Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Hits & Misses from Bill Self's 2025 Offseason + Best Moments of the 2025-2026 Kansas Jayhawks Season

Starting point is 00:00:00 One of the biggest off-season moves that defined KU. What can we learn from last off-season to take into this year? Was it actually a better off-season than we might have given credit for? Plus, we're getting to the best moments of the season and the latest on the coaching front. 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, with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:36 And on today's episode, we're going to get into the latest news on the coaching search. We'll get into the best moments looking back on the 2025 to 2026 season and starting right here, the offseason moves last off season that I think defined this season for KU for better or for worse and what lessons we can learn from that moving into this upcoming off season. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda. Like our players were driven by the highlights. Highlights make the real, but the work behind them makes it count. Stay tuned for this week's moving the game forward.

Starting point is 00:01:05 The all new Mazda CX5, more to move every side of you. So I think this off season, this past off season, was actually the best since we've really gotten into this like transfer portal, you know, NIL mixed, heavy confluence era over the last couple of seasons. I think this was the best one for Bill Self so far. So that could be encouraging because it's like, is it trending in the right direction? should Bill Self be back for another season. Like, KU actually did a really good job identifying Trey White and Melvin Council.

Starting point is 00:01:39 Obviously, neither one finished the season. Strong Council actually had a good final, I would say, like 25 minutes in the St. John's loss, but struggled toward the end of the season in general. Trey White had many ups and downs over the final couple months of the season and obviously finished on a low note against St. John's. But like the overall production you got from both of those players, over the course of the season was very good considering the expectations coming in, probably the cost that you ended up giving them.

Starting point is 00:02:09 The rumor was that you gave them around like a million dollars each. Like that is a good return on investment that you problem from both those players. And they were shrewd additions. And in the case of counsel, I think a very good fit for what Bill Self likes, which just inherently is going to raise the floor on a transfer edition. Because if you don't get along with Bill Self, all of a sudden you have a situation of somebody who, you know, it doesn't work out, right? Now, there were certain flaws here, right, the end of the season stuff.

Starting point is 00:02:35 And I don't know that counsel was always the best fit next to Peterson. Like, I think what we found out as the season went on was that Peterson could play on or off ball, but counsel could only play on the ball once the like the threes kind of stopped falling once we got to Big 12 play for KU. And the problem with that was that KU was at their best when Darren Peterson had the ball in his. hands and that's what a lot of the comeback against St. John's ended up being, but counsel wasn't as good off the ball. So you had to have counsel on the ball more and you had to play Peterson off the ball more. And it just led to certain things not working quite as well. You also didn't have enough wing bodies in general. So it was like, Tray White had a good season, but it wasn't

Starting point is 00:03:21 enough of what you had on the wing to defend other teams with other wings and be more versatile by playing a wing-heavy and wing-dependent lineup if you're KU, right? You think back to the 2022 national championship team, that team was built on wings. O'Chai, Christian, Jalen Wilson. You think to the 2023 team, they got a one seed. Jalen Wilson, Grady Dick, Kevin McCuller, right? Some of the more recent better, I guess the most recent one seed, Kansas teams that we've seen under Bell self have been wing heavy teams. So maybe that is kind of a lesson here that we learned from last year is that you didn't go heavy enough on kind of the wing position if you're KU.

Starting point is 00:03:57 But overall, what you got from White and Council, like I said, we're more than good enough. And the Jaden Dawson one then becomes interesting because he was kind of in that same range of what the rumor was that he got out of the transfer portal. And it hurt badly to not get anything out of him. You were relying on him to come in and be one of your more dependable and better three-point shooters. And that just didn't end up happening, right? And so like in general, if you would have said when the offseason ended that you were going to hit on two of those three, Trey White, Melvin, Counsel, Jaden Dawson. I would have taken that, given some of the previous years, lack of success in hitting on transfer additions. I would have said if you're going to hit on two of those three, that's going to be

