Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Kansas Jayhawks Basketball is Getting in New Class of 2025 4-Star Commit Samis Calderon

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks bonus episode, Samis Calderon, a four-star forward recruit, is a Jayhawk, commits to KU in the class of 2025. We break down his game, what it means for KU. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. This is Locked On Jayhawks, a bonus episode here. Thank you for making your first listen every day,

Starting point is 00:00:35 or maybe this your second because it's a bonus show. Thank you to every dayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts and find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, Samis Calderon is a commit for KU from the class of 2025, picks KU today. We're going to be breaking down his game, scouting report, what it means for KU in the class and next season and moving forward as well.

Starting point is 00:01:02 Today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, where you can buy some tickets, see Calderon once he's in Kansas, Jayhawk, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. So who is Samis Calderon? I also hope I'm pronouncing it right because it could be something else. He's originally from Brazil, 6'8", 200 200 pound Ford, good size, can play the three, can play the four, basically just kind of a wing Ford and pretty good athlete. He's been playing

Starting point is 00:01:32 with the Overtime Elite program. So was in Brazil, came over to Overtime Elite to basically play his prep career for basketball. He is an older recruit in the class. I believe his actual original class would have been the class of 2024. Sometimes you see guys take like prep years. For instance, Devante Graham took a prep year at, was it Brewster Academy? So he was like a year older than his class coming in. That's the case with Calderon coming in as well. He had offers to Auburn, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, and some others. And he is listed as a four-star recruit on 24-7 sports, where he is the number 35 small forward in the class. And on three, they've got him as a power forward, the number 14 ranked power forward, and a four-star with on three at number 63 nationally. He is currently unranked

Starting point is 00:02:19 on rivals NESPN, but I'd imagine those catch up at some point and rank him as well. But pretty much the way I view it, it wouldn't surprise me if at the end of the day this ends up being like a top 100 recruit. Who's a four-star? Who can play the three or the four for you? And he was just on a visit to Lawrence last week. Seems that everything went well on both ends of the floor and on both ends of things, between his party, between Kansas' party,

Starting point is 00:02:43 and now he's committed to play for Kansas. He becomes the second commit in the class, joining Darren Peterson from a week ago. Let's break down more about that class, KU in the future, and the scouting report on Calderon after a quick timeout. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by GameTime. You can get your tickets with GameTime to comedy, theater, sports,

Starting point is 00:03:11 whatever you're looking for. And they have a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. Plus, with their lowest price guarantee, GameTime will credit you 110% of the difference if you find those cheaper tickets somewhere else. And with GameTime, their ticket coverage, your purchase is covered with the most flexible

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Starting point is 00:03:39 LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. All right, continuing on on this show, and thanks for making it your first listen every day. Don't forget to check out our KU Michigan State recap.

Starting point is 00:03:58 We will have some football content coming at you later in the week and some more basketball content with KU taking on Oakland on Saturday as well. All right, so Calderon is already 19 years old. I would assume that means he'll be 20 by the time he's at Kansas. I guess it depends when his birthday is when he enrolls. But by this point in the season, when it kind of starts, he'll be 20. So certain benefits in that, obviously, you know, certain benefits of being an older player, maybe it lowers your draft stock. So you stay in school a little bit longer and that can help you from from certain benefits of being an older player. Maybe it lowers your draft stock so you stay in school a little bit longer. And that can help you from a standpoint of building a team. Also helps you from a standpoint of typically more mature.

Starting point is 00:04:34 And also that might mean that they're going to have a quicker learning curve necessarily. So there are certain positives about that. In year one with OTE, Overtimete overtime elite he went for i guess it depends what you look at they don't have like smushed together stats on overtime elite i don't really like the way that they put stuff up there but nonetheless uh they have it mushed out like in the preseason for last year he averaged 7.6 points 6.6 rebounds then in the non-conference he averaged five and a half points four rebounds then during the season six point three points five rebounds per game and then played even better in the playoffs 7.6 points 6.6 rebounds per game two assists per game with 1.6 steals and one block so very active on the

Starting point is 00:05:15 defensive end uh in the preseason for this season he really showed out 14 and a half points 11 rebounds per game and so far in the season for them this year, he's played one game against cold or he plays for cold hearts at the blue checks. What are these team names? 10 points, three assists, three rebounds or two dunks. He was one of three from three point range. Now that three point shooting is going to be the real swing skill here for him because he's a good athlete and it's six foot eight, a pretty long limbed player. Like I said, good athlete and everything. He can play the three or the four for you, but how effective he can be and realistically him playing the three does come down to those kinds of three point shooting things. So he was very inconsistent, I would say

Starting point is 00:06:04 in terms of his three-point shooting last season. Now he did shoot a lot better during the playoffs. So does that show that a young player is improving? Entirely possible, right? You look at the preseason of this year, and he was 6-4-13, so that's almost 50%. Now that's only taking two or three threes per game. The first game he one for three. So if you total up the regular season with the preseason this year, that'd make him seven of 16. So, you know, that, that is really good shooting numbers. But again, that's such a small sample

Starting point is 00:06:33 side. It's, it's tough to tell. I will say this watching the video, watching the highlights. I don't know if it's just me, but like, I look at his shooting form and I'm like, that's a pure stroke. I think he has a very good shooting form that if he has a good three-point shooting team this year, and it can be 33%, 35%, at least to show enough to where then you get him in the gym here at KU and he's shooting all the time and stuff. I think he has the potential to be a good shooter, I guess is what I'm saying based on kind of watching the shooting form and thinking he has good touch. But that will be the real swing skill. But I do like the fact that you are getting a good athletic player that seems to work hard on the defensive end. Some of the different scouting reports and stuff that I've looked at have noted that he's a hard worker. He's somebody who is going to be a good teammate and everything, so that's another positive.

