Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Diggy Coit Great! Rebounding & Turnovers BAD: Kansas Fights Hard But Still Lose to Houston Cougars

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks basketball fans, are you ready to dissect the latest showdown against the Houston Cougars? Despite a tough loss, the Jayhawks showcased moments of brilliance that could hint at a promising future for Bill Self's team if they can carry it over, while still showing flaws and losing for the 11th time this season. With standout performances from Diggy Coit, K.J. Adams, and Hunter Dickinson's impressive stats, there's plenty to unpack. Derek Johnson breaks down the game, focusing on KU's physicality and the challenges they faced against Houston's relentless defense. He also explores the team's rebounding and turnover issues, and the ongoing struggle for wing production and guard scoring. As the Jayhawks gear up for their next battle against the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday in the Big 12 regular season finale, the stakes are high for the Big 12 tournament race. Don't miss this insightful analysis of KU's journey and what lies ahead. Tune in for a deep dive into the Kansas Jayhawks' path to success!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Supply HouseJoin the Trade Master program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code SH5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!ROYDownload the Roy app now from the App Store and start backing your favorite athletes the way they deserve—with transparency, trust, and a real impact. This is the future of college sports. Join it now by downloading Roy and supporting your favorite players!FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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)

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Diggy Coyd provided a spark and KU battled to the very end to get stuff Houston squad. But too much rebounding, too much turnovers, too much physicality for Houston. Kansas loses their 11th game of the season. 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. This is Locked On Jayhawks.

Thanks for making it your first listen every day, wherever you get your podcast, or on our YouTube page. And thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. On today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're recapping the KU Houston game as you know, diggy quite was really good KJ Adams Hunter showed some stuff for KU and to the very end. I mean, you know, you lose in a close game at Houston. There's no shame in that. Unfortunately, it just piles on the lost column that some

of the other moments have provided shame for KU. So we're going to try to separate those two the fact that oh it is another loss. But this one's different than the others, because it didn't include a blown game. It didn't include losing to a bad opponent, it came in a tough environment. So we're going to break this one down as honestly a pretty encouraging big picture loss for KU, but in the end, still another loss, which, you know,

the skins basketball, you're not looking for moral victories, so to speak. So to me, this game was kind of all about physicality. And that's Houston's motto, right? I mean, that was kind of the test when you're playing at Houston on Senior Day. You knew that was going to be the case. And you look at this Houston team and that's what they do. They grind out wins. They scrap out wins.

They play really good defense. They make you uncomfortable in anything you want to do, right? And from Kansas' perspective, their identity has kind of been very far from that. They have not been a team known for scrapping and grinding and, you know, being tough in some of these games mentally or physically. I thought they were a lot tougher in this game. I thought this was not a game that you could really challenge their effort or that you could challenge their toughness or their grit.

Now, it's weird because I say that and I look at the stat sheet and see the difference in the rebounding of the turnovers. And those are kind of tough stats to a certain standpoint. I don't know. Some of that feels like to me, like it was just like, there's also a difference between having good effort, good energy and having junkyard dog effort and energy, and that's the level that Houston takes it.

And so this was a good effort and energy game for Kansas, but it's another level when you are Houston. And for so many years with Kansas, we have seen them be able to have that junkyard dog effort and energy in addition to having NBA players all throughout the roster. And right now they don't really have either. They don't have that junkyard dog mentality. They don't really have the NBA players or roster. Like maybe Flory's an NBA player down the road

or something like that. But that's kind of part of the issue here for KU. And you have a Houston team that, you know, is the better team and they're playing at home and they're still, you know, matching your level of intensity and effort. But again, I don't think you can challenge that necessarily for KU.

This was not a game where they, you know, win away or. Let the adversity bother them, and I think that's credit to KU for showing up in a lot of ways and playing tough to the very end of this game and having to be a two point game with like 20 seconds to go that you

know you had a bit of a chance there. And there were some good things to see in this game for KU right? Some of the positives diggy koi was awesome tonight. He hits that three to make it 6159 that capped off a 14 point effort for him for for six and three hills at four rebounds for assist to one turnover. I might regret saying this because D is a has been kind of a guy who is kind of hot or cold and maybe this is the perfect role for him that it's like, hey, you're hitting like you are tonight, boom, you play high 20 minutes per game. If you come into the game and you go for two, okay, that's a night

you're only playing 10. You know what I mean? And maybe that is just the perfect role. I'm starting to wonder now though, with like the lack of scoring punch KU has been getting over these last three games from their guards, would it behoove Kansas to start Diggy Hoyt, put him back into the starting lineup from where he was earlier this season. I don't know, question for Billshoff I guess. But you also saw continued strong offensive play from KJ Adams. I mean, there's three of seven but he gets to the free throw line a ton and that has, you know, Kansas has not been a team that's been getting to the free throw line well this season. KJ Adams in theory, this athletic six, seven guy

who can drive to the rim, but hasn't done it a ton until recent games, should be somebody who is getting to the free throw line a good amount and he did today. Nine of 10 at the free throw line, he hit up two. So that's really three straight games. I mean, three straight where he scored 15 or more. And obviously the double double game against Texas Tech.

