Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Season Predictions + 4th Quarter Numbers on Devin Neal (Lack of) Touches

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks season preview for the upcoming KU basketball season, who the heck is going to be in the starting five? 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 at D Johnson Radio on Twitter. He's Nick Schwert at Nick underscore Schwert. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thank you for making LOJ your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts and find us on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. We're previewing the KU basketball season on today's episode with some fun questions. A little KU football after the close loss to Kansas State. And whose stat line is it anyway where we'll actually look into. I have the fourth quarter numbers. Everybody's just saying, hey, give Devin Neal the ball more in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:00:58 I'm going to actually give you the numbers on what those are at, and we're going to have Nick guess on some of that stuff. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Place your first $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit FanDuel.com to get started today. So Nick, I am in a complete tizzy with who the heck is going to even be the starting five for this team. So let's start with our season preview right here. What is the opening night starting five against Howard? And if you even want to go one game further for the first game that really matters, the North Carolina game, what do you think that starting five is? Forget the starting five down the stretch. What do you think it is right off the bat? Are we assuming that Hunter Dickinson is going to be healthy and ready to

Starting point is 00:01:37 play? Yes, I would. Yeah. Okay. So I think there are four spots that are locked up. I think DeJuan, Zeke, KJ, and Hunter. You can lock those guys in. So even though Zeke didn't start against Washburn, you think he's locked up? He looks like one of the most complete players on the court. He just does. Now, granted, you're always going to look better when you're knocking down threes. If I take away a hot shooting night, you start to say, well, okay, the box score is a little empty, but watching him play out there again, Washburn, everybody looked like they belonged. He just seems to play in control. He can move the ball. Well, he just makes good

Starting point is 00:02:17 decisions. It seems like a very good complimentary piece to Zeke. And I think that's the way I'm looking at this two spot. We already know DeJuan is going to be a starter. So who is the best player to put alongside him? It's not necessarily who's the next best player. Who's the next best guard? Who is the best backcourt mate next to DeJuan? Shaq as electric as he, excuse me, Diggy Coit as electric as he's been. I'm not sure

Starting point is 00:02:47 that's a lineup you're going to roll out a lot with him and DeJuan in the backcourt. Zeke to me makes a little bit more sense. Diggy just, he strikes me as the type of guy you bring off the bench six minutes into the game for instant energy, instant often, spark plug, whatever other cliches you want to throw out there. So those are, I think, your first four starters. And then what I think needs to happen eventually is AJ Storr needs to be your fifth starter. Right now, though, he doesn't look like one of your five best players. So final answer, I'm going to say it'll be, see, I could go off the wall and say, whoa, he's passed more starting. And then he played six minutes and we go, okay. But I'm just

Starting point is 00:03:33 going to go with the most logical answer, which is probably Ryland Griffin. Yeah. And it'd be weird because you're, you're looking at Diggy Coit having a 19 point game and then you're saying, oh, he started, he did really well, now we're going to pull him from the starting lineup for the start of the season. But I kind of agree with you. There were some postgame comments from Bill Self talking about that Zeke Mayo, the reason he put him to the bench

Starting point is 00:03:55 was because he wasn't shooting it enough in practice and he thought this would get his attention. And he had a good game. So it seems like the response Bill Self wanted, that he'll get back into the starting lineup. I mean, could they even start to want Harris, D Diggy Coit, and Zeke Mayo, right? I mean, that's, I think, a possibility. I definitely would.

Starting point is 00:04:13 I would agree with you right now. That's going to be my starting five off the bat. If we're talking about starting five for once we get to March 1st, also agree with you that AJ Storr, it would be most beneficial if he ends up being there. Would you predict that would be the starting five come March, or could you see things going south over the course of the season there? Well, I could see that. Yeah, it could happen. If you're talking about this team reaching their potential, you need your best players to be on the court. So regardless about fit or how he's looked so far, the fact remains that by the end of the season, when you want to be peaking and hitting your strides at the right time, you need to have the most talented players on your team doing the same exact thing individually, hitting their doesn't happen all the time. Guys don't fit. Guys don't work out. But in terms of what needs to happen for, I think, KU to be the best version of themselves,

Starting point is 00:05:09 yeah, AJ Storr needs to be out there. All right. Who plays more minutes this year? Diggy Coit or AJ Storr? AJ Storr. Okay. You feel very big on that? What about Diggy Coit versus Rylan Griffin?

