Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - A SEASON SAVING WIN?!? Kansas Jayhawks Crush Iowa State Cyclones 69-52

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is the season saved? Kansas dominates Iowa State for a very impressive bounce-back victory. No one. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. And you can find me at D Johnson radio on Twitter, Kansas victorious over Iowa state 69 to 52. We're going to break it down.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Thank you for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen every day. Thank you. The everyday is catching each and every episode. And thank you to you for listening, wherever, whether it's through anywhere that you get your podcasts, or if it's on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And we'll get into what happened.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Is this a season-saving victory for KU? Game awards and what's next for the Jayhawks as well with K-State coming up on Saturday. This episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. Kansas victorious here, 69-52 over Iowa State. And Allen Fieldhouse, Big Monday.

Starting point is 00:01:14 It just heals all, apparently. They just don't lose on Big Monday at home under Bill Self. And, you know, this was a really impressive win for a lot of different accords for KU, right? Because Kansas smashed a good Iowa State team who, as much as we talked about Kansas being desperate coming into this game, Iowa State was desperate coming into this game too. They had lost two straight games. They had lost by almost 20 points at home. But I think Kansas matched that desperation in this game. Kansas was great on the defensive end of the floor. They held Iowa State to 31% from the floor.

Starting point is 00:01:48 They held Iowa State to 14% from three and really won this game on that defensive end of the floor, I would say. I mean, anytime you only give up 52 points. Now, did Iowa State have a bad offensive game mixed with KU having a good defensive game? Yes, I would say so. Iowa State did miss some shots that maybe they wouldn't normally make. They only shot 55% on free throws.

Starting point is 00:02:10 But still, it was, I think, a combination of both when you look at what happened here. KU had a really good shooting game themselves, right? I mean, they shoot 47% from the floor, 50% from three, 9 of 18 on three-pointers. They were 8 of 11, so they took care of business, at least on the free throws in this one. And it really came from three guys for KU for that shooting because Hunter Dickinson was seven of 12. DeJuan Harris was four of six. Zeke Mayo was six of 13.

Starting point is 00:02:37 You total those three up and you're left with 17 of 31, which is well above 50%. They also combined to make five of seven from three so if you take away those guys from the rest of the team kansas would have shot four of 11 from three point range which would still be good but it's not as good as five of seven and then uh if you take away the two point shots then then you're looking at you know them shooting closer to 40 as a team so those three guys were pretty pivotal for ku on the the offensive end, and you total it all up. Obviously, there were other players that contributed there,

Starting point is 00:03:07 but the wild part of this one for the win for KU is, you know, part of the keys to the game for me coming in were thinking that Kansas needed to match Iowa State's intensity on the glass and needing to do well in the turnover department. Well, Kansas ended up with 13 turnovers, which is certainly better than it was in the game in Ames when it's up to 17 so like they did better there um but Iowa State only had seven I I thought that was an area where Kansas you know they did force a good amount of turnovers themselves in the game in Ames and in Iowa State's three of their losses this year their three worst turnover

Starting point is 00:03:38 games well that wasn't the case tonight but the difference a lot of those turnovers were not live ball there was a big difference in points off turnovers for iowa state in the first matchup that wasn't the case this time it was only 10 to 9 iowa state points off turnovers in this game which uh for a team that you know that's one of their identities that's kind of a win for kansas to that be the case um but did this save the season the ultimate question here is this a season you know saving victory i think it depends on your point of view. There might be the point of view where it's just like, I don't really think the season needed saving, right? I mean, I get it.

Starting point is 00:04:10 They're not having as great of a season as you could imagine and hope for. But, like, they're still going to make the tournament. They're still ranked 16th in the country. Other schools, other teams would die for, you know, your down year being ranked 16th in the country. Other schools would be like, that's our high year being ranked 16th in the country, right? So if that's your point of view, then no, the season did not need saving. But if your point of view is, hey, this is Kansas basketball, the expectation is championships, Big 12 championships, Final Fours, national titles, right?

