Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - A One Game Week Can Give Kansas Jayhawks Basketball a Boost + Path to Big 12 + Scott Fuchs to Titans

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, what can Kansas accomplish during a one-game week? 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. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. You can give me a follow on social media with Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it, at DJhawks on radio.

Starting point is 00:00:37 And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're discussing what exactly this one game week with no game during the actual weekdays, just a game on Saturday against Texas, what it can accomplish, what it can help for KU this season. We will also get into the path to still winning the Big 12 and maximizing the seed line for KU basketball and a little bit of news with Scott Fuchs, the KU football offensive line coach, taking a job with the Tennessee Titans. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $150 in bonus bets.

Starting point is 00:01:13 If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. So just a one-game week for Kansas, no game in the middle of the week. And I think from a viewership perspective, it's going to be kind of weird, you know, not to have a certain night during the week where you're, oh, got to move around the calendar so you can, you know, figure out what you're going to do for watching the KU game. Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad, depending on what's kind of going on. But as far as what can get done for KU, this is a very important time.

Starting point is 00:01:42 And I think, honestly, you know, this comes at a good time of year for KU, this is a very important time. And I think honestly, you know, this comes at a good time of year for KU when you look at how they've had to have all these players injured or coming off injuries or playing through injuries, whatever it is, that this ends up being a pretty good time for KU to have these extra days off. Now, there are a couple different approaches with how KU is going to, you know, do the week off. Are they going to use it for extra practices? Are they going to use it for more rest time? Are they going to do, you know, a little bit of A and a little bit of B? That'll be very interesting to see how they kind of do

Starting point is 00:02:14 and what do they focus on in practice, right? Like we heard last week they were focusing on the defensive side of the basketball in practice and trying to focus on, you know, guarding the perimeter in practice and trying to focus on making other teams play bad on the defensive side of the ball. Do they continue to do that? Or do you see some more, you know, stuff to the offensive end, which has kind of been dipping these last three games? I think that'll be very interesting. But when you look at where you are in this point of year, you're in the homestretch of the season here. You've got a handful of games to go. And really, this is your final push. And for Kansas, because of some of the early losses,

Starting point is 00:02:56 you're not really in great shape to try to win the Big 12 at this point in time. But you still have a fighter's chance at it, and you still have a chance at, you know, even getting possibly a one seed in the NCAA tournament. Like, it wouldn't be crazy if the Big 12 got a couple of one seeds. But you're going to have tonight, Houston's going to be taking on Iowa State, I guess, tonight as of recording.

Starting point is 00:03:18 By the time you listen to this, you'll have known who wins and loses. Somebody's going to, you know, be 10-3 between that, and you'll be two games behind them. Now, there will still be an opportunity to pass some of those teams and win at Houston, so maybe from that standpoint, you root for Houston to beat Iowa State because you don't have that opportunity, but point being, you're getting to the home stretch here, and this is your last real chance to work on things with a long extended period off. This is your last chance to have time off and do a lot of things that you're not going to have time for once we get closer to the end of the season

Starting point is 00:03:49 and once you're playing two games every week from here on out and then three games or four games, depending what happens with the Big 12 tournament and the NCAA tournament moving forward. But I think the most important thing has to be getting healthier because this both applies to guys with injuries and just in general like getting more fresh like even if there's a player who hasn't been injured like I don't know if KJ Adams or Johnny Furphy are nursing an injury um you know a lot of times we find out after the season somebody was dealing with like a minor thing but um when you look at

Starting point is 00:04:23 players who aren't even injured you know know, just getting fresher legs, especially you think of like some of the freshmen, that's where I immediately go to like Furphy and Elmarco Jackson and some of those guys who are young players, you're not used to the grind of a college season. And so maybe your legs are a little tired. You hit that freshman wall, so to speak, although that hasn't really applied as much because Furphy, you know, wasn't starting the first part of the season. I guess El Marco's not getting as many minutes now where maybe it's not as prevalent, but still, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:52 getting those guys a little bit more fresh. A guy like Hunter Dickinson, he said after the Oklahoma game, that was the best he's felt in a while. I forget what he said, like a month or two months or something like that. Now he's going to feel even better than that, right? Just having fresh legs. But mostly it is the guys who have real injuries. Like you look at Kevin McCuller, I doubt he was 100% for the Oklahoma game.

