessarily. It is about credits transferring to KU. The NCAA has certain rules about players, how many credit hours they have to do like each semester.

Starting point is 00:03:28 I think it's 12. I want to say is the number. I don't know what it is for like graduates. And, you know, there are certain discrepancies here and there, but it's like 12 credit hours a semester, which I believe how that works is then therefore, if you are transferring after your sophomore season, you have to have, you know, X amount of

Starting point is 00:03:45 credit hours that carry over to the next school or something like that to be able to be eligible, right? And so it's not necessarily a great thing. Like, I don't know if you went to KU and I was the same way, you might've had a friend or somebody that you knew who transferred in from like a junior college. Like I certainly had a couple of friends who transferred in from maybe like a Johnson County community college or one of these other community colleges. And they would just complain about, yeah, I got in and I took whatever, 30 credit hours when I was at junior college or 60 credit hours when I was a junior college and only like 20 of them or only 15 of them or 40 of them or whatever, like a bunch of them got axed and didn't make it over to KU.

Starting point is 00:04:20 So this isn't necessarily, it's just something unfortunate that it didn't kind of transfer over. And even if you would have, you know, maybe taken summer classes to try to catch up on those credit hours, then it's like, how many do you need? Do they offer all the right classes you need in the summer? Bill Self wants them here in the summer to begin with, just because they do all these things in the summer and start practicing and everything in the summer. So from that standpoint, it just didn't work out. It is unfortunate because you have a really high ceiling player in Riley Kugel who has shown really elite flashes. He's one of the better athletes in college basketball, and he grew up at one point rooting for the Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:04:57 It obviously puts one less player in competition on the wing and at the two and three man spots. We'll get to more on that here in a second. But as far as what you're losing with Kugel not enrolling, you're losing a lot of athleticism. You could argue he would have been KU's best athlete this next season. KU's losing real shot creation, especially when he's right. You're losing the high potential that Kugel brings.

Starting point is 00:05:17 I mean, if he were to come in and be a starter and be one of your best players, like it's not unthinkable he could be, you know, top 40 pick in the NBA draft the following season. He's the, you know, it's hard to say exactly because if you get the sophomore version, that is different than what the freshman version was. But if you're getting more of the freshman version, you would be losing a lot of scoring and shooting too by not bringing him on. Now you do gain the ability to replace him with someone else. Maybe someone who does have a higher floor maybe someone

Starting point is 00:05:45 who is more of a true knockdown shooter maybe somebody who is a better defender it's unfortunate honestly that like this happens after a bunch of commitments happened with like Javon Small and Kobe Bray out of some of these other schools because now this might make even more sense but this does kind of stink all the way around clearly Kansas wanted Riley Kugel he was their first commitment from the transfer portal. They brought him on before the NCAA tournament even came to a conclusion. They identified him early in the portal and were like, yes, we are taking you. And from Riley Kugel's perspective, it was the other way around. Clearly he wanted to come to Kansas. He committed to

Starting point is 00:06:17 Kansas that early in the game. And again, he didn't decommit from Kansas because of all the other players they brought on. He wanted to be be at Kansas and this is going to especially stink. If wherever he goes next, he ends up being a stud where you're going to watch and be like, oh man, imagine if he would have been on this Kansas team this year, but you wish him well, clearly this was a bit out of KU's hands.

Starting point is 00:06:36 I would say maybe you could say it was out of his hands. Again, I don't know everything that went in with why the stuff maybe didn't transfer. Like how much of that is on him? How much of that is just on kind of the system stuff maybe didn't transfer, like how much of that is on him, how much of that is just on kind of the system that it didn't work out that way. Whatever.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Tough to say where the blame lies, the credit stuff. But like I said, now KU has to move on. And what does this mean for the roster? What does this mean for the rest of the offseason? Let's discuss that in just a moment on Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by Yahoo Finance. Let's get straight to the point. You want to grow your portfolio to deal with the rising costs of inflation,

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Starting point is 00:08:35 it's official that he stays in the draft. When you're looking at wings that are left on the roster specifically, and with Kugel, there's different types of wings. There's wings who play the three, four. There's wings who can play the two, three, and four, which was kind of like Kevin McCuller. AJ Store is kind of the wing who play the three four there's wings who can play the two three and four which was kind of like kevin mcculler um aj store is kind of the wing who plays the three and four rylan griffin is more of like that wing who plays the two and the three but he can play the four in a pinch uh you have uh i guess i don't know what what do we call kj adams at this point is he a big man is he i guess more of just a traditional forward would probably be the answer there but

