Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - 2024-2025 Beginner's Guide to the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Season

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Season preview and beginner's guide to the 2024-2025 season for the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Who's back like Dajuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams, who is new like AJ Storr, Rylan... Griffen and Zeke Mayo, who are the freshmen like Flory Bidunga, what's the schedule and expectations, what will it take to win the Big 12 and get a one seed for the NCAA Tournament, and what are the biggest questions about if Bill Self's team can cut down the nets in April?For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!ROYDownload Roy for iOS or Android and enter referral code LOCKED ON and you’ll automatically be entered into a sweepstakes to win $5,000 cash. Visit JoinRoy.com for additional details. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited. Get off the sidelines and into the NIL game with Roy.ZBiotics Pre AlcoholGo to zbiotics.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use LOCKEDONCOLLEGEat checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE and get $50 instantly when you play $5! You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE LinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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)

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, the KU basketball season preview, beginner's guide for the 2024-25 season. 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. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. And this is Locked On Jayhawks. Thank you for making LOJ your first listen every day.
Starting point is 00:00:33 Thank you to every dayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, as well as on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're going over our beginner's guide to the 2024 to 2025 KU basketball season, previewing the roster, the preseason hype, the schedule, what KU needs to do to win the Big 12 and get a one seed, and the biggest questions for KU to win the national title
Starting point is 00:00:58 on today's episode, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where you can get Kansas 11-1 odds to win the title. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit FanDuel.com to get started today. So this is a bit of a beginner's guide. If you haven't been tuning in to what's happening in basketball season, then we'll try to give a little bit extra here for the experts with everything going on.
Starting point is 00:01:23 So if you're new or haven't been paying attention okay you might have had a tough year a season ago they got a four seed which for most schools would be a a happy great season it would be a high point for a lot of schools not for kansas not for bill self it was a down year you lose in the second round you bring back three starters dewan harris kj adams and hunter dickinson and good things usually happen when bill selfs returns players let alone all american types like hunter dickinson but there was kind of a running sense in late march early april about you know from many of the fan base about not not necessarily wanting to be the case and you know i certainly have had
Starting point is 00:02:02 questions about well how's it can work with kj playing next to hunter and you know hunter defending ball screens and some of these things over the course of a season but it feels like with the other moves they wound up making around them that they made it as viable as possible we will see how it all fits together and how it all works but you added a ton of shooting in the transfer portal and you added some athleticism from your high school class you obviously also returned jamari mcdowell zach clements uh as well as our marco marco jackson who unfortunately injured himself in the offseason he's out for the season but the two freshmen you added flory badunga is a mcdonald's all-american springy center high motor player sounds like he's getting better and better as things go on which is what
Starting point is 00:02:45 you love to hear for a young high potential freshman and he's going to provide a nice spell for hunter diggins and off the bench i mean if you end up only playing 126 27 minutes a night because you have to get flory on the floor that much no pun intended there that's a good problem to have if you're ku right i'm keith passmore he's a four-star wing who Bill Self has compared to Ochai Baji. And yes, Ochai was not the same guy he was in year four, year three as he was in year one, but he was actually still a pretty impactful player in year one. It was just a little bit inconsistent. If you got anything close to that from Rakeesh in year one, I think you would take that. But he is a possible future star for KU that could have a role on this year's team.
Starting point is 00:03:23 Then those transfers you added, Rylan Griffin, he's a three-point sniper from Alabama. He was on their Final Four team. He was a starter, showed some defensive potential, wasn't always consistent on that end, but had potential for it. Now as a junior, three-point marksman, you needed to add three-point shooting, open up the floor for KJ and Hunter Dickinson, and keep things off him. He provides that.
