Roster DISRUPTED: Bryson Tiller & Paul Mbiya Enter Transfer Portal | How Can Kansas Jayhawks React?

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Let the KU Carnage begin, Polymbea and Bryson Tiller have entered the transfer portal and

now the roster is starting to look a little more bare for KU.

You are Lockdown J-Hawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas J-Hawks, part of the Lockdown

Podcast Network, your team every day.

It's going on, Derek Johnson here, a little bonus episode of Lockdown J-Hawks, as some

of the latest news, Bryson Tiller and Polymbea have officially entered the transfer portal.

Now, as we know, that does not necessarily mean they're gone as we saw with Florey last

year.

But most of the guys that enter the portal end up being gone, so we're going to approach

it that way and if they end up coming back, then positive surprise there, right?

So we'll get into what other decisions are still to come.

How can KU possibly use this to try to improve at the four in the back of five?

What could they potentially be looking for in the portal and then some of the news right

off the bat here?

Let's just start right there.

I don't think anybody can be shocked by the Bryson Tiller news, right?

I think in general, this was one of the toughest roster decisions to be had, but given

how much Tiller struggled at the end of the year and given how much it feels like Tiller

and Bill Self, maybe there wasn't a exact cohesion between their personalities.

The S word would come around, the soft word that you would think with Self and Tiller that

maybe it wasn't the perfect match you were looking for.

At the same point in time, I did think this was one of the tougher roster decisions from

the standpoint of he did really show some flashes at different points this season.

Everybody thinks about the BYU game, but he had other games like the game at Kansas State

where he played really well and you saw some of the moments where it was like, man, this

kid could turn into something really good at Kansas.

If he's able to stick around, obviously Bill Self has done better with roster retention

and roster continuity and having success with those sorts of teams than the inverse.

And so to those perspective, it would make sense to bring back Tiller.

The flip side of this is because he really struggled in the year and if he's just not

a great fit for Bill Self personality wise, does it make sense for those things that happen?

So you start getting into the new age way of things where there's also, okay, he's thinking

about what's my role going to be.

I mean, you would think if he comes back to Kansas, he's starting.

So you'd think the role would be a check mark there.

But the money starts to become a real question here and make things difficult because if

you're Kansas, because of some of the struggles at the end of the year, maybe you're going,

hey, we'd like to have Bryce and Tiller back, but at this cost.

And if he's going to be asking for this or another team is offering to up the offer

to this bigger number because they see the flashes and go, hey, we want to make you our

guy and maybe a lower end high major, then it's tough for Kansas to be in a position to

be like, yes, let's for sure guarantee that when they can just say, hey, we think you

could develop into something, but that's a think or we could use that money to get something

that we know in the portal.

So I'm not overly surprised by Tiller entering the portal.

The one that does surprise me a little bit more is the Paul and Bia news that he is entering

the portal because it did seem like with the way that Paul and Bia finished the season

with the way that the fans just love Paul and Bia that I figured he would be coming

back and that the idea would be, okay, now you feel good about Paul and Bia being the

backup center for this year's team and being the guy, and especially after Tiller enters

and after flurry enters where you don't know what's going to happen there, you would

think there's a view for him of potentially more minutes or more money in the front court.

So I don't know, maybe this is one where it comes down to like, I don't think this would

be one where it's it's necessarily like K you and Bill self being like, hey, like we're

showing you the door, you should find a different situation.

I think this would more so be one where it's probably Paul and Bia saying, I want to find

a bigger role elsewhere, like I want to go somewhere where I could potentially start.

Like maybe that's what it is for Paul and Bia, but that one certainly hurts a little

bit more.

I think from the standpoint of just like the legend of Paul and Bia and how much people

love him, right?

So I don't think these would be of the Florida Badunga from last year's variety that viewing

them as guys that could still come back, but again, given what happened last year, who

knows anymore.

So I'm not going to completely rule them out coming back, but I'm going to approach it

as they're probably not coming back and it certainly leaves some more holes on the roster.

It certainly leaves more open spots, more spots to potentially fill with the transfer

portal.

So how can K you go about this and try to improve specifically the starting four and

what could K you be looking at at the backup five position that next?

