Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - FAIR or FLAWED? Charles Bediako CONTROVERSIAL Return for Alabama Sparks Debate Across College Hoops

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

A temporary restraining order has allowed Charles Bediako to return to Alabama. The decision has sparked controversy across the college basketball landscape.We lost one of 3 remaining undefeated teams on Tuesday night when shorthanded (5)Nebraska lost at (3)Michigan after leading for 36:00.Purdue has now lost 3 straight - what's happening to the Boilermakers?The Locked On College Basketball Squad will bring you all this and more on this week's episode! Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.MazdaLike our players, we’re driven by the details. Because highlights make the reel. What it takes to get there makes it count.There’s more to a Mazda. Because there’s more to you.Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONFanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty. 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Purdue loses their third straight game. Kentucky got walloped, and former G-leager Charles Betiaco is sticking around with Alabama for a few more games. We're going to talk all that here in just a second. Welcome in to Locked-on College Basketball Squad Show, your go-to spot for everything happening on the hardwood. From Blue Blood Battles to Bracket Busters and everything in between. Join the squad of Hoops Junkies as we break down the biggest stories with the boldest takes and unfiltered opinions. because here we don't hold back. It's the College Basketball Squad Show on the Locked On Podcast Network,

your team every day. What's up, folks, and welcome into the second Locked-on College Basketball Squad Show. We are live right now on all of the YouTube channels for our hosts joining us today. That is right. We are joined by Isaac Shade of Locked on College Basketball and Locked on Tar Heels, Leif Tuline of the undefeated Arizona Wildcats, Derek Johnson, Locked on Jayhawks, Jake Hatch, locked on BYU, Cougars, Nick Arvin, locked on Purdue. That's going to be a fun one a little later.

And Parker Ainsworth, Locked on Couges. Folks, thank you so much for joining us here on the Locked On College Basketball and various other locked on shows here, all part of the Locked On podcast network, of course, the number one sports podcasting network. I want to thank all of you who have made this show your first listen or watch of the day. And remind you that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. create an account and use code locked on and you will get $20 off your first purchase.

All right, folks, second Locked on College Basketball Squad Show. We're doing these once a week from now until the end of the season. We're talking all sorts of fun stuff today. Charles Betiaco sticking with Alabama for the foreseeable future. We'll be with them for that game against Florida. We'll talk about that. We're also going to talk about tonight's insane action, Purdue, losing their third straight game. We thought we were going to talk about two other top 10 big 10 teams losing,

but both of them made incredible comebacks. We'll get to that. And Kentucky getting absolutely marked by Vanderbilt. We'll cover that. There's Big Blue Nation. Are they here? Yeah. If they're here,

we're going to get some real upset comments. I can guarantee you that because there's no chance. There's a lot of happy people in Lexington. Why, you doesn't want Mark Pope back. I'm just going to say that. Well, at least Arkansas lost to that. Oh, no.

Oh, no. That's right. Arkansas came back in one. Folks. We're going to start in the SEC. though. We are starting the SEC. We're going to talk about this Charles Betiaco, Nate Oates, Alabama situation in case you guys missed. My favorite part of this whole story so far is that Nate Oates continues to claim that I'm a high school coach and I believe in giving high school

players opportunities. And then he went out and signed himself a 23 year old who shouldn't be in college basketball anymore. Charles Betiaco played for Alabama tonight in one of the more boring games of the day. If we're being honest, Alabama just absolutely steamrolled Missouri. I was 90 to 64 was the final score. Bettyaco, 18 minutes, 14 points, six boards. He looked fine. He looked good in this game. But the real storyline, and I'm curious what you guys think about this,

is that the TRI was getting extended. So we're not going to have a ruling on whether Bettyaco is going to continue to be eligible for Alabama until sometime before February 6th. It was extended 10 days, so somewhere in that window. It was due to weather. That's understandable considering what's happening, weather-wise. unacceptable. Make it happen. It's a digital world. It's a digital world. Hold on.

Yeah, thank you. We can not have it virtually, right? Spoiler to people listening, we are not sitting in the same room. You can talk. No, I guess we can't have our squad show because we can't all be to get, you know, like, what are we? Did you guys see that the NCAA is requesting that the judge who initially put out the TRO be recused from the case because he donated it? Alabama? Did anybody see that? That's pretty crazy. He's not just like a he bought a t-shirt donor. This is a six figure. This is a involved and at first I read the headline was like, okay, respectfully,

it's probably hard to find someone in the region who's not an Alabama fan who, you know, who doesn't have tickets. It's a, you know, what? This is not just some random wealthy guy that went to some game. This is a very big time donor. And like this feels like when you hear about like in these smaller college towns and like certain athletes get away with certain things. It feels like all of this is happening in front of us in a big, big way. It feels very Alabama. I don't know how many you guys are familiar with the South, but it feels very Alabama. Oh yeah.

I grew up in Georgia and we had all this all the time in high school football with like, like dudes living at their grandmother's address so that they can play for certain schools. But legitimately, legitimately, you put the shoe on the other foot. let's make this this judge and an Auburn grad it's going the opposite way right so don't tell me this is an unbiased situation this is absolutely we like you have to request a change of whatever yes he needs to recuse himself of course well and the issue is and i speak for a university that has a guy who's a former g league are playing right now and abdala omit and obviously the argument from a guy like kevin young is omit never signed a professional con with the NBA unlike betty

who signed a two-way and has been playing an NBA games. So kind of the apples to oranges comparison, but D.Y's kind of been caught up in this. And obviously it extended out to Baylor as well because they had the whole situation James Noggy and he can be an empty graphic. But this one, this one, like, you can't be Nate Oates and say, yeah, I'm a high school coach who believes him in a chance. But then, yeah, bring a guy who's been removed from college basketball for multiple years

and say, hey, get in here. We need you. So I would respectfully think that it's also got to. a whole other difference to it, Jake. And I think you're, so full disclosure, Houston was in on Abdullah and I had a guy on the inside, they thought they had him. Like I don't mean to say Houston's innocent in that, right?

