Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Another Kansas Jayhawks Comeback: KU Battles Back to Down Oklahoma

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Bill Self pulled off another Kansas Jayhawks comeback in Allen Fieldhouse, this time over Oklahoma, 79-75. Recapping KU's victory over OU, GOATs of the game like KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris and Zach Clemence. Plus, some Kansas Jayhawks Football talk after Lance Leipold's team tacked on two more transfers in linebacker JB Brown from Bowling Green and offensive lineman Spencer Lovell from Cal.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we recap Kansas' late spurt to come back and win an Allen Fieldhouse over the Oklahoma Sooners. 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 as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts, and you can also subscribe to us on YouTube.

On today's edition of the show, we're talking about Kansas' comeback victory over Oklahoma. We'll also finish things up with some talk on KU football's two newest members coming in from the transfer portal because haven't had a chance to talk about those two things happening yet. Kansas wins 79-75, and if you didn't watch the game or you were unavailable and you just looked at the box score, you'd say, okay, a little closer than you would have thought, but you expected Kansas to win in Oklahoma. It was a little bit in doubt with four or five minutes to go,

and props to, I know a lot of people hit the live betting as the game was going on. If you hit the live betting when Kansas got down like 10 with like five minutes left, you're sitting pretty. I saw Landon Lucas, former KU center, had a bet for like $200 at KU plus 550 money line when they got down that much. So good for Landon reeling in over a grand

on KU's comeback last night. You just never count them out when they're in Allen Fieldhouse. I guess just at all, right, with what this core of players and what Bill Self and his team just has shown to be. Absolutely ridiculous comeback win. Like 2022, we talked about it was the year of the comeback for KU basketball. This one was a little bit different, right? It was instead of, hey, you're down 12 points,

you're down 15 points at halftime. It hey you're down 12 points you're down 15 points at halftime it was you're down 10 points with four or five minutes left and you have zero momentum established over the last 12 minutes so it's one thing to be like hey we're gonna go into halftime locker room make some adjustments reset our mind reset that momentum maybe take a step away and just take a deep breath right it's different when it's in the moment with five minutes left and you haven't scored or made a field goal in almost 13 minutes of game action. I think it was 12 minutes and 46 seconds was the exact amount

that they didn't hit a field goal for. And they ended up finding that extra level of push and finding their way to come through with a victory. But, you know, just unbelievable comeback win once again. Like, Allen Fieldhouse continues to be special. This team continues to thrive when they get down late in the games. Kind of like the Patrick Mahomes effect. Like, eh, we'll be fine. We're down 10.

And, you know, coming into the game, on one hand, if I would have told you that Kansas was going to shoot 37 percent from the field compared to Oklahoma shooting 47 percent that Kansas was going to have a dry spell of nearly those 13 minutes without a field goal that they were going to force just 11 turnovers which wasn't going to be a huge number against team that does turn the ball over a good amount that Kansas was going to have three less fast break points, if I told you all those things, you wouldn't feel great about how this one was going to go. But what's weird is, on the other hand,

I could also have told you, if Oklahoma would have went 2 of 17 from 3, which they did, Kansas was going to make 31 free throws, and Kansas was going to have just six turnovers with a 17- 7 edge in points off turnovers well those things happened I told Zach coming into it you would have thought they would have won and had an easy cover that they might have won that game by 20 or 30 points so it's funny how you can sparse those things out and I guess in the end you just mash them all together

and that's how you end up with a close game and Kansas finding a way to win by four points. They were allergic to layups and hitting good looks early in the game that continued on through the second half. You left a lot to be desired on the defensive end of the floor in the first half, I thought. Gave up a lot of open cuts to the lane, some close mid-range shots that you give a lot of openings i thought in the first half and nobody could really establish a rhythm in the first half jaylen hill did an excellent job on jaylen wilson and uh you had kj adams dewan harris and zach clements just kind of keeping ku afloat they had a combined 24 of 36 first half points for k, which you would not have expected that coming in at all.

