Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL TARGET: Nana Owusu-Anane + Jayhawk Commit Darryn Peterson Drops 58 on BYU Commit AJ Dybantsa

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kansas already looking ahead to next year with the portal as they have some interest from an all Ivy League forward and five star KU commit. Darren Peterson goes for 58 points against A.J. DeBonsa. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be discussing Nana Owusu-Anane, who is a transfer forward from Brown out of the Ivy League, was an all-Ivy League player.

Starting point is 00:00:54 He is already in the portal for this year, and we'll get into why and all that sort of stuff. His scouting report, possible fit with KU, what it can tell us possibly about KU, what they'd be looking for in the portal to fill out the rest of the team for next year. Sounds like he's going to be visiting. We'll get into all that.

Starting point is 00:01:07 And also Darren Peterson, the five-star commit, who is in the running for the best player in the recruiting class, I think ranked number two right now in 24-7 sports, just dropped 58 points on the guy who's ranked number one in the class. Now, the guy who's number one also had a big game too. But we'll get into that on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Right now, new customers with FanDuel can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins through that with FanDuel. Let's get into the possible transfer portal news

Starting point is 00:01:36 even though we're in February here for KU basketball so Joe Tipton at Tipton Edits on on X Twitter whatever you want to call it. He tweeted this out the other day. He said, Brown University grad transfer Nana Owusu-Anane, who is a highly coveted forward in the portal, has narrowed down his list of schools to eight, according to his agent. Louisville, Grand Canyon, Kansas State, Arizona State, Kansas, Baylor, SMU, and San Diego State. Certainly interesting that there's four Big 12 schools on that list alone.

Starting point is 00:02:07 But then he later tweeted, I think it was maybe a day later, maybe later that day, I can't remember. The same guy tweeted, Brown University grad transfer forward, Nana Owusu-Anane has scheduled an official visit to Kansas. It sounds like that'll be this week for KU to have him. I don't know if he'll be at the Colorado game or if he'll just be visiting in general or how that all works. But he is a 6'8", 220-pound forward from Burlington in Ontario, Canada. He came into college at Brown University as a three-star recruit.

Starting point is 00:02:40 You know, obviously, I don't know how accurate you can get on the recruiting stuff when you have guys from out of the country, but still he has been productive for them. So as a freshman in 2021 to 2022 with Brown, he played 21 games, and then he missed the final seven games that year with injury. He wound up averaging 5.7 points per game. He averaged 3.4 rebounds per game in 17 minutes that first year. Then year two, 2022 to 2023,

Starting point is 00:03:05 he became a team captain already as a sophomore. He went for 10.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, which the rebounds was second in the Ivy League. He also averaged 2.1 assists per game, 1.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks. He had four double-doubles really filling up the stat sheet there. I was surprised he didn't end up all Ivy League that season with some of those stats that he put up. But then last year, he does end up an all Ivy League selection. Second team all Ivy League pick as a junior when he averaged 14.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1 block per game. He had 11 double-doubles last season. He's really filled up the stat sheet. He did have one game against a power school, and that was usc he had 13 points and 11 rebounds and then uh in the seven games they played against

Starting point is 00:03:49 ken palm top 100 opponents his effective field goal percentage was actually higher than what his regular effective field goal percentage was on the season so you like to see that playing up to competition obviously there's no guarantee how that you know moves over when that's all of your schedule but that is a good thing to see uh but to begin this season and i don't know if this is something that he had at the end of last year that he had worked on, if it was an offseason injury or what, he had to get a surgery on his left shoulder. I think torn labrum is the official diagnosis and has been out for all of this year. And so how it works with the Ivy League is players can't get that extra year. They don't get that fifth year season, right?

