Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Do The Kansas Jayhawks Beat Arkansas With Bill Self + Early Look at KU in 2023-24

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

More reaction to the Kansas Jayhawks losing to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Does KU win the game with a healthy Bill Self? More takeaways and flaws from the 2022-23 season for the Jayhawks, a look ahead to how good we think the 2023-24 team could be and another edition of Whose Stat Line is it Anyway with Nick Schwerdt.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, we're joined by Nick Schwert. We're going to be talking a little KU basketball. Does Kansas win if Bill Self is coaching? And how do you view this team headed into next season? A little whose stat line is it anyway to finish things off? You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence.

Thanks for making Lockdown Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. And on today's edition of the show, we're here with Nick Schwert. You can hear on 610 in Kansas City with Cody and Gold from 10 to 2, Waving the Wheat podcast as well. And it's always, I don't know, somber this time of year in the area whenever KU loses in the NCAA tournament. But now it's officially done.

Kansas loses to Arkansas in the second round. But now it's officially done. Kansas loses to Arkansas in the second round by a point. No Bill Self in that game. So I'll just ask straight up, easy question. Does Kansas win the game if Bill Self's coaching? Yes. Yes, I think that game was a... Well, I think, you know, it's so, it's so like they could have won the game without him too, though.

You know, that's kind of where I'm at. They would have won with him because late in that game, when Arkansas is sort of exploiting you defensively, he would have got control of the situation and said, okay, here's what we're going to do. I don't think Bill Self is going to keep DeJuan Harris from getting a five-second call and bounding the ball. I don't think Bill Self is going to keep DeJuan Harris from getting a 10-second call

trying to bring the ball up court. By the way, everybody on Twitter who was saying that that was a quick count, I was in the arena, the clock said 19. You can say what you want about the referee not getting control and giving DeJuan a heads up Duan lost focus in that moment that's all there was to it I don't think Bill Self would have changed the free throw shooting down the stretch so Kansas had plenty of opportunities to lose the game themselves which they took opportunity of in a

weird way uh but yeah Bill Self probably would have changed enough things because we've seen that over time. He's a great sideline out of bounds play caller. He is a great late game play caller. He is a great in game adjuster, maybe the best in college basketball, all of those things. He would have altered those things.

Kansas could have altered some things as well. So he probably would have been enough to get him through this round. I don't know how much farther he would have altered those things. Kansas could have altered some things as well. So he probably would have been enough to get him through this round. I don't know how much farther he would have gotten them. Yeah, that's the thing for me. You run into that UConn buzzsaw, and even if you get by that, like UCLA possibly staring at you in the other round, Gonzaga with their offense. I don't know how you stopped Drew Timmy.

I guess that makes it a little better, but also you never know what's going to happen at that point. What do you think was most surprising about the loss and and what do you think was least surprising like in terms of you know if you would have said hey kansas is going to lose in the ncaa tournament this is what we thought was going to happen of course that's not surprising but uh which of those do you think was least which do you think was most well i think the most surprising thing was you can look at the stats and tell me how well he played. I thought DeJuan was bad down the stretch. I think he showed an uncharacteristic lack of poise, mental mistakes that he just doesn't make. I don't know why that was the case. I don't know

if there were circumstances at play that led to him doing that. But I mean, the five second inbound call, the 10 second call up getting the ball at the court. I just don't know what you're doing there. Aside from that, you know, there wasn't a lot in the game that surprised you. It was almost weird. I was in the arena and walking out of there thinking like, did they just lose that game? They were up the whole time. They led by 10 points. They felt like they were keeping Arkansas at bay the entire game. It was really, this was not a tale of two halves,

right? This was a tale of the first 35 minutes versus the final five minutes. And it's crazy that you can win the first 30 to 35 minutes so resoundingly and yet lose the final four to five minutes so horribly and still feel like you didn't play that bad. That's kind of what, what my big takeaway was coming from the game is like, they didn't play that bad. They just did a horrific job of closing that game out.

You look at the final free throw numbers. What did KU shoot? 18 of 25. That's really good. But down the stretch, it seemed like they missed the front end of every big one and one that they had. The late game execution was as bad as it could have possibly been and that to me was surprising that one team fell apart at the

seams down the stretch one team lacked poise and the other team looked like they'd been there the other team looked like they knew exactly what they were doing that to me was the biggest surprise yeah i mean you look up at the end of the day arkansas goes three of 15 from three and they were never a good three-point shooting team um but you yeah you shoot 48 38 39 from three you didn't have like a ton of turnovers you had 12 of them they had tens that wasn't like a big difference it was just those little plays i i think think the most common or the best commonality you could find between games this year, probably have to go back to the Kansas State game. The Kansas State game was a game where you just didn't execute down the stretch. Remember those plays where you didn't really like get a shot off or got a terrible shot look at the end of the game

and some of those out of bounds plays against Kansas State and you lost a close game that you very easily could have won i think those are the the easiest ones to look for um and then when i look at kind of the trends of what this team was i kind of feel like all along teams that were athletic and like physically athletic were the teams that gave ku the most problems like think about tennessee they just i mean they just bully you. They are strong. They are athletic. Arkansas, athletic. Yes, you beat Texas once. Yes, you beat TCU once.

