Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Can Kansas Jayhawks' Size Lead to a Blowout Against Oakland?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this Locked on Jayhawks, we preview number one Kansas hosting Oakland in a basketball game returning to Allen Fieldhouse. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Derek Johnson, you can give me a follow on Blue Sky at Derek Johnson. And this is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On this episode of Locked On Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:43 we are going to be previewing number one Kansas in basketball against Oakland. We did our KU football preview against BYU here as well, so you can check out that one on the feed as well as plenty of our other shows. And again, thank you to every dayers already catching each and every one of those. So we're going to get into the headlines of the game, the opponent's scouting report for Oakland, matchups of the game, players to watch all that on this episode of LOJ, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. for Oakland, matchups to the game, players to watch, all that on this episode of LOJ,

Starting point is 00:01:07 which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. Kansas hosts Oakland Saturday night at 5 o'clock. Works out that the football game's at 9.15, so you go to Allen Fieldhouse, you check out the game,

Starting point is 00:01:28 then you go to your favorite sports bar, go back home, watch the football game, and boom, you have a full night of KU athletics late into the night. And top headlines for this one, KU coming back home from the Champions Classic after the win over Michigan State. Obviously, your last two were ultimate highs of highs, North Carolina, Michigan State.

Starting point is 00:01:47 How do you get back up for a game like this against Oakland? Well, I do think the importance of this one is Kansas looking to build up some of the newcomers. We haven't seen some of the newcomers play ultra consistently. We haven't seen some of the newcomers hit their stride yet. You think about a guy like A.J. Storr who's still trying to find his stride in Lawrence. You think about a guy like David Coit who's had some big games, but then had some games where he hasn't made as much of an impact.

Starting point is 00:02:16 And then like Zeke Mayo, just trying to keep that momentum going. You know, Ryland Griffin continuing, trying to keep his momentum going and everything like that. So with some of the newcomers, you know, trying to build your momentum, is this going to be the return for Shaquille Moore? Are we going to see him? I think this would be a good opportunity to get him out there that maybe is a little lower stakes. We'll see if he's healthy enough to go.

Starting point is 00:02:35 But, you know, just getting the newcomers, continuing to build up the rhythm, the meshing of the team put together, just everything for KU that is going to ride on how good these newcomers are for where their ceiling is it's a team it's also a matchup you could view it this way two teams who made the second round of the NCAA tournament and oddly enough it was Oakland who was closer to making the sweet 16 and I think they lost in like overtime to NC State but nonetheless you do have two teams who won an NCAA tournament game a season ago, so prime time matchup. But anyway, as far as the Oakland scouting report, this obviously is that Oakland team. As I just mentioned, they upended Kentucky in the 14-3 game in the NCAA tournament.

Starting point is 00:03:16 They were lights out from three. They ended up winning 24 games last year, but it's very much, as you would imagine, when you have an upset like that, you're going to end up with a lot of players who are probably either graduating or going to transfer to another school. And that's exactly what happened this offseason for Oakland. They do have two starters back, so I guess they do have some returning talent, but it's a lot of new transfers into the program. Currently, they're ranked just inside the top 200 on Ken Palm. They're one and two on the season so far. Not a lot to tell from their one win. They beat a non-Division One team by 23

Starting point is 00:03:53 points. And then their two other games that they've played are against top 50 Ken Palm opponents. So you could view that as, hey, they've played a bit of a tough schedule for what they're going to look at. They played a top 50 Boise team that's been a consistent NCAA tournament team, but they lost by 44 points. But then they actually most recently played an Illinois team that's kind of a borderline top 25, like top 30 team in the country. And they only lost by 12 on the road, which is far from a bad loss for Oakland on the road against Illinois interestingly enough I you think of Oakland and how they played in the NCAA tournament last year and and you know run and gun from three would be your your kind of immediate thought well that's

Starting point is 00:04:34 not been the case early this season for them they are playing slow as molasses this is one of the slowest paced offenses in the country so far they do get up a ton of threes regardless of that um but it has been night and day in terms of the shooting percentage the actual amount of threes they're taking is actually pretty in line with what it was last year but they come in shooting just 13.7 percent from three that is not a typo or misspoken. 14% from three, basically. Now, you could view that and say, well, there's a reversion coming. You just hope it's not this game. But they've also been bad at two-point shooting.