So it feels like KJ is kind of playing his best ball right now. Now, how is that going to relate to, unfortunately, they're one and two in the games and the one win is against a bad Colorado team. So, you know, it feels like it's coming to the time where the guards are playing their worst ball of the season.

You just hope that you can maybe line up those moons and maybe that leads to some little short run at some point here in the postseason if the guard play can come together. Wow, KJ is giving you this more aggressive, offensive version of himself. I thought Hunter was good with one exception. He was really bad taking care of the ball tonight.

Seven turnovers. He did have some assists in there, three of them, but there were a lot of passes deflected, a lot of passes that he thought were open that weren't there. That was really bad. Get that out of the way. And it does matter. Those were important possessions and that was a part of the game. Besides that, Hunter was really good and he was a big matchup nightmare for Houston in this game. 17 points, 12 rebounds, the three assists. And I thought that Hunter, you could tell when he was on the court, it made the Houston defense defend differently and also just having his size and size inside helped.

This was not a game that Houston won because they overpowered Kansas on the inside on their offensive end. And so I do think Hunter, you know, besides those turnovers was really good in the game. Besides that game that, and I meant to the KJ Adams number, this is a game that Kansas did a really good job getting to the free throw line.

16 of 19, the free throw line 16 of 19 the free throw line. They hit him 84% but they got there more than Houston and that was something that has been an issue for KU this year. So you did that good tonight. I mentioned that interior defense that was good for KU tonight. I mean obviously Houston missed a ton of shots everywhere but in the end Kansas outscored Houston in the paint. Houston only had 18 points in the paint. So those are some good things

that they did in this game, which. I think it'd be a lot easier if Kansas was sitting here right now with a record of what if they played 31 games or whatever it is right now or 30 games right now. If their record right now is 25 and five and they lost at Houston by six, you know, you're always going to be some level

of frustrated after loss or whatever that feeling is sadness depends on the game, I guess. I think this you would be a lot more understanding like, okay, they played pretty well, like, you know, just certain things didn't go the way and Houston beat them, right? Good team beat you on the road. The fact that you have 11 losses now, and it just keeps mounting up this in a vacuum, not a bad loss at all. Actually pretty good performance,

but I tell you all things considered that this has not been a great team and you played one of the best teams in the country on the road down to kind of the wire at the very end. At the same point in time, because it gets stacked on, it becomes that issue of, okay, it just feels like you're continuing to pile on like negative momentum so to speak.

And fortunately, there were some bad things that Happened in the game too, even though you did kind of hang in there gets top team Kansas is at a point where they basically just don't have wings like Well when I say that like you basically don't have a wing on the roster that is Making an impact for you. Ryland Griffin has games where he'll add some threes. He's been in a cold stretch lately I would say over the what, the last like three, four weeks. But I think Ryland Griffin's style of play is more of a shooting guard type.

Now he only played 11 minutes a night, was basically lost from the rotation in the second half. He's basically more of a shooting guard. So not really a true wing, right? With AJ Storr, it has become just unplayable. The five minutes he played felt like he was out there for 20 minutes. And I don't know that that's a good sometimes you have guys who are like, you know, Diggie Coy was out there for for 29 minutes,

it felt like he was out there for 40 because of how loud his experience was in a good way. They just store it was not a good thing. When he was out there. And then I really do think that Bill self at this point, maybe a younger Bill Self, maybe a non-NIL Bill Self would have cut AJ Store from the rotation by now, that he would not be playing, right? MJ Rice, think about that.

I think MJ Rice had some injury stuff. So maybe that one is a little bit different. But I do think because of the NIL factor, you probably have donors who donated a ton of money to get an AJ store to Kansas. It's probably going to piss him off. I don't know. That to me feels like sunken cost fallacy where it just like just cut your ties.

