Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Head to Lexington to Battle Oscar Tshiebwe and Kentucky

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Previewing the Kansas Jayhawks heading to Lexington for the Big 12 SEC Showdown to take on the Kentucky Wildcats. Can Bill Self's team bounce back from three consecutive losses and other top storylines from the two winningest programs in College Basketball. UK scouting report and matchups of the game from KU trying to hold down Oscar Tshiebwe to the 3-point shooting from Gradey Dick, CJ Fredrick and Antonio Reeves.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we preview the Big 12 SEC showdown between Kansas and Kentucky, happening between the two winningest programs in college basketball in Lexington this Saturday. All about it on today's edition 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. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence.

Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be previewing the Kansas-Kentucky game. Should be a good one coming at you on Saturday. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked on. Make every moment more. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started today.

We'll start with our storylines for the game, the top storylines we expect to be for Kansas-Kentucky. We'll move on to our Kentucky scouting report, and we'll finish up with our matchups of the game on this edition of the show. Starting with the storylines, KU coming off three straight losses. I mean, it starts right there. We talked a lot about it yesterday and on the earlier week shows when they lost to Baylor.

Can Kansas bounce back? Because you lose lose three straight you've never lost four straight with Bill Self but it's tough to do when you're playing at Kentucky in your fourth game and then after that the schedule doesn't get any easier Kansas stayed at home on Tuesday at Iowa State after that Texas the game after that at home so um for Kansas coming off three straight losses and and more about like it's not just three losses it's about this team not playing as well lately after they look like one of the best teams in the country through their first 17 games like can they get the ship righted so to speak so that's going to certainly be a big storyline in this game and um I think you have kind of the opposite storyline coming in from the kentucky side of things like have they figured things out have they gotten to a point

where you know they're all of a sudden this team that we expected them to be because in the preseason this was a team that by most you know different sites or rankings like this was a top five team most people had them as like the number two number three team in the country headed into the preseason like it was in some order you had like houston up there um maybe some people at different points like arkansas up there kentucky was up there north carolina was up there pretty consistently though kentucky was like maybe behind north carolina or houston and that's it in some places not even behind both of those so i mean pretty consensus preseason top three or four team the country and they kind of struggled early they lose the game in double overtime and the champions classic to michigan state they lose by 16 at gonzaga they lose by 10 i think that was in las

vegas to ucla then they lose by 14 they get kind of crushed at missouri and missouri team that kansas crushed on the road and they lose by 26 to Alabama and the kind of the creme de la creme so to speak was they lose by three at home to a really bad South Carolina team was not even in the top 200 in Ken Palm that dropped them to 10 and six at the time one and three in conference play people are wondering what's going on Sean Calipari is he going to take the Texas job is he going to get out of Kentucky all these things and then they found motivation and they found um maybe some different lineups that they started using a little bit more and um just started playing a lot better they beat Tennessee 63 to 56 that's the Tennessee team that beat up KU earlier in the season and they did it in Knoxville on top

of it then they beat Georgia by 14 which Georgia hasn't been that good in past seasons but this year they're a little better they're top 100 Ken Palm team then they beat Texas A&M who's like a top 40 Ken Palm team by nine points and then they beat Vanderbilt by 16 on the road which that's always a tough place to play with kind of their funky arena and everything so since those struggles they've won four straight games and two of the four by double figures. The other two that weren't by double figures were against top 40 Ken Palm teams and one of them on the road against Tennessee, who is one of the very best teams in the country. So they've kind of figured things out. And for Kansas, you're on the opposite end of that. How much does the extra time off in between help Kansas here?

They played last on Monday. And so for Kansas, you didn't really have any time to practice between the TCU and the Baylor games. So you didn't have a chance to look a ton at the tape and get better. Now you've had a ton of days between that game and the Kentucky game to at least look at the tape, figure out what you're doing wrong, maybe make some adjustments, self-scouting, whatever it is, to make a bigger jump than you did between the last two games so you kind of have opposite arrows here does that mean kentucky's gonna win i don't know maybe kansas able to reverse trend um the next storyline the of the top two

winningest programs in college basketball right now uh ku was up a good amount till these recent games where they've lost three straight and Kentucky's won four in a row. But I think now it is up to six wins. They were up four headed into the year. Kansas has 16. Kentucky has 14. So Kansas up six wins. It's not something that it can change with the result of this game.

