Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - TRANSFER ALERT: NGINYU NGALA IS A JAYHAWK | Kansas Tacks on Quick, Scoring Guard from Canada

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks basketball lands a Canadian talent. Will Nginyu Gee Ngala be the boost that Bill Self's KU team needs in 2025-2026?Derek Johnson breaks down the Jayhawks' latest roster move, analyzing Ngala's impressive U Sports career and potential impact. From all-conference honors to intriguing shooting and steal numbers, Ngala's journey to Lawrence takes center stage. Johnson explores how this 26-year-old point guard fits into Bill Self's system, comparing him to former KU players like Joe Yesufu and Diggy Coit, and how he could fit in role wise for the Jayhawks alongside Elmarko Jackson, Darryn Peterson and company.Can Ngala provide the depth and shooting touch to elevate Kansas in a competitive Big 12? Tune in for an in-depth look at the newest Jayhawk and what his addition means for KU's championship aspirations.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)

Oh Canada in Guiney in Gala the Canadian stud point guard is finding his way down to Lawrence and he's gonna bring a lot of shooting, scoring and athleticism. What exactly does he bring to the table? Where does he fit in with KU? We'll get to all that on today's 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.

What's going on bonus episode of Locked On Jayhawks? I'm Derek Johnson at D Johnson radio on Twitter. And this is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day or in this bonus case, your second listen every day. Thank you to every dayers catching each and every one of our shows and I guess the overtime workers, right? Overtime is tax free.

So thank you for putting in overtime and grabbing your second listen today, anywhere that you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. It's a commitment episode because in Ginyu N'Gala, the transfer from Canada, the point guard who is an experienced player He's in his mid 20s

He can shoot the three ball and becomes an interesting Addition in an offseason of a lot of interesting additions and international additions for KU So getting gonna get into his game and what he brings to the table how he fits in with KU on today's episode of the show Let's start right there though. You can see it from himself. If you're watching on YouTube, here's his tweet. He is at G underscore J four. He's at Jayhawk nation. Let's get it rock chalk hashtag committed.

And it has a picture of him rocking the KU uniform. I do believe he might've visited recently within the last couple of weeks. I don't know, but he's originally from Quebec, Canada, and he goes by it's G E E. So I don't know if it's pronounced G or if it's pronounced G. Now, I'm wondering if it's G because in it could be in Guignu, but it could be in Guignu. And maybe it's G for short. So I don't know. We'll wait and see on where that goes. But again, originally from Quebec, Canada probably speaks French. That's the primary language in Quebec. He's been playing in U sports. What is U sports? No, it is not like eSports. U sports is essentially the Canadian version of the NCAA. He's been playing there for the past five seasons, five years, I guess you would

say before seasons. Unlike the US. I don't think Canada actually played during the COVID season, at least he didn't play any games during the COVID season. So maybe it's possible he like redshirted, but I just think Canada didn't play in the COVID season, unlike the US. So really, he had five years of college basketball, there was really over four seasons of play. And so he's coming to KU, he will have, I believe, one year of play based on his age. So he was he was a member of and this is so k

sports.com Henry Greenstein posted this he said, a graduate of English language at veneer college in Montreal, students in Quebec attend college prior to university. So that means you go high school, then you do college, which almost becomes like prep school then and then you do university. So that's why he is 26 years old. And that's mentioned in the story. Because if he had five seasons of college basketball, and he had three seasons of college before, I guess, university basketball, I guess university basketball differently, college basketball there,

it's a very weird kind of thing that happened, but he started his university basketball youth sports career in Canada at Dalhousie, which is consistently a very solid Canadian program and 2020 to 2024. He had three years of three seasons of play. He earned an all rookie team and all conference first team and then an all conference tournament team over his time. So once awards then this past season he played for Laurentian which he earned third

team all league in their conference and earned the school's male athlete of the years that probably tells you, you know what they thought of him. If you went to schools like male or female athlete of the year, it's not just about performance, which he clearly, you know, had and was a good player. It's also probably tells you that like you're a good person or like you're a good dude or like people like hanging out with you, right?

