Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Decisions Are Left in the Offseason for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + Transfer Portal News

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, decisions still to come and what else does Kansas need to accomplish this offseason? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. Give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show here with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the action. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be talking about what decisions still need to happen for Kansas,

Starting point is 00:00:41 what they still need to accomplish here in this offseason, and maybe some of the latest in the portal news for KU basketball. All right, well, let's just start right there on today's edition of the show and what decisions still need to come for Kansas. Right now, we know that DeJuan Harris is going to be back. We know that KJ Adams is going to be back. We know that Riley Kugel and Zeke Mayo are new additions to the team. We know that they have three freshmen signed with Rakeese Passmore, who I think may be very underrated recruit in the recruiting class, LeBaron Phylon, who I've heard really good things about in terms of his leadership ability, in addition to his

Starting point is 00:01:19 game in Fleury-Badunga, who is obviously a very talented center. So, I mean, those are guys you know, and yeah there are other ones that maybe have a hunch on like we'll get to here with Hunter Dickinson and stuff but for the most part there are still decisions that need to be had and need to be made for Kansas I don't know if it's because Kansas has already gotten two portal commits so far but like I feel like the the time that has been from when they lost in the NCAA tournament to when the NCAA season ended with the national championship game last night, I feel like it's been like a month since then. Normally, it doesn't feel like it's that long in between. Maybe it's because the offseason now really does get started early and you don't really have that deprievement period.

Starting point is 00:02:01 But anyway, the first big decision still left to be had at this point is Hunter Dickinson, right? He actually was on a recent Field of 68 podcast, and he kind of mentioned that he's content taking his time, but also kind of said that it could be relatively soon and that he didn't want to break it in this setting, in this situation, which last year, you think back to his recruitment when he got committed to Kansas. When he committed to Kansas, he released like a video. So obviously he probably wants to do something, you know, that has some sort of production to it, whether it is a video or, you know, releasing something or having a press conference, whatever it ends up being. And maybe he'll end up testing the NBA draft waters. But the thing is, you don't see him on like any big boards.

Starting point is 00:02:41 You don't see him on any mock drafts. You don't see him on any like, you know, top 80 lists or something like that to where I feel like the assumption at this point is that he's going to come back um it's entirely possible he just says I'm ready to start my pro career and whether that be NBA G League overseas whatever it is like I'm totally game with that and if that is what ends up happening, it could end up happening. But I think there's a lot of reasons why he would come back, and a lot of them probably make more money off of NIL at Kansas than he would at a professional league next season. And so I think if you're asking me to put a percentage on it,

Starting point is 00:03:19 I'll put a percentage on all the different ones here. How about that? I would say I feel like it's 80%, 90%. Maybe that's not even high enough for Hunter Dickinson to be back. And I think that just comes from me deducing what kind of makes sense here with Hunter Dickinson. But we are waiting on that decision, and yeah, I guess there's still a chance that anything could happen.

Starting point is 00:03:40 But obviously that's going to have a big impact on KU the rest of the portal season in terms of how they want to play, what types of players are they going to have a big impact on KU the rest of the portal season in terms of how they want to play, what types of players are they going to go after, right? Like it's one thing to go after Cliff Omorui when you don't have Hunter Dickinson. It's another thing to go after him if you do have Hunter Dickinson, because he's going to be like, no, thanks. I want to start somewhere, you know? So that kind of remains to be the big boulder. I think the biggest one in terms of the up in the air, is it going to happen? Is it not? Is the Johnny Furphy one? And I would, I continue to be steadfast that even though,

Starting point is 00:04:11 you know, I felt like Johnny Furphy's game is far from complete. I mean, I think the potential on this kid is that as soon as maybe even next year, he can be an unbelievable player. I'm going to make a really weird comparison here, but I think there's a lot of similarities between Johnny Furphy and Ben McLemore. Now, there's a lot of differences too. Furphy's six foot nine, McLemore's like six foot five. As good of an athlete as Furphy is, Ben McLemore was a ridiculous jumping athlete. But there's a little bit of, with Ben McLemore, he was a really good shooter and athlete and straight line dunker. Wasn't going to do a ton off the bouncer in the half court. I But there's a little bit of with Ben McElmore, he was a really good shooter and athlete and straight line dunker. Wasn't like going to do a ton off the bouncer in the half