Starting point is 00:03:44 AJ Storr, he could provide some shooting I mean a low 30 percent from three but I expect that to go up in year three but he is just a scoring mercenary he was an all big 10 second team pick so in theory one of the top 10 players in the big 10 a year ago for Wisconsin he comes over and he could end up being a star of the team. What becomes interesting with Griffin and Storr is it could be down to one starting spot for those two players. And the reason why is because Zeke Mayo, one of the other transfers you brought in, another good shooter, another player who can really create offense at an elite level,
Starting point is 00:04:16 off the bounce, off the catch, just makes a lot of winning plays. He was the Summit League Player of the Year. He took South Dakota State or helped them go to two NCAA tournaments, appearances, and it sounds like he could be a starter He was the Summit League Player of the Year. He took South Dakota State or helped them go to two NCAA tournaments appearances. And it sounds like he could be a starter next to DeJuan Harris. And if that's the case, the KJ and Hunter back. You're down to one starting spot between Rylan Griffin and AJ Storr. I've been leaning to the idea that AJ Storr would be my predicted fifth starter. I was reading the Blue Ribbon preseason college basketball magazine, and they talked to Bill Self.
Starting point is 00:04:45 They talked to Hunter Dickinson. There's some quotes in there. It's a good little read before the season for them and around the country. But their predicted starting lineup, which, again, they are talking to Bill Self before the season starts. So they're picking up news and nuggets as part of that. They had Ryland Griffith starting to be the fifth starter instead of AJ Storr. I still right now would be sticking my flag in the ground that it'll end up being Storr, but I am open to the idea that that could be the fifth starter instead of AJ Storr. I still right now would be sticking my flag in the ground that it'll end up being Storr,
Starting point is 00:05:07 but I am open to the idea that that could be the case. You also brought on David Coit. He's a small guard, big-time scoring ability from Northern Illinois. He could play kind of a Jalen Coleman-Lanz role on this team. Maybe it ends up being a Jalen Coleman-Lanz plus role on this team. And then the final guy is Shaquille Moore, who is an athletic defensive stud from Mississippi State. He's he's a smaller guard but he will get up there there
Starting point is 00:05:29 throw down some dunks like I said really good athlete really quick can really play defense Bill Self has made quotes in a couple different places one of them was in that Blue Ribbon magazine there was another one elsewhere that he could be the best you know on-ball defender that the team has so a lot of options that you have. They'll be able to play small. They'll be able to play big, right? You want to play Flory next to Hunter? You could do that.
Starting point is 00:05:51 You want to play KJ next to Hunter, right? I consider that playing big. You can do that. You can play Clemens next to KJ or whatever you want to do. You can play small with playing A.J. Storr and Rylan Griffin on the wing along with two guards, right? DeJuan next to David david coy or to one next to shaquille moore i don't know shaquille moore next to zeke mayo or zeke man right whatever combination you want to do um you can play with extra shooters right you have options now where it's like with last year is like okay if we need
Starting point is 00:06:20 a shooter we're going to bring timberlake in if we need more of the defense ball handling we're going to bring a marco in now it's like okay more of the defense ball handling, we're going to bring El Marco in. Now it's like, okay, well, we have options. We could bring in Zeke and or we could bring in Rylan Griffin and or we can have AJ Storr in the game and or we can have Diggy Coit in the game. Certainly it feels like they have more depth than last season, and that's going to be a big storyline for this year's team that I think probably played a bigger factor on last year's team
Starting point is 00:06:43 than you would expect in the idea that, I mean, not only from the standpoint that KU had a lot of injuries last season, so having better depth would have been nice. And also that, you know, they didn't really have a reliable bench. So just having a competent bench will be nice. But also that having a competent bench means the starters can play less minutes. They don't have to play 36, 37 minutes in a key game. They can play 28 30 32 and if that means they're playing at a all-out max effort for 28 minutes as opposed to having to maybe go
Starting point is 00:07:12 three quarters on certain possessions and playing 36 minutes what do you think is going to be better for the team it's it's obviously that first way and so bill self said multiple times during the offseason he wanted eight starters feels like they might just have that at the end of the day. And because of all that, they wound up being number one in the preseason AP Top 25. There's certainly a lot of teams that are in the running this year for that, right? Like a lot of people thought Alabama was going to be that team. Houston is going to have a really great team once again. I mean, Iowa State and Houston are both ranked ahead of Kansas
Starting point is 00:07:46 if you look at Ken Palm and Bart Torvik, two of the key, I guess, metric sites or online sites. In fact, KU is sixth on Ken Palm. They're fourth on Bart Torvik. You look at Evan Miyakawa, we like to reference their side as well. They're also sixth on Evan Miyakawa's side, and Houston first, Iowa State is fifth. So the Big 12 is going going to be bare and we'll get into that here in a second but the expectation is always for Kansas whether they're first in the preseason bowl whether they're sixth
Starting point is 00:08:14 it's contend for a Big 12 championship I guess not contend it's win a Big 12 championship it's make a final four it's contend for a national title. You know, the normal Kansas things. You can still have good seasons where you don't accomplish all of those. But like, those are the ultimate goals at the end of the season, right? So now it's just about what is this team? Is it just a polished version of last year's kind of underwhelming season, right? Where you have these players back from last year's team, but you still worry about the fits.