Starting point is 00:04:24 So you don't get a medical year season right so you don't get a medical red shirt in the ivy league you just play your four lead four years um and then you move on so he knowing that was going to be the case that he's going to be missing this season for a medical redshirt basically um and having surgery and stuff already into the transfer portal so it's not this isn't a matthuka if you remember the UNLV quarterback which like he left mid-season this was just he knew that he wasn't going to be able to play this year so he had to enter the transfer portal now to be like hey I can drum up more interest along the way of the season because I know I'm not going to be able to you know come back here for another year anyway

Starting point is 00:04:58 so it'll be a grad senior next season at his next stop now the big question is you know sometimes when you see these lists sometimes when you see the portal interest, you have to diagnose, is that real? Is that not? What I mean by that is sometimes you'll get kids like, I thoroughly remember, I bring this story up a lot, but like, you know, a couple of years ago, there was a kid and I don't even remember the name, his name anymore, but he listed like two or three schools as his finalists. And one of them was Kansas. And there was no offer from Kansas. He just put it on there and made the offer look like, or the decision of where he was going to choose look like a bigger deal. Sometimes that does happen. Other times you can see, oh, this, you know, player is receiving interest from Kansas and that can be varying degrees of what does that mean? That can be the degree of, oh, they actually did offer. That can be the degree of they just called and were interested and wanted to hear more from the kid or they were doing a favor to the agency because the agency is going to help them get a different recruit right there's a lot of different reasons it can go it can even be something as simple as

Starting point is 00:05:52 um in between where it's like it's an offer but it's dependent on if this guy leaves or if this guy doesn't choose us then you know you would be our first choice after that happens right like that sort of thing happens so you don't really know where this stuff lies on the scale i do think the fact though that he is going to be visiting kansas should tell you that there is legit interest that there is real interest from kansas in bringing this kid along um and so when you look at it i think the real question is what is the role that he is looking for because that probably determines the ability for kansas to bring him aboard right because when you think about it now obviously we don't know what's going to happen in the offseason

Starting point is 00:06:29 there are a lot of decisions like would Zach Clements transfer would he come back would Flory Badunga go pro would he come back right I think recent play would probably indicate he's coming back but regardless with Bryson Taylor right like you know does Kansas does Bill Self view him more as a four does he view him more as a five? Does he view him, right? Some of those things are going to be dependent on this. But from Awuse Anane's perspective, you know, do you want to go somewhere and be a starter?

Starting point is 00:06:55 Because if you want to go somewhere and be a starter, your path to possibly being a starter, again, I'm under the impression that Flory is going to be back for a year or two. That could change and who knows. But if that is the assumption and that is the thing that Bill Self is operating under, then you're viewing this from Kansas' perspective as he would either have to come in and start at the floor next to Flory, or he would have to come in and operate

Starting point is 00:07:17 and be an experienced backup. Big man that could still get a good amount of minutes and play a big role and make a good check of NIL. And, you know um you'd have a i don't know what a degree from brown and then a graduate degree possibly from kansas like that's i mean talk about a nice duo of degrees that would set you up in life afterwards and all that sort of thing and you know obviously canadian like you can probably go play pro in canada after it right um there's still a lot of stuff you could do with that but the question is for him like what

Starting point is 00:07:44 does he want his role to be and it's going to take a certain guy. I did say on a previous episode, if you were an everydayer and caught the episode where we talked about next year's lineup, kind of talked about like, I thought Kansas would be in the market for a backup big man. Even if you get Flory back, even if you get Clements back, even with Tiller, it made sense to go out and get, or it does make sense, to go out and get an experienced backup. Somebody that, hey, if Flory has a game where he gets in foul trouble, you can trust somebody else to go out there. And even if Flory is, you know, this dominant presence

Starting point is 00:08:13 and this all-big 12-level player, how many minutes are you getting from Flory a night, right? You go back and look at David McCormick's minutes. You go back and look at, like, Yudokasabuki's minutes. Like, I don't know, maybe Flory's playing 22, 25, 25 26 minutes per night next season even if he's a star for kansas and so that leaves a good amount of minutes to be available plus you have a kid like this who i think can play a little bit of the four um i don't know how much you want that necessarily but we've seen kansas throw out three big lineups this year right we've seen kansas throw out lineups obviously a lot over the past

