Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Taylen Kinney, Tyran Stokes McDonald's All-American Game Performances - What They Mean for Kansas

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bill Delph, who will be back for Kansas, had to like what he saw from Tyrant Stokes at the McDonald's All-American game. We're going to break down the Mickey D's performances from some of the high school recruits related to KU on today's episode of the show. 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 with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. we're going to break down some of the McDonald's game, All-American game reactions and results as it pertains to KU. We're also going to get into a little bit here on looking back on this past season, what are some things that KU did as good as any team during the Billself era and as bad as any team during the Billself era and try to take that to see what you can work on in the off season.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Let's start right here with the McDonald's All-American game. So we'll get into a little bit on KU Women's Basketball recruit, Sydney, Bryant, but also KU with Tainlin Kinney on the men's side. And then somebody they're obviously targeting in Tyrant Stokes, who seems like Kentucky in Kansas are the two leaders in the clubhouse there, right? So let's start with what I saw from Taylor and Kenny. In the game itself, he had five points, three assists, but three turnovers, two rebounds and two steals. He was only two of eight from the floor. He goes one of four from three. Now, I don't think it's over really the best idea to sometimes take a look at the shooting sets in a game like this, one game sample.

Starting point is 00:01:36 It's not really, I don't know, the most conducive for hitting shots. You're not like running a great offense with guys that you've known all the time. Like maybe you're playing with a different ball than you're used to. There are certain things that the shots aren't always, you know, going to fall. But that said, we got a good amount of watch on him. It wasn't just the game. There was also a scrimmage, which I went back and watched the scrimmage. You can find both of those around on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:02:01 And I in general, like, I think the big question with Kenny coming into this year is going to be, what is the defense going to be? Because from an offensive perspective, he seems very skilled and progressed to a level that can make an impact for K.U. Right away. But what is that defense going to be? And I thought in the scrimmage in the game, he did a good job of playmaking on the defensive end of the floor. I think in general, I wouldn't call him the most. I think in general, like I wouldn't call him the best athlete in the world. Like, I don't think he's the fastest kid in the world. I don't think he's the quickest kid in the world. It is a little bit different than you think of some of the freshman point guards that have been handed the reins in the Bill South era. You think of guys who do have a ton of, you know, juice, who do have that quickness, whether it was Mario Chalmers or Devon Dotson, like, guys who have athletically had that little bit of burst. And, you know, I think there's some wiggle with Kenny.

Starting point is 00:02:56 I don't know how much overall speed and quickness and athleticism there is in general. But I do think he makes up for it on the defensive end with, I'm not saying he's a bad athlete or he's slow. It's just like he's not those guys. He has very quick hands, right? Very quick hands, able to get his hand on deflections, able to get steals. He had a nice play where it was in the scrimmage. The ball's just kind of, I don't know, the past has kind of come through the middle and he gets his hands up really quickly and pops the ball in the air that leads. to a breakout layup in the scrimmage.

Starting point is 00:03:29 And then he had another steal in that game that led to a dunk for his team. There was another play where he was able to kind of keep his feet like quickly in front of the defender driving on him. The defender spins. And I wasn't sure if he or his teammate was the one who poked the steel away, but he was the one who ends up grabbing it. And then he bounces the ball ahead for a really nice pass to a teammate for a dunk. There was also like speaking of the defense in the game, there's a play where he's supposed to

Starting point is 00:03:54 get screened by two guys. I don't think either guy did a great job setting the screen, but Kinney did a really good job fighting around to make sure that he got by both screens. And moments later in the game, there's another play where they're making it look like he's going to get double screened. And then he makes the correct switch. The first one, they didn't switch it. And he was able to stick with his man.

Starting point is 00:04:20 The second one, they switch it. He finds the right guy that he's supposed to be on. And what I found really impressive was on the other end of the action, they had a off ball shooter coming off another screen just getting open for a shot. And the guy who was dribbling the basketball to begin with off the double screen ended up just taking a shot. As he was taking the shot, that other guy was coming off the screen. And Kinney knew the action, read the action right away. He was in line to jump the passing lane. He read it all.

