Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CROSSOVER: #8 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Faces #4 Houston Cougars Basketball

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Locked On Crossover for #8 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball vs #4 Houston Cougars men's basketball in Lawrence on Saturday February 3. Locked On Jayhawks host Derek Johnson and Locked On Coogs Host Parker Ainsworth talk KU vs UH, Bill Self vs Kelvin Sampson, the new entries to the Big 12, matchups and keys to the game and more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's a big championship game played every February, but this weekend feels like a different kind of championship game being played in the Big 12 Conference. You are Locked On Cougs, your daily podcast on the Houston Cougars, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to a crossover edition of Locked on Cougs and Locked on Jayhawks. I'm one of your hosts, Parker Ainsland.

I'm joined by Derek Johnson of Locked on Jayhawks. Derek, how are you doing? Doing great. It should be a fun one on Saturday, getting ready for it. It should be. I think folks in Houston getting ready for it. It should be. I think folks in Houston have been looking forward to this probably since it was officially announced that Houston would be joining the Big 12 a few years ago at this point. Obviously, I want to get into the game this weekend. I want to talk about matchups, talk about X-Factors, and talk about a lot of different things.

But I also, Derek, I want to ask about your year thus far. I mean, sitting there at 17-4, that's very, very strong, even the strength of schedule Kansas has, high expectations every year. How would you describe what life's been like in Lawrence so far this year? It's funny because you get spoiled with Kansas basketball, and from a national perspective, most teams would kill to be having the season Kansas is having right now, where they're 17-4 and they're in a very difficult conference and they're ranked 8th in the A people.

But the funny thing is, because Kansas fans have been spoiled by how good the program has been and how many good teams Bill Self has had, there is a little bit of angst going on right now. They've lost three road games already in Big 12 play. They're not in great position right now in the Big 12. Now you win this one and that changes a little bit. Currently on like Ken Palm, like some of their rankings and their efficiency numbers are some of actually the lowest that it has been in Bill Self's time at Kansas. So as much as this team, you know, still has a shot to complete the season and do some fun things here and, you know, make noise in March right now.

Maybe there is a little bit of disappointment, just a tad from where things were from this program for a lot of years and from where it was in the preseason. But again, that's kind of small potato problems. And certainly a lot of teams, like I said, would kind of be killing to be in the spot that Kansas is in right now. Yeah. I don't know what the college basketball equivalent of first world problems is but it

sounds like that's what you're talking about um i gotta ask so obviously um houston's one of four new big 12 teams this year and frankly we had four new big 12 teams next year too um selfishly i would point out that the new teams have kind of made some noise in the conference. Kansas has already faced a few and, you know, I think Houston's the one they anticipated being a fun competitive matchup. What's been your impression, especially in the basketball landscape, big 12 being the best basketball conference in America of these new,

new programs. I think, like you said, we knew Houston was going to come in and hit the ground running because they have been an awesome program over the last last whatever it's been handful plus of years when you know Kelvin Sampson everything he's doing there that you knew they would be really good coming in BYU has been the one that's been the real nice pleasant surprise so far with what they've done this year I know that they're currently three and four in conference play but

they very easily could have won that game against Houston and they've got a lethal team from three that they become very interesting I think And they've got a lethal team from three that they become very interesting. I think Cincinnati, they've got a bright future under Wes Miller and how tough they play even UCF. Like they beat Kansas already. Right. So if you would have said before the year began, like the school year, the calendar year that I guess that Kansas would beat UCF in football, but UCF would be Kansas and basketball.

You would certainly be a little bit, are you sure about that? But yeah uh yeah no I think all of them have been nice additions to to the program or to the Big 12 overall and it's only going to get tougher the only negative the only downside is all this is the lack of the true double round robin and that was one of my favorite things about what the Big 12 was at in the past when it had 10 teams is that you played everybody home and home. And so if you lost on a team on the road, it was like, okay, you get them back when you come in home. And it was the best way. I mean, it truly was.