Starting point is 00:08:41 couple years where taj adams is playing the four and awuse and awusu and nane can you know he's not a super high volume shooter but he at least can shoot it a little bit to where i think you can get away with that for a little bit so point being like he could still get minutes if he comes in but if he wants to be the star of the show or he wants to be like in a position where he's in a that's a better chance to start might be the the way to put it again he could start at the four. Then this might not be the role for him. But like I said, there's still a lot of reasons to come here. NIL, opportunities after school, chance to compete with the best,

Starting point is 00:09:16 chance to try to win a national title, chance to play with Darren Peterson, who we're going to talk about a little later on in the show. And who knows, maybe you do come in and you hit the ground running right away and you do start at the four. And then you accomplish everything you want in an even bigger school. So I think there's a lot that goes into it. But as far as would I take him, would I not? Let's get into a little bit more of an advanced scouting report and what they can tell us possibly about what Kansas is looking for

Starting point is 00:09:35 in the portal on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started, and there's no better place to get in on it than with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. With FanDuel, you can place live bets throughout the game, so even if you miss the opening tip-off or want to bet on a fourth-quarter comeback, you can stay in the action.

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Starting point is 00:10:33 Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode. Thank you to you for listening. You can check out Locked On College Basketball for your second listen every day. All right, advanced scouting report on what Owusu Inane would bring to the table for KU. I found it interesting. On CBB Analytics, you can go and take a look at, like, they have player comps

Starting point is 00:10:58 based on the statistic profile, right? It obviously isn't watching the video and stuff. It's just based on the stats. And if we go off of last year's stats, he hasn't played this year so it'd be compared to last year's players and you can compare it to everybody in the country you can compare it to specific conferences i narrowed it down to just big 12 i was like okay who in the big 12 is this guy similar to um based on last year's there was some similarity the most similar was that victor lakin guy if you remember him from cincinnati a season ago he had a solid season for the bearcats season ago

Starting point is 00:11:28 the fourth most similar comp is actually hunter dickinson which i found very interesting because i was like okay you have this 6'8 220 pound ford hunter dickinson's huge at seven foot two like i was like i don't know like when you watch the video of the games they don't look that similar but like i can see why there are some similarities in terms of like, okay, they're both shooting around two threes per game. I don't know. There are some similarities there. So I did find that kind of interesting. Now, as far as the strengths, and these are based on last year's stats.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Again, he hasn't played this season. He was in the 83rd percentile in offensive rebound rate. So if you have a lineup with awusu anane next to flory budunga for a certain amount of minutes that's going to be i mean about as elite of an offensive rebounding you know duo of ku bigs as we've seen in a long time uh under ku i don't know probably like a decade plus right maybe you have to go back to like i don't know morris twins or i don't know sometime back um which actually led to him being the 96th percentile in second chance points per game so he's really good at cleaning stuff up um then you look at it

Starting point is 00:12:29 he was solid in the paint but away from the rim so cbb analytics separates some sites uh count like in the paint or at the rim as maybe three feet or five feet or the entirety of the paint with cbb analytics they split it up four and a half feet uh to the rim is at the rim um versus the entirety of the paint with cbb analytics they split it up four and a half feet uh to the rim is at the rim um versus the rest of the shots in the paint when it's outside the four and a half feet those are counted as in the paint um so he was good in that area so like those five to eight foot floaters or little push shots or mini mid-range shots he also was really good from the mid-range 53 field goal percentage in mid-range shooting that was 92nd percentile on mid-range twos for his position so you look at it and you say okay if you are

