Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Tyran Stokes to Kansas Jayhawks TRANSFORMS Roster and Next Offseason STEPS + History of #1 Recruits

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

Tyran Stokes commits to the Kansas Jayhawks, instantly reshaping KU Basketball’s roster outlook and national expectations. Can Stokes—KU’s latest No. 1 recruit—be the missing piece that powers the Jayhawks to another deep NCAA Tournament run? Derek Johnson breaks down Stokes’ fit within Kansas’ lineup, assesses shooting and rebounding around the new star, and answers burning questions about offseason moves and scholarship strategy. Historical comparisons to past No. 1 recruits like Andrew Wiggins and Josh Jackson reveal what KU fans might anticipate from Stokes’ impact. The episode also covers key basketball topics such as offensive creation, defense projections, and the need for additional scoring depth off the bench, plus the effect of Stokes’ signing on Kansas’ recruiting and NIL resources. Stay tuned for rapid reactions to NCAA Tournament expansion news and a spotlight on KU Football’s standout NFL Draft streak. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tyrant Stokes is officially a Jayhawk. We're going to break down the impact on what it has for KU, the roster future offseason decisions this year for KU and take a look back. Previous number one recruits have done. It's going to get you excited here for Tyrant Stokes becoming a Jayhawk. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks,

part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson, with another episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. And on today's episode, we're going to break down the next steps in the offseason for basketball. We'll get to the history of number one recruits in the 24-7 sports era and what it says about what you can expect from Tyrant Stokes.

And we'll start right here with the impact of Stokes decision on the KU roster and rest of the offseason. I mean, make no mistake. This is a gigantic decision, right? There was nobody else on the roster who, was that star level talent that was kind of the sun to be the orbit of the solar system around. And sure, if you miss out on Stokes, you could throw a bunch of money at a guy like Milan, Momchilovich, or Duke Harris, or, you know, Alan Graves or whatever.

But there's no guarantee that any of those players would take it to come out of the NBA draft. And, you know, even if they would come out of the NBA draft, there's going to be other schools lining up for them, too. This represented your best path to realizing a huge addition that can raise your ceiling as a team. And the beauty, too, of I think Tyron Soakes play is he can really fit into a bunch of different roster lineups and constructions for KU because this is a player who does a lot of things well that can fill in in a lot of areas like he's going to help you rebounding on the glass. He is a good passer. he's a good driver he's going to throw down fun dunks he'll be a good transition player he's a better three point shooter i think than he gets credit for like there's just a lot here with tyrant stokes and then you look at the size that he can play the three or the four for you so if you want to play small and you want to put stokes at the four you can do that in a given lineup if you want to start out with a lineup where stokes is at the three you can do that offensively he can basically initiate the offense for you defensively you could guard him on an opposing four if you need to just a lot you can do with him. And because of the passing ability, I go back to the idea that, yes, he can initiate the offense and be your primary initiator, which really allows if you have some other guys on

your team that like, like, Cole Rosario, I think is going to take a big step forward this season, but he's not an on ball player. Like he didn't really show any creation off the dribble this year. He's a off ball player who can ideally hit set shots and hit open shots for you. But you need somebody to create. those open shots for him. Enter Tyron Stokes. You know, Leroy Blighton can create his own shot, but wouldn't it be nice if you had somebody who is drawing the, you know, ire of the defense and now all of a sudden he can kick it out to a 40% three-point shooter?

You bet it is. So just having him, it makes the rest of the roster fit into roles so much better and give you that top line talent that you need to make a deep run in March, right? So it's a really obviously important thing. You got the number one recruit in the country, right? This is very obvious stuff. But I do think there are some simple questions and reaction to this now. I think the first question would be, and these are not necessarily questions that are, you know,

I'm going to kind of answer these. Does KU have enough shooting around Tyron Stokes? It would be my first question. If you have this really good initiator, do you have shooters for him to kick the ball out too? Well, Taitland Kinney, known as good three-point shooter. What's he going to come in and shoot, though? It is a freshman season. Can you shoot 34%?

