Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will the Kansas Jayhawks Add a 12th + Deep Dive on Rutgers Transfer Paul Mulcahy's Fit with KU

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Following Zach Clemence's return to the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball program, will Kansas add a 12th scholarship player. If so, one possible target in Kentucky guard Antonio Reeves is off the board. Deep dive into Rutgers guard transfer Paul Mulcahy's potential fit with KU and his scouting report strengths and weaknesses. Would it make sense for Bill Self's team after reported interest per Adam Zagoria.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every 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, a possible grad transfer target is off the board now for KU, should they want to go to 12 scholarship players. But we will do a deep dive on one that's still available, at least as of now, Palmo Kahee, the transfer from Rutgers. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. 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. 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. You can also like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube page. And on today's edition of the show, there is a possible grad transfer that I know was flirted around with. Oh, maybe it could make some sense with KU, as I'm sure many other colleges off the table at this point in time, but also we'll be doing a deep dive on Paul Mulcahy, the Rutgers transfer,

and what he could possibly bring to the table. First, though, today's episode of the show is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Go to birddogs.com slash lockedoncollege, and they'll throw in a free custom bird dogs yeti style tumbler with every order it's an awesome yeti style tumbler i use it all the time um i actually have it with me today but unfortunately is in the uh other room uh nonetheless on to today's show uh and i guess the first big news here is just in regard to Antonio Reeves, who Kentucky player entered the NBA draft process,

decided to come back, then left it open because he could be a grad transfer about if he would enter the transfer portal or not. There was a story from, or a tweet, I guess, from Jeff Goodman talking about how Reeves was taking classes at Illinois State during the summer. And that would get him to the point where he could graduate. Illinois State was where he was at before Kentucky and that maybe the degree that he was working on at Illinois State was closer to graduation than the one he was working on with Kentucky. Like maybe all the credits didn't apply. So that's what would'd be having to do.

From Travis Branham, though, earlier on Wednesday, Kentucky guard Antonio Reeves moved into his dorm last night and is expected to return to Kentucky for the 2023 to 2024 season. Whether that's maybe he just didn't think he was going to be able to get the graduation thing done or he just didn't think he was going to be able to get the graduation thing done or he just had to change your heart and maybe Kentucky came back with some NIL money or maybe he decided that was the best decision for him whatever ends up being the case he is going back to Kentucky it's not necessarily that there would have been like a lock that KU would have

got him this or that but certainly if KU was going to go 12 which we go back to the quote from Bill South the other day that they're happy with the roster, they're cool with it being 12 or 11, but that's not going to stop them from if the right situation rises. Maybe Antonio Reeves would have been that right situation of a guy who can play the two and the three for you and would be a really good knockdown shooter that maybe you could fit in and find some time for. I still do have some questions about how it would have worked because, you know, as we'll go through this, it's going to be tough for, like, I think there is a role out there for somebody to play 10 to 20 minutes per game

if you're a rotation player with KU. Reeves plays 30 at Kentucky. He's probably going to want to play 25 to 30 at, you know, whatever stop he's at, at kind of bare minimum, right? And I don't know that that was there for KU, and he is more of like a two-man. So it wasn't the perfect fit,

but certainly he would have been another good, talented player that you gladly would have taken into the fold. But now he is off the table, and that gets rid of one possible transfer target if KU is going to add someone else. Which brings us to somebody we will be talking about today, and that is Paul Mulcahy, who is a transfer from Rutgers,

who has been a you know veteran player experienced player multi-year starter at a big 10 level at a power five level with Rutgers he entered the the transfer portal a week or two ago as a graduate transfer so he is eligible even though it passed the the transfer deadline because he is a grad transfer. He played four years at Rutgers. He has a fifth year this year due to his COVID year. And according to Adam Zagoria, who tweeted out interest from different schools, KU was one of the teams that reached out with reported interest. Now, that would have been before the Zach Clements thing, I would have imagined.

So does that change things with the numbers how real is the interest is it just you know kind of checking in for a few reasons or another is it like real interest where you're you're going full out to try to bring him in I don't know again self-mentioned they would be open to adding but they are content with 11 meaning it would have to be the right situation to get a guy in for 12. What is that right situation? Does it mean it's someone who is willing to come in and play a Jalen Coleman's Coleman lands role where, you know, they're content maybe playing 10 minutes in a game, maybe only playing a few minutes in the specific game, but they want to be on a winning team and they're veteran player and they want to set themselves up for beyond basketball, right? Or is it the specific situation of they're looking

