Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SELF-CLEANING: Rylan Griffen & Diggy Coit TRANSFER - Where Do the Jayhawks Look in the Portal?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Rylan Griffin and Diggy Coit are in the portal. Some interesting names entered the portal today as possible targets for KU. We get to all that on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. 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. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On J-Ox. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition, David Coyt, Ryland Griffin, enter into the portal. More departures for KU Basketball. We take a look Griffin enter into the portal more departures for KU basketball, we take a look at who's even left on the roster for KU, where do they go from here? And some interesting names enter the portal besides just the guys coming in from KU, it's possible interesting new

Starting point is 00:00:56 targets and new names to get to that KU could go after especially after losing these two in Coyt and Griffin. First today's episode of the show is brought to you by game time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with game time. I'll start with the news on diggy Kuwait and Ryland Griffin. So David Kuwait aka diggy Kuwait, he is the guard for KU transferred in from Northern Illinois, he's going to

Starting point is 00:01:24 now have an extra season because of the Juco stuff. Where he began his collegiate career, he's decided to enter the portal. That was earlier on Monday. And then later on Monday, Ryland Griffin, the former transfer wing from Alabama, who was known for his three point shooting ability, he'll be a senior next season in the fall and the winter. He has decided to enter as well. Now splitting these two up, the David Coyt one

Starting point is 00:01:46 is certainly a little bit more weird. Like the Ryland Griffin one, you... I think when you see the news, it doesn't, like, shock you that it happened based on how the season went. The Diggy Coyt one, I think for some people, might be a little bit more surprising because of the fact of when you chronicle kind of the whole story here, right? So you have like what a month or

Starting point is 00:02:09 two ago, diggy coy, when the juke stuff was kind of going around, like being asked about it, would he would he, you know, want to use that extra year? Would he want to come back to Kansas? And he was so adamant that he would love to do both those things. And then he would love to come back to Kansas and that there were even more comments from that initial point from both, I'm pretty sure Bill Self and also Diggy Coy kind of reiterating that love for possibly wanting to come back for another year at Kansas and a situation where, you know, it

Starting point is 00:02:42 felt like Diggy Coy was in kind of the perfect role and on a team where things weren't always going great. And sometimes you questioned the practice habits of some of the players from Bill Self. That was never a question that it seemed like was the thing for D. Koy. He was kind of always getting shots up and that, you know, he was mentally strong when sometimes Bill Self was questioning those things with this team. That it felt like, okay, this is the perfect guy to bring back as a veteran guard. He can be your eighth or ninth man next

Starting point is 00:03:09 year as a veteran player. And you have to fill out the roster some way, like why not with the guy coming back? But then he ends up transferring away. And I think it's only safe to assume that this is not something that, you know, if all things were equal, that, you know, this would still be a thing. It seems like some of the talk is that Diggy Coyt wanted an even bigger role that he was, you know, okay, he was content in the role he was in this year, but he was hoping to springboard that into a bigger role next season. And I don't think from Bill South's perspective, like they were like, oh, Diggy Coyt's in the perfect role. Now, obviously Bill South would probably view it from a standpoint of like, we'll give you an open competition. Like if you, if you ball out that well in the off season, sure, you can work your way into a bigger role, but we're not going to promise anything. And oh, you

Starting point is 00:03:55 want more NIL money? Sorry. Like that's a no-can-do as well. And so then you kind of hit an impasse and then, you know, Diggiegy quite moves on and best of luck to him. Moving forward wherever he will end up after this season. If there is one spot because Kansas doesn't really have many players left on the roster right now we'll get to that here in a second. But if there is one spot that you can actually afford to like lose a transfer right now I guess it is in at the guard position because Darren Peterson is a guard who's coming in Marco Jackson, Jamari McDowell who are planning to come back. It seems like at this point in time,

Starting point is 00:04:27 like those guys are guards. We'll see what happens with Noah Shelby. But if he works to a scholarship player, which all the Louis scholarship players this year, he's a guard like Jayden Nickens, the two way player for football players. Well, like he's a guard. So from that standpoint, you know, I guess that is a position you can afford to lose somebody a little bit easier. But I think now, like, obviously, it means they need to go out and get a replacement for somebody who is in that kind of what I've termed the Jalen Coleman lands role or from this past season, just the diggy quite role. Can you find a guard who is willing to be that eighth or ninth man who in a given game, if they're hot, they're going to play more if they come in and they missed their first couple threes okay might be an eight minute game night right and that's an important role for for a build self team to have because