Right? That's at least a solid three-point. point shooter. Leroyd-Bladen, 43-point shooter last year in the Mac. Now, expect that to probably go down a little bit moving on to the Big 12, but can he still be a, you know, 37% three-point shooter or something like that, right? Keanu Dawes was 31% this past season, which was fine for a four, but he was 37% in Big 12 play, and he seems to be really working on it in the offseason. So I think you could assume he's going to have, if those three are starting around you, solid to decent to good three-point shooters around you, if Colorsari over and

in the starting lineup. Again, I'm expecting a big jump from him. And I think one of the jumps would be from a three shooting perspective. We're still waiting to see what KU's going to do to fill out the roster. Can you get, you know, a potential six man or a scoring guard off the bench that can provide more three point shooting when they're in the game. Point being, I do actually think they're going to have enough shooting around Tyrant Stokes. And I do think Stokes, like I said earlier, his three point shooting himself is a little underrated. So this is not one of those off seasons that I'm at a point right now where I'm like, ah, but do they have enough shooting? I don't know. that they, you know, if Blyden ends up only shooting 35%, like maybe they don't have like your

elite three-point shooter on the roster, at least yet, you could still add one in the portal. But I just think they have a lot of solid to good from three. And that is a lot different than some of the recent roster construction. So I appreciate that. The next question, do they have enough rebounding? Because that was a problem on last year's team. I think they have more than enough rebounding. This should be a really good rebounding team on paper.

Reeves was an excellent rebounder. when he was at Clemson, small sample size, but he was a really good rebounder. And Bia should be a good rebounder. And we've seen that in small sample sizes from him at Kansas. You look at Dawes, he's an excellent rebounder, whether you play him at the four or the five. Stokes is going to be a great rebounder for you at the three or the four. Even Rosario is a good offensive rebounder. You know, so like this team should be a really good rebounding team.

The next question would be, do they have enough like defensive steel creation? Stokes is going to create steals. Blighton has quick hands. He can do it a little bit. I think Kenny has some quick hands and a good awareness. I'm not saying they're going to be great at getting steals. It's hard to be worse than they were a season ago. So those would all be signs pointing up, right?

The next question, though, is what about the defense? I have a hard time believing the defense will be as good this year as it was this past season as it was this past season. But that doesn't mean it still can't be good enough to do really well. You know, you had an unbelievable unit for defense. I still think they're going to be okay. Stokes can be a switchable big piece that recovers and makes big blocks and steals. Blyden's going to get picked on a bit for size, but again, he's feisty and he has quick hands.

You look at Keanu Dawes, like isn't going to get a ton of blocks or steals, but positionally, he's strong. And then Reeves is going to be good enough, and Bia is going to help swallow some stuff up at the rim as well. So it's not going to be as good of a defense as it was this past season, but, you know, you're a top 10 defense. What if what if KU has the 27th best defense, but they're back to being a top 20. offense. I would gladly take that trade off, right? And then the last question here is, how many players does KU have that can create offense? I think when you looked at this past season scene for Kansas, Darren Peterson obviously could create offense. I think Melvin counsel could create offense, though it came at the price of sometimes being inefficient,

right? There was a moment in the early part of the season where Trey White could create offense, but I don't think we saw that carry over into Big 12 play. Florey couldn't create offense, Tiller couldn't create offense. So really you're looking at like, K, you had like two guys. If you want to say, Trey White, two to three guys who could create offense

on this past year's team. You go back to the year before. It's like Hunter Dickens and could create offense in the post, but he could create offense. He did have spot up shot and stuff too. And then it was kind of just like, okay, Zeke Mayo can sort of create offense when he's at home and stuff,

but not necessarily on the road. So they've just, these past couple teams, like they haven't had enough people who can create offense. I look at Leroyb-Blyden. I say you should be able to create offense. I think with Taylon Kenney, it'll come in spurts

as a freshman. So one and a half, if you want to say there. Stokes, definitely. I think Dawes can create offense for you. So now you're looking at three and a half players and we'll see what they add if you can add a scoring sixth man who can create offense. Now you're adding another one of those.

