Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Late Night Recap: McCullar & Timberlake Shine, First Look at Furphy

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, we're breaking down late night in the fog. What happened? What'd you miss? What stood out? What didn't stand out from the KU basketball scrimmage as we're now about a month away, even less than that from the start of the KU men's basketball season. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.

Starting point is 00:00:39 on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for being locked on Jayhawks, your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of the show, switching to a little basketball talk. We'll have plenty more KU football talk throughout the week. But late night, the fog was on Friday night. There was obviously a scrimmage. Men's and women's team, who both have high expectations, went scrimmaged. Other stuff went down.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Recruiting stuff went down. So we're going to break that all down. What stood out in the scrimmage? What didn't stand out? Some of the favorite quotes from Bill Self, who was on the microphone during the call of the game on this edition of Locked on Jayhawks. Of course, thank you again to all the everydayers out there listening to each and every one of our episodes.

Starting point is 00:01:18 So Friday night was the action. It was a packed house as it typically is and kind of always is. So it didn't seem like there were any issues with the online booking of everything. Obviously, it was a little bit different with having the seats behind the side a little further up. But originally, this was going to all be about kind of Cooper Flag. And it ended up, I guess, instead being about Rakeese Passmore. And I think he was at the KU football game, too, enjoying some of that. He's going to be committing later this week, so that's certainly one to keep an eye on

Starting point is 00:01:50 with Rakeesh Passmore. We talked a little bit about him on an earlier episode last week about he's a top 50 recruit, 6'5", small forward, really good athlete, and things seem to be trending well for KU. Things seem to be looking good for KU, Things seem to be looking good for KU. Even though it wasn't the big opportunity to possibly land Cooper flag this weekend, still would be a nice little secondary prize to get a top 50 recruit coming out of the class. It seems like KU is going to have a great opportunity to do that with Passmore's commitment later this week that would only add to KU's recruiting class and give them three players in the top 50 for the class of 2024.

Starting point is 00:02:29 So, you know, obviously late night in the fog typically is about recruiting. It wasn't as big of a recruitment, you know, thing this time. There weren't like, you know, five stars in the building or anything like that. And without the Cooper flag stuff, maybe a little more anticlimactic there. But still, if it leads to Passmore, you take a top 50 recruit and run. Flo Rida playing with his shirt off. There were some fun pictures with that. The interaction with Tony Sands was up there.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Seems like the fans were getting into it. Seems like the students were getting into it. And that's all you're kind of asking for here, that everybody has a good time and that everybody's entertained and that it's a good time for the players, that it's a good time for the fans. And it seemed like that happened, and Flo Rida was entertaining as you would expect him to be, making multi-multi-millionaire, making lots of music and entertainment happen.

Starting point is 00:03:13 So that seemed to happen. Mario Chalmers also hit a half-court shot to win some students money. I still think it'd be funny. I would love to see them implement, like, you have to get past half-court with the basketball on DeJuan Harris or Kevin McCuller without getting like the ball stolen, or you have to score on KJ Adams or you have to like, I don't know, you have to stop Hunter Dickinson on the block or something. I think that'd be really funny. I understand why they don't do it. Cause

Starting point is 00:03:38 you don't want to risk putting any of your players like in danger of what if like the person who's guarding Hunter Dickinson,inson you know gets way too physical with it and he ends up like you know you roll somebody's ankle or you get somebody injured i understand why you wouldn't do it but from a pure value of entertainment i would absolutely love to see a random fan to win ten thousand dollars they have to yeah like score on duane harris and they just get like ripped clean like on their first dribble or something i think that'd be a lot of funny or really funny and would show you, you know, just how much better these players are than just your like, you know, average Joe,

Starting point is 00:04:10 so to speak, which I think would be kind of funny. But Mario Chalmers hit the half court shot. I think it was his third try. And yeah, some free cash for some of the students, which always a good thing there. From basketball perspective, this kind of tips off the year for both the women's and the men's teams, both of which have very high expectations. For the men's team, your expectations are Final Four. Your expectations are Big 12 Championship.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Your expectations are National Championship. That comes with the territory of being at the University of Kansas in general, but it also comes with how you've assembled this roster in terms of having three starters from last year's team back who were one seed bringing in the biggest transfer portal player that you possibly could not just I guess literally with Hunter Dickinson although I think uh Connor Vanover is like 7-4 but uh you know Hunter Dickinson number one transfer prospect being brought in you bring in a five star now Marco Jackson or you know darn near it I forget if he ended up four or five whatever he's right's right on the edge there. And expectations are high in Lawrence as they always are. So this kind of tips that off. And then from a woman's

