Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The Pieces Don’t Fit: Why Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Needs a GM

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks bonus episode, the pieces don't seem to fit for the SKU basketball roster. What can be done about it? Why is it happening? Should they hire a GM moving forward? That's been a good one. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:28 What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to every dayers catching each and every show. You can find us on our YouTube page or anywhere that you get your podcast on the audio side of things. We've got a bonus episode coming at you today talking about the pieces not

Starting point is 00:00:46 really fitting for KU basketball. And I think a very interesting quote that was given from one Mr. Bill Self after the Iowa State game that we're going to get into. And what could have gone differently for KU in the offseason as well as does this team need to hire a general manager? You've seen some schools around the country do that that so we get into that on today's bonus episode of the show let's start right here with what was said by Bill Self in the post game of Iowa State you might have seen this already on social media because it was uh it was kind of making the rounds after the game but he was actually talking about Iowa State and he was complimentary of what the Cyclones and TJ Otzelberger had done.

Starting point is 00:01:25 He said, quote, I think that their evaluation recruiting has been tremendous. He goes on to say later, the bottom line is that the pieces fit. And of course, it could just be about Iowa State, but it's really hard not to take that stuff as, especially given KU's problems and everything we see on the court, it was hard not to see that as he's not just saying that the pieces fit of Iowa State, but kind of saying like sometimes your pieces don't fit. You know, that was kind of the unsaid part. Like sometimes you put together a good talent and the pieces don't fit. and it felt like that was kind of directed at like that's us like right now the pieces just don't fit right it's hard not to take this as not just the iowa state compliment but also a reflection of him on the ku roster and you know it is one of those things where it's like the uh the uh uh i think you should leave like the the meme and the

Starting point is 00:02:24 the scene the skit where it's just like we're all trying to find the guy who did this and it's like well you put together the roster so you know that is kind of part of it but um there's just a lot of things about this team that don't fit together like the kj adams hunter digginson pairing it just doesn't fit i think you can make it work with one of the two it would just not like if you if you had kj adams being the one i think you would just have to lean into being more of a a team that okay you're gonna play kj 20 minutes at five you're gonna play flory 20 minutes at five and be a super switchable defensive team versus if your team just had hunter you would try to build into that about being how can we

Starting point is 00:03:00 insulate him on the defensive end and then can we just put a bunch of shooters around him on the offensive end right you could i think make either of those rosters work. I think you could make a roster with KJ Adams. I think you could make a roster with Hunter Digginson work, but I don't think you can make it work with both of them on the roster. When I say make it work, like what are we talking about here? Kansas is still like, you know, a top 10 team in the country. Like they're still a good team, but they're not a great team.

Starting point is 00:03:23 They're not an elite team. And that is, you know, for better or or worse how things are judged when you were kansas basketball and you were judged at this high level so yeah of course they could still you know make a sweet 16 and get a three or four seeded ncaa tournament sure and for a lot of other schools that would be like a dream season or a great season to have but it's just different when you're at kansas right so um that's part of it and uh you know aj store just hasn't really fit in anywhere and this is one where you know maybe this one gets a little bit revisionist i know some people still want to see him given more opportunity get more leeway but i don't know i continue to look at some of

Starting point is 00:04:00 the numbers and see the play and i'm like i don't know like you're starting to get to a point where it's just like it's going to be kind of just ready to like cut it off and you're gonna have to narrow down the rotation and everything and um when you look at aj store the best part about him is he's somebody who can make shots happen with the ball in his hand but that's not happening as much at kansas and he hasn't been a good enough rebounder or defender to play the four for you which i think would be the ideal world that you know if he was playing more minutes at the four maybe that would mean less minutes of the kj hunter pairing where kj is playing the four right and he hasn't been able to shoot it or hit shots well enough to be in there i guess you would say over like rylan

Starting point is 00:04:38 griffin or um you know maybe she killed more as being kind of that third player in there at kind of the guard position so this is one of those where it felt like kind of one of those big mistakes. Imagine if you went for fit as opposed to talent, right? If you just go for the top end talent every time, you could end up with Hunter Dickinson and A.J. Storr and these players who were all Big Ten at previous stops, but it's not always going to fit, right? Imagine if you would have said, hey, aj store let's go get kobe brea who is like a 50