The biggest difference here to me is not the which contract exhibit 10 versus two waivers. Dead and said on Thor, dead on Southern 4, it seems very cut and dry. The biggest difference to me is this guy played college basketball, had eligibility left, and opted to give it away.

He just said, I don't want that. more. True. That's a gigantic. It's a reason you have to make the decision. Did you guys see what Tennessee fans were doing with the G League stuff? So I voted. You voted. Okay. So I passed my ballot. If you don't understand what we're talking about here. So Betty Ako was available for the G League All-Star vote. And Tennessee fans, among others, had been voting him up like Nick. And he was apparently he was like the number one leading vote getter and the Gileys took him off the ballot. Took them.

Can we put the link in the chat? Can we put the video? I'm going to go find it right now. Yes, keep talking. There's no right in option. The other, the other hilarious thing, if you guys missed this, was after Tennessee won the game, they tagged the Delaware blue coats, which is the G league team that Betty Akko had been

playing for. And they said, like, we want the blue coats, which is just absolutely perfect to do that. But to go back to the other conversation, as somebody who also is. a fan of a team that's not entirely innocent here. We haven't gone after a G-Leager, but for those who don't know, the Tyon Grant Foster preliminary injunction hearing was done by a judge who went to Gonzaga. So there is a similarity in that regard. Now, I think the majority of people would agree that Tyon Grant Foster, who legally died twice on the basketball court probably should have gotten the eligibility from the NCAA. But it was, that was given to him by a judge in Spokane. So I can

understand, and I've seen some Alabama fans try to use that as an example. But ultimately, yeah, I think the biggest thing is what Parker hit on, which is he took, he very intentionally threw away his eligibility. And to his credit, when he spoke to the media, or when his lawyers kind of released their statement, they straight up said, Charles feels like he made a mistake. Like he's acknowledging like, I wish I hadn't done that. But you did do that. And I think there need to be consequences for the decision to make. I'm in jail. What do you want? me to do like you made a mistake and like and again like I think leaf was starting to hit on this too like the off season like the in the college basketball off season needs some kind of a deadline and if you can

declare for the draft and there's no deadline where which you have to withdraw and you can just come back to college anytime I mean are we like legitimately are we setting a precedent where a player like let's say LeBaron Phelon declares for the draft and goes to the draft process gets drafted in the second round and it's they only are from a two-way contract he doesn't play very well in the summer like could he come back to school in August in September in October after training camp like at this point there is no there's no reason to believe that that could not happen and that is a nightmare for college coaches for people who cover college basketball it's a nightmare for high school recruits like we you know we said like they're not going to be able to know like you're not

you're going to leave a roster spot if you think there's a 5% chance you're going to get a player like that coming back from the NBA. And unless there's some rules in place to prevent that from happening, which per this ruling, there are not. So that, that to me feels like the biggest concern for this going forward. One thing that stands out to me is Betty Akko was good on those Alabama teams. And this is like a note that shouldn't matter, but to me does, is Abdullah Ahmed has minimal impact for BYU. He plays behind Keb Akkadah. He brings body, but he's fouled out more frequently than he's put in points. And then James Naji's done nothing. Betty Akko is playing sparingly and putting up 14 and 6. He was good on those Alabama teams that were very good.

I believe he played on a one seed with Brandon Miller. And then he played next year on another good team. So the reason he went to the NBA draft is because he believed and he acknowledged credit to him that it was a mistake. But that used to mean something that, you know, they're foregoing. The word is foregoing eligibility. And why is the NCAA, why is the NCAA a spineless enough to give anyone any. But of course, like the word foregoing means nothing. Like Cooper Flagg could come back right now. Like what's the reason that holds him back?

Because he's actively on the Mavericks, like it doesn't matter. And leave to your point, EYU once upon a time at Yoli Childs. You guys remember him back? Yes. Oh, yeah. He tried to come back to school. And they dinged him nine games for filing paperwork in the wrong order.

So we've got, we've jumped the shark. Yeah. Hatch, I use that as a. open the James Noggi thing happened on on college basketball because I was because I they were in the WCC at that time so I remember that very distinctly and it's like yeah what are we doing like how how is this the point that we have gotten to in this sport it's it's insanity now it's interesting we bring up Brandon Miller because in that situation I thought Nate Oates did not handle that well right here's the thing from you with this this money this moment excuse me

this money that's hilarious I honestly do not lay this at Nate Oats feet he's doing what is acceptable and allowable within the rules that have been given him. I lay this solely at the feet of the NCAA for their complete ineptitude in doing anything. That's that's the issue here for me. By the way, let's move it back to a moment of levity. Here's some sad news, boys. The G League has taken Charles Betiaco's name as 11 hours ago off of the MVP boating so we cannot go and vote for Charles Betiaco.

So now we need a, what do you call it, where everybody signs the thing? Right. A prediction to get Bettyaco back on the voting. Let's go! Would be hilarious. I also think that there's an aspect of this where, like, they granted a bunch of eligibility between canceling Juko years and COVID years. I mean, look, he's played for the rafters.

Like, Jamal Shed could have gotten a year of eligibility left. Like, does Jamal Shed, Big 12 player of the year, Nash player of the year? Can't, does he come back, Matt? Like, it's never going to happen. He should not. I don't, but like, those kinds of players are eligible now suddenly. Like, that doesn't make any sense.

