Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - JAYHAWKS GET A 7-SEED IN AROUND 3 HALL-OF-FAME COACHES IN BILL SELF, JOHN CALIPARI AND RICK PITINO
Episode Date: March 16, 2025Kansas Jayhawks basketball fans, brace yourselves! The team has landed a 7 seed in the 2025 March Madness NCAA tournament, marking the lowest seed of the Bill Self era. They'll be in Rhode Island in a... pod with Rick Pitino and John Calipari. How will this impact their journey? Dive into the analysis of Kansas's first-round clash with the Arkansas Razorbacks, a team they faced in an earlier exhibition. Discover how Hunter Dickinson's absence then could play a pivotal role now. The potential second-round face-off against St. John's promises excitement, especially with their top-ranked defense and the intriguing storyline of Zuby Ejiofor facing his former team. Explore the broader tournament path, including potential matchups with Florida, Texas Tech, Omaha and more. What defines a successful run for Kansas this year? Tune in for expert predictions and bracket advice that could make or break your tournament picks. Don't miss out on these game-changing insights!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NissanTake your adventures to new heights in the All-New Nissan Armada PRO-4X. Learn more at NissanUSA.com.Disclaimers: Optional features. Towing capacity varies by configuration. See Nissan Towing Guide and Owner’s Manual for additional information. Always secure cargo.Supply HouseJoin the Trade Master program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code SH5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!WayFairAfter the holiday hustle, there’s nothing like giving your home a little TLC. Give your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.  FactorLooking to optimize your nutrition this year? Eat smart with Factor. Get started at FACTOR MEALS.com/FACTORPODCAST and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees.ROYDownload the Roy app now from the App Store and start backing your favorite athletes the way they deserve—with transparency, trust, and a real impact. This is the future of college sports. Join it now by downloading Roy and supporting your favorite players!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Three Hall of Fame coaches in one pod, possibly Zubyajafur vs. Hunter Dickinson, Kansas, Arkansas.
Again, we got it all in Rhode Island's Kansas, a seven seed.
Let's just play with one.
You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked
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On today's edition of Locked On JayHawks, Kansas got a seven seed,
and that marks the worst seed of the Bill Self era.
And it wasn't really a surprise coming into the day because, you know,
you kind of knew that was going to happen.
But were they going to get a six, a seven and eight?
Well, they get a seven and there are all sorts of storylines.
You got Bill Self, John Calipari, another rendition,
Kansas versus Arkansas, another rendition,
whether you think of the what 1991 Elite Eight or you think
of the game a couple years ago, where Eric Musselman takes his
shirt off, you have the rematch of the exhibition game. If
Kansas moves on the possible matchup with another Hall of
Fame coach with Rick Pitino and Zuby Edge over 100 against
impossibly waiting. So we got a lot to talk about on today's
episode of the show. And it is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.
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where you can bet on the NCAA tournament.
OK, so Kansas ends up with a 7 seed in the bracket here.
And as I mentioned, they're going to be taking on
the Arkansas Razorbacks in the first round.
So we're going to start here
talking a little bit about you know the what, when, where, why
of the first round for KU, the second round possibilities and
beyond based on the the region, the NCAA tournament bracket,
all that sort of stuff. But the bracket is officially out and
that's always fun. I guess on the bright side, Kansas did not
set a new low mark for their worst seed in KU history.
That was previously an eight seed, I believe, for KU.
So they don't have to worry about here.
But Kansas gets put in the West Regional where Florida is the one seed.
Obviously, Kansas wouldn't have to worry about that for a while.
And if Kansas makes it to a point where they have to play Florida, then that's a great
sign because that would have been a great run for Kansas based on how this thing has
gone. But what we do know, they are in the West Regional, like I said, which will be played
in San Francisco if you get there.
The first pod for Kansas, the first and second round area, which this is what's brutal.
Missouri ends up getting a sixth seed, Kansas ends up getting the seventh seed, and Missouri
beat Kansas head to head.
So like, you know, as the brackets being revealed
and released, you kind of were waiting, okay,
when is Missouri going to get revealed?
Because with that head to head win and kind of similar resumes,
you thought they'd be out of Kansas.
So once you saw Missouri get the sixth seed in Wichita,
which I'm not really jealous of them having to play Drake.
I would not want to play Drake in the first round if I were them.
