Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Arkansas beats Kansas! INSTANT REACTION NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET BREAKDOWN CLIP:

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

The Arkansas Razorbacks beat the Kansas Jayhawks in the second round of the NCAA March Madness Tournament. We break down the matchup with Derek Johnson, the host of Locked On Jayhawks. Follow Locked On Jayhawks for more on the Kansas Jayhawks and keep track of all the action by subscribing to Locked On College Basketball.Stay up-to-date on the Kansas Jayhawks every day, as Derek Johnson of Rock Chalk Sports Talk on KLWN, the flagship KU station in Lawrence, brings you analysis and the latest on KU with the Locked On Jayhawks Podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network.Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOJayhawks?sid=YouTubeLocked On College Conferences, HBCU, Basketball & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnCollege#KansasJayhawks #CollegeFootball #CollegeBasketball Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

March Madness is in full swing and we have another locked on bracket breakdown as Kansas will not repeat as national champions falling to eight seed Arkansas in tonight's second round matchup 72-71 that final. I'm Jordan Black and I'm joined by the host of Locked On Jayhawks, Derrick Johnson. Derrick, Bill Self not there tonight for the Jayhawks. And you mentioned that might have had an impact on tonight's final. Talk to us about what that means for Kansas and how that affected the outcome. I think it's hard not to think when you have arguably the best coach in college basketball to not think it didn't have at least some sort of an impact. You look at a close game and Bill Self kind of renowned as being the best out-of-bounds play guy and baseline

out-of-bounds and after timeout types of things. But also when you look at some of the specific stuff that happened in the game, and to be clear, I thought Norm Roberts did an excellent job filling in for him over the course of a season, but you certainly do miss it in some of those moments. So at the end of the game, they have the ball, they call the timeout with like 16 seconds left, they're down by three, and they end up drawing up a play for Jalen Wilson to drive in he gets fouled he makes two free throws I kind of feel like that if Bill Self were coaching that he would have ended up drawing up a play for three whether that's for Grady Dick or whoever else Jalen Wilson I don't know when you

look at Eric Musselman being a guy who has this NBA background and being a guy who you feel like is going to foul up three that Bill Self would know that and you ended up seeing when they ended up being down by three once again then we saw Anthony Black trying to take that charge call that ended up being like okay that's fine I'm fine giving up the foul and then Jalen has to shoot the two free throws try to miss the second but he banks in. I think Bill Self would have just opted to say, hey, let's drop the three now, because then we don't have to worry about the possible foul at the end of the game and kind of leave it up to chance. Also, you saw kind of the substitution stuff where a more veteran head coach maybe would be a little bit more comfortable throwing his guy back out there.

K.J. Adams picks up his fourth foul a few minutes into the second half. He's out for that big stretch. When Arkansas went from being down 12 to all of a sudden they're right in the game, they're tied, whatever it was, a lot of that was with K.J. off the floor. And K.U.'s young bigs really struggled down low. Arkansas was able to get to the rim. And also K.J. just provided an offensive threat that the other centers didn't do on just his pick-and-roll game and ability to get to the hoop to the hoop and KU was severely missing him when he wasn't on the floor

I kind of think that Bill Self probably you know risks it a little bit more he's been in more of these situations and maybe KJ instead of coming in at like the under eight timeout maybe comes in at the under 12 and I think it's important to note that even when he came in with those four fouls at like the under eight timeout he didn't end end up fouling out. So you could have ended up having him for a few more minutes of the game. You mentioned how Kansas was up at the half, and Kansas has been up at the half so many times this season and undefeated when they're up at the half. And then tonight, obviously not the case.

What do you think happened in the second half? Obviously so many things happened, but generally, what were some of the main struggle points for the Jayhawks? Yeah, it's kind of, I guess, a little bit of karma. You look at how many times they've had these crazy comebacks, including in the national title game last year, and then it comes back around and bites you in March. That's just the madness portion of it. I look at the second half, and I look at the Kansas defense. This is a top 10 defense in the country. It's been their calling card this year, but they gave up 45 points in the second half and this is not a great Arkansas

offense they came in ranked outside the top 50 and adjusted offensive efficiency and it's not like Arkansas just kind of weirdly got hot from three they were three of 15 from three-point range that's just 20 percent you only had two more turnovers than them so it's not like that was a huge difference there. You just weren't able to. And, yeah, there was that one kind of lull in the middle of the second half where you struggled offensively. But overall, you had a pretty good offensive game

