Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Johnny Furphy's Ascension Impacts Kansas Jayhawks Basketball + Continued Bench Woes for KU

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

How Johnny Furphy being a starter and playing at a high level impacts Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball and why it's not fully enough if the bench of Elmarko Jackson and Nick Timberlake can't figure it out. Is this team a Big 12 and National Title contender? Plus, Whose Stat Line is it Anyway featuring Hunter Dickinson, Parker Braun and Dajuan Harris.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Johnny Furphy has made quite the entrance into the starting lineup for KU, had a double-double last game. Is he enough to change this team into being a legit Final Four national title contender? 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, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk.

Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day, free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're joined by Nick Schwert. Give him a follow at Nick underscore Schwert on social media. And we're going to be talking Johnny Furphy today, making an entrance into the starting line. It felt like KU has maybe lagged a little bit in a few areas, but it feels like this is giving them a new push,

at least on the offensive side of the ball. Before we get into that, today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. When you place a $5 bet, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. So Johnny Furphy is coming off his best start of the season. It's his fourth start. He got things going in the Oklahoma game, and he's kind of risen the game up each and every time.

Seven points against OU, then the minutes go up. He has the big first half against Oklahoma State when he has 15. The West Virginia game, obviously, the box outs and the lack of rebounds at the end of the game certainly stood out, but he had the great start to the game, and still the stats looked better than we've kind of seen so far this year from El Marco Jackson. And then this past game, he has the double-double, over 10 rebounds, over 20 points. I kind of have felt like, I don't know, that something's been missing here for KU, whether it's El Marco Jackson not really giving you enough.

You look at some of the metric rankings and kind of where they are in some of those situations, that it feels like, to me, Johnny Furphy could kind of take this team over the hump. This is kind of what you're looking for, that even though you lost the game to West Virginia, to me, this feels like the move that would be, I guess, I don't know, a little bit similar to what I'm trying to think of like past big lineup changes KU's had midway through the season. The first one that pops into my mind, obviously very different position, like Landon Lucas and how much that impacted the season.

Yeah, you know, it's kind of weird because while Johnny Furphy had, I think, his breakout game, it was the game before he started against UCF where he comes out. I think he hit a couple threes. He had that big dunk. He ends up losing the game. So it was sort of this weird aftermath of finally Johnny Furphy has emerged. Maybe they found this fifth scoring threat, but you lose the game. Then you lose another one a couple of weeks later to West Virginia. So it's kind of odd that there was this big question that we had for this Kansas team.

It has seemingly been answered, yet you've dropped to it your last five games. So is this team better? Is it just a weird circumstance of timing? I think that while that was a big question, while this was an issue of finding a floor spacer, finding another scoring option, the emergence of Johnny Furphy has maybe opened my eyes to the idea that there are bigger questions, if not just similarly important questions about this team that need to be answered. And I think a lot of it, you can point to existing on the defensive end of the court, right? Like, okay, you've got an all-American candidate at your five spot. You've got an All-American wing. You've got one of the most reliable point guards in the country. KJ Adams is a do-everything glue guy.

Now you've got a floor spacer. Now you've got a guy who can be another rebounder. What else is there? And I think it's maybe reminding us that while we were very concerned about finding that fifth guy to win an national championship, you need more than five. We knew you needed more than four. Now we're finding out that you need more than five.

Now it's like, okay, well, Johnny Furphy won this competition between him and Nick Timberlake and Elmarco Jackson, but that doesn't mean those guys were irrelevant. You still need production off the bench. You can't have those guys playing a combined 18 to 25 minutes a night and giving you two points. This team is going to continue to need more depth, especially as the season gets longer, guys are going to get more tired, injuries can potentially happen. Depth was the issue. Johnny Furphy emerged. Depth still is the issue with Kansas basketball. Yeah, and I think there,

there's a really interesting conversation about the bench specifically that we'll get to in our next segment. When you look at this move though, like should this have come earlier? Like, I don't know. It's, it's hard for me to,

I guess, fault bill self for starting El Marco as long as he did. Cause he's a McDonald's all American. Ideally you're saying, Hey, the ceiling there, if he is this top 25 recruit is, is going to be worth it. If you can kind of untap that.