You win the conference in the regular season. You feel like you were the best team. And now you look at it and, like, you have a team like Texas Tech, not necessarily like throw shade or anything like that, but, you know, Texas Tech lost by 23 at Houston. Well, the good news for Texas Tech is that they don't have to play Houston a second time and on top of that Texas Tech only gets to play Kansas once and it's in Lubbock for them which is a very difficult place to play so like you have these unbalanced schedules where at the end of the day now you

know Texas Tech could end up let's say finishing tied for first in the big 12 with say Houston at the end of the year but Houston's schedule would be more difficult or Kansas's schedule would be more difficult. And it takes away a little bit of the lure for me, but I mean, it is absolutely fun. How many great matchups we do get night in night out. And I think a lot of really good additions and it seems like, you know, certainly adding to the big 12 is, is only helped some of those programs like UCF and Cincinnati.

Maybe I'd imagine in, in recruiting and the transfer portal and everything being like, hey, come play in the best conference in college basketball. I certainly think it's helped in the basketball recruiting front. In 2024, they got Mercy Miller out of California. They've got JoJo Tugler to stay home. That LJ Cryer transfer back to Houston. He was at Baylor, right? He's from the Houston area.

I definitely think it's helped. I also think of Cincinnati as like Kenyon Martin days. I think of Cincinnati as being this powerhouse program, so I know that there's potential there. Houston has kind of run, kind of ran the American Athletic Conference the last handful of years. It was Houston and a little bit of Memphis here and there, but Houston kind of dominated the thing. Kansas has had that run for what feels like my whole life, but I guess it's really been the last 20 years of the big 12. Was there any worry or concern with new teams coming in?

Or was it really just like, Oh, this is going to be fun now. Like I said, it's more matches, different teams. Sure. Like I said,

I think that there, there is the natural concern about the lack of the round robin anymore and the schedule no longer making sense. And that's only going to get even crazier when you add the new teams that are coming in next year. You know, you're only going to play certain teams one time and how's the schedule going to work?

That's kind of the biggest concern for me. I think from the teams themselves coming in, like I've liked all the additions and I don't think there's been any you know qualms necessarily from here anything like that obviously you want to add programs that are going to really add to the league and you feel like that's especially the case with Houston and then what's coming in next year with Arizona who knows if they end up adding more teams if like a Gonzaga or somebody like that comes aboard too but you know it does make it a more interesting product and I think the thing where I'm most excited for this with all these

new teams is if you've never been to the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City it is in my opinion the best I mean I've only been to a couple others but still it is such an unbelievable conference tournament you get fans from a lot of different areas who come to Iowa State fans travel insanely well for the event. Fill out the arena. You get people staying overnight. There's a bar area right across the street called Power and Light that you can just walk to from the stadium.

You've got all sorts of bars and restaurants and everything like that. It's a great time. I would highly recommend coming out for it, and this year is going to be even better than normal because now it's a deeper conference with even more fun teams and more fun matchups. So you mentioned across the board here how well some of these schools travel iowa state i was you know people were talking

about how like it was kind of a bad weather day and one even their best showing i was really impressed by the crowd they had of their names obviously um and they knocked off houston for what's worth i mean it was it was an impressive basketball program and this idea of unbalanced schedules it's like houston doesn't necessarily get that back and forth with them houston does get kansas in a home and home this year and i'd be lying if i told you that that doesn't seem like something made for tv on purpose right um houston also gets texas in a home and home and gets oklahoma once and we're all really excited because that's kind of rivalries we wanted to be in the conference for.

As a Kansas person that has kind of run this conference for a while, since Kelvin Sampson was at Oklahoma, frankly, were you all sad to see them go? I mean, they've kind of been speed bumps for you, but you've won the conference with them in it for a long time now. Are you talking Oklahoma, Texas? Yeah, Oklahoma, Texas, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think from a conference stability level, like obviously you don't love to lose, you know,

to kind of cash cows, so to speak, like Texas and Oklahoma. Like that's not ideal. So, yeah, from that standpoint, it's no fun. I don't think it has had as big of an effect on Kansas basketball. I mean, Texas has obviously had some years with, with Rick Barnes in there. And then, you know, last year's team that were really good and certainly challenged Kansas. Oklahoma's had some really good years with Lon Kruger in there.

You think of the Blake Griffin year, you think of the buddy healed year that they were certainly able to kind of challenge in there. You mentioned some of the Kelvin Sampson years and kind of the early and mid two thousands that they were able to challenge. But I think for Kansas, it's, it's more just from the basketball standpoint. You just – you know, you have a lot of talent. You have all this stuff going kind of your way.