Starting point is 00:04:49 court. I think there's a lot similarity there to Johnny Furphy. And I mean, I guess we don't really know for sure with Ben McElmore redshirting his first year, but it's easy to look at it and be like, look how much of a jump he made from his first year in the program to his second year when he becomes this like all conference, you know, super fun player to watch. I think Furphy could take a huge jump next season and average 15, 16, 17, even 18 points per game in the right situation for KU. So I said, I don't know, maybe a week ago, maybe two weeks ago that I would probably lean toward Furphy being in the draft, but it wouldn't shock me either way that I, maybe I said it like 55, 45 or something like that. Things are starting to sway for me. You look at some of the latest

Starting point is 00:05:28 mock drafts and they have them going in. I've seen like three mock drafts already that have him in the second round. Now I've seen another that had him going like 28th where it's, it's not like a guarantee. And that's the thing. If you get a first round draft pick, then I think it makes some sense to go. But I do think there's caveats to that. If you get a promise from a team who's picking 29th in the draft, as much as you'd like to say, oh, I have a promise of a first round pick, it's hard to fully rely on that unless you have like multiple promises at the back end of the first round. Because what happens if, like for a team who's picking 29th, there's so much that can happen in the draft before them where it's like, there's a player that they had ranked 16th on their big board that they thought they never had a chance to draft. And all

Starting point is 00:06:08 of a sudden he falls in the draft and they're like, okay, well, we have to take this guy. We're sorry. We promised you, but we liked that guy more. And then you're kind of screwed there. Right. Like that does happen. So I think if you're, you know, promised in the top 20 or you have multiple promises in the 20 to 30 range, like it a hundred percent makes sense to go. But I wonder from Johnny Furfrey's perspective, like what if from his camp, he's like, I only want to go if I'm promised to be a lottery pick, or I only want to go if I'm promised to be a top 20 pick. And so I think that from Furphy's perspective, the way things are kind of moving now, I have switched it a little. I, it still would not shock me one way or another, but I'm up to 55,

Starting point is 00:06:42 45 that Furphy comes back with where I'm at for that. But obviously that'll be a pretty drawn out one, you would think, because I'd imagine he's going to test the draft process pretty deep into it. So you might not know for a while what's going to kind of happen with all of that. Then the back end transfers, Elmarco Jackson, Jamari McDowell, and Zach Clements. I say transfer, potential transfers, if any of them were to transfer out of the program. Certainly seems like with Zach Clements, the idea originally when KU brought on Clements was, and again, you go back to the Kansas City Star article, that his mom was talking about basically re-entering the portal the next season.

Starting point is 00:07:21 The idea was to give Kansas' next practice player another body they could throw at Hunter Dickinson and stuff in practice. And so I think that might've been the plan, but sounds like he may be progressed to more than the staff could have hoped. And, you know, if you're Kansas and you're kind of kicking the tires on some of these center options to come in and be a backup center, why not just stick with Zach Clemens, you know, and have him compete with Florida,unga if Hunter Dickinson's back

Starting point is 00:07:48 for the backup five minutes. Obviously, KJ Adams could play some backup five and, you know, whatever. I think that would be a good thing for Kansas if that is indeed the case, having somebody who knows the Bill Self system. We've talked about that before. Like, he tends to do better with people who have been in his system. So I certainly don't think that would hurt if he decided to come back. I think of Marco Jackson.

Starting point is 00:08:07 That's one where I'd imagine from a Marco's perspective, if KU adds even more in the portal, maybe his decision does become, hey, it's too crowded. I'm going to go. But as of right now, even if you want to talk about, I guess it's hard to know without his furphy coming back, his Dickinson coming back and all that sort of stuff. But let's hypothetically say that you know you have dewan harris and zeke

Starting point is 00:08:28 mayo and riley kugel there still is more room for like guard minutes because kugel can play some two and some three you know zeke mayo can play some one and some two um it comes kind of a competition between el marco and lebaron filon and if you lose that competition maybe you transfer the next year but if you win that competition all of a sudden now you're getting minutes, and then the following year, DeJuan Harris is gone, and Zeke Mayo graduates, and boom, all of a sudden, you're a starting player on Kansas. So that can certainly have some value.

