The Remy Martin Experience Will Be a Fun One
Also: Ochai Back?!
First things first—what’s up Streakers! It’s been a minute.
I can explain—these months are generally slow ones on the college basketball front, and I thought it might be a good time to chill and recharge the Streak Talk batteries a bit. But now, there’s some big recent-ish news in the Jayhawk universe that is certainly worth an e-mail. Let’s do this.
Remy!
Although this offseason has been a productive one—there are nine new scholarship players! Nine!—it feels like Self has been slow-rolling toward a big get. Many suspected this late-period would yield a signing like TyTy Washington, a five-star PG that played at Compass Prep in Arizona. On May 12, Washington committed to Kentucky, and KU still had a glaring hole at the lead guard spot. As the player pool depleted—both at the transfer portal level as well as within the ranks of major prep prospects—it felt like KU just might not find that player this offseason.
So much for that! With the transfer signing of Remy Martin, the former ASU guard who flirted with being a breakout college star a few times during his career in Tempe, KU has that polished scoring guard that they were missing last season. While there are a few question marks about Remy—could he end up pursuing a pro opportunity, and will he carry enough water on D?—it’s a signing that will surely make a bigger impact than that of a blue chip prospect entering a higher level of basketball. (I hope this trend evaporates, but KU has had a hard time keeping 5-star guards happy early in their careers at Kansas.)
As Kansas fans, we’ve become accustomed to seeing KU stack talent through the traditional pipeline of recruiting. Seeing KU fail to land top prospects feels weird, and bringing on in-conference transfers like 24-year-old Jalen Coleman-Lands feels downright unprecedented. But the modern moment in college basketball is unprecedented: players are not punished for transferring, and that’s just opened up the floodgates.
Bill Self improved the roster through the opportunity that this modern landscape affords. The top ranked prep players have more options than ever, so Self found talent in a traditionally overlooked area. The roster turnover is immense, and I’m not the only Kansas fan whose head is spinning. But can anyone say that this roster isn’t markedly better than last year’s? I don’t think so.
Anyway, bring on Remy. He’s going to get buckets at Kansas, which is good because buckets are expected. Martin is an exceptionally skilled scorer—can he round out his game in other ways to make a talent-dense roster play to its ceiling? TBD.
Ochai Back?
Inbound post player Sydney Curry has de-committed, which means either:
Ochai Agbaji is coming back
We’re still recruiting
Either option… feels good? Best wishes to Curry, whose toughness and rebounding I was genuinely looking forward to watching at Kansas.
When it comes to Ochai Agbaji, I’m torn. KU is better next year With Agbaji than Without. On the other hand, I had to wonder if this was Ochai’s best window for tacking down an NBA opportunity. Some scouts are still high on him—he still profiles as an NBA two-guard, and he shot almost 40% from three on seven attempts a game—and I just can’t imagine his NBA profile improving all that much, barring a completely reinvented floor game. No one knows anything about this year’s draft class. If there’s a player who can take advantage of that fact, it’s Agbaji.
As a Jayhawk fan, I want Agbaji to stay, but with guards like Martin in the fold, Agbaji’s scoring is less important. Agbaji has shown flashes as a defender, but he’s not consistent and loses his man more often than you would like. Can he tighten that up? When I’ve been most frustrated with Agbaji, I’ve had to remind myself that Och was a redshirt freshman who got his shirt yanked off prematurely, and defied expectations. Maybe he’s actually… ahead of schedule? Or has he plateaued? Like I said, I’m torn!
Thanks for reading Streakers. All proceeds are still donated, like always, so please share and I’ve got some good stuff coming up over the summer.