Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - #14 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Look to Avoid Passing Torch in Big 12 Finale at #1 Houston Cougars

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we preview Kansas-Houston, a game that if Kansas wins, you'll be convincing yourself that they're going to cut down the nets in April. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. Give me a follow on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show here with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:38 We're going to be previewing Kansas-Houston top 15 matchup between KU and UH. We'll get into our storylines of the game, Houston scouting report, matchups of the game, player matchups, and Hawks to soar on this episode of the show. First, we're brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business, which is why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Terms and conditions apply. Kansas takes on Houston Saturday game, 3 o'clock Central Time, as the Jayhawks travel down to Houston. And obviously this is the first meeting between these two in Houston since Houston joined the Big 12. Obviously there will be plenty more to come. You got the Mexico City game coming up in December later this year, but this is a game where, I don't know, maybe there is a bit of a passing of a torch moment or opportunity because Houston

Starting point is 00:01:36 has already clinched at least the share of the league. They're trying to win the league outright in this game, and for them to do that and beat Kansas in the same sentence would feel fitting in a certain way. Now, maybe from the Kansas perspective, it's the opposite of that. It's, hey, you won the league, but we're going to sweep you this year. We're going to win one back and we're going to feel like we're headed in the right direction in what we can obviously do. And so even though Kansas can't win the Big 12 with this game, there still is a lot to play for. Your Big 12 tournament seed is obviously something to play for here, right? You want to be in that top four so that you can get that double buy. And if you can win this game and some other results happen, then that can still happen,

Starting point is 00:02:17 I believe, for you. It gets very complicated. There are a lot of teams that are kind of in the mix that can happen for this. This would be big for your NCAA tournament seeding. If you win this game, you're locked into at least a three seed. And if you win this game and win maybe a few games in the Big 12 tournament, you increase your chance of even getting a two seed at that point in time. But I think above all, this would just be that positive momentum boost you're looking for headed into postseason play. And that doesn't always correlate with, hey, if you win your regular season finale or if

Starting point is 00:02:46 you beat a good team in the regular season finale, that you're automatically going to carry that into the NCAA tournament. Like, for instance, Kansas, you know, a couple of years ago beat that Baylor team that ended up winning the NCAA title. All of a sudden, the next game, they almost lost at home to UTEP. And then they ended up losing the second round by a lot to USC. Now, maybe that's a little different because they did have some injury stuff and some COVID stuff that happened between the Big 12 tournament and the NCAA tournament, so maybe that's not a great

Starting point is 00:03:12 comparison, but point being, it doesn't guarantee anything, but certainly after K-State game on Monday and when things are coming to its end and we've heard the comparisons about can KU be the Chiefs where they turn the switch on, they switch late in the season. Okay, this would signify, you know, that you are flipping that switch late in the season. It's continued health too, if Kevin McCuller becomes a big storyline in this game. Obviously a very physical team in Houston. You just want him to make it out of this thing fully healthy. That's the biggest part of this game for KU, but it also will have an impact on the game. Bill Self said earlier this week he's missed some shots, layups, shots around the rim that he'd normally make,

Starting point is 00:03:47 that he just hasn't had his full explosiveness yet coming back for KU. And so that becomes a question of how good of Kevin McCullough are you going to get kind of moving forward? Is he going to hit that full level of explosiveness? I guess we will see, but you certainly need him to make those if you're going to win a game like this. This is obviously to a rematch of KU's beat down over Houston and Allen Fieldhouse.

Starting point is 00:04:09 I'm sure that puts even a bigger chip on the shoulder of a team who always plays with the chip on their shoulder, seemingly without physical, they play in Houston. Kansas won that first meeting 78 to 65 and Allen Fieldhouse. They're up 15 at the half. Kansas shots, 78% on two point shots,

Starting point is 00:04:24 six of 13 from three. That's 46%, same exact percentage that they shot against K-State earlier this week. And they held Houston to 40% on two-point shots and 9 of 29, 31% on three-point shots, even despite LJ Cryer going off. Houston did grab 13 offensive rebounds, but Kansas actually had a higher offensive rebound rate, 35% to 27% because they just missed so few shots and Houston missed a lot. And Kansas had the higher defensive rebound rate, obviously, with six more assists and two more blocks. The one thing that nearly allowed