Starting point is 00:08:44 But maybe you added a little bit more that you do have a little bit better version of last year's team and it's easy to look to that and say okay well you know everybody likes to make the comparison of okay well the 2022 team that won the national title a 2021 team you know they ended up on a low note got crushed by usc in the second round of the ncaa tournament offense finished 54th in Ken Palm that year. They finished 27th overall in Ken Palm that year. They came back the next year with four or five returning starters, and it was like, are we sure this is what is best that they have all these guys back?
Starting point is 00:09:17 They ended up winning the national title. Well, you look at last year's team for KU, and they finished 27th on Ken Palm, 59th on offense. And so it's the same kind of idea that you're hoping for there but it's also entirely possible like I said it's just a polished version of instead of it being a revamped Kansas it's a revamped you know what if Kansas wasn't across the the front of the jersey what if I told you a random other team in fact here let's just look at it this way who was 28th last year in Ken palm it was wake forest if i told you wake forest actually let's go with florida florida's 26 i think that was more applicable because they made the tournament if i told you florida returned who
Starting point is 00:09:53 was 26 in ken palm to finish the year last year if i told you florida returned three of five starters and they were you know a couple guys who had been in college a long time another was you know one of their best players um and then they added a really good transfer hall like one of the better transfer halls in the country they added you know a good high school recruiting class not the number one class or anything but a couple good recruits we'd probably be going into this season like yeah florida's top 15 team in the country maybe they'd be top 10 but would they be number one probably not so that does get a little bit of bump and maybe it's necessarily so because you just put your trust in bill self because for my money he is still even
Starting point is 00:10:28 with that with dan hurley winning back to my titles bill self is still the best coach in college basketball so that kind of becomes the big question here is it a revamped version is it just a polished version of last year um is it similar that 2022 season and we'll see what ends up happening here and obviously included in all of it and other storylines of the season you have a retooled allen field house heard good reports about what the sound system was like during late night in the fog uh the student section moving up a little bit obviously you lose a little bit of seedage uh what's it going to be like there in allen field house where that 50 million dollar renovation took place between the stadium and the offices. And they, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:06 just adds another level to all of this and the new stuff of the season. And at the end of the day, it's KU basketball season. This looks to be a fun one on paper. We said that before in the past, and it's come crashing down. We've said that before and it's lived up to the hype. So we'll see what this one does. Let's get into some more on this year's team, the schedule and what KU needs to do if they want to win the Big 12
Starting point is 00:11:26 and get a one seat in the NCAA tournament. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small businesses, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's 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. LinkedIn isn't just a is the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free.
