Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ROSTER IMPACT: How Leroy Blyden’s Commitment PROPELS Kansas Jayhawks Forward in the Offseason

Starting point is 00:00:00 KU got a huge commitment with Leroy Blyde, and how does it affect the rest of the offseason roster build for Bill Self and KU? Plus, Tyron Stokes, you're getting closer to committing, question mark. 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 on another episode of Lockdown Jhawks. And on today's episode, we're going to break down some of the latest in the portal, recent visits for KU.

Starting point is 00:00:35 You'll get to the latest on Tyrant Stokes, who certainly has people in a tizzy just from posting a graphic on social media, and that is the power that a 17, 18-year-old has all of us in his palms with. But we'll start right here with Leroyd-Blyden, the newest commit for KU. Thank you if you already checked out our Deep Drive episode and our episode about him committing. But now how does this impact the KU roster? How does this affect KU moving forward the rest of the off-season? To begin with, it was clear KU needed another guard. needed somebody who could come in and be a big time three point shooter and be a big time

Starting point is 00:01:09 score for KU. And Blyden checks those things off the list. He's somebody you can pair with Talen Kinney and both Kinney and Blyden can play on the ball or off the ball. And so that is the beauty of having kind of both of those guys. So it's a nice addition to begin with, but it doesn't finish KU's rotation at the guard position, right? Because you look at it and KU needs somebody else who could potentially handle the basketball, in my opinion, to be able to potentially come off the bench. Like, to me, I view Kinney and Blighton as your two starters, but you want another guard coming off the bench for you, right? And even if you said, hey, we're going to play 20 minutes of Blighton at the one, 20 minutes of Kinney at the one, and then they'll also get some minutes at the

Starting point is 00:01:53 two, you know, five, ten minutes per game at the two. You still need to give out some minutes to somebody else as kind of a two guard there, right? And maybe that's Colorsario, but I think Rosario you could play the two or the three. I think KU needs that other guard to be somebody who can come off the bench. And it's been a while for KU since they've had a bench guard who could come off the bench and get them a bucket, right? You think this past season wasn't really how I would describe O'Marco Jackson or Jemarri McAllowell. There were actually a couple games like the Tennessee game where O'Marco was able to do that,

Starting point is 00:02:23 but it was more rare when that did happen, right? Jamarie McDowell was able to hit a lot of threes at home, but again, not really get a bucket. You probably have to go back to like Remy Martin for the last guard. KU had come off the bench and be able to get KU consistent points off the bench. And that was for a limited sample at the end of the season really, right? So I would love for KU to be able to attack that and get that position now that this one is good for. And, you know, theoretically you could sell them on the idea that, hey, what if Blyden does struggle with the, you know, jump in competition? What if Tailen Kinney does struggle with making an adjustment to the collegiate game?

Starting point is 00:03:01 Like maybe the idea is for you to be our sixth man, but what if you do outperform those guys and become a starter, right? Like that we're not going to close the door on that. So I do think getting another productive garden and, you know, KU had victorious Miller visiting on Monday. I don't know when that visit goes to, but like that would be the perfect guy to kind of, you know, fit that role. So we'll see what kind of happens there or somebody of that ilk. I would also imagine that, you know, Blighton probably got a good payday, right? He is he's a very good transfer edition. Like Evan Miyakawa has him in the top 15.

Starting point is 00:03:32 I'm sure he got a nice little payday, right? But I don't think it's one that's going to hit. Like, I don't think it's like a Florida but don't get a level, $5 million commitment. I don't think it's that to where getting Blyden is not going to hamper KU's spending abilities moving forward. Now, I don't think KU has Louisville money. I do think KU has good money for basketball. I don't know that it's, you know, that kind of bleep you money,

Starting point is 00:03:54 that a couple of schools like Duke and Louisville might be showing this offseason here. But, you know, I think the beauty of adding Blyden is he's a really good player and has the chance to be, you know, something really special while also not just completely devastating your budget because you gave one dude $6 million or something like that. Like I don't think that's the case. So I think it does really allow for KU to, you know, spend big. Now, can they spend big at two positions or one position that kind of remains to be seen? We'll talk about Tyron's soaked later in the episode. Could that be where the money goes, right? Who knows? But I think. When I look at it too, with Blyden coming in as a really good three-point shooter, you're talking 40% on threes. You're talking somebody who can hit from deep threes. He shot over, I think it was 45% was the number I shared, like 29 of 64 or something like that, 45% on threes that were like 25 plus feet. He can hit deep threes.

