Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Slow-Playing the Portal? Plus Darryn Peterson's MVP, & Tiller Back - Will AJ Storr Join Him?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is Kansas slow playing the transfer portal? Though they did make the final six for Trey White while also getting into Bryson Tiller back. Is AJ Storr going to come back at this point? And how about Darren Peterson, the future freshman phenom for KU, winning McDonald's All-American Game MVP? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team

Starting point is 00:00:31 every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson, 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. We're free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including on YouTube, where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's available wherever you get your podcasts, including on YouTube, where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on J-Ox,

Starting point is 00:00:49 we're going to talk a little bit about the current portal situation for KU. Haven't gotten anybody yet. Oh no, it's a time for panic in the streets. What is going on here? Also, Trey White put Kansas in his final six. We'll quickly touch on that. Maybe a deep dive later in the week.

Starting point is 00:01:04 Darren Peterson won McDonald's game co-MVP, so we'll touch on that a little bit. And also a little bit on the current roster as it stands for KU. Seemed like we got kind of a commitment that Bryson Tiller would be back for next season. And at this point, AJ Storer hasn't entered the portal. He was the guy that I think a lot of people,

Starting point is 00:01:21 including myself, thought was most likely to enter the portal, but now is that the case? Because it hasn't happened yet. So we'll get into all that on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins with FanDuel. All right, we're going to start off the show here with what is going on in the transfer portal for Kayo. Because to this point in time, you know, we're sitting on April 2nd, which they've been out of the tournament now for, I guess, if you're listening to this on on Thursday for officially two weeks and still no commits for KU in the portal. And there are teams that have

Starting point is 00:01:59 gotten commits while they were still playing, whether it was this year or last year, there have been teams currently that have multiple, you know, commits to their roster. And Kansas, meanwhile, has at this point, no commits on a team that needs to fill a lot of commits, they have a lot of open spots, a lot of open scholarships available that they need to fill in the roster. Now, the other side, NCAA tournament is still going on like the final four is happening this weekend. So like what's the big deal that they haven't filled any of these spots. There's a long off season. There are several months in front of us. Sometimes

Starting point is 00:02:32 this I mean, diggy coy didn't join to win like July or August or something like that. Like some of this stuff can stretch out a while so we've got a long way to go. But at the same point in time, Riley Kruegel last year was I believe K use first commit from the portal last year obviously didn't end up coming to fruition, which side note he has reentered into the portal. I don't know if KU would have interest or not this go around, but we'll get to that on the later episode maybe. But he committed to KU initially on March 31st. So that would be a few days before to this point when Kansas doesn't

Starting point is 00:03:02 have a commit. And like I said, there are other schools that have multiple commits right now in the portal. Florida State has a couple. Baylor and your own conference has a couple. Kentucky has a couple. Louisville has a couple. And they've got some really good ones. Louisville's backcourt is looking really good right now. And in what this offseason has become insanely important, both in terms of how the last two years have gone, not up to the the Bill Self standard, so to speak, and also from a standpoint of building out what is a very empty roster that it's not just that you need good players, you need a lot of players this offseason that you want to get a good head start on it. And also the added pressure of trying to build the perfect roster, so to speak,

Starting point is 00:03:41 around Darren Peterson and the special talent that he is coming in. This is an insanely important off season, right? And certainly to fill as many of those spots as Kansas needs and as important of players as they'll be, you want to get some early names if possible to get out of the way, to keep the momentum going your way, to have the fan support and momentum feel like it's going your way, to get other guys on board,

Starting point is 00:04:04 to, I don't know, just have those vibes kind of moving forward in a positive way. have the fan support and momentum feel like it's going your way to get other guys on board to Have those vibes kind of moving forward in a positive way Then that becomes tenfold when you consider some of the players available that either have been linked to Kansas, right? Whether it's Keishon Hall or Josh Dix or one of these other players or the ones that they haven't but would or you know, would have made sense as possible targets for KU players that have maybe committed elsewhere, that we thought would have been good targets for KU. And it didn't seem like they got into it, maybe as much as possible or players that have

Starting point is 00:04:38 been linked, like I said, with Dixon Hall, to where now it's starting to look like, okay, maybe KU doesn't have the inside edge on either player. And so here we are. There's no commits at this point in time, at least as of recording, who knows? That could change in an hour. This thing changes so fast with the transfer portal. But I think for at least a portion of the fan base,

