Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - FLORY BIDUNGA REPLACEMENTS? Possible Options for Bill Self & Kansas Jayhawks in the Portal at Center

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks face uncertainty as Flory Bidunga enters the transfer portal. Who will step up as Bill Self hunts for a dynamic center replacement? Somto Cyril, Mo Sylla, and Anton Bonke headline the list of potential transfer targets, each bringing unique shot-blocking and rebounding skills. Will Kansas opt for a powerhouse rim protector or pivot toward adding a versatile scorer to their roster? Host Derek Johnson explores the ripple effects of Badunga’s exit, assessing mid-major standouts like Andrew McKeever and eyeing potential poaching opportunities such as Henri Veesar from North Carolina and Matas Vokiatitus from Texas. Insightful analysis covers defensive upgrades, NBA draft-and-stash strategies, and the incoming pipeline from Overtime Elite. With Jayhawks’ future on the line, Johnson weighs Kansas’ transfer portal options and considers whether the team can lure Bidunga back or land a marquee big man for a fresh start. Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub     Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at https://5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Mazda Like our players, we’re driven by the details. Highlights make the reel. But the work behind them makes it count.
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With Flory Bedunga in the transfer portal, who seems that would make sense if KU was looking for replacement and is unable to get Bedunga back? 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 with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks, a little bonus episode for you here today as Florey Badunga entering the transfer portal. we're going to break down what that could potentially mean for Kansas if Badunga does get away or Kansas decides they're going to move on that, you know, this is going to take too long and they need to have something figured out. Who are some names available in the transfer portal that could make sense for Kansas to turn to if indeed they're looking for a Flory replacement?

Now, part of the answer to that just comes down to, you know, just Bill Self want to try to replicate Florey with a similar type player. Like did he have plans going into the season? Hey, I want that type of center. you know, to kind of work around it. Or does he just want the best available center? Does he want somebody who can score in the post? Is this an opportunity to get somebody who has a little bit more post game to him?

Those are kind of interesting questions as part of this. The first name that pops out to me, though, is Somto Cyril. And I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. He's a transfer from Georgia who had a really good season this year for Georgia team that obviously ended up making it to the NCAA tournament. And he is in a really elite shot blocker, just like Flore he was. Cyril 97th percentile in block rate on the season. He also is somebody who shoots at a very high percentage, mostly dunking everything,

76% on two-point shots this season, right? He's a player who doesn't always need the ball in his hands. He has kind of a low usage rate. So I don't know how much, you know, offensive game or post-repertoir you're getting here, but he is at least a very efficient one. I do think you have more size here out of Cyril. I think there are probably more comparisons to do. games than there would be Flory to dokes in terms of just

Doak was a massive human and Florey is a springy athlete. It's just kind of different between the two of them. But Cyril also is somebody who gets the free throw line a ton. Teams just end up kind of fouling him because they don't really have another option of what to do. He's a really impactful player for Georgia. Overall, this season, the Bulldogs were almost 13 points better per 100 possessions when he was on the floor. So he's the first name that kind of comes to mind to me.

and also the fact that he was playing at overtime elite, which we know Kansas has had kind of a bit of a pipeline there. Like Taylin Kinney obviously is coming in from overtime elite. Now, some of the guys they just brought in this past season, you know, I don't know, they might be on the other end shipping out. But like, KU was brought in a lot of players from overtime elite. So they probably have the good contacts there. He is the first name that kind of came to me and said, hey, if you want another center who is going to play like Florey, but is actually going to be a little bit bigger, maybe a little bit more raw, maybe not. quite as springy, but better in other areas. Cyril was the one that came to mind for me.

