Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Too-Early Prediction of the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball 2024-2025 Starting Five + Griffen vs Storr

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks starting lineup for 2024-2025, we'll take a stab at it even though the offseason is not complete on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. Find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. He's Nick Schwert, at Nick underscore Schwert on Twitter. And thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:36 We're free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. You can find us on our YouTube page too, where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're going to be talking Kansas starting lineup in 2024-25. We'll do another couple segments of Who Cares, where we compare a couple things that have been going on with KU and around the sports world, what you care more about, and then whose stat line is it anyway. First, today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. Okay, so let's just rip the bandaid off here on this. I know this is an impossible task right now because you are still waiting on decisions to be had of KU players.

Starting point is 00:01:14 Are they going to leave? Are they going to stay? Are they going to go to the NBA draft? Are they going to transfer out? You still have decisions to be made of players who could possibly be brought in from the portal. You still have players who, for all we know, aren't even in the portal yet and might end up being a viable option for KU down the road. But if you had to project the starting lineup right now, based on everything you know, what would you go with? Okay, so let's go with the locks first. The locks are DeJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Some people would probably throw KJ Adams into that ring. I'm not. I think he's a contender, right? We're going to go through multiple tiers here. So I'm going to go DeJuan, Hunter. Those are your locks. I do think Zeke Mayo is a starter. I do. I just think it's not that I think he's an otherworldly talent that nobody can beat out. I do think he's really talented, but I just love the fit of him as a secondary ball handler. He can play the point. He can play off ball. He can initiate your offense. He can be a spot up shooter. I like him at the two next to DeJuan. From there, it gets a little murky. What's Johnny Furphy going to do? If Furphy returns, I'm throwing him into the lock camp with those first two guys that I mentioned, but we still don't know what he's going to do. Ultimately, I think he'd be silly not to test the NBA draft waters and at least see what's

Starting point is 00:02:29 out there for him based off the projections right now, unless he just balls out. I would, I would think that he is going to be back next year. So I'm going to throw Johnny Furphy in there as a starter. And for that fourth spot, or I guess the four spot in my head, uh, I'm going to throw Johnny Furphy in there as a starter. And for that fourth spot, or I guess the fourth spot in my head, I'm going to go with Ryland Griffin. The transfer from Alabama obviously hasn't committed to Kansas yet. There's been some smoke that KU is hot on his trail. And I love his game.

Starting point is 00:03:00 I think he's a perfect fit for what KU wants. I think he would be a missing piece. How many times, by the way, have we thrown around the term missing piece? I think we said that about Cliff Alexander once. I think we also said it about Billy Preston. We were wrong about- Oh, it was Sheck Diallo for sure. Sheck Diallo for sure.

Starting point is 00:03:15 Remy Martin. Actually, the Remy one panned out pretty well, though, by the end of it. But just in terms of a guy who can stretch the floor, he can shoot threes, he can finish at the rim, he's got length, he's a willing passer um so that's going to be my starting five i'm going to go it goes dewan zeke griffin furphy and hunter dickinson how close am i to yours so i i agree with uh dewan and hunter being locks and yeah hunter hasn't even announced yet but i feel like we're both on the same page there. But I agree with you. I'm assuming he's going to be coming back.

Starting point is 00:03:47 I guess you don't totally know, but assuming he is, yes, locked there. I agree with you. Furphy, if he comes back, obviously he's locked. For what it's worth, I was scouring through a couple draft boards today. He was 28th on ESPN, so borderline first rounder. 22nd on Bleacher Report, which is the high mark there. 37th on The Ringer, so that's a second round pick. And mark there. 37th on the ringers. That's a second round pick.

Starting point is 00:04:06 And then he was 26th on Yahoo and CBS. I mean, if he's not getting the promise in the top 20, I think it becomes more likely that he could come back, but who knows how he tests and all that goes. By the way, just sorry, I'll let you finish. But that projection, like it's a moving scale for what guys want. If Johnny Furphy were a guy who two years ago was not being projected to get drafted at all, and now he's a junior and all of a sudden