Starting point is 00:05:14 Maybe he was 80%. Maybe he was 90%. I don't know. But getting him closer to being 100%, Kevin, is going to be pretty important and imperative for where you are. DeJuan Harris, he didn't really notice the rolled ankle, I think, in the Oklahoma game. Maybe you noticed it a little bit in the Texas Tech game.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Not really as much in the Oklahoma game. But still, having some extra days off for him to get right and for everybody to get as close to 100% for the final push as possible is the most important part of this for a team that isn't very deep. It's also extra scouting report, extra scouting time on your upcoming opponents. So five games to go for KU at this point in time. Maybe you do a little bit of extra scouting, you know, looking ahead in the schedule with a game at Baylor, which is going to

Starting point is 00:05:57 be so important. Rematches against Kansas State and Houston. I guess the Baylor ones are rematched too. Or your next two games where you haven't played them yet. Texas and BYU, both at home, gives you some extra time to scout for both of those teams. And I think you look at the BYU one, certainly with that being a new opponent that you haven't played before, you know, as part of the conference, it's nice to have that extra, you know, scouting report time and look at everything. And then, you know, just throughout the week, like all the games that are going to be going on this week,

Starting point is 00:06:29 whether it is, you know, Baylor playing at BYU or Texas Tech playing against TCU or something like that. Like you have an opportunity to just kind of watch those games and view those games and scout all the other teams of the midweek games that are kind of going on around the conference for if you could play them later in Big 12 play in the Big 12 conference tournament or something like that. So the extra scouting report, that never hurts,

Starting point is 00:06:50 especially for a coach in Bill Self, who typically when he's had that extra time in between has certainly had a lot of success at Kansas. It's interesting because this year's Kansas team has had kind of mixed results with extra time off. I think they've only had one or two games where they've had a full week off in between games.

Starting point is 00:07:08 It was the Missouri to the Indiana game when, you know, they barely had to win that Indiana game. And then it was from the Yale game to the Wichita State game, which the Wichita State game, Kansas blew them out, and that was a really impressive performance by them. But they have had some other games where they've had maybe like five days off or six days off. They went from the Tuesday Kentucky game to the Chaminade game.

Starting point is 00:07:29 That one didn't go well. Then again, you had a big travel in between with going to Maui. You had the final game in Maui to the Eastern Illinois game, which certainly was not a good game for you. But then again, you had the big travel in between with coming back home from Hawaii. So it's like makes it closer to like a four day in between, you know, because of the travel and the jet lag and everything.

Starting point is 00:07:50 So, you know, you also have the six days between Indiana and Yale. That one you won by 15 was probably closer than you would have expected. So there is kind of a mixed bag that KU hasn't always done better with more rest this year, unlike maybe last year's team. But I don't know that some of that might be just circumstantial than anything. I think it absolutely helps, especially at this point in time. And then the last part of this is just kind of tinkering with any strategy. You know, we saw Kansas in past years tinker with, as the year went on, once we got to February, you know, ball screen defense or how they want to ice ball screens or hedge ball screens. And some of the different things

Starting point is 00:08:24 they're doing with like the line that the center is going to drop to, right? Do they adjust with any of that? Do they tinker any of that? Do they add any extra plays to the playbook? There's no better coach in college basketball than Bill Self with those out of timeout plays and situations. You know, do you add a few extra wrinkles in there for this home stretch and conference play where, you know, you self-scout even a little bit where you have time to do that maybe a little bit more than you did in these past weeks where you can now self-scout and say okay all these teams are preparing for us to do this

Starting point is 00:08:53 we're going to count off that and do this right so uh there's a lot you can do i think with this off week there is going to be a limited time as much as i say well you can do this this this and this you still can't do like all of it at once, but it does give you a little extra time. And I do like that there is that kind of off week now in the Big 12 because you don't have that, you know, Big 12 SEC showdown where you have that one last game kind of in the middle of things. As much fun as that was, this probably benefits in a conference that is so incredibly difficult and scathing. This is probably for the best, and we'll see how Kansas responds from here because it's a great opportunity to get better this week

Starting point is 00:09:29 and to really set yourself up for a push in the home stretch and feel like you're hot going into the NCAA tournament. All right, we're going to continue on. What is the path to still winning the Big 12 for Kansas, maximizing their seed line, and what would be a good record for Kansas in their final five games of the regular season with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel,

Starting point is 00:09:53 America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 if your bet wins. Bet on all your favorite NBA players and teams with quick bets, live same-game parlays, exclusive props, and more. You can get in on the college basketball action. Bet around the Big 12.