for a specific position if they're going to bring in a player? Or is it specific to, hey, we've used a lot of NIL money on this player and that player. Like we only want players who aren't all about NIL money to come here, right? Could it be a combination of things? They can be specific because they don't have to add anyone at this point in time, they could if the right situation rises right so does Paul Mulcahy check some of those boxes maybe maybe not I don't know but he's a very good player from Rutgers the question I think becomes for me what is the fit going to be like because you look at it on paper and I've kind of said all the way through that I think it does make the most sense and adds another player for it to be kind of a three or a four now maybe you do have to worry about how would how would that make kj adams feel i guess um but if

you're bringing on a three or the four under the guys no kj don't worry you're still going to start or you're going to play you know 25 minutes per game i just think that's maybe where you can make the most minutes or allocate the most minutes for somebody else in the rotation. It's hard to allocate minutes at the one and two with all the four guards you have. You can at least maybe allocate some minutes at the three or the four or by playing somebody, by shifting somebody. Because if KJ, you give him 15 minutes at the four

and you give him 10 minutes at the five, he's playing 25 minutes per game. And he can be your starting four uh you can make kevin mcculler your you know uh playing what a 15 minutes per game at the four 15 minutes per game at the three that leaves 25 minutes per game at the three that leaves um still 10 minutes at the four in that situation and yeah some of those minutes at the three might go to nick timberlake or you know maybe playing even el marco jackson if it's next to arterio and dewan harris but that leaves you with the chunk of minutes that you can at least divvy out to somebody else in the rotation and with mckay he's six foot seven so he fits into that conversation about playing kind of that three four role in terms of what we've seen the size of those guys be in the past but also use a

point guard at ruckers so that creates a interesting fit, so to speak, and how exactly would it work if he does come aboard with KU. But we'll get more into his scouting report, the fit, the verdict, all that stuff coming up here on the show in just a second. First of this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Bird Dogs make you look good. They're stretched khaki shorts designed to fit slimmer through the thigh and leg, giving you a truly sculpted looks. They do the exact same thing as Lululemon, but they fit way

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wicking fabric that keeps you cool and dry all day long so you look good you smell good and you feel good anything better than that no so get yourself some bird dogs i'm wearing mine right now i've got my tumbler with me in the other room with a bunch of water keeps my water cold keeps my ice cold and together um so go to birddogs.com locked on college for a free yeti style tumbler with your order that's birddogs.com locked on college for a free yeti style tumbler you want to take you take your bird dogs off we promise you that check them out bird dogs okay uh scouting report for paul mulcahy key the workers will be a fifth year player obviously experience i always mention that with older players that's never a bad thing right and and that is part of these scouting report in this department what are

other strengths though i think his size and versatility he is a six foot seven player with guard skills so you're talking about versatility where he played point guard at ruckers at six foot seven you would think you're going to be able to play at multiple positions as a two as a three could you play as the four i don't know he is a little bit skinnier and you know the rebounding numbers aren't great he hasn't really i mean for a guard the rebounding numbers are good but um he hasn't really been put in that role so where does the versatility go one through three or is it one for through four and that could be dependent on on how exactly he would fit at ku uh but for what it's worth he was a really good post-up player too

which that might not be the be all end all could just be that you had a six foot seven point guard that you were getting guarded by six foot one six foot two guards and so that was part of their game plan we're going to post him up when that happens but he ranked in the 97th percentile as a junior in 29 post-up field goal attempts so again limited sample size but he showed that as part of his game and maybe that means that there's more there about him playing up in size a little bit like i don't know maybe that's there but at least it gives you another option with him on the wing right his passing is part of his strengths and scouting report 4.9 assists per game this past season uh the year before as a junior he averaged 5.3 assists per game so he's

been a really good passer he's been playing point guard again at six foot seven in Big Ten only games. He was top seven in big in assist rate the last two seasons. So again, good passer facilitates can be a lead ball handler, can be a primary ball handler as somebody running your offense. And it's never a bad thing to have a bunch of good passers and ball movers on your team solid defense too is a strength here now if you look at his synergy numbers they more so view him as like an average defender and it's it's hard to take into account who gets credit for everything and what on the ruckers defense as a team ruckers was sixth in defensive efficiency on ken pop last season so this was one of the top 10 defenses in the country. How much did that have to do with him? How much did that have to do with the ability of Rutgers to be switchable because they had him?

Cam Spencer was a really good defender though, too. Omar Rui, who was their big man, who's going to be back this next year. He's a really good defender. How much was their defense that good because of other defenders? How much was their defense covered up because of Omararui on the back line as a center um how much was it because he was a good defender but i think he plays hard on the defensive end he obviously has size he obviously has versatility there and i think many analysts will tell you he is a good defender so even though the synergy numbers lean toward maybe more so being an average defender i would lean lean toward maybe being more, you know, if we want to split the difference, like an above average defender.

