Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ARIZONA ANNIHILATION: Jayhawks STRUGGLE in Loss to Wildcats Despite 24 Points from Darryn Peterson

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, Kansas, things got a little ugly in Tucson in the over 20-point loss in Arizona. Is this a sign of some problems moving forward, or is this something not to be overly concerned about? We break that all down on this post-game recap show of KU Arizona on Locked-on Jayhawks. 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 with another episode. of Lockdown Jayhawks, a little bit different digs for this one. I'm on the road. Kansas,

Starting point is 00:00:41 a over 20-point loss on the road against Arizona. And is there anything problematic from the game? We'll break it all down. What went wrong for Kansas? Which, I don't know, pretty much everything went wrong for Kansas. In this one, we get to our game awards. What happens, stats of the game? And what is next for KU now, which is one week of the regular season remaining and then the postseason after that, including the big 12th tournament. Let's just start right here. Kansas Falls 84 to 63 and I feel like I need a five hour energy after this. You might feel like you need a five hour energy after this. Well, guess what? Birthday cake flavor is back. No fork needed vanillae cakey flavor, caffeinated kick and no sugar. It is party time. Order now at five hour energy.com or on Amazon. But an 8463 loss for

Starting point is 00:01:30 KU and this just felt like a kind of combination of things for me for KU here, right? It, it felt like Arizona was ramped up energy-wise, especially early in the game. Like, I think as the game went on, KU was able to match that a little bit, but maybe you get behind the eight pole in some of that area to where you can't overcome it, right? To where you're not at the same level energy-wise as Arizona is, which, you know, they have the revenge factor going their way. They're playing really good basketball. Once again, they're playing at home.

Starting point is 00:01:58 You're coming off a big win earlier this week. You're playing on the road. Just kind of a lot going into it. And you could tell there was more energy early in the way. the game for Arizona. And then it felt like, hey, you expended all this energy just to get it back to a two-point game at 49-47 to where by the time that happened, then all of a sudden, Arizona goes on a bit of a run and all of a sudden it's five straight points. And then it's, you know, seven straight points. And then eventually that, that, I don't know, all that energy you expended,

Starting point is 00:02:27 maybe you started to over tire yourself out. And then all of a sudden, you know, one 19-0 run wasn't enough. The second one felt like the, like you almost overcame the first one, honestly. And then the second one was the, okay, this one's just kind of over here, right? And I do think that was kind of a part of it. I also think the Arizona freshmen deserve a lot of credit. I thought they were really good in this one. Braden Burry's, he's been awesome in the games they've played against KU. Koa Pete was good in his return. Our Karchenkov made some plays all around on different levels of the floor. It's interesting because the game that it was in Allen Field House, that was more about in terms of Arizona's successes, I think it was more about Mo Creevas.

Starting point is 00:03:06 And in this one, like, Crevas was still impactful, like, still a good player. But I thought it was more about some of the other areas for Arizona in this one, right? Those things didn't help KU. I thought it was a bit of a rough whistle early, but at the end of the day, like, I don't know, there were some rough ones that probably went against Arizona, too, and you got your buck kicked. Like, you can't complain about the whistle. But the reason I bring it up isn't because, like, I want to be the whiny guy complaining. like Arizona kick KU spot.

Starting point is 00:03:32 It didn't matter who was officiating that game. I bring it up from the standpoint of like, there was that early moment of the game where Bryson Taylor specifically gets his second foul where it felt like against a team of Arizona's caliber who has as much big depth as they do, that became a pivotal moment for KU early in the game, especially knowing that Bryson Taylor had 14 in the first half

Starting point is 00:03:52 in the first time that these two teams met, right? It was a lack of defensive ability for KU. Like that was the thing against the second half. Like, if you're looking at it, like Arizona has basically played three good halves of offensive basketball against KU, and they've had one bad offensive half. And poor of that deserves credit to KU. But I don't know, maybe that was more just about Allen Fieldhouse Magic, kind of looking back on it now. But they just couldn't really stop Arizona. Like there was Anthony D. Orso went three for eight, but he's more of a three-point shooter.

