Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Expectations for 5-Star Darryn Peterson at Kansas + Will More Top Recruits Follow Now for Bill Self?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, what are the proper expectations for Darren Peterson when he joins KU? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. This is Locked on Jayhawks, and thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We're free and available wherever you get your podcasts, as well as on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Like and subscribe to the show on our YouTube page if you could. Today, we're going to be doing a deep dive into how past top 10 recruits have done under Bill Self, how similar players of the recruiting ilk of Darren Peterson and his high pedigree have done under Bill Self, what it can tell us for the expectations, what the expectations should be for Darren Peterson as a probable one and done for KU, and is this going to start a run for KU where they're landing more of these recruits more consistently moving forward? Today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase at GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:18 So, Darren Peterson committed to KU last Friday night. He is the number one guard in the class. He is a top three guard in the class. He is a top three recruit in the country. In a lot of other years, he would be the number one recruit in the country because it is a good recruiting class. You got guys like AJ DeBonsa, Boozer Twins, who are in this. The one Boozer is ranked higher than the other, but really good recruiting cast nonetheless. And he is seen as a kind of one of those, I hesitate to say can't miss prospect because people say that all the time about guys.

Starting point is 00:01:49 And then they are like they did miss or like it took them a little bit longer than you might have expected. So like, I don't mean to go there, but point being like as high of a probability of hitting as you could ask for from the recruiting level. Now, when you go back and look at the other top 10 recruits that Bill Self has brought into the program, I find this very interesting. So you have Josh Jackson, who was the number one recruit in the country. And some of these are going to depend on where you were talking about the recruiting rankings kind of coming from here for KU.

Starting point is 00:02:27 But Josh Jackson, number one player. Andrew Wiggins were the number one player. You have Josh Selby, who was the number four player. David Padgett, who was the number five player. Cliff Alexander, who was the number five player. Which, looking back, I kind of forgot that Cliff Alexander was actually rated higher than Sheck Diallo, despite,

Starting point is 00:02:47 you know, maybe not having as much size necessarily, but you have Xavier Henry, who's number six, Kelly Oubre and Sheck Diallo were both seven. Julian Wright was number eight and Quentin Grimes was number 10. Those are all of the top 10 recruits that have come in to KU under Bill Self.

Starting point is 00:03:04 And so when you look at those, there's a mixed result as I was going through the names. Like if you just view it as a personal test, like, I don't know, I guess we can view this as a stat thing. We can view it like if we view it as games played, for instance, right? Like if we view this as points per game if we view this as um impact on the court if we view this as just the like yes no test like was this a good player for

Starting point is 00:03:37 KU those are all going to work out different things into you know would you consider it I guess successful or not for KU. But if we viewed it as games started, all of those guys are games played. All of those guys played in a lot. So Wiggins, 35 starts in 35 games. Jackson, 35 in 35. Selby, 11 starts, 26 games played. Obviously had to deal with an injury, though.

Starting point is 00:03:59 Padgett started 19, played 31. Cliff Alexander started 6, played 28. Xavier, 36 starts. Oubre, 27 starts. Sheck Diallo just won. Julian Wright, six, played 28. Xavier, 36 starts. Oubre, 27 starts. Sheck Diallo just won. Julian Wright, 15. Quinton Grimes, 36. Then you look at the minutes per game. Sheck Diallo was only seven and a half minutes per game. Every other player on that list was above 17 minutes per game. And all of the guards on that list, so you're talking Grimes, you're talking Henry, you're talking Selby, Jackson, and Wiggins played at least 20 or more minutes per game. And outside of Josh Selby, they all played 27 or more minutes per game.

Starting point is 00:04:31 So by those metrics, by those numbers, you're talking about players who played very big roles for KU, which I think will be the expectation for Darren Peterson. Now, what makes this also interesting, though, is going back to the idea that Peterson is the number three recruit in the country. He's the number one guard. He is seen as that campus guy that in a lot of other years would be the number one recruit in the country. Does it make sense to include him with all the top 10 guys? Does it only make sense to include him with Wiggins and Jackson?