Starting point is 00:05:27 Gosh, that's tough because at the end of the day, we know DeJuan, regardless of what Bill says at media day or whatever, DeJuan's going to play 30 minutes a night. That is going to happen. Lock it in. I do not care. I'm not going to believe anything anybody says about that. DeJuan will play 30 minutes a

Starting point is 00:05:45 night so then it comes down to how valuable of a role does zeke fill so i at first when people were talking about how impressive diggy has looked in practices and the coaches are really impressed and he does this and that i was kind of taking it with some skepticism to say all right that's fine but once the games start how much of this is going to matter against Washburn? That guy was electric. He was the most, I mean, you couldn't take your eyes off of him when he was on the court. So I I'm still, I'm coming around. Don't get me wrong. I I'm definitely more bullish on him than I was two weeks ago, but again, it was Washburn and then we're going to get Howard, but then the schedule tightens up really quickly with these non-con games. So

Starting point is 00:06:28 I'm, I'm keeping a close eye on it, but right now you're asking me today, the end of October, I'm going to stick with Ryland Griffin playing more minutes, but ask me again next week. Okay. Who plays more minutes? Rakeese Passmore or Flory Badunga? I'm going to say Flory because he has less competition. And yes, Hunter's going to play a lot. But when you look at Rakeese and all the talent you have at the guard spot and the wing spot, he's got to beat out a couple of guys just to get into the rotation. Flory is your backup big. Have you watched Zach Clements play? Flory Badunka is your backup big man. So at least you're going to get eight to 10 minutes a night spelling Hunter. Whereas Rakees, I don't think you can lock him in for eight minutes a night right now.

Starting point is 00:07:20 Yeah. I mean, the floor is definitely higher for Flory and the ceiling, no pun intended. The ceiling is higher for Passmore in theory. And what I find interesting, Passmore's played the same amount of minutes in the two exhibitions as AJ Storr, but you know, that that's just exhibition ball, right? But when you think about Flory, because of his position, again, I don't know anything about Hunter's injury. It sounds like it's not serious, but he's 100 Dickinson injury away from playing 20 minutes a night. Maybe more. When I was past more Ryland Griffin goes down or AJ store goes down, or they're just not performing up to standards. You're still in a competition. It's, it's much thinner in the front court than it is at those wing spots. All right. Who winds up being the highest drafted player at any time when they go out?

Starting point is 00:08:07 Right. So you could be comparing 2025 draft verse 2027 draft, whatever, who ends up being the highest drafted player from this year's roster. How tall is Flory? I think he's listed six, nine, six,

Starting point is 00:08:22 eight, but he has like a seven, five wingspan. Yeah. But you know, we said the same thing about cliff alexander and sheck diallo we're like yeah but they're they're not that they don't have prototypical nba size but they got long wingspans didn't end up panning out i'm not trying to see sheck was was picked what 34th something like that. Yeah. And he, he stuck around the NBA for a little while. Um, you know, that's tough because I'm, I want to say Flory because he's closer to being an NBA product than Ricky's pass. Well, I'll tell you what, if Ricky's would have converted that poster dunk that

Starting point is 00:08:59 he went for against Washburn, I would, I would say him, but since he didn't, that's going to knock him down a few spots. It's one of those two guys though, right? It's one of those two freshmen. Well, I think, I think there was a world where AJ store came in and improved the things Bill stuff wanted him to. He's a good score. He's a power athlete wing that he ends up being, you know, a late first round pick. And then at that point, you just take the given commodity, but given the struggles we've seen, I don't think it'd be smart to project that at this point in time. Well, okay. Think about this. Think about this. Yeah. Oh, Chai, a little smaller, but more explosive. Oh, Chai had an all American senior season and went 13th overall. Do you see any world where AJ store goes 13th overall? I mean,

Starting point is 00:09:45 not now, not now, given how this has started. Right. But you could say store is a bigger player than OJ store probably has more off the bounce when he's right. Then OJ, but OJ much better shooter,

Starting point is 00:09:55 which is like the most important thing in the world than the NBA for wings. Now you could also say that again, we're talking about whenever an OJ had, I mean, probably got glowing reviews in the interviews. Yes. Right. Or as a story,

Starting point is 00:10:10 you're at your seventh school in seven years, made up for all of his shortcomings. Yes. With that stuff. The thing with AJ store, he could have another year in theory. So who's to say that that's not going to be good for him, but that's not going to be good for his draft stock because he'll have spent five years in college.

