Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - MIDTERMS: Self-Scouting Flory Bidunga, Bryson Tiller & Elmarko Jackson | Some Kansas Highs & Lows

Starting point is 00:00:00 We saw some really good moments of two big basketball for KU in the first half this season. Can it be even better with a couple of young bigs progressing and aging like a fine line through the season with Floyd Badoon, Gun, Bryson Taylor? We'll break that down in their games and I'll Marco Jackson on this episode of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. We're free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be breaking down the final three players of our series. Floribodunga, Bryson Tiller, and Marco Jackson. What have they done in the first half for KU? What's to be expected in the second half? Kind of breaking down their statistic profiles.

Starting point is 00:01:00 here on the show. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Ruggiet. If you've been taking the next step, now it's time if you've been thinking about it. Head to Ruggiat.com slash locked on college to get 15% off your first order for limited time. Ruggiette ready, feel present, feel confident, feel ready. Okay, so we're going to break down Floribunga first, Bryson Tiller, then on Marco Jackson, kind of our midterm self-scouting reports here for KU breakdown. Have they been better, worse, or as expected, from the preseason here for KU? We'll start with Flory 14. point seven points per game, nine point two rebounds per game, one point eight assists compared to

Starting point is 00:01:34 one point nine turnovers, point six steals, two point two blocks per game, shooting 62% from the floor, 71% from three point range, 30 minutes per game for Flory so far this season. And I think it's interesting breaking down Flore's game because if you look at some of the season long numbers, right, 99th percentile nationally in RAPM, he is in the 95th percentile nationally in Winshares per 40, he is in the 95th percentile nationally in PER, 99th percent percentile nationally and wins above replacement player, 81st percentile nationally, true shooting percentage, 83rd percentile nationally in usage rate.

Starting point is 00:02:06 When you look at all those numbers, when you look at having the best plus minus on-off net rating of the team, those would all lead you to believe he's been KU's best player. And in our power rankings, we had him number three, and it's like what gives here. I think Florey's had a great start of the season. You've seen a lot of the flashes of why he can be a future NBA player. But I think it's been an interesting season because of this.

Starting point is 00:02:26 You look at some of the games that he's gone off, 23 and 6 on 9 of 11 shooting. That was against Green Bay. Anab Corpus Christi had 12 and 8 in just 19 minutes to go with four blocks. You look at the Princeton game, 25 points, 10 rebounds in 27 minutes. You look at the Towson and Davidson game. It puts 18 points in each game, 10 rebounds against Towson with three blocks, eight rebounds and three assists against Davidson.

Starting point is 00:02:50 Some of the numbers have been inflated a bit against the lesser competition. And you want to do that, right? like you want to dominate against lesser competition, but you look at the North Carolina game, just eight and seven, Henry Vesar kind of goes off against him. The Duke game, he was really good against good competition,

Starting point is 00:03:08 just had to deal with foul trouble. That was the biggest hurdle in his way that game. Notre Dame game, he was great, carried KU to a 10-point win. Syracuse game. He was really good, 13 points, 14 rebounds. Again, helped carry KU to a big win there,

Starting point is 00:03:20 even though the seven turnovers. But the Tennessee game, he struggles. The Yukon game, I wouldn't say he struggled in the Yukon game, but he didn't really dominate like you hoped against a freshman in Eric Ryba. uh in that missouri game kind of the same thing nc state game you end up with a game where it felt like van allen lubin played actually the better game and so i bring all this up

Starting point is 00:03:37 to be like okay i think florrie's been outstanding for k u this season in the overall but i point those all out to be like i think that's where the biggest improvement has to come in the second half of the season for florrie it has to come from a level of improving against the better opponents like so far this season against ken palm top 100 opponents, he's shooting 51% on two-point shots. For the season, he's at 63%. There's a big drop off there, right? Against top 50 opponents on Ken Baum, he's shooting 48% on two.

