Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - TIME TO PANIC ON PETERSON??? Plus Revisiting Kansas Losing Darrion Williams to NC State

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is it time to panic on Darren Peterson playing more for KU? Plus, would have been nice if they had Dary and Williams. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, what's going on?

Starting point is 00:00:25 Derek Johnson here with Locked on Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. And on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we're breaking more down on the Darren Peterson injury, what it means for KU, is it time to worry and panic about what this is going to mean for the rest of the season?

Starting point is 00:00:42 Plus, we'll get into a little more on the Darian Williams saga and how he didn't wind up in Kansas. And could that be a brutal moment for KU looking back to the off season? Plus, we'll finish up with some latest news on the show. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. If you want to be right in the middle of the action all season, just visit fanduel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long with Fanduel.

Starting point is 00:01:05 So KU beats NC State, which great, but unfortunately some of the long-term takeaway is that Darren Peterson, you know, kind of limps off the floor, has more hamstring tightness. And this was the postgame presser, the comment from Bill Self. And this was gathered by Henry Greenstein of the Lawrence Journal World in Kusports.com, who I believe was out there covering. the game. And he said, here's the full quote. I think he was getting tight. I haven't talked to the doctor yet or the trainer about it, but he said he needed to come out. So he's experienced this every game that we've played. So I was happy that he got that far, that deep into the game, because

Starting point is 00:01:40 it's happened to start the second half every other game. I think it's tightness, but I haven't yet. Now, we're going to find out more by the time you listen to this. Maybe we will have a public quote because KU's next game on a Tuesday against Towson. And that means a month day media availability for Bill Self and KU Men's Basketball. So I'm sure he'll be asked more about this, but I think everybody probably kind of assuming at least right now, like, I don't know, I'm not expecting him to play in the Towson game at the very least. But I think if we dissect this quote a little bit here, one, I do think it's actually like

Starting point is 00:02:13 he's experienced this every game that we've played. That A isn't great. That's like, I think it's the worst part is that the game since coming back. He's like, I think it's understanding that. he's experienced this in the first couple games he played. But the fact that you took all this time off and now you're still experiencing it, even in the Missouri game and this game is not great. But then again, it's kind of, I don't know, the kind of opposite of that is because it's happened to start the second half every other game.

Starting point is 00:02:43 I don't know. So I guess that's not every game. Maybe it's the timing of when it happened is every other game. So the part where he's just talking about, I think he was getting tight. And then he finishes the quote by saying, I think it's just tightness, but I haven't even found out. yet. Obviously, you know, he didn't actually talk to the doctor yet. And that, you know, means that, like, that opinion is going to be more important, so to speak. But if he is saying that it was just tightness and not, oh, Peterson heard a pop or Peterson, like, he pulled it, again,

Starting point is 00:03:15 that's not the final say. And we'll find out more in his next presser, I'm sure. Maybe we won't, though, because we've heard a lot of different things. We've heard, you know, sickness. We've heard under the weather. We've heard this, this, and that. I think it all kind of stems to this. And I think you can view that quote as both good and bad, right? If it is just tightness, then maybe with some more time off, which again, you don't play, maybe these next couple games, you have some extra time before Big 12 play, you would hope that's good enough to work through just tightness. But if it is more than that, or if it is viewed by him and his team, Peterson, that would be,

Starting point is 00:03:48 as, you know, this is a continuing trend and problem that's not going away. and why would we risk getting injured when we could already be a top three, if not the number one pick in the draft, then that's where it becomes the long-term issue of Will Peterson make a big impact at the end of the season for KU as opposed to just kind of at the beginning here. And at the end of the day, this is kind of a camp decision, right? I mean, I'm not saying that this is the expected outcome at all. I'm just saying I also wouldn't be shot. If like, if you found out that he's going to shut it down for the rest of the way, I'm not saying that's going to happen.