Starting point is 00:04:49 It was a really good job of recognition by him. Obviously, the ball didn't come there. It went up on a shot instead. dead. But that just showed me some defensive IQ, which I thought was good. And then he had a nice stop on on the end of the first quarter play on which it was just kind of a one-on-one like Gardem on a jump shot, right? Now, there was a play that this is going to happen with freshmen, I think, especially for somebody like him who does clearly have quick hands and is able to get some steals where he got a little too greedy and he gambled and then got beat because of it. But I will say, like, moments where, yeah,

Starting point is 00:05:20 he got beat on drives and stuff like that. I don't think he's going to be the best defender in the world, but if you're not going to be the best defender in the world, at least be a playmaker, you know, like if you're going to give up some touchdowns, get some pick sixes to go with it. And I do think we saw good signs of that with with Kenny. I don't know how tight of a dribble he has, but he also did have some good dribble moves. So that becomes kind of interesting. The shots weren't falling at a high rate in either the game or the scrimmage. But again, you look at the bigger sample size and he's been somebody who can make shots at a high volume. So I'm not overly concerned with that. And I think what you did see in the,

Starting point is 00:05:53 these settings was, even though the shot wasn't always falling, the ability to create his own shot was always there. He did show a nice floater that he made in the scrimmage. The step back three that he hit in the corner over the Houston commit center, Diane, who, or Deane, who, by the way, I think that dude's going to be a stud. But anyway, he hits a step back three over him in the corner. That was an incredible shot. And you can see the ability to create some of these really tough shots and make some of these really tough shots that is going to be really valuable for for kU to have because quite frankly they haven't had enough of those players now kU needs to get more of them it can't just be tail and kinney he can't be the first option but you need to have multiple

Starting point is 00:06:35 of those guys you can do that for you and that is nice to see that that he has that ability i i also think he has solid vision vision and passing ability i'd say he's a very accurate passer as well there were a couple balls that he he can really throw a line drive pass. Like somewhere he's like kind of looping it sideways, um, throws good bounce passes. Like he can fit a laser beam pass into a tight window with accuracy. So that was really cool to see as well. I think in general, like I said, he's not a bad athlete. You're a McDonald's All-American. Like he's a good athlete, but just compared to, you know, some of the guys who were at that game who are freak athletes. So you see the Jackson Richardson kid or if we're to compare

Starting point is 00:07:18 it to those past build like Devon Dotson. Like, it's, like, it's a lot. It's, It's not that. But the one thing that he has going his way is he seemed to have a really good idea of change of pace and utilizing it. And that can be just as impactful as anything is knowing how to change your pace, knowing when to stop, knowing when to start, knowing when to go, knowing when to speed it up. Because it can keep the defender completely off of you because they can't really get in rhythm with what you're doing. And I did think he showed that a lot. One question I came away from this. I only saw it happen twice in the game, but it was when he was hard hedged when you had basically the two defenders, like a ball screen comes up and the two defenders blitz him and basically are doubling him.

Starting point is 00:08:01 We know a lot of big 12 teams use that kind of aggressive defense. Houston does it. Iowa State does it, right? Other teams in the country do it. He had one forced him out of bounds and he had another that he kind of struggled with. So how he starts to figure that out and improves on that's going to be really important for KU next season. I also think in general, and this is the case for a lot of young players, he's going to have to learn to play off the ball a little bit better. Didn't see a ton of movement off the ball for him offensively.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Defensively, there were times he got lost a little bit off the ball. That is, again, kind of normal for young players, but something that Kayu's going to have to improve for him to play a big role. I would also say this. I think some places have him listed at like 6.4. He looks closer to like 6.1 or 6.2. He is a bit of a smaller guard, which we've seen KU have so much success with. not a big deal from that perspective. It is a big deal in terms of as you look to round out the rest of your roster in the transfer portal, what types of players do you go after? Maybe it doesn't make sense

