Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Ege Demir is a POWERFUL & ATHLETIC Center | Kansas Jayhawks International Target Deep Dive

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks Basketball: International Center Ege Demir on KU's Radar. Will this 6'10" powerhouse be the next Udoka Azubuike and can he support Flory Bidunga as centers on the KU roster? Is he interested in KU and can he get eligible unlike Brice Dessert for the 'Hawks?Derek Johnson analyzes Demir's potential impact on the Jayhawks' roster, comparing his physical attributes and playing style to former KU standouts. The discussion covers Demir's impressive rebounding stats, rim protection abilities, and how he might fit into Kansas' lineup. Johnson also touches on recent football and volleyball recruiting news, including a 6'7" Serbian national team player joining KU's volleyball program.Tune in for an in-depth look at how Ege Demir could reshape Kansas Basketball's frontcourt and bolster their championship aspirations.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGEfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Hey, you might have found themselves a backup center again. It's an international center. Can they get him eligible? And who is this new mysterious player that they could be looking at overseas? 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 Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day Thank you. The everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We 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 we're talking a little Ege Demir, who is a international prospect, thinking about coming over to college basketball. Seems like Kansas might have some interest. Seems like there might be a little bit of mutual interest, and we're going to discuss his game, what he would bring to the table, how he would possibly fit in with KU, and can they get him eligible?

That seems to be the question these days with these international prospects, especially as it pertains to KU filling out their roster. We'll also touch on a little bit of the latest news as KU volleyball certainly seems to be going overseas for a big time get. So we'll touch on that more on this episode of the show, which is brought to you by Monarch Money.

And take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKDONCOLLege at monarchmoney.com for 50%. That's half off your first year with Monarch Money. Okay, so the player in discussion today, David Ezekiel, I think, Atunje, was the original name for this powerful athletic center who was born in Nigeria and has I don't know for how long of his life, but

certainly a good portion of his life now lived in Turkey. He now goes by the name of Ege Demir. And I believe Ege is the way that you pronounce it on the first name E-G-E, Ege Demir. And that is like a really popular like Turkish name, the first name Ege. So obviously, you know, to a certain standpoint, like he's lived in Turkey long enough or has, I guess, you know, been in line with the Turkish culture long enough that he changed his

name to more of a Turkish name. He is 20 years old right now. He's soon to be 21 years old for the start of the college basketball season. He would be because he turns 21 in August, and it sounds like you has been working along with him for, you know, a little bit of time here. It seems like both sides have mutual

interest for him looking to come over, and for Kansas looking to obviously bring on still another scholarship player. Another you, center, another big man onto the roster. The interesting part about Demir as KU is, you know, looking to hopefully bring him over, get him to commit and make sure he's eligible is that he actually tried the college route a few years ago. He was ready to go to UCLA ahead of the 2022 to 2023 season and he actually committed this according to 24 seven sports brune report online that Demir committed but had yet to qualify or get a qualifying score on the test of English as it's called as a foreign

language was prevented him from being admitted to UCLA. And so what I find interesting there is that test of English is something that KU has as one of their test results, or I guess one of your admittance for how you get into the school. But what's different about it is that UCLA requires a competitive score above 100, which is an insanely high score requirement.

Like Harvard and Cal, which are both very good schools, obviously Harvard, right, requires minimum scores of 80. So, I mean, you're talking to high score. Kansas, meanwhile, requires a minimum score of 79, which is not far off. But if you do the, like, the test, that's the special home edition test, if you do the, like, paper delivered test or the test, like's the special home edition test. If you do the like paper delivered test

or the test like at Kansas, your required score drops down to just needing a 60. So it's a little bit lower of a bar for you to get into Kansas at that point. It also probably tells you if he was trying to get into UCLA, you know, a couple of years ago in 2022, that maybe he has his paperwork farther along than a guy like Bryce Desair, who KU was, you know, going after and

maybe that stuff just wasn't going to work out. It also is a possibility that it's been a couple years since then that he's gotten better at English because let's say he didn't pass the English test, he might have gone, okay, I need to work on this if I want to eventually come over. So you would think it seems like a more sure bet that he could get eligible, but even then nothing is sure right now in with with the student visa pauses and stuff are are these players going to be eligible and all of these become risks for KU and any team taking on a