Starting point is 00:08:55 And with Jamari McDowell, to me, I feel like all the way along, Bill Self was very upfront in the media that he profiled as a long-term role player, like a Travis Relaford type. So if you're saying that to the media publicly you know behind closed doors he was probably being honest about the role for Jamari McDowell to where it's like you know even if Jamari's like oh I didn't play as much as I wanted to this year like I don't know what were you expecting like if Kansas would have more scholarship players I think the idea was going to be to redshirt Jamari McDowell this past year so I think there was actually a real chance that all five of these guys, Hunter Digginson, Johnny Furfield, Marco Jackson, Jamari McDowell, Zach Clements, end up back at Kansas next season.

Starting point is 00:09:30 And, you know, maybe the odds would say that, okay, just one of them is going to leave and who knows which ones it's going to be. And maybe there's a better chance that that happens and all five come back. But the point is there's a real chance that all five of them could come back. And if that does happen, it becomes very interesting because then Kansas would just be set at this point with the roster. I guess technically they would have one scholarship that they could either use this year or next year because, you know, the NCAA sanction stuff, they just have to not use one more either this year or next year. So theoretically, if, you know, a really good player is like, I want to come here, you could be like, okay, we'll just push that down the road one year. But this offseason might be closer to conclusion than you might think if all those guys do indeed decide to come back. And then the last kind of decision is

Starting point is 00:10:11 just what Bill Self wants to do. Does he want to use that one scholarship? If anybody does leave, how does he want to bring about new players? How does he want to play? Does he want to play a style where KJ Adams is going to be coming off the bench and he's going to play more shooting and more wings? Does he want to play two big basketball again? There's a lot of questions that, I don't know, from that perspective, we probably won't have answered for a while in terms of how they're going to play. All right, let's continue on. What do they still need to add from a team perspective

Starting point is 00:10:38 and kind of tie up this offseason for KU? First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel. It's playoff time in the NBA and NHL. Baseball's in full swing, and FanDuel is your place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets, guaranteed.

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Starting point is 00:11:11 What are you waiting for? Visit Fanduel.com slash Locked On and make your first bet an automatic win. Fanduel, America's number one sportsbook and official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Network. What does Kansas still need to do in this offseason? Well, if all those players end up coming back, then it's a lot harder to say this is what they need to do and this is what they need to add. Then it just becomes more about trying to figure out the best way to play with those current players and trying to figure out internal improvement and what each player needs to

Starting point is 00:11:44 kind of work on. And so we could go through some of that, like, you know, for Marco Jackson, can you become a more consistent shooter? Can you just become a more consistent player overall with Johnny Furphy? Can you work on your half court game? If he comes back, Hunter Dickinson, you're looking at, can you become a better defender in space, right? Like these are all questions that, you know, we can get to down the road and everything. But I think overall, like from Kansas, you're just looking for more shooting and offensive creation. And we talked about this yesterday on the show that you look at the last time Kansas shot this poorly from three, it was actually the 2021 season. Well, the next season they shot over

Starting point is 00:12:18 36% for three, which wasn't like, you know, a top 50 mark or anything in the country, but it was more than good enough. And the big reason why it was just just you had one guy with Ocha Agbaje who was unbelievable shooting threes. Now, ideally you would have that more spread out and maybe this team would, maybe Furphy could be that guy if you can get him back, right? But point being, you know, you need more shooting and whether that comes from bringing it in externally, whether that comes from internal improvement of guys, I mean, that is one thing in college basketball we see get better when players get older, right?

Starting point is 00:12:52 Like typically your athleticism is what your athleticism is, right? But your shooting, we see that in consistency. We see that go up a lot for guards as they stay in college basketball more often. So that's the big thing. And then the defensive versatility and, you know, defending ball screens, defending in space, defending the three-point line. Like those are big things you need to work on. Now it's funny because I don't know, it's hard to get like a perfect player in the transfer portal. Usually there's a reason they're in the transfer portal. And so like if a player is available, it's almost like,

Starting point is 00:13:28 okay, well, do we want more offense or do we want more defense? Because it's very rare that it's like, oh, you get a player who's like great at both, you know? Because then they're just either an All-American, they're moving on to the NBA or they're staying at their current school, you know? So I don't know, trying to figure out the defensive versatility while still finding more offense and still finding more shooting. That is kind of a tough puzzle that Bill Self has to figure out. Now, if Johnny Furphy goes, you definitely need another wing. If Furphy's back anyway, you might need another wing regardless.

