Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PANIC TIME? Darrion Williams Picks NC State - Who is Left for Bill Self to Add to the Kansas Roster?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It might be time to panic as disaster mode is hit. Darian Williams, NC State, Dame Sarr, Tuduk. Where the heck does Kansas go from here? 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 team every day. What's going on?

Starting point is 00:00:26 Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it to your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. Not a super enlightening one today. And what the heck is Kansas going to do? Because Darianne Williams has committed to NC State. Damesar made it official with Duke.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Who's even left? Who's even out there for Kansas to try to add a game changer and not waste the one season of Darren Peterson. So thank you again anywhere you listen to the podcast or our YouTube page. We are brought to you by Monarch Money. This episode is brought to you by Monarch where you can take control of your finances with Monarch Money use code locked on college at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year with Monarch Money. So we on college at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year with Monarch Money. So we're going to get into the Darien Williams news what it means for KU. We're going to get into what options are out there at this point in time for the Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:01:16 And then we'll finish up with a little bit of the latest news. I guess hopefully finish on a little bit of a positive there on this episode of the show. Let's start here though. Darianne Williams made it official announced on Thursday afternoon that he is going to be committing to NC State picked NC State over Kansas. It seems like Ohio State might have been in the running maybe returned to Texas Tech, but it feels like NC State in Kansas. What kind of the two commonalities the two consistent and he ends up picking there. Add to it that earlier today, Damme Sarr made it official and picked Duke. Not that that one was a surprise based on where things were going. But it's the official thing that matters there after KU couldn't

Starting point is 00:01:56 get it to be official. And both of those happening on the same day is absolutely a gut punch for this offseason for Bill Self and for KU. And it really is unfortunate with Williams specifically, that's the big one we're going to focus on here. He would have fit absolutely perfect on this KU roster. Like you look at having Flory Budunga, this great shot blocking center on the inside. Okay, Darren Williams isn't the biggest guy. So if you're playing him at the four, well, Flory helps make up for that in a lot of ways, right?

Starting point is 00:02:24 You look at it at the offensive end. Well, Flory isn't the, you know, most progressed offensive player that there is out there in the world. Well, that works perfectly. The Darian Williams is in the front core with him because he is a very good offensive player. Oh, Darian Williams is a very good passer. So like it works well with playing him off of Darren Peterson and Flory and yada, yada, yada. Kansas needs more shooting. Darian Williams is a good shooter. You take out the NCAA tournament, he was shooting mid 36% from three.

Starting point is 00:02:50 So you go down the list, he would have been a perfect fit for KU and they need another wing at this point in time. So he would have slid right in there. And they need another, I guess whether you want to call it a star player, just impact player. They need another impact player.

Starting point is 00:03:02 Cause you have Darren Peterson, you have Flory Badunga, you have some good role players that you've recruited to fit, but you need that one more final big piece. And when Sarr picked Duke, when Williams picks NC State, you're running out of those options. There's still some options available if you just need a guy to come in for five, 10 minutes per game. There's some options available for backup players or for a role player. You don't really have those options left anymore. And again, we'll get to that in segment two, who even is still out there in terms of being guys who can make a huge impact like Williams could have. So certainly that makes it so that this does feel a little bit of desperation time now.

Starting point is 00:03:43 At this point in time time if you are Kansas. It does make this feel like one of the most disastrous off seasons. And it's weird because I have enjoyed the fact that they've recruited to fit as opposed to just pure talent. But now it has left you in a spot where you need somebody for pure talent. And so it's almost like you've gone too much the other way. And so like, I can't remember another off season that was like this, where there were this many questions, this many uncertainties in late May for kids roster. And for so long, we've had Spring Bill, that Bill has, that Bill Self has come through

Starting point is 00:04:17 with the big time career, whether it was a high school kid, whether it was, you know, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Jackson, Shaq Diallo, obviously that one didn't, you know, pan out, but like, that he's gotten that big addition in spring or if it was the transfer portal, right, I know the Hunter Dickinson era, kids didn't win as much as they wanted to. But like, that was a big deal when they got them. Spring Bill was so strong at closing the deal.