Starting point is 00:04:30 I'm just saying that wouldn't like shock me, right, in today's day and age of everything. And obviously, hopefully we do see more of Darren Peterson. Hopefully we see more of him soon. Hopefully we see more of him coming up here because he's a treat to watch. He's an awesome player. He's a great shot maker. He benefits this Kansas team on a ways, but he's just really fun player to watch. And if we do see him again, I think there's kind of a couple options for how you go

Starting point is 00:04:54 about that how you do that if you were kansas maybe he shocks the world and does play in the tauson game um i i think everybody's kind of inclined at this point like okay you have a couple games between now and christmas and then basically a week in between christmas and a little over a week between christmas and um the start of big 12 play which is on january third for k u that is a lot of time between games to where if you take these two games off that allows you to have a lot of time off without actually missing that many games. And on top of it, they're both games that KU should win even without Darren Peterson. We've seen Kansas get some scares from some of these schools like Davidson,

Starting point is 00:05:35 who's actually beat them before in the Billsoff era. But there are games you should win as long as you take care of business there, right, with or without him. So I think that would be the first option, right? He sits these next two games that allows you to have three weeks off. He's back for Big 12 play. And ideally, then you can move. forward with this and hopefully move past this, although I don't know, it just feels like this is going

Starting point is 00:05:58 to kind of be a thing he's going to have to manage for the full season, right? I think the second option here is instead of taking, you know, those three weeks off is because, okay, the first time that he missed games, he plays the first two games, then he misses time until he comes back against Missouri. And if you look at it, he missed a month of the season, if you're just looking at from a game perspective. Does it make sense to say, okay, the full month didn't change things here? Do we need to give him off more than a month? Do you say we need to get him off a month and a half or maybe two months?

Starting point is 00:06:36 And then you'd be looking at, okay, if he's missing a month and a half, do you bring him back at the end of January for that big clash against BYU on January 31st? That gives him six, seven weeks between that game. Then again, he hasn't played in a while. Do you really want him to have to come back and play AJ DeBonza after missing all that time? that's probably a little unfair to him. So maybe you wait till the next game, but that would give you the month and a half,

Starting point is 00:06:57 which would be more than you gave him the first time. Do you give him two months to just say, hey, we'll double it last time and that'll put you back in the middle of February, right? And I think option three is kind of a mix of that, but maybe a little further. And this would be the Remy Martin option. If you remember, what happened with Remy Martin

Starting point is 00:07:13 was he returned for the, it was the road game in Waco against Baylor. Okay, you started off really hot, ended up losing the game. And I think they had, There's that game, and then I want to say it was one more week of the regular season after that. So he plays that game. He has the following week of the regular season after that.

Starting point is 00:07:31 And then it's Big 12 play, and then it's the NCAA tournament. And it almost was like, okay, these first couple games back at the end of regular season are going to be an opportunity for Remy to come back and build it back up. And then he kind of hit his stride and KU started to hit their stride during the Big 12th tournament. and then you carry that over into the NCAA tournament when you were the most complete your team had been all season long. Maybe that's the option here.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Maybe that is the best option for KU that they say, hey, we're going to sit you out for two months. You come back at the end of February, play a couple regular season games, then start to really get going in the Big 12th tournament and carry that momentum over to the NCAA tournament. Maybe that is the roadmap here. And then option four is just done for the year.

Starting point is 00:08:20 And I think that would have to come from, I mean, again, without knowing the actual diagnosis from the doctors, who knows? But if his camp, if his party, we're sitting there going, listen, it was one thing to come back from the injury once. Do we really want to have to come back from the injury twice? Right? Because now if we get hurt a third time, now this is going to be a really, it's not going to be a big red flag. You're still going to go top three in the draft. But is it enough of a red flag that causes you to go from one to two in the draft or from one to three? or from one to three in the draft.

Starting point is 00:08:52 And then you're sitting there like, okay, well, we'll just shut it down. We'll get ready for the NBA draft. And we're going to be possibly still the number one pick in the draft. That is going to be a very interesting question coming to Lawrence and how KU and how he can handle it. And it is a tough situation for Kansas because this much is clear. The expected outcome for this team swings largely on what happens here. To be clear, Kansas has picked up some nice wins without Darren Peterson, right?

Starting point is 00:09:17 You think of the player's era where you go three and O, including beating, a solid Tennessee squad. You think of the finish of this game. Like, it's hard to say you beat NC State without Darren Peterson because I don't think that's true. He still performed in a really big way until he got hurt. So I don't think you win the game without him. But you did finish the game without him.

Starting point is 00:09:36 And that is at least worth something when you did it on the road, especially when it's an overtime and it's a reset game and you found a way to win. But the difference with or without him, I still think Kansas is a solid squad without him. I think they've shown that in some of these games. the difference with him is you can be one of the elite teams at the country, you know? And that doesn't mean you can or can't make a run in the NCAA tournament, right? You could be a top eight team in the NCAA tournament and you'll lose in the second round. You could be the 20th best team in the tournament and you make a crazy run to the elite eight.

