Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Do the Kansas Jayhawks Have Enough Shooting for a Title + Importance of Winning Guaranteed Rate Bowl

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be joined by Nick Schwert. We're talking KU basketball. What's the identity of this team? And we'll talk a little bit about the Guarantee Rate Bowl and finish up with whose stat line is it in. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:19 your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from three to 6 PM on KLWN and Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available anywhere you get your podcast. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We were joined by Nick Schwert today.

Starting point is 00:00:48 And on today's episode, we're talking some KU basketball off the rip. We'll get to some KU football guaranteed rate bowl and finish up with whose stat line is it anyway. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 if your team wins. Visit fanduel.com to get started. Nick, KU Basketball has had an interesting last couple of wins because the

Starting point is 00:01:19 UMKC and the Eastern Illinois game much closer than you would have expected and certainly the spread expected or different KC in the Eastern Illinois game much closer than you would have expected. And certainly that, you know, the spread expected or different like metric sites expected, but they also beat UConn in the middle of it. And now they're sitting at eight and one on the season. You're favored in the, in the rest of your non-con schedule. Big 12 looks loaded. Once again, what to you right now is the identity of this team? What do you like?

Starting point is 00:01:41 Is this team good enough to win it all? So the national championship were today, right? If the elite eight started today, you took the top eight teams. Yeah, I think KU has what it takes to win it all. Mostly because talent wins in March. We can talk about roles. We can talk about shooting. We talk about guard play.

Starting point is 00:02:04 We always do this when we're filling out brackets in March. Give me the best players. And right now, KU lines up against any team in the country. How many teams have a better one-two combo than Kansas? How many teams have a better one-two-three between Kevin McCuller, Hunter Dickinson, and DeJuan Harris. Give me talent. And right now I love the top end talent on this team. In terms of identity, I think they're still kind of figuring that out. If you were to ask me, what do they do well? Well, I think this is going to go down as one of Bill Self's best defensive teams. I truly believe that. When you have two elite perimeter defenders in McCuller and Harris, and you've got a 7'2 guy down low, he's not Jeff Withey,

Starting point is 00:02:48 but he's an orangutan. He swings his arms around, and he's a presence. Hunter Dickinson is a presence down low, and I think we saw that a lot versus UConn. KU asserted themselves defensively. It was a mastermind game from Bill Self with what they were doing from an X's and O's standpoint. This is where KU's bread and butter is. Give Bill Self five guys who are willing defenders

Starting point is 00:03:11 with a couple of elite defenders mixed in there. He's going to put together one of the top two or three defensive teams in the country. You couple that with the efficiency they have on offense. It's not great. It's not explosive, but it's efficient on offense. I think this is a damn good team, man, and I certainly think right now they're only going to get better between now and March. They could absolutely win it all. Which of these things is most worrisome to you long-term?

Starting point is 00:03:37 So right now, despite the fact that you do have DeJuan Harris and Kevin McCullough, they're 276th in the country in turnover rate defensively. Meanwhile, then offensive rebough, they're 276th in the country in turnover rate defensively. Meanwhile, then offensive rebounding, they're only 302nd. And then even though the three-point shot, they're shooting 41% from three this year. We know that's been kind of an inconsistency. Which of those three, offensive rebounding, forcing steals, and three-point shooting, would worry you the most long-term? I mean, the obvious hand is shooting. Like the steals, I trust that that's going to take care of itself.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Like Kevin McCullough and DeJuan Harris, we know what they are defensively. So maybe they're not producing steals. If you made me a betting man, I'd say that that improves over the course of the season. Offensive rebounding, not as concerned with, mostly because this is an efficient offense. So there are more than one ways to skin a cat, right? There are more than one ways to be a good offense. This team may not be a great offensive rebounding team. That's fine. You're not maximizing possessions. You're still an efficient shooting team. So that kind of counteracts that the, the three point shooting is where I'm probably going to land like I would imagine the majority

Starting point is 00:04:46 of Kansas fans would answer this question. You don't need to be a great three-point shooting team to win the national championship. You don't. I know we like that because it gives your margin for error a little bit more wiggle room, but you don't have to be this high-volume team. It's never going to be 2018. We've got three guys spreading the court, taking a lot of threes. That's never going to be this high volume team. It's never going to be 2018. We've got three guys spreading the court, taking a lot of threes. That's never going to be this team's identity,