That that that's kind of an invaluable skill to come over to a team, especially in a situation where he's coming over to Kansas. He's coming over a little later in the game, right? And it's like, OK, are you going to mess with the locker room vibe? Well, if you're seen as a good dude and like people like you that's gonna be easier to get along and then also it's like You know what if he does end up being you know tenth or eleventh man where he's not part of the rotation is he gonna

Cause a stink in the locker room Well again, if you have somebody who is seen as good locker room, dude Then you don't have to worry about that as much right? And I think based on how Because you could say okay. Are we sure Kansas is going to get this kid eligible? He's 26 years old. Are we sure this is going to happen? Well, I think based on how KU was handling other international recruits, they wouldn't have accepted a public announcement for this of a commitment unless they knew they could get the player eligible with the NCAA. So like there was rumor, there was scuttlebutt that like Bryce Deseret from France, the center,

had committed to KU, but it didn't become like public because they didn't think they could, like they weren't sure if they can get them eligible. And then they figured out that, hey, we don't think we can get them eligible so we're moving on. And so you don't want that commitment to come out and get everybody's hopes up.

And then all of a sudden, you can't actually bring it on. Right. So based on how KU has operated, I think if this is public, I'd imagine it'll be the same rule that's allowing for guys, you know, at the NAIA level, at the JUCO level, at the D2 level to kind of have that extra year at the NCAA based on their ability to make an IEL over a season. And speaking of international recruits that KU is bringing on, this certainly adds some more flavor to KU from all over the globe, which is kind of cool. You have somebody from Canada now. You have obviously with both Florid Badunga and Paul Mbea being from Africa in the Republic of Congo. You have players from all over the US

in different states. I think Trey White is from Texas. And then you've got players from maybe up north or the east or something like that. Melvin Council is what, from the Northeast with New Jersey? Point being, you have all different cultures and all different like areas on the map, which is I think really cool. It's it becomes kind of a cool blending of,

I don't know, different experiences and different people and I think that's a cool thing to have on the team, you know, and kind of have that opportunity. Now, from a roster perspective, he becomes, depending on how you want to look at it, do you look at him as a college transfer because he is transferring technically from another college, in which case he would become KU's fourth collegiate transfer edition? Or do you count him as an international pickup where he would be the second as an international pickup joining Paul and Bia for this year's team, right? Now, obviously, from a total math perspective,

it also puts Kansas at 13 scholarship players again where you basically have seven guards. I mean, you do have seven guards, three wings with the wings being Trey White, Samiz Calderon and Corbin Allen, and then three big men with Paul Mbia, Floyd Budunga and Bryson Tiller. So if they did want to make, because again, remember in the new age of college sports, you have 15 scholarship opportunities openings, whatever, for basketball with the new rev share idea. Kansas is playing with 14 because of the self imposed stuff, which I again think that if we made all this stuff legal, why should they self impose it? But they're not going to go to 15 anyway, so it wouldn't matter. But they do have a spot open if they want it. You know, I think it would make some sense still to maybe add another big man. You only have three big men, right? Like, wouldn't you like to add another one? At the same point in time? It would probably have to be a special circumstance like this one for someone who would more so just be kind of a body would be coming in late and would need a lower and I L or rev share.

I don't know what it would be at this point figure because there's probably not much left over to be able to work with that right. So it has to be the special circumstance of a player kind of overlapping all of those things and still available and still wanting to you know, come to school and make that happen in like what three weeks, four weeks time, whatever it is. So this could very much be it for

the roster. And I know I said that after Paul and Bea and Cole Rosario. Now, to be clear, I've never, you know, posed to be like a scooper, for instance, like I like to do analysis. I don't I don't need to be whatever but like point being the transfer of Noah Shelby happened and that's what opened this back up and I think it's easy to connect the dots and say this is your Noah Shelby replacement right a bench guard who's a little bit older and can be a veteran and can shoot

threes you know whether it's a specific game situation or late in the game where the games out of reach or you know if he is hot and maybe he can get a little more playing time that game or, you know, just for practice, just for scout team, just having another, you know, good scout player is going to be a good dude in the locker room. Right. So I think that makes sense. And then from in Gaul's perspective, it's like he probably gets from his

perspective paid more, I would imagine, to come to KU, whether it's an IL rev share, and it might not even be a very big total, but it's probably bigger than, you know, if he's going to try to go to the Canadian Professional Basketball League, I can't imagine a rookie contract there is going to pay more than what Kansas is given for something like this. So it also gives him a chance to, you know, make some connections for his post basketball life in the US and at a big university

like Kansas as well. So there's obviously the Bill Self health news that kind of throws. I know it kind of makes it plain to the idea that KU's roster probably is set right. I mean, probably a little less time right now for Bill Self to be on the phones or like really digging into the minutiae of who's available. If they did want to add a four 14th player, if they did want to add another big man. So I'm going to kind of go in it with the idea that in Ginyu and Gala

is going to be the KU last edition. Like I said, I've been wrong before. I could be wrong again. And if I'm pleasantly surprised and they do add another big man, that'll be great. But as it stands, KU's roster looking pretty good. Thirteen deep. And I like this edition for KU. So let's get more into his game, his stats, what he brings in and what the possible role could be for KU.

game, his stats, what he brings in and what the possible role could be for KU. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball and delights, golf on the green or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. And with FanDuel, you can even get early odds for, for instance, college football season where KU's 13 and a half point favorites over Fresno State minus 500 on the money line.

