Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Baseball NCAA Tournament Breakdown vs Creighton Bluejays, Arkansas Razorbacks & More

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks baseball is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014, sparking excitement among fans and analysts alike. With a stellar 43-15 season, the Jayhawks are poised to make waves, but can they overcome the formidable #3 Arkansas Razorbacks, the tournament's betting favorites and hosts for the regional in Fayetteville, AR.Explore the Jayhawks' impressive journey, their near-miss at the Big 12 title, and the challenges they face in a bracket featuring the Creighton Bluejays and North Dakota State Bison, as well as the hosting Razorbacks. Host Derek Johnson breaks down key stats, including Kansas' competitive home run rate, and offers insights into the double-elimination format. Special guest Brian Hanni, the voice of the Jayhawks, shares his perspective on KU's prospects and the impact of Dan Fitzgerald, Brady Ballinger, Jackson Hauge, Domonic Voegele, Cooper Moore, Michael Brooks and more key players set to have an important impact on this week's action, starting Friday night at 7 o'clock. Additionally, Brian touches on the upcoming 2025 Rock Chalk Roundball Classic in July, an event featuring former Kansas Jayhawks Basketball players returning to Lawrence for an exhibition game with money going to families with young children battling cancer.Don't miss this in-depth analysis of Kansas Jayhawks baseball as they aim for NCAA glory. Tune in for expert insights and a thrilling preview of the tournament action.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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)

Kansas baseball is in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014. The betting favorite of the tournament, the Arkansas Razorbacks, is standing in Kansas' way. But first they got to go through Creighton. We're going to preview KU Baseball's NCAA tournament ride on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on?

Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And if you're interested in the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And

on today's episode, we're going to be breaking down KU baseball as they were in the NCAA tournament for the first time in over a decade. Can they get through this pod? Can they get through the first game with Creighton and then make it through eventually what would probably be through Arkansas, the third overall seed in the tournament. We're going to break down who's all in KU's pot, who's in their region, and we're going to be joined by the voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney.

He's going to help us break down KU baseball's season, how great it's been, and what they can do from here. I'll try to go a little further on this episode of the show. Let's start right here. So KU baseball had a phenomenal year to get to this point. A 43 and 15 record, a season in which they very easily could have won the big 12 regular season,

a season in which they made it to the big 12 semi-finals and then one of their best players gets hurt from that moment. A season in which, I mean, they probably weren't that far off from being able to host at Hoagland for the NCAA tournament and now they set themselves up that you know they get to go to the NCAA tournament for the first time in over a decade, but didn't end up with a very easy draw to say the least for KU. Kansas in the end ends up with Arkansas, the third seed in the 1 through 16 of the 16 hosts in the NCAA. So essentially, if this were like college basketball, they would be playing with one of the one seeds while Kansas, we talked about this on a recent episode is probably closer to like six seed, five or six seed.

So that kind of stinks that that is your, you know, possible, I don't know, it's hard to say like second round matchup because it's double elimination and how these pods work. But basically, you have the winners of the first two games play each other. And then the losers play each other loser, the losers eliminated, the winner of the loser game plays the loser of the winners game. And then the winner of that game plays the winner of the winners game, and they have to beat them twice. I don't know if that made sense. Talking audio wise but hopefully it did certainly for KU. So their first game is going

to be Friday at seven o'clock so I wanted to break down a little bit on the teams that are there. Arkansas is the onesie they're the betting favorite to win the entire thing. Our friends over at FanDuel have Arkansas at a plus 470 betting mark to win the entire tournament. That is the favorite of anybody to win it all. Now Arkansas has never won bet entire tournament. That is to win it all. Now, Arkans NCAA tournament. They've World Series a good amoun they haven't been able to

lost the last couple of y this very round. So for Ka that maybe they're seeing that kind of continues on into this one. But Arkansas overall 43 and 13 on the season record, not that different from Kansas. What is different is the RPI Arkansas fifth in the RPI. The SEC is a dominant baseball league as well. They were 14 and 10 against Quad one two and two against Quad two. They were 32 and four at home this season. Therein lies some of the issue

that they are playing these games at home. And they went 32 and four this season. But again, last year they lost to Kansas State by hosting. Meanwhile, Kansas gets the two seed in this region. They go 43 and 15. They get 24th ranked in the final RPI. They went five and seven against quad one. 11 and four against quad two.