Starting point is 00:04:39 good for KU. But unfortunately, because counsel struggled shooting over the back half of the season, because Trey White was hit or miss, literally with the three-point shot and just shooting in general from game to game, and because you weren't getting anything from Dawson, who was supposed to be a good three-point shooter for you, you didn't have the three-point shooting and spacing that you wanted to build a team around Flory and Darren Peterson, right? And I think also what contributed to that was the Colorsario situation. That definitely became under the microscope. Like either it's that you couldn't get someone more ready to play

Starting point is 00:05:14 or you didn't invest enough time in the non-conn and the early portion of the season to play him and develop him more or give him a longer leash because we did see a very brief sample. But in the NCAA tournament, he was impactful and good for KU and helping them, come back to tie the score at one point against St. John's. And he didn't really give them those chances later in the season. And I think in general, kind of with Paul and Bia, where it's like with Colorsario and Paul Mbia, it's kind of an incomplete in terms of, well, could they have actually given you more, right?

Starting point is 00:05:46 They left us with a positive, a thumbs up from both players in their final couple games of the season to make you think, man, could KU have actually gotten more out of those offseason additions kind of a season ago, right? but I think transactionally speaking, if we're talking about, like, in general, the guys KU brought on, I think it actually worked out pretty well for KU. Again, like you really needed one of Rosario or Dawson to become at least a rotation player that was giving you more three-point shooting and or you could have really used Paul and be to do what he did in the NCAA tournament all season long.

Starting point is 00:06:20 Again, is that on Bill Self for not playing them earlier, giving them a longer leash, not giving them really a chance? Like I or is it just those players something clicked over that last week and that they just happened to improve during the last week of the season for KU. I I don't exactly know what the answer to that might be. But I think that in general, right, you got two of your starters, Melvin Council and Trey White out of the portal. Florey and Tiller were high school kids as was Darren Peterson. I think the biggest one that hurts to me is the move you weren't able to make, which is the Damesar, Darien Williams.

Starting point is 00:07:02 And here's what I mean by that. Like, I think you could make an argument that Bill Self would have done more than a not. Like, okay, let's try to go this way. Damey Sarr is not having a great season for Duke, 6.4 points per game, 3.8 rebounds per game. He is playing 23 minutes per game for Duke. He is shooting 32% from three.

Starting point is 00:07:20 None of those jump off the page. But here's the thing. Domesar is a good defender. And if he's playing 23 minutes per game for the number one overall seed, he's at least a rotation player for Kansas, right? And this goes back too, that Kansas needed more wing bodies. That would have helped them with defense in general against other wings. You know, not a great three-point shooter, but 32%.

Starting point is 00:07:43 That's still better than like counsel, for instance. I think we could all agree that even though Dammei Sar, hasn't been a superstar for Duke, he's probably better than what KU was getting out of of Jamari McDowlin on Marco Jackson. And those were KU's two main bench guys. So at the very least, if you get Domay Sar, which I don't think that was necessarily KU's fault. I think it was more of a SAR situation.

Starting point is 00:08:07 It at least makes KU's bench a little bit better, right? Daryne Williams is the one that's interesting because I've seen some pushback from KU fans on this one because he had a bad rebounding season and he didn't have a very good defensive season and in general he's not the best defender in the world. And I don't disagree with those assertions, right? I think the idea would have been, A, could he have at least been, like, he was a little bit better of a rebounder at Texas Tech. He was at least a little bit better of a defender at Texas Tech. I think, you know, under Self's eye, would he have been closer to what he'd in those areas than at NC State where Will Wade's the coach? And that's more of a transition

Starting point is 00:08:44 speed-based system where he was a better fit for tech style of play and would be KU's style of play. But regardless, what was KU's biggest issue? Offense or defense? The answer is offense. KU still had a top 15 defense. The offense is ranked 60th in the country, right? And so if we just view Williams shopmaking, that did not go away. Like Williams made 78 three-pointers this season on a 40% clip. Bryson Tiller made 14 threes, that is 64 less, on a 30% clip. Imagine pick and pops, which was KU's worst play style with Daryne Williams instead of Bryson Tiller, right? Imagine Williams, who has always been a clutch shot maker, being able to give you clutch shots.

