Kansas seniors Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris, Zeke Mayo and Shakeel Moore were not invited to attend this week’s NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
However, one player with KU on his list of possible transfer destinations is participating in measurements, drills and 5-on-5 scrimmages at the 75-player event at Wintrust Arena.
He’s Darrion Williams, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior-to-be from Texas Tech, who reportedly has KU, Ohio State, North Carolina State, BYU and others on his list of schools. Williams — he must remove his name from the draft pool by May 28 if he wishes to retain a final season of college eligibility — also has not ruled out a return to Tech where he earned first-team all-Big 12 honors last season.
How’s the 22-year-old Sacramento native who averaged 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in 2024-25 faring at the Combine?
He made a good first impression, tying for first place with five other players in a 3-point shooting drill on Tuesday.
Williams — he hit 34% of his 3s at Tech a year ago — went 18-for-25 (72%) Tuesday in an exercise in which players hustle to various spots behind the arc and launch 3s after another player delivers a pass.
Others to hit 18 of 25 at the combine: Max Shulga (VCU), Jamir Watkins (Florida State), Milos Uzan (Houston), John Tonje (Wisconsin) and PJ Haggerty (Memphis).
Williams, who scored 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting (2-of-6 from 3 and 4-of-4 from the line) with nine rebounds and four assists in a 78-73 win over Kansas on March 1 at Allen Fieldhouse, did not fare as well in his first of two 5-on-5 scrimmages on Wednesday.
Playing 26 minutes for Team Domercant, Williams had zero points on 0-for-5 shooting (0-for-2 from 3) in a 104-80 loss to Team Lazare. He was scheduled to play in a second scrimmage on Thursday.
Williams, who has a 6-foot-6 wingspan and 8-foot-5 standing reach according to official combine measurements (his official height was 6-4 1/2 barefoot), told Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports he’s only focused on the NBA, not possibly returning to college, right now. He’s already participated in individual workouts with his hometown Sacramento Kings (May 6) as well as the Milwaukee Bucks (May 8).
“I decided I wanted to put my full focus into the combine. I’m not even thinking about college. I haven’t been taking any calls, so just focusing on this right now,” Williams said. “I’m going to take it all the way to that deadline, the 28th, and I’m going to make the best decision for me,” he added.
Asked if he was considering returning to college, the portal player said: “I’m open to it but I wanted to be full in on the draft. I didn’t want to be one foot in, one foot out. If I have to go back, I’ll go back, (but) I want to go through the draft (process). It’s my first time doing this.”
The first-team all-Big 12 player finished the season scoring in double figures in five straight games. He scored a season-high 28 points against Drake in the second round of the NCAAs and 23 versus Florida in the Elite Eight.
“It is great,” Williams, who played one year at Nevada then two at Tech, said of preparing for the draft. “If you would have asked me a year ago, two years ago, I never would have thought that would be a thing, so it is a blessing.”
KU currently has four scholarships still available in recruiting. Players returning from the 2024-25 roster are: Flory Bidunga, Elmarko Jackson, Jamari McDowell and Noah Shelby. Incoming freshmen are: Darryn Peterson, Bryson Tiller and Samis Calderon. Incoming transfer portal players are: Tre White (Illinois), Jayden Dawson (Loyola) and Melvin Council Jr. (St. Bonaventure).
Also, incoming freshman football wide receiver Jaden Nickens is planning on being a two-sport athlete at KU. If he does join the KU hoops roster it is believed he would count against the limit of 14 players.
Several recruiting outlets reported Wednesday that Dame Sarr, a 6-7 freshman-to-be from Italy who has visited KU, reportedly now is favoring Duke. The Blue Devils learned this week that 6-foot-6 wing Cedric Coward, an incoming transfer from Washington State, likely will remain in the NBA Draft rather than join the Blue Devils for the 2025-26 season. Coward is at the NBA Combine.
KU reportedly is recruiting Patrick Suemnick, a 6-8 senior-to-be forward from Oklahoma State who is in the transfer portal and has visited KU.