You just kind of take care of yourself. So I was sad to see them go from a certain standpoint, especially Oklahoma, because that one doesn't just go back to Big 12 ties. That one goes back to Big 8 ties, where that one has even more kind of historical relevance than even the Texas one necessarily. But I do like the new additions. And I think honestly, you know, from a football perspective, you probably lose more than basketball, basketball. I think you argue that you actually will be getting better. You view it as like Arizona's better basketball program than, you know, Texas is, I think Houston's better basketball program than Oklahoma,

maybe not like historically, if you go back into, you back into all the great teams that Oklahoma's had in the past, but still what it is right now, you certainly feel that way. I think the conference is in a good spot and you never look to lose good schools, but I think they'll be fine moving forward. I promise, folks, I do want to talk about this weekend's matchup and I do want to hear what kind of questions, if Kansas has any questions for Houston. I know as the newcomer, people are kind of like, what's going on down there in the bayou but there's a a really big game over the month of February every year and that's Super Bowl and if you're trying to make Super Bowl something a little bit more memorable or something a little

bit more fun the Angels place do it right now because it's Super Bowl season and they've got this great deal right now we put a five dollar bet down and it hits. You get $200 back in bonus bets. Now, Derek, I'm really weird about the Super Bowl. I sit at my house. I get a spread of food for me and my wife. We share. And I don't talk to people. I watch every commercial.

I watch the game. I don't want to be interrupted at all. Are you weird like me at all? How do you do the Super Bowl? You know, it's funny. The Chiefs have started going to Super Bowls. I mean, all my childhood, I never even saw the Chiefs win playoff games. Now I'm seeing them go to Super Bowls every year.

It's a much different experience because in the past, I was always like, okay, I want to watch the commercials. Honestly, I'll go get my food while the game action is going on. Now it's like I'm using the commercials to go to the bathroom, go get my food, everything like that. Place bets if you want to do that kind of in between. You got to use the commercials now. So actually I don't pay as much attention to the commercials ever since.

So Fandles got the Chiefs at plus two and a half right now. I enjoy watching Patrick Holmes the same way. I feel like a kid of the 90s liked watching Michael Jordan play basketball. He just, I think him at plus two and a half feels silly. I'm sure you feel the same way. You put down $5 right now, folks. $200 back in bonus bets as soon as it hits. Go to FanDuel.com

slash locked on. Sign up at FanDuel.com slash locked on. L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N. Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sports partner of the NFL. Alright, Derek, this weekend's game has a lot of things on the line, but I got to ask, because someone doesn't know a lot about Kansas yet. Do you have a hand sign we can flash upside down that might be upsetting? No, no hand sign for KU, unfortunately.

I think the only one that was a hand sign for the state of Kansas might be Wichita State, which that's the shocker one. Is there one for Houston? We do a Cougar, Paul, which looks a lot like the shocker. The funny thing there, the ultimate irony there is it actually stems from the mascot back when we had a live mascot, Cougar traveling on us everywhere, lost a toe. And UT Austin, of of all places back in Southwest

Conference days was making fun of it shortly before losing to Houston 30 to nothing in football and that became the rallying cry whatever so ultimately the funny thing here is that the don't horns down us school right even though they play the eyes of Texas in the football games kind of gave us our hand sign. So we do have one. We do have one. I don't know. I think it's a very Texas Southern thing to have hand signs at schools,

A&M and Baylor and TC. They all got them, right? Sure. Talking about the Kansas basketball team, though, and frankly, I want to hear what kinds of things Kansas fans want to hear about Houston, too. What are they wondering? 17-4 is a good year. I put McCullers on the graphic because he's leading my points per game.

I mean, that's a lot of points, but is he the headliner to you too? Yeah. So I think right now you have two kind of all American candidates with Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson. Both are putting up really good numbers around 18, 19 points per game. I think Kevin is, is the best player, or at least most impactful player for what it's worth though, and Hunter Dickinson. Both are putting up really good numbers around 18, 19 points per game. I think Kevin is the best player, or at least most impactful player for what it's worth, though, because Kevin is a really good defender. He was all Big 12 defensive team last year.

For my money, I thought he should have won defensive player of the year in the conference. That actually went to his teammate, DeJuan Harris. But I just thought McCuller, being a wing, impacted more because he's more switchable there. So I think he's the most impactful player, but he's coming off an injury. He didn't play earlier this week against Oklahoma State.

