Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - UNDERRATED? Are Kansas Jayhawks BETTER or WORSE Than Last Season Led by Tyran Stokes???

Starting point is 00:00:00 I think Kansas has had a really underrated offseason, but it begs the question, is Kansas better on paper than they were a season ago? You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Eric Johnson here in today's episodes brought to you by Fandual. New customers can bet just $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. head to fanduel.com to get started today. And on today's edition, we'll get to some of the latest news, KU softball in the NCAA tournament. KU baseball did not go well this past weekend, commits for KU football, KU basketball.

Starting point is 00:00:46 But we'll start right here with some offseason talk as I think KU has had an underrated offseason so far. I think when you look at a lot of national perspectives, I think kids getting a little diss more than they should. It's not just that they're not popping up when you see some of these winner lists, it's that people are putting them on a loser list. And I think that goes a little bit too far. And, you know, I was pretty adamant last off season two that felt kind of similarly.

Starting point is 00:01:15 Now, I think this off season, it's been even to the extreme. I think last off season, a lot of people had them in the 25 to 35 range. Like I remember John Rothstein had them like in that kind of 30 to 35 range. and I kind of said all the way through. Like I thought last year's team was going to be a three or four seed. And, you know, obviously you got a four seed and you were the defensive play at the end of the game away from potentially, you know, winning the game in overtime to make it to the Sweet 16. And obviously a lot went wrong for KU to get to that point with the Darren Peterson stuff. Otherwise, it could have been even potentially better if you're KU.

Starting point is 00:01:54 So I thought last year they were being understeed and that, you know, I know the season didn't end it. how we wanted to, but I think that did prove itself out. And that's how I kind of feel about this one as well. And like, I think the question is, is this Kansas team better than they were a season ago? Now, there's two approaches you could look at this with. The first approach is looking at what the result was for this past year's team and saying, can they be better than that, right? Can they be better than a four seed? Can they be better than a team who finished, I don't know, 21st on Ken Palm and and I think 22nd on Bart Torvik, right? Can this be a team who, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:37 goes further than the second round of the NCAA tournament? Like, those would be the questions you would ask. Or do you compare it to what we were viewing them as coming into the off season? I don't, I don't think that's as applicable, though, because it's like you're going off, are they tangibly better than you think they were from a season ago? Now, if we look at it from just a roster perspective, right? You can just do it this way and say player to player.

Starting point is 00:03:01 Flory is definitely better than whatever KU is going to throw out at center this year, whether it's Paul Mbia, Christian Reeves, who's injured right now, Davy on Adkins. And I like Paul and Bia. You know, I think that Christian Reeves edition is an underrated one as long as he can, you know, be healthy enough. But that is a big loss to lose that for Flore. And Florey had a limited offensive game and stuff that we have to acknowledge, though, still is a big downgrade at the center position, right?

Starting point is 00:03:27 Now, even though you have a big downgraded center, you have a big upgrade at the power forward position, right? And you can say, hey, Bryson Tiller might turn into this or might develop into that. The version of Bryson Tiller that Kansas got is way worse than Keanu Dawes should be for Kansas, right? So I think, you know, as a net, if you're saying the front court of Dawes and KU Center this year versus Florian Tiller, I don't know, maybe you still lean the Flory Tiller one. but I think it's close because of the DA's impact, right? Stokes is more than Trey White, right? And Trey White had a really good season for KU, but Stokes is going to impact the game in so many more ways.

Starting point is 00:04:07 I think that Trey White was and just be in general a better player, right? And again, I don't mean to say that as a knock to Trey White. That's more about how good Tyron Stokes potentially could be, right? Darren Peterson, obviously a big upgrade there over Leroyd-Blyden in terms of, now the Blyden scope becomes difficult because there's a world where he comes in and he struggles coming up from the Mac and he's giving you eight, nine points per game, there's a world where he comes in and he averages 14 points per game and is shooting 40% from three. That's kind of a hard thing to look at here.

Starting point is 00:04:39 But the one thing you do have, even though, you know, Peterson is going to give you more than Blyden did, like Blyden probably going to give you more games and more minutes than Peterson did and maybe be a more cohesive teammate. I don't mean to say that to be like that Peterson was a bad teammate, but it was pretty clear that Kansas never meshed around Darren Peterson. And so, you know, that could be an advantage to Blyden from a team aspect, even if D.P. is better from an individual standpoint. And then, you know, I would say slightly into counsel being better than Kenny,

Starting point is 00:05:11 but different types of players. Like I think you could argue that Kenny maybe is more, I don't know, flexible to fit with the rest of the roster because of the three-point shooting. Whereas with counsel, it's like he can be a really helpful player, but in this specific way, right? I guess there's still a world where KU could get Melvin Council back. I will say this, though, the 2027 bench should be a lot better than the 2026 bench was. Now, I say that with a caveat because we've said that like every off season over the last three years because or maybe four years, because we've sat there going, man, last year's bench was so bad.

