Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Will Be Kansas Jayhawks Basketball's Best Rebounders & Assist Men in 2023-2024?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, we're going to be talking KU's top rebounders and assist men for the 2023-2024 season. Probably some obvious answers again, but who else is going to contribute overall? Will this team be a good rebounding and passing team? That on today's episode of Locked On Jayhawks. 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. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:48 We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also hit me up with any queries or questions or whatever on Twitter, or I guess X as they call it now, at DJohnsonRadio. And you can also find us, subscribe to us, like our show on our YouTube page. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking rebounding, we're talking assist men. We did our points per game conversation. Hunter Dickinson, probably going to be the leader there. Who would be second on the last episode of Locked on Jayhawks?

Starting point is 00:01:17 Kind of going to be a similar conversation today with the rebounding and assist men. And overall, will this just be a good rebounding and passing team for KU basketball let's start right here with the rebounding first of all um just as it was with points Hunter Dickinson is a very clear easy favorite here for rebounding now in this one maybe you could convince yourself like Kevin McCuller averaged what like seven rebounds per game last year what happens if if Hunter Dickinson is at seven and Kevin McCuller gets 7.2? You know, like, is this one a little bit more possible that somebody else could end up leading the team? He'd probably be the only other guy that you would look at in that situation. But also, you know, now Kevin's going to be battling with K.J. Adams.

Starting point is 00:02:01 And I guess, I don't know, Hunter Dickinson, like you had Jalen Wilson last year who was gobbling up rebounds. So it is entirely possible. If we look at Bart Torvik's numbers, what they're projecting for the rebounds, you got 7.9 rebounds per game for Hunter Dickinson to lead the way. I'd probably take the over that. I think somewhere in the 8.5, 9 range. Would it even be crazy if he gets to 10? No, probably not. those numbers would make sense to

Starting point is 00:02:29 me so um yeah that's going to be hard to beat Kevin McCuller he's at 5.9 rebounds per game which yeah that could be you know around the seven he averaged last year or it could be right around there if if you know Hunter Dickinson KJ Adams gobbles up more rebounds, not having to box out the center on the other end. I don't know. We'll see where that goes. I might lean over on that, but it's kind of dependent. What is his role going to be? Is he going to be a little different than it was last year?

Starting point is 00:03:00 Is he going to play less small ball four than he did last year, more, whatever it is? I don't know. KJ Adams, 4.8 rebounds per game. That would be one that maybe I'd have to five or above. He was at about four and a half last year. Nick Timberlake at 3.1. DeJuan Harris and Elmarco Jackson each at 2.8 rebounds per game. And then I don't need to get to the rest which are all like below two rebounds per game uh

Starting point is 00:03:26 after that or two and a half or below um point is hunter dickinson clear favorite again he would be the clear betting favorite it wouldn't be as big of a favorite as the points but clear favorite to lead the team in rebounds um assist men kind of the same thing here. DeJuan Harris on Bartorvik at 4.9 assists per game. I would skyrocket the over here. He was at, what, 6, 6.5 last year? This seems like a very conservative number for me. I would feel good saying it's probably, yeah, you start with the number 6 and you work your way up.

Starting point is 00:04:01 If you think you can get 7, you think you can get 8 assists per game. Those seem doable to me. So, yeah, that's definitely over there, and nobody's probably going to touch that. Even as is, as the projection here on Bartorvik of 4.9 assists per game, it's not really close who is second. It actually has a cluster of about four players between 1.6 and 1.8 assists per game with K.J. Adams, Kevin McCuller, Hunter Dickinson, and Nick Timberlake all in that range of assists per game. So it's not really close. You know, you add two of those

Starting point is 00:04:31 guys together, KJ and Kevin McCuller, it hasn't meant over an assist less per game than DeJuan Harris. Not really a conversation. DeJuan Harris is going to be your team leader in assists per game. That's, you know, not even close. Even if Artario Morris plays a ton of minutes, he's not going to get close to that. Even if El Marco Jackson plays a ton of minutes, he's not going to get close to what DeJuan averages in the numbers for assists per game. So those are your very two clear favorites. I think it's more interesting talking again, like who's going to be second in both of those categories.