I want to see LeBron James finish his basketball career playing. He's a degree. You need to agree. That's right. Well, Isaac talks about the NCAA's ineptitude. And I want to talk about, sorry, Nick, but I want to talk about Purdue's ineptitude, moving forward. Third straight loss for the boiler makers after such a strong start to the season.

Hey, at least they didn't give up 46 points to a freshman. Maybe that's the silver lining for the boiler makers. We're going to talk about that game. Some other results from Tuesday night's action all coming up here in just a second. Hi, everyone. I'm Kalia Butler, host of Locked-on Women's Basketball, and this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot, celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. The WMBA has released its 2026 schedule featuring a 44 game regular season beginning

on Friday, May 8th. The league's historic 30th season includes expansion teams. Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo. With opening weekend highlights such as Caitlin Clark and the Indiana fever hosting Paige Becker's and the Dallas Wings and a rematch of the 2025 finals between the Aces and the Mercury. And unrivaled, Miami felt the breeze as Paige Becker's powered the breeze to a 75 to 68 win over the Lunar Owls, finishing with 28 points and 7 assists.

She was joined by 20-year-old Dominique Malunga, who added 21 points, eight rebounds, and became just the second player to ever dunk in an unrivaled game. In College Hoops, South Carolina, Hand in Vanderbilt, its first loss of the season with a dominant 103 to 74 win. These moments are earned off the clock, those long before the lights ever come on. The sweat, the fakes, the doubt, the scrapes, and coming back for more every time. Mazda puts the same drive into every detail. Wins define the moment. Putting in the work, that defines you. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you.

All right, folks, we're going to talk about this very, very exciting action on Tuesday night. A lot of heart races going on in the Big Ten in particular. We saw Michigan nearly lose to Nebraska game. They were trailing for the vast majority of the game. Michigan State nearly lost to Rutgers, if you can believe it. That was a stunner that made. Michigan State and Tom iso found a way to win. But wasn't the same situation for Purdue. They were down most of the game to Indiana. And they made a little bit of a comeback attempt

towards the end. But the Hoosiers just hit tough shot after tough shot. Got this thing done. Arvin, I want to turn it over to you. At least you got to feel good that Jacob Goans are locked on Hoosiers host. Maybe isn't here to rub it in your face. But tough to see a third straight loss for this Purdue team. The fact that Jacob isn't here is the only silver lining. coming out of this game tonight. It was a miserable experience from start to finish. First of all, 9 p.m. Eastern on a Tuesday night from Indiana, Purdue, much less on Peacock, which that's a whole tangent of its own. At least not as many people watched it, right? Maybe that's good. Peackech's got good shows. No, no, no, no. Now a lot of the Peacock games, they show on like NBC Sports

Network. If you got YouTube TV, you can get it. Pekak got good shows. Pekak's a good shows. I don't know. I was clockboxing that bad boy. Let's go. Gosh, the traitors. So we go back a little bit. We go back a little bit. You talked about UCLA, Yax not being here for this one and how that game may have broke Purdue, so to speak. But really, it goes back before that.

It goes back to Big Ten play where Purdue starts out really good. But then it just felt like the energy wasn't there. They couldn't put their foot on the pedal for 40 straight minutes. And then going out of USC where you barely pull that game out, I said this isn't sustainable. having Braden Smith put up 20 and 10 every game in, Trey Cothman Rinn, not rebounding the ball. Fletcher lawyer playing like a guy that just isn't Fletcher lawyer.

It's not sustainable. Then we see that. Apologies to the lawyer family. Apologies to the lawyer family. But we see that against UCLA where they fall short. And after that game, I said the UCLA loss, that's bound to happen. After Illinois, where you need that game, in my opinion, it was a must win to keep those Big 10,

to try to win that regular season championship, keep those hopes alive, you lose that one. And I say that's a disappointing loss where Keaton Wagler goes for 46 points. But now after you lose to Indiana, 72 to 67, the phrasing goes from disappointing to embarrassing. The way that Purdue played in this game, the way that they go out after two straight losses, go into assembly hall against your rival and play with zero energy, zero will to win to start this game. get yourself into a hole. It was embarrassing. That's flat out what it was. And you can look at everybody on this roster. Nobody really had a great game. And it leaves me saying, when we started

out this year, me and you, Isaac, we did a crossover. To start out this year, we talked about Purdue's expectations, how for these seniors, largely it is championship or bus. And that's something that the player set on themselves. I sit here saying now after three straight losses, was that unfair. Is that expectation unfair for what this Purdue team truly is? Because we haven't seen the physicality. We haven't seen the athleticism. And when you look at the Big 10 this year, how good they are with the Michigan, with the Nebraska, those two teams that played up against each other in a top five matchup. I don't think that Purdue is capable of going on the road and beating a Nebraska after the performance they put up in this game. I don't think they're capable of beating Michigan,

even at home after how they played in this game. After this. After this. performance against Indiana. Largely I'm disappointed because you lose your rival. I hate the Hoosiers. I'm fine with Jacob. I think he's a great guy, but I hate the Hoosiers. That's upsetting in its own right, but I'm more upset of the fact that this Purdue team just doesn't look like a championship contender right now. There are a lot of questions. Tonight was not a good night at all for where Purdue wants to go out. Nick, I'm also with Jacob. So can I just ask this question for Jacob Goins? Yeah. Wagler break the Purdue boiler makers.

