Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Potential '26 1st Rounder Dame Sarr to KANSAS??? Could Bill Self Land a Jayhawks Star from Overseas?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is it about to be Dame time in Lawrence, Kansas going after Dame Sore, one of the top prospects from the international ranks? Where do things stand? How do you fit in with KU we discuss on today's 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.

Starting point is 00:00:33 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 anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And thank you for tuning in as we've got some fun possible new portal names emerging, I guess name for KU with Dame Saar. We're going to break down his game on today's episode of the show, how we would fit in with Kansas, we'll also get into some of the latest in the transfer portal and then finish up with a little other KU sports with

Starting point is 00:01:04 you know, KU golf and KU baseball, some news there as well. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money, 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 Dame Saar, he is a I guess, you can't call him a transfer portal prospect, right? Because he's not so this isn't you know, a portal target for KU but he is a recruit, I guess he'd be a freshman coming in. But somebody who comes from the

Starting point is 00:01:37 international ranks, which we've seen Kansas have, you know, good success with it. It's not something that they've done at a very high rate, but when they have gone international, a lot of times it's worked pretty well. I mean, Johnny Furphy obviously coming from Australia ended up having a solid freshman season for KU, ended up being an NBA draft pick. Sveemakailuk obviously worked out very well down the road as he started to get more playing time really junior senior year when he really had his breakout season for KU. If you count international guys, these guys who were just born in other continents, I

Starting point is 00:02:14 mean, you think of Joel Embiid and Yudokas Bukay, Sasha Khan being from Russia, like Kansas has had a good amount of success when they have done it. They haven't always done it, but going overseas and Dame Sarr represents that opportunity here for Kansas. And so this is kind of developed recently, where it was like, okay, Kansas is making a push on this kid. I don't know if it was in relation to, you know, oh, there were some opportunities available now, or he was thought of going to this school and then something else happened like

Starting point is 00:02:44 Illinois and Duke were two schools that were seen as being in the thick of things in the Dame Sarr race. Well, Illinois lands Andre Stojakovic, who's kind of a wing who would play a lot of minutes and probably take sizable amount of NIL. Duke is going to be landing Cedric Coward unless he stays in the NBA draft,

Starting point is 00:02:59 so that possibly takes them from wing minutes and NIL money there. And so Kansas and Oregon seem to be kind of in the thick of things here. And so it kind of becomes interesting. Now I also find it interesting that I think Illinois is a Nike school, but Duke is obviously Nike school and very high up on the Nike ladder. Oregon is the Nike ladder, right? And this kid played in the Nike hoop summit.

Starting point is 00:03:23 Where does that put Kansas? At the same point in time, he is an international recruit. So, you know, maybe it just doesn't really matter. He didn't like grow up on the Nike or Adidas or Under Armour or what like pick a shoe company circuit. That wasn't him. He just happened to be there, right? That could just be connecting dots that aren't really a thing. But he is of Senegalese descent, and he is born in Italy. So, you know, his nationality, Senegal slash Italy, I would imagine that means that his parents are from there. But he was born in Italy specifically, he's going to turn 19 years old in June. And he was actually scooped up as a teenager by FC Barcelona, the European track of things works a little bit differently when you're talking about, I don't know, the developmental level and how things go. And so basically he ends up on the B team at FC Barcelona, which is one of the best teams, you know, in Europe, basically for basketball. And then in 2023, late 2023, he starts getting some

Starting point is 00:04:22 sporadic appearances with the varsity team. He began with the varsity team for the first time this season, even at a 21 point game in March. He was starting to really take off and find himself as an 18 year old for even the varsity team. But then there was a, I guess, a little bit of controversy. So I mentioned going to Nike Hoop Summit and SAR went to Nike Hoop Summit in April 2025 and Barcelona tried to deny his request to do so. They released a statement acknowledging that his actions regarding them as a breach of his obligations. Barcelona and Sarr would ultimately reach an agreement to part ways on April 17th of 2025 with Sarr being left off the

Starting point is 00:05:03 team's roster for the remainder of the season. They didn't want him going to Nike Hoop Summit. I don't know if it's just missing the season or whatever, but there was also a story that they agreed that he would be allowed to go to Nike Hoop Summit in like winter of 2024, like November or something like that of 2024. And they changed their mind on it because he was playing so well, that they were like, No, we don't want this kid, you know, winding up at a college or one of these other things like we want to develop him more time and, and, you know, have him be a part of our team a little bit longer. Right. So that was kind of weird that that happened. But he also made his Italian national team