The over under is 50 and a half. If you want to bet early on the college basketball national champion, Kansas is actually going off at a little deeper than we're used to seeing them. 20 to one right now. That's definitely deeper than, than like I said than we're used to seeing them. 20 to 1 right now. That's definitely deeper than, like I said, we're used to seeing them. That puts them behind Purdue, Houston, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, Yukon, Michigan, St. John's. And then they're tied with Louisville, Texas Tech, BYU.

I think there might be some value in both Kansas and some of those other teams at the 20 to 1 range. You can bet on those and plenty others over at Fan Duel Sportsbook. Again, if you're new to Fan Duel, new customers can bet just $5 and get 115 bonus bets. If your first bet wins, open the Fan Duel app today or visit FanDuel.com to get started. Thanks for joining us on this bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks

in Ginyu N Gala is the latest Jayhawk to join the fold. So obviously a player who's been, you know, an all-conference pick at different stops. If we look at his career numbers, so 73 career games played over his four seasons, I think that probably implies he's had to deal with injuries over the course of his time, right? Because his teams have, he's had some team successes. first season of play at Dalhousie they went 24 and 5 they won the conference and won the consolation bracket of their like basically March Madness tournament the next season they went 20 and 15 and made the conference tournament semis the next

season 26 and 14 and won the conference again and made it all the way to basically their final four and then at Laurentian, they went 16 and 14. So that's obviously more games than 73 games. He started 58 of them. But for his career overall, those season 28 minutes per game, 14.8 points per game. So about 15 at 36% from three very good three point shooter. That's 147 made threes. So averaging over two made threes per game for his career. The field goal

percentage a little lower at 41% free throw percentage very good at 85% for his career. Good rebounder for being a guard. I should mention that he's a five foot 10 guard. So he's not the biggest guy in the world, but 4.2 rebounds per game. Good numbers for a guard there. 206 career assists over 73 games. So little under three career assists per game. Does have a good turnover number, 163, so not a great assist to turnover ratio. Good at getting steals though, 117 steals in those 73 games.

You're looking at, you know, basically around a steal and a half per game and what he put up in a thousand and eighty points in 73 career games. His basically season bests, his season highs, he averaged 17 and a half points per game in the 2022 to 23 season with Dalhousie. That was his best there. That was also his best for field goal percentage of 45.6,

his best for three point percentage at 39.8. Last season he was close at 39.2. His free throw percentage was the best to ninety two percent. His best rebound rate was last year four point six rebounds per game. And then the most steals he had was that second year that at Dow House when he had forty nine steals in 18 games. That is absolutely bonkers. Forty nine steals in 18 games.

That is a. Pretty crazy to come around to. Now, he also got a good amount of action in some of the playoff games. And I should mention, I don't think that counts to the... Because the stats I'm looking at, those 73 games are just the regular season. He had 15 more games at the postseason. He had six more games at the national championship. So actually, yeah, if I look now and total up everything

between the postseason and regular season career, 116 games played, 14.1 points per game, four rebounds. He had 189 steals in 116 games. So again, vibing out to a little over a steal and a half per game there, 34% from three. So higher volume there, but it's mostly being tanked by his 23 to 24 year in which he shot 29.6% from three, the two years around it 37.3 and 38.3% from three,

40 and a half percent from the field 84% at the foul line. Okay, so that's a lot of numbers and kind of going over it. I actually found there's one exhibition game if we want to look at like, OK, what is the level of play? Because some of the best teams in Canada are as good as like high major teams in college basketball. But it's a much more it's like a wider talent gap than in the US, where it's like, you know, the 300th best team can beat the

150th best team pretty regularly. In Canada, I don't think they have that many teams. So like theoretically, the 300th best team would probably get walloped by the 150th best team. It's a wider range, whereas like the worst team in the U-sports might be more equivalent to a D3 team, whereas the best team might be more equivalent to a high major team. So you can see how there's a bit of parity. And so it's a little harder to say like what what is the level of competition? What level was this guy playing on? And those sorts of questions? Well, they did

have an exhibition game, which it's one game, and it's not the BLL and all but it was against IU Indy, which, by the way, that's a weird story. IU Indy was like a D two school a couple years ago. Now they're at D one school because they merged with IU PY, who we Pui, as the experts call it. And IUPUI was a D1 school, it merged with IU Indy. So IU Indy was a D2 school, now a D1 school, even though they're the same now.