But it almost makes you think that if Kansas
would have just won that one game in Missouri,
they'd be a sixth seed right now. And yeah, that doesn't sound like that big of a difference with the seven.
It's not. But getting to play in Wichita might have been right, especially for a team who's really
struggled on the road the past couple of seasons. And they're going to have to go on the road a long
ways in this matchup because they're going to have to go to Providence, Rhode Island, which is,
you know, about as far as you can go to the East. Now we've seen some years where Kansas has gone
to Salt Lake City.
That has not ended well for Kansas in the second round.
I can't remember a time where they've gone like this far
East or this far Northeast necessarily.
Like I can think back to, I'm trying to think like 2007,
they were out in, I think San Jose for the West region.
But yeah, man, they're there,
especially for the first two rounds
of the tournament specifically.
Now the good news is in the first round matchup that doesn't really provide any
geographic advantage for one team or the other. Both Kansas
and Arkansas have a long way to go. More so comes into account,
probably in round two, if you know, you do advance or whoever
does assuming that St. John's takes care of business with
Omaha, but we do know that it's going to be a Thursday, Saturday
region, or pod for Kansas.
They're gonna be taking on Arkansas on Thursday.
So the first day of the tournament.
Don't know at least as of yet
what time that game is going to be had.
So stick around for that.
And maybe if it happens at some point during the show,
I'll let you know if it is gonna be like a night game,
a day game, a morning game, whatever it ends up being.
But Thursday, Saturday,
it will be the situation out in Rhode Island.
It'll be interesting to see how well KU fans travel.
Because typically they travel so well.
And typically like no matter where you go in the world,
you'll see KU alumni there.
But, you know, this is a little bit smaller corner
of the earth for KU to get out to,
that that'll be very, very interesting.
As far as the Arkansas Razorbacks,
I think it's interesting because you played them
back in the exhibition
portion of the season. And so in a certain sense, these are two teams that are a little bit more
familiar with each other, but also, you know, that was, it was the very beginning, it was October 25th,
right? So like these two teams are so different from where they were at that point, not to mention
the fact that Kansas had some players injured.
Arkansas had a player injured that game. I think Jonas, I do their center former transfer
from Tennessee. He was out for the game too. They didn't have him from the Kansas perspective.
I mean, this will show you how much different of a team this was. This is unbelievable.
Looking back at this box, Arkansas won that exhibition game 85 69, mind you. And for Kansas, they did not have Hunter Dickinson,
who's probably the best player, right? So like that's kind of important. So you didn't have him.
So that's obviously, you know, a miss. You didn't have Rylan Griffin, which that at this point has
kind of gone, you know, either way with how that's kind of gone game to game. But you know, that's a
couple of players that are at the very least in your rotation,
if you're Kansas.
And it was Florid Budunga,
who obviously is a freshman center,
like he had to start that game
when he's still trying to figure things out
as young freshmen, right?
AJ Storr started that game for KU.
That's how far back we are.
He had eight points on four of 11 shooting,
didn't do great.
Zeke Mayo had seven points.
And that was a game where Zeke, it seemed like it was a struggle to get him to shoot.
Well, that hasn't been a problem since then.
Right. So probably a better version of him moving forward.
Rikis passed more at 11 points in that game.
That's not something you're going to get again, because you might not play.
You know, you could play the full NCAA tournament
and you might not play 11 minutes for the tournament based on where things are.
Did you quit was 0 for 5?
That could happen, but also you can go for 5 for 5 in a given game.
Zach Clements gave Kansas 10 minutes in that game.
And here's the biggest one.
DeJuan Harris had 26 points.
Like I will give this box score and I'm just like, just throw it away.
Throw it away.
It means nothing.
Yes, it means a little bit of something in terms of like Arkansas showed that like their
athletic guards can give KU's guards some problems.
And like I do buy into that, but road game, first game of the season,
missing all those important players.
Some players doing better than we've seen really all season.
Some players doing worse than we've seen all season long.
Like teams are so different from them that I'm not like over emphasizing
what happened in that first game, but we will bring it up when we preview the game.
Now, when you look at what Arkansas brings to the table. So Kansas enters the NCAA tournament ranked 21st on Ken Palm.
Arkansas comes in ranked 40th.