I don't know if it was Keen Wagler. So the thing with Illinois is like they have so many different players that it was difficult to game plan because we don't have the defense truly to match up to all their double figure guys. So you had to guard somebody. Keaton Wagler was the one that ended up scoring. And now it's just perimeter defense in miscommunications on the defensive side. that's largely what it is. You get yourself into a hole, and these seniors play like they've never played defense before,

and they've been here for four years. The perimeter defense is terrible right now, and it's going to continue to show up until something changes. We've seen it for more than three games now, but now you drop three in a row. I don't think Matt Painter's lost four in a row since COVID. So we're in a really bad spot right now. I've got a lot on my mind after this.

Nick, I host the Lockdown Couges, Houston Cougar show. So, I mean, to pile on you, bunch of cougars. I was immediately watching Big 12 basketball last tonight, which there's a weird debris to West Virginia connection. Actually, that I'm sure Matt and Paul do 17 episodes about. But I got a question for you about, you mentioned they didn't play 40 minutes. I'm looking at stats, looking at things here. Based on like the win probability, it doesn't look like they paid 15 minutes. Yeah. Like I almost feel like even in your anger,

you're like over inflate, like this was a five point loss, I guess. But like there's a lot of numbers here that indicate it wasn't that close, Nick. No, no, absolutely. And when I talk about 40 minutes, that was more of a thing that's been going on for a while. We see that against a UCLA or in Illinois where you go into that game and then just fall short at the end where the offense largely played good in those games. But in this one, the offense wasn't even necessarily that great. You just get yourself into a hole early. and then it felt like largely Purdue in the second half,

they were trying to force stuff on the offensive side, trying to come back against Indiana. It just resulted in really bad looks, couldn't get the stops on the defensive side. I'm at a loss for words, honestly, because I didn't expect this going into assembly hall. I know it's tough to play there, and I know that at times Purdue has struggled there,

but you would think after two losses in the expectations that this team is set for themselves, that they would have enough, for themselves to fix or make some adjustments, fix the problems that we've seen, but the same problem showed tonight in the Assembly Hall. So I don't really know the perimeter defense is largely what I look at. They were making three after three after three. And you get the lead down to two.

And I thought it was very poetic that a wide open three in the final minute is kind of what lost Purdue this game. What stood out to me is Indiana has no size. Like this is a really not big team. Six foot 11, Reed Bailey is like, it looks like he's maybe 200 pounds. Like they don't have. He's terrible. Yeah, he's not good.

They don't have any bigs. They don't have any real rim protection at all. And yet, Trey Coughman Wren, he led the team he had 23 points. But, you know, Oscar Clough doesn't do anything. Daniel Jacobson doesn't do anything. Like you have no interior presence in this game when, I mean, obviously we're a few years removed from the Zach Edy era. But like, Pray Kaufman Wren should be that guy.

Clough should be that guy. No, Andy, real quick, like to your point, over the last five games coming into this game, so not counting this game, they were in the 11th percentile in offense of rebound rate and the second percentile in block rate. It's been terrible. Yeah, no, Purdue, Purdue. Purdue, geez, man. What's going on down on the block? Purdue founded something a couple of years ago with Eadie. Their whole premise, and Matt Painter popularized this. If you look at all the recent teams that have won championships, they've been enormous. Well, everyone copied Purdue. And I've heard different coaches credit painter for this

philosophy of like, hey, if you don't turn the ball over, which just was what killed them and losing to FDU. And you just throw the ball at the backboard and you have EDI underneath to clean it up, you're going to win because you're going to get more possessions. It still holds true like Arizona, the team I cover very good rebounding, Florida last year, Yukon the two years before. But they've played bigger. Like Clough is a big dude who averaged 16 rebounds per game last year.

And Jacobson's 7 foot 4. And then they have TKR. What's not really working is they're not doing what they have done for years in space, around a big and they're not rebounding. And the other thing about the defense to just stick out on the idea of like, look, most teams with two bigs will play drop coverage and protect the room. They're pretty dreadful at protecting the rim, even when Jacobson's in. So yes, they're going to play in a way that, you know, dares people to shoot threes. But against Illinois, they've got both the Avicicic twins. They've got Mirkovich and all these different guys. And of course, Wogler

scores 46. But they started putting two on the ball finally on Wogler, and they didn't recover at all. their core identity of playing drop coverage didn't work. Their core identity of their roster composition, which was supposed to toughen them up because they rebounded poorly last year and didn't protect the room at all last year hasn't worked. And Braden Smith looks great, but the rest of the team looks off. Like I'm,

I didn't think I'd ever find a day I'd be anti-Purdue because I love Painter. But this team looks, looks pretty much like second tier in the big, big 10. And that was not a conversation we thought we'd have. Well, at least they probably got Indiana in football, all right. I mean, there's probably got to be something. Don't start with that. I'm not, I'm not in the mindset to get to that. My bad. I'm not there right now. But to your point,

Leif, with Oscar Club, that was someone that Matt Painter brought in very intentionally because we lose to Parker squad in the Sweet 16. And then the bigs were a big concern where Tray Kaufman Wren had to play center last year with Jacobson breaking his leg. But those bigs that you bring in, and earlier in the year, they were rebounding at a very high level. Now they're just playing like they're soft. And I don't understand. Indiana out rebounded Purdue in the first half of this game. And Indiana has one of the worst front courts in the nation.

So I don't know. I'm just out of loss for words right now. There's so much going into my head that it'll take me of it to kind of formulate really what happened here. But it was just an embarrassing loss, one that quite frankly, shouldn't have happened. Would it make you feel better and everybody else listening here, since there's no SEC hosts here. Can we laugh at Kentucky for a few minutes?

Oh, my God. I think that's a lot of people feel a little. Let's go. Can we start with Otega Owe's boneheaded moment? Did you all see this? I did, yeah. Oh, my word. Okay, so the free throw, made free throw.