I don't know, that's a weird thing. But when they were IU Indy, which is a D2 school back in the 23-24 season, this was in August of 2023. So right before that season started. And they played that team and lost in overtime. So basically you're playing against a, what is now, if you look at IUND, it was one of the worst teams in D1 last year, but they were last year a D1 team.

So you basically are playing against a team who, and they had some players that were on both rosters, in an overtime game. So basically even with that type of team and in that game, Ingala was good at 16 points, three assists, just one turnover. He was three or six and three. Like he had a good game for them. So, you know, I think this guy is probably like maybe he's.

On a on a low major team, like maybe he could be good enough to be a starter in college basketball. And so for Kansas, if you're looking at kind of the end of bench rotation role, like we'll get into what the role entails, but like, that's totally fine, right? Especially nowadays with rev share and NIL teams have been desperate to try to find players that would be willing to be role players and aren't just going out for more playing time, right? When you watch some of the highlights you can see on the scouting board, in addition to some of the stats that backs on this up,

very quick guard, very athletic, very speedy. When Bill Seltz, like, honestly, there's a little bit of, I think the natural comp is probably gonna be Diggy Coit because you just had this smaller guard last year who can chuck from three. I think there's a little bit of Joe Yesafu in in Ginyu and Gala. You more so than diggy quite right. I see Yesafu a little

bit more. I think Yesafu had more vertical bounce than in Gala does like I don't I don't expect in Gala. Yes, we could get up there. We all remember the highlight that everybody wanted to watch over and over again when he decided to transfer to Kansas when he was at Drake against Wichita State. It's not that, but it's that same kind of like quickness and short area burst that I think Yesafu had. I also think the big difference with him and Coit, I think he's a better defender than Diggy Coit, whereas like Yesafu could at least pressure the ball a little bit. Now, I don't know if we're doing scouting, but like I think on strengths,

I would say he's quick and athletic. I would say the shooting is a plus. He's had some really good seasons shooting the three ball. And in a smaller sample where he's not like the go-to option, which he has been in Canada, most of his threes that he would take in a game would be in rhythm with the offense or like wide open. Right? So that's going to improve it even more.

And he puts up really good rebounding and steal stats, especially for a smaller guard on the rebounding. The question marks I would have were, OK, he's small. Like, what does that mean defensively? Because he is 5'10". But maybe it's closer to 5'9", who knows? But the thing is, I think he's a little bit stronger than Diggy Coyte.

And I think the steel numbers show that he at least is going to get you some steals. And I don't know that that was the case with Diggy Coyte. So I do think you're getting at least a little more. I'm not going to say that he's going to be Marcus Garrett on the defensive end, but I do think he is more valuable in the defensive end than diggie quite was. And that's where I like the kind of Joe Yesafu comparison here.

Now he also not the best at two point shooting or efficiency outside of three point shots not falling. And he probably turns it over a little bit too much. But we're talking about a player who's been brought in to kind of overtake the Noah Shelby role, so to speak, or I guess you could say like for like replacement with Noah Shelby. And I don't know, it's hard to say like, based on Noah Shelby's recruiting rankings coming out of high school, you're probably like, well,

Shelby's probably a better player. Then again, you'll look back at it and say, okay, a couple of years ago, Noah Shelby was at Rice, which is a mid major, and he was playing 10 minutes per game for Rice. If Rice added in Gala this experienced player from Canada who is an all league player in Canada, does he play more or less than 10 minutes per game? I don't know. It might be more, honestly.

So you might have had an upgrade here, but I think it's more in that vein of like Yesafu, Coit, Noah Shelby, somewhere in that range of player. So what exactly does that role look like for KU? Thanks for joining us on this bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. And Ginyu N'Gala is officially a Jayhawk committing from Canada. This was a fun

quote that Bill Self gave earlier in the week. We talked about it. Thank you, David Ayers, if you already caught our show. He said, in my opinion, needs to be a guy, this is I'm making another addition, that can at least run a team, play a point, play point, maybe have some experience, shoot the ball. But you know, if something were to happen, and somebody were to go down just as an insurance policy as well. So we're hopefully looking to get something done with that, right?