And if you're just looking at like adjusted EM on Ken Palm,
which is basically the rating number,
it basically allows you to guess what the spread
is not always exactly accurate,
but based on that,
it'd be about a five and a half point spread for KU,
which is, you know, that's relatively favorable for a first round matchup for
Kansas team that has some flaws. Arkansas went 20 and 13 this season,
and they were a team that was top 20 defense. They like to play fast.
Offensively though, they've been very hit or miss.
And the big reason why the three point ball hasn't,
I just said that like the oldest person ever three point ball.
Here they go on the outside anyway.
33.3% for Arkansas this year,
a trend 201st in the country.
So not a great three point shooting team.
Problem is if they do get hot in an
individual game which NCAA tournament
is the scare there because any team
can get hot for one game sample.
They're good at other things on offense.
They don't turn the ball over like a ton.
Not great at it,
but they don't turn it over a ton. They shoot two point shots really well. They don't turn the ball over like a ton, not great at it, but they don't turn it over a ton.
They shoot two point shots really well.
They don't get their shots blocked.
Like they get to the free throw line,
at least a decent amount.
So if they can't shoot three as well,
they become a little bit more dangerous.
Which were the defense for Arkansas
that could cause you problems.
Top 10 in the country in block rate on the defensive end,
top 100 in the country in steel rate on the defensive end,
pretty good defensive rebounding team. Pretty good, you know,
just overall defense at preventing shots in general,
their 60th, an effective field goal percentage against them.
And they come into this game, I mean, they've found a little
bit of rhythm to they were sitting at 15 and 11, four and
nine and SEC play after a loss to Auburn. In what recap, they a
stretch of three losses in four games. And at that point in time
for Arkansas,
it kind of was, you know, they're a bubble team.
Are they gonna make it to the NCAA tournament
in John Calipari's first season?
Well, since then, they beat Missouri, good win there.
They beat Texas,
who obviously ended up making the tournament as well.
Lost oddly enough to South Carolina,
who was the worst team of this stretch.
Beat Vanderbilt, who made the tournament
as well as the 10 seed.
Beat Mississippi State, who made it as a,
I forget if they're the
eight or the nine but they're in the eight nine matchup.
Then they won the first game in the SEC Tournament in South Carolina
did lose a close game to Mississippi.
That was the game where Arkansas missed both free throws
and the Mississippi went down on can to three at the buzzer
or I think there's like second left to win the game for Mississippi.
So they're playing good ball right now.
That means they've won, you know, five of seven games with one of their losses in that span being on a buzzer beater to a team who got a sixth seed in the NCAA tournament. So
Kansas gonna have their hands full certain matchups that we'll discuss throughout the remainder of the week here on Lockdown Jayhawks. But honestly, if you gave me the option, because I was starting to worry when we saw the teams that were coming out, right? As I was saying, you were waiting. When is Missouri going to go?
My first thought was, oh, no, Kansas is going to get the seven.
Drake's going to be the 10.
I would not like Drake as a matchup for Kansas.
And I'm not saying that Arkansas, you know, is a give me win
or that it's an easy matchup.
No, it's a tough matchup for KU in different ways.
And we saw them beat Kansas by 15, even though it's a game that, you know,
I am throwing out the the the record books, right? It's a Hall
of Fame coach with a lot of really talented players, right?
I was glad that the 10 wasn't Drake, I guess is what I'm
saying here. But the two seed with St. John's in Providence,
that's another story. Let's talk about that. And what lies beyond
the rest of the bracket for KU possibly on this episode of
Locked on Jayhawks.
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you tune into this show as always. Alright, so moving on
past round one, what are the possible round two
scenarios for KU? Well, most I don't know, a beneficial thing
that could happen for Kansas is Nebraska Omaha, who is ranked
252nd in the country on defense, but is a top 100 offense. 37%
from three top 15, the country just gets you know, insanely hot
from three against the St. John's team that does not shoot well from three as good as St.
John's has been this season 30 wins for St.
John's to just four losses.
St.
John's is 346 in the country in three point attempt rate, and they're
338 in the country in three point percentage at 30.4%.
So maybe Omaha hits 14 threes, you know, and maybe St.
John's only makes three of them.
And it's a game or Omaha can pull off the upset. That would be the most ideal thing in the world, right?
Because if you get to the second round
and you're playing St. John's,
it's not just that you're playing a really good opponent
with a Hall of Fame coach,
it's that you're playing a team
who's playing in Providence, Rhode Island.
