Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Self's Recruiting REVOLUTION at Kansas | Can the Jayhawks Dominate with More Freshmen Than Portal?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bill self-hired, Jock Vaughn, and Tony Bland. They've already landed the number one point card in Taylin Kinney. Is self about to become the next one-and-done factory in college basketball? 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, this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks so much for making it your first listen every day. And thank you every day. Here's catching each and every episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:00:34 We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we are breaking down KU basketball recruiting and how, you know, due to some recent events and things that they've done with hiring and landing Taylin Kinney, is it possible that Kansas is about to become that next, I don't know, John Calipari Duke team that's bringing in several one and duns each and every year and just bringing in a load of talent each and every year. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, which you can use to buy tickets

Starting point is 00:01:11 for the upcoming KU basketball season. Just create an account, download the GameTime app, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with Game Time. Okay, so if you've been living under a rock and thank you if you already caught the episode, but KU landed Taylin Kinney. He's the number one point card in the class of 2026. And now they have another player that's going to be two other players that are going to be committing later this week. Now, will Kansas land both of them?

Starting point is 00:01:40 I don't know. We'll Kansas land one of them, but they are in the running for both. And it certainly seems like Kansas has put themselves in good shape to possibly land both players that are going to be committing this week. We'll get on that, you know, more on that little later in the show. But there's been plenty of other players, right, guys that haven't. decided yet that have visited KU that seem to have some level of interest from KU. I mean, we all remember Tyron Stokes, the number one player in the class of 2026 visiting KU this past off season.

Starting point is 00:02:08 So it just feels like that, you know, you already have Kenya board. It feels like you're going to have some other commits coming in, other players that you're, you have your, I don't know, irons in the fire, so to speak. And it just feels like this is about to be a very special recruiting class for Bill Self and for KU. And like this was after Taylin Kinney committed to Kansas, Joe Tipton from On 3 tweeted out this quote from an interview with him and he said, shoot, I already know the one that's coming, right? When I said I was going, I put that call in. I ain't going to say his name, but he going to announce.

Starting point is 00:02:41 So one of those players that's going to be announcing this week, you would assume he's going to go to KU, if not both again. And then he also mentioned Kenny, he said, and then trying to get Tyrant, as in Tyrant Stokes. And I think both are originally from Kentucky before they, you know, went out to, I guess, the West Coast and are playing this level of prep basketball. So point being, this has the chance to be a very special class in terms of what Bill Self is bringing in. Now, could it just be a one-off or could this be a way of going about things for the future? And that's where I think this is really, really interesting because if we go back to Bill Self's comments about freshmen, this was at Bill Self's most recent press conference. So the last press conference he had, and this was a direct quote back on all. August 15th. Sometimes freshmen are easier to coach than transfers, because freshmen don't know

Starting point is 00:03:28 any better, where transfers have been taught their own way of doing things, and your way may be different. So I just can't help but wonder with how the transfer portal has gone for KU, where there have been some big whiffs here or there, where this past off season, you get into some bidding wars and maybe lose out on a player and it forced you to go to Plan B or Plan C. It forces you to go overseas with recruiting some players or forcing guys to, not forcing, but, you know, getting players to reclassify. It forced you to get really creative and work late into the off season this year. Is it possible that Bill Self is saying, you know what, maybe this is better to bring in freshmen, bringing in a lot of really talented freshmen because with the Transfer Portal players,

Starting point is 00:04:10 they haven't always come in and just worked perfectly into my system. And, you know, when you get this past off season and you end up in some of these bidding wars, and then you'll lose that on them and you have to, you know, make these other concessions, do you get to a certain point where you say, but I've always kind of had success with the high school game? Maybe I'm focusing too much on the portal and I'd rather land the big fish at the high school level that can be an uber talented player or future NBA player than go this route as much. Doesn't mean you're not going to use the portal. You still will.