And, um, you weren't really able to get Jalen Wilson going. They were face guarding Grady Dick. Kevin McCuller had a tough offensive game. The second half, the layups continued not to fall for you. We got a bit of a ref show, just calling everything on, on both teams. And it was just, it was, it was just crazy. The game just took so long from there. And for a bit, it felt like to me that the 2007 Elite Eight game, sorry to bring up bad memories here, against UCLA, where I forget the exact number, but Kansas missed,

I think it was like 22 missed layups. I think last night it ended up being close. I could have sworn I saw Kevin Flaherty saying they went, maybe it was 9 of 30 or something close to that on layups last night. So you're looking at something close to that. Maybe it was a little bit less, but, you know, you shoot layups, you're expected to shoot those closer to, I don't know, what, 50, 60, 70%. It all varies because there are layups that are very different than,

you know, wide open layups, a very different than you know wide open layups a cutting layup versus a contested layup versus kind of like a floater that might count as a layup right there there are different levels of of what those are but ku was just hitting none of them in the game against oklahoma and typically if you're going to get fouled that much on shots like you're going to maybe hit a couple and ones along the way to those weren't falling-range shots that if you play them again maybe they don't make nearly as many of them but that was really the difference for me honestly like i i don't think when they were down that much of course it's it's frustrating to watch as you're in the moment and you're going man they can't hit a shot like what's going on here and it just

builds and builds the frustration but as you're as you're watching it i'm thinking to myself yeah it's frustrating because it's happening and it's frustrating because you don't want to take a loss especially because every loss in big 12 play is so crucial if you want to win the conference title but in terms of what the game would have meant had they lost that game where it was a game that you just could not hit a shot like yes you give credit to oklahoma defensively and they did a great job but like i think you just would have shrugged your shoulders and been like well that was kind of an anomaly i don't really expect us to have a 13 minute stretch without a field goal again this season that just seems kind of i don't know i guess last year they had like a

nine minute stretch and i thought that would be the last time in a while so i don't know um but yeah they found a way to win alan fieldhouse magic final five minutes of. So I don't know. But yeah, they found a way to win. Allen Fieldhouse magic. Final five minutes of the game. I don't know how, but they are. They're 2-0 at home this year. You're down 15 and a half in one game in Oklahoma State. You're down 10 with like five minutes left in this one. And now you're 2-0 at home.

That's just the magic of Allen Fieldhouse. Kevin McCuller, regardless if he struggles or not over the course of the game, he's going to hit a clutch shot for you. Did it against Oklahoma State. I think he hit one against texas tech he does it in this game too he's just the clutch go-to guy i guess uh dewan harrison kj adams though winning that game and uh yeah zach clements was great especially in the first half but great adjustment by bill self to the grady dick being face-guarded.

Because he's getting face-guarded and taking him away, and it's making you lose one of your primary offensive options. So how are you going to take advantage of this extra spacing? They basically used it repeatedly over the final stretch of the game to get an opening on the pick-and-roll with DeJuan Harris and K.J. Adams, two maybe unsuspecting candidates for the opposition. But I think what we found out here over the last handful of games is if you need those guys to score for you, they absolutely can. K.J. with 22 points and those two guys kind of won it for you down the stretch.

In addition, like Kevin McCullers, Shaw, Jalen Wilson, they need the three after some offensive rebounds. You just take any wins you can get in this league. This league is so good. It is so hard to get wins home or away. So like I said, had they lost, I don't think it would have been an indictment, but it's important because you got to keep up with Kansas State. You got to keep up with Iowa State. You got to stay neck and neck with them and, you know,

try to find a chance for them to slip up and move in front of them. In this league, it is so hard to get any win, and all these teams are really good, and all these are like quad one quad two wins so you take them any way you can certainly you don't need the heart you know panic every single game but that was uh quite the victory for ku when things did not look so great over the final five minutes or so of the game we're gonna get to our goats of the game and then some ku football talk to finish things up.