Starting point is 00:04:09 So the better of the competition, it's more so been, I think the defensive impact has been there every game. I think the rebounding impact has been there pretty much every game. I think the biggest difference is what are you getting on the offensive end against the better opponents? Can you improve on that? And I do think, to Flore's credit, it seems like every time, like every couple weeks, it feels like there's another like unlocked level of how good he's getting it feels like a player

Starting point is 00:04:31 who continues to improve the more he plays and that leads me to believe he's going to continue improve in the second half of the season but some really good numbers here as you're overall looking at the profile here 81st percentile in effective field goal percentage 77th percentile in offensive rebound rate he's in the 84th percentile in defensive rebound rate he is in the 91st percentile in block rate he is in the 97th percentile in blocks per player rate he is in the 97th percentile in blocks per player foul, which you weren't, like, he's had some games with foul trouble. He's still overall done a really good job of getting a block per foul. He's shooting 63% on two-point shots.

Starting point is 00:05:05 That's in the 75th percentile. And he's in the 97th percentile in paint points per 40 minutes. So like in a lot of ways, Florey has been excellent for KU. Again, like I said, if you're looking for things to improve on in the second half, I think one I would look at is free throw temp rate. Can you get to the free throw line more often? Only 37th percentile in free throw attempt rate. And that's something where maybe he's just getting a bad whistle.

Starting point is 00:05:28 Who knows, 38th percent on steel rate, being an athletic center, and that's compared to other, you know, bigs, I want to see him be at least average in getting steals compared to, you know, other players at his position. And then it's like I said, it's the consistency in the big games. It's the shootings, the scoring, it's the offensive end in the bigger games, especially if Darren Peterson's going to miss more time for KU or miss chunks of the big 12 season or rest of season for KU, then you really are a lot more, I don't know, beholden to what Flore he's going to do on the offensive end of the floor.

Starting point is 00:06:01 If Peterson's back for the rest of the season, that I think goes to the wayside a little bit more because you need his defense and rebounding more if Peterson's out there. But if Peterson can't go, then like in the bigger games, Floree needs to get you 14, 15, 16 points per game. As far as if you're looking at his shot chart, it is pretty much. much exactly what you would expect. He is so far this year shooting, this year shooting 68 and a half percent at the rim. If you're wondering, though, that's only in the 58th percentile, which for a guy who dunks it a lot, again, that's something where it's like, okay, can that number go up in the

Starting point is 00:06:35 second half of the season above 70 percent, well above 70 percent? He's actually done a really good job in the paint area. You might be thinking, okay, like he's done really good at the rim, but it's in the paint that maybe he's struggled when he's been because what's defined here is in the paint on CBB analytics is uh it's what four and a half feet or five feet or something from beyond the rim he's shooting 59% in the painted area kind of that floater range 82nd percent down nationally he's only four of 13 on mid range oh of one on three so anything outside the paint he's just four or 14 this year again you want to try to focus on on getting down low even more often but can can that number go up can the at the rim percentage go up for florey i'm hopeful that it can in the second half now

Starting point is 00:07:15 if you are to say overall better worse or the same to where you would have expected in the preseason. I would say it's about the same. I think, again, if you looked at like the North Carolina or the NC State game, you would say it performed worse than I would expect. But there were some other games where he performed above what you expected. And overall, if you said coming into the year, Flore, he was going to be average in 15 points, nine rebounds per game, he'd have some good games with assists.

Starting point is 00:07:41 He'd be one of the best shop lockers in the country. Like, that would have kind of been on par with what the expectations were. The expectations for me were kind of like, I don't know, like be an all big 12 level player, be like a legit stud, be a dominant force on the inside on both ends of the floor for KU. And we made some of the like Cole Aldridge comparisons and stuff. And, you know, some of those numbers stack up like pretty, pretty closely with what Cole Aldridge is doing in his breakout season as a sophomore, right? So I think by that notion, you're happy with what you've gotten from him so far. You're just hoping that there continues to be more improvement. You're continuing to hope that there is a bigger ceiling, which I think there is there for Florida Budunga.

Starting point is 00:08:25 And then he can, in those big moments, in those big games, because there's a lot of big games coming up against a lot of other good bigs in the big 12. He can really step up in a big way for KU. What about Bryson Tiller? Certainly, I think, has shattered through some expectations based on just becoming a starter here. So we get to his game next. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Rouguette. Let's talk about something most men don't bring up, but absolutely should. Stress from work, money, life.

