Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will Bill Self's Masterful Timing Work AGAIN for Kansas Jayhawks as KU Tries for ONE MORE Big Move?

Starting point is 00:00:00 As KU searches for another potential edition like a Malik Ewan, I think past history would tell us Bill's self has done pretty darn well with some of these late editions. Let's break it down. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Derek Johnson? This is Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's episode of the show, we're going to break down a fun little question of,

Starting point is 00:00:33 are you taking this year's Jayhawks or are you going to take the following year's Jayhawks with a better chance to win a title? Kind of interesting with the five and five. We'll get into a conversation too as well as how many freshmen are going to be part of the rotation. Is there a chance that one of the, you know, maybe non-McDonnells Americans could emerge into that conversation. But we'll start right here chronicling Bill Self success, making late additions, because it comes into the forefront here when you look at this season, this team for KU. Still two scholarships available for Bill Self and Company to work with this offseason. And who knows if they actually fill them or not does feel like they're just looking for the right situation. They're not going to fill it to fill it.

Starting point is 00:01:14 But like Malik Ewan, who we've talked a lot about the transfer from Arkansas is a really good big man, he's trying to get another year of eligibility. If that falls in KU's lap, if something else falls in KU's lap, whether it's from the international perspective or a five and five player who is not going to get an extra year, sues the NCAA. able to get it and it opens up the opportunity for more players. Like there's different routes and avenues that something could happen for KU and there still is, you know, almost two months before the start of the school year for KU for them to be able to figure that out.

Starting point is 00:01:46 But I do think it's important that this is not just a first time thing where a Kansas team where Bill Self has had to make a big addition late in the game. And that I think has to give you a little bit more confidence that they can get this done, that they can make this move and not to be overly angsty about it. And it is interesting looking back at some of these and thinking about them coming late in the game and then trying to think like, man, if KU didn't make that move late in the game, like, what would the season have looked like? So here's just some example of guys who, like, if I would have expanded this to guys who committed to KU in May, then the list would have, you know, grown two or threefold. But I just wanted to look at guys who committed to KU in July or later, okay? because I just I find that really interesting a we're coming up to the month of July

Starting point is 00:02:40 but that also indicates that it's like much later in the game right now if we did want to extend out just to say June or later which is still a later recruit you end up with guys like Isaiah Moss committed to KU on June 10th that's a bit later of a addition for KU Jalen Wilson after decommitting for Michigan committed to KU on June 12 of the year that he came in. So there's some later in the game additions for KU. And obviously, you know, think about the 1920 team. That team's not the same with Isaiah,

Starting point is 00:03:11 or without Isaiah Moss's spacing. Kansas without Jalen Wilson is not the same team, whether it's the title team or the 23 team when he's a first team All-American without Jalen Wilson. So those are huge late additions, not just for like immediate term in terms of Moss, but for long term in terms of Jalen Wilson. Even if we look to June 1 from last year,

Starting point is 00:03:30 Cole Rosario was a June 24th commitment for KU. So that was, you know, a little earlier than we are right now, but not much further. Paul Mbia decommitted for Ensi State, committed to Kansas the next day on June 25th. So even just last year and guys who were expected to have pretty big roles on this year's team, we saw that kind of later additions. But now we're going even later into the game because before we know, it's going to be the month of July here, right? So what about guys who committed to KU in the month of July? Well, DeWan Harris, interestingly enough, was a July 16th commit to KU.

Starting point is 00:04:07 And part of that was I think he was signed with like Missouri State or something. I think there was an academic element that maybe delayed that one a little bit. He ended up having to basically just take a redshirt year's first year just to get the academics in order with everything for Duwan. And, you know, I know obviously Duwan and those guys didn't go out the way they wanted to at KU. But like you ended up with, you know, one of the all. time leaders and assists in the conference there and a guy who was your starting point guard on a national title team like that worked out for KU in terms of being a late edition. Gene G. Angola last year was actually KU's latest edition. He came on July 25th is when

Starting point is 00:04:44 KU got him. Now that's more so to be a kind of back end roster filler. Maybe KU still does something like that. But again, you're active on the phones. You're making moves later in the game. Johnny Furfie, who ends up being, you know, an early second round pick after his one freshman one and done season for KU during the 23, 24 season. He commits to KU on August 2nd. That was so late in the game that he missed the, the team took a trip to, I always forget if his Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico,

