Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Can Darryn Peterson Live Up to the Hype? What Past #1 Recruits Have Done in College Basketball

Starting point is 00:00:00 Are we talking the best player in the country here? How good could Darren Peterson be this season and what does past history tell us about what Kansas fans should expect from the number one recruit in the country? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What is going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you that every day is catching each and every episode of the show. We

Starting point is 00:00:36 are free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're talking Darren Peterson, everybody's favorite incoming KU basketball recruits, how good could he be for this Kansas season? We'll get into a little bit on what history tells us about just what to expect from him from a production output and how good

Starting point is 00:00:58 he could possibly be as well, as well as what team impact could he have on this Kansas team? And if he's the best player in the country versus if he's just a good player like how different will the season be for KU based on those things kind of happening before we get into any of that today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins with fan duel Okay, so Darren Peterson if you've been living under a rock for these past several months is the number one recruit in the country For a while. He was the number two recruit in the country on 24 seven sports. They jumped him No, what I guess if you're looking at on three, he's the number three player in the country, which is a little silly to me

Starting point is 00:01:41 but anyway, um Peterson is one of the best players in the country Some places are seeing him as being the number one pick for the 2026 NBA draft. But there's several guys who like I mean, when you look at Boozer, when you look at DeBonse, when you look at Peterson, they're guys that right now are in the running for that number one pick right now to where this could be a good competitive class for who that kind of ends up being. And so I want to take a look at this in a couple ways. One, I want to take a look at this in a couple of ways. One, I want to take a look at how have past number one recruits on 24-7 sports, how have

Starting point is 00:02:10 they done in their first year at college? But I also want to look at for a broader scope, how have the number one player, how have the number one like combo guard, shooting guard types, point guard types, how have they done in their first year of college basketball? Because maybe in some situations, if the number one player in the country is a center versus types, point guard types, how have they done in their first year of college basketball, because, you know, maybe in some situations, if the number one playing the country is a center versus if the number one player is a wing versus if it's guard, maybe you get some different things to start with there. So let's take a look here at past number one point guard combo guards in the country. Let's

Starting point is 00:02:40 just look at the last 10 and yes, arbitrary cutoff, whatever that discludes guys like Tyree Irving and Andrew Harrison, but like 10s that I see an easy round number. So let's do this. I'm also only going to look at their first year when I go over these because for the sake of Darren Petersen, the expectation is to be a one year guy. So it doesn't make sense to look at, oh, you know, if this guy had to stay in college for two years how did he do in his second year no i want to look at the freshman season because that's what's going to be applicable to kansas with darren peterson okay so let's start this most recent year number one uh combo guard whatever in the class was dylan harper number one guard whatever uh harper was number three overall he goes to ruckers and he averages almost 20 points per game

Starting point is 00:03:23 four point six rebounds four assists per game. He shoots 48% from the floor, 33% from 3.75 from the foul end. Now he's projected to be a top five pick in the NBA draft. The Rutgers did not make it to the NCAA tournament, but that has more to do with what's around him because clearly that was a great season. If I told you right now,

Starting point is 00:03:40 Darren Peterson would average 19 and a half points, 4.6 rebounds, four assists per game on 48-33-75 splits. I would say yeah, I would probably sign up for that right now, right? Then you have Isaiah Collier the year before, which that one becomes a little bit more interesting, maybe more of a down recruiting class, but number one guard there. He goes to USC and he gets, I think he had some injury stuff throughout the season, so USC wasn't very good, but he had injury stuff. He averaged 16.3 points, 4.3 assists per game, shot 49 from the field, 34 from three. 2022, Nick Smith, this was not a great one.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Number one guard goes to Arkansas. He averaged 12 and a half points per game. He also had to deal with injury stuff, but he only shoots 38% from the field, 34 from a three to 17 games. Now, Arkansas made the Sweet 16. Wasn't much because of him. He kind of struggled. I don't think he played well in that Kansas game specifically.

Starting point is 00:04:28 Go back the year before. Now we start to get to some better names again. Kennedy Chandler. He was number 9 overall though. By the way, Nick Smith was the number 1 overall recruit too. Chandler was the number 1 guard, number 9 overall recruit. Goes to Tennessee. They get a 3 seed.