But certainly it'll be a talking point that you do have the two winningest programs. And at one point last year, didn't seem like Kansas was going to be able to pass kentucky and they certainly did by winning the national title and i think they did it when they made the final four um you also have national player of the year candidates here that's going to be a storyline so you look at fanduel right now zach edie is the favorite but oscar shibway and jaylen wilson are like next up now the odds dip big time from edie because he is by far the heavy favorite. But when you look at near the top, Jalen Wilson, Oscar Sheboy are both right there.

They're putting up amazing numbers. Sheboy putting up like 16 and 15 a game. Jalen putting up over 20 and eight rebounds per game. And he's been the one thing kind of keeping KU afloat even in these last three games. Grady Deck against Baylor too. But you do have two really good players here they won't be matched up a ton if Kansas does play the small ball five that we saw Jalen play for a few minutes in the Baylor game that I guess they would um and you'll see each other like maybe

battling for rebounds because they're both going to be going after certain ones or maybe you'll see them both in the paint like going after stuff but for the most part they won't be directly on each other kind of like last year when you had Ochai versus Oscar Shibuye in that National Player of the Year kind of Canada thing, but it's certainly talked about because you have those big star players on both teams. You also have the coaching matchup. Anytime Bill Self and John Calipari are going to go at it,

that's going to be a talking point. Talking about how successful each coach has been, that'll obviously be something anytime you have two like college basketball coaching giants going at it with each other and then uh kansas looking for revenge from last year is my last storyline here you lose at home in allen field house blowout loss and you were able to bounce back from it um maybe similar to how kansas lost at home last saturday to tc uniball out lost can you bounce back from it? Obviously, it showed you last year that you still had time and things could change.

Obviously, there was a material change for KU after that with like the Remy Martin stuff. And maybe there will be a material change at some point for KU with one of the freshmen emerging. But that's a story for another day. Can Kansas win against Kentucky on the road after Kentucky got one in Allen Fieldhouse? We saw Kansas win in Lexington in the 2016-17 season. That was a really fun game. You had two really good teams, both that lost in the Elite Eight in kind of excruciating fashion in different ways.

But that Kentucky team was pretty loaded with De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Bam Adebayo. You had Landon Lucas, Josh Jackson, Frank Mason, Devontae Graham kind of go off for KU. And they won that game in Lexington. It was a fun one. So we'll see if KU can do that as opposed to the game a few years ago in Lexington with, I think that was the Dedrick Lawson team that just never really had a chance. I think that was the game that David McCormick pulled up in transition on like a 17-footer and just like completely missed the shot, but showed the most confidence in

the world. So that was like the Reed-Travis game for Kentucky. We'll see how this one goes. We're going to get on to our Kentucky scouting report here in just a second. But first, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL playoffs are here. We're really excited about our new sports betting partner for Locked on because they're the number one sportsbook in America, FanDuel.

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that's what I like to do with some of these Kansas games. Line hasn't come out yet. I would imagine it'll be, I don't know, maybe Kentucky by like a point. Maybe it'll be a pick them. Maybe, I don't know, somewhere in that range, two points either way. You can do these parlays on a same game parlays on fan duel where you can bet like player to score 10 plus points players score 15 plus points so what i'll probably do is i'll probably put you know something on um jaylen wilson to score 20 plus points and then grady dick to score 15 plus points and then maybe um you know de DeJuan Harris, like six plus assists. And if you add it all together, you might get like a parlay.