Starting point is 00:04:48 He can hit him off the dribble. He can hit him off the catch. Having a player like that who's expected to play big minutes does wonders for your spacing and opening things up for the rest of your lineup. And now all of a sudden, you know, Dawes just being able to hit a three at all, 31% when you combine it with Bliden. Kinney's known as being a pretty good shooter, though coming in as a freshman, you know, what is that going to equate to? Is that going to be 34% from three? Is it going to be 36? You know, who knows?

Starting point is 00:05:13 It puts less pressure on the center you add, the wing you add to be like knocked down three-point shooters. Now, again, especially if you can bring in that other guard who's a three-point shooter off the bench, then it puts a little less pressure on those guys to be able to hit threes for you, which I think. think is a good thing for KU. And then obviously from here, you're looking at the projected starting lineup. I think, you know, Kenny Blyden as two starters feels good right now. And then Dawes would be the other starter. You know, right now, if you were just building a starting lineup off the guys who are currently there, sure, Cole Rosario would be starting for you.

Starting point is 00:05:46 But I think the idea to me would be Rosario would be in your rotation, but coming off the bench. And so KU needs a starting wing and they need a starting five man. And it's interesting because it feels like more of the money, KU is looking to spend more on the wing than the five man, get more perimeter creation and try to in a world where the offseason has gone the way of the center to pain the center big bucks, you're going to go the other way and try to save money there and just get enough there to where you can have star power at other positions. So I think you're kind of looking at those. And then as you look to the rotation, let's say it's an eight-man rotation, off the bench you're looking at kind of a bench wing, a bench guard, and a bench big man. If Paul and Bia ends up sticking around,

Starting point is 00:06:39 he hasn't officially entered into the transfer portal, even though there's the messaging that he was. Sounds like he wants to be at KU. Sounds like his agent wants him to get a payday. So who knows what's going to happen there. But if you were here, you would think he would be that backup big man. You would think Colversario, whether it's the backup guard or the backup wing,

Starting point is 00:06:56 he could classify for either. And then you're looking at one more bench piece, right? So we're actually closer to them filling out the rotation than you would think, right? Like you get that bench guard. It's basically starting wing, starting five and one bench piece, assuming you bring Paul MBA back, right? If you don't, then need, you know, center there. But there are still other roster spots to look to fill.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Like you still want to get a, in case of emergency big man or a, you know, veteran guard that can be your ninth or tenth man just to give you a veteran presence or players that can help you in practice or just deepen kind of the depth a little bit or compete with some of those guys to make sure that hey like col rzario wins a rotation spot because he earned it over this other guy as opposed to he was just given it right like things like that are going to be kind of important um but it's it's it's weird because it feels like it has been I mean it's been a bit of a slow off season you're talking about two transfer portal commits through a couple weeks at this point, but like at the same point in time, they are closer with as men.

Starting point is 00:07:55 They have so many scholarships open and yet they're so close to being done with the rotation, which I think is just kind of a weird dichotomy and paradox here for the team. But the transfer portal also closes on Tuesday. I don't know if it closes at midnight or like at the specific time or just like when Tuesday ends or whatever. I'll be interested to see if maybe by the time you're watching and listening to this, do we see some bigger names enter into the portal just to be like, you know what, last second here, like, let's just keep our options open, whether it's a player who's in the draft process, just saying, hey, I want to keep it open, or a player who's had two weeks to field offers and think on things and go, yeah, let's,

Starting point is 00:08:32 let's enter into the portal and kind of see what happens here, right? Like, do we see a potential star or do we see some starter level players enter? And do we even see, you know, ripple effect players? players where another school lands a star level talent or an all conference level talent to come in via the portal. And a player who is planning on returning to the roster goes, wait a minute, I thought I was going to be playing a lot of minutes. Now this guy's coming in. I don't know how many minutes I'm going to play now. I'm going to enter today, right?

