Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - After a Road Win is Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Back + Where Does Furphy's Freshman Season Rank?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kevin McCuller back, Kansas wins on the road, is KU back? 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 hear me right here on Locked on Jayhawks. Give me a follow on social media, Twitter, X at D Johnson Radio. Joining me today, Nick Schwert, at Nick underscore Schwert, in the same situations.

Starting point is 00:00:37 You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts here with Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you for making us a first listen every day. We're free and available anywhere you get it, including on our YouTube page. On today's episode, is Kansas back after they went on the road? Finally, snapping a four-game Big 12 road losing streak. Kevin McCullough back, too. Now you get some time off in between to maybe be even more back coming into this final stretch.

Starting point is 00:00:58 I also want to get into some Johnny Furphy talk and where this freshman season ranks among other true freshman seasons. Bill Suffolk, KU, we'll finish up with whose stat line is it anyway. 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. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started.

Starting point is 00:01:22 So Kevin McCuller back. Bill Self said at a press conference, though, that he thinks he's going to be kind of dealing with an injury throughout the rest of the season. So who knows how that impacts things. But Kansas finally won again on the road. And I think for me what was most impressive about it was, you know, when I think of vintage Bill Self teams,

Starting point is 00:01:39 when I think of the teams that win on the road, they're not winning pretty on the road. They're winning ugly on the road. And that wasn't the most pretty game. Kansas scored 67 points. It's 41 points through the first 30 minutes of the game, but you kind of want to ugly 67, 57 on the road. That is a bill self staple. Is it enough? They finally went on the road, finally getting healthier. Now you have a week off in between to get even healthier than that. You're you got three home games in your last five. Is Kansas back to whatever classifying that would be?

Starting point is 00:02:16 Well, Derek, nothing you said is inaccurate about Bill Self's team winning ugly on the road. You know they'll show the social media team from KU will post a video of him running into the locker room. They're excited. He's saying this is the best win we've had all year. And then sometimes like Bill self said this a hundred times throughout his career. He's like, well, that's, that's probably the best we played on the road and in five or six years,

Starting point is 00:02:33 like it happens every year. It's the best win in five years, every single year. 35%, but they found a way to win. And we shot, we only scored 38 points, but I think that's the best win since I've been here. The nothing you said is inaccurate, Derek. The problem is there's usually like eight of these a year, right? Like I was just talking about this today.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Every year when KU would win the Big 12 and people would kind of talk about, what is it about this team? You know, it's not always talent because they haven't always had the most talented roster in the the big 12 and a lot of people will say oh it's because they always take care of business at allen field house yeah they win a lot of games at home but most teams win a lot of games at home the good ones take care of no i mean they're undefeated at home right now and the last time they went undefeated at home they didn't win the big 12 they went 2018 2019 those ugly wins on the road are what separates kansas they win those marginal games that other teams are losing by one or two points i think the best example of it was indiana right back on december 16th the problem is

Starting point is 00:03:40 derrick k was one now two road games since that game at Assembly Hall back on December 16th. So I'm kind of torn here because you're right. That is the sign of a great Bill Salt team. But it leaves me wondering, why haven't there been more of those this year? Yeah, and I guess if you go one and one, your final two road games, you know, Houston and Baylor, both are good teams. You would, I think, probably take that at this point in time. But then again, if you want to win the Big 12, you might have to win them all based on where you've kind of been set off at this point in time. I do think it's funny because you'll get the arguments with how bad they've been on

Starting point is 00:04:16 the road about, you know, well, good thing NCAA tournament's not played on the road. It's also not played at home. Then again, you know, that is different than playing on the road. And they do have some impressive, you know, non-conference wins on neutral courts when you look at the Kentucky win and, you know, you look at the Tennessee win, which that could be a two-seater or one-seater when it's all set and done. But I think what becomes interesting to me is if I've kind of said all along that I feel like this team is better set up,

