Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Kevin McCullar & Hunter Dickinson's Injuries Affect Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 Tournament

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, the possible impact of Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson's injuries as KU's path is now clear in the Big 12 tournament. You are Locked on Jayhaw DJohnsonradio on Twitter. You can check us out here with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're going to be talking KU's Big 12 Tournament Path. It's now set for KU. We don't know exactly who they'd be playing because we're waiting on other games, but we know what the path looks like for KU to go on a run here.

Starting point is 00:00:53 We're going to talk Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson being injured and what that means if neither can go and the likelihood of all that stuff. And then maybe some good news to wrap up. Liam McNeely decommitted from Indiana. Does KU have a shot? We'll talk a little bit about that coming up later in the show. We are brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. Starting here, let's talk a little bit about the injuries to Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson, your two All-American candidates.

Starting point is 00:01:23 Let's start with Hunter Dickinson because I think in the case of Kevin McCuller, his injury obviously is not new. It's just continuing to deal with it in different ways, whereas the Hunter Dickinson injury is a new thing. So Bilsav said after the game that he dislocated his shoulder, that they're going back to get MRIs and that would kind of decide what's going on. Now, I'm recording this on Sunday evening. We're probably not going to know what's going on with Hunter Dickinson's shoulders specifically and if he's going to be out for the season or what time length is he questionable, whatever tag ends up being applied there until the Bill Self-Next press conference, which I don't know if that will be scheduled for Monday

Starting point is 00:01:59 or if that will be scheduled for Tuesday before their game on Wednesday. So by the time you're listening to this, if you're listening on Monday afternoon, maybe we will know what's going on with Hunter Dickinson. I would assume, though, if you just quickly do a quick Google search, which that's not always the best way to go about these things, but dislocated shoulder typically could be up to like 12 weeks. That would be obviously out for the season for Kansas. Now there are some times where guys have shoulder dislocations where it just goes straight in and out or straight out and in, you know, it's a clean

Starting point is 00:02:29 dislocation and there's not any of the issues to some of the ligaments and tendons and stuff like that that would be associated with that. And from that standpoint, maybe it would be as simple as, hey, he's fine and he's going to be good to go as soon as this week. I think the safe assumption when you hear dislocated shoulder is that he's going to be out. It was his left shoulder, I believe, as well, which would be your shooting shoulder, right? So that would clearly have an impact. And I would almost view this as Kansas should prepare that Hunter Dickinson is not going to play. Now, if it is one of those things where it is just in and out, it honestly wouldn't be surprising if he ended up playing in the Big 12 tournament. But it's not one of those things where it's like, okay, it can be a sprained ankle.

Starting point is 00:03:10 He could be out a week. He could be out two weeks. He could be out six weeks, depending on the severity. If it's a dislocated shoulder, like, no, he's going to be done for the rest of the season. So as far as the effect on the team, if he were to be out with an injury for not just Big 12 tournament, but the remainder of the rest of the season, he were to be out with an injury for not just Big 12 tournament, but the remainder of the rest of the season, you start to shift. Obviously, you lose one of your more talented players and impactful players, and that clearly has a negative result in a lot of ways.

Starting point is 00:03:36 You start to shift the way that you play. And there is a part of me that thinks, and I posted this on Twitter, that a lineup of, if Hunter Dickinson's out, let's say you roll with a starting five of DeJuan Harris, Nick Timberlake, Johnny Furphy, Kevin McCuller, and you move KJ Adams to the five. Now there's obviously a chance if Hunter Dickinson's out that they decide to say, hey, we're going to put Parker Brown at the five and just move him into the starting lineup. There's a chance that you would say, hey, we're going to do DeJuan, El Marco, Furphy, and McCuller, or if McCuller's out, you would do Timberlake and set, right? Like there's variations

Starting point is 00:04:14 you can do depending on what you want to do with the five. But there is a part of me that sees how Kansas has struggled so much this year and sees how they have really struggled defending teams in space, defending pick and rolls, defending the three-point line, defending the three-point arc and giving up too many threes from that standpoint, having problems with spacing on offense. There was that one screenshot going around about when Hunter Dickinson got the ball in the post and all five defenders were around the free throw line of where Hunter was, not respecting any of the shooters from the outside, that maybe this would add to the spacing a little bit.