player internationally. Now as far as his game, what he brings to the table, Demir measured in at 208 centimeters, which equates to being basically six foot nine and nine tenths of an inch. So let's just round up that extra tenth of an inch, call them six foot 10. The weight kind of seems to fluctuate. You might find some sites that say 210 pounds. He ain't 210 pounds. Real GM has him at 245 pounds,

which that sounds about right. Actually at the 2023 Adidas Euro Camp, I'm looking at this now, he came in at 271 pounds. And he also came in with a 72 wingspan in that, which, okay, you're talking about a center who has some good vertical hop to him and a pretty good explosion and power athleticism, 270 pounds. He's almost like a miniature version of Doke. Like Doke was, I think, 6'11", maybe seven foot.

So, you know, he was an inch or two taller. Doke's wingspan was really good. I want to say it was like somewhere between 7'4", and 7'5", something like that. So it's a little bit bigger there. So it's just like a little bit smaller version of Doke. And again, both players in that situation were born in Nigeria, though again,

Demir has dual citizenship and has been, you know, I guess in Turkey for long enough that that's, you know, another part of his life coming up to this point. But he's played in Turkey and Belgrade. So he started when he was age 16, playing for Tofus SC, which is in the Turkish League played 16 games that year. Then in his 17 year old season, he's playing for Gemlich basketball Bursa, which is in the Belgrade League. He was I think maybe

put on loan from Tofus is how that worked. And he put up really good numbers in the Belgrade League. 10.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.4 blocks per game as a 17 year old, but obviously lower competition than the Turkish league, which the Turkish league is one of the best leagues in the world. It's like the Spanish league, then you could argue

the Turkish league is the next best league among the non NBA leagues and obviously the non Euro leagues. So then he's back with Tofis in his 18 year old season but he also is playing a little bit more with Gemlik basketball Bursa so again I don't know if he was on loan or what but if we're just looking at his time in the Turkish League the last two years, which is probably the most pertinent because it doesn't, you know, I guess it's all one league and he's starting to be on the senior team for Turkey.

So his 19 year old season in 2023 to 2024, he plays 12 minutes per game, 39 games played. He averages 3.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 0.2 assists compared to 0.8 turnovers. And then he had 0.3 steals, 0.9 blocks per game. Shot 66% from the floor and 57% at the free throw line. So, you know, good backup big man numbers there. Then this past season, again, needs with Tofus FC, SC, I don't know again if he gets put on loan or what, but he plays end up with Daru Safaka

Basketball Istanbul in the Turkish League and he plays 31 games He averages 15.7 minutes per game going for 5.1 points per game 4.9 rebounds per game 0.3 assists compared to one turnover 0.4 steals and one block per game He does it shooting basically 60% from the field, the free throw percentage, very bad, 34% from the free throw line. So again, kind of a similar player to Doak

in terms of not being the best free throw shooter, but being very efficient around the rim, though Doak was even more efficient around the rim. But also for Demir, you're looking at stats against other grown adults in a professional league where if he's shooting 60% in the Turkish league, that might equate out to 65 to 70% at the college level. I don't know, it'll just kind of depend there.

But for the following advanced stats, he wound up in the 77th percentile of the Turkish league this past season in effective field goal percentage. His on-off defensive rating actually wasn't very good, but the team was also bad, so I don't know what to think there. I could see him being a better defender in college basketball than Pro Ball,

because maybe he's a bigger center, maybe he struggles the defendant space. That still is something you have to worry about in college, but maybe not as much as in Pro Ball. He did have a 66th percentile mixed team defense rating according to Three Steps Basket. So that actually says he was a solid enough defender there. 31st percent usage rates and not somebody who's getting the ball

a bunch or going to work on the post like he's not going to take up the ball away from, say, a Darren Peterson. The biggest skill that I think he provides and brings to the table. 96th percentile offensive rebound rate, 88th percentile defensive rebound rate. He would be one of the best rebounders in the conference. If you were to add him in, he also went 61 percent. sixth percentile offensive rebound rate, 88th percentile defensive rebound rate. He would be one of the best rebounders in the conference if you were to add him in. He also went 61% at the rim, plus in the paint.

