Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Two-Big Basketball Inbound for Bill Self and Kansas Jayhawks Following Paul Mbiya Addition?

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks basketball strategy under the microscope. Will Bill Self unleash the two-big lineup this season, or will it go away to the wayside?Host Derek Johnson analyzes the potential for Kansas to deploy a two-big lineup, examining past usage and predicting 5-10 minutes per game for the upcoming season with the trio of Flory Bidunga, Paul Mbiya and Bryson Tiller. The discussion shifts to Jayden Dawson's crucial role, with Johnson arguing for increased playing time due to Dawson's sharpshooting abilities among the roster. Recent Kansas athletics news rounds out the episode, including baseball and football recruits, plus updates on former Jayhawk Svi Mykhailiuk in the NBA, and the return of the college basketball video game franchise.Tune in for expert insights on the Jayhawks' evolving strategy and how it could reshape their season outlook.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

on today's Locked on Jayhawks. Is Bill Self gonna play any two big basketball this year? I feel silly even asking that question with Bill Self but maybe the better question is how much two big basketball will Kansas and Bill Self play in the 2025 to 26 season? You are locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the 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 and thank you to every dayers catching each and every episode of the show we are free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's version of locked on J Hawks, we're talking a little Kansas basketball is Bill self gonna enroll the two big lineup at all this year and how much are they gonna play it for we're gonna actually look at some of the recent seasons has been overblown how much they've used

it and what that could tell us about possibly will they use it this year they still don't have that many bigs on the roster so we'll get into all that on this episode and why I think Jayden Dawson should play big minutes for this team plus we'll finish up with some of the latest news 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 Monarch money.com for 50% off your first year. Okay, so the

short answer will both help play any too big basketball, you know, do I drink water every day? Yes. There's probably gonna be a moment in time where he does it. But there's a difference between you know, Bill self throws out a too big lineup for two minutes in a random game and oh, it's a primary between, you know, Bill Self throws out a too big lineup for two minutes in a random game. And oh, it's a primary lineup, or oh, it's a lineup they're starting with, or, oh, it's a lineup they're using for 20 minutes per game. And I don't know that it's going to happen to that level,

necessarily. But I do think, at least, I don't know, it almost feels like some of the best teams in the country, we've seen them kind of steer into the big thing, like, Florida might be playing Thomas Ha how at the three this year, right, like they're steering into the big thing. And Houston is typically played, you know, under Kelvin Sampson, these last couple years, like two bigs next to each other, neither one can really space the floor or shoot like there are

certain teams who are trying to, like in Zag has typically been a two big team, Arizona is typically a two big team, Duke has been a two big team Arizona is typically a two big team Duke has been a two big team. There are teams that are basically saying we're going to try to wallop other teams on the board and give those extra possessions and you know, use some of the advantages of playing too big basketball. So you're going to be stuck in certain matchups certain situations where you do throw out a too big lineup to

counter what the other team has. Will Kansas find that a too big lineup works well for them in certain situations to that's entirely possible as has. Will Kansas find that a too big lineup works well for them in certain situations too? That's entirely possible as well. I think the biggest question that might hold you against playing a good amount of too big basketball this year is just the lack of depth because you get into a question of okay if you're playing a second big let's say you're playing Bryson Tiller at the four next to Flory Padunga at the five or if you want to say Tiller at the four and Ambiya at the five or if if you want to say tiller at the four and and be at the five or if you just want to go with like ultimate, you know, we don't we

don't have a big man who's going to shoot outside the paint, but we're going to block literally every shot and grab like every offensive rebound, we're gonna play Flory at the four and and be at the five, whatever too big lineup it is. He you run into an issue of foul trouble, or the lack of depth by playing that way, right? By only having really three true big men on the roster. It puts you in a bit of a bind if you play that way in terms of not having a lot of bodies left on the bench behind them, that would stay from getting tired that would stay

out of foul trouble. Now I say that. And this past season, I think it's good to point out that like they played two bigs, even when KJ Adams was hurt this year. And why I picked that specific stretch of play is because when KJ Adams was hurt this year, that also coincided, I believe, when Zach Clements was hurt this past season. And so you didn't really have a lot of bigs on the roster this past season, right? I mean, it was Hunter Dickinson and Flory Budunga and that's really it, right? I feel like I'm missing somebody, but like they were still playing too big basketball even to that point in time. So for instance, KJ Adams was injured. He missed the Kansas State game. Kansas won in Lawrence. And Kansas started Flory Badunga next to Hunter Dickinson. Flory played 25 minutes in that game.