Starting point is 00:04:55 and maybe it's not the majority, maybe it's, I don't know, but there is at least a good portion of the fan base, I think right now, based on the ones that I see on social media that, you know, interacting with or whatever, you know, a little bit of what's going on here. I don't know that I would quite pull it all the way to panic mode. Like, I don't know that it's that but a little bit of like, hey, I'm just gonna start happening here

Starting point is 00:05:17 like what's going on, you know, and I'm not to panic mode myself either. But I do find it a little bit puzzling, at the very least. It is one thing to kind of wait out the portal for more players to enter and really be picky with what you want. It's another when you have as many spots the KU has that you almost do have to be a little bit more aggressive in my opinion. And it's also another when there are some top targets that I think would have or do make sense for Kansas that are really out there that it feels like Kansas hasn't been as aggressive. And maybe this reaction last year because it felt like last year they were ultra aggressive. They went out and identified a couple of players they wanted and they went out and got.

Starting point is 00:05:58 I don't think the problem, though, was them being aggressive. Like I think applaud to them for finding the guys they wanted and being aggressive to get them in Riley Coogle early and AJ Storr and Riley Griffin and stuff. The problem was more the guys they targeted to do that. I think the issue was more fit than how aggressive you were to get them. So I think the solution there to me is find the guys who are better fit and then be ultra aggressive to get them.

Starting point is 00:06:25 And it feels like the reaction this year so far has more so been, no, we're not going to be ultra aggressive to get them. Now, is there one possible reason why? And, you know, obviously it could be, do they think even more good players are going to enter in the portal at some point in time? Could it just be that, you know, they've liked players, but they haven't loved players to this point in time. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:06:46 There's also the possibility that this whole revenue share settlement, which the basically the gist of it is that these different colleges are going to have like $20 million to give out to the players. Basically, the schools are going to be paying the players through revenue share. And each school can divvy it up how they want and how KU does divvied up, I think is going to be very interesting between Lance Lightbulb and Bill Self. And again, that's a conversation for another day how that's going to work out for KU. But the revenue share settlement is expected to receive final approval from like the judge who has to sign off on it on April 7. So, April 7, that's, you know, coming up in four or

Starting point is 00:07:31 five days from now. Which, at that point in time, it's not just about the revenue share. It's also what comes with it, which is this, I don't even know what to call like a committee like a the NCAA loves their committee. So I don't know if that's the right term for it or not, but this committee, this company, whatever, that's basically going to be the overseer of NIL deals. Your player gets an NIL deal, it has to basically be cleared through this third party that says, hey,

Starting point is 00:07:59 looks like your NIL deal, they just gave you a million dollars. I don't know, looks like your market value to us based on I don't know how they're going to base it on but is $100,000. That's a vast overpay. You can't get that much money. And I do have questions about how much that's going to work both from a standpoint of legality, like what happens the first time that happens and a player sues them and then do they lose in court because the court's going to be like, no, it's free market, whatever somebody is willing to pay him, that's what you can get. Like,

Starting point is 00:08:27 that's the free market world that we live in in America. So how are you going to stop this? And then all of a sudden that goes away. Or is it going to be something where they are able to do it, but it's just not going to work practically in the same way many of the NCAA committees, many of the NCAA review processes took way too much time. Or all of a sudden you wouldn't hear of something until five years later, or an eligibility request would take way too long. It sounds better in theory than it might work in practice.

Starting point is 00:08:58 We'll see how that goes. But nonetheless, if that does apply and lowers people's markets where the money is down, because this place is preventing them from, you know, getting exorbitant amounts of, you know, donors basically just saying, hey, we're going to way overpay you for you to come to the school.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Then all of a sudden that allows schools to once April 7th hits to pay maybe a little bit less than they would right now where these players are trying to get these deals at the moment, because if you get them before the stuff passes, I'd imagine you're going to get grandfathered in, right? It would have been agreed upon before,

Starting point is 00:09:30 and those weren't the previous rules, so you're going to be okay. It's entirely possible KU is waiting to do that. And so I think that's going to be very interesting to see if KU goes on a frenzy after April 7th, or if they do land a commit before then, and how that all kind of works out for KU in the end. And as I did mention, they did make the final six for Trey White.