outside of just missing free throws. Meanwhile, Arkansas, who's actually been kind of a bad free throw shooting team this year, shot really well at the free throw line, so that certainly didn't help you. But that was kind of the key. Like Devo Davis could not be stopped in the second half Ricky Council could not be stopped in some key moments down the stretch the defense that they have hung their hat on all season long ended up not being the strength that they hoped it to over the final 15-20 minutes of the game what were some

things that you did like from Kansas obviously not able to pull out the win but there were there were some positives I mean up at the half we saw some really great guys making impacts but what did you like well I think when you look at this team moving forward you're going to be looking at DeJuan Harris and KJ Adams next year as the core of the team coming back and both those guys played very well in this NCAA tournament game for Kansas now you did have the one DeJuan Harris play where he doesn't get it over in the 10 second call and who knows how much that ultimately impacted the game. I know that's nightmare flashbacks for KU fans with the 2013 Sweet 16 against Michigan as well. But, I mean, DeJuan, after coming back off the ankle injury, was really good. He ends up with 12 points,

five assists. He was in control of a lot of the game. KJ Adams, you saw him. He was arguably the most valuable player for KU in this game when he was on the floor versus off with the foul trouble. So he was really important, and those were two big takeaways. I thought Jalen and Kevin played really well. They hit some big shots for you. Jalen, you look up at the end of the day, and I thought Arkansas did a pretty good job on him,

but he still had 20 points, which it's unfortunate for him to go out like this. He's been such a good winner for this team, and he just couldn't come through with that final one play for KU. But there were certainly some positives among the players and now you do move forward into the DeJuan Harrison, KJ Adams era and I guess you do get it off into a bit of a right foot forward. One of the things that has lacked for Kansas is bench play. How important of an offseason move will it be for Kansas to just get in some players who can make an impact, not maybe in the starting five, but just off the bench too? Extremely important.

We saw when they won the title two years ago. It's not that they had a super deep bench. They were only playing seven guys, occasionally an eighth. But the two guys they could bring off the bench, Remy Martin and Mitch Lightfoot, could go get you a bucket. Mitch Lightfoot was one of the most efficient players with a right-handed hook in college basketball. Remy Martin could fill it up in a hurry. You have to be able to have bench players for in the case of somebody gets in foul trouble, like we saw today, or gets injured, like DeJuan Harris. For those few minutes they come in, they can give you something.

So it doesn't have to be a deep bench. A lot of title teams win with shorter benches, but you at least have to have something. And KU didn't really get much from their bench all year long from really even one or two guys. They weren't trustworthy. So whether that's the improvement of current guys on the team, like Ernest Duday and Zuby Edgeford, and in the cases of a lot of these guys, they were four or five star recruits that you expect them to get better. Or if it's Bill Self being unhappy with how this kind of went off the bench and hitting the transfer portal hard, it's going to be a very interesting offseason in Lawrence. Looking ahead to the offseason and next year,

what should fans be excited about for Kansas? And the second part of that question, an update on Coach Self. You mentioned maybe just an update for fans just to know how he's doing. Yeah, so I'll start with the Self thing first. He kind of continues to be day-to-day. It kind of sounded like, to me, he was going to possibly be back next week if they would have made it to Vegas in the Sweet 16. So I would imagine everything will be okay with him to get more time off here,

that he should be good to go once we get to next season, which is obviously a huge positive out of all this. As far as what Kansas is going to be looking for next year, like I said, DeJuan Harris, KJ Adams should be back as starters. Jalen Wilson, Kevin McCullers should be gone. Now everyone's attention will turn to Grady Dick, who is going to be expected to go pro because he's going to be expected to be a lottery pick, top 20 pick in the NBA draft.

But I know some of the thought before the season started was that from his contingency, it would be a two-year thing at Kansas. So maybe that holds onto a little hope. Kansas certainly is going to need shooting next year because if DeJuan and KJ are back, they're not really huge shooters. DeJuan can hit them, but he's more of a set shooter. And then do you plug in a center to line up with Ernest Uday? Does MJ Rice progress and become a wing? You're going to need another shooter in there. So there are going to be some big question marks along the lineup, but you do at least have

a couple of those pillars back for sure with KJ and DeJuan. Well, this is always great insight, Derek. We appreciate you. Obviously not the outcome you all hoped for, but it looks like there are a lot of positives looking forward. So thank you for all of that. For more on Kansas, make sure you are subscribed to Locked On Jayhawks. And for a full view of the bracket and all of the action, make sure you are subscribed to Locked On College Basketball.

That is part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks, everyone, for watching and listening.