KU backup point guard Coit digs idea of returning to Jayhawks for another season
David “Diggy” Coit is having so much fun as a Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball player that he would welcome another season of playing point guard for the blueblood program.
It could happen.
“Being blessed to have a blanket waiver to get another season to play, of course I’m (going to) want that,” Coit said Thursday. “Of course. I mean, it’s a place like Kansas — why wouldn’t you come back, you know?”
The 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior transfer from Columbus, New Jersey, was speaking at a news conference in advance of the Jayhawks’ two-game road trip to Utah and BYU. KU plays Utah at 9 p.m. Central on Saturday in Salt Lake City, then meets BYU at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Provo, Utah.
“I think it’s a blessing,” Coit added of the NCAA blanket waiver allowing all current former junior-college players another year of eligibility at their current NCAA schools.
The 23-year-old Coit, who hit two 3-pointers and scored eight points in Tuesday’s 71-59 home win over Colorado, played one year at Atlantic Cape Community College and two at Northern Illinois before transferring to KU just before the start of the 2024-25 school year.
Coit — he has averaged 12.8 minutes of action in 13 Big 12 games — qualifies for the waiver the NCAA granted in late December. The waiver was granted to former juco players after the NCAA was sued by former juco and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia for extra eligibility.
Pavia argued, successfully, that he lost out on potential NIL revenue because he started his college career at a juco — time that counted against his four-year NCAA eligibility clock.
“Shout out to all the juco guys, for sure,” Coit said Thursday.
If Coit does wind up playing at KU during the 2025-26 season — the NCAA is allowing 15 scholarship players per team (up from 13) next year — he could add experience to a roster that will lose seniors KJ Adams, Zeke Mayo, Dajuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson, Shakeel Moore, and possibly others to the transfer portal, after this season.
“I think it’s going to be fun, but (I’ve) got to be where my feet are at, and just focus on one day at a time, and then obviously use that extra year to my advantage, get my master’s and different things like that,” Coit said.
KU coach Bill Self in the past on his Hawk Talk radio show that the Jayhawks could potentially have Coit on the roster for another season.
As far as Coit and the Jayhawks’ present situation is concerned, they head to Utah still looking for consistent energy in every game. The Jayhawks enter Saturday’s showdown against the Utes 8-5 in the Big 12, 17-7 overall. Utah is 5-8 and 13-11.
“I’m starting to see it. I guess I’m starting to see the buy-in,” Coit said of the team buying into what Self is preaching.
“I think it’s something that we talked about early on. Obviously, we have culture meetings. Coach Q (Fred Quartlebaum) emphasizes those things. But I think it’s something that we talked about, and I don’t think it’s going to be a drastic change every day. It’s just taking the right step forward, just coming in ready to practice, or having energy, or doing something that could put us in the best chance to win every day. I think I’m starting to see that definitely, for sure.”
Coit takes a 3.1 scoring average in Big 12 play into Saturday’s game at Utah. He has hit 10 of 35 three-point attempts (28.6%) with 14 assists to eight turnovers. Self has said Coit has played effective defense at times, with seven steals in league competition.
“I think defensively we can do a little bit of everything. I just think it’s our intensity that changes every time,” Coit said. “I don’t think that defense is just one thing that we do great or that we don’t do well. I just think it’s our intensity and our energy.
“Obviously, there’s going to be weaknesses in every player, the defense, or whatever is going on. I just think when we have energy and when we play hard, it makes up for those mistakes. So I think that’s really the main focus.”
Utah has a pair of double-digit scorers in guard Gabe Madsen and forward Ezra Ausar, who average 15.3 and 11.0 points per game, respectively. Madsen has launched 218 threes, hitting 70 (32.1%). His brother, Mason Madsen, is 43-of-109 from 3-point range (39.4%).
“Every team in the Big 12 is very hard to play against, so I’m sure they will have a little bit of everything for us,” Coit said of this Utah squad that starts 7-foot-1 Lawson Lovering, 6-10 Jake Wahlin and 6-9 Mike Sharavjamts. “I’m sure they are going to scout us, as well. I’m sure they’ll be ready for us, and they’re going to give us their best game.”
He continued: “I try not to focus too much on who we’re playing, but understand, obviously, scouting report, understand what they could do, guards, bigs. But I think it’s about us. If we come in ready to play, and come in and with the energy and intensity that we should have, I don’t really think anybody’s going to give us too much of a problem. But it’s really on us, though.”
Noted Self of the Utes: “All our guys aren’t very tall, so it really doesn’t make a lot of difference if they’re all 6-8, 6-9. We’ll have different guys guard that are much smaller. No matter what, Zeke and Juan are going to be starting every game. So they’re going to have to guard somebody of significant height, without question.”
