- 1 day ago
KU Insider Henry Greenstein checks in with all the latest from Lawrence.
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00:00And now, digging deeper with the teams you follow, it's another Sports Daily Insider interview on KFH.
00:08Alright, and welcome back in. Henry Greenstein joining us in what will be Henry's regularly scheduled spot.
00:15We've been bouncing around a little bit. Now, what that means, Henry, is you're in on Wednesdays.
00:19And what that means is it's Hawaiian shirt Wednesdays.
00:22And what that means is you have an opportunity as an insider to really lean into this.
00:28Now, many have tried, many have failed to participate in the right way.
00:33All it is, you throw on a Hawaiian shirt on Wednesdays, Henry, your day gets better.
00:37Everybody around you's day gets better.
00:40Alright, well, I'll do what I can to keep that tradition going.
00:43I don't know if I have one in my closet now.
00:45You know, I've been here for a while, but that hasn't risen to the top of my priority list in
00:51terms of articles of clothing to purchase.
00:53Now, that being said, I'm immediately going to pencil it in there right now and try to obtain one.
00:59So, at some point during our relationship, I will hope to have one to match your feet.
01:04You do it, and you walk around, and just watch the way people look at you.
01:08Just watch the way people treat you that day.
01:10Like, man, this guy's in a good mood today.
01:12This guy's having a nice time today.
01:14It's a revolution.
01:16Alright, alright.
01:17Now, I'm a dad of soon-to-be-four, Henry.
01:20A part of this is, you know, you just got to lean into that lifestyle, right?
01:25There's an embarrass your wife and kids factor.
01:28There's everything else.
01:29But, you know, you go out, people, everyone else is like, alright, I like it.
01:32So, join in soon.
01:34We appreciate it.
01:35Henry Greenstein with us here, our KU Insider.
01:37This will be Henry's normal slot once things settle in.
01:40You can find him, of course, at the Lawrence Journal World, where he's a sports editor.
01:44Also, KUSports.com.
01:46This, I don't know.
01:48Let's start with basketball and all of this stuff happening, and we've got court cases all over the country, and
01:54how does it impact Trey White?
01:56And there's been a, you know, a fake guy on X that got everybody, and I got a text from
02:01him.
02:02But, like, I bet three or four different KU people are like, whoa!
02:07I think it's, I think this is a fake.
02:10But it still doesn't erase the fact that it's a possibility out there, as is Melvin Council for different reasons.
02:16I saw one of the Nashville guys yesterday connect the Michigan State player who was part of a California ruling
02:23as maybe KU some interest.
02:25I don't know if that's mutual interest.
02:26I don't know how to keep up with all this.
02:28I don't know if you have any better of a way to keep up with all this.
02:32How does Bill Self keep up with all of this?
02:34Yeah, I can't imagine how anyone can possibly understand what's going on.
02:39First of all, I mean, you touched on a lot of things that are near and dear to my heart
02:44and that I've been very intensely involved with recently.
02:47But it's almost like Twitter should have some way to determine who is and isn't a reliable news source, right?
02:52Wouldn't that be such a novel idea?
02:54It's only getting worse with AI, too.
02:56I know, and that guy is particularly devious because he tweets realistic things based on other people's...
03:04He's gotten KU fanbase before on something, I feel like.
03:07Absolutely.
03:08So my solution is I just block all of those accounts so I don't even see them.
03:12But then people will be like, hey, did you hear about blah, blah, blah?
03:15And then I have no idea what they're talking about.
03:17And I'm like, oh, that was probably fake.
03:19So anyway, as for everything else that's going on, you know, this is why we get into this business, isn't
03:25it?
03:25So we can attend Friday status conferences at Douglas County Court just in case they say anything.
03:33That's where I'll be, guys, at 1.30 on Friday, Division 5 courtroom over at 11th and Massachusetts.
03:41No, I mean, I can't imagine...
03:44Now, KU has a whole apparatus of people who understand the law better than I do.
03:48So they at least have people in Kansas athletics who are telling Bill Self what he can and can't do.
03:53But you're right.
03:55It's become a tangled web of cases that is totally incomprehensible to the average person.
04:00I've primarily followed it from the vantage point of Melvin Council and Trey White.
