Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Gradey Dick, Dajuan Harris Push Kansas Jayhawks Past Iowa State Cyclones in Top 15 Showdown

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Recapping another tight win for Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball inside Allen Fieldhouse, this time against Big 12 foe Iowa State. In the end, KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris and Gradey Dick pushed Kansas across. GOATs of the game and a quick lookahead/preview to the KU K-State game in Manhattan on Tuesday night, featuring a great point guard matchup with Nowell vs Harris.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be recapping Saturday's action with KU winning a close one against Iowa State. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be recapping Kansas's close win over Iowa state in Allen

field house, top 15 victory for the Jayhawks. We're going to get to our goats of the game, and we're going to do a quick look ahead to the Kansas state game. Cause it's a quick turnaround to that and, uh, should be a pretty good one for that. But first today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs,

helping you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnCollege. That's LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnCollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Kansas takes down Iowa State. A close two-point victory for the Jayhawks in the end. Or three-point victory, was it?awks in the end they are three-point victory was it I

don't even remember at this point you know all the wins they feel the same because every game in Allen Fieldhouse is going to come down to the last shot it is just going to happen and it's like well are they going to make a stop are they going to make the shot that's just what's happening here um so another close one in Allen Fieldhouse we'll see if KU ever has a game this year at home where they don't have to win off like a last second comeback or of a last second stop or shot. Like you just went one by six, you know, just went one by seven, uh, just pull one away. But Allen field has magic continues. And it was funny.

You saw, um, KU basketball, their, their social media account sent out a video from, there was the banquet with the, uh, reunion that was happening for KU basketball, their social media account sent out a video from, there was the banquet with the reunion that was happening for KU basketball. And Roy Williams was one of the panelists who was talking up on kind of the desk or I don't know, whatever you want to call it, the stage. And he was just saying like, it's just Alan Fieldhouse magic. Like he was sharing a story of, you know, we just knew like in some of those big situations, the other player was just going to like miss the shot. Like that's just Allen Fieldhouse for you. And so another close one at Allen Fieldhouse, but the Allen Fieldhouse magic lives on as Caleb grill misses the three at the end of the game. Okay. He was maybe trying to foul at the end. They didn't foul grill. It

looked like he was trying to sell a foul there and maybe that caused him to miss the shot. I don't know, but you found a way to win, and now that is one of your best wins of the season. It's a top 15 victory. You look at all of KU's victories, they're, I guess, still kind of searching for that elite of the elite win, which, to be clear, most teams don't really have that. But the depth of wins that KU has is incredibly impressive. And it's kind of splitting hairs.

But if you look at like ken palm for instance so ku lost to tennessee they're ranked second in ken palm ku's highest win though is iowa state who is 13th um and then it's it's kind of like i said it's it's splitting hairs a little bit in the sense of like um you have a bunch of other good wins like west virginia's top 25 still on ken palm indiana's top 30 duke is top 30 but iowa state is is for sure your top win if you just look at it on ken bomb you'll have other opportunities you you know you still play texas coming up here and you have other good teams whoever else emerges from the big 12 but right now that is your best win so uh certainly important there, but also an incredibly important win,

to use that word again. Beyond just it being, hey, it's your best win of the season, it's important because if you're trying to win the Big 12, you have these two other teams who are tied with you for first right now, 4-0 coming into the day. Kansas State loses to TCU, and now you have an opportunity to be in first all by yourself as of the end of the day. Now, how long

that'll hold, we'll see coming Tuesday night as you take on Kansas State, but the importance of this was that you got to hold serve at home in these games against these other top opponents, because now if you lose that game, and Iowa State's sitting at 5-0 and you're sitting at 4-1 headed into Tuesday night in Manhattan against a really good Kansas State team on the road and you lose that game, now you're 4-2. Now let's say Iowa State wins their first game this week and they move to 6-0, and at that point Kansas State is a game better than you

and Iowa State is up two games with a win in Allen field house. It gets a lot more difficult to, to navigate through and find a way to win the big 12. Doesn't mean you still wouldn't be able to do it, but it just would get a lot tougher for the path moving forward from there. So you win the game, you hold serve at home, you keep everybody at bay and just very important for you to do that against another top tier opponent. Not really a pretty game.