He was 5 of 12 in the mid-range, so he actually shot pretty well there, but obviously very low volume, attempted no threes during Turkish league play, and actually a year prior, he shot 67% in the paint. So a brute force big man. Let's get more into his game. What maybe the highlights showed next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and

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Code LOCKEDONCOLLege for half off your first year. Thanks for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks. And if you make Locked on College football or Locked on college basketball, your second listen every day. Okay, so how would Demir fit in with KU? So I would say from watching the highlights, we went over some of the stats there and you could, you know, maybe make some certain assumptions about his game, what he brings to the table. If you watch some of the highlights, like very powerful player has some very powerful dunks

and we made the mini-Doke comparison. It's funny because some of the dunks that he throws down, in fact, a lot of the dunks he throws down, are like, Doke had that, like, there was a, I don't want to say distinct style of dunking because plenty of other players have done it this way who are big, but like Doke,

he threw down almost like a cocked back power dunk where his his like elbows were kind of out and he threw it down. I don't know it was just the style of the way that he did dunk it. Demir threw down a lot of dunks like that too so just added I think to the comparison there but he's somebody who works well in pick and roll as a role man. I think he sets pretty heavy screens and has that ability to with his size. But he actually runs really hard to the rim puts pressure on the defense, he can throw it out dunks on the catch or on the lob like, even if you throw it, even if he can't get the lob, but you just

throw it to him on a catch, he'll still go down for a dunk over somebody after grabbing the ball. He's a relentless offensive rebounder always looking to get that big dunk, whether it is on the pick and roll off an offensive rebound put back and, you know, going back to another KU comparison, I guess, not that I would compare him too much to this guy, but like everybody remembers the Thomas Robinson one handed like alley-oop dunk against Baylor, right? That was such a big highlight for KU.

They played it on, you know the the video before the games and stuff for years too. There's a couple highlights where Demir is doing that and that was really cool to see there. He actually like I said hit a few mid-range shots that you see on tape a couple free throw line jumpers based on the free throw percentage based on the fact you only took 12 of them last year. I I can't imagine that's going to be a huge part of his game, but I guess it's at least in there potentially, right?

His assist rate, not super high, 11th percentile for the league turnover rate was in the 13th percentile. So too many turnovers, not enough passes. I will say if you're watching the highlights though, he did have some advanced passing reads or passes leading guy fitting passes into tight windows, knowing where guys were going to be where he immediately touched the ball and was ready to pass it out to somebody for three or something. So it's interesting. The highlights actually show me that there is potential there as a passer, but the stats would say he wasn't a very good passer. So I don't know, maybe that's a scheme thing. Maybe it's just you're just

seeing the good ones because it is the highlights. And that is something you do have to be aware of. It's just you're just seeing the good ones because it is the highlights and that is something you do have to be aware of. He has some powerful stuff blocks like both as the primary defender where he's just walling a guy off, you know, one on one in the post and then he blocks him and then other ones where he's rotating over to kind of thwart a driver and just sending it off the backboard or sending it out of bounds or sending it to a teammate. Overall, I would say because you see some steel highlights highlights in there too, seems to be a very active defender who has active hands. I would assume his size and defensive team metrics not being the best. That might come down to, like I said earlier, maybe defending in space,

or it could just come down to his teammates, right? The last two years, he hasn't been on a very good team in Turkey, and also the fact that you're coming off the bench and playing a smaller role you are very much behooven less so than if you were a starter to the guys that are around you. So it could just be coming down to that. I would think at the collegiate level, even because of the shop blocking and because of the just size and because he does at least show to have like some decent level of athleticism, especially for the size, I don't think he'd be a bad defender. I think the worst he's a neutral defender who's like good in certain settings, but maybe give stuff up in space. But I think there's an avenue for him being a good defender or a very good defender on that end of the floor. But maybe that comes with, with time.

