Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The TRUTH Behind Flory Bidunga's Transfer Portal Drama + Kansas Jayhawks Offseason Roster Outlook

Starting point is 00:00:00 It was a whirlwind. Flora Badunga is back with the Kansas Jayhawks. We're going to break down his saga with Shreyas Lata of the Kansas City Star. Also, outlook of the KU Basketball roster, which is really coming together now after another transfer portal edition with Melvin Council. 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 there for catching each and every episode free and available

Starting point is 00:00:39 anywhere you get your podcast in on our YouTube page and we're joined today by Shreyas Lata of the Kansas City Star just wrote really good piece on Flora Badunga. Why did Flora Badunga enter the transfer portal the KU Jayhawks big man answers we're going to break that down a little bit. We're going to get into what we think he could look like in year two with Kansas, as well as the current state of the roster Melvin council joining the board and a little KU football to finish up on today's episode.

Starting point is 00:01:03 We are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook right now, new customers can get $250 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So Shreyas, thanks for up and on today on Locked on Jayhawks. I just want to get right into it here. Again, the article titled Why did Flory Badunga enter the transfer portal? KU Jayhawks big man answers and this was very, I guess telling it was very honest, it was very forthright and I appreciate that from from Flory from the article, all that sort of stuff. But

Starting point is 00:01:31 it seemed to me like the the common sentiment and the the common thought process, I guess, from the Flory camp, at least from from what was was getting out there before the season was was that they wanted him to develop. They wanted, you know, that to happen. And obviously when you're signed on a team behind Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams, it's going to cap, you know, the possible minutes. So where do you think this went wrong? Because this is a guy who played 16 minutes per game. It was up to 19 and big 12 play. I was looking back at it. And like, if you look at freshmen centers under Bale self, the only ones who played more minutes per game were Cliff Alexander,

Starting point is 00:02:12 Joel Embiid and David Padgett. So like, I guess the point being, I'm just a little lost as to why there's some of this, this talk from Florian, his handler about why there was, I don't know, an unhappiness or an uneasiness with some of the minutes. Does this just all kind of come back to when he got the carrot put out in front of him of getting to start a little bit and then the fans are chanting his name? Like, when you think the expectations changed, I guess? I think it was that. I think that moment was kind of a weird moment where, you know, he started a couple of games, he

Starting point is 00:02:45 looks pretty good in those couple of games. And then obviously, you know, you're not gonna start him over KJ Adams, or Henry Dickinson. But I think there was a hope that there'd be some more continuity, some more minutes being played after that. But I mean, obviously went through a little bit of a freshman slump, I think, after that, but I think the fact of the matter was he never really played consistent minutes or anywhere close to what he was playing when he was starting, which makes sense, but you're hoping he puts 25, 20 minutes a game at least, and I think it was difficult for him because he felt like, you know, a little bit of he wanted more development, but also I think he knew he was not going to start over 100 tickets in her cage Adams but it was it was a difficult

Starting point is 00:03:26 process for him because a Kansas wasn't winning a lot of games and B they looked really good when he was playing so if you're a player in his camp you know a little bit of okay well why is he not playing more minutes even though he's younger than KJ or Hunter or whatever looking Looking back on it, you know, some of the three big lineups with KJ and Flory and Hunter, those were the most, I don't know, pleasing on the eyeballs from just like a basketball standpoint. Is there any part of you that wonders if that was, you know, maybe the coaching staff, Bill Self, trying to be like, hey, we got to try to get this dude on the court?

Starting point is 00:04:04 I definitely think so. And I also do think at a certain point it was just, let's get the most talented players in the court. You know, because we had a lot of questions with last year's Kansas roster. Outside of Zeke Mayo and Howard Dickinson, it felt like the three other spots were constantly talked about, right? You know, and we're talking about KJ Adams, his play, inconsistent play throughout the season. Ryland Griffin and AJ Storer were, you know, it felt like constantly either having a decent couple of games or playing really badly, and it felt like they were alternating there and,

Starting point is 00:04:36 you know, with the starting thing for a while. And then it felt like they really found a shooting guard to kind of play alongside DeJuan Harris, period, outside of Zeke Mayo, but that second, like that fourth starter spot, I think was the biggest contention one, outside of KJ Adams. And it never really felt like the pieces fit. And it made sense to me that Bill played big lineup

Starting point is 00:05:02 because it felt like he was going back to what he knows best. But I don't think in modern basketball, it makes a ton of sense to play three bigs, especially three bigs that can't shoot. You can say 100 tickets and puts two and threes a game. He makes maybe a one and a half a game or whatever, but that's just not enough to have be able to justify three bigs. It was ugly to watch when they played their bigs.