Starting point is 00:09:27 He also had good passing and good feel. Now imagine, too, by having Dary and Williams, Bryson Tiller instead of, you know, we saw some really good moments from Bryson Tiller. We saw a lot of bad, especially at the final five or six games of the season for KU. But now imagine Bryson Tiller, instead of having to play 25, 30 minutes a game is a 15-minute per game guy off the bench who just has to bring energy and can do it in a smaller sample size. It makes the bench better. It makes KU, you know, big depth better.

Starting point is 00:09:58 I think this is one where if they would have been able to get Daryon Williams because he helps the offense. I'm not saying it changes them to be, you know, top tier national title contender, but could it have been the difference of KU getting a three seed instead of a four seed? I absolutely think so. And then maybe you're not to what Bill Self said in one of his pressers. Then maybe you're not playing St. John's who, I think. saw something from Bart Torvik. I forget when it starts. If it was like the start of

Starting point is 00:10:21 February or the start of March or something that St. John's is the number one team on Torvick during like some range of play. Then you're not playing St. John's in the second round. Then you're getting a 60th or an 11 seed in the second round instead. You're getting a better draw and you're a more balanced team with better offense. And so yeah, sure. Would I love for KU to go off for Kishon Hall like we all wanted. Yeah. Or like I always liked Nick Boyd and Jacoby Gillespie. didn't really seem like KU kicked the tires on those guys, right? But if we viewed the offseason last year from a standpoint of what did Bill Self do and try to do, well, Bill Self hit on Trey White and Melvin Council, and he tried to get Daryon Williams.

Starting point is 00:10:58 And if you would have just had maybe a little bit more money to make it happen, I think the vision might have actually worked looking back on it. I think that has to give you at least a little bit more hope that maybe he is starting to figure it out a little bit, that if he is back for another year, maybe he can make it work this offseason for KU. All right, let's continue on best moments from the season that was and latest news in the coaching department for KU. This episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda, moving the game forward by Mazda. For those who know the score never tells the whole story.

Starting point is 00:11:34 You know, we're going to get into some of our favorite moments from the season for KU. And how could you forget the Arizona game that KU wins, whether it's Melville hitting kind of a dagger shot at the end of the game. Well, that's Flory Budunga going off for 16 and 8 in the second half against Mo Kreevis. Those were the fun moments from the season. And there's more to these players than the highlights, the early mornings, the late night runs, constantly showing up for their squad on and off the court. The all new Mazda CX5 moves the same way with more space to connect a bold new design and more intuitive technology. So you can stay connected to the road and every position you play. The all new Mazda CX5 move to move every side of you. This episode's also brought to you by Fandwell. The tournament is here. We're in the regional round. It's one of the best times of the year. The brackets.

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Starting point is 00:13:11 All right, best moments for KU basketball of the 2025 to 26 season. You know, it is interesting because obviously the result wasn't what we all wanted it to be. And the end of the season certainly felt kind of like a sinking ship and put a downer on everything. But still, like objectively looking back on it, this was a more fun team and I think enjoyable team, at least for me, than either of the previous two years for KU. And so to that notion, I can at least appreciate that. So we got a little top 10 list here. Number 10 is sweeping Kansas State with a senior day blowout that Darren Peterson looked really good. kind of gave us some end of your hope.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Like, could he look like this? Every game wasn't necessarily the case, but, you know, little, little hopium at the end of the season, you sweep your rival, certainly not bad there. Number nine is downing TCU in the big 12 quarterfinals. I mean, it was a postseason win for KU. It wasn't the prettiest game in the world, but they found a way to win it. And any time you win in the postseason, that's a good thing. Number eight on the list was Darren Peterson's debut when he scores 21 points in just 22

Starting point is 00:14:08 minutes in a blowout win over Doug Gottlieb's Green Bay Squad. You know, at that point in time, speaking of hopium, Oh my gosh, take me back to that time when we were all happy that Darren Peterson was, you know, we didn't have any of the injury stuff and he's just putting up these ridiculous numbers and limited minutes. And the world was in front of us. And yeah, unfortunately, didn't continue like that. Number seven is smashing Missouri by 20 points. And that was in Darren Peterson's return.