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Starting point is 00:12:14 That is linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Okay, so for KU basketball the schedule as always is absolutely loaded this year as you would certainly imagine it normally is obviously the big 12 is the best conference in the country so you know that's gonna make it easier to have the uh toughest schedule in the country or one of the toughest schedules in the country and uh KU certainly did not make it any easier in the non-con some of those were predetermined games and stuff like that but it starts really this
Starting point is 00:12:49 friday with their exhibition in arkansas i know that doesn't count for the resume but that gives you a good test but you're taking on north carolina in uh early november that's just your second real game of the season then immediately after champions classic michigan state you have duke in las vegas you're at creon, who should be good again this year, at Missouri, which Missouri was really bad last year. I think they'll be better this year, but rivalry game on the road, that's not going to be easy. NC State made the Final Four last year,
Starting point is 00:13:13 and then, yeah, a Big 12 schedule where Cincinnati should be a tournament team this year. Iowa State could be a top-five team this year. TCU could be a tournament team. Houston's going to be one of the best teams in the country. You play them twice. Baylor's going to be a top-20 teams in the country. You play them twice. Baylor is going to be a top 20 team in the country. You play them twice. BYU could be pretty good, right? Texas Tech's going to probably be a top 25 team. Arizona's going to probably be a top 10 team. It's a loaded schedule for KU. So what do they need to do to win
Starting point is 00:13:40 the Big 12? Well, it's tough figuring it out. I mean mean it's always tough to figure out to be completely clear um just because of the standpoint of like you just don't know what else is around you it's probably pretty easy to guess right now that one of like houston iowa state arizona baylor there's so many great teams in the league that somebody's going to have a really high mark in the conference and that was the case last year where as difficult as the league was Houston finished 15 and 3 in conference play so would it be easy to say that you know 15 and 3 is going to get it done but now that you have another version of the new big 12 where you add Arizona into the fold in addition to other ones could that be an extra loss for other teams, right? That it becomes really hard to say. It becomes hard to say because it's a 20-game schedule in the Big 12. It becomes hard to say because there's more variables. There's more
Starting point is 00:14:33 teams in the league. There's more difficult places to travel to, like the road trip to the mountain time zone where you go at BYU, at Utah or something like that, at Colorado. Does that wear you down for the game after that right like there are all these other factors and then the whole portion of imbalanced schedules and also does that make it winning the regular season in the big 12 a little less prominent that for ku like if you had the option between going undefeated in the non-con you play all those good teams in the non-con and then finishing say third in the big 12 regular season versus winning the big 12 regular season but losing say three games in the non-con i don't know what do you choose in kansas case i
Starting point is 00:15:11 think you still take the big 12 um maybe that's a bad comp since you're winning the big 12 so maybe that just makes it obvious but let's say let me do a different comparison if you finish second in the big 12 versus finishing fifth in the big 12 but in the fifth scenario you go undefeated in the non-gun like maybe that one you end up taking right um because the imbalance schedules just make it different to where like a team who finishes fourth or fifth in the big 12 could be better than the team who finishes second and third if like in the case of kansas remember last year kansas had to go two aims they had to play at iowa state but they didn't get a return trip and then you had you know certain schools that maybe got a lot of the good teams at home, but didn't have to play a return
Starting point is 00:15:48 trip. It's just imbalanced schedules, and it makes it a little less valuable. But right now in Ken Palm, they have Houston winning the league at 15-5. And you can easily say, well, they were 15-3 last year. So would it be more 16-4, 17-3? I don't know. I think over a 20-game schedule, that's going to be really hard to do. I think 15 and five is kind of the number that I'm looking at right now and saying, if you go 15 and five, you're going to be right on track to possibly win this league. And it wouldn't shock me if 14 and six could even get it done. So be around that mark. I do think there's a chance that the Big 12 gets two one seeds in the NCAA tournament. And if you can get to 14 and six, especially with KU's non-con,
Starting point is 00:16:25 I guess let's put it this way. If KU wins the big 12, they're going to get a one seed. I feel like whoever wins the big 12 is going to get a one seed. Unless I guess KU goes like six and six in the non-con, they're just like figuring stuff out. You win the big 12, but if you're winning the big 12, it probably means you're going to be pretty good in the non-con too. So you can lose three games in the non-con, win the big 12, and you're going to get a one seed. Let's say KU finishes second or third in the Big 12, maybe makes the Big 12 tournament title game, and then goes two losses, maybe one loss in the non-con, you still are probably getting a one seed. Because at that point, again, if you're second and third in the Big 12, whoever finishes first is a one seed.
Starting point is 00:17:03 And then if you only have two or one losses in the non-con, that means you racked up multiple wins against some sort of group between North Carolina, Michigan State, Duke, all these teams that you have to play Creighton in the non-con. If KU goes unbeaten in the non-con, I wonder what the minimum is they would need to do in the Big 12 to be a one seed. Like with 12 and eight, you go undefeated in the non-conference, with 12 and eight in the Big 12 regular season, which probably know that could be good enough to finish like third or fourth in the league. Would that be good enough to get a one seed? I don't know. That would certainly be an interesting conversation to get to just because how loaded the Big 12 is and how loaded the non-conference schedule is.
