Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Bryson Tiller Playing Time UPGRADE | Final Kansas Jayhawks Lineup, Rotations & Minutes Projections

Starting point is 00:00:00 We're through the exhibition season for KU basketball. Let's get to our final starting lineup, rotation, and minutes projection before the start of the season. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here, a little bonus. episode for you exhibition season is done for k u basketball we learned some new nuggets we got some new points of data and we're going to send our final projection for the starting lineup for the rotation for who's going to get how many minutes and where things could possibly change for k u as the season kind of goes on on this episode of locked on jahawks let's dive right into it where uh i think

Starting point is 00:00:55 the first conversation is who's the starting lineup again the locks feel like darren peterson barring health, obviously. Flory Bedunga, although that one is one where, you know, as we get into the conversation of what could happen down the road, if Florey continues to, you know, struggle a little bit, like we saw in the four-day state game and Bryson Tiller continues to look awesome, you know, maybe that one isn't a lock. Trey White feels like the other lock there. And then Melvin Council even feels like a lock with how well he's played and how much he

Starting point is 00:01:22 is playing just in general. And so those are your locks. And then it's like Cole Rosario pretty definitively seen. seemed like the fifth starter from Bill Self coming into the exhibition, then he was the starter for both games. The Louisville game was not pretty, and the hope was that, okay, weaker competition in the next exhibition, maybe that was just, you know, kind of getting his feet wet a little bit, and he was going to look more comfortable.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Didn't really look that much more comfortable in the second exhibition game either. So I go into the start of the season here, and, you know, would it be shocking to see Bryson Taylor be a starter? No, I don't think it would. but as I've said before, you know, the shooting, if you're playing Trey White at the three with Tiller at the four, floor, at the five, the shooting and spacing is going to be a real concern and an issue for KU. And so you almost have to have one of Jaden Dawson or Cole Rosario, even if Dawson and Rosario don't end up being a top five player on the team, they're going to be

Starting point is 00:02:19 a top five most important player on the team because of their ability to space the floor and open the court up for the rest of the players out there. So I do think Rosario ends up being the fifth start, at least to start the season for KU. But yeah, like I said, it wouldn't be shocking if, you know, Bryson Tiller were in there. I guess technically you could say Jaden Dawson and El Marco Jackson are in the competition for that starting lineup as well. So I do think it's going to be a bit of a fluid situation at the starting five this year.

Starting point is 00:02:50 I don't think this is going to be one of those years. It's like, hey, there's two starting lineups all year long or, you know, this is the starting lineup. And the only way they're going to venture from that is because it's been, injury or something. And so this could be a year where, you know, this is your starting five on opening night. This is your starting five versus Duke. This is your starting five for the start conference play. This is your starting five, you know, come later in the season. So I think that's where the interesting kind of kind of question comes in. As far as whose rotation players be

Starting point is 00:03:17 beyond the starters, those guys we mentioned, you know, El Marco Jackson, Bryson Tiller certainly seemed like he usurped his way. We previously had at Paul Mbilla the first big off the bench. I think it's pretty clearly Bryson Tiller at this point in time and then Marco the first guard and then you have Jaden Dawson as kind of the wing off the bench and then Paul Mbio would be your ninth man

Starting point is 00:03:36 it honestly based on the exhibitions if you were to say who is your 10th man or who's your ninth man if it's a guard almost feels like Jamari McDowell I don't know if that was just playing him more minutes because you wanted to give him a shot with him sticking in the program and give him as many reps as possible

Starting point is 00:03:52 to prove he deserves time but it certainly was notable to me how much he was playing, not in terms of that, like, I'm not expecting him to be in the rotation necessarily, but it does feel like he's head of Gingala, right? That one was one that I wasn't totally sure where that was going to go, and it does seem like he's ahead of Smeese Calderon. So let's get into how things could kind of change as the season goes on, and then we'll get into how we're divvying out our minutes. This episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. From the footwork to breathwork,

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Starting point is 00:04:50 So I think this is, like I said, one of those situations is going to be a little fluid with the KU starting lineup. as the year goes on. Cole Rosario could be the opening night starter just to continue what you're doing. But if he keeps playing like he is, that's going to be short-lived. And, you know, do you eventually go to the two big starting lineup? Do you eventually start a Jaden Dossum? What if it's on Marco Jackson and playing kind of a three-point card lineup,

Starting point is 00:05:11 essentially, if you're KU? That'll be kind of the big question there. The other question, I think, becomes like, again, if Bryson Taylor looks as good as he is, does he just usurp Floribundga? I don't expect that to be the case. Like, I think there's a better chance of Tiller becoming a starter next to Badoonga than there is fully usurping Bidunga. And, you know, maybe there's a world where Tiller ends up playing more minutes because he can also play the four a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:05:39 But even though Bidunga had a little bit of struggles in the second exhibition, I'm not like overly worried. I still think he's going to have a good season for KU. Maybe I'd dial back a little bit of the Cole Aldridge comps that we've had. But, you know, I think both of them are going to. to get their fair share of minutes i guess would be kind of the point there paul and bea is certainly somebody who's interesting because the season goes on is he just going to get like vastly better being more of a raw player like that'll be kind of one that you're looking to monitor and track and then i look at uh you know jaden dawson like that's certainly one where um i'm circling him and

Starting point is 00:06:11 be like he was kind of hurt and he was missing some practices and some key stuff toward the end of the season is he somebody who has his feet continue to get more wet maybe jaden dawson you know, we've mentioned playing that Isaiah Moss role. Maybe it kind of is to that. But like, if you remember, Isaiah Moss was injured at the start of that season for KU, I think he missed the first game in the Champions Classic against Duke when they had like a billion turnovers. And I think he played the second game, but he was obviously still coming back from

Starting point is 00:06:39 the injury. He didn't, I don't think enter the starting lineup until I want to say it was like January or something like that. He might have had a start, but like consistently he wasn't started to like, yeah, like Big 12 play like January. maybe that's what we see with Jaden Dawson. That would not shock me. And again, if Cole Rosario continues to struggle,

Starting point is 00:06:55 that's just going to leave the door open more and more for Jaden Dawson. So I actually think we could see several different starting lineups over the early portion of the season for KU. And then they could settle on one, you know, come February, come late January, and, you know, you finally figure out like your best identities, your best roles, your best starting lineups, all those things. And then you can kind of take off from there. All right.