Starting point is 00:13:57 But again, you might be full of on scholarships. If Furphy decides to come back, then maybe everybody else comes back, too. Right. And then at that point, let's say everybody did come back who can come back, then maybe everybody else comes back too, right? And then at that point, let's say everybody did come back, who can come back at this point in time, and you know you added Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel. Then at that point, you're probably playing a lot of three-guard lineups, and you're playing maybe some Furphy at the four.

Starting point is 00:14:17 You're playing KJ a little bit at the four, but Furphy's probably getting good minutes there. Maybe you're even, you know, for a few minutes here or there, I don't know, Riley Kugel played a little bit of four his freshman year at Florida. But it feels like this team, I guess for Keys Passmore, maybe he could, I don't know, it's kind of a wing type. It feels like this team, that is the one position that is kind of missing on the team.

Starting point is 00:14:39 Like you have a lot of point guards. You have a lot of ball handlers with DeJuan Harris. LeBaron Filon's kind of a combo guard, point guard type. Elmarco Jackson is kind of a combo guard type, right? Zeke Mayo, combo guard, like that's a lot of ball handlers. Kugel can even initiate the offense and bring it up and everything. You have a lot of big men potentially. Hunter Dickinson, if Zach Clements decides to stick around. KJ Adams can play the five. You're bringing in Flory Badunga. You have a lot of five men. Theoretically, you have a decent amount of guys who can play the four with KJ Adams and I guess possibly Rakees Passmore and Johnny Furphy and stuff should he come back,

Starting point is 00:15:16 but you'd like to have even more versatility there. You'd like to have more versatility three and four. So that is the one kind of position that I'm looking at where it's like, if KU were to add one more player, I'm circling wing. And that is the one that would be, I mean, go back to defensive versatility. Usually wings are the ones that help with that the most. And you can find three and D wings. So like all this basically points me to say, now, if you lose a guy like Zach Clements, for instance, which I don't know if that would happen, but hypothetically, if you did, then maybe you are saying, Hey, we need another center. Cause we need a body,

Starting point is 00:15:49 another body in there to play center. But I think at any other position, you know, even if it were a Marco Jackson or Jamari McDowell, you're sitting there going, let's add a wing because we need another one of those. And then if you lose Furphy, you're definitely adding a wing. But I mean, that's the most versatile position there is. So like, it's very beneficial to add those types of players. And then, yeah, like I said, if Clemens did indeed go,

Starting point is 00:16:11 then you'd probably be looking for like a Parker Brown type big. And the reason why it'd be kind of, you know, both sides, right? Because if you're, as I mentioned, like Cliff O'Marui or a, I don't know, Brandon Garrison at Oklahoma State or something like that. If you're one of those guys, you're sitting there going, okay, let's say Hunter Dickinson comes back and you know, Florida doing go, who's a five-star prospects coming on, you know, KJ Adams can play the five. Are you sitting there going? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:33 You know what? I want to sign up for that. I can play at most if I beat out Flory and KJ and not just beat them out, but beat them out to a point where I'm getting all of the minutes over them. Even if Hunter Dickinson is only playing 26 minutes per game, which is probably low, I'm only getting 14 minutes per game at the five. You're not really signing up for that. If you're that guy. And then you're, you know, also knowing that, Oh, what if I do get a beat out by Florida, but Dunga, and then he's only a freshman and he could be here, you know, a lot longer. So then at that point you would be looking for that, which is why it would just

Starting point is 00:17:04 honestly probably be perfect. If Zach Clements decided to stay for Kansas. All right, let's talk some of the latest portal news, some of the latest players who maybe has heard from KU. And I think some interesting players to say the least on a list of this. All right, we'll talk about that in a moment on locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:17:25 Thanks for tuning in to locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for tuning in to Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you for making it your first listen every day. And thank you to the everydayers tuning into all of the shows and whether you find us anywhere, you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page, if you could give us a five-star review or a thumbs up, a like on the like button on YouTube, it very much helps us out on our end of things. We're going to be joined by Nick Schwert later this week to have some early thoughts on KU

Starting point is 00:17:46 basketball for next year. And we're going to play a fun segment of who cares, what do you care more about, whose stat line is it anyway. We'll also have a spring football showcase preview coming later in the week on our football Friday this week on Locked on Jayhawks. So latest portal news for KU. As we talked about right now, you're kind of just waiting on your own decisions. So, I mean, things have gotten a little bit more quiet on the, I guess, rumor mill for KU,

Starting point is 00:18:08 which is crazy because last year the rumor mill extended on through like June for Kansas. And now, like we kind of talked about, if all these guys decide to come back, it might already be over for Kansas. So some of the latest portal news, these are just guys who, if you go on social media, you'll see a different recruiting Twitter account be like, this player has heard from these. And I've talked about this before. Those lists can be complicated because sometimes a heard from can be as simple as one of the KU assistant coaches shot him a text like, hey, just wanted to check in. Like, we have some level of interest or something, you know, or just like the bare minimum of interest versus some others could have called and been like, we're offering you a scholarship.