That's I don't know, three to one or something like that. Those are the fun ones to do. You can do those at FanDuel all on app. That's safe, secure, and super easy to use. So football fans,

basketball fans don't miss out. Place your first $5 bet to get $150 in free bets, win or lose at FanDuel.com slash locked on. Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sportsbook partner of the NFL. All right, we're getting on to our Kentucky scouting report here with Locked on Jayhawks, and then we'll finish up with our matchups of the game. So as far as Kentucky, we talked about how they kind of started the season and how they've been hot of late how their schedule has gone and everything overall on the year they're uh 14 and

6 ranked 30th on ken palm but again the way they've been playing they're looking more like that potential top 10 top 15 team here of late um offensively top 20 offense defensively is where they've been dropping a little bit they're 57th on defense on ken palm they played a bit of a slower tempo 272nd in the country though a lot of that is because defense or opposing offenses have taken their time against kentucky more on offense they're middle of the pack they're 166 so like they'll run if if they get the chance but otherwise they'll slow it down like they kind of mix and match between the two. Things they do well offensively, as you'd imagine with Oscar Shebway,

one of the best offensive rebound teams in the country. They're number two in the country in offensive rebound rate. They get about 38%, 39% of their own misses on the offensive glass. That's a little scary for KU coming off the Baylor game. They shoot threes actually really well, very efficient at it this year shooting 37 percent now they don't take a ton of threes they're more about the team that you know if we get a wide open three we're going to take it and we're probably going to make it but if you don't give them open threes they won't force a lot of them and they don't have a lot of great three-point shooters if they're not wide open and getting set

shots but when they do get the set shots that are wide open, they hit a bunch, and when you get a bunch of offensive rebounds, you're going to get a bunch of wide-open threes, which is going to work out for you. They also don't really get shots blocked. They do a good job avoiding turnovers. So far this season, the things that they kind of struggle at, they don't shoot well at the free-throw line, and they don't get to the free-throw line um now on the defensive side of the ball it's funny because they're ranked 57th but you go down the list and they're actually pretty good in a lot of different areas defensively they don't really force a lot of turnovers they don't take really any charges so there's that to consider um but they don't foul you a ton they're a good defensive rebounding team

they prevent two-point shots at a pretty good rate the three-point shooting against them has been a little tough at times um like they've given up some solid three-point shooting games and maybe that's kind of lowered the numbers here but they're pretty good at getting blocks they're okay at getting steals. They don't allow a bunch of three-point attempts to get up. Now, when you look at conference-only numbers, though, so far they have been 10th in SEC play in two-point defense, 12th in three-point defense, and they don't really force a lot of turnovers. But again, they've been a great defensive rebounding team, number one in SEC-only games in that regard. So the defense can be a bit hit or miss for them i don't think it's necessarily as bad as the 57th but it's clearly not the

strength for this team and if you can stretch out oscar shibu and take advantage of maybe his lack of mobility and get him in a bunch of pick and rolls and high ball screens that's how you can really space out kentucky and give them some issues because they do have certain lineups that you're going to be able to take advantage of in that way because he is kind of the lurking center he's obviously going to get a lot back with his rebounding ability and ability to carve out space inside but that's how you try to kind of counter it back and take advantage of it if you're KU so I do wonder if the first bench center in a game like this if it would be a zach clements or if cam martin is back to being healthy just to try to stretch the floor but you could also make

the argument that well those guys would get worked on the glass and inside so maybe we can't go with them i don't know what the answer would be here for uh bill self in that specific game as far as the players that get it done for them um recently the lineup that they've mostly thrown out case and wallace is their really good young freshman point guard will be like a first round pick unbelievable defender good size 6-4 physical guy severe wheeler is kind of the quick fast point guard who can get into the teeth of the defense and sets things up well for others then you have cj frederick who's just kind of a lockdown three point shooter from iowa antonio reeves has been a good three-point shooter for them

chris livingston it's kind of a 6-6 wing you'll see a ton of off the bench and then jacob toppin a lockdown three-point shooter from Iowa. Antonio Reeves has been a good three-point shooter for them. Chris Livingston is kind of a 6'6 wing. You'll see a ton of off the bench. And then Jacob Toppin kind of can shoot it a little bit as a stretch four for them, but it's mainly Oscar Shibuye as the five. When you look at who goes off for them, Shibuye leads the team over 16 points per game, about 14 rebounds, shooting 59% from the floor. Then they just get the balanced effort from all over.