Starting point is 00:05:11 usually obviously this year was a little bit different but a lot of years it's a seven man rotation and that's the eighth guy's role some years it's the eight man rotation and that's the ninth man's role. Now the other guy transferring entering the portal here is Ryland Griffin and like I said earlier, that's one that feels more like maybe caught you a little bit less off guard just because of the ups and downs of the years that you the year

Starting point is 00:05:32 that you can kind of see where things were headed. It certainly felt like it is interesting, though I built self got a lot of gruff for his usage or lack thereof at times the transfers and you know, yo yoing him in and out of the lineup and not giving him a long enough leash. And, you know, I maybe there's a little bit of fairness to some of that stuff. Like, I don't think, you know, it was perfect all the way through. And then maybe there should have been a longer leash and beginning of

Starting point is 00:05:57 the season to let him play through some stuff like I think those are those are fair conversations to have. At the same point in time. He started Ryland Griffin, 12 of the final 13 games, he started a the final eight games and 12 of the last 13. And then I think it was like 13 last 15 or something. And that was over a stretch where in February, the month of February, he only shot 31% from the field. And then in the month of March, he only shot 21% from the field. So Ryland Griffin was not playing his best

Starting point is 00:06:27 basketball at the end of this season for KU. Now how much of that was, you know, kind of a confidence killer from KU when he has like a great game against Houston in the double overtime, and then Kansas loses. And then he kind of goes back to being yo, yo, didn't not line up again, like probably could have handled that better. But still, like he was getting ample opportunities, he just couldn't really take advantage. So I don't know that I really blame. I don't know the coaching staff for that one. And it's interesting because he was

Starting point is 00:06:54 the one guy who come into the air was like, okay, this can be a great fit, right? You need a shooter, if you're gonna be playing KJ and Hunter Dickinson, you want somebody who can space the floor with Hunter Dickinson, obviously, it didn't help that he wasn't making shots over the final two months of the season to where you know, that kind of goes away. And I don't really know what to do with this long term because is the takeaway lesson here like, I don't have a takeaway lesson with diggie quite leaving it's

Starting point is 00:07:17 like you kind of got exactly what you were hoping for out of the equally, eighth or ninth male whatever, with Ryland Griffin, you were hoping he was gonna be one of the starters, the very least would be one of the top six in the rotation was going to be a really good shooter for you and open up all this stuff on offense, right. And that didn't really end up happening consistently. And so is kind of the lesson here, you go back to Nick Jimberlake a year before. Yeah, yeah, even if you look at

Starting point is 00:07:38 AJ store, who, you know, is more of just a score and like, what else do you provide? Is the lesson here for Bill Self teams, you're better off getting a 33% three point shooter who is a little more well rounded than a guy who's 36% or 37% from three, but doesn't do anything else just because the guy who's 33% from three is going to be trusted to stay on the floor more and is going to shoot with more confidence and you know, Bill Self is going to be trusted to stay on the floor more and is going to shoot with more confidence. And, you know, Bill Suffs is going to trust them more. I think there is something to that, a little bit of that lesson, right? At the same point in time though,

Starting point is 00:08:12 like you can go back and find other guys where like, I don't know, like Isaiah Moss, he didn't do a ton else besides shoot the basketball. Was it just that roster was more desperate for it because Devon Dotson was a sub 30% shooter his sophomore year and Doke obviously couldn't shoot and Marcus Garrett, who's out there a lot wasn't a huge three point shooter. So it was like more of a necessity to have an Isaiah.

Starting point is 00:08:34 Like if you swap Rylan Griffin in that role, does he play more just because he kind of has to or why? Was it just that Isaiah Moss was gaining the trust of the coaches more? Was he more fundamentally sound on the defensive end of the ball? Was he more fundamentally sound and consistent on the day to day? Whereas with Ryland, maybe it was a little bit more up and down, right? But I guess maybe that's the takeaway. It is more of a kind of mentality thing.

