Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - A SEASON-DEFINING Game for Kansas Jayhawks and Bill Self vs the Iowa State Cyclones?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, is this game to save the season? For KU, we preview Jayhawks and Cyclones. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, what's going on? Derek Johnson here at D Johnson Radio on Twitter at Derek Johnson on Blue Sky. And thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Thank you to every dayers catching all our shows. And thank you for making it your first listen every day. We are going to be breaking down Kansas-Iowa State preview of the game. We'll get into the Iowa State scouting report, the keys to the game what matchups could determine it for KU players to watch for the Jayhawks a little bit about what happened in the first go around and the importance of this one for KU let's let's start right there but first this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Super Bowl 59 is here this Sunday there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook new customers can can bet just $5, and if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus bets. Download the app or head

Starting point is 00:01:10 to FanDuel.com, and you can get started today. So Kansas taking on Iowa State. This is an 8 o'clock game on a Monday, and it's weird because a couple things coming into this game as we look at the headlines. One, is this an opportunity for Kansas to save their season, so to speak, right? I think that the question is two-pronged. One, if you view it from the standpoint of does the season need saving, first of all, it would be the first part of that because you could point to places like Ken Palm and Bart Torvik that still have this team as maybe a top 15, top 12 team in the country

Starting point is 00:01:44 and say, okay, I get it. They're not as good as normal but like does it really need saving like they're gonna be okay either way the other side of it is the bar at Kansas is so high you're competing for national championships final fours yada yada yada and that if you lose this game it's gonna feel like after you know on the wings of what happened in the Houston game and and then what happened uh in Baylor game on Saturday it's gonna feel like it's it's game over at this point and what does game over mean does it mean you're not gonna make the tournament no i don't think so but does it mean that it's just gonna feel like whatever happens the rest of the way is is kind of just leading up to you know a first weekend exit in the ncaa tournament i feel like that is

Starting point is 00:02:24 kind of the case here and the other part of this too is like, I kind of wonder, is this the worst that KU fans during Bill Self's time, certainly at Kansas, that they have ever felt about a home game in Lawrence? And I'd be curious for the older heads too who are listening to this, like, is this, I don't know, like, I guess point being, most other games, most most other seasons when you say

Starting point is 00:02:46 okay kansas is playing this team at home of course we've seen kansas lose at home and that doesn't mean they win every game at home but they win a majority of their games at home they rarely lose at home and most times when you are coming into a game and it is a game in allen field house you're sitting there going well you know we'll get them at home right like they're gonna win that one at home and then you're almost just shocked and surprised when they lose the game and i feel like for maybe the first time that i can ever remember since i've been you know talking ku and stuff like that um this feels like one in fans that i've talked to at least right this just could be the the small circle that i'm operating in right it doesn't represent everybody but of

Starting point is 00:03:24 where there are a lot of fans that are like, no, I'm kind of expecting to lose a home game. Like I'm expecting to lose on Monday night. I'm expecting to lose this game in Allen Fieldhouse. And I don't know if that comes from the confidence or lack thereof of this team right now. You've already lost two home games. So just be like, there's a lot of reasons

Starting point is 00:03:40 why that would be the case. Iowa State's obviously a good team. Iowa State's coming off a bad loss too, but it just feels like this is the worst that KU fans have felt about protecting your home court, protecting Allen Fieldhouse that I can certainly remember in my time,

Starting point is 00:03:57 you know, again, like I said, kind of talking KU here. So I just think that's very interesting. And really for both teams, this is a game that you're trying to respond. I mean, Kansas is trying to respond after those games I just think that's very interesting. And really, for both teams, this is a game that you're trying to respond. I mean, Kansas is trying to respond after those games I just mentioned. Iowa State just lost by almost 20 points at home to Kansas State. Like, they are clearly going to come out pissed off.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And this is something I mentioned in the recap from the KU-Baylor game. Thank you if you already tuned into that one. That I have confidence that Iowa State, the way they play, the way they're coached, the way their roster's put together, coming off a loss like that, which for them was probably pretty embarrassing, they're going to come out and play pissed off. They're going to come out and play with an added anger and attitude coming into this game. My worry is that in theory, you would hope Kansas, after the way they lost that Baylor game, would do the same. But I don't know that we've seen much over these past couple seasons to make you think that they will come out with that type of attitude.