Starting point is 00:18:53 Please come here. Right. You see the different levels of where things are. In fact, I even remember there was a recruit and this has taken it to a whole nother level that had like it was Kansas was one of the there was like three schools on his list that he releases like finalists. And it was like Kansas and two other schools. And I'm pretty sure the, as the story went, Kansas had like never even talked to the guy. One of the other schools hadn't even like offered him. And he was just trying to like bump up the prestige of, Hey, I'm committing, which one am I going to pick when in all reality it was just going to be the one school anyway so I mean that does happen

Starting point is 00:19:28 but I think some of these would be kind of I don't know Bill's off guys in certain ways uh the first is Micah Peavy he's transferred from TCU now I think in a vacuum would make a lot of sense it's kind of a Kevin McCullough replacement Peavy is a really good rebounder really good athletic wing would help on the defensive end and your athleticism which as much as you're trying to improve the shooting you're trying to improve your defense and your athleticism so he would help that problem is he's not a good three point shooter and now the KJ Adams is back if Hunter Dickinson's back too you run into the issue of and with DeJuan Harris at the point guard too you have to have shooting around those guys

Starting point is 00:20:02 you know what I mean if you had one of the three less of DeJuan, KJ, or Hunter, as much as all are good college players, the fit would make it where if you only had two of the three, whichever two you want, you could take a player like this. But I don't know about the fit on this type of roster. Qadir Copeland, kind of same thing. The athletic write-up on him says he's like one of the best athletes in college basketball. He's this wing from Syracuse who's a good passer, almost three assists per game, unbelievable leaper and athlete, but only 25% from three last year at Syracuse.

Starting point is 00:20:35 Now, this one might be a little different because Copeland came off the bench for Syracuse, and so theoretically if you're transferring up from Syracuse to Kansas and you were coming off the bench at Syracuse, would you be fine coming off the bench at Kansas? And now if you're talking about a guy who's not a great shooter, but he's a great athlete and can give you 15 minutes per game as a good defender and an athlete off the bench, that might be actually doable for Kansas a little bit more. Then there's Kerry Booth, who is like a stretch five from Notre Dame, was a former really highly recruited prospect, didn't have a great freshman year, showed some good signs, but maybe that would be the type of guy where if Clements does leave, you say, hey, let's bring in a different stretch five who's young and can maybe grow in the program and Kerry Booth would kind of be the one. But all our kind of recent names I've heard from

Starting point is 00:21:17 KU and are a little bit more of because Booth is not your typical Bill Self big man in that way, that you do wonder a little bit about the fits with all the guys. It also seems like KU is making sure they are staying active in the five-man market. Brandon Garrison, Cliff Omorui, William Kyle, Amari Williams, Christ Esendoco, Farrell Payne from Minnesota, who's like this great athlete and good defender and just kind of rim running big man. Think of what KU probably wanted from Ernest Uday. These are all names that Kansas has like been connected with in some way.

Starting point is 00:21:52 And I think that makes sense because, you know, while you are waiting on the Hunter Dickinson news, you want to have backup plans. While you are waiting on the Zach Clements news, you want to have backup plans. And so even if you think both of those are going to go KU's way, it doesn't hurt to reach out to these guys and kind of keep checking on stuff. But I certainly think it's interesting because, you know, I guess you would feel like, oh, Hunter Dickinson,

Starting point is 00:22:12 like there's probably a good chance he comes back and you have Flory Badunga and you know, you can play KJ at the five. Do you really need another five man or would you rather get another wing? But, you know, that seems to be definitely one of interest should somebody leave for Kansas and try to add more competition at that big spot. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. But, you know, that seems to be definitely one of interest should somebody leave for Kansas and try to add more competition at that big spot. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:22:29 You can find our show anywhere you get our podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back tomorrow with Nick Schwert. This has been LOJ.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Decisions Are Left in the Offseason for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + Transfer Portal News

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