Now, another name that I think is going to be really interesting here, potentially, is Mo Silla. He is a former highly recruited player who went to Georgia Tech. I think Kansas was in recruitment of Silla out of high school, but he obviously ends up going to Georgia Tech in the end. And he was dealing with an injury this season to where he, I think, missed the last couple of weeks or something like that of the season. but he along with, and here's the other thing. Like there's some interesting names in here that are like I would view more as power forwards,

but I guess theoretically if you wanted to move them to the five and play small, you could and that includes Silla's teammate at Georgia Tech. But point being Silla did not have a great season at Georgia Tech. Again, Georgia Tech wasn't a great team. He ended up being a negative in offensive RAPM, but he also had a really good defensive rating. This would be one where you'd basically be resetting with, another raw center prospect. SILA 610, 240 has good ups. He had an 86th percentile

block rate this season. Again, a guy who's kind of low usage in terms of his, like he's, he's not going to, you know, be, I don't know, like there's a little bit of a three point game to him, but he's not going to be a guy who you're expecting to score like 20 points per game, I guess point being, right? 59% on two point shots. So there's a little bit more there that he's doing on the court than necessarily Cyril, but Silla is one that it seems like KU would have some interest in. So maybe that would be one to kind of keep an eye on too. And then we move over to some, I guess, mid-major transfers that are transferring up. Let's get to some of those names in just a moment. I'm Clea Butler, host of Locked-on women's basketball, and this is Mazda's

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and coming back for more every time. Mazda puts that same drive into every detail. Wins define the moment, putting in the work, that defines you. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. All right, so mid-major names of note at the center position. And keep in mind, so I'm recording this on Thursday night. There's probably going to be more names to enter before the transfer portal opens. And we're actually going to the third segment, break down guys that what if

you could poach someone? What if you could steer someone out of the portal? Or what if somebody is close to being on the portal? And it just takes, hey, we have some extra money and a good opportunity at Kansas here. So do you want to come here? And they're like, okay, now I'm open to it. Now the four is gone, right? So we'll get to that in the third segment. But some of the mid-major ones of note here, Anton Bonk, I don't know if it's Bonk or Bonke. I hope it's Bonk. Seven foot two center, 270. This dude's gigantic. Average 10.6 points per game at Charlotte, which is a American athletic team now. So at least that's the higher end of the mid-majors, right?

There's a Providence year before that. Didn't really get on the court. So I don't know if that makes you feel better or worse. Maybe he just broke out now. But one and a half blocks per game, he didn't take a ton of threes, but he made 13 of them on 34%. That's one less three than Tiller made. So at least it's in his game a little bit. shot 58% from the floor. And he had a really big offensive impact on Charlotte. They actually

didn't have much of a defense, kind of like a net neutral overall. But again, 88% on block rate. He is just a giant on the inside. And I think he does have a little bit more mobility than you might think necessarily. So he would be one, I guess, kind of keep an eye on there. Though I do think that would be a downgrade going from floor. I mean, Silla would too. I think you could convince yourself that there would be certain things about C. year old that would be better than Flory, certain things that would be worse, like the switchability defensively and stuff like that. But Bonk certainly comes to mind there when you're looking at this level player. Andrew McKeever is another interesting one for St. Mary's. Really good rebounder

for St. Mary's. This dude wound up in the 99th percentile offensive rebound rate, 98th percent on defensive rebound rate. And so as you look at Kansas, looking to be a better rebounding team like McKeever would clearly help with that. Now, the first of the first of problem with McKeever is you're talking like eight, nine points per game. And then the games he played against better opponents, bigger opponents, Gonzaga, some of the high majors, he really struggled to score the basketball. So he was really good as like an interior defender and really good as a rebounder, but he also is a little bit slower. He struggles more when he gets put out in space. He struggles a bit with the scoring. I don't know. This is one where if you bring him on, you're basically

just saying, hey, let's try to control the glat. Like if you're going to bring on, Kiever, I think you need to bring in a four man who is a good defender and rebounder as well and just do what Houston does, which is we're going to try to play good defense, win a bunch of possessions on the offensive glass and then just have our one through three men be guys who can score for us. I don't think Bill Self wants to play that way, but at least he's he's kind of an interesting name, at least a little bit of note here. Chol Maycott, I guess kind of interesting from Charleston, but we start running out of names here. Where the to me comes is the names that could potentially be in the portal or ones that maybe you could

poach into the portal. Let's get to a couple names that aren't in the portal, but I wonder if KU could make something happen next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual. The tournament is here one of the best times of the year, brackets, buzzer beers, upsets, it's nonstop action from tip to the final cut down. And right now Fandual is giving new customers a way to stay in on the action all tournament long. Here's the best part. For the new customers that join in on Fandul, you get up to $300 back in bonus vets every day for 10 days. You can get in on who you think's going to win final four most outstanding player, right? If you have a specific player on a team. I mean, sometimes at this point, you're picking a team to win at all. They're like two to one odds or something like that.