Starting point is 00:05:00 Because when you're looking at it by rating, he is the highest rated recruit that KU has brought in since Josh Jackson and before Josh Jackson the highest rated recruit Kansas brought in was Andrew Wiggins under Bill Self so does it make more sense instead of comparing you know what Darren Peterson could do to what Quentin Grimes did for KU or to Xavier Henry does it just make sense to only compare to Andrew Wiggins and Josh Jackson. And especially when you're talking about position, like probably doesn't make sense to compare Darren Peterson to Sheck Diallo. It's completely different positions. And I think when you look at like the Wiggins and Jackson ones specifically, when you're talking about the caliber of player that they were,

Starting point is 00:05:39 they were, or they were expected to be coming in, when you look at their game style, when you look at their positions that they play, yeah, Wiggins and Jackson more of like true wings that could play the three or the four, but I think also in some sense even play the two. With Peterson, he's more of he could be a wing or he could play the one, two, or three,

Starting point is 00:06:01 but still in the standpoint of being kind of perimeter players, guard wing types, and then that player caliber where they're going to be types of players that have chances at being, I guess you could say like all-American candidates, all Big 12 candidates, at being a top five pick, at being a lottery pick, at being potentially the number one pick in the draft. And again, it's, it's going to be tough for, you know, a guy like Peterson because Devon's, uh, and, uh, the boozer, uh, I forget which one is, is the one that's ranked higher,

Starting point is 00:06:34 but you know, things happen. So he feels like a player to me built to come in right away and have success score, double digit points, be an impact player on a winning team in a real way because of how advanced he is at spot up shooting working in the high post in the mid-range dribbling into and shooting elevating over guys and the fact that he does a lot of the dirty work too like he has good stats with rebounding with getting blocked shots with getting steal numbers at the high school level. It just feels like the ready-made pack to be a day one starter. And I look back at Andrew Wiggins' numbers at Kansas. He was a Big 12 Rookie of the Year. He was All-Big 12.

Starting point is 00:07:13 He was a consensus All-American pick. Obviously, left a poor taste in people's mouth with how the year finished for that team and him individually in that final game. But he objectively had an awesome season. If you told me Darren Peterson is going to average 17.6 rebounds on next year's team with over a steal and a block per game on 45% from the floor, 34 from three and 78 from the foul line. Like I probably just sign up for that right now, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:40 and you look at Josh Jackson's numbers, they're really good as well. The crazy thing to me is that I think Peterson, you could make an argument comes in as the highest pedigree for shooting among those like I know he only shot 31 percent from three last year but you look at the free throw pursuit shooting you look at what he can potentially do in the high post with Wiggins and Jackson those were not like huge questions they were ranked so highly but those were among among the questions you could have, like how good of a shooter are these guys going to be? And Peterson actually comes in with a little bit more reputation, I guess you could say,

Starting point is 00:08:13 or maybe potential, you could say, among those. I think probably more ball handling and passing than those guys, but obviously in the case of Jackson, he had that just kind of tenacity, rebounding ability, and pogo stick type athleticism. Andrew Wiggins, kind of same thing, different level athlete than Josh Jackson. And I don't know, maybe more graceful, even crazier athlete with Wiggins, whereas with Jackson was more of that like nasty, like dunk on you type of athlete, I guess. And so those are real things that are differences here and stuff. But point being, he is on that same level of those guys. And so I think what also has to make you feel confident about the expectations here is typically the best one and done freshman seasons that Bill

Starting point is 00:09:00 Self has coached have been wings. Now, again, you can argue Darren Peterson, is he a combo guard? Is he a lead guard? Is he a wing? I don't know. I think you could make the argument that it's all kind of very similar. Even in the case of like Joel Embiid, which you could argue he had one of the best one and done seasons for Bill Self. It was a great year, but like looking back, he wasn't starting to begin the year. And as good as he was in certain games, like the Iowa State game, he had a player who eventually went on to win an NBA MVP. He got 11 points per game. So, like, how truly dominant was it?

