Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Dame Sarr FLIPPING From Jayhawk to Duke Blue Devil??? Where Does Bill Self Turn Next for Kansas???

Starting point is 00:00:00 Damme Saur, which once seemed like he'd be a Jayhawk, is he now going to go to Duke? Is he going to KU? No more thing? Where the heck does KU go from here? 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. This is Locked On Jhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. Thank you for tuning in whether it's on YouTube or anywhere that you get your podcasts. And on today's edition of Locked On Jhawks, we are discussing Dameh Sa Sar, who KU was recruiting, going through the recruiting dance with and maybe was in a favorable position and then all of a sudden all sorts of panic and talk today that is Dame Sar going to be going to Duke? Is Dame Sar with Kansas no longer a thing? What it all means, what's going on? Where does KU pivot from here if Sar is no longer an option? And then a little bit just kind of overarching

Starting point is 00:01:05 thoughts on where we are with recruiting, both in terms of Kansas and I think just overall at this point in time on this episode of the show. Let's dig right into it though with Dame SAR. So if you're new to who this is, and if you're an everydayer and already caught our Dame SAR deep dive from a couple weeks ago, But Dalmé Sarr is an 18 year old prospect from FC Barcelona, playing in Spain, arguably the best league outside of the NBA in the world. He started to get some real playing time on the senior team. His last five games average over 12 points per game, which he's playing with a lot of, you know, late 20 early 30 year old for NBA players or established veterans. And somebody who is seen as a essentially

Starting point is 00:01:46 what would be a five star prospect coming over from the international rakes that could possibly be a first round draft pick in 2026 that was being projected to be even an early second round draft pick that could maybe work his way into the late first if you would have entered in this year's draft, but he obviously opted not to instead go the college route of things and Kansas had him in Lawrence for a visit, just kind of late last week. Things were kind of quiet afterwards, but it seemed like Kansas had put themselves in a favorable position that they had put themselves in a good spot to be. And honestly,

Starting point is 00:02:18 there were some recent predictions that were starting to gather steam that we're starting to gather momentum that Kansas was going to be at a good spot to land Dom Asar. I think there was a crystal ball prediction on 24 seven sports from Travis Branham, who is like a national college basketball writer for them. I think somebody from on three predicted Kansas to land him. I think there was some talk from, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:42 Jayhawk Slant with Sherrill Wildeborn. There was some talk from Trillie Donovan thatawk Slant, Weshayrullah Wildeborn. There was some talk from Trilley Donovan that Kansas was trending in the right direction here with him. I think Mike Vernon talked about it too. Like, I don't bring all these guys up to throw them under the bus. I bring this all up to say that, like, there were a lot of people expecting this to happen.

Starting point is 00:02:59 It almost feels like, remember the McKenzie and Bako recruiting where it was like everybody was saying he's gonna go to Kansas. And then on the day of he ends up picking Indiana. And so this was one though, where it was a little different because instead of it being okay, all of a sudden on the day of something different happens,

Starting point is 00:03:14 whether it was Mark Cuban writing the check on the day of or whatever, this was one where it was like, okay, the days keep coming by, why is he not committing? Is he waiting for something from Duke? And you add it up, Duke had gotten Cedric Coward to commit to them and Coward is doing really well in the NBA draft process.

Starting point is 00:03:34 So is Coward gonna stay in the draft and does that lead Duke to believe, hey, he's gonna stay in the draft, we need to find a backup plan and maybe Dame Sar all the way along and wanted to play for Duke? And that wasn't an option because they brought on Coward. And if now Coward, that option is looking like more, he's going to be in the NBA.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Now, all of a sudden, that first option comes and he's like, you know what? Maybe I was thinking about coming to KU, but now that that's an option. I didn't know that was an option, right? You go to dinner and you're in the middle of ordering and you're like, you know, I'm going to take the the filet mignon and I'm going to do this and that. And then all of a sudden the waiter goes, Hey, by the way, did you know we have a tomahawk or we have a wagyu beef on special today? And you're like, Oh, wait, hold on, actually, I'm going to go with

Starting point is 00:04:15 this. And I felt weird, you know, saying that Duke is wagyu and Kansas is filet because they're both blue blood. But you get the point. Like, that is what maybe he prefers. Now we'll say this whole thing has felt like just a run around in a real way, because this was somebody who, I think at one point in time, there were reports that he was gonna be transferred in the European market to go to an Italian league team,