Starting point is 00:09:03 Do we see a mad dash? Do we see a scramble on this last day of the portal to where some more options open up? I think that would be a good thing for KU for a couple of reasons. one, the options are starting dwindle a little bit here. And so just deepening that pool a little bit to give you more backup options if you don't hit your plan A, which would probably be, you know, you're hoping to land Tyron Stokes. Like if you don't land Tyrant Stokes, you'd like to have more options available to you, right? Even if you do, you'd love to have some options available to you. Can more centers enter into the portal? That would certainly be nice for KU. So going to be a very

Starting point is 00:09:36 interesting Tuesday, I guess, to say the least for Kansas. All right, let's get to the Tyron Stokes stuff next and then we'll get some of the latest in the transfer portal. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by Fan Dual Sportsbook. The NFL NBA playoffs, excuse me, are here where every possession matters. Every matchup is absolutely magnified and every game can be the one that swings the series. I am a Denver Nuggets fan, so I am worried, sick that Victor Weniama stands in their way before they can even get to Oklahoma City. But if you have a specific NBA team or you just think that,

Starting point is 00:10:13 Hey, you know, this team has the most Jayhawks on it, or I just think this team's going to cut down the nets. You can get futures for who's going to win the title. I mean, if you're a believer in the Pistons after they fall down one-nothing, you can get about 21 to win the NBA title as the one seed in the east. You can also get picks on who's going to win some of the different playoff series. You can even pick right now for who's going to go number one in the NBA draft. Darren Peterson is second on the odds boards at plus 2.30. but probably depends who wins the lottery there for who picks who. But AJ DeMontza is the favorite for what it's worth.

Starting point is 00:10:48 So anyway, go to fandwell.com. You can bet on some of those or pick your own, make your own parlay if you like, same game parlay. Head to fandwell. To get started, Fandual, play your game. Don't forget you join the everyday or club. We're going to get the ad free version of Locked on Jayhawks. It is at locked on jhawks. That is locked on jhawks.supercast.com.

Starting point is 00:11:10 Okay, so Tyron Stokes posted a social media picture, image, graphic, whatever you're going to call it. And now people are in a tizzy because he had his three finalists on the image, Kansas, Kentucky, and Oregon. There was some sort of script writing. I couldn't really read it, but it didn't like say anything. It didn't say, I'm committing here or this time or this day or whatever. But I think the cryptic way of looking at it, that's probably too strong a word, but like, the way of looking at it is he's basically reinforcing, hey, these are my finalists and I'm going to decide soon. I think he's done with his circuit season. He obviously did the McDonald's All-American.

Starting point is 00:11:53 He just had the Jordan brand. So he's done with that element. He can now move on into kind of deciding here. I think the safe assumption would be this means that he wants to make it happen soon, that he wants to commit soon, that he wants to decide. soon, but at the same point in time, there have been so many, and some of these haven't been so ex-fault. Some of these have been like other, like Joe Tipton saying he was going to commit whatever weekend, and that was just never really a thing. And then people were like, oh, it got postponed. And it's like, no, he never said it. It just, Joe Tipton said it when it wasn't actually a thing.

Starting point is 00:12:25 But there have been other situations where it's felt like, okay, commitment is, you know, inevitable or it's imminent. And it just doesn't end up happening. So I'm just staying back kind of on my heels on this one to wait and see what it happens. But, you know, when you when you line up the timing of everything, the schedule of everything, him posting that, it does all if you connect the dots kind of lead to the idea that he would, you know, decide sooner rather than later. So we'll see if KU gets a resolution to it, obviously. It will be a big deal one way or another from a resolution standpoint. Obviously, Kansas hopes they land him. But, you know, you need to be able to pivot fast if you don't land him and use those funds you were going to use to get him to go

Starting point is 00:13:10 get another really good player if you don't. Ideally, you just get him and then you don't have to worry about those things. But I think that's an interesting conversation. Like what is the impact for Kansas if they do land Tyrant Stokes versus if they don't land Tyrant Stokes? Let's talk about the happy place first, right? If they land Tyron Stokes, he comes in, he starts the three. And I think, well, okay, he gives you your out. The dog, he gives you your top level, high level NBA talent. I think the most underrated part of his game is his passing. I mean, he's a really good passer.