Starting point is 00:04:48 So we'll see how it goes in this one. Now, when you look back to that first matchup between Kansas and Iowa State, Iowa State wins 74 to 57. It was a game that I don't think the final score was fully indicative of, you know, just how far apart they were that night i think iowa state was i think iowa state on the season is the better team and iowa state was playing at home and i don't think kansas played very well so like i was i think clearly deserved to win the game i think though you look at it they outscored you 23 to 12 or the final 10 minutes and really that that got away over the final five minutes or so of the second half. Like, this was a 1-2 possession game, whatever, around the five-minute mark.

Starting point is 00:05:29 So I think it was a little closer than the 17 might indicate. But what I find interesting, some numbers in this one, I mean, Zeke Mayo was the only double-digit score for KU, hit 17 points. This was one of his best games of the season on the road so far this year. But you look at Iowa State, and they had four players hit double-digit points.

Starting point is 00:05:46 Curtis Jones was unbelievable, 25 points. Jefferson, Lipsy both had 10. And then Deshaun Jackson, they couldn't stop him at 17, 9 of 11 on free throws in the game. You look at Iowa State at a 35% offensive rebound rate. Kansas only had 23%. So that was clearly a big difference in this game. Kansas, horrible shooting free throws, 4 of 11,

Starting point is 00:06:04 which that's kind of been a consistent theme for KU outside of really that home UCF game here of late that they just have not shot free throws well so far this season. The big one there is the turnovers. Kansas had 17 turnovers and Iowa State had 13 of their own. So it kept sort of close, but like there were a lot of really bad, lazy, dumb turnovers for KU in this game. The other stat that sticks out is the 11 steals on the 17 turnovers and then beyond that 10 blocks Kansas ended up with 10 blocks in this game and then the final stat that that I think kind of is interesting here is obviously there's been a lot of talk since the Baylor game about why is Flory why do you only play four minutes in the second half well he only played 11 minutes in the first meeting with iowa state but he had four blocks in 11 minutes now he did have three

Starting point is 00:06:48 turnovers so like yes that does matter he did have four fouls that obviously limited the playing time but i think it'll be interesting to see his usage in this game same with rylan griffin who did play 19 minutes but it certainly felt like a game when going back and watching the iowa state game was like it felt like he just wasn't really you know on the floor uh all that much so that's kind of what happened in that first go around between the two teams now you look at what Iowa State is coming into this matchup with they're 17 and 4 now on the season 7 and 3 in Big 12 play they they could really use this win if they want to try to win the conference because losing their last two has put them in a more difficult position to try to win the Big 12 they've also lost three of their last five since that kansas win they lost at west virginia by seven then they had back-to-back

Starting point is 00:07:30 wins over at home against ucf and then all the road against arizona state and now back-to-back losses overtime at arizona and at home against kansas state and that is certainly scary because when i see a team that is as good as iowa is, how often do those teams lose three in a row? So it'll be very interesting. They come into this one top 20 offensively, top 10 on the defensive end of the court. When you look at Ken Baum's adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency. When you look into the player personnel of note,

Starting point is 00:08:00 I mean, obviously, Curtis Jones, who went off in that first meeting, he's averaging 18 points per game. He's shooting 38% from three. Keyshawn Gilbert, over 15 points per game, four and a half assists. He's shooting 51 from the floor, 33 from three. Tameen Lipsy, 11 points, three assists, over two steals. Great defender, 49% from the floor, 34 from three. It's a great guard trio between those three guys.

Starting point is 00:08:23 Joshua Jefferson, 13 points, eight rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals. He does everything, 53%, 33 from 3. Then you have Deshaun Jackson, who killed you in the first game, 9 points, 5 rebounds per game, 57% from the floor. Monchilovich was injured in that one, and he is still injured, so they don't have him. And that certainly is correlated with some of their recent struggles here. Nate Heisey, who was a transfer, did really well his previous stop,

Starting point is 00:08:49 but only shooting 24% for three here at Iowa State. And then Brandon Chatfield is their other big man. He's not as good as Jackson, but he starts over three points, over three rebounds per game, 57% from the floor. So those are some of the players to watch for them. Now, you look at what they do well, what they don't do well. This team plays very fast so far this season. We talked about this in the first matchup.

