Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks' Hunter Dickinson shines in Champions Classic win vs Michigan State Spartans

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, Kansas wins a rock fight with Michigan State in the Champions Classic to move to 3-0. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Derek Johnson, thanks for tuning in to Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be recapping the KU Michigan State Champions Classic game. Thank you for every day of catching each and every show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts and find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition, we're going to be going over what happened for Kansas to get the victory over the Spartans, get into some game notes from the game, game awards, offensive MVP,

Starting point is 00:00:50 best moment, worst moment, and what's next for KU. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where if you picked KU by the spread, you would have came out with the win. You would have been sweating it to the very end, and you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. 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. Okay, so Kansas takes down Michigan State 77-69, and that was the 10-year anniversary, actually, of the Bill Self vodka comments from 10 years ago, the Champions Classic, where they get smoked by that undefeated Kentucky team that lost in the Final Four.

Starting point is 00:01:34 And Bill Self sips the water, wishes it was vodka in the postgame. That was a great homage by both teams in the first half to echo that, because that was an ugly night of basketball for KU that was a very ugly first half for both teams in this one for KU and Michigan State but honestly kind of par for the course in the Champions Classic game I know this isn't the lead off of the season anymore so you expect a little less you know clunkiness especially after we saw a beautiful game in the Kansas-North Carolina game. But especially when there were no fans in attendance, like, please don't have this event in Atlanta anymore.

Starting point is 00:02:09 I know I'm sure there's going to be a lot of Kentucky fans. There are going for the Kentucky-Duke game. But I think you need to be at a Champions Classic where there's a lot of fans for all the teams so that you don't end up with a situation like that where it feels like you're playing in a practice gym for the first half of the game. And maybe that lack of enthusiasm and energy led to a little bit of a difficulty for both teams as

Starting point is 00:02:29 well because then it makes it feel even more spacious probably not the best environment for shooters nonetheless kind of par for the course because there have been a lot of KU wins in Bilsaft's time where they have won the Champions Classic game in kind of an ugly rock fight style of play the one that really comes to mind for me I't know why, is the 2017 game with the 17-18 team, which is ironic because that team was not the type of team that typically won ugly. It was like, no, we're going to just shoot the lights out. But they beat Kentucky in a really ugly game there. And I just remember the postgame.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Bill Suff was so happy with, hey, we didn't play that well, but we found a way to win. And Bill Suff loves these types of games. He loves when his team is not, you know, seeing the ball go in the basket a bunch. They're not playing the best ball, but they still find a way to win because he really values that trait of finding ways to win. And so to a certain standpoint, like that does actually become the most fitting way that Bill Self could have won this game that allowed him to pass Fogg Allen for the most wins by a KU basketball coach like that kind of becomes a fitting way for it to happen Kansas shot just 41 percent but you held Michigan State to a paltry 35 percent and yeah sure that took some good fortune like if you play them again do they miss all the open shots and

Starting point is 00:03:42 decent looks that they missed in this one? Probably not. Will they go just three of 24 from three again? Probably not. But it's not like KU made all their open ones either. KU missed a lot of open shots too. And coming into the game, we talked about this part of the scouting report when you're playing Michigan State with their two big basketball. The question that they have is their jump shooting.

Starting point is 00:04:02 And so from that standpoint, what do you want to do as a scouting report? Do you want to take away the inside shots or do you want to take away the three-point shots? Obviously, you want to take away that there's going to be more open shots and you're just going to kind of live with that risk calculation. And the risk paid off for KU this year is it will for probably a lot of teams because that is going to be a big question for Michigan State. I certainly come away with some questions, again, even on the defense, as good as

Starting point is 00:04:25 the final score ends up being and the final stats end up looking for the KU defense, because there still were too many open shots. There were too many times where it felt like Michigan State, whether it was a player cutting to the rim off a pass or just like the after basket makes that you scored a basket and they just went right down and they scored on you like I'm sure that's something that can be addressed um very quickly and early in the season maybe you're going to be a little bit more um I guess uh the week in that area of a game that you're trying to fine-tune and figure everything out but you know there were certain things that they showed that still was not a perfected defense, but you weren't expecting things to be completely perfected after the North Carolina game.

