Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ROSTER IMPACT of Adding Dennis Parker Jr. - How Does Transfer Move Affect Kansas Jayhawks?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Dennis Parker Jr. is officially a Jayhawk. What impact does it have on the KU roster the rest of the off season? And sounds like Christian Reeves need surgery. That's not a great start for the KU 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 going on to Eric Johnson here with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's episode of the show, we get some of the latest news, KU softball.

Starting point is 00:00:35 opening round victory. Christian Reeves needs surgery. What does it mean for the KU center position? Is it Paul M. P.S. Time to shine. And we'll start right here with the latest edition of Dennis Parker Jr. for KU basketball, the transfer from Radford and before that NC State. And what impact it has on KU basketball, the roster and the rest of the offseason moves. So just in terms of what impact it has on how KU is viewed as a team, if you look at Bartorvik, for instance, Kansas came into the day on Thursday morning, ranked 11th on Bart Torvick's website coming into the year. Now, again, I've brought this up before, but KU's preseason ranking last year on Torvik was 17th.

Starting point is 00:01:14 So KU's actually ranked higher in the preseason right now. And, you know, other teams could jump Kansas from where they're at right now if they make the right additions. It's also, I'm sure, a little bit more of a guessing game with some of the European editions with how that affects Bart Torvick. But like point being, Kansas is actually in an okay place from a preseason. perspective. It's not expected to be one of the most dominant teams, but as I brought up on a recent episode, like Yukon was 10th last year in the preseason, Arizona was 12th. But KU came into the 25th on offense. They came into the 8th on defense, adding Dennis Parker Jr., the latest transfer edition, which thank you if you already checked out our commitment episode as well.

Starting point is 00:01:55 It scoots Kansas up to 8th overall. So from number 11 overall, the number 8 overall. The defense stays number 8. It gets a little bit better on defense. It's just the gap between them at 8th and Iowa State at 7th is too much to overcome even with the addition boosting that number. And then the offense goes up a little bit from 25th to 23rd. Now, when you look at Evan Miecawa's website, I haven't seen an update on this yet, but I know coming into the day, Kansas had the number 11 transfer portal class. And I would imagine this pushes them into the top 10. Obviously, 24-7 sports also has KU with the number three freshman class in. coming. So I mean, if I would have told you at the start of the off season, because I think, again,

Starting point is 00:02:41 this isn't everybody. There are a lot of KU fans that are happy with the off season now. You've added Stokes. You've added some other interesting players. There still is a portion of the KU fan base that feels overwhelmed with this portal class. And I get it from a standpoint of like they didn't add a superstar out of the transfer portal. There weren't a ton of those, I think, available necessarily. You added a superstar though in Tyron Stokes. But if I would have told you coming into the office, season that KU was going to finish with a in who knows if they finish there with the top three freshman class and a top 10 transfer class I think that would sound pretty good on paper now you would have liked to see probably a little bit more of player retention to mix with that or you know

Starting point is 00:03:21 international additions or something which I guess the international thing could still happen but it is funny because you look from a national perspective and like the metrics actually feel okay on Kansas again like we're talking about 11th on Torvik moving up to eighth with Dennis Parker Jr. I've looked at some other sites that have them in the, you know, the teens or the 20 range. Like, they're okay there, but you look at someone where the national media pundits have them.

Starting point is 00:03:46 And it's like unranked, 25th, 35th, like 40th. And it's like, what is going on here? That feels way too low from what we're talking about here, right? So I don't know. I don't know if it's just like the last three years, they feel spurned by him. But even last year, like technically, if we viewed off preseason predictions, KU outperformed their preseason production last year.