Starting point is 00:04:44 better suited for the NCAA tournament than the regular season, just because of the lack of depth. And once you get to March, that becomes a little less prevalent. We've talked about, it still would be nice to have, you know, a bench option or two.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And that's some depth, like even a little depth. Yes. And I would agree with that. And I think it does still matter to a point that I wouldn't be picking this team to win the national title or anything, but I do still think it's a better, I guess, case for this team in the tournament than it is for the regular season. And the one thing that kind of holds you back from

Starting point is 00:05:13 that is, is there going to be a player hurt? And that's kind of the biggest thing of anything to me is that you won this game and now you get this week off in between. Now you have the home stretch coming up with final five games. I kind of think that it would not shock me if we hit one of these classic Bill Self runs where they, you know, go four and one in the final five. They go five and O in the final five. You're going to that game at Houston in the final game of the season. And it's like, oh, I don't know if they're going to get this done. It feels like there's that one kind of signature road win every year.

Starting point is 00:05:45 And again, this team has been different. So maybe you don't think of it that way. But like, I think of winning at Texas Tech, you know, a couple of years ago or a handful of years ago with the Devontae Graham crazy like circus shot, right? Now I think of winning some of these games on the road, the last game of the season or one of the last games of the season. You know, maybe last year was an example of this not happening, But I feel like that is still in the cards for this team. And I don't know, maybe I just need to be slapped in the face

Starting point is 00:06:11 and be like, dude, you need to quit it. They've only won two road games in Big 12 play. And is one weird, or I guess not weird, one ugly road win in Norman going to change things for you when that's like the worst home court environment in the Big 12? So I don't know. I guess I kind of am going back and forth and talking out of both sides of my mouth. But basically the way I'm going is I kind of feel like, yeah, I am to a point as long as they're healthy, as long as guys are fresh, maybe for Kevin McCullough, that's never going to happen. I think this team could be turning the corner in the right way. As stupid

Starting point is 00:06:44 as that sounds after a two game week where you got slacked in one of them and won an ugly game in the other one yeah i don't think i don't think you're necessarily wrong in thinking they could turn the corner right but i don't think we've seen enough to say they've turned the corner and i think a big mistake would be to say that one win is going to lead you to believe that they've turned the corner and I think a big mistake would be to say that one win is going to lead you to believe that they've turned a corner but here's the natural I think I think puzzle piece that you'd want to fill in the next two games are at home and one of them is coming off this long layover where you should have extra time to get rested and Bill Self we

Starting point is 00:07:20 know how good he is with the extra time to prepare. So at that point, if you just want to go ahead and do the dumb assumption, who knows, BYU comes in downfield outs and they hit 18 threes, right? That could happen because they take 40 to 50 threes some of these games. But if you win your next two games at home, all of a sudden you have won three in a row. You have won one of those on the road. At that point, wouldn't you be feeling that way anyway? So maybe I'm just early to the party.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Well, I feel like we're talking about two things, right? Like what you're talking about kind of makes me think more about the Big 12 race. I don't think the idea that, okay, you win this game at home, that game at home, et cetera, et cetera. Like we're talking about the Big 12 versus is this team going to be poised for a tournament run? Because you're right, like you need everybody to be healthy and to be fresh health is one thing, but I don't see a world in which this team is like fresh because we saw that

Starting point is 00:08:15 game. How did they win that game against Oklahoma? You mentioned like the little things and playing better in the second half, three starters played 37, one played 34, one played 33. KJ Adams played 33 minutes, and he played less than all the other starters. And at this juncture in the season, you've got to be making a leap of faith if you think they're going to get anything from the bench, because there's a difference between depth and having one game in March where you get a spark off the bench because you need that. That is like, I will not entertain that they could go

Starting point is 00:08:55 six games in March, win the national championship, and they don't get one big stretch and not even a big game, but like a big stretch from someone off the bench and all Kansas teams that have went on a title run have had that, whether it's Cole Aldridge, you know, wait coming in against North Carolina and having that big game, even forget Remy Martin, go to the 2022 KJ Adams comes in at the end of that Miami game and helps