Starting point is 00:05:13 but missed the trip to that, but then was able to come back and ended up being somebody who you're joining late in the game, you're just a freshman, you're kind of a late rising recruit, and yet you still wind up later in the season being a starter. And there was like a month span there where it was like, Johnny Furfee is one of the best players on the team that didn't last overly long, but he still was, you know, showed enough and had, I think the first round,

Starting point is 00:05:37 he had like a big tournament game and was able to work out and be, you know, top 40 pick in the NBA draft. So that one certainly was a late addition for KU that worked out pretty well. And I get it. That team was a first weekend exit regardless of having Johnny Furfrey, but imagine if Furfrey wasn't on the team, you know, is that team losing the first round? Like, what seat are they even in the NCAA tournament? That would have been interesting.

Starting point is 00:05:58 Then you have Diggy Coit committing to Kansas on August 9th. He was somebody who had committed to, I want to say it was Texas A&M. And for whatever reason, it just fell through. I don't know if it was an academic thing or just whatever. But he ends up being available again and Kansas is able to land him on August 9th. And I think the idea of that one was probably be similar to what Gingalow wound up being for KU. But Coit comes in and is really impressive right away and has one of the good exhibition games and ends up starting some games for KU. He has other games where he comes off the bench and like,

Starting point is 00:06:28 finishes the game playing high minutes. Like I think of that game at Houston that KU kind of put a scare into the Cougars in. And it ends up being kind of a part of the rotation, like more so than Kansas would have expected for somebody who they didn't know how it was going to translate and coming in later into the game like that worked out for KU as well. And I think the, I mean, obviously if we're not counting like mid-semester additions here, either like Roderick Stewart or Sylvia to Sosa or Bryson Tiller or I guess Sam Cunliff, the ultimate crown prize won here has to be brandon rush brandon rush committed to kansas on

Starting point is 00:07:02 august 16th and imagine like think about how late in the game that was think about those kansas teams those three years if they don't get brandon rush you know that that just so i look at these and i go oh my gosh with russian wilson that's a couple guys who were you know i know rush didn't end up on all-american because he's on such a balanced team so the stats weren't there but for my money Rush and Jalen Wilson were, you know, top whatever, 10, top 15 players in college basketball at their peak for KU. You wound up with really key role players on national title teams. Like I, well, what we hope would have been a national title team in 1920 with Isaiah Moss and Dewan Harris, right? You end up with future NBA guys, whether it's Furfee or going back to Rush or Wilson.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Obviously, you hope that's the case for Rosario and NMBA. You end up with rotation guys back in like Digi Coit or guys just to fill out the roster like Giangala. there is a litany of different roles here. And it's not just the different roles. It's the different avenues that Bill Self has gone to find these players. Like when you look at Col Rosario, that's a reclass. When you look at Paul Mbia, that's international slash decommit. Same with Jalen Wilson in terms of just being a decommit.

Starting point is 00:08:10 Isaiah Moss would go in the transfer portal and decommit category. DeWan Harris, decommit and high school category. Now, are you sensing a theme here with several of these being players who are committed elsewhere, right? Paul Mbia was committed to NC State. Isaiah Moss committed to Arkansas out of the transfer portal. Jalen Wilson was committed to Michigan. DeWan Harris was committed to Missouri State. Let's see, Digi Coit was committed to Texas A&M.

Starting point is 00:08:35 And with Rush, you didn't even know if he was going to play college basketball or go to the NBA. And obviously, he has his brother who went to Missouri. Like, maybe that's part of the lesson here, too. Is players who were expecting to be at some school, do they wind up getting free of that opportunity for whatever reason? and all of a sudden that opportunity can fall in your lap. So I guess the lesson here for this is me. Maybe it does pay to be patient a little bit more than you would expect. And all these additions for the exception of, you know, like Rosario and Mbia are coming in the era of before NIL too, right?

Starting point is 00:09:12 Where I guess being patient now literally does pay from the standpoint of like, the longer you have to wait on these kids, the more of these other. the roster spots, the more the competition and the bidding drops down and maybe they're able to take a contract that is less than if they were available right when the portal or right when high school recruiting was open. And then you can end up, you know, kind of getting a budgetary addition for a player that is better than the money you're able to give them, right? And I would say, like one key difference is a late addition here for Kansas feels like the difference between being a team where you were a season ago in terms of your ranking compared to one that can truly contend.