Starting point is 00:04:10 Like, again, there were 17th in the preseason on Bart Torvik and they finished with the four seed. So I don't know. It's silly to me. But, you know, the lack of roster retention and continuity does matter there too. But like, yeah, I guess KU's had a better transfer portal off season than you might think. And I think if you viewed it from a standpoint of like, if you rank out the top additions that KU made, like let's say, so you're looking at four transfer. Portal editions and then you have all these freshman editions as well. If we were to rank KU's five best incoming players in some order,

Starting point is 00:04:41 I mean, Tyrant Sokes would be number one. I don't know who you'd have two, Leroy Blind under Keanu Dawes. One would be two and one would be three. And then you'd probably have like in the four and five spots some combination or order of like Taylin Kinney, maybe Christian Reeves, maybe Dennis Parker Jr. Like two of those three would pop up on the list for the newcomers list. if you were to compare those five newcomers though whichever five you picked there with any uh anybody else's five newcomer additions i still feel like you feel okay if you're kansas like for instance

Starting point is 00:05:13 michigan brings on a five star and brandon mccoy they got you know moustoffa chom and uh jp estrella but if i compare like let's say you view estralla is the biggest get there right i'd rather tyrant stokes than estrella personally now it is different because michigan does have the returning talent But like, so maybe they're not the right school to pick here. But like if we got Tennessee, Tennessee's made a lot of waves with what they've done in the transfer portal, for instance, right? They had a Duke Harris, awesome player edition out of the portal. I'd rather have Tyron Soakes than Duke Harris. It might be eating my words in season because it's freshman coming in.

Starting point is 00:05:48 But like on paper right now, that's how I've kind of felt all the way along. Who is the second biggest edition for Tennessee? Is it Terrence Hill? Is it one of the other guards? Is it Tyler One blade? I don't know. Let's say it's Terrence Hill. Well, let's say we're comparing him to Leroyd Blyden.

Starting point is 00:06:00 We kind of went through that process when we were talking about both those guys, and we kind of said it was a wash between Blyden and Hill. And then if you're comparing Jalen Harrelson, one of their other big commits, former five-star went to Notre Dame, had a productive season, doesn't really shoot the three. If you're comparing him to Keanu Dawes, I personally would rather have Keanu Daz. So it's like, I do actually think KU was in a point where they have had a good off season here. And now, to me, this completes the rotation with Dennis Parker Jr. I think you view it as saying, okay, you have your five starters and then you have your three

Starting point is 00:06:31 rotation players, right? When you view Blyden, Kenny as your main lead guards, you view Rosario and Parker as guys who can play the two three or in Parker's case, even the three, four. You view your two centers with Christian Reeves and Paul and Bia. Then you have Tyron Soakes and Keanu Dawes to kind of round out that eight man rotation, right? And you have, okay, the backup one is, you know, one of Blyden or Kinney, if they go to the bench, the other one takes over the point. The backup two can be technically Cole Rosario.

Starting point is 00:07:02 The backup three can technically be Dennis Parker. The backup four can be Stokes or Parker. Backup five can be the other center or Daws, right? Or even if you want to work further on the depth chart, like Trent Perry can play the three or the four if you need them to. You know, Davy Nadkins can play the five for you. So I think this pretty much completes the rotation for Kansas. They still do have three scholarships remaining.

Starting point is 00:07:24 I am a little skeptical that they will use all three. I do think it's likely they use at least one, if not two. So I think you're looking at adding another developmental player to the end of the roster that can try to develop and add a little bit of, you know, practice ability for you. Maybe you add two of those players. Maybe you add one of those players. And then it's a European player or something like that. I would personally like to see them add another ball handler, even if it's not somebody who's in the rotation,

Starting point is 00:07:52 think somebody of the Gingala or, I mean, Digi-Coyt was kind of part of the rotation, but like somebody in that range, even if it's a later addition to be like, hey, you're going to be our ninth man. You give us another ball handler in case of emergency that, you know, if one of these guys gets in foul trouble in a game or gets hurt or something,

Starting point is 00:08:11 we at least have another ball handler on the roster. I think that would make a lot of sense for Kansas. I mean, maybe the best way for that to happen. Would Melvin Council coming back? And then he would be part of the rotation or starting. and then you move somebody possibly to the bench. But I would like them to add that. Now, then again, as we're going to get into segment two here,

Starting point is 00:08:30 Christian Reeves sounds like you need surgery. Are you better off if you only, because right now I don't think Kansas has enough money to make another kind of impact addition. But if you do scrounge up enough to add one more, at least like eighth, ninth man type, you know, are you better off bringing in another center because of that injury?