Kansas shot 29% from three. They shot 60% on free throws. You got very much out-muscled on the inside, whether it was giving up hook shots to Oseni or giving up a bunch of offensive rebounds like at one point i think it was 10 nothing iowa state on the offensive glass and that helped lead to 12 more iowa state shot attempts in the game you had to deal with gabe kalsher and osin osin yui however it's pronounced going off in that game like not a pretty game but fortunately it was never one that you did have to have one of those big

comebacks. And it's just kind of back and forth all the way through. You were down three at the under eight timeout, but quickly came back from that. And in the end, you did a good job avoiding a huge turnover game. That was something that was key coming into the game. Iowa state number one in the country and turnover rate defensively. You did a good job limiting those numbers down. You owned a six to three edge the final 10 minutes or so on the country and turnover rate defensively you did a good job limiting those numbers down uh you owned

a six to three edge the final 10 minutes or so on the offensive glass like i said it was 10 nothing at one point for the last quarter of the game or so you actually did out rebound them on the offensive glass which maybe that was enough to kind of get you over the edge and certainly there are a few possessions down the stretch where you might have needed an offensive rebound or two to that that end up resulting in a score for you uh as as much as osanui um osani whatever i can't pronounce it um is a good shot blocker and they have good rim protection there okay you did do a good job shooting inside the arc they obviously struggled missing a bunch of open threes outside of like Grady Dick, but KU shot 16 of 27 on two-point shots.

That'll very much play, especially against a good defense like Iowa State. And you found a way to win against a very good school who's having a very good season and helped you in an important Big 12 race as we just kind of discussed. Let's get to our GOATs of the game, and then we'll finish up with a bit of a K-State preview.

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We'll start with the good goats. I want to start with, I guess, Grady Dick. Very obvious one there. 21 points for Grady Dick. 7 of 13 from the floor. 5 of 9 from 3. He had 5 rebounds as well. Had 2 assists assists two steals for

you and he was in a game that nobody else could shoot threes for Kansas like he was the the kind of one saving grace um for you from the outside and he had the foul trouble in the first half it really felt like in the first half like Kansas was holding Iowa State at bay and and maybe it kind of felt for a moment there like Kansas was going to have one of those games in outfield that's where they didn't have to sweat it out down the stretch like maybe they would win by six to eight to ten points where you know the final two minutes of the game it's just like okay if you just don't turn the ball over every possession or you make some free throws or you make a few stops like you're gonna be more than fine um but then once he got the foul trouble, the game completely changed because

he was the one guy hitting shots. He was also creating such a gravity on the outside to open things up for other players. He played really well for you and hit some really important shots. And I think I said this on, on RCST on Friday, one way to beat a good defense like Iowa state has just shoot over it. You know, if guys are shooting over the top of it and having good shooting games, then it's kind of tough for the other team. But also for Grady Dick, he kind of served a nice purpose of being someone you could put in the corner. And against that very feisty, ferocious, and like over-helping Iowa State defense, sometimes you can get open shots in the corner. And we saw that for Grady Dick.

And nobody's going to be better on this team than knocking those down, really from any spot on the three-point line, but especially from the side as Grady Dick. And he actually missed the first two, both on open looks, where it was like, uh-oh, is this a continuation of him going one for eight last game in the mention in the broadcast? He's one for his last 10, and then he just lit it up from there and was huge for you winning that game.

Second good goat, DeJuan Harris. I know he had zero points. I don't care. He is just such a rock, man, and we already know this. We've talked about DeJuan so much and how valuable he is and everything he does for this team. Zero points, and he impacted the game so, so much. He also had six assists.