Starting point is 00:05:09 but you kind of mentioned it. I've been having fun with this. Like it's a little bit tongue in cheek. You mentioned the three point shooting percentage, depending on where you look, because a lot of people don't count the Chaminade game. There're somewhere between 33rd and like 10th in the country in three-point percentage. So maybe the concerns over shooting have been just, would you agree maybe they've been just a tad overstated? This is not one of the worst shooting teams in America. It's just not what their identity is going to be. But Kevin McCuller has taken a big leap right he's not a knockdown shooter but he's just enough where you have to keep people really honest much like Jalen Wilson did last year like Jalen Wilson was not a knockdown shooter last year but he just got

Starting point is 00:05:56 incrementally better from his junior to senior season to make him enough of a threat but if you just told me between now and the end of the year, those four guys basically that are fighting for those bench guard spots between El Marco Jackson, Johnny Furphy, Nick Timberlake, and then even throw Jamari McDowell in there. If you made me bet that one of those guys is going to become a consistent threat, whether it's from three or just offensively in general between now and March, wouldn't you take that bet? Yeah, I would think so, but I don't think I'm like completely locked in on it. Cause you look back to last year and you probably would have said the same thing. Won't you take the bet that

Starting point is 00:06:37 one of the centers would have it figured out by March, you know, and none of them did right. Wouldn't you have the bet that MJ Rice would figure it out by March and that didn't happen. So, um, I, I do agree. I i i think it's a little easier in that specific role because what you're asking for from you know timberlake or mcdowell you just need one of the two to kind of hit is your seventh man right or eighth man yeah and i think that's a little bit more doable i want to bring up something here though because i was thinking about this actually just earlier this morning because i assumed we were going to talk about the shooting. I assumed we were going to talk about, OK, the areas where Kansas needs to get better.

Starting point is 00:07:11 It's not apples to apples. I get it. But I was looking back at the 2020 team, the team that didn't get a chance in the NCAA tournament, even though they were going to be the runaway favorite. They were going to be the number one overall seed. That was not a great shooting team with Devon Dotson and Yudoka Azubuki. They were a damn good team, but they were not a good three-point shooting team. And it was somewhere around conference play where Isaiah Moss, remember him, by the way? Isaiah Moss emerged. His dad certainly doesn't. Yeah, he emerged to be kind of like that fifth starter. And the biggest thing that he brought

Starting point is 00:07:46 to the table was three-point shooting he shot 35 percent from three that year Derek that's that's average that is that is the definition high volume average three-point shooter yes high volume but he was just out there to keep defenses honest. That team, I'm looking it up now. That team ranked 132nd. Yeah, depending if you check Kempom, like their numbers are different than college basketball reference, but somewhere between 117th and like 130th. It was not a good three-point shooting team.

Starting point is 00:08:19 We weren't concerned about that. At least if we were, we weren't talking about that heading into March. So like, do you have to be a great three-point shooting team if you've got stars around the court which KU has you might have two of the best 10 players in the country between Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller so like are we spending too much time on the shooting issues I think you just have to the point is you have to be average at like I don't think you're gonna win it all if you're a bad shooting team so I'm actually looking now I have the point is you have to be average at like, I don't think you're going to win it all if you're a bad shooting team. So I'm actually looking now I have the numbers on every team to win the title since 1999 and their three point shooting and 22 of the 24 were top 180. Uh, the lowest was 201st, which was 2010 Duke, oddly enough, because you would

Starting point is 00:09:02 not think of, or I'm sorry, that's two point percentage. Three point percentage, it's 2011 UConn at 237th. Then you have 2013 Louisville at 200th. You have 175th for that 2003 Syracuse team. 99 UConn was 146th. So I don't know if you view that as like, okay, if you're just average, you're fine. Or do you view view because here's the last five champs 62nd 51st 1st 8th 11th and then you go back the year before it's 148th so there's two ways of looking at that there's a way of looking at it where it's hey if you're just average that puts you in the ballpark you can't be bad at it but also the last five champs have done it well is there something to that in the way that basketball has progressed well and maybe it goes back to your initial question when you kind of proposed to me the three weaknesses on this team and what's most important to fix.

Starting point is 00:09:50 You go back to offensive rebounding. That team in 2020 was an elite offensive rebounding team. So they made up for their lack of shooting by stealing extra possessions. So again, it goes back to the idea that there is more than one way to skin a cat. You've just got to get better in one. It doesn't really matter which one you either have to maximize your possessions or you have to hit more threes. It's all about becoming as efficient offensively as you possibly can. So if I'm looking at this team, what's more likely, I don't think this team's ever going to be a great three point shooting team.