But you also lost to those two teams a combined three times. What about those teams? Fast, strong, athletic. I don't know what the answer is moving forward, but it feels like ages ago that Bill Self was making comments after the second round lost to USC about trying to improve the athleticism within the program and trying to improve that of the roster. But then all of a sudden you bring back all your starters

and you win a title, and maybe that goes away. But I wonder if that is going to be something they're going to be getting back to here soon because of the fact that you look at some of the guys who could be back for next year, like with Ernest Uday and Zuby Ejifer and KJ Adams is very athletic. That's what he is. Some of the guys they're bringing in aren't really known for being shooters. They're known for being athletes. I wonder if that's going to be the way that the Kansas tries to go back to of getting back to that athleticism because of the fact that we've seen the struggle with that really the past three years.

I mean, even last year when they won the title, like you lose by 18 to Kentucky. That feels like that's been kind of a bugaboo for them recently yeah you know it's it's weird because you when you were going through all of those teams that gave KU troubles this year you were talking about athleticism you know what else all of those teams had in common all those teams have top 15 defenses, Texas, K state, Iowa state, Tennessee, Arkansas, best defenses in the country, all of them. And Kansas's offense was very, very simple. We have one guy who's going to do everything. And how did Jalen Wilson get his offense?

Wasn't because he was a knockdown shooter. He didn't have a intricate post-up game it's just will and volume and determination it wasn't super efficient okay what's your second form of offense oh we got this knockdown shooter he's 6'8 he's really tough to to close out on because he's long and gets a shot off quick. Okay, well, what else does he do well offensively? Like, how else does he score? Oh, that's pretty much it? Oh, so if you just close out on him hard and you get in his face, you're going to take him out of the game? Okay.

Well, what's their third option? DeJuan Harris floater? You see what I'm getting? This is not an elite offense. This is not an offense that you have to have your a game defensively to slow down for all of those teams that we mentioned that gave Kansas fits they were great defensive teams which means if they just played their game not their best game you never a Kansas opponent like of the of those sorts of. They never had to go into a game against Kansas saying we have to play our best to beat them.

We have to be locked in for 40 minutes or they're going to kill us offensively. That was never the case with this team. They had five guys. They knew their roles. They played them very well, but they had limitations. They had limitations to what they could do. And Kansas did not have a counterpunch.

They didn't, they never developed a plan B or plan C. If this goes wrong, this is what can happen. Look at last year. Look at how many different ways by the end of the season, Kansas proved they can beat you. Hey,

we're going to turn defense into offense. We're going to get out and transition. Even if we are in the half court. Well, we've got David McCormick. He can kind of do some post moves. Oh, Chai is one of the best isolation scores. Christian Brown is an incredible driver of the ball. And then what

happened late? Because this is the biggest part. Remy Martin happened late. If Remy Martin doesn't happen, Kansas doesn't win the national championship. And Remy Martin was the best player on that team at creating his own shot. There's no question about that. Nobody can argue otherwise. That is the missing element that he added to that picture. You go to this year, this team didn't really have any of that. They were like, well, this one guy does this one thing really well. Well, this one other guy does this one other thing really well. There was not a ton of cohesion and there wasn't a ton of, okay, we've got ABC ways to beat you. They move the ball really well. They were unselfish. And that's why I think they kind of reached their maximum potential. The truth of the matter,

Derek, is this was a flawed team specifically offensively all year long. I liked what they had defensively. I thought they could hang with pretty much anybody in the country with, especially what you had with DeJuan and McCuller in the back with that. I think that's the best defensive backcourt in the country, but offensively, they just didn't have enough. They were flawed all season long. And I think that we saw their ceiling at times, but we saw their floor fall far too often.

