Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Lose at Kansas State Wildcats: Inconsistently Consistent KU Can't Capture Momentum

Starting point is 00:00:00 The most consistent thing about the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team this year, they're consistently inconsistent. They lose again on Saturday, this time to K-State. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Going on, Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. And thank you wherever you're getting it, whether it's anywhere you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we are recapping KU's loss to Kansas State, 81-73. What went wrong again for KU? They continue to not really be able to find energy and identity, momentum, all those sort of things, what this loss means. Something that I find very interesting about some of these recent losses for KU, I've found kind of an interesting, or just recent games, recent interesting trend that could be a bad thing for Kansas. Then we'll get into some game trophies and what's next for KU on this episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:01:10 It is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Super Bowl 59 is here, and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just $5, and if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus bets. Download the app or head to FanDuel.com to get started today. Kansas falls 81-73 in Manhattan. They have now lost three straight games in Manhattan. I think the stat that was going around was they've lost three straight games in Manhattan for the first time in like 40 years.

Starting point is 00:01:37 So they keep making history on Saturdays, right? You blew your biggest lead ever in school history and last saturday against baylor um i don't think there was anything necessarily historical about the houston game but like certainly how it lost felt historical that people remember that one for a while and now there's history in this one too so uh yeah that's not a great thing to have that you keep getting history and the negative seemingly each and every week but there's no momentum now uh for kansas because you got smacked in this game you had an opportunity after beating iowa state on monday to try to build some stuff together right they've got some winnable games in front of them although i am starting to worry because based on you know

Starting point is 00:02:12 how how they consistently um do have some letdown games and stuff like that like even though we are viewing this next four games as first colorado at the utah at uiu versus oakland state is all winnable games they're gonna lose one of those games like or they'll go like two and do like that. That is how this team and then at Colorado after that, like they're going to go three and two in that five game stretch. Watch like that'll be the case where it's like, OK, this should be an opportunity to rack up swings and then they're going to lose two of them like that. That just feels like how this season is going.

Starting point is 00:02:38 Now, who knows? Hopefully that's not the case. But like I just I am at a loss for words because does anyone know what this team is? You know, you look at some of the metric sites, they're still like top 10, top 10-ish team in the country. Are they good? Are they okay? Are they mid? Like, I'm just so lost. I'm so dumbfounded. And then you look at the specific game, right? You look at the stat sheet afterward.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Kansas shot 50% from the field. They led by four in points in the pay. They out-rebounded Kansas State and they never really had a chance of winning. This never really felt like a game after, what, the first, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes of game time. I guess you go on that little run at the end of the first half before David Besson hits that crazy shot. But really, for the full second half, Kansas was out of, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:03:23 they weren't really within striking distance the whole way and that's what's crazy about it like it's not like you had just this oh you shop 35 percent like of course you're not going to win games like that no you usually win games when you shoot 50 especially in the bill south era like i don't know if it's um this team just this core of team or like some of the players i don't know if it's just like uh when they reach any sign of adversity there's just like not that mental fortitude to get over it i don't know if it's just like uh when they reach any sign of adversity there's just like not that mental fortitude to get over it i don't know if it's just a team that doesn't play with enough urgency and there is kind of this maybe laid back mentality of hey like it'll be fine we'll figure it out yada yada yada and you'd never have that urgency

Starting point is 00:03:58 in a specific game i just don't know if it's just they're not that talented if they're just not that good or what um but i found this very interesting from bill self after the game he said quote it's been very difficult for us for whatever reason to spring game or to string games of superb energy back to back or even consistently at all there are times against elite teams we can lock anybody down and there's times that we can't guard our shadow um it's very interesting because it kind of backs up what we've all been seeing. I mean, it's not just a week-to-week thing, right? Where it's like one week they might look good, one week they might look bad. It's not just a game-to-game thing, right?

Starting point is 00:04:38 Like you look great on Monday against Iowa State. You look horrible on Saturday against Kansas State. You look horrible against Baylor on Saturday. But it's also a half-to-half thing, right? You look horrible in theurday against kansas state you look horrible um in this against baylor on saturday but it's also a half to half thing right you look horrible in the second half against baylor you look good in the first half against baylor you look great in the second half against west virginia you look horrible in the first half against west virginia right this team is so inconsistent and it it doesn't just stretch to one game to the next. In the case of this week, it did.