Starting point is 00:10:24 Could they be a team that crashes the offensive boards and gets extra possessions that way? Maybe that is more likely. The truth of the matter, though, I don't think it matters which one it is. It's just something needs to happen. All right, we're going to continue on. Let's switch over to football in just a moment with Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel.

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Starting point is 00:11:24 FanDuel, an official partner of the NFL. All right, so KU was picked for the guaranteed rate bowl. And I would imagine, I don't know if you're going to the game or anything, but I would imagine as a golf aficionado yourself, this would have been the perfect bowl game to go to. Winter in Phoenix. Obviously, there's a lot of golf courses in the area. You get the warm weather. I've seen a lot of fans unhappy with the selection. What did you make of KU getting picked for this one? It was kind of weird because I think for the

Starting point is 00:11:56 average KU fan, they're looking at everything you just laid out there about Phoenix and saying, what's not to love. Then there's KU Twitter and Twitter doesn't always represent the fan base at large oftentimes it doesn't and there was this thing over the like final week before bowl selections where this campaign to get the Pop-Tart Bowl and listen I get it does it really make sense no is Orlando a great place to go absolutely not but it's the Pop-Tart Bowl it It's an edible mascot. It was just like this fun thing that KU fans started. And yes, there's more money involved.

Starting point is 00:12:31 But I'm going to be honest. I get really tired of hearing about the money argument. I get it. Universities want more money. Programs want more money. Fans typically aren't looking at bowl games that way. Well, which one gives us the most money? No, I'm a fan.

Starting point is 00:12:43 I don't care about that. I want to know what's most fun for me. Are they giving the money to the fans are they yeah you don't get a cut yeah hey by the way i just want to let everybody know you don't get a cut of that bowl money so i get all of that in terms of just like a good destination to be at i i can confirm because i have spent a winter in Arizona before. There are few places in America that are better to spend a couple of days in December than Phoenix, Arizona. So all things considered, it's great. Yes, it's the day after Christmas, maybe pushing it back to like December 28th, which I know there were some bulls on the 28th, makes it a little bit easier for travel. Either way, the truth of the matter is it's expensive to travel this time of year. It's not

Starting point is 00:13:29 always that convenient. I tend to think that like fans who are going to go are going to go. And you want to be taken seriously as a fan base, like your program is ascending. You want to ascend as a fan. Like these are the types of games at K-State. K-State fans are traveling wherever, whenever for their bowl game. Like if you want to be taken seriously and get better bowls, like you have to show these bowl selection committees that like, yes, we will travel. We will show up. We will support our team wherever it's at.

Starting point is 00:13:58 So typically, you know, bowls are kind of exhibitions in ways. It's different for every program. Like some programs, it becomes a disappointing thing that you're in this bowl game like you know Georgia and Florida State like how disappointed are they going to be possibly I don't know um for other teams like you know Kansas in this situation where you haven't won a bowl game since 2008 it's an opportunity to I don't know kind of strengthen your program a little bit when you look at the result of this game, I didn't think last year it was like paramount that they won the game.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Obviously, it would have been great if they did, but it was more about last year you just made it to a bowl game after so many years off. When you look at this year, now that you are a double-digit favorite, you're playing UNLV, you've made your bowl for the second straight year because you lost last year. How important is it for Kansas to actually win this bowl game? This is going to sound like a loser's mentality but it's kind of like you just don't want to lose two in a row

Starting point is 00:14:50 you don't want to have you don't want to go to back-to-back bowls for the first time in what 15 years and then say you didn't get to bring home a trophy and yeah the fact that you're playing UNLV a team you should be like you beat teams better than you will in NLV, a team you should beat, like you beat teams better than UNLV, it would just be a nice exclamation point to continue to build. You just laid it all out there. You went to a bowl last year. It was very exciting. It gave you a lot of momentum going into this season. That's nice. Now build on it. Build on it going into next year to where you say, okay, we are continuing to take incremental steps. You had a better season this year than you did last year. Let's capitalize it with a bull win. It's more of like big picture as opposed to tangibly. Can I tell you what a bull win gives Kansas that a loss wouldn't? Not really. Like I don't think it ultimately changes the trajectory of this program with Lance Leipold at the helm.