Starting point is 00:09:22 lead them to a win. So they need that. It's because the freshness is never going to be there with this team. I think this team is going to be fatigued. They're going to be tired. They might just be talented enough to overcome that because I get like, yeah, KU is playing more starters than anybody else,

Starting point is 00:09:40 but it's going to be March. Everyone's going to be like that, right? There's no team in America who's going 10 deep and the starters are only playing 27 minutes a night. Like these guys are all going to be gassed at that point in the season. But the injury thing, like Kevin, if he's going to be injured, I mean, that just amplifies the need for whether it's El Marco

Starting point is 00:10:02 or Nicholas Timberlake or even Jamari McDowell, your guess is as good as mine as to who that guy could be. They're going to need something, anything from those guys in March if they want to make a run. All right, he is Nick Schwert. I'm Derek Johnson. We're going to continue on. Where does this Johnny Furphy season rank among true freshmen at KU?

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Starting point is 00:11:22 He has Johnny Furphy at 13th overall. Now, that's a separate conversation with NBA draft versus freshman season. But would he be good enough with how he has played? I know some of the season total numbers aren't going to match up because he was coming off the bench the first few months of the season. Would he be good enough to be on the all-time starting five of true freshmen? So we're not counting Ben McElmore here of Bill self true freshmen. Do I have to go like position by position?

Starting point is 00:11:48 Do I have to fit him into an actual starting lineup or am I just going five best? Because if it's position by position, he's not on it. I'll tell you that right now. Sure. I think we should just do five best. Cause you're right. I mean,

Starting point is 00:12:00 there's a lot of wings there that it's going to be hard to put them on there. I mean, if's a lot of wings there that it's going to be hard to put them on there. I mean, if we go up, I'm not going to go off statistics here because if I go off stats, then that means a guy like Joel Embiid doesn't make it, which he deserves to make it. So Joel is on there. Andrew Wiggins is on there. You won't give me Ben McLemore. I'm going to put Josh Jackson on there. That gives me three. When I think of the other like one and done types, Xavier Henry, I think Furphy's better than him. Kelly Oubre, I think Furphy's better than him.

Starting point is 00:12:32 Julian Wright, I mean, he wasn't a one and done, but as a true freshman, he averaged, you know, eight and a half points, six and a half rebounds. Sean Collins coming off the bench as a freshman. Yeah. I think he's in the starting five rush yeah rush is in there rush has to be in there so this is what it comes down to for me and i think i brought this up to you a couple of weeks ago it really comes down to furphy

Starting point is 00:13:01 versus grady for me like do you think and i remember at the time you had Grady ahead of him. I did. Now the numbers at this point, and I'm just going off conference play numbers. Cause like, if you want to hold it against Furphy that he wasn't playing as much at the beginning of the season, that's fine. That's fair.

Starting point is 00:13:16 You can do that. But to me, I want to know how you played in the heat of the season, when you're finding your groove as a team, when other teams have scouting reports on you. I think the biggest thing with Furphy, when you compare him to any of these guys, is that from an efficiency standpoint, he's number one. Like there's nobody, I can't remember a freshman in the Bill Self era, maybe save Josh Jackson, that executed their role as

Starting point is 00:13:48 effectively as he has. And maybe Wiggins deserves to be on there. He was on a team that he kind of gets dinged for that because they didn't go far in the tournament and he didn't play well in the tournament. But Furphy has a much, like he's not being utilized the way some of those other freshmen did. He doesn't have the same role as those other freshmen did he doesn't have the same role as Wiggins he doesn't have the same role as Ben McLemore or Josh Jackson or even Grady Dick last year but the efficiency at which he's operating Derek is is pretty astounding 12 points a game six rebounds shooting 40 from three in conference play he's only taking seven shots a game taking seven shots a game and that's kind of the thing is, okay, what if, what if Bill Self woke up tomorrow and said, you know what?