So I do really like all of that and where that's kind of going. What are the natural roster moves that are kind of left now, though, like I keep saying, I think you need another scoring guard to come off the bench. It could be a one, it could be a two. It could even be a scoring wing to come off the bench, but I do think you need somebody who can be a reliable score for you off the bench. I do look at it though and go, okay, KU probably has their starting five and they probably have seven of their eight in the rotation, you know, you could probably use if that scoring player is not a wing,

probably use another wing who can play the three or the four for you for the bench just to have more wing depth. I think that would kind of make sense. And then in general, KU has five scholarships left at this point in time. Do you get Javon Bardwell to reclassify it, right? And then you'd have four at that point, which that's a decision in its own right. We should probably do a separate video and show just talking about that. But, you know, I'd imagine, I don't even know if they'll use all 15, to be honest, like maybe they use 13 or 14. And let's say you use 14 at that point. You mean you have what, four left because, let's see, Kenny, Blyden, Stokes, Dawes, Reeves, Rosario Mbilla and then you have three other freshmen with Bardwell Perry and Adkins.

So let's say you use 14, right? That'd give you four more scholarships. I think one to two go to potential like development guys and one to two go to potential rotation guys if that kind of makes sense where one's in that top eight, one, maybe you add a ninth man who can just be like a good three point shooter, the Jalen Coleman lands roll, and then you have a couple develop metal guys. Personally, I would love if, you know, KU has another. not a not a not a stokes monetary decision left in them but a enough money to make something

happen decision in them to get one of the like a good international player you know and i think this will be interesting with this with the addition of stokes what happens to the money because on one hand you probably gave stokes a lot of money and so a lot of your available funds a lot of what you could use to bring a player in via the portal or internationally has gone away with the edition of Tyrant Stokes. So, you know, how much money are you really going to have to make these additions? On the other hand, does adding Tyron Stokes propel a booster to go, okay, I see proof of concept now.

I'm excited about that. Here's an extra $2 million to go get one extra good player for you, Bill, or something like that. You know, that would be very, very intriguing and interesting to me, how this affects the money. Does it give them less? because theoretically it does, or does it excite a donor to write an extra check to actually give them more in the end to make that one last edition? So, yeah, all good things as a result of this for Tyron Stokes picking KU. Let's break down the history of past number one.

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for me to talk KU basketball. So I really do appreciate it. All right. History of past number one recruits. We're going to go look at 24-7 sports. So this only goes back to the class of 2011. Who knows where Josh Selby would have been ranked in those had it been 2010. But I believe this becomes KU's what, fourth number one recruit. You got Wiggins, Jackson, Peterson, and now Stokes. And you've had, you know, different levels of success there.

Wiggins was a second team All-American, but they lose in the second round. And he goes out, you know, with four points and not looking great. But, you know, overall, I'd say that was a success. If Joel Embed doesn't get hurt, I think that team does go a lot further in the NCAA tournament. 2016 class, so the 2017 tournament, Josh Jackson was a third team All-American KU makes the elite A. That was absolutely a success there. Obviously, you wish the Oregon thing didn't happen, but still a success nonetheless. And then the Darren Peterson one, that's the toughest one to grade because there were moments where it,

It was unbelievable, but it didn't have the team impact. You're hoping because the injury and the off and on nature, it was just kind of a weird situation all the way around. But even then, if that's on the lower end of outcomes, you got a second team all big 12 season, a four seed and you still won a tournament game where you very easily could have made it to the sweet 16. So that's just for the Kansas history. If we go back and look at all of the number one recruits in 24-7 sports database,

you start with 2011 with Anthony Davis. That worked out okay, right? He was an All-American. They won the national title. 2012 you get New Orleans, Noelle. He was a first team all SEC pick. Ended up being a top then pick. Didn't really work out from a team perspective.