And that's despite having four fouls. Hunter Dickinson played 34 minutes in that game. They didn't use a single bench big. They were able to cross over the minutes when they needed to. And they played a lot of two big basketball. In the Houston game, where Kansas should have beaten Houston, but they blew it twice. And that game KJ was also out again, Flory started next to Hunter, Hunter played 45 of the available 50 minutes. Flory played 36 even though he fouled out. And once again, they played zero bench bigs, which is crazy to think that they only played two big

men and they started two of them in a game against Houston that went to double overtime. And again, I think Clements was hurt at that point and KJ was hurt. So he just didn't really have the option. But point being, even though Kansas only has three real big men right now, and I guess theoretically, like I've said this before, you can use Samiz Calderon is like a foreman, you know, because of his wingspan and his length and athleticism. Or if you really want to do a small

ball five in terms of like a break class in case of emergency guy, or I guess you have a walk on and Justin Cross, right? Not that I expect either of those things to happen. But even though Kansas is, you know, still doesn't have a ton of bodies, with again, basically three true scholarship big men, they played a good amount of too big basketball last year when they only had two bigs in a couple of those games. So why am I not to think that even though three bigs

isn't a lot of depth, it's still more than they had last year when they were playing two big lineups. Why would Bill Self not play it with the three possible bigs that they have? And I do wonder too, like as much as, you know, I don't know, maybe Bryson Tillerer skill set works even better if he is in there as a four, you know, being a skilled for who can oversize, you know, if you have like a wing or a guard that's kind of

gardening in on him, and he can over skill them in the post, maybe that works better for him than playing at the five, maybe he's a little more out of position playing at five, I don't know. I think the question to me more so just comes down to realistically like how long are we asking? So looking back at some previous seasons, Kansas used the Flory-Bedunga-Hunter-Dickinson lineup

for 243 minutes last year. Hunter and KJ played 697 minutes together. I would count that as too big basketball. KJ and Flory totaled 236 minutes together. So basically, Kansas last year was playing 30 minutes per game of too big basketball. That's three quarters of that. Obviously, if you don't count KJ to that, it would be a lot less but still. And obviously, the year before that, when it's a lot of KJ and

Hunter, you're playing a lot of too big basketball as well. So what if we go back to the year before where it's not just this core of players that they recently had. If you look at the 2023 team, we barely saw any two big lineups for 2023. I mean, they were more so just trying to rotate and find one big who was going to be the starting center. Obviously, Zuby has taken off at St. John since then. And, you know, you had Ernest Duda and KJ rotating around, but you weren't really playing too big, like at all.

Same with 2022. And same with 2021, right? You weren't really playing too big basketball in the 2020. On the other hand, which I think maybe that's the most apt comparison, because if you're an everyday or you know, we have made comparisons to how Bill self has built this roster to that 2019 2020 team, not necessarily that it's going to be as good as that team. That team was like by far the best team in the country. They're so dominant.

I wouldn't put that high of a bar on this team. But just in terms of the style of play and the archetypes of players that Bill Self has brought in, it almost feels like stylistically, he wants to kind of be similar to that team. So maybe we look at that team for the best example. In 2020, is actually kind of similar in that team. So maybe we look at that team for the best example. In 2020 is actually kind of similar in some ways. So Big Dave played next to Doke for 168 minutes

over the course of the season. We saw Doke play next to Silvio for 30 minutes, and then we saw Silvio Di Soso play next to Dave for 17 minutes. So total it up. That's 215 minutes of two big basketball that they played in the 2019 to 2020 season, which on average, when you take the amount of games they played, that's a little over seven

minutes per game of playing two big basketball that year. And that's also a roster where they basically just had three bigs. Your dog has a bouquet, David McCormick and Silvio de Sosa. They didn't really have any other bigs on that roster either. Similar to this one, which has, you know, three bigs. And I guess in this situation, like this, your Flory would be your dope, your big center is gonna block shots and dunk things a lot and Bia would be Dave kind of your younger center coming off the bench who has some potential. And then tiller would be Sylvio is more of a, I don't know, hopefully sans chair, but maybe more of your, your big man that you know, I think tiller may be a little more skilled than Sylvia. It's