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Starting point is 00:09:42 And by the way, thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. You can check out the Everydayer Club access to ad free audio for Locked on Jayhawks and an invite to the members only locked on Everydayer Club Discord server. Okay, so Bryson Tiller is our next player on the agenda here. And he has really had a fun season, I think, for KU, right? Somebody who came in off the medical red shirt, joined mid-semester last year, former, I guess, high-end, four-star, low-end, five-star, depending where you looked

Starting point is 00:10:13 or before the reclass or after the reclass, but didn't really know what the expectations were. Like, was he going to be behind Paul and Bia as the backup center and they weren't really going to play too big basketball or were they? And it turns out that, like, he has been basically both for KU. So in 26 minutes per game, nine points per game, 5.8 rebounds, half an assist, 0.2 steals, 1.6 blocks. He's shooting 47 from the floor, 31 from 3, 3,000.

Starting point is 00:10:37 and 65 at the free throw line. And Tiller has also been somebody who, I think it's been maybe different moments of consistencies, which I think it all makes sense. When you think of Tiller and Flore, both still being very young big men, that there are going to be moments of kind of ups and downs. The idea is, as the season goes on, as we get into Big 12 play, as we get to the second half of the season, that the ups happen more often, that you start to plateau a little bit more on the ups than you do on the downs.

Starting point is 00:11:04 But Tiller started the season hot. He had the solid outing in some of the exhibitions in the Green Bay game. He played really well in the North Carolina game, albeit fouled out, 11 points in A&M, Corpus Christi. And then there was a bit of a struggle for a couple games shooting ball. Princeton and Duke games combined. He goes three of 14, though, makes an impact in a couple other ways. But he also fouled out in the Duke game.

Starting point is 00:11:24 Notre Dame and Syracuse game, I mean, it was him in Florida. Like, two big basketball was the dominant force and factor for KU in those games. 17 and 9 against Notre Dame, 11 and 8 against Syracuse. But struggles a bit against. Tennessee. He does have eight rebounds to his credit, but just six points on one of four shooting. The Yukon game, four points on two of eight and 29 minutes. That plays well against Missouri, 13 points, five rebounds, five blocks against Missouri. The NC State game kind of disappears, two points, four rebounds, one of five. And then the last

Starting point is 00:11:51 two games, 11.6 rebounds and over two blocks in both games against both Davidson and Towson. So we've seen the ups and downs here with Bryson Diller. When he's right, he's a really impactful player. And I think you would see that here. RIPM has him in the 97th percent down nationally. good for Tiller there. It also has him in the 57th percentile for Winshares per 40 and in the 42nd percentile for P.E.R. 56th percentile for wins above replacement player. What he's done well so far, he's getting a lot of block shots. I think that's something that, you know, obviously, I don't know, in a certain way, like, is Flore going to cannibalize the blocks? No, Tiller's been able to get them to, right? Eighty-eighth percent on block shots.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And having those two big men down there that can have that impact, it's not just the shots you block. It's the other ones that you affect or impact on the defensive end. And having both of them down there has played a huge role. I think in Kansas' defense overall in their two-point defense. But I also still think it's paid off a little bit from three because if you have those two towers down low that can block shots and defend the rim, it makes opposing offense is a little more predictable that you can expect a three-point shot

Starting point is 00:12:57 a little bit easier, that you can maybe get a little bit better contest on it. doesn't mean that you know Kansas three-point defense isn't going to go up from where it is right now but I do think it's in a better place than it has been in some previous years to say the least some other things that he's done well so far this season 83rd percentile on defensive rebounds per 40 minutes so far so he's been good on the defensive glass so far I also think you know if I look at the two-point percentage and I say it's only in the 43rd percentile which it is that doesn't sound great you want it to at least be above average there but I do think in a where he's playing more the four and Florey's at the five,

Starting point is 00:13:33 it's easier for the two-point percentage to go down a little bit because he ends up getting stuck more with some of the six-foot shots, the eight-foot shots, the 10-foot shots, the mid-range shots, than Florey necessarily gets to. So I think that's kind of part of that there. And then he's in the 55th percent out in the three-point percentage. So 31 percent doesn't necessarily jump off the page, but KU getting any shooting from the four after the past couple years