Starting point is 00:07:19 Also, apparently, he has a gigantic wingspan. This is from Adam Finkelstein of 24-7 Sports. He noted he has like a 7' five wingspan which i mean that's for a guy who's six foot eight like that's incredible i've seen other places say seven two that might end up being more accurate but even if it is like seven two wingspan on a six eight guy that's still that'll work right we've seen a lot of ku wings who have been six seven six eight like grady dick jalen wilson sfima kailuk were like six six six seven six eight but their wingspan is like the same as their actual body.

Starting point is 00:07:48 But no, that's not the case with a guy like this. There was also some talk that he maybe didn't need as much NIL money because he's not top 10 recruit, top 20 recruit in the country, as some of these other guys, to where there is a little bit of a salary cap game here if you're KU. It's not quite a cap cap but it's a general range that you probably have each and every year and you probably used a lot of money on a guy like darren peterson you want to make sure you have a good amount of funds with nil to go out and get

Starting point is 00:08:15 whether it's another high school recruit whether it's a big time transfer portal player in the spring so if you can find a way to bring in a player that you still like, that you feel like can develop long-term, that you feel like has some really good traits and maybe save some NIL money to go land another big player in the off season, that's kind of a home run in my opinion for KU. All right, let's talk about what it means for the class and for KU next season. And moving forward, this is the bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can get $5, get $150 in bonus bets if you win.

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Starting point is 00:09:23 All right, don't forget to check out all of our Locked On Jayhawk action here. Again, Samis Calderon committing to KU. So what it means for KU, well, when you look at the class of 2025, he becomes the second commit in the class. He becomes the first forward in the class. Peterson, more of a combo guard type who I guess could play on the wing, but I view him more as that combo guard. And with Calderon, he is more of your forward type. Now, will Kansas still go out there and maybe try to bring on another center? Could they go on and try to add even another guard or another wing? It wouldn't shock me if they added another high school recruit,

Starting point is 00:09:56 but maybe they wait until the spring. I mean, Spring Bill has been so good at recruiting, whether it's been with high school kids or the portal, that it would certainly make sense. Or maybe you just, you know, the reason you want to wait till the spring is you don't know if you want to use another scholarship on a high school player versus a transfer portal player. Maybe it just depends what transfer portal players are out there and what you want to kind of make work. But it wouldn't shock me if they go for another high school kid. Now, as far as fit with the team, I think when you're looking at 2025, you could possibly have a senior year Ryland Griffin back.

Starting point is 00:10:30 You could have a fourth year A.J. Storr back. You could have a second year Rakeesh Passmore back. If Zach Clements is back, you consider him a 4-2. I don't know how many minutes there's going to be available in like year one for a guy like Calderon, but I don't think the idea is for him to come in and necessarily be a one and done. Obviously, if you do that, great. It works out for all parties. But I think the idea here is that he can come in and stick and develop, whether it's a year, two years, three years, whatever, that he can stick and develop and get that shot to come around. Because if the shot does come around with a guy who's 6'8", with a 7'2 wingspan, who's a good athlete and throws down some good dunks and stuff you're looking at a starter at some point in his career whether it's year two

Starting point is 00:11:09 or year three I guess just kind of depending on when things click I think the the quote-unquote downside of this and I say downside in quotes because I don't think this is like an abject disaster or anything but obviously it didn't work out in terms of the guy becoming like a star or starter at KU is probably like a Tristan and Aruna. You got a kid who was a, you know, I guess former international player too, but it was this kind of like 6'8", 6'9", wing, who was a pretty good athlete. Would the shot ever come around? But he never really ever cracked the rotation in a real way

Starting point is 00:11:39 and ended up transferring away and having a solid career elsewhere. Like that's entirely possible as an outcome here, but I think you take this home run swing because there is a chance that if the shooting does click, like I said, when you have that athleticism and wingspan, like imagine a lineup in, I don't know, 2026, right? And who knows if 2026, 2027, I'm saying. So this would be the second year for Calderon.

Starting point is 00:12:00 And I don't even know if Floyd Badunga would still be around by that point. Maybe he'd be off to the NBA. But like hypothetically, if you had like a Floyd Badunga, who's what, 7'4", 7'5", wingspan, and then you had Calderon starting at the four with like a 7'2", 7'5", wingspan, whatever it ends up being, like, that is dangerous for opponents to try to score on the inside on you. And it comes with a bunch of athleticism. And if Calderon's shooting, like, that's a perfect pairing. So that gets me really excited in a future possible potential lineup. But who knows? A lot of shuffling can happen between then and now.

Starting point is 00:12:31 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time with a KUBYU crossover episode to help you get a little bit ready for a football game late Saturday night with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Kansas Jayhawks Basketball is Getting in New Class of 2025 4-Star Commit Samis Calderon

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