Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What Kevin McCullar Returning Means for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball in 2023-2024

Episode Date: May 25, 2023

Kevin McCullar is coming back for his second season in Lawrence. What the super senior wing means to the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team in 2023-24, roster construction ahead, McCullar's scouting report with strengths and weaknesses, and starting lineup plus rotation projections for Bill Self and KU this upcoming season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, deep diving further into Kevin McCuller returning to KU, what it means for the team, how he can be starting lineup projections early on. 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. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. You can also hear me right here with Locked on Jayhawks.

Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, which you can also find on YouTube, we are going to be talking about Kevin McCuller returning to the fold for KU. We talked a little bit on yesterday on a bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks about Kevin McCullough returning and just some surface level stuff for Kevin, but we wanted to take a deeper dive into it

here on today's edition of the show. You know, it's funny. This is better for KU than if they would have landed some of the guys that we've talked about or KU had been rumored to be possibly going after, possibly getting over the past couple of weeks. Like the idea of what McKenzie Mbako could be if he lives up to the hype, if he lives up to the potential and he looks like a top 10 pick who's shooting 38 percent from three and could play the three or the four. Yeah, at that point, sure, that player might end up being better than Kevin McCuller.

But also when you're bringing in a freshman, there is risk, right? You saw the reward with Grady Dick. You saw the risk with MJ Rice. And in a recruiting class that isn't seen as a great recruiting class, like if you were putting the odds on who's going to be better, Kevin McCuller or Mackenzie Mbako, who's going to have a better college basketball season here in 2023 to 2024, I think McCuller would have the better odds of being the better player.

Who's a better player, Arthur Columa or Kevin McCuller? Maybe, again, you could say the ceiling is a little bit higher on Arthur Columa, but with McCuller, you don't have to worry about how is he going to fit into the system, what is he going to look like at KU, is he going to make those adjustments good coming to Lawrence? And I think just in general, Kevin McCuller was a better player last year than Arthur Columa. So, you know, you look down the list, the guys that were available at this point in time, this was your best option. This was your best option all the way through. If it was a possibility, which obviously it turned out to be because you had the returning experience. You had the returning familiarity of a guy in the system.

You have a guy that, you know, Bill self trusts. You have a guy that you know Bill self-trusts. You have a guy who is an elite defender, one of the best in college basketball, who I think we saw his game even get better as the season did get on in terms of his comfortability driving to the basket. We saw a straight line drive. We saw some spin moves. He was really good in the NCAA tournament game for Kansas, and this represented your best option.

If you had realistic options, everybody available, whether it was the transfers that were available, whether it was freshmen, whether it was Kevin McCuller. As far as wing players go, and also players just available at this point in time, this was your best option remaining. Like I said on the bonus episode bonus episode bit of a positive surprise like the mckenzie and bacco thing was kind of a surprise that they didn't land him at least to some and me this was a surprise i i think i pegged it i i think i said yeah i guess you'd put a higher

percentage on kevin mcculler coming back than you would with grady dick because there are more reasons to say that but i think i only put like a 15% chance on it happening. I didn't totally expect this to happen, but certainly once you get Bill Self involved, a very, I don't know, influential person, someone who can certainly provide a lot of reason to come back and you start getting NIL money involved and maybe the NBA draft process didn't go as well as he would have hoped.

He had the one scrimmage where he certainly struggled. He had, I think, in the second series, first scrimmage, I think he went three for five, came off the bench. His second scrimmage, I think he went 0 for 5 and had fouled out of the game to where I wonder how much that affected things to where he wasn't getting the promises or looks to where he was going. Now, keep in mind, Bill Self said toward the beginning of the offseason that last year

before Kevin McCuller transferred to Kansas, McCuller had multiple two-way contract guarantees, two-way offers. And so some people were leading to believe that, yeah, if he would have had that offer this year, he would have just taken it. That kind of told me that if he had multiple two-way guarantees last year and he didn't go pro, wouldn't he be looking for moreway guarantees last year and he didn't go pro wouldn't he be looking for more than that wouldn't he be looking for an actual guarantee of a contract and so i kind of view it as that's the guarantee he was looking for to if anybody would

have even guaranteed a contract even like a two-year deal as a second round pick or something that he would have stayed in the nba draft but because maybe it was only two-way offers he figures i can make more, if not the same type of money off NIL here at Kansas. I have the opportunity to have a phenomenal final season at KU. And if you come back and he does finally improve that three-point shot and it goes up to 35, 36% from three, maybe you are talking about a late first-round pick. I know he would be 24 years old, but Thomas Duarte was a lottery pick as a 24, 25 year old. Derek White was like 23, 24. He was a late first round pick for the Spurs.

