Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Wins the Battle for the Last Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Rotation Spot: McDowell, Adams, or Braun

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

The 8th and final rotation spot for Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks in 2023-2024 could come down to one of Jamari McDowell, Marcus Adams or Parker Braun. Who could have the edge up for KU, how will it decide whether they want to play one way or another, or what future implications the decision could have in Lawrence.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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, we are talking the eighth rotation spot for KU basketball. Jamari McDowell versus Marcus Adams versus Parker Brown. Who wins out? Why would they win out? We discuss all that on today's edition of the show. 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, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Locked On Jayhawks.

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. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking a little rotation talk because, you know, who's going to win that possible final spot between Jamari McDowell, Marcus Adams, and Parker Brown? We'll be discussing that and what it could mean to the future of the team and plenty more here. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked On.

Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked on to get started today. Okay, so we're going to be talking a little bit about the case that each of these three guys have. So if you look at KU basketball's roster right now, you look at the guys who could be, should be, and probably will be a part of the rotation. Jamari McDowell, Marcus Adams and parker brown might be just outside of that right where they might be battling for that one final spot and there are different positions but okay you could play different ways to accommodate who that kind of last person would be so you look at it right now and and case dewan harris arter Artario Morris, Marco Jackson, Kevin McCuller, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson, and Nick Timberlake. Those seven, you feel like are going to firmly be a part of the rotation.

And maybe by the time we get to March, when we get to the NCAA tournament, the postseason, the big 12 tournament, we are going to get to a point where just those seven will be playing. We've seen a lot where the rotation is even narrowed to seven guys. You think of the 2022 team that won the national title. They were pretty much doing a seven-man rotation. It was Remy and Mitch off the bench. And then occasionally, I'm counting games where they're blowing out the opponent or something, but occasionally, you'd be like, okay, let's put Jalen Coleman lands out there and just, you know, try to hit a three or something like that. Right. So it'd be like a seven and a half man rotation from the postseason during the regular season.

Maybe it's closer to eight during the non-conference portion of the season. Maybe it's closer to nine. Right. And when I say part of the rotation, I'm not just saying in this playing three minutes. I'm saying like realistically, every game they're playing that eight to ten minutes or something like that. Right. Usually it's just like a seven man rotation, maybe eight. I think there was the Morris twin year where they did go about nine or ten deep that year over the course of the regular season. But again, come the NCAA tournament, it again gets withered down. So it depends when what timeline you're talking about here for exactly how deep that rotation is.

But basically that means if you're going to be playing an eight man rotation for think about maybe even the majority of the season, right? It might be nine for non-conference play, but probably going to be eight by the time you get to the big 12 portion of the season for January, February, and maybe the very beginning of March.

And so if you have those seven that we already talked about and you have one spot opening for the eighth, I guess you could say, you know, if Zach Clements does well enough in off season, I know the plan is for him to redshirt, but what if Zach Clements is just that good that it's like, ah, we can't redshirt this guy. He's that good. We got to get him on the court. Then maybe he could be part of this discussion as well. But right now that's not the plan. So I'm not going to talk about that right now. That means that you're left with one rotation spot open for the final three guys. um and so it becomes interesting when you look at what each brings to the table so with Parker Brown you would be talking about if he's the eighth man in the rotation he's playing

the backup five minutes and that means that KJ Adams is only playing you know the four on the wing so to speak now I think part of Parker Brown being a part of the rotation isn't solely up to him. I think part of him being in the rotation is going to be dependent on can KJ survive playing all his minutes at the four? Because if he can survive playing all his minutes at the four, then that could lead to an opening there of Parker Brown being there. But if like if there are some concerns about, well, the space scene and the offense with cage at the four, and he's not going to play all of his minutes at the four, he's going to get some of his minutes at the four and you need to get him more minutes.

So we need to get those minutes at his backup five. Then at that point, it is more of more Parker Brown there. But there is a case of Parker Brown. Is that good that he doesn't just play the five that he can play the four. We heard from Kevin McCullough. We heard from bill self talking about Parker Brown's athleticism.