Starting point is 00:09:01 you could count him as a wing if you wanted to kugel more of that two three wing uh rickies pass more more of that probably two three wing jamari mcdowell uh more of the two three wing probably even more of a two though than a three um i guess if we're talking about kj adams playing the four to be a quasi wing zach clements in a pinch could play the four i'm not going to be a huge fan of that defensively, but Clements clearly is probably going to be earning more minutes this season. And then you'll see minutes with El Marco Jackson and or Zeke Mayo where they're playing at the two. So if you want to count that, I guess, whatever. But for the most part, if you want to just talk about like true wings,

Starting point is 00:09:40 I would say A.J. Storr, Rylan Griffin, Rakeese Passmore are kind of the true wings. Jamari McDowell, I could be argued into it. I kind of view him more as like a true shooting guard, which might be a wing, whatever you want to call it. But regardless, you still have a bunch of wings on the roster, right? Like that kind of is the case here for KU. And you could obviously add more in the transfer portal. Obviously, if you do think Furphy has a chance of coming back, that would be another possible

Starting point is 00:10:00 wing you could bring back. So it's not like you are devoid of having more at this position, which is the good news. And even if KU did not add another impact player, like I would still feel good about an eight man rotation right now of, let's say this was the eight man rotation, no particular order, but DeJuan Harris, Zeke Mayo, Ryland Griffin, Marco Jackson, AJ Store, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson, and then whoever your backup big man is, that's eight right there, right? Whoever wins that battle between

Starting point is 00:10:29 Flory and Zach Clements. Maybe Ricky's pass more. Can you serve somebody into that eight or maybe he's on the heels of it as being a ninth man? And if self actually did expand the rotation, which is something that always feels like a good off season conversation, then never really ends up happening. Although I will say there are some years, like you go back to like 2010, 2011, there are some years where it's like he did kind of play a nine-man rotation, but those years are fewer and far between, and it takes having a lot of talent buried throughout the bench. And maybe this team will have that.

Starting point is 00:10:57 But even though they do lose some athleticism and lose some shot creation by not bringing on Riley Kugel, the good news is that they still did add both of those with AJ Storr, different type of athlete. I think Kugel, very quick and very bouncy athlete. Storr is more of like a power athlete, but still a good athlete. And AJ Storr obviously is a good shot creator and scorer, so you still have that when you're looking at the boxes you added.

Starting point is 00:11:24 Ryland Griffin brings a bunch of shot making to the table, so you still have that when you're looking at the boxes you added. Rylan Griffin brings a bunch of shot making to the table. So, you know, you still have that. Zeke Mayo brings a ton of, and I think Griffin's a solid athlete too. Zeke Mayo brings a ton of shot creation and shot making. Plus whatever you end up getting from Rakeese Passmore, which I mean with freshmen, it really is the ultimate mystery bag of what you're going to get. But it seems like based on what he did at the prep level and in high school, like Rookies Passmore will be a really good athlete who brings shot creation and shot making. If you haven't improved on Marco Jackson, that should be somebody who brings good athleticism.

Starting point is 00:11:58 And again, where does the improvement come? Does it come from him making more shots and stuff? And then Flory Badunga brings more athleticism. So even though you don't have Riley Kugel who adds those things, you still did add a lot of things that change over those areas that you were looking for even without him, which is the good news. It's just that added a little bit more. So obviously this maybe increases the chances. I would certainly say that they add another player in the transfer portal, but I think it further increases the chances that they add an impact player in the transfer portal, right?

Starting point is 00:12:31 It's one thing if they were to just add another player who was going to be kind of bench fodder, maybe a future player, more of a developmental player. I think by not having Kugel, it increases your chances of adding an impact player, somebody who you feel like should be a rotation player. And I don't know who gets squeezed out of the rotation at that point in time, but point being like Riley Kugel was viewed as being somebody who should be in the rotation. So, and he was their first commit. Like they added AJ Storr. They added Rylan Griffin,

Starting point is 00:13:01 even after they added Zeke Mayo after they had Riley Kugel, which means that they were planning on him being part of the rotation even when they added them, which means you still have one spot that you're kind of looking forward to try to add that guy. So you're sitting on 11 scholarships, as I said, and that's assuming Furphy stays in the draft. I think at this point in time, the way you view it, you had one scholarship player and then you play with 12. And if Furphy does decide to come back and maybe surprise Bill Self and surprise people who think he's going to stay in the NBA draft, then boom, that's fine. You can make it work with 13, and then you'll use your reduced scholarship count the following season for the final one that you have to lose