Starting point is 00:07:16 Let's finish things up here with getting to those final minutes projections. Specifically, this is Locked on Jayhawks. And today's episode of the show is brought to you by Peloton. Peloton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Peloton cross-training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. It's the most advanced equipment yet designed to give you real-time guidance and endless ways to move, whether you're running, lifting, or cross-training with your favorite instructors. This is training reimagined.

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Starting point is 00:09:26 So the spot minutes are basically minutes that are not guys that are always in the rotation, but that you can count on over the course of the season, there's going to be minutes to go other places. For instance, you think they're the 2022 national championship Kansas team, right? And that team like Joseph Yesufu wasn't really part of the eight-man. Like, it was basically a seven-man rotation with Remy and Mitch off the bench at the end there. With the eighth man, like occasionally you'd bring in Jalen Coleman lands if you needed a three or KJ Adams for a defensive play or maybe Joe Yesfoo, just to pressure the ball.

Starting point is 00:09:55 But it wasn't all, all three of those didn't play every game. Or like, sometimes there'd just be one of them would come in for two minutes or five minutes or whatever. But those are spot minutes. And so some games, it's one guy. Some games, it's another guy. Some games, those spot minutes might go, you know, maybe you do narrow down the rotation and say that's seven guys. And those 10 spot minutes just get divvied among the seven guys. They can kind of be flexible.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And those are things that I think make predicting a rotation a little more accurate. So I have Darren Peterson actually down. I previously had him at 35 minutes. I've got them at 32 now. the reason why is just the question with the cramping and the health like that could be something that bothers you in the early portion of season and if that causes you to miss some minutes and miss some time maybe that gets lowered a little bit there i have melvin council at 30 honestly that was one that was one that was getting some backup minutes at the one starting at the two i have al marco jackson playing 18 minutes per game which that could easily touch on 20 especially if we do see some lineups at times with peterson council and el marco all at the same time and then i they'll have Cole Rosario starting playing 25 minutes per game again. Maybe that's one that I would drop to 20 and you could divvy out a few of those minutes to get Peterson a few more, counsel, a few more, Jackson one or two more, right?

Starting point is 00:11:05 You could kind of work it that way. And then I have Jaden Dawson at 15 minutes kind of playing behind him to eat up all those minutes one through three between all of those players. Now, again, if Dawson ends up usurping Rosario at some point, maybe you flip-flop those. If not, then maybe it ends up being more of a 2020 split. But then at the four, I have Trey White playing 28 minutes per game. It feels like just a solid number there. I previously had the backup four minutes.

Starting point is 00:11:31 I had some spot minutes, which I still do have. And I had the rest of the minutes actually going to Darren Peterson as a four, where Peterson offensively will always be the one for KU. He'll always be the primary offense for KU. But on the defensive end, if you were playing Peterson with, say, Counsel Rosario and Dawson, or counsel Jackson and Dawson, whatever, Peterson would basically be the most adept at guarding the opposing four man. I don't think you'd want to do it if it was like a true power forward, but if they're playing like a wing four, Peterson was six, five with six, ten wingspan,

Starting point is 00:12:02 you could do that. I decided to switch that up with the way that Bryson Tiller has been playing to this point, and we gave backup four minutes to Bryson Tiller. We gave back up five minutes to Bryson Tiller. So that gets Tiller all the way to 18 minutes per game. And that is one that's going to be really hard to predict because if you're just basing it off what we saw in the first two exhibitions, you'd be like, this dude should be getting 30 minutes per game. And so maybe it ends up being low. I'm being a little hesitant just in terms of like, okay, it's still just two exhibitions. Let's not go overboard. We are projecting in for 18 minutes, which is a very good role as a redshirt freshman. I think that's more than like Florey played last year as a true freshman. And then I have

Starting point is 00:12:37 Florey playing 24 minutes per game. But again, if Tiller continues to play like this, maybe those end up getting swapped. Who knows? And then we have those 10 spot minutes per game. So again, that could be Paul and Bia, you want to play more big basketball one game, and Bia gets eight of those minutes, and the other two go to somebody else. Maybe one game, Jamari McDowell does come in and makes two threes early, and Bilsoff is like, you know what, he's going to get 12 minutes tonight or, you know, and we'll eat off somebody else. So that's the purpose of that. So that's where I'm out with the rotation, my eight-man rotation, Peterson, counsel, Rosario, White, Padunga, Jackson, Tiller, and Dawson, all of them playing 15 plus minutes. And then a little extra room for spot guys, depending on

Starting point is 00:13:15 the matchup, depending on the game, depending on how either good we can practice or who has the hot hand for KU. That'll do it for this episode, our final minutes projections of the season. Maybe we'll do in season one of where we think things could change in Big 12 play. But until then, see you next time for another edition of L.O.J. Some KU football content coming at you on the show.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Talking a little KU, Oklahoma State as well. Make sure you subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. See you next time with L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Bryson Tiller Playing Time UPGRADE | Final Kansas Jayhawks Lineup, Rotations & Minutes Projections

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