He has a bone bruise in his knee. By all accounts, it sounds like he's going to play against Houston, but if he's not 100%, he wasn't 100% when he played through it in the Iowa State game and had one of his worst efficiency games of the year. He played on a tough physical team. We'll see how that goes. Dickinson's been really good this year with the transfer edition. Honestly, this is one of the best starting fives in the country.

They made a change a few weeks ago, adding Johnny Furphy to the lineup. He's a young freshman from Australia coming off the bench the first couple months of the year. But since he's been into the starting lineup, he's averaging like 14 points per game as a young freshman can shoot it a bit. Good athlete at 6'8", 6'9". So he's made a nice impact in the lineup DeJuan Harris is kind of the steady point guard who plays good defense good

passer uh will hit open threes but he's been a little bit more up and down this year than he was last year and there's been some games they've played good turnover defense teams like Houston has and they've kind of struggled because of it so that'll be kind of the key in this one. And then, yeah, KJ Adams has been phenomenal in kind of that glue guy role. He just does a little bit of everything. He throws down dunks. He's the energizer bunny for the team. He'll throw, you know, 10 fist pumps through the game.

He's actually a really good passer, too. That's something he's really developed in his game. He hits a little push shot and elbow. But the problem for KU to this point, it's been a couple things. One, they've had a few of those games where they turn it over too much they've had a few games where the rebounding battle has been kind of bad against them both those things are not great when you're playing Houston uh the bench has really struggled this year uh prior to last game when Kevin McCullough was out like the two previous games they had like two bench points in back-to-back

games so um there are certain things that have plagued them a little bit they've also had some games where the opposition has gotten supernova from three like west virginia shot insanely high volume iowa state who had not been a good three-point shooting team went 14 of 30 from three against kansas some of that is a little bit of them some of that might be just bad luck whatever it is but um either way it is it has been a very interesting kansas, to say the least. And certainly people are holding out hope that some of the bench players, like a Marco Jackson, who is a McDonald's All-American, and some of these other guys, Nick Timberlake,

who was averaging 18 points per game at Towson last year, can kind of figure things out down the home stretch for them to kind of get things going. But because of the road losses that they've had early this year at 5-3, kind of the talk here is this feels like a must win if Kansas wants to win the big 12 which has been kind of a rite of passage for them this feels like a must win for them and I'm curious from the Houston perspective what kind of the mentality going into this game is is it hey we have an opportunity to you know take it to them is it just kind of in awe of playing like what do you think that kind of feeling is going to be around the program coming into this game is is it hey we have an opportunity to you know take it to them is it just kind of in awe of playing like what do you think that kind of feeling is going to be around the program coming into this one I think it's a moment for Houston to prove that they're the program we've said we

are for a while now and I mostly say that from a you know the last handful of years while Houston's won 30 plus games and stuff like that in America it's like well you play in the American right they come into the big 12 this year and they're non-conference you know A&M is not having the while Houston's won 30-plus games and stuff like that in the American. It's like, well, you're playing the American, right? They come into the Big 12 this year in their non-conference. You know, A&M is not having the year we would have thought they'd had. Frankly, their best non-conference win is probably Dayton. And, like, that's not a sexy name. And Houston knows Houston's good.

And this is a chance for Houston to show the rest of the country, like, no, we are. We really are. And I think that's kind of what's on the line for the Cougs this weekend is proving to America because this will be a nationally televised game sandwich on the same Saturday as Carolina Duke right I mean that's that's not on accident right um that no we can compete with the blue bloods of the blue bloods um in every sense of the word right I think people forget that Houston's got the most final fours of any school in the state of Texas.

And it's a basketball-rich city. It goes back to Pius Slamma Jamma and Elvin Hayes. It's just there was a lull there where people kind of think of the 2000s. That's a little bit different, right? You mentioned teams have gotten hot against Kansas. And I do coach – people listen to me know I coach basketball by day. I'm a history teacher and high school basketball coach. And I have to ask, as you watch Kansas because you watch them every game,

is that just bad luck? Is there a schematic flaw? Is that they don't – I mean, you've got four starters over 6'7". I would think you could, like, contest shots. But I look at the scoreboards, like you're saying, it's like, Oh, everyone, like the times you get, get at Kansas is because you shoot the ball. Well, yeah, there's been a running joke for a while.