Reeves is getting about 13 a game. Wallace over 11, Toppin at 11. Frederick at 8. Wheeler at 8. Livingston at 5. And a lot of them, like I said, they're not necessarily guys who are going to go out and shoot a 3 off a screen. Like, that's the case for a guy like C.J. Frederick. But, like, severe wheelers shooting 37.5% from 3 so far this season.

It's very limited attempts. 15 to 40, but like for a guy who that's been a struggle in the past, he can at least hit like open ones now. Um, and that changes things a little bit for them. Toppin struggled from three this year, 23%, but you've seen him in enough games and we've seen enough games where guys who don't shoot well from three shoot well from three against Kansas to kind of expect that to go in. Reeves is shooting almost 40% from three. Wallace is about shoot well from three shoot well from three against Kansas to kind of expect that to go in Reeves is shooting almost 40 percent from three Wallace is about 40 percent from three so again if you give them open looks they can knock them down even though it's not necessarily

the strength of their game they have enough guys that can kind of do just that but so yeah it's basically Oscar Shibu and a bunch of guys around them that fill into different roles and seem to be understanding their role a little bit better as the season kind of goes on here. We're going to finish up in just a second with Locked on Jayhawks with our matchups of the game. So Kansas versus Kentucky. By the way, this is the final Big 12 SEC showdown. So I guess final chance for bragging rights, I guess, if you're KU here.

The first one, boxing out Oscar Shibuye. So Kentucky is second in the country, hitting 39% of their own misses on the offensive glass. And obviously Oscar Shibuye is kind of the one-man

band, so to speak, in that regard for Kentucky. He's getting 14 rebounds per game in 32 and a half minutes. Now, if you can get him in foul trouble, that would be huge, but he's actually done a really good job of kind of avoiding that over the course of his career at Kentucky. You have to box him out. He's going to get his rebounds. He just is.

You're not going to hold him to – it's almost like a miracle if you can hold him to single digit rebounds if he has 12 rebounds it's like it's a lot for most guys but for him it's like oh you held him below average even if he gets 15 rebounds it's kind of like okay well you know it happened you just can't let this be a game where he has he has you know 25 rebounds he has 22 rebounds and after the baylor game where you gave up 18 offensive rebounds to the Bears, it could be kind of problematic in terms of, you know, if you do that again in this game, but it's with Oscar Shibuye, who's the best offensive rebounder you'll face this season, then all of a sudden that's about the defensive rebounds with him. Can you avoid those offensive rebounds that give them the extra possessions in the game? That's going to be really important for KU. So having to box him out, whether it's the job of KJ Adams or a combo of KJ and a wing or whichever center is in there, you can't let him have 20 plus rebounds in this game. Now on the flip side, I'm actually really interested to see the KJ Adams short rolls against Oscar Sheboy. Does he pull up for a couple more of those mid-range shots? He missed the one

he took against Baylor, but we saw him early in Big 12 play hitting those shots. And if he can do that a couple times against Oscar Sheboy, that'd be huge. He also should have the ability to kind of drive into him and get a running start, but we've seen him lately not be able to make those running start shots. He's going to have to get back to making them in this game and be a good passer from that kind of high post, but maybe it can stretch Oscar out and give KU a bit of an advantage there. That's going to be a really important matchup, and can KJ avoid foul trouble? It's going to be harder in a game like this.

Guarding the three-point line is our next important matchup of the game. This goes for both teams. So I talked about CJ Frederick, who's shooting 35% from three, but it's on a ton of takes. He's 29 of 82 on the season. Cason Wallace has shot well from threes, 36 of 91. And then Reeves has taken the most threes on the team. He is 46 of 116, good for about 40%. So those are three legit three-point shooters for you on this team. Kansas has to be able to defend that three-point line. And when you look at Kentucky's six worst three-point shooting games this season, five of their six worst three-point shooting games are losses. So if you can defend their three-point shooting, it's harder for them to score because most of their offense is either Oscar

Sheboy inside, either getting an offensive rebound or you're either sucked in too far or it's off the offensive rebound and we're getting an open three. That's a lot of their offense so far this season. So if you can prevent the three-point shooting, you really limit them. And it's obviously tough because if they get an offensive rebound, you have guys sucked in to try to get the rebound.