Starting point is 00:13:38 for the NCAA. But you add your 12th player, Furphy stays in the draft, then you still added that last player. And on top of it, you use up that NCAA sanction that you don't have to worry about it for the following year. And moving forward, we're going to have a Noah Shelby episode at some point here, assuming he hasn't picked another school by then,

Starting point is 00:13:58 but you know, maybe he can get one and be more of that developmental guy, but that might be a walk on too. So not entirely sure. Maybe that's something where you add him and then it's kind of dependent on, can you find another impact player? If not, then we'll just give him a scholarship. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:14:10 We'll see. Jordan Ivey Curry, like a few hours after I released that episode on his deep dive, he nixed KU and released his final three. KU was not in it. So great timing there. That and Javon Small just basically immediately after the deep dive just nope ain't happening uh Jackson Robinson is at the combine along with Johnny Furphy so that'll be one obviously certainly to watch we just did our Wuga Poplar deep dive the other day highly recommend checking that out and thank you to the everydayers tuning into that one you'd

Starting point is 00:14:40 already be ahead of schedule on that because maybe he becomes more wuga popular for ku after this i'm sorry that was horrible after uh uh this move with riley kugel where maybe it makes it more likely there so maybe that's possible haven't heard any connections on these guys like any reported release of ku contacting or this or that but you do wonder if there are some guys that are really talented that are in the transfer portal and in the NBA draft combine, like Cam Christie from Minnesota, Jameer Watkins from Florida State, Jalen Wells from Washington State, JT Toppin from New Mexico, who those are players who are in the portal and testing the NBA draft waters, like any of them could stay in the NBA

Starting point is 00:15:19 draft. But hypothetically, if they do decide to come back and go through with the transfer portal stuff, does this make it possible for Kansas to have extra time to kind of kick the tires on one or two of those guys? Who knows? So maybe this is just an opportunity to replace Riley Kugel with something that maybe you felt like. Maybe you felt like what you've brought in so far in the portal has been sort of the same thing. Shot creation, shot making, offense. Maybe this is an opportunity to get more of a defensive player. Because Kugel wasn't known for being a great defender.

Starting point is 00:15:51 I mean, the synergy numbers had him below 50% both years at Florida. Maybe it's an opportunity to replace it with more of a developmental guy, like I said. Maybe it's an opportunity to place it more of a knockdown shooter. Maybe you go for another shot creation player. Maybe you go for another athlete. Maybe you go for a similar player to what you can get with Riley Cougar. Maybe just go for the best option available. I don't know,

Starting point is 00:16:08 but there are still lots of options available in terms of players out there, even though they are dwindling in a certain way, you're Kansas, you're recruiting at the top. Like there are still options out there and you're going to have your pick of the litter in a certain way. If you want to add that last impact player, which I fully expect them to do.

Starting point is 00:16:25 All right, let's continue on KU football minute. In addition, latent cure, a tight end from Fort Hayes state. We'll discuss that next. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel sports book.

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Starting point is 00:17:22 Locked On Podcast Network. Finishing things up, KU football has a new addition to the roster with a tight end, Leighton Cure, who transfers in from nearby Fort Hayes State. So he is a 6'3", 235-pound tight end, originally from Goodland, Kansas. He went to Goodland High School. In his last two years of high school, he was All-State Honorable Mention. Then he ends up going to Fort Hayes State, which obviously is at the Division II level here in Kansas. Redshirted his first year in 2021. And then as a redshirt freshman in 2022, he played in 11 games, started seven of them, and had 281 receiving yards and was second on the team in receptions. Pretty good work for, you for a redshirt freshman. You're talking about somebody who clearly was developing into probably

Starting point is 00:18:12 a future all-league player at Fort Hayes State. He didn't have any games played in 2023. He missed the season due to injury. I don't know what the injury was. I don't know how that is affecting him getting ready for this next season. In all of that, I'm assuming he can get a medical redshirt for that. That I don't totally know. If he does not get a medical redshirt for that season in 2023, missing it, then that would make him a redshirt junior here in 2024, where he would still have two years left to play. If he can get a medical redshirt, that would make him a fourth-year sophomore here come 2024 with three years left to play. Either way, you're getting multiple years out of this kid who has collegiate production, even if it's not the D1 level.