Starting point is 00:13:12 going to play him at the four next to flory at the five possibly you know he can space it at the very least in the mid-range to a pretty reliable rate if you're basing it off his most recent season stats the three-point shooting is super interesting 31 on two per game that's not like a huge threat necessarily but at least he can make them and he has gotten better at them every year right like you look at the percentages they've gone up every year the volume has gone up every year maybe i don't know with a with another year in between like what if he gets that up to two and a half attempts on 34 from three right like that would mean a lot and here's what i found interesting too on the threes that were under 25 feet,

Starting point is 00:13:46 so the threes where you're like actually like right at the line, he actually shot 34% from three-point range on those shots in his last season. He just took too many where he was behind 25 feet, which you don't really want to do as a big man, but he did a little bit too much. So that gives me more hope that like, yeah,

Starting point is 00:14:02 maybe there is even a little bit more there than he's even shown in terms of the statistics. He was also 67th percentile. So, you know, above average to good in free throw attempt rate. Obviously, Kansas could could use a little bit more there. He was in the 88th percentile for assist percentage for centers. So if you're losing KJ Adams at the end of the year, you're obviously losing Hunter Dickinson at the end of the year. Both of those big men, something they do well is pass the ball. You would be bringing an element of that back with Owusu Inane. So that would be a nice bonus for KU. Now you look at the weaknesses. He is a six foot eight center. And if you go up in level what does that necessarily mean now again would you play him more four would he split minutes would that be okay there are some teams around the big 12 who have you know six foot eight like you look to west virginia like

Starting point is 00:14:54 they're playing like you know some six eight centers who are mobile so maybe that would be okay but where the height i think leads to a question here he was in just the 32nd percentile in effective field goal percentage and when you just look at two point percentage he was in just the 32nd percentile in effective field goal percentage. And when you just look at two point percentage, he was in the 34th percentile. So he was below average at shooting two point shots. He took a lot of shots at the rim, but he only shot 57% at the rim his last season of play. That was only in the 21st percentile for his position. So this has not been a guy who has finished at a high rate at the rim. And I think the size is a part of it. And that is a real question that going up against

Starting point is 00:15:28 bigger, more athletic competition, is that going to get dwarfed even more? And if that is the case, I don't know that you can really play him at the five, right? Maybe you can get away with five, 10 minutes here, but you can't really rely on him on the offensive end consistently, unless you're doing like pick and pops. So some of the on off defensive numbers also are not great so i i don't know how good of a defender he is but also i'm not entirely sure how much of that was compared to the rest of the team they play a lot of like smaller guards so maybe that was just he was on the court a lot with some other players who weren't good defenders because you look at the he was 58th percentile in block rate so above average he was 88th percentile for steel rate at his position so really good at getting steals for a big man and you look at hakeem percentage which is a

Starting point is 00:16:08 combination of steel rate and block rate 68th percentile so some of the the chaos stats he was good at which doesn't mean you're a good defender but like sometimes it does and uh i don't know i guess i i would be going into the season like not expecting him to be a great defender but i don't think i'd expect him to be a bad defender either. The other big question here is he's coming off a season ending injury, right? What does he look like coming off of that? How does that affect his shooting form with the shoulder? I don't know what shoulder it is. And then, you know, this obviously the second injuries had, he missed the end of the season, his freshman season too. Like, is that a problem you have to deal with? And, you know, if you would be looking at him

Starting point is 00:16:43 and El Marco Jackson as both being guys coming into the rotation, let's say you have to deal with and you know uh if you would be looking at him and el marco jackson as both being guys coming to the rotation let's say you have an eight-man rotation that means basically 25 of your rotation you're counting on guys coming off of season ending injuries what does that necessarily mean so i think those are all valid questions now as far as this is a take or no take i i do think this is a take but i i think it's a take dependent on how you view it if bill self views this as hey we're expecting this guy to come in and be our starting four next to Flory, I don't necessarily love that because I would have questions about, is he going to be mobile enough on the defensive end?