Starting point is 00:05:39 debut in November of 2024. He is, by the way, if you're wondering like what position does this kid play, he's a shooting guard wing type. I guess you would list him at. Can be an off ball player, six foot six. You could play him a little bit on ball. I think he has some dribbling and passing and athletic abilities to be able to do that. I think more so you want him a little bit off ball. In fact, I was talking to somebody who does

Starting point is 00:06:06 some NBA draft stuff. And I was like, what do you think about this kid? And he was like, Oh, yeah, I think he's a he's a very good off ball player. And that him in his late first area for the 2026 draft. So this is a very high potential kid. And he even they did measurements at the Nike Hoop Summit. He measured six foot seven and a half. I've seen most places list him at six, six, but at the Nike Hoop Summit, he measured six, seven and a half.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Now, I don't know if the Nike Hoop Summit measures with or without shoes. Maybe he's six, six without shoes. Maybe he's six, seven and a half with shoes. I don't know what it is, but like that's pretty darn impressive that that would be his height. He's 189 pounds, so, you know, a little slight of frame there.

Starting point is 00:06:51 Eight foot and nine and a half inch standing reach, a very impressive six foot, 11 and three quarters wingspan, so almost a seven foot wingspan. He had nine inch hand length and 10 and a quarter inch hand width. You might be wondering, okay, what do all these measurements mean? I just hear numbers. I don't know what those mean. Okay, if we compare Dame Sars measurements at the Nike Hoop Summit to those of 2024 NBA draft combine

Starting point is 00:07:16 invitees, his standing reach, Sars, was fifth of what would have been 26 small forwards. Or if you view him as a shooting guard would have been first by a landslide in standing reach. It was tied fourth among 26 small forwards for wingspan. And again, if you compare him to shooting guards, it would have been first. His hand length tied 17th, but only two small forwards and zero guards ahead of him. His hand width tied 13th along all positions, with Zach Eady leading the field at 10 ¾ inch. He was only a half an inch handlet with smaller than Zach Eady. But overall, that means that Dame Saar's measurement? He's taller than Kevin McColler

Starting point is 00:08:00 or Harrison Ingram. He has a standee reach half an inch shorter than JT Toppin. He has an inch or bigger wingspan than Kyle Filipowski and Jameer Watkins. He has the hand length of Oso Egidoro from Marquette and he has the hand width of Donovan Klingon, the first round center prospect from Yukon. All of that in a off guard slash wing skill set. That is quite the potential. That is quite the ball of clay, so to speak, to mold if you are Bill Self.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Now it's difficult when we get to a stat discussion or conversation on this, this isn't as easy as some other transfer portal prospects. Or I can go, you know, you average 14 points per game. He shot really well from the corner. He did this well on fast break, whatever. It's not that same level because the level he was playing at, the senior level of, you know, Spain,

Starting point is 00:08:53 I mean, Spain might be the best European league out there. I don't know. It's like Greece, Spain are up there. Like, you know, Russia, like Turkey, there's some really good international leagues. Spain is certainly up there and FC Barcelona is one of the toughest. That level of play is going to inherently be more difficult than the NCAA. And also you're playing with a bunch, especially in Barcelona, playing with guys who are, you know, 29, 30, 35 years old, right? And so you end up being in a situation

Starting point is 00:09:25 where you're not gonna play like a ton necessarily. And we've seen this before. If you're a fan of the NBA draft, sometimes you'll see guys playing or get drafted in the first round or in the lottery who played on their European team and they only got five minutes per game. And it's like, no,

Starting point is 00:09:43 it's projecting how good he's gonna be. And so you look at a minutes per game and it's like, no, it's projecting out how good he's gonna be. And so like you look at a team like this where it's like, okay, they had Jabari Parker and Jan Vesely who's a former first round pick and Justin Anderson who I think was a former first round pick with Virginia and Ralph Neto who was a former long-term NBA guy, Thomas Saderonski, Alex Abreens, Chamezie Mateo,

Starting point is 00:10:03 Willie Hernan Gomez. These are a lot of former NBA players who are, like I said, around 28, 30, 32 years old. It's gonna be really hard for an 18 year old to get on the court a bunch. So you end up with more limited stats. You end up with a guy who played 15 games in Euro league play,