Starting point is 00:08:58 And I don't know how you scout on that in the portal. That's got to be very difficult for Bill Suffuffin Scout and staff to kind of do here. So obviously the immediate impact is that KU does need more wings, which is a new we talked a little bit about it on the other episode the other day if you're an everyday or thanks for catching that with right Rikki Spassmore transferring away that yeah, you're gonna need you know, another wing out of this or wings, plural out of this because you look at the roster and I mentioned

Starting point is 00:09:26 with Peterson and the other two freshmen Calderon and Tiller who will be redshirt freshman. Calderon I guess you count as a wing as more of probably a four man but you don't really have any true wings on the roster. Now if you wanted to you could play Darren Peterson as a wing he's six five with a six ten wingspan and you really anywhere, probably one through four, and it would work. Let me say, I think the plan is to play him as the one, or in theory, as, you know, it could be like two point cards out there and Peterson is one of them.

Starting point is 00:09:56 But you don't really have any wings on the roster. Like you're going to have to go get a starting level wing. You're going to have to go get probably a bench level wing. Do you even bring in like a developmental wing, you could at least use to do you end up with three with Griffin leaving and then beyond that it's the archetype thing right like you need shooters you need shooters on this team. Now going back to what I said the lessons learned, you probably look for guys who

Starting point is 00:10:17 can be shooters and at least provide something else or at least can have that mentality to gain build self trust. And you have to do a good job of finding that in the portal. So it's not just a one dimensional shooter, so that, you know, you don't have to worry about this kind of in and out of the lineup yo yo thing and, and, you know, the ups and downs over the course of the season. But it is very clear they're going to need those things because with Darren Peterson, you're going to want shooting around him. So he has

Starting point is 00:10:44 enough space to operate and be the most effective he can be. Marco Jackson, if he is back to full health, you know, the idea of him is this super athletic driver. Well, you're going to want to open the floor for him to right. I mean, we have no idea who the center is going to be. If it wasn't going to be flory before, like clearly you would need, you know, shooting around that but shooting is always important in today's age of college basketball. So here's some of the interesting portal targets. There are some very interesting

Starting point is 00:11:07 names that entered today. Let's discuss those on Lockdown Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money. And with Monarch Money, have you ever checked your bank account and wondered where did all my money go between dining out and online shopping and entertainment? It's easy to lose track. And that is where Monarch Money, have you ever checked your bank account and wondered where did all my money go between dining out and online shopping and entertainment? It's easy to lose track. And that is where Monarch Money comes in. Your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn't just a budgeting app. It's a complete financial command center.

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Starting point is 00:13:12 Continuing on the show with locked on Jayhawk. Sorry, who are some possible potential portal targets for KU basketball? Because certainly some interesting names entered into the portal today that play, I don't know, all sorts of positions, I guess, right? And all the players enter the portal. Anyway, let's share our handy dandy Google Sheet here. If you're watching with us on

Starting point is 00:13:37 YouTube, we'll describe this if you're listening on an audio platform. I wanted to start here looking at the forwards because a very interesting name joined the portal today. And that would be Yaxle Lendeborg, who is a transfer from UAB. Before that, he was at Arizona Western Community College. This dude might be a late first round pick or at the very least an early second round pick.

Starting point is 00:13:55 So there's no guarantee because he's entering the portal and the draft that he comes out. But like this dude has unbelievable production. Like immediately he could play the four or the five, immediately becomes one of the top targets available that is in the portal. So that would certainly be a home run

Starting point is 00:14:12 should KU be able to land a kid like that. Some interesting ones, the KU has had contact with the four with McGriff and Sutton. I know they had contact last year, at least reported with Duncan Powell. So it'll be interesting to see what they do at that position. I didn't want to go take a look at the guards though, because that's a position where

Starting point is 00:14:32 obviously, you know, diggy quite leaves. And if you're looking specifically to fill the diggy quite role, because I think they're aware a lot over these past couple days of players in my my tier one is my possible star players, which I don't know, it kind of a, there's no like definitive criteria. But my tier two is likely starter, meaning that like I'm expecting you to start if you come to Kansas. And there's some very interesting names that enter there.