Starting point is 00:17:14 And then if you're playing him at the five, I would have questions about, is he going to finish enough at the rim? But if you're bringing him in to be an older player that can help along second-year players in that point at Bryson Tiller and Floyd Badunga, that he can be a reliable guy to come in if either of those get in foul trouble, that he can compete with Bryson Tiller, and then maybe he ends up in front of Bryson Tiller

Starting point is 00:17:34 because I think Tiller, in the same way that I would view Nana Owusu and Nane, I would view both of them as being guys that can play the four or can play the five. So it gives you more versatility, and it gives you more competition for both those guys to be like, okay, whoever's better, they're going to play. Right. And I think it gives you that, I don't know, experience and probably smart kid. Right.

Starting point is 00:17:56 He was at Brown that like that can't hurt to have in the locker room. And in a way that like, I know Tard Black actually ended up starting a lot of games for KU, but like, I think it would make a lot of sense to bring on, you know, yeah, you have that kind of experience big that helps you get through the season.

Starting point is 00:18:12 And, you know, best case scenario is playing 20 minutes a night, right there. He's getting eight minutes per game at the four and he's getting 12 minutes per game as the backup five. I think there's a real role that you can use this kid for that. That would be beneficial for the team. So from that perspective, it perspective it's a take but if if you're viewing this as hey

Starting point is 00:18:29 we expect this kid to come in and play 25 minutes a night and start then like i don't necessarily know that i love that and as far as what this could tell us about the offseason i i think going back to the idea it makes sense for ku to bring in an experience back a big who can play a little bit for them and be insurance for floyd badunga and bryson tiller in case you know one of them's not ready for that leap or in the case of foul trouble for a young big man or whatever it ends up being plus you just want to you know establish some more big man depth and um obviously the question would be well can you just get that from a guy you already have in the roster right like with zach clements and it's like well i think we've seen enough there that like i'd be comfortable going out and getting this kid and, you know, seeing what it ends up being.

Starting point is 00:19:06 So the big question for me becomes, would this be a situation where Bill Self is saying, no, we are going to bring this in because we are going to play predominant two big basketball. We're going to play Flory at the five, Bryson Tiller and Nana Owusu are going, Nana are going to be at the four and the five. And a majority of our minutes are going to be two the four and the five, and a majority of our minutes

Starting point is 00:19:25 are going to be two big basketball. And if that's the case, I don't know that I love that either. I want more of a true wing at the four. And if you're playing two big basketball for 10 minutes a night, 15 minutes, sure. But I want the predominant lineup to be with a wing at the four. So again, if that's the case too, I don't necessarily love that, but I do like the player overall, even though there are some questions I have in terms of what the specific role could be asked of him. I think that could be a good thing for KU. Let's finish up. Darren Peterson just went off.

Starting point is 00:19:50 Could he be a future teammate of Nana Owusu? We'll discuss that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. All right. Well, we will have a Colorado preview on tomorrow's episode. So make sure you're locked in with Locked on Jayhawks here. So Darren Peterson, who is the five-star recruit on 24-7 Sports, he's listed as the number two player in the class of 2026.

Starting point is 00:20:14 He just played against A.J. DeBonsa. DeBonsa is the number one recruit in the class. He is committed to BYU. They played earlier in the season, and both of them had good games too. I think Peterson had like 32, DeMont had like 28 in that matchup. Well, this go around, they both went off as well. DeMont had like 49, but Peterson had 58 freaking points and he hits the game winning three as well. It's an awesome play. He gets to the corner and he kind of pump fakes, guy blows by and then hits