I don't even remember who's going to take it out of the out of bounds. Let's say it's Colin Chandler. He passes it to Otega Owe from out of bounds. Oway steps out of bounds to pass it in. I'm like, that's with 10 minutes left in the skate. Vanderbilt just trucked Kentucky up and down the floor all night long. It was insanity. And Kentucky's coming off of winning five straight.

And they just looked like this might have well have been that Gonzaga beat down that they suffered on a Friday night way back in whenever that was. I mean, good night, you guys. Is Jaden Quentin's ever going to play again? Like, what is happening? This box score, like watching this game was as bad as the box score. and I'm going to tell you some of the things in this box score because it was horrendous what Kentucky did in this game. They shot 32% from the field, 19 of 59. They shot 25% from three.

They were 58% from the free throw line. They had nearly twice as many turnovers as assists, eight assists to 15 turnovers. They got out rebounded by Vanderbilt, who is, you know, they have a lot of strengths. The rebounding's not always been one of their strengths this year. I mean, they had two guys in double figures. Nobody else more than five for Kentucky. those two guys were Aberdeen and O'A who combined to score 35 of their 55 points. This was flat out awful.

And again, like you said, is it coming off of five straight wins, finally getting some momentum. And it's not like they had quaintiffs for all those games. Like he's been hurt for, you know, and Lowe's been out. Like this isn't a completely new Kentucky team. They're not missing a bunch of guys. Like this is the same squad they've had pretty much all year for better or worse. And in this case, it was pretty obviously for worse because they just got absolutely smoked. Who wins more tournament games?

Miami of Ohio or Kentucky? Stegway. Honestly, Miami, Ohio. Like, I think Kentucky's going to make it. Oh! I think they're going to make it, but I think Miami Ohio is going to win it. And I don't know. Miami, Ohio is weird because they're undefeated,

but they win all the games by like two points against not very good teams. They just missed the tournament, though. Do you think Kentucky missed the tournament, leaf? Is that what you said? Oh, no, I was saying Miami of Ohio. I don't think they're a lock to make. Yeah, no, they lose one game. They're not a lock.

If they don't win their conference, they're not a lock. Yeah, and then Kentucky could absolutely miss it. Like, the SEC isn't particularly good, so you're not getting like quad one A wins. Like, there are quad ones, but there aren't like big time wins in the SEC right now. Like the best team in the SEC by record right now by a full game is Texas A&M. And Texas A&M to me is like an eight or a nine seat. Yeah. At Bracken matrix right now, Kentucky's a projected seven, Miami, Ohio projected 11.

Matchable. 7-10, do it. And I'm pretty sure Kentucky has a guy from Miami, Ohio. He's a transfer. He doesn't play for him, but I remember they got a guy from that school. So it would be the Reese Potter game if they were to line up. And I would take Miami, Ohio. Can I channel my inner just Mark Pope and say, these Miami Red Hawks?

I went to a lot of press conferences with that guy in Provo. That was spot on. I thought that was him for a second. I know. And equally as tall as he is. No, not. All right, let's talk Big 12. We don't got any SEC hosts in here.

We already talked the Big Ten. Apologies to Nick. So we're going to talk some Big 12 basketball. We're going to talk Arizona being one of two undefeated team. Shout out Miami, Ohio again. We'll talk about that epic game against VYU since we got both of you here. in this show, and we'll talk a little bit about Houston and Kansas as well, since you guys are here. All that coming up in just a second.

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We talked some SEC with the Charles Betiaco situation. We laughed at Kentucky. And now we're going to talk Big 12 basketball here. to close out the show. Arizona was not in action on Tuesday night, but the two other undefeated teams where Nebraska goes down, loses to number five Michigan

in a game they led for 36 of the 40 minutes. Something along those lines. Give them their seconds, Andy. Give them their seconds. Was it 3618 or 3614? You confuse me because you told me the wrong number. No, I would literally never do a thing such as. You would never do that.

Nebraska led the 36 minutes. Have I misspoken about seconds? Never in your life. 36 minutes, 14 seconds. Nebraska led that game. They lost Miami, Ohio. I'm not sure what they were down most of that game to UMass as well, but they came back in one. So they are one of two undefeated teams alongside Arizona who got a game where they were leading pretty much, pretty much throughout against BYU. And yet that thing got really close at the end of that game. A couple of questionable calls by the officials made it seem like BYU might pull off the comeback. Leif, Jacob, I know you guys were both in the house watching this basketball game, so not sure if you saw the replays of those plays at the end of that game,

but really wild finish between two of the best teams in the sport. It was an awesome game. I mean, the crazy thing was BYU was down 13 at the under four, and the environment was still, like, frantic and energized. And so kudos to BYU. It's my second game there, and that atmosphere delivers big time every time. The other thing I would say about this game is I don't think Arizona played particularly well in it, but they were steady throughout and they had more bodies than anyone in the country to throw at AJ.

And AJ went six of 24 and it looked more to me as BYU had warts than Arizona played particularly well. Arizona just steady and workman like an offense and defensively they're going to make you work exceptionally hard. And they had the bodies to not double team AJ. And BYU only stayed in this game in my opinion because they hit 13 threes and 10 of them in the second. in half, a lot of them in that rally. I think Arizona played a good 36 minutes, nothing great, and an awful four minutes. And BYU had a flurry of threes, a little bit of Tony Padilla luck sprinkled in. And I never talked about reps. Like I hate when people talk about reps as a big narrative. That was some of the worst officiating I have ever seen. And then I watched it this morning to see

if I was going crazy, if it was the emotion of the wildcats taking over. And I don't think so. I don't think so, but I live in Utah, and I was on Twitter, and I started saying, like, my thoughts of the game. And all these BYU, you guys are like, oh, we got hosed and all this stuff. And I'm like, well, I don't know how this is going both ways, but apparently it did. But nonetheless, great game. The Big 12s got six of the best 12, 13 teams in the country. Well, okay, and just to add to this, Tony Padilla is, I hate the fact that I know this guy's name. I just say that straight up.