Starting point is 00:05:09 three-point shooter at kentucky right and he was coming from dayton and i don't know maybe you would pick kentucky anyway but we don't need to get into that but like point being um it just there hasn't been a fit there for for that and then with dewan harris i don't think he fits as well with the team that needs offense clearly right now kansas needs offense more than they need defense and so if you had a team like like i don't even know next year i think dewan harris would be a great fit to play next to darren peterson obviously that that can't happen but um because then you would have more of a ball handling type it can facilitate and set up for peterson and take more of the the defensive uh you know mantle with this team because there isn't enough offense you're

Starting point is 00:05:50 asking to want to do more than you know he is on the offensive end of the court and so that's not a great fit for it either right um bill self probably hasn't allowed rylan griffin to fit in enough that's probably a little bit on on that um and i mean for goodness sake like one of the team's best lineups has been the lineup where they're playing flory budunga next to hunter dickinson which like blows my mind that that even works in today's day and age of college basketball but like it has and they've kind of been forced into playing it because of lack of production but also at the same point in time part of me is just like even though i don't understand why it works in today's

Starting point is 00:06:27 day and age college basketball um i'm like they should play it more because it is working more than some other lineups and so like i think on their own ku has some good players i think bill self is still an outstanding basketball coach but they're not overly talented either like when you look at nba draft boards for instance you know you're not seeing a either. Like when you look at NBA draft boards, for instance, you know, you're not seeing a bunch of KU players pop up in the top 100 or the top 60 or whatever it is. Honestly, though, you're not really seeing that with Iowa state either. You know, you're not seeing like Iowa state have projected first round picks or lottery

Starting point is 00:06:57 picks or anything like that. But guess what? Iowa state's pieces fit a lot better. And so I think you're seeing the result right now. Kansas is not a good offense. They don't take or make threes. They shoot lots of mid-range shots and push shots. They don't get to the free throw line. Those are all bad things in today's day and age of modern hoops, I guess you could say. And it's not just that like Iowa State has recruited to fit in that way. Like I mentioned Kentucky for Kobe, right? Mark Pope this year recruited for fit. They didn't go out and get like all of the very best

Starting point is 00:07:32 transfer portal players. They recruited for fit. Look at how like Houston and Tennessee build their identity. And then like in the case of Houston, you added that one perimeter score in LJ Cryer. In the case of Tennessee, you added that one perimeter score in Dalton Connect last year. And I'm blanking on the kid's name this year. He's been awesome for them, but whatever. Point being, you have to recruit in the portal, I think, for fit

Starting point is 00:07:55 more than you do for star power. And I think that's kind of part of this of why the roster isn't fitting right now for KU. All right, let's get into an interesting hypothetical from the offseason and also pose the question, should Kansas hire a general manager? Our episode of the show, bonus episode here, is brought to you by PrizePix, the place to get real money sports action. With over 10 million members and billions in winnings,

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Starting point is 00:09:33 think this was a situation where like ku bungled it or something i think they wanted riley kugel riley kugel wanted to come to ku but uh it doesn't seem like it just worked from like a a transferring of credits and making that stuff work over so he ends up going to mississippi state and i just find this interesting because you know i look at it and kugel's playing 20 minutes a game for what has been a very good mississippi state team uh so far this season but you know that was one big question with kugel coming in it was like okay he he you know gotten to some headbutts maybe with their previous coach that that he was having to come off the bench and played a smaller role than you might expect.

Starting point is 00:10:07 But it seems like he's accepted that at Mississippi State, which makes me think he would have accepted that at Kansas, obviously. But he's been averaging, you know, these numbers don't jump off the page necessarily. They're solid. But 9.6 points per game, 2.9 rebounds. He is shooting 47% from the floor. He is shooting 32% from three-point range 74 at the foul line like those

Starting point is 00:10:26 are solid numbers for kugel and so it's interesting if you go back and say what if they never got store and had kugel and said because those numbers even though they're you know not jump off the page worthy they're solid they're better than what store is doing right now now there's no guarantee it would have worked at kansas and and that bill self would give him as long of a leash as he right there's no guarantee in how all that kind of works together. But I do wonder, you know, and maybe that wasn't even part of it. Maybe it's if they still had Riley Google, like they just never get Diggy Coy. And I think that would clearly be an upgrade in terms of what you had there. So I think that's certainly an interesting one when looking back on it and wondering kind of about

Starting point is 00:11:04 the offseason. But it really does feel like the second straight year where you can point to other portal targets that maybe they had visit other portal targets that maybe you had interest in that they just didn't really go for or picked somebody else or, you know, that they picked over somebody else. Right. And there's so many domino effects that you can just be like, man, what if they wouldn't have taken Nick Timberlake and would have ended up with, you know, at that point, maybe they would have been in the running for Cam Spencer or, you know, with Harrison Ingram last year or with Kobe Brea this year. There's so many where it's just like, and that's kind of the nature of the business. But yeah, it's just unfortunate. So does KU need a GM? We'll discuss that next. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL playoffs are almost here, but it's not too late to get in on the regular season action