Starting point is 00:10:17 but just five minutes per game this past season, and 12 games at 13 minutes per game in La Liga, which is the top league for Spain over there. So it's hard to take everything, but if we do look at those 12 games he played in La Liga, 5.8 points per game and 12.8 minutes per game, 1.7 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.8 turnovers. So more turnover to assist numbers than you'd like to see,

Starting point is 00:10:39 but you know, that's where the off ball stuff comes in. But 52% from the floor, 43% from three on one point in a 10-per-game, but only 59 or only 56% on free throws. Now, if you take his total career numbers at the senior level, which counts three games in 2023, a couple in 23, 24, and then there's 27 games between Euroleague and league ball,

Starting point is 00:11:01 34 games played at the senior level for Dame's Sarr for FC Barcelona. You're talking 50% from the field, 50.6%, 37% from three. Again, the free throw shooting, not good, 46%. So they're gonna have to figure that out. But it is also limited sample size, 11 or 24. The three point shooting, 14 or 38. It's all limited sample size,

Starting point is 00:11:23 but like percentages do at least sound good based on what you're going out of. Now you watch some highlights and you read up scouting reports on this kid. I think a pretty decent spot up shooter, but again, needs to get more consistent at it. You're looking for the free throw shooting to get a little bit better.

Starting point is 00:11:37 I think vertically, like if you're talking about him being an athlete vertically, I would call him an average athlete there. I think honestly, you see more of his length in the vertical aspect of the game than you do see his jumping ability. But if you're talking athleticism from like a speed quickness standpoint, this dude is a great athlete from that standpoint. I haven't seen like a vertical number that he has, but again, if you watch some of the

Starting point is 00:12:02 film, you would say, yeah, kind of an average jumper. But again, when you're talking first step, when you're talking quickness, when you're talking speed, when you're talking ability to change directions with a quick speed while doing so, if you're doing a euro step or if you're juking one way or another, cutting one way or another, this dude is a great athlete from that standpoint, very good speed. And especially then once you add to the fact of all that length we talked about, and the six foot six frame. So how exactly would he fit in with KU? And then we'll get to some latest portal

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Starting point is 00:13:47 So how exactly would Sarr fit in with Kansas? Again, you're talking about a very lengthy player, you're talking about a very quick and fast player, you're talking about a player who has shown some ability at spot-up threes, and a player with very high potential for what he could become, as well as an off-ball player. All those things sound great to me, right? Because if you're talking about a Kansas team, you have to be able to play off ball because we are all expecting Darren Peterson to get the heavy load of the ball in his hands, right?

Starting point is 00:14:13 And there still is room, as you talked about many times, for multiple guys to have the ball in their hands and make plays. But still, you know, if you, for instance, you take the Frank Mason, Devante Graham team, Devante had the ball in his hands a good amount to make plays. But Frank was still the primary guy. And that's how you would kind of view it for for KU. Like, you know, Darren Peterson will be the guy primary. There's room for somebody else to have the ball in their hands a fair amount, though, too. That could be Melvin Council, you know, that could be a guy like James Saar, whatever. But with Saar, you have versatility because you can play him at really the two through four. I think lengthwise, again,

Starting point is 00:14:48 if you're going through some of the height stuff, him being six, seven and a half hypothetically, him having a good standing reach, him having a near seven foot wingspan with big hands, from a length perspective, he can get away with playing a college four, no problem. Now he's only 189 pounds though, that makes it a little more difficult. So if you with playing a college four, no problem. Now he's only 189 pounds though, that makes it a little more difficult.

Starting point is 00:15:06 So if you're playing a team who has more of a, any like power forward type at the four, or somebody who's, you know, 230 pounds, you probably can't play him at the four in that matchup because he'll just get bullied on the inside and try to box him out rebounding wise. But in most matchups against teams who are playing wings, which I would say a good majority of teams

Starting point is 00:15:26 you're gonna play play that way, right? For instance, if you're playing Arkansas in the first round like they did where they're playing 6'10 at four, yeah, you don't want them playing the four. But if you're playing more of a wing type team again, where you're playing, I don't know, like a Baylor, for instance, you can get away with playing them at the four. But again, I think a majority of his minutes would come

Starting point is 00:15:44 at the two and at the three. And again, I think a majority of his minutes would come at the two and at the three. And honestly, I think a majority of the minutes would come at the three because if you're looking at Darren Peterson as a one, okay, Marco Jackson gets some minutes at the one and two, and then Melvin Council gets some minutes at the two, and I guess even as possibly back up one, and then Jaden Dawson can get some minutes