Starting point is 00:04:40 You have to use the portal in today's day and age. But do you get your stars similar to how this roster is built? You get the star players on your team via the high school ranks and surround them with good role players in the transfer portal and then maybe have a couple like program guys that have been developing and you know can play a role on your team is that the ideal way that bill self sees you know building roster after these last two years in which you did hit the portal hard and you had your two worst seasons in terms of the seeds that bill self got in his time at kansas and so you take that into account then they hire and then these hirings came i guess before those

Starting point is 00:05:15 those comments but or at least the the jock vaughn one did but they hired jock vaughn and they hire Tony Bland, right, as their two assistant coaches. And Jock obviously comes with being a former, you know, just all everything guard at Kansas. His jersey is hanging in the rafters. And Allen Fieldhouse has an NBA playing career. He has coaching experience, assistant head coach in the NBA. And like Taylor and Kenny mentioned him as being a key part of the recruitment and why he chose KU. It's hard not to see the impact of Jock Vaughn and having because Kansas wasn't seen as the favorite in the Taylor and Kenny recruitment. And then he came and visited and that changed. Now, how much was it, you know, the visit was great and how much was Bill Self and how much were the players and how much was money talks, right? That is important in today's day and age. But like to some extent, Jog Vaughn was important in the recruitment of Tail and Kinney, right, which makes sense because Vaughn, former point guard and Kinney comes in to play that position. And especially when you look at what Vaughn is doing seemingly the work he's putting in with Darren Peterson, right? So it's hard not to see that and the impact that that could possibly have.

Starting point is 00:06:20 And then in the impact that it could possibly have on future players down the road. And then you look at Tony Brand and Tony Bland comes with a bunch of recruiting ties, whether it was at his previous stops or some of the guys out there. I mean, Taja Rizzo was somebody that KU was kind of circling around too because of him, because he could like coach him in high school. That one, that visit fell through. But like there's still plenty of other West Coast talent that Bland has, you know, ties to or at least you would think is a little bit more familiar with being from over there.

Starting point is 00:06:48 Like Christian Collins is a top 10 recruit in the class. Maximo Adams is a top 25 recruit. Adams already visited like Collins, maybe he will visit. There's a bunch of players if you look at the top rankings from the West Coast, California, Arizona, et cetera. Even like, again, like Tyrant Stokes originally from Kentucky, but he's playing his high school ball in Southern California. And so you look at the additions of those two guys combined with maybe

Starting point is 00:07:13 a mindset shift from Bill's self. It just seems like having those guys who have a really strong ability in Vaughn and Bland to relate to players. I mean, it's not just Vaughn, who was a, you know, really good point guard in college. Bland was a, I don't know if Bland was a point guard, but he was a really good garden college. I mean, he was putting up like over 16 points per game for San Diego State his last year in college basketball. Those two guys probably can relate to the players in a lot of ways because they've been through the grind of college basketball and been very good players. So that doesn't hurt the ability. And seemingly it's helping KU in this regard. And so if you're built self and you're saying, you know what, I would rather be able to coach up a

Starting point is 00:07:52 freshman and teach them things I want them to do as opposed to trying to coach out a transfer portal player or basically just having a finished product that I can't really change and hope that it works out. I would rather go out there and bring in that freshman. And then if I have these good assistant coaches who help me in the recruiting to bring these players on. And now you're seeing the effect of it. And certainly like, you can probably attribute some of this too to the Darren Peterson effect. Being able to land Darren Peterson, it certainly helped you in the Taylin Kinney commitment. He had some quotes and comments about that being the case. And does it just keep the line going, right? Just Darren Peterson help you land tail and Kenny? And does Taylorin Kinney help you land to the next

Starting point is 00:08:31 tailon Kenny? And does that kid help you land the next kid when you're able to kind of keep it going in that way. And so you add it all together. And I can't help but wonder if this is not just going to be a one year thing where it's like, hey, you know, we're going big on this high school recruiting class. And this is not going to be a mentality shift to Bill. So we've seen different mentality shifts, you know, for a few years here, there through different times, whether it's been schematically, like how they've played four out around one, playing two bigs or whatever it is, like with high school recruiting, with transfer portal recruiting. And I can't help but think, you know, combined your fully out of the NCAA investigation stuff now,

Starting point is 00:09:10 you've had some swings and misses in the portal. Like John Calipari's still going to bring on big recruits, but he's no longer at Kentucky. So I don't think it's going to be as much of a stranglehold. And I think Mark Pope is going to use the transfer portal more than Calipari was. Certainly Duke is still going to be Duke and get, you know, the high level five stars that they want to a certain extent. But for a long time, it was Duke and Kentucky.