Starting point is 00:09:55 And that's not always the case with all of those other ones. So like the importance of this year's one becomes to an even higher level. But I don't know. That gives me a little bit more hope when I look at some of those names and see what Bill Self did just to be like, okay, he's done this before. He can do it again. All right. Let's continue on.

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Starting point is 00:11:48 I don't want to pose an interesting question here because obviously we know KU has these two McDonald's, All-Americans coming in, Tyrant Stokes, and Tailing. Kinney. But they have seven total freshmen coming into the team. And if I were to say one of those five, even, the non-McDonald's All-Americans, so Davy on Adkins, Trent Perry, Luke Barnett, who are all four stars, and then Grant Mordini and Atticus Richmond, who are unranked recruits right now, at least, which of those five has the best chance to be in the rotation this year or play a role on this year's Kansas team. Because like obviously Stokes is expected to be your best player. Taylin Kinney's expected to be a starter and if not be like your sixth man.

Starting point is 00:12:30 But what about that other group, right? And there are some intriguing players who fit specific roles, right? When you look at Adkins, he can play the four or the five. When you look at Perry being this defensive stopper and we know Bill self-value value that with Luke Barnett, he might be the best shooter on the team already, right? Coming in, then you look at more Dini, more developmental player, Atticus Richmond seems to have certainly some fans that he is maybe already overperforming some of the expectations there. If you're just to kind of break these down, like Adkins feels like to me the odds on favorite to be in the rotation to some degree if you're Kansas, not just because, I mean, I guess that's

Starting point is 00:13:06 part of it. Like he is the highest rated of those five freshmen. So I guess that does matter if you're just the best player. But I think it's also because of the current center situation, if Kansas is able to go out there and add Malik U.N., I think that would drop Adkins in this conversation. a bit. But as of right now, Christian Reeves is hurt. And yes, the expectation is for him to be back and ready to go for the start of the season. But he's going to miss a lot of practice time. What if Davy on Adkins is able to step up and take advantage of those extra reps and get real minutes and early games? And he performs well in those real minutes. And then, you know, it is more of a competition between him and Reeves for who's going to be the backup to Paul and Bia, for instance. But something else that helps Adkins here is the ability to also play the four. And I don't know how many minutes are really going to even be available. at the four. I mean, Keanu Dawes is going to eat up a lot of minutes at the four for KU.

Starting point is 00:13:55 If they're playing small, Tyron Stokes is going to eat up some minutes at the four. So it's like those two guys are going to swallow up, if not all of the minutes at the four, most of them. But what if there's an extra four minutes lying around at the four spot? And is that somewhere where Adkins could come in? And I don't think it hurts either. Like you see some of the recent highlights that they posted where he's shooting a three. We just got to hear from Jeremy Case at a Hawk Talk where he talked about how, you know, his shot and his athleticism are even more than we expected coming in. And maybe that does allow him to play a role right away as a four or five man,

Starting point is 00:14:27 especially if KU does want to stay big, that's a big part of it. If KU wants to stay in big lineups where, you know, you see the recent trend of college basketball and you want to stay with two bigs out there, then Adkins definitely figures to play a role because it's not just, because at that point, you're playing either Adkins or Dawes at the four, right?

Starting point is 00:14:46 And so then he stands to gain from that. Now, when you look at Perry's role, I think that one would be pretty clear. He'd just be a defensive stopper. Like, I don't think you're really going to expect much from Perry. He was averaging like seven points per game last year, but he's a good rebounder. He's an excellent defender. He's a really good athlete. He'll be able to get just points in transition or maybe on lobs or cuts or things that you kind of, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:08 design him to take advantage of kind of an offball movement or something. But here's what I find interesting. KJ. Adams, as a true freshman at KU, on a national title team, no less, played in 37 of the 40 games for KU that year. And it wasn't a huge amount. He did start a game too. It played five minutes per game, right? But he had a very clearly defined role for those five minutes.

Starting point is 00:15:31 Just come in and be a defensive stopper for five minutes. Give one of these other guys a breather for five minutes and we'll throw a different look at the other team for that amount of time. Could that be Trent Perry? I mean, I wouldn't rule it out. I think that's definitely possible. Now, Luke Barnett's kind of interesting because it's the same idea. Like, just come in and do your one thing you're good at, except in Trump Perry's case, it's defense.