Starting point is 00:09:49 So we'll see there if his timeline speeds up before the April 7th. He's there, they're one of six. He used to be committed to KU. He's a good defensive wing that we'll break down in another episode, six foot seven wing, who not much of a shooter, but just good kind of basketball player, solid rebounder, solid

Starting point is 00:10:06 defender. So is interesting there. As we talked about his games, a slow play in the portal, you know, that they at least have gone after guys like Josh Dix and Keishon Hall and Trey White. Maybe they're just identifying, hey, the guys we really want, we're going to go off from now the other guys, you know, maybe we'll just wait till till after April 7. And maybe there's no truth in that. Maybe it's just happenstance that these things have lined up, but certainly kind of feels that way at this point in time for Bill Self and KU.

Starting point is 00:10:30 All right, Darren Peterson, he'll be on the roster next year. He won McDonald's game MVP. Let's talk about how good he is. This episode of the show is brought to you by Five Hour Energy. Daylight savings snuck up on us again, and if you're feeling the lost hour of sleep, 5Hour Energy has your back. The extra sunshine means more time for fun, but sometimes you need a little boost to power

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Starting point is 00:11:52 Saturday and Monday. All right, Darren Peterson, he just won the McDonald's game Co-MVP. He shared it with, I always forget, it's like Kaden came in and Cameron or something. I don't know, like, dude, I'm so lost with when you have twins and I just don't, you know, whatever one of the Boozer twins for Duke got co MVP with Cameron Boozer, Cameron, that's what it is with Darren Peterson. But what's really impressive to me is Peterson gets co MVP here in a game where he did not really shoot well, right? I mean, it wouldn't be easy, but it would be a lot easier for a player to win MVP of

Starting point is 00:12:31 an exhibition game in a one game sample when it's just like, oh, they just got hot from three in a game. You know, like you think about if they would have given an MVP to the gosh, what would that have been 2018 2018 Champions Classic? It would have been like Quentin Grimes, right? In a one game sample, Quentin Grimes was hot from three. But that didn't really describe his game, at least until a couple years later at Houston, when he turned into a first round draft pick.

Starting point is 00:12:57 With Darren Peterson, he didn't win MVP here just because he was hot from three. And then you have to worry, he can always be that hot from three, which didn't happen with Quinton Grimes. Peterson was just one for six from three in this game. The one he made looked really confident. It was kind of up in transition, but he went six of eight on two point shots. He was three of four at the foul line.

Starting point is 00:13:19 He had seven rebounds, which was tied for the team high in that area. He drew five fouls on the defense, which no one else on either team drew more than three fouls on the opposing team. He scored 18 points to go with three assists. He had just one turnover to the three assists and he had three steals in a block. So he just did a little bit of everything and outside of three point shooting, he did everything very well in this game. And that makes it even more impressive because all of a sudden, then if he has a two for six game, which is more of just like an average three point shooting game,

Starting point is 00:13:49 he's over 20 points, you have a three for six game, which is a good three point shooting game. All of a sudden, you have 24 points with all those other things you did well. This kid is just a absolutely complete basketball player, and it is going to be so exciting to watch him in a Kansas uniform. And there is a part of me that's like, ah, like, whatever, what do we really think of that? Like, I, I, I just can't really get into like the whole exhibition scene and McDonald's All-American thing. And honestly, it might date back to the whatever that was 2015, 2016, 2014, something like that version with Sheck Diallo, one MVP.

Starting point is 00:14:23 And it was so exciting. They landed him in the recruiting ranks and spring bill and they get Shaq Diallo and he goes off in this game. It's like wow, this guy's gonna be the perfect rim running five for this team. And then it's like, oh, he's just not part of the rotation at the end of season and you know ended up having a nice is he still in the NBA but nice NBA career at the very least because of it before being like I'm not taking taking a one game sample in this exhibition to be like,

Starting point is 00:14:48 oh, like this kid is guaranteed to be great. Because that hasn't happened always, right? But it's more the idea to me that everything this guy is doing, everything Darren Peterson is doing, everything he is touching is having success, right? And so this isn't just a, okay, this guy was a McDonald's American, obviously, to play in the game, and then he won MVP, he had a good game, right? It's no, he's dominating each and every level of competition. He's, he's putting up unbelievable performances when he goes up against another top end recruit and he just keeps doing it over and over again

Starting point is 00:15:25 at these different levels. And that's where it matters to me. It's the consistency that you're doing it, that no matter what event you're in, Darren Peterson is just bawling out. And I think one of the things that a lot of fans noticed last night in watching the game or watching the highlights,

Starting point is 00:15:40 whatever you ended up doing, that's maybe been slept on, and this is probably something for me personally, as well as the athleticism. I think I said too, when he committed like unbelievable, talented basketball player and has great footwork and so good in those areas. I think I said, he's a good athlete.