And if I was ever in that amazing position that I could donate a million dollars or 800,000, I don't know how much he's making. Six figures money for a player to come to KU and he was struggling as bad as AJ Stor was. I would not blame the head coach for being like, yeah, we should probably pull this aside. But you can understand why that would be the case. You can also understand why from Bill Soss perspective, I don't know what the agency is for AJ Stor,

but maybe it's like, hey, I don't want to burn bridges. But I feel like this has not gone well enough that it's probably already that agency is going to be a little trepidatious about sending their kid to KU anyway. So I don't know. It feels like to me you should move on from that. And then with with Rikis Passmore played for a little bit, but like again, you're just not really get eight minutes played for Rikis and he's just kind of out there. He had 0.0 shots, 0 rebound,

0 assists. Like he had the one foul on the three. It's just you don't have any wings. You went from you went from three years ago winning the title with like three NBA wings, two first rounders and Jalen Wilson has already earned, you know his second contract in the NBA. You went from that team that won on the back of those three wings to a team that just has no wings anymore. That is a pretty remarkable for this turn of things with KU

and with the exception of of Diggie, the guard and the wing scoring was just MIA. And that's been the case these last couple of games for KU. The lack of three point volume, Maddening. Maddening for KU. Five of 12, but a couple of those come late. You're playing on the road against one of the best defenses in the country. You got to launch up some threes.

You got to change up the variance in a game like this. And I don't know, that was maddening again. The continued inability to force turnovers on the defensive end. That is unfortunate. You only Ford six from Houston in this game. You turned it over way too much with 20 of them. And the rebounding was just atrocious for KU. I know Houston's going to crash the glass hard, but, you know, you give up.

I know that the total rebounds don't look that different. It's 37 to 34. It's because Houston had so many more missed shots. If you look at it by rebound rate, I mean they had 17 offensive rebounds. You have five. If you look at this as you know rebound rate as opposed to just total rebounds, it's really, really bad for KU. So those are some of the things that they did bad.

And at the same point in time, even though they did play with more energy and effort and toughness, there still are way too many moments of like a lack of urgency. It feels like for this team. And I don't know if that's a level of just like, I don't know what causes that to be honest, but like here's a couple that come to mind. So sharp early in the game. I think he missed his own shot.

He got his own miss. Nobody touched him. He gets an easy put back. Why is nobody around that ball or boxing him out the store? Three ball that he and he did get fouled on but like I think a friend for show described it as which I'm not the biggest friend guy, but like it described it as like it was a three o'clock stroll in the afternoon three, which was like exactly what it was.

He took forever to put that shot up. That was just weird. No urgency there. The Wilson got an uncontested offensive board in the first half, Malik that is. Then you have the Dickinson rebound that he gets and then immediately gets knocked away, leads to a Houston score. You have the Ouzhan miss, which Crier gets an untouched off its rebound. And that was when it was 59-56. And that was the exact type of play that we saw like KU with Kevin McCullar beat Texas Tech a couple of seasons ago

to clinch the big 12th title. It just feels like, it felt like a lot in this game that Houston was Kansas and Kansas was, name your other big 12 school during, you know, KU's 14 straight, right? Oklahoma or Iowa State or one of these other schools that was a contender. But in the very end of the game, in the key moments, especially playing at home, even if it was an ugly game, they'd find those winning plays at the end. And that is what Houston has become. That's what Houston is. That's all what Kansas is right now.

So bottom line, if you could kind of replicate this performance, if you can bottle up really both performances against Houston, minus the collapse at the end of the Houston game, but for the majority of the 50 minutes you played now in Fieldhouse, you know, for about 45 minutes of it for the most of the 40 minutes you played tonight, I know they're both losses and you did some things poorly in both, but if you always played with that level of intensity and play, I'm not saying this team would be a top five team or they win a national title, but you'd certainly

still be ranked. You'd probably still be a top 20, top 15 team in the country. So if you can bottle this up, great. We haven't seen it enough this year to necessarily expect that. But if you can, great. At the end of the day, this is sort of a moral victory. It is also Kansas basketball, as I said earlier, like there aren't moral victories against basketball. This isn't a tournament trying to sneak into the tournament every couple of years. And you know, at the end of the day, you are what your record is 19 and 11, 10 and 9 and

big 12 play. And interestingly enough, the last time KU missed the tournament, they were 19-12. So I guess they have a chance to do that, finish the regular season on Saturday. But if they can bottle up this effort and energy into the Saturday game,

maybe Allen Fieldhouse has just one more moment of magic for this team. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Supply House. Get the supplies you need from the site made for skilled traders. And with Supply House, they have stuff for plumbing, HVAC, electrical work. They're the reliable way to get products online. Their easy to use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get your job done right.