He had three rebounds. He had two blocks. He had one steal. Played 39 minutes for you. And the importance of that, you're playing an Iowa State team. They're coming in number one in the country in turnover rate defensively. They turn over teams at 30% of the time. Almost one out of every three possessions is a turnover for the Iowa State defense.

But for DeJuan in this game, it was like, hey, we need to have ball handlers out there as much as possible. And you saw Bill Self a couple times for short stints of time, throw out lineups of DeJuan Harris, Bobby Pettiford, and Joe Yesfu all at once to get maximized ball handling on the floor. You also saw a lot of the two ball handler look with DeJuan Harris and Bobby Pettiford out on the floor. And to do that a lot, you needed DeJuan to play a hefty amount of minutes,

and he did. He only sat for one minute of the game, and he just gave you that good ball handling out there to avoid that high turnover game. Kansas had just 12 turnovers. That's it. I said coming into it, if you have 15 or 16, I think you can live with that. In reality, being that close of a game, if KU had 15,

I don't know if they win the game. So you had to have a low turnover number, and they have done an excellent job since the first half of Oklahoma State when they have 11 of them. Since that point on, they've done a really good job hanging on to the basketball, and DeJuan Harris is the biggest reason why. You have a trustworthy guy holding on to the basketball for you the majority of possessions.

That's going to lead to low turnover numbers he's been so critical there and i think i tweeted this out like duan harris is an amorphous blob whatever you need him to do to win he does uh you need him to score like 14 points like you did against southern utah when other players outside of jalen wilson aren't getting it going boom he'll do that for you you need him to hit a bunch of threes like against texas tech they're giving that opening boom he'll do that for you. You need him to hit a bunch of threes like against Texas Tech. They're giving that opening. Boom. He'll do that for you. You need him to have a high volume assist game or not even assist, just like taking care of the basketball like Iowa State. Boom. You need a game where he does have 10 assists. Boom. He can do that in other games. You need a game where,

hey, he's kind of being the game manager, but we've kind of stalled a little bit. Can you score a couple possessions for me? Boom. He scores six straight points against indiana whatever you need him to do to win the game he does just that and this was another perfect example of just that a good goat for jalen wilson minus the three-point shooting he had a really tough day three-point shooting him and kevin mccullough really struggled from the outside um did hit the one three in the second half which was important but overall or no i think actually it was the first half three maybe because the second half one ended up being a two-point shot his foot was online uh so he goes 16 points he goes four of eight from two he had 11 rebounds two assists two blocks one steals all those numbers sound great

16 the 11 the two assists the two blocks all of it four of eight from two like that's solid enough you know 50 but unfortunately just one of six from two, like that's solid enough, you know, 50%. But unfortunately, just one of six from three, which really skews how the final line goes, because then instead of it being, you know, 50%, it's now your five of 14 for 16 points. They need him to start being more efficient, and I think that's led to some of these games being too close

because the efficiency hasn't been there. And he was super efficient last year in Big 12 play. So it's kind of been an opposite there. But clearly outside of the three ball, he was super impactful and he was efficient enough from two point range that if he just hits, you know, if he goes two of six from three, it really is a completely different situation and then it's not a close game down the stretch.

So they need him to be efficient enough, like 33 33 percent from three 50 percent from the field type of stuff for him to be at his max and really be helping this team that's what he was doing early in the season or in the games where you were like blowing opponents out it's obviously going to be tougher when you're playing these really difficult big 12 defenses but they need the shots to start falling from three and the jump starts, jumps, shots to start going for both Jalen and Kevin McCullough moving forward. But outside of that, Jalen was really good in the game.

