Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Have a Road Problem, Lose 76-67 at Missouri Tigers Despite David Coit's Strong Game

Starting point is 00:00:00 A strong second half comeback can't hide the fact that Kansas basketball has some real issues. We get into it as the road woes continue for KU. 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 find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. This is Locked On Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast,

Starting point is 00:00:31 including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. Thank you for making your first listen every day. We had plenty to talk about over the weekend with some KU football stuff. Some of that stuff ended up being really good news. This was not in that same hill. Kansas has now lost eight of their last nine games on the road dating back to last season as they fall in Columbia 76 to 67. Also their second straight loss, both of them coming on the road. And I think what we've now seen is this team has real

Starting point is 00:01:00 problems. We kind of said after the Creighton game, it was not a good game from KU. They did not play well. Creighton did play well, but a good game from KU. They did not play well. Creighton did play well, but also it was one of those situations where it's like, okay, kind of reserving opinions on this team based on what happens in the next game. So let's talk about that on this episode and plenty more. We'll get to game awards and a little bit of an update. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:01:25 New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. So yeah, you go back to the Creighton game, and it's like, okay, was that just a one-off? Did you have a bad game? The opponent had a good game. It was on the road for the first time. And if you bounce back and win this game, then it's easier to scoot past that and say, okay, it's a one-off. Now that you've lost two straight games on the road, looking the way you did, I mean, this game ends up 76 to 67 where you have it close

Starting point is 00:01:53 late, but the first, what, 25, 30 minutes of game time of this one was really, really bad. You start to come away from this going, man, this doesn't feel all that different than a season ago. You have some familiar faces coming back, so that makes a little bit of sense but you have a lot of new faces a lot of new transfers that you put a lot of time effort and capital a lot of money into bringing into the program and things look eerily similar to where they did last season i saw a lot of people at half time put it out there that was the worst half of ku basketball since when it was the worst half basketball for k I think sometimes we get short-sighted with this stuff do we remember the second half of the Gonzaga game in the NCAA tournament do we remember the entire game against

Starting point is 00:02:33 Houston on their senior day in the regular season finale do we remember the KU Cincinnati second half I know that was a beat up Kansas stuff maybe you you preclude that one away do we remember the Kansas Texas Tech game from this past season this has been what is happening to this core of players, this team. When things are not going well, when they're playing on the road, they get blown out in a very real way, which shows that they have real tangible issues. And when they can be exploited and they don't have, you know, as many things going in their way,

Starting point is 00:03:02 they are at risk of this exact thing happening. When things are not going right, they can't stay in front of the ball. And then they don't really have the defense struggling against teams who run a lot of screens and spread you out and shoot a lot of threes. Those become problems because Hunter Dickinson is a slower-footed center for KU on the defensive end of the court. And they're playing two big basketball the majority of the time. We saw three big basketball in this game at one point in time. And you see that in the result of Missouri, you know, really putting up a strong offensive first, again, 25, 30 minutes of the game.

Starting point is 00:03:36 During that 15-0 KU run they went on, that was the one point where they kind of slowed down Missouri. I think part of that was Missouri just, you know, not executing as well. But you see Tamar Bates going for 29 points uh you see them shooting i mean they end up shooting 44 percent 31 from three i would love to know though outside of that that 15-0 stretch what it was for the other part of the game and they just kept getting to the free throw line because if they're able to consistently drive in at the rim they're going to put themselves in positions to get fouled now is it weird that kansas has been out shot at the free throw line like a ton these last two games on the road like

Starting point is 00:04:08 that is unfortunate especially with as many shots as Kansas does take at the rim you'd think that'd be closer and Missouri would go in 26 of 31 on free throws is totally not ideal there um but you know right now that's a problem you can't really score at a consistent level I mean we saw in the first half of this one, we saw it in the Creighton game, like the shot selection, not being great for KU, not having guys who can consistently get you buckets or can take good shots. The fact that your transfers have struggled,

Starting point is 00:04:36 they were supposed to kind of be those guys, has certainly been problematic there. You can't hold onto the ball in the first half. I mean, they actually did a good job with turnovers in the Creighton game and have for the most part this season. But they ended up with 22 turnovers in this game with 15 of them coming in the first half. That's really where you lost this game.

