Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - UPHILL BATTLE: Kansas Jayhawks Face MAJOR Eligibility Obstacles for Serbian Center Mihailo Musikic

Starting point is 00:00:00 Mahalo Musakic, the Serbian Center commit for KU, sounds like it's far from a done deal for Kansas. And if anything, sounds like Kansas facing an uphill battle. 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 here? This is Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's episode of the show, we're going to get into a little bit of KU closing in

Starting point is 00:00:35 on a GM hire, according to Shreis Lata from the Kansas City Star. We're going to get into some more five-and-five suits that brings up some interesting players. Former Jayhawk is in there as well. And we're going to start right here where the difficulty for international players getting eligible is starting to become a thing. Now, Kansas went through this a little bit last year. Bryce DeSair was the guy that Kansas got to, I guess it was never like formally announced that he committed, but the talk was behind closed doors he committed. Kansas couldn't figure out a way to get them eligible, moved forward, eventually we're able to get

Starting point is 00:01:09 Paul Mbia after he decommitted from NC State. And so Kansas has lived this, but it seems like they're tightening things up a little bit. And in fact, C.J. Moore and Brendan Marks in the athletic just wrote a piece why college basketball's international player pipeline is stuck in NCAA limbo. And so back on May 8th, if you remember, the NCAA sent out guidance saying that athletes who had been paid above, quote, actual and necessary expenses, end quote, would not be eligible for the upcoming season, right? Or I guess just in general, right?

Starting point is 00:01:50 And so, you know, it's like there's not, there's not an actual like monetary figure they give you. There's not like a number where like, it's vague enough where they can basically be like, hey, we didn't set a certain number like you're just above that. And so that makes it a little more complicated here. There was an anonymous Big 12 coach in the article that said they're just scrutinizing that to a level that was not what happened last year.

Starting point is 00:02:16 So again, it sounds like it's going to be more difficult to get these guys eligible. Now, the question I have is the guys who have already been deemed eligible, i.e. a Paul and Bia, for instance, are they just good to go? Or is this something where they're going to have to go through the new standards to make sure? Or because they were deemed eligible last year, is that just a can of worms the NCAA doesn't want to go under. I mean, they already have enough guys to get to, are they really going to, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:39 go through the guys that would kind of precede this? But that does make it more complicated for a guy like Mahalo Musichich, who already, if you were talking the five and five, would not be eligible. But for Kansas, with the opportunity that this one year, you can try to go back on the old ways of doing things and try to get a waiver for him, that is the hope. But given that the NCAA seems that they are operating much more stricter,

Starting point is 00:03:01 in terms of this. I mean, like the Mika, whatever guy, the like five-star recruit that committed to John Calipari in Arkansas from Europe, he hasn't even been deemed eligible yet. And they're like going on a trip to, I think like Puerto Rico or something where they're going to play some games,

Starting point is 00:03:18 but he's not going to be able to play in him because he hasn't been deemed eligible yet. So I look at that. And we are less than a month away from the start. I mean, like, what, two, three weeks away from the start of the school year for K. I actually have no idea in that. the school year starts for K. But you're getting closer to the start of it, right? And I guess

Starting point is 00:03:37 theoretically, could you join a week or two into the season? Yeah, probably. But like there is going to come a point where you can't join too late because you can't just join in the middle of a semester and expect to get passing grades to be eligible the following year. So sure, could Musa Kitch be somebody that, you know, maybe if Kansas still has the open spot come mid-semester, if that's how long it takes, you add him then for second half reinforcements. But that kind of defeats the purpose to me. The purpose to me of adding Musa Kitch is that Christian Reeves is hurt right now, and you want another big man just in case for the start of the year. You also want somebody for Paul and Bea to go up against in practice that's going to put a little bit more resistance up there

Starting point is 00:04:14 than Grant Mordini, for instance. So I don't know. The way I'm reading into this, like I'm almost, and we had Henry Greenstein from the Lawrence General World on with us earlier this week, and he put below a 50-50 shot that Musa Kitch and counsel would both be eligible for Kansas this season. I would definitely agree with that, especially with Musichich. I feel like this ain't going to happen at this point in time. So we'll see if I'm proven wrong. I don't know that's, I think you can get a better big man with some of these five and five cases that are coming about.