They ended up making the NIT. 2013, you get Wiggins, just mentioned that. 2014, Emmanuel Moodye. He played overseas, so I can skim over that one. 2015 was Ben Simmons. He did not make the NCAA tournament, but he was a first team all-American. So, like, get him better players around him.

I don't know, maybe you'd argue, just KU have good enough pieces to avoid a Ben Simmons. I think KU has better pieces around. Stokes than Simmons had at LSU. I feel pretty good about that. But Josh Jackson, who we mentioned in 2016. 2017 was Marvin Bagley, even after he reclassified up. He was a first team All-American.

They got a two seed. They made it to the Elite 8. And obviously, a good result happened in the Elite 8 there. 2018 was R.J. Barrett. He was a first-team All-American. They got the number one overall seed in the tournament, made it to the elite eight. 2019 was Anthony Edwards, which it's funny looking at this, because from a team perspective, Edwards, Georgia team.

was not good. He also made the SEC second team. Most of these guys made it to their first team all conference. One of the bigger underperformers on this list is Anthony Edwards. And Edwards has been one of the best NBA players of all the players here, which I just find kind of funny. 2020 was Kate Cunningham. He was a first team All-American. They got a four-seed made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Chet Holmgren was a second team All-American in 2021. They got a one seed, number one overall, made it to the sweet 16. Uh, then you get a couple down years. 2022 was Nick Smith, Arkansas.

They made it to the sweet 16. We're only a nine seed though and he didn't have a great year. 2023 was Ron Holland played for G Lee Ignite. So we never got to see that one. 2024. That was a great one. Cooper flag, first team all American one seed final four and honestly probably should have gone further if not for some crazy March stuff.

And then Darren Peterson obviously last year. So that was a lot of names and information all at once. So here, here I've summarized it for you in an easy way, right? There have been 13 previous 24-7 sports number one players that played in college, right? 15 total, but two of them with Holland and Moodye A played elsewhere, right? So you get 13 players who are number ones before Tyron Stokes. 12 of the 13 were all-conference picks. And 11 of the 13 were all-conference first-team selections.

That is such a high hit rate of impact. that you're bringing in. Nine of the 13 players, so again, well above 50%, were at least third team all Americans, so top 15 players in the country. And six of the 13, so almost half, were first team all Americans, top five players in the country. Seven of the 13, more than half, made it to the second weekend. Five of the 13 at least made it to the elite eight. Now, if we just look at number one recruits who went to Blue Bloods, because some of these guys did end up going like again, Anthony Edwards goes to Georgia. And it's like, how much help are you going to have around you when you're coached by Tom Cringa, Georgia?

You know, it's not going to be as much. So if we just look at the ones that are going to Blue Bloods, which in theory, the Blue Blood should have the support system around the player and be able to bring in other good players around them. If we just look at the ones that went to Blue Bloods, you get eight players and all eight of them were all conference picks. And Darren Peterson, of course, was the first of the eight to not be. first team all conference. He was second team all conference. But if Peterson plays, you know, through all the injuries, he's probably first team all conference, right? Six of the eight were at least AP third team all Americans. Again, Peterson was one of the exceptions there. Maybe this means Kansas is due because Peterson didn't, didn't give Kansas some of these things that have typically happened.

But that is a really insane hit rate. 75% of the number one picks that have gone or the number one players in 24-7 that have gone to Blue Bloods have been at least a third-team, eight-year-old. All-American, right? And in terms of team success, five of the elite eights, two of them made the final four, one of them won a national championship. So if I told you you have a one and four chance of making a final four right now, I would probably take it. If I told you you have a, what is that, like a 62 percent, 63 percent chance of making the elite eight this season. Wouldn't you take that? Yeah, I certainly would. So, you know, not all classes are made the same. The 2026 class isn't known as being a great one. It doesn't measure up to say the 2024, I mean, the 2025 class was incredible.