Starting point is 00:04:55 Houston to get into the game there was the whopping turnover differential. That was Houston's best offensive turnover game of the season. They had just three in the game. Kansas had a whopping 18, a lot of them unforced. So you were minus 15 in turnovers. You still won by 13, amazingly enough. Individually, player standouts, Javier Francis for Houston. He got hurt early, which was a big negative for their defense because he is their best interior defender. Joseph Tugler ended up having to play 34 minutes. He's hurt now, so that won't be a thing that happens in this one. Juwan Roberts had 11 and 13. Manuel Sharp had 11. Jamal Shedd was completely held in check, just seven points. And it was LJ Cryer who led Houston. He had six made threes and 24 points. Nearly got them back to a point where it was like, okay, this thing

Starting point is 00:05:40 maybe could be a little bit closer down the stretch. For KU, Kevin Kohler had 17, 7, and 3. KJ Adams went for 10 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds. Johnny Furfew was 3 of 4 from 3. He had 17 points and 8 boards. And then Hunter Dickinson led KU with 20 points on 9 of 15, 8 rebounds, 4 assists. Literally, Houston's only loss since January 13th is at Kansas. They've gone 8-0 since they lost at Kansas, and right before Kansas, they had won a small streak of games. They started the year 1-2

Starting point is 00:06:13 in Big 12 play. They've won 13 of their last 14 games. That only loss is at Kansas. Now, does that maybe signify that maybe Kansas is a matchup issue for Houston with how they play? Was it just a great game for KU and not a great game for Houston? I think it was probably a little bit of that, but maybe that gives you hope into this matchup. It's also senior day for Houston, and they're trying to put the exclamation point on the season and grab that Big 12 title outright for them.

Starting point is 00:06:37 So this one will certainly mean a lot because they do have some good seniors that they'll be celebrating with guys like Jamal Shedd. Although nowadays, I never know with the COVID year, obviously. But Jamal Shedd, I believe, is listed as a senior. I believe Jawan Roberts is listed as a senior. I think LJ Cryer is a senior. So anyway, they're 27-3 as far as their scouting report, 14-3 in Big 12 play.

Starting point is 00:06:58 What they do well, defense, defense, and more defense. They're number one in the nation, interestingly enough, number two in Big 12 only games in defensive efficiency you might be asking who's number one in defense efficiency in the big 12 only games well that would be iowa state who's actually number two nationally so in conference only play they flip-flop but they're two of the best defenses in the entire country but houston does it by basically being good at everything they are top five nationally in effective field goal percentage defense turnover rate rate defense, block rate, and steal rate on defense. They're also top 10 in two-point defense, and for the sixth straight year, they're top 25 in three-point

Starting point is 00:07:35 defense. They do such a good job of constantly contesting shots, chasing off the three-point line, never giving you that many open looks that even from three, teams haven't been able to consistently penetrate them. Now, on a game-to-game basis, anything can happen, obviously. Part of what makes that strong defense and kind of adds to other avenues of their game, I think the word that I think of with this team the most is tough or toughness for Houston. It just describes how they play and what they are. And I think Juwan Roberts, who's their foreman, he's honestly one of my favorite players in the Big 12. The dude isn't like a knockdown jump shooter.

Starting point is 00:08:12 He doesn't have like a finesse postgame on the inside that he's hitting all these crazy shots. But he's tough. He gets rebounds. He plays defense. He gets put back shots. He'll get the occasional shot on the inside where he's hitting a hook shot, kind of contested. Like I really liked the guy playing.

Starting point is 00:08:29 He is a really good winning player and he kind of exemplifies everything they do. Him and Jamal shed offensively for them. It's not like an overly efficient one, but I say that they're still top 15 in the country in offensive efficiency. And the reason why is they win the possession game over and over. And they have guards who can at least hit shots off the bounce and hit shots in key moments when the shot clock is winding down or when the game is coming down to the close. Like go watch the end of the UCF game. LJ Cryer's hitting two big threes in the corner when things are getting close at the end on the road.

Starting point is 00:08:58 But they're top 10 in the country in turnover rate on offense and offensive rebound rate on offense. So they don't turn the ball over and they get a bunch of offensive rebounds. So even though they're not a super efficient, you know, shooting offense or hitting easy twos or anything, they get a lot of extra possessions to make up for it. What they don't do well, even though this is an elite of the elite defense in the country,

Starting point is 00:09:20 they do foul a lot. So that's something KU can have an opportunity possibly for. They do send teams a free throw line a lot, highest rate in league only games, and they've also been below average rebounding team, or defensive rebounding team, I should say, which only gets tougher without Joseph Tugler now. So you actually do have opportunity offensive rebounding, though that's not been a strength for KU this year, but it was okay in the game that they played Houston earlier. Offensively, Houston ranks well into the 200s in two-point offense. They were just 48.9% on twos, and they don't get a lot of easy buckets at the rim.

