Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - GAMECHANGER: Flory Bidunga Dazzles, Kansas Jayhawks HOLD OFF Utah Utes in SLEEPY Win

Starting point is 00:00:00 Flory Bedunga looks like a pro. Now, besides that, bit of a snoozer for KU, but a win's a win, they take down Utah and keep the winning street going. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here with another edition of Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks to making it your first listen every day. Every day is catching each and every episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. On today's edition of the show, we are recapping the Kansas Utah game in which the Jayhawks end up winning by a sizable margin here, but kind of a sleepy elite performance for KU that seemed like it had different moments where they showed, hey, we can blow this team out if we want to. It wasn't an overly consistent game, but understanding. So we'll break it all down, why Florida Bedunga looks like a pro for KU right now and plenty more moments of the game, all that what's next for KU. First, today's episode of the show is brought to you by Mazda. We put that same drive into every detail. Wins to find the moment, putting in the work,

Starting point is 00:01:15 that defines you. Stay tuned for highlights in this week's moving the game forward. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. So Kansas takes down Utah here and Kansas gets down a little bit early. Then they go on that little run early in the first half and it feels like they're going to pull away, but they don't. Utah keeps it close. And then KU starts pushing it a little bit. And then again, Utah's kind of hanging around at six points. And then KU goes on another big run. And then Utah gets it back down to like 10.

Starting point is 00:01:39 And then like it just felt like one of those games where KU knew they were the better team. Utah was playing highly motivated. Like that was probably one of Utah's better defensive games of the season and not a very well executed or good game for KU. And you probably overlooked your opponent a little bit. And, you know, from the coaching standpoint, like from Bill Self standpoint, he's probably going to light into him a little bit, even though they win. this game, he's probably going to let him have it and see certain things like, like, I don't know, defending the kind of pick and roll defense where the big was kind of slipping to the rim.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Like there will be certain things Bill Self points to and goes, hey, we got to do better here because it might not have mattered in this game, but it certainly will matter on Monday against Arizona. It will certainly matter the following Saturday against Iowa State or against some of the better opponents that you're going to be playing. And from the coaching perspective, that is how you have to do it. Like look at the small things and, you know, the process wasn't always great for KU and this. game. From my standpoint, I'm not the coach and from where I'm sitting, I can have a little bit of empathy and understanding for how you wind up with the game like this. You're riding a six-game winning streak. You're probably pretty emotionally tired from how you've won some of these recent

Starting point is 00:02:51 games like the BYU game and just the up nature that that created for you and then having to come down in the tech game and finding a way to win it. And then all of a sudden you're going from playing all these big opponents and knowing next week you play Arizona and Iowa State, it is from a human nature perspective. And again, this is different from the coaching. The coaching perspective is to try to make them view it as, no, don't let human nature creep in. My perspective is I'm like, I can understand the human nature side of it and letting that creep

Starting point is 00:03:19 in and seeing how this one wound up being closer than you would expect. And that's the thing. When you have a highly motivated team like Utah playing a team who maybe isn't going to be as motivated, you can end up with a closer score than you would expect. I look since the KUB or the, not KUBYU, the BYU, Utah game. Like Utah was within what, 12 or 13 of BYU and that one too.

Starting point is 00:03:40 So this is one of those that I just kind of look at. And I'm just like, Kansas won the game and this is going to be a game that we don't remember in a month from now, you know? And so from that standpoint, the most important thing was the win was more important than the loss and you've got that done. Now, obviously, like I said,

Starting point is 00:03:56 there are certain things in this game that you cannot continue to do if you want to beat some of the better opponents. but I don't know, we'll see. Like maybe does the 3 of 18 from 3-point shooting? Does that carry over into the Arizona game? Because yeah, then you're going to be in trouble. Does how you defended some of those slip screens, does that carry over into the Arizona game?

Starting point is 00:04:14 Sure. Does some of the defensive lapses in the game or the lack of effort at different points in time and kind of having a lazier game? Does that carry over into next week's game? If it does, then yeah, you're going to be in trouble in those games. But if it was just this kind of one-off thing, then it is what it is in what ends up being a 12 point win for you, right?

Starting point is 00:04:35 I will say one of my biggest takeaways from this game. This has kind of been building over the last couple games. So we talked about, we had Bryce Simon on the show. It has great draft work with Sam Vassini. You can catch him on the game theory podcast, and he also does stuff for Motor City Hoops and talking about a little NBA draft stuff. And at the end of that conversation, we had a conversation about what do you think for you should do?