Starting point is 00:04:46 Maybe even the newest one. We'll get to some of the interesting names on that newest one coming up next. But yeah, I mean, with Musickich, like, I don't know, feels like it's an uphill battle to say the least for KU to get him. So I still feel like you have two. scholarships open at this point for KU, even though you've been flirting with the idea of Musichich and Council and Bardwell until it's official, it ain't official. All right, let's get to some of those interesting names and the latest suit, dare I say,

Starting point is 00:05:14 a former name that haunted us all of last offseason, Darian Williams. Today's episode's brought to you by Indeed, when workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, Indeed sponsor jobs help connect employers with candidates who match specific needs like skills, certifications, and location. So less time gets spent searching and more time gets spent finding the right fit. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. And the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide.

Starting point is 00:05:51 I mean, think about how different things would have been if KU go back in time didn't make the right move to get Frank Mason back when he was a Tausen commit. You know, like, I don't know, think about the repercussions, right? Like, I guess Nadir Tharp, do you deal with him having another year at Kansas? Does Connor Frank Camp stay at KU? What ends up happening in law? I don't know. There's so many repercussions to a long term.

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Starting point is 00:06:37 Support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Locked on Jayhawks. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for Indeed. Sponsored jobs. We're also brought to you by GameTime. There are more live events than ever worth seeing right now. I'm talking games.

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Starting point is 00:07:59 Download the GameTime app today. So some interesting names in this latest suit. If you remember, there was a suit in Ohio with, I don't know, 15 players or so that sued the NCAA. Basically won their injunction, but now it's being appealed. So we'll see where that goes. There was one in Colorado and Georgia that we talked about. There's one in California that had some interesting names. And this one comes in North Carolina.

Starting point is 00:08:26 And this is the longest list of any of them. Maybe the most notable names, Jaden Dawson, a former KU player, from last year. Now, Dawson, I cannot imagine if he was given another year to be back at Kansas. I think probably best for both parties to find a different school if he ends up winning this one. The other very notable name from KU perspective, especially after last offseason's pursuit, is one Darien Williams. Now, we'll get more into that in a second here, but here's some of the other interesting. There's a lot of good names on this list filing for the injunction in North Carolina. Mentioned obviously Williams, Reed Bailey, kind of an interesting big man there, Malik Renaud.

Starting point is 00:09:02 that would be a very interesting big man from Miami who can be a good rebounder and everything. Nate Kami, set a pretty good season at Wake Forest. Owen Aquino, interesting player from High Point. Some of these, I'm not going to know everybody on this list. Van Allen, Lupin at NC State, played a lot of minutes there. If you need a ball handler, Dalen Hall at Virginia. Donovan Atwell would be like a pipe dream from Texas Tech,

Starting point is 00:09:24 a wing who is an unbelievable defender and shooter, but I don't know, maybe he'd just go back to Tech, who knows. Yeah, some other names that maybe not super familiar. you're with here, but like there's a lot on this list that like point being, you would be able to find some, some talented players or some players that could come in and fill one of these final two spots and specifically even if you need a big man, right? Now, the Darien Williams becomes interesting because I guess this goes one of two ways, right? Did last season's failed pursuit where KU felt like they were, I don't know, kind of in the lead or in a good position to say

Starting point is 00:09:59 the least with Williams. And then kind of last minute, they get out bid by NC State. Bill Self wasn't allowed to surpass that bid. And he goes off to NC State. And I don't think he had as good of a year at NC State as he had the year before when he was at Texas Tech. But like when I look at last year's KU team, if they would have added Dary and Williams, sure, there were some defensive deficiencies for him. He wasn't the best rebounder, but as good of a shopmaker as he was and as he is, if that guy's starting at the four instead of Bryson Tiller and now Tiller's coming off the bench, you don't think Kansas wins an extra game or two. You don't think Kansas maybe gets a three seed in the tournament instead of a four. Maybe it's a little bit easier.