Starting point is 00:04:41 If that is the bar you're going to judge them on for better or for worse, which I know unfairly or not i think that is the bar that we judge them on um i i think that this kind of saves it in that way and it's weird in in college basketball just in general because it's such a weird sport where march madness is so weird and there's so many teams in it that in a weird way, the regular, as long as you make the NCAA tournament, like there really is no season enders or season savers in the regular season if you view it that way, because you could get an eight seed in the NCAA tournament and make the national title game like North Carolina did a couple of years ago. You could get an 11 seed or whatever NC State and make it to a final four, right? Like that is allowed

Starting point is 00:05:24 to happen. But if you're looking at your best opportunities and for where things are, right, it involves playing your best basketball and being the best team you can be over the course of the regular season to turn into that run in March, right? Those runs that we talked about, they do happen all the time in March. But if you're looking at specific school to school, you know, it's more of the rarity. And so for Kansas to start feeling like so um for kansas to start feeling like they're playing better to start feeling like they are a better team i do think this is kind of a season saver in a real way now of course there's a chance you could give it back on saturday playing

Starting point is 00:05:56 in manhattan against k-state team that has all of a sudden found life and is playing really good basketball right now right and you've lost the last two years in manhattan of course you could lose that game and then it's going to feel like you kind of took a step forward, and then you took a step back, and you're kind of back to square one, so to speak. But this is really important. You look at the upcoming stretch after the Kansas State game, there's a lot of winnable games. And so guaranteeing that you're going to at least go one and one this week, and guaranteeing that you're not going to go 0-2 this week, and what would lead to a three-game losing streak is very important. But also, this gives you the opportunity to build on this. This gives you the opportunity for

Starting point is 00:06:27 momentum because now if you do win that game at Kansas State on Saturday and then you have that upcoming stretch where you think you have some good winnable games in front of you, it's going to feel like you can get this thing really rolling headed into the Big 12 tournament or headed into March or however way you're looking at it. And so if we are looking at this as, you know, what is this team truly? How good can they truly be? I do think this kind of saves the season in a weird way. Again, kind of just depending on your point of view there. Now, beyond what the win means and what happened in the game, I do think this is quickly becoming a little segment that we do in our open year and all of our game recaps is the lineup talk,

Starting point is 00:07:05 because it seems like there's different lineup talk to go over each and every game for KU. So some of the interesting notes of this one, we got to see Ryland Griffin start the game for KU. He ended up playing 23 minutes in the game. And I think that would have ended up being more. He got those two fouls in the first half. I think if he doesn't pick up those two fouls in the first half i think if he doesn't pick up those two thousand first half he probably does play closer to you know maybe 26 27 28 minutes uh in this game and it wasn't even a particularly great game for rylan griffin um it was a really i don't know you had the foul trouble in the first half and then also he just wasn't making threes in the first half he's getting open looks like those are going to go down for rylan griffin over the long haul because he's too good of a shooter for them not to um but he had a good second half you know again you look at

Starting point is 00:07:47 the statue like oh he had five points on on two of six shooting and he had zero rebounds one assist like how good we game i thought the second half he was really good he had that drop off past kj adams uh driving into the lane um and i think we've seen a little bit more ability by rylan griffin to drive and do that this season than maybe you thought coming into the year where, you know, it seemed like the main attribute was the three-point shooting. He did hit the one three in the corner in the second half. He also had that nice aggressive drive and transition where he throws down that really cool dunk. So I thought the second half, Ryland was really good. I thought first half, it just came down to, hey, when you're a three-point shooter, like it's just going to come down to your production if it's good or bad whether you're making the shots or whether you're

Starting point is 00:08:27 missing them he was missing them tonight but picked a good night to miss them because kansas won by 17 and they're gonna need him to make some and some other games that are gonna be closer and so uh you know i i i like the fact that bill self you know trusted him enough to start the game and uh stayed with him starting in the second half And I think there will be long-term positives if they continue to do that. We did see Flory off the bench with KJ starting, and that was certainly to the ire of the students in attendance. And you got the Flory chants and the We Want Flory chants, and that certainly created some divisiveness among KU fans and broadcasters alike. I thought KJ played a really good first half for KU.

Starting point is 00:09:06 I thought it wasn't as active in the second half, but overall I thought KJ was good for KU. Again, I still would like to see Flory play more than 15 minutes per game. I continue to say this. I think KJ is a good basketball player. I think he's a helpful basketball player. I think Flory is a great basketball player. And so to me

Starting point is 00:09:25 like if kj is playing 22 24 25 minutes per game and flory's playing 22 24 25 minutes per game like fine that that like totally works for me uh i'm not as big in love with the 32 to 15 minutes but i say all that to say um kj was probably better than flory in this game today right um I do think there are certain things you could point to where, you know, you would have certain plays where Flory would make where it's like, yeah, you probably don't get that from KJ. There's also some other, you know, plays where Flory would make where it's like, yeah, KJ probably doesn't make that mistake, right? And that's kind of the back and forth that you're going over.