Starting point is 00:15:57 I don't think he's like this other worldly athlete. I don't know that he's, you know, I don't think he's a men Thompson, Russell Westbrook, like the top, you know, 2% of NBA athletes athlete. But like even me saying he's a good athlete, not a great athlete was probably underselling it in what you saw out there, because this dude is just throwing down these put back dunks, he's throwing down dunks in transition. Uh, and so I've been saying good athlete, insanely good basketball player.

Starting point is 00:16:28 I think that is sleeping on the athleticism. You look at the first step, you look at the leaping ability, you look at some of the quickness that he shows, he's got more bounce than you'd think. I don't know what the NBA like future comp is. It gets hard when you have guys who are like this good and this well-rounded because they just like are themselves in a very real way. But like, I don't know, Penny Hardaway, Devin Booker, like, I don't know. This dude is an absolute stud. He might just be his own thing. But like, I think that's the cool thing here. The hype keeps getting higher and higher and higher with like each passing event. And

Starting point is 00:17:07 every moment he has, it just, the hype keeps adding to it a little bit more because he keeps either topping it or just sustaining it. Once you get to the level he's at, just being able to sustain that is very impressive. And he keeps doing it over a longer and longer period of time. Dude is just an absolute beast. And in a class that has really some studs at the top of this this class incoming here, I'm taking Peterson over any of them. And I know AJ DeBonse is the number one recruit and his athleticism might lead them having like the higher ceiling in the NBA and long term potential, I guess. But if we're just talking impact in year one, which is, I mean, we're talking college basketball

Starting point is 00:17:46 here with Kansas, I've always thought there should have been a site that just does, you know, freshmen rankings for college, right? Because that's, you know, you look at 24 seven sports and ESPN and some of these different sites, they're ranking them for their long-term basketball career, which is great because it does show their long-term potential.

Starting point is 00:18:04 But I've always thought there should be one site that just does it based on who are the most ready to make an impact right away as a freshman. Like a perfect example, Grady Dick was ranked in like the what? Late teens, he was like 18, 20, that kind of range. But when you talk to people about who are the most ready freshmen to make an impact in year one, it was like, oh, Grady Dick would be top 10 easy. It's not like top five there, right. And I feel like in that conversation, Darren Peterson is number one. I mean, I don't know with, with Boozer, like these co-MVP, he's a Gatorade national player of the year. Like maybe he's in the running there too.

Starting point is 00:18:33 But like Peterson, man, I think it's just above, um, just the point of even best freshmen in college basketball next year, like the hype is getting there. And every time you watch this kid, it's like, Oh, there's a real, real chance that this kid is like national player of oh, there's a real real chance that this kid is like national player of the year in the same way that Cooper flag might be this year for Duke and that he's a first team all American candidate. And yes, that hype and that expectation does scare me a little bit to put that much on a

Starting point is 00:18:56 kid who hasn't played a game of college basketball. But like, I think he's almost earned it to this point. And I am so excited to get to watch this dude in Lawrence. Get those number 22 jerseys ready, man. Local local jersey sellers you're going to sell a lot of 22 Peterson jerseys between whenever they go up for sale and the end of the season next year all right let's finish up here what is the current roster around Darren Peterson look like Bryson Taylor going to be back to join him is HH store going to be back this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. March Madness is here and FanDuel has given you the chance to get in on the action like never

Starting point is 00:19:31 before. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's 200 extra bucks to use on everything from buzzer beaters to Cinderella stories, and even who's cutting down the nets. Staying in on the action with tournament games going on into the semi-finals here. There's always something exciting to bet on plus baseball's going on every day. We got the Masters going on next week and golf. It's easy and fast at FanDuel.

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Starting point is 00:20:41 Don't forget to check out Lockdown College basketball for your second listen every day. Thank you for joining us with Lockdown College basketball for your second listen every day. Thanks for joining us with Lockdown Jayhawks here on LOJ, anywhere podcast or on our YouTube page. Okay, so who's on the roster around Darren Peterson, right? Marco Jackson coming off the bad injury and continue to not really know what you're going to get there because the team like he was going to be making good progress last year and was going to take a step up but an an injury like that, it's it's Achilles, right?