Starting point is 00:08:58 to bring on another small guard. Maybe the other guard you need has to be at least, I don't know, 6-3 or 6-4 or somewhere in that range as opposed to looking into, like we did the Jackson-Shelstad deep dive. Maybe with Kenny being closer to 6-1, Shellstad no longer is somebody who makes sense, right? Maybe it has to be somebody who's six-three or six-four plus, right? Okay, what about Tyron Stokes? What about Sidney Bryant? those reactions next as well as the things that he did is good and as bad as any team of the Bill Self Arrow this past season. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by TurboTax. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the odd way, the old way of doing taxes is a lot,

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Starting point is 00:10:23 every day. All-American takeaways here. Let's move on to Tyron Stokes, who is still uncommitted. Could he go to Kansas? Could he go to Kentucky? He had an interesting reaction on social media to Bill Self announcing he's coming back

Starting point is 00:10:35 and the hope would be that for KU, that is good news with one, Tyron Stokes. So in the McDonald's All-American game, he had 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two blocks in the steel, filling up the statute. And that is just kind of what he does. Five of 13 from the floor.

Starting point is 00:10:49 So again, not the best, you know, efficient shooting game. One of four from three, two of three at the foul line. Now, you go back to the scrimmage here and you see, because there's some highlights going around from McDonald's All-American, like some really cool blocks that he had. He has this like chase down block in the scrimmage game. And just in general, causes a lot of like deflections and playmaking on the defensive end. He even had to play in the scrimmage where he dives on a loose ball that he was responsible for forcing.

Starting point is 00:11:16 And I couldn't help but see that and be like, dude, this is a scrimmage. the McDonald's All-American game, Bill Self would love that, right? Then I thought in general, like, he showed pretty good awareness of when to pick up someone or to switch or something. The block that he has on like an arching layup off a pick and roll on defense and the scrimmage was unbelievably special. He also had a nice steal that led to a dunk in the actual McDonald's All-American game. I mean, you just see some of the highlights in the flash plays of what he is capable of doing

Starting point is 00:11:47 on the defensive end. it is really special with his like six foot seven frame that's super athletic. I was really impressed by Stokes passing ability. And it's interesting because as you're watching the broadcast, both in the practice session and in the game session, they're raving about his passing. In fact, from the people on the broadcast, they think that Tyrant Stokes' best skill is his passing ability. And I find that interesting because, you know, as good of a scoring season as Darren Peterson

Starting point is 00:12:15 had, the passing wasn't there to what we want. wanted it to be. Now, a little overblown. The assist numbers weren't as good as they probably should have been. Like, he did make some good passes that KU just kind of blew the, the shots on. But I think Stokes is an even better pass regardless of what Peterson is, which I think becomes interesting for a couple reasons that we'll get to here in a second. But he was especially good throwing passes to the big man, Deane, again, going to Houston, which I also found interesting because it's like, if you're good at throwing passes to big men, whether it was like throwing a lob or hitting him when he had sealed off his opponent. I'm just thinking they're like if you can get Stokes next to Flory,

Starting point is 00:12:52 that could be a lot of easier buckets for Florey. At times, K, you struggle to get Florey the ball in an advantageous position this year. I think Stokes would help with that. He also had a really nice bounce pass to help a teammate get to the free throw line. It just really felt like he played like almost even better when he was the primary initiator with the passing ability. And the reason I love that even more is going back to what I just said on tail and Kenny. He might be closer to 6162. You want another guard in there. What if Tyron Stokes is the answer, right? Like, if you bring Tyron Stokes in, I know we view him as a three or four. And on the defensive end, sure, he can be the three or four. He has that size. And at the end of the day,

Starting point is 00:13:33 you kind of are what you guard. So you would be the three and four, but offensively, I think you'd be fine with basically your one, two, being Stokes and Kinney. Where Kinney, offensively is basically your shooting guard, combo guard, shooting guard. And Stokes is basically your one offensively because he is that good of a passer. And the mismatches you could create with him running pick and roll as the ball handler are incredible. So you almost, and then you could build a super jumbo team, which is kind of in vogue right now in college basketball. If you were to bring in Stokes, you could almost view it as offensively. Stokes is the one. Kinney is the two. Transfer is the three, right? Like you could bring in a wing. You could bring in some

Starting point is 00:14:12 somebody who could shoot, whatever. Your four could be tiller, it could be a transfer, whatever, and then Flory or a transfer, depending what happens with Flory at the five, right? Then defensively, you could view it as, okay, Kenny's guarding the opposing one, whoever you need to guard the two, and then Kenny's guarding like a three, for instance, right? It gives you flexibility that he can do those things and is so successful at him. In general, I would say just the passing of or the combination of passing and athleticism, it also makes him an incredible transition player. The athleticism comes seamless sometimes.