Starting point is 00:05:14 basketball perspective, they have high expectations this year too. Maybe it's not to the same level of, hey, win a national championship, or if you don't go to the final four, you don't raise a banner, whatever. But there are more expectations because the women's team,'t go to the final four, you know, you don't raise a banner, whatever. But there are more expectations because the women's team, you go to the NCAA tournament two years ago, you win an NCAA tournament game. Then last year, you just get left out of the field and you win the women's NIT, you win 25 games. This year expectation is that, I mean, they're picked third in the Big 12, that you can be a Big 12 title contender, that you can be a top 25 team, that you can not just be an NCAA tournament team, but you can be an NCAA tournament team that can make some noise, that can maybe make it to a second weekend.

Starting point is 00:05:52 I think it'd be awesome. It'd be huge if the KU Owens basketball team could be a top four seed. I believe the top four seeds host in the first two rounds of the tournament. I mean, that'd be gigantic for the program and everything they're trying to do. And, you know, we got to see some of the newcomers for both teams. With KU, we got to see Johnny Furphy for the first time. With the KU women's team, they had an overseas trip too. But, you know, in person, you got to see like some Ian Nichols for the first time.

Starting point is 00:06:15 And so it was really cool seeing that. And there's going to be a lot of expectations for both. And when you're talking about just best pure basketball program, I guess, this season in the Big 12. You know, Baylor is going to be up there. They're picked to finish, I think, second in women's, and they're picked to be one of the top teams in men's. Texas is probably going to be one of the top three, four, five teams in men's. They're picked to win it in women's.

Starting point is 00:06:41 Kansas, though, is picked to win it in men's, and they're picked to be top three in women's. So really those top three programs or those three programs are going to be really good in both, and Kansas is going to have a real chance to be the best overall basketball program when you combine with the women's team and the men's team are going to do this year in the Big 12. Now, as far as the scrimmages, we're going to get into here who stood out in the game individually, what stood out as a team, some of my favorite comments from Bill Self, who was on the microphone in the game individually, what stood out as a team. Some of my favorite comments from Bill Self, who was on the microphone for the game.

Starting point is 00:07:07 But overall, I'll just say this. It's a little hard to take too much from the scrimmages that are, you know, A, like I think the women's scrimmage was like a 10-minute running clock. The men's scrimmage was like 15-minute running clock, something like that. It's too hard to take something away from that because, A, small sample size. B, you're playing against yourself. And I talked about this in the late night of the fog preview. It's like if somebody plays well or if one unit plays well,

Starting point is 00:07:30 like if both sides' offenses were really good, would you have taken away from the game that, wow, this team's great and they're going to score so easily? Or would you have taken away from the game that, oh, nobody's playing defense or the defense isn't very good, right? It's the same with like KU football spring games. If some receiver goes off, is it because the receiver's really good? Or is it because the secondary or the corners or the, I don't know, the DBs aren't very good,

Starting point is 00:07:55 right? Like it's always hard when you're playing against yourself to judge what to actually take away as being good and what is not. So B, it's tougher to take it away because of that. And then C, you still have a month before your real games get played. And yes, you have had a couple handfuls of practice to this point. You did have your trip to Puerto Rico. So in theory, you would like to be further along or at least getting along to the point of where you want to be. But even at the beginning of the regular season,

Starting point is 00:08:20 there's going to be a learning curve. There always is each and every college basketball season. You really don't hit your strut. You really don't hit your strut. You really don't, you know, hit your, your kind of go mode until you get into like. And so,

Starting point is 00:08:33 you know, it's, it's never going to be a perfect product this early on, but that's another thing. Like there's, they're still going to have, you know, three more weeks of practices before their exhibition games.