Starting point is 00:10:05 But I think overall, like I think the game that comes to mind the most is the Yukon game. That was an elite team you were playing. Kansas probably wins with Darren Peterson. They lost without him. And they still almost won the game without him. So like that deserves credit. but that's kind of the difference there. There's elite games like the Duke game, Kansas might have beaten Duke with Aaron Peterson.

Starting point is 00:10:24 I don't know. So I think that's kind of where you're looking at here. And of course, if he does get shut down the rest of the way, I'll say this. If like it does end up being option for and they shut him down the rest of the way, I think it's probably better off you rip the Band-Aid as soon as possible there because the day-to-day thing, the going in every game, and I think this is probably for fans, it's frustrating. But I'd imagine it's the players too.

Starting point is 00:10:48 like they kind of just want to know as well. And maybe they just do and it just doesn't leak out or whatever. But, you know, there, there is a little bit of distraction there and like knowing, is he, is he not? Like, what does this mean for us? Like, if it is going to be a done for the season thing, are you better off just knowing so that you can, I don't know. Again, I hope this is not the situation.

Starting point is 00:11:10 I hope we see Darren Peterson again. And he's so fun to watch. But if that is the route that is chosen, are you better off just saying, okay, now This is our guys. We know what to expect. We know each other and what we're going to do. Certainly it would be nice if KU had another go-to option, scoring, Dary and Williams. We're going to break down in a little hindsight 2020 this with the off season.

Starting point is 00:11:31 Then we'll finish up with some latest news. This episode of the show is brought to you by Aura Frames. The holidays are here and you're looking for those gifts, your gift hunting all around. Look no further. You want something meaningful, personal, and guaranteed to get a reaction. or a frames is the gift that delivers every time it's not just something you wrap it's a way to share memories because aura isn't your average picture frame you preload the frame with photos before gifting it so when you plug it in the memories are already there no apps to figure it out no setup headaches just instant smiles it's a holiday gift that actually gets used i've forgotten in a drawer and then ends up getting it you know in a garage sale five years later for a limited time save on the perfect gift by visiting orraframes dot com to get $35 off or his best selling carver mat frame named number one by wire cutter by using promo code college at checkout that is aura frames a ura frames dot com promo code college this deals exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast so or yours now

Starting point is 00:12:28 and get it in time for the holiday support the show by mentioning us at checkout terms and conditions apply thanks again for joining us here on lockdown jhocks and thank you so much for making the lockdown podcast network the number one sports podcast network you already live your team every day now you can take it up to the next level and go add free with our Everydayer Club and get locked on Jayhawks with no interruptions. Members only Discord access and more all for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Go to lockdownpodcast.com slash everydayer or check the link in the show notes to learn more. All right. So Darian Williams almost beat Kansas at the end of the game and in overtime and that much was clear. Overall, KU did a really good job of slowing him

Starting point is 00:13:10 down until that happened, that big outburst at the end of the game. But I think that kind of was exactly why it would have been nice to have Dary and Williams. First of all, he second on NC State and assists per game. So it's like he would have played well with Peterson and stuff and would have been able to move the ball. But second of all, whether it was with Peterson or not, like, and certainly without him, Kansas is in need. And again, we go back to that Yukon game. Kansas is in need of somebody who can score in the half court when Kansas needs buckets.

Starting point is 00:13:35 Now, against NC State, you didn't need it because Melvin Council was that good, but you're not going to get 36 points from Melvin Council every game. And that's where Williams would come in. And you can see the clutch shot making that Williams has, like, if you're going to be without Peterson for a while, it'd be nice to have a guy like Williams to be able to make those shots and be the go-to option in the half court. And none of this stuff is new. We knew all this in the off-season. It would have been nice to have.

Starting point is 00:13:57 And we talked to all off-season how it was a solid off-season for KU. And even then, I think Trey White and Melvin Council have exceeded expectations so far for Kansas. And that's great. But it still felt like you were like one stud short. Now, if Peterson is healthy the rest of the way or at some point for the rest of the way here, I think the offseason will be enough for KU, but the problem is because you went all eggs on the Peterson basket, and I'm not saying that was the wrong thing to do, but because of that, you end up in a situation where when that guy's hurt, you are missing that other thing, right? And even if Peterson were healthy, it'd be nice to have, you know, Dary Williams. And something we talked about is that on the preview episode, who knows what the impact

Starting point is 00:14:40 of if you would have landed Williams would have been on the Trey White decision? Would Trey White have seen that and gone, hey, this is my last year of college. He play, there's some overlap. He's going to play minutes at the four. I was playing on playing a lot of minutes at the four and the three. I could cut down my minutes a bit. I'm going to, you know, actually go somewhere else instead. And that is entirely possible.