Starting point is 00:13:43 And so that makes it nice as you've built out this roster that, like, you don't have to be worried. Like, he'll move the ball to Blyden and Kinney and Dawes and stuff. But he'll also provide, as it seems like Kansas is maybe playing the money ball game at the center position a little bit more. Well, you're going to be getting extra rebounding and shot blocking at the three if Tyron Sokes is playing there, then you would with potentially another wing that you would have at the three. And you have obviously the extra rebounding of Keanu Daz at the four that that'll make things easier on whatever five that would end up being for KU.

Starting point is 00:14:16 Right. Now, if they land him, it obviously, you know, makes you feel like, okay, the the stones come set a little bit more. If you don't land him, you start to scramble and worry. You start to really worry because I like Leroy-Blyden. I like Keanu Dawes, but you start to wonder who's going to be the alpha, who's going to be the go-to guy on this team, you know? And with Dawes, really good player, is he somebody you want having to give you a 16, 18 points per game? No, probably not. Like with Blyden, I think he's a really good score, really good three-point shooter, but it's like, you don't know how that transition is going to go for sure from Toledo. So then you have to make sure you go out and spend. whatever money you were going to spend on Stokes on one of those positions,

Starting point is 00:15:06 either the wing or the five, I think you'd probably prefer the wing because at this point, there's not a five in there who would give you that offensive value that you're looking for from that end of the court if you don't land Stokes. And there are still some players out there. I know like Duke Harris is still out there. It sounded like, KU, at least kicked the tires on him. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:15:26 No visit or anything didn't seem like it went anywhere. Did it not go anywhere because there wasn't reciprocated interest or the money wasn't right? or did it not go anywhere because there's been a sort of, hey, let's wait and see what happens with Stokes. And if Stokes doesn't go, we'll pay you more than any other school in the country and see if you have interest to come here, right? Could it be something like that, you know? And there are, you know, some wing options available.

Starting point is 00:15:53 Duke Harris was kind of the main one that you would look to. Milan Mons, Momchilovich would certainly be one that I would be all about. Like, yeah, if you don't land Stokes, toss all that money. and what you can to try to get Mum Chilovich to show some interest there. But, you know, you would be running out of opportunities. So this is, this is certainly a scary one this late in the game for KU. And I will say, you know, it's been so focused on the transfer portal for KU over these recent years because that's where the game has gone. But I just, I remember the good old days of when it was high school recruiting were the big announcements during the spring as opposed to the portal.

Starting point is 00:16:29 and that's when Bill's self really excelled and was able to land some of these top tier guys. Gosh, I don't even think it was in the spring. Was that in the summer when the Brandon Rush thing happened? But obviously that ended up being a big one for KU. I want to say Dorel Arthur was later in the game, but I could be wrong on that one. You go back to Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins was in the spring and shoot, I don't even remember people like it was, I think it was Kentucky, Florida State and Kansas. A lot of people were picking one of those two.

Starting point is 00:16:57 like Florida State was where I think his parents went and stuff like that. And then it was like all of a sudden Kansas, Bill Self-Able to close at the last minute. With Josh Jackson, a lot of the talk was, I was going to go to Michigan State to, you know, play for his home team. He's got a lot of friends going to play there too. Or he's going to go to Arizona where, I don't know, there was just like a lot of heat going there for whatever reason. And he ends up picking Kansas, you know, this one obviously didn't work out. But it was a big spring edition at the time. It was like, okay, you just need the center to get over the line.

Starting point is 00:17:26 and they got Jack Deallo. Like he ends up picking them and it was a big deal. Obviously, he didn't work out for Shaq and KU at the end. But like there have been so many moments of Bill Self coming through with a big time freshman edition in the spring. And it feels like this one might be more important than all of them just from a standpoint of like where we're at with KU the last couple of seasons. And with the difference of having Stokes versus not having Stokes on this specific roster. So can it be really interested to see what happens one way or another. I'll get to us some of the latest portal news and more.