Starting point is 00:21:06 Or I forget if it's Achilles or knee injury. But like, that's tough, especially for an athletic guard, right? Could it be a year of El Marco? Kind of working back from the injury before you have the breakout year and another year does the breakout year happen now? Who knows? Jamari McDowell coming off a red shirt year. At this point in time, I mean, without KU making a ton of moves in the portal at this point, like, I mean, obviously, by the lack of numbers, but

Starting point is 00:21:31 you know, maybe he ends up being a back end of the rotation guy. I think Noah Shelby, the guy you brought in his walk on now there's not going to be walk ons. Is he going to leave with Rylan Griffin, who was you know, his friend, or is he going to stick around to be back end into the roster guy who can shoot some threes for you. And then you look at the front court. Bryson tiller announced earlier today or he posted I guess on Twitter was a video of him like working out I don't know if

Starting point is 00:21:55 that that video was active because I know he's been hurt. So I don't know if that like happened. A while ago if that just happened or what but that he's excited to play in Allen Fieldhouse this upcoming season and it was kind of an ad for Adidas he mentioned like in Adidas shoes and Adidas NIL ambassador and stuff so there was a little bit of smoke and noise like is he going to be back is he well I think that kind of puts to bed that that he will be back and part of the team somebody who can play the four

Starting point is 00:22:22 and the five but also a guy you know coming off not playing basketball a little bit coming off another injury. So how much can you rely on him this year specifically? So he's Calderon. He is an incoming freshman and I don't know how much you can count on him in year one. He might be more of a developmental piece for KU. Now, the last one I haven't mentioned to is probably the most interesting at this point. The one other guy remaining on the roster is the guy that we thought or at least I thought was going to be the most likely to leave the fastest and that was AJ store but he is

Starting point is 00:22:48 still here. AJ store is still around and obviously he finished the season strong to this final three games were really good. The NCAA tournament game and the first round big 12 tournament game for KU. Was that enough for the coach? He's have to be like, OK, you're starting to figure it out. We would love to have you back and you know,

Starting point is 00:23:09 you can't fault him for that thought process of like OK, we went through all this this year and we finally started to get you to produce and now you're going to go on the portal like no, we'd love to have you back for another season. And we do know Bill Self players do better

Starting point is 00:23:20 when they stick in the program. And also I think one thing that's interesting when you look at some of the teams that have been. I mean everybody's built on transfers at this point basically, when you look at some of the teams that have been, I mean, everybody's built on transfers at this point basically, but you look at like the final four teams for instance, and a lot of the players who transferred

Starting point is 00:23:32 into those final four teams, what do they have in common? They've been there for multiple seasons, right? So you look at Florida, Walter Clayton was really good. His first year Florida, he's been all American good. I mean, he wasn't all American this year for Florida. It's the second year. Jedi Broome, I forget if he's been there two or three years,

Starting point is 00:23:49 but again, Auburn has multiple of those guys. So like you look at it all the way through, the transfer are sticking around at their school for multiple years. It's usually that second year bump that helps them. So what would become interesting there at the same point in time? Do we love the AJ store fit, right?

Starting point is 00:24:04 Because there were times where it wasn't just about the lack of fit. Maybe it works better now with the cleared out roster, but it also felt like it was about the, I don't know, like the lack of daysical nature on the floor, the bad throwaway turnovers, the, you know, how much are you giving? How much is the motor running? 100%. I think AJ store is a good kid. It's just he's not one of those people who operates at a 100% motor all the time, you know, and I don't

Starting point is 00:24:31 know how well that works with Bill self necessarily. But apparently at this point, if he's still here, if he is gonna stick around for another year, then that tells you I guess the staff is interested enough. Does that tell you that they're worried about their ability to bring in guys in the portal? Does tell you they are higher on AJ store than we think. But if they were so high on him, why was there the lack of playing time for a majority of the season? I don't know. I don't

Starting point is 00:24:57 know lots of questions here with what could go down. So I'll wait to see something official there, I guess, because I think you're gonna either see a poster, portal or whatever it ends up being for AJ store, gonna be very, very interesting to talk about for KU. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page. And we'll see you next time for LOJ with some more transfer portal talk.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Slow-Playing the Portal? Plus Darryn Peterson's MVP, & Tiller Back - Will AJ Storr Join Him?

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