Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Top Five Strengths for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Headed Into 2024-2025

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Top five strengths for Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball headed into the 2024-2025 season, from Allen Fieldhouse to inside scoring led by Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams, to overhauled scoring from adding AJ Storr and Rylan Griffen, to passing led by Dajuan Harris and Zeke Mayo, Bill Self's coaching and more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Factor MealsHead to Factormeals.com/lockedoncollege50 and use code lockedoncollege50 to get 50% off your first box PLUS 20% off your next month while your subscription is active! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, the top five biggest strengths for KU basketball in 2024 to 2025. 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. You can give me a follow on Twitter at D Johnson Radio. You can tune into the show. It's called Locked on Jayhawks. Anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page.

It's making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. Make sure you are liked and subscribed to the show. Again, YouTube or anywhere you get your podcasts. Today, we're going to be talking about the top five biggest strengths for KU basketball that we feel like headed into the season in 2024 to 2025. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more as playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel's hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily.

That's right. There's something for everyone every day, all summer long. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. All right, so we're going to work in reverse order from number five to number one before we get into those top five biggest strengths for KU basketball in the 2024 to 2025 season. I'll give you a little honorable mention one here that I just wanted to mention. Like, Allen Fieldhouse is such an advantage for this team each and every year. There's magic every time they play there.

There's this just unbelievable aura and energy. And for some teams, it can spook them. Other teams rise to the occasion there. But it still feels like, you know, Kansas gets that extra edge playing at allen field house and you know even in years where they haven't been as good of teams as we're maybe used to the years that they haven't been one seeds or two seeds in the ncaa tournament or you know something the they've still found a way to either go undefeated at home or you know only lose one game like last year you only lose one game at home. That 2018-2019 team that was also

4C, they went undefeated at home. That is a big strength for you that you do have Allen Fieldhouse because that's going to probably win you a game or two over the course of the season. Number five, though, for the five biggest strengths for KU basketball in the 2024-2025 season is jump shooting. This would not have been on the list if we were talking about last year's team. In fact, it would be on the list of the biggest weaknesses for last year's team. You didn't have enough volume and you didn't have enough percentage in terms of how you shot the basketball from mid-range, from three-point range, from deep three-point range, from the free throw line, right?

Like you were just lacking in the shooting department a season ago. Enter the offseason and Bill Self goes out, adds Ryland Griffin, sharpshooter, AJ Storr, who's a scorer, Zeke Mayo, who is a scorer and a sharpshooter. Shaquille Moore's shooting 36% a season ago, and he's somebody who can score the basketball a little bit. So you added a lot of shooting onto the roster, and we went into on a past episode. So if you're an everydayer, you caught this this and thank you for doing that. Of course, you can still go back and rewatch it or watch it for the first time if you missed it. Talking about the three-point ability for this Kansas team based on last year's percentages from everybody that they have and career percentages based on everybody that they have.

And kind of the conclusion there was based on those you probably projected this season to shoot somewhere between 36 to 37 percent from three that is night and day from what you did a season ago in which you were closer to that 33 34 percent range and it was on much lower volume than you're going to be projected to have for this upcoming season if we assume the starting five is dewan harris rylan griffin aj store kj adams hundred against it if we assume that the starting five is DeJuan Harris, Ryland Griffin, A.J. Storr, K.J. Adams, Hunter Dickinson. If we assume that's the starting five, and who knows, maybe there's somebody who factors into that who ends up starting and somebody comes out. But that would mean based on last season of those five for the starters, you'd be getting, based off last season's numbers, 36% from three on 13.7 three-point attempts per game. And that's just from the starters.

Again, last season as a whole as a team, you were closer to that 33% range on about 17 takes. That was for the full team, the starters and the bench. So you're almost to the volume of what the starters – of what everybody had on last year's team just with the starters and on a significantly higher volume. I know 33% to 36% – like, oh, it's three percentage points. That's three makes over 100. Well, you might take 100 threes over the 36%, like, oh, it's three percentage points. That's three makes over a hundred. Well, you might take a hundred threes over the course of like four games, right? So

three makes almost won a game over that, you know, four game span, like maybe three of them come in the same game though, as opposed to averaging out one per game. And maybe that's the difference in you winning or losing that one specific game. If we compare this team, this upcoming 2024 to 25 team to the 2022 national title team, I think you could make a lot of comparisons in terms of the shooting or lack of shooting based on player to player. So what if we compare KJ Adams to David McCormick? Basically, you have somebody who you're not getting threes from, okay? As far as if we're just comparing the rosters here. Hunter Dickinson is actually a better three-point shooter