Starting point is 00:04:22 Everybody else for Arizona was shooting, except for like, Jane Bradley, shot like, you know, mid-40s to 50 percent or higher from the fields. There was just really everything for KU. You struggled to keep them out of transition more. Like it wasn't a huge game for Arizona fast break points, especially compared to what they average, but it was more so than the first go around. And that was kind of a little bit more apparent. It felt like KU was missing their bunnies around the rim,

Starting point is 00:04:47 which maybe that can go into energy. Maybe that can go into Arizona's size advantage, especially with Tiller out. Maybe some of that goes into just, you know, they played the better game today and KU did not, right? There's a lot of reasons you could kind of point to that. You know, I thought, Darren Peterson was overall pretty good in this game for KU, but in the first half, it did feel a little bit more like he was shot hunting a little bit and still the efficiency wasn't there for Peterson. I say that though, and Peterson still had a good game in a game where a lot of KU players did not. Him and Melvin counseled to me were KU's two best players in this game. And this is crazy to me. So this just kind of shows it, right? Melvin Counsel and Darren Peterson were a combined 14 of 31. That's 45% from the field, which is actually good, especially against an offense like,

Starting point is 00:05:29 or a defense like Arizona. The rest of KU combined was 8 of 34, just 24 percent from the floor. So players not named Nelvin Counsel and Darren Peterson, 24 percent from the floor. You're not going to win at Arizona playing like that, right? It's clear at this point, like Trey White has a matchup issue when playing against Arizona, whether that's a Karchankoff thing, whether that's the size of the Arizona Bigs. He has struggled in the two matchups with Arizona. I think in general, KU needs more offense from,

Starting point is 00:05:59 Flory Bedunga here, right? I mean, what do you have in the Houston game? Four points. You know, not better in this game. Like, they need to get more offensively from Flory, right? They're not built as a team to have, you know, down nights from Flory and be able to score enough points offensively. It did feel like, to me, this was probably Flore's worst game of the season. Kind of disappointing from the standpoint of like we had been, there was that stretch, whether it was the Arizona game, whether, I don't know, there were those games in there. where it felt like we talked about Flory looks like a pro right now. You know, he looks like that first round draft,

Starting point is 00:06:36 but he looks like a pro. And the last couple games that has wiltered a little bit, right? It wasn't as much there in the Houston game, which we thought, okay, maybe that's just, you know, kind of an off night and Houston's got a good defense. And it wasn't there against Arizona, right? You didn't carry over that great second half against Arizona into this game with Arizona.

Starting point is 00:06:55 And so, like, KU just needs to, needs more at a Flory. Like that's kind of the bottom line here. If KU wants to go deep in the NCAA tournament, they're going to need the best version of Flory each and every game to be able to do that. And that's kind of apparent to me because, like, again, like the offense is one thing too, but the lack of rebounding. And like it's easy to look at what Arizona did and say,

Starting point is 00:07:17 okay, if this was one of Flore's worst games at the season, you know, not being as good on the defensive end where that's going to lead to easier success for Arizona, especially inside, you know, grabbing four rebounds in over 30 minutes of play, that ain't going to play against a team who's elite rebounding the basketball. And you can understand it with, you know, Jamari McDowell, the home road splits.

Starting point is 00:07:37 Maybe not to that extent that it's been, but from the standpoint of like, I don't know, you're going to shoot better at home than on the road where you're practicing all the time, right? You can understand it from shooting splits to a certain extent. You can understand it from role players, right, who are going to feed off the energy a little bit more. I don't understand the home road spits for Flora Bedunga,

Starting point is 00:07:56 who has shot distinctively word, and the stats aren't as good on the road than they aren't home. You would think the things like rebounding and defense and like dunking, you would think those things would just translate to playing on the road in the same way, you know, how they would be at home. So I don't know, just kind of weird there. KU's bench guards provided nothing in that sense today. You didn't really get anything from the bench there.

Starting point is 00:08:18 So that was a little bit unfortunate for KU, obviously. So, I mean, in general, like I mentioned Mofin Council and Darren Peterson were KU's two best players in this. game. And maybe those would be the only ones that you would even give like passing grades in this one, unfortunately. Like, you know, it doesn't mean that those other players aren't good players. They are. It's just in this specific game. And I get it. It's a tough matchup. Arizona's a really, really good team that might end up winning the national title. But yeah, that was brutal for KU, obviously. And they still were in it at one point in the second half because of that run, right?