Starting point is 00:04:53 Should he go back to school? Should he go pro? And Bryce kind of mentioned that like he thinks he would be drafted it'd be like a second round pick and stuff. But in this day and age, because things are different where you can get paid to play college and because Florey would probably get a pretty hefty NIL check, he said he was kind of leaning toward coming back. And I was like, yeah, I'm kind of at a point right now where because of some of the inconsistencies

Starting point is 00:05:16 throughout the season, I've been leaning toward he would be back next season in college basketball. But since that point, we've had the BYU game where he guarded A.J. DeBonsa and did an excellent job in doing so and made an impact on another. the ways to we've had the Texas tech game where he guarded j t toppin the defending big 12 player of the year and help hold him to five of 18 and made some other impacts too and then had this game against utah where yeah utah's a little undersized to go take advantage of it and he did he had 17 points on seven of eight shooting he had 10 rebounds he had a season high in blocks and in a game where the kU defense was a little inconsistent and didn't always have the best effort that was not the

Starting point is 00:05:55 case for florididunga he was always providing rim protection and like here's the thing it felt like that was not a good defensive game for KU because there were those lapses, because there were moments in times where it felt like you were not doing a good job on the defensive end. And at the end of the day, they scored under 60 points, shot 40% from the floor. A big reason why is because of how critical a player like Flory Badunga can be to your defense. And so I say this now, after these last three games, I think I'm trending on the train of again, if you get them back, great. If you get Florida Badunga back for more seasons of college basketball that is an awesome thing for you but i'm kind of starting to weather or weighing into the

Starting point is 00:06:34 the circle of yeah now i'm kind of expecting florrie to go pro like he is looking like a pro now he had some inconsistencies over the early part of the season but you had some big moments and now we're getting more consistent florey and the big moments are getting even better they're becoming even more impactful they are they are becoming a bigger deal on the defense event and so it's really cool to see because you're seeing like developments of players or over the course of the season. We haven't seen that the previous two seasons. It felt like in some of the recent seasons for KU, you were getting the final product of the team in December. And then it never got better. And as other teams were getting better, you were just stagnating. And it feels like

Starting point is 00:07:12 with this team, you are improving. Like Bryson Tiller has gotten a lot better from where he was over the early part of the season. Florida Bedunga, like I said, is better than he was at the beginning of the season. I think Melvin Council has continued to come into his role. Like, El Marco Jackson has gotten better for KU. This is a team that is getting better. And I know you didn't totally see it as a team today, but I think you did see it a little bit from Florida but doing good there. I think some of the negatives, if we want to touch on those real quick, would be the defense and consistent energy level again. That has to, you have to be able to flip that switch now this week with Arizona and Iowa State. He finished the game strong. Trey White had some big buckets

Starting point is 00:07:52 late in the game. That was a little bit of a concern for me as the game was going on. He continued to miss shots. And it felt like I mentioned that I think it was the previous four games leading into this one. Maybe it was five. Trey White came into this one averaging like 11 points per game over that stretch. And it was like, could this be a slump buster for him, get him back to the level you want him at? And for a little there it wasn't, but he finished with 16. But I guess point being like they're going to need Trey White to be hitting shots to be, you know, at the top level of Trey White again in this kind of upcoming week for KU. Other than that, the other big negatives were Marco Jackson obviously wasn't able to play.

Starting point is 00:08:28 But that's one where it's like, again, if you're playing a different opponent, is he gritting through it in the same way he gritted through it in the Texas Tech game, right? And knowing that you have Arizona on Monday with a short turnaround, where you're going to need all of your available bodies and need a guy like El Marco to potentially defend a guy like potentially, I don't know, Jaden Bradley or something, or Braden Burrys or something, do you just make sure, you know, he gets that little bit extra of rest? I think that would probably make a little bit of sense there if you are KU.

Starting point is 00:08:59 But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, not KU's best performance. And even then, it was a game where, okay, if you're hitting a little bit more threes, like you win by more, they shot well from two. The two point defense continued to be good for KU. You still blocked a lot of shots. Again, not KU's best performance. It's probably not one we're going to really remember or point two is like that a points a month from now.