Starting point is 00:09:34 You know what I mean? But think back to some of the freshman wings, and I guess we do want to include the guards who hit the ground running. Brandon Rush, right away. Devon Dotson, right away, was a, what, 12, 13-point-per-game score. Xavier Henry had a really good season that gets undersold a bit because of the team he was on where they didn't go far in the tournament, and they had Charron and Cole, who were the first two guys you think of,

Starting point is 00:09:55 but he had a really good season. Kelly Oubre, from, like, December on, had a great year for KU. Andrew Wiggins, Josh Jackson, if you want to count Ben McLemore. Johnny Furphy, once he started. Grady Dick. Heck, even Ochag Baji, after Furphy once he started, Grady Dick, heck, even Ochag Baji after ripping off the red shirt, put up some big 20-point games. Christian Brown contributed in year one.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Consistently, it's usually the centers who struggle as highly recruited guys to figure out Bill Self's system and all this sort of stuff, which, by the way, a quick aside, makes what Floyd Budunga has looked like early in this year, I think, even more impressive that he has kind of hit the ground running but a lot of times the centers maybe it takes some time under bill self um the guards maybe hit or miss you could point to guys like quentin grimes or mj rice who had just never kind of clicked but the wings have been the consistent one where it has worked and wing guard types specifically like xavier henry maybe you would be in the mold of what you would consider Darren Peterson in terms of positionality. And so when I look at those sorts of things, I think it gives you more confidence.

Starting point is 00:10:49 So I view this as being a situation where he should be really set up for success. And then you look at the roster that would be around him to try to further his ability to have success. Because that's one thing with andrew wiggins season he was counted on to be the guy which had its benefits for wiggins because he was able to put up those big numbers right if he was on a team with we talked about this on a previous episode like if you swapped andrew wiggins and josh jackson on their respective teams does josh jackson go for 20 that year does and Andrew Wiggins go down to 14, 15 points per game because he's with Frank Mason and, you know, Devontae Graham, but his efficiency goes up, right? And the role is a little bit different there. And, you know, I think with

Starting point is 00:11:37 Darren Peterson, I don't know that the expectation will be to score 17, 18 points per game. But when you look at the pieces that could be around him, you could have a senior year, Ryland Griffin. So what are you looking for? Can you have shooters around him that helps space the floor that he can operate in the mid range that he can facilitate a little bit that he can do some of these things and excel to his game? Well, Ryland Griffin's there, right? You could have a, another year, AJ store to help be a scorer alongside him. Floyd Badunga going to help cover up any defensive mistakes as a sophomore center at KU, right? If you're Darren Peterson and you have a freshman mistake on the defensive end of the court,

Starting point is 00:12:11 okay, you know you got that guy who can erase the shot on the inside at the other end. You could go out in the transfer portal and bring in some scoring, shooting guard who can playmake with you. I think it's set up in a lot of ways with the roster, with how he is, with how past history has shown us, that I expect big things from Darren Peterson in year one and probably his only year at Kansas. Let's get more into those expectations, what the role could possibly be, and early guess at the starting lineup for KU next season and if this is going to start a run for KU in recruiting. This episode today is brought to you by HIMSS,

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Starting point is 00:13:42 Price varies based on product and subscription plan all right continuing on with this episode of the show what are the expectations going to be and what is the role going to be projected to be starting lineup all that sort of thing i expect darren peterson to come in right away and be a starter and somebody who's playing 30 plus minutes per game right away going back to those those Wiggins and Jackson comps, both those guys started every game. Wiggins played 32.8 minutes per game. Jackson played 30.8 minutes per game.