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All right, so what are some areas that K you could be looking to use this as, hey, if

you're losing Taylor, can you find a way to upgrade it?

Because by losing Taylor, you're losing the potential of Taylor.

What Taylor could potentially become, whether that's this year or down the road, even

further, so you're looking for something that I think can be more concrete what it is

right now.

As far as the replacing Paul and B as the backup 5, I think that becomes a more simple

conversation.

For one, you have Davey on adkins coming in as a freshman who you would hope adkins

is at least good enough to give you a 5 to 10 minutes as a highly recruited freshman,

but you at least have a body there, right?

But I think in general, like you look at having your backup 5, maybe the idea here is

kind of the same thing.

Hey, with Mbia, there is a bit of projection and potential.

Maybe you just look for somebody who is more of a sure thing who is more of a completed

player.

You can just come in and do that.

Or maybe you even look at the backup 5 and go, hey, right now instead of paying Florida

but doing a $4 million, what if we just bring in two centers who are each worth $2 million

and get two quality players and they both play around 20 minutes per game and you have a really

good center rotation and maybe they're centers that are normally worth $1.7 million and

you're able to up the offer to $2 million to get them to agree to that.

I don't know.

There's different approaches you could go there, but I would think that the backup 5 replacement

you're going to be looking for somebody who is a little bit more, I guess, ready right

now for sure to be there.

Now, as far as the four spot with Till are gone, at least for the time being, the first

question that Bill Suffs is going to have to ask himself, is does he want to play with

a wing at the four or does he want to play with a power forward at the four, right?

And maybe this just comes down to what good player at each position could you get.

If you can get a wing who can play the four for you, who's really good, you'll play that

way.

If you can get a power forward, who's really good, you'll play that way too.

So it might just come down to which guys you bring in and then you adjust your style

from there or maybe it is a directed approach of, this is how we want to play, this we're

going to go to.

The way that College of Asheville seems to be going right now would be more so looking

toward the power forward, but maybe you zig when College of Asheville is zagging and go

with the wing, right?

But I think in general, this is kind of what I'm looking at.

If you have an opportunity here to upgrade at the four position, I'd be looking to find

more rebounding.

Okay, you was not good enough for rebounding team.

Can you find more rebounding than you got from Tiller?

Can you find a little bit more post-up ability?

I think we saw it at times from Tiller.

He was more of a face up guy, but he had that turnaround in the post-up that showed, it

wasn't consistent, but he at least had it.

Can you find more consistency in a post-up?

And then can you find more three point consistency, right?

We had moments where Tiller was hitting shots and hitting threes, but overall in the season,

you're only talking 14 made threes, what four of which came against North Carolina, to

10 the rest of the season on like 27%, which again, if you're taking out the Carolina

game, you're dropping to low 20%.

So it doesn't have to be a three point marks.

Can you at least find a little more three point consistency?

So I wanted to take a look.

So Bryson Tiller last season had about a 7% offence of rebound rate, and he had about a 17%

defense of rebound rate.

So if we're talking improving, let's look at players in the transfer portal, and this

is as of right now, there are constantly more players being added to the portal.

So by the time this releases, there might be a new player who'd qualify for this.

But at least an 8% offence of rebound rate.

So that's a tick above what Tiller did, at least an 18% defensive rebound rate.

Again, a tick above what Tiller did in the transfer portal.

We look at wanting some reliability on the post up.

Now, there's no way that I can really put in here and be like, you know, post up scoring

into this filter, unfortunately.

But Tiller only shot 50% on two point shots.

Let's say we want guys who at least have shot 55% on two point shots, right in the portal.

Then we look at the three point shooting again, a bit inconsistent.

Let's say people who took at least 50, 50, three point attempts this past season.

Tiller took 52.

So that's not a huge number that can be less than two per game.

But at least it's getting them up to where if you want to play two big basketball,

you have that ability.

And then we'll say just the consistency of three point shooting,

we're not even going to set a high bar there.

Get somebody who at least shot 30% from three this past season or more, right?

And then the last one I'm going to put into this filter is defensive RAPM, your defensive

value.

I'm not even going to set it for a high number.

I'm just going to set it to zero or better.