Starting point is 00:05:09 And the offense for KU looked nothing like the first half we saw them against North Carolina. But I don't walk away concerned at all. I mean, certainly I doubt people that would be their first takeaway. You won the game by eight points. Why was you anyway? But you know what I mean? Like it wasn't the prettiest game, but it just wasn't your night shooting and you still grinded out 77 points.

Starting point is 00:05:32 So if you would have said coming into the day, you'd take an eight-point win over Michigan State, I think you would have. And I think that's where I'm ready to kind of walk away from it. You know, rebounding in-game didn't feel like a big win for me or anything like that. Like, honestly, eye tests told me in the rebounding battle, I was like, yeah, I figured Michigan State probably won the rebounding battle by a little bit. But actually, looking at the stats right now, KU had four more rebounds. They had the same amount of offensive rebounds. And if you want

Starting point is 00:05:57 to go by the more accurate way of doing it, which is rebound rates, because teams are going to miss different amounts of shots, right? Kansas got 25.6% of their misses. It's about 26% of their misses. Michigan State only got 23.4%. So, I mean, KU didn't have a super good offensive rebounding game, but Michigan State, a team who typically relies on that, that's not just this year's team, that's a Tom Izzo kind of staple, kind of held them in check on the offensive glass.

Starting point is 00:06:24 So that was really nice to see. Really mean it was a combination Hunter Dickinson obviously usually a good defensive rebounder I thought Zeke Mayo was really good on the defensive glass and it helps to have guards who can come in and get those rebounds as well really the lone consistent I would say between this game and the North Carolina game because kind of polar opposites of games was that both opponents racked up a ton of fouls on KU and got to the free throw line a bunch and shot free throws very well. So Kansas needs to figure out a way to defend hard without fouling. Then again, there's probably a little bit of that.

Starting point is 00:06:58 It feels like every season at the beginning of the year, the officials call a tighter game because they're trying to emphasize the rules. And then by the time we get to later in the year, things are a little bit more lax. And that's especially true in the Big 12, where sometimes those games turn into wrestling matches. So honestly, some of these games where KU's giving up 30 free throws to North Carolina or whatever it was to Michigan State,

Starting point is 00:07:19 maybe that ends up being like 20 if it's a Big 12 game just because the whistle's going to be so much looser on both ends of the floor but still for kansas that'll be important can you find a way to be better defending hard without fouling because that's been an issue the last couple games and giving them free points at the free throw line but overall you know this was a night about hunter dickinson um the dude was unbelievable from the word go He had all your points forever, and he just carried the offense. He was fantastic for KU. Passing was great for KU, too. 17 assists to 10 turnovers and a combination of being able to pass the ball well and what Hunter Dickinson did allowed you to be plus six in points in the paint, and that's against a team in Michigan State who wants to try to dominate you there.

Starting point is 00:08:03 So certainly you would have liked more production from the newcomers in this game. Certainly there were, you know, it wasn't a pretty game for a lot of offensive players for KU and obviously they need to figure out a way to unlock A.J. Storr. I know he had to deal with foul trouble in this game. I know he had a few moments here there. They have to get him in rhythm because this team's highest ceiling is with A.J. Storr playing well and that didn't exactly come tonight. But still, enough positives, and it's early in the year that you figure you'll get that stuff figured out, or at least you certainly hope that'll be the case. Other notes from this, game notes in this one, I think some interesting lineup talks. You