Starting point is 00:10:26 You know that. He'll be four. Which is what? Same as Ochai. Okay, yeah, that's right. But still, I don't see a world where he goes 13th overall. He'd have to have the All-American season. But again, Ochai, athlete, three-point shooting.

Starting point is 00:10:38 I don't know that AJ Storer has that kind of stuff. So I'm going Flory Badunga. And I'm trying to think of a ceiling i mean the best player in the nba or the world that plays like him would probably be bam out of bio right and that but that's best case scenario you're talking about nba all-star top 20 player in the nba after that i really do struggle to think of like six, nine guys who basically have to play the five. Right. And can't shoot.

Starting point is 00:11:07 And even bam, like can pass really well. Right. So I would actually go Ricky's pass more. Yeah. As I, as I kind of talk through it, that probably makes the most sense because even at the point where Flory gets

Starting point is 00:11:21 drafted, if he goes this year, I don't think he's going to have the numbers to be like a lottery pick. So I'm looking at 2026 for him as well. Same as Ricky. So at that point, I'll just go with the guy who it's easier for me to figure out why an NBA team would fall in love with you. All right. Last one over under two and a half trophies. So when I say trophy, it can be team or individual. You can, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:44 you can win the big 12 regular season, big 12 post season. They're not in any, uh, uh, conference tournament or non-conference tournaments this year, but that you can make one for the final four. You can win one for the national title. If anybody wins, you know, the wooden award or the Bob Cousy award or any of these things over under two and a half trophies for the KU team this year. And for, for what it's worth i believe they hand out a trophy for big 12 player of the year yes you know yeah they do they do it at the big 12 tournament print out sheet of paper it's a certificate um but you know what 10 years ago it'd be like oh best player on ku on KU, probably winning that award.

Starting point is 00:12:25 Now, with how many teams there are, it's much harder, even if you're like an All-American candidate, to win Big 12 Player of the Year. With that being said, I'm still going to say Hunter wins Big 12 Player of the Year. I think he's going to put up like a 20-10 season. So there's one. Big 12 is going to be tough sledding. Big 12 is going to be tough sledding big 12 is going to be tough sledding

Starting point is 00:12:47 to win the big 12 championship if you win one of the two conference regular season you feel great yeah but man i mean what is it five teams in the top 10 come from the big 12 and this is a team with a lot of transfers and as we we've went over many, many times, typically these teams don't come out of the gates quite as hot as the Bill Self teams that have a bunch of dudes who have been around for a long time. So I'm just protecting myself. I'm not being a pessimist.

Starting point is 00:13:20 I'm just protecting against the odds. I'm going to say under. Ooh. Okay. a pessimist i'm just protecting against the odds i'm gonna say under oh okay um does the nabc pete newell big man of the year award does that count for i mean it comes with a trophy zach edie won it last year a trophy is a trophy right because i mean if hunter is winning big to a player of the year he might win that award too that's two right off the bat but he's got to go up against cooper flag for that one cooper flag may have already won that award. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Maybe they'll count him as wing. I don't know. We'll see. I'll say over, I'll say over that, that, I mean, if you win a national title,

Starting point is 00:13:53 that's two for the final four natty right away. Or if you win, you know, the big 12, both regular season posts, then you just got to get one more. So yeah, I'll take the over,

Starting point is 00:14:01 but yeah, you can convince me either way. All right, let's get to a little KU football. What is wrong with the jayhawks why does this keep happening today's episode of the show is brought to you by fanduel sportsbook get ready to tackle the nfl action with fanduel america's number one sportsbook because right now new customers can bet five dollars get 150 in bonus bets if you win the fanduel sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place.