Starting point is 00:08:42 They're going to have four more weeks of practices and games before they get to the regular season so it's it's far from a finished product and that's another reason not to take too much away from the scrimmages and i think further to that point bill self wasn't happy with the performance he made that clear on the broadcast he made that clear in post game um hunter dickinson in post game he was super happy with the fan attendance and he said it was awesome and he's never seen something like this for an event like this. But he also mentioned saving himself a little bit for the dances and not going all out, which I think was kind of indicative of how the game went. It is an open floor setting.

Starting point is 00:09:16 The guys probably aren't playing 100%. Bill Self was probably getting a little annoyed at that. He said in the postgame, or I forget, maybe it was on the broadcast, that it was FaceTiming with some of the NBA players and you know Christian Brown and stuff and uh that Sunday was going to be a hard practice so I'm sure it certainly was but uh that's why you can't take too much away from this scrimmage uh maybe we can take a few things it's not like you can learn rotations either because you know you split your team up into two you didn't get to see who's coming off the bench first or not so there's very limited what you can take, but a few things did stand out to me,

Starting point is 00:09:47 so we're going to get to those coming up next. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company, who has completely changed the non-alcoholic beer game. They make non-alcoholic beers that actually taste good. And our Game Changer of the Week by Athletic Brewing Company. We're going to go back to the football field for our game changer of the week. A lot to pick from because KU really dominated UCF for the entirety of the game. But I'm going to go with the Austin Booker play where Timmy McClain's rolling out to his right. It's 24-0 before halftime. UCF maybe has a chance to

Starting point is 00:10:20 get on the board, maybe get a field goal, maybe a touchdown before half, eat into the lead, grab a little bit of momentum. But Austin Booker gets through and hits the ball out of his hand as he's about to cock back and kind of throw forward, knocks it through, Kansas gets the fumble recovery. And that just completely halted any chance that UCF was going to have some momentum. And then you go down and score in the second half. That was the game changer of the week for KU football. Athletic Brewing Company's brews are great tasting and award-winning

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Starting point is 00:11:18 Athletic Brewing Company, fit for all times. All right, who stood out? What did? What didn't from the KU basketball scrimmage well uh the defense as much as it can in this I mean I guess the defense is pretty good there are a few good defensive plays but you just look back on it and go well it was bad offense it was a lethargic game too many careless turnovers because there were a lot of those too or was it good defense I don't know probably more of the bad offense but you know I guess the defense didn't hurt either there were a

Starting point is 00:11:44 lot of missed open shots and three pointers that were wide open that just clunked away, weren't like close misses either. So, yeah, that wasn't great overall. I do think as much as we saw an ugly game at times that Bill's stuff wasn't super happy about. Like when you only have so many scholarship players, which Kansas does, right? You only have nine scholarship players, which Kansas does, right? You only have nine scholarship players, basically. And every lineup that you're going to throw out there from one of the two teams at different points featured like one walk-on at the court. I don't know. There might've been some lineups where there were two walk-ons on one team at a time on the court. Like that's going to make things tougher than in a real game where you're not splitting yourself into two teams

Starting point is 00:12:21 for a team that isn't super deep, right? So, you know, that does become something that I think is kind of interesting. Something that did stick out to me, Nick Timberlake working off the rest of his teammates for threes. You saw him work really well with DeJuan Harris early. He had a three that he worked well off Hunter Dickinson late in the game. He hit three threes in the game. That was nice to see. He's going to get a lot of open threes or good looks by just working off DeJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson this year. And that's what you saw in the scrimmage. You also saw him

Starting point is 00:12:49 aggressively hit that like mid-range shot. And I think overall, that's my biggest takeaway from this. It was great to see how aggressive Nick Timberlake was overall. In the games in Puerto Rico, wasn't overly aggressive until maybe the last game, getting his shot off. And for a team that you do need more shooting, he's the best shooter on the team. Shoot the ball, right? They need him to be aggressive with his shot. Um, because that is what he's specifically being asked to do. So it was great to see how aggressive he was searching a shot in the mid range, taking those threes. If he was open at all, he was launching the trigger. And, uh, that was great to see. And you're going to need that this year and self had some really nice comments too about his toughness he said um he

Starting point is 00:13:28 loves getting his nose dirty and then he's somebody who has been like a really tough player for them coming in so if you have the toughness side if you're scoring the basketball if you're shooting the ball well all things that you're hoping and expecting him to do bilsov said you know a good year for him would be 37 38 from three um then he's going to make a big impact for this team. And I was impressed with what I saw in the scrimmage more than anything I saw probably in Puerto Rico. The Kevin McCuller advanced offensive game, there were a couple plays. And I think that's what this is.