Starting point is 00:04:30 he had a great year and he's a first round pick, then all of a sudden it's like, hey, my draft stock's never going to get any higher. But for him being 19 years old, you can get a lot better. You come back next year, all of a sudden you're a lottery pick. That's why I think it's almost like the perfect range for him to get projected. The NBA is saying, hey, you're an NBA talent, but it might not be enticing enough to get him to leave college. Yeah. Now I think the only spot that I might differ with you on is, and I don't even know how much to my core, I don't know. I believe that this guy's a better player than the other, but let me explain my reasoning. So I would go to one. I agree if Ryland Griffin comes in, like you don't know. I believe that this guy is a better player than the other, but let me explain my reasoning. So I would go to one. I agree. If Ryland Griffin comes in, like you don't go from

Starting point is 00:05:08 being a starter on a final four team that does everything that Kansas needs and then don't start. Like, I don't really see that happening. So yeah, I think he would be a starter in that case. I wonder if Riley Kugel starts over Zeke Mayo and here's why, like, yes, I think Zeke Mayo could be a better player than Riley Kugel. Um, Though I guess you could say the NBA ceiling is actually higher for Kugel, but I go back to what I was saying earlier. So Riley Kugel had some, I don't know, run-ins, I guess you could say with the coach about going to the bench at Florida, right? So are you realistically, if you're Bill Self, are you wanting this kid as bad as you did to take him on as early as you did after he entered the portal? If the idea is for him to come off the bench, which basically got him into a

Starting point is 00:05:52 world where he did want to transfer from Florida. And I know, you know, Kansas isn't in Bill Self isn't like, Hey, you're guaranteed to start here. He's you can come in and have a chance for it. And maybe at the end of the day, the talent and the fit is just too much there with Zeke Mayo. But like, I view it as, hey, could Zeke be the Remy Martin role where he is coming off the bench, some games he's closing, he's still playing 25 minutes per game. He's that ideal six man. Maybe Kugel gives you that other guy. I don't know. I don't think that would shock me if Kugel ended up being the other starter. It wouldn't shock me either, but I guess I don't disagree with your conclusion. I think I disagree with the process, the math to get you there.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Because if you're Bill, you don't care what happened. You don't care that he had a falling out at Florida because he got sent to the bench. Because that would lead me to believe, what if he sucks, Derek? What if he's terrible? Is Bill going to be like, well, we want him happy. So let's play him 30 minutes a night and have him starting. Or what if the fit's just not there? What if it's like, hey, no, you're really good. But with the core five, maybe there's some overlap in skill, role, attributes, whatever,

Starting point is 00:07:00 to where it makes more sense to keep you in a rotation with the other wings. Because I do view Kugel as more of a wing. I know he was listed as a point guard coming out of high school, but I don't know. Like I said, it wouldn't shock me if he's a starter, but I can't imagine if you're Bill Self that you're letting the falling out of Florida influence your decisions once he's under your watch.

Starting point is 00:07:24 No, I agree to the standpoint of like, if decisions once he's under your watch? No, I agree to the standpoint of like, if Zeke Mayo is better than him, he'll start or whatever player insert players better than him. He'll start. My wonder is if it's the tiebreaker, right? If it's basically close, does he end up going? Because how I kind of likened it earlier was let's say you owned a restaurant and you went to this other restaurant and everything you ordered off the menu was great, except they sucked at cooking steaks. And you were like, you know what, I'm going to hire this chef away. But you hired the chef away to cook steaks at your restaurant. Like that wouldn't make sense. So like if this guy was good at a lot of things, but he did not do well when he had to come off the bench, why would you bring him on to come off the bench? Now, again,

Starting point is 00:08:03 that can be, you know, the plan maybe wasn't to do that. And maybe you just end up too loaded that you kind of have to do it. One follow-up though, real quick. Wait, no, no, no, no, no, no. I get a follow-up before you get a follow-up. That analogy, you showed me that you don't watch a lot of like bar rescue. You don't see how stupid some people in the restaurant industry can be. So like that analogy doesn't surprise me whatsoever. That's when Jon Taffer shows up and says, shut this down. Start screaming at everyone. Yeah. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:08:35 Okay. I like, we should have done a roster rescue with, uh, with. That's actually good. You know what? If you don't do it, I'm going to steal that bit from my podcast. Go for it. Um, so the, the follow-up question I had though, is let's say Furphy does go pro. Does that mean KJ Adams would move into the starting lineup for you? Or do you think it would be more likely that it could be a Riley Kugel for instance, in your starting lineup? No, because I think back, I've been thinking about this more since we talked last week and KJ Adams being a starter for the last two years only happened because there was nobody else. KJ wasn't, I mean, yes, he was beating guys out, but year one, he beat out Zach Clements and Ernest Uday, neither