So against better opponents overall pretty good there. And this is good for KU. They were 23 and eight away from home. So they actually have the same road record as they had the same home record. You add in the neutral side games and 23 and eight. You're going to have to be good on the road in these settings. The three seed is Creighton 41 and 14 record 46 strength on the RPI. Despite the really good record Big East not like some elite baseball conference, three and

against quad once didn't have a ton of quad one games, but they won them when they got them 10 and four first quad to kind of same idea there. And they're 24 and eight away from home. So they too are a good school and as much as you focus on Arkansas, you can't lose focus of this first round matchup with Creighton who themselves are a very good team. Then the four seed is North Dakota State. They get in as winning their conference, just a 20 and 32 record, 141st on RPI.

They were just two and 13 against Quad one, two and three against Quad two, 13 and 27 away from home. But that's kind of what you would expect from the team who just got in by winning a smaller conference and kind of is the fourseed in all of this. So just comparing some of the stats between these different teams. Arkansas, as you can see, is the best hitting team in the bunch. They have the best average of the four teams they're hitting 313 as a team. Kansas is second at 290, Creighton at 284 is third, and

then a big drop off in the North Dakota state at 256. On base percentage, again, Arkansas, the advantage there 422 there that ranks 19th in the country. Kansas themselves really good on base percentage at 409, though. Creighton as well at 401 ranks 73rd in the country. Here's where I think Kansas and Arkansas start to separate themselves is the slugging percentage.

So if you look at home runs per game, Arkansas is seventh in the country at just under two home runs per game. Kansas is a little over 1.7 home runs per game, Arkansas is seventh in the country at just under two home runs per game. Kansas is a little over 1.7 home runs per game, which is 18th in the country. Creighton though is only 205th, North Dakota State is 275th. So Creighton is really good at drawing walks, just like Kansas and Arkansas is.

Arkansas gets a little more average than Kansas than Creighton, but the difference between Kansas and Arkansas that kind of separates them is the slugging. It is the power hitting. It is the home run ability of Arkansas and Kansas. So we'll see how that pays off in the pod. But overall OPS, which is on base plus slugging, basically just an overall way of looking

at things hitting wise. Now it's not a perfect score when you're looking across the country, because some teams have much shorter parks than others. Some teams play in better conferences than others, but Arkansas is playing in a very difficult conference, obviously. Arkansas fifth in the country in OPS, Kansas 35th,

Creighton 129th, and North Dakota State is 286th. If you're looking for who can make something happen on the base paths, not really been Kansas' forte this year. They don't like to run into outs on the base paths and try to slug their way through it instead. So Kansas not a big steal team, but Arkansas isn't either. They get a little bit more steals than Kansas does, but it's not a hefty amount. Creighton, though, is the best stolen base team here. 1.36 steals per game, which ranks 115 in the countries of

Kansas. Defensively gonna have to be good keeping Creighton off the base pass overall runs per game. That's the amalgamation of everything. Well, Arkansas 8.8 runs per game. Kansas 8.2 runs per game. That doesn't sound like that big of a difference over the course of season. You know that that point six extra runs per game does add up,

but in a small sample like this where you might only be playing, you know three or four games. That might not matter that much, so Kansas and Arkansas right there. Creighton also very good offense, 7.4 runs per game. And then you have North Dakota State at 4.7. Now we look to the pitching side

and this is where it's interesting because I mentioned on a previous show, like Arkansas does have an ace kind of pitcher, but he still has an over four ERA. Now a 4.06 ERA in college gives Arkansas as a team the 16th best ERA in the country, right? It's a hitter's game, so to speak, right? But very good strikeout numbers for Arkansas over 11 strikeouts per nine innings that dwarfs

anybody else in this pod. They do walk a lot of or not walk a lot of opponents. If you're looking on YouTube, that's actually reverse split. So they're actually one of the top like 80 teams in the country and avoiding walks. So overall they strike teams out. They don't give up free passes and they have a top 20 batting average against.