If you put it together, we know what he can bring defensively. It's still kind of there. And this is so important for KU. You now look at a guy who, okay, obviously it's six foot six, 205 pounds. It's a kid who, at least that's what his college basketball reference. I think he might be a little bit bigger than that but um somebody who you know comes in and gives you flexibility at playing both the three and the four positions important for a team that doesn't have a lot of those other options on this team and he fits the billing perfectly you know what you're getting out of him

and uh what we'll get into what he brings to the table strengths and weaknesses even though you know this will be kind of like a deep dive even though everybody saw it and kind of knows we'll get into what he brings to the table, strengths and weaknesses, even though this will be kind of like a deep dive, even though everybody saw it and kind of knows. We'll go kind of more into the numbers here. But for KU, you now return three starters to the fold, which Kevin Flaherty of 24-7 Sports pointed out that every national title team since 1998 has had at least three returning starters come back to the team so and you go

back and i think the one it was unfortunately the 97 arizona team bucked the trend there but that means that you fit that billing if you're can't think back to the 2021 to 2 some similarities with that to this and that team obviously won the title that team brought in basically a whole new bench you brought in a bunch of freshmen onto the team right your kj adams zach clements so on of the world bobby pettiford you brought in a bunch of transfers cam martin joe yesifu remy martin jaylen coleman lands but at the end of the day you had four of your five starters back and then your fifth starter was dewan harris who didn't start the previous year but was a role player this year's team doesn't have the returning role players, but now you have the three of the five

starters back. You bring in your transfers and the transfers you bring in. If Timberlake is going to start and Dickinson's going to start, I mean, those are experienced guys at the collegiate level, maybe not the Bill Self system, but you know, you look at Artario Morris, he's experienced at least a year of college basketball too. Parker Brown's experienced all sorts of games. So you have a very experienced starting lineup. You have a very experienced team to mix with some other talented transfers and freshmen coming into the fold. You kind of have everything that you're looking for now. This to me completes like, sure, if a Grant Nelson or a Zion Poland or whoever is like, I still want to come there and compete, you probably still take them

and say, well, we'll see how the rotation figures itself out from here but i also think kansas is at a point where even with an open scholarship to get them to 12 they would just be content sitting on it and saying we're fine with having just 11 scholarship players we feel like we have a full rotation of seven eight nine guys even among just those 11 and that we'll take another scholarship count it off and that way we'll have um more scholarship availability in the two future years from the self-imposed sanctions now does it make sense to bring on another like kevin mcculler has had injury stuff over the course of his career he had a few games that he missed because of an injury the back injury during the big 12 tournament i think i forget if it was an ankle injury or what that caused him to miss i

think it was the seaton hall game or maybe the texas southern game uh that was a game right before then uh over the course of his career even at texas tech he had injury stuff so if you only have 11 scholarship players but one of them has had injury problems in the past does it make you more likely to use that last scholarship on somebody else just in case of something going out or is that just where the freshmen like a Jamari McDowell and Chris Johnson have their opportunity to show a little bit more I don't know but I think Kansas is comfortable really either way but this is a huge move for KU that really seems to anchor them in that number one preseason spot which we'll get more into uh later this week we'll also get more into who does

his return impact the most in terms of other players on KU. Let's get to his scouting report, though, just to go back over what he did last season and will it be the same? Will it be different? Will it be similar? Whatever to what his role will be on this next year's team. First, those episode Hawks is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Bird Dogs fit super comfortably. They have all sorts of different ways that you can get that

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All right. A scouting report for Kevin McCuller. Let's start with the strengths, his positional versatility. On the defensive side of the ball, realistically, he can guard one through five. Now, ideally, you don't probably want him guarding ones all the time. And ideally, you don't want him guarding fives all the time and ideally you don't want him guarding fives all the time but if he gets switched on to him he can deal with him and he's really good at guarding two through four you can play him two through four on the offensive end because

of his size he is uh somebody who's a uh really good rebounder especially for his size i mean you're talking about this past season putting up seven rebounds per game, 5.8 on the defensive glass. So now you have Hunter Dickinson, Kevin McCuller. KJ is a good offensive rebounder on top of that. You feel like you're going to have a good rebounding team, athletic guards to kind of go with it, which is obviously important. Obviously, the biggest strength, though, for Kevin is the defense. Two steals per game,.7 blocks per game.