Starting point is 00:05:46 It has to be better. Like look at these freshman recruits coming in, look at the, and then it doesn't end up better. It just ends up the same. So I think on paper, I'm like, okay, I do think Colrosario is going to take a leap forward. I do think whichever the Ben Stenner's is going to be, you know, decent enough for you. I do like the addition of Dennis Parker. But then all of a sudden we get into January. And what if the leap that Colrosario takes is similar to the leap that El Marco Jackson took from his first to a second year?

Starting point is 00:06:11 Or I guess, first to third year with the injury in between, right? What if the bench center is Christian Reeves and he's not the same coming off that surgery and isn't fully back? What if Dennis Parker struggles to shoot threes, right? There is a world where the 2027 bench still struggles to for Kansas. But I do think there are some higher floor options. I think there's some more ceiling raisers on the bench. I think it's a deeper bench in terms of names you could potentially throw for a specific role off the bench in 2027 over 2026 that I expect the bench to be better going into the year.

Starting point is 00:06:43 So, you know, if you're looking at it from that standpoint, you would say it's pretty similar, if not like, you know, I don't know, to what you talked about last year from the personality. standpoint. I think from a team attribute standpoint, if we're comparing this year's team to this past year's team, I like the three point shooting better on this year's team than last year's team. I think in general, they'll have a better percentage, but I also think they just have way more guys on the floor at all times that are at least threats to shoot the three and can keep your spacing that way. I think because of that, they'll have a better two point shooting season, right? They were outside the top 200 last year and two point shooting. So even if you don't have the floory 65% guy at the Ram,

Starting point is 00:07:21 which does was like 68% on twos, but neither here nor there. I think they'll just be better spaced and be able to have more guys that can, you know, Stokes impact on that too of being such a good driver. I think the rebounding at both ends is extremely upgraded for Kansas, right? I do think this past year's team probably better at pick and roll offense with what they were able to do with Flory, better at rim protection and better at defense overall. But I think overall this team's offense, like I think the drop off they'll have on defense is going to be less than the gain they're going to have an offense. Does that make sense?

Starting point is 00:07:55 Like, okay, if they're the 60th best offense this past year and a top 10 defense, maybe they're the 22nd best defense this year. But if you're dropping 12 spots on defense, I think you're gaining more than 12 spots on offense. You might be a top 30 offense, right? So I think that would show you that maybe they're a little bit better team. And here's maybe the proof to all this, right? This is just one site, one metric site. It is one that is very trusted and that I personally like. But Um, KU was preseason number 17 on Bart Torvik a season ago. Okay. They finished the year 21st on Bart Torvick.

Starting point is 00:08:30 So they actually finished below that. But regardless of which of those two numbers you want to point to, Kansas is seventh right now on Bart Torvik for their 2027 ratings. Now, those can get adjusted, right? I'm sure Bart is going to have some tweaks and adjustments he has over the course of the off season. He'll tweak some of the ratings of some of the players, the European players, the freshmen, I would imagine especially, right? But there are also some teams, like, for instance, Arkansas is in front of Kansas, and it still has Darius Acuff on the roster.

Starting point is 00:08:59 That dude's staying in the NBA draft. Michigan states ahead of Kansas. Jeremiah fears, that's more of a coin flip, whether he stays in the draft or comes back, but like there's a chance Kansas could boost up to number five. And again, maybe a team behind them jumps them with a late move of what they do or with a rating tweak. But like, you don't just fall because of a rating tweak from number five through seven all the way to 23rd, you know.

Starting point is 00:09:21 So I think there's a very, very good likelihood that Kansas will be higher on the Bart Torvik preseason poll this year than they were last year or they were last year and where they finished, right? So that would tell you maybe they are better. But maybe that also doesn't tell you they're better. Maybe that just tells you the world around them has changed, right? There is a chance that Kansas is as good as they were last year in terms of in a vacuum. But if the rest of the college basketball world isn't as good and you're a best,

Starting point is 00:09:49 better team comparatively to your opponents, that's what matters more because Kansas isn't competing against their other teams for national titles. Like the 2022 team that won a title, I don't even know if that was like, if we were doing like a Bill Self team tournament, is that even one of the final four teams if you're doing like a seven game series tournament to get to the final four? Like, I don't know if it is, to be completely honest. But they were the team who won it all of that specific year against that competition, right? And so that matters here. I do think there's going to be some incredible teams at the top, like what Florida has done and their attention is incredible.

