Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - STALEMATE: Over 2 Months Since Kansas Basketball's Last Commit | Will Bill Self's PATIENCE Pay Off?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Another week, still not another commit for KU Basketball. What's going on in the slow off season? Where are things at with some of their player targets? 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 Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show when no matter where you grab it, whether it's anywhere you get your podcast or on our YouTube page where

Starting point is 00:00:38 you can like and subscribe. Thank you to you for listening and or watching on today's edition of the show. We're breaking down where we're at right now in the KU basketball offseason because another week still not another commit things continue to be slow for KU that doesn't mean that they won't end up with the desired result of what they want with the roster. But we're going to break down where things are at right now why they're so slow. Who are the current options? Yada, yada, yada. There's also a gigantic court case that's about to be going on with

Starting point is 00:01:06 the NCAA shocker there right court cases in the NCAA but that could deal with tampering. That's always a fun topic, right. And then we'll get into a little transfer portal talk with KU baseball bringing on some big commits on their own right today's episode of the show is brought to you by fan dual sportsbook. Right now new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. You can do that over at FanDuel. Okay, so we are sitting now in toward the end of June. I mean, the summer solstice has

Starting point is 00:01:35 now officially passed. So I guess we're officially in summer. We're a week away basically from July, we're, you know, I guess what, less than two weeks away from the fourth of July, and KU is still sitting with three open scholarships, right? We've seen Kansas go into years where they still have an open scholarship or something late in the game, maybe even like two open scholarships. Never has it been to this degree, at least in the time I can think of with Bill Self, right? Maybe there's some exceptions to the rule. That doesn't mean that you can't find good players late in the game. You think of Brandon Rush,

Starting point is 00:02:05 you think of Johnny Furphy is the more recent example, right? You can find those good players late in the game. Like I think Marvin Bagley for Duke was a reclass and then a role in like August for them, right? So you can still find those good players. It just feels like there's not that sense of urgency. I don't know that that's actually that,

Starting point is 00:02:21 in fact, no, I feel very good saying that's not actually what's happening. Like Bill Self is making phone calls. He's talking to people who's trying to get this stuff done. It's just it feels like they've been more buttoned up with what is getting out to the media, what is getting leaked? Just I don't know, in general, I think some of the international stuff is not going to get as much public news because things are just operated differently from

Starting point is 00:02:42 that standpoint. But like, what a wild ride this has been to get here, whether you're talking about players that were targets for KU that picked other schools that they really wanted to get. And then, you know, get the rug pulled out from underneath you kind of in the end. And here we are left with being at this point late in the game. Like, think about this. Because if you do feel like it has been a long time since KU has got a committee, it's one thing if KU again did have one scholarship spot open, and it's like, okay, it has been a long time since KU has got to commit, right? It's one thing if KU again did have

Starting point is 00:03:06 one scholarship spot open, and it's like, okay, it's been over a month since they've gotten a commit, like, you know, it would still feel like it's waiting a while, but it's like, okay, well, it's one final spot, we're still three open spots, and possibly one or two of those spots going to players who could be like rotation players. It feels like it is taking forever like Corbin Allen. Corbin Allen was K use last commit he picked Kansas or committed whatever you want to say on May 20. So

Starting point is 00:03:30 that's over a month ago. And that was one where it's like people were like, rumoring it was going to happen for a while. So that one kind of felt like it was it was in the fold. And so for like a team with as much cash as KU and as much as many spots open and I guess as much cash as well as KU could possibly have. I don't know, maybe maybe they don't have that much of that one left. But still, for all intensive purposes to like if we're looking at that Corbin Allen pickup as more of a long term edition, which it is more

Starting point is 00:03:58 of a depth edition, which it is like, I don't expect Corbin Allen to come in and you'll be playing in the rotation. The last like rotation pickup for KU a player that they have added via the portal or high school whatever that figures to come in and be a part of the rotation make an impact on this year's team is Melvin council. And for Melvin council, when did he commit to Kansas, you have to go back to April 16, which means if you're listening to this on Monday, it

Starting point is 00:04:23 has been 68 days since KU has gotten their last like impact commit their last rotation commit. And they still have three scholarship spots open. This is unprecedented times for Kansas. Obviously, a bit of why this has happened is maybe been, I think a bit of it is intentional. I think a bit of it is intentional and didn't go exactly the way they wanted, right? I think some of it is out of their control. Like maybe you get a commit from a guy

Starting point is 00:04:51 like that you like overseas and you can't get them eligible, right? Or maybe you feel like you're going to get somebody and then you like get the rug pulled out from underneath you, right? But it does feel like there weren't enough contingency plans or maybe the fact of being more patient this year, there was a certain does feel like there weren't enough contingency plans or maybe the the fact of being more patient this year, there was a certain line that like, okay,