Starting point is 00:04:51 If in the first half you have, say, 10 turnovers instead of the 15 that you put up, let's say that leads to five extra possessions. Let's say you make two of the shots. You shot 40% from the game, so that'd be in line with that. Even if they're both twos, I know, I know you lose by nine. So it's easy to go, oh, that's four extra points. But that changes the way the game is played, right? Now, instead of David Coit's three to make it 63 to 60,

Starting point is 00:05:14 you're up 64 to 63, right? The game goes differently toward the end of that one. So yeah, that wasn't great. And I will say credit this team for not just folding. Like it kind of felt like early in that second half they were folding um and it was a disappointing effort in the first half in that first start of the second half especially after you just lost to creighton you thought you were going to come out of this fired up ready to go you were going to be ready to play you're going to be chomping at the bit you're going to come out emotional

Starting point is 00:05:40 rivalry game a bunch of seniors on the team and that didn't happen so that was disappointing but again credit to them for at least not just dying at the end there and continuing to fight back and making it a bit of a game late and at least giving yourself a chance to win if a few bounces go your way here there a little bit later as the game went on so at least credit to that but still continually to have these road issues they are now three and ten on the road in the i think i'll put this on twitter as the Hunter Dickinson era. I don't know. Call it what you want.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Over these last two seasons, just 3-10 on the road. That will not get it done. It's just, I know the NCAA tournament's not played on the road, but it's not played at home either. And to continually have these issues with a more experienced team, and like in this one, in the Creighton game, where you just just look lethargic you just looked like you were lacking energy at big points of the game right like it's just bad enough it's uh it's very frustrating I think to watch as well because you know obviously if your team loses if your team loses big you're gonna be frustrated no matter what right but at the end of the day I think it is easier to remove yourself from a situation where if the other team just goes bonkers from three or you just have like an outlier shooting game or just didn't perform well in some way or another.

Starting point is 00:06:50 That's one thing. When it looks super slow and lethargic and like you're playing in sand and they're not and you're just doing stupid stuff like that. Where's it's brutal. It's brutal. The transfers at this point, you just haven't gotten enough there like the amount of i think they said this in the broadcast um aj store like missed a shot and they were like that's a shot he's paid too much money to miss that shot right and i don't mean to point out aj store in general um but it's it's really all of the transfers except for i guess

Starting point is 00:07:23 david coit was was really good this game for ku but besides that it's just all of the transfers, except for, I guess, David Coit was really good this game for KU. But besides that, it's just like, you're paying. I don't know. I don't know. How much NIL money are they paying with all these transfers, right? There's a lot of money going to that point. And right now, KU has gotten in. It's been bad.

Starting point is 00:07:36 The depth has been better than it was a season ago. There still has been way too many questions. There still has been way too many games of some of these players of just kind of, you know, two points, points four points not making a big impact it's happening too much um and it doesn't mean that they can't or that they won't figure it out but it's pretty ugly early and i can't help but wonder if this is just like absolutely if we're gonna take this like to a big picture conversation maybe this is more of an off-season thing if this is just like absolutely, if we're going to take this like to a big picture conversation, maybe this is more of an offseason thing. If this is just not a good approach for a Bill Self team to like go so hard in the portal, like maybe the approach for a Bill Self team should be recruiting really hard in high school, finding guys who can stick in the program for years, sticking with those guys, and then maybe adding like that one transfer addition to try to take you over the top, right?

Starting point is 00:08:22 You think of like Remy Martin being that one transfer addition, even that had certainly its lumps and peaks and valleys here, right? In the same way with high school recruiting in terms of like the top five, top 10 guys, and it's that one guy that changes things. Like, I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting because I just saw Zuby Ejifer against Kansas State go for like 28 points and 13 rebounds to help them destroy Kansas State. And I'm sitting there like, well, you know, maybe Hunter's still more skilled on the offensive end,

Starting point is 00:08:47 and maybe they would have been better last year with Hunter. But like for this year, would they be better if they still had Zuby and Uday from a defensive perspective and from, I don't know, some of the things that are going awry for them. But, you know, it's just a huge problem because you look at it. And I think specifically when you look at the roles of the transfers that you brought in it was specifically to me to add to the team's offense last year was one of bill self's least efficient offenses according to ken bomb and his entire time coaching at ku and so the reason you brought on a lot of these guys was dad spacing shooting scoring scoring off the ball yada yada yada and zeke mayo has been a starter for a majority of