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Bet online where the game starts. Goats of the game. Start with the good goats for Kansas. KJ Adams, 22 points. Goes 8 of 13 from the field. Was dynamic in the pick and roll. He also went six or seven on free throws this is something fran fraschella brought up he started the year two of 13 on

free throws and since then he has been an excellent free throw shooter for this team i don't know if the the first 13 was just a combination of maybe some bad luck and just a horrid run and this is like a correction to the mean or if this is all just he took that 2 of 13 start and really got into the gym and you know i don't know worked on it enough to where now it became a strength and he's shown kind of that good touch here over the course of whatever the last month month and a half or so like he's been really good on free throws here of late and six or seven he needed all of them in that game against Oklahoma he also had six rebounds played just 27 minutes had to deal with some foul trouble but uh ended

up with a really strong performance for Kansas and kind of won you that game and he has been so excellent this season I keep saying it each and every game it looks like you you add something new to the fold of like, oh, I didn't know KJ could do that. And he just keeps adding to it. He has been such a fun player this year. I've always been a big KJ Adams guy. I was ever since last year.

I thought he was so toolsy and could help you win in a lot of different small areas. But I even find myself surprised when I look up and I'm like, man, he scored 22 points. I know he's an effective player and a winning player, but he even exceeds my expectations. I love watching KJ Adams. He's so much fun, and he has been so good for this team.

DeJuan Harris, 11 points, five assists, three rebounds. It was him kind of orchestrating a lot of those pick and rolls that got KJ a lot of those buckets. And especially down the stretch, he basically gave DeJuan the ball, put it in his hands and said, hey, go play make for us. And whether it was passing to KJ or like the tough floater he hit at the end of the game, those were just, you know, pro level moves for DeJuan Harris. Plays that you had to have and he got them for you. And

he's that trustworthy guy for you. And I think that makes you feel really good in the NCAA tournament. We always talk about guard play. You have the guard that you can trust at the lead guard position. I'm really excited for that game next week because those are probably the two best point guards in the big 12 with DeJuan Harris and Marquise Noel. Different styles. Noel is just lighting up like scoring over 30 points per game in Big 12 play, but both very, very good in their own right. Zach Clements gets a good goat for the game. He had 10 points.

He had three rebounds in 12 minutes of action. I thought that the defense left a little to be desired with Zach Clements, so that was something that you may go, hey, he was so hot, He shot so well. Why did he not play as much maybe in the second half? I think that's probably why. But I mean, he was scorching the net. He hits the two threes. Those are the first threes we've seen him hit this year. He hit his first points of the season against West Virginia. And even though it was just a layup, maybe that, I don't know, sometimes psychologically, like even if you just hit that that small little one it opens up the basket for you the rest of the way

so that was good to see he continues to play really well in that matchup against oklahoma specifically in allen field house and they could use more minutes of that i'll be interested to see who the bench center is moving forward because we'd seen zoobie edgifer for the last handful of games be the first bench center coming off the bench but hadn't really played like you know 10 minutes in a game like we just saw with Zach playing 12 minutes but I don't know because Bill Self said in the post game he thought this would be a good matchup for him based on some stuff that happened last year I don't know if this is Bill Self just saying yeah you know all of the bench bigs are basically even we're just going to play the guy we think is best for that matchup this specific matchup it Zach. Maybe next specific matchup, it will be back to Zuby,

or maybe this is Zach's coming out party and he'll get more inroads. I have no idea because we've been given no hints and clues along the way. It's just been kind of a carousel the whole way through. Taking care of the ball gets a good goat for this game. You had just six turnovers. Again, a game that was played so close. You look at this game in the second half of the Oklahoma State game when you just had to absolutely maximize each and every possession to get back into the game or win the

game, and you did. You did. That's very important, and again, I think that goes back in line with having a lead guard like DeJuan Harris to kind of help you out with those things. Kevin McCuller in the clutch gets a good go. He can struggle all game long, and he has a lot of these big 12 games offensively he still you know gets rebounds and still defends well but offensively he has really struggled so far in big 12 play but not in the clutch moments he's really come through when you need him to and you know that that takes a special level of confidence if you're somebody who has struggled offensively all game to be like no i'm not going to shy away from the moment I'm still going to hit the big shot so tip of the cap to Kevin McCuller for hitting some of those shots so far this season last good goat here

Allen Fieldhouse magic I lost for words with with how Kansas can continue to do this year in and year out and they continue to do and Allen Fieldhouse is a big reason why the crowd is so good there's just some magic going on in that building that leads to this stuff happening. Okay, bad goats for the game. Grady Dick, just eight points. He went one of eight from the floor. He had a rough defensive night, got beat on several back cuts.