Starting point is 00:04:39 but then he kind of backed out last minute. There was obviously the thing that caused him to leave the Barcelona team or kind of have a mutual parting of ways with the whole Nike hoop summit, which was something that I just kind of viewed as honestly, like, if they agreed to it beforehand for him to go over, I can understand why he continued to want to go over. But then again, he also

Starting point is 00:04:59 left going over and missed their rivalry game to do so. So they part ways. You have that Apparently he verbally committed to Illinois and apparently he verbally committed to Kansas. It seems to be the talk down the grapevine and now possibly going to Duke. Now there's two ways of spinning that. One way is that if he, like if the talk is right now he's gonna go to Duke,

Starting point is 00:05:21 who's to say that there's not a change of heart? Who's to say that there's not a change of heart? Who's to say that there's not a change of mind? Who's to say that there's not more bidding that could be done from either way, either team that could change things up for him to reverse trend and end up coming to Kansas, right? I mean, I guess with the way things have changed so much, I wouldn't rule anything out, but it certainly seems like this has all been kind of one big ruse in a weird way that has led to this possibly happening at Duke. And it's almost been like a, like, you know what? Like, I guess I'll go there, but I really want to go to Duke,

Starting point is 00:05:53 but the Duke thing's not a possibility. I guess I'll go there instead. Okay, I'm taking too long, so Illinois is going to bring on Andrzej Stojakiewicz. And then it's like, you keep getting down that road, and then finally the Duke thing comes up, and maybe that is what kind of changes things over. So I think this leaves KU in a very precarious spot because KU in a real way was swinging

Starting point is 00:06:14 for the fences with Dalmay Sarr. He's a high potential player. He's a player who, if he had a good season in his, you know, one year of college basketball potentially could be a possible first round draft pick. That is a very highly talented player. For a Kansas team that already has Darren Peterson, possible number one pick in the 2026 NBA draft, Floyd Budunga, possible first round draft pick, it would be pretty impactful to have three players who could be possible first round draft picks in terms of raising

Starting point is 00:06:38 your ceiling, especially after a year in which Kansas has had zero players invited to the NBA draft combine for the first time in a long time. So this leaves KU kind of swinging missing on a prospect and you're not gonna bat 1,000. You're not gonna bat, you know, then hit a home run every time in recruiting. Like sometimes other schools are gonna beat you. Sometimes you're just not gonna wanna go that far

Starting point is 00:07:01 for the money or for this and they're like, there's gonna be different reasons why you do or don't land certain targets. This one certainly stings if he did indeed commit to the KU staff and they did feel like they got to that good point. And in a weird way, like it's almost like a reverse transfer like in the way that, okay, when a kid leaves your program

Starting point is 00:07:21 as a transfer that you didn't want them to, they join the team, they commit to you and then they later transfer. This is almost that you didn't want them to, they join the team, they commit to you, and then they later transfer. This is almost that, except you just never got to, you know, have him be on the team actually, and actually have him, you know, play with the team. And so for Kansas, you just continue to get further down the line where you're like, okay,

Starting point is 00:07:39 the more targets that pick somewhere else, especially ones that you thought you had a good shot of, the smaller that pool of players that you want to bring in becomes. Because when we're talking about the scholarships that are left to fill for Kansas, the backup big man market and the D coit role market and the developmental player market,

Starting point is 00:08:00 sure, that stuff is dwindling down too, but it's a much easier find to find one guy to fit that specific role than it is to find a player who you're looking to be another stud for your team. And that market is really dwindling and the time is starting to run out. Now there's still time. The NBA draft deadline isn't till like May 28th. So that's going to be the real big question.

Starting point is 00:08:19 Like the first week of June is really when, because that'll be after that. And then you get, you know, visits and decide who's available and stuff like that. But you are running out of options here. And there still are a decent amount of holes. There still are a decent amount of questions for this KU roster and how Bill Self is going to conclude out this offseason for KU. So where do you go from here? Is it an all out pursuable of Darianne Williams? Is it somebody else in the international market? Let's discuss that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Wayfair.