Starting point is 00:10:15 You can pick certain player props. You can come up with your own 15-plus-point scoring parlay. You can get as custom as you want to do with FanDuel. They're giving you all the options to have fun in enjoying some of these other games going on, maybe make it a little bit more entertaining as long as you do it responsibly, obviously. So just visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and shoot your shot. FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA and locked on. Continuing on with what is the path to still winning the Big 12 look like for KU at this

Starting point is 00:10:49 point, maximizing your seed line and what would be a good record for Kansas over the last five games? Well, when you look at the Big 12 right now, as I mentioned, the winner of the Houston Iowa State game, which by the time you listen to this, you will have already known, is going to be two games ahead of Kansas at that point in time. You look at Houston's upcoming schedule after Iowa State, they're at Baylor versus Cincinnati, at Oklahoma, at UCF, and versus Kansas. I think you almost, I mean, you need to, I feel like, root for Houston because of the fact that if Iowa State wins at Houston,

Starting point is 00:11:27 here's Iowa State's final five games after that, versus West Virginia versus Oklahoma at UCF versus BYU at Kansas State. There's a good chance that Iowa State wins out. If not, maybe it goes 4-1. So if they beat Houston, there's a good chance they're in the clubhouse at like 14-4. They lose to Houston, there's a good chance they get into the clubhouse at like 13 and five. And so then that's the number you kind of look at. And so if Houston, all of a sudden you beat Iowa State,

Starting point is 00:11:51 then you got to hope they lose at Baylor. And then you got to hope you maybe beat them. Because I think how this all sets up, basically the way I'm looking at it, you can convince yourself that, okay, Houston will beat Iowa State tonight and then they'll lose at Baylor. And then they'll get upset by one at Oklahoma or at UCF, and then Kansas can beat them, and that would get them to 12-6, and then Iowa State can lose to Houston, and then they can lose at UCF and then lose at Kansas State

Starting point is 00:12:20 and lose out on the road, even though they've actually been a good road team in the Big 12, and that would get them to six losses, and that Baylor could lose to Kansas and could lose at Texas Tech or something like that, and that'll get them to six losses. You could convince yourself that a lot of those scenarios would happen, and Kansas would just have to go four and one down the stretch to share for the Big 12 title. I think it's more realistic at this point that one of Houston or Iowa State, if not both, get to 13-5 in league play. When you look at those schedules down the stretch, that's kind of how I'm operating at this point, which means, yes, Kansas already has five

Starting point is 00:12:54 losses in conference play. So realistically to me, for Kansas to win the Big 12, you got to win out. And how realistic is that? I don't know. I guess you have this extra week off to prepare and get ready for that home stretch. You know, you look at it this way and you have three home games. Take care of business at home. Texas, BYU, and Kansas State, right? Win those out. Maybe you got rolling a little bit on the road by winning at Oklahoma, but that's really tough to be like you have to win both between at Baylor and at Houston.

Starting point is 00:13:21 It's one thing to be like, can you win one? That on itself is still a very difficult task, but it was a little bit more prevalent to win both. Like, I don't know, very, very tough. But you can still maximize your seed line regardless of what happens in the Big 12 here, because I still think, you know, the Big 12 is going to have a great shot at getting two one seeds when it's all said and done. Maybe not a great shot because there's a lot of other good teams that are in there. But, you know, I look at this and I think, okay, what happens if Houston goes 13-5 in Big 12 play, wins the Big 12? You know, they're going to get a one seed, right?

