@Jayhawk_69 Should have clarified that it is unprecedented in the Self era to have a projected preseason seed that low...

Fwiw, which is not much, CBSSports today KU projected as a #7 seed next year. Unprecedented. Whether that bears any relation to reality remains to be seen. But it is a reflection of how little is thought of what the Hawks have lost and have coming in. Same seed as VCU, which lost its best player in the portal to Tennessee...

Juke Harris to Tennessee - after already adding Hill, Ames, Lundblade, and Haralson - all of whom are arguably better than our 3. Does Tennessee really have a much bigger budget? Or, are we waiting in the hope to land someone who pulls out of the draft, e.g., Momcilovic?

From USA Today. Last updated May 2.
Best remaining players in 2026 college basketball transfer portal, latest news

F Milan Momcilovic, Iowa State
    Latest intel: Duke, Kentucky, Florida and Kansas reportedly in the mix; declared for NBA draft but could return to college
G Juke Harris, Wake Forest
    Latest intel: The Detroit Free Press reported Michigan is out of the running, and On3 casted a prediction for Tennessee. North Carolina was also linked.
F Allen Graves, Santa Clara
    Latest intel: Duke and LSU among those in the mix; declared for NBA Draft but leaving door open to college return. He was invited to the Scouting Combine.
G Tounde Yessoufou, Baylor
    Latest intel: Another going through draft process; heavy Kentucky interest.
G Paul McNeil, NC State
    Latest intel: Another with Kentucky interest, North Carolina and Michigan reportedly involved, but a return to NC State not being ruled out. His former coach at NC State, Will Wade, is now at LSU, which could be another suitor.
F Jordan Burks, UCF
    Latest intel: A late addition to the portal, Burks had previous stops at Kentucky and Georgetown. He averaged a career-best 13.3 ppg and 4.8 rpg for the Knights this past season. A 6-9 forward who is a 37% shooter from deep should be a hot commodity.
G Hamad Mousa, Cal Poly
    Latest intel: The 6-8 Qatari guard began his career at Dayton before transferring to Cal Poly prior to last season. There he averaged 20.4 ppg, 6.3 rpg and shot 37.2% from behind the arc.
G Tijan Saine Jr., Weber State
    Latest intel:Per ESPN, Saine is hearing from Washington, Missouri, NC State, Mississippi State, LSU and Texas State.
G Vyctorius Miller, Oklahoma State
    Latest intel: He recently finished a visit to Kansas.
G Abdi Bashir Jr., Kansas State
    Latest intel: Has Zoom calls set up with Kansas and NC State and has already visited St. John's.

Five more to keep an eye on: Christian Harmon (Arkansas State), Akai Fleming (Georgia Tech), Cayden Charles (St. Bonaventure), Mihailo Petrovic (Illinois), Dennis Parker (Radford)

@Jayhawk_69 said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

Now Bill's patented 7-man rotation looks pretty clear. Kinney, Blyden Jr, Stokes, Dawes, Reeves, Rosario, and Mbiya. This team will not be good at shooting. They will be crazy fast and should be good on the glass.

Hope, wing, and a prayer if that is our rotation. Exactly 1 guy who has produced at the high major level. Two freshmen and two returnees with minimal minutes (especially Mbiya). Is Kinney really capable of running things for 30+ mpg??? Are we confident Reeves and Blyden can produce against P5 talent every game???

This line-up only works if those things happen and if Rosario follows a Braun trajectory and Mbiya really progresses. Even then we still need quality depth at the 4 and point. Any Euro talent lurking out there? Not much left in the portal...

@BShark said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

@NormRoberts I would think McNeil wants to start. He's good and in a vacuum he is appealing but I wonder what he would cost and TK would have to come off the bench.

Looks like McNeil is staying at NC State.

@JAYHAWKFAN214 According to 247Sports, the only other D1 offer he had was from UMKC. So not really a depth piece, but a roster filler for practice?

@Jayhawk_69 said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

Bashir would be a great addition

As a rotation player, yes, as a starter no. Really unusual in that all 3 years, his 3 pt % is higher than 2 pt %. For a guy listed at 6'7", he doesn't rebound the ball. But as someone who is capable of giving you production from the bench, yes...

Dispositive of very little, but KU is not in the updated ESPN and CBSSports top 25 next season rankings - includes portal decisions as of yesterday and expected returnees (from NBA draft exploration). Is there another year in which KU has not been ranked in the preseason in the Self or Williams era (other than perhaps the first for the latter)??? Reflection of how little regard there is for what little we have coming back and coming in. We'll see whether that changes if Stokes ends up committing. At least we should still be better than our in-state brethren...

@Jayhawk_69 said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

Stokes is likely committing to Kentucky tomorrow. I think we need to start looking into backup plans. McNeil from NC State is interesting

I don't have an issue with not landing Stokes, just the way this has played out. Should have told him at the beginning of the portal process what our offer was and indicated that if wasn't willing to commit then, we would move on - which we should have done a long while ago. The only HS recruit that could justify 25% of high major NIL budget is a generational talent - and there is no indication Stokes is that.

@JoJoAndMe said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

I'm tired of fishing for the best players at lower level / mid-major schools. ie If we're to lose Flory, we have to get a Flory equivalent (or better in return) if we have any hopes for Big 12 and National Championships. Bill's made 10 million a year for many years now. He should donate to his own NIL fund. It's the only way he will ever win another championship.