Starting point is 00:14:37 So you get kind of the double, you know, awesomeness of that one. Trey White had 20 and 13 on that one. So I know Trey White didn't finish the season well. Hey, remember him as the guy who put up 20 and 13 in a win over your rifle, Missouri. Number six, Kansas defeating Houston 69 to 56 on February 23rd. That game kind of felt like, okay, like, it's just crazy. That was on February 23rd, and then it felt like the season collapsed within like the next two weeks. But for that moment, that was a really good win for KU.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Trey White again was awesome in that one for Kansas. And you found a way to be a really good Houston team by double digits on your home floor. Number five on the list is KU Winner. their first round NCAA tournament game over Cal Baptist. You know, kind of a fun game looking back on. I mean, the first half was so ugly. Neither team could make shots. But the second half, you know, you're getting back and forth shots from Peterson and Daniels.

Starting point is 00:15:27 And, you know, you get a little NCAA tournament scare at the end. KU finds a way to win. NCAA tournament wins are still cool, even if you'll lose in the next round. So, yeah, that went into number five. Number four, I tried to almost view these as like what's going to be like the most memorable, I guess. and I feel like this one's going to be more memorable. I don't know. Like number four in the list is the comeback versus TCU.

Starting point is 00:15:50 I thought about making it even higher. You win 104 to 100 in overtime. Melvin Council puts up like 15 points in the final like 10 minutes, five of regulation, five of overtime. Darren Peterson scores 32 and hits those three free throws to tie it. The reason I had it a little lower at four is just because like up until the comeback at the very end, we were like, what is wrong with this team? you know and then you have to play where you throw the ball out of bounds and Darren Peterson's

Starting point is 00:16:16 asking out and it's like oh my gosh what is happening here but then you get this incredible Allen field house magic moment and it does lead to a very memorable game to say the least number three is Kansas winning at NC State in overtime that was probably the best individual player performance of the season by any KU player I mean you could argue some performances by Floree or I don't know maybe some games side Darren Peterson but the 36 points by melvin council on nine made three he needed every single one of them for KU to win on the road against NC State. And it was back and forth game, fun performance, watching Melvin do what he did.

Starting point is 00:16:52 So that one in at number three. Number two is KU going undefeated. I lumped all these together and getting third place at the Players era tournament in Las Vegas. You win your first two games, you know, relatively getting by against Notre Dame and Syracuse. And then you have that good comeback against Tennessee. El Marco Jackson plays really well. Melvin Council hit some big shots for KU. Melvin Council's barking in postgame against Tennessee.

Starting point is 00:17:18 And that just felt like the vibes were as high as they could ever be for KU basketball. It felt like KU basketball was back. And then, yeah, things changed later in the season. But like that was such a fun moment in time for KU. And then number one is we just again kind of lump things together. But it starts with this. The players only meeting leading to a run of success. So like individually, I could have taken any of these games individually and put them on this list in the top 10.

Starting point is 00:17:46 I just smushed them together and made it number one because KU has the players only meeting. They beat Iowa State by 21 and that starts a run of winning eight straight. And it feels like it's all connected, right? Players only meeting beat Iowa State by 21. The finish to the game in Manhattan where it's kind of a close game and you just demolish them in the last five minutes. And then you have, you know, the Trey White like Brandon Green, D. move, dunk, the BYU game where you get Darren Peterson's first half against A.J. DeBonsa, and then you kind of hold on for dear life. Winning the game at Texas Tech where Darren Peterson

Starting point is 00:18:21 hits those two super clutch shots kind of out of nowhere, and the beating Arizona without Darren Peterson. Like all those things are connected from starting with the players only meeting. And it's too bad KU couldn't use that momentum to finish the rest of the season. But for that moment in time, we all believed this was a Final Four national title contender. Unfortunately, like I said, didn't finish that way, but that was a really fun run of play. And certainly many people, I certainly will, will remember a lot of those wins in that stretch for Kansas. All right, let's continue on with some of the latest news in the coaching department and more. This is locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:20:36 a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Thanks again for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget to just subscribe to the show on YouTube. If we can get to 5K subscribers at any point during now to when the transfer portal opens up, I will do two episodes a day until the transfer portal closes. There's a deal for you, but you got to get it up to 5K subscribers on YouTube, a little bit of a way to go on that end of things. Okay, some of the latest in the coaching search,

Starting point is 00:21:06 and then we'll get to the latest for like, you know, in some of the other sports for KU. So T.J. Otsleberger, the head coach for Iowa State, he pretty adamantly, he was basically like, yeah, I ain't leaving. He brought this up on his own accord. He wasn't asked about it. He was just kind of an opening statement by him. Very definitive.