Starting point is 00:15:01 that would have happened, that would have sucked. It's also possible, though, that I think maybe this is easier to say right now, but also in the off season, we didn't really know what Bryson Tiller's role would be on this team. And Tiller didn't become a bigger player in the rotation and a starter to later in the air. So I think, I think it would have been easy to sell. And right now, Tiller struggled a bit in some of the recent games. I think it's, it almost be an easy sell to me to just be like, hey, Trey White, you're, you're going to be fine. You're going to be starting at three. Dary and Williams just started at the four. And, you know, then you'll have Florey at the five, Peterson at the one and two, and counsel is the

Starting point is 00:15:35 other one, that you could have made it work. And again, maybe that's easier said now than it is then. But the sad thing is going back to the comments that were had by Bill Self, this was in the lead up to the NC State game. This is from Shreis Lata, Kansas City Star, tweeted this out. Self spoke highly about Darian Williams. We recruited him hard, unfortunately, on what you can do, even if it's not a hard cap, there's still a cap and basically what he meant there is you know with with rev share there is a cap

Starting point is 00:16:05 in terms of there's a number you can go to but there there is and isn't because you can adjust things right you can be like okay we'll just give an extra a little bit to basketball and then some of that comes away from football or one of these other sports but at least you can understand that because the athletic department has to be like hey you get this much this sport gets this much this much right now with NIL that's again one of those weird things where it's like there is no cap technically on NIL but there still is a cap because your donors have a certain amount of money they can give and on top of it there's a certain amount now with the clearinghouse stuff that I guess would get approved although I don't think we've seen anything at least publicly get denied to this point in time so certainly a little bit interesting there but why that all becomes important is the impact that that I think I assume it's KU football I guess it could have been some of the other sports as well. Well, but it's almost this assumption when you go back to the quote about there, you know, not being a hard cap, but there is a cap. That to me rings of, hey, KU needed, you know, KU couldn't go above a certain number,

Starting point is 00:17:08 which KU had a good number offer. And then NC State trumped it. And KU instead of being able to match it or beat it wasn't able to get to that number. And part of the reason potentially why was, hey, you need this money through RevShare for the other sports too. And this is a little hide inside 2020-ish, but with KU football going back to back five and seven years, spending some of that money there when it hasn't led to results certainly does not look great. Now, you know, this is where we get into the argument of what would KU be better doing? Would KU be better saying, hey, you know what?

Starting point is 00:17:55 If we're going to get five and seven results, we're going to put five and seven money into it and put more money into basketball. Are they better off saying, no, we're going to put more money into football to try to max out our competitiveness level and hope that KU basketball, the brand and the donors and the NIL, and enough of the rev share can carry the day there. But right now, five and seven in football, and you know that, hey, who knows what that extra money would have prevented you from getting into football, if you would have gone four and eight in football instead of five and seven. But you had Daryne Williams, would you be a little happier right now? So, again, that's a little hindsight 2020. It's probably not a fair thing to pose for the athletic department because, again, you think football is king. And so it does in a lot of ways make sense to do that. But yeah, right now definitely feels like a decision that could plague KU unless Peterson getting it healthy for the rest of the season.

Starting point is 00:18:46 Let's finish up with some of the latest is locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Fandu. Sportsbook, NFL Sundays move fast. One big play, suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fandul so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time. With Fandual, you can place your bets as the action unfolds.

Starting point is 00:19:08 Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. I got to be honest, I was, I didn't wind up doing it because I was like, this isn't a fun thing to root for. I almost put a wager on Melvin Council under 0.5-3s in the game against N. state, which the fact that I even thought about it, I mean, I'm just an idiot. But you know what, don't take my advice. Go do your own thing because you're probably better off. Live betting is best when the game starts to shift. The receiver gets hot. A defense tightens up or the momentum flips after turnover. FanDuel lets you jump into the moment with live spreads and money lines.