That's gone back maybe a decade plus where it's like, somebody is going to come in. Who's not a good shooter. And they're going to have a good shooting game. Like the running joke is it'll be somebody who like they've attempted three threes all year and they're one of three and then they'll start two of two and they'll be like, they've made more threes than right. And that's what happened with them against Iowa State with Trey King. So Trey King comes into that game for Iowa State.

He had played 42 games for the Cyclones. He had attempted 31 threes in 42 games and he had only made seven of them. So Kansas decided, they said, hey, in the scouting report, we're going to let him shoot open threes. He goes four of seven, right? So you end up with a little bit of bad luck like that. You end up with a little bit of bad luck. Like if you go back and watch, there are some really tough threes that opponents have made against them in some of these games.

But then at the same point in time, like there is a little bit more that they could probably be doing on that end. I mean, certainly when you have more of a lumbering center like Hunter Dickinson, you're not going to be as switchable at the five. You're going to play more drop coverage. There's going to be certain areas teams can exploit that from three. But still, they switch one through four. Like you said, you have all sorts of length.

You have a couple good defenders out there. So I do think there's been studies done about the three-point defense that some of it is just unlucky. And like, I think over the long haul, like if you're looking at 40 games, if you do a good job contesting three point shots for every game overall on the season,

you're going to have a good three point defense, but in a specific game, there's only so much you can do. If some guy is just shooting flamethrowers out of his hands, because it's not the same as two-point shots where you're getting like blocks all the time and stuff so I think it's a little bit of both and I think that becomes interesting because Houston has been a decent enough three-point shooting team LJ Cryer's had success against Kansas in the past obviously Jamal Shedd is has

been just a stud all around even when you look at some of the other players they've been able to hit threes kind of for you I am curious because I think that'll be interesting if Kansas can prevent Houston from kind of going off from three, because that'll be probably too much to handle when you combine the defense and the rebound and everything. Has there been anything? Has there been anything that Houston has that you've seen when they've struggled, whether it's in the losses,

whether it's at times when they're not playing as well, where it's like, okay, this feels like maybe that could be their Achilles heel, or this feels like the one area where maybe they can be exploited a little bit. So I do think people look at Houston as the defensive juggernaut because that thing is real. The culture carries, the speed they play with is fascinating. Achilles' heel is, I think, on their offense side of the ball, and Kelvin Sampson is very blunt about some of this.

So folks from Kansas may remember him many years ago. We talked about earlier in the episode from Oklahoma. A little different there at Hollis Price, although Hollis is on staff at Houston now. But Kelvin spent some time in the NBA. He was on the Rocket staff when they called him to come coach at University of Houston. Tillman called. I mean, Tillman's our big donor, and he the rocket so it's pretty easy conversation i think right um but the deal he picked up with at the nba level that he openly talks about bringing to college

basketball is he recruits talented offensive players and doesn't put a whole lot of restrictions on them and it looks like a very pro style offense and that it's four around one sometimes three around two and they just run like quick hitting actions quick pick and rolls quick and be like and and kind of looks like some iso ball kind of stuff to play off each other and it gets better as the year goes on for sure you get to learn your teammates learn spots and so on that's why shed and sass were so good together last year. They played multiple years together, right? I will say that those figuring yourself out moments can lead to offensive lulls. They absolutely can go to stretches of four and five minutes where you're like, when was the last time Houston made a field goal?

Or when was the last time Houston made a jump shot? They can't get the ball in for a layup on a fast break off the defense or something. And so some of their games get, for lack of of better phrase mucked up and ugly right they're playing down in the 40s and 50s a lot more than your other top 10 teams in the country because they can keep you there defensively but they're going to slow the pace down a little bit offensively for a top 10 team they played a really slow pace um and they use a lot of shot clock to try and get a shot they want. The thing that worries me about those kind of half-court sets is I look at, like I mentioned, Kansas has four guys over 6'7", and while we have very big wingspans,

I mean multiple guys over 7' wingspans, our tallest starter is 6'8", right? And that's a dramatic difference just aesthetically as you look at the courts. Kansas is a program that is top tier top tier than country year in year out so I don't mean to say that they have like glaring holes how do they look defensively as against things like isolation and and those pro style kind of offenses I mean you saw Kentucky this year they feel fairly similar to me yeah and uh I I think it because Kansas is a switching defense we have have seen times where, you know, when a team is trying to ISO them, they'll try to find a switch that they're looking for.