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Starting point is 00:10:01 with KU and everything. So if they're not leading to MSR, which again, at time of recording, as much as we're talking about this, and this seems to be the rumors, I haven't seen the actual commitment. Now, you know, maybe when I hit the record button here and I've been talking, maybe it's since happened since I've started recording,

Starting point is 00:10:16 but like, I guess you still try, you still see if you can lob maybe a little bit more money. It does feel like Duke's in a favorable position in terms of the money that they have feel like Duke's in a favorable position in terms of the money that they have and kind of operating at a different level with Nike backing them and you know what they kind of have just in general. I know there was a rumor at one point about like that Duke hit it big in the stock market with some fund at

Starting point is 00:10:39 one point in time a couple of years ago, and that's making a money, which imagine if that was part of it with all the like market volatility that had been going on with some of the tariff stuff. I don't mean to get like political. I'm just talking about like market volatility to where some of the stocks were up and down. What if they were like a month ago? What if when the stock market was down, Duke was like, crap, we can't afford him. And now that the stock market is like, you know, worked its way back up a little bit

Starting point is 00:11:03 there. What if Duke is like, now we can afford him like, buy, buy, buy. That would be very interesting if that was the case, that like teams are like playing the stock market to like figure out what their NIL budget is that specific year. But anyway, at this point in time,

Starting point is 00:11:14 Kansas needs another stud. You need another, you know, possible all big 12, like another top 20 player in the big 12, probably even better than that top 15, top 10 player in the big 12 to pair with Darren Peterson. Because at this point in time, I think Peterson is going to be a stud. I think Flory is going to have a really good season for KU. But you have a lot of role players around it. And I think that's great. I love the fact that the staff has gone for fit in the portal over just grabbing a bunch of stars like last year, grabbing the the sail in front of you like they did last season. But you still do need that one kind of star to carry it along. And this guy would have been the potential there. Now, of course, there's no guarantee that Damesar in college is going to work in one year, right? He is a high floor, or I'm sorry, a low floor,

Starting point is 00:11:58 high potential player, right? He could come in and struggle to adjust. And as good as the defensive potential is with his length and athleticism, there are times he gets caught off the ball and this and that. Like the three point shooting numbers look good, but do we know they're good? For sure. It's been small sample size and some of the scouts seem to think it's going to be inconsistent. So like there is no guarantee. Point being, there is a chance that this, and this is not me trying to be like, oh, sour grapes. Like, no, you didn't want them anyway. Go get somebody and they'll be better. No, I wanted Kansas to get Damisar.

Starting point is 00:12:27 I think it would have been a fun fit to have him on the team. But there is a real chance if we're having an honest conversation about this that a player you bring in via the portal, like a Darian Williams, like an RJ Lewis, if you're able to do that, is a more proven college player

Starting point is 00:12:42 and has a better college season in 2025-2026 than what you would have gotten from DameSAR. No guarantee for that, and the ceiling for SAR is higher, but that doesn't mean that the floor or what the actual outcome is ends up being the case. So, this is not panic mode, it just continues to inch a little closer to that. If that makes sense, because it's one less target, it's another day where you're getting closer to, and especially from the standpoint of, I guess the time and resources and the effort that you put into landing them and then thinking you're going to do it, does that cost you somewhere else? Maybe it doesn't, but it's like the opportunity cost of the time you spent recruiting him, could that have gone

Starting point is 00:13:21 to another player to where you could have wrapped them up? I don't know. You know, I do think at this point in time, like there's things more important than just the time spent with the recruit to bring him on. And we'll get to that in our third segment here that I don't know that it will matter that much, but yeah. So Darian Williams is the one that makes the most sense to kind of go all out pursuit. And there was a video posted by Isaac Trotter

Starting point is 00:13:42 who does really good work with 24 seven sports, kind of interviewing Darian Williams and kind of talking about the draft process. And Williams kind of mentions that he's like all in on the draft process. And he's not really thinking about his college stuff right now. So, you know, take that for what it's worth. But like, I don't know, I think I think at this point, like, what do you expect him to say? Like, oh, yeah, the draft process, I don't know that I'm

Starting point is 00:14:04 doing that well. So I'm going to come back to school, like, he's going to want to be all all for oh yeah, the draft process, I don't know that I'm doing that well, so I'm gonna come back to school. Like, he's gonna wanna be all for what he does. So like, I don't know what to think too much, but it is interesting that he continues to stress the idea that he's in the draft process all the way. And the same was with RJ Lewis, who came out with a quote that today earlier. So those are two guys who are at the top of the list