He can shoot the three a little bit in like high 20s percent, so it's not like a shot that you're wanting to take repeatedly, but at least he has shown the ability to stretch the floor a bit that you could even play Parker Brown at the five and have KJ at the four, but it's really like Parker's at the four offensively and KJ's at the five offensively. So there is an avenue there if that's the way you want to play, and you can play Parker Brown at the four and five,

and it would give you another big man. Maybe that eighth man is Marcus Adams. I think Adams represents of these three players with McDowell, Adams, and Brown, your maybe highest ceiling, your highest potential player in terms of what they could become. He also probably brings the most scoring output and just like skill in terms of scoring the basketball.

You see him hit step back threes, drive into dunk, drive in and make strong layups, you know, jab step around like he's a very athletic scorer. And I think has the highest potential of all these three players in terms of being like, you know,

Marcus Adams by the time he's a junior, for instance, you could see him being that all big 12 level player that that ku leader that that's putting up 16 17 points per game right you can see that happening in his career but is that going to be a fit right away right like is if you're the eighth man on a team is it going to come down to you need to play a specific role? Or is it going down to we just need scoring punch off the bench, right? Like it could be dependent on what exact role KU was looking for. But if the scoring talent is that undeniable, it's hard to keep that guy off the court.

On the flip side, if your biggest thing is your scoring and you're an eighth man and somebody else is doing other little things well, because if you're an eighth man, you're not going to be the primary option when you're on the court. Like, think back to Christian Brown. Christian Brown was a non-top 100 recruit. And it's not just the development Christian Brown had. Christian Brown was a rotation player on a team that was the number one team in the country

as a true freshman. Like, he was, I don't know, sixth, seventh man on that team, right? And the reason why, it wasn't because he was going to come out and be your best scorer off the bench or this or that it's because he fit a certain role he was going to hustle he was going to play hard he was going around he was going to defend and he was going to shoot threes right like he fit a certain role and so you found minutes for him is mark times going to do those little things well or is he just going to be an overall player where it might be more about you know maybe there's a

better fit for being the eighth man, but in terms of just the most talent, like I think you would argue that he's the guy. And then you have Jamari McDowell who maybe he fits more into those role specific traits, right? To where if you told me Marcus Adams and Jamari McDowell are both at Kansas for three years, right? Or over the next three years, right? And they both stick around school who ends up winning more all big 12 awards who ends up averaging more points per game for their career uh who has the better chance to get their jersey in the rafters or something you probably go like marcus adams right but who has a better chance to impact this team who has a better chance to be a good role player right away it might be jamari mcdowell um you're talking about good

three-point shooter which i I think Marcus Adams is too. So that would be a check for both those. I think McDowell, though, you really believe in what the defense could be on that end of the floor. And a versatile wing, right? This is kind of the same notion of Christian Brown, what I mentioned. He's going to play hard. He's going to play defense, hit threes. There's usually roles for those guys,

and especially in role-playing opportunities. And I think we got a chance to talk to Jamari McDowell at a media availability. And you don't see a lot of freshmen who when they they get asked about their, you know, impact court, how important defense is and how much they do value it. Like sometimes you get that as lip service, like, oh, yeah, I got to defend. But like he like went into it. I want to play this clip for you. You play basketball and you got to. Like, it's not even a debate, you know what I'm saying? So

when you play defense, you can play in the game. You can make an impact regardless of you scoring or not. So that's really just what I'm going to focus on this year. And when you say that's what you want to focus on, like what kind of preparation goes into that to make sure that's like a strong aspect? Oh man. A lot of work.