Starting point is 00:08:55 Big reason why Melvin Council was awesome. He stays solid on. the road. He actually has really good splits on the road this year. Peterson had some fun moments, even without it being an on-fire game. That's kind of the cool thing about the Peterson game, I think, in this one, and that it wasn't a very efficient game, but he still found a way to, you know, make an impact, I think, and put up numbers and have some big shots for KU to get back with in the number that they needed to before it kind of pulled back away the other way from him. you know again like if he has like an actually on fire game what does it look like and and i'm hoping that that's going to happen maybe it just never happens right we're running out

Starting point is 00:09:34 of time here for k u i'm hoping there's like a over his dead body game at some point here it obviously wasn't today but um you know if you play like you did today and start to be on fire and hit shots what does that kind of look like and i think that's kind of the hope but bottom line here is obviously lost at a Arizona it's not nothing to sweat. Like how the loss happened itself is a bit more sweatable. I had somebody text me and go four and two against the two games you played with Arizona and Iowa State and then Houston, BYU, and I guess forgetting Texas Tech, that'd be five and two, right? And instead, I wish that the losses weren't blowouts, which totally understandable and totally true. But if you

Starting point is 00:10:22 would have told me they were going to go five and two in those seven games this year, I would have gladly taken it too. And so, again, it doesn't excuse what happened in this game. But I think big picture, if you look at it, like, you feel better about it. Obviously, KU can't win the Big 12 now, and that is one of the measuring sticks for this program. So from that standpoint, you missed out on one of your potential goals. But big picture, this doesn't alter my expectations about what this team can be in March, about what this team potentially is or the fun I've had watching them, the majority of this season. And they're still in a good position to have a good year, but it does put a little bit more pressure on you from seeding perspective and from what

Starting point is 00:11:05 you are to finish the year strong this final week of the season and then have a nice performance of the Big 12th tournament. Let's get through some of our moments of the game, stats of the game, all that and more. This is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by five-hour energy. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like confetti craze, fruity rainbow, or cotton candy. There's something for everyone. Board's set. Flavors are ready, and I've got my number one pick for the five-hour energy flavor draft. Pick your top flavors to debate, whether it's, you know, you wanted to go with confetti craze or fruity rainbow. You and your friends, talk amongst yourself, pick your favorite

Starting point is 00:11:46 five-hour energy, debate yourself, and then once we get to March, you'll have your winner. For me, if I was debating with you all about what I want to do, I'm a big fan of the strawberry banana. Tropical delight with strawberry, it's a taste that goes in everything from smoothies and milkshakes to cakes and ice cream reminiscent of a fruit smoothie, very low acidity and easy to drink. It's gentle and has a sweet aftertaste. You can check those out with five-hour energy shots that give you boost zero sugar. Find your new favorite flavor of five-hour energy shots and debate them with your friends available online at five-hournergy.com or on on. This episode of the show is also brought to you by game time. You can get tickets to KU

Starting point is 00:12:26 season finale against Kansas State on Senior Day this upcoming Saturday. And it's the biggest stretch at the college basketball season, right? Buzzer beaters, bracket busters, unforgettable moments that everyone's talking about the next day. Being there for, you know, something live, that's bucketless stuff. The hard part is always getting tickets, right? It's the long queues, the price jumps at checkout, the surprise fees. The game time app gives fans the advantage. with constant innovation. It's how you unlock amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps.

Starting point is 00:12:56 Incredibly simple. It means 100% legitimate tickets, delivered on time at the best price. And here's the best part. Fees are included in the price. You see, what you see is what you pay. They've zone deals too. Let's pick the section,

Starting point is 00:13:09 save even more while game time selects the seats. No stress, no guesswork. Just a smooth experience from start to finish. This is exactly what you want during the busiest part of the season. Take the guest work out of buying college basketball tickets with game time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code Locked-on for $20 off your first purchase.

Starting point is 00:13:24 Terms apply, again, create an account, use code Locked-on, L-O-C-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. That is GameTime, the official ticket partner app of Locked-on. Thanks you for joining us here on Locked-on, Jayhawks, says Kansas losing by 21 to Arizona. You can check out the Everyday Air Club as well. And apologies for, again, our setup on the show today. I am on the road. baptism of my goddaughter.

Starting point is 00:13:54 I've had all this crazy stuff happen this week, so sorry coming late. We've had to deal with. A lot of stuff has been coming at the Johnson family this week. But we're here, we were doing this postcast, and it was not a great one to talk about, but here we are anyway. You know, I think instead of doing moments of the game,

Starting point is 00:14:09 there were a few fun moments and stuff, but what was the moment that you thought it was over? Now, obviously, Kansas got it, you know, despite all the early moments, Kans got to 49-47, so you might be thinking, hey, it's not over, right? Did you think when Tiller got the two fouls early? Were you that early on, right?