Starting point is 00:18:51 Like, we've seen guys come up from D2 and have a lot of success. I mean, obviously, Dominic Poonie turned into – and I feel – I almost feel silly even having to bring that up because that is kind of a once-in-a-generation type thing where a guy transfers up from D2, not just becomes a, like it's one thing for a guy to transfer up from D2 and be a solid player. That happens more than you'd think across the country. It doesn't happen very often where the guy from D2 transfers up and then becomes a day two NFL draft pick, right? Like that stuff is a little bit lighter, but point being like, if you can play, you can play.

Starting point is 00:19:24 And apparently Jeff Grimes really liked what he saw in the portal and on film and everything. Grimes, the offensive coordinator and the tight ends coach, he ended up getting offers from Arkansas state old dominion and Texas state. I'm not sure if this for Kansas is a scholarship or a preferred walk-on PWO. I thought Kansas was out of scholarships after they made the additions of Emile Herring and by Job. So just based on that, I'm assuming that it's a preferred walk on, which this is something we've kind of brought up, whether it's been talking basketball or football, like, and there was literally an athletic article talking about this a few weeks ago, how schools like Michigan and Nebraska and some of these other schools are basically using NIL to fund

Starting point is 00:20:09 having more scholarship players, to have 90, 95, 100 scholarship players where you have some extra players past the 85 scholarship limit that they're not on scholarship, but you're paying them NIL that covers their tuition and board and everything to where they basically are on scholarship, right? And it wouldn't shock me at all if that's the case here for Leighton Cure. Maybe, maybe not. I mean, in-state tuition and everything, but for him to, I'd imagine he had a full-ride scholarship as being a really good player at Fort Hayes State to come to Kansas, even with in-state tuition, would not shock me if it's just basically NIL funding to basically buy an extra scholarship. And it's a smart workaround of the rules that a lot of other good schools are doing. So, you know, more power to you if you can afford it with your NIL game.

Starting point is 00:20:53 So I guess more power to the donors in helping provide that if that is indeed the case of what happened here. It helps with KU's tight end room that it you know it thinned out a little bit with the Sean Hanneke injury and I don't expect Cure to come in and be a like for like replacement with the Sean Hanneke like Hanneke was probably going to be the starting tight end for KU this season um we'll see how much Cure gets on the field again I don't know what the injury was like is it going to be something where he has a slow recovery process for a year before he's back to being you know what he's used to being in another year from now I don't know but the way you look at it with the tight end room you got Trevor Cardell and Jared Casey at the top and then there's kind of a wide open competition for the third tight end on the roster

Starting point is 00:21:37 Tevita Noah who's the experienced guy Jaden Hamm who's got a ton of potential but is still young and kind of raw and figuring it out I mean he was at a high school in Eudora who was running like triple options. So you're adjusting to that. You have some preferred walk-ons in Quentin Conley. And then if Leighton Cure's a preferred walk-on or whatever, but you're going to have competition for that tight end three. And that player is going to get on the field.

Starting point is 00:21:58 Kansas runs a lot of two and three tight end sets. And that's before, you know, you hope you don't have any injuries, but if anybody gets banged up along the way, okay, hello, tight end three. Hello, tight end four getting that's before and you know you hope you don't have any injuries but if anybody gets banged up along the way okay hello tight end three hello tight end four getting on the field so I think there's a real chance Leighton Cure does get on the field this year for KU and of course beyond all that what he brings to the table of note beyond this season is for the future his brother Lincoln Cure is the top rated high school player in the state of Kansas for the class of 2025. I mean, it doesn't hurt. It certainly doesn't hurt to have your brother on the roster recruiting you every day, texting you every day. And for Lincoln, maybe he wants

Starting point is 00:22:37 to play with his brother. And maybe that's something you didn't think you'd have an opportunity to do because obviously being the top recruit in the state, he was probably going to end up at like a power five, but now that his brother is at a power five too, maybe that opportunity is there. And that would only make this for a dynamic little Kansas two-step for KU if that does end up happening. But at the very least,

Starting point is 00:22:55 Layton Cure does help the tight end room for KU in 2024 and beyond, because following the season two, you're going to lose Jared Casey and Trevor Cardell, and you're going to need some other players to step up, and maybe that can be late in care. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:23:12 Again, this is our Thursday episode, so barring any breaking news, we'll be back on Friday for a Football Friday episode of the show with L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Riley Kugel Won't Be Transferring to Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + KU Football Adds TE Leyton Cure

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