Starting point is 00:14:45 Like he's one of the, some guys are like, like Cohen Carr is not just an incredible athlete, but like Cohen Carr, Michigan State is like a violent athlete. Like you feel it. You see it. With Stokes, it's more of like a seamless. He sores. He floats places where you don't always realize it until it's like, oh, somebody's attacking the close out because he would have had an open three.

Starting point is 00:15:07 And then he just glides right by him and soars up. in the air and makes it look easy like he's floating and throws down a dunk. Just a seamless athlete in the best possible way. Now, like Kenny did get lost a few times off the ball defensively, he did get beat by a quicker guard on a switch to the basket at one point, and then I think there was a foul. So, no, that comes down to an interesting question of what KU wants to do with, do they want to keep being a switchable defense?

Starting point is 00:15:32 Do they not, right? Because Stokes does have the ability to guard multiple positions, but I don't know that you always want him on like a quick guard necessarily. Okay, what about KU Women's Basketball, Sydney Bryant? This one will be a little bit shorter. It wasn't the best game for Bryant. She played 11 minutes off the bench. She went 0 for 5, grabbed one rebound.

Starting point is 00:15:49 She had multiple turnovers. I had kind of an ugly game, a turnaround jumper that clanked away near make on a three pointer, but then had another one where she missed the three pretty badly. She had a nice drive at one point, just missed the layup. And then, yeah, that bad stretch where she missed the three, then threw the. ball right to the defender and that at the other end she was on an opposing guard who steps back on her and gets her to kind of fall back and nails a step back three on her. That was a rough possession. There were a bunch of possessions where she was just like running to the corner for some reason.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Defensively too got caught on a guard at one point, got faked into a pivot move into the baseline and got lost and given up an easy bucket. I think the lesson for me was that Bryant's not the fastest center and that KU's not going to want to run. They, scheme where she's getting switched onto them necessarily, but that can be okay. Like when they had Tyana Jackson, they weren't running a switchable defense. They were running a defense where Jackson was able to maintain in the post and be a rim protector. And I think that's what they'll do with Bryant. So probably just a bad matchup and scheme in this specific game and setting for her. She did have another defensive plan of guard where to her credit, she did contest it well on a missed mid-range shot.

Starting point is 00:17:04 In general, I don't think it was the best game. I can't help but wonder. if KU would not be better off, well, not be better off. I think it would probably behoove KU to find a starting veteran center in the transfer portal and have Bryant kind of learn the ropes from a veteran center and be your energy off the bench. I think that could be a good thing. But she is going to have a big impact for KU regardless of if she's starting off the bench. KU loses two, six foot three players to graduation and Evans and Meister.

Starting point is 00:17:34 And Bryant, I believe, led the EYBL in rebounding. and when you look at Kansas this past season, they were outside the top 300 nationally in offensive rebound rate, and they were seventh, so about middle of the pack in the big 12 games in defensive rebound rate. So she can certainly help with both of those things.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Not the best performance, but I think, you know, still high hopes for what she can do in Lawrence. All right, let's finish up here. Things this KUD team did as good and as bad as any Billself team during self's tenure at KU. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Robin Hood. What if sports are traded like markets? Now you can put your

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Starting point is 00:18:49 Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Our episode's also brought to you by Fandual. The tournament is obviously ongoing. We only got three more games left. That's kind of sad, but you can still get on the action over at Fandual. If you want to get a future, who you think is going to win at all? You want to pick somebody who win Final Four most outstanding player. or you can put together your same game parlay with who you think is going to have 15 plus points and 10 plus rebounds among some of these specific games.