Starting point is 00:05:04 But one thing I am curious, like how many years do we go into a season? Because now we've kind of checked the list off here and said, you probably know who's going to lead this team in points. You probably know who's going to lead this team in rebounds. You probably know who's going to lead this team in assists. How many seasons do we go into a year where you can say you feel very confident that you know who's going to lead the team in all three categories? Probably Dickinson in points and rebounds, probably Harris in assists. Last year was the case here, right? Last year you came into the season. I don't know. Some people people maybe were like you know is will Jalen

Starting point is 00:05:46 Wilson take the next step forward I felt very confident he was going to be your leading scorer and be your leading rebounder like that seemed very obvious to me especially when you didn't really have a lockdown at the center position that um nobody was really emerging to kind of maybe take those rebounds away and then you knew DeJuan Harris was going to be, you know, assist per game. Heck, you probably knew the year before, too. Like, Ocha Agbashi coming back, he was the leading scorer from the team the year before. Maybe you would have convinced yourself Remy Martin was going to be the point per game guy, though. You know, that was a little less clear of a conversation.

Starting point is 00:06:19 It makes sense looking back to be like, oh, of course Ocha was going to lead him. But, I don't know, preseason, some people were in on maybe Remy Martin leading the team in scoring. And then for rebounds, you probably assume Dave. For assist, you probably just assume like, I don't know, maybe that one wasn't clear, I guess, because you might have assumed if Remy was going to be the starting point guard, he'd lead the team in assist then too. And it ended up being DeJuan Harris. So maybe that one wasn't even that clear you know there are a lot of years where it's not that clear um and I don't know that that means anything I'm not trying to come away with a sweeping conclusion to say the years that you do know who those guys are going to be it's going to help you and you're better and all this and that

Starting point is 00:06:57 I would if I were just assuming I would almost assume it is a better thing from the standpoint of, A, if you know who it's going to be, that probably means you have some really good players on your roster that you feel like are already elite-level talent that can carry that away. That's a good thing to have that elite-level talent that can do those things and not have a question. The second part of it is it means it's probably returning talent to some degree, like with Dickinson not returning to KU, but returning to college basketball where he's played at an extremely high level. DeJuan Harris returning to KU, you know, players don't know their role. Like certain players think that their role is to play this when in reality it's to be a three and D defender, or it's to be a role player, or it's to be a secondary ball handler, or it's to be, you know, the stopper

Starting point is 00:07:56 on the defensive end. And they think they're the guy that should be taking the really contested shots when that's someone else, right? Sometimes teams get into trouble with players not knowing their role. So if you go into a season where you feel very confident knowing this guy's going to lead this, this guy's going to lead that, and this guy's going to lead that, doesn't that help everyone else form into their role, form into what they need to do to make the team successful around those players being kind of the stars of the show, so to speak? I think that could be really helpful for this team. Now, I don't think it's always necessarily something that if you know those things, it's going to guarantee great success.

Starting point is 00:08:33 We do know this team is super talented, but I don't think it can hurt. All right, let's get into who we think could finish second in some of those categories because that might be a more interesting conversation. And then we'll finish up. Will this team overall be a good rebounding and passing team? First of all, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available.

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Starting point is 00:10:43 That's linkedin.com slash lockededOnCollege. That's LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnCollege. To post your job for free, terms and conditions apply. Right on to who we think could finish second in rebounds, assists per game, for KU basketball here in 2023 to 2024. Hunter Dickinson leading the way there in rebounds. Kevin McCuller has to be the first guess on rebounds. And you know, the more I think about it, yeah, he was playing the three last year and still came up with that many, but also that was kind of dependent on your five man not getting a ton. But if you just order it this way anyway and say, well, you know, KJ's still on

Starting point is 00:11:20 the front court and Jalen was getting your nine, 10 rebounds per game. Okay, well, KJ's still on your front court. Dickinson could get nine,10 rebounds per game why couldn't Kevin get you know another seven rebounds per game or whatever he did last year maybe there will be more of a role for him on the perimeter and what he's asked to do offensively that maybe it ends up going down to six or something like that or you know five but we know he is a good rebounder and he would be my first guess there has been a lot of conversation, and I've had it here, about how much does having Hunter Dickinson help K.J. Adams, where with K.J., we heard from Bill Self directly.