Starting point is 00:10:25 Duke is going to have an extremely loaded team with, you know, players, eight, nine, ten deep. There's going to be some really elite teams in college basketball. You know, I feel good about that. But maybe the teams, wherever that line is, teams six through 20 or teams, I don't know, 10 through 30 or something, that might be a weaker range, 10 through 30 this upcoming season than it was this past season. And so Kansas could just be better from that standpoint.

Starting point is 00:10:53 But I guess the point here is this. I do think Kansas is going to be a better team than they were a season ago. And, you know, it doesn't mean they're going to necessarily be a lot better. It doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be like a national title favorite. But I do think they're a better team than they were a season ago. And I think when you look at some of these national people talking about this, that would be a very unpopular opinion. And I think one of the reasons why is I don't think they're getting enough credit for the offseason additions that they have made.

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Starting point is 00:12:12 You can join our everydayer club to get the ad-free version of Lockedonjahawks. That is lockedonjahawks.com. That is lockedonjahawks. supercast.com. Okay, I think KU has had an underrated offseason. I think this is part of why people are underselling them. I think there was too much of a focus. I think a lot of times when you see some of these preseason media polls, there's too

Starting point is 00:12:33 much of a focus on the storyline or the vibe or the feel. That's why I like looking at some of the metric sites, right? What they have to offer, right? And I think sometimes the feel around it, like for so long in the KU off season was, oh my gosh, they're losing all these guys. and that just became the sunken feeling in people doing some of these polls who and here's the other thing like Kansas their offseason halls were spread out for the most part like it was an addition here then it's wait three four days people starting to get more hysteria and panic where's the

Starting point is 00:13:05 additions for KU then they make another edition it's like that's cool and then another three four days pass where's another additions for KU right that you get to all these and and I think people have a hard time looking at the big picture with this right because here's what I'm talking about here I think if you compared KU's three biggest roster additions to anybody else in the country, you could make the argument Kansas has the best, or at the very least that they're in the conversation, right? And I get it. Player retention is part of it too.

Starting point is 00:13:35 It's not just about who made the best roster additions. It's not about who won the offseason, right? But nobody's even talking about Kansas in that discussion. So I get it. Like, again, Michigan's bringing players back who contributed to a national title. Duke has some players back. You know, that's the big thing with Florida, that they have like an incredible retention here for this upcoming season.

Starting point is 00:13:54 I'm not saying that Kansas has a better team than those. That's not where I'm going. I'm just saying the teams that have like, okay, Louisville, for instance, is a team that a lot of the reason that people are very high on them isn't because of player retention. It's because they have the number one transfer portal class over a 24-7 sports. And I get it.

Starting point is 00:14:13 There's more to just adding one, two, or three players, which we're talking top three here. But if you were looking at the top three offseason editions for Louisville right now, you would say, Floribunga, Jackson, Shelstad, and probably Carter Knox, I don't know, maybe I think they have some like an international guy, maybe you throw him in there, but whatever, let's say those are the three biggest ones. If we're just comparing those to Kansas, I'm taking Tyron Stokes over Flory. I think the staff did.

Starting point is 00:14:40 It basically probably came down to, hey, we don't have enough money to retain Flory and get Tyron Stokes, let's go get the wing who impacts the games on both ends of the floor and in a lot of different ways, right? So I'm taking Stokes over Floyd. I'm taking Leroyd-Blyden over Jackson-Shellstad, and I like Jackson-Shelstad, right? There's some injury question there. There's some passing question there. Even if you want to say that's a wash, I'm taking Stokes over Florey, leaning Blyden over Sheldstad. And then if we're talking Carter Knox, so again, I'm a Carter-Nox fan, I don't know. The Daws versus Knox conversation, Like they're different players, different positions.

Starting point is 00:15:18 I think you make an argument either way. That's close. But like you could at least say like KU's top three, very similar to Louisville, right? Now, what if we talk Tennessee? Tennessee is the number two class on 24-7 sports. Duke Harris, really good player. I'm taking Tyron Stokes over him at the wing. Terrence Hill, which Leroyne and Terrence Hill is basically a wash.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Jalen Harrelson. I'm taking Keanu Dawes over Jalen Harrelson. If we're talking a wing, it's probably going to play the four for Tennessee, so you're comparing similar positions. Like, actually, Dawes is a better three-point shooter than Jalen Harrelson, you know? And I think Dawes better rebounders. So, like, I'm taking Dawes over Harrelson. So that's your number two class. I'm taking KU's top three over theirs.