Starting point is 00:09:09 They're top 30 in the country in average possession length on the offensive end of the court. So it's not your same old grind it to a halt Iowa State offense. If we look at Big 12 only numbers, they're second in terms of being the fastest team in the conference. Big 12 only numbers as well. They are fourth in offensive rebound rate. They've been a good offensive rebounding team so far this season. the fastest team in the conference um and big 12 only numbers as well they are uh uh fourth and offensive rebound rate they've been a good offensive rebounding team so far this season

Starting point is 00:09:29 and and that number is also you know top 75 nationally uh their third and conference only games in getting to the free throw line which is a top 40 rate nationally if you take in all the games um they're also shooting 35.1 from three, so that's going to get it done, certainly. KU hasn't had that quite same success so far this season. The offense hasn't been as efficient, though, in conference play to the regular season. Overall, including the non-con, they're 17th in the country in adjusted offense efficiency, but in conference-only play, they're sixth of 16 teams, so they've still been good, but not quite as dominant. The big difference has been in conference play, the two-point shooting has taken a severe drop from where it's been overall in the season if you look at the

Starting point is 00:10:09 defensive side of the ball they are uh third in conference only games but they're sixth nationally in all games and defensive efficiency and the reason why they're so good this is uh the number one steel rate defense in big 12 games which is also top 15 in the country they have a top 20 turnover rate defense right now which is second in big 12 only games uh they've been at least an above average defensive rebounding team in conference games they've been even better over the course of the uh the entirety of the season they don't really send teams to the free throw line that often which is good for them and they have a really good two-point defense top 35 nationally third in big 12 only games. So they force a lot of steals. They get extra possessions on the

Starting point is 00:10:47 offensive end of the court. They shoot three as well. They play fast. They play physical. They play tough. It's a really fun team because you have really good guard play and you have a team who hustles and plays tough. And I think there are a lot of Kansas fans that probably are a little bit jealous in terms of what TJ Otzelberger has

Starting point is 00:11:03 on his team right now. Let's get to our matchups of the game. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Super Bowl 59 is here. One game, two teams, endless possibility. And there's no better ways to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. Whether it's predicting the first touchdown, calling the MVP, or even betting on the coin toss, FanDuel makes it easy to get in

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Starting point is 00:11:54 Bet with Fanduel, official partner of Super Bowl 59 and the Lockdown Podcast Network. Continue on with our show. We're going to get to matchups of the game. I think I might rebrand this into keys to the game because I feel like that's what it ends up being. But we'll get to that, and then we'll get to players to watch.

Starting point is 00:12:11 Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. Don't forget to check out Locked on College Basketball for your second listen every day. Okay, so what are our keys to the game, I guess, so to speak, for KU? So number one is going to be one that is kind of an internal thing. It's certainly a key talking point among KU basketball fans these days. I'm going to go with play Flory and Ryland. So this goes twofold.

Starting point is 00:12:37 One, I think this is just like an overall thing on the season to where it's like, I think this is helpful for KU. I think Flory Badunga is the best player on Kansas. Now, I do understand Hunter Dickinson has unbelievable production, and I'm not saying that you need to play Flory 30 minutes a night and Hunter 20. No, that's not what I'm saying. And in fact, I think the Hunter and Flory lineups work actually

Starting point is 00:12:57 pretty well next to each other, and there are a lot of stats that would back that up. And obviously, Flory has to deal with foul stuff as being a young freshman. Big man that, yeah, I'm not asking for him to necessarily play 30 minutes a night, but can he get 22, 25 consistently, barring that sort of thing? And I look at it, again, those four blocks he had in like 11 minutes in the first matchup with Iowa State. He is a game changer on both ends of the court.

Starting point is 00:13:23 He makes you a much better offensive rebounding team, which helps the KU offense overall. He gives you another finisher around the rim, which, you know, even though he doesn't have shooting range, you're not getting shooting range from KJ either before he is going to present a bigger threat at finishing at the rim in addition to the offensive rebounding. And then the defensive end of the court, like he's, even if it's, sometimes it is statistical is statistical right like getting extra blocks or whatever other times it's it doesn't show up on the stat sheet it's things like maybe guys don't even take the shot that they would have taken if flory isn't in there because they're worried about flory blocking the shot from somewhere inside i think he is just such a game changer and i'm worried about how that baylor game went is four minutes in the second half, the quotes from after the game. I don't think they can afford

Starting point is 00:14:09 in a game where you are playing a really good opponent at home. You need your best players on the court a little bit more. The other part of this is Ryland Griffin. And I think part of that is that I don't know that Ryland Griffin actually is one of the like four or five best players on the team. I don't know. I'd have to think about like maybe he would be in in there but i definitely think he's one of the four or five most valuable players on the team and what do i mean by that so again i i think maybe he would be that you know the more i think about this but regardless the value i think is even more prominent here for rylan griffin because even in games where rylan griffin does score four points or score six points it's a different level of impact on the offensive end than when somebody else scores six, right?