I hate the fact that when I watch a game and he's on the list of officials who are like, great. About to have something happen here. But excuse me, to your point, Leif, I really do think Arizona, they had the bodies to throw at AJ and they made life different for him. And that's what he's going to have to improve upon is you can't shoot 25% from the field. You can't go one of eight, I think, from the- Wait, is that bad? It's not good, Bob. But I think the bigger thing is, yes, BYU,

rallied late and they had the chance that Rob Wright goes right among the trees trying to find that winning bucket. I would have liked to have seen them draw up a play that actually got the ball to AJ. I know that he was the first option, but Coapete had him bodied up and they prevented that from happening. But BYU has warts. There's just no doubt about this. This is a team that's wholly reliant on what they call their big three. That's AJ DeBonsa, Richie Saunders and Robert Wright the third. And if those three are on, great. You have a shot at anybody, it feels like. The problem is if you only have maybe one or two of those guys on, that's when BYU starts to struggle. And I really do think Leif's right in saying that Arizona, it may not have been their finest

performance, but they, they showed everything I think that they need in terms of making a deep, deep run in March. I really do like that Wildcat squad. I have a little homework for Leif to look up. So off the top of my head, the best start to a season by any big 12 team ever is the 96 to 97 Kansas Jayhawks. And ironically, that's the team that lost to Arizona in the Sweet 16. That was only their second loss of the season and their only loss in regulation. But that Kansas team started 22 and 0. Arizona's 21 and 0. So I think they have a chance to break that record. But you can do the homework on that one. I think I have the answer for you. Okay. Only three teams ever have gone 21 and 0 to start. And the last one was the Jayhawks. I don't know what the third one was but I think they lost at number 21. So and I've got. Are you saying in all of college basketball? Like big 12.

In the big 12. Oh, in the big 12. I was like, I'm saying. You'll say hello. I'm quite positive. That's not true over here. And he knows all about BYU going up and spoiling a 29 and. I do.

I, yep, I have a very distinct memory of ruining an entire evening. I do feel safe to say, I wouldn't have known the number was 21. It with Arizona State next. and Oklahoma State after that, I do feel fairly safe that Arizona's probably got, I guess the Arizona State game is on the road. It's a rivalry thing, but like,

no, no. It was wildly close in Arizona, I thought. Shut up, start sitting. The thing I'd say about that game, as I've started my preview for it, is Masamba Jop, the big guy for Arizona State, hits six out of six midrangers, and he's actually really good.

But Arizona's defense, and I talked to Jake about this a little bit before the game yesterday, that Arizona is going to get better shots than any team they play. They're going to shoot 45% and this is an actual stat. 45% of their shot attempts are within five feet. 58% of their points total are scored from two and then another 22 from free throw line. So they get 80% of their 90 points per game from what I like to call paint oriented points.

So they get good looks. BYU shoots 58% from two, but they were never going to do that against Arizona because they make you shoot hard shots. And everyone I talked to on Twitter about this was like, oh, AJ loves midranges. I was like, not against Yvon Karchenkov, not against Koa Pete, not against Duane Aristote and all these litany of bodies you can throw at them. So the difference to me about Arizona this time is it's inconceivable to expect a possible performance from Jop to go 100% from the midrange in the game. And Odom to hit, I want to say hit four floaters. Never discount Moe Odom. That man is a menace in close game.

As hot as he was in early parts of the game, he probably made decisions at least. lost it. I mostly say I watched that one and like Houston to Arizona State next and like that kind of spooked me on them for a hot. So I was like, well, wait a second. What's going on here? And whatever magic that may be. But they should beat Arizona State. They should be Oklahoma State. 24 is at Kansas. That's at Kansas is stuff for everybody. But I don't think it's it's crazy to say they're going to get 22 and 23, right? If that's the number we're looking at. So when do you think they lose next? Because at Kansas is 24 and then the next one is home against Texas Tech. And then the next one is BYU.

Granted, that's at home for Arizona, but that's a really brutal three-game stretch right though. They got five days between Kansas and Texas Tech, and they only got three days, three days between Texas Tech and BYU. And then they got Houston on the road after that. That's really tough four-game stretch. Like, when is that first loss for Arizona? Kenbaum says it's not happening.

Derek, is D.P. playing in that game in a couple weeks? What are we doing? I want nothing with predicting when D. D.P. is playing. I do feel good about him playing against A.J. DeBonter. He'll be highly motivated. Is he playing Saturday? Come on, we got to have that matchup, man. I would be shocked if he didn't play on Saturday.

Arizona game, I'm not predicting that far. I do think the matchup is good for Arizona against Kansas. Oh, yeah. It's Allen Fieldhouse. But going to Fogg Allen, I never want to be like, oh, yeah, that's a good one. But, like, if that were, if every game were played on a neutral, I would say that the Arizona should be favored in all of them. And then Houston would be the one I'd be most scared of. Who do you throw at DP?

Who does Arizona throw at DP? I'd put Karchank. So Andy and Isaac will love this because they know this is my favorite player. Ivan Karchenkov is Thomas Howe 2.0. You guys know how much I love Thomas Howe last year. And I said like he's clearly a big time player that should be a top 20 pick. And he came back to school and was going to be an All-American. Karchenkov might be on a similar path.