Starting point is 00:04:38 And now it feels like, okay, it almost feels like you've lost the step over the past couple years on the corp. Or was that based on this or that, right? And now almost feels like you've lost the step over the past couple years on the court. But was that based on this or that, right? And now it feels like you've lost an ability a little bit to close off the court. And, you know, it's one thing to lose to Almey Sarda Duke. It's another thing to lose a battle to NC State. And Will Wade is we know he's a great recruiter, and somebody who will come in with hard offers. Andrew Slater is their new GM

Starting point is 00:05:05 and like very smart adapted the job I think this just more adds to me the idea that KU should have added a GM and that didn't end up happening and I don't know how much that's hurt or helped KU over this offseason like I don't know how much it would have hurt or helped this specific crewman but would have helped them with other recruitments or finding the right players or you know getting ahead on certain stuff maybe it certainly would have and I know, getting ahead on certain stuff? Maybe it certainly would have been. I don't know that. I don't know. It certainly didn't help, right? Or didn't not whatever. Does this make it more likely that this will be Bill's final season, right?

Starting point is 00:05:36 Continuing the idea you deal with the flurry thing where he enters the portal, you have to win him back over missing out on recruits, the lack of success the last couple of seasons. Is it more likely he is now just gonna be fed up with this and wants to go after this year of coaching Darren Peterson? I don't know, I think that would be, that like it wouldn't shock me if that were the case, right? But it just makes me, it leaves me wondering like,

Starting point is 00:05:59 why and how did this happen? Because again, you're Kansas, you should not be losing this recruiting battle to NC State. And it would be one thing if the main reason was, okay, Darian Williams wants to be the guy. And at Kansas, he's going to be the second option on offense. And, you know, from a drafted perspective, you'd be the third best player, right? If you think the flurry would be higher than him on like a mock draft, for instance, right? But I don't really get that sense from him. And to me, this almost feels like it would more so be either about he didn't feel the fit at Kansas, which that would be an indictment on yourself, or it was a money thing. And if it's a

Starting point is 00:06:37 money thing, I just don't totally understand that from a standpoint of like, I don't know, like is there a certain limit that Kansas can or can't go to? Is Kansas being held back because of the stadium funds and stuff like that? At the same point in time, like I almost have a hard time believing, especially after they announced the Jacques Vaughn thing, like yesterday, that almost feels intentional to me

Starting point is 00:07:01 of the idea that you would announce that to try to drum up more donor interest. I almost have a hard time believing that like with the lack of options that are out there, that Bill Self doesn't call up his top donors. He's like, hey, we need $500,000 more dollars, or whatever it is to make this happen, to meet the offer from NC State that they don't get it done. But maybe that is the case. Maybe that is where we're at. And if that is where we're at, that's not a good place for Kansas to be. Now, maybe it's a spot where once the football stadium is fully renovated, this won't be an issue for them. But it also feels like,

Starting point is 00:07:32 you know, to some extent, you would clearly raise, you know, maybe it's not to what NC State offered, you would clearly raise a certain amount or been able to tap into a certain amount of funds to get him to at least get close to the finishing line there. And it almost feels like a wasted opportunity to be like, okay, they could have used that money on ex player early in the portal that maybe they thought was asking for too much money at the time. But now that there are not many options,

Starting point is 00:07:55 they're like, crap, I wish we would have paid that much for that player. Or better yet, to be able to be like, you know what? If we could have directed some of that money to football, maybe we could have landed like an all big 12 level transfer out of the transfer portal. And that's the thing with football. Like you could, if Darian was, I have no idea how much he's going for. Let's say he's going for 4 million. 4 million in football could get you like four all-conference level players possibly, not quarterbacks, but like at other positions.

Starting point is 00:08:21 It's very possible, right? Or could that money have gone to, A, we can double Dan Fitzgerald's salary and give him a million dollars of NIL pool, KU baseball is rolling, or give a little more money to Matt Ulmer with the volleyball team, I don't know. Or like you see Bill Self making nine, $10 million a year and you're like, okay, if they couldn't make the money,

Starting point is 00:08:39 Bill, could you have just made $8 million this year to get that 1 million over the bump, right? I think those are all fair questions to ask right now because of how much this offseason has felt like you have struck out on some of your big targets. The worst part of this to me is that it feels like you're kind of wasting out on a year of golden opportunity by having Darren Peterson. There is a chance you have the best player in the country, in Darren Peterson.