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or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets change the game. It's people moving the actions when momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply the knowledge. Now we can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator, play by play. You trade every play with Robin Hood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robin Hood app now to begin. Thanks you for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget to get to check out all of our different episodes this week. We've talked about Bill Self coming back. We're

about Flory entering the portal. We talked about what the roster looks like. We've been doing some deep dives on potential transfer portal targets, which real quick, I just want to make a quick side. I've had a few people reach out and be like, KU's not going to get all of these people. I'm not saying they are. They're just interesting players that I want to do deep dives on that just in case they come to KU or KU has interest, whatever. Anyway, we don't need to get into that. Okay, so this becomes interesting because right now the transfer portal is not complete. They're going to be more names enter in, and there could be more poaching or something like that that could lead to a player coming in, especially now if you're Kansas, you can dangle to other agents like, hey, Florey's no longer on our team. And who knows, maybe Kayu gets Flory back.

Florey's no longer on our team. This is what we're offering him. Would your center be interested in coming here for that money? And they may be like, yeah, that'd be a big raise for us, right? So some of those centers that I think become a little bit interesting to me, there's been a little bit of scuttle bud about what's going to happen with Henri Vassar, the center for North Carolina. He could go pro. He could. He could. stay at Carolina, he could enter the portal. I just think because Carolina has a new head coach and will, you know, what is that going to mean? Now, keep in mind, I don't know. Like right now it seems like the favorites to get the Carolina job or Billy Donovan and Tommy Lloyd. If Tommy Lloyd gets that job, FAS are transferred away from Lloyd, Arizona, North Carolina.

Part of that was just because Crevis came back off of an injury and was going to be the starting center. But I don't know. What is the relationship there between the two? Would he potentially enter the portal? That would be one where I. I actually think, like, there's certain things that the Flory does better than Vassar, but there's a lot that Vesar does better than Flory.

And you could wind up with, you know, some very big positives if you were able to get him out of the portal there. So that would be one that I'd be looking at that if you could make work. I don't know what's going to happen with Alan Graves, the really good center for Santa Clara. As he can enter the draft, is he going to enter the portal. But that would be one I'd keep an eye on, even though he's a little more undersized at 6 foot 9. interestingly enough, like Cyril kind of rates really well in some of these different areas. And then another guy who kind of had a breakout at the end of the season that I'll be very interested to see what happens here is Matas Vokiotitius, the center for Texas.

Does he end up entering the portal? Does he not? Does he come back? Does he go pro? He's already transferred once. Like, he really broke out at the end of the season. Does he use that to try to capitalize on a big payday? Again, these players come back, but who knows?

And then I think the other option here is this. because think about it. Baylor just opened up a whole new world of potential players. And that is the route of saying there's going to be a handful. There's going to be two handfuls. I don't know. There's going to be a couple handfuls of NBA drafted players in the second round that are the draft and stashes from Europe. We saw this with James Noggi.

And some of those are going to be draft and stashes by the NBA team that says, hey, we're drafting you, but we're not going to bring you over yet. and now you have a front line scouting service to say, hey, that dude was just drafted. Now we know who to contact. We should try to get that guy over here. Now, if he's going to be stashed overseas, we'll pay him more money to come over here and get a dude who was going to be a second round draft pick by the Brooklyn Nets or whatever.

And that opens up a whole new transfer pool and makes it a little easier because an NBA team is saying, hey, we scouted this guy and we think he deserves to go here. Now you can be like, hey, that makes our scouting job a little bit easier. So there are some different routes. Like I said, there's probably going to be some new names that enter the portal that become interesting. I do think if you got Cyril, that would be a home run. If you got some of the names I mentioned to like enter, if you poached them out, that would be great too for KU. I was ideal if they could get Floryback, but who knows if that's possible at this point.

All right, I don't know for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere. You get your podcast, including on our YouTube page. And see you next time on LOJ.