So you understand continually trying to go to that. But with how well he has hit the ground running kind of right away, there is a part of me that wonders if you start Johnny Furphy, you know, the beginning of December or the middle of December. Because as much as he's been really good, he's still a freshman, right? We saw at the end of West Virginia game, right? You miss a box out on a free throw shooter, and that kind of costs you the game or at least prevents you from having a chance to try to come through at the end there. Maybe some of those things go away, and maybe as good as Johnny Furphy looked last night, it's even more of a complete product there.

Like, do you think we could be looking maybe back to the end of the season or the beginning of the season going, yeah, if they would have started him earlier, everything would have come in line and everything would have, I guess, been a better fit at this point in time. And you wouldn't have to go through some of these growing pains in the middle of your toughest part of the schedule. Not necessarily, because I'm not sitting here today saying that Johnny Furphy was ready the whole time. He just needed the opportunity. Like this is a kid who reclassified just to come to college this year, right? He should still be playing his senior high school year basketball in Australia. So I think that there was probably just growing pains with him

individually as a player, just as we're seeing with El Marco Jackson and some of these other guys as well. So I'm not willing to go that far. I just think that, and we've seen this a lot, not just this year or since like the new freedom of movement with the transfer portal, but at places like Kansas and Kentucky and North Carolina, when you're constantly bringing in highly touted freshmen, you're constantly going out before the transfer portal and getting, you know, the number one grad transfer on the market. You are taking a process that used to take two or three years, right? Building a championship roster. And you are now trying to condense it into four or five months. And I think that's really difficult to do.

And only if you have a great coaching staff, if you have the right pieces and you get a little bit lucky along the way, do all of those pieces and every single piece of that machine fit together seamlessly to end up with the final result of ultimately being a national championship team or being a national championship contender. So I don't really think so. I think this is just kind of a part of the process. I honestly, I'm sitting here today, not wondering what could have been if Johnny Furphy would have been playing all season. I'm more so fortunate. Like I feel fortunate that KU found a guy that halfway through his freshman season is looking like he can be a major difference maker for your team. You know, it kind of reminds me of Ochai in 2019. Now that was a worse team. Like that was a worse team. I do think there are some comparisons

between that one to this one. I do agree this one's better, team I do think there's some comparisons between that one to this one I do agree this one's better but I do think there are a lot of comparisons you have a kind of slower footed big man all-american leading the way you know I guess the the comparison drops off when LeGerald Vick left the team and Kevin McCuller should not leave the team right I guess you never know but you know but but I do think there are some similarities there nonetheless yeah keep going no yeah that's actually that's a funny visual like, there's a huge falling out between Kevin McCuller and Bill Self by the end of the year. Like that'll be a great headline. Yeah. I think that this team, it's so odd, Derek, that you could have two of the 10 best players in the country.

Right. Is there any argument that ku has two legitimate all-american candidates on their team yeah johnny and kevin mccullough right yeah maybe maybe the two best players in the big 12 and yet we're sitting here going is this team any good right like is this a final four team but it's such a unique build in that they're pretty slow. They're unathletic. They don't force turnovers. They don't create extra possessions. They don't get out and run in transition. They're not very deep. You love the pieces at the top. Like if I just gave you this starting five and like put it up against all, you know, just go through the years of each KU team starting five, this is about as good as any of them. But then you get to the bench and you say, well go through the years of each KU team starting five. This is about as good as any

of them. But then you get to the bench and you say, well, this is the worst bench ever, right? Like you're getting absolutely nothing from this bench. So I think that that's just like, I know we say depth is overrated, especially in March, but you have to get there. You have to get there and you, you get there by having a successful regular season where you win a bunch of games in Big 12 play, and then hopefully you get a one seed and you get favorable matchups and you get a little bit lucky. I mean, you saw the graphic verse during the Cincinnati game. Eight of KU's final 12 games are coming against ranked opponents. So winning the Big 12 and getting that one seed is maybe more difficult than it is in most years. And you're doing it basically by playing five guys. I just think that's

an incredibly tough ask and something that's going to continue to be a major question. Well, I think that the fur fee development actually makes me feel more confident about their NCAA tournament hopes, but it might not do as much for the big 12 to exactly what you're talking about. I want to talk more about the bench stuff though, and how much that does have an impact. Cause I've got some numbers I want to throw at you. We'll get to that coming up on the other side. First,

this episode of locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel sports book. You can get in on the action with FanDuel. The NFL season is wrapping up, but there's still time to get in with FanDuel right now. New customers get 150 and bonus bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $150 in bonus bets back, win or lose. The app is so easy to use. There's so many different ways to bet. You can get in on live same-game parlays, find bets in the Explore tab, make a parlay in the