And he's always been a great defender. His last year at Texas Tech, he was the best defender on the best defensive team in the country. Comes to Kansas, DeJuan Harris wins Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. McCuller's a first-team-all Big 12 defender. I would argue Kevin McCuller was KU's best defender. Maybe DeJuan is best in a vacuum on his position, but because

McCuller can cover up multiple positions and because of what he... He's such a good team defender, too, beyond being a great individual defender where he covers up for other people's mistakes somebody will mess up or a cutter will get through and he'll cover him up or he'll get a block from behind where I think he's the most valuable defender on the team or at least was last season and realistically you can make the argument now that Kansas has the two best defenders in the big 12 that they did last year with DeJuan Harris and Kevin McCuller, and that they will again this next season, which is very important. So good defender, disruptive defender, so good at stripping the ball away. And it's just going to be exciting

to have him back for another year in that regard. Other strengths for Kevin McCuller, you're talking about someone who I think was a good driver, a good cutter, and somebody who was able to get to the rim at a high level, especially as the season kind of went on there. He ended up shooting 52.5% on 5.3 two-point attempts per game, which that is a really good number to be at. So he is a good driver at the very least, which is helpful to have somebody else that can do that for you. Good free throw shooter, 76% on 3.4 free throw attempts per game. He's been over 70% each of his seasons in college basketball. He's good

in transition. He's also a good passer, which gives you an extra ball handler out there. 2.4 assists per game last season. He averaged 3.1 assists per game his final season at Texas Tech before coming over to KU. So he's just a good passer and especially good in those open court settings. Always good to have extra ball handling and passing for you out there. I think also it makes you feel good about how he performed in that final NCAA tournament game against Arkansas that you could add to the strengths. Five of eight from the floor against Arkansas. One of three from three, two for five or four for five from a two point range.

He scored 13 points, had five rebounds, one assist, one steal, two blocks, just one turnover played over 36 minutes of the game against Arkansas. So performed well. And, you know, he's going to be hungry to make that deep NCAA tournament run. He got to experience a lot of KU. He got to go on some fun experiences at Texas Tech, but trying to be a key member of a team that goes deep in the NCAA tournaments, you kind of have that want to as well for him. Obviously, though, going back to the defensive side,

this opens up so much for you. When you look at the synergy profile for Kevin McCuller, specifically what he did best this past season uh cutting he was in the 83rd percentile he uh also was 75th percentile miscellaneous plays so like other things that would just find a way to kind of get the ball through the hoop and then when you look at the weaknesses side of things it's the it's the shot are you going to be able to create shots off the bounce are you going to be able to hit threes He was just in the 37th percentile in spot-up shooting last season. He was shooting in the high 20s really for most of the year from three.

He ended up shooting 29.6% from three, and that's where he's been at now all four years of college. So how realistic is it to expect a jump when he's been 28.6, 28.3, 31.1, and 29.6 for his career, 29.8% from three-point range. I don't know how expected it is for that to necessarily go up in year one, but maybe now that you have another full off season with the team, if you can at least get that up to maybe 33, 34%, that could be big for both you and the team. He got a lot of open looks last year. They didn't always go down. And as mentioned, just 37th percentile on spot up shooting overall from two and three

last season. So that certainly is the biggest weakness. And that's going to be a very important one because Kansas right now, you do have questions as a team about their three point shooting. So that's going to be the biggest key to try to figuring that out. The other thing is just trying to avoid injury. His final season at Texas Tech, he only played in 29 of the games. Kansas, I mentioned he missed a couple games. The year before at Texas Tech, he played in just 20 games. The year before that,

29 games. So he's missed games every year because of injury. Can you keep him healthy on a team that already is going to have less scholarship players? That'll be the big key for KU. But obviously, way more strengths and weaknesses here and he becomes one of your best players on the team it's funny we'll be able to have those you know Hunter Dickinson is he the best player on the team DeJuan Harris is the most important player on the team Kevin McCuller is he second in both of those areas on the team where do some of these other players fit in it's a good question it is a lot of good debates that you can possibly have and that's what comes with having Kevin McCuller back in the fold.

Another strength you get at in there is just the experience and having more experienced players and more experienced Bill Self players in the system is obviously a good thing. Let's finish up starting lineup expectations, rotation expectations. Now that Kevin McCuller is back in the fold with locked on Jayhawks. Well, the starting lineup projection, I think you've seen this one. Like, for instance, John Rothstein tweeted this out. And I don't know if this just comes from John's expectations

or usually he talks to a lot of the coaches, you know. But this was my expectation as well, which I think is the case for a lot of other people, at least to start the year. I think to start the year. At the beginning of the season, Bill Self typically goes with the guys that he trusts. DeJuan Harris at the one guard at the two, which we'll get to here in a second.

Kevin McCuller at the three. K.J. Adams at the four. Hunter Dickinson at the five. I think because you trust K.J. Adams because what he did last year, he earns a starting spot to begin the season at the four. Then you look at the two. When you look at that lineup, it's like, wow, Kevin McCuller, high 20s, low 30% from three. KJ, not a shooter from three. Dickinson can shoot it from three and shoot it efficiently, but it's not going to be high volume. Where are your three pointers coming? Dwan Harris, like kind of same thing.