Starting point is 00:09:02 At the very least, there's a chance that he's one of the best players in the country that is one of the five or 10 best players in the country. That's not that far fetched. But again, he could be the best player in the country. And so to a certain point, like if you have a better fitting roster, and you do have one of the five best players in the country, and Flory takes a big step forward, and he's, you know, one of the best defensive centers in the country, I still think Kansas is going to be a good team, there'll be a top 25 team top 20 team. But when you have possibly the best player in the country. I still think Kansas is going to be a good team. There'll be a top 25 team, top 20 team. But when you have possibly the best player in the country, the expectation is be one of five best teams in the

Starting point is 00:09:29 country. You know what I mean? Like be one of the top tier teams for winning the national title or winning a final four and then see where the chips lie when you get to March. And it doesn't feel like Kansas is really even close to that group at this point in time, which does feel like you're kind of wasting a real opportunity in the same way that like, if the Chiefs ever have a bad team with Patrick Wilms, it's going to feel like they wasted a year with Patrick Wilms. But with Darren Petersen, you only get one year with all of this. And meanwhile, the summer school semester like starts in like a week, you don't really know what you're doing. So who are some possible options that KU could even look

Starting point is 00:10:00 to because things are getting a little bit dire out there. Let's discuss that next. that KU could even look to because things are getting a little bit dire out there. Let's discuss that next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did my money go? Maybe KU is feeling that way right now. I don't know. Between dining out, online shopping and entertainment, it's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in, your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances.

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Starting point is 00:10:44 Monarch Money. Use code locked on college at checkout at Monarch money.com for 50% off your first year. That's Monarch money.com code locked on college for half off your first year with Monarch money. Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawks, Daring Williams to NC State. Who is even available? What are the options out there at this point in time that Kansas can even turn to?

Starting point is 00:11:11 Well, from the college game, there's really two big wings out there, RJ Lewis, but seems like he's leaning towards staying in the draft. It also seems like KU isn't really that interested in RJ Lewis. Jameer Watkins is the other one. He might also be staying in the draft. Also feels like there hasn't been any connection there for Kansas. I don't know if there's something there

Starting point is 00:11:30 that we just don't know about either of those guys. Could there be like an off the court thing with either guy that is keeping Kansas from? Possibly, I don't know, but it feels like there's not a connection there. So then you run into like, okay, do you go for, I don't know, PJ Haggerty? It seems like he might be leaning toward K-State So then you run into like, okay, do you go for, I don't know, PJ Haggerty?

Starting point is 00:11:46 It seems like he might be leaning toward K-State at this point. And it does make you wonder, okay, did NC State figure out they're gonna lose PJ Haggerty to Kansas State to where they were like, okay, well, we're gonna try to get Haggerty and Williams. Now that we know we're not getting Haggerty, we're just gonna go, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:02 we have an extra sum of money we're gonna give to Haggerty that we can just give to Williams and the kids can't outbid us. That's a possibility. I don't know. But if Hagerty is still available and out there, doesn't even make sense. His camp came out and said they wanted a huge sum of money and wanted him to be like the primary point guard. That doesn't really work with Darren Peterson. But is there some way you can massage that over and

Starting point is 00:12:21 make it work and just get the most talented player available in the portal, even if it might not be a fit, but then does that just bring us to where we were last year where, you know, you're recruiting talent over fit. So that's not a great option. There's just not many college options that are even left, which kind of leads you at least for this spot, right? If we're talking the backup spots,

Starting point is 00:12:40 if we're talking the role player spots, there are players available. Those are running out too, but the international route, but kind of becomes the most obvious one and the one where it's like, they're gonna have to go over if you're Kansas. So I think my favorites right now, if you're talking wings, I've mentioned I really like Henshaw, but again, he's more of a guard. So maybe they want more of a wing, which makes sense. They need more of a wing. It's Neoclos Abdollahs. He's the Greek player who's a young Greek player who's named the 2024 like Greek young player of the year in his league. Could possibly

Starting point is 00:13:11 be staying in the NBA draft with wait and see but kind of a six nine do it all who can play the three or the four like very skilled player would love that him or Marco Rudunovic who was a recent guy we mentioned who who's like a 6'6 wing. I think he's originally born in Montenegro and has really good production at his level of play to where he might even be my favorite of the ones available, but you can make a real argument between Rudunovic and Avdolos.

Starting point is 00:13:38 If you can land either one of those two, it's much more of an unknown than what Darien Williams was gonna bring to the table. And so I would have rather, I mean, Darian Williams was my number one target, right? I'm not going to, you know, act like that wasn't the case. But if you can land one of those guys, there's a chance that they give you that level of production, right? I mean, if you're just looking like NBA mock drafts and big boards, kind of similar in terms of their value to where Williams is there.