Starting point is 00:14:22 at this point for Kansas, but there's a chance that either or both of them stays in the NBA draft. And then of course you have Jameer Watkins, right? Who I don't think is as good of a player or fit as those two guys, but would still be a good addition for Kansas overall. And he's someone who isn't like with Lewis and Williams, you can find mock drafts where both of them are being drafted, both are being drafted maybe, or one or the other is being drafted in the top 45 or top 50. You don't see it as often with Jamiro Watkins,

Starting point is 00:14:53 but he also is older. So he might be wanting to get his professional career started, right, in a real way. So I think it's gonna be interesting what happens there. There's also been some interesting, I guess, recent talk about could KU possibly have interest or get involved with like Boogie Fland, the transfer from Arkansas. So maybe we'll do a deep dive on him later on,

Starting point is 00:15:14 either this week or next week. There was also some interesting news about Tyron Stokes, the number one recruit in the class of 2026. So we've talked a lot about here. And by all accounts, everything we've heard is that he is not reclassifying. At the same point in time, Kansas really needs a player. And he was supposed to be visiting Kentucky, and they are delaying that now could that just be as

Starting point is 00:15:35 innocuous as, oh, hey, we're going to a graduation party, or we're doing this or that, and we just had to delay it like, yes, it absolutely could. But a lot of times in recruiting, you know, sometimes you can read between the lines and it's like, is he postponing that visit? Because especially when it happens right after the Damasaur rumors start flying around, did Kansas go, hey, we were able to raise a bunch of money

Starting point is 00:15:56 for Damasaur, we'll double the offer, whatever we're sending you. Maybe not that extreme, but you get my point. I don't know. That's not something I'm expecting, but it is at least worth bringing up because I'm just kind of grasping at hopeful straws over here. But it is an interesting question. Because again, if

Starting point is 00:16:13 Kansas ends up landing Darien Williams or RJ Lewis, you end up okay with all of this, right? It does get rid of the dream scenario where like, could you have landed Dom a SAR and Darien Williams? I guess we would never know there. But does that make it possible where you can land a Darian Williams and an RJ Lewis? I don't know. I think that would be interesting too. Now, what happens? What is the disaster scenario if they don't land Darian Williams or they don't land Damme, Saar, obviously? And then let's say RJ Lewis stays in the NBA draft too. And then, Jimmy Watkins either goes to the NBA or another school.

Starting point is 00:16:46 At that point, where do you go on the list? It sounds like Desmond Cloud or Claude, whatever that could be somewhere else with his recruiting, like maybe Northwest School or something like that. But is it more international players? And that's the beauty of the international thing. Like we don't see a public board of, these are the five stars in the international game.

Starting point is 00:17:06 It just feels like you get a new one every day that you're like, okay, sounds like he's pretty interesting. Oh, he's, he's done some good things. Like he makes sense. So there have been a couple of guys that maybe KU has been linked over there or that, you know, maybe it makes sense to pivot if they're already kind of working the international market, if they're already talking to international agents, I'm sure there's somebody else they can pivot to. And I don't know how common the same agencies are with a player like SAR

Starting point is 00:17:29 with other players in Europe, but like, I guess theoretically one with how this has gone, do you really want to work with that same agency again? I don't know, maybe not. But like, I'm sure that same agency is going well, if he really, you know, we know you had this money to give to Dom-A-SAR theoretically, hey, we have another one of our clients who's pretty good, would you be interested in giving that to them, right? That could be something that certainly makes sense. But it just feels like we're at a point right now where we just need some good KU basketball news.

Starting point is 00:17:56 Like we just need something. We just need some sort of commit to make it feel like things are going back in the right direction again, right? I still think they're going to be okay. I still think I trust in, I mean, for the longest time, spring bill. When they needed it, they got it, right? And you run it out of options for the, we need it, but they still got some. And I'm not going to count against him in what they're going to be able to do in the portal, but obviously it would be a big loss if Damisar does end up committing to Duke in the end.

Starting point is 00:18:27 All right. I have some thoughts just on recruiting as a whole now, because I don't know, this has kind of broken my spirits in one regard. So let's get to that next. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks, coming out a little early on your Wednesday night for our Thursday episode, just because of some of the news and wanting to get this out there as soon as possible. We'll have another episode coming at you later this week.