Starting point is 00:09:18 of which were good. They were just not good players. And we've seen that pan out since then with Ernest Uday going down to TCU. Oh, you'd think, oh, well, that'll be different at TCU. He'll play, he'll start McGon. No, same issues. Maybe he's just not that good. So like with KJ, he hasn't really won any tough fought position battles. Who was the other four on last year's team? And I don't even know if KJ's a four, but like who else was really competing for his starting job last year? He hasn't had anyone breathing down his neck. So even if Furphy's gone, I think either A, that's a situation where now Kugel maybe does enter the starting lineup,

Starting point is 00:09:57 or B, which I think is more likely, is you're going to go get another wing. You're going to go get somebody else who can start at that spot. Because I keep saying four, and that's a mistake, because he's not a four, and you don't need a four in basketball. In 2018, KU went to the Final Four with LeGerald, Vic, and Sve being your three-slash-four, whatever. So it's like this isn't about a four. It's about a fourth starter.

Starting point is 00:10:22 It is about another wing. KU can go and find that in the transfer portal, or they've got guys on the roster who can already fill that spot. All right, let's get on to a segment of Who Cares, including a couple of transfer portal guys, Ryland Griffin versus AJ Storr on Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Monopoly Go. You've been tracking the leaderboards every day, keeping your eye on the scores,

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Starting point is 00:11:38 I'm going to give you two topics. You tell me which one you care more about, and this can go a lot of different ways. Rylan Griffin or AJ store. Both are top tier wing prospects. Seems like maybe there's some recent heat with both those guys. Store's girlfriend transferring to KU from Wisconsin. Rylan Griffin had like an in-home visit with, with KU at his home in Dallas. Which of those do you kind of care more about?

Starting point is 00:12:03 Griffin. That one's, I was actually just watching both of these guys highlights from last year before we started recording this and the fit with Griffin is just there, man. He is a spot up shooter. He is long, lanky, can put the ball on the deck, get to the rim and finish. He's a really good passer. I know that the assist numbers aren't there, but you see some of the highlights, like really

Starting point is 00:12:24 good at driving to the rim and then dumping it off to the big man, cutting to the basket. Uh, like that would be a match made in heaven with him and Hunter Dickinson. I like his game a lot. And I think, Hey, you need shooting. So that's where I'm always going to start whenever we're getting into these transfer portal guys and how do they fit? Can you shoot? you can't i'm not that interested aj store can shoot but that's not who he is he is more of a guy who's going to finish at the rim which again all for it but i think there are there's some stuff with aj store that just scares me it's like i think he's playing at like five different high schools if you've watched any of wisconsin's games this past year be a little bit of's games this past year, be a little bit of a chucker. Like he can be a little bit of a me time hero ball, which is fine if you can do it. And he's not quite that dude. Not to say I'd be opposed to AJ store,

Starting point is 00:13:17 but I would honestly say like right now, when I'm looking at potential guys who KU could get, they're probably one a and one B, but I just think the fit is there better with Griffin. And then on top of it, I'm just not concerned about him coming in and absolutely imploding the team's chemistry, which like, honestly, like that's going to be a little bit of a concern if AJ Storer comes to Kansas.

Starting point is 00:13:39 Yeah. So to your point, wherever he ends up, he'll be at his seventh school in seven years, which is certainly something. Now, yeah to your point, wherever he ends up, he'll be at his seventh school in seven years, which is certainly something. Now, yeah, both are, I think they add something that Kansas needs either way. Like Kansas needs shooting, but they also need scoring creation. I guess last second shot clock scoring, scoring off the dribble, however you want to view that. Like basically ability to make your own shot.

Starting point is 00:14:02 And I think Storr does that a little bit more than Griffin, but Griffin is the much better shooter and does more overall because Storr is basically just a – he's a mercenary scorer. Like wherever he goes, he's just going to score. And, yeah, I think the shooting is better with Griffin. I think the synergy numbers like the defense better with Storr, but I think a little bit of that has to do with that Storr, you're playing more of a four role.