Starting point is 00:15:50 In Luke Barnett's case, it is three-point shooting. And like I said, he might be the best three-point shooter on the team. Leroyd-Blyden would certainly be in that conversation. I'm sure Taylin Kinney would like a seat at the conversation there. But you watch Barnett's highlights. It is unbelievable. Like, he has such a quick release. The most impressive part in his highlights are like the no-dip threes that he's just swishing in.

Starting point is 00:16:10 This dude is ready to play D1, Power 4 basketball from a shooting perspective. But can he do enough from the other? If only if you could combine Trent Perry and Luke Barnett, you know, neither one might be in the rotation, but if you combine them into one player, it might be the best player on the team. That's how like, like if you had Trent Perry's athleticism and arm length and defense with Luke Barnett's shooting,

Starting point is 00:16:32 it would be an incredible combination. And honestly, like, I wonder if, and this might hurt both of them, the best way to play Luke Barnett might be when Trent Perry's on the floor, because Perry will help you on defense where you lose with Barnett, but then Barnett will help with the spacing that you lose with having Perry out. out there. But the problem is, if not both are in the rotation, then you're not going to just play both just to get one of them on the court, right? So I find that kind of interesting, but having a very specific role that can get you out there could get Perry or Barnett in a similar role.

Starting point is 00:17:03 With Mordini, again, more of kind of developmental back end of the piece. So back end to the roster piece. So like, I don't think that would be the answer there. with Atticus Richmond, you know, similar guys back in rotational piece or back end developmental piece. But he was committed to a D1 school, albeit an Ivy League school. And he is six foot eight. I think I saw Bill Self compared him to Mitch Lightfoot, which, you know, Mitch played 25 games as a true freshman, four minutes per game. And I actually think Richmond probably has a little bit more strength and physical size to him than Mitch had. So maybe that would be an option. But to me, the answer here is Adkins. Like, that would be the one I would go to.

Starting point is 00:17:45 But again, if you told me that KU is going to add another center, going to add another big man, whether it's Malik Ewan or somebody else, and now all of a sudden you're saying, hey, we've got this center we added. We've got Paul M. Bia. We've got Christian Reeves coming back from injury. So you would be the fourth center and you would be, you know, third string power forward. Then that becomes a little bit more difficult of conversation.

Starting point is 00:18:06 I think Luke Barnett would be the next one I would go to. It is interesting because part. of me just wants to say Trent Perry because of the defense and we know Bill Self will trust those guys, i.e. KJ. Adams. I just would be worried that there is such a lack of offense there. Like, KJ's offense wasn't great, but he was still, like, there was still more he could do on offense than what Trent Perry comes to KU doing. And so with Barnett, you know, the three-point shooting, if it is just that elite, if he's a 40% three-point shooter, that could at least get you five, 10 minutes in a game to just, especially like at the end of a half or something,

Starting point is 00:18:44 you're trying to steal a three, that that could at least get you a role on the team. Now, I do think this Kansas team, as we've kind of talked about before, thank you that every day, or you already got these episodes, but talking about, you know, the three-point shooting and that I think Kansas actually has a lot of proficient shooters. They might not have a lot of elite shooters, but I think Taylin Kinney, Leroyd, Blyden, who I do think will be an elite shooter, Tyron Stokes, Keanu, Dawes, Cole Rosario. I think all those guys can be at least average. to better three-point shooters. So having to bring somebody in off the bench who is just coming in to be a shooter,

Starting point is 00:19:18 it might not be as needed as some of the other teams. But, you know, what happens if you do, you know, one of those guys fall short a little bit or he does end up being your best three-point shooter, then you get him on the court, you know, at least for a little there. So those would be the ones that I would kind of go with for that answer. But I think at the end of the day, if we're looking at it being an eight-man rotation, you're probably looking at, you know, whoever of him, B.N. Reeves wins the starting job

Starting point is 00:19:41 and the backup would be one of your bench players. You're looking at Cole Rosario or if he beats out, say, a Tailing Kinney, it would be one of those guys. And then Dennis Parker Jr. is kind of your three off the bench. But yeah, whichever of those freshmen, you know, I guess plays the best, becomes the ninth man, which is at least spot minutes for Bill Self. And maybe that is just a dependent on the matchup thing.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Do you need the defense? Do you need the offense? Do you need the size? Are you fine going small? Like maybe it's just that. Maybe that's how Bill's up to play. It employs it and at least gets a little bit of everybody, a little bit of playing time. All right. Another fun question to finish off here.