Mostly on-court work on court work, just slides and really just getting in shape. Defense is really effort, you give effort, you're able to play defense, nonstop. For folks that haven't been able to watch you play full games yet, just how would you kind of describe your overall game? Once again, definitely defensive minded, but of course i'm i can shoot i can shoot i can play man i get people open do a little bit of everything all around basketball player

on the defense there from jamari mcdowell and that's what can get you on the court especially if you're good three and we the three and d wing defender okay he doesn't really have a ton of true small forwards on the roster which i think mar think Marcus Adams could play there as well. So you kind of get a good competition between all these three guys. Let's get to my pick and, and you know exactly how this could impact KU's level of play and how exactly they're playing coming up in just a second. First though,

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So don't miss your chance to snag a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 when you join FanDuel today. Just go to FanDuel.com slash locked on to sign up. FanDuel, official partner of Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. Okay, so on more on who wins that possible rotation spot. I think two or three weeks ago, I probably would have said Marcus Adams. I would have said the talent and the three-point shooting.

Then about a week or two ago, after hearing all that stuff from Jamari McDowell and hearing how he was doing, I probably would have said Jamariari McDowell but now I'm kind of back to Marcus Adams I got to see both in as part of a scrimmage and I was really impressed with the skill level of Marcus Adams but I in all honesty like I think the easy answer here is whoever is deemed to be a better three-point shooter to which I don't really know which of those two it is Marcus Adams I think maybe has more off the dribble three-point shooting ability but I don't know how much you're going to be asking him to do that specifically in year one Jamari McDowell I don't know like who's the better set shooter who's the better spot-up shooter of the two from three-point range because that

could come down to it with a KU team that's going to need that three-point shooting. But maybe it doesn't. Maybe it comes down to more than that, where even if Marcus Adams is a slightly better three-point shooter, but if Jamari McDowell is a better defender, then he gets on the court instead. And I know that's more of those two guys as opposed to Parker Brown. It still could be Parker Brown. But I think it's very interesting. So right now, my guess would probably be, I guess, Marcus Adams, but I'm not firm in that at all. I don't feel great about that. I do think what's very interesting is the impact it will have on how they play, depending on which one it is.

If it is Jamari McDowell, you are looking at playing a little bit smaller. And Jamari McDowell is more of like a shooting guard, small forward type, you know, 6'4", 6'5", something like that. To where if you're playing Jamari McDowell, he's obviously going to be playing the three at that point because of all the little guards that you have um and that basically means playing more of those true small forwards and maybe it means playing kevin kohler at the four it could even be playing kj adams at the four right it's the differences though to where if the other guys play if if marcus adams ends up being that eighth man if marcus adams is playing more of that role on the team then you're talking about you know um him playing probably like the small ball four i think is where he profiles at least long term for ku now

he could play in at the small forward but that would mean if he's playing a good chunk of his minutes if he's playing 10 15 minutes per game as the eighth man in the rotation. As for does that mean KJ Adams is therefore playing back up five minutes and playing some of the four is Kevin McCuller not playing any four at that point in time, because most of, if not all of your four minutes have been divvied up now between, you know, KJ Adams and Marcus Adams at that point. So you're playing more with Kevin at the three. And what does that do to the little guards with Timberlake, Morris, and Elmarco Jackson? Does that create more of a crunch at the positions that they were going to be playing? How many minutes did those guys could specifically get out on the court?

And then with Parker Brown, if you decide to play him, that obviously impacts a lot of how you would want to play. Because if he's playing at the back of five, that means K.J. Adams has no five five minutes he's getting all his minutes four and that means there's less minutes at the four to go around for you know kevin kohler or marcus adams i guess and then you're talking about you know again eating into the minutes of the guys at the one and two um and there is enough flexibility here that right what if what if Parker Brown even becomes an eighth man where he's playing some minutes at the four and some minutes at the five

right and then you have even less minutes to give out at the four and now there's more of a roster crunch on on kind of the guys at the guard positions um whereas I think with um you know McDowell specifically like it makes you play more in how you feel like your starting lineup is going to be right now. So I'll be very interested to see how this exactly does affect KU in their style of play. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's not going to be like that different in terms of what key players they're going to and what they're trying to accomplish out there. But the style of play in terms of it being like this many guards versus this many forwards versus having this many big men right are you gonna play two bigs technically with parker brown like that's the type of effect it has which is going to slightly

shift and stylistically change uh ku basketball so i i think that's uh kind of very interesting uh to profile all right we're going to finish things up here with how much specifically because in the case of parker brown parker brown whether he wins that spot or doesn't this is last year of college basketball he's a grad transfer this will be his final year of collegiate eligibility but with Jamari McDowell and Marcus Adams it's not just about who's going to win that eighth rotation spot for this year who's going to be a part of the rotation for this year's team it's about which of those guys can set themselves up as being part of rotation this year to maybe further that opportunity come 2024 to 2025 season when more players could depart.