So the hitting or the pitching is actually pretty good for Arkansas, but I think for the most part, yes, they do have the one stud, but even that again, over four ERA, it mostly comes from, I think, a good depth of pitching for Arkansas, right? Like maybe their their number four bullpen guy isn't going to be that different than the number two bullpen guy, at least from looking at the individual stats. Kansas,

meanwhile, they have some starters who when they're rolling, they can be as good as anybody in the country. But sometimes it's up and down. Sometimes there's games where they do get blown up a little bit. So are you gonna get the good version? Are you gonna get the bad? Overall, Kansas 70th in ERA, North Coast State 148th.

This is where Creighton becomes really interesting. Creighton with a four ERA is 15th of the country, better than Arkansas, better than Kansas. Their whip is worse than Arkansas because they're walking more people and they're not striking as many people out and so maybe that's what comes into play for Creighton is the weaker strength of schedule than what Arkansas plays to where you know Arkansas

when they make mistakes, they're giving up home runs or they're you know facing better hitters in the SEC or is the Creighton it's not getting taken advantage but on paper Creighton comes in with the best pitching staff Arkansas would be second, Kansas would b Arkansas would have the be would be second, Creighton again, if you adjust for c

you could make the arguemi pitching staff is if thin bit overblown, but either down some of the numbers. a little bit more with a g this and watching it and b season long, the voice of Haney joins us next to break down KU baseball in the NCAA tournament.

This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts and can't miss moments. Whether it's a game winning shot or a breakout player, there's never been a better time to get in on the action. FanDuel makes it so easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props, performance trends and same game parlays. Fans have more ways than ever to play smart and to win big. And at FanDuel you can get in on the action for the NCAA tournament with baseball. You can get the individual games for KU. I mentioned Arkansas is the betting favorite. Well, Kansas 200 to one to win the national title. If you think they can get out of the region

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Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA and the Locked On Podcast Network. Joined now by the voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney, and thanks for tuning in to Locked On Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcast and on our YouTube page. the Before I get into any of the questions that we have here and kind of recapping the season and how great of a year it's been, where can people listen to the game that you're going to be calling over the weekend? Yeah, well first off, thanks for having me on. It's always great to be out with you, Derek. And secondly, thankfully with baseball, we can still stream on the Kansas Athletics app, whereas with March Madness on the basketball side, you can't do that. So if you become accustomed to listening on the app, that's still possible.

Otherwise this game will be broadcast on any Jayhawk Network affiliate that's wanting to pick it up. KLWN and Lawrence most certainly will, but there'll be some other affiliates that aren't typically baseball stations that are hopping on the bandwagon this week, and we appreciate that. It's been a season of taking on more and more bandwagoners, so we'll take as many as we can get as we make that four-hour trek down to Fayetteville.

Yeah, and I saw tickets sold out, like, within an hour for the event. I don't know how much of that is the home cooking from Arkansas. Hopefully we get a good amount of KU fans, obviously, like you said, at driving distance away. So what a season it's been, and this feels like a slow

run-up. I don't know maybe slow is maybe not the right word but you go from year one of the Fitzgerald era where they're competitive. Year two they start winning some games. They make some noise in the Big 12 tournament where you started to wonder later in the season are they gonna make the tournament. They fall just short. This year they explode even further and And Dan Fitzgerald is, I mean, it's just Travis Goff has made unbelievable hire after unbelievable hire at KU. But like, you could make a real argument Dan Fitzgerald is the best. Now, there's a lot of other guys that you could have in that competition. So we don't need to hash that out. But just as far

as Dan Fitzgerald, why do you think he has been so successful here at Kansas? Well, great question. And you certainly laid that Fitzgerald. Why do you think he has been so successful here at Kansas? Well, great question, and you certainly laid that out just as I would to use a baseball metaphor. Travis Goff is batting 1000 on his coaching hires and

I think he's five for five. I mean, it's it's been phenomenal to see the immediate returns on all these tires. Look at Nate Lee, for example, winning a big 12 tournament championship in his first for the women's golf team? I mean, it just goes on and on. Lance Eipold, like, yeah. No doubt.