Parlay Hub, the best way to find popular parlays. If you're having trouble coming up with something yourself and more, including futures, you can get Kansas to win the title at over 20 to 1 right now. So visit Fanduel.com slash locked on. Make your first bet to lay up with Fanduel, official partner of the NFL. All right, continuing on with some of this bench conversation here, because I do feel like that I don't know how much the the fur feed development I mean obviously it's a good thing it helps you win the big 12 but it makes me feel better about the NCAA tournament than the big 12 because everything you talked about with the depth

depth matters in the regular season it does whether it's getting through injuries over the course of the long haul whether it's getting through a game with foul trouble uh you know it just does matter right and you think back to some of the best bill self regular seasons, their teams that had eight, nine deep, their teams that we look back five years later and we're like, wow, Thomas Robinson was coming off the bench. Cole Aldridge was coming off the bench. But once we get to the NCAA tournament, so here's the numbers. These are the last five national champions with bench minutes,

according to Ken Paul. UConn won the title last year. Their bench minute rating was 229th. Obviously, if you're closer to number one, that means you play more bench minutes. If you're closer to like 350 or however many teams there are now, then that's less bench minutes. So they were 229. That was more toward the middle, but still on the lower end.

Kansas, when they won the title two years ago, was 301st. Baylor, the year before that, was 234th. Virginia, the year before that, was 317th. Villanova, the year before that, 234th. Virginia, the year before that was 317th. Villanova, the year before that was 302nd. So that's the last five. Now there is the one, I guess, exception to the rule. This is the high watermark if you go back to, because this minute goes back to 2007 when Ken Palm had it. North Carolina in 2017 was 69th. But then every other one, again, it's basically in the 200 or 300s. The low watermark was actually the 317 from Virginia, 315 from the Duke team in 2010 was close, but 15 of the last 16 national champions were not even in the top 140 in terms of bench minutes, according to Ken Palm.

Now, this Kansas team would actually be the new low or whatever you want to call it, because they are only 354th. But what do those numbers tell you? Do they do anything for you about, I don't know, how you view this team for the NCAA tournament versus maybe the long haul of Big 12? Well, I think there's a difference between, okay, we're not top 140 versus we're bottom 10.

Dude, you just said it. They're 354th. What are they? Like 363 teams? There are eight teams who use less of their bench and it's not about how much of it you use. Okay. So what did you say? 20% of their minutes are coming from the bench? Yes. But, but what are you getting? Are they quality minutes? And the answer is no. Like that's the problem you can win is it's like, Hey, we're going to use you eight minutes a night. You have one specific job. That's all you got to do. So let's look at Nicholas timber. Like, Hey, we need you to come in space, the floor, be a threat to shoot. If you get an open shot, knock it down. Don't be a complete liability on the defensive end of the court. He's not hitting shots. He's

a complete liability on the defensive end of the court. Elmarco Jackson, right? Maybe you're playing a little bit out of position, but we need you to be a secondary ball handler, be an initiator, attack, drive, score at the rim, right? He's taken a lot of mid range shots. Hasn't hit any of them. He's not scoring. He's not attacking. He looks like a misfit toy out there. You're not getting quality minutes from the bench. That is the biggest issue. It seems like the drop off between any one of the five starters and anybody who comes in to replace them is so massive that that is why it feels like this, this depth issue is overwhelming. It's not because you don't go to the bench. If you went to the bench and you got a few quality minutes here and there from these guys, I don't

think we'd be having this conversation. I think that's what it is to me, by the way, I actually, I missed one of them. Kentucky was three 23 in 2012. so that's actually the low mark there six of the 16 were in the 300s but you're right it is another level from where Kansas is at of 323 to that I agree with you because here's the thing I agree that you don't need a deep bench but you need a you need one or two guys you can trust and I think the proof is in when you look at some of these teams rank in the 300s so that 2012 Kentucky team they were not a D they were basically playing seven guys, but guess what? They had Darius Miller who ended up being like a second round pick in the

NBA coming off the bench. That's somebody you can trust. Let's just look at the Kansas team. Two years ago. By the way, by the way, though, I will just say this too.