And, you know, if you're unaware, like St. John's,
go check out how close they are to Providence, Rhode Island, right?
And again, they deserve that.
They earned that.
They're the juicy.
They should have the closer home court advantage,
but that makes it more difficult, obviously, for Kansas.
So that would be the most ideal situation.
Probably not a very likely one,
as much as there is that three-point discrepancy.
Like everything else favors St. John's.
And here's the big thing with St. John's.
They are first in the country in defensive efficiency,
according to Ken Paul.
Now this goes back and forth for me on whether this is,
because if you're looking at the other two seeds,
that Kansas possibly could have got, obviously again,
Kansas the seventh seed in the West region,
which is the bottom left region.
You look at the top left region,
South region was Michigan State as the two.
I think that would have probably been the best,
quote unquote, matchup KU could have gotten as a two seed because we've already seen Kansas beat
Michigan State in the Champions Classic and that was on neutral floor as well.
And yes, Michigan State didn't shoot well from three.
They have it all season long.
Kansas didn't shoot well from three either in that game.
So that would have been the most.
I don't know the best matchup so to speak.
I think for Kansas as far as two seeds could have come.
Then you look at the other side of things
where the East region is top right
and the Midwest region is the bottom right.
Alabama would have been one two seed.
No, that would have probably been the worst matchup
for KU as a two seed.
So good you avoided them.
And then Tennessee is the other two seed.
And I want to go back and forth on.
We've seen Kansas in recent years beat Tennessee.
We saw them beat them in the 2018-19 season
in which you lost in the second round later that year.
But they beat them when they were fully healthy and was at the NIT preseason event We saw them beat him in the 2018-19 season, in which he lost in the second round later that year,
but they beat him when they were fully healthy
in what was the NIT preseason event
when you had Deidre Klassen and Doak at that point in time,
he beat Tennessee with Grant Williams and stuff.
We saw them beat them, was it last year
in the third place game in the Maui Invitational?
We also saw them get crushed by Tennessee
in the battle for Atlantis,
and I want to say there was one other time
they might have lost to Tennessee,
but point being, you know,
that's a team who plays rugged, good defense as well.
So I don't know where that would lie with this one.
But the things that make the possible St. John's matchup,
I think most interesting
is the possible Hunter Dickinson, Zuby,
Edgifer matchup that you could get there.
Because here's the thing.
So there were some stories that came out this week
about that Kansas kind of pushed Zuby
out by bringing in Hunter Dickinson.
I think it's kind of how it was put is wrong.
Zuby was not pushed out.
Kansas wanted Zuby Edgeford to come back.
But where the it just becomes kind of a game of technicalities because in theory, even
though Kansas, of course they'd want Zuby back and they wanted him back.
They did.
But when you bring in Hunter Dickinson,
technically you know it increases the likelihood
of him transferring, even if you want him back by tenfold.
And I don't know that you can blame Kansas for that
because Hunter Dickinson was the number one commodity
in the portal, right?
But I think here was the bigger issue.
It was that by bringing in Hunter,
it was basically, you know, Zuby was saying
he's gonna leave.
And you could say, oh, well, his first year at St. John's,
he played a minuscule roles,
one similar that he would have played
at Kansas last year anyway, even with Hunter.
Here's the difference.
When Zuby transferred,
Ernest Dude was still on the roster.
And at that point, Ernest had beat out Zuby
in their freshman season.
So he was ahead of him in the rotation where the thought was, okay, Hunter's going
to come in and play the starter minutes. Ernest will be the backup center. Where's the minutes
for Zuby, right? Which you understand why he transferred away. And so clearly that decision
has, you know, paid off very well for St. John's because Zuby was a first team All-Biggies
performer. He just put up like what? Like 31 points in the Big East tournament. So he's
an unbelievable two-way player for them at the center position. And he's been awesome. That'll lead to
a lot of headlines about that specifically. But anyway, back to the St. John's part of things here,
what makes them an okay matchup for Kansas is that they don't shoot a lot of threes. And a lot of
teams that have given Kansas trouble this year are teams that can pace them out, are teams that
can spread the floor and take advantage of the fact that they're playing two, even sometimes three bigs this season and one who's a little bit
more slower footed in Hunter Dickinson.