Last good goat here, KJ Adams, 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal. And again, every game feels like he had something new,

like the, the little spin move where he ducks through and then nobody's there and he's able to lay it in. Or how about the eventual game winner for you where he has the kind of runner through contact to the right? I think it's funny that in your two home games the last two years over Iowa State, when you need biggest shots of the game,

like both years you have national player of the year candidates. Last year it was Ochai, this year it was Jalen Wilson. Both years you have first-round picks outside of your national player of the year candidates last year was Ochai this year was Jalen Wilson both years you have uh first round picks outside of your national player of the air candidates last year is Christian Brown this year is Grady Dick and neither time do you go to either player last year it ends up in the hands of DeJuan Harris he hits kind of the the running sweeping hook shot this year goes to KJ Adams who hits the the tough one there running to the right uh just kind of funny how that worked out for them but he just continues to to progress so much in in what his game has been and uh a real offensive threat honestly at this point like not shooting the ball from outside of I don't know the elbow but like he has improved so much and and just even the little amounts of offense he's giving you

uh of just outside like the hey I'm gonna pick and roll catch a lob if if they do this and i'll give a good dunk like he is showing a repertoire getting his own shot as you saw kind of on that final shot of the game bad goats for the game kevin mcculler's shooting um i could probably put jaylen wilson's three-point shooting on here too in addition and if you combine the two they went one for 11 from three it's not going to get it done you need both those guys to shoot. We talked about it a lot in the preseason. For most of the season, it hasn't really been an issue.

But he went 0 for 5 from three, and there were some ugly ones, like the one that hit the side of the backboard. None of the misses looked super close for McCuller, and they need him to get that shot going. It has not been going so far in Big 12 play. Now, it's funny. It's kind of like the Jalen Wilson thing. If I remove his three-point shooting, he has eight points,

which, you know, not a lofty number, but eight points, five rebounds on three of three from two-point shooting, and we know he's a good defender and is going to impact the game in other ways. It wouldn't have been a bad game. It's just the three-point shooting when they were, you know, it's one thing if he was, hey, having to chuck up all these threes late in the shot clock, they were like open threes in the corner. And for him, that's important. He needs to start making those for his NBA draft prospects. I did see like Sam Vecini of the athletic, his recent NBA mock draft had Kevin McCuller going

34. So clearly all the little things he's doing are adding up and showing out well for NBA scouts and some of the people who prognosticate that stuff. And I do think he is going to be an NBA player because of all the things that he can provide, especially on the defensive end of court. But to really maximize his game and to maximize this Kansas season, they need him to hit more of those open threes moving forward. So maybe it'll happen against Kansas State.

He has hit the clutch ones for you, and that does matter. Bobby Pettiford stats is on the bad goat. I don't know that Bobby had a bad game. I think he probably impacted the game positively because of just the ball handling, which we talked about earlier. You only have 12 turnovers. Big reason why you have Bobby Pettiford to come out there with DeJuan Harris.

That helped. But we haven't had these games in a while. Early in the season, it was like Bobby's going to play a bunch, and you hear about how he's helping the team, but you at the stat sheet and it's like ah two points zero rebounds one assist one turnover one for three from the field and it's like yeah kind of empty calories on the stats that was the case for this game uh 19 minutes played zero points zero rebounds zero shots one assist to one turnover in 19 minutes of action but again probably an overall net positive with just having the ball handling out on the floor but uh back to the kind of empty calorie

stuff with that game last one in the bad goats earnest uday and mj rice spots in the rotation uday has completely disappeared from the rotation uh with the center spot that is still kind of up for grabs as far as the backup center like kj has secured the starting center spot uh with mj rice he's just disappeared from the rotation too like the past few weeks maybe we'll see him for two minutes in the first half outside of that not really seeing him at all for both those guys i don't know if it's a matter of maybe they're they're still dealing with injury stuff uh like in the case of mj he dealt with a lot of that early in the season if it's just they're not practicing well enough if uh they're kind of in the bill self dog, he dealt with a lot of that early in the season. If it's just, they're not practicing well enough.

If they're kind of in the Bill's self doghouse, I don't know the answer to any of those, but it's just not really the case for either of those guys. And a little different than the Remy Martin stuff last year, because even with Remy, it was like, Hey, we have a track record on this guy being like an all pack 12 player with these guys. There's still freshmen trying to learn their games.