Starting point is 00:05:09 But it stretches to the course of half to half. And it's like impossible for this team to play the same way, to play with the high-end energy that they need to play with for one half to the next. And it's crazy that they haven't been able to do that. And the struggles have been everywhere, too, for KU. And it feels like one of those things where it's like, you know, like this game, okay, you got a strong performance from, I don't know, Hunter Dickinson and 15 from Zeke Mayo and 13 from KJ Adams.

Starting point is 00:05:31 That's great. But then like next game, one of those guys will have a tough game, right? And that's how it is in there. Like Rylan Griffin, since entering the starting lineup, is 2 of 11 from 3. And a lot of those have been really good looks. He was 1 for 7 from the floor this game. And so like, you know, there are other games for riley like the houston game rylan

Starting point is 00:05:47 griffin's great and that's not a problem at all and now all of a sudden riley griffin like it is a problem that you're not making shots right uh flory has been struggling lately i know the six points four rebounds in 16 minutes like that looks fine from uh just you know averaging out the minute sort of thing but like he just wasn't the same guy in this one. DeJuan was solid, but you can't get those early fouls, right? When you're a sixth year player, Shaq Moore and Diggy Coit, like you haven't been getting nearly the same contributions from them the last couple of games than what you were maybe, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:18 when Shaq Moore first entered the lineup or Diggy Coit a few games ago. And then, like I said, like, it just feels like, okay, some of those things that were problems in today's game, some of them will get better for next game, and then other ones will get worse. There's just so much inconsistency around for KU as a team right now. And honestly, I have this listed on here. If you're watching on YouTube, you might be thinking,

Starting point is 00:06:38 okay, what is the turnover issue? They didn't have a ton of turnover. No, this is the defensive turnovers. Honestly, maybe my biggest long-term worry, if you're just talking about this game specifically, long-term takeaways that continued today, is Kansas has a serious problem not forcing turnovers. So Kansas State had just 10 turnovers, which was eight until the last minute and change of the game. Since January 18th, which was the win against Kansas State, Kansas has forced just 55 turnovers in seven games. That's about eight turnovers forced per game on the defensive end for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:07:09 But if you take out the Baylor game, the other six games in that stretch, Kansas is netting just six and a half turnovers forced per game. Six and a half. That's it. Coastal Carolina is literally last nationally in turnovers force per game at a higher number of 7.1 per game and if you go by turnover rate as opposed to just raw turnovers four of ku's five worst turnover rate defense games of the season are since january 18th so prior to that stretch kansas was averaging 11 and a half turnovers forced per game. Now during this stretch, you're basically outside of the Baylor game, only forcing six or seven turnovers per game. That's a sizable difference. That basically means in this recent stretch of games outside of again,

Starting point is 00:07:54 the Baylor game, you were the worst turnover force team in the country, right? And those are plays that don't just create stops for you, but they also can create easy buckets for you. They can also be momentum swings. They can be be momentum changers that is a huge issue for Kansas and I think it speaks to the lack of I don't know consistent effort that you kind of see when you watch this team that it's not always that high energy and I don't think this applies for everybody I think there are certain players that play with that effort and energy at all times but it's not for everybody and I think you see that right you can't get steal. You can't get a turnover if you're not around the ball. You can't get a steal. You can't get a turnover if you're not active, if you're not pressuring the basketball.

Starting point is 00:08:31 And right now, what you're seeing is a lack of an ability to do that for KU. Now, beyond that, you couldn't defend the three. Kansas State goes 41% from three, 11 of 27. They were plus 15 in terms of the points attributed to made threes in this game Kansas continues to suck on free throws 58 percent today and a couple areas that we highlighted before the game we two of our keys of the game one of them was scoring in transition because Kansas State had not been a great transition defense to this point in time you only had six fast break points they outscored you I think it was 12 to 6 or 14 6 and fast break points so an area that you needed to do well today you got outscored there and then the other one was we mentioned uh shooting inside right like making your shots

Starting point is 00:09:13 around the rim kansas in the first meeting was great around the rim they were 16 of 18 on shots at the rim in the first meeting with kansas state and um you look at it that tends to be kansas's bread and butter if they can get on the inside. But in this game, Kansas went just 8 of 17 on layups, right? And we mentioned this before that Kansas on the road this season coming into this game was only shooting 64% at the rim compared to their season-long average, which is 68.5% or 64% in road conference games. So there was a sizable dip there right they hadn't played as well on the road and that continued today i you would think that a team