Starting point is 00:11:54 We heard from K.J. Adams directly over the course of last year how boxing out defenders was his main job. He did a great job of it the Kentucky game you go back and watch that he was boxing out Oscar Sheba but wasn't always ending up with the rebound and so the plus minus of that is if he's boxing out his guy but not getting the rebound it allows for athletic wings around him to get the rebound and to take away the opposing team hypothetically his best offensive rebounder but if your wings weren't rebounding as well, it became a problem because then your center, who's supposed to be the guy who not just boxing out, is grabbing those rebounds, was grabbing them. That was part of the plus minus you had to deal with up KJ Adams to where it's a little easier to box out a 6'7 wing and get the rebound than it is a 6'10 center where you're using all your strength to get it and then get the rebound. is going to become this elite defensive rebounder. The numbers were not good on the defensive end. He was actually a good offensive rebounder.

Starting point is 00:13:06 I would imagine he's actually going to take even a slight step up on the offensive rebounding because of having Hunter Dickinson to where he'll be able to crash on guards a lot more and get even more offensive rebounds. I do think from a defensive rebounding standpoint, it'll be a little better than last year. Still won't be great, but I could see him

Starting point is 00:13:22 being around five, six rebounds per game. And if Kevin McCuller is you know dropping off then maybe you end up with him being second but I think the conversation kind of stops and ends there for me with who would be in contention for that spot I guess maybe like is an athletic El Marco Jackson if he's playing the the three at times like is he gonna grab a handful of rebounds? Very possible. Parker Brown, he might only be playing 10 minutes per game, so tough to grab five rebounds per game every night in that specific role. So I think that would be the answer there,

Starting point is 00:13:55 either KJ or Kevin with Kevin being the slight favorite. And then for second in assists, DeJuan Harris obviously first. I think the natural inclination would be to actually go to one of the other point guards, Artario Morris, Elmarco Jackson. But if those guys are mostly playing at the two and it's next to DeJuan Harris, could Kevin McCuller get more? Right? If Artario Morris is playing 25 minutes per game, if Marco Jackson's playing 25 minutes per game and a lot of those minutes are next to DeJuan Harris, while Kevin McCullers is playing 32 minutes per game, you're on the floor longer and you two are playing next to DeJuan, but it's kind of

Starting point is 00:14:38 mitigating a lot of the assist numbers for other players. What number does that go down to? I could see the role for Artario Morris being a pressuring ball defender who shoots a lot of threes, creates stuff for this team off the bounce. For El Marco, I could see those numbers being up, but I think in the case of both Artario Morris and El Marco Jackson, you're probably looking somewhere between two to three assists per game would be my assumption. I think Kevin McCuller probably will be in that range, two, two-and-a-half assists per game. I think Hunter Dickinson could be in that range of having the chance to be second on the team in assists per game, right?

Starting point is 00:15:14 Like with the amount of times the ball's going to be in his hand and you're going to get players open shooting threes on the outside of him and him kind of setting that up, he could clearly end up with two and a half assists per game. And I think there's a very real case to be made that, like, DeJuan could average your seven, seven and a half, eight assists per game. And then there's a cluster, similar to how I'm thinking the points is going to work, of, like, three or four players who are somewhere between 1.9 to 2.7, whatever it is, assists per game next season.