He's batted 1,000. And many of them have been home run hires. Fitz may be a grand slam home run hire. Why has he been so successful? It starts with recruiting, certainly. I think it was brilliant in the NIL era and transfer portal era when a lot of the big time, tradition rich, SEC powers were snatching up guys in the portal and other schools were focusing more heavily

on the high school seniors. He chose to swim upstream and take the road less traveled and lock in on some JC guys and have back to back to back number one rated junior college recruiting classes. Now they still recruit great high school seniors. They still go out and recruit the occasional transfer portal guy from the D1 ranks, but they decided to say, okay, well where is less focus being directed right now in this portal heavy era? Let's go there with a program that doesn't have the tradition,

facilities that maybe don't measure up with some of our foes. And we certainly don't have the NIL budget that other schools might have. Where can we still get big 12 caliber talent? And they've done a home run fantastic job of doing just that john coin, the recruiting director, I think is one of the most charismatic guys you'll ever meet. And all the fitness coaches Brandon Scott, Tyler Hancock, Coach Fitz himself, all really likable, really hardworking, hustling guys get out there and grind on the recruiting

trail. So it started with adding a lot of talent. Secondarily, I think they're the way they coach these guys up, whether it's a plate discipline approach, controlling those 17 inches across the plate, don't expand the zone. Look for a box within the box and then do damage if you can wait for the pitch to come there. They approach each at bat with aggressiveness if it's within the zone, but it's not reckless abandon up there. They're also very selective. It's why you have the top two guys in the big 12 in walks drawn in Brady Ballinger and Michael Brooks. But you also have a lot of guys hitting home runs, a record total of 100 of them because

they make the pitchers come to them. And if they're disciplined enough to wait on that pitch, they can hunt and pounce on. Look at the way they've done that this year. So it's been exciting. I think Brandon Scott's pitching staff, in my opinion, with Dom Vaguely and Cooper Moore were both on, it was as good as any one-two punch in the Big 12 Conference. Now there have been days when they've not been on. We've seen that certainly, but that's where you feel like they've got a chance at Fayetteville and a chance to make some noise in the month of June because those two guys at their best can do what we saw up in Morkantown where they swept a number 16 ranked West

Virginia team and only used five total pitchers all weekend. The three starters, two relievers, that was it because they're getting quality starts deep into games. And then you've got an offense that obviously has had the best power numbers of any Kansas team in Jayhawk baseball history. So all that adds up to a really exciting brand of baseball to watch high character, big time, high caliber athletes coming in a really likable group of guys that genuinely get along with each other. Great.

So it makes for an easy team to cheer for and an easy coaching staff to root for too, because as I said, these guys, they'll outwork anybody in their path and at the end of the day, they do it for all the right reasons. So I love this staff. I love being a part of this crew and we hope we've got two or three weekends left in front of us. Well, and I think one of the most fun things about this team has been the the never say die attitude. I mean, I just remember go State series. I want to s were down was it three to

the game. I mean, they we that was for sure. And th a microcosm of the season 26 comeback wins. It's ove wins at this point. Do yo the power hitting? Do you coaching staff? Do you at the to the power hitting? Do you attribute that to the coaching staff? Do you attribute that to like the mentality of the team? I guess why do you think that's been the case this year?