You don't have to worry about that as much in this possible matchup
based on the fact that, yeah, St.
John's isn't a great three point shooting team where it does become a tough
matchup for KU is one, they have the best defense in the country.
So that's just tough for everyone.
But it's the toughness factor.
This Rick Patino, I mean, a lot of Rick Patino teams
are super tough.
They are gritty.
They play great defense, right?
And this team is no different.
They're top point in the country
in steel rate defensively,
top 10 in block rate defensively,
top 15 in two point defense,
top 15 in turnover defense.
And so that's where I wonder how KU handles
that sort of thing, right? Does Kansas handle well getting punched in
the mouth? Because if you do make it to the second round, and
you're playing St. John's, you would have to win a game that is
a, okay, we're gonna take punches in the mouth and throw
them back. And we haven't always seen Kansas do that to the best
of their ability this season. It feels like they've done better
with those things of late, like the games they lost since the new season talk started to, you know,
Arizona and Texas Tech were more so because I think Arizona and Texas Tech
just kind of out executed you and had more offensive talent.
You look at the Houston game, you got close to matching their toughness on the road,
but you lost the game because they got way more possessions than you.
They got a bunch of offensive rebounds. They forced a bunch of turnovers. And that's what St. John's does. St. John's top 10 in the country in offensive
rebound rate. And also they forced a bunch of turnovers. But Kansas still hung in that
game at Houston. And Kansas nearly won that game. And that was a road game, right? And
even though this one would be a quasi road game, still would be closer to, you know,
it still could be neutral court to semi road game as opposed to quasi road game, still would be closer to, you know, it still could be neutral
court to semi road game as opposed to true road game at Houston on senior day. So you look at that
game and you say, okay, this might not be the worst matchup in the world for Kansas. It's just
that you would be playing a really good team. That makes sense because you're playing a two seat. So
I don't think it's a bad matchup. It's just a bad matchup because they're a good team and you earned
a seven seed this year, if that sort of makes sense. So we'll see what's in store for Kansas. What about on the other
side of the bracket? What if Kansas does, you know, get hot here and beat Arkansas and
move their way past St. John's and get into the sweet 16? What would be awaiting them
on the other side of things in the regional side of things? Let's discuss that next on
Lockdown Jayhawks.
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Right now, Kansas looks like, yeah, they are a five and a half point favorite over Arkansas.
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So visit FanDuel.com and get in on the College Hoops action all tournament long with FanDuel. They're gonna play in Thursday, so we'll see. Maybe we'll, I don't know. I guess it depends what time it comes out.
If the game is Thursday morning,
we'll do that preview for you on Wednesday
so you have full time.
If the game is Thursday night,
then we'll release that preview on Thursday.
We're gonna have other content for you this week though
about the NCAA tournament about Kansas.
We're gonna discuss, can Kansas make a final four,
win the national title based on what past history
and past stats have told us? We'll do that on Monday.
And you're not going to want to miss that episode
because we're going to go over what teams do qualify
and what teams you should or shouldn't pick
to make the final four
or to win a national championship to win your bracket pool.
So we're going to do that on Monday.
We're going to go over, you know,
what players become most important for Kansas
to make a run into the second weekend
on this episode of the show
or on a future episode of the show as well with Lockdown Jayhawks. All right, into the second weekend on this episode of the show
or on a future episode of the show as well
with Lockdown Jayhawks.
All right, so what's on the other side of the bracket
for KU now?
Well, Kansas obviously getting placed in the East Regional.
Florida is the one seed.
I've said this before though,
I usually say it year in and year out.
If you make it to the Elite Eight,
like that's why I've always,
like I remember the one years 2018
Duke was Kansas's two seed.
Michigan State was the three seed
and it was like, oh my gosh,
this bracket flowed.
They got Duke and Michigan State.
And it's like, well, if you make the
if you make the elite eight,
you're probably going to have
to play really good team.
Like, yes, every so often you get a Miami
who's a 10 seed or VCU who's 11.
But, you know, and lost that one anyway.
You're only going to have to play one of them.
And realistically, no matter who you play
in the elite eight is probably gonna be an elite team.
So it shouldn't matter, right?
If Kansas again, gets to the point where they're playing
one seed Florida in the elite eight, great things happen.
And this was an unexpected deep run for Kansas.
It's a cherry on top of that point, but you do look at it.