Starting point is 00:13:55 It's not like an overhaul of Kevin McCuller that I'm expecting him to score 20 points per game this year. But there are a few things extra you're seeing tweaked in there where he looks more like a pro, where he's taking that another step up offensively. Maybe that's just because last year he was able to defer a little bit when you have Jalen Wilson, when you have some of these other guys on the team.

Starting point is 00:14:13 And this year you're more of that guy that has to make the plays. But we saw him make that same move in Puerto Rico that he did in the scrimmage where he kind of gets a guy backed up in that like 14-foot range from the mid-range around the elbow and does the kind of turnaround spinning fadeaway jumper he hit it a couple times in Puerto Rico he hit it again in this game and I think that's going to become more of a staple of his game uh you also see him uh hit the like teardrop floater that wasn't something we saw him hit like at all last year he hit a three the very next possession in the scrimmage after hitting the teardrop floater.

Starting point is 00:14:46 It just feels like to me there's a little bit more expansion to his offensive game this year, and you're going to need that on a team that is going to be counting on him a little bit more this season. You didn't really get to see something you didn't see was Hunter Dickinson really show his game. He wasn't ultra aggressive in this game. I think there was only like one time that he really like posted up and took like a post shot, which you did see a flash.

Starting point is 00:15:08 He had that like turnaround fadeaway in the post that he hit. So you didn't see a flash of it. But, you know, overall, it's going to be much different kind of in game and in season and in the games that actually count. Jamari McDowell had a really good steal after squaring up Johnny Furphy. Furphy and McDowell were kind of isolated at the left wing. And Furphy tried to drive into him. McDowell stayed in front of him, did a great job moving his feet, and ended up getting a steal out of it. That was really impressive to show the defense of McDowell. And you also saw some ups from McDowell later in the game on that one-handed

Starting point is 00:15:37 dunk to show off some of his athleticism. You know, when we go back to our minutes projections and our player previews, I've kind of projected Johnny Furphy, you know, 10 to 15 minutes per game. And I've kind of projected Jamari McDowell more of like spot minutes that he might get in here or there, especially in the non-con, but you know, when the rotation tightens up, maybe that would lean toward Furphy. Still, you know, you saw in the game, there were times where maybe Jamari McDowell looked more advanced than Furphy. And yes, again, this goes back to the talk that you still have like three weeks until Furphy had more catch up to do than, you know, Jamari McDowell. He's only been there like a month, five, six weeks, something like that, whereas McDowell has been there longer. So, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:20 maybe the exponentially Furphy will gain more comfortability going forward. But I don't know. You can almost walk away from that game with a lot of them reps against each other and think that maybe Jamari McDowell right now, if the games were to start today, would be ahead of Johnny Furphy. But still, you saw part of the reasons why the projection is out there for Furphy and that if he does get more comfortable in this next

Starting point is 00:16:39 month, that he could usurp ahead of Jamari McDowell because you saw that block and the save on the play where DeJuan Harris is driving and tries like a kind of teardrop underhand layup, and he just snatches it from behind and blocks it and is able to save it inbounds. Like those athletic plays you can't really teach, and Johnny Furphy has that hustle and effort and kind of ability to him,

Starting point is 00:16:59 which you can see why the potential is there for what he could be. But that'll be certainly, you know, as much as who's going to start the two, Nick Timberlake or Marco Jackson will continue to be a conversation. It doesn't matter that much. Both guys are going to get a good role on the team, play 20, 25, I don't know, more than that minutes per game. It's maybe more interesting with Furphy and Jamari McDowell because theoretically one of them could be part of the rotation.