Starting point is 00:09:23 the season he didn't have a very good game in this one. David Coy was good in this one, like we said. But when you look at AJ Storr and Ryland Griffin, those two guys, when you brought them coming in, we thought those were huge deals. We thought both those guys could end up starting on the team. At the very least, one of them we figured would be starting. And I know Storr did start in this game. And we figured that Storr could be the leading point getter among non-Hunter Dickinson players on this year team that rylan griffin would be your best three-point shooter and that stuff hasn't come together and you're not getting enough from those transfers which you were counting on to be your change on the offensive side of the ball and so now if you're not getting the offense from them then ku has to then rely on being more of a defensive team

Starting point is 00:10:01 and as we've talked about they do some things defensively good but like you know they're a good defensive rebounding team like they've done a pretty decent job of forcing some steals in certain games um they have some like dewan's a good defender and stuff like that but like they do have warts on the defensive end of the court right like uh guardian teams you can spread you out guardian teams you can put you in a lot of pick and rolls part of that is is with having a slower center part of it's playing you know multiple big men all that stuff that they have warts on the defensive end so if you're asking the defensive end to be the saving grace that's just not going to work and they have just been so bad on the road these last two seasons it is just an achilles heel for them it is a problem

Starting point is 00:10:38 i don't know what the correlation there is in those situations but yeah uh pretty brutal pretty brutal uh i guess other quick notes in this one uh different starting lineup we saw david coit start ended up playing very well so maybe he ends up staying in the starting lineup um maybe uh it ends up being i don't know mayo goes to the bench and they put store back in but you know store didn't have a great game either this actually ended up almost being the d coit game we'll get more into the game awards on D.E. Coyt, but he did play well in this one. I cannot believe if we're staying on lineup talk, we saw a lineup, even though it was

Starting point is 00:11:11 brief, of K.J. Adams, Zach Clements, Hunter Dickinson all on the court at the same exact time. That said, I thought Zach Clements, again, did pretty good in limited minutes. But like in a season and just in general in college basketball where fans are like constantly being like no can we play smaller can we like have can we play more of aj store at the four or ricky's pass more or not ricky's or rylan griffin at the four and play a little less of too big basketball bill something's like no we're going the other way with it we're gonna unleash the girth lineup on you and boys it's not gonna work uh and then other lineup talk thing i do feel like we are

Starting point is 00:11:45 officially close to seeing the lineup shrink you look at the uh ku players in this one and it's like ricky's past more only two minutes zach clements only three minutes flory even only played seven minutes griffin only played 13 it feels like things are definitely starting to shrink at least in some of these these bigger moments and stuff obviously they'll have a chance to open it back up with some upcoming games at least you'd hope at least you would think um last thing here like not to play the body language doctor i guess it got better as the game went on but like does it feel like there's something off is it does the team have bad chemistry are they not enjoying playing with each other is it you know is there still like a flu bug going through

Starting point is 00:12:21 the team right now i don't know it felt like the body language of the team was really bad in this game not a lot of bench energy and maybe it's just because you were doing so poorly and it's hard to get up and stuff i don't know but like uh things have looked better put it that way so bottom line here just not good enough and there seems to be some real issues that we've seen that feel like not just this season issues or short term short-term issues but also feel like long-term issues when you talk about Bill Self's system integrating new players. And I don't know what the answer, I don't know what the solution is. I don't know if this is a systematic issue of like how this team's been built. And there's just, you know, only X ceiling of what you can do.

Starting point is 00:12:59 But like, if you keep sucking like this on the road, there's no chance you're going to win the Big 12. If the transfers can't figure it out, you're not going to make a Final Four. Like, you might not even make a second weekend again if you can't start playing better. Now, obviously, there's a long ways to go, and those things can get figured out, and you can start playing better,

Starting point is 00:13:16 and you can start figuring out your deficiencies and everybody's roles, and you can hit a run, and Kansas could, in two months, all of a sudden be on a 12-game winning streak, and we're like, oh, what were those issues back in time? Right? It's still very early in the season. You can figure it out. And now you come hit a run, and Kansas could in two months all of a sudden be on a 12-game winning streak. And we're like, oh, what were those issues back in time, right? It's still very early in the season. You can figure it out. And now you come into a stretch where you have some upcoming home games.