Starting point is 00:04:46 Now you could say, well, okay, but it's still three of the same guards that are around him and they're not respecting them. So what's going to change? Maybe you're right. Maybe that wouldn't change much, but certainly wouldn't hurt to try. And yes, certainly the team would be even thinner on depth,

Starting point is 00:04:58 but guess what? They already are. There is a part of me that wonders if having a more switchable team, having KJ at the five might present more matchup issues for certain teams and if it does lead to more spacing and more shooting with having an extra guard on the floor maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world now I still do think there would be a cap of where this team could go I post that and somebody responded I think this would help them maybe have a better chance of making the the elite eight but

Starting point is 00:05:24 then once they made the elite eight they lose by lose by like 25. And yeah, that might be the case, but I don't know what's the alternative. Cause at this point it might be losing in the first or second round. You know what I mean? Like that wouldn't be out of the question. Absolutely. So even if, if Hunter is out, I'm not ready to close the book. I mean, there is actually a part of me that thinks if Hunter's, and I'm not rooting for injury, like you want the kid to come back and you want them to have success and everything, but that with all the issues that Kansas has had and I'm not saying those issues are hunter related I think they're related to the idea of a lot of them not all of them a lot of them playing KJ next to hunter and hunter next to KJ it's not necessarily

Starting point is 00:05:56 one guy's fault but the fact that you have decided that roster construction has led to a lot of flaws for this team and so you're almost better off just playing one of them at a time and having the extra shooting and spacing around it, whichever that ends up being. And so if this injury forces you into doing that, there is a possibility that it allows you to do some things that you haven't been able to do so far this season in a positive light, even though you would be losing your go-to scoring option. And that's the weird part about all this. You could easily say, well, Hunter Dickinson is KU's typically best scoring option on offense. Right now, they're ranked 46th on Ken Palm in adjusted offense efficiency.

Starting point is 00:06:35 So does that mean they're going to be the 80th best offense or the 60th best without Hunter Dickinson? You could also say, well, playing too big basketball hasn't worked. Maybe it's time to try something different. Maybe this allows you to try that. I don't know. There's a couple ways you can go with that. The Kevin McCuller injury, his injury has been more day-to-day,

Starting point is 00:06:49 week-to-week, as we've kind of discussed. This is one where it is a little bit harder to predict, not that I can predict the Hunter Dickinson one, but the Hunter Dickinson one is as simple as, hey, it was an easy in and out on the shoulder. He's going to be fine. Or it was a, he has a dislocated shoulder. He's out for the rest of the year, right? With Kevin McCuller, it's, he could play in the

Starting point is 00:07:08 Wednesday game. He could be out the Thursday game. He could be back for the NCAA tournament first round. He could be out if they play a second game, right? Like there's a lot of different things that have just made it a roller coaster. I do think there is a certain level with a bruised knee, a bruised bone in the knee. it's kind of a pain tolerance thing. Like, I don't think it's something where, Hey, you're going to make it worse. It's just, you just have to play through the pain necessarily. And it might not get better until you rest it, but it's not going to get worse. It's not going to lead to you having like an ACL injury or something like that. That's my understanding of it again, far from being a doctor. So correct me if I'm wrong, but

Starting point is 00:07:41 I, I wonder if, if Bill bill self from his perspective he's kind of getting annoyed by the whole thing of thinking that maybe he should be playing through it and that he's not necessarily and from kevin mcculler's perspective maybe you know you want to be a little bit more hesitant there because you want to go to the nba draft after this my counter to that would be one of the biggest knocks against you for the nba draft is going to be that every year you've missed games with injuries. I think the NBA teams are probably sitting there going, hey, I want you to play games, you know, but I don't know if that's happening or not. Just kind of bringing that up. And I do think from the Kevin McCuller side, like maybe you are more motivated to play in the NCAA tournament necessarily.

Starting point is 00:08:20 Now, obviously, if Hunter Dickinson is out, there's a lot more pressure on Kevin McCuller needing him to be able to play. But Bill Self had some kind of cryptic thoughts about this, that Hunter Dickinson's injury might affect the way he'd view Kevin McCuller's injury. Does that mean that he's basically saying if Hunter Dickinson's out for the year, we're not going to do a lick? And so at that point, I'm just going to tell Kevin to rest out the rest of the season? I don't know. Is that one way to interpret it? Is that the wrong way to interpret it? Who totally knows. But like I said, there is a part of me that thinks if you're rolling out a starting five of DeJuan Harris, Nick Timberlake, Johnny Furphy, Kevin McCuller at the four now and KJ Adams at the five, that there are certain things that team would have advantageous to it that this current team doesn't have. But Kevin McCuller is the key

Starting point is 00:09:04 linchpin to that because you'd need kind of a wing to play that four current team doesn't have. But Kevin McCuller is the key linchpin to that because you need kind of a wing to play that four who can defend, who can rebound. And we know Kevin when he's right can do that. Now, Kevin clearly hasn't been right. Do you rest him for the Big 12 tournament? You know, has he shown enough that he's close enough to being able to play that you're comfortable letting him rest this week and then playing next week in the NCAA tournament? For me, I probably would because you don't want him having to play three games in three days

Starting point is 00:09:27 or four games in four days and getting back banged up. I'd rather have him back for the NCAA tournament. But you can understand if you do need him to get back in the swing of things. And maybe you even say, hey, we're going to play the first game and then we'll rest you after that or something like that. So we can guarantee you have a week off. I don't know what the right solution is. Bill Suff's going to have to get creative with this.