There was one play late where, I forget what the score was, but it was in the last minute of the game. It was, I think, in the last minute of the game. It was, I think, Oklahoma's penultimate possession that it was either tied or they had a chance to, like, they were down two or three or something. And he got beat on a back cut and also gave up, because of that, the offensive rebounding positioning because the Oklahoma player with the ball didn't see the player on the back cut, but he ended up actually getting the rebound on the play so that worked out but that was kind of a story uh of the night like he was you know losing out on some stuff

defensively again I don't think it's an effort thing so I I do think that can improve for him as long as you keep trying on the defensive end but uh we've seen some freshman growing pains at times this season on that end of the floor. Offensively, it was a tough night, but also they were face-guarding him, and Oklahoma did a great job at it. Now that'll be the challenge for Grady Dick. We saw Ochai Bajie get face-guarded last year, but also you're talking about a senior 22-year-old

who was able to find certain ways to kind of work around it. And it still made life a lot more difficult on Ochai, but it opened things up for other players that's the hope here for kansas it kind of did for those pick and rolls with dewan harris and kj adams down the rest of the game that'll be an adjustment they have to work on but also it's going to be important for grady to show skills of still trying to find a way to get open and and not just feel like he's a decoy the entire time uh bad goat here, wing offense. When you combine Grady, Dick, Jalen Wilson, Kevin McCuller,

they combined to shoot six of 26. They had five turnovers, so almost as many turnovers as they had made field goals. It was a tough game for all of the wings, including Jalen, who really had to kind of grind his way to. If you just look at the points and rebounds, it's like, oh, Jalen had a really good game, but he really had to grind his way and not very efficient night for any of the wings bad goat two-point defense so I will say to be fair as I talked about earlier I think oh you

did hit some really contested layups like some of the shots it felt like they were just tossing up like random layups and they went in they hit some pretty tough mid-range at certain points i will say that they're also elite at this skill like last year this is just what porter moser does he he's really good at scheming up kind of the motion offense the driving the getting guys open on cuts and spacing the floor really well that leads to open twos he he does that very well they were seventh in the country last year in two-point percentage like you look at some of his better teams of recent memory in loyola chicago they were always good at two-point rate this year they're top 25 at a two-point percentage so that is like one of their elite

skills it just is but um you know ideally if you're kansas you don't give up 25 of 40 from two-point range, which is 62.5% from two. And Oklahoma last year were one of four teams against Kansas to shoot over 60% in a game. This year, they're the first to do it. So Porter Moser, really good at scheming things up and seems to know how to maybe attack a Bill Self defense in some way, or maybe it's just a skill that Oklahoma has,

but certainly you want that two-point defense to get locked up a little bit more moving forward for Kansas. But I also think it was a little bit matchup dependent. Okay, we're going to finish things up here with some KU football news with Locked on Jayhawks in just a moment. All right, we're back with Locked on Jayhawks, and KU football adds a couple of pickups in the transfer portal over the last weekend.

Spencer Lavelle, who is a 6'6", 335-pound lineman who was last at Cal Berkeley after previously being at Arizona State. He's originally from Colorado and eventually made it over to Pac-12 land over there. And he's played a lot of snaps, started a lot of games for those two schools. He has one year left, but he does have a medical redshirt waiver that is being applied for right now for the 2022 season at Cal. And if that gets accepted, then he'll have two years left to play for Kansas. He's a versatile guy. He can play