Starting point is 00:13:31 You have some practice time to put it together. This is a pivotal moment in the season for KU. Where are you going to go from here? Because I think right now the expectations, the money spent on NIL, I know it's not my money, but somebody's money and everything that has been poured into this team. You just have higher expectations that haven't really been met over this last season and a half. All right, let's continue on here with Game Awards. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:14:56 Went a little long on the first segment. Thank you for joining us and making this your first listen every day. You can check out Locked On College Basketball for your second listen every day. You might, I don't know, maybe you're like, I need to avoid some talk about this right now. Let's go listen to Locked On College Basketball for your second listen every day. You might, I don't know, maybe you're like, I need to avoid some talk about this right now. Let's go listen to Locked On College Football and get you ready for the college football playoff and everything there. Game trophies here. Let's talk about the best moment.

Starting point is 00:15:15 It's probably KU's 15-0 run in general. I know that's an elongated moment, but that was without a doubt KU's best run of play. Part of that was Mizzou was kind of giving you some opportunities and opportunities to kind of get back into it and stuff. But KU did take advantage. And then all of a sudden they got it down to single digits and it was like, no, we're just going to keep missing layups and stuff. But a 15-0 run, probably the best part of the game. One of these next moments could also probably be the best part of the game, but I have it a separate category. It is the Avengers Don't Give Me Hope Award. I think in Avengers Endgame, there's a scene where he's like, don't do that. Don't give me hope. And that think in Avengers end game, there's a scene where he's

Starting point is 00:15:45 like, don't do that. Don't give me hope. And that is what happened in this one for KU. You might have gotten a little X, like as the 15, no run is happening. You might be getting hope that they, they could win this game. Obviously you think back to the 2012 game, maybe you have some good memories. And, and, and if that one, which maybe just go watch highlights of that one might make you feel better. And this one, and you can pull that up if you're watching this on YouTube right after this. And, you know, even then, though, it's like, okay, it's still nine points. And then Missouri gets it back up to 11 or whatever. But then you start to get it even closer.

Starting point is 00:16:17 And then Diggy Coit hits that three, makes it 63-60. Right before that, you had the KJ Adams and one that leads us into the TV timeout that makes it 62-56. And then he hits the free throw to make it 62-57. That would also apply here. And then the DeJuan Harris and one after. So they go down and they make a shot after the Diggie Coit three where it's like, oh man, did they just respond well? But then DeJuan does that and it's like, oh, they have the response to the response. And then the hope all went away. Mark Mitchell, who has not been a good shooter throughout his collegiate career but had a good free throw shooting day hit that big three from the corner and then you know okay i guess

Starting point is 00:16:53 we'll get into this one here worst moment i guess it could be the mitchell corner three josh gray who you see on the the graphic 20 on free throws hits the back of the bridge it falls in and then he splashes his second one. It's like, are you serious? That would also be up there for worst moment. And then the other worst moment, just again, this more of a generality. Pick your turnover. There were many to pick from in the first half.

Starting point is 00:17:15 The one that grinded my gears the most, even though this was when the score was already ballooned out a little bit more. It was after they got that steal on the inbound. So they scored. They got a steal. They forcedbound so they scored they got a steal well they forced a turnover themselves floyd but don't get had some good defense and it went out off mizzou so you got a point and this was like around a minute to go in the first half you got a bucket you forced a turnover you had a chance to get another bucket to maybe make this

Starting point is 00:17:37 thing closer to 11 12 10 points before the first half break and then you turned it over again and it's just like oh my goodness you gotta be kidding But, yeah, pick yours from there or pick your missed layup when KU cut the lead late for your worst moment there. We're going to give out a celery award for empty calories. So, you know, celery, it's food, you eat it, but it actually has, like, negative calories, so it actually doesn't fill you up, right? If you're ever stuck on an island all to yourself, don't eat celery.