Starting point is 00:14:27 Was it when you gave up the first 19-0 run? That was kind of my inclination of like, okay, this probably isn't going to end very well. You kind of got the vibes of the game in Ames earlier this year at Iowa State, right? This might have been the moment for, again, KU actually had a run after this. So KU was down 33 to 19, so like it wasn't looking good at that point, but it was like, okay, maybe if you close strong and the first half, get it to single digits, who knows, right?

Starting point is 00:14:51 You're down 33 to 19. You have a three on two fast break. You miss the transition layup. And then all of a sudden, it leads to the other end, quick dunk for Coa Pete. That was one of those moments where it was like, this should have been an advantage for KU. It's like in hockey giving up a shorthanded goal. Like you're on the power playing, you give up the goal to the other team. That's what that felt like for KU.

Starting point is 00:15:11 But obviously the moment where it was actually over was the second 19-0 run for KU. So I will say this. I know you don't see the fight. and resilience after you give up the second 19-0 run, right? But the resilience and fight, we've continued to see that as a thing this year for this team. Even when they get down, like, they're fighting their way through to make it a little closer. And that was kind of the case early in that second half when they could have just kind of, you know, lied down. All right, stat of the game or stats of the game for KU.

Starting point is 00:15:37 I mean, in general, KU shooting 34%. You weren't going to get it done on the road against a high-powered offense like Arizona doing that. So that becomes a style of the game. It was actually KU's worst two-point percentage and effective field goal percentage. percentage game of the season. So when you have both those games, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can get a win. Arizona attempting 34 free throws compared to KU's 11. Obviously, you expect the differential when you're playing on the road. You probably don't expect to be tripled up. Give credit to Arizona. They made 30 of their 34 free throws. I will say this, though, like, there is something to the

Starting point is 00:16:09 idea of, hey, the more aggressive team is going to get more free throws. Arizona is the more aggressive team. Arizona was able to get the ball into the paint more often. Arizona took shots at to paint more often. They made their shots to paint more often. So, like, you know, maybe you could argue a few here and there, but like, to me, it's less about, oh, can you believe they shot three times the free throws? It's more of that is a telling stat to tell you, Arizona was the better, more aggressive team and got the ball inside much more than KU did. And actually, by free throw rate allowed, that was 10 percentage points higher than the next

Starting point is 00:16:42 worst one for KU, the next previous worst was the West Virginia game. And actually, interestingly enough, KU was 0 and 4 this year when they give a up free throw temp rates of 40% or higher. So I guess, you know, Flore and Tiller defending without fouling is as big of a key for this Kansas team as any. Payne points being plus 10 for Arizona, fast break points being plus 9 for Arizona. Both of those stick out at least a little bit here. And then rebounding. This was KU's third worst offensive rebound rate game of the season. It was also their worst defensive rebound rate game of the season as well. So a lot of you could point to there. I'm going to go to rebounding. Again, you have the third worst offensive

Starting point is 00:17:18 rebound rate game in the season, you have your worst defensive rebound rate game of the season. Awards here, our first award is I'm going to take one of the weirdest angles of a shot once a game that you've ever seen, and that is going to go to El Marco Jackson. Once a game, El Marco Jackson is taking these shots where it's like, it looks like he's angling to the rim, and then instead he like peels off and takes like a weird angled floater or something. It's happening like once a game. It happened again in this one on kind of a semi-transition opportunity. I don't know, weirdest thing there.

Starting point is 00:17:48 And then our tip-in award goes to Darren Peterson, two cool tip-ins on his own misses for, I guess, Follow Your Shot Award in the second half. And then our last one here, which game plus minus number do we read more into or do we really read less into? Bryson Tiller led KU with a plus eight point differential or plus minus, game plus minus. He didn't have a very good game, you know? So I think that was just the timing thing. Jaden Dawson being plus five. Does that do anything for anybody? He hit that three kind of at the end of the first half.

Starting point is 00:18:26 I don't know. Should Jaden Dawson be getting more of an opportunity? Is there enough there to read into? Here's the one that I would read into the most. El Marco was minus 25 today. He was really bad today. And I've been very complimentary of El Marco some of the things he's provided. And I do think he's been better this year than he was as a freshman.