Starting point is 00:16:01 at the two and three. I think it makes more sense to have Sar play. Majority of minutes at the three, he can get some minutes at the two and three. I think it makes more sense to have Saur play majority of minutes at the three. He can get some at the four. He can get some at the two as well for you. And now how much he plays at the two might depend on the three point shooting necessarily, but this would be an interesting one because it's, it's a combination of like floor and ceiling, right? What is the floor here? The floor here is an athletic lengthy dude who is basically a, I don't know, like a Tristan and Aruna on steroids as more of a true wing type, which that's like a rotation player. The ceiling here is if he is indeed somebody who, because again, you're talking

Starting point is 00:16:39 about somebody who in this draft, like I was looking ESPN had him ranked 31st if he would have stayed in this draft, he ended up not pulled out of the NBA draft combine and stuff like that. But 31st and again, I talked to somebody who had him in the first round for 2026. That's not the only guy doing that. There are many people who are projecting him to be a first round pick in 2026. If the ceiling hits, you're not just talking about, you know, sixth, seventh, eighth man or fifth starter, you're talking about, again, the floor being that fifth through eighth man, the ceiling being he is your second best player on the team. He is

Starting point is 00:17:12 next there and Peterson, you know, even more than Flory, and the ceiling hits and then you could potentially even have three first round picks with Peterson, Flory and SAR and the ceiling here looks like, okay, you have this athletic dude, the shooting translates over, he figures out the free throw shooting, he's athletic as all get up, he's got the length to bother teams on the defensive end. And that's kind of the big thing here too.

Starting point is 00:17:34 If you look at a lineup of having Peterson, who's like six five with six ten wingspan, Councilor Dawson, both good defenders at the two, Saar at the three, who's lengthy and a good defender, White at the four, and Flory at the five. That would be one of the most switchable defensive lineups in the country. Sure, you wouldn't have like a gargantuan dude out there,

Starting point is 00:17:52 but you would have zero people who are small, and it would be very versatile. It'd be very switchable. It'd be a lot of guys with really long wingspans, right? I mean, Peterson six, 10 wingspan. Saar almost seven foot wingspan. Flory like seven foot, two wingspan. Taylor coming off the bench with like a seven,10 wingspan, Saar almost seven foot wingspan, Flory like seven foot two wingspan, Taylor coming off the bench with like a seven two wingspan.

Starting point is 00:18:08 That would be the name of the game for this Kansas team. And that would be a lot of fun for what they could do defensively with some of that switching ability. And then on the offensive end of the floor, like even if he's not, you know, a 40 whatever three point shooter, like if he's 35% three point shooter,

Starting point is 00:18:24 that still does help from where this team is in needing their three point shooting. And again, if we keep going back to the idea, you wanna be more athletic, Dame's Star kind of fits that mode. So the big challenge here to me, Dame's Star is absolutely a take. I loved watching the kid's highlights.

Starting point is 00:18:40 I love what level of basketball he's coming from, that this will not be, you know, it's almost like transferring down to a certain extent. And I look at it from a standpoint of like, what do you do with this and Darren Williams? That's the big challenge to me. This is not a challenge of, do you take Dame's Ark? You're doing a heartbeat. The challenge becomes if there are limited NIL funds,

Starting point is 00:19:06 if you have only enough room to bring on one more splash play, and then the rest of the plays are, you know, either developmental or backup big or whatever, and you have to choose between Dame Sarr or Darian Williams or RJ Lewis or, you know, Jimmy or Watkins or whatever. Who do you choose and why? And I think with Darian Williams, you have more of a known commodity again in the college game. Dame Saur again could come over and he could give you seven points per game, right?

Starting point is 00:19:36 And be a good defender and end up being your fifth or sixth man for all we know, right? And the potential could just not end up working out. I really like what I saw though. I really like the athleticism. I really like the potential. I like the ability that you can handle a little bit.