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Starting point is 00:14:53 All right, continuing on with a little KU football talk here. So another close loss, another close one to Kansas State where you have several different plays you can point back to and be like they should have won this game or they could have won this game. Seven straight one-score losses now. And at some point, like, is there a little bit of bad luck in this? Yeah, probably. But, like, at some point when it keeps happening,

Starting point is 00:15:14 there has to be a reason why it keeps happening and something you have to point to that you say, we need to do this better so it stops happening. What to you is the biggest reason why this keeps happening? Oh, that's a loaded question. Um, I, you know what? I, I don't know. I don't know. I, I'm not going to lie to you and try to act like I've come up with a solution on how to fix this team's problems. What I do think needs to be addressed is probably not going to happen until the office, like we can get into play calling. Um, the, the train came off the tracks for this

Starting point is 00:15:53 team. And I think that things can snowball very quickly in a sport where every single game seems massive, whether it's against your biggest rival or a non-con team. Every single win or loss dramatically affects the outlook for the rest of your season. So going back to UNLV and Illinois, those games at the time that just felt like, okay, it's fine. I know this isn't what we want, but there's still plenty of football left in front of you.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Well, each one that comes after that, where the mistakes are repeated, amplifies them. Now they're becoming bigger than just, oh, we were unlucky here. Oh, we made some bad mistakes here. And I'll be honest. I keep trying to look at Lance Leipold and wonder what happened here. Because at some point, I do think we have to stop just like blaming Jalen and blaming Jeff Grimes. Lance Leipold, when you think about like his archetype as a coach, he's not the schemer, right? He's not the elite recruiter. He is the CEO. He's the program builder. And I look at a guy and again, I'm not necessarily criticizing. Maybe you can take it as this, but I'm more so just looking at the data from the last year. He spent a lot of time talking about fan support. He spent a lot

Starting point is 00:17:19 of time seemingly caring about NIL and fundraising and getting this new stadium built and I just wonder if he took his eye off the ball a little bit I just wonder if the things that have made him such a great coach over the last two decades he forgot about and abandoned a little bit because for the first time in his career he is dealing with extra factors that he's never had to deal with or worry about or prioritize in past years. And I wonder if in doing so, he lost out on all of the factors and all of the things and qualities that he has that has made him such a tremendous coach because this team looks undisciplined they look like even in games

Starting point is 00:18:07 where the the game plan is sound and they come out of the gates firing like they did against kansas state all of a sudden one mistake a dropped pass by quentin skinner then a guy running out of bounds like we can excuse all of these individually and say oh you know guys drop passes sometimes it happens okay a guy on special teams trying to make a play made a mistake all of these individually are fine you put them all together game after game week after week it starts to become a pattern and you start to say why why does this happen to your team more than it happens to everybody else and i think there's going to have to be a big, long look in the mirror. If you're Lance Leipold at the end of the season

Starting point is 00:18:49 and say, where did I go wrong? Where did I miss step? And how do we get back on track and back to doing the things that Lance Leipold coach teams are used to doing? All right. Well said, uh, let's just move on from there. Whose stat line is it anyway? Next. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by 5-Hour Energy. Our friends over at 5-Hour Energy know that being a passionate football fan isn't just a hobby, it's a way of life. It takes a lot of energy to power through all-day tailgates, touchdowns, celebrations, or an agonizing second overtime, which is why they've created the Stand the Fan five-hour energy shot

Starting point is 00:19:25 with a special flavor called Fan Fuel, the energy shot made just for super fans, the fans who are first in the parking lot and who are last to leave. We see you. You know what else gave a bit of Jayhawk fan fuel this week was when Diggy Coit was hitting all those threes against Washburn, five of them to be exact, and he is five-hour energy. I mean, he's pressing guys up and down the court. He's shifting around. He's hitting threes against Washburn, five of them to be exact. And he is five-hour energy. I mean, he's pressing guys up and down the court. He's shifting around.

Starting point is 00:19:48 He's hitting threes. Five-hour energy knows that no matter what team you root for, being a fan requires heart, soul, and a whole lot of energy. Whether you prepare for your big tailgate or your ironing your jersey, your game day to-do list is always a mile long. That's why the limited edition Stand the Fan five-hour energy shot is here to help you keep you fueled throughout the season. What's your fan fuel this week?

Starting point is 00:20:07 Whatever it is, do it with 5-Hour Energy. Available on 5hourenergy.com shipped nationwide. Alright, finishing things up. Whose stat line is it anyway? People have been upset about KU football not giving Devin Neal the ball in key moments in the fourth quarter.

Starting point is 00:20:26 So we have actual numbers here. So, Nick, would you like to take a guess at the exact number of touches that Devin Neal has in the fourth quarter of FBS games this season? And I'll give you the amount of plays that they've run. I guess it would be, oh gosh, I didn't total this up before. You're probably looking around 140, somewhere in that range. So would you like to guess how many Devin Neal has in terms of touches? In seven games, is that right? Seven FPS games?

