Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Impact on KU Jayhawks of #1 Recruit AJ Dybantsa Picking BYU: Darryn Peterson vs Dybantsa in 2025-26

Starting point is 00:00:00 The number one recruit in the country, A.J. DeBonta, picked BYU. There's a lot of interesting nuggets coming out from this and what it means for 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. Thanks for listening along with Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we are talking about A.J. DeBonsa, the number one recruit in the country, picking a fellow Big 12 school in the BYU Cougars. What exactly does it mean for the Jayhawks that DeBonsa is going to be playing for BYU? Because I think there's some interesting things we can take away from this decision, I guess. So A.J. DeBonsa, he's the number one overall recruit in the class of 2025. He's a stud athletic wing projected to be the future 2026 number one pick in the NBA draft, though

Starting point is 00:01:11 there are some other good candidates for that, including Darren Peterson, who is committed to KU, but he picked BYU. Kansas was in the final four. He was in the finalists. It seemed like it was mostly between BYU and alabama was kind of the thought among people coming into it but supposedly he signed his national letter of intent three weeks ago so all of this run up of maybe any light rumors of is he going to go to alabama is he going to do this or that um it was just rumor it was just hearsay just to maybe drive up the the decision or what was going to happen there. He ends up going on first take, which I don't know why.

Starting point is 00:01:49 Whatever. Anyway, Adam Zagoria reported that DeBonsa is getting close to $7 million in NIL for this to happen, which I think certainly is interesting. I think it's interesting for a couple of reasons. One, it's interesting that it's being publicized because what does that do across the sport? Does that make it so that other top recruits are like, hey, I want $7 million, right? How feasible is that, right? Because I don't know how many colleges are going to be able to lump that together the asking price, like what is this going to do to what those players are asking for? I don't know. Like, does it make it so that the other BYU players are mad because they're like, hey, I'm only getting $50,000. I'm only getting $100,000.

Starting point is 00:02:34 What's up with this? What impact does that have across the country? I think it's very interesting. Beyond that, obviously, this has an impact because he just straight up didn't pick Kansas. Kansas was in the finalist list and he didn't pick them, but it was never really expected that Debonza was going to wind up a Jayhawk. Even when he was in the final four, even the finalist list,

Starting point is 00:02:53 like there was never really much rumors connecting like that. This was actually a chance for KU that it was a formality that they just, it just wasn't going to happen. And whether it's the shoe deal stuff or whatever like it was just never really expected to happen so if you do think they actually had a shot by being a finalist then i guess you could say um you know they're not as good as they could be if they had them you could say that oh well now they have extra nil money lying around to go get other players but again i don't think realistically they were ever going to get him so i don't know

Starting point is 00:03:24 that it's like all of a sudden oh you were planning on having aj de bonza now you don't think realistically they were ever going to get him. So I don't know that it's like all of a sudden, oh, you were planning on having A.J. DeMons, and now you don't. Now you have to adjust to that. I don't think that's really the case. It is interesting that, again, they even made the Final Four and that you had Curtis Townsend visiting him within the last week. Is that just Kansas helping his party drive up the price to hurt B byu's budget is it just doing each other a solid right like ku drives up the price gets their name out there on the number one recruit in the

Starting point is 00:03:53 country um does it help the perception of ku um with top tier recruits where they're like hey look they were in on a kid who's making seven million dollars and they have darren peterson like if you're nate ament for instance does that make it more appealing now? I don't know. Or like, does it help with future recruits in some way? I don't know. But I will say this. I know I am very excited for Darren Peterson against AJ DeBond.

Starting point is 00:04:17 So let's get into that more and more of the impact of this with him picking BYU on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats,

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Starting point is 00:04:58 with FanDuel, an official sportswear partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. Continuing on with this bonus episode of the show, we'll have a KU Football Portal Roundup episodes coming at you here with LOJ as well. So what other impact does this have on KU that DeMansa, the number one recruit in the country, picked BYU? Well, they'll have to beat him. Now, it might just be one time in a season.

Starting point is 00:05:22 It could be, you know, I guess hypothetically up to four times in a season if you had to play him in the big 12 tournament and then met in the ncaa tournament but realistically probably two times that you'll have to play i mean if you're brett your mark it would be a mistake and i don't know what all goes into the scheduling process here like for instance kansas is only playing arizona once this year right so i i don't know how like random it is versus wait i i don't know how they go about making the schedule. But if you're Brett, you are Mark. If you are the Big 12 schedulers, do everything in your power to make it so that Kansas and BYU play home and home next season, that they get to play twice.