Starting point is 00:16:02 Texas is in a number three. Now, this is one that I really like, David Punch, but again, I'm taking Stokes over Punch. Isaiah Johnson. I am taking Johnson over Blyden. And then I don't know who their third would be. Do you pick Elijah Freeman? Do you pick Austin Gooseby, who's like a top 20 freshman? I'm taking Dawes over Elijah Freeman. So you end up with Kansas there, two to one.

Starting point is 00:16:25 Indiana is the number four trans for portal class on 24-7 sports. Their top three, Aiden Sherrill, the center for Alabama. Again, good player, good two-way player. I'm taking Tyron Soaks and heartbeat. Marcus Burton. I think I'm taking blind and overburden. I mean, that's a lot. a tough one because Burton's done it at a power level, but, you know, even if you want to say that's

Starting point is 00:16:47 close to a wash, whatever. And then I'm definitely taking Dawes over Samet Yagatatolu, the center for SMU. I think Dawes is a much better player than Yagutuolou. So, okay, taking cancer there. Miami, their top edition was Sompto Searle. Again, good center, one that would have been nice if KU could have been able to land, but taking Stokes over Somptoe Cerell. McKayden Lewis, good guard player from Villanova who had, you know, a lot of usage and pretty good numbers for freshman also didn't really shoot well, but good defender, good athlete projects to, you know, continue to improve as a former highly recruited guy. This is one where if you told me a Kaden Lewis, you know, developed into being a better player than Leroyd-Blatton this year, it wouldn't shock me.

Starting point is 00:17:26 But if you're talking about from a standpoint of, hey, like, KU needs shooting and pieces that can fit around Tyron Stokes. A Caden Lewis, I don't know how well that would have worked around Stokes with his lack of shooting. Blighton becomes a better fit to me around Stokes. So you can make that argument either way. And then I love me some Deshaun Good, but I said this when KU was going after Keanu Daz as much as I love Deshaun good. I'm taking Daws over good. So I'm taking Kansas in that one too, right? And that's just the top five. There's more you can go over.

Starting point is 00:17:54 But like point being, all the hand-wringing that I've seen, whether it's from KU fans or national guys, this is a better class than you'd think. And I think part of it is that you're used to seeing KU get a Kevin McCuller, a guy who could have been an NBA draft pick but came out of the draft and goes to Kansas. Hunter Dickinson who, you know, obviously it was a up and down kind of trek at KU from certain standpoints, but like that was the big addition in the class. And if you like Tyron Stokes allows you to do that, but there's not that All-American coming in via the transfer portal. So it looks underwhelming. But maybe the better point here is this. And this goes back to what I was saying at the end of segment one. It might just be that the rest of the college basketball World is down this year more than it is something else.

Starting point is 00:18:41 Because if we're talking about the number one portal class in the country is Flory, an unbelievable defender who has offensive limitations, Shelstad, a point guard who's coming off an injury and is a smaller guy and, you know, has some questions about can he be a lead guard? And Carter Knox, who's been, you know, a good player, but more of a role player for Arkansas. And that's your top portal class. And most other years, that might not be the case.

Starting point is 00:19:06 So when you look at this, I think sometimes we compare to our expectations of past teams. If you compare to where these other teams are in the country, again. And then when you add into the fact of the way the budget is, I get it. I would love for KU to have a bigger budget. I would love for KU to have more money. I don't have the money to be able to contribute. But given what they did have, like Dan Hurley came out with a quote being like, the minimum to compete for championship is $14 million.

Starting point is 00:19:36 My understanding is KU is right around that number, 14, 15, somewhere in that range, right? Maybe it's a little bit more. Maybe it's a little bit less. But point being, you see some of these rosters that you're hearing about over 20 million, potentially even over 30 million for certain schools. Kansas isn't one of those teams. And yet I can still point to and say, they're kind of in that range with what they did in the offseason. So I actually do think this was a good offseason for KU in general, given what we all know,

Starting point is 00:20:03 given what the other teams did, given where it puts them right. now given the money that they had and some of the restraints that that led them to. I actually do think this is pretty good offseason for KU. All right. Let's get to some of the latest news. A lot to get here to some commits. KU softball, KU baseball. Next.

