Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Flory Bidunga and Other Kansas Jayhawks that Bill Self Should Surround Darryn Peterson Next Season

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Can the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team secure a dominant future with incoming freshman 5-star Darryn Peterson? As the 2025-2026 season approaches, the potential return of key players like Flory Bidunga and Elmarko Jackson could shape the team's roster for Bill Self in the offseason.Explore the strategic importance of retaining top talents and the impact of NCAA eligibility changes on the Kansas Jayhawks' roster. Host Derek Johnson analyzes the defensive prowess of Bidunga, as well as possible 5-year NCAA rulings for the possible impact of the scoring potential of Zeke Mayo, and the unique skill set of KJ Adams. Discover how these players might complement Peterson's game and elevate the Jayhawks' performance.Will the Kansas Jayhawks build a balanced roster to support their rising star? Tune in for an in-depth look at the team's evolving strategy and the exciting possibilities for the upcoming season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees. ROYDownload the Roy app now from the App Store and start backing your favorite athletes the way they deserve—with transparency, trust, and a real impact. This is the future of college sports. Join it now by downloading Roy and supporting your favorite players! FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if 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)

We're on to next year, ranking which KU basketball players that Bill South needs to get back to fit around Darren Peterson and build the 2025-2026 Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Going on, Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each

and every episode of the show. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're going to be turning the page a little bit to the 2025 to 2026 season. Darren Peterson, absolute beast, absolute stud, set to join the program as a most likely one-and-done freshman for KU.

Who does KU want back from this roster? Who should they be going back for? Because this has been a very bad season for KU, and from that perspective, it's almost like, well, do you want to bring some stuff back that has that odor from the past season, right? What players would fit around Darren Peterson? I do think there is maybe a little bit of a case to be made that you just start fresh in a certain way, but also at the same point in time, Bill Self has done better with players who stick in

the program. So let's get into that. We're going to rank all those players. And also, what's the deal with Diggie Coy, Zeke Mayo, KJ Adams? There's some NCAA stuff that could possibly apply to those guys. Okay, let's start right here. So the players who are gone, for sure, for KU, these are players who are graduating, right? Shaquille Moore, Hunter Dickinson, DeJuan Harris. Those players all graduate for KU.

I also am not going to get into the walk-on players as part of this, which I guess you could make the argument for a guy like, I don't know, Noah Shelby or something who's technically a walk-on, but maybe would earn a scholarship. But the walk-ons are kind of going away. They're just expanding the roster. So I'm not getting into those guys. You actually could bring a good amount back. I believe that would leave seven players that you could possibly bring back to

next year's team and that doesn't even account for bryson tiller who we'll get into in our second segment uh diggy coy if he can get another year with the juco stuff which seems like he'd be able to and then if the ncaa passed the fifth year thing then which we'll get into that later as well, then that would give the option for Zeke and KJ. So theoretically, there could be up to 11 players that would have a chance to return. And not all of that will happen. But let's just talk about the seven who are not based on, I guess, technicalities. And I even include, like I said, Bryson Tiller into that technicality is red shirting this year.

And he's like injured right now. And that's just a different situation. So tier one, everything in your power to get back. That is how I am defining this tier. You need to be able to get any players that we put in here back, cut the NIL check, whatever it is. And honestly, I was tempted to not put anybody in this because of how poor this season has gone for KU. But I did end up putting Flory Badunga in this tier one. Do everything in your power to get him back. Because Flory has the potential to be a superstar on the defensive end of the court.

I mean, the fact is, I haven't checked in the past couple days, but I know like a week ago, he was leaning the Big 12 in blocks per game and he was doing that as a backup center. Like, what is he going to do when he's the starting center? He could be a real Big 12 defensive player of the year candidate and one of the favorites to win the award next year. And as much as he, I don't know, works hard and hustles and stuff, I think that you can expect a big leap from him and him to be a much better player next season. I think he's had a bit of a freshman wall here at this point in time, but you still see some of the athletic gifts that he has and some of the unbelievable things he can do on a court that not a lot of other players for Kansas or across the conference can do. And so from that

perspective, I think you do everything in your power to have him. And just imagine like if you're Darren Peterson, you know, that that's such a huge help on the defensive end in your power to have him. And just imagine, like, if you're Darren Peterson, you know, that's such a huge help on the defensive end in your first year back, that you have a guy to kind of defend the block on the inside and also to have a lob threat on the front of things for him to throw a lob to. I think it would make life a lot easier for Darren Peterson. And I think even though very different, you know,