Starting point is 00:05:13 They've turned the ball over too much on offense. They're not getting to the free throw line much. They're not getting offensive rebounds. So they've just been bad through three games on offense, basically just everywhere. But, again, the track record here does make you think that typically they're going to have three-point shooters and they are going to at least have more shooting pop at some point.

Starting point is 00:05:33 Is the reversion going to come this game? Is it going to come down the road? Who knows? Defensively, they've been fine at forcing turnovers. They've been solid at avoiding fouls, but they are just 323rd in defensive rebounding rate. KU's been bad at offensive rebounding. Over on Blue Sky, I'm posting a KU stat of the day. And last season, we talked about this a little bit in the offseason. Last season, KU had the lowest

Starting point is 00:05:58 offensive rebound rate of Bill Self's tenure at KU. That applies if you're looking at offensive rebound rate by like percentage, which last season KU only grabbed 25.7% of their offensive rebounds. There's only like two other years they were even below 30 and neither of those they were below like 28. But last year was the worst. This year they're only grabbing like 0.2% better

Starting point is 00:06:24 than it was last year. So they've got to figure out a way to be better on offense rebounding. This year they're only grabbing like 0.2% better than it was last year. So they've got to figure out a way to be better on offense rebounding. This is a good opportunity. And then teams are also shooting 56% on twos against Oakland and 36% on threes against them. So Oakland has not had a good start to the season against some better opponents. As far as the personnel, Jack Golke, who is that three-point marksman

Starting point is 00:06:42 who would get them off in any way, off pin downs, off screens, fading back, curling around. He could just fire it any way he could. He graduated. They also lost the Horizon League Player of the Year, Trey Townsend, who was a really good kind of foreman. I don't believe any relation to Curtis Townsend. But he was just kind of this really good post player for them that could stretch it a little bit.

Starting point is 00:07:03 He transferred to Arizona. And one of their good guards, Chris Conway, transferred to Washington. I mean, honestly, if Townsend and Conway would have been back, like people would have been probably predicting Oakland to maybe I would imagine win the horizon. And this game would be maybe even a little bit more interesting. But they also graduated two others who combined for like 20 points, four assists per game at the guard spots. So it is a much different team overall. They did bring back six foot three guard DQ Cole, who is the team leader right now in points per game.

Starting point is 00:07:36 And that is only at 10.7 points per game. And this is wild too. He's leading the team in scoring. He's shooting 28% from the field. They have just been ice cold shooting to start the year. Other notables for the team. This is very interesting. Tubaru Naivalarua.

Starting point is 00:07:54 I 100% mispronounced that name. He is a six foot six, 240 pound forward. Who's been playing the four and the five for them. He's going for over 10 points per game, almost eight rebounds, 48% from the field. I would say to this point in the season he's probably been their best player i guess there's maybe some um you know i guess bowling ball tendencies of a a smaller big man and then the other guy that they're like they're playing him at the four when they play this guy at the five but then sometimes he's playing the five and you might be thinking okay that, that's a small lineup. If he's six, six, even though he's 240 pounds, him playing the five, we'll get this. Their other center that they play is six, six as well. He's 250 pounds in Alan Mukaba. He's

Starting point is 00:08:35 averaging nine points, five rebounds in a block and a half per game. He's been putting up solid numbers, but that's wild. They're four and five men are six foot six each. So KU is going to tower over them. Interestingly enough, their tallest player is'6 each. So KU is going to tower over them. Interestingly enough, their tallest player is actually a wing. That is Jason Woodrich. He is a 6'7 wing. He gets 8.3 points per game. They also have a 6'5 guard in Malcolm Christie,

Starting point is 00:08:57 who's getting 8.3 points per game. What's interesting in the two centers who play all their minutes, which are both those guys, and then one of them is going to even play some minutes at the four while the other is at the five, even though they have good weight to bang in the post, which maybe that helps them more against a guy like Flory, Hunter is going to tower over them. I mean, that's an eight-inch advantage. Hunter at 7'2", against guys who are 6'6". This could be one of those games where he has 25 points on 12 of 14 shooting or something like that.