Starting point is 00:09:48 as experienced as kansas ken palm has him as the number one most experienced team in the country would not be as phased by the road environments as they are but that is another unfortunate thing so bottom line here uh this one's crazy uh the scott drew coaching staff just kind of owns you at home you've lost five straight to Scott Drew himself in Waco, right? You're doing fine against them in outfield us, but on the road, five straight to Scott Drew. You've lost three straight to Jerome Tang, who was from the Scott Drew line. And then Grant McCasland, the head coach of Texas Tech,

Starting point is 00:10:17 who this will be his second year on the job. So they only had the one so far. They lost in Lubbock last year. So that is a lot of success for that tree. I don't know if there's something there. I don't know if they've figured something out and they're helping out each other I don't know but failure to capitalize momentum off Monday and honestly that's kind of been the story of this team really the last like two years you know it feels like when you have those moments of people being ready to okay I'm ready to buy back in. You just can't string it together. And whether it's too flawed or too inconsistent or both,

Starting point is 00:10:49 it just feels like coming back to the drawing board. And I don't know, is that drawing board something that can be drawn up this year? Or is that something that has to wait until the offseason? I'm hoping that it's something they can figure out for this year. But I know a lot of KU fans who are watching lots of Darren Peterson highlights right now. Let's just put it that way. All right, let's continue on Game Awards and what's next for KU. This episode of the show is brought to you by PrizePix.

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Starting point is 00:11:54 college to get 50 instantly after you play your first five dollar lineup that's code locked on college to get 50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. Continuing on on Locked on Jayhawks, and don't forget to make Locked on College Basketball your second listen or Locked on Big 12 if you want to see what's going on around the conference. All right, game trophies for KU. Let's start with best moment. I don't know, man.

Starting point is 00:12:20 Like, again, you were kind of just out of this, it felt like, for the entirety of that second half. So usually the best moments are going to be there when it's more like winning time. I guess you could say like the early on Hunter Digginson alley-oop to KJ Adams, like that was a really cool play like early in the game. Honestly, before David Gasson hit that crazy shot, the little 5-0 run you went on where it was,

Starting point is 00:12:40 I think it was Zeke Mayo hitting the three, and then you score another bucket. I think it was a flory dunk from there uh that cuts it down to you know being a six-point game 42 36 where it looked like okay you know maybe you're still within striking distance you didn't have a great first half but you're still right there right and you'll have a little little bit of momentum going in the halftime locker room but then we know what happened right after that which was not great so those would be the ones that would uh stick out to me there's another i guess like a zeke mayo transition three in the early part of the game that made it like 17 16 or something like that but yeah man i don't know uh

Starting point is 00:13:11 worst moments of the game the one picking up the three first half fouls again something that you can't do as a six-year point guard um you can't put yourself in that position and at the same point in time um i think probably good reminder that you know it's weird because it's one of those things where it's like clearly kansas is missing the frank mason davante graham type point guard right where they have like an all-american level point guard and somebody who can get a bucket for them that is being missed at the same point in time this team doesn't have any other options to do what dewan does and so when dewan's not it's like it's like frank or devante not being there okay here's dewan and then when dewan's not there it's like oh you know you're

Starting point is 00:13:49 in trouble even more right and so like it's one of those weird situations where like his his win above replacement so to speak is probably gigantic if you're comparing it to what the replacement would be on this team but then also if you're comparing him to like some of the unbelievable point cards which i don't know is that unfair unfair to compare? And Bill South's best guys of Sharon Collins and Vontae Graham and Frank Mason, there's also something missing. And so it just pisses everybody off. Like either people are mad, like, see, look, this is what happens when you have DeJuan. And you saying this is or upsets the other people where it's like, no, but they're not that guy. So no matter what, you can't win either way you look at it.

Starting point is 00:14:21 But I do think DeJuan is very valuable to be on the court for this KU team. And they missed him in that first half for sure. Watching K-State fans boo David Coyd after he got hit in the nuts and not thinking it's a foul call, that was kind of a fun one. Shaq Moore missing both free throws then immediately on the other end going under a screen. I want to say it was Doug, was it? I don't know. Somebody hit a three for K-State at that point.