Starting point is 00:13:56 has been a nice, pleasant surprise for what you've gotten from Tiller, albeit you had that hot start with the North Carolina game, then it cooled off, but recently able to hit a three. So the question is, what can he give you a three-point shooting in the second half of the season? Areas to kind of improve on the 17th percentile assist rate probably like to see it higher, same with the 14th percentile assist to turnover rate, but also that's not really his role. So I don't know if that's something we should even go into, 11th percentile steel rate. Like again, I think KU's team everybody could afford to see their steel rate kind of go up a little bit.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Like even if this isn't going to be a forte, can you bump it up to 30? percentile, right? Whatever that number would be. The two point percentage, like I said, can you get it at least a little bit higher? I would like to see, can Kansas get Tiller more opportunities on the block? Because if the idea was this is this like skilled forward center type who can do a lot of things on the block, I feel like we haven't seen him get nearly the amount of postups that Flory has gotten and I get it. You're going to go to your guys. But I feel like Tiller maybe deserves a few more post touches here, there that I would kind of like to see. And then earn some of those touches on the block He's in the 27th percentile right now in offensive rebound percentage.

Starting point is 00:15:04 Go get the ball. Now, over the last five games, that number's up to the 44th percentile. So he is seen that number go up. I want to see that continue over the rest of the season, if not get even better than that for Bryson Tiller this year. Because I think that's something when you look at his athleticism, the smoothness he has, when you look at the wingspan that he has, there's no reason he can't be a good offensive rebounder.

Starting point is 00:15:24 In fact, you look at his rebounding numbers when he was at OTE. He was a good rebounder at both ends of the floor there as well. You look at the net rating, the team is about eight points better per 100 possessions when he's on the floor. It's been a nice impactful thing for Kansas since they added him to the starting lineup. And like I said, even through some of the inconsistencies, he's still been a very positive ad and a positive player for KU to have. I think this has been a huge gain for KU to have him so far this season. And it's one where I think playing two big basketball has really helped out this team. Ideally, you would have another bench big to continue to play this way,

Starting point is 00:16:00 because I think it's been very successful for KU, but I think absolutely exceeding expectations here as Bryson-Tiller. Like, no question on my mind. He's exceeded my expectations. I think I always felt good about the future of Bryson-Tiller as long as you stuck around, which is a question for everybody, obviously. I didn't necessarily expect this valuable of returns right away for KU. And it gets me really giddy and excited about what he could be in another year from now, too, right?

Starting point is 00:16:22 Okay, what about on Marco Jackson? Talk about some ups and downs. That's kind of the theme of today's players with some really high moments, some lower moments. We'll talk about on Marco next. Today's episode of the show was brought to you by Fandul. Fridays already feel different during basketball season. And Fanduel is making them even better. Every Friday night before the game tips off,

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Starting point is 00:17:41 And don't forget as well, you can check out any of our shows anywhere at your podcast, including on our YouTube page. Our final player we're going to do here is El Marco Jackson. And thank you to the Everydayers who already caught our other Self Scout episodes with some of our other players. So, Marco, this season, 17 minutes per game, 3.8 points, point one point seven assists point three steals point five blocks point nine turnovers he is shooting just 32.7 percent from the floor 35 from three and 75 percent at the foul line and as we've talked about

Starting point is 00:18:10 inconsistencies that's been kind of the theme for el marco so far this season right because you think about him performing i mean um actually looking back like six points three rebounds not the worst game against north carolina but the game you obviously think about right away is the tennessee game, the third place game at the player's era, 17 points, four rebounds from Marco. He, him and Melvin Council kind of carried KU to the win. He also had a really good stretch against Yukon when, you know, KU only scored 56 points. He had a fifth of those. He had 11 points against Yukon.

Starting point is 00:18:42 But since that point, Marco has only scored five points in four games. And before scoring the 28 points over that two-game stretch, he had only scored 17 points in the first, what is that, three, seven games. So it's been, it's basically been like. like one little chunk of two games where he played well. And there's some other games in there where, yes, the points aren't good, but maybe he played well or did what he was being asked of. But overall, it's been a little inconsistent.