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Starting point is 00:21:17 We'll get to some of our latest news here. KU getting commits on both the basketball court and gridiron as Atticus Richmond joins the KU basketball team. And then Jalen Adkins joins the KU football team. Richmond, kind of a wing was committed to Columbia and he'll be more of a developmental player that can help out in practice and maybe can develop into something, you know, a few years down the road for KU for Atkins. He becomes a depth piece at defensive tackle.

Starting point is 00:21:43 We broke down more on both players individually as well as what they mean to the team in a bonus episode over the weekend. So make sure to check that out. Thank you every dayers if you already did. Chance Thomas, speaking of commits, is quarterback in the class of 2027. He will be committing on Monday. Kansas is one of the three finalists. So we'll keep an eye on that one.

Starting point is 00:22:04 KU baseball, meanwhile, going cold at the wrong time. They lose all three games at home to West Virginia. Very good West Virginia team top 15 in the country and maybe top 10 after being able to do this. But it's not four straight losses for KU. They lose to Creighton on Tuesday. You hope this isn't going cold at the wrong time. You hope that they can figure it back out at BYU next week. They're now in a position where they were in the driver seat of the Big 12.

Starting point is 00:22:30 Really, if you just win one of those games against West Virginia, you still would be in the driver's seat this week. now you're only a game up on West Virginia, and they obviously have the head-to-head. So for Kansas, you know, you got to go sweep BYU, at least win two out of three to get a share of the conference. So, but more than that, it's, you know, they probably with getting swept there, lost their chance to host a super regional. I guess if they went out from here and they win all the games against BYU and then they won the Big 12th tournament, maybe they could be a top eight seed. But at the very least, you want to be in a position to host in the first, you know, pod, the first couple games you would play. in the NCAA tournament. So, you know, got to start winning again.

Starting point is 00:23:09 Get done with the Big 12. But, yeah, not a great weekend to say at least for KU baseball. KU softball, meanwhile, after the UCF win, blown out by Texas Tech. But they get the eighth seed in their quadrant and therefore the two seed in their 14 pod. So they're going to be playing Michigan in the first round on Friday evening of the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, their one seed is Oklahoma, who has won for the last five national titles. But, you know, don't get wrong. Oklahoma's a very, very good team.

Starting point is 00:23:36 This isn't one of those Oklahoma teams that you saw where it's like, are they going to go undefeated or they only have like one or two losses. They do have 10 losses, but still, it's a really, really good elite Oklahoma team. That's why they're one seed. So we'll be challenging for KU softball, but really cool to make it to the tournament and first time in over a decade for KU softball. So a really cool season and be on the lookout for what they're going to do this upcoming weekend. This is potential news that could affect KU football without the last two seasons have gone.

Starting point is 00:24:02 Conferences are going to be able to choose which five and seven teams. teams will fill open bowl slots under a proposed adopted proposal adopted Thursday by the FBS Oversight Committee, according to Brandon Marcello. It is a shift from the current system, which selects alternates by APR order. Now, it still has to be approved by the Division I cabinet in June, but as it previously was, if there wasn't enough bull eligible teams, it just went to whoever had the highest APR. And KU, like, never was one of those teams. Now, it did all the way get to them this past year with one of those options, but point B, this would give you more hope that if you go five and seven in a power conference and you don't have enough bull eligible in the Big 12 for instance that you could get in. But it also eliminates your opportunities to get in somewhere else.

Starting point is 00:24:47 KU going five and seven the last two years. And with KU being a team this year that has a difficult schedule, it could come to play. You never know. Ideally, you're going six and six or better, but that is something to know. Last bit of news here, I did want to mention this. I posted about it on Twitter. You can email Jayhawk trivia at Gmail. com. We're going to be doing a KU Trivia Smackdown event coming on June 3rd. That is a Wednesday night over at Johnny's Tavern in West Lawrence. And 50% of the prize pot will go to the, you know, top teams at the trivia event. The other 50% is going to the Rock Chalk Roundball Classic. I ain't getting a dime out of this. This is all for you, the fans, to have some fun and a really cool charity event with the Rock Chalk Round Ball Classic. So sign up for that. Jay,

Starting point is 00:25:34 Jayhawk trivia at gmail.com. It does have an entry fee involved, but again, it's going to a really good cause. And you can team up to six people so you can split up the costs with those six people. So again, Jayhawk trivia at Gmail.com. And it'll be a really fun event on Wednesday night, June 3rd over at Johnny's. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find a show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - UNDERRATED? Are Kansas Jayhawks BETTER or WORSE Than Last Season Led by Tyran Stokes???

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