Starting point is 00:05:09 yeah, maybe you're more patient this year than you were a season ago. But the way I look at it, like, if we're to look at the the past issues or transgressions, when you look at last year, what they did in the portal, obviously, it didn't work for KU. I don't view it as it didn't work because they got commits too early in the game. Like, I don't view it as it didn't work because they got Riley Kugel committed so early and Rylan Griffin committed so early and so on. I just view it as they

Starting point is 00:05:35 picked the wrong guys, right. And so it almost feels like this year, they did go from just going from star player, you know, get the big name to going for what is a player is gonna fit our system or fit what Bill self wants, which I think they've done a good job of doing that to be clear. But it feels like they've done that while also being more patient. And I don't know that that was needed. Maybe you just be aggressive for the guys you identify and the guys you want. I don't know, is that

Starting point is 00:06:02 like a learning situation out of all this? Maybe it is. The other question is like, are they having trouble closing guys? It's felt like for the longest time, like spring bill, that term for Bill self because he would win. Like, it always felt like they needed that one more big edition in the spring in a lot of previous seasons. And it always felt like you could rely on Bill self to come through that. And he did in majority of scenarios. And it felt like this year, there's been a striking out on several

Starting point is 00:06:28 occasions for them to be able to close and even the guys where it's like, you know, you feel like somebody's visiting for KU you feel like somebody's rumored to KU and then it's like, oh, they didn't close him right. And then we think about just the recent guys, for instance, right? You think about having Ken McDowell on campus, a D two transfer where you would think being at Kansas like, I know this sounds a little like, oh, almighty Kansas, yada, yada, yada. But like, you would think you would be able to close that guy on a visit. Now, who knows, maybe the visiting go well for

Starting point is 00:06:56 one of the two parties, maybe Kansas, I don't know where I want to keep their options open, who knows, right? But like, you see that you see Cole Rosario visiting this past week. And it's like, I don't know, some of the scuttlebutt the talk seems to be that Kansas is in a good position now with Cole Rosario, but he still has four visits to go. So it's like, okay, that's cool. They could be the leader in the clubhouse right now. But if he has four visits to go, that can very well change. It's much different being the leader

Starting point is 00:07:19 in the clubhouse with, you know, a handful of visits go than it is getting the player to actually commit on the spot, right? And so it just feels like, are they having trouble as a staff relating to what the new young player is? Is it just all about money for the new young player, right? And if that is the case, you're almost not gonna be able to close a player

Starting point is 00:07:38 on the spot at that point, because they are gonna take every visit to try to bump up their pay and keep the bidding kind of going to their direction. So it's just it's very odd. And there also is the standpoint where it's like, maybe you cross a certain line in the time the dates that you get to where it's like, okay, well, this point, we're so late in the game, that we might as well keep playing patient. And we can get even more patient than we've been, because most of the other schools have filled up. And so we can kind of let it come to us and maybe get a good deal on a player that saves us some NIM

Starting point is 00:08:09 money or we can afford or something like that. I have no idea. I think the biggest slowdown though, honestly might be the eligibility thing. Because once you got past the point of, okay, maybe we can get, you know, Darian Williams, or once you got past the point of like, okay, there's a lot of good talent left in the transfer portal or whatever. And you're starting to dig into the overseas stuff more, which to be clear, going back to the game plan for this offseason, they probably should have had that contingency of going overseas. Like maybe that should have been something that was done earlier.

Starting point is 00:08:41 And that again, is I think where a GM comes into play, because that can be something that a GM is doing in January. I don't think Bill Self is calling international agents in January, you know what I mean? But that's not going to happen. So that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I think that the biggest slowdown has to be the eligibility stuff at this point, because, you know, let's say that some of these international targets that we've talked about, right, whether it's a gay Demir, a Paul and B, or a crime Conan or Bryce to Sarah before, let's say some of these guys were just transfers from high point and Wake Forest and North Dakota State and Virginia Tech or whatever, you know, they and they played one or two years of college basketball, that this would probably be

Starting point is 00:09:24 signed, sealed and delivered right now, the KU would probably have at least one or two years of college basketball, that this should probably be signed, sealed, and delivered right now. The KU would probably have at least one or two other commits, but it almost feels like with the international stuff, you're not going to announce a commitment until you actually have it down that they are going to be eligible. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:09:41 Like it's not the same way with high school commits where it's like, okay, I'm gonna announce my commitment. And then we'll see if they end up signing on the dotted line, which most of them end up doing, you know, sometimes they de commit and stuff. But with the the overseas stuff, it does feel like it's like the official isn't commitment till you can get eligible. And so for all we know, Kansas is sitting on like one or two commits of overseas players, or at least