You don't default onto that to where when Remy was healthy enough to play again, it was like, okay, well, we're still going to try him for 10 minutes a game, and if it works out even better and he ends up playing 25 minutes a game, great. With Ernest and MJ, the floor is no, they just don't play at all, and kind of that's what we're seeing right now. We're going to finish things up with

a quick Kansas State preview here with Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline.net is your number one source for sports betting information, stats, news, and analysis. Get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there, from pro

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where the game starts. Finishing things up here with a quick Kansas-Kansas State preview. We're going to talk more Kansas-Kansas State on tomorrow's show. Nick Schwert will be back with us and we'll be doing some

KU basketball talk, KU-K State. We got whose stat line is it anyway for tomorrow's show. But Kansas State comes into this one 15-2 overall. They are 4-1 in the Big 12. Mestrics don't love them it anyway for tomorrow's show but Kansas State comes into this one 15 and 2 overall they are four and one in the big 12 metrics don't love them as much as you know maybe some of the polls like

them but they're still clear top 30 team in the different metrics um to me they're like a top 15 20 team that has a a ceiling that can be higher than that at certain stretches of the game because of the way that they can kind of go off offensively and a big reason why is marquise noel who um has been over the course of big 12 play like playing like one of the best guards and one of the best players in the country uh he has been electric so far and we saw him carve up kansas in the game in manhattan really i mean both games. Last year in Allen Fieldhouse, that was a high-scoring game. It just didn't really matter what K-State did offensively because KU scored over 100.

But like Marquise Noel, as much as Nigel Pack was just making everything, and that was a big key in last year's game in Manhattan in the first half, Marquise Noel was setting a lot of it up with just his ability to drive, get into the lane, and kick and get open guys. So it's preventing the penetration of him getting into the lane. That's going to be so important for the Kansas defense in this one. But I think this is probably the two best point guards going at it in the Big 12 with Noel versus DeJuan Harris.

And obviously they get things done very differently. Noel is very much a drive and kick and can score it a lot. Like up until the tcu game was averaging like 30 a game during big 12 play really just hitting like everything from three dewan is more of the patient approach but it's still going to find the right move and the good defender and everything so this should be a great matchup and it's been an awesome k-state offense uh they rebound offensively really well. They shoot it well.

They play really fast. Keontae Johnson, the transfer from Florida, has been fantastic on the wing for them, being able to score from kind of all three levels. And then defensively, they're really good at forcing turnovers. Stop me if you've heard that before. Every Big 12 team ever, it feels like. But they're good at forcing turnovers too.

They have struggled in some other areas defensively especially on the defensive glass that was something tcu was really able to take advantage of who gave kansas state their first loss of the season down in fort worth but i mean without a doubt the noel versus harris matchup is the matchup of the game that's probably going to determine the game but also kevin mcculler on if he on Keontae Johnson, which I kind of expect him to. Can he limit him to an inefficient game? Keontae Johnson might still get 16, 18 points, but if he makes him take a bunch of shots to do it and have some turnovers, or if you do hold him to 12, 13 points, that would be huge for KU. And then Kansas trying to get an efficient Jalen Wilson game. You need more Grady Dick shooting. How you deal with the environment in Manhattan,

I think Kansas has done a great job dealing with tough road environments so far. Those are all going to be key to this game, but it really does start with the Noel versus Harris matchup in this first game. All right. That's going to do it for this edition of locked on Jayhawks. We're going to be back tomorrow with Nick Schwert for some more KU

basketball talk, a little more KUK state preview. Make sure to subscribe to the show, wherever your podcasts are on our YouTube page. basketball talk a little more KUK state preview uh make sure to subscribe to the show wherever you your podcasts are on our YouTube page you can also hit it at Johnson we have any questions you want anything for the show to talk about till tomorrow have a good one you can catch me on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today bye