Starting point is 00:14:46 Because Rylan Griffin, his gravity, his spacing is opening up the floor for Hunter Dickinson, for Flory Budunga, driving lanes for DeJuan Harris. When KJ Adams is in there to throw down a dunk. I think Rylan Griffin helps other players be better, right? I just think having him out there opens things up in that real way. What I find to be very interesting so far this season, when you look at the games where Ryland Griffin has given you multiple made three pointers, you have a win over North Carolina.

Starting point is 00:15:17 You have a win over Michigan State, which is probably your second best win of the season to this point. A win over Oakland, which, you know, it is what is. Win over UCF. You do have the loss at Baylor, which, I mean, that was probably more about the defense, giving up 60 in the second half. And then the loss to Houston, which you should have won. Like, this team is such a much better team

Starting point is 00:15:36 when he's playing those high-level minutes. Then you look at the games where he's played the biggest minute totals. Michigan State's his biggest minute total. They won that game again, second best win of the season houston's his second which again they should have beat houston one of the best teams in the country nc state which was a blowout win um ucf which was a win the at baylor one which we just talked about oakland unc wilmington and uh the win at tcu like those are all the games that he's played 20 or more minutes i think that's been pretty successful

Starting point is 00:16:01 and then you look at what iowa state does they are going to pack the inside of the defense and they are going to actually be okay giving up above the break threes they give up a high rate of above the break threes this season rylan griffin can take advantage of this i would like to see and we've seen him play well in big moments whether it was last year at alabama or some of the games this year for kansas i mean i just mentioned michigan state houston right um so yeah play flory and rylan now my confidence level that these things will happen, that would be a different question. Number two, turn Iowa State over.

Starting point is 00:16:29 So Iowa State's three worst turnover games this season, they're all with turnover rates of 20% or higher. All three of them are losses, which means they're 17-1 in the other games. Now, in the first game, Kansas did force 13 turnovers, which is pretty good. It was an 18 turnover rate so they were actually pretty close to that 20 turnover rate the problem was you had

Starting point is 00:16:49 more turnovers and so maybe this comes down to more about like turnover differential like can you hold on the ball and force them right because if you force 18 turnovers but you turn it over 20 times i guess that doesn't really matter so it kind of becomes the turnover differential kansas can you get down to 11 12 13 in this game and you can you force 15 or 16 from iowa state that kind of swings it the other way and the fact that it was close in that first matchup does give me hope that you can do it this go around and maybe that is something that they'll be able to accomplish all right uh key number three matchup number, whatever you want to call it, get Hunter Dickinson going. Because you look at the game that happened in Ames and Hunter was not really a factor. He only had six points. He was three of 10 shooting in the game in Ames. But last year when you played him in Ames, he was really good. He had a double-double. He had

Starting point is 00:17:40 20 points for you. He had some big buckets late as k you kind of crept back into that one and almost found their way to you know pull a road victory and then iowa state just kept hitting those threes but you know they need to find a way to get him going in this game and um for kansas best shot at winning like you're gonna have to get easy buckets typically what is the easiest bucket that kansas is getting right now it's usually hunter being able to make you know a high percentage of shots on the block and in the post um so for kansas to win this game like i don't think you can win with hunter diggins and scoring 10 points and i i know they're like exceptions to the rule if they're triple teaming him or they're double teaming them all game then maybe it comes down to just hunter needs to have a game where he's six assists or whatever kansas needs to find a more consistent way to get it to him on the block.

Starting point is 00:18:26 And he has to have a bigger impact in this one than he did in Ames. I think that's for certain. Let's finish up here with players to watch. This is Locked on Jayhawks. What's happening? Welcome back to Locked on Jayhawks. We will have a Kansas-Iowa State recap coming at you late Monday night into your Tuesday morning. Right here with Locked on Jayhawks. We will have a Kansas-Iowa State recap coming at you late Monday night into your Tuesday morning right here with Locked on Jayhawks. I'll get into a little bit about looking ahead to the 2025 to 2026 season

Starting point is 00:18:52 later in the week here with Locked on Jayhawks. And then later this weekend, we'll have another preview for the Kansas-Kansas State game, which don't look now. Kansas State actually playing good basketball. They won at Iowa State. They won three straight games. I think Mark Torvik over those last three games rates them the number one team in the country. So they're playing really good basketball. They won at Iowa State. They won three straight games. I think Bart Torvik over those last three games rates them the number one team in the country.