Starting point is 00:09:44 That's for sure. Let's talk about the KU's Big 12 tournament path. Then we'll finish up with some Liam McNeely on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, we were brought to you by Amazon Fire TV. Fire TV is your destination for sports from live games to highlights to live in-depth analysis. Fire TV offers amazing viewing experiences with smart TVs, as well as the Fire TV Stick that you can plug into your existing TV that provides access to millions of movies and TV episodes, as well as free and live TV, whether it's opening weekend

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Starting point is 00:10:43 If you haven't checked out Fire TV channels, you should. Trust me on this. To learn more, visit Amazon.com slash LockedOnFireTV. That's www.amazon.com slash LockedOnFireTV. We are also brought to you on the show by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite sporting event shouldn't be stressful. GameTime is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all your sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. They have killer deals on last minute tickets and their best price guarantee means you can stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hyped for the fun that you're

Starting point is 00:11:16 going to be having. I think it's really perfect for going to conference tournaments, March Madness, especially this week, right? You might be a local. You go out to Kansas City for the events happening. You're out at Power and Light or wherever your favorite local eatery or bar or whatever. You're like, am I going to go? Am I just going to watch it here? Whatever. You check out Game Time because you can get last minute tickets. And right now I'm seeing tickets for even a dollar for the Tuesday session that starts

Starting point is 00:11:39 at 1130. If you want to get into the Wednesday night session, which includes KU as part of it, I'm seeing tickets as low as like 40 bucks. And you can even get $20 off if you want to get into the Wednesday night session which includes KU as part of it I'm seeing tickets as low as like 40 bucks and you can even get $20 off if you use our promo code that is code locked on with game time for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code locked on for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. Okay, KU's path is now set in the Big 12 tournament. They had the worst conference record that Bilsop has had since his time at Oral Roberts. So worst record that he's had at Kansas, Illinois, and Tulsa combined in terms of conference winning percentage. They're also a six seed.

Starting point is 00:12:19 They did not get the double bye. And that means that they're going to be playing the winner of the play-in game with the 11-14 matchup, which is between the 11 seed Cincinnati and the 14 seed with West Virginia. So we'll find out about who they're going to be playing on Tuesday afternoon. And then after that, if they win that game, they would be playing the three seed Baylor. You win that game. You're going to be playing the winner of basically one of Iowa State, Texas, or Kansas State. You certainly would lean toward Iowa State at that point, them being the two seed. And then at that point, then you're, you know, anybody else could

Starting point is 00:12:54 come out of the other side, but certainly you would assume it would be Houston out of that other side. On one hand, it actually is a little bit better for Kansas to be on this side of the bracket, right? I mean, if you're choosing between being the four seed and the six seed you take the four seed because you want the double bye for a team that's thin and injured you wanted that extra time off but if you're choosing between the five seed and the six seed I think you do take the six seed if you're Kansas because the five seed then you do know hey we're gonna have to possibly play Houston if we make it to the semifinals not that Iowa State's a bad team they're a very good team you would play in the semis but I think with Iowa State they a bad team. They're a very good team that you would play in the semis. But I think with Iowa State, they're like a very good team.

Starting point is 00:13:28 With Houston, it's like they're an elite team, right? So I don't know, maybe a slight thing there. Then again, you got to get there first and all that jazz. But I look at the first matchup, West Virginia and Cincinnati. Obviously, you beat Cincinnati and you lost to West Virginia. So theoretically, you're like, okay, maybe give me Cincinnati there. I think you'd rather play West Virginia. They got unconsciously hot in the game that you played them. That was in Morgantown. You also played Cincinnati and Allen Fieldhouse,

Starting point is 00:13:54 and that was a close win for you. And Cincinnati is a team who plays physical. They play tough. And when I think of KU, if they're going to go to the Big 12 Championship Finals, that'd be four games in four days. If they're going to play in the semifinals, that's three games in three days. And again, team that's injured, beat up, all that sort of stuff,