He can shoot it very efficiently from three, but it's not going to be high volume. Where are your threes coming from in that starting lineup? And that would almost make me believe that it would be Nick Timberlake at the two, just because you need that floor spacer, similar to how Isaiah Moss was that floor spacer for the team a couple years ago. So that would be my starting line of projection right off the bat. Now, at the same point in time, even though that's what I expected to be for game one, and it still wouldn't be that crazy if it was Artario Morris or somebody else at the two,

I just think from the floor spacing, it would be Nick Timberlake. But maybe we get into December. Maybe we get into January. And things are a little bit clunkier than you would like on the offensive end of the ball because you don't have enough floor spacing. Would it be that crazy if all of a sudden, you know, you move KJ Adams

to the kind of first big off the bench. He's your first four or five off the bench. And then you move Kevin McCuller down to the four. You slide Nick Timberlake down to the three. And then all of a sudden, Artario Morris is starting at the two and you have two quick ball handling guards. You have the three point shooter in Timberlake.

You have more shooting. You have more spacing on the floor. You have more ball handling and driving and cutting all around. And even if you do that, you're still able to play KJ Adams 20 plus minutes per game now is it going to upset KJ Adams could you have to worry about him transferring another offseason possibly but it's also possible Hunter Dickinson leaves at the end of the year and Kevin McCuller would then be officially gone at the end of next season to where KJ Adams would be looking at even if he moved from being a starter this year to being a backup at some point for the 2024 to 25 season he would be looking at, even if he moved from being a starter this year to being a

backup at some point for the 2024 to 25 season, he would be like, oh, well now all this clearance in front of me, I would be the starter. So you would have to worry about, you know, playing the, like, is that something that would affect it? But you would also get KJ enough minutes that I don't think for a guy who has been super, you know, trusted by the coaches, I don't think it would be the end of the world necessarily. But as far as the rotation, and this is what I mean by that, let's say that you're playing Hunter Dickinson 30 minutes per game at the five. And then the other 10 minutes, even if KJ is coming off the bench, if eventually Kevin McCullers, you're four, you're starting four.

You're playing the other 10 minutes with KJ Adams at the five okay so there's 10 minutes for KJ and then let's say Kevin McCullers playing 20 minutes per game at the four and he's playing his other 10 minutes per game at the three okay that still leaves you at 20 minutes per game open at the four you could give all 20 to KJ and now he's playing 20 at the four 10 at the five that's 30 minutes per game or you could even just play him you know 12 minutes at the four 10 minutes at the five, that's 30 minutes per game. Or you could even just play him, you know, 12 minutes at the four, 10 minutes at the five, he's playing 22 minutes per game. You have eight minutes left over to get Marcus Adams, some run, something like that. Like you can work this stuff around that. Even if KJ does eventually come off the bench, he's still playing starter level minutes, but I do expect KJ to start the four right away. I think the way I look at it

now in the rotation, it's pretty set. You have DeJuan Harris, who's going to be your starting point guard. And then in the few minutes, the handful of minutes, he's not playing a point. It would be either Artario Morris or a Marco Jackson. A Marco Jackson and Artario playing minutes at the two as well. And maybe even some lineups where you play three of those guards together, right? To where maybe they're even playing some of the three. Nick Timberlake playing some two, playing some three for you. Kevin McCuller playing some three, playing some four for you.

KJ Adams playing some four, playing some five for you. Hunter Dickinson playing some five. And then that leaves, that gives you seven people in the rotation. The eighth man in the rotation, would it be Marcus Adams? Would it be another ball hander like Chris Johnson? Would it be another wing like a Jamari McDowell? Would it be better like Parker Brown Jamari McDowell would it be better like Parker Brown I would probably that situation to it being Marcus Adams but it gives

you options but I think realistically you feel really good about seven in the rotation at that point in time and I hope I'm not uh forgetting somebody when I was going through those different names there so you can make it all work but this just feels like it's the final impact player that you needed to solidify and round out the rotation. And you already would have been a national title contender with or without Kevin, but this changes you from being one that is in the group to feeling like you might just be the favorite. And that's pretty cool. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to talk more about who does Kevin McCullers return impact the most in terms of other players, in of playing time in terms of just increasing their game or making life easier

on them and then we'll get to another episode this week to finish things out about why Kansas should be the clear-cut number one preseason team now does it matter and does that worry anybody at all I know some people are like no I don't want to be preseason number one you don't want the expectations we'll do all that stuff later throughout the week with Locked on Jayhawks. You can catch us anywhere you get any of your podcasts. You can like and subscribe to us on YouTube. Have a good one. See you next time.