Starting point is 00:21:28 And listen, coaches lie about this stuff all the time because you can't come out and be like, I think Josh Shirts actually was asked something about this. And he was like, I'm not going to answer that because if I answer, and say that I'm interviewing for other jobs, then everybody here gets all mad at me. But, and then especially if I don't take it, but if I, if I lie and say, I'm not interviewing for other jobs, then I keep the piece here. But then if I do take another job, then everybody's mad at me for lying. So there is, there's no way of pleasing it the right way. But the way that, and coaches do wind up lying about it, that, you know, whatever ends up happening. But like,

Starting point is 00:22:03 the way T. J. Osserbergh denied it vehemently. And the way he said the statement, And yeah, and he also is an Iowa State alum. I think his wife is from there. I think they met there and like they're probably happy there. So maybe crossed that one off of a potential option, I guess. You still call him if you're KU just to see for sure. But yeah, Tommy Lloyd's though a little different. Like he didn't really deny things.

Starting point is 00:22:27 His was more of like he was asked about and he's just like, listen, I'm just focused on being the Arizona coach and focusing in the present and here and now. So that one was not necessarily a denial. I am curious, though, what happens if Arizona makes a final four from just the timing standpoint? Does that impact potentially being hired? I mean, Roy Williams seemingly was taking the North Carolina job on the night of the title game. He obviously got asked about it and was not too happy about being asked about it. But there's precedent there, right?

Starting point is 00:22:55 And could you imagine if Roy would have won the championship with Kansas? Would that have made things easier or harder for KU fans? You know, on one hand, easier because it's like you want us to championship, like, go home, like do what you want to do. On the flip side, it makes it harder because it's like, no, dude, you just want a national championship here. Why would you need to leave? So I don't know exactly what that would do.

Starting point is 00:23:14 It's probably a little different in that situation because at least in the Roy one, if they were to won that game over Syracuse, it's like, okay, Roy, you won us the championship. Now you're going back home to your alma mater. Tommy Lloyd's alma mater is not Kansas. So I don't know. That would get very interesting. There is something going around right now about like a clause in Tommy Lloyd's contract about not being able to coach within the big 12.

Starting point is 00:23:37 He would need to sit out a year. So maybe that makes him a bigger candidate for UNC than it would Kansas. I would just say this. Like a lot of times lawyers are pretty good at this stuff. And a lot of times, like money can buy certain things of being worked out. So I don't actually know the legalese in terms of all that. But I would just say just because you're seeing that doesn't mean that it's necessarily something that would absolutely have to happen.

Starting point is 00:23:57 Who knows? Now, as far as some other sports for KU, K-W women's basketball played their third game of the woman's NIT and uh they beat san diego state 85 to 78 so they are moving on to the nit semifinals um so they've won what eight consecutive nit games now they were just monsters in the nit and jolia davis is really freaking good at basketball 25 points in this game she was 10 of 15 on two point shots um she's a really good player case probably going to have to give her a little bit of a raise. I don't know what like the NIL numbers are on, you know, women's basketball, for instance, at KU or some of these other schools, but she's

Starting point is 00:24:37 probably deserved a little bit of that. Samaya Nichols also at 18, but it's crazy because Samaya Nichols is a star. She's an excellent player. We might be going in next year talking about Jillia Davis being the best player on KU. Who knows? It's a good problem to have between those two as long as you can retain them. But good win for the KU. Women's Basketball team there as well. All right, now 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. Again, it's a on YouTube and we'll see if we can get some extra content out if you can get us up to 5k subscribers on YouTube see you next time on LOJ

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Hits & Misses from Bill Self's 2025 Offseason + Best Moments of the 2025-2026 Kansas Jayhawks Season

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