Starting point is 00:14:02 Now that's a different question from what are they going to do in college, especially in having to adjust to America and the division one game and the differences rules from international that maybe is a little bit more of an adjustment. But you know, there is a chance that can happen, but you got to be able to find those. There's also a new name to watch according to Tobias Bass of the athletic. This came earlier today. He said, uh, one of the top prospects in Europe 20 year old Serbian Guard I don't know how to pronounce this o g n j en

Starting point is 00:14:31 Ognen Ognen. I don't know Stankovic great last name. camping groups will have fun with that one if he comes to KU and Lawrence but he has signed with an agency weave in America and is ready to explore college options and that says the six foot eight guard has heard from Rutgers, New Mexico State, UCF, USF, Southern Mass, Seton Hall, St. Mary's, Kansas, UIC, Pacific, Duquesne, Missouri, and Ohio State. So not a ton on him, but 12 minutes per game in the Bosnian top league in the ABA as well, which is kind of like the Baltic League.

Starting point is 00:15:04 3.1 points per game, 1.2 rebounds per game, one assist per game, 0.9 steals per game, so good steal numbers. 60% shooting, that's good. 3-point percentage looks good, but it's very low volume. 8 of 17 from 3. For his career, to give us a little more idea of the shooting splits, he's played 49 games

Starting point is 00:15:22 in the ABA between his age 17, 18 and 19 seasons and career 52% from the field. So that's very good. 29% from three. So not as good there. But again, he was better at it this year and he is a young player. So you're going to get better at it. Only 55% of the foul line, which tells you maybe the three point shooting is a bit of a mirage going eight for 17 there. But this feels like kind of based on like the stats, maybe the lack of like, you compare them to some of the other international players we've talked about, like the stats aren't quite there. And when you look at like the list of schools that are being mentioned there, right? I mean, you have like, Illinois, Chicago on there, you have Duquesne on there. There are some other power schools, right? UCF, Ohio State, Missouri. But it does make you wonder if he goes to a school like Kansas or Ohio State or

Starting point is 00:16:08 Missouri. Is he more of a like backup fringe role player? Whereas if he goes to like a UIC, he's a starter. And in that case, he's not he'd be a player I'd be interested in for you know, maybe that specific role being a backup, right? Kansas could still use a couple backups at this point in time. Maybe you develop him into something. But if we're talking about finding a replacement for losing Darian Williams, that doesn't fit that billing, right? You do kind of fall into needing an Avdolos or a Radunovitch or somebody else out there that, I mean, we mentioned Declan Doeru, although he might be more long-term potential too. Henshaw, right? There are guys that are out there and, you know, I mean, you know, we mentioned Declan Doeru, although he might be more, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:45 long term potential to their Henshaw, right? There are guys that are out there. There's guys that I haven't even heard about or that we haven't even seen yet. Or there may be are out there that we don't even know about yet. At least with international you have the whole world, right? It can be anybody anywhere. But yeah, I just feel like things are a little bit scarce there. There is another quite of like, what if you just, do you just now say that, okay, we're just going to roll with the starting lineup of,

Starting point is 00:17:10 you know, at this point, I guess, Darren Petersen, two of the three guards of El Marco Jackson, Melvin Council, Jayden Dawson. So two of those three would start, Trey White at the four and then Flory at the five. And you just say, hey, instead of investing and trying to get like a starter level wing, let's just invest more in a backup big man. So instead of getting a, you know, Pat Swemnick or somebody who's a backup big, who you just want to not, you know, crash the car, so to speak, when they're in there for five, 10 minutes game, do you try to get somebody who like is a good player and you overpay them so that they're content in a smaller role than maybe they could get elsewhere? Here's the problem with that. I was looking at 24 sevens portal rankings. It's not the be all end all right

Starting point is 00:17:54 I mean, there are a lot of players who end up being under ranked on their over ranked on their it's an inexact science But there's only one center on the 247 Portal rankings that has an 85 transfer grade or better. It's Bradley Izaweiro, who I think even needs a waiver after he played 7 games at his first year at LSU. But even him, he's a solid player, but I don't know that he's a game changer necessarily. The other option would be doing that same idea, but investing in more of a power forward center type, where you could say,

Starting point is 00:18:25 okay, they're going to start at the four or they'll come off the bench as a four, but they can also give us minutes as a backup five and getting somebody better there. The only power forward on 24 seven sports in the portal with a 90 transfer greater better than Alan Lubin and Prince Aligbe. And you look at like Prince Oleg Bey, for instance, I think coming over from Seton Hall, yeah, he was at Seton Hall. He's a six, seven, 230 pound forward, was a junior, 7.8 points, 3.6 rebounds per game. At Seton Hall, like, is that a game changer?