than 2022 Jalen Wilson was. Now, Jalen Wilson in 2023, his final season was a better three-point shooter. But 2022 Jalen Wilson, the national championship year, he was at 26% from three. That's it, on 3.1 attempts per game. Hunter Dickinson was on 35.4% from three on two attempts per game a season ago. So you're talking about Hunter actually being a better three-point shooter

than Jalen was if we're just comparing this Kansas team to the 2022 team, which clearly was good enough to win the title. DeJuan shoots a tad more than he did in 2022. So I guess you give a slight lean there. Ochagbaje is better than Ryland Griffin, but the three-point shooting is closer than you might actually think. Ochagbaje shot 40.7% from three. That was on six and a half attempts per game as a senior at KU. Ryland Griffin last year as a sophomore at Alabama, he shot 39.2%. So, you know, one and a half percent lower. Close though, both guys who were very good shooters on 5.3 attempts per game. So again, 1.2 attempts less per game. So Ochai better overall player and better three-point shooter there, but it's closer than you might think. Then Christian Brown, he was

a better efficiency three-point shooter than AJ Storr, but Storr is actually going to give you more volume from three and the variety of how he can shoot them. Christian had a bit of a slower release. It was a longer load up and we're seeing this in the NBA. He doesn't take a ton of three. Some of it is maybe that other parts of it is maybe just he is like a team first guy and he doesn't like to shoot a lot of threes. And that was something, if you remember back, like even Bill Self harked on it again, he was like, we need him to shoot some of these open shots that he's not actually taking. AJ Storr is not going to have that problem. And AJ Storr, I think can get more like off the dribble than Christian did with the three point game, but CB shot 38.6% from three, but it was just 3.3 attempts per game that season.

That's crazy to think about that Jalen shot 26% from three that year. And they were basically taking the same amount of threes per game. So AJ St store for his career is at 35.2 percent from three and that's on three and a half attempts per game which is more than Christian Brown shot his final season at Kansas and the percentage is not as good but it's still above average for store there and that includes one year where he played 21 minutes per game at St. John's so if he's playing 30 minutes per game that volume is going to go up to four or five attempts per game so that one's just kind of a pick your poison, what you're looking for from three-point shooter conversation. And then Zeke Mayo and Remy Martin, that's similar. You're talking about somebody who, in the case of what we're projecting here, Zeke Mayo coming off the bench, Remy Martin coming off the bench, both shooters.

Remy is as good of a shooter as he was. Low-key only took two and a half three-point attempts per game. So Zeke might end up taking more than that. I don't know. And then you wind up with a similar comp, and that team had enough three-point shooting to win it all. In fact, I would have viewed it as kind of a strength on that year's team. So I think that this team, there's going to be quite –

that year's team was unbelievable in transition. This year's team could be good in transition. I think Storr will be really good in transition to one and, and KJ are good passers in transition game and having KJ be able to run in transition or throw down lobs or pass in transition makes him a good transition player. Hunter Dickinson is out outstanding outlet passer, which helps you in transition around the Griffin plays really well in transition. That's what he did a lot at Alabama.

So this team could be a really good transition team too too but it's hard for me to say because that team for my money was the best transition team in the country um so you could be near that at least that one i think had more defensive versatility than this one does too but this one could actually be better uh scoring inside than that one was and it could still be really good in transition and it could still be around the same range in terms of three-point shooting because all the transfers they added are good free-throw shooters. Most of the transfers they added are good three-point shooters. A.J. Storr can also operate in the mid-range jump shooting, too, if we're talking about all types of jump shooting.

And so, yeah, I think that the jump shooting is actually one of the bigger strengths on this year's team. Let's get to number four, number three, number two, number one coming up in just a moment on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by Ibotta. Sandals, sunscreen, snacks for the little kids. What do these have in common? You're probably buying a ton again this summer,