Starting point is 00:10:04 like being like, yeah, I want to come there, like, basically the idea that you feel like you are going to get the kid, it's just going to come down to a matter of eligibility. You could say the same thing with the transfer portal, a lot of the best remaining options are players who do have to wait for their eligibility to get cleared, wait for the extra year to get granted to them by the NCAA. And even though maybe a majority of those guys like you can look at it and go, okay, makes a lot of sense for him, he'll be able to get another year like that makes sense that like, by this rule, he should be able to get it and stuff. It

Starting point is 00:10:34 still is a waiting game. And it still is not a for sure thing. Because we've seen the NCAA make, I guess, incongruent decisions where it's like, yeah, you would think based on that decision, they'll make the same decision and then they don't. So it almost feels like to me, they're going to have to wait on that stuff. And I guess what would be the ideal offseason still at this point for KU? I think you're looking at, you know, can you get Cole Rosario to commit and reclass? I think

Starting point is 00:10:57 that would be a good addition there. And then from there, what do you want to do with the final two? Do you want to do two big men? Or do you want to do a guard and a big man? I would be all about if they could get bugs. And I know bugs is working through eligibility stuff to if they could go Rosario bugs and big man would love that. But I also like the idea of bringing on two bigs that allows you to play some two big lineups here or there without overly stressing your front court depth. And with

Starting point is 00:11:20 that would, you know, almost alleviate pressure on Bryson tiller a little bit more than if he is a little bit slow and coming back from his injury that it doesn't put a lot of pressure that oh, he has to play 15 minutes per game. Like that would be a good thing for Kansas. So if you were Zario or bugs, one of those two, and then you brought in two big men from overseas, right? Let's, if I was picking, I probably choose. I don't know. I mean, Demir and Mbio would be really fun

Starting point is 00:11:46 from just the type of center you would have. You would have three dudes who are just like rim rocking, like running the floor. But if you are gonna play two big lineups, Kerem Konan fits better, even though he's not really a shooter, even though he's just more mobile than the other guys. So you can play him at the four a little bit more there.

Starting point is 00:12:02 So I don't know, I think that's where I would go. Rosario or Bugs and then two big wins. That would be my ideal. Who knows? Maybe there's another name out there. Maybe there's another D2, D3 guy that we just don't know about or another overseas guy that we don't know about that we will later in the game if something comes out. But yeah, I guess that's where we are. And that explains hopefully some of the slowdown and probably also explains that it's probably not going to speed up anytime soon.

Starting point is 00:12:23 Like it would not surprise me if we're a July 4th and they still have 10 scholarship players at that point in time, right? Which is a little bit unfortunate, but it's gonna come. It's gonna come, right? It might be August, might be late July, but something's gonna come. Now, will they fill all three? I don't know. Maybe the time is playing against you at this point. But will you fill two or three? I still think that is likely for KU. Alright, there's a very interesting court case that could be coming down

Starting point is 00:12:51 that's going to affect if you know, something happens from it, all of college sports. We'll discuss that next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You're already following the action, why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned or at the beach. And as well, I love betting on the golf tournaments every week, but we got the NBA draft coming up too.

Starting point is 00:13:27 And they're gonna have fun props and stuff that you can do with that. Over at FanDuel. If you're new to FanDuel, the customers can bet just five dollars and get 150 in bonus bets. If your first bet wins, open the FanDuel app today and visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started again that is with FanDuel. Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawk. Still forget to make locked on college football or lock on

Starting point is 00:13:51 college basketball your second listen every day and I'll just unlock on college basketball preview in the KU basketball season last week, which is hard to do when they don't have a full roster, but we try to do our best and talking up Darren Peterson and all the likes. Make sure to check that one out. We also posted on our feed here and thank you to every dayers who already got that one. Okay, there's a big court decision that's going to be coming down. So this is from Ross Dellinger

Starting point is 00:14:12 at Yahoo Sports Wisconsin files suit against Miami for poaching Xavier Lucas while he was under contract with the school. So Xavier Lucas, he is a former defensive back who left the Wisconsin program in January to go to Miami. He transferred without even entering the portal. It had already closed. And that was after he signed a contract with the Badgers for rev share. It says Wisconsin claims that Miami communicated with Lucas knowingly inducing him, despite knowing he had entered a contract with the school something it terms as intentional interference that was not justified or privileged and caused Lucas to breach his contract. Wisconsin released a statement to Yahoo Sports last Friday saying that it reluctantly filed the suit and that it is committed to ensuring integrity and fundamental fairness in the evolving landscape of the college athletics. What I find interesting here is the Big Ten is supporting the suit