Starting point is 00:04:42 They make the second round of the tournament. He averaged 14 points, almost 5 assists game shot 46 from the fourth 38 from three So good production there year before Kate Cunningham He was number one overall recruit and number one guard 20 points over six rebounds three and a half assists per game It's 44 from the floor 40 from three 85 from the foul line and Oklahoma State, which I mean I think this is the only NCAA tournament appearance we've seen from Oklahoma State since would you have to go back as far as Marcus Smart? There's got to be a team since then besides the Kate Cunningham team.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Anyway, it hasn't been a lot of NCAA tournament appearances for Oklahoma State of like outside of the Kate Cunningham year and they got five seed. That's how good he was. 2019 Cole Anthony, he did not have great team success in North Carolina. They were just 14 and 19, but good individual counting stats, 18 and a half points, 5.7 rebounds forces per game. Shooting splits not great. 38 from the floor, 35 from three is solid though. Then 2018, the number one guard you might recognize, this guy was Quinton Grimes. Goes to Kansas, he averages 8.4 points per game, 38-34-60 splits for Kansas team that gets a four seed and felt like it kind of underachieved. Go back to the year before 2017, Colin Sexton, he goes to Alabama, he averages 19.2 points per game, 45-34-78 splits to help them go to the second round of the tournament. Then we go back to Markel Foltz the year before that.

Starting point is 00:06:06 I mean, Foltz doesn't add maybe as big of an NBA career as being the number one pick, but like he was an all-American in college. He was the number one pick for a reason. 23 points, six assists, almost six rebounds per game on 48-41-65 splits. And then the last guy going back 10 years, Malika Newman, he was at Mississippi State, 11.3 points, 39 from the floor, 38 from three on a 14 and 17 team. Until when I find you a senior, like if I go back and look at those 10, the number one guards in these classes, I would deem five of the 10 as home runs. Kennedy Chandler was a home run. He was one of the best

Starting point is 00:06:44 guards in the country. Kate Cunningham was one of the best guards in the country. Kate Cunningham was one of the best players in the country. Colin Sexton was one of the best guards in the country. Mark Foltz was one of the best players in the country. And Harper was one of the best guards in the country. He was just on a not very good team. And again, if we went back even further, they were like, if we went back and did last 15 years

Starting point is 00:07:00 instead of last 10 years, we'd be adding Kyrie Irving. We'd be adding John Wall, who were like, you know, I don't think Kyrie was an All-American because he was injured throughout most of the season. But like, first round, our first team All-American talents, like John Wall was, was an All-American. Then I would give one player a double. That would be Collier, like, the stats are good for Collier, 16.3 points, 4.3 assists, 49-34 splits, but he got injured, you know? So like if he doesn't get injured, he plays a full season, has a good season, leads the UFC to the tournament,

Starting point is 00:07:30 maybe that's a home run too, I don't know. There were four players though that were relatively productive, low efficiency players. Nick Smith, Quentin Grimes, Cole Anthony, and Malik Newman, but none of them were just total duds. So like, I don't think you'd come into it, not that anybody was expecting this, this to be a total dud, but that is a higher percentage than you might have hoped.

Starting point is 00:07:49 That like, yeah, four of those 10, you know, maybe some of them ended up having good careers afterwards. Like Cole Anthony's had a solid career in the NBA after, Quinn Grimes had a really solid career after Kansas, and now in the NBA, Leek Newman ended up having success afterwards in Kansas. But those guys didn't have that in year one. And based on how you've built the roster and built this team,

Starting point is 00:08:11 you need Darren Peterson to have success in year one right away. So that is a little bit scary, the number there. One thing that I do find interesting though is, like with Peterson, his size at 6'5", with like a 6'10'' wingspan, is just different than a lot of the other guys on this list. Like with Cade Cunningham, he was bigger. Now Quentin Grimes was bigger, but he was being asked to be more of an off guard at Kansas as opposed to being an on guard.