Starting point is 00:08:39 ended up seeing Zeke Mayo start over David Coit. That was something that we figured would make sense after his performance against North Carolina and Digiggie Coit having zero in the North Carolina game. So that made sense. I'd imagine it's going to continue to be that for the next game based on what happened in this one. There were a lot of different in the first half, it was more two big basketball. In the second half, we saw a little bit more of, I guess what you would call small ball. So in the first half, they're basically trying to match Michigan state's, you know,

Starting point is 00:09:08 big lineups. And we saw obviously the regular starting lineup, Hunter and KJ. We saw Hunter and Flory at times in both the first half and the second half. Flory obviously had foul trouble too. We saw Zach Clements in there as a four, which I think I'm good on seeing that in a meaningful game the rest of the season. No offense. And then we just saw a lot of two-week basketball.

Starting point is 00:09:33 And then the second half, it almost felt like KJ started the game really slow on the offensive end of the floor, wasn't making a lot of shots. And part of it could be that he had the like rolled ankle against the carolina game he he didn't have as big of an offensive uh impact after that happened in that game and then that kind of carried over into this game although he came up clutch at the end with some made free throws but um i kind of wondered if this was just a bad matchup for him scoring because if you think about it where does kj score at the rim so like if you're playing a team who you know doesn't have those great big men or is a little more up and down like in North Carolina KJ is going to be able to score on the inside a little bit more like he showed in the first half before he had that

Starting point is 00:10:12 rolled ankle but in this game where they have two bigs on the court and you have another big in Hunter Dickinson there's three bigs in the paint like good luck for KJ finding the spacing to throw down an alley-oop there's three other bigs around. He's not going to be able to lift off over him, right? So I thought it made sense in the second half that Bill Self went to a couple different lineups. One was with AJ Storr at the four, and then Storr has his foul trouble, and they ended up going with a lineup where KJ Adams was in at the five. And it's not that they did that for a majority of the game

Starting point is 00:10:40 or the half or anything like that, but they did it in enough minutes that I think it created maybe some extra spacing on offense that I like to see those lineups again it doesn't have to be the majority of the lineup or the main lineup but here and there to throw out there I think was good in this game I don't love this team only taking 17 three-point attempts I would like to see that number go up but I also would give the benefit of the doubt here that it could just be one game that i i do believe also that like yes i i want to see them take more threes i think ideally they're taking 20 to 25 a night that's both in terms of some of the players that i think the skills they have but also that i think it'll help open things up and it'll help with the math game so to speak of of the basketball game but i also do understand like some nights

Starting point is 00:11:23 you're just things aren't falling and you have to adjust right you have to be able to say hey this ain't working let's like that's the mix of the analytics in the field right it's like okay well i can be a guy who says yeah i would typically foul if you're up three and they have the ball but what if they're two for what like tonight for instance if michigan state would have been down three with the ball i'm letting them shoot it because they couldn't hit a three, right? That's where the analytics and the regular stuff mixes on. And so maybe that's just what it was for KU that they're like, hey, it's not falling. Let's find other ways to score. And I can totally respect that if that

Starting point is 00:11:53 was the case. But I think in general, long-term, you want to see those three-point numbers a little bit up. But bottom line here, you're sitting at 3-0. You have a blowout win in your first game, a close, exciting, awesome win that was against a top 10, top 20 opponent, an ugly rock fight win against a team that should be a tournament team, and you have two good resume wins right now that are going to look great four months from now. Not too shabby start to the year for KU. All right, let's get to our game trophies next.

Starting point is 00:12:16 This is Lock on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by GameTime. GameTime has a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff to show you all the incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. They have their all-in pricing feature, which allows you to toggle it.