Starting point is 00:15:50 And those guys will probably be Elmarco Jackson, Artario Morris, Kevin McCuller, and Hunter Dickinson. And maybe KJ Adams even gets in there around 1.5 to 2 assists per game because he is a good passer. And they use him in the short roll situation. I do think it'll be more Hunter Dickinson in those kind of short roll situations this year, but I think KJ will still get him too. And so, yeah, he could be around there too, which will bring us to our last part of this. Will this overall be a good rebounding and passing team for KU? Let's talk about that next with Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:16:23 Finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, will this be a good rebounding and ball movement team overall? Rebounding, I would certainly think so. This was kind of just, I don't know, an above average rebounding team, really the last two years, even the team that won the title. You look at their numbers and they're average, above average defensive rebounding, above average offensive rebounding above average offensive rebounding kind of the same case last year like you know not elite at it but they were good enough and yes there were times when the rebounding became a problem and you know you saw

Starting point is 00:16:56 that occur at different points throughout the season but you compare the numbers to the year before when they were title winning team and they were pretty in line with that. I think this team has the chance to be one of the better rebounding teams that Bill Selva's had since, I don't know, maybe I guess it hasn't been that long. Like the Yudoka Azubuki team was a pretty good rebounding team. They've had a lot of great rebounding teams. I think this one will be more in that conversation, though, I guess is where I'm going with this I don't think they'll be you know Baylor where they're number one in offensive rebounding rate or West Virginia where they're you know typically top five in that metric or you know one of these teams that's top 10 but I think this is a team that instead of being like around the you know 80 to 130 range in some of those numbers maybe it's closer to like top 50 because I think offensive rebounding wise KJ is a good offensive

Starting point is 00:17:43 rebounder Hunter Dickinson's a proficient offensive rebounder. You have athletic wings and guards that can crash the glass. I think you should be a pretty good offensive rebounding team. Defensive rebounding, Hunter Dickinson just having that guy, I think will make you a good defensive rebounding team on his own. And then, yeah, you still do have Kevin McCuller, who's a good defensive rebounder. And if KJ Adams can improve in that regard,

Starting point is 00:18:06 you'll have athletic guards crashing the glass. I think this will be a good enough defensive rebounding team. So I think they'll actually be better at offensive and defensive rebounding than they were the last two years, at the very least. And then as far as passing, this team was last year 19th in the country, according to Ken Palm, in assists per field goal rate a year ago. So they were already a really good passing team last season. I think part of that was when you don't have a lot of guys who are just creating for themselves off the dribble,

Starting point is 00:18:38 naturally this number is going to go up. So it's one of those things where it's like, you know, you don't necessarily want to be the number one team in it because that probably means that you're only getting your offense off assists and nobody can create for themselves off the bounce. You also don't want to be at the bottom of the list because that means you're not a good passing team. Ideally, you'd prefer to be better at it than worse at it. But there is a line there where it's like, okay, you don't want to be, again, only dependent on you have to score off a setup pass because that's hard to replicate over and over again in an NCAA tournament game. I would think this is going to be a really good passing team, though.

Starting point is 00:19:14 I talked about DeJuan Harris. That on its own makes you a good passing team. And think about your entire starting five. If it's DeJuan Harris or Terry Morris, that's two point guards. Okay, should be good at passing there. Kevin McCuller, he's a good passer for a wing. K.J. Adams is a good passer for kind of a big man forward type last year. And Hunter Dickinson's a good passer for a five.

Starting point is 00:19:32 That's five-plus passers to some regard per their position on your roster or in your starting lineup. And then you go off the bench and it's like, well, Marco Jackson, he's a good passer. He's got good court vision kind of coming off the bench for you to where this should be a really good passing team. And I think they might have even more ability to create off the dribble than they did last year.

Starting point is 00:19:52 I don't know. We'll see. Maybe not. Maybe that's not the right way to put it. More ability to create in the half court because I don't view like Hunter Dickinson creating off the dribble, but being able to post up in the half court, something you didn't have last year. So I do think this is going to be a really good assist team.

Starting point is 00:20:05 I don't know if they'll be quite as good as they were last year. That's a really high number to be at, but I think there'll be right around it. And I think in terms of passing to win and what that means and everything, there'll be really a lead at it next season, which, you know, I think could be a very big strength for this team. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Give me a shout on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can

Starting point is 00:20:25 find the show wherever you get any of your podcasts. Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, Apple, wherever. Also give us a like, check out our page, subscribe on our YouTube page. Have a good one.

Starting point is 00:20:41 We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Will Be Kansas Jayhawks Basketball's Best Rebounders & Assist Men in 2023-2024?

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