tackle or guard. He's mostly been a guard. I kind of think Michael Ford, like he's a guard for Kansas, but he can kind of play all over and having that versatility is very nice in case of a pinch. As far as his individual role, I'm assuming he's going to probably be a guard. If he's healthy, I would assume it'll be him versus Armage Reed Adams for that other starting spot. You have Mike Nowitzki back. You have Michael Ford on the inside. Then on the tackle positions, you bring back Bryce Cable do,

and then you have guys like Kobe Baines or Logan Brown, the transfer that you expect to be there. So you would expect Armage Reed Adams versus Lavelle at that one guard spot, taking over for the vacated spot from Dominic Poonie. And as far as the team impact, like that's the biggest thing. Dominic Poonie had a great season. Can you replace that play well enough? Can you have a interior plug and play type starter without Poonie. So, I mean, if Armage Reed Adams breaks out, then maybe he's the starter. If Lavelle does what you expect him to, then he's probably the starter. But I think worst case, if let's say Lavelle is not the starter here, you feel good that he can

be a backup guard and tackle and cover several different spots as maybe one of your top two bench linemen. I do kind of lean toward expecting him to start, though, but it just covers you more. It either moves someone down, like Reed Adams, to be a good bench lineman or moves him to being a versatile bench lineman, and it adds to your starting lineup. It does a little bit of everything, adds to your depth, adds to your starting lineup in the offensive line.

So nice addition there for KU football. The other pickup was J.B. Brown. He's a 6'2", 230-pound linebacker who was last at Bowling Green. He can play two more years, even three if he took a redshirt this season. So you play him four games as like a backup linebacker and make sure you preserve the red shirt so he could have two more years or who knows maybe he ends up being one of your best linebackers and he just plays all season long so he played in 13 games in 2022 he had 52 tackles four and a half tackles for loss forced three

forced fumbles he also played in 17 games the two years prior, combined 22 tackles, kind of sparingly. But he graded very well on pro football focus. He had a 75.1 overall grade last year, 73.2 as a run defender, 76.2 as a coverage linebacker, and those would be KU's best linebacker grades. He was the ninth best overall linebacker in the MAAC last season. Obviously, you have to deal with stepping up in competition,

and we'll see how that goes. As far as his individual role, I'm expecting he competes for a starting job. We always hear about competition with KU. I know you have returning starters with Craig Young, Taiwan Berryhill, and Rich Miller. I don't really expect him to compete with Craig Young because he's more of the ilk of Miller and Barry Hill in terms of what they do. So you'd expect those guys, Miller and Barry Hill, still to start. But it's not like KU was impenetrable at the linebacker

position last season. So it wouldn't shock you if Brown came in and he was just better and he beat one of them out. But I do expect, because there is the learning, the playbook, and the transition of that, that it'll probably take him a year there and the step up in competition, even though you did have guys like Lonnie Phelps do well in that step up from competition, that it'll probably be those guys anyway and that he'll be probably the backup linebacker this year. But, again, you never know. And even if he is the backup linebacker this year. But again, you never know. And even if he is the backup linebacker,

we saw Eric Gilliard and Lorenzo McCaskill play like a combined over 500 snaps. So even if you are a backup linebacker, you're going to play a good amount of snaps on this team. And then in 2024, when I believe Rich Miller would be graduated, then you look at him being a full-time starter. Like that would be kind of my expectation for the individual role, even though I would not discount at all him working his way into the starting lineup at some point next year anyway,

just because the team impact, KU needed linebacker help. Whether it's starting help, whether it's depth help as being the backup to keep guys fresh more like we saw. I'm sure they were very not fresh at the end of the Arkansas games. KU needed linebacker help. They. KU need a linebacker help. They probably could use even more linebacker help still at this point, but that was the impact for KU there. All right, that's going to do it for this edition of Locked on Jayhawks.

We'll have more KU football talk on tomorrow's show. If you have anything you want for the show to talk about, hit us up at D Johnson radio on Twitter or in the comment section on YouTube. You can subscribe to the show wherever your podcast with Locked on Jayhawks. That'll do it for today's episode. Have a good rest of your day. I'll see some of you on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today from 3 to 6 on KLWN Lawrence. Till then, later.