Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks BLOW IT Twice in Double OT Loss to Houston Cougars: Recap of KU's Clutch Struggles

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kansas absolutely blows it. We found out they're not clutch today. They lose to Houston in double overtime as we recap KU Houston 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 LOJ your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're recapping KU falling 92-86

Starting point is 00:00:44 in double overtime in Allen Fieldhouse to the Houston Cougars, a game that Kansas had no business losing. They should have won that game twice. They end up falling, so we're going to recap what happened in the game, game awards, what is next for KU on this episode of the show, which is also brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, trade in account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your next purchase.

Starting point is 00:01:05 You can head on to the next home game against UCF on Tuesday night as they'll now be looking to bounce back. Kansas falls in this one. They are now 5-3 on the season in Big 12 play. They already have five losses on the year. They're three games back of Houston, who has now beat them on their home floor. Kansas ain't winning the Big 12 title. Now, maybe we're kind of beyond that, but I think what we found out this game is kansas has a clutch problem kansas blew this game twice right it'd be one thing if you blew it once and then you were able to secure it in the first overtime period where it's like okay you just

Starting point is 00:01:33 had kind of weird things happen to you the fact that you do it twice right what's the saying uh fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me i don't. That might be the wrong way of saying it. But point being, this was kind of that. And we've seen Kansas, you know, maybe not be able to come through in the clutch maybe as often this past year or so. Year two, I would say that maybe some of the previous year's teams, maybe some of that was just catching up to them. I don't know. But you had no business losing this game, right? I mean, you should have won the game. You're up six in overtime with under a minute to go uh you should have you know they finished on what a

Starting point is 00:02:08 6-0 run in the final 70 seconds or something like that in the regulation period as well that just does not happen under past bill self teams let alone in allen field house like it's happened before on the road it's happened before in the ncaa tournament it does not happen in allen field house and it absolutely did in this performance usually you go down field house and it's close game it's that overtime game and you're the team who like okay something good is going to happen for them and it felt like the opposite in this one it felt like at the end there was like something's gonna go wrong here and you know you think about dewan harris missing the two free throws there and a game where at that point you

Starting point is 00:02:40 felt like you were up six you felt like you had it in the bag and even when dewan missed both free throws is like okay i still think they're gonna be fine but like now you start to think back to the resume for DeJuan Harris who you know I think he's obviously done some great things in his time at Kansas but like you think about the stepping out of the bounds play in the national championship that ended up you know not mattering but he has the 10 second call against Arkansas that changes that one there have been some really bad clutch moments for DeJuan Harris in his time at Kansas. And obviously, this was just much more than DeJuan Harris. Like, DeJuan Harris, or I'm sorry, Ryland Griffin missed his free throws in the second overtime.

Starting point is 00:03:15 AJ Storr missed both of his free throws in the second overtime. Zeke Mayo couldn't get the inbound pass in. It felt like Hunter Dickinson kind of disappeared from the game in the second half like um there were a lot of things that were more than just a one harris of why they weren't clutch and why they blew the game but like i i think it's just it's infuriating because i i think big like if you win this game you feel so much better about where this team is at and like realistically the fact that they lost this game doesn't change the fact that they did a lot of really good things and i think big picture moving forward i think you can actually come away from this game like big picture being like yeah man like they've been playing

Starting point is 00:03:55 better basketball late like they should have beat houston so like theoretically you can come away from this feeling a little bit better about this team you can come away from this saying hey we got to see rylan griffin go off he had five threes that was great to see and f the a that leads to more playing time and more opportunity from bill self like that is a huge win moving forward um the way that flora budunga played he was unbelievable for kansas in this game like i thought he was the best player on the floor for both teams when he was out there like that is a huge positive moving forward for kansas and if that means he's playing more even when kj comes back like that is a good thing for KU so like there are certain things you come

Starting point is 00:04:28 away from this game um you scored pretty well I mean you shot 45 percent from the floor 36 percent from three you could make your free throws you had 12 turnovers which honestly is not that much against a Houston team that forces a bazillion turnovers. Like there are some real long-term positive outlooks that you can take away from this game and say, overall big picture, you should feel better about the team, but you don't right now. You don't today.