Starting point is 00:17:42 I guess part of that might depend on how they do in the conference tournament. But point being, KU basically has two chances. Like, I almost view it this way. If Kansas goes undefeated in the non-con or they win the Big 12, there's like probably a 90% chance that they get a one seed at that point. Like, it would take some really messed up stuff for you to do the rest of the way. It would take you collapsing in the other half of that schedule. So do one of of the two there's a very good chance you're going to get a one seed which we've typically seen with bill self teams all right one of the biggest questions for if
Starting point is 00:18:12 k you can win the title we'll get to that next this episode is brought to you by fan duel sports book hey nfl fans you can start the season with a big return on fan duel america's one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the Chiefs game or whatever game you're watching, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. You can even bet on KU to win the national title, 11-1 odds. You throw the five bucks up there to win 55, and you get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed off that first $5 bet, but make sure to read the terms and conditions as well. That is at Fanduel.com, the official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Podcast Network. Finishing things up on this episode, our beginner's guide
Starting point is 00:19:02 to the upcoming season, KU season preview. What are the biggest questions for if KU can win the title? Now, obviously, there are different levels of this, right? For some teams, it's what's their questions for making the NCAA tournament. For KU, you almost have those as a given. So there are certain things that KU might do, average or good, that if you want to win a title, you got to tighten up on, right? So the first one of these, what is the biggest question, is how much can they improve rebounding? Specifically, how much can you improve
Starting point is 00:19:36 offensive rebounding? So you go back to last year's team for KU. They were a good enough defensive rebounding team. You look at nationally, they were 71st in the country in defensive rebounding. Look at the 2022 team, they were 196th. But with the 2022 team did well, they got offensive rebounds. They're 40th in the country in offensive rebound rate. They had a bunch of wings who were athletic. I always say this, positioning, strength, that wins defensive rebounding. Athleticism and hustle and verticality, that wins offensive rebounding. But KU last year, not a good enough offensive rebounding team. They were 286th in the country in offensive rebound rate.
Starting point is 00:20:14 That was the worst offensive rebound rate of the Bill Self team in his time at Kansas. So can you improve offensively rebounding basketball? Do you have to be as good as that 2022 team? No, I don't think you do. But especially for a team who's going to play, like if you're going to be playing two big lineups, which I view KJ and Hunter as two big lineups, you could throw out a handful of minutes of Flory and Hunter.
Starting point is 00:20:36 If you're playing Clements and Hunter, Clements and KJ, or Clements and Flory, whatever it is, whatever combination we're talking about here, if you're going to play two big basketball, you better win the ways that big men win you know what i mean like because if you're playing two bigs at the same time there are automatic weaknesses that come with that right foot speed on the perimeter defending pick and roll defending teams that can run and gun but you try to make up for it by just dominating on the glass by getting extra possessions by fouling them out by taking advantage of their lack of size but if you can't get offensive rebounds you're not
Starting point is 00:21:11 taking advantage of the things you need to be taking advantage of so how much better can you be at that and you know will that be something that kj does better at will that be something that aj store and rylan griffin can add to the team even though they haven't specifically come in with a bunch of rebounding numbers is the different role at kansas going to help with that what are the rotations going to look like what is the best lineup end up being like how does kj adams end up fitting in all of this if you were kansas is there a point in time in the season where kansas decides you know their best defensive lineup features to close out a game kj and and Flory, or KJ even at the five. Is there a chance that KU finds their death lineup playing, you know, AJ Storr at the four and KJ's on the bench,
Starting point is 00:21:53 right? But you have to figure those things out. Who plays best with each other? What ways do you get through the season? Those are going to be important. Is the improved three-point shooting and overall shooting real? Like, that's another part of part of this too you look at last year's team they finished 195th in the country at 33.6 percent from three-point range you look back at bill self's time at ku so um if you look at the teams that had the biggest run right 2022 national championship team they were 51st in the country in three-point percentage that 2020 team that would have been the number one overall seed, they were kind of hovering the line, but they were just so elite at everything else that maybe that wouldn't have mattered.