Starting point is 00:08:47 I think that makes it interesting. I would love to see them go to the European market to bring somebody on who's, can be kind of a developmental guy or a, you know, home run swing type or maybe you're not even look for a home run, a double type swing that, you know, you're just seeing what you can kind of unfurl over there. I guess theoretically, like one of the other directions you could go if you're just looking for a high upside swing that might result in nothing would be Javon Bartwell, who's the five-star recruit in the class of 2027. He's part of OTE, which sounds like it is shutting down.

Starting point is 00:09:17 So he's probably looking for somewhere to play. Additionally, with the new five and five. You know, if his clock is going to start anyway, I don't know if he'll be turning 19 or what the situation is there. But if his clock is going to start anyway, well, then now that you have the extra year, it's like you can come aboard. The downside would be like you would think you would tell him, hey, come in and you'll make some money to come play here a year early and develop and don't get your hopes up. If you're not on the court, you know, that's just part of the process here. but would you be better off waiting to get him in the class of 2027? Because what if even if they come to that understanding, it's another thing to live it.

Starting point is 00:09:55 And then he's like, I'm not playing here. I'm going to transfer. And then it's like, crap, we wish we were just kept you in the class of 2027. So that becomes kind of an interesting debate and argument, what you want to do there. But that would be, you know, maybe a little bit cheaper of an addition for this year that would have an upside to it. But, you know, from a team standpoint to like adding Parker, I think just kind of doubles

Starting point is 00:10:13 down on what KU has looked for and done so far in the offseason. they have improved their rebounding immensely. Parker is an excellent rebounder. He continues to add to that. I think they've improved their three-point shooting. You know, Blyden has the chance to be like an excellent three-point shooter. Outside of that, I don't know how many excellent three-point shooters KU has, but I just think they have a lot of quality three-point shooters.

Starting point is 00:10:37 They've got, you know, five or six guys who you feel like can at least be respected from the three-point line. And they haven't had that in a few years when you're looking at it. So I think Parker, he also gets the free throw line. That's something I think this team improved at from last year with some of the additions they've made. I think he kind of doubles down on those for Bill Self and Company. But I think now we can probably start doing some of our minute projection stuff, which at some point we'll get to next week. One of the potential curveballs and all that, though, is what's going to happen with Christian Reeves?

Starting point is 00:11:08 Because sounds like you might need surgery. According to Jeff Goodman, we'll get to that next. The NHL playoffs are here where every shift matters, every moment's intense and the pressure. is at its highest. And just like performance matters on the ice, it matters off the ice too. That's where Rougiette comes in. Ruggiette offers treatments designed to help you get ready and stay ready when it matters. Their top option, Rouguette ready, combines clinically proven ingredients in a simple mint that dissolves under your tongue. It works fast, often in about 15 minutes, and can last up to 36 hours. And they also offer go long, designed to help with performance and control. It's all

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Starting point is 00:12:17 Dot com. Okay. So this was slipped in. Dennis Parker committed to KU. on the field of 68 podcasts with Jeff Goodman. And at the end of after he committed, they're talking a little KU. And Jeff Goodman slides this little nugget of info in,

Starting point is 00:12:31 which I don't know, was he not supposed to share this bit of info, whatever. It got out to us and now we all know. He said, quote, and this was talking about obviously Christian Reeves, quote, Reeves played through a labrum injury all of last season.

Starting point is 00:12:45 So he's going to have a procedure here soon. The hope is that he's going to be 100% next year. Okay. So a couple parts of this quote. Let's start here. Reeves played through a labrum injury all of last season. First of all, that shows this kid is very tough. And further gets to the point that like he will be, I think, a Bill self player

Starting point is 00:13:04 because he clearly has a level of toughness to play through that, right? And I also think it makes it even more impressive with what Christian Reeves did from the standpoint of like, he was a super effective player. I get it. It was in the CIA. It wasn't in a power level. Like he was really effective and a really efficient. rebounder and defender and everything. And he was doing that with a torn labrum. That could not have