not a perfect comparison comparing all the players, but just in terms of role necessarily. So anyway, based on that, I guess I would use that number to assume like if you want to widen the gap, say five to 10 minutes of two big basketball per game for Kansas, but most likely between six to eight minutes. And let's say we do see that same number as that year. That number would be seven minutes per game. That basically means you have 40 minutes to give out at the center position

and you have seven more minutes of two big basketball, which means between Florida, Badoonga, Paul and Bia and Bryson Tiller, you would have 47 minutes to divvy out between the three of them, which, you know, you can work it out a lot of ways. You go, Flory plays 25 minutes, Paul andbiya plays 12, Bryson Tiller plays 10, or Flory plays 28, and then Mbiya plays 12, and Tiller plays seven, or Flory plays 24, and Mbiya plays 10, and Tiller plays 13.

You can work that in a lot of different ways, but I think that's a good number to kinda, as we project the lineup and we will have a minutes projection in an upcoming episode, I think this is a good jumping off point. But I guess point being, I don't think we're going to see a lot of too big basketball and it'll be far from one of the top two or three lineups for KU. But I still do expect to see it for a handful of possessions and you

know, handful of minutes from game to game over the course of the season for KU. Alright, let's continue on why I think Jaden Dawson should play big minutes for this Kansas basketball team. Thanks for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you're growing your savings or planning a big

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money. Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jay Hawks. Don't forget to make locked on college football or locked on college basketball your second lesson every day. Okay, so I I'm going to explain I think Jaden Dawson should play 30 or more minutes per game for this team. I don't know, maybe 28 or more minutes per game 30 seemed to maybe that's what's the difference 2830. I think you should play big minutes for this team and I do think it's interesting like it seems like some of the the recent scuttle

but some of the recent noise so to speak is that El Marco who we had an episode on talking about why he could have a breakout season. And I am high on El Marco. But that the combination of like El Marco Council and Peterson, like what if those three guys are ahead of where Jaden Dawson is? And so I think it becomes difficult because to me, even if Melvin Council and Elmarco Jackson are better players in a vacuum than Jaden Dawson doesn't necessarily mean they should play more because the fit has to matter a little bit. Now obviously if they're so much better then

you can understand that but if it's like I guess to put this in in 2k rating terms you know what I mean like if one guy's in 82 and the other guy's in 80, but the guy who's in 80 fits the team better and does things that you need on the floor like three point shooting, I think you need to play that 80 a little bit more than the 82. You can't just play things based on who's the most talented, we've seen that issue before, right? And so when I look at this Kansas team, and I look at some of their strengths, I look at some of their weaknesses, they need to find a way to maximize the little bit of three point shooting they're gonna have, especially going back to our first segment here. If you're playing five to 10 minutes of too big basketball, let's say you're doing that seven minutes per game of too big basketball,

those seven minutes need to come with as much shooting on the floor as possible. And I get it if Bryson Tillers playing as the four like theoretically, he can shoot the three but he was in the 20% at OTE. You want as much shooting as possible one through three. And so what would be the best guard combo to play if you were playing a two big lineup? Well, I think Jayden Dawson would have to be one of those guys is one of your best three point shooters. Maybe you go

with Cole Rosario and then you have Peterson out there or whatever point guard at that moment in time is out there for KU that you can have the point guard and then you have two wing shooters plus the two bigs. That makes sense for that specific lineup. But as we said, that could just be seven minutes per game. So what about the rest of the game? Well, it's not just for when you're playing a two big lineup, the three point shooting is important. You know, and I guess part of this is like if Marco Jackson does end up being a 35% three point shooter or something like that on decent volume, that sure it takes away some of the pressure to do this. And then it's Earth Melvin

Council ends up having his best three point shooting here, right? If he shoots 35% on three or four attempts per game, then all of a sudden, this is a different conversation. I'm just kind of basing this on what those guys have produced up until this point in their career in college basketball, which, as we know, players do get better and can get better at things. So that can change.

But as it stands right now, Dawson is KU's, I don't know, I guess like maybe the best three point shooter among rotation guys. I mean, maybe you could argue Darren Peterson just because he's great at everything. Again, like I said, like maybe El Marco develops into it. Maybe Rosario is in the rotation and stroking it at a high level from what we saw at the end of his, I guess, prep

career. But I think to me, based on the proven stuff, Dawson is someone who can both shoot three and play the three. And that isn't a super common skill for this current Kansas team, current roster, I guess, like in terms of, I don't know, I guess he's not like a real three. But like what I'm saying, Marco Jackson and Melvin Council, I guess, again, does it really matter? Like they could probably guard threes because of their athleticism and length.