players and stuff, and obviously a little bit different with Peterson being more of like a wing combo guard type compared to like the guy I'm about to bring up, but maybe it'd be a little bit of shades of like Sharon Collins, Cole Aldridge. If you could have that new age version with Darren Peterson and Florida Dunga. So I think you do everything in your power to try to get this guy back

and make him your starting five next year. Tier two, try hard to get back. So and make him your starting five next year uh tier two try hard to get back so this is the tier of like um i get like you you want to do your part to get them back also though you're not going to just cut a blank check i guess basically with nil i have three players in this tier for ku one of them is el marco jackson like i i don't think you can it's not even that the first year of El Marco Jackson, we saw this like outstanding player, but I don't think you can use two years of investment, if you want to put it that way,

on a guy who did struggle as a freshman and was out all year. Like you don't, you don't go through those two years for a guy who was a former mcdonald's all-american and top 25 recruit in the country the whole purpose of keeping that guy around your roster and dealing you know going through all those sorts of things where you keep them for a couple years is that you're hoping the payoff is that potential of what the recruiting rank was coming in and it doesn't always work out that way but you have to see this one through right at the very least like um there's no guarantee that that he's going to be the full guy you expect coming off a season-ending injury. Maybe it takes another year in between there,

but, like, you have to give that opportunity, and I think Kansas can also use another ball handler, right? Whether it's Peterson's the primary ball handler and you have somebody who can, you know, be kind of that secondary guy, or if El Marco is a bench point guard who comes in and plays the one and the two 20 minutes a night and can help with defensive tasks right with peterson if he's going to be

taking on such a big offensive load you don't want him necessarily taking the best uh offensive player at the other end you want somebody else taking that role and el marco did you know show some good stuff on the defensive end of the floor and so you have this athletic defensive point guard um that i definitely would like to see El Marco Jackson back. Plus, I like that he's a good kid, and I think a hard worker and everything, and I think that would be a good thing. I kind of, I ended up putting Ryland Griffin in this tier,

and maybe that's a little bit too strong because we haven't seen it consistently with Griffin to this point in time. But what do you need around Peterson, right? You want defensive insulation not that i think peterson's a bad defense i think peterson's going to be a good defender if anything but you know freshmen in college you want to make life easier for them on that end what else do you want to surround peterson with three-point shooting you want to space the floor you want to open the floor

to open those driving lanes to open that mid-range area for peterson where he is so good and okay rylan griffin um i know he's been on a cold spell lately although you know he he was uh able to at least hit some threes in the byu game but um i i think that when you view this as being a complimentary piece next to aaron peterson like griffin would be perfect for that and when we go back to the idea that bill self does better when players are in his program, you know, and he has more familiarity, so therefore he can have more trust in them, I think that would apply for Rylan Griffin in year two. Now, based on how this season has gone for Rylan Griffin, I would not blame him if he wants to transfer,

and it would not shock me at all if that was the intended destination or route that he wants to go. So, you know, if that's what he wants to do like i said i don't blame him at all but from if i was you know the gm of kansas basketball hypothetical world here i'd be trying a lot in my power because i think he'd uh be a good fit next to darren peterson uh the other guy i have in this one is rickies passmore um and again this kind of goes in line with the el marco one where it's like yeah he hasn't really done much as a freshman but like let's let's go with this hypothetical let's say instead of ever seeing rickies pass more play basketball this year which i do again like there is a little bit of me that's like if you're a key's pass more and you know you have that one game where you come in and shoot an open three

and you get pulled right away and you haven't really been able to get minutes like again i wouldn't really blame him if you wanted to transfer but let's say you just didn't see him play and kansas decided you know instead of jamari mcdowell we're going to red shirt rickies pass more this year let's say that that would have been their decision right and then you'd be going into next season saying okay we've got this kid in rickies pass more redshirted in year one he was the number 50 recruit in the country and then you'd be like hey remember that jaylen wilson guy i know that one was because of injury but as a redshirt freshman jalen wilson broke out remember that ben macklemore guy

when he broke out as a redshirt freshman like there could be this hype about like we've seen that redshirt freshman breakout before the problem is we've seen him struggle in the games that he's been in even if it's limited time um and it's a very small sample size and so it clouds your judgment but i i still like the potential. I still like the long-term athleticism and scoring ability from the wing position. But again, my worry is how kind of his camp views things after how this first season went. But I would love to get him back. And again, going in line with the idea, you just made this mistake.