Starting point is 00:04:53 And you probably won't tomorrow because you should have won the game. You should have seen the positive result in the game. And so maybe the process, you feel a little bit better about where this team is at after the game, but you certainly don't feel good about how they lost this game and how they did not come out on top and that is the you know i guess if we are talking big picture that is now a big picture scare right does that not feel like a very logical way for this team to get upset in the first round or the second round of the ncaa tournament now right that you can't get an inbound pass in and you blow the game late or you can't

Starting point is 00:05:22 make free throws late and then the other team goes down and Kansas shot those are things that happened in the NCAA tournament and they showed themselves to be very prone to it in this Houston game and so um they're just a lot of questions there like why are you missing all these free throws right it feels like this has been a thing for years with Kansas they just haven't been a good free throw shooting team and even they bring in players who are like transfers from other schools who are good free throw shooters, and they still cannot make their free throws. Like, what is going on there? I don't know why you continue to have – I love Zeke Mayo, but it's like eventually after one of these five-second calls,

Starting point is 00:05:53 it's like maybe switch up who's having the inbound on one of these plays. It felt like to me Hunter Dickinson got kind of punked by Juwan Roberts in this game. And, you know, Dickinson actually had a solid game, but like Juwan Roberts was doing everything for Houston to kind of grit through and win that game and uh again like rylan griffin and florida those are those are two huge takeaways from this game and a positive for kansas to come away from this but you had no business you should have won this game twice right and then once you got to the second overtime and you missed two free throws to start off and they had a nice start to it it felt like you were just kind of done right flory fouls out at the beginning of the second

Starting point is 00:06:27 overtime it just felt like you were kind of done and so like i said earlier kansas is now sitting in a situation in the big 12 where they are five and three they have three losses in the big 12 houston's now sitting in a situation where they are undefeated they're eight no and they have a win at kansas you're three games back there are also teams in front of you Texas Texas five and two Arizona and Iowa State are both seven and one you're obviously already lost at uh Iowa State as well Baylor is also there five and three there is too much carnage carnage either next to you or in front of you that like kiss winning the big 12 goodbye at this point and we've talked about this before, at the end of the day, with the way the conferences are,

Starting point is 00:07:06 you care probably more about NCAA tournaments, meaning the streak isn't alive anymore anyway, right? And that's what it'll come down to here for Kansas. But that is a very disappointing result for a team that was preseason number one in the AP poll to basically through eight games of conference play, 12 more games of conference play to go, that in my eyes, I'm just like, no, they can't win the Big 12 now. And I get it.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Like, mathematically, of course they can. But, like, realistically, you look at the schedule for Houston and Iowa State down the stretch, and it's like, Kansas is going to lose more games, right? Whether it's losing in the clutch like this one or losing in a different way. But it's like, how many games are really all these teams going to lose down the stretch?

Starting point is 00:07:42 It's like, with Houston, okay, here's the remaining road games at west virginia just got smoked by kansas state at colorado at arizona at arizona state at texas tech and baylor how many of those they lose worst case they lose what two three no let's say worst case they lose one at home so at worst they're losing four games in big 12 play you confident kansas is is gonna go what would that be uh i think because it's a 20 game schedule now are you confident that kansas would go? What would that be? Because it's a 20-game schedule now. Are you confident that Kansas would go 11-1 the rest of the way in the schedule? No. So, like, again, the big picture things are important,

Starting point is 00:08:13 and it doesn't mean you have to win the Big 12 to go far in the NCAA tournament, but that is a result of this happening. And I think among all of KU's losses so far this season, right, you lost at Missouri, your hated rival, right? You lost the game against Creighton where you weren't ultra competitive. You lost the game at home against West Virginia where you just had a very poor showing in the first half, and it was very disappointing. And yet among all of those, maybe this is prisoner of the moment speaking, but because of the fact that you had an opportunity to get this huge win and probably have a huge momentum booster and get back in the Big 12 race, and you just let it slip through your fingertips by your own fruition, this feels like the most disappointing loss of the season because you couldn't handle it in the clutch. So we'll see where they go from here because I think your next game is really going to be a gut check if you're Kansas.

Starting point is 00:09:01 Where do you want to go from here as a team, right? You can bounce back from this and let this be the turning point of the season, or this can be the season, the moment of the season where there's been a lot of turmoil back and forth that kind of crushes you. So I'm curious to see how they respond from here. Let's get to game trophies. There were some positive performances. There were some obviously negative things that happened. Let's discuss that on the other side.