Starting point is 00:19:43 They adjust instantly. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanduel.com, place your live bets with the NFL all season long. FanDuel. The game moves fast and so can you. Thanks again for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. You can check out the Everydayer Club as well. Link in the show notes description here. And thank you again for making us your first listen every day. Some of the latest news around KU,

Starting point is 00:20:11 KU volleyball season came to a close. They took on Nebraska, who is now 33 and O on the season, at least time of recording here. They've gotten the lead eight matchup coming. And then they have a lot of, only lost seven sets. Again, I don't know what's happening in their early eight matchup as I'm recording this, but yeah, Nebraska is really, really good. Like, Nebraska is typically one of the

Starting point is 00:20:30 best teams in the country, and this might be as good of a team as they've ever had. Kansas didn't score more than 12 points in a set. And so unfortunate finish, as it always is, if you don't, you know, I don't know, whatever, this was still a great year. Regardless of being Matt Olmer's first year, I mean, that adds to it, right? You have first year head coach and you make the Sweet 16, that's great that's absolutely great right and you lost to an absolute buzzsaw um it's made even better by the fact that you were so close knocking on that sweet 16 door the past couple seasons and you made it back this year that and then it gets even better knowing that it is the first year coach and it's a young team this is a team as long as they can have retention as long as they can bring some of these

Starting point is 00:21:12 players back matt olmer consistently recruited really well at organ he's got a good recruiting class coming in at kansas um obviously the kansas city area is is quite the pipe line for volleyball, that he's got a chance to build like a big 12 power here in Kansas in this area. And this is not going to be the last time we see Matt Olmer in Kansas volleyball in the sweet 16. So I think overall a very good first year for KU after taking over from very big shoes to fill with Ray Bichard. And I'm excited to see what the future has to hold for Ulmer and his staff. Then this one for KU Women's Basketball, this would be fun. Eve Long, who is an Leitha South product, I believe.

Starting point is 00:21:52 She's the number two center in the class of 2027. So that would make her, what, a junior in high school? Number two center in the class, she's, I think she's number eight on the 24-7 and number 11 on the 24-7 composite. So basically the top 15 recruit, wherever she makes the top five for Kansas. And we talked a lot about Katie Woman's basketball, making some big-time movements in the recruiting games, really these last, what, two or three years? seems like 2026 is going to continue in that realm as well.

Starting point is 00:22:24 And then now you're looking to 2027 as well where you can continue to stack these classes together. And we've talked a lot about, you know, trying to capitalize on the time you have with Samaya Nichols and stuff. And Long wouldn't be a part of that because she would be coming in her freshman year, I believe Nichols would be just graduating away. But you still need to find life after Samaya Nichols. And the way that you're compounding these recruiting classes, like,

Starting point is 00:22:50 It's one thing to have one good recruiting class and, you know, that can lead to some good success here and maybe a good season when those players get upperclassmen. It's another thing to compound them together. And if you can do it in 2027, right, this isn't a commitment for KU, but it just kind of brings up the process with you having a big recruiting class in 24 and having one in 25 and having one right now that's signed so far in 26. And if you can do it again in 27, this is how you build a sustainable program that can be one of the top 25 teams in the country. that can be one of the top five teams in a difficult Big 12 each and every year. And I think that that should be a fair expectation. It's all the same facilities for the women's team as it is for the men's team, which these are top-notch facilities with Allen Fieldhouse.

Starting point is 00:23:31 And obviously you love to see this on the recruiting trail that they're able to build up this talent pool, especially, you know, we talked about it with women's volleyball. Kansas City is a great recruiting hotbed for women's volleyball. Kansas City just in general, like I think a really good recruiting hotbed for women's sports, a lot of good soccer, a lot of good basketball, a lot of good volleyball, a lot of good volleyball. If you can take care of your, I guess, home state, sometimes it's Kansas City, so I guess home area, which Long is part of that. And some of these other big commits they've had brought in from that area as well, you're going to be in a pretty good place. And so we'll see

Starting point is 00:24:02 where this one finishes with Long, but at least a good bit of news there for KU. I thought it'll do it for this episode of Lock, Hawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And by the way, did Lockdown Jayhawks make your Spotify wrap? You can prove it on social media and secure a free month of brand new Everyday Air Club. Just tag our Lockdown podcast network account on any social platform and we'll drop you a code be one of the first to join the everyday air club to get your favorite show ad free and exclusive access to the members only discord channel you can check out locked on college basketball locked on college football for your second listen every day and we'll see you next time with a little k u tausen preview

Starting point is 00:24:36 right here on locked on jahawks

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - TIME TO PANIC ON PETERSON??? Plus Revisiting Kansas Losing Darrion Williams to NC State

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