And maybe that competition this year determines who's going to be the starter next year, right? Like you don't know how it's going to all work out. So we'll discuss that next with Locked on Jayhawks. Okay, finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks. Okay, finishing things up with locked on Jayhawks. How much will Jamari McDowell versus Marcus Adams this year in the rotation matter long term? Of course, one player could make a big jump over next offseason and surpass that other player. But typically, we see the guy that builds up trust right away is the guy that tends

to continue to earn that trust moving forward. And you kind of wonder what will happen to the winner and loser of that competition so you fast forward another year to 2024 to 2025 kevin mcculler gone uh parker brown gone um and then you just have a bunch of decisions like would hunter dickinson be back or not would arterio morisot marco jackson go pro right you have all these conversations but theoretically there could be, what if it's down to like there's one starting spot open by the time they're done making other additions

and the returning players to where whoever wins the rotation battle this year could be that fifth starter next year too, right? So there could be long-term repercussions of who wins the rotation battle just this very summer and how important that is going to be and then you add to it where it's like you know does the loser of the competition end up transferring does the loser of that competition go you know i i didn't get part of the rotation

this year and now i'm behind this guy to begin with next year do they end up transferring it's always a possibility and i'm not trying to say that you know these guys aren't long for ku or they don't want to be here of course they want they want to be here. Of course, they want to be long for K following year, especially because like the following year after 2024 to 25. So you're talking 2025 to 2026, which I know feels like so long from that. But like if KJ is back for a senior season playing the four, what would that mean for Marcus Adams both next year and the year after in terms of if he gains trust, could he play at the three with KJ at the four? And then the year after KJ is if he gains trust, could he play at the three with KJ at the four? And then the year after KJ is gone,

you profile to be in the starting four, right? So it has a very clear long-term path that you can kind of go on there. But if McDowell earns the rotation trust this year, then he's kind of the three with that position opening up with Kevin McCuller gone and Nick Timberlake gone, right? Like both your three options are gone and immediately you could be like, okay, we're sliding him in. And then if

you're Marcus Adams, you're going, well, now I'm behind Jamar McDowell and I'm behind KJ Adams. And yeah, I could be the starter of the year after, but right. Like you have to worry about kind of climbing up the ladder that way. So it does have that kind of long-term impact. And in the case of both, both players, I think both are going to be good long-term players for KU if they end up sticking around, but you never know how that's really going.

And I'll be honest, like I'm fully in on both guys being key KU players, like down the road. Like, like I said, I could see Marcus Adams being an all big 12 player in year two or year three. I can see Jamari McDowell kind of being that really good next solid role player

that continues to develop and becomes a role player, plus that maybe even he becomes an all-big-12 level player down the road. But you just never know with the portal, and certainly you would think one is going to be set up better than the other based on what they do this offseason, based on what they do in the season and setting themselves up to grab that eighth rotation spot could set that person up to be a future KU star, could set that person up to be a future KU All-Big 12 player, could set that player up to be a future NBA draft pick, whereas the loser of the job, you never know where they're going to end up, right? So, I mean, there still is an ideal world and,

and opportunity where both end up being both of those things. Right. But because you never really know what the craziness of college basketball rosters anymore, you really get the inside track to the person who ends up winning, uh, that rotational battle. All right.

That's going to do it for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back throughout the week, talking some more KU basketball, talking a little KU football as well. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts with Locked on Jayhawks. You can also subscribe to the show on our YouTube page. Have a good rest of your day.

See you next time.