Starting point is 00:09:21 This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Attending NFL playoff games is an experience like no other. The energy, the excitement, and the connection with other fans is unmatched. I remember the thrill of, you know, seeing the Chiefs-Bengals AFC Championship game a couple years ago, and I got those tickets on at GameTime. There's a memory that I'll never forget,

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Starting point is 00:10:19 Kansas Falls, 9286. Don't forget, you can check out LockedOnCollegeBasketball. I'm sure they'll have plenty to say on this game for your second listen every day. All right, we're going to get to our game trophies. Best moment. There were some fun moments in this game. I think the Ryland three ball on the first half where it was like the third shot of the possession. They were getting all the offensive rebounds.

Starting point is 00:10:41 They were matching some of the physicality and toughness of Houston. that leads to the three i think that was a really cool moment um i i think the uh book end buckets by flory badunga was really cool the one at the end of the first half and then he starts the second half with a dunk we'll get more on flory here in a second uh the rylan griffin three on uh what was a great pass by dewan harris again dewan was not clutch at the end he's got to make those free throws he had the one for five free throw game against Iowa State recently here, too. But DeJuan did have 12 assists, at the very least, to just one turnover. And he does get credit for that against a Houston defense that typically forces a lot of turnovers. And he had that one great pass that was driving the baseline, jumps in the air,

Starting point is 00:11:16 kicks to the corner, Ryland Griffin cans the three and makes it 64-60. That was a cool moment. And then the Ryland Griffin three to make it 77-73 in overtime. It felt like that was going to be the game changer. Then you get to stop. It felt like that was going to be Kansas wins the game and Ryland Griffin's three is the big moment that changes things. Unfortunately, our worst moments of the game. I mean, a lot to choose from here. The obvious ones are the end of game sequences. Let me give a couple other ones. First, there was that missed dunk by Shaquille Moore where he heard the footsteps behind him um and that was part of the second half the start of

Starting point is 00:11:48 the second half I should say where Kansas was really bad at the start of the second half like that's another area where if Kansas is a little bit better at the start of the second half maybe they don't even need some of this stuff uh at the end of the game but yeah that was poor uh AJ Storrs shot selection was rough for KU and that was a problem for Kansas because you play a good Houston defense, you have to be disciplined on the offensive end. And, you know, it feels like any momentum that AJ Storr gained in the TCU game, you gave it all back and you didn't regain it in any way in this Houston game, which is certainly unfortunate there. I think the five-second call where you had two timeouts and then the full final 70 seconds of regulation, like you could just kind of lump all of that together, right, of just blowing that game in a real way at that point in time.

Starting point is 00:12:39 And then the final sequence in overtime, that one feels even worse to me because you're up six with like 30 seconds left and you're shooting two free throws. All you have to do is one more thing right or they have to do one more thing not perfect. You either need to make one of your two free throws, which is not a one-on-one. It was two free throws. You need to either make one of two free throws. So that's two opportunities. Make a stop on their shot, right?

Starting point is 00:13:13 Get the inbound pass in then make one of two free throws or theoretically since they didn't get the inbound pass in then make a stop so they basically ended up with four things they needed to go against them but realistically if you get the inbound pass and it would have been even more things so like just ultra infuriating um and yeah that can't happen you look at ken palm and do you know who the number one team in the country is in division one experience it is the kansas jayhawks they certainly have not played like it at times this year and did not play like it uh in the clutch of this game and then also like i mean the start of the second overtime where it's like you have rylan griffin to the free throw line typically a good free throw shooter he misses both and because he misses the second it allows for a live ball rebound

Starting point is 00:13:47 foul on floyd badunga where he fouls out of the game and he had been your best player to that point in time so it's like that was a really bad moment for you too because that felt like oh now the wind is really out of your sails uh the appalling stat of the game it has to be the free throw shooting i mean both teams shot horribly on free throws. Houston was 14 of 25, 56%. Kansas was 17 of 30, 57%. That was just very appalling from both ends of the court for KU. And yeah, that was very not good for KU. So I think that was certainly the most appalling stat of the game. I do want to give student section of the game, which goes to KU. Obviously, that would be your only choice here. Bill self kind of called about this week and it was loud. KU did not lose that game because of the student section.

Starting point is 00:14:30 They were there, they brought it. And that was really good stuff from them. What about offensive MVP for KU? So Ryland Griffin had 17 points. He had five, three pointers. He also had an assist.

Starting point is 00:14:41 He had a really good drop off pass to Flory Badunga. Flory had was seven of 10 from the floor. Also, Flory 5 of 7 at the free throw line. So, like, that's what maybe going back to the appalling stat, that's even more appalling. Kansas was 17 of 30 at the line. It wasn't even like they did, like, a hack of Flory thing. It hasn't been a great free throw shooter up to this point.

