Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS PORTAL TARGET Deep Dive: Is Darrion Williams from Texas Tech the BEST Transfer Available?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, one of the best players in the portal at any position is Darian Williams from Texas Tech. We deep dive into him as a transfer portal target 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. What is going on, Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Thank you so much to the every dayers tuning into each and every episode and you can be in every day or if you tune in every day on our YouTube page or anywhere that you get your audio side of things with our podcasts on that end of things. On today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we are going to be breaking down Darian Williams, the transfer wing from Texas Tech, what he would bring to the table just in general his scouting report, what he would how he would fit in, I guess, at Kansas. And then we'll also get into some of the latest news, some interesting either players, you know, doing things in the portal, entering the portal, KU women's basketball gets a commitment out

Starting point is 00:01:06 of the portal. So we'll get into all that on today's edition of Lockdown Jayhawks that is brought to you by Game Time download the Game Time app, create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with Game Time. Our Darian Williams, he is a six foot six wing and unlike some other players that we've done deep dives on, you know, you might be a little more familiar with this guy because Kansas saw him this past year playing for Texas Tech and you know, he just went on a deep NCAA tournament run and you know, made some big shots along the way and obviously Kansas got familiar with

Starting point is 00:01:38 him a season prior to when he was like 11 for 11 in that game in Lubbock and had like 30 points. So obviously, you know, he's performed well in those specific games against Kansas, but overall he is a six foot, six wing, 225 pounds. He can play the three or the four. Prior to Texas Tech, he was at Nevada. So Tech for two years, prior to that, he was at Nevada.

Starting point is 00:01:57 And this past season had a really good year for Texas Tech. He was all big 12 and basically Texas Tech, I, it was public that JT Toppin, the Big 12 player the year is getting like $4 million to come back. They also have a young guard that they needed to pay a lot of NIL money to come back and obviously other, you know, ventures into the portal that they were basically in a situation where they had to pick two or three players and Williams is the one that that ends up going to the portal

Starting point is 00:02:24 because he's a senior with you know the guard that they bring in you have the potential having more years. You can understand why that would happen if they have to choose from monetary aspect, but it certainly leads to one of the best players if not the best player in the portal. We will in segment three talk about a player who entered today who might for my money give Darien Williams a run on that. But nonetheless 15.1 points per

Starting point is 00:02:44 game five and a half reb points per game 5.5 rebounds per game really good passer 3.6 assists per game he's kind of the perfect college foreman in today's day and age of what they are 1.3 steals per game 0.4 blocks per game shot about 44 from the floor 34 from three on a little over four attempts per game really good free throw shooter 83.6 from the floor 34% from three on a little over four attempts per game, really good free throw shooter 83.6% from the free throw line. Although the irony is the front end of the one on one he was part of that for tech against Florida, but over three free throw attempts per game, the effective field goal percentage 49.5% the true shooting percentage 53.8% which

Starting point is 00:03:21 little on the lower end of things, but he's taking higher volume. So it's all good. The team is 13 points better offensively when he is on the floor for Texas Tech this year. That is a very big jump. And then the team was about two points better defensively with him on the floor. Bart Torvik, which, you know, the top available transfers

Starting point is 00:03:39 are sitting around a five on Torvik's transfer rates. He's a 4.3, so he's certainly up there. Strengths of the game for Darian Williams, his effect on team spacing. sitting around a five on Torvich's transfer rates. He's a 4.3. So he's certainly up there. Strengths of the game for Darian Williams, his effect on team spacing. You see that with the on-off numbers on the offensive end of the floor. They're 13 points better essentially

Starting point is 00:03:54 when he is on the floor. But it also, you see that in the effective field goal percentage when he's on the floor. When Darian Williams is on the, in the game versus when he's on the bench for tech this past season. The team's effective field goal percentage was five percentage points better when he was on the floor. So it's not just about what he brings to the table offensively.

Starting point is 00:04:13 It's the threat that he brings that makes life easier on everybody else around him. And so even though his effective field goal percentage in a vacuum is below average, basically his impact presence, his gravity, how he's guarded, those things, it opens up the floor for, you know, players like JT Toppin and whoever else. And a big reason why is he is in the 67th percentile in three point percentage. He's in the 65th percentile for three point attempt rate.