Starting point is 00:20:43 the three, they win by two points and he ends up with those 58 points. Also had like seven rebounds, five assists, three steals, shot it well from kind of all over the floor, as you can imagine, in scoring 58 points. he plays with like i i don't think he has the same athletic bounce as andrew wiggins i mean he's still a good athlete right like you don't become a top five recruit in the country by you know not being a good athlete he's still a good athlete but andrew wiggins was like 99th percentile athlete right i don't know what darren peterson would be he's still a good athlete but peterson is just so much more polished man his ability to score at all the different levels like that is so much better than a guy like Josh Jackson. It's unbelievable watching him. And I'm kind of a little bit scared

Starting point is 00:21:31 because I am buying into the hype so much here. I'm buying into the hype of not just, hey, this kid's going to come in and be a good freshman. I'm starting to buy into the hype that he's going to come in and be a first-team All-American right away. The same way that Cooper Flagg to come in and be a first team all-american right away that he's going to be like the same way that cooper flag has come in for duke this year and he's one of the two favorites it's like him or janai broom for our auburn who are going to win national player of the year like that is to the point of where

Starting point is 00:21:55 i'm getting with this kid with darren peterson and that scares me because we see it all the time where freshmen come in and it takes a year to adjust or something like that. But like he just keeps doing it on this stage, man. And I think there's a real question about how do you build the roster around him? Do you use him more as the lead guard? Do you use him more as a two man that can also initiate the offense and, you know, bring it up in certain situations? But you need that other guard. And then what do you do about that other guard? I think that's really the big question for me, right?

Starting point is 00:22:24 It's not just who do you put it for? I'd prefer more of a shooter type, right? What do you do around it? But it's also what do you do with the other guard position, right? Whether it's a two or whether it's a one or whether it's a combo where you view both of them as kind of combo guards that can lead and shoot and everything. Do you go for more of a scoring guard that can take pressure off of Darren Peterson that now you have this dynamic duo of a backcourt that, you know, if you double team one guy

Starting point is 00:22:50 or if you put your best defender on one guy, then the other guy can go off? Or do you go with more of a like pass first defensive point guard like a DeJuan Harris type, right? Somebody who can take the top defensive, defensive, I don't know know assignment on the other end to where darren peterson doesn't have to exert as much energy on that end and he can just be a pass first guy so you allow peterson to have the ball in his hands even more or do you view it as more of a like ball mover i don't know not dominant ball but like he'll move the ball but hit threes or do you go for the guy who is more of like a, I don't know, a max ace miss type, right? Where he's just this like creating

Starting point is 00:23:29 scoring point guard. I think it's going to be very interesting to see what KU does. In my head, I would lean toward having that scoring point guard to where you could have two dynamic threats that can get you buckets at all time. And like, if it's not one guy's night, it can be the other guy's night. And I think that would be a really fun backcourt to watch if you can find that guy in the portal i mean who knows who that would end up being necessarily that would be my lean but like i would understand if you did say hey let's go with that defensive point guard who can you know just get the ball to him on the offensive end of the court um but that would also i think would be reliant if you do that you have to go for a wing who can shoot threes at the four and you need somebody at the three like a rylan griffin to come back and shoot threes right because you have to have at least two

Starting point is 00:24:09 knockdown shooters i think around darren peterson to open things up you don't want a situation where it's you you have a defensive first point guard you're playing another big at the four and now your only real big shooter around darren peterson is your three to where now teams can basically sag off your four and double team darren peterson and they only have to worry about one three-point shooter so um it kind of depends like they're linked the one in the four linked you need one of those two i think to be a knockdown shooter in some way or be like a real score in some way and so going back to the conversation about not a wusu and not a he's a backup big that's a different conversation but if you're

Starting point is 00:24:41 viewing him as being real competition and viewing it as a one of Owusu and Nane or Tiller is going to start at the four, then I think you do have to go for a scoring point guard to fill in next to Peterson. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on J.R. so you can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back at you on Tuesday for a little KU Colorado preview.

Starting point is 00:25:00 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - PORTAL TARGET: Nana Owusu-Anane + Jayhawk Commit Darryn Peterson Drops 58 on BYU Commit AJ Dybantsa

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