Starting point is 00:09:59 I did think it was interesting, though, that when Flory came into the game, it wasn't with Hunter, which has been that lineup that I think has been working pretty well. When they threw Flory in the game at first, and I think for a lot of his minutes for the game, it was next to KJ Adams as opposed to Hunter, which I prefer the Flory-Hunter lineup, I think, over the Flory and KJ one. But in the end, those are kind of the big lineup notes in addition to, I guess, KJ playing 32 minutes and Juan playing 35 minutes. And that would be the other thing here. Shaquille Moore only played two minutes in this game, I guess, KJ playing 32 minutes and DeJuan playing 35 minutes. And that would be the other thing here.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Shaquille Moore only played two minutes in this game, okay? David Coy played nine minutes, felt like a very quiet nine minutes. Maybe the rotation is cutting down finally, right? Like maybe Bill Self is just saying, I'm going to go with, you know, the four guys I trust are going to be getting 30-plus minutes per night, and we're going to really get this thing down to like an eight-man rotation with a ninth guy getting spot minutes. i don't know maybe that was just a one game thing maybe it wasn't but i certainly found it interesting because skill more did make

Starting point is 00:10:51 a three but he was quickly out of the game after that did have the shot clock violation but bottom line here this feels like a win that could restart your season in a positive way like it feels like a win that reminds i think both this team and the fans what this team is capable of against a good opponent you know i was talking during the preview and i talked to a bunch of ku fans whether it was my inner circle i talked to people at work i talked you know whatever like kind of gauging the the environment of like how people felt going into this game and you know i had my personal feelings on things too that like if you were comparing the confidence meter, so to speak, of a home game at Allen Fieldhouse against a good opponent for tonight, before the

Starting point is 00:11:31 game started, before the game tipped off, versus past years and past games with this team, this would be lower on the confidence meter than a lot of those other ones, if not the lowest point. But they still won by 70. And so I think that's what this is this is a reminder of what they're capable of that alan fieldhouse is still uh this omnipresent being of a basketball court and you didn't just win you dominated against a really strong opponent and uh beyond that got some good contributions for isla griffin got some good contributions from aj store like those are things that um can be tangible game changer for you in the long run and so I think just a lot to come away from here and a nice bounce back win that you do hope is the start of that nice run for KU all right let's get to our game awards next

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Starting point is 00:13:38 I could go over other ones and talk about Ryland Griffin's dunk or Zeke Mayo's step-back three in transition that put him up 22-13 early. Or, I don't know, there's several different plays that were cool highlight plays and stuff like that. But there's a very obvious best moment of the game because it might be the best moment of the season. The importance of this game for KU and the play where it was actually started

Starting point is 00:14:02 by a bad play by KU, right? They had a bad turnover. And then it ends with KJ Adams throwing down an alley-oop. It was an unbelievable play. And it was all strung together by every single player on the court making an important contribution to the play. So let's start with the very finish. We're going to work backwards.

Starting point is 00:14:22 KJ Adams throws down an incredible dunk where he goes super high in the air and throws it down, brings the energy. Boom. Perfect. Right before KJ Adams throws down the dunk, it's Diggie Coit who's thrown an absolute dime alley hoop from half court. Great pass. Okay.

Starting point is 00:14:38 So the KJ dunk can't happen without the David Coit, you know, dime pass. The Diggie Coit pass can't happen without DeJuan Harris making this insane sliding save where he's able to slide in, pick up the ball, avoid out of bounds, avoid travel, and save it in pass all at once. It's just an unbelievable play by DeJuan to save it in. The DeJuan insane sliding save can't happen without Hunter Dickinson poking the ball away. And Hunter Dickinson's poke away probably can't happen unless AJ Storr is also hustling back defensively and forcing the offensive player from one side to change hands with the ball or, you

Starting point is 00:15:18 know, have to worry about pressure on the right side to where Hunter from the left side can poke it away. Everybody, you get hustle from the left side can poke it away everybody you get hustle from everybody you get a contribution from everybody and they're all strung together and and so it's it's metaphorical i guess importance of that play but it's also how cool the play was just to watch and that's the best moment of the game it might be the best moment of the season at this point in time uh kind of reminded me a little bit of that uh the one i think it was the jamari trailer dunk uh in austin against texas if you remember that one i don't remember which year it would have been maybe 2016 2015

Starting point is 00:15:50 somewhere in that range and uh it was just this like back and forth um like loose ball nobody could eventually okay you picked it up and i want to say jamari threw down like a pretty crazy dunk at the end of it so uh that kind of what that reminded me of okay uh roller coaster moment of the game this is a new award for this game because i think there were a lot of roller coasters honestly we can go back to that very play that insane alley-oop sequence doesn't happen without a bad turnover so it's like oh oh you know um you had uh rylan griffin's performance which i thought you know he goes oh for four from three in the in the first half and then he has a really good second half um The AJ store experience was a roller coaster, right? He hits that corner three of the shot clock expiring where it's like, wait, what?