But when Arizona is in the NCAA tournament and hopefully going far and every play that he guards the best player on the other team and makes open shots and makes hustle plays, like I think he's going to be the fans, like, people that are not like us and obsessed with college basketball, then appreciate. But I would put Karchenkov on DP, and you can throw in Bradley, too, but Karchenkoff's the defensive stopper. Jaden Bradley is the most underappreciated guard in the entirety of Division I men's college basketball. He's insanely good. I will just say this.

Jaden Bradley made the winning play, in my opinion, even though Braden Burry's blocked the yes. Jaden Bradley, getting his hand on that ball and forcing the extra action that allowed Burrys to get over to block like that. To your point, Isaac, I really was impressed with that guard tandem from Arizona. Can I ask a question about BYU to you, Jake? This has bugged me for a while.

Because BYU is best when A.J. has the ball. But they're very heliocentric. Like if A.J. plays the point guard, which he has for most of the recent games, unless the other team doesn't have bodies to throw and then doubles, that creates their rotations. When Arizona did not double, I think they made some mistakes and doubled.

And when Karchenkov left, Co-stitch, and that's what kind of catapulted the run. But for the most part, they didn't double, and AJ went 6 to 24 and just said, like, you got to score 30. But if a team has the bodies, and you'd think in the Sweet 16 and beyond, the round of 32 and beyond,

teams will have the bodies. Why, is there ever a way that Wright and A.J. play well together? Because I watched them against North Carolina, the very first game of the season, the preseason. And I just did not think that Rob Wright fit in with this. mix. He's not a great catch and shoot guy. He's improved. He likes to drive super deep in the paint. So against big teams, he struggles. And AJ needs the ball. He never plays without the ball.

So Richie Saunders is great, but his rhythm is thrown off by Rob Wright. And I don't think Rob Wright is a good fit for BYU whatsoever. They've got to get a month here essentially to get where they play more with the pass versus the dribble drive penetration because I don't know what it is. But Rob Roy and AJ want to just kind of like, hey, I'm going to dribble for a bit. I'm going to pass it. You dribble for a bit and we'll see what we can create out of this. It's throwing off Richie Saunders because what Richie Saunders is so good at is playing off of the past from his teammates. That was what made him so effective last year as the most improved

player in the Big 12. So they've got a month here and Kevin Young's got to just kind of break it down for these guys and say, guys, I know you want to dribble. I know you mentioned they're heliocentric. You got to get away from that. We've got to play more as we versus me. That's fun, Bill. Go ahead. Go ahead. I think it's interesting because like what's funny is that, like, AJ will probably do a lot of the ball handling at the pro level, too.

And he almost wonder, like, is he pushing to be like, no, no, I want helicentric. Like, that's going to actually, like, like, where does it come from? And you also know that the pro background that BYU's coaching staff brings, like, like probably has some of that too in projecting it. I, frankly, was, I only caught parts of the game last night because I was also trying to watch since I'm getting ready for Houston and TCU this Wednesday. and it looked like to me that game shouldn't have been as close as it was. I kind of had to tune back in if I'm being blunt.

And it's, you know. As did hundreds of Cougar fans who started leaving the three-minute mark. So, yeah, I didn't know that. As part of that conversation, though, like, BYU got DeBanza, and then they went out and spent $3.5 million on Rob Wright. So if they figured DeBanza was going to have the ball in his hands a lot, it seems like they could have, I mean, again, I think Rob Wright's a good player, but I'm with Leif on the fit being a little odd.

and it's like could they have spent three and a half million dollars on like maybe more of a catch and shoot guy or somebody who doesn't need the ball in their hands all that much if they were landing to give the ball to demand that that's rich you right there what you describe in andy and that's that they've got they've got to some now you're saying some redundancy with it yeah that that couldn't hurt and that's and that's they're hoping Nate pickens who hasn't played it all this year he had a season ending injury and also Dawson baker I know Dawson like that Baker those two being gone have really crippled this lineup so and they've got if They've got to find something.

And I really do think it's just sitting down with these guys and explaining, hey, if you guys want to go as far as you dream of going this season, because AJ said you want Sweet 16s the floor for this BYU. That's what he said himself. They want to make a final four run. They're not going to do it without playing more with the pass. And to be fair,

I think you could be fourth or fifth in the Big 12 and have a final four run in you. Like I think it's that strong a conference. I don't, like you're going to take some lumps along the way. That's part of this beat down here. I'm issued leaf, though, And it's partially, you know, Houston just lost the Texas Tech in a game that I could go on about what they shouldn't have lost, should have been back and forth, you know, one-on-one against them this year. And that's always sucks. But the, you mentioned Houston being a team you think they'd lose to if you're going to pick one, but you didn't say tech. And I think there's some star power at Tech where like, that Anderson kid could just win a game. Right. Like, like, you know, J. T. Toppin could just win a game. Like I think that there's some of that aspect of them that maybe not accounting for. There's two reasons I'm a little lower on tech than Houston. One, unless I'm mistaken, I think Arizona plays them at home.

So that one, I like Arizona playing at McAil. But even if it were on a neutral, I like that matchup. Because Arizona's got tremendous size. And J.T. Toppin is very left-hand dominant. Like he wants to get to his left side. And so many teams can't match up either speed and strength. Arizona can put three different guys on him that don't sacrifice speed and strength and they don't like run out of fouls. AJ, uh, drew 14 fouls, I believe. And six of them in the

first half were on co-opete, Mo Creevas, and Toby Awaka. And Arizona still was unflustrum. Like, oh, you know, we'll just bring Dwayne Aristo's six, eight built like the rock. Like, you know, so the, the answer about tech is like, Topin creates and generates all their advantages. And if you double, which I was, I was stunned that Houston doubled, um, as much as they did. I know they often double and they do these like monster traps. But they were, were like straight doubling as opposed to like trapping. Houston didn't play the normal way. And then the one player they didn't do it with was Khalifa Sacco and he was killed during that stretch. And so I thought that Anderson, sorry to get back. I just love the nitty gritty of this. But to get back to it, I think Anderson's problematic, but Arizona's got a lot of bodies. And I just don't think Texas Tech's other guys are that scary unless you give them doubles. It's the same thing with BYU. I don't think anyone but Richie Saunders is really scary other than AJ DeBonsa. And therefore, if you face Gar Richie and play AJ straight up, you're going to win because you're going to get better shots in there.