Starting point is 00:09:28 And here's the beauty of it too. You might be thinking, okay, well, that's cool and all, but if they have two big men who are six foot six, they're probably guys who shoot the ball on the other end of the court. And that would worry me a little bit with KU playing two bigs and Hunter, who's a little more slow footed. No, that would not be correct because so far through the season, those two players who are six foot six for them have combined to go over two from three point range. So I think you can sense where KU might have a big advantage of this one. Now, as far as the importance of the game, I mean, what do I have to say? Not losing at home, moving to four and O, avoiding what would be a bad loss. And I guess just getting some good vibes for some of the young players, some of the rotation guys, some of the newcomers

Starting point is 00:10:05 who you're trying to still figure out the roles or figure out how everything meshes together and where everybody kind of fits in. All right, let's continue on with our matchups of the game and players to watch. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Omaha Steaks. Nothing delivers comfort and joy quite like the unrivaled quality and taste of Omaha Steaks. This year, skip the holiday hustle and bustle and save 50%

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Starting point is 00:11:30 You can make your third listen locked on college football. Make your fourth listen locked on college basketball. Boom, you're good to go for podcasts for the day. All right, our matchups of the day. Number one, KU capitalizing on transition opportunities. For what it's worth, I'm not going to re-mention this one in the matchup here. Hunter Dickinson just being way bigger. KJ even being bigger than their big men.

Starting point is 00:11:49 Flory being bigger than their big men. Like that is the real big thing for KU to exploit here. Just pound the ball inside. But that seems so obvious. So number one, KU capitalizing transition opportunities. Oakland, I don't think I've ever seen a team where it is this different on offense and defense. So Ken Palm has a cool little stat that shows, you know, your average possessions, basically how fast your tempo is over the course of the game. But then they split it up into average possession

Starting point is 00:12:15 length on offense and average possession length on defense. Cause some teams might end up being more medium paced, but they play fast on offense and slow on defense because teams have trouble figuring them out or vice versa. I don't think I've ever seen it this pronounced. Oakland ranks 359th on offense in average possession length. They're typically taking over 21 seconds per possession. So they are one of the slowest teams offensively in the country. Yet on defense, they're the 35th fastest average possession length. And it's only through three games, so you can get some wonky numbers. But basically what

Starting point is 00:12:50 that tells me, I mean, it's the transition defense is bad and that they're allowing a lot of quick scores because you don't end up with that big of, like, if they're trying to slow the game down, you would think they'd be doing things on the defensive end that also help them be complimentary and slow the game down, but they haven't been able to keep teams out of transition, obviously. And plus when you miss a lot of long threes, which they do, that's going to lead to a lot of real long runouts. So for KU, you're going to get transition opportunities. Jayhawks are currently scoring over 16 points per game in transition. That ranks in the 86th percentile, according to CBB analytics. And that means KJ Adams, Zeke Mayo, DeJuan Harris, lots of transition assists.

Starting point is 00:13:28 That means Hunter Dickinson, he has more of his good outlet passes. That means Flory Badunga is probably going to have some good transition dunks. AJ Stor should be fired up for that matchup because I think that's been the best part about his game so far in a Kansas uniform has been his transition offense. And then probably some transition threes for guys like Griffin and Mayo as well. Number two is get out on their three-point shooters. I know they haven't shot well from three so far. Let me reiterate, they're shooting 13.7% from three. That is literally the worst in the country. Yet they're still taking them 25 times per game. Now, a couple

Starting point is 00:14:01 things you can wean from that. One, the fact that they're taking 25 a game, one part of that is like style and scheme, what they want to do. The other part of that probably tells you that they're better than they're shooting because they are taking them that much, and their coach has seen them practice and do all these things, and he says, yeah, we are a better shooting team than that might indicate. Even if you don't think they're a good shooting team, though, like, for instance, last season they shot 36% from three on 25 attempts per game. And they were a very good three-point shooting team. Even if you don't think they're that with all the losses, even if you think they're like

Starting point is 00:14:31 a bad efficiency three-point shooting team, even if they're 31 or 32%, they're not going to keep shooting 14%. And so at some point, a reversion to the mean is going to come. Now, does it guarantee that the reversion to the mean is going to happen in this game and start in this game? No, absolutely not. They could shoot even worse than the number could go down in this game. And maybe the reversion of the mean comes, you know, a month from now or something like that. You don't know how that works, but typically you think about it for Kansas right now with the personnel that they have. What are the things that scare you most defensively? For me, it's teams who can run ball screens, who have good guards and who shoot a lot of threes and can space you out. And that is what Oakland is going to try to do. And it also tells