Starting point is 00:04:39 And he does it from all three point zones, 33.6% above the break, 37.5% in corner threes. Basically, what that allows is you're getting your 65th percentile right around there is basically like above average to good. If you're getting above average to good three point shooting at the four position, right, that really opens things up for the rest of your team. And then you add to it that when you put smaller defenders on him, Texas Tech loved to have him play kind of like booty ball, bully ball, post-up, if you put a guard on him. And then if you had the big on him, he was able to space the floor.

Starting point is 00:05:12 So he became a matchup nightmare for other teams. And then you add to it that he was averaging three and a half assists per game, finding open teammates. If you double him or you play certain defense that puts an emphasis on him, he's able to find his teammates. So the spacing he creates for others is so huge and he becomes the perfect teammate in a certain way on the offensive end of the floor.

Starting point is 00:05:32 He also plays well in big moments. He was the one who, if you remember, Kansas came back and ended up tying the game late versus Texas Tech. The guy who hits the three that, I forget what the exact score was. Maybe it was like 7673 or something. I don't know why that's going on my head that might be wrong. It was

Starting point is 00:05:50 Darian Williams hits the three and then I think Kansas throws the ball out of bounds and maybe they go down and hit it to whatever it was like he was only at the big three. The bigger one in the sweet 16. He's the one who hit the game time three the sent it over time against Arkansas. He averaged 21 points per game in the NCAA tournament. Now he did not shoot well from three in the NCAA tournament. Most of that was in the Arkansas game. But if you take out the Arkansas game,

Starting point is 00:06:11 which was, you know, the is where shooting games overall, if we're just talking overall shooting, not three point shooting, he was 25 of 51. So about 50% in the other three games combined from the field, averaging 21 points per game in the NCAA tournament. And so obviously Tech's been a really good team these past two years, and Williams has been a big reason to lie, he was one of their better players last season.

Starting point is 00:06:31 I thought he was their second best player on this year's team, which is not a slight at all, because the best player on the team was the big 12 player of the year. For my money, he was one of the 10 best players in the big 12 this year. And so he's really had an effect on winning. Even his freshman season in Nevada, like you go back to that when he was there, they made the NCAA 12 this year. And so he's really had an effect on winning even his freshman

Starting point is 00:06:45 season in Nevada. Like you go back to that when he was there. They made the NCAA tournament at Nevada. So everywhere this dude has gone, they have won games. And I think that is an important thing to look at passing and playmaking is another strength here. 98th percentile for his position at a cyst rate. Theoretically, you bring Darian Williams in.

Starting point is 00:07:03 He's playing the four for you. You know, one of the things that KJ Adams did well is KJ was a good passer for KU. Williams is even a better passer than KJ was. And obviously Williams are getting much more offensive shooting and stuff like that. But like, think about this, for instance, KJ Adams, who again, people view it as being a good passer, and I think he was a good passer, had a 14% assist rate. Now, some of those

Starting point is 00:07:24 numbers go down because if Dwan Harris and 100 against Hennep the ball, you're going to have less opportunities to get assists and stuff like that. But still 14% assist rate, which is actually pretty good for KJ Adams. Williams though had a 22% assist rate. That's a big jump, right? 22 to 14 and to make things even better. Williams did it avoiding turnovers like this is not a

Starting point is 00:07:45 player who's getting a bunch of shots up and assists, but he's racking up turnovers. He's efficient man. He was in the 76th percentile and turnover rate and he was in the 95th percentile in assist to turnover rate. So really good there. He's got great touch 95th percentile for his position in free throw shooting.

Starting point is 00:08:02 He was also 62nd percentile in the paint. Struggled a little bit more at the rim because he's more of an undersized four, it's six foot six, but he had a good floater game, good touch from that literally four to eight foot area that you kind of see. He was also 82nd percentile in fast break points per 40, which is honestly even more impressive

Starting point is 00:08:20 once you consider Texas Tech plays at a below average pace, right? They're not a team who's getting up and down and running and gunning on the offensive end of the floor. So the fact that he was in the 82nd percentile for points in the fast break per 40 minutes tells you that he was very efficient about, you know, getting into those opportunities and what he did with them. Again, Tech was 264th in the country and 12th in Big 12 only games in tempo. So they're not the slowest team in the world,

Starting point is 00:08:47 but they're definitely not like fast or average in that way. The questions though for Darian Williams, he's not the best rebounder in the world. 33rd percentile offensive rebound rate. So that would not be great. And then 45th percentile. So basically average slightly below average