And that's what ultimately we saw on Saturday. All right. Let's talk more about maybe what things are looking like for next year. In a second, but first this episode looked on Jay Hawks brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The tournament is heating up. Now is the perfect time to download FanDuel,

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It's nice to have that extra week or two before you get to the offseason. But when I look at next year's team, I would assume Grady Dick's going pro. Obviously, Kevin and Jalen both are. DeJuan Harrison and KJ Adams back as starters. Those are nice pillars to have. I think the biggest, I would say, rotation of what's going to happen in the offseason, the biggest fork in the road to figuring out what the offseason, which way it's going to go,

is going to be what is the future of KJ adams is he a four or is he a five because if he's a five and you're going to start him at the five it makes the roster construction different if you're going to start him at the four you better have a two and three man who can come in create shots and hit shots for you because everything that you just talked about with the i guess the the lower ceiling of the offense year, my biggest worry about next year's team is them having that same lower ceiling. Because if you look at it and if KJ started at the four next to an earnest due day and DeJuan's at the one, that might be a pretty good defensive lineup, but you better have knockdown shooters at the two and three, and you better have somebody who can create off

the bounce for you in that lineup. And right now, I think there are some serious questions about if that's the case I feel like that's what we say every year though isn't it we always want that guy who can create off the bounce because that's the type of guys that play in the NBA right those are the best players the guys who you can just give the ball to and they'll go get you a bucket. But I wonder, like, honestly, how often have they had those dudes? Yeah. You had Frank Mason in 2017. Yeah. You had Frank Mason in 2017. You had Devante Graham in 2018 and Malik Newman, like that team went to a final four. You had Remy Martin last year. That team won the national championship. Dotson in 2020. I know it wasn't jumpers,

but he could create anytime you want. He was an explosive athlete, right? He was a really explosive athlete and could, could get to the rim. So yeah, I guess. Yeah.

I guess now that we're talking it out. Yeah. They they're, I don't know how common they are, but there seems to be a pretty strong correlation between having them and having success in march but i i don't i don't know what your what means you are going to do to go and find one of those guys like at this point in the game your recruiting class is kind of your recruiting class and i would imagine based off history bill self is going to go out and get one of the top two or three guys

in the transfer portal and bring them to Kansas next year. The question is, is there one of those guys out there? Is there this playmaking dynamic guard slash wing that's looking for a new home? Yeah, I think that obviously they need the shooting. If you don't have Grady Dick, I mean, this was already kind of an average three-point shooting team this year. Now you lose Grady Dick. Like, that is certainly a big worry about, you know, trying to figure that around you.

Like I said, if KJ's at the five, it maybe makes it a little easier for roster construction to figure out the offense because there's more that you can go with with those two through four positions and then i i think it's like in theory joe yesifu should be able to help you with that stuff right being able to score off the bounce and create his own shot that's what we saw drake but you're still kind of waiting for that to happen and i don't know if it ever will at kansas uh maybe another year he gets a little bit more comfortable i i don't know. I guess El Marco Jackson could be somebody who's interesting, but he's known as more being like a scorer and an athlete than a shooter. But I guess maybe he could create off of the dribble himself. I have real worries about the limitations of next year's team.

I think that I view next year's team as being one of those teams that could be like a three or a four seed, which I know that's not like that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but for a Bill Self team, that is. No, that's not. I mean, well, I mean, I guess, yes, it would be a big deal, but that's, I mean, and I think you know that it's not going to happen, right? Come on, Derek.

Like, you don't actually think that next year is going to be some sort of disastrous scenario where all of a sudden we're seeing the worst team in the Bill Self-Fair, do you? You honestly believe that? No, no, but I would be at this point. I mean, we don't know what's going to happen in the portal. We don't. Like you said, I mean, it's not just could they go out and get a creation guard. There have been, I don't don't know rumors things that have

been talked about each of the last two off seasons about some notable name big men that had some sort of feelers out to ko and and whether that was true or not it didn't end up happening either year um maybe they bring in some big wig center right that could change things too so i i will say that like i i obviously if they bring in a couple good transfers yeah i'm back on the train that like they could win a title right i just am almost thinking next year could be a transition year with all the young players they have coming in the worries about shooting how does the roster fit together what if next year is a two or three seed where it's not the worst team in the bill self tenure but it's it's taken a step back

from this year and then maybe the year after is the year that they kind of pounce where a bunch of those players are sophomores. You have another year after that of DeJuan Harris and KG Adams, and that's the year that you capitalize. Okay, so you say taking a step back from this year. Let me ask you this. Did you actually think this team was a national championship caliber team? I did not think they would win it. So you, so I mean,

yeah, I mean, you didn't think that they were now, I thought going into the tournament, this was like, honestly, just looking at the predictive measures, looking at Kim Palm,

Bart Torvik, I thought that was about right. I thought their resume reflected that of one seed. But when you watch a team for 30 plus games, if you're being honest with yourself, you get a pretty good sense of what they are. And this wasn't a national championship team. You watch Alabama, you watch Alabama, you watch Tennessee,

you watch UCLA. You say, wow, they got a bunch of different things. They do really well. And when they're playing well, Holy cow, that's good.