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Starting point is 00:13:17 All right, our big game trophies for the game. Let's go with best moment. A couple interesting ones here. I think the DeJuan transition layup and one off the pass from zeke mayo that was a big one that um kind of cemented you being in front uh the three dunks by flory in the first half were a lot of fun i think the third one was the most fun because it was the most like over a bunch of bodies all of hunter dickinson's hook shots like those are great moments of the game um i think even uh rylan griffin's three that made it 63 57 with less than six minutes left and then that zeke mayo layup that he had

Starting point is 00:13:50 where he beat the guy on the drive and then used the rim to prevent any block and went kind of up and under on it and uh that was a nice move by zeke to kind of finish it off but yeah i think the duan transition layup is going to be the one that is most memorable for the win for ku the worst moment basically the whole first half if you're just talking about like a watching basketball the the beauty or in this first half the lack thereof of basketball um and then that was compounded by i would say probably the worst moment might have been when they hit that three and were fouled to end the half so it was already a very bad first half in terms of aesthetically pleasing, but it was like, okay, well, you're going to be up, you know, whatever,

Starting point is 00:14:29 nine, 10 points at halftime. And then they can that and they get the free throw and it's like, eh, that's not an ideal way to finish it. So got to figure out a better way to finish first half. We've seen that, uh, hot KU football this year, uh, for KU basketball. It's, it's been something you've given up buckets at the end of the first half, the last two games that it didn't end up haunting you, but it could have in the end with games that were close at kind of the under five in both situations. All right, we got the

Starting point is 00:14:52 who's going to lose minutes once Shaquille Moore returns award. Sadly, Shaquille Moore still has not returned to action, so I hope there's no setbacks or anything. I hope that things are trending in the right direction, and they're just waiting for the right moment to get him in. But I think it's pretty obviously now that minutes are going to be there, that they're going to be available. David Coit would be one that I'm looking at. So he played 12 minutes in this game. And Coit was great in the exhibition game. He was great in the bye game to open up the season. But in the games against bigger opponents, more athletic opponents, power conference opponents, he has really struggled. He has gone in the Arkansas exhibition plus the North Carolina game plus the Michigan state game. He has gone one for 13 shooting. So that's a

Starting point is 00:15:36 little bit tough. And I still think there's going to be moments for David Coyte because I do think, you know, what could end up happening is Shaquille Moore ends up being the guard that's in the rotation. And then David Coyte is that, as we've talked about a lot in the offseason, that Jalen Coleman lands role. Some games you might not play. Other games you might play five minutes. Other games you might play 15 or 20 because he's hot that night and he's hitting threes. And I think that makes the most sense there. But once Shaquille Moore is back and healthy and ready to go, you know, maybe you shave off eight minutes from David Coyte there to give to him. And then you look at Zeke Mayo who played 34 minutes in this game.

Starting point is 00:16:07 Like maybe you want to get Zeke down to 26 or 28. So maybe you take eight minutes from Coit, eight minutes from Mayo. That's 16 minutes a night for Shaquille Moore. You could easily move that up or down. And that gives you another super athletic guard who's also really good on defense once he's back. So I think that would make a lot of sense. The break starter award for KU goes to Zeke Mayo because uh this dude was really creating some break actions with some good passing and

Starting point is 00:16:30 transition for you he had a good transition pass that gave it to Rylan Griffin that ended up leading to free throws he also had a good transition pass that led to a Rylan Griffin three uh that was the first three that Griffin made in the second half he made two threes in the second half and then uh he also had the pass on the DeJuan Harris key and one at the end of the game. And there might have been a couple others that I'm forgetting, but those are the three that really stick out. He did a really good job starting the break and helping you get in some easier buckets in a game that there weren't a lot of easy buckets to come by.

Starting point is 00:17:00 Offensive MVP also wins the Mr. Champions Classic Award. That would be Hunter Dickinson, who last year in the Champions Classic had an unbelievable game for Kansas to beat Kentucky. He had like 27 points, and it was like 18 rebounds or something like that. He ends up with a double-double in this one. He ends up with 28 points, so 55 points in two Champions Classic games for Hunter Dickinson. And they showed the graphic during that. graphic during those cool nugget to give.