Starting point is 00:18:08 It's not going to help you out. Let's give it 100 Dickinson here. You look at the final stats, 19 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, and a steal. And you might think Hunter Dickinson is well on his way to another first team All-American list. And you might think, oh my gosh, those numbers are absurd. But I also look at some of the defensive issues. I also look at the seven turnovers that you had from your center position.

Starting point is 00:18:36 And it's hard for me not to be like, okay, you did have an impact and you did put up good stats. And maybe overall becomes a net neutral because the production still does matter but i don't think it was like normally if you said to someone hey you had those stats you would think like oh you had an unbelievable impact on your team trying to win the game i don't know that that was the case again i don't think it was like some some huge hankering issue but i think there was a little bit of empty calories and i mean his plus minus was minus four in the game not that theU plus minuses were great in this game. There were only two players who had a positive plus minus.

Starting point is 00:19:10 You had David Coit, who was a plus six. And you had AJ Storr, ironically enough, who is a... Okay, let's save that right here. Defensive MVP. Can I make a case for AJ Storr? Because he only scores two points. He goes one of seven from the floor. He had a bad offensive game.

Starting point is 00:19:27 He had two turnovers as well. And yet AJ Storr in 18 minutes of two points, one of seven shooting was plus 14, the best plus minus on the team. Now, is that just an indication why individual game plus minus isn't the best indicator of what's going on? Or was AJ Storr just a glue guy?

Starting point is 00:19:44 Was he just defending his butt off i don't have the answer to that um i'm trying to think like i don't know this wasn't like a great game for ku defensively outside of the 15-0 run so i don't know offensive mvp though that's going to go to david coyte 14 points 5 11 shooting he hit four of seven from three point range and this was really good to show for me because to this point david coit had shown up more in the games against like non-power five opponents and this was him showing up against a power five opponent on the road in real situations in clutch situations late when he's shooting some of those shots and i think that was good to see that he can step up and make shots in those

Starting point is 00:20:25 situations. And so Kansas offense hasn't been great. These last two games, you know, I think it makes sense David Coy was in the starting lineup and after this performance, I expect him to stay in the starting lineup, at least for the foreseeable future. So that was a good late addition for Bill Self and company. I don't know where they'd be with that without David Coy right now, which didn't think you'd be saying at this point of

Starting point is 00:20:45 the season. Alright, what's next for KU Men's Basketball plus a quick update on the KU Volleyball team? This is Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode 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 $5 and get $150 in bonus

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Starting point is 00:21:28 an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. Thank you for joining us on this recap. We'll have an episode, another one coming out on Monday because Brian Borland has stepped down from the defense coordinator spot for KU football, and they have promoted from within with DK McDonald. So we'll be breaking that down on a Monday episode. Finishing up this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, what is next for KU men's basketball?

Starting point is 00:21:52 So the week ahead, I believe, is finals week for KU, and so they don't have a game midweek. I believe that's why. Then they'll play NC State on Saturday, which is a team who made the Final Four a season ago. It's a very different roster, graduated a lot of players from that team. NC State, so far this season, has been okay. They're 6-3 right now.

Starting point is 00:22:12 They've lost three straight games, Purdue, BYU, and Texas, but they just got a win over Florida State in overtime. It's been a decent team. So, you know, they're decent. They're around the range that missouri was before they won this game missouri is now 49th on ken palm they were uh closer into the 50s before this so around that but this time at home kids by the way now on ken palm is ranked 11th they are only 24th in the country on the offensive end of the court so that's coming up after that um meanwhile for

Starting point is 00:22:39 ku volleyball wanted to mention that unfortunately season came to an end last night, fell in the second round to Florida. Tough way to end for some great careers and seniors on the KU Volleyball team, but again, getting a host for a second straight year and winning another NCAA tournament game, doing really well in the Big 12. They continue to take steps forward, and there are some really good freshmen

Starting point is 00:23:00 that should be back for KU next year. So unfortunate end, it always is whenever you lose out but still a successful really good season once again for Ray Bouchard and the girls over at Horsh all right that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page we'll see you next time for that Brian Borland DK McDonald episode this is Locked on Jayhawks

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Have a Road Problem, Lose 76-67 at Missouri Tigers Despite David Coit's Strong Game

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