Starting point is 00:18:01 This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks again for joining us. Don't forget you can check out the everyday air club where you can get the ad-free version of the show at locked on jhawks. That supercast.com. Okay, so Victories Miller and Christian Reeves visiting for Kansas in the early part of the week here. And for Miller, we just did a deep dive on him. Really good shooter, somebody who I would love to have. If you can get him as a bench card behind Blyden and Kenny, that would be a heck of a

Starting point is 00:18:27 rotation at the guard position. I would feel pretty good about that. With Reeves, we have our deep dive coming out on Tuesday morning. More of an interesting player, really good analytic numbers in his season in College of Charleston, but he also wasn't really playing much when he was at Duke and Clemson. So what do you do with that if you're Kansas? But clearly, Kay, you need some bodies at the center position. So he would certainly fill the billing of a big dude. He's 7-2-255 pounds. And again, really good rebound and block rates. Do you just ask him to come in and do those things well? not focus on anything else and just let the other guys try to cook and get away with it with what you can, you know. But the other one, speaking of big dudes playing the center position, Gabe Dines is a center.

Starting point is 00:19:12 He was at Youngstown State, and I'll try to do a deep dive on Dines later this week. But he goes to USC this past off season. And he is 7 foot of 5. So gigantic, but he's only 214 pounds at 7.5. That is super skinny. But, you know, really good offensive rebound rate, really bad defensive rebound rate, really good block rate, really good two point percentage, but doesn't do a lot else. The team impact wasn't really there for USC. So I think it's going to be really interesting because KU is set to be, I think it's like the last visit for Dines over the course of a weekend.

Starting point is 00:19:46 He has like four or five visits in like four or five days. And then the Kansas one caps things off. I would imagine that's intentional for both parties. You know, from Dynes perspective, right, his agent and him at the negotiation table with some of the other schools get to go, hey, if you want to close me out on this visit, you better, you know, I don't know, guarantee the playing time I want or, you know, up the offer 100,000 or whatever, you know, whatever your contention is. Because if you let me keep visiting, I've got a blue blood coming up at the end of the weekend. And who knows what's going to happen if you let me visit them. from the KU side, it's, hey, by getting to wait longer here, you know, we have a better understanding of what's going to happen with our center position.

Starting point is 00:20:33 Can we get any commits before then? What's going to happen with Paul Mbia? Can I talk about that? How it seems like he wants to be back. Seems like his agent wants more money. If there's a separation there between Mbia and Kansas, Kansas is going to be looking for, you know, another big dude becoming at the center position and then maybe he makes more sense. So I think that kind of makes sense the timing of everything.

Starting point is 00:20:51 And then some other portal news. A former Jayhawk is back in the portal for fourth time. Noah Shelby. He started at what, Vanderbilt, then goes to Rice, then Kansas, and then Texas, and then Texas A&M. Now he's back in the portal. He'll be a redshirt senior. I mean, KU needs a, you know, 11th, 12, 13th, 14th guy. Do you make it work again with no Shelby?

Starting point is 00:21:15 No, I don't think that one will happen there. And then the last piece of portal news, and this one's just interesting because, of the A, potential ripple effects, but B, it's just one of the best players in the portal is John Blackwell. Some of the rumors coming out right now are that he could he end up going to Duke, you know? And the ripple effects are you look at the Duke roster. So, Kaden Foster's already announced he's coming back, sophomore guard. Darren Rippy is one of the, he's a, you know, McDonald's All-American guard prospect.

Starting point is 00:21:47 He's coming in. And Caleb Foster, I think he'll be like a redshirt senior or something like that. somebody gets left out of the rotation. So does it cause somebody to just transfer now by landing Blackwell, you know, and would that be another good potential target to look after if you're KU or some of these other schools? And then just in general, like Blackwell, one of the better players off the market, that would be a potential guy that you would look at and say, hey, he's more of a shooting guard than a wing. But, you know, theoretically, if you did not land Tyron Stokes, maybe that would be a guy that you would say,

Starting point is 00:22:16 hey, let's throw some of that money and see if we can get John Blackwell. Well, well, that doesn't seem to be an option now. at this point in time. So that would be a big addition for Duke, to say the least. 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 of a Christian Reef's deep dive coming out as well. And make sure to check out all of our Leroyden content here,

Starting point is 00:22:36 anywhere you get your podcast, including on YouTube. See you next time with L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ROSTER IMPACT: How Leroy Blyden’s Commitment PROPELS Kansas Jayhawks Forward in the Offseason

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