You brought in Hunter Dickinson. It didn't really work out for these couple of seasons. And not all of that was on Hunter, right, to be clear. But you see what Zuby Ejifer is doing for st john's you see you know ernest dude has it been like a all big 12 player but he's at least been you know a good defender good rebounding big man if your two big lineup was still zooby and ernest i think you'd be a better defensive team which i know you know some of the rankings say they're actually okay and stuff um you'd be worse on offense but maybe you'd have a different identity and And maybe that NIL money you spent in one place

would have gone somewhere else and it would have ended up being a better fit. Who knows the kind of ripple effects of how that all worked. But point being, I think you need to learn from that and say, hey, let's keep developing the guys we took chances on at high school when they're top 50 recruits.

And yeah, there's a chance that, you know, it could be a Zach Clement situation where it doesn't really work out. But like a lot of those have worked out in the Bill Suffer. Our next tier is, I guess, cool if they come back, but like not going to be bothered either way if they go. Jamari McDowell would be a part of this.

Like I do like Jamari McDowell. I like the idea of being a kind of a three and D combo guard wing type. But, you know, I don't think you've seen enough to this point in time where if he does end up leaving that you're gonna have that same feeling about you know maybe when another player leaves like i said like with zoobie necessarily i think zach clements would apply here too where it's like if if maybe a little bit less like maybe jamar mcdowell would rank

higher here on this situation just because he has more years to kind of develop and turn into somebody and i do think that i don't know i i would lean that way if you're only bringing back one of the two in this hypothetical and and see what he has as a uh player coming off a red shirt that he was willing to take that year and and for mcdowell if he can even be like an eighth or a ninth man next year and then all of a sudden by the time he's a redshirt junior the following season maybe he's your six or seven man and then all of a sudden his final year he's a redshirt junior the following season maybe he's your sixth or seventh man and then all of a sudden his final year he's a starter like yeah maybe that's the linear path that that he can go on so maybe i do actually tier three would just be jamar mcdowell like cool if they come back keep developing and then tier four be kind of not

gonna be bothered either way based on what zach clements does because if he wants to come back and be your third big man or whatever it'd be fourth big man like sure whatever uh but if the idea is to come back and and you don't have a big role i don't know that that's best and then the tier five is probably best interest to move on from all parties that would be aj store like i kind of am done seeing aj store in a kansas uniform and i still think he's a talented player i actually think wherever aj store goes next um he's gonna end up putting up like 14 points per game and we're gonna look back and be like what the heck happened uh at kansas but he just hasn't been a fit for ku he hasn't been a fit for bill self um it doesn't really work and i think he needs to go somewhere where he is kind of the go-to perimeter scoring option and that's

not going to be the case of kansas so i think best for all parties involved if Storer ends up transferring. All right. How do we count D.E. Coit, Bryson Tiller, K.J. Adams, Zeke Mayo? Where would they fit into these lists if they are able to come back for another year? Obviously, Tiller will. So we'll discuss those on the other side. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by roy attention locked on jayhawk fans the future of college sports is here and it's transparent before the roy app nil negotiations often

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but I don't know. Next year could be fun. At least I'm hoping it's going to be fun with Darren Peterson and everything. So let's talk a little D. Coyton and Bryson Tiller. I guess we'll start with Tiller. That's the easy one to get out of the way. So Tiller, obviously, somebody I'm expecting to come back.