Well, I think you're spot on and it is 26 come from behind victories. Jackson, how he said, we're the never say die Jayhawks. We never feel like we're out of any game. And I can't tell you how many times this season, even if they've been held in check by a dominant Friday night starter, you're just waiting for them to get the starter out of the game and you know the run is coming kind of like the win over Oklahoma State in the big 12 tournament. Coach Fitz famously said to the guys in the seventh inning, Hey, I know what's gonna happen. We're eventually gonna break on through. I

would prefer if you go ahead and do it now in the seventh as opposed to making me sweat it out to the night. So let's let's jump on these guys. But really, I mean, we've seen that time and time again. And that goes back to the K-State series, for example, you remember the, the Howie home run with the epic bat flip afterwards, you know, it took wearing down the starting pitcher, getting him out of the game. And then the flood gates opens up after that. And that's where some of that plate discipline plays in. That's where this prolific offensive hitting team with the 100 homeruns plays in. I think it's a combination of a lot of things, Derek.

I think one thing I've not mentioned in talking about their hitting and their pitching is the fact that this team right now is tied for the best fielding percentage in the history of KU baseball. So it's in all phases. Outside of stealing bases, this team does just about everything exceptionally well. And we maybe don't have the bullpen depth that they've had some years, especially last year, but clearly from a starting pitching standpoint

and a capable hitter standpoint, one through nine, it's as impressive as a group as I can remember having a chance to cover. And I've been doing KU baseball for 20 years now. So really excited about what that could lead to. It's obviously a brutally tough draw in Fayetteville, but they have all of the ingredients in a winning recipe to make some noise in June because winning a regional is all about winning your first couple of games.

If you win those first two, you're in the catbird seat and then the team's coming up from the losers' bracket, have to beat each other up and then beat you twice. That's where I say if Dominic Vaguely and Cooper Moore can pitch like we saw at Morgantown and like we saw for much of the season, KU's got a great shot even against an Arkansas team that hits 313, that has seven different guys with double digit homers and seven different guys hitting north of 300. It's a daunting task, yes, but I do think our

guys will go on with a ton of confidence and not be phased by the opponent or the atmosphere. More with Brian in just a minute. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Back with the voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney here on Locked on Jayhawks. Back with the voice of the Jayhawks, Brian Haney here on Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making this your first listen every day and don't forget you can check out Locked on College

Football, Locked on College Basketball, or Locked on Big Twelve for your second listen every day. So, Howie and Ballinger, I mean, what they have done from a power hitting perspective is pretty remarkable. Can you think back

to another duo of hitters that has been this good for KU? Man, that's a great question. I'd have to go back and look at who the Robin was to the Batman of Tony Thompson or the Robin to Travis Metcalf. I had a chance to do both of their careers and they had some pretty prolific runs, but going back to my very first seasons when it was the Ryan Beatty-Matt triple combination, you didn't have two guys combining for North of 30 homers. You know, there have been some singular big time sluggers and that's the guys that were eight or nine homers back, but that's a tough one. I would really have to break out the record books.

Ryan Price had some great running mates back in his heyday, which included the Big 12 Tournament Championship early in his career. But that's a really good question. I would tell you this, Howie has still has a chance to break the single season home run record. He's two back of Tony Thompson. He just moved ahead of Metcalf with his home run in the Thursday game down in Arlington. He's been special to watch. Ballinger to me though is the guy with superstar potential. He was the mid-season All-American that's on the Golden Spike semi-finalist list for the nation's top player in

college baseball. The reason why he's so special and kind of stands out above the rest of the pack is he's got an on-base north of 500. I mean, he's walked nearly 50, nearly 60 times on the season. He's hit power numbers that are good for a top 10 year in KU history. He's on base more than a coin flip heads or tails. He's going to get on more times than not. And so he's selective, but he, as I said, does damage when they pitched to him. He's obviously been a great teammate that's entered into this equation and taken on a leadership role,

even as a first year player and a sophomore on this team. He's so likable and charismatic. This is the guy that has a chance to go down as one of the all-time greats. And Howe would too, if he had more eligibility left, this would be his lone season as a Jayhawk. But as a combined force, I'm not sure you can, you know, put another one up there of a tandem like this the the

the the the the that you're talking about some of the pitching. Has indication yet from Dan F pitching strategy is going you know, do you use your to save him for game three