Like, I know it's easy to say this now that Kentucky won the national championship, but Kentucky was the best team in the country too. Right. It's like, Oh, this is a, you have a depth issue. Oh, you don't the country too, right? It's like, oh, this is a, you have a depth issue. Oh, you don't go to your bench enough. It's like, well, if you're the 20th best team in the country, that can be an issue. You have Anthony Davis

and Michael Kidd Gilchrist. If you have two of the top three picks in the NBA draft, like, okay, well maybe you can get by because you're just more talented than any other team in the country. So sorry for cutting you off, but like that, it's like 2012 Kentucky. It's like, oh, I remember that team. They were pretty good. No, I'm just going to the teams that are in the 300s. I mean, okay, let's go to the Kansas team from two years ago, right? That was a bench that by the end of the season was playing seven guys.

Yes, Jalen Coleman-Lanz might get in there for two, three minutes. Like I think in the title game, he played two minutes. He might get in there for a couple possessions just to try to hit a three. KJ Adams might play in the final minute of the game just to play some defense or something. But it was a seven-man rotation for the title team when all was said and done. It was Mitch Lightfoot and Remy Martin. Those were your only two guys that you were basically playing game in and game out off the bench. But guess what?

Both were reliable. Mitch Lightfoot could at least hit the hook shot. He could at least give good effort on the defensive end of the basketball and get some block shots. And Mitch was huge in the Miami game. Yeah, and I think that's what it is. I think that's what it is because Remy obviously was nails in the postseason and what he did off the bench. I think that's what it is, is that if you're going to go far in March,

it is unrealistic for you to expect all five of your starters to play well every game. Realistically, only three of the five starters, maybe four of the five starters are going to play well every game. Realistically, only three of the five starters, maybe four of the five starters are going to play well in a specific game. And so if one of the starters not playing well, can one of the bench guys come in to supplant that, right? So you might only need one or two bench guys who can do it. That's the problem right now. Kansas doesn't have that. So it's almost like to me, for this team to make that run, you don't even need both of

el marco jackson and nick timberlake to figure it out i think you just need one and it's it's to the point though because the problem with like saying you only need one is that if these guys suck the rest of the regular season bill's not going to give him the opportunity in the postseason right if it's if it's an elite eight game and the offense is kind of stagnant and you're thinking, okay, we need a spark, need something. You could turn to Remy Martin and say, this guy can provide a spark. Mitch can give us some quality minutes. Like he's going to run around and hit some dudes. If Nick Timberlake plays like this the rest of the year and you're on the ropes in the sweet 16 against Creighton, Nick Tamberlake ain't coming in the game.

Bill's going to say, well, the starters better figure it out. Like you guys are all playing 37 minutes and hopefully somebody gets hot because I've had three, I've had four months of watching these other dudes and I cannot trust them in the most important moment of our season. Let's finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway on this episode of locked on Jayhawks? All right, let's finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks? All right, whose stat line is it anyway for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks

to kind of finish things up here? So I have two. Both are KU basketball. Both are using some numbers from CBB Analytics. So this first one is only using qualified KU players, which to give you that list of players that qualified for this, it's every scholarship player except Jamari McDowell. So you have a list of eight players, so a normal list. But anyway, every player on KU who's qualified, so seven of the eight,

are shooting 64% at the rim, which is defined as within four feet of the rim or better. There is one player who is not shooting 64% at the rim. Who is that player? Okay. So I actually think I know this. I got a text from a friend and I'm going to try and I'm going to try and find it. Well, by the way, I can give you the number of what this player is shooting at the rim. If you would like it.