Starting point is 00:14:12 So I kind of look at it. I'm like, okay, I'm expecting Aaron Peterson to come in and play 28, 30, 32 minutes per game. And you look at his game, he should be able to hit the ground running. So let's say your starting lineup is this, because this would be my projection at the, I guess, way too early starting lineup in 2025 to 2026. I think transfer portal guard, right? Darren Peterson. And whether the transfer portal guard is more of a two-man, a combo guard, a point guard, I think you just kind of go for the best guy and you say, okay,

Starting point is 00:14:44 well, we can either use Darren Peterson more at the point. We can use him more at the two. Um, and you just roll the ball out from there and get the best player you can in the portal. So I would say, uh, Darren Peterson, a transfer portal guard, Ryland Griffin on the wing at that point would be second year in the program and a senior overall. And then Flory Badunga at the five. The other position I would have the most question about would be the fourth wing, or I guess the second wing, I don't know, whatever, the four man, essentially. I guess it doesn't matter. Theoretically, one through four or two through four could be very switchable

Starting point is 00:15:25 here in this situation. But who would be that fifth starter? Basically, I think Rakeesh Passmore would be somebody I would keep an eye on there, right? So you go trades for portal guard, Peterson, Griffin, Passmore, Flory. If AJ Storr is back for another year. It's funny because AJ Storr has gotten off to a slow start and he has another season after this one. So in theory, you would be like oh yeah it feels like more likely than not that AJ Storr is back for next season but I think the expectation probably for Storr coming in the year was ball out go to the NBA and so how does that work how does it work uh with a guy who's been at a different school every year since his freshman

Starting point is 00:15:59 year of high school right but would the starting lineup potentially be transfer portal guard peterson griffin store flory right but either way i like that starting lineup right i i mean and then you have a marco jackson off the bench um that is a lot of potential i don't know like the question is i'm almost assuming the transfer portal guard would be somebody who scores and shoots at a high level. So it's good shooting with that and Griffin and store can shoot a little bit and Peterson will be able to shoot a little bit. So it's good enough shooting. It would have great athleticism.

Starting point is 00:16:36 I mean, if you threw out a lineup, let's I'm assuming the transfer portal guard probably will be pretty athletic or quick. And you have him, Peterson, Griffin, pass more Griffin, Passmore, Storr possibly, Flory Budunga, Elmarco Jackson off the bench.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Like if those are your top seven, maybe even a transfer wing, if you lose Storr, that's like a super athletic team, like super, super, that would be one of the more athletic Bill Self teams I could remember in recent memory. team like super super that would be one of the more athletic Bill Self teams I could remember in recent memory I mean Flory is certainly one of the more athletic centers that Bill Self has ever had El Marco assuming he is healthy is a very athletic guard like that's what's going for him um Passmore is a great athlete like Peterson's a solid athlete he's a good I don't know that could be really fun uh for next season but yeah I think the expectations for Peterson you know would he be expected to be the leading for next season. But, yeah, I think the expectations for Peterson, you know,

Starting point is 00:17:26 would he be expected to be the leading scorer on that team? Yeah, it depends on the point guard that you bring in, or not necessarily point guard, combo guard, whatever, the transfer portal guard you bring in. Is Storback. What does Ryland Griffin do this year? Or is he going to be more viewed as just like an ancillary piece that's hitting shots from the outside?

Starting point is 00:17:41 But I think there is a real chance that Peterson does lead Kansas' team next year in scoring. At the very least, I expect him to be a starter, be playing 28, 30, 32 minutes per game and be around that lead in that category and still get you a handful of rebounds and a couple assists and do a lot of things that contribute to winning at a high level. All right, let's finish up here. Will this lead to more success on the recruiting trail for Bill Self with those elite of the elite recruits? Our episode today is brought to you by Z Biotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink. It's the world's first genetically engineered probiotic that was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your rough next day.

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Starting point is 00:20:09 Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. All right, finishing things up here. Will this start a run? Because Bill Self is obviously consistently still, even when the NCAA stuff was happening, he was still bringing on good recruits.