Starting point is 00:19:06 And maybe, you know, again, like if you look at these last three games, he's not scoring NC State Towson and Davidson, just two of eight combined over three games. You'd like to have more than that, more than just four total points. At the very least, he has given you in those games combined nine rebounds, 11 assists. So there's something there. But point being, It has been inconsistent. And that the game you played against Tennessee was huge for KU, right?

Starting point is 00:19:31 They really needed him there. But overall, KU's been over nine points worse per 100 possessions with El Marco Jackson on the floor. That is crazy to talk about, right? Now, again, part of that you can look to certain games when you were out there and what situation, what game was it that caused issues, 72nd percentile overall for Marco in RAPM. He's in the 93rd percentile, actually, in defensive winchairs per 40.

Starting point is 00:19:55 so it's done well there. The problem is 21st percentile in offensive winshares per 40, where it's actually a negative number right now. He's only in the 19th percentile in PER. He's in the 13th percentile in wins above replacement player. If he said coming into the year that he was going to be shooting 35.3 percent from three, which is in the 61st percentile. You would have been like, oh, the breakout is here.

Starting point is 00:20:15 Marco Jackson is going off. But unfortunately, he's only in the 10th percentile in two point percentage. He's not finishing around the rim at all. That's something that needs to happen because he's athletic enough to, get to the rim, but you've got to make your shots around the rim if you're O'Marco Jackson. He's also done well at getting some chaos plays, 95th percentile. He's in the 77th percentile in Hakeem percentage so far this season. He's also getting to free the line a decent amount, 56 percentile there. The assist percentage, 63rd percentile. So there's some things the like

Starting point is 00:20:45 year, but the 30th percentile turnover percentage, that's higher than you would want it to be. The steel rate only being in the 15th percentile, that's lower than you'd want it to be. The two-point percentage much lower than you'd want it to be. And you're not getting anything on the offensive glass, which I don't know, maybe that's just not the expectation for for his role, seventh percentile there. It's also only in the 25th percentile in paint points per 40 minutes. And like at some point, even if you are a great athlete, if you're not actualizing it, if you're not using it to get to the rim and make shots at the rim all the time, then what does it matter? I guess it's helpful on the defensive end, but you know, that's something to keep an eye on

Starting point is 00:21:22 here. Now, the question to me becomes, as we get further away from that Tennessee game, is that just going to be something that we're just going to look back on years from now and be like, yeah, that was just that random game that he went off in? Or can we see another one of those moments? Can we see two more of those moments, the rest of the season for KU? That is kind of the big question for me. Like, was that just a flash in the pan for a week? For a week and a half, you know, and that'll be kind of the big question over the second half of the season. But he's got to play, especially if Darren Peterson remains out with injury because Melvin counsel is your only other like true ball handler on the team. El Marco has to play in that situation. Now, if Peterson is playing

Starting point is 00:22:00 and you have two ball handlers with Peterson and counsel, Lamarco still plays because you still need a ball handler off the bench, but maybe the role diminishes a bit. Maybe if Peterson plays more, you have more use to use some of those minutes on Jaden Dawson or Col Rosario to get a little extra three-point shooting, but it's dependent on those guys shooting better from three. Right now, Marco is actually shooting better from three than both of those players to this point. So I think that would be kind of interesting, that rotation battle over the back half of the season for them. I would say so far, if we're saying better, worse, or the same from the preseason expectation,

Starting point is 00:22:30 I think it is worse than I expected. I was hoping for a little more juice there. Obviously, that I think the Tennessee game was better than anything I could have expected in the preseason for El Marco. But I think the overall still leaves some to be desired there. And I hope he gets it figured out because we have seen the flash now with the Tennessee game, right? there is no excuse not to see it at least another time or maybe not necessarily to that level, but like can you at the very least be a productive player in the second half of the season?

Starting point is 00:22:56 Because that is one thing with O'Marco coming off the injury, maybe this first half of the season will just wind up being him shaking the rust off and regaining his confidence. And now he can feel like, hey, I had that moment, I can reset in the second half. I'm ready to go. At least that's kind of the cope here for KU. I let it over for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find our shows anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And we'll see you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - MIDTERMS: Self-Scouting Flory Bidunga, Bryson Tiller & Elmarko Jackson | Some Kansas Highs & Lows

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