Starting point is 00:20:54 Yes, seven FPS games, yes. Just the fourth quarter. So 20 plays a game. Shoot. It's actually like 165 ish for the total place. It goes six touches a game in the fourth quarter. So 42 touches. That would be well too high.

Starting point is 00:21:15 The correct answer is 24 runs of which he has 169 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Jalen has thrown the ball 50 times. He has run the ball 16 times, and then he's been sacked an additional three other. Devin has the 24 runs. Hyshaw has six, two for Luke Graham, and then a run for a couple other guys here and there.

Starting point is 00:21:36 But if I take out the drives where it was under two minutes to go, because obviously keep in mind, if it's under two minutes to go, you're down late, you're not going to run the the ball so probably not fair to count those into the stats so if I take out the drives with under two minutes where KU was down and they have to throw the ball this is what you would end up being left with 52 plays Jalen Daniels 14 of 28 passing for 165 yards touchdown interception 13 carries for 59 yards a touchdown and a fumble that equates to 41 plays for Jalen Daniels with 224 yards two touchdowns two turnovers the Devin Neal ones you get 24 carries for 169 yards with two touchdowns or I'm sorry you get

Starting point is 00:22:21 23 carries for 166 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers. So if I just equate this out, finish out all this math, this will be the easy way to put it. In the fourth quarter this year, Devin Neal has 23 touches. They're averaging seven yards per play on those plays. Jalen Daniels has 41 plays. If you subtract the one play that was an intentional grounding, KU would be averaging 5.2 yards per play. It's kind of wild because if you, if you, let's say you coming into the season, you thought KU's offense was going to be terrible.

Starting point is 00:23:03 You knew that Jalen Daniels was going to be bad um and that the only thing the only saving grace on offense was Devin Neal and you think about like maybe this is too strong of a comparison but like Derrick Henry with the Titans never had a good quarterback was never a particularly great offense, but they knew how to put teams away because nobody wanted to tackle Derrick Henry in the fourth quarter. Now, Devin's not that. He's not a physically imposing back, but he is a very effective one and a very efficient one. And it would be shocking to me now, having seen what we've seen this season and knowing that Jalen has struggled and knowing

Starting point is 00:23:45 that Devin has played so well that you could get to the end of the game where all you need to do is move the ball, chew up the clock and put teams away. And you are refusing to do it. You are refusing to go with the one thing that not only we know works, but is also a very effective strategy for putting teams away late in games. Run the ball, chew up the clock, and they don't do it. And again, this kind of goes back to the mistakes. It's like in a vacuum, I can explain. We could probably go through and watch the fourth quarter

Starting point is 00:24:19 for all these games and say, okay, I see why they did that there. And there may only be like one play where you'd say, why didn't they hand it off to Devin there? Why didn't they hand it off to Devin here? In an individual game, you'd say, okay, I see why they did that there. And there may only be like one play where you'd say, why didn't they hand it off to Devin there? Why didn't they hand it off to Devin here? In an individual game, you'd say, okay, one mistake, no big deal. You put them all together.

Starting point is 00:24:31 And that's when you say, why don't they want him to get touches when the game is on the line? And he has been so, so good for you. Yeah. And it's like the one game they actually did, it was West Virginia and it didn't work out. So I wonder if that clouded the judgment that it's like, Oh, see, we tried it. It didn't work, but I don't know. It's your best player. Maybe try it.

Starting point is 00:24:52 I would hope, I would hope coaches aren't making decisions based off of one thing that happened in one game a month ago, you know, like, yeah, it's shocking. And I'm assuming every single defensive coordinator is going into these games saying like oh yeah they're gonna they're gonna put us away with devon and then all of a sudden jalen's scrambling diving and like again that fumble against kansas state i don't really blame jalen he was trying to make a play the dude's tough as hell like i love that he's willing to go out there and do that but it's shouldn't be left up to Jalen. It should be left up to the coaches and the offensive coordinator to say, we are going to put the ball in number four's hands. Yeah. All right. That'll do it for this episode of the show. Uh, subscribe anywhere you get your podcast checks out on our YouTube page. She's Nick Schwert. I'm Derek Johnson.

Starting point is 00:25:39 See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Season Predictions + 4th Quarter Numbers on Devin Neal (Lack of) Touches

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