Starting point is 00:15:10 me that they're still chucking, they're still shooting, even with them not going in. They're not going to be afraid to just keep shooting in Allen Fieldhouse. The moment's not going to bother them, I would think, too much. So for Kansas, get out as much as you can, defend the three, defend ball screens, so so forth and show what you can do here I definitely do wonder if Bill Self you know saw the style Oakland plays and and went into this season thinking that same thing like hey this might be a weakness for us this could be a good opportunity to get some reps get some practice against a team who does this let's schedule Oakland I don't know how far in advance they scheduled this game but I certainly wonder

Starting point is 00:15:42 that coming into this matchup but yeah I guess a good opportunity to practice against that in this one for KU. Our player matchup is DQ Cole, who plays someone for them, but he's mostly their two guard against Zeke Mayo. So Cole leads them in points per game, but he hasn't shot well from the floor so far. He also hasn't shot well from three, but he does lead the team in three-point attempts. You look at Zeke Mayo, he's leading Kansas in three-point attempts. You have these two guards who are going up against each other who can kind of be combo guards, handle it a little bit.

Starting point is 00:16:10 Both can score the basketball. Both can shoot it from three-point range. Both have solid size. Cole at 6'3", Mayo at like 6'4". I think that'll be a fun matchup in this one for both ways. All right, let's finish with our players to watch. Coming up next. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:17:11 an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. You can get in on Kansas plus two and a half. We did some pick a prop during our KU football preview against BYU as well, so check that out. Locked on Jayhawks, the official sports book partner with FanDuel. All right. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Again,

Starting point is 00:17:32 find our preview for Kansas BYU or check out some of the latest recruiting news. We had some bonus episodes throughout the week here, and we talked about those right here on Locked on Jayhawks. And thank you for that every day. There's tuning into each and every show. Hit the thumbs up. If you're on YouTube really helps us out. If you could give you for the everydayers tuning in to each and every show. Hit the thumbs up if you're on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:17:45 It really helps us out. If you could give us a five-star review on the audio side as well, certainly doesn't hurt. All right, players to watch. Let's see. So offensive side of the ball, let's go back to the idea that, you know, Oakland's two big men who are 6'6". Like, credit to them.

Starting point is 00:18:00 They're averaging like a combined like two, two-and-a-half blocks per game. But, like, teams are shooting 74 at the rim against oakland right now and i look at this matchup and hunter dickinson's coming off a game where he just had 28 points against a super-sized michigan state lineup and i'm sitting there going oh my gosh you're gonna feast now i would imagine there's gonna be a lot of double teams so there's two ways to play this. I think Hunter Dickinson and Flory Badunga are going to have big games. They're going to be efficient. They're going to have the size advantage. I also went over earlier that if KU is going to be able to score in transition, which I think they will, that could mean some Flory dunks when he runs the floor hard.

Starting point is 00:18:42 But the other part of this is that players who are set three-point shooters, I think Rylan Griffin and Zeke Mayo, I think are set up maybe David Coyt in a game like this, right, are set up to have a big game because they're going to have to double Hunter Dickinson. Somebody's going to be open for a three. Now, they're going to probably try to double with the guy off of KJ. So how does that affect things? Maybe it just means a big game for KJ cutting.

Starting point is 00:19:06 I think that'll be interesting. But overall, I think Hunter Dickinson is the answer here because he should be able to score efficiently. If he is being doubled, he should be able to rack up some assists. The transition play, he's a good outlet passer, and he should be able to rack up some rebounds against what's been a bad rebounding team.

Starting point is 00:19:19 So Hunter Dickinson is our offensive player to watch. Shocker there. Defensive player to watch is DeJuan Harris. Jalen Jones is the main point guard for Oakland so far this season, but they play several guys there point guard because even though Jalen Jones is the main guy, he's playing like 20 minutes per game, but he's getting 2.3 turnovers per game in just 20 minutes per game.

Starting point is 00:19:39 And as a team right now, Oakland is in the 27th percentile, so they have them great at it in turnover rate offensively. There are steals to be had, and who better than Wando to get steals for the KU defense and try to limit him at the point guard position. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We will be back for post-cast episodes for both the KU Oakland basketball game on Saturday night,

Starting point is 00:20:06 the KU BYU football game late into Saturday night, into Sunday morning. So stay tuned for that and check out our KU BYU football preview as well. We'll see you next time with another episode of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Can Kansas Jayhawks' Size Lead to a Blowout Against Oakland?

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