04:06Because until I hear some sort of substantive element that leads me to believe KU is pursuing a transfer,
04:13I'm not going to go too hard on that.
04:14But I understand John Rothstein has reported interest in Jackson Kohler from Michigan State,
04:19who, as you mentioned, can now enter the portal.
04:22That's what that California case was about, allowing people to enter the portal who hadn't otherwise.
04:26Because there were a lot of guys who were getting a fifth year, but they were trapped on their previous
04:30team.
04:31Had Trey White entered the portal?
04:33No.
04:34No.
04:34But I also don't know that he has any intention to, although now I believe he could, if my understanding
04:40of it.
04:40I ask that because, to throw another wrench into it for us here, Henry, there are a handful of shockers
04:46who are in the same boat.
04:49They did enter the portal preemptively, though.
04:51So, just for the listeners out there, the situation with Karan Boyd and Kenny Giles is different than Trey White's,
05:00for instance, or this California case.
05:02Like, that's what's maddening about this.
05:05Although it's no longer as different because the California case means you'll probably see more.
05:11I mean, I saw a lot of it yesterday, right?
05:13A lot of new guys entering the portal.
05:15And by the way, the fact that it's happening on August 19th is completely ridiculous.
05:21So, that's all.
05:22The four and five, I mean, it seems like things are heading in a good direction with Trey White.
05:26There's been no real public inclination, but I, you know, can make a lot of money.
05:32He's coming off a good thing in the summer league.
05:34Seemed to enjoy his time at KU.
05:36It wouldn't surprise me if he ends up on the Jayhawks roster.
05:39Now, that'll create a bit of a log jam, and I'll have to sort through what they're going to do
05:43with all their wings if that happens.
05:45But a guy who played the best basketball of his career last season wouldn't surprise me at all to see
05:49him come back.
05:50The council thing, which we have, as you kindly noted, we have consistently been the first to report on.
05:56The council thing has been a quagmire of its own that is not actually related to anything else that's going
06:03on.
06:04Because council, he's two years older than all these guys, and he's already played another year of college basketball.
06:11He's already played five seasons. His argument is more along the lines of, well, you already gave me this one
06:20JUCO waiver.
06:21My other JUCO year shouldn't count two, so I should get to play a sixth season.
06:26And his argument is basically that by depriving him from doing so, the NCAA is preventing him from making money.
06:33It's a breach of contract and tortious interference with a business relationship.
06:38So he's suing the NCAA on those grounds. The NCAA filed its reply on Friday night.
06:45Of course, it was a Friday night. And it essentially said, they had made a lot of different arguments.
06:51The main one to me, which I think council's people will probably challenge pretty hard, is that he signed a
06:57contract, had an agent, and played in the summer league.
06:59He did play in the summer league, but they may argue that he didn't actually sign anything.
07:03So keep an eye out for that. And then besides that, like, that argument was essentially, well, even if you
07:11discount the JUCO thing, it doesn't matter because he also did this other stuff.
07:14They also have a lot of arguments saying, under Indiana law, our eligibility rules should be exempt from judicial review.
07:22They cite a precedent saying that an association cannot be sued in the state of Kansas.
07:32The NCAA says we are just legally not allowed to be sued.
07:36If you want to sue us, you have to sue our member institutions and us.
07:41So we'll see if that leads to a reformatting of the lawsuit in some way where KU or the Big
07:4712 or something could be named as a defendant.
07:50I don't know. Again, we've reached the limits of my legal expertise at this point, but I will be there,
08:00like I said, on Friday.
08:01And then two weeks hence is the hearing on his motion for a temporary injunction where the judge can say,
08:09all right, until we resolve this case, Melvin is eligible and can start doing stuff.
08:15Or the judge can say, nope, we got to wait and resolve the case.
08:18Either way, if the judge like the NCAA will have 30 more days after that to respond to the full
08:24case.
08:25So far, they've only responded to the request for an injunction.
08:28So let me let me jump in one more time here, Brady, on that, because what confuses me, Henry, is,
08:34OK, let's say the judge says that.
08:38It sounds to me like the NCAA is ready to pounce hard if ultimately whatever happens now gets changed later
08:48and they will.