He averaged a steal and a half per game last year. He was 12th in Big Ten only games in steal rate. So you're getting a good enough defender on this end of the floor that has at least versatility where he's clearly not going to be an issue on that end. And maybe you do have potential to be even better than that. I think you don't have to worry about the translation up the ku potentially here either played at a big 10 level played at ruckers ruckers has been a solid team they were the first team out of the tournament this past year i think they were like sued the ncaa for not making it or something like that i don't know that that actually gained any legs um but yeah a lot of people thought they should have been in the tournament. And after watching Nevada get just housed by Arizona State in the first four, which to be clear, results of the tournament are not necessarily indicative of what should have happened pre-tournament.

But, you know, they probably should have got in. Nonetheless, they also had a, in his what, gosh, would that have been freshman, sophomore year? They probably should have beat Houston in the second round of the tournament. That was the year Houston made the Final Four. Every other team in that region, so if Rutgers would have made it, every team in that region in the second weekend would have been a double-digit seed. Who knows? Maybe they could have even made the Final Four that year. A tournament team in the first four the year before, they lost a close game in overtime to Notre Dame.

So they've had success. Big 10 level, you're at Rutgers. You don't have to worry about the translation up. He also gets to the free throw line at a really high level for Mulcahy. Top 20 in Big 10 only games in free throw rate. He shot pretty well at the free throw line, like good enough. Low 70% for his career, 71.6%. 72% overall last season. He he went almost 78 the year before so you

have an even higher barometer of maybe he can get to but yeah if you can just be 70 or higher like that's kind of the bare minimum what you're looking for from a guard and then uh good offensive rebounding guard again you don't know how it translates if he's playing more the three or four but specifically playing the point guard he was able to crash the glass and really good on the offensive end of things, crashing the glass there, which maybe again, gives you more reason to the fact that maybe he could move down and play as a three or the four for you. Three point efficiency was good as part of the strengths here. 37% last season from three, 36.4% for his career from three. As a junior, he shot almost 39% on spot-up threes only. And as a senior on spot-up threes,

it was almost 37% on tries spot-ups from beyond the arc. So good spot-up shooter. That's always something you look to, because especially in KU's current situation where you have DeJuan Harris, how are you going to be as a spot-up shooter, which is going to be a lot of what you have to do, especially, you know, it's not just DeJuan Harris.

You have Hunter Dickinson, who's going to be kicking out from inside the post if he gets doubled. Can you hit spot-up threes? Okay, he does just that. Interestingly enough, he actually struggled on spot-up twos, but I don't know, like, guys who take mid-range shots, it feels like a lot of those are off screens or off dribble pull-ups. How many spot-up twos is Billillshoff going to run for you?

So not really a concern in that regard. The weaknesses, though, for Paul Mulcahy, I think scoring overall. He's not someone who is just going to hunt their own shot or create a bunch for himself. Career 6.8 points per game, career high of 9 points per game. He's not somebody if you bring in, you're going to expect to score 12, 13, 14, 15 points per game. Even though not somebody if you bring in, you're going to expect to score 12, 13, 14, 15 points per game. Even though this is on the weaknesses, though, I don't know that that's a bad

thing because at this point in the game for KU, if you are bringing on another player, you probably don't want someone coming in with the expectations that that's what they're going to do because you probably don't need that. And you probably have enough roles filled that having someone who could contribute in other ways and not have to be a primary score it would be a good thing so here i am turning this weakness i guess into a strength uh also not a great two-point shooter 43 on twos last year which you'd like to see that higher especially for a six seven guard and being able to finish inside he wasn't great in transition or off cuts or isolation per synergy really his whole career

but i think in a specific role you know good passer good ball mover uh set shooter like in spot up threes doing some little things rebounding passing and defense like you still get a more than good enough player here i think the other part of the weakness is here. I would just say lack of three-point volume because as good as the efficiency was from three and 37%, good numbers on spot-up threes, it wasn't a lot. Only 1.8 threes per game last year. That is like Hunter Dickinson level of amount of threes, except he's a point guard versus a center.

And he's never been higher than 2.3 three-pointers per game. So does that tell you that he's not as good of a three-point shooter as the numbers indicate, and that he can only take them if he's wide open? But is that a problem? Because if that's the specific role you're going to have at KU, that might not be a big issue. Or are you going to be asking him to take too many threes than he's accustomed to, right?

Like, is he not going to want to take all those threes? Is that just not part of his nature? Is he not as great of a fit? And I think that goes back into this weakness part. Is he more of a point guard? That's how he's played the last two years at Rutgers. Would he be fine? And would he be able to play the three or the four

at Kansas possibly, right? Like, would there be as good of a fit? That is a real question here in all this. So let's finish up here with exactly where that fit is and the verdict of everything. This is Locked on here in all this. So let's finish up here with exactly where that fit is and the verdict of everything. This is Locked on Jayhawks. What is the fit of Paul Mulcahy, the transfer from Rutgers? Played a lot of point guard the last few years.