Starting point is 00:09:02 in defensive rebounding rate. Now I will say to his credit the year before He was 76th percentile in defensive rebound rate. And so maybe you think about it Okay This past year of JT Toppons gobbling up all the rebounds his defensive rebound rate goes down but the year before when they didn't have top and he was a good defensive rebounder, so You know that that is something to consider though he doesn't get to the free throw line much, even though he makes him

Starting point is 00:09:26 only twenty third percentile and free throw a temporary. And then he struggled a little bit on two point shots. It's really just one area, but he was in the twenty third percentile for two point percentage among forwards. And it was something where, again, like he was good in the paint, he was above average of solid in the paint. It's at the rim where you see the struggles being six foot six being a guy who he's not a six foot six like dude who's just running and jumping and dunking and throwing down his junks. He's not the best athlete in the world. You know,

Starting point is 00:10:01 not that he's a bad athlete, but you see that come into play in terms of his at the rim percentage and that hurts him there. Now that's it. If you view him as more of a guard, which essentially on the offensive end, he is more of a guard being able to pass, being able to shoot the three ball, being able to space it a little bit. If you view him as a guard, then his 48.8% on two point shots overall is actually above average. Like, Dewan Harris was forty nine point two percent on twos. That was 60th percentile, which is above average. Right. So if you knew Williams as a guard, then it's fine. The two point shooting, if you view him as a big playing the four, then it's bad. Two point shooting.

Starting point is 00:10:36 So it kind of just depends how you view it there. And then what is his level of defense? Like I said, he's not the greatest athlete in the world. I do think he has enough strength to hold up against guys that are bigger, but can you hold up against guys that are quicker? He was 39th percentile in Hakeem rate. But again, this is something where if you view him as a guard, it changes because his Hakeem rate block plus steel percentage gets tanked

Starting point is 00:10:57 because of a low block rate. If you view him again as a lens of a fourth guard, his steel rate is 2.6%, which is the same steel rate as Dewan Harris, what a 74% steel rate for guards. So he was actually good with quick hands and getting steals. So overall, I think like he's a fine defender. He's strong, he has active hands for steals. He's just not the most athletic. He's not the lengthiest. So like there are limitations, but like Texas Tech has had a good defense these past couple of years. So I I view this as a question in terms of like, I don't think he's like some huge gigantic plus defender. I don't think he's going to hurt you there either, but it's not like a plus necessarily.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Okay, how would he fit in with KU? This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Game Time. And there's nothing like the atmosphere of an NBA playoff game or, you know, I don't know, maybe you want to go to a golfing event, maybe you want to go to sports, something outside of sports, like a comedy event or theater event, whatever. And if you're talking NBA playoffs, right,

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Starting point is 00:12:36 And we can go to LOCKEDONCOLEGE, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E, for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. for $20 off download game time today. Us minutes take its lowest price guaranteed. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks you for thank you for being an everyday or if you are and obviously you can check out locked on college basketball. Check out what else is going on around the transfer portal

Starting point is 00:12:58 or locked on college football transfer portals about to hit there and get you ready for the fall with football season anywhere that you hear your podcast. Well, how exactly would Darien Williams fit in with Kansas? So what you would add to the team? Well, he would add a level of spacing at the four that like. So it's one thing if Trey White is Kansas's four, like that would be more spacing than Kansas had at the four these past couple of years with KJ, obviously. It's another notch or two to go from that to Darien Williams at the four these past couple years with KJ, obviously, it's another notch or two to go from that to Darien

Starting point is 00:13:27 Williams at the four. And so from that standpoint, he had spacing, he had shooting, he adds offense, he would also add passing, right? Like having somebody who could pass like that as the four, that would be a fun thing to work with Darren Peterson, right? It'd be a fun thing to work with Flory Budunga and these guys. And the idea that you have a more defensive prospect in Flory Budunga, defensive and rebounding prospect in Flory, who's a really good athlete with more of a strong physical foreman who's

Starting point is 00:13:55 more of the offensive guy in Williams, I think is a fun little pairing between the two of them. Plus we get into the idea of with Trey White, you know, that he can be the three or the four, you like him better at the four. With Williams, you like him better at the four as well than the three. So is that a knock that it wouldn't work as well? But I think you're able to make it work because on the offensive end of the floor, you can use Williams more like a three.