If we were getting the best players from other schools or conferences, that would be one thing, but were not even getting that. Dawes is a solid player, but the 3rd leading scorer on a bottom tier team in our own conference that went 10-22. Blyden has some promise and good metrics but for a team that went 19-15 playing in the MAC that faced one P5 team all year. Reeves was a solid big for a SoCon team that didn't play a single game against a P5 school. He barely got off the bench in 3 previous years at Duke and Clemson.

@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

As is, our lineup is quite underwhelming. Hoping that changes soon.

Underwhelming is quite the understatement. We are reaching absurdity territory.

Thiam to Michigan today. So, they have added three quality bigs from the portal - all three better than the one we just added. Plus, they have Cadeau and McKenney coming back, along with a 5* guard recruit. Still in the mix for Juke Harris. Does Michigan have that much bigger NIL budget? Or do they know how to navigate the new era better and/or guys just want to play for May?

Even if we end up with Stokes, which is no sure thing, that line-up is so much better than ours. Same with the Gators and several others.

Seriously, even if we get Stokes and with Reeves, is our line-up better than last year's? Stokes<Peterson (at least coming in); Reeves way < than Flory; Dawes maybe a slight upgrade over Tiller (with another year)? Is Stokes going to produce more than White at the 3? Scoring probably yes, but rebounding or defense? Are Kinney and Blyden better than Peterson and Council? I don't see them scoring 32-35 pts per game...

@kjayhawks2.0 said in Chiefs offseason thread:

The Kansas City Chiefs moved up in the NFL draft Thursday night, acquiring the No. 6 pick from the Cleveland Browns and using it to select LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane.

Kansas City sent picks Nos. 9, 74 and 148 to Cleveland in return.

Give up two picks to get a guy who likely would have been available anyway? And relative to other options, both at the position and best available, that's a lot to give up...

@Jayhawk_69 said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

We have a plan B and a plan C. They might not be good plans, but we've got 'em.

Care to share those B and C plans? And that they might not be good plans, which seems pretty obvious at this point, isn't reassuring as to whether there will be any difference in on-court production on off-court dynamics from the past 3 years...

@bskeet said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

If Stokes committing is Plan A, what is Plan B?

That is the multi-million dollar question. It seems as if we've put all our eggs in that basket. Wholly apart from whether Stokes is really worth it, if he commits to UK or elsewhere, what then???

I guess we would have some budget for Diop or Thiam? But that really wouldn't be an upgrade from Flory and we would still be in desperate need of scoring wing. Not much left other than Juke Harris, and I assume we can't afford both him and one of the above bigs? Want nothing to do with the Baylor guy who just entered; black hole with the ball...

@Jayhawk_69 Some of the bigs who have committed elsewhere:
Flory
Estrella
Sherrell
Cyril
Sylla
Hines
Yigitoglu
Fru
Fielder
Riebe
Bonke

Only guys remaining guys at this point are Diop, Thiam, and Reeves; the first two who would be very costly.

We used to be big man U. Could we not afford any of these others guys, or they just didn't want to play at KU?

The idea that Stokes would get 1/3 of the budget - and we don't know yet whether he commit - and that is a formula for success is absurd. Is Stokes a guy that can lead you to a title by himself? How did that work out with Peterson? Do we have any idea whether he can make his teammates better, none of whom from the list above have played for winning college teams or actually demonstrated they can play at a high level in the P5 (Dawes is on the edge). Stokes isn't Peterson and isn't close to Flagg, who had another top 5 lottery pick on the the team, and it still didn't win a title.

UConn (and maybe UF) are the models now - do we have the mix of size, defenders, scorers, and shooters to compete with the best? Sadly, that lineup doesn't seem to come close to what Michigan, Florida, Tennessee, UConn, Duke, Illinois and a few others already have in place....

@TYOHawk WTF are we doing? Just waiting on Stokes? He gets the big bag if he commits, but we don't have anything left for a quality 5? And if he doesn't - what then? I guess we would have money to pay for a good big, but there are only a couple left. And then we would still need a scoring wing? Anyone left worth pursuing? Any dollars to pay them? 80%+ of the top transfers have already committed - the talent pool is diminishing quickly. Blackwell to Duke today (which also is getting Ngongba back and probably Sarr, along with the top incoming class). Muruaskas to ASU today. Brown to UNC today. What do we have today - announcement that a minor bench guy for USC might be visiting?1?

After today, it doesn't matter to us if guys testing the NBA waters come back to school unless they are already in the portal because it will be with their current team.

@Jayhawk_69 We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Dynes scored a total of 4 pts in the Trojans last 6 games, all losses.

@FarmerJayhawk said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

@Jayhawk_69 16/10/2 his last 13 games, 12 as a starter. That changes things for sure.

Guys, having seen a couple of Cougars games, I think you are deluding yourselves. He is a solid mid-major big and can be effective against smaller front-lines. But that was the SoCon. There is a reason he didn't play in 3 years at Clemson and Duke. He is Mbiya with more experience, although I think Paul has more upside. Good to have a big body off the bench, but he would be unplayable against a mobile or stretch 5.

We keep going after mid-major guys - I guess they are cheaper? - while the top teams (not us any longer?) are getting the best of the proven P5 transfers or first team mid-major all-conference.

Why is that Indiana has 6 high major transfers committed and we have just two? Both Sherrill and the SMU transfer are better front court guys than Reeves.