Starting point is 00:22:30 They were still 132nd. The Final Four team in 2018, they were 10th. The Elite Eight teams in 2016, 2017 were both 5th. The Elite Eight team in 2011, they were 24th in the country in three-point percentage. 2010 team, even though that was second round out, they were 24th in the country in three point percentage, 2010 team, even though that was second round out, they were one of the best teams in the country all year long. They were seventh and three point percentage. Oh, wait, it was 14th. Then you look at some of the years where they've maybe underperformed. You look at last year, they
Starting point is 00:22:55 were 195th. You look at the, uh, 2021 season, they were 173rd. You look at the 2019 season, they were 138th. Um, so it's easy to to you know it's not everything but like three-point shooting really does matter even if you're a team that doesn't launch them as much as other teams so you you put a lot of effort into the portal to improve this and i think they did but how much better is it is it now just better from being below average or is it like a strength is it a situation where you have like a really good three-point shooting team right that's that's going to kind of matter in all this and then uh are you going to have a dewan harris bounce back season you know i don't think he was bad last year but i don't think he was as good overall last year
Starting point is 00:23:39 as he was the year before and bill self has kind of talked about that so can you get back to that dewan harris from two years ago the things that I think lessened a little bit were defensive consistency and the shooting inside for DeJuan but if he can get back to those things he was doing two years ago with a more improved roster around him and be that best version of himself defensively that's obviously a huge boon for KU and Hunter Diggins said be better on defense like how much better can he get on defense defending ball screens and those sorts of things again does KU decide that uh when it's all said and done if they need to stop at the end of the game it's Flory coming in on the defensive end I don't know can you trust the bench um that's something that you look at past national champions they typically don't have deep benches but they do
Starting point is 00:24:18 at least have one two sometimes three guys that they can trust don't have to be playing nine ten guys don't have to be playing 11 guys you need at least one or two guys you three guys that they can trust. Don't have to be playing nine, 10 guys. Don't have to be playing 11 guys. You need at least one or two guys you can trust. And you look at the 2022 championship team, echoes that. Mitch Lightfoot was one of those guys you could trust off the bench. It was, yeah, only 10, 12, 14 minutes per game. But you could trust him coming off the bench, filling his role. Remy Martin, by the end of the season, you know,
Starting point is 00:24:41 it wasn't always that way over the course of the season, but by the end of the season when it mattered, you could trust that coming off the bench and you know you look at teams in the past for bill self they've had at least a couple of those guys i think you're gonna have that this year because you'll probably have one of rylan griffin or aj store off the bench at least on paper right now i would trust that i guess you never really know how things are going to translate uh you never really know florida badunga's young freshman is going to translate but all the reports seem like it will to some extent i guess we'll wait and see but they have
Starting point is 00:25:09 enough options there that i feel like that will happen but yeah how much can you trust that and then the last one here can you just stay healthy and get a little bit of luck and i know that sounds like a duh and it very much is but that has very much always not been the case unfortunately for ku i mean it wasn't the case last year, right? Kevin McCullough gets injured. Hunter Dickinson's playing through injury. But how many times have we talked about a KU big man being injured for the postseason for KU, whether it was Yudoka Azubuke or Cliff Alexander or Joel Embiid or, I don't know, was Cliff actually NCAA stuff? Whatever it was.
Starting point is 00:25:40 Like, there have been so many examples of it that we're sick and tired of it and can you have that good luck and good fortune with some injury stuff with some health stuff and where the ball bounces because you know that can be the difference in one game here there over the course of season but that's our beginner's guide to the 2024 to 2025 season hope you enjoyed it hit the like button certainly helps us out on our end of things if you're watching on youtube you can also check us out anywhere you get your podcasts. Make sure to subscribe there as well for the audio version of things. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.
Starting point is 00:26:16 We'll be back tomorrow to have a KU Arkansas basketball exhibition preview. Also get our KUK state football preview later this week as well. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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