Starting point is 00:16:31 How did that go in? And then immediately he goes down and takes like a heat check three and it doesn't go in. I do think there was more good than the bad from AJ store, but like that was kind of a perfect example of that. You had the inverse where it was Shaq Moore getting a shot clock violation when it's like dude just throw it up and then like the next possession he's hitting a three ball where it's like oh okay well that's a nice little roller coaster there um I think you had a lot of roller

Starting point is 00:16:55 coaster from Florida Badunga in this game right you had some possessions where he would just have like an unbelievable block or something like that um or he would have like there were a couple plays in the first half where he didn't get a block but he altered the shot or altered where the ball was going that it uh helped make k or helped ku make a stop on the defensive end but then also he gave up a ton of offensive rebounds or you know made a mistake here there um in the first half or in the game so like that was kind of a roller coaster it was just kind of a game of roller coasters in a lot of way uh for ku worst moment of the game i mean they kind of just led this they led this one for 35 minutes and 15 seconds they only trailed for a little over a minute which was in the early portion of the game it's hard to say there was like a worst moment of the game necessarily um for ku i guess you could say the defensive rebounding as a whole for ku so uh kansas ended up

Starting point is 00:17:48 with 29 defensive rebounds iowa state had 17 offensive rebounds so you know that's that's not ku's best performance on on the defensive glass um i i think especially early i'm trying to remember what the numbers were early, but early that number was even more skewed from where it was. But even if we just do take the overall number for Kansas in this one, it was a 37% offensive rebound rate for Iowa State. That's the second worst allowed by the KU defensive rebounding unit this season. The only one that was worse was TCU. So I guess the narrative there is give up more offensive rebounds because you'll win by double digits but no the other two ones are the iowa state loss and the baylor loss so um yeah not not a good defensive rebounding game for for

Starting point is 00:18:34 ku and certainly in the early going again i thought they were a little bit better in the second half but i think that would probably be the the uh worst moment of the game i mean if we're just picking one specific moment i don't know that you could necessarily pick one. Because again, KU was kind of just in control for the entirety of the game. Okay, here's one. When Fran Fraschella was just like, just letting it fly on the refs for like, harshly for that like minute or two. That was pretty wild. Anyway, appalling stat of the game. I just looking at iowa state shooting line 31 from the floor 14 from three 55 from the free throw line that is really bad that is very appalling so uh that one would certainly be up there um i i think that you could probably go back to the

Starting point is 00:19:18 offensive rebound numbers for iowa state but the other one is this 17 to 6 advantage for ku and assists in this game like the ball was moving super well for kansas and their defense was doing a good job uh like i said like i was they missed some open shots and clearly they should have made more of those like typically they do they're in a bit of a funk i think right now this point of the season but even if they do make a couple of them like i still think kansas wins this game you know like they played super well on both ends of the court and so uh i guess that would be the appalling stat of the game either that or maybe that curtis jones only had seven points for them on three of 11 after how good he was in the game in aims between these two teams uh okay that brings us to offensive mvp

Starting point is 00:19:59 for ku three guys in double figures so maybe those would be the ones that you look at here 17 points from zeke mayo 6 of 13 from the floor, 5 of 6 from three, also had three assists, did have three turnovers, though. DeJuan Harris, 12 points, 4 of 6 from the floor. Hey, how about this? DeJuan, 4 for 4 at the free throw line. Beautiful.