Are you at least a net neutral on the defensive end where you're not just a train

rack on defense and we return five guys that are currently in the portal.

Again, this could change if a new name enters by the time I'm recording this in a post and

everything.

One of them is the Sean Good, who we did an episode on.

We did a deep dive on back in the portal, the Sean Good, certainly a player that I'm

very interested in and would love for KU to bring in at the four.

This is kind of an interesting one.

I don't know how to pronounce it.

Andrea Bukamiravitch, Andrea Bukamiravitch, he's at one of the, you

wouldn't see like Asheville or something.

Interesting player.

He's six foot seven.

Okay.

UT Martin.

I thought that was a different logo.

About 14 points eight rebounds per game.

He's a Serbian forward who's a junior.

I don't know.

That one might be a tough adjustment in terms of the adjustment of the level of play.

But maybe that's somebody that you would find interesting.

Eric Mahaffey, that guy's a guard six foot four and he's that good of a rebounder.

Maybe something you look into from Akron.

Raisian Anderson is another one where it's like how does this translate over from his

level of play because he's playing in the summit lead, which can always be a difficult

projection.

But he's six foot nine two forty five.

Is that more of a five man from Lincoln Nebraska 10.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, but he's

doing that in 18 minutes per game.

That is a high productivity 1.3 stocks per game.

Would he make sense as kind of a backup five?

He plays the backup four backup five possibly there and then JT Rock is the last one for

New Mexico who, you know, he's more of a rotation player from New Mexico.

So he would be more in the ilk of like a backup center.

When I look at that list, I say to Sean Good.

I continue to highlight him and be like, that would be your way of upgrading the four.

And I'm sure there will be other names that enter to, but as you can tell, I continue

to be high on Sean Good.

All right.

What are other roster decisions that need to be made or for all I know have been made

while I'm recording this episode, we'll get to that next today's episode of the show

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Thanks again for joining us here on Locked on J-Hox.

So what other roster decisions still need to be made for Kansas at this point in time?

The whole Rosario, I think, becomes the big one at this point, like tiller was the most

difficult fit to figure out for me just in terms of all the moving parts.

And BO was the one that kind of surprised me.

I think cold Rosario feels like one where it's a 50-50 decision who knows.

With El Marco Jackson and Jamari McDowell, there's part of me that says they feel like

lifers, but there's another part of me that thinks, well, but like what role are they

going to be offered?

Are they going to have a chance at a bigger role somewhere else, you know, and then you

see like tomorrow, McDowell, after they lose in the NCAA tournament, like vehemently defending

Bill Self and stuff and you're like, well, but then again, like who knows with all the

money and the role and stuff, like what is going to be available there?

So those guys feel like coin flips at this point, again, you get further down the rotation

and you finding out like Simeez Calderone where it's like Bill Self has repeatedly said

he's a future pro and has this unbelievable athleticism.

So like Bill Self seems to be very high on Simeez Calderone, but then again, if you're

Simeez Calderone, you weren't part of the rotation this year and like, I don't know,

what do you see as your own future?

Do you see your future being in the rotation this year?

Do you feel that you're going to be out of the rotation again where you want to go somewhere

else for a bigger role or do you want to say, hey, I like the money and I like being at

Kansas and I feel like I could continue to develop and maybe even if I'm out of the

rotation this year, but I improve and then maybe the next year I'm in the world.

Who knows?

So those are kind of the big ones, I think, remaining at this point, you could throw in

other players on the rock.

Like what is Corbin Allen going to do?

Corbin Allen registered at his first year and that seems to be the idea, like if that

was the idea all along with coming on, why would that change now from this year to last

year?

So I expect Corbin Allen back, I guess, but that would be more of a developmental player

anyway.

So those are the big ones to keep an eye out for and we'll keep you updated here post

any episodes of anything happened and continue doing player deep dives and give you updates

what's going on the portal and plenty more right here on locked on J Hawks.

Make sure to check out all our deep dives doing some players that we think are interesting

that you might have interest in, maybe Kay, you will have interest in or players that

I find interesting.

You can check out the shot good episode, you can check out the Miles Bird episode from

the other day.

You can find it all right here on locked on J Hawks and we'll see you next time for another

episode of the show.

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