Starting point is 00:10:42 Second round matchup than getting seen. John, once in a week, second week, things to kind of look at their addition. Now, he gets in him because it went down and lead to Burnt Ridge or did how it come down mean that there's already been communication in the past and that it would be easy to pick back up and make something happen because, you know, I don't know how well Darien Williams would fit in terms of like Kansas more so needs a center or another ball handler. But like sometimes you just add the best players and figure it out. Like could you just steer into playing small where Dawes is the five, Stokes is the four, Williams is the three,

Starting point is 00:11:28 or I guess Stokes would be the three, Williams, the four doesn't really matter in that specific lineup, then you have your one, two. Or could you even go the opposite way and say, we're going to play Jumbo? Tyron Stokes reviewing as our point guard. We'll have an off guard at the two. We'll have Williams at the three, Daws at the four center at the five. There are some interesting things you could do with it. I would be all about still adding him just because, like I said, like add the best players you can. But I do think probably if you have that kind of money, are you better served using it on a center? Yeah, probably. But it would still be a fun move nonetheless, not necessarily that I'm expecting it. I would put a higher percentage on that than Jane Dawson being back, though.

Starting point is 00:12:03 Okay, let's finish up here. KU's closing in on basically a GM hire, according to Shreyes Lata from the Kansas City Star. We'll get to that next. This episode's brought to you by Kalshi. Before the season even kicks off, everyone is making predictions. Who's going to win the division? Who's going to make the playoffs? Who's going to win the Natty? Who's lifting the trophy at seasons end, right? I mean, on CalShe America's number one prediction. market platform, you can trade those predictions in a live market. I'm looking at the Rocket Classic winner right now where, um, you know, if you're a believer in the Patrick Cantley start, you can, uh, trade him at 11%, which means if you were to put $100 down, it would give you a chance

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Starting point is 00:13:31 differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calci.com slash regulatory. Thanks you have for joining us here. And interesting story from the Kansas City star with Shreyas Lata, really good work here where here's an exact quote from Travis Gough. I recommend go and checking out the story yourself, but it says, we are hiring what I describe in some regard as a centralized GM for our department that will work with our top revenue shared programs. Now, basically, the article further goes in and again, go check it out at Kansas. city.com, um, that basically they've gotten a commitment from this dude. They're just going through the, I guess the paperwork, the background checks, stuff like that, uh, which makes it seem like it's

Starting point is 00:14:14 going to be announced pretty soon. Now, this is interesting because it based on the description of the job to me, like KU football, for instance, has a GM. KU basketball does not. It seems like to me, this is more of a financial GM than it would be a player personnel GM. Maybe it would be a player personnel one in terms of like contacting the agents and like negotiating that way, but I don't get the sense that I get the sense that this would be more financial than it would be from a personnel thing. But it'll be very interesting to see who they hire. And maybe that'll kind of steer you in their direction of having an understanding of like if they hire somebody who's like been in, you know, NFL or NBA like personnel or something, then maybe that does kind of make you

Starting point is 00:14:51 think that, yeah, they're going to have player decisions on their mind too. I don't know. So that'll be very interesting to see you next week. Other bit of news I wanted to get to before we go, K.U. Women's basketball added a commitment from Amelia Prock. now. She's a class of 2027 guard from Overland Park who played at the Barstow School in Kansas City. Before that, she played at Blue Valley High School. I believe she'll be a senior in high school this upcoming year. And really good stats, 20 and a half points, over eight rebounds, over four assists per game. Had a quadruple double apparently on one game. She was previously committed to Arkansas. So, you know, shows you that there was another high-level school that was in on her.

Starting point is 00:15:30 I guess she received an offer from Alabama recently, but you know, ends up getting to stay home, so to speak, and come out to Kansas nearby. So it seems like Brandon Schneider has done well on the recruiting path here of late, and they're going to need it because I've got to start seeing some on-court results as well.

Starting point is 00:15:47 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find her show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page or you can like and subscribe to the show. Back at you tomorrow for a little football Friday. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - UPHILL BATTLE: Kansas Jayhawks Face MAJOR Eligibility Obstacles for Serbian Center Mihailo Musikic

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