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Starting point is 00:19:54 They were number one was the game against Syracuse in the players era. And number two was the Colorado game when Jacques Vaughn was the head coach up in Boulder. So oddly enough, just two amazing games both happened in the same year avoiding turnovers for KU. other good things they did. Kansas finishes number eight on defense. I guess there's still some games like the NIT and the final four and everything could adjust it. Maybe they whatever.

Starting point is 00:20:21 But eighth on Ken Palm, it gives Kansas their eighth consecutive top 20 defense on Palm, which I think is instructional from the standpoint as you look at building this roster. I continue to say I want bucket getters. I trust Bill Self to get the most out of the defense. Again, eight straight top 20 defenses. It is the 11th unit. that Bill Self has had in 23 seasons that finished top 10 in Ken Palm's defensive adjusted

Starting point is 00:20:44 efficiency. And if you were to take top 15, that number would grow even larger. So I trust Bill Self to figure out the defense, especially if you can get Floryback, find offensive shot makers in the portal. KU was top 40 nationally in free throw percentage. That's actually the first time that Kansas has been top 100 in the country in free throw percentage since 2015. It's actually the best finish ranking-wise compared to national rankings a bill self team has ever had at kansas that's pretty crazy with the free show free throw shooting unfortunately didn't help k u enough to uh advance in the tournament um they were the number four two point defense in the country that is the best kansas has been since 2020 led by doke that team

Starting point is 00:21:27 finished third and to that notion k u time since 2013 this year it was also the fifth time that a Bilself team has finished top 10 in block rate. Unfortunately, this is the very first time that Kansas finished top 10 in block rate under Bill Self that they didn't at least make it to the second weekend. All the other teams made it to the second weekend, if not further. What are some of the bad stats for KU that they did as bad as poorly as any team of the Billself era? Well, the double digit losses both overall and if you're just talking by game score, this was the most losses by 10 plus points.

Starting point is 00:22:06 in the margin that Self has had in a season at KU. It's also the third straight season with double digit and 11 plus losses for KU. The 60th ranked offense on Kenpom, that is the worst of the Bill Self era. It also becomes the fifth with an offensive adjusted efficiency of 50th or worse, including three straight for KU. Here's some other interesting numbers that are obviously negatives, but interesting. KU ranked outside the top 200 in offensive rebound rate for the second time in three seasons. prior to that, Kansas had finished outside the top 200 under Bill Self, no times, zero other occasions.

Starting point is 00:22:44 So they have to figure out the rebounding here in this new era of basketball. Do they look for that in the transfer portal, right? Outside the top 200 was KU in two point percentage offense for the first time since 2021, which that team didn't have easy ways to get buckets. And I don't think a coincidence of both teams lost in the second round, right? Also, just the third time in the Bill Saffera, they've been outside the top 200 and two point percentage. All three teams lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. So, yeah, needing to make easier buckets.

Starting point is 00:23:17 And that can come in a couple ways, guys who make buckets at the rim, but also better spacing. You get more shot making on the outside. You get more respect on the outside. That's going to open up the inside for driving lanes, for Florey, for whoever. Last one here, KU finished 340th in the country in turnover rate defense. They did not force turnovers. Kansas has now been outside the top 200 for three consecutive seasons. It is also the worst ranked turnover defense of the Bilsoff era and the only one that he has had outside the top 300 in a season.

Starting point is 00:23:49 So I think in general, you just look at like the transfer portal. Obviously, the shooting and the spacing is going to be very important. Can you get Kansas extra possessions, whether that comes with the offense of glass, whether that comes enforcing seals? I think those become important things that you're looking at here too for KU. But again, I go back to the number, 8.5. straight top 20 finishes on defense for Kansas. Not the case of the offense. Get offensive players and let Bill Self figure out the defense from there.

Starting point is 00:24:12 All right, that'll do for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. Check out our Bill Self-back episode. Check out some of our player deep dives. We're going to get to an Isaiah Johnson deep dive, one of the best players in the portal. So check that one out later today as well.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Taylen Kinney, Tyran Stokes McDonald's All-American Game Performances - What They Mean for Kansas

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