Starting point is 00:14:53 Jacobi Gillespie, who is coach of Maryland left for the Villanova job. He enters the portal at a really strong season as part of the crab five, as they called it. Ryan Conwell love his shooting and defensive ability. K.J. Lewis, really good defender that could really help take the top offensive option off of Darren Peterson's plate. Rodney Rice entered really good shooter and complimentary guard, which I think would work well

Starting point is 00:15:16 with Darren Peterson there. Nigel Pack, I think people remember him from his Kansas State days. He just came off an injury here. Some interesting ones in that category. But if we're looking down, maybe a little bit more to our tier four, which is kind of that diggy coy JCL role.

Starting point is 00:15:31 By the way, if you are watching and you're wondering how are these sorted, I have them sorted in tiers. There's not a lot of thought though, once they get in the tier about who is better than the rest. I try to put the guys that are committed a little further down the list,

Starting point is 00:15:41 but Jaron Pierre entered, I forget if that was yesterday or two days ago. He's an interesting one, 38% from three on almost eight attempts per game. If you're just looking for that, you know, specific archetype, he's six, five. Mackay Mason had some interest from KU last year. Was it Rice last year, transferred to Washington,

Starting point is 00:15:59 closer to 10 points per game, mostly a shooter, 40% from three over four attempts per game, but also had a good Hakim rate of his steel plus block percentage. So maybe a little interest there. Samajay Teal had some interest from KU according to John Rothstein, 17 points per game, 47% from the floor, 35% from three is okay.

Starting point is 00:16:17 And the five and a half three point attempts per game is also good there. There's a lot of names that are kind of in this area. Now, Trajan Eagle Staff, who I think we had one of our YouTube shorts on, he ended up picking South Carolina. So that's one possible less option. There's also some interest from, I think, Jaden Young, he committed to High Point, which had a little bit of an error on there. But point being, as I'm

Starting point is 00:16:41 going through this on the guards, there are a lot of guards out there. I think more, there are a lot of guards out there. I think more so guards than a lot of these other positions. Like if I pull up the two, three wings, I mean, I don't have a lot of guys on there. The three fours, like a little bit more than the two threes, but not as much as the guards. There's a good amount of forward centers.

Starting point is 00:16:59 I have more in like my tier threes and later ons right now. The guards, there's a lot. And maybe that gives you options to wait a little bit longer on picking up a guard in the portal, because there continue to be good ones that enter in each and every day. But as you need a starting guard to, you know, play next to Darren Peterson, you've got a lot of options in that tier two worth of things. But

Starting point is 00:17:23 you also look at the, you know, tier four guys that could be those, like I said, David Quaid kind of replacements and those have been like, I don't want to say a dime a dozen because it makes it sound like those guys like don't have value they do but like, there are just so many of them. And there's probably more I could even add into the list that kind of fill that role of being somebody who scores high points at the

Starting point is 00:17:45 smaller school. They shoot a lot of threes, they hit a lot of threes. And if that's specifically what you're looking for, I think you can find a lot of those guys, it becomes less about, can you find one of them? It's about can you find one of them that is willing to take on that specific role that knows, hey, in a given game, I might only play five minutes. Then another game I might play 20. And that was one of the rare luxuries you did have with Jalen Coleman lands, the idea that he was like, okay,

Starting point is 00:18:11 with it that he was coming to KU to be a part of a winning team. He was on some teams that weren't great. I think he was on the Iowa State team that didn't want a big 12 game. He wanted to win some games, he wanted to connect he was like, he had like on entrepreneurial passions as well. And he like wanted to get some good connections and KU obviously has all sorts of great connections from the business world and the post college, you know, career world.

Starting point is 00:18:33 And so that was very helpful to him. Can you find somebody like that? It's got to be hard in today's day and age, but that wasn't that long ago and there are probably still players out there that are in that same boat. So can you find that? What about the wing position? Let's discuss some of those here in a second with Lockdown Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:20:23 Search bracket breakdown to see it all for free on Amazon Fire TV channels. Search Bracket Breakdown to see it all for free. It's your team every day. Don't forget to make Lockdown College Basketball your second listen every day. Thanks for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. And we're gonna have some more deep dives of targets in the transfer portal for KU Basketball coming up. And obviously, this episode's talking about the news

Starting point is 00:20:43 of anything that goes down with KU losing players KU bringing in players, all that sort of does not much left that they can lose at this point in time. Okay, we took a look at some of the guards available. And I mentioned, you know, one of the big names that entered today that would be I don't know at this point, near the top of the list, if not the top in Axel Lendeborg, we're going to get to another guy who would be at the top list that I don't think we've touched on

Starting point is 00:21:05 yet, but he'll be in this wing discussion here. So we'll get to him right now. Go back to our handy dandy little Google Sheet here. So what about the wings that the tooth or have wings separated into categories, the two three wings, which is like Josh Dix, you're probably not going to want to plan it for and then your three four wings that probably a little bit too big, not maybe not quick enough or maybe not as good of a shooter to shoot at the two position.