Why would you come early in red shirt just to leave? I guess what would be the point of that? So I guess if you wanted, though, to put him in that list i have the seven players ranked like i'd probably put tiller in that same list as like try hard to get back with rylan griffin marco jackson and rickies passmore right um i am going to be very curious on what his fit is with the team is he going to be played more as a four is he going to play more as a five is he going to be split kind of between the two that'll certainly be interesting but you don't go out there and bring on a four or five star recruit and have him join a semester early just to be like okay see ya you know hope you enjoy your next school like you want to bring

him back and see the fruits of of that labor uh david coy is the interesting one because dingy coy started his career at the juco levels put up pretty bonkers numbers there as you would imagine, ends up going to Northern Illinois for a couple seasons and then transfers to Kansas for this season, which was supposed to be his last. Then Diego Pavia, the quarterback at Vanderbilt, sues the NCAA, basically comes down to and he wins the case. Right. So Diego Pavia was going to be in his last year of school at Vanderbilt. Now he's going to have another season upcoming in 2025. And basically what it came down to was the idea that a Juco football, you do not have the opportunity to earn money off name, image, and likeness. And that by the NCAA saying, hey, your clock starts at the Juco level

instead of your clock just starting once you get to an ncaa school it is preventing you years from being able to earn money and he won the case and so now basically other juco players can sue under that same guys or can appeal to the ncaa under the same guys the problem for the ncaa if they go to court other people are just going to use that as precedent and they're probably going to lose the case right so they're just going to prove these things right it's the wild west in the ncaa basically just like unlimited eligibility is going around but what that means for diggy coy is that he can have another year next season if he just basically appeals with the ncaa and i think based on what we've seen it's probably an

assumable thing that he would be able to get that extra year here's what he said he was asked about this like a week ago he said i think it's a blessing when i came here in august that was something like another year was something i wanted because i only played four years anyway so not thinking i was going to get it and then being blessed to have a blanket way there to get waiver to get another season of play of course i want that it's a place like kansas why wouldn't you come back and i'll say this like i i do kind of want diggy coy back like i know he's not the best player in the world i i know he's you know um been on a not good kansas team this year but if the idea here with diggy coy is somebody that the staff trusts that seems to be a very based on some of his quotes and some of the things he's talked

about seems to be a veteran presence and have kind of a immature way of thinking which you don't always see with college players and clearly somebody based on you know him saying he would like to come back, but also being somebody who he's been kind of that eighth, ninth man role. He hasn't always played huge minutes, but clearly he is comfortable in his role. And I think there is something to that, especially when you look at this Kansas team that doesn't really look like they enjoy playing with each other.

Some of the players seem like they're just there to cash an NIL check, right? Some of the players are frustrated with their roles. I think a good amount of them and some deservedly so, but I think with Diggie Coy, you don't really have to worry about that as much. And so I would love to have them back because you can't fill your roster. That's another lesson from this season. You can't fill your roster with having, I know Bill Self had that comment about wanting eight starters before the season. I don't think you can do that. You need five starters and you need three guys who are comfortable coming off the bench, right? That is a big part of it. And so maybe you can convince one guy who's good enough to be a starter to be your sixth man. I don't know.

But with D.E. Coy, you know he's comfortable in his role. I think in another year in the Bell Self system, he'd get a little bit better. So I'm cool with it, right? He'd probably be your eighth, ninth man again. So it gives you some scoring punch, another ball handler to work with Darren Peterson off of. So if I was putting him in the bucket as well, I don't know. I guess this would be probably like a tier three, like right ahead of Jamari McDowell necessarily. Maybe it'd be a tier two. But like, if you did give me the option, like El Marco or Diggy Coy, I guess I'd prefer El Marco because you can get more years and the potential is possibly higher.

But yeah, I'd like to have Diggy Coy back for Kansas next season. And again, you're going to have so many scholarships to fill in the offseason because realistically, you are going to lose a lot of those players we ranked. There's going to be several of them that transfer. And so do you want to just run it back again by saying in the standpoint of, okay, we're just going to bring on eight transfers. Like that's worked so well for Kansas here recently. Like, no, you might be good to have a little bit of continuity from guys that at least

you know are liked by the staff and are fine with their role, so to speak. What about KJ Adams and Zeke Mayo? Could they have a fifth year? We'll discuss. And if so, should Kansas want them back? Thanks for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks. KU for 2025-2026 can bring back as many as 11 players. Realistically, if I'm setting the over-under on this, I would probably say Tiller I would feel good about.

At this point, I don't think Flory is going to have a chance to go pro. Honestly, maybe the bigger issue would be a Flory transfers, but he, I, he'd be the starting five next year. And I think the plan all the way along was to be here for multiple years.