Starting point is 00:13:58 Kansas goes 12-6, let's say, and they finish at that point. Let's say they're like tied third or something like that or tied second in the Big 12, at that point they wouldn't be viewed as a one seed, but you would still have the potential because I think if you win the Big 12 tournament this year, when you look at how difficult the conference is, how many quad one wins you would be racking up along the way,

Starting point is 00:14:19 I think that will carry a lot of water, maybe more so than post-season conference tournaments have over the last two, three, four, five years. So I think that's how I view it. If Kansas can go 12-6 in conference play, I don't know that it's enough to win the Big 12 in the regular season. But if you go 12-6 in conference play and win the Big 12 tournament, I think that might just be enough to get you a one seed. At the very least, it gets you a two seed and probably secures that I think worst case scenario let's say Kansas goes like let's say they go two and one at home down the stretch and they go oh and two on the road so it puts you two and three let's say they go like one and one in the big 12 tournament and then at that point you're looking

Starting point is 00:14:56 at like 23 and 10 something like that even at that point I feel like the worst case scenario is them getting like a three or four seed in the NCAA tournament because of the non-con and the amount of good wins that they have. So I think you're set up to be in a pretty good spot. But I still think that one seed is out there, even if it's not totally going to happen. But like, what if Tennessee wins out and wins the SEC? And then you do, as I said, you go 4-1 down the last five in the Big 12 tournament, and then you have that head-to-head over Tennessee. How much does that matter if those two come down to being the final one seed, right? So I think that can still happen.

Starting point is 00:15:35 What would be a good record, though, for Kansas in these final five games? Well, I guess part of it just depends what you're talking about here, right? Are you talking about Kansas winning the Big 12? Because then you need them to go 5-0, in my opinion, for this to be a good final five games for Kansas. Is the opinion just being alive for that one seed like I'm talking about? Okay, then go 4-1. That makes it a good five. Is it just feel like you're playing better basketball and headed in the right direction? Then at that point, you could convince me either three and two or four and one. I definitely think four and one gets it done.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Three and two, I think, becomes interesting because I think three and two in this final five-game stretch is more than fine. Again, like when you have at Baylor and at Houston as part of those five games, you know, it's going to be a little bit more difficult to win those ones. And so if you view it as, okay, three and2 is fine, 4-1 should be really good, what you're really gunning for, I think 3-2 puts you in a good position, but I don't know that it makes you feel like this team is so much better than where they are now.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Whereas if you do go 4-1, that would mean that you probably took care of home court and you won one at Baylor or at Houston, and your only loss in that stretch was either at Baylor or at Houston, to where going 4-1 in this final five-game stretch would probably make you feel like, okay, even if they didn't win the Big 12, they're playing better than they have at any point in Big 12 play. If they're trending in the right direction heading into the postseason, then you are starting to figure things out. And that probably, to me, is more important than anything at this point in Big 12 play. If they're trending in the right direction heading into the postseason, then you are starting to figure things out.

Starting point is 00:17:06 And that probably, to me, is more important than anything at this point in time with where you've set yourself up in the conference. And, you know, because of – I've continued to say I think that this team is set up better for the NCAA tournament than, you know, the regular season, ding the bell. And I guess if you go 4-1 over the final five, it would probably represent that, that you feel like you're trending in the right direction,

Starting point is 00:17:31 headed into the NCAA tournament, but you probably didn't get to 5-0, which probably is what it would take to get it done to win the conference at this point in time. All right, let's get on to some KU football news with Scott Fuchs, the KU offensive line coach, taking a job in the NFL with Lockdown Jayhawks. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role,

Starting point is 00:17:56 which is why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn isn't just another job board. They have a vast network of more than a billion professionals, which makes it the best place to hire. It gives you access to professionals you can't find anywhere else. LinkedIn does all that while making the process easy and intuitive.