Starting point is 00:14:25 Whereas Griffin had to play more on the perimeter for also defensive team. Yeah. Really bad. Like Alabama didn't care about playing defense at all. And they went to the final four because they got buckets. So give me the guy that can get buckets. I want one note on that though. I do think that when you're,

Starting point is 00:14:43 you're looking at different transfer portal guys and how they're going to fit, what the fit's going to be like. AJ Storr, yes, he's a mercenary scorer. He's probably a higher ceiling scorer. If you just told me you get one or the other, AJ Storr may give you 16 a game. Rylan Griffin may give you 12 a game. KU had basically two 20 point scorers this year. And the offense was abysmal.

Starting point is 00:15:07 You've got a good baseline. If Hunter comes back, he's going to give you 20 a night. I don't think you need a Robin to his Batman. I don't think you need a Kevin McCuller. Who's going to go out there and also get you 20 a night. What I'm more interested in is having four guys on the court. Who could any of them

Starting point is 00:15:25 go off for 15 to 18. Most of them will give you a 10 to 12 a night. That is, is what KU was missing this past year. You need more depth. You need the scoring spread out more than you had it. Yeah. And I,

Starting point is 00:15:36 I don't think either player would be this good, but just like prototype wise, I think a good way of, of kind of describing that is AJ store is more of the Jalen Wilson type where it's like, he's going to grind his way to points. Whereas, uh, Ryland Griffin would be more of like the type. And again, I don't think either player is like that good, but yeah, I get what you're saying. Okay. Uh, here's a football one. Jalen Daniels playing in the spring game

Starting point is 00:15:57 or Quentin Skinner saying that he wasn't able to take snaps in 11 on 11 till the spring game i guess playing right i mean part of me wonders like if you everybody loves a good conspiracy theory i know you love conspiracy theories um part of me wonders you get a tinfoil hat for the show that i can you should we should you should make that a tinfoil hat segment anytime you got a good one and this has been a good one for a while now because part of me wonders like is there some window dressing happening here is this like hey let's get jalen out there do some easy things just so everybody can see him out there i think I don't really care about either one of them. So I guess I'll say, I guess I'll try my best to not be cynical about this and pessimistic about this because no matter what, he could have went out there and played the full game. He could have been practicing all spring. I'm going to be concerned about his health all season long. There is no stretch that he can have of looking great

Starting point is 00:17:08 that is ever going to make me remove all doubt or concern from my mind that he is one play away or not even a play away. Just like a weird report that comes out on Monday that he wasn't out there and then all of a sudden we don't see him again for a month. That fear is always going to be present with Jalen. I think at this point, it's tough to get that out of your mind. Yep, 100% agreed. Okay, last one I got here.

Starting point is 00:17:30 John Calipari getting the Arkansas job or Mark Pope getting the Kentucky job? I like how you worded that as John Calipari getting the Arkansas job, as if it was tough. John Calipari showed interest, and they're like, can we do better? Can we do better than Cal um I I guess I care more about Mark Pope because even if Cal gets that thing humming it's never going to be better than it was at Kentucky and Arkansas I just don't imagine them becoming a power. They can win at a high level.

Starting point is 00:18:10 They can win the SEC, be a three or a four seed, but I imagine he's going to cook together those rosters the same way he was doing at Kentucky, which, as we've seen, just didn't really produce the results that you should get with those sorts of recruiting classes. Mark Pope at Kentucky is interesting. They couldn't get any of the guys that they wanted. And I think it's because of how things ended with John Calipari.

Starting point is 00:18:28 I think that job takes, it's kind of like being the president. It's like, it takes years off your life because the expectations are so massive. It is so stressful. And it is so tough to please those fans who expect the absolute most. Now comes in Mark Pope. You're

Starting point is 00:18:45 sort of like, really, this is the marquee name, but Kentucky dude cares about Kentucky. Like he is going to build those rosters in a much, much different way than Cal was doing. I kind of wonder if that might be a good thing for them. It could also completely implode and he's way in over his head and they'll be looking for a new coach in two or three years. And then they probably will get a marquee name. So that one is much more interesting to me because I am fascinated with how it's going to work out. Yeah. I can't get the, the Scott Frost stuff coming out of my head that it's like this, the, the prodigal son returns to coach his former team. And then that just Scott Frost was a bit of a psychopath though. So I, I wonder if Pope's maybe got a better disposition to him.