But I don't know, man, I just I view Jaden Dawson as being somebody who can be another score being another three point shooter. And I just don't see enough of that on the roster overall. And it helps to that Jayden Dawson is a sniper from the corner. And that's like you look at this past season, Ryland Griffin and AJ store, how many times did it feel like they got like a wide open corner three and just didn't make it and That's the thing with Jayden Dawson He shot 47% on corner threes last season at Loyola, Chicago

47% a year prior he was at 36.4% So certainly down from where he was this year, but 36.4% that'll still play that's still a good percentage right for his career So you take his full three years at Loyola Chicago from the corner to give us the best sample size possible 41 of 94 from the corner that's 44% almost for his career from that zone. So he's a good corner three point jurors. So that's where it's like it's not just that he opens up the floor for the bigs he opens up the floor

for Darren Peterson, he opens up the floor for the bigs. He opens up the floor for Darren Peterson. He opens up the floor for a slashing Melvin Council or El Marco Jackson. It's that he's good in an area that Bill Self will probably want to utilize him from. And so it really wouldn't shock me if like early in the year we do see Dawson coming off the bench again, like maybe they do end up going with, going back to the comments Bill Self made

that El Marco Jackson would have been a starter last year, right? And Melvin Council has that kind of dog in him that Bill Self is going to love and might be the best perimeter defender on the team. That maybe we see the starting lineup at the beginning of the year, B Peterson, Jackson, Council, and then Trey White at the four and Floyd Badu and get the five. Maybe that's what we see at the beginning of the year. It would not shock me if that ended up happening. And

then we saw a change later on in the season. Similar again, we're making another comparison to that 2019 to 20 roster. And it was a little different that 1920 roster didn't start with the first, you know, month of the season. They're, they're always starting Isaiah Moss out there. Part of it was because I think Moss began the season injured for KU that he had to kind of battle through that a little bit there. But they really took off the most like in January, Isaiah Moss starts playing more minutes for KU. And I could see that being the case with Jade and

Dawson, where it's like maybe maybe he's playing 20 minutes per game, he's behind all these other guards. And then they find that like they need the three point shooting when he's on the floor, it's making a big impact. And then you know, the last two or three months of season, he is playing closer to 30 minutes per game. I could kind of see that being the case because maybe KU's best five players, so to speak, don't match up with their most cohesive five man lineup. Again, similar to, you know, what Moss did, though. And then again, maybe later in the year this comes to fruition again. If Omarco's hitting 35% from three and Council's at even 33% and Peterson's at 36%, then it might not be needed. But what if Omarco is at 30%? Again, he shot 27% as a freshman.

What if Council's at 28, which is around his career average? What if Peterson's at 33 or 34? Like it might turn out that Dawson becomes the best fitting piece for Kansas and Billself. And in an off season where you have focused on fit above all else, why not go with the guy who fits in a big way that can help you in a skill that I do have one of the bigger questions about this team about. I think they're going to be good in athleticism.

I think they're going to be good on the defensive end of the floor, which Dawson is a solid defender as well. I think they're going to be good in a lot of these different areas. Three point shooting is one of those questions. And I think Dawson can certainly help them out in a lot of ways there. All right, let's finish up here on this episode of the show with some of the latest news, talking a little KU baseball, making some more Portal editions, some NBA and college basketball video game coming back.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Locked on J-Hawks. Again, you can find Lockdown College football or Lockdown College basketball for your second listen every day. Okay, some of the latest news across the KU athletic sphere. Darius Henderson, who is a pitcher from the junior college ranks was a junior college champion this past season. He had a six and a record 10 saves a 1.76 era so really good relief pitcher fastball in the mid to upper 90s. He has committed to Kansas. So we know that obviously Kansas has brought in some good transfer portal

pickups from D one, but we know a big part of their DNA and what Dan Fitzgerald has, I guess, gotten them to be it comes from the Juco ranks and finding really good Juco talent. You think of Brady Ballinger, for instance. I mean, the more success stores you have, the more it's going to keep recycling more good players from Juco to want to come to you, especially with that being, you know, maybe a little bit more of an untapped resource right now with the way that teams are hitting the transfer portal. So really good addition there for KU and really feels like they continue to lengthen out their pitching staff lengthen out their bullpen because they had a couple

you know possible frontline starters this past season. I know it didn't finish that way that they didn't have their best stuff and in the NCAA tournament. But overall this season they had two frontline guys they didn't always have the depth and maybe if you have better depth those frontline guys maybe they're't always have the depth. And maybe if you have better depth, those frontline guys, maybe they're a little more rested from the NCAA tournament too. Like that can be part of it as well.