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We're going to get into a conversation about why it's important for somebody to be a first round pick on this KU basketball roster and the importance of that and who it could possibly be. But continuing on here with our top five strengths for Kansas men's basketball in the 2024 to 2025 season. Up to number four on the list is guard defense for the biggest strengths. So DeJuan Harris two years ago wins Big 12 defensive player of the year. Last season, I still think he was an overall good defender for you, but the year he won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, he was a great defender. He was an elite defender, one of the best in the country. And last season, I think he was asked to do more on the offensive end,

and I think part of that was because of the roster and not being super deep and he's playing more minutes. And so that took a bit of a toll on the defensive end of the court where he just wasn't as impactful consistently as he was from the year before. I think this season with having more guys that can bring up the basketball, that can initiate the offense, that can handle the basketball, I think DeJuan's going to get back to that mode he was two years ago where he's closer to being the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. So you have him. Shaquille Moore comes in and I mean, you could argue he's KU's other best

defender and both of them are kind of lead guard types who can be bulldogs and guard ones and twos on the opposing rosters I'd imagine with Shaquille Moore he's going to you know pressure the ball uh like full court man-to-man for certain stretches to try to wear down other teams you know point guards and stuff if he's playing 15, 20 minutes per game or something, but when they throw out that lineup of DeJuan and Shaquille Moore, I mean, they can throw out a lineup at the end of the game. If you're looking for a stop, you're up by, I don't know, four with a minute left or something like that.

You could throw out a lineup with KJ Adams at the five. You have Shaquille Moore and DeJuan Harris at the one and two. And then you figure out who your best kind of wing defenders are from everybody else. I don't know. Maybe it's even KJ at the four and Floyd Badunga at the five, if you're just looking for a stop at the end of the game or something like that. There's a lot that you can kind of mix and match with in those situations, but I think guard defense is going to be really good for KU. We've also seen it from like Ryland Griffin has shown flashes being able to defend guards

like RJ Davis he did in the NCAA tournament. I think Rakeese Passmore, you look at this strong athletic wing. Typically, that means you have defensive potential. I mean, if you're long, you're athletic, right? All it takes is figuring out the scheme and the system, what's being asked of you, which can be difficult for freshmen because there's a big learning curve there, but he has defensive potential. I think McDowell tries hard on that end if he ends up playing,

which I don't know if that'll be the case, but I think you're going to have really good guard defense on next year's team. Okay, number three on the list. We'll get to that coming up here in just a moment on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by Factor. Warmer, sunnier days are calling. Fuel up for them with Factor's no prep, no mess meals. Meet your wellness goals in time for summer thanks to the menu of chef-crafted meals with more options like CalorieSmart, Protein Plus, and Keto. Factor Fresh's never-frozen meals are dietician approved and ready to eat in just two minutes. So no matter how busy you are,

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That's code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE50 at factormeals.com to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. Into the top three, we go. Number three biggest strengths for KU basketball, I think passing. So last season, they were number one in the country in assists per field goal made. I don't think you want to be that high, typically. It shows that you are a really good passing team, which KU was. The reason you don't want to be that high, like, if you're the best passing team in the country, that's good. Being number one in the stat is not necessarily good. it's better to be number one than to be last

but there's a line there and the reason that i say this is because you want to be a good passing team you want to be a team that shares the rock but there's a line because if you're number one if you're number five in assist to field goal made ratio a lot of times that means you don't have guys who can get a bucket off the dribble a guy who can get a bucket in isolation right and so you still want to be good at this number i i think a good uh way of looking at this if we went back and you know maybe looked at some past years for kansas you could still see good numbers but they wouldn't be number one so again they were number one in this last year 2023 they were 19th in the country and that because you at least had like Jalen who

could get you an all-in bucket what about 2022 when they won the national championship that season they were 105th so again like you want to be a good passing team but you want a little more creation off the bat so that said Kansas is a very good passing team DeJuan Harris great passer KJ Adams good passer especially for a four or five man, and especially in transition. Hunter Dickinson, good passer for a center and an excellent outlet passer, as we talked about earlier. Zeke Mayo, very solid passer, right? You should have two to three to four of those players on the court at all times. Even like Shaquille Moore is a guard who, you know, you should be a better passer than hypothetically some just lumbering big man or something. Ryland Griffin has shown some flashes passing the basketball.