Starting point is 00:05:27 Well, I guess the quote, and again, read it if you haven't already, but like the quote that there was honestly most confusing to me, because I would disagree with the idea that they didn't get an opportunity to, you know, play and develop going back to the idea of like, I think it was seventh of 26 players who were freshmen either Power power forwards or centers at Kansas in terms of minutes per game. But I can understand, you know, at least the point of view of what you're talking about there after getting the carrot dangled in front of you. This is the one that I get a little lost on. And it's the quote where he's kind of talking about that they wanted to make sure that this upcoming season isn't

Starting point is 00:06:06 going to be like the one last season. To me, kind of when you read it, it feels like a genuine concern that Flory and his camp and his handler, whoever, that they legitimately don't know if they were going to get minutes at Kansas. And I just, I have a hard time buying into that when you look at the roster, there's no other like centers on the roster. I know Bryson Teller is on the roster,

Starting point is 00:06:30 but he's coming off an injury and stuff like that. Like everybody, whether it was the coaching staff, whether it's fans, has this expectation that Flory is going to be starting. He's going to be playing 25, 30 minutes per game this season. I just, I don't understand how that would have been the sentiment for Flory Budunga unless it is one of two things. It is either the coaching staff saying something or it is the

Starting point is 00:06:52 the Guardian is the handler, you know saying something that is in that regard. And maybe there's even this goes into the idea of like with the NIL game. Maybe you're trying to you know up your value in the NIL market to get a little bit more money out of things to where, you know, if you tell me before he's asking questions to the handler, and he's going, Hey,

Starting point is 00:07:11 why, why are we in the portal here? And he's going, Well, we don't know that you're gonna play next year. And he's believing what's being said to him there so that the handler can get a bigger payday out of it. I don't know, I guess point being like, what do you make of that? Because to me, it just, it just logically doesn't make sense. You know, I thought about it for a while when he said that. And I was thinking maybe there was some fear that he could be Ernest

Starting point is 00:07:33 Udade or, you know, Zubia Gjafard. I guess theoretically they bring another guy who's pretty talented in the space of, oh, we want to just bring in talent. Um, and they bring in a guy from the portal, theoretically, that could be there. I think there's also a lot of fear from his camp and him of like, this roster just seems really undone. Right? Like we didn't know who was going to be there,

Starting point is 00:07:58 was it going to be there. Not that I don't think NIO was a factor. I mean, they even talked about how NIL was a factor, right? But the big part of it, I felt like was, it was a lot of compounding factors. I think a lot of people initially were like, oh, this is a pure NIL grab. I will say this with certainty.

Starting point is 00:08:15 If Fordunga wanted to get more NIL money than what Kansas has reported to be out there, he could have 100% got it. There were schools offering him more that were not even finalists for him. And it came down to Auburn, it came down to Kansas, really. Indiana really wasn't in the running as much as there's some reports of speculation out there. He didn't even visit any of these schools in that dead period that was there or thought about it. So I think, you know, it was tough on Flory last year. The team was winning.

Starting point is 00:08:45 He was getting in consistent minutes. I think there's a little bit of fear of, I'm not developing as quickly as he wanted to develop. He felt like he probably was going to develop more, this thing. I think he also knew his value out there, and his camp knows his value, right? And I'd heard reportedly that the NIO offer that Flory got was million and a half. There are some reports I'd heard from his camp and other people that there were schools

Starting point is 00:09:15 offering two and a half, three million dollars, talking to some agents. I don't know how true that is, but just talking to people in the NIO landscape and in the college basketball world. So it's a really interesting thing that happened with him in the sense of, I do think, you know, Laurie wanted to go into Portal with the intention of return. I thought it was really interesting wording when the Guardian said the same thing, but