Starting point is 00:18:16 Hiring is easy when you have that many quality candidates. It's so easy, in fact, that 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. You can check out LinkedIn jobs and, you know, obviously if you're a small business, you probably are doing a lot of different things right now. So, you know, maybe it's hard for you to find the time, but with LinkedIn, it's going to be quick. And because you're wearing so many hats, LinkedIn,

Starting point is 00:18:39 you know, is going to help with constantly finding ways to make the process and the hiring process so much easier and quicker. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. That is linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:19:00 You can find our show anywhere that you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. So right now this is, I guess, not something that KU wanted at this point in the offseason, but certainly it is something that they're going to have to overcome like they did all the other ones in the past. Scott Fuchs, who is the KU offensive line coach, has been hired by the Tennessee Titans, this according to a couple reports, with Football Scoop, and I think it's been echoed in some of the local papers, Kansas City Star, Topeka Capital Journal, stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:19:41 So Fuchs, first of all, excellent offensive line coach. This is a much-deserved, you know, for him to go off to the NFL, and I'd imagine from his point of view, probably a couple of reasons why this move makes sense for him. I mean, one, moving up to the NFL probably comes with a salary bump, right? Beyond that, maybe, you know, where we're seeing more and more coaches move up to the NFL level, trying to be like, you know what, I don't really want to deal with this NIL stuff anymore. Totally understandable. I don't know how much the offensive line coach is dealing with that to begin with, but still get away from that. Second of all, he has a kid who's now going to college, I think Indiana State,

Starting point is 00:20:11 and then he has another kid who's a good high school recruit. I think he'll be a senior in high school. And, you know, maybe he just wants to be able to watch them play college football, right? And obviously he won't be able to go every game because he's going to be able to watch them play college football, right? And obviously he won't be able to go every game because he's going to be traveling in the NFL and everything, but he'll be able to watch the game on Saturday with his game coming on Sunday. So I don't know, it makes a lot of sense for him,

Starting point is 00:20:33 and you wish him the best. And obviously he was an unbelievable offensive line coach. You think about where this KU offensive line was before Scott Fuchs took over to where they are now, where they're not just competent but a very good offensive line. Some of that goes to players. A lot of that goes to Scott Fuchs took over to where they are now, where they're not just competent but a very good offensive line. Some of that goes to players. A lot of that goes to Scott Fuchs as well. And the biggest turnaround you could see was that 2020 year.

Starting point is 00:20:53 They gave up a billion sacks. His first year he came in, they didn't have all the players yet. They had Mike Nowitzki and some of these guys, but it was a lot of returning parts. And, yes, part of it was the play calling. You did a good job getting the ball out quick and trying to mitigate how long the line had to, you know, hold their blocks for a long period of time. But he did an unbelievable job, you know,

Starting point is 00:21:15 mitigating some of those sack numbers in a very real way. So obviously this is a huge loss when you look at the development of offensive linemen, the development of the young guys. It's also a big loss in recruiting because he was a big part in a lot of your recruits, maybe not as much as Jordan Peterson was, but still in a very real way. So very big loss for KU to fill. And I think if you were ranking the biggest losses of the offseason for KU from a coaching perspective, honestly, to me, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:21:44 I mean, it's easy to say Jordan Peterson won because of his future and the recruiting and everything. And I think that makes sense. But also, I almost viewed Jordan Peterson as being somebody who was a rising coach, a young guy, that it wouldn't have shocked me if he would have left at some point to take a, you know, defensive coordinator job or a head coaching job eventually at another school at some point in time in the next couple years whereas with Fuchs you didn't know if that was going to be the case

Starting point is 00:22:13 so this one in a weird way might be the biggest loss of the coaching of the offseason but if not it's it's number two here from the coaching even above Andy Kotelicki in my opinion with what he has done for the offensive line so another scramble move that KU has to fill and try to fill quickly because, you know, a transfer portal is going to be opening up again in the spring and you got to be able to find somebody that can connect with the offensive line. And certainly Kansas has done a good job with making it that it is really a system all around that it's not just about one coach, but, you know, sometimes recruits do commit to one guy. So you never totally know how that's going to work.

Starting point is 00:22:48 You trust Lance Leipold to hire the right guy because he's been so excellent at hiring good assistant coaches and setting them up in this position. And it's inevitable that you're going to have attrition and lose coaches when you're having success. But certainly, especially this late in the game, a bit of a tough one for KU to lose in one of the best assistant coaches that they have in Scott Fuchs. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts,

Starting point is 00:23:12 including on our YouTube page. Plenty more content coming.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - A One Game Week Can Give Kansas Jayhawks Basketball a Boost + Path to Big 12 + Scott Fuchs to Titans

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.