And if you can make it to the sweet 16,
I think it becomes more interesting to look
and maybe the bottom side of the bracket,
I guess you would say for KU as far as the East region.
So you start to look at, okay, who could make it through?
I mean, you could look at the 14 seed
to possibly get through, but like realistically,
you're looking at, okay, who is going to be the winner
of the possibly three, six matchup?
Maybe the 11 seed comes through.
So you're looking at Texas Tech as a three seed
to possibly get through,
and we've already seen Kansas play Texas Tech, right?
And that was a game in Allen Fieldhouse
where, you know, Texas Tech beats you.
So that doesn't make you feel great
and they're a bad matchup problem for you,
but still that was a winnable game for Kansas, right?
Then you look at the six seed in which is Missouri
and that another team that beat you.
But it was a road game.
It was a game you played horrible in the first half.
You stormed out.
You played great in the second half to nearly win the game.
And you got within striking distance at the end of the game.
Missouri made the big plays at the end of the game.
I don't know that it's the best matchup in the world for Kansas,
but they showed they could almost beat them on the road.
So I look at these all the same way,
basically is what I'm saying.
And that like, if Kansas loses one of these games,
like I don't think this is one of those situations
where I look at these matchups
or them if they lose one of these games and say,
yeah, they just got screwed on the draw
or they just got a really bad matchup
or this team just matches up so well with them
because they can take away a hundred tickets
and they can shoot a bunch of threes or something like that.
I guess you would say that with Texas Tech, but it's more so for me, like if
Kansas loses in the NCAA tournament based on the field they have, based on
the pods they have, it's probably just because they're the worst team.
And that's been the thing over the course of this season, like when they lost to
Arizona, when they lost to Texas Tech, when they've lost to Houston both times,
albeit they should have won the first one.
Kansas lost those teams not because they played horrible.
Yeah, they did some things bad.
Like they're just kind of the worst team in those games.
That's that's kind of my takeaway here for Kansas with some of these NCAA
tournament games is like it's less about what's the matchup and it's less about
Oh, what for did Kansas draw this year?
It's more just about okay, can they play above their skis or hope one of these
teams has a bad shooting night or something like that?
Because yeah, they're not going to be the better team in a lot of these games, which
we've got a lot of years without kind of saying.
I guess I should also mention the 11 seat is Drake, which I think could very well make
a deep run.
That's going to be a very interesting team in terms of Drake.
Now if you get to the Sweet 16 and you're playing Drake at that point, like again, it's
a cherry on top.
And that's kind of where I think we should leave this year.
What would be a good NCAA tournament run for Kansas?
I want to talk about this more later in the week, but kind of ponder on that, right?
Because is it enough to say if you're just basing it off seed, like if you go above and beyond where your seed is,
the seven seed in theory, if it was all chalk, every game would lose in the second round. So a second round, you know, exit for Kansas would be just a okay, it is what it is
versus a sweet 16 would be that's a successful season. Or does it just make it a successful
tournament run? And then you know, do you factor in that? Oh, but this is Kansas basketball, even
if they are seven seed, like success is measured
on championships and final fours.
And, you know, does that become an issue?
So we're going to talk about that more later in the week,
but you can go ahead and ponder on that.
But yeah, Kansas will be a seven seed.
They'll be taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks
in the first round as their 10 seed.
And we get another matchup of John Calipari and Bill Self.
We also could possibly, if Kansas can win the game,
get a matchup of Bill Self and Rick Pitino,
which I think the last time they played against each other
would have been when Rick was at Iona.
And I think Kansas beat them in like the third place game
of the ESPN event.
Maybe that's where we go with this.
Gosh, now that I'm thinking about it.
Yeah, that was the year Kansas lost to Dayton.
They kind of blew that game late.
Dayton comes back, wins the game.
Kansas plays Iona in the third place game,
wins the game over Rick Pitino.
Kansas goes on to win the national championship.
So Kansas needs to play Rick Pitino
to win the national championship.
Boom, full proof.
All right, that'll do it for this episode
of Locked on Jayhawks.
You can find our show anywhere you can podcast,
including on our YouTube page.
We'll be back at you Monday to talk more about
does Kansas qualify for some of
these pre required things of past teams what they've done to
make Final Four to win a national championship? Do they
not? Who does helping you win your bracket pool and plenty
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