Starting point is 00:09:20 But you got through it. You got a victory. And next up is the game. gauntlet for the Jayhawks. So we'll talk a little bit more about that gauntlet coming up. But next, let's get to our moments of the game, stats of the game, game awards, all that and more. This episode of the show is brought to you by Fanduals Sportsbook. It is the last call for football on Fandul. One final Sunday, one last kickoff, and one last chance to get in on the action before the NFL season officially comes to a close. This is Super Bowl 60, and Fandual's

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Starting point is 00:11:46 That's at Lockdownpodcast.com slash everyday or locked on podcast.com slash everyday. Our moments and plays of the game, there was that really fun early moment where Melvin Council gets in transition and he's kind of weaving through defenders like he's, running through traffic at the airport to catch his flight or something. And then he throws the lob like over his shoulder, kind of like a hook shot. And you get Flory catching it with one arm. I think it was his left, which he is a leftie, so his primary hand. And has kind of an go-go gadget, extendo arm throw down one hand on the hoop.

Starting point is 00:12:19 That was just a really fun play, really cool highlight moment. I really liked the moment where so Melvin Council goes out with the injury briefly. He had like blood coming on his chin. comes back from the bloody chin and immediately helps force a turnover by pressuring the ball where Utah throws it out of bounce. And then immediately on the offensive end, right back down after that, just kind of backs his guy down into the lane and hits a little hook shot over him. Like that was just kind of a perfect encapsulation of what he brings to the team. And when he's not out there, his spirit and energy, I think, is missed for KU. But Doonga had so many blocks and so many big moments, I think, in this game.

Starting point is 00:12:56 but the one block where he stuffed Brown, who it felt like Brown was really able to use his quickness to get by the KU guards. And that's where I do think having El Marco in this game would have been a little bit helpful. But Brown gets by his man and runs into Badoonga who says, uh-uh, you ain't having it, blocks it, swallows up the ball, gets it himself, pitches it ahead to counsel. Counsel throws it to Tray White for the Aleoup. And that was at a point when it was 50 to 44. The bucket made it 52 to 44. That was huge.

Starting point is 00:13:25 And then another just fun highlight that the kind of, I don't know, felt like the, okay, they're going to, you know, take care of business here is when you get the, the Darren Peterson, like Tomahawk, one-handed yam, where he gets fouled to where I don't know why that wasn't an intentional foul. Like the guy wasn't playing the ball at all. He was just trying to like undercut him. But anyway, it ended up being a foul. And Peterson hits a fun dunk because of it.

Starting point is 00:13:47 But I do think to play the game to me or I guess the sequence, because it's multiple plays, is when Bedunga stuffed Brown gets it to counsel, then why? and you get the alley-up. That was an energy razor. It was a key moment. And I think it also kind of defines to me the biggest pieces in this game. I thought Flory was KU's best player in this game. And his defense was a big reason why KU overall,

Starting point is 00:14:08 because KU had some lapses defensively, but he was able to keep him in there. Trey White still finished with 16 points. And I thought Melvin Council had a good game for KU. And he continued to provide the energy when there wasn't always the most energy in the building. So I think getting all three of those guys kind of involved there was important for KU. are stat of the game. So the fact that KU again held Utah down to 40% from the field,

Starting point is 00:14:34 I found very interesting again when you take a look from the standpoint of like, yeah, they didn't play super well defensively, it felt like. But at the end of the day, you held them to 59 points because of the totality of things. Interestingly enough, that was not a good offensive game for KU because even though they shot, and it's funny, like you look at the statute and would say, oh, it was a good defensive game and, or it was a fine defensive game, 40%. And it was a good offensive game. He shot 50%.

Starting point is 00:15:00 But that was not a good offensive game for KU by, you know, Utah's not a good defense. That was not a good performance by KU there and actually dropped KU outside of the top 40 on offense on Ken Palm. Like they were in the 30s coming into this one. But at the end of the day, the Utah game wound up being upper half for KU and points allowed per possession. Anyway, so yeah, that would be something I would kind of point to. And a big reason why was you held them to just three of 18.

Starting point is 00:15:32 I'm sorry, KU was just three of 18. That's actually, wow. This was their third best two-point percentage game of the season. But the three-point shooting was so bad that it kind of kept KU down. Let's see, Utah had an above-average game for two-point shooting. Still under 50% though. Big reason why it was. Florey, obviously.