Starting point is 00:14:20 Williams can shoot it like a three again, over four attempts per game, which is it's above average from three on solid volume for his position. You go back to year before, though, he was in the like high 40% from three on a bit lower volume. So there's a chance that Williams could even shoot 36, 37%. I think his career is like 37% from three. And so if you viewed Williams as a three on offense where he's providing you spacing and if you have a smaller three on him, he will just back him down in the post. Tech did that all season long. And then Trey White's your four on offense. And then on the defensive end, Trey White's athletic enough to be the three on defense.

Starting point is 00:14:56 And Darian Williams is more of your stronger guy to play down low as the four on defense. And then Trey White, if you have questions about Williams as a rebounder, Trey White's a very good rebounder. So I actually think it's a really good compliment that you could play White and Williams as two wings with Flory down low, and that would give you real size three through five, right? I mean, it's not the size of having that 172 guy, but it's like, it's just like you get the girth of Williams, you get the length and the athleticism of White, you get the length and the athleticism of white, you get the length and the athleticism of flory that that would cause a lot of other teams problems in a lot of ways. So I actually like that fit in that perspective.

Starting point is 00:15:32 And yeah, the idea that he is a good passer and playmaker means that he can kind of just fit in for any team and you don't really have to worry about like, is he just going to suck the life out of the basketball? No, like that's not a thing for him. That's not something that I'm really worried about there. And then the fact that he's a good free throw shooter, too, means that you can keep him on the court late in games. And he's a smart player.

Starting point is 00:15:51 He's somebody who makes key shots. And that's, you know, it it definitely is something where it's like I think the expectation is going to be, oh, well, Darren Peterson, it's, you know, you're down too late in the game. Darren Peterson's getting the shot, right? Doesn't hurt to have somebody else who, oh, they doubled Darren Peterson. He's going to fling it out up top

Starting point is 00:16:08 and this dude can hit clutch shots for you, right? And so I do think like the biggest questions you have about him, oh, well, if he's not the best rebounder, okay, but if Flory's this defensive and rebounding prospect and Trey White's a good rebounder that mitigates it a little bit, right? The idea that, you know, he might just be an average defender instead of having potentially like a great defender or something like that.

Starting point is 00:16:34 Well, if Flory's this great shop blocker next to him and again, you have Trey White, like again, this continues to be a good fit here. So I love the fit. I said when. I did my top 10 available portal prospects, he was number one for me. And I would stick with that. There might be one guy that we're about to talk about here in segment three that I would think about who's a guard that we'll talk about here in a moment. But like, it would just give you I mean, think about through the lineup for KU, I mentioned 6667 and then with Flory. And it's a little misleading,

Starting point is 00:17:06 right? Because with Flory, you see 6'8 or 6'9, whatever he actually is. And you can use it against Kansas in this argument. Be like, oh, Kansas is tiny. If they're going 6667, 6'8, the wingspan is more important. And so you talk about it and having multiple switchable wings with like Williams and white, having a dude at center with like a seven to wingspan who is a really good shot blocker, having to do it in Darren Peterson, who's like six, five with like a 610 wingspan. I mean, that's that's basically four players who you could be able to switch

Starting point is 00:17:39 at a lot of different positions, you know, that you could have guarding a lot of different positions if you had to. And then you have Jaden Dawson, who's either a good defender if he's out there. Marco Jackson was a really good defender. His freshman season at Kansas, even though the offense wasn't totally there, the defense was for Marco in his first year. We'll see what he looks like coming back off the injury and stuff. But like point being, I would love this edition for KU. But then you

Starting point is 00:18:01 starting in into the question to like, where does the NIL money come into play, right? Because this is going to be somebody who's going to demand a big NIL check, because there's going to be a lot of teams who want it, and because he's going to fit into a lot of teams, because he can be such a good complementary piece or the store on a team, like he can do kind of a little bit of both. So that's going to be very interesting where it sits, but you know, if you're Bill Self and you can get on the phone

Starting point is 00:18:23 with one of your big donors and be like, trust me, this is the guy. I'm telling you, this is the one that you'd want to pay for. All right. Let's finish up your latest news. There's a big time portal entry today that I don't know that he's going to be ranked as like the number one portal guy available, but for my money, he certainly should be in the conversation. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where'd all my money go?