I do think you would have two years, maybe three, if you were to come to college. I don't totally know how the NCAA works their clock, but that would be something that maybe could, you know, give them the opportunity to maybe you're the bench center this year, Flory goes pro, and then you're the starting center in another year from that. I will say, if you're looking for a big man to like,

okay, we know Flory is good at these certain things. We don't know how skilled Flory is gonna be like as opposed to a player in to like, okay, we know Flory is good at these certain things. We don't know how skilled Flory is going to be like as post a player in year two, right? Or somebody who can get you a bucket on the offense event. I don't know that to mirrors your guy to do that. I think it would be more so steering into the idea of a big man who can rebound block shots, play defense rim run, throw down lobs throw down dunks, right. And that can be okay. I think that's actually fun way of playing,

especially if you have guards who can score, which we think Darren Peterson should be able to do. I think they have other guards who have potential to do it, but you know we're going to have to wait and see. So what do you would add to the team? I think to me or he would obviously add strength that type of size like KU has a lot of long wingspan guys or lengthy guys, but they don't have that like girth type of strength. And I think you would add that to the team. You would add even more wingspan.

That would continue the trend of this team having a bunch of guys with really good wingspans plus wingspans. He would add even more dunking to the team. I mean, between Flory and Demir, you would get probably about as many dunks from the center position as any team in the country. You would get more rebounding, right?

I mean, Flory's a really good rebounder. Demir's a really good rebounder. And it would give you options in terms of, OK, if you're playing against a team who has more of that strong big man that Flory is struggling with because he's more of the athletic type big man, you can put Demir out there to kind of match up in a different way. He also would bring more age experience, physicality than like a freshman could from that position because of the fact that he'll be 21 in August. in a different way. He also would bring more age, experience, physicality than like a freshman could

from that position because of the fact that he'll be 21 in August. Now what he doesn't bring to the table would be shooting, ball handling, positional versatility. I think he's just a five. Like I think that's kind of what it is in this situation. Now Bill Self might play some two-bit basketball and we'll touch on that in a second here. I don't know how much back to the basket game he has. And I will say this would be the biggest worry for me with the Demir and Flory, I guess, front court, would be foul trouble.

Because if you mush together what Flory averaged last year at KU with what Demir averaged last year in Turkey, they would have collectively played 31.6 minutes per game and collectively averaged 5.1 fouls per game. So both of them are gonna have to get better from that aspect in terms of avoiding fouls and or you're gonna have to add another big if that is the case.

So I think the role potential here for Demir, you'd be looking at him coming in and playing the backup center minutes, right? That could be 1215 18 minutes, possibly. I mean, I was looking back like David McCormick, his last year, Kansas was playing like 23 minutes per game for Kansas. So like what a floor is playing 23 minutes, right? Doak was playing, I think the year KU went to the final four, Doak was playing like I'm like 22 or 2324 minutes per game,

so somewhere in that range. Now Dokes final year Kansas he was playing closer to 27. So I think that's the range I'm looking at for floor. He could play somewhere between 22 to 27 minutes per game. That leaves a good chunk of minutes

for a player like Demir to come in and play those minutes at the back of big. And then you even have the possibility of would they play too big basketball a little bit, right? You have too big basketball where Tillers at the four because he's a more skilled big man with Demir at the five. You have the too big basketball where maybe you would even throw out Florian next to Demir in the right matchup

or the right lineup to where maybe you could play 10 to 15 minutes of too big basketball per game. And honestly, like going back to another big man, we deep dove on Kerem Konan. Like I would say Adam both, add Demir and Konan, and then you can play maybe even 20 minutes of two big basketball per game, especially because in that situation,

you would have all sorts of different big men. You would have the athletic freak show of Floridunga, I say that in the most positive way possible. You would have the physical big man in Demir, you would have the skilled big man in Bryson Tiller, and you would have the mobile big man in Demir, you would have the skilled big man in Bryson Tiller, and you would have the mobile big man in Conan. It would give you a little bit, you know, Baskin Robbins, a bunch of different tastes

or flavors of big man and that you would have. So I would just say add both and steer into that, especially at this point where maybe the impact wings and impact guards are as heavy, heavily available for you at this point in time. So I think overall, this would be a good pivot, especially after feeling like you're not going to be able to get Bryce the Ser eligible.