Starting point is 00:14:10 you don't want to have to be playing a very physical team in your first performance. So I think the ideal one would be playing West Virginia. Then, obviously, you can't avoid it. If you win your first game, you're playing Baylor. You obviously split with Baylor, beat him at home. That was without Kevin McCuller. Lost him on the road with Kevin McCuller, but it was his first game coming back. Yves Misi went off in both of those games for Baylor down low

Starting point is 00:14:31 because he's a mobile big man. If you don't have Hunter Dickinson, I do think KJ Adams might actually match up a little bit better, even though it seems counterintuitive with their big man and might make you a more switchable defense, which is important against a team who shoots a lot of threes with Baylor. So I actually think that would be kind of a coin flip game. That would be certainly interesting to go one way or the other. Obviously, if you are moving on to the semifinals at that point, you're rooting for maybe a Texas or something to upset Iowa State

Starting point is 00:14:55 that you could play in that round. But we did see Kansas go into Ames and you lost a relatively close game. I mean, you covered the spread on a last minute three, albeit, but you made it a close game against an Iowa State team who's very good, playing in a very tough place to play, hitting a lot of threes. Now, if you don't have Hunter Dickinson, he played or had pretty big stats in that game in Ames, so that would certainly be interesting, and then obviously you'd just be looking to avoid Houston if you do make it to the championship round. There is kind of the question that comes around this, though,

Starting point is 00:15:25 about the idea of, like, is Kansas better off losing early in this tournament? At this point, when you look at the NCAA tournament seeding stuff, it really does feel like a big shrug of the shoulders about where are they going to be seeded. I think resume-wise right now, you're probably looking at a three seed. But with the questions about the health of Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller maybe it's a four seed if both play you know if neither plays in the big 12 tournament how much does that give a hit to Kansas's resume and especially if they lose that first game like if you don't have either player and you lose that

Starting point is 00:15:57 first game do you get docked less because they're like ah they were without both players it's not as bad of a loss or do you get docked more because they're viewing it as, hey, look, you just lost to 11 seed Cincinnati or 14 seed West Virginia. Clearly you're not the same team without those guys. And we don't know if those guys are going to be back for the NCAA tournament. So there is a little bit of, hey,

Starting point is 00:16:16 if you can get either one on the court, that would be important to show the NCAA tournament committee that, hey, they can play. But also even if you don't have either one or don't have both, you know, to win at least the first game to show that, hey, we can play, but also even if you don't have either one or don't have both, you know, to win at least the first game to show that, hey, we can win still without them, would probably be a little bit important. I do think if they can win their first two games, you're probably looking at, at that point, being as low as a four seed, even if Hunter Dickinson

Starting point is 00:16:38 were out for both, but possibly even a three seed at that point. So there's a lot of things that can kind of happen here, but there is, you know, is the ideal scenario winning your first game. So you avoid the ultimate, what's going on and the injuries and stuff. And Kevin McCuller plays, Hunter Dickinson plays, you win the first game and then you lose in the second game to Baylor.

Starting point is 00:16:57 Would that be good so that you could get extra rest time for the tournament? Or at that point, would it still be like, hey, this team still can't win more than two games in a row, right? Like there's the balance with this team team maybe more so than we've seen with any other Kansas team of this is the most important Big 12 tournament I would argue that Bill Self is coached in because some of the other years in the Big 12 tournament you went in going

Starting point is 00:17:16 yeah if they lose whatever they're still going to be a one seed they're still going to be a two seed this is still a good team this is the first time where it's like Kansas needs to prove something, not just for their NCAA tournament seating, but to prove to themselves and to prove what they can possibly accomplish. And so I almost view if you had the choice, even though four games in four days would probably not be a great thing for this team before the NCAA tournament. I think if you were choosing, you would still rather them, if I was saying they're going to lose in the championship round, where it's like, would you rather them lose in the first round or lose in the championship round,

Starting point is 00:17:55 where you lose in the first round, you get extra day's rest, I think you're still taking the lose in the championship round. Now, there is the argument if you're saying, would you rather lose in the quarterfinals to Baylor or lose in the championship round to Houston by, say, 20 points? Maybe that one becomes a bigger discussion and argument about that extra two days, those extra two games of rest being more important. But I think because of where you're at with this Kansas team, losing some big games and not having those big winning streaks, I don't think you can't afford to worry about, oh, rest this and rest that.

Starting point is 00:18:21 Yes, you do worry about, hey, do we just rest Kevin for this week? But in terms of who's going to actually be out there and fully healthy, you just worry about being full metal and full go and trying to just regain momentum and winning games headed into the NCAA tournament. All right, let's finish up here with some of the latest on Liam McNeely,

Starting point is 00:18:38 a five-star target for Kansas in this next class. First, we are brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small businesses, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. They're not just another job board. They have a vast network of more than a billion professionals, which makes it the best place to hire. Gives you access to professionals you can't find anywhere else. LinkedIn does all that while making the process easy and intuitive. Hiring is easy when you have that many quality candidates.