08:50So I get the sense that they're warning people like, OK, if you do this and we get the opportunity
08:56to punish you for it, we're going to punish you for it.
08:59I'm sure they'd like to like, I'm sure they'd like to, but I haven't read too many of the other
09:05lawsuits.
09:05But in Melvin's, he's also asking the judge to enjoin the NCAA from penalizing him or any institution that may
09:12penalize him.
09:14So if the judge.
09:15Sorry.
09:16Down the road, you mean.
09:18Well, he's basically saying, like, don't sorry, I might have worded that weirdly, but he's basically saying.
09:25If you make me eligible, also make it so I can't be punished or my institution can't be punished for
09:30having me play so that he's trying to use legal means to prevent the NCAA from bringing the hammer down
09:37on a school that may have him play basketball.
09:40OK, so if the judge chooses to do that, it would essentially render him invulnerable to punishment.
09:47And there, you know, you think about the Charles Bediaco thing last year.
09:50It's not like Alabama had to vacate wins for using him.
09:54Same kind of deal would be the same kind of deal here.
09:57I'm not saying that applies for every player who's in one of these lawsuits.
09:59But for Melvin, if the judge grants a motion for a temporary injunction, it will likely also include the provisions
10:05where he's like, hey, make it so the NCAA can't be mean to me or KU as a result of
10:10this.
10:12Mercy.
10:13Henry, I got to say, just after hearing you go over some of this, I feel like I have maybe
10:17a 5% chance, 5% better chance to pass the bar if I had to do the bar today.
10:24Yeah, man, it's just I, you know, going back to what Jacob asked right off the get goes, like how,
10:32you know, for self or just, you know, KU basketball, how are you organizing all this?
10:39How are you, I got to think that you're probably, you have like plans A, B, and C kind of
10:45ready, because how do you get ready for the season when you think, well, maybe we'll have council, maybe we
10:51won't, or if we do, we got to be this prepared down the line legally.
10:56I mean, it's just, how are you preparing just to coach a basketball team when you have all these moving
11:02parts going on in such a quick time?
11:05I'm sure Megan Wallwender, who's the director of compliance who does like the legal stuff for KU athletics, is getting
11:13some pretty busy days these days.
11:17And she's probably getting a lot of inquiries about this guy and this guy and this guy.
11:22You know, I think the athletic department is probably taking a pretty cautious approach to this, often considered.
11:27We haven't seen a single KU athlete across any sport who got a fifth year, in theory, come back yet.
11:35That's not saying it won't happen, but classes start on Monday, so I'm not expecting a huge influx.
11:41I think ultimately, in the case of KU basketball, what probably reassures them is that they like the roster they
11:49have already.
11:50And Bill Self has taken care to say that at every turn. He's been like, will we add? Maybe, but
11:57if we don't, we like what we have.
11:59And it's hard to blame them for doing so. I understand they're not super esteemed by national predictors, but this
12:06is the vision they had for this roster.
12:08Building around Stokes, adding transfer talent at both guard and forward, not spending as much on a big man, even
12:16though some KU fans weren't super happy about that.
12:18And then kind of the dual, small guard, two-ball handler thing in the backcourt with Taylon Kinney and Leroy
12:24Blyden.
12:25And Tyron Stokes is a great passer, too. You have to like how the ball movement looks.
12:29You have to like how the rebounding looks with Keanu Dawes and either Palm Beach or Christian Reed inside.
12:34There are strengths. Of course, you're going to get better if you get an all-in counselor, Trey White.
12:39Like, obviously, it will create a quagmire, as I said.
12:42But especially with that backcourt that I just mentioned, because someone's not going to be happy if they get them.
12:48Can you have the money to get them if they want them?
12:51Well, probably not.
12:53But the good thing with, I guess you could call it good.
12:57The good thing with established guys is it's easier to go through the over-the-cap commercial NIL thing,
13:04because it's easier to make the case that their sponsorships are worth actual money.
13:08Like a few weeks ago, everyone was talking about how KU was going to get this Serbian guy, Mihailo Moushikic.
13:15I was always skeptical on that and reported as much.
13:19But everyone was talking about that.
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