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Starting point is 00:12:37 And I do feel like we're, maybe dumbly, like, it almost feels like we're giving a funeral to this season. And I don't mean that to come across. It's just clearly there's problems right now for ku could they turn it around absolutely right is there still time in the season yes of course there is right uh is the tournament weird and crazy things can happen yes to all of those things uh those are all very true but it definitely feels like you know they just haven't been as good these last whatever year and a half two years from where they were or where your expectations are or where Bill Self raised the expectations of this program. So what lessons should this teach moving forward?

Starting point is 00:13:11 For me, number one is hiring a general manager because I think this is a kid like you see this all the time. I think in the NFL, especially head coaches who also are like the general manager for their team and maybe they run into an issue with the personnel we saw with bill o'brien who was constantly making the playoffs with the texans but then kind of you know got in his own way from a personnel perspective ends up getting fired andy reed when he was with the philadelphia eagles he would call the shots from the personnel perspective right he ends up getting fired not because he's a bad coach, but maybe because his personnel decisions didn't give him the best opportunity to be the best coach that he could. Now he goes to Kansas City, and of course, he still has his hand in personnel decisions, but they have a GM in Brett Veach, right? So you think about those

Starting point is 00:13:58 things, and I mean, heck, even Bill Belichick with the Patriots, that's kind of what happened there, right? Sometimes you need to step back and say, okay, maybe I just need to be coaching here and not the one who is handling all the NIL, dealing with the agents, you know, picking the players to go for. Maybe it would be better because I think about it, like during the season, you know, how much can Bill Self really be scouring the transfer portal, right? How much can Bill Self be scouting other teams that are outside the league or outside of their schedule and really be paying attention to who the best players in those situations

Starting point is 00:14:30 are, right? It's just like a time management thing, right? He watches other basketball games, of course. But, you know, like KU football has guys who are designated as like doing that, right? You know what I mean? So that when they hit the portal, it's not just, okay, let's catch up on all the film a lot of times they're prepared they've already watched the film on the kid right and so i think that would be very beneficial for ku and like so once like duke duke has a general manager i think it would be very good for ku if they were able to go out and

Starting point is 00:14:59 get a general manager i think beyond that um i do think when I look at the 2025 to 26 roster, I think they do have an awesome base. I believe in Darren Peterson being an absolute dude next season, right? I mean, obviously, the recruiting ranking would signify I'm not going out on a limb saying that. But we do see sometimes freshmen who are ranked highly that come in and they have high expectations and they don't totally live up to them. They're just solid players, but they're not great. I am a believer that Darren Peterson is going to come in and be like a great player in college basketball next season and so if you believe that if you're bill self and you believe that then you need to operate the portal next offseason as building around him as opposed to like like don't go out there and get another

Starting point is 00:15:38 aj store who is a you know point scoring like aj store would be better on a team if he had to be their number one scoring option you know what i mean um you don't need to do that find complimentary pieces find the shooter to play with darren peterson find the ball handler to get him the ball and play good defense right you don't need find those things but i look at that i look at florida badunga possibly back in year two as being the guy who i think could very much end up being like big 12 defensive player of the year in year two at Kansas like I like some of the other freshman recruits that they have coming in in terms of the length and the wingspan they're going to be bringing to the table I would love if they can get Ryland Griffin back for another year and have his

Starting point is 00:16:16 floor spacing next to Darren Peterson uh Rakees Passmore hasn't done a ton this year but I still think he's going to take a big growth in year two. So I like the base they have for next year, but I'm worried that are they going to overdo it in the portal and bring on just whatever the absolute star of the portal is that overshadows other stuff instead of just going for the best fit. So I think those need to be the lessons from this. Hire a GM, look for fit out of the transfer portal, out of just the pure best talent and trying to make it work after that, because it's a little bit harder to do that, especially when a lot of these players, you know, already have a history, already have time at other colleges that it's,

Starting point is 00:16:56 it's probably a little bit harder to kind of break them down and get them to do exactly what you want. I don't know if this episode of locked on Jay, you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. Don't forget to check out our Kansas State preview as well and see you for a recap of that. Probably be out on late Saturday night, early Sunday morning.

Starting point is 00:17:13 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The Pieces Don’t Fit: Why Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Needs a GM

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