Starting point is 00:08:38 Isaiah Collier a little bit smaller, like I think Nick Smith was what, like 6'3", something like that. Like the size does matter here that he's on that other end but overall you average it up for all of those players the last 10 16.1 points 4.2 rebounds 3.6 assists 1.2 steals per game on 44% from the field 36 and 372 at the foul line was Those are pretty solid numbers. And again, you could add some interesting players if you go back to five before that. But if I gave

Starting point is 00:09:09 you those numbers for I mentioned the numbers for Harper, and you might take those if that's what it was for Peterson, but would you take those numbers to average what the last 10 are the 16.1 points per game like that I could be fine taking because on a Bill South

Starting point is 00:09:22 team, we don't see a lot of guys average north of 20 points per game Then again, there's not that other obvious like who's gonna be the second leading score on this Kansas team right now To where maybe you would expect more points for games the rebounds I would expect more than 4.2 from Peterson to be honest But it probably around there the 3.6 per game if he's gonna be the point guard out expect more 1.2 steals per game point for blocks like that might be in line. The shooting splits, I almost expect more on the field goal percentage of 44. The three point percentage, freshmen sometimes struggle from

Starting point is 00:09:51 3.36 to take it. The free throw line, I probably expect more for 72 there. So, you know, it is a little bit different when you're talking about number one overall recruits and that's what Peterson is. So let's compare number one recruits as opposed to just number one guards next. recruits, and that's what Peterson is, so let's compare them to number one recruits as opposed to just number one guards next. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances. Major momentum shifts and can't miss moments. Whether it's a game winning shot, a breakout player, Alex Caruso constantly hugging Nikola Jokic. There's never been a better time

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Starting point is 00:11:28 Okay, so we went over the guards and there were some very good ones. There were other ones that, you know, where you probably would be expecting a lot more than that and things wouldn't be going super well for Kansas if that was the case this season, if that's how things kind of turned out for him. So what about if we compare?

Starting point is 00:11:42 Because it's different just saying, okay, you're the number one guard versus being the number one overall player, like there's another level you have to get to to get to that point. So how about if we compare Peterson to every player that 24 seven sports has ranked as their number one player in their recruiting ranking. So 24 seven sports goes back to the class of 2011 for college basketball. And first top-ranked player

Starting point is 00:12:06 They did a pretty good job is some dude named Anthony Davis Who ended up being first team all-american first team all SEC national player of the year national champion doesn't get much better than that I think I would take that season for Darren Peterson So then you go the next year, Kentucky gets him again. It's ner Orleans, Noel. Now things went very differently for New Orleans, Noel. He was first team all SEC. He was a very good college player ended up, you know, get drafted in the NBA and had a nice little NBA career, but like didn't have the team success. Then you go the year after might recognize this guy's name Andrew Wiggins, who

Starting point is 00:12:38 I know there's still some fans that are like, I feel this. I don't know, I felt like it wasn't worth the hype. And I always felt like that was unfair to Wiggins. The hype was that he's just going to come in and be LeBron James that he's going to come in and be the best player in the country. He was a second team All-American. And I know it didn't end well. He did have a bad game in his final game at KU and it sucked the way he went out. But like you was the second

Starting point is 00:12:59 team All-American first team All Big 12. Like, by that notion, he was top 10 player in the country as a freshman. It's not his, like if he would have been on a team that had a supporting piece around him, you know, like Ben Macklemore, even though he redshirted, so it's a little different, got to have Jeff with he, and you know, some other pieces around him

Starting point is 00:13:19 that were coming back, right? Then Andrew Wiggins, you're asked to be the leader, and that wasn't really in his game. But anyway, that doesn't need to be here nor there. 2014 was Emmanuel Moudier. He played overseas though. For what it's worth, I'm not gonna count this one, but if we did, Carl Anthony Towns was number two there, so he would actually been the number one college player. That went pretty well because they were undefeated until the Final Four and Cat has had a long NBA career and obviously was a very good player.

Starting point is 00:13:40 2015 was Ben Simmons. I know all sorts of the jump shot jokes and the recent stuff with it. He was an unbelievable player at the start of his NBA career and in college. He was first team All-American. He was all SEC first team. 2016 24 seven gave Josh Jackson the number one nod and he ended up being first team all big 12. He ended up being a third team All-American. 2017 was Marvin Bagley and no one worked out okay. First team all SEC and first team all American. 2018 Duke again, RJ Barrett, first team all American and all ACC first team.