Starting point is 00:15:46 It's more about perception building. Hey, we're here. This isn't a flash in the pan. Like we're a team that's going to be good for the foreseeable future. As long as Lance Leipold is the head coach. All right. We're going to finish up with who stat line is it anyway with locked on

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Starting point is 00:17:24 We're going to start with a football. Whose stat line is it anyway? Last time KU was in a bowl game last year, Liberty Bowl. What player had 10 catches for 167 yards and a touchdown? I know he had a touchdown. I don't remember how many receptions or receiving yards he had, but first name that comes to mind, I'm going with Luke Grimm. Luke Grimm is the correct answer.

Starting point is 00:17:48 And the reason I wanted to highlight this, obviously that was a great bowl game for him this season. So compare those stats in the bowl game to this season stats for Luke Grimm. 29 catches, 395 yards, and three touchdowns. So he basically had a third of the catches almost half of the yards and a third of the touchdowns that he had all of this year in one game last year now I don't think that's a knock against Luke Grimm I think it's just the offense is so balanced I think he has a better connection with Jalen than he does with Jason Bean but I don't know do you make anything

Starting point is 00:18:19 of that no not really I think yeah you said the offense is more balanced. I would even take it a step further. This was a rushing team like KU. KU won eight games this season on the back of a dominant running game led by Devin Neal and Daniel Highshot. And then you've got the fastest quarterback in college basketball in Jason Bean or college football, even perhaps. So like, yeah, I don't really read much into it other than KU's identity shifted a little bit this year. I still think Luke Grimm made some big plays and I think you're right. I think he and Jalen probably had a better connection. Lawrence Arnold seemed to be sort of the go-to guy with Jason being in, but at the end of the day, can we really complain based off the results? No, no team-wide, but it'll be interesting. I think there's been some scuttlebutt. Will one of the receivers transfer something? I don't know who would be, if it'll be interesting. I think there's been some scuttlebutt. Will one of the receivers transfer something? I don't know who it would be, if it'll even happen, but I could understand it from the production standpoint.

Starting point is 00:19:11 But certainly you don't want to see that happen because they are having big impact, even if the stats aren't always there. All right, basketball one. This player on the season has played in all nine games for KU. He is shooting 74% from the field, 33% from three. 33% from three, because when he first gave me 74%, that would be, I was thinking KJ Adams, but he doesn't take any threes.

Starting point is 00:19:40 Hunter Dickinson's field goal percentage isn't that high. So like, who's shooting 74%. Has Parker Brown taken a three? Cause all his shots are dunks. Really? You're asking me if Parker Brown has went one for three from three. That's the question. You could have just asked me.

Starting point is 00:20:04 And I'm going to be one for three. I don't know. No. You could have just asked me. I mean, could JJ be one for three? I don't know. No, no. He has not taken three. And I know he hasn't made one. It's got to be Parker Brown. It is Parker Brown. So, I mean, you tried to throw me off the center.

Starting point is 00:20:20 It's on the odds. One for three. One for three is the answer. But 74% from the floor. I think as much as there have been a lot of questions about the KU bench it's on the odds. One for three. One for three is the answer. But 74% from the floor. I think as much as there have been a lot of questions about the KU bench and trying to figure out some of those, I think it's the bench guards. I mean, first of all, the limitation on how much Parker Brown is going to play is there because you have Hunter Dickinson.

Starting point is 00:20:38 Perfect example, the UConn game. Hunter Dickinson played 38 minutes. So, like, in big games, you know, it's going to mitigate what he's even going to play. But I think Parker Brown has been kind of the one bench consistency so far. Yeah. And I mean, when you're only asking a guy to give you a, what is it?

Starting point is 00:20:53 Right. Eight or nine minutes a night, like give him four minutes in the first half, give him four minutes in the second half. And by the way, when you're on the bench, this other dude's going to be the best player in the country on the court. So it's like, you don't really need a ton from Parker Brown. So when you look at those numbers, like, Hey, be efficient around the basket, get some rebounds.

Starting point is 00:21:12 That's really all you're asking him to do. Whereas yeah, the guards, you need them to kick into that bucket a little more. All right. That's going to do it for this episode of locked on Jayhawks. He's Nick Schwert. Nick, what can you check out? How can you find your work right now? Yeah, you can check out our podcast, Could Be Wrong, wherever you get your podcasts, as well as full episodes posted every week to YouTube.

Starting point is 00:21:34 All right, there we go. And this has been Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts and on our YouTube page. See you next time with KU Mizzou Preview with L.O.J.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Do the Kansas Jayhawks Have Enough Shooting for a Title + Importance of Winning Guaranteed Rate Bowl

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