Starting point is 00:15:51 Let's see. So we also got second chance. chance points was eight to four in favor of KU. Points in paint was 42 to 32, which the 42 really good for KU, the 32 more than you would want to be giving up if you're Kansas in this matchup. 14 to 5 in fast break points, that becomes a big difference because Utah is a team who wants to get out and run and score in the fast break. So having a nine point advantage there for something they typically want to be a strength

Starting point is 00:16:14 for them ends up being a nice advantage for you. 18 to 10 and assists. That's another big one shown the ball movement. But to me it's this one, 10 to 5 in blue. blocks when you're getting 10 blocked shots like okay think about this so Utah on two point shots was 17 of 37 right now there's no guarantee that every blocked shot is going in but let's say that five of the 10 blocked shots were going to go in again it might be more because a lot of times if a shot that's getting blocked is usually around the rim so let's say six of the 10 we're going to go

Starting point is 00:16:46 in that that you ended up blocking the shot right that's the difference between them shooting 17 of 37 being like 46% from two and shooting 23 of 37, which would have been one of KU's worst two point defensive games of the season. So the block shots to me, 10 to 5, that is kind of the difference in a big reason there is Flory Budunga. Awards of the game, we're going to give our TV production malfunction of the game. We've actually got three different candidates to go with here. So there was the comment from Tim Brando, the playman announcer,

Starting point is 00:17:19 who butchered the Melvin Council quote, but if you ain't a dog, you dog food. His version of the quote was, if you're not a dog, you don't eat, which, you know, I guess I can see how you got there. The arrival isn't that different, but yeah, a different journey there. It also felt like we had a really, at least in the first app, was it me or was the camera like super fuzzy in the game? It was like it wasn't totally focused or they needed to wipe off the lens or I don't know.

Starting point is 00:17:45 I don't know. I don't know, I'm not whatever. And then the other one was, so I, I still have no idea what happened. I mentioned one of the plays of the game, the one that I made, the sequence of the game or whatever, where Florida Benoge gets the block, gets to counsel,

Starting point is 00:18:01 counsel throws the alley up to tray wide, tray wide throws down, makes it 52 to 44. Right after that play, they're like zooming in on stuff, and all the sudden we hear a whistle, and all of a sudden it's KU basketball on a out of bounds play underneath the basket.

Starting point is 00:18:19 And then KU ends up boring on that. I forget it might have been too free throws from Flory, whatever, but they scored on it. They never talked about what happened to get KU with the ballback. We never saw it because they were looking at other stuff and then they never showed us a replay. And I'm just like, what the heck happened? That was kind of a pivotal moment in the game. We went for me in a six point game to a 10 point game. And that's kind of a key reason.

Starting point is 00:18:39 So that's going to be my actual pick because at least the other things it's like you can deal with. The game's still going on. That literally, like, come on. We got to know what's happening here, right? our dog play of the game for Melvin Council and this one is going to be so there was a play in the first half where Utah has the ball in the front court and they throw it and it goes over Terrence Brown's head and it's going into the back court and you can tell Terrence Brown's like I ain't going to touch it like it's just going to be a back court violation we'll just let it go out of bounds but Melvin Council has the wherewithal to be like and this is smart this is why like live ball turnovers are better than non live ball turnovers you want the training. transition opportunity. If you get the over and back call, you're just in a half court offensive setting. You're better in transition.

Starting point is 00:19:24 He has the wherewithal to chase it down, show the hustle, grab the loose ball, and then throws the pass to Jaden Dawson, who it was nice to see him, you know, connect on a three in that moment as well. I thought that was a smart play and a good hustle play from Melvin Council that got you an extra three as well. And then our final award is can't get a whistle. That's Bryson Taylor. I don't know, dude.

Starting point is 00:19:44 This dude just gets jumped on and shoved every game and just can't get a whistle on a couple plays where it's just like what's going on there like you had the one play where he's just like straight up shoved in the post he had another play where he was going for rebound he gets like jumped on same thing was happening in the tech game i don't know dude uh has he been saying something to the ref i apologize whatever's happening man let's get to our game balls for k you and what's next this is locked on j hawks today's episode of the show is brought to you by moscda this is moscow moving the game forward for those who show there's more to the score than what's on screen you know in highlighting that game, kind of a sleepier game for KU,

Starting point is 00:20:22 but without Melvin Council, you know, coming back into the game and igniting the energy. I mean, Melvin Council finishes as a plus 20 in this game for KU. That was the best plus minus of the team. So it goes out with the bloody Chan, comes back in immediately forces a turnover and scores a bucket, right? It's those plays that are game changers for KU. And these are the plays that remind us what it really takes to raise the bar.

