Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will the Kansas Jayhawks Add an 11th Scholarship Player + 10 Options in the Transfer Portal

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

Following Chris Johnson asking out of his National Letter of Intent, will the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team add an 11th scholarship player for 2023-2024, and if they do what exactly will they be looking for? Plus, 10 available options in the transfer portal right now that might make some sense for Bill Self's squad from developmental guys to rotation players and even some star power.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED 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, who is still out there? Now that Chris Johnson has gone for KU, certainly seems like they're going to need to add somebody via the transfer portal to get to that 11th scholarship player. Who are some options they could go after? What is the most likely position? And things that KU could do with the portal? Let's discuss 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. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence. 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 YouTube. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're going to be talking about where KU goes now in the offseason after Chris Johnson decided to ask out of his national letter of intent and leave Kansas with now 10 scholarship players seemed like they were going to be content with 11 but now they need to get one just to get back up to 11 which is already playing too short than what some of these other teams have uh so we'll get into I have 10 players that I would keep an eye on here um

whether it's one that I just think are good or ones that, you know, are being notarized as nationally good, or maybe ones that might make sense for KU for other reasons. We'll get to those in a second here. I think the first things first here though, is will KU stay at those 10 scholarship players? Because to get to a point where they do add someone, that means that they have to be content doing so um i would be surprised if they did stay at 10 to be completely honest it felt like and we had an episode last week that they were done with 11 scholarship players well now you go back down to 10 i don't think they're going to be done with 10 i think for them 11 is going to be the ideal number now could they just be saying well we were fine at 11 because we had our rotation figured out. We had our seven or eight guys that are going to be in the rotation, and Chris Johnson probably wasn't going to be a part of that, which means we'll have a three scholarship reduction this year. And that knocks out all three scholarships that we needed to reduce over the next three years for the self-imposed sanctions in one season to where now we can play with full rosters the next two years.

Plus, who knows? What if the NCAA IRP decision comes down and then you get to a position where the NCAA says we want you to lose even more scholarships and now you're set up better to deal with some of that but there are injury issues there are depth issues you want to add more scholarship players and KU added another walk-on one of the the team managers converted to being a walk-on I think ideally they want to have between 16 to 18 players on the roster to get through practice and stuff. So they're probably going to have more walk-ons this year. If you're only going to play with 10, 11 scholarship players, that's certainly something

to note, but I would be still surprised if they only did 10 of them. And you know, the idea with knocking out all the scholarships in one year seems a little silly to me because here's how I view it is the difference between having 12 scholarship players versus 13 that big of a difference? Is it really? Probably not. So if you knock out all three this year, then you're basically having the next two years, 13 scholarship players, as opposed to one year having 12. I don't think it's that big of a difference. I think the difference between having an 11th scholarship player to a 10th is a much bigger difference than having a 13th scholarship player to a 12th. So it just seems like you would be finishing it up, but doing it when you don't

necessarily have to, like, I don't know. I feel like that would be overly driven into the idea of what you're trying to do with knocking them out now you get the the standpoint of not trying to bring someone in to upset somebody else to mess with the rotation and that makes this tricky what exactly would you do here with your 11th scholarship right like um what are you going to do in terms of bringing in a developmental player in terms of bringing in a good player position are you going to do i don't know but i guess point for me is that i i already thought they should have added added a 12th player even when they were sitting in an 11 i definitely think they should add an 11th i mean we're not that far removed from the 2017-2018 season do you remember

when that 2017-2018 season how thin ku was just overall as a roster clay young played real rotation minutes for ku in a game against Syracuse, who had a seven-footer, and he was going up against them. He performed admirably, but that is not what KU wants to have happen, obviously. They had to add Silvio De Sousa midway through the season. That team was so thin. They ended up making a Final Four that went on an incredible run, and Silvio was really clutch for them down the stretch, making that midway addition. But you don't want to be in that spot again. Add someone else. We are not that far removed from KU Final four, they went on an incredible run, and Silvio was really clutch for them down the stretch, making that midway addition. But you don't want to be in that spot again.