So I, I think I would say the over under on returning players from this list at, I don't know, four and a half. Is that too many is that too little i'd have to think more about that honestly probably not great to do that one on the fly but uh still point being they're gonna have a lot of openings now zeke mayo and kj adams

becoming interesting both players were the year after the covet year so this was their fourth season or this is i guess the season's ongoing, even though it feels like it is dead for Kansas. And there is a possible, there's like rumors, there's scuttlebutt, there's talk, whatever way you want to put it, that the NCAA could discuss giving players a fifth year. Now, there hasn't actually been anything formally that has happened. And because it hasn't happened yet, if it happens in the off season and these players are already, know have already made plans to move on does it make it so that they just move on if this even passes to begin with and there's no guarantee that it does pass or that this is something that the ncaa is going to do this year maybe they look at it in another year who knows how that's going to work out let's just approach it as because i think right now i'm kind of leaning toward you not seeing either of these guys back for Kansas for, you know, reasons of logistics that if it does get passed, I could see it getting passed in like July where it's like, oh, you know, I already went through the draft process and I'm now playing in the EuroLeague or whatever it is.

And it's like, okay, I'm just ready to move on, you know. But let's say it did pass. Let's say they did opt to give a fifth year. I think it would be very difficult for Bill Self to not bring KJ Adams back. And so I think there's probably some KU fans that, and here's the thing, I've said this all along. I don't blame KJ Adams in all this.

I've said this all along. I'll say it again. Like KJ Adams is a hammer in a specific situation. And for specific role, you use your hammer to, you know, knock down a nail, but you're not using your hammer to scrape your windshield and, and, you know, do all these things around the house. It's not an all encompassing tool. It's a tool for a specific thing.

And in a specific role, I love KJ Adams. I love the way that he hustles. I love all that sort of thing. And if you told me that you're going to get a fifth year KJ Adams. I love the way that he hustles. I love all that sort of thing. And if you told me that you're going to get a fifth-year KJ Adams, who's going to be the backup big man to Floyd Padunga, he's going to come off the bench. Maybe he'll play a handful of minutes at the floor, and he's going to play 15, 20, 22 minutes a night as a backup.

I'm like, okay, cool. You could use a veteran reliable backup behind florida bedunga next season because you know as much as i think he'll take that big step forward what if he gets in foul trouble he's still going to be a young player right all those things the problem is if you were giving that hammer if you were giving the tool to bill self is he going to want to misuse it in a bigger way and i think we know the answer to that and so in an ideal world where i get to pick the role i would love to have kj adams back i don't get to pick the role, I would love to have KJ Adams back. I don't get to pick the role. And knowing the guy who is picking the role, I don't think you want

KJ back. Again, I think that is more to do about, you know, one thing than the other. Now, as far as Zeke Mayo goes, wouldn't you love to have a scoring guard next to Darren Peterson? I mean, going back to the idea of having somebody who can take pressure off him on the offensive end, can open up spacing a little bit, of course, would love to have Zeke Mayo back. Now, you'd need him to improve on the defensive end of the court. I think there's been too many lapses on that end, especially off ball. But having him in another year to get comfortable,

especially you would hope on the road where he's struggled a little bit more than at home. I think that'd be really fun. And I think that maybe it would allow you to, even though I said earlier, like maybe you don't want Darren Peterson, you know, taking the top offensive player on the other end. Well, in this scenario where you have Zeke Mayo and Darren Peterson, because Mayo can take some of the offensive load off Peterson, now Peterson can guard the best perimeter threat on the other end. So yeah, would love to have that back. And if you have a three guard lineup, basically of, you know, whether it's playing El Marco at the one, Zeke at the two, Peterson at the three, even though Peterson would be the one initiating the offense in a lot of those situations, playing peterson and zeke at the one and two and a wing at the three and then you have diggy coy just kind of the fourth guard to fill in wherever he needs to like i actually like that backcourt especially with flory at the five where

you have you know different ways of of whether it's zeke whether it's peterson whether it's in that case diggy coy you have scoring guards you have a lob threat at the center and then just fill it out with wings who can shoot the basketball uh kind of the the the four position for you and what you need to do so uh if i was ranking them in there as far as the zeke one if you did tell me you could have a fifth year and come back i think it would be in the line of try hard to get back like right next to where uh rylan griffin is probably above it because clearly zeke has has earned the trust of the coaching staff more than rylan to this point in time, for better or for worse. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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