Starting point is 00:14:29 This guy's one of our best players. We need to get him more involved. Okay. The efficiency goes down, but you could afford for the efficiency to go down based off how well he's playing. He's top 15 and three point percentage in conference play. He's number one, number one in big 12 play in scoring inside the arc. And I get it, right?

Starting point is 00:14:46 Most of that's in transition. But hey, finishing in transition, kind of an important thing to have for a team that doesn't get a ton of transition opportunities. So long-winded answer to say that I probably would put him in my starting five. I wouldn't begrudge anybody who would say, yeah, he's not quite there yet. I think what he does is bigger than his numbers because I think the sign of a great team is having, you know, five guys or six or seven guys. If you want to count the bench players who all have a very specific role and

Starting point is 00:15:16 they know how to execute it, right? That's been the downfall of some KU teams that were uber talented, but maybe just the pieces didn't fit, or maybe certain guys weren't comfortable with the roles that they were in. They're bringing this kid along and he's checking every box. He's doing everything that's asked of him right now. I'm really impressed, man.

Starting point is 00:15:38 Like I think this kid is quietly having one of the best freshman seasons that we've seen under Bill Self. So I definitely would put a top 10. I don't know that I'm willing to go there going back to the Grady Dick thing. I just, it's there's the two sided sword to the efficiency thing. It's, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:55 it's, it's beautiful. And if you can continue doing it on higher volume, that's one thing. But what if you're one of the top two guys that's being viewed on the team, you know, and I go back to the Grady Dick being face guarded and, and all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:16:04 And we don't need to rehash that conversation. But I do think the one thing that if this keeps going with Johnny Furphy, that I will say that would move him up. A lot of those other freshmen, you can point to, you know, a few weeks stretch where there was that freshman wall, right? That, that, that moment of time for a few weeks where maybe it just wasn't going. And for a second with the Kansas state game, it kind of looked like, okay, is is this going to be that for Johnny Furphy is this going to be the start of maybe a week or two where it did but immediately after the Kansas State game which was his worst game as a starter he immediately pops back up to where he's at now and I do think that is a really impressive skill here here's an interesting question going to the freshman thing so for for me I don't think I would

Starting point is 00:16:40 have him in the top five I would have him in the top 10 but chance to move up because obviously the season's still going if you traded andrew wiggins on the 2013-14 team to this team for johnny furphy i know wiggins had the better year and probably i mean for me he'd be higher up on the ranks when you look at just the totals what he did and everything could you make the argument though that this team would be worse? I mean, how much worse? I think I get what you're saying. I would almost think both teams would be worse. Yeah, because this team.

Starting point is 00:17:16 13-14 needed a bell cow, basically. Somebody who would take all the shots, right? Or be the guy, I guess. And this team, you need more of a complimentary piece who can shoot threes. And that wasn't Williams. Yeah, I mean, he did shoot 37% from three in conference play. Is that what he shot? He did have – he put up 41 points versus West Virginia. I think he had a couple 30 spots in there as well.

Starting point is 00:17:39 So, like, if you told me there was a guy like Andrew Wiggins who – and, again, I think what you're, I don't, I think part of what you're talking about is part of what I was mentioning earlier in that, that team lost 10 games. That team was balanced in the second round of the tournament and he didn't have a great game. And I think because of that, we've kind of looked back on Andrew Wiggins and say, not a lot of memories there. And I think truthfully with these one and done guys,

Starting point is 00:18:12 all we have are the memories because, and the memories are so few because we didn't get you for two, three, four years to build up that equity and that love from the fan base. So it's just kind of like, what did you do while you were here? What did you accomplish? And unfortunately, from a team perspective, Andrew Wiggins didn't accomplish much. But I think sometimes that gets in the way of the fact that he was so damn good. Andrew, like Champions Classic, hitting that step back fadeaway over Jabari Parker in Madison Square Garden, that was like game two for him at Kansas. Hey, you didn't have a guy on this team who could do that. So if you told me there was a guy like Andrew Wiggins

Starting point is 00:18:51 who could put the ball on the deck and go get his bucket in crunch time, I think I'd take that. Now, I don't know that that would make him the number one team in the country, but I think that would make this team better. Yeah, I guess the defense probably goes up. Like you said, having a shot creator goes up. number one team in the country, but I think that would make this team better. Yeah. I guess the defense probably goes up. Like you said, having a shot creator goes up.