Starting point is 00:13:25 been easy. So theoretically, even though it's going to get harder jumping up in competition, if you get a healthier version of him, does that make up for some of the jump in competition? That's the good news here. The bad news is, for one, this is now a continued injury thing, right? Like his second year at Duke, he only plays, you know, a handful of games and ends up taking a medical redshirt because he had a season ending injury. So now you're talking about, you know, him stacking up different injuries over the course of his time at the collegiate level. And the reason that's important to bring up is because is there a increased risk it could happen again, you know, when KU brought on Kevin McCuller, he had all sorts of injury problems at Texas Tech that limited him to, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:09 less than a full season's amount of games. And it ended up being something that, that, you know, forced Kevin McCuller out for the final, you know, month or whatever of his KU career, right? So like that is something, especially at the center position where KU did kind of money ball it a little bit more and is in more of a thin position at the center position with guys they feel like are comfortable playing with. That's a situation where now if Reeves is injured again on something else, then you are really counting on Paul and Bia to progress. You're really counting on Davy on Adkins to be able to come in and play right away as a freshman or you're playing a lot of small ball with Keanu. at the five, right? So that becomes a bit of an issue. Then the other part of this is like, what if he just doesn't come back fully healthier? What if he's rusty coming off the injury, you know, like quick Google searches on how long labrum surgery, which we don't know that the severity,

Starting point is 00:15:07 like there's different severities as with any injury of, you know, oh, this could be a six week thing versus this could be a six month thing. So like, you know, you don't exactly know, but like, I guess first of all, if he's missing the entire offseason of practices, that becomes really important. And we just kind of lived a similar situation, different injury and different position of player. But Shaquille Moore a couple of years ago. And like when Shaquille Moore was healthy, was he one of the best players on the team? No, but like when Shaquille Moore was healthy, he was making a solid impact for Kansas. He was a really good defender.

Starting point is 00:15:43 He was giving them more ball handling, balance, athleticism and speed and quickness. And he just wasn't able to maintain the health. And he was, you know, trying to play through some stuff. And honestly, like, I feel for him and some of the stuff he was going through. But that scares me a little bit. Like, what if that situation happens here with Christian Reeves? Because you don't have the depth of the center position or the other names at the center position to be able to afford that sort of, if that sort of thing were to happen. And it's not just about the, you know, how much practice time does he make?

Starting point is 00:16:18 which causes him to start behind the eight ball at the beginning of the season. It's not just, is he rusty to start the season? It's does it linger into the season, right? Is it something that is a constant problem that can cause him to miss other games in the season? Or is it something that he can play through, but he's not the same player. He's getting back to, you know, what he needs to be. And he is, you know, only 80% of what he could be for the entire season for you. That would be unfortunate for KU.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And so now you look at the potential impact here. you're sitting there going, Paul Mbia's got to be ready, man. I guess now at this point, like if I'm redoing my starting five projection, I now am projecting Paul and Bia to be the starting five just because of all that missed time that Mbia is going to have a chance to play with. But there is pressure now on Davy on Adkins to be ready just in case, because there's a real chance he's going to get real minutes in big games. Keanu Dawes playing small.

Starting point is 00:17:10 I got to be honest, I kind of like the idea of this team playing small, a good chunk of times because I do think a lineup with Dawes at the five, again, reminder that Dawes was like, like his defensive rebound rate was akin to Hunter Dickinson's defensive rebound rate. So I think they can get away with doing that, but you wouldn't really have a lot of rim protection if Dawes is any or five. So if you're playing Dawes at the five and Stokes at the four, I guess Stokes will give you a little bit of weak side rim protection, but that's going to be a much more offensive than defensive lineup. Then again, I think it's going to be more important for this team to find offense than defense after what we've seen the last

Starting point is 00:17:41 few years. But, you know, point being if if they do have to play 15, 20 minutes a night of Daws at the five with Stokes at the four and you have, you know, a Parker or Rosario at the three and then your two guards at the one and two, you know, I would have certain defensive questions, like I said, but I think that offensive lineup would kind of slap. And I think that would be a pretty fun lineup. So there are some options they can still go to if you were hurt or were to miss actual game time, but it would not be an ideal situation. So I don't think KU has the money in the cards to add another center.