How are you going to slow that down? I don't know how many teams were looking at Kansas and saying that like they got really hot at times. Jalen Wilson looked like one of the best players in the country at times. Grady Dick looked like a lottery pick. I thought this was like the seventh or eighth best team in the country,

which is really freaking good, by the way. I want to let that be known. Being the seventh best team in the country is not like, really, that's it? But those are the lofty expectations you create for yourself at Kansas when you have Bill Self as your coach and you're winning the big 12 every single year.

So if you told me that they're the 10th best team in the country last year or next year, excuse me, if you go from being the seventh best team in the country this year, and you're the 11th best team in the country next year, truly is that taking a step back? Or is it just a different version of what we saw this year with some different pieces and they're going to do a few different things well, but in all likelihood, somebody is going to step up, whether that's KJ Adams or Ernest Uday and go from just

being a nice player to a holy cow, look at what he becomes in year two or in year three. That's kind of the script at Kansas. And it's kind of what I expect to happen next year. All right. Let's finish up with whose stat line is it anyway? I still have a couple more to give you. First up, these are, this is search on, on college basketball reference,

which goes back to the 1992 to 93 season. That's the first year. It gives you about 30 years of KU players. Can you name the two players to have averaged 20 or more points, eight or more rebounds per game for a full season? Okay. So Jalen Wilson is one of them.

Correct. Okay, I needed that oh boy it's one of two guys and I'm gonna be really mad if I get this wrong and it's the other guy one reason because I'll just say, OK, I think. It's Wayne Simeon, but there's another player more recently that I'm worried it is that I got wrong, but I'm going with Wayne Simeon. Final answer. Who is the other player that you were going to say? Dedrick Lawson. Are you sure you want to go with the Simeon? Yes.

It is Wayne Simeon. Yeah, there we go, baby. Yeah. So, I don't know. There's a little bit of solace Jalen Wilson can take back. He's going to go. We talked a little bit about this, I don't know, a week or two ago, that he'll go down as, like, one of the best players that Bill Self's ever had.

He won a title. He was an All-American through his career. Only three players have done that under Bill Self, Sharon Collins, Ochai, and Jalen. Number two, versus Ken Palm Tier A, which is defined on Ken Palm as your games against top 50 Ken Palm opponents. This player shot 34.6% from three

against Tier A opponents. Now, I also, I don't know if this will help you out a little bit but also ken palm has the like player comparisons on there uh the top comparisons for this player are kevin herder and gary trent jr well you gave it away you just gave it away by saying kevin herder who i know for one reason he's a white guy who shoots a bunch of threes grady dick final answer that is correct but uh i mean you're talking about a guy who shot grady dick when he when he played the top competition like that's very average three

point percentage yeah it turns out when you play the top competition they know the scouting report and they're like hey this guy's just gonna roam around the perimeter and shoot threes and occasionally he'll run baseline for a lob but if you just take the three away from him for like 15 minutes you'll basically take him out of the game and this isn't even a knock on grady dick he's 19 years old there are going to be flaws in his game there are going to be things he hasn't seen and doesn't know how to adjust to if he came back for another year he'd probably be a national player of the year candidate but he's not gonna because some team's gonna pay him a million dollars to get better at basketball so

why the hell would he turn it down yep all right last one there is no wrong answer on this last you give me your prediction what does dewan har Harris's stat line look like in 2023 to 2024? Do you have his current stat line handy? Yeah, he averaged 8.9 points per game, 6.2 assists per game, a little over two steals per game. So I'll say, I think the only thing that's going to change significantly is going to be the scoring because, I mean,

he already has the ball all the time and is given the ability to create. So I think the assists will stay about the same. I think the steals will stay about the same. I think he's a double-figure scorer next year, even if it's, like, DeJuan's never going to be just an insane scorer. That's just not his game and he doesn't need to be. I don't want him to be. Play to who you are.

Play to your identity. His identity is a creator, a true pass first point guard, but he's going to keep getting opportunities to shoot and continue to refine his game. So I'm going to say 10.4 points, 7.3 assists and 2.1 steals. Write that down, down by the way and we can cross check this in

about 12 months all right we'll see how right you are on that one uh nick appreciate it anything you want to plug coming up uh yeah we'll be doing a you know season recap arkansas recap later this week on on wave in the wheat so if you want to come commiserate with us, you can do that wherever you find your podcasts. All right. That's Nick Schwert at Nick underscore Schwert on Twitter. You can find me at D Jensen radio on Twitter. You can check us out locked on Jay Hawks, wherever you're guests or on your rest of your day.