Starting point is 00:19:11 Kevin and DeJuan can maybe focus even more on defense. I mean, Kevin's probably only averaging 12 points per game if you have Williams, but yeah, I mean, the issues are still there. Like they still wouldn't have much shooting. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:19 But like the talent is undeniable. The number one pick in the NBA draft. No, that's fair. Maybe that was a bit of an overreaction on my part. All right, let's finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway? First, this episode

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Starting point is 00:19:51 live same-game parlays, exclusive props, and more. You know what? We're going to do an Andrew Wiggins-Johnny Furphy parlay. Saturday, I don't even know if the Warriors play Saturday, but whenever their next game is, we're going to go Johnny Furphy over points, parlayed with Andrew Wiggins' score, I don't know, like 10 points or 12 points or something. We're going to put it together.

Starting point is 00:20:06 That's what we're doing on FanDuel. You can do just that. Customize however you want. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and shoot your shot. FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Finishing things up here with who's stat line is anyway, I'm going to ask a stat to Nick. He's going to try to answer.

Starting point is 00:20:23 You can play along at home. First one, who's stat line is it anyway who is leading kansas in charges drawn per game oh i've got absolutely no clue on this one um you know what let's just keep it rolling. I'm going to go with Johnny Furphy. Now, Johnny Furphy is in fifth in first place is to one Harris. Second place, Parker Brown, third,

Starting point is 00:20:52 Elmarco Jackson, fourth, Kevin Kohler. First with how many for the one? It is 0.2 per game. Not a lot. Okay. Is that the real issue?

Starting point is 00:21:04 Is this why you brought this up? Is this the, is this how we fix Kansas? They just need to take more charges. Yeah. They need to go in a time machine and talk to Chris Beard circa 2018 before he had some stuff happen. But I don't know. Maybe there is something here.

Starting point is 00:21:21 Kansas is 318th in the country, according to Ken Palm and non-steel turnover percentage. Makes you wonder. It does make you wonder. You know what? KU needs Aaron craft on this team. They'd be the number one team in the country. That's right.

Starting point is 00:21:33 Or Marcus smarter. So I don't know. Okay. A second one here. Who's that land is anyway, who leads Kansas in mid range, two point attempts per game. And I should add,

Starting point is 00:21:44 I should add, here's a cool little nugget here. This player with 3.2 field goal attempts per game from the mid range, he is in the 99th percentile of the country. Okay. So I need to know what quantifies mid range. Do you know? So it's, yeah. So this, according to CBB analytics, it is anything outside of the box, outside of the paint, but inside of the three-point arc okay so in so okay so that actually changes it because kj loves those little floaters but i feel like most of them are in the paint so those would be close shots so i'm gonna actually go with hunter dickinson i think he likes that shot from the high post ding ding ding hunter dickinson 3.2

Starting point is 00:22:21 field goal attempts per game in the mid-range, and he's actually shot them well. He is in the 80th percentile in the country in mid-range shooting percentage at 46.9%. So as much as he's struggled lately from three, that hasn't applied to the mid-range. That's his shot, man. That's the patented Marcus Morris, Markeith Morris. KU's had Dedrick Lawson.

Starting point is 00:22:45 Harry Ellis. Hey, continues the comparison between he and Dedrick Lawson. They both love that high post shot from about 16 feet. Yeah, they really do. All right. You can find Nick at Nick underscore Schwert. Nick, what else do you have going on right now? The podcast is Could Be Wrong.

Starting point is 00:23:03 We got a new episode dropping on Wednesday morning, so check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Find me at DJohnsonRadio. You can find our show here with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - After a Road Win is Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Back + Where Does Furphy's Freshman Season Rank?

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