He hasn't been asked to do it as much when he was at Alabama, but I think this is going to be an excellent passing team once again, but it has more of that pop off the bounce than a season ago and three-point shooting and jump shooting as we talked about earlier. Our number two on this, though, is scoring inside. This was KU's probably biggest strength a season ago scoring the basketball inside now there was a stretch during big 12 play because of their lack of three-point shooting other teams were really able to camp inside and prevent their biggest strength

from taking over games because earlier in the season even if they weren't hitting threes they were just bludgeoning teams on the inside. Teams started to adjust. The funny thing, though, is that even though KU's inside scoring suffered a notch down from being, you know, like statistically early in the season, they were one of the most efficient two-point scoring offenses in the entire country. That ended up dropping off, but they still wound up second in Big 12 only games in two-point offense because they were still that good at it. If they would have been a better three-point shooting team or had better spacing, they would have been number one with a bullet. So still, this is a strength. And because you have more shooting, again, going back to our number five thing, which is the jump shooting,

which should be much better this season. That means more spacing for the floor. That means more opportunities for guys on the team to have open lanes. So I'm thinking like DeJuan Harris, right? He struggled with layups last season, which some of them were just open layups. So like that's something that, you know, whether you have spacing or not, you just got to make the open ones. But I think there were some of his floaters that have typically gone down in previous years that he didn't have as much space this year to get off. KJ Adams is really good finishing at the rim, especially if he's one-on-one.

You have better spacing, he's going to have more of those and more dunks. Hunter Dickinson, if he's getting more space at the rim, he's going to dominate at the rim. And then you have guys like AJ Storr who are power athletes who, if he's getting good spacing, he can drive a guy straight line drive to the rim and finish at the rim. So I think this is going to be an excellent scoring in a side team. What is the number one strength, though, for KU basketball in 2024 to 2025? I'll tell you in a team. What is the number one strength though for KU basketball in 2024 to 2025?

Tell you in a second. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, which, you know, it might not be prime sports season right now, but I'll tell you what, there still is a good amount going on. We got the Olympics right now. Been loving watching. Everybody has like their favorite Olympic sports. I love the swimming, which I've been betting on at FanDuel. I love the track and field. But there's always that one other sport or maybe new sport that you pick up every year. Loved watching the Rugby Women's Sevens the other day. US just trucking over Japan and scoring it.

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And don't forget, you can check out all of our Locked On Podcast Network if you're looking for a specific school, if you're looking for a conference, you're looking for another sport, you're getting your KU fill here, maybe you're a Chiefs fan, maybe you're a Royals fan, you can get that fill here with Locked On Podcast Network as well. Our number one strength for KU basketball this upcoming season. This is kind of cheating, but I don't care. Bill Self. I know Dan Hurley is the hot thing right now. I know Dan Hurley has won back-to-back national

titles. Dan Hurley is an excellent college basketball coach, and that whole staff is phenomenal. Bill Self is still the best coach in college basketball.. And that whole staff is phenomenal. Bill Self is still the best coach in college basketball. I mean, if you want to cross-compare, you could say both have the two titles, and then you could say, okay, Dan Hurley doesn't have any other final fours. Bill Self has more.

Right? Part of that is the longevity, and Bill Self's had another 10 years on Dan Hurley, basically. But Bill Self, for my money, is still the best coach in college basketball. And I don't mean that as a slight. Dan Hurley is an excellent coach. If you're talking tier one coaches in college basketball, I think it's those two guys. It's like Bill Self and Dan Hurley for active coaches right now, but I think Bill Self is the guy, and even if it is Hurley, I didn't mean to turn this into a Self versus Hurley thing. It doesn't matter. Bill Self would

still be a giant strength if you were saying he's the second best coach in college basketball, which, again, I'm saying number one. But the out of timeouts are unbelievable for Bill Self each and every year. That's like stealing candy from a baby and the amount of points it's going to get them per game. The pulling the right strings at the right moment. You're never going to bat 100%. So you could go back to last year and be like, well, why didn't you figure out this with the bench? I think the short answer to that would be you couldn't figure out the right rotation for the team or who should be starting or who should be doing this or that probably because you just didn't have the options.

Like no matter who you put in that spot, it wasn't working. So like you're never going to bat 100% in terms of figuring out the rotation and pulling the right strings. But nine times out of 10, Bill Self is going to get his specific team playing to the highest level that they're going to be able to play. And that's kind of the point here, like trusting to get the best version of this team that you possibly can. Bill Self is excellent in everything, developing the players, scouting and everything. They've added stuff to the staff. I think that was a good move by Bill Self to say, hey, things didn't go well last year. What can we do? Let's go add Chase Buford. Give us another angle of things from another league over in Australia. Maybe they can add some plays. Maybe they can give us another insight on what's going on here that we can get better

at some of these things. And that's what good coaches do. And Bill Self is the best coach in college basketball. So yes, that is your biggest strength each and every game. And it would be the following season. It would be the year before as well. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page.

We'll be back tomorrow to talk which KU football players that Lance Leipold and company needs the team to step up most during fall camp.