going to kind of be a sur game three possibly like has Dan Fitchell mentioned any of that or is it going to kind of be a surprise? Well, nothing has been said yet. The only media availability he had was on Monday after the bracket was released and then he'll meet again with the media on Thursday. So at the time that we're taping this, nothing has been said or no hands have been tipped just yet. But I would imagine you keep Vaguely Thursday and go Cooper more Friday. I don't think you want to flip the order at this point plus Kansas in the minds of most has had co aces this year vaguely

was the preseason big 12 pitch for the year and 3 time big 12 pitcher the week but was snubbed it did not even make an honorable mention list of the conference's postseason awards when he's at his best he's as good as anybody in the league. Same is true with Cooper Moore, who was second team all big 12. The point is they're capable of very comparable things, which is pitching deep into a ball game, excellent numbers and strike out the walk ratios, and they can be overpowering dominating type guys when they're at their best. Vaguely in particular has proven capable of also at times, you know, seeing teams jump on him like TCU has done, you know, in the tenor and run game

down there at Fort Worth and obviously he loved to have the Oklahoma State start back down in Arlington. So I think Dom with a full week of rest that's probably been stuck in his crawl a little bit the way the game went down there. I think he comes back with a vengeance and is the starter versus Creighton and posts very good numbers. And then you save Cooper Moore for a potential matchup with Arkansas in game two, should you have the racer backs in day two. But then again, you know, Brandon Scott, he's one of those guys, if he feels like they've got a better chance based on the matchups to tweak things a bit, I wouldn't put it past him.

But at the end of the day, we wanna see both those guys peaking at the same time in the same weekend, like we saw in the final weekend of the regular season. Because if they do that, I don't care what the numbers say in the number three national seat and all that, Kansas will have a tremendous shot

of going into Fanville and emerging victorious. Yeah obviously Arkansas very, very tough, but also Creighton tough too. And Creighton, a team of one over 40 games. I think they have the best ERA among the teams that are there. Does Creighton obviously, you know, the SEC a little bit tougher than the Big East. But when you look at everything that's going to happen this weekend, you know, no matter who KU plays, whether it's Creighton, Arkansas, North Dakota State, is there some sort of X factor for you? And that could be an individual player that could be a unit that could be a just, you know, just something they're doing that leads to success. Is there something that you see as being kind of the key for KU making some noise this week? Well,

obviously, you know, the baseball cliche is momentum is only as good as the next day starting pitcher, right? And so to me, you know, the biggest key above all, printed in all caps, bold font, whatever is starting pitching from vaguely and Cooper more. If they both go seven plus innings and both turn in quality starts, then you got a great chance to win those first two games and get in the catbird seed like I'm talking about. If they're hit hard or if whoever's pitching in the Saturday contest, should that be

opposite of Arkansas? If we see the Alloy brothers or whoever mashing early and all of a sudden you're in a five or six run hole, how does the Kansas offense respond? That's where your secondary keys come into play, which is how's the health of Haughey, who sat out the second game in the Big 12 tournament with a very small tweak to his hamstring. It's not a big deal. We were told if it was regional,

he would have played through it, but this will be the first time we've seen him play it a week. And so that becomes, if not a secondary key, it's a peripheral key, somewhere on the list further down. But Kansas needs him in that three spot in the order. Brady Council certainly capable. Dariel Osorio was your best hitter for Big 12 batting average this year and

a very clutch hitter at that. But how he with that changed the game with one swing potential is such a difference maker. I think you got to get him back there in that three spot. And so to me, biggest keys obviously are deep quality starts to where you can almost hand the ball over to Breckheimer for the final six outs. Because if there is an area where Kansas at times has been a bit up and down this year. It's been some of the relief pitching options before Breckheimer. Now they like some of the guys they've got there

and we've seen some emerging quality pieces of late with Manning West who look brilliant in Morgantown and in Arlington. He has six consecutive scoreless, hitless shutout innings but around that you've got potential from Eric Lin and potential from Alec Ivetok but the trust level this year with the pin probably isn't quite what you had this time a year ago that's where duration of start and the quality