So, you know, maybe this ends up being session to the rule with one of the not as good classes. But I don't know, that is a really good list of history. And the fact that Kansas, I don't know, like you look at it, like you could view that the can't, maybe it's a Kansas pattern, right? Wiggins only makes it to the second round. And he's more of the laissez-faire number one recruit. Then they get the aggressive alpha mentality, sometimes crossing the line number one recruit and Josh Jackson, they make an elite eight. Okay, now Darren Peterson would more be of the Andrew Wiggins ilk. Maybe it's the next in the pattern is Tyron Stokes following the Josh Jackson pattern and they can have a strong season here. So I don't know, good history. I think on KU side there.

Let's finish up with a fun KU football stats and more college basketball news, expanding the NCAA tournament and more this is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks you for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. You can join the Everydayer Club to get the ad-free version of the show. All you have to do is go to locked on jhawks. Dot supercast.com. That's locked on jahawks. Supercast. Dot.

Okay, a little cool KU football stat as they had another offensive lineman drafted this past year. They had two players drafted, Emmanuel Henderson, but Enrique Cruz went in the fifth round. So KU's at three consecutive NFL drafts where they've had a offensive lineman specifically taken. Bryce Cable do goes to the Seahawks. Cruz this year and then Dominic Pony the year before was the day two pick. Kansas is the only, their KU football Twitter account posted this, the only big 12 team and one of only nine teams nationally that have an offense alignment selected in the last three drafts. That is a really cool. And you think about, I mean, first of all, that's great for recruiting and all this

sort of stuff, obviously. But just think about like how bad some of the offense a line play was for KU from, I don't know, the Charlie Weiss era, from the Turner Gill era. to the Charlie White, you know, and obviously the crazy thing is there were like some good linemen among those teams like Tanner Hawkinson's, an NFL player, Hakema Deney was an NFL player. Like they had some good players individually, but as a whole, there were some really bad offensive line units for KU during that span. And now they're just getting drafted, you know, every year for Kansas. So who would be that guy on this next year's team to get drafted? I mean, obviously, if Calvin Clements were to break out, he would have the body for it.

it's easier to get drafted. Like, those guys are tackles, you know? Teams don't spend as much draft capital on the interior guys, and that might make it a little tougher because I think KU's best offense alignment this year are going to be interior guys. So we'll see. But maybe a mere herring or something like that. Who knows?

Then we get some college basketball news. We'll start with this one real quickly. Mamba Jop goes to Gonzaga. So, you know, rule that one out if you're Kansas. I don't really think they were shopping in that market to begin with. but that officially puts an end to that. And then here's the bigger college basketball news. The NCAA tournament is going to be expanding to 76 teams that is going to apply for both the men's and women's side of the NCAA tournament.

And I guess it's not official official, but it's something where it's on track. This is a report from Pete Famil at ESPN to be formalized in the upcoming weeks. and is expected in like mid-May or something like that. I wonder how they're going to do this because, I mean, first of all, we're going to see so many more like 16 and 15 teams and stuff like that that are in as part of this. So here it is.

It would include eight more at-large bids. What's known as the first four, eight teams playing four games in Dayton, Ohio would expand to 12 games, played by 24 teams at two sites, one remaining in Dayton. The question is, says, yeah, I guess this part doesn't say. The question is, are we going to see more like 16 seed plans?

Are we going to see more at large plans? Are we going to see a little bit of both? I'm worried that they're going to do plans where it's like the play-ins for the 16 and the 15 seeds and stuff. And I don't want that. I don't want that at all. Make these 16 and 15 teams have to play their way in, if that's what you're going to do.

I'm not a fan of the expansion to begin with, but if that's what you're going to do, that's what you're going to do. And here's the thing, I'm not a fan of it. You bet your butt I'm going to be watching it. You know, you bet you're going to be excited for more rock madness game.

So I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite there, and that's probably part of the problem. But yeah, not really a fan of that. All right, that'll over for this 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. Check out our Tyron Stokes commitment episode from yesterday of plenty more Tyron Stokes content coming throughout the rest of the week, throughout the rest of the off season, plenty more player deep dives too because they still got a rest of the roster to finish out. And that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

See you next time.