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Starting point is 00:19:36 Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. And you can find us anywhere you get podcasts or on our YouTube page. All right. Some of the latest news going on, some kiddie woman's basketball news, but I want to talk about this player that I think has, for my money is one of the best players now in the portal. And that would be Xavier Brown. He is a guard from the Atlantic 10 who, for some reason, I have Melvin council in my head and I keep needing to say St. Bonaventure, it's St. Joseph's. I keep needing to say St. Bonaventure, it's St. Joseph's. Where's he coming from? And Brown is just this like stud of a guard who is everything you can imagine at the collegiate level in terms of being able to get his own shot off the bounce

Starting point is 00:20:16 and being like proficient enough at it. And St. Joseph's was a team that like I was kind of hoping was, you know, win the Atlantic 10 tournament. I think they were like the sixth seed in it. They might have upset like their first team and then they lost after that because they had a couple dudes on their team that they would have been a very trendy like NCAA tournament pick. They ended up not making it.

Starting point is 00:20:35 But I'm telling you, 17.6 points per game, 42% from the field, 35% from three, shot 40% the year prior to that on obviously a little bit lower volume. But with five rebounds over four sets per game, stealing a half per game, he's got good Hakeem numbers. The three points shooting is good for him. And again, the ability to create shots off the bounce off the dribble, right? This kid is really good. And so if you are into the idea that you want Kansas to get back to the point where they have these guards who can score. And you want like the idea of having Darren Peterson next to a dude like that, having your new version of Frank and Devante in a different way. I mean, you can't go wrong with what Brown would bring to the table.

Starting point is 00:21:18 And so I don't know if Kansas is going to be in the running again. I'd imagine he's going to fetch a big NIL check. I don't know if that's something Kansas wants, if they want to more so look at wings or they want to more so look at just, you know, kind of role players to fill out the roster. But yeah, that dude is certainly maybe we'll do a deep dive on him because yeah, Xavier Brown is I'm telling you that dude is a stud. Some other news, there was a Congolese big man that scored into Dushan London of 24 seven sports and CBS sports. Paul in BIA, in BIA, I'm not entirely sure pronunciation, but he's going to declare for the NBA draft, but he's also going to consider the college route. I think he's going to be like 20

Starting point is 00:21:54 years old and he's setting up visits soon with NC state, Kansas and Kansas state. I think this makes a lot of sense for Kansas. He's a more raw athletic big man. You can bring somebody in who's not going to threaten Flory Badunga in terms of, you know, is he going to start or whatever, but he would give you real size and length off the bench. He would give you somebody who could come in and just rebound and play defense and you hope to develop him in a year or two. And that, you know, he can be like, I kind of like this idea of like, hey, just get the centers who are going

Starting point is 00:22:27 to be defenders, rebounders and dunk the basketball hard worked really well with you, Doka. And I think it's going to work really well with Flory this year. Right. And so if you can develop him into that too, like even better, but at the very least, if he's just more length to come off the bench, that's awesome. So that would be the one that I would definitely be interested in. Maybe we'll do a deep dive on him, although that's a little tougher to get, I guess, information on with, you know, not coming from college basketball necessarily. And then Kansas women's basketball mid-end edition, Lily Meister. She is a transfer from Indiana.

Starting point is 00:22:58 So you're getting a player coming from another power fire school in Indiana. Is that a good little basketball team here over the last couple years. And so it's him. You know, it obviously makes you feel better when they're coming from a team who's like winning games. But Meister 6.7 points per game, three and a half rebounds per game. I'd imagine both those are going to go up at Kansas because the role is probably going to be there. Also, she'll be moving into her senior year. She's six foot three. And that was the big

Starting point is 00:23:22 thing Kansas was missing this past season. They didn't have the post presence inside. And so now you're bringing on this really good freshman recruiting class, Samaya Nichols back for junior season. You bring on a real center. I'd imagine that there's still more work to be done in the transfer portal for Kansas,

Starting point is 00:23:37 but that's a good start to it. They needed a real presence down low. And you see some of the teams that kids played that had good post presence and they put up, you know, huge numbers against them. So you like to see the star for Brandon Schneider and company, you know, it's going to be a very important season for the KU women's basketball team. That'll be it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can

Starting point is 00:23:55 find our show anywhere you get your podcasts including on our YouTube page. See you next time for some more portal talk right here on Lockdown Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS PORTAL TARGET Deep Dive: Is Darrion Williams from Texas Tech the BEST Transfer Available?

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