Starting point is 00:14:58 If you take out Flory Badunga's free throw shooting, which, you know, again, on paper, Flory is one of your worst free throw shooters on the team kansas was 12 of 23 on free throws outside of florida but he was five of seven and i just realized aj store was oh of four what the heck man um okay but yeah so flory uh 19 points good efficiency also had three offensive rebounds he also had two assists that one play where flory um had the wherewithal to pass it off to Hunter Dickinson for what ended up being an and one for Hunter was really impressive growth that we've seen from Flory that he has a little bit more to his game here and there. Zeke Mayo had 16 points, but he also had three turnovers.

Starting point is 00:15:37 He also was the inbounder on those struggle plays. He also had a really bad plus minus, minus 17, took him 17 shots. I don't think it would be Zeke in this one just one of eight from three um you could say juan harris with the 12 assists to one turnover given the opponent with houston but uh missing that layup in the second overtime missing the two free throws i don't think we can go there hunter had a decent game 17 points 6 of 11 you know eight rebounds only one on the offensive end of the court um i thought his struggles were more so when he had to guard juwan roberts um and maybe left a rebound here there to get to but overall he was solid but yeah i think this has to

Starting point is 00:16:09 be between flory and uh rylan griffin i am gonna go rylan griffin because i think the three-point shooting really opens things up he was five of six and three the rest of kansas was four of 19 from three if they do not have rylan griffin from three they're not even in that position to get to second overtime or to blow the game in regulation or in uh the first overtime so uh rylan griffin i'll give my offensive mvp uh defensive mvp honestly anybody not trying to stop uh juwan roberts who had 24 points and just kept doing like the same move over and over again also malik wilson k who could not stop him and he's been like a very low point per gamegame scorer this year for Houston so far this season. This is what's crazy, though.

Starting point is 00:16:48 Kansas had zero blocks against Houston. How does that happen? You know what I mean? It felt like Houston had a really good game shooting from the midrange, probably better than they normally do, but no blocks. Are you serious? Also, Kansas only had four steals. You forced Houston in a game that there were two overtimes right so you played 50 minutes of basketball houston only had five turnovers that

Starting point is 00:17:10 that also is kind of unacceptable and you know um you're not gonna win many games where you're forcing a turnover every 10 minutes from the opposition so i i don't know who i really want to even go with here on the defensive side of the ball if you're KU. I guess LJ Cryer only had nine points on two of 12 shooting. That's a really good job by the Kansas defense. Emmanuel Sharp hit those key threes late in the game, but he was two for eight. So maybe the KU guards like Shaq Moore and DeJuan Harris and Zeke Mayo get a little bit of credit for the defensive end. Mayo also had eight defensive rebounds, so maybe they would share that award here for KU.

Starting point is 00:17:45 All right, doesn't feel any better after talking this out. But what's next for KU as they try to bounce back? We discussed that on the other side. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Man, I still can't believe KU lost that game. So KU now 5-3 on the season, five losses overall, 5-3 in Big 12 play. What is next for the Jayhawks?

Starting point is 00:18:05 Well, they have UCF back at home, which last time they played UCF, it certainly was a good bounce-back spot for KU, and they certainly did that. I'd imagine this one will be a little bit closer if you're setting the line at UCF plus 50. I think UCF will play them a lot tougher this go-around. And we can't even say that, like, okay, you have the Allen Fieldhouse magic there. I don't know. This team has overcome the Allen Fieldhouse magic there. Like, I don't know. This team has overcome the Allen Fieldhouse magic in a negative way by losing this game, and you've already lost two games at home.

Starting point is 00:18:31 And the other one you lost in the clutch to West Virginia at home, too, where, you know, you foul them late, and then you have that weird shot at the end of the game. Yeah, weird all the way around for KU at home in these close games. But UCF at home, you need to win this game. Like, at this point we're just talking about Kansas NCAA tournament seeding we're talking about Kansas just trying to be the best team they can to make a run in March like those sorts of things and you

Starting point is 00:18:52 know win this game so that you can try to maximize that seeding and then you got a big one at Baylor right um in theory if you viewed it as maybe you were predicting the schedule before the season started and you said okay I think they'll beat Houston when they play them in Allen Fieldhouse, but I don't know, tough to win at Waco, right? Maybe you would have said between the Houston game at home and the Baylor game, go one and one and that'll be okay, right? So I guess in theory of an opportunity, if you go 2-0 this week with UCF and Baylor, at least get this one back a little bit.