Starting point is 00:09:54 They're also 301st in free throw percentage and don't get there a ton anyway, and even though the threes are a bit of a strength for the offense, they're still 134th in the country, so it's not like that has just been lighting the world on fire on below average volume. Personnel, three main guards you got to watch out for. Jamal Shedd, who's in the running for Big 12 Player of the Year, over 13 points, over six assists, over two steals. And Evan Miyakawa's website with BPR, which we reference here, he's number one in the Big 12 in offensive BPR. He's number one in the Big 12 in defensive BPR. LJ Cryer, 15.8 points per game, 39% from three. And then Emmanuel Sharp, I think, is the real underrated one here. 12.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 36% from three. He can hit some tough shots. 6'7", 235 pounds. Juwan Roberts mentioned him playing the four.

Starting point is 00:10:41 Long wingspan, great toughness, averages 10- seven, two assists and over two combined steals and blocks per game. Then you've got six foot eight, 240 pound JV or Francis who got injured in that Kansas game early. He holds down the five. He's only six, eight, but he has like a seven, two wingspan or something like that. And he averages six points, five boards per game, 63%. His main contributions though, are defensively one and a half blocks per game. He is second in the big 12 in defensive BPR. As far as off the bench, they have a couple guys. Malik Wilson will play the guard spots. Damian Dunn can score off the bench for them. Maybe keep an eye on center Cedric Laff, a freshman who 6'9", 265, has struggled, certainly, but may have to dip into him a little bit more, a tuggler out. So it is more about the starters for them, though they do trust Dunn

Starting point is 00:11:27 and a few of these guys off the bench enough. All right, let's get on to our matchups of the game with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Amazon Fire. Fire TV is your destination for sports, from live games to highlights to in-depth analysis. Fire TV offers amazing viewing experiences with smart TVs, as well as the Fire TV stick that you can plug into your existing TV that provides access to millions of movies, TV episodes, free and live TV. Whether it's opening weekend for baseball or the college basketball tournament, you're going to want to have Fire TV. Transition to talking, transition to,

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Starting point is 00:12:42 Matchups of the game. Let's start with matchup number one. Kansas playing out of the post and short rolls and how Houston counters that after the last outing so this was something that was super critical for Kansas when they beat Houston and Allen Fieldhouse is that they got the ball on the post and instead of you know Bill Self maximizes post positioning and getting guys deep positioning where they get easy buckets in this game they were actually against Houston a lot of the time trying to get further out on the post so that they could draw an aggressive Houston defense into doubling them and then they would

Starting point is 00:13:17 have Hunter Dickinson or KJ Adams who are both very good passers for big men be able to sling it to the opposite side of the court or somewhere that somebody was open for three and uh that allowed them to to get hot from the corner from three and find some openings in this game and take advantage of the aggressiveness uh ku in total to to show the proof here they got 12 assists from the three bigs of kj adams hunter dickinson and parker brown 11 assists combined from kj adams and hunter dickinson mean, that's a very big total from your big men. Houston watched the tape, obviously, on the game, as I would imagine. They haven't lost since. Does that mean that they fixed the issue? Because I imagine other teams saw what Kansas did and were like, hey, they actually had success. Should we try that? Or does that mean that uh because since they've won all these

Starting point is 00:14:05 games straight does it mean it's fixed does it mean that jv or francis being back like that was enough to fix it where they can do more they don't have to do as many double teams because francis allows them to do that does it just mean that other teams can't um exploit it like kansas did in that game because other teams don't have big men who are like in the case of hunter dickinson, seven foot two and can see over the top of the defense or in the case of Dickinson and Adams are good passing big men. Like think about some of the other better teams in the Big 12 or better big men, I guess you could say, or better teams with good big men like with Iowa State, Robert Jones. He's a good defensive and rebounding big man.