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Thousands of skilled professionals are already taking advantage. Now it's your turn. Join the Trade Master program today at supplyhouse.com slash TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies, which is just a few clicks. I continue on with the show here, Game Trophies. This is Locked on Jayhawks and again thank you for making it your first listen every day. You can check out Lockdown College of Basketball to get you ready for the tournament and I don't know on one hand the NCAA tournament will be way less

stressful this year I feel like but on the other hand it'll be a little bit more sad so maybe you can enjoy the rest of the tournament on the other hand maybe because KU's not going well right now you're not enjoying the I don't know that could go either way for you enjoy the rest of the tournament. On the other hand, maybe because KU's not going well right now, you're not enjoying the, I don't know. That could go either way for you. Anyway, best moments of the game for KU. There was that Hunter Wong pass from the double team in the first half. That was a really good pass from him. One of his three assists to Diggy Coyt

for what was Diggy's second three of the game. There was one play down the floor where KJ had great defense on Joann Roberts and then ended up switching on to another player who I think shot the ball They miss it and then they go down and KJ gets it and throws the alley up to Flory Flory that that should have been a foul too wasn't called but it got 25 23 in the first half Fortunately, there was a 7-0 run by Houston right after that But then the Zeke Mayo layup at the end of the first half That was a good moment to get you back into things

a little bit in his first score the first half. In the second half, the KJ Adams and one, she came with possession after the free throw as well. That was a good moment. The diggie quite three that made it 6-1, 59 to maybe cling to a little bit more hope. I think we're good moments in this one, but unfortunately, more worst moments of the game

in this one, the Emmanuel Sharpe where he misses his own shot, gets his own rebound, uncontested layup, that's a bad moment. The back to back AJ store transition tries where he has the first one blocked by two defenders and then the second one, he just drops it out of bounds. That was brutal. The keys pass more foul on the three was like, OK, we can't really play your store, We need some wing

minutes. The keys pass more you go out there. And does record a stat and I still think we're keys pass more is going to be a good player long term for Kansas. But again, it's clearly just not there right now. And yeah, that wasn't great. Just in general, the turnovers, the offensive rebounds you gave up. I mean, how many possessions at Houston get three or four shots up? Felt like a lot of them, to say the least. A mugged of the game, that one that one, Flory Alleyoop,

that would be up there for mugged of the game. I felt like Hunter was being held like all game long, and they just weren't really calling it. And I mean, I don't know, I don't like complaining about the refs. And I'm not going to. There were probably some fouls that went against, you know, the other way that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head to and obviously Kansas ended up with more free throws, even though that's not the way that you're supposed to look at these things. But I felt like Hunter gets a an unfriendly whistle at times because of how big he is.

And we saw that with you, Doke Azabuque, too. But like the one at the beginning of the game where the Hunter was just standing there and the Houston player spins right into him and then 100 gets called for the foul because he knocked over. I don't know that felt a little unfortunate there. Appalling stat of the game. I mean, pick and choose here, right? Because we've mentioned the rebounds and the turnovers ad nauseam. So if you're going by the worst games of the season for those two things For the turnover rate for Kansas. This was a

30.9% turnover rate So basically one every three possessions or three every ten if you want to be more accurate We're turnovers for KU that is their worst turnover rate offensive game. Their second worst was the loss to Missouri. So that's very bad You look at the offensive rebound rate or the lack thereof for KU, it was just a 20% offensive rebound rate for KU. That is their fifth worst of the season. The only ones worse, the Creighton game, loss,

Utah game, loss, at Colorado, close win to a bad team, and at Baylor, which was a loss. And then you look at the defensive rebounding rate for KU. This was a 63% defensive rebound rate. So that means Houston had a 37% offensive rebound rate. That was the third worst defensive rebound rate for KU in a game this season. So you combine your worst turnover rate, your third worst defensive rebound rate, your fifth worst offensive rebound rate, all into one game.

It is no wonder that Houston wound up with 68 shots while you took 42, 26 more shots. And that's the difference of this game. Kansas actually found more efficient looks more often than the game. 42% Houston at 35%. And you got to the free throw line a bunch, but because they just dwarfed you and shot, I mean, if the offensive rebounds, instead of being 17 to five is 13 to seven and the turnovers instead being 17 to 5 is 13 to 7, and the turnovers instead of 20 to 6 is 18 to 8,

you might win this game on the road, which is pretty crazy to think about. Then the other one would be the lack of production from the starting backcourt and the wings. This is really three straight games now. I mean, between DeJuan Harris, Zeke Mayo, Ryland Griffin, Rikis Passmore gave you again, eight minutes in AJ Storr. You're talking about 11 combined points from those four players.