That still becomes kind of a questionnaire, I will say. When Demir played Konan, if this does come down to a question of Konan versus Demir, they played twice. I don't know how much you can take from it. Demir played 20 minutes in those two games. He was 0 for 2 shooting shooting 0.7 rebounds, one block, four turnovers. So it didn't fare super well in the two matchups.

Konan played 25 minutes in the two games their teams played. He had four points on one of three. He had 11 rebounds, one block and two turnovers. But Konan sometimes was playing the four for his team. So I don't know how much they truly like actually matched up against each other. Like I said, I would just add both if you could. But I think the mirror would be a really good ad for KU,

especially pivoting after you weren't able to make the desire thing happen. This would be a really good addition for KU if they can get it done. Let's finish up here with a little latest news. KU volleyball gets a big one. KU football, Dan Fitzgerald stuff, all that coming up with LOJ. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Again, you can tune into us anywhere, get your podcasts, including on YouTube.

So we're going to start here where KU Football got a commit from Naquane Carter, who is a defensive tackle in the class of 2026. We're going to talk more about him on tomorrow's episode of the show. So we going to talk more about him on tomorrow's episode of the show. So we'll break down more on his game. Make sure to tune in.

And thank you to the Everdayers who already will. Tune in to that episode of the quarter. They did lose a commit though in Landon Anderson, who Landon Anderson was one of their really good recruits in the class of 2026. Seemed to have a lot of potential in what he could possibly be. So that's a big hit for KU losing him, but at least they did backfill it a little

bit with Carter. So we'll talk about that more on tomorrow's episode. And then Dan Fitzgerald's new contract breakdown was was written in the LG world. KU sports dot com by Henry Greenstein mentioned that he was making five hundred thirty thousand in 2025. He was set to go up basically $10,000 a year for the upcoming years. But now the new deal is going to pay him $675,000.

So sizable, you'll pay increase for Fitzgerald as well as a $50,000 signing bonus. And the contract will increase his salary by an average of just under $30,000 per season. So instead of going up by like 10 per season, it's going up 30,000 per season. But I think the most important thing, and this wasn't written into the contract, but it was mentioned in the article, the idea of committing to, you know, the scholarships and the roster build and the facility increases and stuff like that.

That's going to be the most important thing for building out this KU baseball program. Keep a Dan Fitzgerald in Lawrence and keeping him happy in Lawrence. And then the last bit of news here is a little bit of KU volleyball news, which should be a fun season with Matt Ulmer in his first year in charge taking over for the big shoes to fill from Ray Bouchard and they've been very active in the offseason adding some players internationally especially and this one might be as big of a get as you could

imagine internationally late in the game. But this comes from avid volleyball that Serbian national team opposite Jovana Zeljanovic. I don't know if that's the proper way to pronounce it has signed with the University of Kansas and Zeljanovic is an opposite, which on its own makes her an important player for KU because they don't have that really on the roster. In terms of a natural opposite, right, some you can play outside hitters there, but maybe it's not going

to be their natural position. This is her natural position. She is six foot seven. And again, she's on the Serbian national team. So like, this is a pretty seven and again she's on the Serbian national team so like this is a pretty good player there's a chance this you know she comes in right away and is one of KU's best players I don't know a ton about her so you know I'm not going to say that's necessarily the case but you like to think that you would be able to impact in some way so excited for the KU volleyball season they've got a fun non-conference schedule with some of the teams they're going to be playing including like Penn State up in a game in South Dakota.

And obviously the Big 12 schedule with, you know, some of the teams that I know, Texas and Nebraska, no longer part of the league, but there's still a lot of really good teams in the Big 12 now. So it should be a fun volleyball season as well, as we look forward to the upcoming fall season for KU and college sports.

All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get a podcast, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time for another edition of LOJ, talking a little KU football. And if there's any KU basketball breaking news, we'll get to that as well, right here on Locked on Jayhawks.