Starting point is 00:14:13 2019 we just mentioned Anthony Edwards in the FanDuel ad read. He interestingly enough was one of the few guys who wasn't like first team all conference. He was second team all SEC, but that's one where I'm just looking at it and I'm like, and the more I look back on it, I'm like, how did you end up at Georgia? You know what I mean? How did that happen? And he didn't have the supporting cast around him though. That year when kids won the Maui Invitational, one of the best, I don't know, maybe the best performance of just an individual in that. I mean, Doak and Dotson were nails in that Maui Invitational final and Obie Toppin and all sorts of great performances.

Starting point is 00:14:45 But like, among all of them, Anthony Edwards, I forget if it was the Michigan State game or what, I don't even know if they won the game. But like he put up this ridiculous performance that might have been the best that was there in precursor his NBA career. 2020, we mentioned Kate Cunningham earlier, he was first team All-American, first team All-Made 12th. 2021, the number one recruit was Chet Holmgren. He was obviously first team All WCC. He was the second team all American for the number one overall seed. Now 2022 was Nick Smith. We mentioned him earlier. And honestly, going through this list, probably

Starting point is 00:15:13 the biggest bust of anybody on this list. Ron Holland was 2023. He played overseas, and have been a top 10 pick for the Detroit Pistons. And then this past year Cooper flag, which yeah, that one worked out to first team All-American, all ACC first team and national player of the year. So just to total it up, there were 14 players, I believe, yes, 14 players before Darren Peterson. So from 2011 to 2024, that earned 24 seven sports number one recruit in the country, two of them played overseas. So I think there's 12 players who were 24 sevens number one player and played college basketball. 11 of the 12 players were first or second team all conference. And ironically, the one guy who wasn't a first or second team all conference or one of the guys who wasn't a first team all conference was in Anthony

Starting point is 00:16:04 Edwards, the other one obviously being Nick Smith. But that means 10 of the guys who wasn't a first team all-conference was Anthony Edwards, the other one obviously being Nick Smith. But that means 10 of the 12 were first team all-conference players. And again, Anthony Edwards, who is one of the best players in the NBA, is actually one of the guys who was not one of the 10 of 12 who was first team all-conference among number one recruits in the 24-7 era. Nine of the 12 were AP all Americans among the ones who went to college. And six of the 12 so half were first team, all Americans.

Starting point is 00:16:34 Two of them were national player of the year. Okay. So basically what you're saying here is by getting that distinction by earning that label through your play and what you are in Darren Peterson, you basically have a coin flip situation of if he's going to be a first team All-American or not. You basically have a, I mean, much more than a coin flip situation of him being some sort of All-American. And so like, if you look at it through that lens, I mean, the expectations that we're putting on Darren Peterson, it is scary, it is dangerous to put all these, put the world on a kid who's coming in as a freshman.

Starting point is 00:17:08 It's deserved, man. And I think he does live up to the hype. And now what does that hype look like? What does it look like production-wise? Again, if you take a lot of those different players, production-wise, it looks a lot differently. Like Anthony Davis got to be the, what, fifth leading scorer, something like that on his team.

Starting point is 00:17:25 Cooper flag was playing next to two other top 20 picks in the draft with common malwatch and conkineple. You know what I mean? So like, I don't think Darren Peterson is that now. Flory is good enough. He could be another first round pick. He's playing next to and there could be some good role players. And who knows what other players KU still is going to grab

Starting point is 00:17:42 in either the portal or overseas at this point in time, but point being the list of number one or like Nick Smith is the one guy on there where you're just like Yeah, that one was weird or that one didn't really work all of the rest of them That you're telling me like you could just put them in a hat and pull one out and be like, okay Would you take this season from Darren Peterson? Would you take the you you know, remove the team success stuff, right? Because that is dependent on what else is around you. But like, which take the Kate Cunningham

Starting point is 00:18:11 seasons, like, of course, you would take that from from him. And a lot of the other guys kind of been in that range. So I think that makes me feel even better about where we're at with Darren Peterson. Now, as far as where he is on this list, depending if he's, you know, second team all big 12 versus being first team all American and national player, how different does that work out into the team success for Kansas