Starting point is 00:09:33 We're both doing that. So does Kansas fill kind of that role a little bit more? And I think there's another interesting question with this of like, is it actually more affordable to use NIL this way? And how does the Revsure? How does David Booth's donation kind of help with all that? Let's get to that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:10:52 Quo, no missed calls, no missed customers. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll have plenty of more KU Football Talk with a KUUCF preview. and a crossover episode and keys to the game, all that coming up later this week on Locked on Jayhawks. And of course, if there's any more commitment news this week, we'll get to that too right here with LOJ.

Starting point is 00:11:14 So make sure you're subscribed to the show and thank you the everydayers who already are. All right. So part of this two that I think is interesting, is it more or less expensive with NIL to bring in a bunch of high school recruits? I think you can make the argument either way. Obviously, like guys like Darren Peterson and A.J. DeBonsa,

Starting point is 00:11:31 that guy's going to be more expensive, right, than the top transfer guy. I think some of the numbers that were floated. I mean, DeBontza, the number he floated out there, I think it was what, like $5 million, six million. I think that was more than, I think the number that was floated out there for like Yaxel Landenberg or Landberg, whatever it is, who was like the really good UIB transfer could have been maybe like a late first round pick and to transfer into Michigan was like four,

Starting point is 00:11:53 four and a half million or something. So, but that's crazy though because I guess like there's a chance like the floor is much higher that Landberg could come in and it's probably going to be an all conference player. but the ceiling is much higher on a guy like DeBonsa. Then again, we've seen freshmen come in and struggle. So the floor is lower in that situation. But I actually think, like, to me, paying $4 to $5 million for a top tier guy that could potentially be a top five pick in the NBA draft, I do think that's going to be a higher ceiling for your team.

Starting point is 00:12:22 And maybe my judgment is just clouded by the, I guess I'm thinking of like the KU comparisons. Like, think about the top high school rated recruits that KU has brought in under Bill Self. Andrew Wiggins. He was a second team All-American. I know it didn't end the way you wanted to, but again, if Joel and B's healthy, who knows. Josh Jackson had an unbelievable year with Kansas. Those guys would have been worth the money.

Starting point is 00:12:44 Whereas when you think back to who would be the two biggest transfer portal gets for KU during the self-era just in terms of when they got them, right? You can make an argument, oh, was it Jeff Withey based on what happened, but when they first got him, it wasn't as big as when they got, say, Hunter Dickinson or when they got Dieter Lawson.

Starting point is 00:13:00 Again, maybe you could argue Remi Martin as well. If we're just looking at Diedrich Lawson and Hunter Dickinson, those guys are really productive college players, but how much did they raise the ceiling of Kansas or were they just floor raisers? Because, like, I guess the way I'm getting at this is the guys who are transferring in the portal, they're in the portal because they want a, like, I shouldn't say this. And Lawson, you know, was before NIL. But point being, they were in the portal for different reasons than, you know, I guess you would say a high school. freshman is. High school freshman is going to his college because he has to go to college before he goes to pro. If a really good all American level productive college player is in the portal instead of going pro, it's most likely because of the fact that they haven't had the chance to go pro.

Starting point is 00:13:48 They didn't get that first round promise or whatever. And so there's going to be limitations on that player, I guess is what I'm saying, where it's a higher floor, but it also is a lower ceiling. And so from that perspective, I would rather take the home run swing on, you know, bringing on it Darren Peterson or a top five recruit of what it could potentially be in raising your ceiling, then bring it on a player who you're going to pay enough that they're going to have to be the focal point of everything you do, but might have certain flaws in their game of the reason why they're still in college, if that makes sense. Now, the next tier, I think, kind of becomes debatable.

Starting point is 00:14:22 I have no idea, but like, for instance, a $3 million player is that one where you'd rather use it on a portal player than a high school player, maybe? because if you're talking about a high school kid who's ranked between, I don't know, like 10th to 25th and they're going to be $3 million, which I don't know, that might be too expensive. And you're comparing, like, say, Dary and Williams, for instance, is getting like $2.5 million. I guess in that situation, give me Dary and Williams. But, like, even then, it kind of depends because you're talking like Grady Dick. And, like, Brady Dick was a really productive player.