Starting point is 00:19:22 But the problem with how you lost this game, like it's not just that you lost at home by like six points it's like oh Houston was just a better team you lost the game that you should have won and you blew the game in a lot of different ways so like even if you do win at Baylor and can look back and be like okay well you stole one back you're just going to be sitting there going oh but if they would have won it's like with KU football they won those three straight right games and instead of it being oh you stole some back it was oh could you imagine if they would have won one of their early games and then they'd be going bowling right now right that's just kind of the nature of the beast and so um I I do think like bottom line here like I said there are some positives you can

Starting point is 00:19:57 take away if Flory and Ryland Griffin play like that moving forward it's going to be really hard to beat this Kansas team for a lot of other teams, right? It took Kansas absolutely crudding down their leg to lose this game based on the performances you got from those guys. And so if you continue to get those types of performances, it's going to be really hard to beat Kansas on a night in and night out basis. Unfortunately, Kansas basketball is not measured in moral victories and, oh, big picture, this is a good thing. It's measured in wins and losses. It is measured in a victories and oh big picture this is a good thing it's measured in wins and losses it is measured in a very high pressured environment no pressure no diamonds and uh there certainly weren't any diamonds tonight in the loss against houston so uh those

Starting point is 00:20:36 upcoming games big ucf and baylor uh baylor uh looked a lot better today after uh they got upset in the midweek but an opportunity to to try to go-0 and bounce back a little bit if you're KU. The thing is, too, what made it interesting is there was a comment from Bill Self about KJ Adams that he gave to ESPN earlier today and mentioned with KJ Adams coming back that they were kind of targeting the Baylor game. So it sounds like KJ won't be there for the UCF game, but the Baylor game going to be a big maybe.

Starting point is 00:21:03 And I think that becomes even more interesting based on what happened in this game, right? Because you think about it and AJ Storr struggles after playing well in the TCU game. So it's like, okay, when KJ comes back, I don't think AJ Storr is going to be eating into any of the minutes that KJ was having before he had the injury. But the question now becomes, can Ryland Griffin put together another good game? Can he have a strong game against UCF to where maybe he can eat a little bit into the minutes there? Can Flory Badunga continue to perform well? Like I said, I thought Flory was KU's best player today.

Starting point is 00:21:34 I thought you could argue Juwan Roberts, but I think to me, Flory Badunga was the best player overall on either side of the court tonight. And if he continues to play like that, like, like i don't know are you really going to come back and have kj averaging 28 29 minutes per game which is what he was averaging before and you know knock flory back down to play in 15 18 minutes per game do you even like if flory has another really good performance against ucf do you bring kj off the bench against baylor right at the very least in his first game back do you bring kJ off the bench against Baylor, right? At the very least, in his first game back, do you bring KJ off the bench to see what it at least looks like and figure he's coming back off injury, like maybe he's going to play less?

Starting point is 00:22:12 In my eyes, like, Flory has played well enough, and this game included that, to earn a starting spot in the lineup for KU. And I think the lineups with Flory and Hunter are really good. And I think the fact that, like, KJ would be coming back to me, it makes it an even better situation to have KJ coming off the bench and to start Flory and Hunter. Because the biggest concern when you're starting Flory next to Hunter is you don't have another big man behind them right now.

Starting point is 00:22:38 And if one of them gets in foul trouble, what does that do for the rest of your lineup the rest of the game, right? But if you have KJ back, now you can start Florian Hunter knowing that, okay, if one of them gets in foul trouble, we have KJ who can play the four or the five for you in these different situations. So I'll be very interested to see how KU kind of reintegrates KJ Adams back into the rotation. Does he go right back to starting? Does he go back to a big minutes load?

Starting point is 00:23:01 Do we see other players take some of his minutes, both long-term and short it just a uh lower minute load for kj right off the bat and then he gets backed up you know ramped up but uh we'll start finding out about that it sounds like on saturday against baylor barring any setbacks for kj adams but uh we'll be back for you on monday's episode i do want to uh take a look at uh the 2025-2026 team and take a look at possible starting lineups and where that team could be good and bad. On Tuesday, we'll have a KU-UCF preview, and then we'll have a KU-UCF recap coming at you on Tuesday as well. But that'll do it for tonight's episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:23:36 Sorry we couldn't have a party on this one, and boy, we were close to doing it. But yeah, just not clutch at the end there for KU. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks BLOW IT Twice in Double OT Loss to Houston Cougars: Recap of KU's Clutch Struggles

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