Starting point is 00:09:40 I never really felt like, hey, he's gone for sure. I know there was always initial reports that Auburn was in the lead initially, but I always felt like every time I talked to their camp, they're not ruling out Kansas. You know, so why would he, you know, I think they wanted to see and talk to Bill Self, which they did the day after he entered the portal, Self traveled to Indiana to talk to him and his family and his agents and stuff like that. The meeting went really well. I remember I talked to the Guardian that following Thursday, and he said the meeting went really well and that, you know, that Kansas was not out of the running whatsoever. And then we talked

Starting point is 00:10:21 another 10, 15 minutes off the record, just about different things. And I came away from that call thinking, you know what? I think he's going to make a decision soon. And I think Kansas is going to be the hit. Yeah. And now that you detail that across, like, I don't know that I buy the two and a half, three million dollars because I don't think Flory would be in Kansas if that were the case, but it is possible. But I do think this all looks back on it now. I wonder if their camp just wanted things to be private

Starting point is 00:10:49 in a negotiation and this was all just a rouse essentially to get more money from Kansas to stay at Kansas. I don't know, I guess we'll never truly know, but all that matters is the result. I guess at the end of the day, and Floyd Boudin goes back for year two at Kansas. I wanna talk about what expectations are for him and what he could look like this year,

Starting point is 00:11:07 because I think he's going to have an awesome year at Kansas and how he looks with the rest of the roster around him here on Lockdown Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. And with FanDuel, the NBA playoffs are almost here. We're in the play-in right now. The FanDuel's giving new customers an incredible way to get in on the action.

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Starting point is 00:11:53 $250 in bonus bets today with FanDuel. All right, thanks for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. Again, Trey Islata with us at the Kansas City store and uh, Florian Padunga back for year two now. Uh, it was a wacky wild way of getting here, but here we are. And honestly, like with obviously the NECO news, he's no longer returning to Tennessee. But I think this Florian story is probably going to be a little bit more common moving forward in college athletics where player enters gets more money comes back stuff like that. So it's just kind of the DNA. But anyway, I think Flory is going to have a really good season. I've kind of thought that all the way through. I think you saw flashes this past year where like there was you would see certain plays was like, oh, that's an NBA talent.

Starting point is 00:12:40 Like that's not normal. So what is the ceiling? What are the expectations for you about what the Dunga can do this year? You know, you're hoping his scoring goes up at least double, you know, maybe like 10, 11 points a game. And he's a he's a rebounding magnet, right? Like you know, he's averaging almost six rebounds a game in 16 minutes a game. You hope he's averaging 10, 11, 12 boards a game.

Starting point is 00:13:04 You should average more with how undersized the J-Hawks are gonna be. Him playing small bowl of five, really. I think he's gonna have a nice year for Kansas. I think the dream is you have a guy that averages maybe 10, 11 points a game, and another eight to 12 boards, and then maybe an assist or two,

Starting point is 00:13:22 one and a half, two blocks a game. He can be the defensive anchor for this team next year. I think they've done a really good job of building the right roster around him and Darren Peterson. I've made the jokes sometimes and the comparison, but there could be another version of Doke and Dodson, except even better in some sense, because I think Darren Peters can be better than Dotson, and I think Flory could be better than Doak.

Starting point is 00:13:52 I don't think he will be, but I think he could be. I think from a, like, potential NBA perspective, yes, but it's good to say Flory will be, yeah, because Doak was a first-team all-Mary, you know. 100%. High expectations. But I know what you're saying, yeah. Yeah, 100%. So I think but I know what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

Starting point is 00:14:06 So I think they could be a really talented duo. And I think Kansas has done a good job of kind of surrounding them with talent. And I think if Flory really develops, and this is something that they really have been harping on, is they want him to really develop his game this offseason and this year. He wants to play in the NBA. There's no set timeline, but obviously sooner rather than later. But he has to, I mean, I think it's remember,

Starting point is 00:14:31 everyone says, oh, Flory's on an NBA talent right now or he can't shoot or whatever. I would remind everybody, he's been playing basketball for like four years. He hasn't been playing basketball for that long. He's been playing basketball since he was like 15 years old. He's 19 right now.