You'd think the size would allow him to be flexible here, but clearly if he comes to Kansas, he's not a point guard. Maybe you could say that, well, he'll play the backup point guard minutes for DeJuan Harris for the four, five, six, seven minutes that DeJuan's not on the floor. But you also could probably say that about Artario Morris or Marco Jackson. So it wouldn't just be clear that he would play those minutes. So are you going to be comfortable playing the two or the three?

Well, at six foot seven, you'd think he has the size for it to maybe even play the four. But then again, when you have the amount of guys that you could play at the two as well that you're promising minutes to that you want to have roles, Marco Jackson is going to be playing a lot as an off guard Arterio Morris is going to be playing a lot as an off guard Nick Timberlake is going to be playing a lot at the two and three might not really have a ton of minutes at the two so now you start sliding things down to the three where it's like okay Nick Timberlake could play some three minutes Kevin McCuller will obviously play some three minutes but then outside of that it's like well Jamari McDowell might play he might not as a true freshman Marcus Adams might play he might not at the three position so you have more

more openings at the three but that is a big difference from playing point guard and then you go to the four and it's the same thing it's like okay kj adams will play the four kevin mcculler will probably slide down and play some four marcus adams could play some four i guess you could play parker brown at the four and have two big basketball but realistically it's mostly going to be kj and kevin and there is an opportunity for maybe some more minutes there if you play the three and four but that that's not what Paul Mulcahy totally does and I guess in this scenario if he is basically maybe mostly playing at the three because you maybe you do have worries about he's not like a super heavy guy that would play the four.

Maybe realistically, if you bring him in, he mostly profiles to being just a three. And in that scenario, it means Kevin is playing some three, but a bigger chunk of his minutes at the four. So like, for instance, Hunter Dickinson gives you 30 minutes at the five. KJ plays the backup 10 minutes at the five. Then KJ plays 15 more minutes at the four. That gets KJ. He's the starting four and he's playing 25 minutes per game. Kevin plays 20 minutes per game at the four, then 10 at the three. So Kevin's you're starting three, but he's playing 30 minutes

total and a lot of it at the four. And then that could leave you with Mulcahy playing 20 minutes at the three, the other 10 minutes available at the three, go to Nick Timberlake and Mulcahy maybe plays those other five minutes at the two or go to Nick Timberlake and Mulcahy maybe plays those other five minutes at the two or four positions and in that scenario KJ is still getting 25 minutes Kevin's getting 30 Mulcahy's getting 20 to 25 but then you start limiting your minutes that now Timberlake Morris Elmarco and Duan can play that are you having to make Duan only play 30 minutes as opposed to 34 35 is Arterio and and El Marco only getting 18 to 20 minutes? Is Timberlake only getting 18 to 20 minutes, right?

It creates more of a stretch, and it does become more difficult with the exact fit. So realistically, I think it makes the most sense if KU is going to bring someone in, specifically someone who can play the three and the four, but also is someone who has to be comfortable coming off the bench because you're not going to want to start them over Kevin McCuller or KJ Adams to upset the balance. who can play the three and the four, but also is someone who has to be comfortable coming off the bench because

you're not going to want to start them over Kevin McCuller or KJ Adams to upset the balance. And I don't know that that's the case for, for Paul Mulcahy. It feels like to me, Mulcahy would want to go somewhere and be the starter and maybe be a, if not the starting point guard, be maybe that secondary guard that can be a secondary kind of ball handler.

And I don't know that there's that opportunity at Kansas. So I just don't know about the fit, even though he is clearly a very good player. If he does want to come to KU, I think the verdict for me is that, yeah, be the final piece of the puzzle and figure that stuff out later. But if you do have options, if you're KU,

let's say you're choosing between Paul Mulcahy and somebody else who wants to come to KU. Let's say in this world, both players want to come to KU. And that player's a three or four more traditionally. I think you go with that player just because the fit might be better. Even if okay, he ends up being just the better overall player, if that sort of makes sense. But overall, he is a good enough player that if he really does want to come to KU, you figure it out from there and you work with a versatile, very stellar player coming from Rutgers.

That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We are going to have Antonio Reeves deep dive sometime later in one of our shows, but obviously with that news, we won't be doing that anymore. Maybe we'll get some more deep dives if some more possible player targets emerge, but I think we won't be back until next week. So there could be some more breaking news by then that leads to more shows between now or leads to a different show and what we want to do next week. So there could be some more breaking news by then that leads to more shows between now or leads to a different show and what we want to do next week. I also still want to get to this conversation about who has the last spot for the rotation

right now, at least before if they do add another transfer portal pickup. You can find our shows wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page with Locked on Jayhawks. That'll do it for this show. Have a good rest of the day. Later.