Starting point is 00:20:13 Who you had taken, the 2026 to 2027 Jayhawks or the 2027 to 2028 Jayhawks, which team has a chance to do more damage that next? You can check out our everyday or club to get the ad-free version of the show at locked on Jayhawks. That supercast.com. Okay, I think this is an interesting question. Who has a better chance to, you know, contend or make a final four, however you want to kind of pose that conversation. Is it this upcoming year is Jayhawks? So the 26, 27, Jhawks, or would it be the following year, 27, 28, right? Because I think it's an interesting question when you view this roster, because of the five and five, every single player can come back except for Christian Reeves. Now, it doesn't

Starting point is 00:21:03 mean every player will come back. There will be players who transfer away, whether it's their decision or Bill Self's decision. Maybe somebody has a good enough year that they go pro early. Obviously, that's the expectation with like Tyron Stokes, for instance. But I think that's part of the conversation. You look at this year's team and you have Tyron Stokes, who could be one of the best players in the country. And you're building that around Tyrant Stokes. Whereas you fast forward a year after that, Stokes is assuredly gone.

Starting point is 00:21:34 But in theory, if you do bring back Talen Kinney as a second year, Leroyd-Blyden as a third year, Cole Rosario as a third year, Heck, Dennis Parker as a fifth year, Paulumbia as a third year, any of these freshmen, plus you're talking, you know, bringing on any other dynamic high school recruits or transfer portal additions, could that team be better in totality because of just how much could be back for Kansas that season? It's entirely possible.

Starting point is 00:22:02 And especially if you view it as, hey, if you can find a way to get another, you know, top three freshmen coming into the class or get, you know, the one of the three biggest names that's that's a wing player that'll be available in the portal next year to replace Stokes and now everybody around him is just older, stronger, better. Could that team be better, right? But then you also run into the difficulty of, okay, but by the time we get to 27, 28, how do we even know that Bill Self is coaching the team? And then if Bill Self is not coaching the team, we don't even know who's the coach or we don't

Starting point is 00:22:36 know who is, you know, coming in on the roster because it's probably going to be a brand new roster. when it's a new coach coming in. So I think there's enough uncertainty there that I would take this year's team just because there is a bit more known commodity, especially with the transfer portal. But like you could see a world where I don't know, that ends up kind of being like this is probably a bad comparison just because that team was, like that team was a one seed.

Starting point is 00:23:05 The team I'm not to mention here was a one seed and was better than this year's team was without the guy I'm talking about and the guy I'm about to talk about. I don't think is going to be a good as Tyron Stokes, although he's a very good dynamic athlete, but just to show the comparison here. So the 07 Jayhawks, right? They get a one seed. They make it to the elite eight, great season. And then they couldn't buy a layup playing basically a road game against UCLA.

Starting point is 00:23:31 So you look at that team. They had basically the national title team plus Julian Wright. All the guys were a year younger than who won the national title. year, but they also had Julian Wright, who was a first round draft pick into the NBA and was like a stupid athlete swing man for, like an incredible athlete, right? And you lose your big pro prospect and flashy player that can do all these incredible things. And you end up being even better the next season because even though you lose this one star piece, everybody else is back. Everybody else gets a little bit better. Everybody else gets a little bit older. And so again, I don't think the pieces around Tyrant Stokes are what that team was because you're talking, Brandon Rush was a first round pick and Darnell or Dorell Arthur was a first round pick. Like it's different. But in the same vein of like sometimes just one player leaving, but everybody else coming back,

Starting point is 00:24:30 you can actually be better in totality. So I do think it is a fair question, but just because of the unknown, I guess I would take the 26, 27 roster, knowing that you do have Stokes and knowing that in kind of a downed class, he could very well be the best player in the country this upcoming season. And that is certainly saying something invaluable if you can get it done. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere. You get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:24:57 And we will be back at you on Wednesday's episode as we're going to be talking another player deep dive. We'll get to Cole Rosario on tomorrow's episode of the show. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will Bill Self's Masterful Timing Work AGAIN for Kansas Jayhawks as KU Tries for ONE MORE Big Move?

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