NCAA Basketball: Will 5-star Mackenzie Mgbako play for Indiana or Kansas?
Kansas Jayhawks
While Duke may have had the best offseason as a team so far, Kansas is closing the gap on that quickly. They first added 17 ppg scoring guard Nicolas Timberlake from Towson and former five-star prospect Arterio Morris from Texas to revamp the backcourt, before adding arguably the top player in the transfer portal last week.
The addition of Hunter Dickinson from Michigan instantly made the Jayhawks a national title contender once again next season. Even without adding anyone else, their projected starting lineup is one of the best. But assuming that Kevin McCullar remains in the NBA Draft, Kansas could add a true small forward to add even more size alongside Dickinson and KJ Adams in the frontcourt.
Coach Bill Self has a bunch of previous examples of five-star prospects heading to the NBA, including Gradey Dick from last season. And there are a bunch of former forwards that break out as stars in NCAA Basketball, including Big 12 Player of the Year, Jalen Wilson.
The one downside for Kansas compared to Indiana is that Mgbako would have to settle for a smaller role next to Dickinson and either Morris or Timberlake in the backcourt. Still, the Jayhawks have shown that they can have multiple stars on one team and go deep in March, as they recently did by winning the 2022 national title.
Top transfer pickups of last week. dark. Next
If Kansas lands Mgbako, look for them to be a preseason top-3 team or even No. 1 overall for the 2023-24 campaign. And Jayhawk fans would have to send Filipowski a gift basket for starting this domino effect that they benefit from.