Starting point is 00:14:44 So his limit can be a lot higher than we've seen. And not to make a comparison to Joel Embiid, because I don't think they're similar players. And I know they just went to Kansas. That's pretty much a real similarity. But, you know, there can always be an explosion of talent that occurs, whether it's at Kansas or when he plays the NBA. Yeah, and I think Flory's going to be great this year too. The one question from roster building, like you said, they've built out the roster a little bit now, still four scholarships left, but you add Trey White, you add Melvin Council.

Starting point is 00:15:15 What do you think benefits, I guess, the team and Flory more moving forward? Like, if they're going to go for another, I don't know, starter level player, hypothetically. Do you think it makes more sense to bring in another wing? Or do you think it makes more sense to bring in like a more traditional power forward type who can maybe play the five in a pinch, can play the four next to Flory, shoot it a little bit, like maybe has a little bit more strength, because we know Flory is really good up athletically, but

Starting point is 00:15:41 maybe gives you a little more power to work inside, like or is it more of a wing who can stretch the floor a little bit, like which of those maybe gives you a little more power to work inside. Or is it more of a wing who can stretch the floor a little bit? Which of those two do you think makes more sense? I definitely think a wing that can stretch the floor. Right now they have a lot of tweener types of where they can play the wing or they can play the floor. I mean, Jayden and Trey White, I think could play a little bit of a wing, but I don't think there's anybody that's a traditional small forward. I guess Trey White would be the, you know, but I don't think there's anybody that's a traditional small forward. I guess Trey White would be the closest to that,

Starting point is 00:16:07 but even Tillers like, and Tillers would be another guy that could play a little bit of small forward, but he's like 6'11", so I presume they'd put him at power forward or even small ball center, depending on what light I'm sorry roll out. I mean, you look at the roster,

Starting point is 00:16:21 I don't think there's anybody right now that shoots above 35% from 3 if I'm correct. I mean obviously Darren Peterson should ideally shoot above that or you know better than even close to that but I don't think they have a single guy on the roster right now that I'm like okay that guy can shoot the ball so they could really use a wing that can shoot light out lights out or another guard really but I think they have enough cards right now I think they have enough cards you can get to the rim that can defend, play both ways. I think this team is built around the way Bill Self wants to build championship teams.

Starting point is 00:16:55 We can throw shooting out the window right now because there's four boss response. I believe they'll address some of the shooting concerns, but I really like the fact that they're playing and bringing in guys you can play both ways. I feel like the game, if you're not going to shoot threes, then you better not have any weaknesses in other sense of either rebounding or playing defense. And I think that's what caught Kansas this past year was they just had some defensive liabilities that when crunch time came and good tournament teams played, they could be targeted.

Starting point is 00:17:23 Zeke Mayo, as good as he was offensively, he was getting targeted a lot. And I think Ryland Griffin or AJ Storr, they weren't great defenders, either one of them. So if you can put out a starting lineup with there's no negative defenders, then you can have a really nice team. Is there a player that right now you're a little higher on, you feel like, than the rest? I don't know, somebody you think is a little being underrated at this point in time on the roster, whether it's an addition or a returning player. Not that there's a lot of returners.

Starting point is 00:17:54 I'm a big old Marco Jackson guy. I've been a big old Marco Jackson guy since he got on the campus. I really think, you know, I like his attitude. I was really excited to watch him play before he tours Achilles, you know, last summer. I think he was going to take a leap. He really works hard. I've heard great things about him around the program. He has been consistently one of the guys that I feel like knows his weaknesses and can really assimilate it. I will never forget, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:25 I think big 12 tournament time, his freshman year, I asked him about like the rumor of like, oh, are you gonna enter the child support? And he was like, no, like, you know, everyone assumes that I'm gonna be a one-and-done guy, but I never thought I'd be one-and-done guy. I thought it'd be at Kansas for two or three years. I'm trying to develop under Bill Self and become that guy.