Add someone else. We are not that far removed from KU being too thin. You know what I mean? So in terms of what you are looking for then, there are those different options. You go for a real impact guy. Do you go for the top of availability with your Arthur Columas, Grant Nelsons, or whoever, and try to make it work into the rotation and keep everybody happy, but get your best impact guy that would give you the most talented roster and would give you the most coverage in case of a good player getting injured. Do you go for a developmental guy? Because Chris Johnson was not going to probably be someone who was part of the rotation this year,

which means that do you just switch him for somebody else who was going to be in those shoes? Somebody who is going to be probably not part of the rotation, but can develop into being a good player down the road, whether that's the following season or two years down the road after that. I think regardless, when you look at position, I feel like point guard, shooting guard, combo guard, like that doesn't make a ton of sense. If it's a shooting guard that can play the three,

I think that can make some sense. But the way that I look at it, you are covered at point guard. You're pretty good. DeJuan Harris, if you were to, let's say he rolled an ankle and we're out for a game. Artario Morris, Elmarco Jackson should be able to cover you at the point guard position. At the two guard spot, again, you're going to be playing Artario Morris and Elmarco Jackson. You can even play some Nick Timberlake there. Like you should have coverage.

You can even play some Jamari McDowell if you really have coverage you can even play some jamari mcdowell if you really wanted to i guess you could even slide kevin to the two you should have coverage there you start losing that coverage when you hit the three four five positions whether that means a shooting guard that can play the three like a nick timberlake whether that means a wing who can play the three or the four whether it's a four a power forward like a grant nelson to play the, who could even give you some coverage at the five or, you know, even another backup center that you could then maybe sprinkle some minutes for Parker Brown at the four, if you really were in a pinch and then you could move Marcus Adams to the three, right. Where you could slide things up. Those are the positions that make the most sense. Uh, so those are the ones I'm looking for. And if it's a, um, center a very different specific bargain bin because you're going to be looking for like if you're a guy who wants to play 20 to 25 minutes a night at the center position, you have that certain bargain bin versus if you're looking on the wing at the three or four,

you still could find your way to making it work with a player who could play 20, 25 minutes in a game and still keep everybody happy. I've talked a lot about, yeah, if you brought on like Grant Nelson, for instance, you have 80 minutes to divvy out at the four and five positions. KJ plays 25, Hunter Dickinson plays 30, Grant Nelson plays 25, boom, there's your 80 minutes.

Like you can make some of that work at some of these positions, even if it tightens the screws a little bit more. So when I'm going through these players to keep an eye on, I'm going to probably not really include a lot of those guys who are point guards, combo guards, because I think that makes a lot less sense than adding somebody at those three through five positions or adding a developmental player like Chris Johnson was going to be. All right, let's get into 10 names I'm keeping an eye on now with Kansas,

maybe looking to add somebody via the transfer portal in just a second. The top available players for Kansas at this point. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Bird Dogs make you look good. Bird Dogs stretch khaki shorts are designed to fit slimmer through the thigh and leg, giving you a truly sculpted look. They do the exact same thing as Lululemon, but they fit way better. They fit way better than regular shorts that are made of a stiff, restricting cotton. You're going to get that gym short type of of feel but you're going to get the look of the nicer shorts that you're going to need to do a lot of nicer activities especially in the summer here in kansas is going to be 85 90 95 100 degrees you're not going to be wearing

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That's bird dogs.com slash locked on college for a free Yeti style Tumblr. You won't want to take your bird dogs off. We promise you that. Okay. Names that I am keeping an eye on. We'll get to these in different tiers so the first tier that i have is players without ku in their shortlist there's a bit of an asterisk here because could things change could things change because ku wasn't on the shortlist because they

were originally fine with 11 scholarship players then Then the Chris Johnson thing happens, and now they're like, actually, we are interested in you. There's been a material change. And then even if the player has a short list of five schools, they're like, oh, but Kansas, I mean, I should at least consider them. I'll let them do the short list. Like Caden Shedrick did that, I think, with like Duke. So that wouldn't be crazy. But Zion Pullen, he has now narrowed his list down to two schools. I think LSU and Florida. Should KU make a push?

Would they be able to get back in? I don't know. He might make a little less sense because he is more of that combo guard type. But I think with his size, maybe you could convince yourself he could play at the three a little bit. But maybe it would make a little less sense. But he's a good scorer, can create off the bounce, can shoot it a little bit, but KU not on the finalist list there, but certainly one of the top transfers available. Mike Shirov Jamps. I don't know if that's the proper way to

pronounce it. I'm just going to go by his nickname. His nickname is Mongolian Mike, which is a lot easier. He's a six foot eight wing from Dayton by way of Mongolia. He is the first Mongolian basketball player to earn a division one basketball scholarship uh went to dayton last year as a true freshman played 23 minutes per game numbers don't jump off the page about five and a half points about two is about two rebounds per game 31 from three he is seen as somebody who has shooting potential like he's one of those guys who you see shoot 31 percent from three as a freshman and then maybe he goes up to 36 as a sophomore and then maybe like 40 as a junior he's a good passer uh a good court has the ability to ball at 6 8 in addition to the economy i haven't seen kub on his shortest or anything like that um but certainly one to keep