Starting point is 00:14:40 He ain't like really a passer, right? You think of, I don't't know like going down the list um maybe a Texas or something like Caden Shedrick not really a passer Dylan D'Sou is a good mid-range player but he's not really like a big time passing big man I guess so I don't know does it mean other teams like can't exploit them necessarily or does it just mean that they figured it out does it mean they're going to have a completely different defensive scheme or not completely different, but enough of a wrinkle in there that Kansas can't do that again this game? Does that mean that they're going to leave Kansas bigs more one-on-one? All I know is that Kansas is going to have to be ready for either scenario. They're going to have

Starting point is 00:15:17 to be ready to pass out of the post again quickly. And if that's not coming with the doubles, they have to be ready to win one-on-one because who knows what Houston is going to do to approach this but either way Kansas the way they win this game is the big men take over whether it's scoring passing and grabbing rebounds which brings us number two you can't get murdered on the glass Houston ranks in the 98th percentile in offensive rebound rate in college basketball all three of their losses this season featured actually like strong to okay offensive rebound rates, but ones that were right around or below what they put up on average on the season. So you basically – it's like defending a star player.

Starting point is 00:15:55 It's like defending Michael Jordan. You're not going to limit him to eight points. You can't go into the night figuring, hey, I have to hold him to eight points. You hold Michael Jordan to 27 points and it took him a lot of shots and he was a little bit lower efficiency than he averages. You're like, okay, I did my job, right? That's how this is with keeping Houston on the glass. They're going to get theirs. They're going to get some offensive rebounds. Can you just mitigate the number? Can you avoid it from taking over the game? Can you leave it to a point where, just like last

Starting point is 00:16:23 time you played, they had a 27% offensive rebound rate when you played them. For a lot of other teams, that would be above average, above what they average on the season number. But for Houston, that was well below average. Can you do that again in this game? Because basically, they're so good defensively, and they have the guards that can beat you, especially on an offensive rebound, if they can hit some of those threes.

Starting point is 00:16:45 And they do a lot of the little things well. Then if you're giving them a lot of extra possessions too, it's kind of game over. So you cannot get murdered on the glass. You're going to give up some offensive rebounds. You just have to kind of accept that going in. You can't let it take over the game. And that'll also lead. There's almost nothing more demoralizing or crowd growing than when a team

Starting point is 00:17:06 gets a bunch of offensive rebounds and it leads to made shots. Number three is playing well in the second half. You did not dominate in the second half against them. And that was something where you're up 15 at the half. You actually lost the second half by two. But at one point, things got even closer than that. And that was a little bit scary, right? With those back-to-back turnovers, Cryer hit some threes there. Kansas has not been a great second-half team, especially in Big 12 play.

Starting point is 00:17:33 This stat came out earlier this week. This is from JG Trends on social media, and it showed the change in offensive efficiency from the first half to second half during conference play of the college basketball season. And Kansas is in the bottom left of this graph, which basically means it ain't good. Like you don't want to be in that bottom left corner. And that's exactly where Kansas is as part of this. And so when you look at it earlier this week, you know, that was a good

Starting point is 00:17:59 second half for Kansas. They were plus 14 in the second half against Kansas State after they were plus eight in the first half. So maybe that's trending in the right direction, but that has been more of the anomaly this season for KU. So in Big 12 games on the season, Kansas has outscored opponents by 73 points in the first half. In the second half, Kansas is actually, second half plus overtime, Kansas has been outscored by one point. So that's a 74 point swing from the first half to the second half in Big 12 play. If we're just talking about Big 12 road games, which is what this is, Kansas has outscored the opposition by six in the first half. They've been outscored by 29 in the second half. So it's a 35 point swing from the first half to

Starting point is 00:18:40 the second half. To win this game, you would assume if you're going to win it, it's going to be a close game on the road, which for what it's worth, Kansas is 0-5 in Big 12 road games decided by single digits. That's not great. Though you did win the Indiana game, not a Big 12 game, but that one was single digits on the road to give them a little bit of credit there. But you would assume if you're going to have to win this game, it's going to have to be on a close, probably one or two possession game where you have to win a game grinding out late and grinding out in the second half. You need a strong finish. You need a much stronger second half than you've seen in a majority of the big 12 games this season. Player matchup here is Hunter Dickinson versus Javier Francis,

Starting point is 00:19:16 but I also want to add DeJuan Harris versus Jamal Shedd. So the main one here, Hunter Dickinson versus Javier Francis. It was so critical as as we talked about, for KU to throw quickly to the opposite side after getting a post entry with how aggressive Houston is. Okay, that's going to be a big game plan for Hunter Dickinson. Francis got hurt early last time, though, which can change things, because maybe they're more happy playing one-on-one, because they have that elite big man defender down low. Either way, whether it is Hunter Dickinson having to win because