Starting point is 00:15:07 against Miami. Would they be if you would if you would have done that transfer from Wisconsin to another Big Ten school to Maryland or something, would they still be supporting it? That's what I would want to know. Anyway, basically, the case is going to set a precedent on one thing for the ability for schools to enforce tampering clauses within the rev share agreements. And that was obviously part of the stuff in the house settlement that it is allowing rev share and these players get paid basically directly from the schools. And so that's what becomes really interesting here, right? Because so Lucas's attorney, Darren Heitner told Yahoo Yahoo Sports in January that he planned to file an antitrust lawsuit against Wisconsin if Lucas was unable to complete his move to Miami. He accused Wisconsin of blatantly violating NCAA rules by not inserting Lucas's name into the portal, as he requested and questioned the legality of the NCAA's transfer portal in general. So this basically

Starting point is 00:16:04 comes down to a couple things. One, as we're trying to get down to like one transfer portal, if they win this suit, the player and the Miami side, I guess, basically, does this just open it up where now it's going to be open to there is no dates for transfer portal, it's all fair game, a player can transfer any moments notice, that would be horrible for the game. I'm sorry, like, in pro sports, we get your trade deadlines. You have to have a deadline for these things, you

Starting point is 00:16:35 have to be able to have players like be on their team and not just be able to like leave in week four. And I don't know if that'll come of it or not. But like that is one possibility I look at here. The other thing is obviously the revenue share stuff, right. So the revenue share agreement, you know, all players who sign to that school, basically, they're giving their school the the non exclusive rights to use and market their name, image and likeness, the agreement prohibits the

Starting point is 00:17:04 players rights to be used by any other school while permitting him or her to sign outside marking agreements, according to those familiar with the template. And so what happens here is you end up with a player who maybe signed a two year deal, right? And so this is where the contract stuff comes in, right? It's one thing if you signed like, okay, you're going to pay us X amount, you're going to pay me X amount as the player over the next year. What happens if you do it with a two year deal and then you try to transfer at the end of the year? And that's, I think where this case is coming in.

Starting point is 00:17:38 And so basically what ends up happening is if the player has to pay back or pay some sort of buyout or pay some sort of bonus or the school pays that for him, that almost speeds up the process in a way of where we could be going, which could be players on contracts, right? Where a player if he's going to sign with a school at high school, he signs a two or three year contract, right? And maybe he has like a player option for year four or a team option or a mutual option for year four that both you

Starting point is 00:18:04 know, sides of the party has to accept and there's like a buyout clause in it where it's like, okay, if you do want to transfer before your two years or three years is up, you can go but you have to pay this amount of money or the school you're going to has to pay for that amount of money to us that would be very interesting. And I think it would help some of the smaller schools, especially when you think of, you know, in basketball, some of the players going up to bigger schools,

Starting point is 00:18:27 I guess happens in football and really all sports too, but would help them kind of get to a different level. But I don't think the big schools are going to want that to happen because they want to stay the big schools above the little schools. So I don't know, it's gonna be very interesting to see what happens from this. It's going to be very interesting to see what the end result is from this and how it does affect the collegiate landscape. And it's also going to be interesting from a tampering perspective, like they mentioned that Miami that was part of the story in here, it says the suit also claims that Miami had multiple impermissible contacts with Lucas during December and January, then included a Miami coach and

Starting point is 00:19:00 prominent Miami alumnus visiting Lucas Florida home in December with a compensation commitment for him to leave Madison the offer was more lucrative than the one Wisconsin made. So obviously, again, that becomes interesting the how does this affect money with players leaving? How does this affect if a player signs a rev share agreement? Can they not leave during the rev share agreement? Or if they do, they have to pay back all the money or can't make rev share at their new school. Like those are all things that are interesting with this. But yeah, that last part of it's interesting to the tampering side, we hear coaches all the time come out and be like, yeah, my quarterback was offered, you know, seven figures to go to

Starting point is 00:19:33 five other schools. And he turned it down. And it's funny because a lot of times when they do that, they don't actually name the names of the other coaches in schools. And you know why they do that? Because as soon as they start pointing fingers and actually throwing a specific name on the bus, other people can be like, hey, but you tampered for the player that you got from my school, you know what I mean? So it's almost like a it's almost a little hypocritical. And I'm sure there are some coaches that actually are like, legitimately