Starting point is 00:19:07 So they're playing really good basketball right now. That'll be a tough one for KU. All right, what is our player matchup to watch here between Kansas and Iowa State? Let's just go back to what the last game told us. That's that Curtis Jones and Zeke Mayo are going to go off, right? I mean, Curtis Jones, 25 points.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Zeke Mayo, 17. 42 combined points between the two players. Let's just go with that. Now, we know that with Curtis Jones, I don't know how much Zeke Mayo is going to guard him. I mean, especially after the game he went off, you would think Bill Self is going to say, hey, we'll put mostly DeJuan Harris and Shaquille Moore on him, though then again, Shaquille Moore hasn't played as much these last few games, so that leaves you in a situation where it's like maybe Zeke does have to guard him right at the very least we know Kansas switches stuff so there will be certain possessions where Zeke has to guard him and that'll be difficult because uh you know Zeke hasn't been the best defender in the world and as good as he's been

Starting point is 00:19:55 on the offensive end that'll be a tough match for him to try to slow down Curtis Jones not the L Rand Zeke was really good in that match of a name 17 points he struggled a little bit more this season um on in the road than he has at home. I've brought this up several times. If you're an everydayer, you know this about some of the home road splits for Zeke Mayo. And these are the updated numbers for Zeke. He's on the road.

Starting point is 00:20:14 He's at 10 points per game. He's shooting 39% from the floor, 28% from three, 50% at the foul line. So, like, it hasn't been the same. But he has had some games like that one where he was good at iowa state where he had you know 17 points and i guess it wasn't a very efficient 17 points three of nine from three seven of 19 from the floor so it could have been better certainly but he did he was the only guy for ku and double did it so it's like somebody had to take those shots against a good defense still at home zeke has been dynamite 18.1 points per game five and a half rebounds per game three assists per game he is shooting at home, Zeke has been dynamite. 18.1 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game, 3 assists per game.

Starting point is 00:20:47 He is shooting at home in Allen Fieldhouse, 48% from the floor, 42% from three, 83% at the foul line. So he's been super comfortable playing at home and doing that against an Iowa State team that we mentioned earlier gives up a lot of above-the-break threes. Zeke Mayo leads Kansas in above-the-break threes so far this season. He had 17 last matchup. I think Zeke can have a good one here the one exception is going to be I'll be very interested Taman Lipsy is I don't know you could argue Lipsy should be big 12 defensive player of the year this year he certainly I would imagine will be on the big 12 all defensive

Starting point is 00:21:17 team excellent defensive point guard for Iowa State they had him guarding DeJuan Harris and it caused DeJuan some issues he had some bad turnovers in that game. Lipsy was all over him, and I wonder if they continue to do that to say, like, hey, he's initiating the offense. He's the lead ball handler here. Let's continue to cause him problems, and it's going to lead to other problems for the rest of the team. That would certainly make sense, but maybe we do see him a little bit on Zeke Mayo, and then if that's the situation, then it gets a little bit tougher for Zeke. And then a guy like DeJuan needs to step up in that situation. Now, high on the go-off meter, barring that happening,

Starting point is 00:21:50 I am going to actually go Zeke Mayo. Again, I mean, they give up a ton of above the break threes. Zeke Mayo leads Kansas in that area. He shot them well so far this season. And as we just went over the home road splits, like Zeke Mayo has been pretty nails at home. And it's hard to pick another player right now because it's like, if I go through the list and we're going on the go off meter

Starting point is 00:22:08 okay it's like uh offensive end of the court you know I'm not really gonna pick KJ in that situation um Hunter is usually an easy pick here but he had six points in aim so like clearly they were trying to take him away and did so pretty successfully so I don't want to pick that Flory as much as I'd love to pick him I don't know how much Bill's off is trying to take him away and did so pretty successfully. So I don't want to pick that. Flory, as much as I'd love to pick him, I don't know how much Billsop's going to play him or Ryland Griffin for that matter. So then you end up in this situation where it's like, okay, well, I'm left with a couple guys. Do I go with DeJuan Harris, who did hit a game winner against Iowa State in what? That would have been his sophomore season against the Cyclones in the 21-22 season when they won the national title, hit that little runner from the right. So maybe there's good vibes for him, but

Starting point is 00:22:47 yeah, I'll go with Zeke Mayo here at home for the Jayhawks. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll be back later tonight for a Kansas-Iowa State recap. See you then with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - A SEASON-DEFINING Game for Kansas Jayhawks and Bill Self vs the Iowa State Cyclones?

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