Starting point is 00:17:27 He's the first player to have scored 25 or more points in multiple Champions Classic games in their career. Now, obviously, you think about a lot of times players who have gone on, just have big games in the Champions Classic, have gone pro at the end of the year, whether it's been a senior player like an Ochag Baji who was in his last stand or a young know, a young freshman that the Duke or Kentucky's had or something, but a pretty cool history for him to have there. And also I'd imagine a pretty cool moment for Hunter Dickinson to beat Michigan

Starting point is 00:17:52 State because you think of he played the Spartans a lot. And for him, when he was at Michigan, that was a rival. He probably doesn't have fond memories of playing against Michigan State, especially on the road. He was three and three against Michigan State coming into this one. So he ends up on top. He goes four and three for his career. I guess there's a chance you could meet in the NCAA tournament, but for now, four and three against Michigan State that he ends up on top. I will say, I do want to give a little bit credit to Rylan Griffin here because it's obvious that Hunter Dickinson is the offensive

Starting point is 00:18:21 MVP. He had 28 points. He was making every hook shot possible on the inside. He was awesome for you. He carried your offense. He was phenomenal. I just want to give a little credit, though. Ryland Griffin had those two big threes in the second half. He was aggressive in the second half, had a slow first half, but he made some important buckets for you in the second half,

Starting point is 00:18:39 and he actually led Kansas, did Ryland Griffin, in plus minus for the game because having him on the floor I think helped uh get Hunter Dickinson more one-on-ones or or better openings on the interior because you have him out there to provide spacing I I will say um offensive key moment MVP and Mr. Champions Classic clutch moment haver uh that would be DeJuan Harris because we've now seen some big time moments I mean think last year with De with Juan Harris in the Champions Classic game, having some clutch makes and from three and everything that he did there, he had some big buckets when he needed to in this game, in some very important moments when the game was really constricting

Starting point is 00:19:16 and tightening up. And that was key for him, just like it was last year. Then defensive MVP, I guess the rims, just for hanging in there. Good on you. All right, let's continue on with the show. What's next for KU men's basketball? This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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 bets. If you win the FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets

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Starting point is 00:20:12 and the Locked On Podcast Network. All right, finishing things up. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode. We'll have a Thursday crossover episode with BYU, talking a little KU BYU football ahead of the weekend. So what's next for KU men's basketball? So they're going to be back home on Saturday. That'll be against Oakland. And that is that same Oakland team that upset Kentucky in the NCAA tournament last year. A lot of new faces, same head coach. They're going to be

Starting point is 00:20:39 shooting a lot of threes though, regardless coming in Allen Field house uh and then your back home week i guess if you're listening on tuesday night a week from today uh next tuesday against unc wilmington who's typically a solid squad in a mid-major league and then they'll have a week off of prep to get ready for what will be uh i for my money i mean i guess we'll see what happens with this because the duke kentucky game's going on as i'm you know recording this and stuff but for my money, I mean, I guess we'll see what happens with this. Cause the Duke Kentucky games going on as I'm, you know, recording this and stuff, but for my money, Duke's going to be probably the toughest team you play this year. And I think it'll be very interesting matchup wise.

Starting point is 00:21:13 Okay. You kind of matched up in a lot of ways. That'll be in Vegas on November 26. So I'll be very interested to see how that one goes. I did also want to mention elsewhere. KU women's soccer did end up winning the Big 12 tournament over TCU. They beat the 1, 2, and 3 seeds to win the Big 12 tournament. So good on them.

Starting point is 00:21:29 And Nate Lee, in his first year as the head coach, made the NCAA tournament. They get St. Louis in the first round. If they win that, you'd assume they'd get the 1 seed, which would be USC in the second round. So keep an eye on that with KU soccer. KU volleyball will be coming to the postseason here soon as well. But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe.

Starting point is 00:21:52 We'll see you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks' Hunter Dickinson shines in Champions Classic win vs Michigan State Spartans

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