Starting point is 00:18:11 But if you can find a Euro big man out there that you can find a way. to squeeze into the budget. I don't think that would be the worst idea in the world if you're KU just from a standpoint of adding a little bit more size, adding a little bit more precaution, adding a little bit more of a just in case plan to whatever's going on with Reeves. And maybe it's somebody with a, you know, that's a ceiling swing where it's like, okay, it's another body in the building in case we need it. And it's also a ceiling swing that if things do go right, we get a little bit more than we

Starting point is 00:18:41 bargained for here. Let's finish up with some of the ladies news, KU softball, got to huge victory. We get to a KU baseball look ahead to the weekend. KU Women's Basketball roster is set and something that I don't think anybody really wanted. The NCAA tournament is expanding. Once again, you can join the Everyday Air Club to get the ad-free version of the show at Lockedon, jhawks.com. Okay, KU softball opened up the Big 12 tournament with a opening round win in the quarterfinals, six to five against 22nd ranked UCF, who was the four seed, Kansas was the five seed. There's a really fun comeback for KU, who's now 35 and 18,

Starting point is 00:19:18 on the season. They got down 4-0 early. Ended chipping away, get a run. Then they get a two-run home run, make 4-3. They tie it. They go back down 5 to 4. They come back again. They tie it. Then they get the winning run in the 7th. And then they're able to escape with some traffic on the base paths in the bottom of the 7th. So 35 and 18, again, like I said, I mean, according to pair ratings, which does some good, like

Starting point is 00:19:40 college softball analytics stats, they had KU as a 3-seed in the Austin regional before the win against UCF, which again, top 25 opponent on a neutral field. So I would think KU is golden to making it to the NCAA tournament. But heck, at this point, you know, it's single elimination. You're two wins away from a Big 12 championship. Go win that thing, boost up to a two seed or something. Why not, right? Now, for KU baseball, it's a huge weekend ahead for them as well.

Starting point is 00:20:07 They have a three game set at home starting Friday at 6 o'clock at Hogan Ballpark. They're taking on West Virginia. The mountaineers are ranked 15th in the country. It'll be Friday at 6, Saturday at 2, Sunday at 11, looking to win the series, and especially I have to lose in the Creighton earlier this week. Really big opportunity for KU, not just to put their final finishing touches on a quest to a big 12th championship in the regular season, but kind of put those finishing touches on why they should host in the NCAA tournament as well and add some more potential big

Starting point is 00:20:39 resume victories. That's what they would have the opportunity to do against a very good West Virginia team this weekend. Also of note, the players era announced that there's going to be 24 teams involved. So what they're doing is instead of doing the group play thing, which was the weird, you know, you play a couple teams, you have the point differential. They're just going to go to two brackets. So they're going to do the Players Era 16. That'll be obviously a 16 team bracket.

Starting point is 00:21:04 And that'll happen the week before things or the week of Thanksgiving. Excuse me. That'll feature a lot of good teams. The one that Kansas will be a part of is the Players Era 8, which that will be the week before Thanksgiving, which becomes interesting because it's like, well, that opens up Kansas the week of Thanksgiving during Feast Week to what are they going to do? We've seen them, you know, I think wasn't the Duke game in Vegas a couple years ago? Was that on a Friday? So I don't know, maybe they'll play just some big game or I don't think you can join multiple tournaments. Maybe

Starting point is 00:21:36 you can, but we'll see what ends up happening here. This will be the 18 field and obviously they don't have it seated yet, but Auburn, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Notre Dame, Rutgers, West Virginia, UNLV. I don't know how if they'll seat it just based on last year's results or what they expect of the teams. I would imagine Florida, Houston, Kansas will probably be the top three seeds, would be my guess. Then again, maybe what they do is they say, because if you're doing that, and then you have, like, Auburn is the four or five seed, then all you're doing is setting up that Houston and Kansas and Auburn and Florida could play in the semis and then you'd have SEC Big 12. So maybe you have, you have Auburn, you're going to be.

