Part 3 of the roster review series
In the first two editions of this series, I went through KU’s returning starters, followed by a look this year’s freshman recruiting class. However, in modern college sports, recruiting never ends and also includes players from other schools looking for a better destination. In years past, Self has used D1 transfers as a way to shore up what appears to be a weakness on the team. It’s gone better in some cases than others. Nic Timberlake was a sought-after senior transfer last year intended to give the team a knockdown shooter with the quickness to drive and score on poor closeouts. What we saw instead was a player skilled enough to look good at Towson, but who simply couldn’t compete at the Big 12 level. We’ve seen similar results from players like Joseph Yesufu, who spent the second half of his sophomore season lighting up in the MVC at Drake. Yesufu never found his footing at Kansas, and after inconsistent playing time, spent his final year at Washington State.
There are positive examples as well, of course. Remy Martin was an enigma for most of his single season in Lawrence, only to get healthy (and possibly back in Bill Self’s good graces, depending on who you believe) just in time to be an important shot-maker on a team that won the national title. Dedric Lawson, a Memphis transfer in 2019, might have helped Kansas make a deep tournament run if Udoka Azubuike hadn’t been lost for the year due to injury, with Lawson playing well enough to earn 3rd team All-American honors. Then of course, Hunter Dickinson came in last year and was an All-American, and Kevin McCullar may have been one as well if it it weren’t for injury.
Today I’ll break down the incoming transfers for 2024-25, what we know, what we don’t know, and how they may be able to help this year’s team. Self really went all-in on the portal this year, so there are five names to cover.
Rylan Griffen – 6’6 wing – Alabama
First up, in alphabetical order, is Rylan Griffen. Griffen played two years under Nate Oats at Alabama, and was one of the hotter names in the portal this year. Griffen is generally known as a solid team defender, though not a lockdown defensive player by any means. His primary attribute is his shooting, making 56.9% of his twos and 39.2% of his 189 three point attempts last season. He doesn’t get to the line much, but hit 81% of he free throws when he got there. He doesn’t turn it over much and got his assist rate up to 11.4% last year, so he works well as a connector on the wing even when he isn’t the guy taking the shot. Griffen has played major conference basketball and proven he can hold his own, so Self should feel pretty comfortable in knowing what to expect from Griffen. Griffen is a likely starter and provides a knockdown shooter the Jayhawks desperately needed.
Zeke Mayo – 6’4 guard – South Dakota State
If you go to YouTube and search for Mayo’s highlights, one thing will make itself evident very quickly: the dude is a walking bucket. Stepback threes, pull-up jumpers, set shots…no matter the degree of difficulty, Mayo is up to the challenge and makes some shots most players wouldn’t even consider trying. I should be all the way in on Mayo and I likely will be once the season starts, but after watching Timberlake and Yesufu go from tearing it up in their respective low-to-mid-major conferences to struggling to even find a role at Kansas, I can’t help but be gunshy. Meaningfless as it is, the fact that he was the only scholarship player to go scoreless at the scrimmage in last month’s Bill Self Basketball Camp didn’t quell my concerns, either. Still, on tape he looks like a fearless and smooth shooter who can score in a number of ways, and there probably isn’t much reason to actually be worried. He’s a career 38.3% three point shooter on 553 attempts over three years, so it’s safe to say sample size isn’t an issue. He also hit 53% from two and increased his free throw rate by quite a bit, and he’s an 86.8% career from throw shooter, so that’s a good things as well. Mayo isn’t known as a defender, which could mean slightly fewer minutes under Self, but by and large this was a big offensive pickup and Mayo has the potential to go off in his junior year.
Shakeel Moore – 6’1 guard – Mississippi State
Moore was a bit of a surprise pickup for Self. Labaron Philon, the heir apparent to Dajuan Harris’ point guard throne, suddenly announced he was decommitting at the end of April. He quickly decided to go to Bama, effectively turning his move into a Philon for Griffen swap. That said, we’re talking about Moore here, and not the guy who left the opening at backup point guard. While he’ll likely be asked to run point when Harris isn’t in the game, Moore is not a true point guard and lacks the “floor general” offensive skill set we see from Harris.
Moore was a starting combo guard for 8 seed Mississippi State last year, where he had played for three years following a freshman season at NC State. Moore is definitely destined for a role off the bench, as they’re simply too much talent at guard and wing to start him next to Harris, which likely wouldn’t work well offensively anyway. Moore is known as an excellent defender, so when Harris has to sit, there won’t be any huge dropoff on that end of the court. Moore does make plays for others, but not an exceptional rate, with a 14.4% assist% last year, coming off a junior year where his assist rate was a more impressive 19.2%. Moore’s status as a shooter is questionable, having struggled most of his career from three before hitting 36.2% on a very selective 80 shots. He seems like a guy who can hit a three when he’s open, but has no business putting up a lot of shots. He doesn’t turn the ball over much, but it’s hard to pinpoint anything on the offensive end that he does especially well. He can drive and get to the free throw line at times, he can set up another scorer at times, and he can be a reliable connector at times. As long as he brings his defensive A game though, I think he’ll be doing what Self wants him to do, as I just don’t see him bringing the ball up the court, or putting up many shots in his single season as a Jayhawk.
Noah Shelby – 6’3 guard – Rice
I wont’ talk a lot about Shelby, as he’s more of a piece Self stashed away for the future. He’s a preferred walk on and a likely redshirt candidate, after playing 30 games at Rice and starting just one. He shot poorly from both inside and outside the arc, rarely got to the free throw line (though he shot well when he got there, which could be an indication that he’ll become a shooter over time, didn’t rebound well even for a guard, and generally just didn’t heavily factor into the team’s rotation. Self wouldn’t have brought him in if he didn’t see something in Shelby that made him believe he might contribute one day, but that one day is likely a couple years into the future.
AJ Storr – 6’7 wing – Wisconsin
Storr was arguably the biggest transfer pickup Kansas made this year. Mayo tore in up in the MVC and Griffen was a reliable starter for a Final Four team, but Storr is coming off a 2nd team All-B1G selection as Wisconsin’s go-to any time they needed points. Storr played at St John’s as a freshman, where he played in just over half the team’s minutes while putting up as many shots as he could. He knocked down 40.4% from three and 45.0% from two as a freshman in the Big East, earning him enough interest to move up to a bigger program.
That program would end up being Wisconsin, and Storr was huge part of the Badgers’ offense. Playing just under 30 minutes per game, Storr shot the ball from everywhere, and did it frequently. His 3P% dipped with the increased volume, hitting just 32% of his 150 attempts. I’m not overly worried about that number as it seems unlikely that Self will have him bombing away like that when he’s as good as he is nearer to the basket. He put up 348 twos last year, and made 48.3% of them while maintaining a free thrown rate over 30%. If you turn a few of his threes into drives, all his numbers likely go up. Despite a massive usage rate of nearly 30%, Storr rarely turned the ball over even as he relentlessly shot the ball. His numbers indicate a guy who has all the offensive skill in the world but needs to refine it, and figure out when to use which skills. Playing under Self this year should go a long way in getting him where he needs to be, which is likely a ruthless slasher who can knock down open threes if you can suck the defense into the paint.