Starting point is 00:14:52 And so, I don't know, it just becomes very interesting because does getting the high school kid increase your chances of landing another high school kid either in this class because they're friends or buddies or somebody else, they're going to recruit for you, or it helps you in the future, right, with Darren Peterson to Taylin Kinney, right? And the other part of this, too, that I think is helpful with the high school recruiting is it gives you one less spot you have to fill in the off season because here's the thing. Like right now, if you can land these high school commits, it's almost like, yes, there's going to be a lot of everybody technically can bid on it now, but at the end of the day, a lot of teams are going to save their money for the following offseason

Starting point is 00:15:30 in the transfer portal, and then they're going to know exactly what they have available, both in terms of playing time, shots, opportunities, starting lineup positions, money to have, and then everybody's going to be in that situation like, hey, I have $10 million. This is what I can spend on this player and this player and this player. If you get ahead of that right now, don't you think that helps than opposed to like, oh, no, we're now in the beginning of May. And instead of you bidding, you know, right now it might be more like, I don't know, restrained or like disciplined bidding where it's like, hey, we can't overbid on this player in

Starting point is 00:16:06 September in October who's going to be a freshman because we don't know how much we're going to have available for the rest of the roster if we do that. So it has to be more disciplined if you do it right now versus if you go out in May and land one of the top transfers, you could be like, oh, we have by far the biggest offer. Everybody was offering $2 million, we upped it to three. And then all of a sudden one team comes out there in a big booster right to check and they go, yeah, we just have one final your spot. Here's three and a half million. And it starts getting a little crazier. Do you avoid some of that crazy? I know this is crazy to think because for so many years, college basketball high school recruiting was where the crazy Wild West was. And now it feels like some of that, not all of it,

Starting point is 00:16:43 some of it has shifted over to the transfer portal. So I don't know. Just kind of food for thought here of I don't have the answer exactly. Like we don't know and we won't until if these numbers ever get publicized, which if they become contracts, then that would kind of be the situation. But like, for instance what is the comparison between the top transfer pool guys versus the top high school recruits versus the second tier of high school recruits versus the second tier you know and on and on down the list could you convince me that yeah like it actually is more efficient money wise to bring in those players or like you know for instance what if a top 50 high school kid costs one million dollars whereas a jaden dawson level player costs one million dollars what do you do there do you roll the dice on the high school kid because they might impact this year they might not and And then they could transfer at the end of the year, then again, they could develop and be a stud for you down the road. So it's like it becomes a very interesting discussion, but I do think it's one that I'm at least open to knowing how bonkers the transfer portal has gotten, that what if it just does become a little bit more efficient to use the high school game, at least for certain guys kind of based on this. Now, obviously, David Boots, you know, big donation that basically set Kansas up, you know, beyond the, the gateway district and everything it had to do with that. It also sets KU up in a way that they basically have this giant slush fund that's going to accrue interest and basically,

Starting point is 00:17:57 allow them to pay for their rev share. And this is something that is going to be a huge deal for KU basketball and all the KU sports in general. But I think it just makes it a lot easier for Bill Self and Company to fully know that they have their rev share filled out and guaranteed or whatever and that they have that money available. That's another piece of the puzzle of this going back to what I was saying. You know, maybe some teams can't guarantee, hey, we're going to have this much money available for next year right now in September or October, a full year out before the next season because they don't know what their their donors are going to donate by them. Kansas is afforded that luxury by David Booth's donation that they can know right now,

Starting point is 00:18:35 yeah, we're going to have our full rev share next year. And because of that, we know we can offer you this money, whereas another school might be like, I don't know, maybe we should save it. Maybe we'll end up having that money, but I guess we'll just use it in the transfer portal. That is such an advantage for KU to know what they're kind of dealing with. And it also, you know, allows that, you know, for Bill Self or whoever in the athletic department from KU to kind of talk to donors about doing NIL deals where they don't have to, okay, we need to talk to this donor to pay for our rev share. And now we're going back to that same donor to be like, okay, we're filled up on revsure. Now can you give an NIL donation to this player as well? Now you don't have to do

Starting point is 00:19:09 that. Now you have the revsure covered. Now all you have to ask for is the NIL deal or something like that. So I think it's going to help KU in a big way. And I think because of that certainty, I guess you would say with the money, I guess if it is still in the market, it's, I don't know if it's fully certain, but you know what I mean. I think that helps KU in this situation. And it wouldn't shock me if both from how Bill Self wants to build the roster just in general in terms of his coaching preference and how much he's enjoying coaching Darren Peterson, as well as maybe even a bit of the financial side. Again, it's very expensive to get high level high school prospects. But is it like, have we gotten to a point where the transfer portal players are no long,

Starting point is 00:19:49 longer a value. It's the same or it's more expensive than the high school thing. Just kind of food for that. All right, let's finish up with some of the latest news, including with KU basketball recruiting. A couple commits are going to be committing later this week that of Kansas and their finalist list. A little KU soccer, KU volleyball as well.