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Starting point is 00:19:41 Terms and conditions apply. Finishing things up with some of the latest on Liam McNeely, which this weekend upcoming, I believe is St. Patrick's day weekend. I think, I mean, I don't know that the dude's Irish, but with a name like Liam McNeely, come on, you gotta commit somewhere on St. Patty's day. I think that's only fitting anyway here's a six foot seven wing originally from texas now he's at montverde academy which is like you know the what that's where or was wiggins it there hunting to prep either way well i wanted basically

Starting point is 00:20:16 one of the premier you know prep programs leading to college basketball he's uh top 20 recruit top 15 ish recruit nationally depending on kind of where you look. He was committed to Indiana, originally committed to Indiana over Kansas and a couple other schools, but now he's decommitted from Indiana. Indiana's had a bad season and he decided to decommit from there. So obviously KU being a finalist last time out,

Starting point is 00:20:40 I think it's pretty simple to connect dots and be like, okay, well, if we were the runner upup and you decommitted from the first school you were at, well, what does that mean, right? Obviously it could mean anything. And if he's decommitting because he thought they had a bad year, what do you think about Kansas, who's not having a great year? Then again, when you look at it from a national perspective, I'm sure from his perspective, he's like,

Starting point is 00:20:59 what do you mean they're not having a great year? They're projected to be a three or four seed, right? The expectations maybe don't hit as much from kind of a national perspective as the local level, but obviously this would be a big get if Kansas could do it. They already have a really good recruiting class from the high school level coming in with Flory Bidunga and LeBaron Phylon, and then Rakees Passmore down the line. And I think, you know, it's interesting from a Bill self-fit, this is not the normal player they bring in, you know, a wing who's more known for offense and shooting and isn't like maybe the best

Starting point is 00:21:33 athlete in the world. He's still a good athlete. He's six, seven, five-star recruit, you know, but when you're comparing him to the other five stars, that's not what he's known for necessarily. For instance, how many players have we seen in Kansas who are like great offensive players, not good defense players? And I mean, Nick Timberlake, perfect example, right? And I'm not saying he's Nick Timberlake, but you get what I mean. Nick Timberlake, Brandon Green, right? Whatever. And so from that standpoint, but from the standpoint of what the roster could be for

Starting point is 00:21:58 Kansas next season, if you bring back everybody you could bring back, right? With DeJuan Harris and KJ Adams and Hunter Dickinson, whether you get Furphy back or not, you're going to need another shooter out there on the court. Liam McNeely does that at a very high level. I think he shot like 40% at EYBL, shoots at a very high level at the high school level. This dude is a shooter. He is a scorer. And I think he would be a perfect fit for KU if they can land them exactly what they're looking for. And at six foot seven, I still think it'd be more ideal if you could go down to being, again, one big kind of basketball.

Starting point is 00:22:30 Like, imagine, to me, the perfect situation could be, like, what if Hunter Dickinson goes pro and you have a center rotation of KJ Adams is going to give you 25 minutes per game at the center spot. Flory Badunga is going to be your backup center playing 15 minutes a game. That's kind of like what UConn did a couple of years ago when, or whatever last year when Donovan Klingin was giving them 15 games to no goes, give them, you know, maybe high twenties per game. And in certain games where if Badunga is feeling it,

Starting point is 00:22:54 or if he ends up being really good as a freshman, maybe he gets up to 20 minutes per game and it's more of a 2020 split. Or if there's a certain matchup where you need a true big, maybe it's a 2020 split. And then you can play a McNeely at the four, a Furphy at the four. You can play another one at the three. If Furphy ends up coming back and you land McNeely, you can have DeJuan Harris at the one.

Starting point is 00:23:12 And then at the two, you can have either Phylon or El Marco Jackson, depending on his progression coming into the year. I think that could be a pretty dynamite lineup, to be completely honest, and rotation for Kansas if that were to happen. But there's a lot of connecting dots that you have to do before you get to that point. So we'll take them as we get them. All right.

Starting point is 00:23:27 That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll have a preview of KU's opponent, whoever it ends up being at some point later in this week and plenty of recaps and previews through this week in the big 12 tournament, plenty more content to come as well as where Kansas ends up getting seated for selection Sunday in March Madness on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. That'll do it for today. Make sure you're subscribed anywhere

Starting point is 00:23:45 you get a show, and see you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - How Kevin McCullar & Hunter Dickinson's Injuries Affect Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 Tournament

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