Kansas basketball: How Gradey Dick can influence college decision for 5-star Liam McNeeley

Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self can use Gradey Dick’s successful career with the Jayhawks as a recruiting pitch to entice 5-star Liam McNeeley to Lawrence.

Gradey Dick was one of the better freshmen in the country last year and was a lottery pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Dick is similar in a lot of ways to Kansas Jayhawks recruiting target Liam McNeeley.

When McNeeley officially visited Kansas basketball back on Sept. 1, it was interesting to see that Dick was in town at the same time to watch the Kansas football home opener vs. Missouri State. It would be reasonable to assume that Bill Self used Dick as someone to show McNeeley how he could fit into Self’s system.

Using a very recent lottery pick to pitch to a prospective recruit is about as good as you can do when trying to make a strong impression on a visit. I am intrigued by how this could impact McNeeley’s decision on where he wants to attend college.

There isn’t another school on McNeeley’s top six of Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, and Michigan that can make that kind of connection with a former player who fits McNeeley’s style of play.

It seemed as if Bill Self wasn’t recruiting McNeeley as hard as other targets over the summer, but he started to turn up the heat towards the end of August after landing top-ranked big man Flory Bidunga. When the Hall of Fame head coach had an in-home visit with Cooper Flagg earlier this week, he also met briefly with McNeeley. The KU coaching staff was also watching the Montverde Academy star at his school.

Trilly Donovan, an anonymous college basketball insider/expert, has recently tweeted on X that McNeeley is a ‘heavy Indiana lean’ at this point in time. However, everyone should know by now to never count Bill Self out of any recruiting battle.

Trilly always seems to have pretty good intel on recruitments, so I would trust what he is saying. I think Kansas basketball makes a pretty compelling case to McNeeley, but it will be a heavyweight fight to the finish line for his services.