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Starting point is 00:20:59 with Fandual. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks and thank you again for tuning in each and every day. Make it your first listen. Don't forget to check out Locked on College football or read to college basketball season. Locked on college basketball for your second listen every day. So a couple of

Starting point is 00:21:17 commits are going to, many commits, they're going to be committing this week. But two that have Kansas on their finalist list. The first is coming up on Wednesday. So if you're listening to this on Tuesday, it'll be tomorrow. And that would be Trent Perry. Trent Perry is a just outside of the top 100 recruit, four-star recruit. He plays locally in the Missouri area.

Starting point is 00:21:35 I think Link Academy is the name of it. I don't think he's originally from like Dallas, Texas or something like that, but, you know, playing at prep school. He's going to be committing Wednesday. Kansas, TCU, Maryland are the finalists there. Really lengthy wing. He's got like 7-1 wingspan working on the shop, but maybe more of a developmental player.

Starting point is 00:21:52 And going back to what we talked about with, you know, the money aspect here, is it easier to bring on a role player who's a freshman in terms of cost of money than it is to bring on somebody who would possibly be a role player out of the transfer portal because A, most players who are hitting the transfer portal want a bigger role or something or they're just going to want more money. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:22:13 That is certainly interesting, but we'll see if K. You can land them. And then this Sunday, I believe, is when Dave, Avion Adkins, he is, it seems like Adkins and Taylor or KU's top center targets at this point in time. And with Adkins, he's kind of in the Floribodunga, I don't know, camp of like not the tallest center in the world. I think he's like six, eight, six, nine, but he's got really long arms, really big motor. And as we talk about the themes that Bill Self seems to be recruiting to and maybe wanting to turn more into the talented freshman that he can feel like, you know, he can coach up to his liking a little more than. the portal players also seems like he's finding kind of a type of what he wants at the center

Starting point is 00:22:52 position, which is kind of your rim running center who can dunk, block shots, rebound, and just play hard. And, you know, I think that's kind of very interesting. But we'll see if they land him over the weekend as well. So certainly a good start in recruiting for KU basketball. KU women's volleyball, since we last talked, you will not believe this. They lost in five sets to a ranked team. It was their home opener. And yes, they also did get up two sets to one. So, unfortunate. Arizona State's a very good team, though. Arizona State had already beat Penn State this year. They were ranked eighth at the time of them playing. Again, I continue to believe that some of these are going to turn. Now, I thought that KU football, the one score games would turn and they haven't. So like eventually you do have to show the results. But they followed it up with a 30 sweep against Arizona. Now it's a big one. They're on the road at TCU coming up on Wednesday. TCU's ranked 12th. That'll be October 1st. And then they're on the road against 15th ranked Baylor. on Friday. So really big week ahead. We'll see if they can turn that maybe one of those goes to five sets. Maybe they can start training that in the right track. It feels like once they win like one match in five sets, maybe it'll just open the floodgates and then they'll be just like unstoppable and win all their five set matches. That'd be pretty cool. But 10 and six now is the record for KU volleyball. For KU soccer, they had a great start to the season. And it still is a great start to the season, but not a good week last week for KU. Now they did get a 1-0 win in their big tool opener against Oklahoma State, but lost. 3-0 at home to Baylor and then they took on a number 10 TCU squad so you know understandable but

Starting point is 00:24:23 they lose three to two so unfortunately they're at home too for both of those to lose both you would hope to at least come away with you know one result there in terms of a draw at the very least but a chance to get back at it against kansas state that'll be a home game dylan sunflower showdown thursday october second and then they're going to be on the road against texas tech the upcoming sunday but still overall i'd imagine looking like a tournament team seven two and two is the record for Nate Lee and company, and they're undefeated so far on the road, 3-0 and 1 on the road. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks, plenty more KU football content, KU basketball content coming at you throughout the week here with LOJ.

Starting point is 00:24:59 And we'll see you next time for another edition. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Self's Recruiting REVOLUTION at Kansas | Can the Jayhawks Dominate with More Freshmen Than Portal?

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