Starting point is 00:05:59 Because the Darren Peterson versus A.J. DeBonsa matchups are going to be absolutely awesome. They already have been at the high school level. They just played against each other. And DeBonsa put up 28 points, eight rebounds, six assists. Peterson actually out-dueled him. He had 32 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists. And his team won the game, which now, you know, Darren Peterson now has wins over Deonza and cam boozer who's the other top three recruit in the country who those three seem like the ones who are most in the running for you know future number one pick in the 2026 draft but like you know those

Starting point is 00:06:35 matchups when peterson's facing debonza it's going to be national eyeballs to you like it's going to be college basketball national eyeballs interested it's going to be nba scout eyeballs interested it's going to be just the casual fan interested do that game home and home um because i think it would be really really awesome and we'll go a long way in both of those players like nba you know futures and not necessarily in terms of whoever wins that game it's going to impact their nba career but it might impact who goes higher in the draft for instance and in addition to that if both end up living up to the recruiting potential and being as good as you think you would imagine both teams are going to be pretty good next season and so you get that matchup too and i think uh you know that's what's going to be really cool about this

Starting point is 00:07:19 is the idea that byu is clearly investing in sports, they're clearly investing in basketball, and they become yet another threat in a conference that is filled with threats. So let's get into that in a second here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Bonus episode today brought to you by Omaha Steaks, a perfect gift for you to give out maybe during the Christmas season. Well, nothing delivers comfort and joy quite like the unrivaled quality and taste of all ha stakes it's guaranteed perfection in every single bite and right now you can save on unforgettable gifts with 50 off site wide

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Starting point is 00:08:25 O-M-A-H-A, steaks.com, and an extra $30 off with promo code COLLEGE. Minimum purchase may apply with Omaha Steaks. Finishing up this bonus episode again, don't forget you can check out some of our early episodes in the week. We'll get a KU NC State preview later this week. We'll also get a little bit of a roundup on portal targets and ku hiring matt lubick to the football

Starting point is 00:08:50 team on our upcoming episodes of locked on jayhawk so obviously this has an impact in terms of what does it do national recruiting wise how does it affect the nil game it has the the tangible matchup uh potential of when he's playing kansas and when you have him versus peterson and what that can do for for the sport and when you have him versus Peterson and what that can do for the sport and getting eyeballs on both teams and everything like that. But beyond that, there's also, like I said, it speaks to how invested BYU is in the Big 12 and gives Kansas another challenger in the conference in a league that is filled with just that plenty of challengers, right? I mean, you think about Houston, like they're bringing in a good recruiting class

Starting point is 00:09:23 this year. Like obviously they've been one of the best programs in the country since Kelvin Sampson has really gotten things rolling there. Like Iowa State has really got things rolling these past couple of years with TJ Otzenberger. Baylor, right, typically is a contender for the conference. You add Arizona to the conference. I mean, this league is absolutely loaded. And now you have BYU investing as much in it as probably any of those schools when you're talking about a monetary basis of things. And then you add to it the Kansas. Yeah, kind of struggling these past couple seasons. Right. I mean, if Kansas doesn't make it past the second weekend of this year, which we saw this past week, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:58 That isn't a guarantee. I think it would be the first time since the late 90s that Kansas hasn't made it past the first weekend for three consecutive world, with the Iowa States, the baylors or whoever obviously a big part of these is also like who's your coach at the time but um you know the big 12 just continuously ends up being this endless gauntlet that is impossible to you know not have a bunch of competitive teams but it also has an impact in terms of you know you look at the class of 2026 the class of 2027 and whatever top tier recruit kansas is going for byu can go after too and say hey look we got a bunch of nil money tooYU can go off there too and say, Hey, look, we got a bunch of NIL money too. We can go off through it the same way. And it makes,

Starting point is 00:11:08 certainly makes things very interesting from, you know, another kind of heavyweight, so to speak in the big 12. I don't know for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. Like I said, we'll be back to talk a little Matt Lubick being hired as the co-offensive coordinator for KU and a little KU football portal roundup.

Starting point is 00:11:24 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Impact on KU Jayhawks of #1 Recruit AJ Dybantsa Picking BYU: Darryn Peterson vs Dybantsa in 2025-26

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