Starting point is 00:18:56 No, it's not. If you look at Ben Allen Lubin, he was in North Carolina, 8.7 points, 5.5 rebounds per game. Do you go that way? But he doesn't shoot threes so he's zero percent from three this year you can't really play him next to floyer budunga then so you just don't really have the option so i guess that bottom line here you're gonna have to go international get your basketball ready bill uh that's kind of the answer here so uh we'll see

Starting point is 00:19:21 what happens but uh yeah this is not good is the bottom line for Kansas. All right, latest news. This is Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. Wish it was more happy content here on the show. And thanks for joining us anywhere you get your podcasts. Don't forget, you can check out Lockdown College basketball, Lockdown College football for your second listen every day. I'm sure lock on college basketball, you know, a lot to say about this both terms of NC State and in terms of Kansas. So latest news, KU baseball right now is playing in the big 12th tournament. As I'm speaking, they're down three to

Starting point is 00:19:54 two in the fourth inning. But by the time you listen to this, you'll probably know the results of what happens in the game. But I saw somebody who works on a college baseball publication was saying, if Kansas can win the Big 12 tournament, they can actually host in the first round, top 16 host in the NCAA tournament. That's announced Sunday. The NCAA tournament full field is announced Monday, but right now trailing early on in that one.

Starting point is 00:20:17 So we'll see what happens for the Jayhawks. But either way, it's been a great season to this point in time for Dan Fitzgerald and company. And yeah, man, if they're not going to spend all that money on basketball, you know, it could be a contingent thing where it's like the donor will spend the money if you get this player. But if they don't, they're just not going to spend the money. But if you do have the money, if the money is in the banana stand already, you know, make sure Dan Fitzgerald's happy because they're 42 and 14. They nearly won the big 12 if not for kind of a technicality with scheduling. Some other news, this comes from Dushan London, who does a lot of recruiting stuff with 24-7 Sports.

Starting point is 00:20:52 He posted, Ashlyn Coupal, who is the number nine overall prospect in the class of 2026, has shifted her focus to five schools. She's going to take an official visit to Michigan State, who's on there with TCU, Nebraska, Duke and Kansas. Hey, maybe put the money there. Let's just be a Warren's basketball powerhouse too. And then this one comes from the world of college football, Brett McMurphy posted earlier today, the college football playoff is going to be changing to straight seeding.

Starting point is 00:21:19 So instead of the top four seeds just being, they have to be conference winners. Now it's just the top four seeds get first round buys regardless if it won a conference title or not. The conference champs still get an auto bid, but it is seeded based on ranking. So like it could one day have an effect on Kansas for it. Like Arizona State ended up being the four seed,

Starting point is 00:21:40 got a buy to get ready for Texas and almost beat them. Instead Arizona State would be the 11 seed if you redid last year's cultural playoff. If Kansas gets to a point where they can win the big 12 in the previous structure, they probably would have got a top four seed in the buy. Now they would probably not get that, right? I mean, I guess it depends how good the year was, and then the last piece of news, and boy boy does Kansas need some good news. So hopefully this goes their way. But Corey Amokri is a four star running back from the state of Michigan. He is announcing on Friday where he is going to go to school. That was announced earlier this week.

Starting point is 00:22:15 I just don't think I've mentioned it on the show yet. So if he does pick KU, we'll have a little show on it and hopefully can have a little bit of a party because yeah, we need some, we need some good news here with Kansas and in Lawrence for something happening. So keep an eye out for that one. I think he's committing to three Eastern times at two o'clock Central time. And yeah, I guess yeah, continue where we put the money, you know, spread it out, give a little football, give a little women's basketball, give a little ball. Obviously they still need the money to bring on more basketball players.

Starting point is 00:22:44 So that'll be the case. But if you do, let's say Darren Williams, I guess, I don't know, you didn't go for 3 million, did you go for four, whatever it is, let's say he goes for let's say a good European player goes for two, you know, if you have two extra million lying around, okay, you know, dib it out over the other sports because this has not been pretty right now for the KU basketball offseason so far. All right. Now, for this episode of Lockdown J-Hawks.

Starting point is 00:23:05 You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We will see you next time for any other breaking news, hopefully some positive news coming soon here on Lockdown J-Hawks. And if not, we'll be back on Monday to talk more KU basketball offseason and anything else that goes on during the weekend. See you then with LOJ.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PANIC TIME? Darrion Williams Picks NC State - Who is Left for Bill Self to Add to the Kansas Roster?

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