No, is it? Is it like 40 something percent? It is 46% at the rim. Every would like it no is it is it like 40 something percent is that 46 at the rim every other player is 64 or higher so i got a message uh this was on sunday night it said do you know how to look up dewan harris's efficiency when driving i heard that he's an efficient driver my eyes don't tell me that it says that i my eyes say that he only scores at the rim when he doesn't use the backboard. He just launches it off the backboard.

I then watched the game on Cincinnati and what did he do versus Cincinnati? He launched the ball off the backboard every single time. Final answer. DeJuan Harris. DeJuan Harris is the correct. Dude. He's got the yips, right?

DeJuan Harris has the layup yips right now, which I mean, that's another thing if you're counting on only five guys as the starters like everybody has to kind of play their a game you know you know what no no you know what i won't i'll i'll disagree with you there you don't have to play your a game can you make a layup well can you make can you do perhaps the most basic move aside from a chest pass can you do the most basic move in the history of basketball which is make a layup and like i don't know what's going on with him right now i used to blame it on the lack of spacing i used to blame oh it's kj and there's not as much space

and then the cincinnati game happened and i was like is this a problem like do we need to discuss if duan harris is capable of making a layup right now? Well, cause he was shooting in the 50% each of the last two seasons on layup attempts. And like he had that one little hook shot, which I can't even remember him taking it really this year. So I don't know what's going on with that. Okay. Here's our second one. And final one. Uh, if you look at, there's a number of fouls drawn per two point shot attempts, right? Does that make sense? Basically, the more times you go to the free throw line per times you're taking two point shots, okay? The lowest rate on the team, there are two players. One is at 7.1%.

One is at 10.1%. For what it's worth, I'll give you this one. It is not Kevin McCuller. Kevin McCuller is in the 93rd percentile of college basketball at 27.8%. So he blows this number out of the water. Who are KU's two worst players basically at getting to the free throw line? So who doesn't draw fouls?

Basically, yes. I mean, I'm just trying. You know, I would have said, I would have said Furphy because early in the season he wasn't, but he actually has been getting to the line more. Really these last three games when he's like scored in double figures, like he's been a steady presence at the line. So the next one would be is Nicholas Timberlake.

One of them. Timberlake is not one of them. I don't even know if I've seen him shoot a free throw this year. Yeah. I remember he clanked the front end of a one-on-one twice on different games this year. I think one was maybe like the Tennessee or the Marquette game. One was in Maui.

Then he did it again later. So it's based on how often you shoot the ball. But it's based on how often you shoot two-point shots. So that, I think, factors in with Timberlake because he's not really taking two. Okay, well, then let me go. Let me think. Let me say Hunter Dickinson's taking a million two-point shots

I'm gonna say him just Hunter Dickinson is the one with 10.1 percent I'm just gonna give you the other one the other one is uh Parker Brown at 7.1 percent is that a little concerning that the two players who both are your centers who I don't know are the ones you would think would be getting fouled a lot or getting not fouled a lot. And it's kind of surprising because, well, Parker Brown, not really. They're not. You're just, hey, you're giving Hunter a rest. That is Parker Brown's job.

It's not about, oh, no, well, Hunter will be, hey, he checked out. He's about to check back in. So just, like, maybe grab a rebound a rebound box out like throw an outlet pass hunter's a little strange because i feel like he's always getting bad i'm not saying like they're not calling stuff but every time he touches the ball in the post he's got like two dudes on him it feels like he only draws fouls when he's catching the ball not when he's shooting the ball maybe that's just a product of how he plays like he's not like when he gets the ball on the post it's not david mccormick you like he's not really putting his shoulder in you trying to

create separation he's just like i'm long i have great a great repertoire and i have really good touch so i'm just gonna kind of go over you it's not a physical brand of basketball but you would still think based off how many touches he gets and how KU runs the offense through him, that he would get to the line a little bit more. All right. He's Nick Schwert. Give him a follow at Nick underscore Schwert. What do you got going on right now? We got a new podcast coming out, a new episode of the could be wrong podcast that's coming out on Wednesday.

So I don't know when this is airing Wednesday. If it is today, listen to this, listen to this. And then when you're done, go listen to could be wrong. A great way to start your hump day. Double dose of a Nick. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me RCST and at D Johnson radio on Twitter.

That'll do it for us today. Check out the podcast locked on Jayhawks anywhere. You get your podcast and on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.