Hypothetically, if you had another Elmarco Jackson situation where somebody goes down and all of a sudden more minutes open up at the guard position. Boom, like, for instance, if Elmarco Jackson would have been healthy on last year's team, how much does Diggy quite play? Is he even part of the like fringe rotation where it's like some games he was getting more minutes than other games, he's even part of the like fringe rotation where it's like some games he was getting more minutes than other games. He's even getting those opportunities if Omar goes healthy. And that's

how it kind of is within Gala. He's in that kind of role that diggy quite was last year except hopefully there's no injuries in front of him. I think that's kind of the idea here. But you know, needs to be a guy that can at least run a team. Okay, he's done that in the past with Canada play point. He's done that maybe have some experience. He's done that. Maybe have some experience. He's 26 years old. Shoot the ball. He's had some really good season shooting the three ball.

Right. So there's a lot that you kind of look at there. I think the ceiling role is that he comes in and he is such a good locker room guy in the same way that, you know, I think the Kansas staff and other players really did appreciate Diggy Coy and the the hard work that that he kind of put in behind the scenes to get the most out of what he kind of put in behind the scenes to get the most out of what he could possibly be and so if ingala does all that but he's a little bit

better defensive version of him maybe he's not as good of a three-point shooting version of him and maybe you know there is an opportunity to i don't know be that that fringe rotation type of guy who it's like some games you're playing a little bit more based on if you're hitting shots or based on the matchup does the other team have a lot of little guards and you're helping pressure the ball? I think the four outcome is just, you know, you're not really on the floor much. You're the 11th man. You're behind Jamari McDowell. You're the 11th or 12th man. And you're only coming in and kind of mop up duty,

but you're helping make an impact in practice and the scout team and being a good locker room guy and probably getting a good NIL check and hopefully having a good time, you know, celebrating when things are going well, right? Like, that's probably the four outcome. I think the middle tier outcome is somewhere in between the middle tier outcome is like what's going to happen between him and Jamari McDowell, because the way I view it right now, you feel that I don't know, I feel pretty

locked in about KU is top seven, right? When you look at the four guards that I feel like are going to be in the rotation, for sure, with Darren Peterson, Elmarco Jackson, Melvin Council, and Jayden Dawson, you look at Trey White on the wing, you look at Floyd Witton at the starting center, you look at your backup center, Paul and Bea possibly, most likely, I think, and then you look at having one of those bench guards that we mentioned earlier with Dawson, El Marco or council with one of them coming off the bench and the other two starting. So there's your seven players, right?

And then who becomes the eighth man? Is it Corozario? Is it Samiz Calderon? Is it Bryson Tiller? Is it dependent on the matchup? You know, do you need to go two bigs? Do you need a bigger wing? Do you need more three point shooting?

Because those are all different answers, depending which one you want to go with. And then it's a competition, I think, between McDowell or in Gala for, okay, if you need another ball handler, you need another shooter, you need somebody out there who's going to probably hustle and try to pressure the ball, then you're up next for spot minutes. You're up next for spot duty. And so that's kind of where this lies. And so maybe in a situation where this lies. And so maybe in a situation where like, what if Cole Rosario is the eighth man? And what if KU is like, you know what we really want to steer into, we're just going to continue to play a ton of guard

minutes. You know, then then then maybe you can get a handful of minutes here or there. But I do think this is like I said, I think the comp here to me is Joe Yesafu in a little bit of a diggy coit role. But the diggy coit role what it would have been if Elmarco Jackson wouldn't have been injured. That's kind of how I view all this. But you're making a 13th edition at this point in time, you don't need it to be a superstar. So this is a great pickup for KU, right? Because there's not a lot of expectations. And if it turns

out to something that makes a positive impact on the court, even better. But if worst case scenario, you just strengthen your depth, you added another insurance policy, and you added a guy that is liked in the locker room, and that can give you a good look in practice because you know, how many how many good shooters are you gonna have on the scout team? If Col Rosario ends up being part of the rotation and he's not part of the scout team, who are the best shooters on the scout team? You need that in practice. There's a lot to like here. I think honestly, if KU didn't have so many guards, I feel confident they're going to be

part of the rotation and are going to be good players. There might be a world where I'd be talking myself into it and all of being the eighth man or being part of the rotation for KU because I really do like his game and what he could possibly bring for KU. So like this edition overall for Bill Self and for KU and the rest of the coaching staff. All right, that'll do it for this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for another edition of Locked on Jayhawks.