Starting point is 00:19:50 I like the ability to play off ball. And if you're just talking pure potential and ceiling, nobody's gonna be higher than what you would get possibly with Dame Saur. And the idea that, okay, you could say, oh, but they've recruited well for fit. Why should they go for just the highest potential? This is different than those because here's the thing that's going to keep Dame Soar's floor up, the athleticism and the ability to turn that

Starting point is 00:20:13 athleticism into defense. Having that ultra switchable lineup. I mean, there could be a real case that if you add Dame Soar, you will be the best defense in the country. Okay. And so, that if you add Dame Sarr, you will be the best defense in the country. Okay? And so, I don't know where I would sit. Maybe you could swing it both for Sarr and Williams. I don't know that I would buy into that notion. If you did, that'd certainly be a lot of fun. And you know, I said Darian Williams. He's my favorite player in the portal. I really like Dame Sarr. I'll just put it that way. And I'm having trouble picking which one would go where. So I guess here's the deal. If they're that close to me, whichever one says they're ready to come first, you take that one and then you move on from there. I guess that's kind of where I'm at. Like I don't view Dame Sarr, even if I would say, okay, maybe I would view Darien Williams

Starting point is 00:20:57 is number one, Dame Sarr is number two, and then X guy is number three. I don't think the gap between, even though the games are so different between Saar and Williams, is enough for me to be like, if Saar wants to commit right now, do you tell him, I'd love to take it, but we have to wait on Williams. I would just take it and then try to figure stuff out from there. But, you know, in an ideal world, you get everybody. Yeah. Okay. Let's finish up with a little latest in the portal and a little unfortunate weekend for KU Baseball. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping and entertainment, it's easy to lose track.

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Starting point is 00:22:27 player, who was one that KU had some sort of connection rumors with at some point, seemed like that stuff kind of slow to ends up going to NC State. He was somebody I liked his tape, especially if you would have been that back up big role, but obviously, he'll go to NC State there. Also, Ryland Griffin, former Jayhawk, picked his new school at Texas A&M. So it'll be the Texas A&M Jayhawks with Ryland Griffin and Zach Clements this next season.

Starting point is 00:22:54 And the former Samford coach is there as well. Also the NBA Combine announced their invitees. 75 invitees went out of note to Kansas. Now, note Jayhawks were part of that list, which I think Michael Swain put out, is the first time since like 2009 that that has happened, which is pretty crazy. And then there are, that'll be May 11th to May 18th, which is important to note from like a decision standpoint as we await some of these guys. But Darian Williams, RJ Lewis, and Jameer Watkins, all possible portal targets for KU did get invited. So all players to watch to see how they do and what their decisions would end up being.

Starting point is 00:23:34 They also announced, I think it was 44 was the number of prospects that were invited to the G League Ignite Combine, which those players get an opportunity to play their way up to the NBA Combine based on how they perform. And so that means basically 120 players invited to both of these combined. Kansas didn't have a single one. So you could go from not having a single one, which again is very rare for Kansas, like, and I think just kind of shows where we were at this season. As much as we might want to blame the fit or not doing this or that right. You also didn't have enough

Starting point is 00:24:07 talent on the roster. And that's something you have an opportunity to change because Darren Peterson could be the number one pick in the draft. Flory with a good season could be a first round pick or at least an NBA draft pick. Maybe bring in Dame Saar, you could say the same thing. Maybe bring in a Darian Williams or one of these kids and they could say the same thing like you have much more potential to kind of hit on on some of those high or on some of those NBA possible guys on this year's team.

Starting point is 00:24:30 So that'll be something to watch though because you know how they do is going to determine do they come back to college? Will they have a chance to KU and all that sort of thing. KU baseball did not have a great weekend by the way they got swept by Cincinnati and now they kind of fall into the pack in a crowded big 12 for the baseball standings and you know it's obviously still a great season for KU baseball and like they're gonna have an opportunity to play in the postseason and stuff. This was kind of an opportunity in trying to avoid this to like and they're not like mathematically out of it or anything, but really stick around for having a chance to

Starting point is 00:25:06 win the big 12 in the regular season. Now they're tied third with Arizona, Arizona State's a game up and then West Virginia is like four games up from them in Arizona, but TCU is tied with them to Kansas State's only game back Cincinnati is now only two games back. So certainly puts them back toward more of the middle of the field, but I'm sure they'll bounce bounce back they bounce back well before when you know they got swept by TCU and then they won like a handful of games straight after that so they'll look to do that toward the end of the season now here and then finally

Starting point is 00:25:34 Kansas men's golf ninth straight NCAA regional selection which is a new program record they're heading over to Washington from May 12th to 14th as the number eight seed. So cool to see as I guess, Gary Woodland and the boys doing well for the KU golf program. All right. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Make sure you subscribe to the show, catch our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back at you more portal talk on tomorrow's episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:26:04 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Potential '26 1st Rounder Dame Sarr to KANSAS??? Could Bill Self Land a Jayhawks Star from Overseas?

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