Starting point is 00:19:46 or win by being one-on-one and scoring in the post or winning by getting assists, and it goes back to the rebounding thing where he's going to have a big part of it. Either way, there are a lot of things that involve Hunter Dickinson in this game. And for Javier Francis, you want to feel like, okay, I wasn't in the last game. I am the difference maker here of why things are going to happen. But if you're Dickinson, if you can get Francis in foul trouble, which Dickinson hasn't drawn a ton of fouls necessarily this season, if you can get Francis in foul trouble, Houston's not very deep at the big man spot, especially with Tuggler now injured and out for the season. I did mention DeJuan Harris versus Jamal Shedd. Now,

Starting point is 00:20:23 for what it's worth, Kansas did throw some DeJuan Harris on Jamal Shedd. Now, for what it's worth, Kansas did throw some DeJuan Harris on Jamal Shedd. There was a lot of Kevin McCuller on Jamal Shedd last time out that you played him. Now, I don't know with Kevin's injury if they're going to go back to DeJuan Harris, but both did play against him, and they held him to two for nine combined, which excellent game against one of the best players in the Big 12. That matchup is going to be so important. DeJuan didn't have super strong numbers overall in the first game, but he had just one turnover. He had the strong defense. I thought he was solid enough in that game for what you needed to happen. I think you need a big time performance from DeJuan in this one. Maybe hitting a couple threes, playing that good defense, getting a couple steals

Starting point is 00:20:56 for KU to come out on top against Houston. Let's continue on with our Hawks to soar. KU players we think are set up for good matchups on this episode of the show. First, we were brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small businesses, you want to find quality professionals that are right for your role, which is why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs is the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. You can join LinkedIn very easily and everybody has a LinkedIn profile, at least you should. And because of that, there's a lot of qualified candidates out there. And I go on LinkedIn every so often and I'm scrolling through, I'm seeing jobs. And if it's easy for

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Starting point is 00:22:02 Post jobs for free. Terms and conditions apply. Hawks, the sore KU players we think can stick out and have a good game. And thanks for joining us today for Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you to every dayers tuning in. We had a fun episode yesterday with our biggest takeaways from the Kansas State game. And we'll have a KU Houston preview at some point later this weekend. We're going to go with Hunter Dickinson here. We keep talking about out of the post. That's going to be where Kansas is going to funnel the ball and try to win

Starting point is 00:22:27 this game from that kind of being the focal point where they can, you know, do everything from there. If they do go one-on-one, then you have to like his chances to win because as, as much as he, you know, the opposition to Francis has like a seven,

Starting point is 00:22:41 two wingspan. It is the, the reason that height does matter is it gives him a clear view of everything. So even though the wingspan matters more for maybe blocking shots and stuff, you can still see over him. Now Houston also gives up a lot of mid-range twos. They're comfortable giving those up. Dickinson's shooting 44% on mid-range twos this season, second best on KU.

Starting point is 00:23:00 We talked about it earlier this week. If you're an everydayer, whose stat line is it anyway from yesterday? Marco Jackson actually leads KU surprisingly at 45% on mid-range shoes. Dickinson's numbers in the mid-range have gone down a little bit over the last few weeks, but overall, he's still been a good mid-range shooter. Then I also want to go with Nick Timberlake slash Johnny Furphy. Houston gives up a much higher rate than national average for corner three-point attempts. And on the season, teams have been lethal against them from corner threes because that has been kind of the one area you've been able to get open shots as long as you work the ball around.

Starting point is 00:23:32 Teams have shot 42% from three in the corner against Houston this season. That's a number that's up to 44.2% over the last 10 games that Houston has faced. Both Timberlake and Furphy are at 41.2% on corner threes this season. They both shoot corner threes well. Furphy's in a bit of a mini slump right now, so I don't know. Maybe you take Timberlake because he's coming off that great game. Then again, we haven't seen back-to-back great Timberlake games, so maybe you take Furphy. I don't know. Regardless, I think both are going to get a couple corner threes in this game. It's just up to them whether they make it or not, but I think the process is there to like either one of these, if not both.

Starting point is 00:24:07 And if Kansas is going to come away with a road win, you're going to need both of them to probably hit at least one or two of those corner threes when they do get them. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the action. We'll see you next time for KU Houston Recap.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - #14 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Look to Avoid Passing Torch in Big 12 Finale at #1 Houston Cougars

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