an eye on if k you wanted to go there you could play the three you could play the four for you and uh Dayton was mostly like a half court team last year KU would be able to get out in the open court a little bit more with him which I think would benefit his game and then uh we have Oliver and Kamwa I'm not sure I've seen a short list, but on the visit list in Kamwa visited like four schools. And I think now he is narrowing it down to like two schools. Kansas isn't on there, but I guess one that these are the tier of players without KU in their

short list, but certainly are interesting because they are kind of top tier transfers. And then we have the developmental tier. This is the tier of players who you're bringing in to more so be someone who might not like get into the rotation right away as a freshman and is more so going to be players that you're trying to develop for the long term can just give you added depth can be another body for you in practice um play in in games that you're blowing the other team out or something like that and develop them and then maybe by the time they're in year two

with your program they can be more impactful players the first of these is a drama deongu i might try to do a deongu uh deep dive on another show this week because i think this is one worth discussing more he was recruited by ku out of high school ended up going to washington state seven footer uh really lengthy big man who's got really good athleticism and speed needs to add more weight and strength he's someone who if he comes in he would be kind of your developmental big man honestly parker brown might be in front of him i don't know that would be probably a competition there but he would be somebody who you would look at as saying well in year two maybe he could be a good backup big or even compete to be a starter if, say, Hunter Dickinson were to leave the program at the end of this one year. But he's

got a high potential if you could figure it out. And the beauty of this developmental tier, I think this is something of note. You have players like, for instance, Chris Johnson comes in. If Chris Johnson wouldn't have asked out of his national letter of intent, chances are he wouldn't have played much this year, and he might have just transferred at the end of the year anyway or even if he would have came back for year two there's a good chance dewan harris and then one of el marco jackson arterio morris is back for year two that he's still behind those guys and he's still not playing a ton of minutes and then he transfers after the end of the next year right the beauty of adding a player who only has played one year of college and comes to your school to be a developmental player is that they will have used their one free

transfer waiver to where they won't be able to transfer again for three years until they're a graduate player. And basically they are more locked into having to stick around to actually develop. Now that can go both ways because I think sometimes when the coaching perspective, KU is like, no,

we don't want you to try to stick around and develop. We don't think you're going to be very good by the time you develop, and we'd rather use this scholarship elsewhere. So it locks you in a little bit more, but that could be a positive if you are trying to give the long-term development for a kid. The other one in the developmental tier here I have is Nigel Burris. This isn't really a name I've heard linked with KU at all, but just someone that I found kind of interesting. He is a 6' foot seven 222 pound forward uh so realistically probably playing the four for KU but maybe could could split up to the three a little bit if he needed him to he played at Idaho which you know that's not like a super

high level of college basketball but still was at the D1 level and his senior year at Idaho he averaged nine points five rebounds per game shot 53 percent from the field 45 percent from three on 2.7 tries per game and 87 percent at the foul line so he's got really good touch really good shooting ability solid enough rebounder scored it a little bit for Idaho again he's someone that if you bring him in you're not expecting someone who averaged nine and five at Idaho as a freshman to come in and be a starter for you. But if Chris Johnson was going to be your 10th or 11th guy, can Nigel Burris come in, be your 10th or 11th guy, give you added depth, and maybe after a year of development, turn into a rotation player by the time he's a junior at KU.

And maybe by the time he's a senior, turn into kind of a starter for you if you can keep that development moving forward. All right, let's finish up. I have five more names to get to we have the tier of possible rotation player if they can play into a tier and then would be for sure in the rotation and possible starters tier to finish things up here with locked on jayhawks this episode of locked on jay brought to you by bird dogs go to birddogs.com slash locked on college. And when you enter promo code locked on college,

they'll throw in a free custom Bird Dogs Yeti style tumbler with every order with Bird Dogs. All right. So finishing things up here with five more names that I'm keeping an eye on in the transfer portal. Let's start with this year. Possible rotation players if they play into it, meaning these would be guys that you would come in and have added depth

and there would be potential for them during the offseason to fight their way into the rotation to get some minutes. The first one, this is a name that I think is kind of fun. Anthony Seldon, you might recognize the last name. He is the younger brother of wayne selden he actually played basketball at lawrence high school got to call some of his games he was always at lawrence high school a really athletic kind of wing bit like at the high school level you know when you're six five six six he's playing here in kansas he's playing like the center for