DeJuan Harris was big 12 defensive player of the year last year. So it's usually not him. Kevin McCullough, like I said, fantastic defender. KJ Adams is obviously big, strong, physical. He's a good defender too. A lot of times they will target Johnny Furphy and Furphy. Like I said, he's been excellent since entering the starting lineup as like a six foot eight wing from Australia, freshman, 14.3 game, good shooter, good score, good transition player. He tries hard on the defensive end. I think eventually he'll be a good defender because he is athletic and he is long, but it's hard when you're a freshman and you're only, I think he's listed at like 202 pounds. He might be like 180, 190. And so you'll

see, you know, guards switch to him and maybe out quick him because he's a bigger guy or you'll see wings switch on him and maybe power him down a little bit at times he will get targeted I think he's fighting his butt off as much as he can right now but he is just still a freshman so that'll be kind of interesting if Houston just tries to kind of exploit that a little bit and how much he can kind of hold his own you mentioned kj adams folks listen to my show no i i've got an affinity for the guy because his late mother was a middle school teacher of mine many moons ago um he plays a interesting role on that team a year ago he was their draymond green center this year he's like their dennis rodman i i don't i don't know how

to describe i got to watch him play a lot growing up because his mom was our teacher like they're dennis rodman i i don't i don't know how to describe i got to watch him play a lot growing up because his mom was our teacher like they you know we live neighborhood um how would you describe because frankly if you look at statistics or if you look at like there's not a whole lot of things just just pop off the screen but kelvin samson described him and i want to read this quote to you he's like if you rung out a sweaty shirt and all the things that dripped out were just winning. Right. I don't know. He makes winning basketball plays.

And I know that I have an affinity for him because of the connection. But he also is an incredibly fun player to watch. What can you qualitatively tell us about him? Because it doesn't jump off a piece of paper. No, he's kind of that ultimate glue guy conversation. And he won Big 12's most improved player last year. I don't think he'll win it again. But, like, I think he should be in the conversation to win it again.

Because, like you said, he was their small ball five last year when they had a bunch of freshman big men that just couldn't really figure it out. And he was their rock for them on the inside. And then he had to re-figure out how to play next to a center this year, playing the four position. And he has done it exquisitely. And you're talking about him averaging, you know, it's a bunch of solid numbers, 12.8 points per game, 4.8 rebounds per game.

He's a good passer, 3.3 assists per game, gets a steal per game, over half a block. He's so efficient from the floor over 60 percent and the the free throw percentage has he I think he started the year it was like 2 of 13 or something like that it's been around 70 percent since that point um so he just does a little bit of everything and they use him a lot in the short roll situation they'll get it to him in the high post he'll either shoot a little mid-range jump shot little push shot or he'll pass to somebody else with the good vision he's somebody who can grab and go on the break with the vision and kind of some of the wing

skills but he's so strong and he's switchable and sometimes they'll use him if they have a five man the other team who is like out speeding Hunter Dickinson they'll kind of inverse it and have him play so he's like such a unique player for KU in that way and And yes, you're right. I mean, KU fans love this guy because he just does kind of personify winning in a lot of ways. And he is the guy that gets the crowd going. You know, every, I think every good team needs that one player who is going to pump up the crowd is, is going to make those highlight plays. And that is KJ Adams. KJ Adams throws down gigantic dunks. He gets up there. KJ Adams goes to the crowd. He gets them roaring. He throws big fist bumps. He is the one who is basically the

momentum getter for this team. He is such a critical piece and yeah, it's not the most ideal fit playing basically a forward who can't really shoot threes next to a center in today's day and age of college basketball. But as much as you can make that work, he has because of how much hard work he puts in because of just how much he seems to care on the court and because of how energetic and how many little things he does right for the team. And I just, I cannot express enough. He's a great kid too.