Starting point is 00:18:48 Maybe we'll do a deep dive on a player like Boogie Fland or one of the international players that we've seen have stuff with KU or I don't know, maybe we'll get into some Darren Peterson stuff just to get a little positive swish out there. I don't know, we'll figure that out in a day or two. Anyway, I just have some thoughts because this was something we talked about

Starting point is 00:19:07 on a previous episode. Would Darren Peterson have an impact on KU recruiting? Would other players sit there and go, you know what, I want to team up, I want to play with Darren Peterson? Maybe it has a little bit, like maybe it was part of the decision with a guy like Jaden Dawson to be like,

Starting point is 00:19:23 hey, I can play off ball and be a three point shoot off Peterson. Maybe it is something for guys like Melvin Council and stuff like that. But as far as like the star recruits and as far as finding the backup big man, it doesn't really seem to have an impact or hasn't had an impact.

Starting point is 00:19:37 And I don't say that to, you know, that it's like a negative against Darren Peterson. I don't think that's what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is I think we're now at a point where it doesn't really matter. A team could sign, you know, when LeBron James was coming out of high school and, you know, if the two offers,

Starting point is 00:19:59 if the two NIL offers are equal from two different schools, maybe that's the tiebreaker for which one he chooses, but it's not gonna be like the NIL and the playing time, that is all that matters. That is the most important thing. And so if you have a kid who, hey, I can play with Darren Peterson and I'm gonna make, and again, I'm just making up numbers here.

Starting point is 00:20:20 I'm gonna make $2 million to play with Darren Peterson and have all the NBA scouts there and get to watch it and get to start versus I'm going to get $3 million to get to start on a worse team, not play with Darren Peterson. I'm taking the $3 million. And maybe that's too extreme because $1 million is a big deal, right? I would love to make a million dollars, right? But like, if it's $2.4 million versus $2 million and the $ the 2.4 doesn't play with Peterson, I'm sure there would be some guys that would take the Peterson, but that number of players is very minuscule at this point. The money talks. The money is what matters most at this point in time. And so it almost just doesn't matter.

Starting point is 00:20:58 It's all about money and playing time. And so it's interesting because I think from the KU back a big position, you're probably running into a bit of a snag with the second part of that playing time. Guys want to go somewhere that they can start and play a big role. And then you have the money aspect of it, the money element of all of this, right? That is the most important thing in the world. And so yes, again, RKU is great facilities and the rich tradition and the history and the Adidas backing and the cool uniforms they get to wear

Starting point is 00:21:30 and all that stuff. Does it matter? Yes, absolutely it does. But like, again, those things are tiebreakers. Like if you were to put a pie chart together, what are the most important things? This would be my guess. I would almost feel like it would be my guess. I would almost

Starting point is 00:21:45 feel like it would be like 50% NIL, 40% playing time. And then the other 10% would be some combination of like head coach, do you get players to the NBA? Those would probably be the top two among the other 10%. The facilities, like, The facilities, the tradition, stuff like that, it makes up a much smaller portion. And it's the truth of the matter. And again, I don't blame kids because you want to play. You want to maximize your earnings because you don't know what you're going to do at the next level, especially for a lot of these kids who maybe they don't have NBA prospects in store for them. So I don't blame them for doing it. At the same point in time,

Starting point is 00:22:27 it does take away the soul of recruiting. It does take away the soul of the sell of, you know, selling to mom and dad that you're gonna protect the kid and that you're gonna develop the kid and you're gonna do in the best interest. It's transactional now. It takes away the soul of college athletics

Starting point is 00:22:41 and college sports and college basketball. And maybe that's not the point. Maybe, you know, we've been sold on that by the NCAA when that was never a viable option. But it's just a different game. And like, I guess, I'm kind of away from a point of, you know, in future years being like, well, KU has this player or KU has this thing going for them, and that's gonna help them in recruiting. No. Do you have the money? Do you have the playing time available? And then for the role players? Yeah, that stuff comes in more, right? this player or this thing going for them and that's going to help them in recruiting. No.

Starting point is 00:23:05 Do you have the money? Do you have the playing time available? And then for the role players, yeah, that stuff comes in more. Like I said, I'm sure for the Jaden Dawesons and Melvin Councils of the world, that stuff matters more because maybe they're getting $3 million in an I.L. For Darian Williams, for Dame Sarr, for these top tier recruits, the money talks, playing time and role opportunity, that's what goes with it. That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you

Starting point is 00:23:27 get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. And we'll be back with you to talk more KU Basketball later this week on Lockdown Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Dame Sarr FLIPPING From Jayhawk to Duke Blue Devil??? Where Does Bill Self Turn Next for Kansas???

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