Starting point is 00:19:58 not poaching players from other schools. But like, I even remember there was the Nick Saban thing on the NFL draft, or some player got drafted, I don't remember who it was, but some player got drafted from like a group of five school in the first round. And he was like, Yeah, we tried to get him into the portal the last like two years at Alabama before I retired or whatever, you know, like that is happening all over the country. The tampering thing is happening all over the country. Like it's happening against like, it's part of the reason why Flory Badunga almost left Kansas he was being tampered with, but also has Kansas tampered with other players? I mean, let's

Starting point is 00:20:29 be real here, like probably a lot of these schools are doing it right. And so that'll be interesting, because if it comes down to something with that, do schools start getting in trouble for this where now you do start hearing names come out now you do for schools to be more honest with their contacts with certain players. That might not be the worst thing in the world if that one kind of came out, but it would make for a very interesting thing. And then now that I think about it, actually

Starting point is 00:20:55 might not be the best thing because then you get a lot of people tattletaling to the NCAA. And we know the NCAA is horrible at handling this stuff. Maybe if it was like a different, you know, if it was like the NFL, I'd be like, okay, I trust them to handle the temporary thing. But like with the NCAA, it's a no, I have zero trust that they'll be able to handle it. All right, let's finish up here. KU baseball had a couple good additions via the transfer portal. Let's discuss them next. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We're gonna have a fun episode coming on Tuesday talking about Marco Jackson. if you could have a breakout season incoming both based on what we've heard this offseason how he responds from you know, coming off the season and injury and also what past like players who are in a similar role to him have told us under Bill

Starting point is 00:21:36 Self. So we'll get to that. We're also gonna get some KU football later this week. You we've just been bottled up into the offseason for KU basketball and it's still going so we're gonna still be talking KU basketball but it is start to start starting to be time to turn the page to KU football. I will say we're still gonna be talking a lot of KU basketball. I get a lot more. I don't know people who listen to the show watch the show when we talk KU basketball and KU football, which I'm actually one of those

Starting point is 00:21:59 people likes KU football more than KU basketball but I you know, I go where the people want me to go. And, you know, just look at the viewership numbers and they're up more on KU basketball. So I am going to talk to you football. But point being, that's why we are still talking KU basketball, even though we are a couple months from the KU football season. Alright, anyway, KU baseball made a couple big additions via the transfer portable pitchers, and looking to build the depth of that

Starting point is 00:22:25 pitching staff right you could potentially have to stud frontline starting pitchers back next season if you bring them both back. But this year KU had a couple you know interesting bullpen pieces, but you want to really lengthen really all of your pitching staff right that can be so helpful having depth as a pitching staff and it feels like that's kind of the last piece of the buckle again assuming you can keep this together. Can you keep your core

Starting point is 00:22:47 hitters together while adding some others right now, which we already talked about one of their transfer additions coming over who was a good hitter, you have that frontline potential pitching, can you get the back end pitching? Can you get the middle relievers? Can you get the back end of the bullpen to right? So you get Toby shite sheet shite. He's from Bryant. He's a relief pitcher. So that'll help 3.58 ERA in 16 appearances last season at Bryant, obviously jump up in

Starting point is 00:23:13 competition. But those are pretty good numbers, especially for a reliever. I mean, you look at it's funny, like you look at the ERA of an MLB pitcher and like a 3.58 ERA for a reliever and the MLB is like, okay, that's like average, you know what I mean? Whereas like, like an MLB, like the best relievers they have, I don't know, sometimes even 1.5 or like 2.5 ERAs, like in that kind of range. And then like, if you have like four ERA in the MLB, it's like, okay, as a starter, like, okay, maybe that's like a

Starting point is 00:23:40 round average as a starter. But in college baseball, you have the four ERA and it's like, oh, you're one of the best in country because they're playing with metal bats and like, it's just such a hitting league. Like you can have players who are hitting eighth in their lineup who are hitting 280, you know? So this is different kind of looking at the numbers. But anyway, Toby Scheidt, 3.580 ERA,

Starting point is 00:23:56 very good reliever coming over. And then Carter Fink, he's a starter from East Tennessee State, first team all SOCON. So first team all conference at his school. He went six and five and 16 starts with a 4.48 ERA. So I mean, that could be a really good 123 for KU as starting pitchers and your length in the bullpen. They've obviously got a really good Juco class coming in again. So really like what Dan Fitzgerald is doing in

Starting point is 00:24:17 the offseason after a really fun season for KU baseball. Alright, that'll be for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe back at you tomorrow with some El Marco Jackson content. And if there's any breaking news, we'll get to that too. See you next time on LLJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - STALEMATE: Over 2 Months Since Kansas Basketball's Last Commit | Will Bill Self's PATIENCE Pay Off?

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