the team or the power forward but he always had kind of guard skills and was really athletic running up and down the court still needed to hone some of the other skills of his basketball game. He ended up going to a year of prep school after Lawrence High. Then he redshirted a year at Gardner-Webb, and he's now spent four years at Gardner-Webb, three years of play plus the redshirt. Because of his redshirt and because of the COVID year, though, which was the year after his redshirt,

he technically has two years left to play, which I think that would be a bonus here. But last season at Gardner-We 11 and a half points per game four and a half rebounds per game 48 from the floor 30 from three he's a good athlete as i mentioned you have the tie with the selden family you bring him on you know maybe he fits the chris johnson role where it's like i'm not really expecting him to play much but he gives you more depth in the system and maybe he can work himself into being you know the eighth guy in the rotation if all goes right for him over the offseason uh DeShondre Washington is the name of interest here he uh is a transfer from New Mexico State he is a six foot seven 205 pound wing with handling

ability so you can play him at the three you can play him at the four he's from chicago that always checks the box for bill self he loves chicago guys because uh well as long as they're chicago tough which a lot of the guys he has recruited has been the case uh but he averaged 12 points seven rebounds per game and almost four assists per game at new mexico state shot 33 from three on over two per game last year, so fine enough. Three-point shooter. Again, a guy that you bring in and you're like, well, you're not going to be expected to start at the three or the four, obviously, but could you end up being the backup three? Could you end up being the backup four? Could you contribute minutes here

or there? Maybe you could, and you'd add more depth to the team and then jayden delair this is one that i i've seen some stuff about like there's some confusion about whether he is going to transfer or not whether he's going to go play professional basketball or not whether he's going to stay in college or not whether he's staying in his previous school or not so i this one it seems very up in the air but i'll just mention him now anyway six foot nine 215 pound wing with handling ability played over 120 games at stanford for four years then transferred to san diego last year and he'll be in year six this year experienced player career eight points per game low 30 from three solid rebounder could add more depth to the team um if you're bringing on like a jalen coleman lance type

of guy where it's like yeah he gives you gives you more depth. He gives you more insurance. He gives you more experience. He gives you another player in case something bad happens, but he's not always going to be part of the rotation. Like maybe that would be something that would make sense. But again, I don't know what the total case is there. Cause you've seen kind of mixed messaging from the Dallaire side. The last rotation we have here or tier we have is the would be in the rotation tier and possible starters tier now uh grant nelson i should mention this there was a jeff goodman tweet that mentioned that it seemed like it was it was kind of limiting down to a couple schools now i think it was alabama and arkansas for him maybe kansas can make a late push but it certainly seems like this one could almost go into the kansas not on the shortlist category with grant nelson i continue to maintain

i think that'd be an awesome get for KU, and I think they can make it work with the minutes with KJ, still even start KJ. If you want to have Grant Nelson come off the bench, be a backup four and five, and both KJ and Grant Nelson play 25 minutes a game. Dickinson plays 30, and you're keeping everybody happy, ideally, and Nelson gives you coverage in case of an injury

at a couple different positions there, but I don't know how likely that one is. Arthur Columa is one of interest here because it seems like Columa, if he were to join a school, he would clearly be somebody who would be expected to start. So that would be one where it's like, how does that affect with K.J. Adams, for instance? Are you going to start Kevin you know, Kevin at the two

and Columa at the three and, you know, KJ at the four? I don't know. That seems a little odd. And Columa has set a bunch of different visits up. I think there's like three or four he set up. And then there was one visit that with an unnamed school that could be set up. So I don't know if that's Kansas or if that's somebody else. But with Columa, somebody who you figure would play big minutes as part of the rotation he would go back in the tier of would be part of rotation would give you another impact

player would give you more talent and would give you coverage in case of injury at a couple different positions at the three or the four um so those are the ones that are the best but we'll see i feel like kansas is more so going to be going for either the developmental guy or the guy that can maybe play their way into the rotation but won't always be part of the rotation. That would be my guess, but obviously Kaluma and Nelson would be the big names, so to speak, at this point for KU if they can get them. Later this week, might do a deep dive on Adrame Deangu,

back to the kind of developmental tier, get more into him as we've done it on like Kaluma and Nelson already. If you missed those episodes, you can check them out on past episodes of locked on Jayhawks, but that'll do it for today's episode of the show. You can catch us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can find us as well. Have a good rest of your day and see you next time with locked on Jayhawks.