They quite gave you a good amount for the guards with 14, but even if you include him and just put the guards as a whole, that's 25 points for five players. And I forget what the number was after the Tech to Tech game that I tweeted out, but I think it was like 53 points or something. So basically on average that would mean over the last three games, the KU guards collectively, guards plus wings,

which again is five players. You're basically getting like 25 to 26 points per game from them. That is not going to get you a lot of wins. It just isn't, especially March, guards win in March, right? Offensive MVP for KU. I mean, you could say Hunter, he had the 17 points and like I said,

I thought Houston really had to stretch to try to defend him and KU was really creative with ways to get him open and open by the basket. Seven turnovers, those really hurt you, so I don't think it can be him. KJ really good getting the free throw line, 15 points, good to see, but I am gonna go with Diggy quite,ite the 14 points the four of six and three.

He was the only guard who could really score for you. And if he didn't have that, I mean, I don't even know what the score of this game would have been right. Houston definitely covers at that point of time. A defensive MVP for KU. Well, Houston did not really have a lot of turnovers, Kansas didn't get a lot of steals. I don't know there would be something there. They didn't really score a ton on the inside did Houston just 18 points in the paint well below their season average that was less than what Kansas had for the game. They only had 10 layup plus dunk attempts. And when you look at it for Houston, I mean, LJ Cryer went off he had 22 points most in the first half. But the big men for Houston didn't really do much

on offense. Javier Francis, zero points. Joann Roberts, after having the big game in Allen Fieldhouse, just six points on three of 11. And then Joseph Tugler with five points. And by the way, I think you can make a quick correlation. And this is why I'm picking this guy for defensive MAB. Joann Roberts had over 20 points in Allen Fieldhouse.

You know who didn't play that game for Kansas, KJ Adams. KJ kind of built to defend a guy like Juwan Roberts, right? Strong and physical at the point of attack. He only was three for 11 this game. So I think KJ, probably the best defensive, but I do think Hunter had, in a matchup like this, where they're playing two big men, I think Hunter's defensive impact becomes more valuable

than against a team like Texas Tech, who's going to spread you out all over the court. So in a game like this, Hunter actually is probably valuable on the defensive end of the court, right? Whereas the Tech one, it does become more of a question. So probably the two big men, KJ and Hunter would be your defensive MVP's. But if I just have to pick one, I'll go with KJ here. Let's finish up. What's next for KU? And thanks for joining us again on another edition of Locked on Jayhawks. And we will be back later this week.

We'll have another episode talking. We're gonna go over the best and worst lineups for KU basketball to this point in the season. Maybe what it can tell us. We're also gonna get a little KU football talk on tomorrow's episode. Emmanuel Henderson in some rave reviews from the coaches, which could be good for that KU receiving unit.

A little KU baseball update on tomorrow's show. We'll also have a KU Arizona preview coming up later this week, which that is what's next for KU. The Jayhawks 19 and 11, they're gonna be taking on Arizona, who is a top 15 team on Ken Palm. And they're just coming off a road loss to Iowa State.

They have Arizona State on Tuesday night. And Arizona is sitting at 19 and 10, but they rank pretty well metrically. And now you look at the Big 12 standings, Houston already won the league. Texas Tech and Arizona are in a fight for second place, and I guess you could throw Iowa State and BYU in there as well.

Right now, Kansas is the sixth seed, and I don't think they can move any higher yet. They can't, because BYU with 12 wins, Kansas at most can have 11. But what can happen is the two teams behind them, Baylor and TCU at a 9-9 record could jump them. So, Kansas could finish as low as the eighth seed in the big 12. Now, they do have the head-to-head over TCU, so they would just need either one more TCU

loss or one more Kansas win to be ahead of them. But they also lost to Baylor, so you'd lose that head to head. So we'll see what ends up happening here. I mean, a little scary. At one point, they showed the big 12th tournament bracket, which that'll be what's next next for KU. And it was like, oh, the 10 seeds, West Virginia, who beat Kansas, and the 12 seed, which would line up to or the 11 seed, sorry, which would line up to play the six seed if they won their first game was Utah, who also beat Kansas.

And so I think it's just a reminder that there are no safe games at this point for this Kansas team. And so as much as I'd love to be like, oh, okay, well, even if they lose to Arizona, they should win that first big golf tournament game, gets 20 wins, you know, feel good about the NCAA tournament, which I think they're gonna be in no matter what at this point anyway, it still is like, oh, but they lost those teams

and one of them they lost to at home. So should be interesting. And we'll have the KU Arizona preview later in the week for you. This has been locked on Jayhawks. Thank you so much for joining us. See you next time for another edition of L.O.J. Anywhere you get your podcast and on our YouTube page.