Starting point is 00:20:25 We mentioned Quentin Grimes. That was a top 10 recruit. Bryce Thompson was a McDonald's All-American. They were still bringing on high-level recruits. And even in years where they haven't got a top three, top five recruit in the country, they're typically bringing on a McDonald's All-American or two, or at the very least bringing on a guy who's ranked 40th in the country or something like that. But maybe it prevented you from, even if you got, I don't know, maybe there

Starting point is 00:20:48 was a guy you thought even if he was ranked the 30th or 25th or 40th best guy that you really wanted that you didn't get. But more than that is that they had been missing that elite of the elite recruit. And it's not everything we know. College basketball experience very much matters. I've always said, though, that the most ideal way to build a college roster is that I don't necessarily mean from game style or like the lack of depth that this team had or, you know, that 2017 or I'm sorry, 2016, 2017 team for KU. Because you had the veteran guard play with Frank Mason, Devontae Graham. You get some smaller guards who stay in school for a long time and end up being good players. You had a lot of veteran player to plug in that unbelievable one and done talent in Josh

Starting point is 00:21:34 Jackson that added the athleticism, that added the ceiling, that added this and that to a bunch of good college players. And again, you would have wished that team had even more depth. Obviously, it didn't help that you don't guess. Buke got hurt and stuff like that. I just mean from a standpoint of if you're choosing between, hey, you would have wished that team had even more depth. Obviously, it didn't help that you don't guess. Buke got hurt and stuff like that. I just mean from a standpoint of if you're choosing between, hey, you can have a veteran college roster that you add a great one and done to, or you can have a team like the 2013-14 team that is all great one and dones,

Starting point is 00:21:55 I think the 16-17 one is going to be more impressive. Of course, you can have an all-great experience college roster too, and that can be great too. But the beauty of having the great experience college roster too, and that can be great too. But the beauty of having the great experience college roster with one, one and done, or maybe two really good one and dones is that it is that different ceiling razor that if both teams play their a plus game, like that can be the difference to kind of getting you over the hump.

Starting point is 00:22:15 Unfortunately, KU did not play their a plus game or maybe even B game in the elite eight against Oregon and Oregon did play their a game, but we don't need to dig that back up. Anyway, point B, we haven't been able to see this in a while. It's been since Josh Jackson, the K you got to recruit who was ranked in the top five.

Starting point is 00:22:36 And so that's where the difference is here is that can they get these elite of the elite recruits? Obviously you're at a bit of a disadvantage with not having Nike on your side, who was just like throwing out bags left and right but you know obviously it doesn't hurt when you have players in the NBA I know that doesn't lead necessarily to exact college success but like players do see that and even if we can talk all day about hey this great you know Anthony Davis he could have gone to Vanderbilt he still would have been what he is now in the NBA probably would would be the case. There still are recruits who see that and

Starting point is 00:23:08 go, oh, I want to be developed by, you know, that coach, or I want to go to that school. Even if it didn't matter at the end of the day, maybe it did, maybe it didn't, maybe it matters a little, maybe it matters a lot. Who's to say it doesn't matter because perception is everything. And so if you get another good player in the NBA with Peterson, that helps out, right? If you get another player who's drafted high, that helps out, Get the ball rolling. And I mean, who knows? You can even argue that know if it's ament, ament, probably a better chance of that one happening than DeBonsa. Even if that one's not likely of happening, it's possible. But I think point being, I'm not even saying that this is going to happen now every year

Starting point is 00:23:56 that I'm expecting KU to land a top five recruit every single year now, but I don't think it's going to be as uncommon as once every eight years like it has happened now or maybe even once every three years like it did between Wiggins and Josh Jackson maybe it's every other year at this point in time maybe it does end up becoming a thing where KU is doing it pretty much every year two out of every three years or something like that because now they're out of the NCAA stuff now that um NIL is an important part of this and KU basketball has a really good NIL game uh now that you've got the ball rolling with Darren Peterson, I think there's a good chance that we're going to see this a lot more often

Starting point is 00:24:30 than it had been happening over the previous whatever decade, two decades with Bill Self. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back on tomorrow's show to get you an early preview of the Kansas-North Carolina game. We've still got a preview of the Kansas Iowa State football game later this week as well. So plenty more action coming at you with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Expectations for 5-Star Darryn Peterson at Kansas + Will More Top Recruits Follow Now for Bill Self?

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