of the start from vaguely and Cooper Moore is so important getting through seven innings if you can getting through 21 of the 27 outs if you can it makes those late game decisions a lot easier I thought to say those other guys can't seven innings if you can. of the 27 outs if you can game decisions a lot easi those other guys can't del and I'm big fans of theirs clear. But I think when w in elite level games comp

tried to shorten the game of pitchers they turn to series where they only us five guys all weekend. In order to do that, the guys doing the heavy lifting at the front end of the game and in the middle innings, they've got to be at their very best. And to me, that's key number one, two, and three, probably. Because I don't worry as much about the offense, but against a team like Arkansas that hits 313, a team like Creighton that hits 285 and has some very capable swingers. That's where I really want to see Kansas come out on the mound pitching to his

capability. If they do, this could be a really fun weekend. Well, before I let you go, awesome stuff on KU baseball and have a good time on the call and everything. But Rock Shark Rumble Classic, I don't know how you're juggling all this stuff right now. But Thursday, July 10. So I mean, a little over a month from now is for the game. You have the weekend, the dinner on Friday, July 11th. Just anything you wanted to share on what's every year, absolutely amazing event every year in regards to,

you know, that coming up in what, five weeks from now. Yeah, no kidding. Thanks for the chance to talk about that. You've been such a great friend and partner in promoting that for so many years now. This is our 17th year. We'll surpass two million raised all time this year, which is awesome.

We're at 1.9 right now. So it's been a blessing to get to work with over 125 different Jayhawks in 16 previous years of doing this. And can't wait to see what the final rosters look like this year. But the reason why we're doing it in July, the last six and and sixteen previous years of doing this and can't wait to see what the final rosters look like this year but the reason why we're

doing it in July just to be fully honest and and a peek behind the curtain, one of our biggest headliner players is getting married out of the country on the weekend we chose and his groomsmen and wedding party would have taken

away most of our stars. So, we... See, I was hoping you had confidence that this KU baseball run was gonna take a really long time. That's the official answer. I guess it could be both, right? Hopefully, yeah. It could be both. The official answer is we thought we'd be in Omaha. The unofficial answer is, yeah, we actually had to take into account

who's not gonna be at that wedding, and you know what? We're probably gonna have to move it because of the wedding. So, hey, and I haven't named names yet, but the point is we're happy because he and his bride are gonna come back in three weeks and they're gonna both be at the game and that's gonna be awesome. And because of that, his wedding party will be too.

But that's why it's a little bit later this year. That and like you said, I hope I'm busy for the next three weekends of college baseball calls, but we should have more than 30 former Jayhawks coming back. We've got six awesome kids that we're raising money for this year. You can find out more about them online at Rock Chalk, RoundballClassic.com. And our player announcements begin next week. So you'll start to see one by one everybody who's going to be a part of it.

So I think right now, if you log on to our website, you can order tickets for the celebrity dinner, which I know you've been a part of it. So I think right now, if you log on to our website, you can order tickets for the celebrity dinner, which I know you've been a part of and awesome. Very highly recommend past. Thank you. Well, and Derek's the guy that's not only helped us promote it, but he's given of his resources to which is so kind of you. But we've got that already for sale, tables and dinner tickets, game tickets will go on sale in early June. So we're doing everything about a month later this year, but it's going to be every bit as good as it always has. And we can't wait to see you there.

Yes, must go, especially if you haven't gone before. So Brian, thank you. Safe travels down to Arkansas and have a good time on the call. And hope everybody tunes in on the Jayhawk app or anywhere that they're able to access it on the radio. We owe these hogs one, two, or three for recent years. I hope we get a little bit it on the radio. We owe these hogs one, two, or three for

recent years. I hope we get a little bit of revenge and redemption. We'll find out but it should be fun regardless. Thanks for the preview, Derek. Alright, that's Brian Haney, voice of the Jayhawks and that's going to do it for us

today on Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us so much and we'll be back at you for anything that goes down with KU Baseball or any breaking news elsewhere. So, make sure you're subscribed to the show anywhere you get your podcast