Starting point is 00:18:42 And, you know, it's something I've talked about a lot with my boss, Scott Chasen. You know, we've seen Bill Self develop guys that guy. And it's something I've talked about a lot with my boss Scott Chasen. We've seen Bill Self develop guys in their third year. That breakout happens. Obviously, Elmarque was a little bit of an interesting case because he's been out of commission for a while, but that breakout has happened. So I think him or even Jamar McDowell,

Starting point is 00:18:59 they could be better than expected. I like that. I like that for sure. All right, let's finish up later. Switch over. We'll KU football because the portal now open there and a little spring football has been going on right now for the Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is also brought to you by Upwork. Scaling your business

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Starting point is 00:20:06 KU football ongoing right now in the portal. What to you just kind of open ended here is the biggest storyline for KU out of spring ball to this point? You know, I've heard a lot of good things about their wide receivers. You know, last year they had, I think, outside of Luke Grimm, some struggles, especially to start the year Guys didn't look as good as expected even though they're their senior year They didn't really have a guy that could replace missing for a child. I think they really missed that safety net

Starting point is 00:20:34 They have two guys to Sean Hanika and Keon Burnett who I think could be really really good players for Jalen Daniels But on top of that I've heard so many good things about Emmanuel Henderson You know, he's a speedster, DJ Giddens, I think a couple weeks ago, the quarterback said he's one of the guys, the fastest guys I've ever played against. And Henderson's a legit guy that, you know, played at Bama against my Georgia Bulldogs, and he played well. He didn't play a lot, but he played well. And you know, I think it could be one of those things that he could be a real wide receiver, one for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:21:09 I don't know if they've had one of his caliber, at least. And with respect to Luke Graham, Luke Graham is a great player, but he was more of a possession and a perceiver than anything. And he was undersized. Do you think Henderson can break the... I don't know that it's a curse, but Kansas doesn't have a thousand yard receiver in about 15 years at this point. Do you think he can be the first? I think so, I really think so. I think, you know, if he breaks it, that means Jalen Danos is probably at a pretty good year.

Starting point is 00:21:35 And in your hope, that's the case, right? Jalen looked a lot better in the last six weeks of the year last year than the first six weeks. Okay, speaking of quarterback, Jalen has, it sounds like he's been working back from the injury. So that's good to see in spring ball for them. But the backup quarterback battle, I think is very interesting too. I mean, obviously Jaylen was able to stay healthy this past year, which is great. But if there is an injury or even if there's not, it kind of sets up whoever wins the backup quarterback job this year as the

Starting point is 00:22:05 edge up coming into next year when that job would be, you know, who's ever to win. Is there any sense about who has the leg up right now between Isaiah Marshall, Cole Ballard, and I guess David McCollum too? I think it's tough to say because I think Kansas is in a very good position where theoretically their backup could be a guy who is a four-star recruit coming out of high school like Isaiah Marshall, or you could have Cole Ballard, who was a walk-on that won in games just a couple of years ago and played well. He was a gamer. I think it's a really interesting sense because I think Cole might be a more pro-typical backup in the sense that the ceiling isn't as

Starting point is 00:22:46 high, but his floor might be higher than a guy like Isaiah Marshall. But Isaiah Marshall ceiling is very high. I've heard very good things about him and David McComb. Those both guys have gotten a lot of rave reviews at camp and Cole Ballard as well. You know, obviously it's hard to fluff out in spring ball because everyone's in the best shape of their life gaining or losing 15 pounds. So I try not to take anything into super, like make big assumptions out of it because

Starting point is 00:23:12 last year I've learned my lesson. I had kids winning 811 next year, last year they won five. So I've become a little more cautiously optimistic about things. But you know, it's hard to sit here and give a sense about things because we still have another four months to go before we get back to August. All right, Trace, I appreciate you hopping on here. What do you have going on right now?

Starting point is 00:23:33 Kansas City Star, where can people find your work? Yeah, I'll have a story come out tomorrow morning about Florey talking about Darren Peterson and how he recruited him back to Kansas and how they can play alongside each other. I'm hoping to talk to Melvin Council Jr. and then we're going to just depending on phone calls. That's always the fun.

Starting point is 00:23:54 Awesome. Well, looking forward to the Florian Peterson one for sure, especially after the conversation we had today. Shreyas, appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me. All right. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:24:07 We'll be back at it later this week, a little more transfer portal talk. See you then. Make sure you subscribe.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - The TRUTH Behind Flory Bidunga's Transfer Portal Drama + Kansas Jayhawks Offseason Roster Outlook

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