Starting point is 00:21:28 But Josh Dix continues to be out there. What's going to go on there? The longer he goes away from visiting KU and not committing, it probably makes you feel a little more antsy and a little like, Oh, is this going to actually happen or not? Like, what's going on there? That probably doesn't feel great. But I do remember maybe this is a bad example because of you know, the results weren't great at the end feel great. But I do remember, and maybe this is a bad example, because of, you know, the results weren't great at the end of this. But I remember Nick Timberlake, it was like, oh, he he went to the UConn visit, I

Starting point is 00:21:51 think, after the Kansas visitor, maybe the UNC visit was the one after the Kansas visit. And it was like, ah, if he didn't commit on the visit, like, I don't know if he's gonna, but it ended up being like a week or two later, committed and picked Kansas. So there is a story, though, hopefully different results if that happens. Lamar Wilkerson, according to draft express, Kansas is one of the schools recruiting him and Wilkerson, forty four and a half percent from three seven point seven attempts per game.

Starting point is 00:22:15 He's also somebody who had a 60th percentile offensive rebound rate. So at least solid on one end of the floor getting rebounds. He would be somebody who I think you could convince me he would come off the bench or he could end up being a starter. Jamar Brown entered today. He's from nearby UMKC. 17 points per game. He had a 20 point game at Iowa State earlier this year and also a good three point shooter over 40 percent.

Starting point is 00:22:39 Also, what I love about Jamar Brown, seven point four rebounds per game, 99th percentile for his position at offensive rebound rate. So there's a couple of interesting names there. There was some reported interest with Abdi Bashir. To some extent, it sounds like KU is having a zoom call with Bashir, which very interesting because I don't typically view him as a Bill Self guy. But if you're just looking for a shooter, and he's cool with that role 38% from three on 10 attempts for

Starting point is 00:23:05 game. I mean, that dude can really stroke it from the outside. The question is, you know, what else could he do? But if it's the Jalen Coleman lands role, then that's totally fine. If not, then there are some questions there. I do like Victoria's Miller as a long term play from LSU. But question becomes, is this going to be Bill Self's last year? Is he thinking that with how everything has gone and you know, this isn't very fun to do anymore. I want to coach Darren Peterson. And I don't know if

Starting point is 00:23:29 that will happen or not. But like, also just having Darren Peterson knowing you're only gonna have him for one season. Does it make you more likely to be like, No, I don't want guys who are going to take a couple years, give me all the one year transfers that are entirely possible. As far as the three, four wings, RJ Lewis is the other big name that entered the other day. That was maybe three or four days ago, but he's a six, seven wing from St. John's, I believe the biggest player of the year, really good rebounder, really good defensive stats. Now some of those inflated a bit by the system they run at Louisville, but I think

Starting point is 00:23:59 he is a good defender and a really good score on the inside. He had 14 years of 20 or more points, but 10 games with 10 or more rebounds. That'll keep you on the court with Bill Self. Keishon Hall also a huge name. We saw what he can do when he was at UCF against Kansas. And he's somebody with both those guys where I think would have a huge impact for KU if they could possibly land them. You go further down the list and then maybe some developmental guys

Starting point is 00:24:27 or guys you could have off the bench. But I think of that three, four position, it's mostly kind of those star guys, Lewis and Hall, that intrigue you, especially after losing Ryland Griffin. All right, that'll do it for this episode though of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:24:42 We'll have some deep dives going in a little bit more on some of those players we talked about, these are players we haven't even talked about or haven't even entered yet. Because the portal is wicked and wild. And we'll talk to you next time anywhere you podcast or on our YouTube page right here with Lockdown Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SELF-CLEANING: Rylan Griffen & Diggy Coit TRANSFER - Where Do the Jayhawks Look in the Portal?

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