You're putting all these numbers forward to kind of try to win away, and then they're just going to get an open three. So it's kind of this tough back and forth of making sure you're trying to get the rebound and being aggressive there, but also not giving up an open shooter on those potential offensive rebounds. Then on the flip side, Grady Dick, obviously coming off the Baylor game where he was great scoring, doing a little bit of everything. He was two of five from three. This would be a big game for him to get going from the outside.

UCLA in their win over Kentucky went just two of eight from three, which is a little just weird to shoot that little, but all five of Kentucky's other losses outside of the UCLA one have been bottom half three-point defense games for them, and the opposition has shot 36% or better from three. That's around KU's average this season, so if they can shoot around that mark, 8 of 22, something like that from three, that's kind of a necessity in a game like this, where you might have trouble giving up a bunch of extra possessions, struggling

inside and against a team that shoots well from three at their own, that you kind of have to keep pace with them. So, you know, that specific matchup of like, if CJ Frederick is on Grady Dick and vice versa, or whoever it is, is going to be very, very important for opening up that three point game. The last one, who are the elite defenders going to match up on? I think you have really three elite defenders in this game. Now, if you want to count Oscar Chibwe as an elite interior defender

because he clogs up and gets all the defensive rebounds and possessions, that's fine. I would disagree with him being a great defender overall because he struggles in space a lot but just the interior as far as like defending a one-on-one in the post which kay doesn't do anyway we're just getting defensive rebounds he obviously is pretty elite at those things um you know you look at case and wallace he's one of the best defenders in the country he might be the best like defensive draft prospect that there is for the nba he's uh versatile wing uh guys like six four can play kind of a point guard role or can play the

two or the three in college really strong player really good at getting steals really smart about jumping passing lanes or knowing when there's a handoff and poking it away he's a really really good defensive player and so who is he going to be matched up on is he going to be on grady dick is that going to make like very difficult for grady dick is he going to be matched up on? Is it going to be on Grady Dick? Is that going to make life very difficult for Grady Dick? Is he going to be on DeJuan Harris just to ball pressure and give him issues with, in the case of DeJuan, you know, a guy who has struggled lately, that certainly would not help to him kind of figuring things out. I think DeJuan is going to be on severe Wheeler. What about when Wheeler's not on the floor? Is he on Reeves? Is he on Cason Wallace the other way and then who is kevin mcculler on is kevin mcculler going to be on case and wallace is kevin mcculler going to be on antonio reeves to try to prevent him from going

off from the outside there's a lot of big questions here but i don't even know at the same point in time like does it matter because ku switches so much now we've seen like times where the kansas state game the second half they don't switch as much with the Baylor game. Like most other games, they're switching one for four, the Baylor game, they switched one through five. I don't think you can switch one through five in this one. Cause if you get Oscar lined up on anyone, who's not your center, it's going to be, you know, very, very bad situation for KU on the defensive side of the ball. Are they going to stop switching? Are they going to play any zone triangle in two in a game like this?

We've seen that in past Kentucky matchups. I don't know how they're going to approach this, but who the elite defenders for KU are on, who the elite defenders for Kentucky are on, that's going to be really interesting to see how the offensive player on either side can kind of get free and get going. And that could very much determine who wins the matchup. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

I'll be back next week, hopefully with a better voice to recap the KU Kentucky game. We'll be joined by Nick Schwert. We'll have a KUK State Talk as well for next week. But don't forget you subscribe to the show wherever you get any of your podcasts. Find us on YouTube. You can hit me up at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter.

And that'll do it for the rest of this show. You can catch me on Rock Chalk Sports Talk later today. Until then, have a good rest of your podcasts or find us on YouTube, you can hit me up at D Johnson radio on Twitter, and that'll do it for the rest of this show. You can catch me on rock truck sports talk later today till then have a good rest of your day. Bye.