Starting point is 00:18:45 I don't know. He had some very important moments. for KU this season, including the first win over Arizona. I've also, though, maybe gone overboard a little bit in the idea that, like, oh, I think El Marco and Taylin Kinney would be a good starting back court. I don't know that I'm there anymore. I think O'Marco would be better as a bench guard for KU because of some of the inconsistencies. Let's finish up with our game balls.

Starting point is 00:19:06 What's Next for KU? This is Locked on Jayhawks. I used to join in us here today's episode brought to you by Coast Pay, giving Lockdown college listeners up to $2,000 credit for your business when you get started today. If you manage a crew, construction, HVAC, landscaping, any operation of trucks on the road, you already know how messy gas and material spending can get. Cards get shared, receipts disappeared, and month ends turns into a headache. Coast Pay fixes all of that. Coast Pay is the modern fuel card and expense management tool built specifically for fleets, fuel, maintenance, materials,

Starting point is 00:19:43 all in one card with real control and instant visibility. Every transaction shows up the moment it happens. No surprise. If someone fuels up in an odd time, tries to buy something, outside their limit, you'll know about it instantly. They have automatic receipt capture that makes month ending simpler and it's built for operations who don't have time to chase paperwork. Right now, CoastPay is offering listeners up to $2,000 credit when you get started at coastpay.com slash locked on college. Go to coastpay.com slash locked on college and see how you can earn up to $2,000 in credit. Terms apply. The Coast Visa commercial credit card is issued by Celtic Bank. All card accounts are subject credit approval that is with Coast.

Starting point is 00:20:26 Thanks for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere your podcast. Check out the Everydayer Club, Lockdown Podcast.com, slash Everydayer. Again, apologies for the backdrop here or lack thereof on the road for this week. Let's give out some game balls. So let's start with the offensive game ball here. Only three players had more than four points, which is crazy to talk about. But KU had six players who had either the same amount of turnovers as points or more turnovers than points.

Starting point is 00:20:57 So not a lot to choose from here. Not great, obviously, on those sets. Peterson had 24 points on 8 of 21. He had two offensive rebounds. He also had, this was nicely, three assists for Peterson, right? That's one of the higher numbers we've seen this year compared to one turnover. Trey White had 13 points. He was four of 10.

Starting point is 00:21:14 He also had two offensive rebounds. but zero assists to two turnovers and kind of a quiet 13. Melvin counsel at 13 on 6 of 10. He had four assists compared to one turnover. I think it's between counsel and Peterson. We're going to go with Peterson, right? Not the most efficient game in the world, but he found ways to help KU, at least on offense.

Starting point is 00:21:32 Defensive game ball for KU, Darren Peterson led Kansas in blocks. He tied second on the team in steals. He deserves at least honorable mention. But I will say this, Jaden Bradley was the one Arizona player who didn't have a good offensive game. He was three of 11 in both games.

Starting point is 00:21:47 Jayden Bradley, you know, was inefficient and didn't do a ton for Arizona against KU. And I think Melvin Council deserves a lot of credit for that. I know sometimes O'Marco Jackson might guard him or, you know, KU switches and there's different cards that switch on to them. But I think counsel gets a lot of credit for that one. And then overall game ball, I don't know, I guess Peterson there, but does it really matter in a 21-point loss, right? And then what's next for KU? So they're going to be at Arizona State for a midweek game coming up. And that seems to be the more loseable of the two games is one because it's on the road, too, because Arizona State is better than Kansas State. He played home on Saturday for Senior Day for KU. So that one could be, at least you would hope, a big win for KU on Saturday. Win on the road at Arizona State, right? Don't let this loss turn into two straight. Don't let a loss at Arizona, one of the best teams in the country, turn into something where now you have a losing streak toward the end of the season. You're not feeling the same because everything is potentially in front of KU at this point in time where they can still do what they want to do in terms of

Starting point is 00:22:53 the seeding and the Big 12th tournament. But you got to go two and O this week to feel good about that and to feel the best possible way about your resume. You want to get three seed in the NCAA tournament. So that is what is ahead this week. And then the following week, Big 12th tournament, and then Selection Sunday, which will be two weeks away from if you're listening to this or watching this on Sunday. And that'll be an exciting day. All right, let's move for this episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. You can find her show anywhere you podcast, including on our YouTube page. See you next time for Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ARIZONA ANNIHILATION: Jayhawks STRUGGLE in Loss to Wildcats Despite 24 Points from Darryn Peterson

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