Starting point is 00:19:25 Yeah, I feel like you wouldn't be a psychopath if you're coaching at BYU. You probably just would. They'd oust you at some point. Anyway, all right. Let's finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway on Locked on Jayhawks? This episode is brought to you by Yahoo Finance.

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Starting point is 00:20:06 visit the brand behind every great investor, YahooFinance.com. The number one financial destination, YahooFinance.com. That is YahooFinance.com. We're going to finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway? Okay, so CBB Analytics defines long threes as threes of 25 feet or more. In a viewing sense, they're the awesome ones,

Starting point is 00:20:33 the cool ones that you think about and that lead to big highlights. From a X's and O's standpoint, they're the one that really make a team respect the three-point shooter and really open up the spacing for a team. Who led Kansas in three-point percentage on long threes this past season? Three point.

Starting point is 00:20:52 Is there any minimum? Like is one for one? Are you going to get me on one of these? No, it's not one of those. I'll tell you this. The person was five of nine. So they shot 55.6%. I mean, gosh, it could have only been a couple of different dudes like to me

Starting point is 00:21:07 it's either furphy or mcculler i guess it could be timbo man i feel like none of these dudes were taking deep threes but i'm gonna i don't know why but i'm just gonna go with kevin mcculler on this so kevin was fifth um he actually took the most and made the most but he was fifth in percentage seven of 18 uh furphy was only four of 14 for what that's worth uh i don't remember this but apparently parker brown was oh for four i don't even remember him taking four of them um dewan harris was three for nine in fourth was michael jankovich at two of five third was nick timberlake at three of seven second was jamari mcdowell at four of nine hunter hunter dickinson led kansas in made deep threes

Starting point is 00:21:59 at five of nine i think like the one at the end of the champions classic at the end of the first half uh against kentucky where he did the uh i guess elephant trunk celebration would be one way of putting it um okay okay maybe i just yeah maybe i'm thinking of like maybe 25 feet is deeper in my head than it is in reality because i don't remember any of these dudes taking deep threes but i guess it checks out you know hunter trailing in the half court he comes down they kick it to him they haven't come out to him yet and bangs at home okay but no that that thought that you had i'm glad you said that because that is kind of the point here kansas did not take a ton of deep threes so overall if i told you kansas attempted 79 threes of 25 feet or further how many i'll let

Starting point is 00:22:42 you get within five here on the guess and i'll give it to you if you get it within five, either way. Did Zeke Mayo at South Dakota State attempt by himself last season? I know he, because I watched his highlights a couple weeks ago. He takes a lot of them. So Kansas as a team was at 79. There's your reference point. How many did he take? I'm going to guess like 74.

Starting point is 00:23:09 Zeke Mayo attempted 87. He took more by himself than Kansas did as a team. Also, for what it's worth, on those shots, Zeke Mayo was 30 of 87. That is good for 34.5%. So Zeke Mayo shot better on deep threes than Kansas did as a team on all threes. Did I, I'm,

Starting point is 00:23:27 I can't, I'm going to bring it up every time I possibly can. I'm so excited for this kid to be in a Kansas uniform. Cause you know what, Derek, he's going to care a lot. Being a local kid, wanted to get recruited by KU at a high school,

Starting point is 00:23:40 did never get the offer, has to go to South Dakota state, balled out. And now he gets to come home for his last season and play for his hometown team. I thought there was some complacency on this team. I thought there was a lot of guys this past year who just thought it was cool to play for Kansas, right,

Starting point is 00:23:54 as opposed to being super prideful in it. I think things are going to be a little bit different next year, and I think Zeke's going to be one of those dudes who immediately you're going to feel like he's a program guy even though it's gonna be effectively a one and done kugel grew up a ku fan rylan griffin wanted to go to ku i i think that might be yeah this needs to be the new thing if you were it pictured before the age of 14 in a ku church bill self's going after you right now all right well uh he's nick schwirt what can you find with your work right now what's going on uh new podcasts every week could be wrong you can check

Starting point is 00:24:30 it out wherever you get your podcasts and on youtube all right he's nick schwirt i'm derrick johnson find our show here with locked on jayhawks anywhere you get your podcasts including on our youtube page see you next time with loj

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Too-Early Prediction of the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball 2024-2025 Starting Five + Griffen vs Storr

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