Starting point is 00:20:43 It's that extra work off the court, dialing in every detail, giving it that extra fire, that grit and never quit attitude. We put that same passion into every model. Highlights make the real. What it took to get there makes it count. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. Don't forget you can join our EveryDayer Club to get the ad-free version of Locked-on Jayhawks, locked-on podcasts.com slash every day.

Starting point is 00:21:06 Our game balls for this one, Kansas winning 71 to 59. Let's start with our offensive game ball for KU here. So double-digit scores, you get 17 from Florey. He get 14 from Peterson. Kind of a quiet game for him to get to the 14. 11 for Melvin Council 16 for Trey White. Now, this one to me feels like Florey. He knew he had an offensive mismatch in the game and he was able to take advantage.

Starting point is 00:21:29 He's efficient. He led KU and scoring. He did it efficiently, 7 of 8. He had three of KU's seven offensive rebounds. It's like that's part of it too. And he had three assists compared to just one turnover. He contributed in a lot of different ways offensively. So yeah, Florey is our offensive player of the game.

Starting point is 00:21:45 I will say if I was given an honorable mention, it probably would actually be Melvin Counsel. just being kind of the heartbeat of the team, 11 points, six assists, five rebounds compared to two turnovers. And again, that plus minus of plus 20. Our defensive game ball here, I think it would be between those two as well. I thought counsel to applying effort on that end. I thought that Flory, though, is the hand-down defensive game ball winner. I mean, he had seven freaking blocks. Like, that is an unbelievable impact in this game. He also had seven defensive rebounds, which led KU in route to a double-double, 10 total. So Flore gets our defense.

Starting point is 00:22:18 defensive game ball. Flory gets our offensive game ball. Flore he gets our overall game ball. Very obvious and easy choice there for a dude who is looking like a pro center more and more every day. All right. What's next for KU? So Monday, big Monday in Allen Fieldhouse. And boy, is it a big Monday because KU is hosting Arizona. Arizona has not lost. Now as I'm recording this, I think they're playing right now against Oklahoma State. It's the game in Arizona. So I'm expecting them to win. though Oklahoma State is a solid team. KU are going to have a chance to end that. And the irony of it all, I guess, is that if Arizona does win today against Oklahoma State,

Starting point is 00:22:57 it would be the best start for a Big 12 team to a season. The best start previously for a Big 12 team. And again, keep in mind, the Big 12 goes back to like 97 or 9697 is KU. They started 22 and O in that first year, I guess. Would that have been the first year of the Big 12? or would that been in the big anyway. They started 22 and O. And then obviously we know who KU lost to in the Sweet 16, Arizona.

Starting point is 00:23:23 And now Arizona has a chance to break that KU record. But KU can be like, okay, but now we got you if they can win. It's going to be tough. Arizona is an elite team. They're loaded. They're deep. It'll be a fun one. Real gut check opportunity for KU to see just how good are we?

Starting point is 00:23:39 Like the way they've been playing right now, KU has put themselves in the conversation of can go on a D.E. run in March. You win a game like Arizona on Monday, you start getting talked about of can you cut down nets in April. So big week overall, though, because it's not just versus Arizona. It's at Iowa State after that. And overall, these next like five, six games for KU are going to be pretty brutal. So, you know, buckle in. And certainly a win against Arizona would be a good start to this next stretch for KU. But like I said, easier said than none. If you can go one in one this week, would you take it? Would you take it playing Arizona and Iowa State going to

Starting point is 00:24:15 one and one. I think I probably would. Now, just to win both, you know, whatever. All right, that'll do over this episode of the show. Thanks for joining us on Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back at you on, we'll probably try to get it out for you Sunday night after the Super Bowl for our KU Arizona preview. And we'll be back at you for a postcast with that one as well. See you then on Locked on Jayhawks. Don't forget check out the everyday air club.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - GAMECHANGER: Flory Bidunga Dazzles, Kansas Jayhawks HOLD OFF Utah Utes in SLEEPY Win

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