Starting point is 00:20:16 Four assists, two turnovers. And then you have Hunter Dickinson, 14 points, 7 of 12 from the floor. He had nine rebounds, three on the offensive end, so you're helping offensive side as we're giving out offensive MVP. 1 assist to 2 turnovers in this game. Hunter ended up with the best plus

Starting point is 00:20:29 minus on the team for KU, by the way, at plus 20. What about a dark horse? Could we give it to A.J. Storr? 8 points for A.J. Storr, plus 16 off the bench in just 17 minutes at an offensive rebound and kind of found money with that corner 3 in the shot clock when the game was a little bit closer

Starting point is 00:20:45 and he needed those points a little bit more. I'll give him an honorable mention, but I am going to actually go with Zeke Mayo. Led you in scoring this game. The three-point shooting was just ridiculous. He's hitting some deep ones. It is so fun when Zeke Mayo gets going. He continues to just be unbelievable in Allen Fieldhouse. He'll be my offensive MVP.

Starting point is 00:21:03 Defensive MVP in this one for KU. I mean, you could go with Floyd Badunga four blocks in just 15 minutes. Think about that. If he was playing 30 minutes, like basically what Hunter played, 33 for Hunter, but if you doubled it for Flory, I know it doesn't always work this way, but he'd be on pace for eight blocks. So it'd be unbelievable. Quick side note, any chance if flory comes

Starting point is 00:21:25 back next year he has a chance to challenge some of jeff with these block numbers for a season i don't think so with he was but i don't know man flory's so good at blocking shots i it seems like such a sacrilegious question to even ask but it's like hey he's been so good blocking just but how about this hunter dickinson also had four blocks so you look at the two games KU played with Iowa State, basically 20 blocks for KU over the two games. So they were able to have an interior presence blocking shots in both games if you're KU.

Starting point is 00:21:53 Dickinson did not have a steal. Flory did. So maybe you'd give it to Flory in that situation. I thought KJ had a really good defensive game, though, covering up for guys' mistakes at different points, too, when things are rotating around. So I'm going to give it to KJ Adams. I thought he had a real nice impact on that end of the floor. up for guys mistakes at different points too when you know things are rotating around so you know i'm gonna give it to kj adams i thought he had a real nice impact on on that end of the floor

Starting point is 00:22:09 also kj really good passing game he actually led the team with five assists for ku our overall mvp of the game though maybe i would go with hunter dickinson he was i guess in the honorable mentions for offense and defense and i think he was the only player in the honorable mentions for both so 14 points nine rebounds four, did a lot of everything. So maybe we would go with Hunter there for overall MVP. All right, what's next for KU? We'll discuss. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:22:38 Next up for KU is Kansas State, and it'll be on the road on Saturday. It's a day game, 1 o'clock game, I believe, for Kansas in Manhattan. And Kansas State's playing good basketball. You look at Bartorvik over the last three games, their top five team in the country. It's a small sample size, small stretch. Will they keep it going? I don't know, because if you remember, KU had that one three-game stretch

Starting point is 00:23:00 where they were the number one defense in the country, and then they gave up a billion points to UCF and yada yada yada but um anyway Kansas State is playing better basketball right now and it'll be a tough game for KU they've lost the last couple years in Manhattan so you know trying to win one back and that's the importance of this Saturday game I don't think it washes away you know if you lose on Saturday this game was still an important win right and you still have the the upcoming stretch after that which will start following week when you play versus Colorado and at Utah when things lighten up a little bit to where um I think if you're Kansas you you win this game at

Starting point is 00:23:37 Kansas State it's going to feel like you're starting something whereas if you lose the game to Kansas State you're still going to look at it as well at least they beat Iowa State and now they can start something, right? But so it's kind of the difference between getting like a solid amount of momentum and being possibly red scorching hot going into the Big 12 tournament. Like that is possibly the difference coming up on Saturday. would really back up thinking that this game uh the win over iowa state is kind of a reset to things and is the start of something if you are able to win this game on saturday because it's going to be a tough game to win on the road right it's it's certainly you would imagine going to be closer than this iowa state game was so it'll certainly be a tough one but then like i said

Starting point is 00:24:18 schedule lightens up a little bit there before the uh kind of finish to the season because you're looking at colorado at utah at byu State at Colorado like those are all games where you are going to be favored the at BYU game might be a little bit close there and that's a tough place to play but realistically you should be going at least four and one in that five game stretch and then you finish tough Tech Houston and Arizona are all top 12 teams on Ken Palm but you have the very least you get two of them at home, and you feel like you should have won the first game with Houston. So, real good

Starting point is 00:24:50 opportunity to build some momentum, starting now for KU. Alright, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for tuning in to the show, anywhere you get your podcasts, or on our YouTube page. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - A SEASON SAVING WIN?!? Kansas Jayhawks Crush Iowa State Cyclones 69-52

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