Starting point is 00:18:34 based on the rest of the roster they've built around them? We'll talk about that next. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Don't forget to make Lockdown College basketball Lockdown College football your second listen every day. Okay, so let's say the different scenarios out there that Darren Peterson how good is he on this scale of goodness for KU this upcoming season? You know, like if we're to go look at and say, okay, well, Anthony Edwards or Anthony Davis, excuse me, and Cooper

Starting point is 00:19:07 flag, we're national players. If Darren Peterson is a national player of the year, because Kansas has built the roster to this point in time, to be very friendly to Darren Peterson in terms of building it with a lot of role players to surround Darren Peterson. So if Peterson is national player of the year, good, and there is a certain level of team success that has to come with that. So that would, you know, it's kind of what fuels the other there. But if he's national player of the year, good. I mean, Kansas is

Starting point is 00:19:32 one of the what they're certainly one of the 10 best teams in the country, or they're one of the five best teams the country, you know, if you think back to like, I guess we go back to like the shoe the the 20 2010 Kansas team 2009 2010 team I know that that didn't go well they lose in the second round of the tournament to Northern Iowa. That was the number one overall seed in the tournament for a reason. They were one of the best teams in the country, not the best team in the country. Up

Starting point is 00:20:01 until that point up until that happened, right? Maybe that's the wrong one to pick because that one did have really good depth you had younger versions of players like Tyshaun Taylor and the more students if you go back to you before that you like to the 0809 team that team makes the sweet 16 wins the big 12 gets a three seed all very solid. So Ron Collins was an all-american guard if Darren Peterson is national player of the year, that's even better than what Collins said, as great as Collins was at Kansas, he wasn't national player of the year. And then you're at Cole Aldridge too, who you know, ended up being I forget, I think Cole made like a third

Starting point is 00:20:34 team All-American one of his years, I can't remember if it was that year or the next year, but he was obviously one of the best players in the country at center, who was built mostly off the rebound in a defense. And that's kind of the idea with Flory. So like, could Flory be a first team all big 12 player? And if you get that from Peterson, okay, what were the rest of the pieces on that 0809 team? You're talking about freshmen players who, you know, were they ready? How good were they going to be or role player types kind of filling out the roster similar

Starting point is 00:21:04 to this one, except, you know, maybe some of the role players on this team have a little bit more juice to them, even though maybe you don't have freshmen with the high ceiling of the Taishan tailors and the more students, right. So it gets kind of interesting here. But if you're saying national player of the year, yes, I think, for sure, that team to me would be one of the top 10 in the country at that point in time versus if Darren Peterson

Starting point is 00:21:25 And again, we still got to wait on the other roster additions for KU But then the next list down the line is like what if Peterson is like Andrew Wiggins level? Where he's second team all-american you see some flashes you see some unbelievable games unbelievable moments overall has a really productive season But it still kind of leaves you wanting a little bit more Where would that put Peterson? And where would that put KU? I mean, I think at that point in time, like maybe you're looking at Kansas being more of a three or a four seat, you know, like if you put that, that version of Wiggins on this year's Kansas team, yeah, what, what do they get?

Starting point is 00:22:00 I don't know, three or four seed. And then the next level is like, okay, what if he's, what if he's second team, all big 12 where it's like you see the talent, but it's just not very efficient. And there's other issues, yada, yada, yada. At that point, are we getting in the range of Kansas being where they were this past season or they were a seven seed? Or is the fact that you just built a team with more of an identity of athleticism and defense and bill self and dog mentality is that enough to at least get a five or six seat at that

Starting point is 00:22:28 point in time? That's kind of where I would view it from this point. But like, you know, if Peterson is national player of the year good and Flory is first round pick good and you add another player in the portal who, you know, is another stud at that point, then you are talking about one of the five best teams in the country. And so yeah, things will very much ride on how good Darren Peterson is this season for KU. But after going over some of those past examples, you should feel confident that Darren Peterson is going to have a big year because I know I certainly will. I don't know for this

Starting point is 00:22:56 episode of Lockdown J-Ox, you can find our show anywhere you podcast including on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Can Darryn Peterson Live Up to the Hype? What Past #1 Recruits Have Done in College Basketball

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