Starting point is 00:22:11 So maybe what they end up doing is saying, hey, we're going to put Florida playing, you know, UNLV or Rutgers or something in the first round. We'll have Kansas playing Notre Dame or UNLV or Rutgers or whatever. And the winner of that will play each other. And then you'll have Houston, you know, I don't know, then you have West Virginia in there. I guess there's a good chance that Kansas could play a big 12 team, which is certainly weird because it wouldn't count to conference standings. I will say this. If Kansas has to play Florida, who is going to be an awesome team next year, hey, Kansas has beaten an awesome Florida team. before in Las Vegas. And that was, I think, for a lot of KU fans, one of their favorite regular

Starting point is 00:22:45 season games of all time. So I guess bring it on, right? I mean, it'd be a fun opportunity to have that early in the season and kind of get to know more about your team. Meanwhile, the KU. Women's Basketball roster is set. So they're going to have a 12 player roster. Here is what Brandon Schneider said in a press release about some of their transfer additions, talking about with Michaela Cunningham. She is Schneider said, Michaela is a terrific on-ball defender and can play both with the ball and off-the-ball as a combo guard. Her experience will help her transition quickly to Big 12 competition.

Starting point is 00:23:19 Then in regards to Ariana Gooden, Ariana elevates the toughness and competitive spirit of any team she's part of. She can defend multiple positions as the IQ to move around for us offensively and on the perimeter. That reads to me as, because she comes in as a guard from Colorado, that she can play the point card or she can play off ball, when Samaya Nichols is handling the ball. And then this last one coming from Xavier transfer, Mariah Nol,

Starting point is 00:23:41 who's probably the most notable of the transfers for KU. This last season, Mariah was a proven three-level score. Xavier, the skill set along with her length and athleticism will allow her to contribute immediately. So not a ton of information necessarily there, but sounds like their roster is pretty set in stone. It's going to be on Samai Nichols and Jalia Davis to kind of just be hero mode, I think, this season for them. And then last bit of news here, the NCAA tournament committee, I guess not the committee,

Starting point is 00:24:10 the NCAA tournament is going to be expanding the 76 teams. I don't like it. I don't like the brackets we're going to have to fill out that are going to be weird now. I don't like that we're going to, I don't even know, like the structure of the whole bracket thing is stupid. Am I going to have to ask off like extra days from work now? And then here's what I really don't like about it. You're going to basically have play in games because it'll be 12 playing games for the at large teams. And then 12 playing games for the lowest rated automatic qualifiers.

Starting point is 00:24:48 So you're going to basically have 14 through 16 seeds are all playing games. And then I don't know what it's going to be. It's going to be like 9 through 11 seeds are all going to be playing games too. It's just a clunky, awful looking tournament. And it sucks, too, that like, like all these automatic qualifiers, they're the ones who have to, you know, get in these and like 14 seeds or teams that are live for upsets, you know, and they're going to have to do playing. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:25:18 I hate this, not a fan. And there have been like several polls that I've seen people do. Like, do you want the tournament to expand? And it's always like 90%, 95% of people are like voting no. But at the end of the day, all they care about is the money. And unfortunately, that is just how things work in college athletics. It could apply for your school. It could apply for your team.

Starting point is 00:25:39 It could apply for the NCAA as a whole or whatever. That's the thing they care about most is the money. And at the end of the day, we're probably all going to watch the games. And so they're just like, I don't care what they think. We're making more money. Eventually, there's going to be a bubble to all this, just in general with like this world. the thing like i think we've seen it a little bit with i don't know a certain other professional sports that maybe don't have as much viewership as they had in the past there is a bubble to

Starting point is 00:26:06 these sorts of things and you start to lose fan interest in a real way and the dollar becomes you know kind of a blinding short-term gain over a long-term presence i i hope that doesn't happen with the ncdb a the ncdala tournament and stuff but it wouldn't surprise me if it did all right i don't know for this episode of lockdown jahawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time on another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ROSTER IMPACT of Adding Dennis Parker Jr. - How Does Transfer Move Affect Kansas Jayhawks?

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