Starting point is 00:17:20 The other one might only be spot minute. So that could be a really good competition. I think it was in the scrimmage. All right. Here's my favorite bill self comments from the game. Oh, by the way, from the women's scrimmage, I thought also Tyana Jackson hitting a three, look out big 12. If she's doing that because she is already one of the best back to the basket, post block scores and defenders and rebounders in the conference. If she's hitting jump shots and hitting threes and spacing out the defense too. Okay. Women's team watch out. Okay. Favorite bill self comments in the conference. If she's hitting jump shots and hitting threes and spacing out the defense too, okay, woman's team, watch out.

Starting point is 00:17:46 Okay, favorite Bill's self-comments from the game. These next couple of quotes were direct quotes, and I think just emphasize how frustrated he got, but it was also funny if you were watching on the broadcast to see how fired up he was getting because you can't turn the coach off even when you're part of the broadcast. Guys are just out here jacking around, direct quote. This is embarrassing, direct quote quote that is just awful and then he called down to get a time out to get a message across

Starting point is 00:18:11 he uh he he had different points like at one point Greg Gurley was was asking him a question about a player and he talked about him for a couple words and then he just like completely lost lost track of talking about that player because he was so pissed about something that he was like, well, and that's just terrible, you know? And it was really funny because you can't turn the coach off there. But yeah, I mean, at one point he literally took his headset off basically and was like telling, you know, Norm Roberts and Curtis Townsend, get a timeout.

Starting point is 00:18:40 And then he was telling the players like, take this seriously, play harder, like stuff like that. So that was really funny. Now, as far as an informative quote uh this was him talking about el marco jackson he said him and kj adams are the best athletes on the team and i thought this quote was really telling about el marco jackson he said direct quote like one of the best guards we guards we've had in a while in referencing what el marco jackson could become now that doesn't necessarily put a time stamp on it that bill self's not saying he's going to be one of the best guards we've ever had right away no that's not what he's saying you know but maybe it's maybe

Starting point is 00:19:14 it's in year two maybe el marco jackson comes back for year two and he he does the devon dotson thing right where by year two he's kind of like this all-american all-conference level player um i think he's just referring to the potential and the athleticism and everything he has, but that gets you salivating because the idea of what El Marco Jackson could become and you need him to play a pivotal role on this year's team, he can take you kind of that X level. We talked in our shooting guard preview earlier that, you know, that shooting guard position with Timberlake and El Marco Jackson is kind of the X factor on the team. And to hear that from Bill Self, very high praise of what he could become.

Starting point is 00:19:50 All right, so what's the KU women's and men's team? We'll get to that coming up in just a moment. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. From superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has got you covered.

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Starting point is 00:20:41 What's next for KU basketball? Well, for the men's team, they're going to be in, I guess, a little less than three weeks. It'll be three weeks from Sunday, this past Sunday. So I guess a little less than three weeks from when this episode's airing. KU men's basketball is going to be at Illinois for an exhibition game. That'll be televised and everything. Then they'll be at home on November 1st for the Fort Hayes State game.

Starting point is 00:21:03 And then the real opener will be against NC Central on November 6th. We are less than a month out from real games and less than three weeks out from a pretty big exhibition game against an Illinois team that I think is going to be pretty good this year. They brought back Terrence Shannon, who's an all-Big Ten level player. They brought back a couple other players from last year who, you know, maybe they were trying to like Coleman Hawkins was someone who was expecting a breakout last year. He got better from last year, but maybe the breakout comes this year. They got some good transfers coming in. So I think that'll be a great exhibition test for KU.

Starting point is 00:21:32 And then the KU women's team has Northwestern State on November 8th. So they're less than a month out from their first game. And then they go at Penn State and they have shortly, obviously KU has the Maui Invitational at the end of November. KU is going to be in the Cayman Islands with Virginia Tech and UConn at the end of November.

Starting point is 00:21:47 So both these teams have to be able to figure it out quick because there are some tough tests. Obviously KU also has the Champions Classic early that they're going to have to get into and kind of roll into that point. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get any of your podcasts. You can also like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube page. Have a great rest of your day.

Starting point is 00:22:06 We'll see you next time. We'll talk some more KU football with our short and long-term takeaways from the KU UCF game on tomorrow's episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Late Night Recap: McCullar & Timberlake Shine, First Look at Furphy

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