A KU football commit, not just KU baseball. Ben Shipley, Ben Shipley is a punter and he has committed to KU. Sounds like a preferred walk on. He's six foot five. I don't know if it says on his Twitter profile kicker punter and receiver. I'd imagine in KU it'll just be kicker punter. But the fact that fact that it says on here 4.840 yard dash that's

probably pretty fast for a kicker. I don't know maybe you can run some trick plays with him also being six five right? I don't know some trick play opportunities that you could do so there's that because KU's both kicker and punter I believe are seniors this season. So you do have to develop the next guy in line. The next piece of news is NBA related Sveemakailuk is getting his contract guaranteed by the Jazz according to Tony Jones of the athletic and just

kind of cool how Svee has been able to stick in the NBA. He hasn't been a guy who was like, you know, starting every game or, you know, putting up 15, 20 points per game. But there is a skill to staying in the NBA for a long period of time and continuing to cash checks for a long period of time. The fact that he's a good three point shooter and the fact that I think he's just a good guy

in the locker room, like you don't make it, so this will be his eighth year, this upcoming season in the NBA. You don't make it eight years in the locker room if you're not a superstar. If you're, let me think out of rephrase this, if you're not like a starter level player, a star level player, which he hasn't been, you don't make it eight years in the NBA without a important skill and being a good locker room dude. Because at that point, they'll then be a team will just be like, listen, dude, you're our seventh man, you're our ninth man, you're 11th man, like, why are you causing trouble for us in

the locker room? See ya go play in Europe or whatever it is. You don't have to worry about that was fee like good dude in the locker room makes his threes works hard. And just cool to see how long I tweeted this out there. But like the list of Bill self players, and this can obviously grow, right? Because you have guys like Christian Brown and no Chad Bosch and stuff that that haven't had the opportunity to will they end up having an eight year career or something like that. But the list of Bill Self players,

Bill Self, Jayhawks that have played eight or more seasons in the NBA, and some of these are still counting, but they've already hit eight, Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre, Ben McLemore, the Morris Twins, Mario Chalmers, Cole Aldridge, Daryl Arthur and Brandon Rush. That is a pretty darn good list of Jayhawks and spigots to join that, which is really cool. The last piece of news here is called basketball video game.

According to EA Sports is back in the works. We have the return of EA College football, which was awesome to see and awesome for KU fans to get to play with. Obviously, KU fans specifically have been diamond championing for where's the basketball game? Where's the basketball game? Where's the basketball game? I hope they have some sort of, you know, ode to some of the

best teams that of the years that they have been missing, right? The EA Sports one went away in like 2010-2011. The 2k1 went away in 2008. There's a lot of good teams that got missed from the video game. And so I hope they have, you know, some of those teams in there that you can play with some of the, you know, the OG teams that we met. Like I put this out there, like, who would you most want to play with

of these teams between, I guess, 2011 and now? Like if you look to the, I don't know, like the 2012 team would probably be fun to play with Jeff with the blocking shots like T Rob just dunking things and stuff. But I think 2014 would be really fun in a video game like Wiggins and Embiid would have been really good in that game. And I don't know, like 2017 2018 are just going to be favorites for people. And that's always a fun one because video game you think

of like, what's flashy? Can you shoot like that's what those teams had 2020 people just want to avenge that team 2022 obviously national champion a lot of good players. There'd be a lot of fun ones stinks. We don't get it this year though. So you can't play with, you know, Darren Peterson, but maybe maybe there'll be an all time great team too. And then you can play back with one of those teams as well. But cool news there. And then apparently like 2k might get into it too, which

is cool because I always liked college hoops 2k better than the EA sports one. But you know, which is cool because I always liked college hoops 2k better than the EA sports one. But you know, competition is good because typically breeds better games because they have to actually try harder and not just be like, oh, we only fixed one thing. And that's, you know, the new thing in our game where we took this out 10 years ago, we brought it back. That's our new feature in the game this year. Anyway, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can

find our show anywhere you podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for another edition of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you podcast including on our YouTube page or you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for another edition of LOJ.