I don't think Luan Watts, petty, all these guys are all that good unless you double. And I don't think Arizona will ever double. And in my joke in the one that Houston won, the first matchup was that Lawan Watts was Houston's second best player. But I think that really like the deal is like at well is going to knock down open shots. And so I do feel like the pressure has got to come from somewhere. And I just, I guess they do have a bunch of bodies. and tech is notably not deep.

It just feels like there's a superhero cape kind of thing with this Christian Anderson kid or JT. Toppin either one. And I think they're scary in that sense because all these do come down to one game samples. The conference is so top of the Turvey. Houston plays tech twice and Baylor twice, and they only play the three guys I see on the screen here once apiece. There's a weird way that that works out in Houston's favor

in terms of wins and losses, but not in terms of quad ones and twos and all that. right like this is all kind of upside down and and and backwards and he's the one lot if you're getting some pushback on uh from malau 514 for only saying richie saunders and a j de bansa scare you uh rob right question mark uh so leif you you must uh explain yourself sir uh i i think watching rob right play in the games that they have lost explains it for me but i'll get i'll give that uh so he went three 16 yesterday. And a lot of them were open because he's the dare shooter. He's gotten better as a shooter, but he needs the ball to drive. He drives and he doesn't pass on time. So he takes away

Ritchie Saunders, which is BYU is like X factor. If BYU gets Ritchie open, they are going to be awesome because he hits everything and he can pump it and get to the rim. Rob Wright, if he gets the ball, doesn't make decisive decisions. It's like A.J. AJ, AJ, AJ, AJ. Oh, Rob Wright. And then he's going to take his turn. So I just don't like. the way they play together. And yes, those two combined for 69% of, sorry, those three combined for 69% of BYU's total points. And they score 61 combined. But if you can, if you can ask me, like, if I'm going to play BYU, a thousand times out of a thousand, I will go man to man with AJ for Arizona. And most teams, I would say this too. And then face guard Ritchie and say,

Rob Wright, if you're going to beat us, you're going to beat us. I said that on my show twice in previewing BYU. And I told the guy next to me, Jake was next to me as well, but the guy to directly the left, I said, once Rob Wright got the ball, I felt good on that final possession with all the momentum the other way. I just don't think Rob Wright fits for BYU and AJ and him are the same issue. They just need the ball too frequently. And as for Houston, I have another question about Houston. Do you think that Kingston Fleming's being as great as he is has hurt Houston's ability to win as a team because Milos Uzan looks uncomfortable without the ball. No, I think part of it also is that Miles is shooting 10% lower from three than he

to the year ago. And frankly, if it's worth like, it's a different role, but LJ cried the ball in his hands a lot last year too. I think the interesting thing to me has been really that they handed their ball, the reins over to them so quickly and said, hey, we need, you know, we're running HB dive is what I call with a spray attack downhill, we're going to get three bound and put it back in if you miss. And they handed to them really, really quickly this year. I think the bigger thing to me has been they're missing more of the low post scoring that would open up some of what Milos

did with the floaters. If you remember what Milo said last year, a lot of the two-man game, he gets that floater. He's so consistent there. But the two-man game, Senac has been up and down. Tuggler's offense hasn't come along. They're looking for a post-score there that does, you know, and more, I think we talked earlier this season at Leif about that part. And like, I think Milos needs that more than the other guys do. If I'm being really honestly, you're like, Kingston can get his,

and Manuel's a catch and shoot. He shoots from Beaumont, we joke half the time. He's so far, but like, Milos needs that two-man action to get downhill and no one's worried about the role man in the same way.

If anything, Senac's best screenplay have been pops, honestly. And that's been a big part of that. And the other thing is, I think they're still, like, working in bench guys.

Like Chase McCarty's roles still kind of undefined. I say Harwell is still kind of coming along. They're figuring those kind of things. things out too. Harwell is a great player, but he's still figuring things out. Well, as the Gonzaga fans are certainly weren't thrilled about seeing Kingston Fleming's do what he did after recruiting him. Or Harwell.

Or Harwell. Or Harwell hasn't meant as good, but yeah, they pivoted to Clemmings because they knew they weren't going to get Harwell. And then Kelvin Samson said, I'm going to just take both of them. And Gonzaga's feeling okay about their Spanish guard, Mario St. Sapiria. But yeah, yeah, it would have been nice to see Kingston Fleming's dropping 50 in Spokane instead of for Houston. But, you know, we'll get overt over it over here. Folks, that's going to wrap it up for us today. What a fun show. Love doing these. We're going to have, again, once a week, we're going to do these squad shows with whatever hosts are going to join. So definitely check them out. You can find them in the Lockdown College

basketball feed. You can find them in the feeds of whatever hosts are here live on YouTube. They'll be up on the audio platforms as well. As always, as we always do on the show here, we always say apologies to the lawyer family. Although, as I've said before, sometimes I think the lawyer family they might need to apologize to Purdue fans because it's been a bit of a rough year for our guy, Fletcher. Let's go Wild Polks. Not a good one for them either. Cheers to the Mick Bruins,

even if our guy Zachary Anderson, Yachtzheimer, are not here for the show. And until next time, folks, peace out.