I know that I know that they're all good kids, but he's a great kid. I see a couple of mentioned potential matchups as kj or x factor if not who would be so i when i look at houston the one area where they've they've given up a decent amount of shots i was looking at this on cbb analytics is i think they're in the 25th percentile in amount of threes given up compared to the amount of other shots they give up from the corner so that's not like an overly high number but they do give up some corner threes and teams are shooting 40 percent from the corner on threes against them so I don't know if that's something stylistic or just based on some of the the teams they've played happen to funnel the way that way and Kansas has two guys who take a lot of corner threes it's Kevin McCuller and it's

Johnny Furphy and Furphy shooting them at about 44 percent I think Furphy can have a big offensive game but like I said he might be targeted on the other end of the floor the other one is just the health of Kevin McCuller because I think that's going to certainly be tough but to me the the biggest player matchup is honestly the the point guards Jamal Shedd versus DeJuan Harris you have Harris who was last year's big 12 defense player of the year by By, I think, all accounts right now, based on the conversation and how I would vote right now, I think Jamal Shedd would be this year's Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. If there's two guys going at it and they typically control games, I think that's going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah, it feels simplistic to say that the winner of the point guard matchup wins the game. It feels like saying, well, whatever quarterback plays better on Sunday. Like, of course, right? But I do feel like these two teams are very talented, and the point guard dictates so much of the pace, so much of the control that really, not necessarily who scores the most points, but whoever has the most control of the game between Shedd and Harris is going to end up kind of helping their team come out on top.

The only other matchup I'd throw out is Houston's got a 6'8 big man with a 7'4 wingspan and Javier Francis. How does he match up with a guy like Hunter Dickinson, who, like you said, is not like the fleetest of foot but is incredibly talented, is getting a lot of points every game. I think it's 18 points per game or something like that. And frankly, you mentioned guys that can shoot. He's a decent shooter for me.

He's shooting almost 40% on a little over two attempts, and you've got to go cover him. And so I wonder how that matchup looks like because Francis, his length makes up for a lot. His energy makes up for a lot. But he is giving up, what is that? Five, six inches, right? That's a lot. That's a lot of inches.

So typically when Houston's defending, let's say a big man catches the ball like at the free throw line or something. Is Houston like coming up and pressuring the guy, or are they kind of sagging back? Francis will come. The bigs will come pressure the ball. The thing Houston does to bigs that fluster a lot that I don't know if it will fluster Dickinson or not, but it might if they get it inside of they call it the low circle but

inside of like an eight foot half circle of the basket in a low post kind of position houston will double and based on the scanner report they'll double from different spots on the floor so you mentioned a corner three if if they feel like they got a particular advantage there they'll try and double from that and like you're saying then some kid will hit a corner three because he's never hit a corner three in his life and that's what scouting report said and he did that day but i don't know where kansas's scouting report will say to come double from but they'll likely double dickinson inside of about seven or eight feet and try and play him i'd imagine one-on-one everywhere else he shoots over the top of stuff so well though that i i don't know if you want to make him put on the ground. I don't know what the best strategy would be,

but I would imagine that's how it lines up. Yeah, and I think that becomes interesting, too, because with KJ Adams and Hunter Dickinson, that front court, they're averaging about five assists per game combined. So maybe that ends up being the matchup of the game, too. It's going to be a fun one. It's, you know, in a line of a great college basketball Saturday. I think they put this game intentionally on a weekend

when there's no NFL football. Sit on the couch Saturday, find college basketball all day long. Make sure you find 3 o'clock Central Time on ESPN, the worldwide leader. They got this one tipping off. I have to say, I'm picking us. I like us in this one. I'm sure you're picking y'all. I have to say, though, that it's nice to be in these matchups in February.

We always look forward to these kind of things in March, but getting to play these things in February is absolutely nuts. Yeah, no, this will be a good test, and I think whoever wins the Big 12, you're going to get a one seed in the NCAA tournament. Honestly, you might end up getting two one seeds, right? Like if Kansas and Houston share the Big 12 title or something, maybe get two onesies. So I certainly think, you know, from the Houston perspective,

got a great shot at winning the national title this year, and this should be a lot of fun. And hopefully if there's any Houston fans coming up, they enjoy getting to see Allen Fieldhouse for the first time. And we can compare barbecue. We got Kansas barbecue to Houston barbecue. A whole different kind of species. Don't want to start any fights now, though.

My name is Parker Ranger. You can find me at Painsworth 512 and all social media services. That's Derek Johnson at D Johnson Radio on I was going to say Twitter. I don't know if you call it Twitter X or I heard someone call it Muscle Goal. But thank you all and thank you

Derek for coming on today. It's going to be a fun one Saturday and I cannot wait for it. We always wrap up by saying go Cougs. Rock Chalk. There we go.