Starting point is 00:14:43 They all blended together, made so many. I think it was Doug Mcdaniel but i could be off on that um but anyway uh yeah that was not a great sequence there and then you had uh hunter not even trying to stop that one alley that they threw where the guy caught it in the middle of the lane and shot it like in the air on the alley even though he's three four feet away from the hoop and just never got contested just made it like a super easy play and then at the other end he missed both free throws like both of those were not great sequences of guys missing both free throws and also making a bad defensive play. The David Gasson falling corner shot to end the half,

Starting point is 00:15:12 that would probably be my pick here because like I said, it felt like maybe you had a little bit of a run toward the end of the first half and that just kind of squashed it in a way that was like, you actually played great defense there. He just made an insane shot. I would say the whole second half, like again, I just, to me, felt like you didn't really have a chance of winning. You were kind of always at an arm's distance.

Starting point is 00:15:30 And then every time K-State hit a three, which they hit plenty of them to go around. So lots to choose from there for KU. What is our appalling stat of the game? This was interesting to me. So if you were told me K-State would have went off from three, I would have almost assumed that Brendan Housen, you know, went off from three as well.

Starting point is 00:15:50 And he made three three-pointers. Like three of ten from three isn't like a bad shooting night. It's below average for him, you know, but it's fine. But I would have thought that he would have went. If you told me he took ten threes and Kansas State made 11 of them, I would have been like, oh, he got hot. He was five of ten or he was six of ten from 3 the fact that he went 3 of 10 which again is like a slightly below average day the rest of the team went 8 of 17 that's pretty uh appalling

Starting point is 00:16:15 to me both in terms of the lack of three-point defense for ku and how hot kansas state was from the outside uh the layups are the fast break points we talked about those earlier kansas going 8 of 17 on layups after you were 16 of 18 at the rim against kansas state now in field house that's not great uh letting the road environment bother you and then uh i don't know i guess i would say the last one here would probably be like the dewan harris plus minus in a game where you felt like you were out of it for so long like rylan Griffin was minus 10. AJ Storr was minus 7. Floyd Budungo was minus 5. A lot of guys were negative here.

Starting point is 00:16:50 DeJuan Harris ended up being minus 1 in a game that he lost by 8 points, which certainly shows the impact of him not being on the court in that first half. Offensive MVP for KU. I mean, Zeke Mayo had 15 points. He was 3 for 3 from 3. Also had 5 assists. But he did have 5 turnovers. I don't want to go with that. KJ Adams, if you're, you know, 13 points, six of nine from the floor, two offensive rebounds. He also had an assist,

Starting point is 00:17:14 only one turnover. I think he gets credit too, but I think it has to be Hunter Dickinson, right? 21 points for Hunter, eight of 16 from the floor. He had two really good offensive games. I mean, in the two games against Kansas State, basically 23 points per game in the two offensive games did have three turnovers but overall hunter was really good on the offensive end for ku so he gets offensive mvp uh defensive mvp for kansas i don't know man uh this was not a good defensive game kansas state shot uh 50 from the floor they they went off from three you didn't force turnover so it kind of gets difficult when you're talking about that um i get this is weird because shaquille moore had two steals in one block that's like the most chaos caused but also like i didn't feel like shaquille moore made his presence felt on the defensive end in a weird way um if you're looking at kansas state like you know really

Starting point is 00:18:00 the entire starting five contributed so you can't just like point to one guy and be like, oh, well, you were the best defender for KU. I guess you could say, well, KJ Adams, you know, is helpful on the defensive end. And Coleman Hawkins had 12 points. Last time you played him, he had 15. And I don't know, the assist numbers were down two and the turnover numbers were up a little bit for Coleman Hawkins.

Starting point is 00:18:22 So maybe you pick him. I don't know. I'm having a hard time picking a defensive MVP. So if you have one you feel strongly about, hit me up on Twitter at D Johnson radio. All right. What's next for KU? We'll discuss on the other side.

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Starting point is 00:19:20 that's at fanduel.com. Fan duel, official partner of Superbowl 59 the Locked On Podcast Network. Finish it up on this episode of the show, which we will be back on Monday. We're going to talk about Nana Owusu-Anane. I'm going to probably have to get a name pronunciation before that happens, but he's going to be visiting Kansas, and it seems like Kansas is already working into the transfer portal for next year.

Starting point is 00:19:46 So we'll get into that on Monday's episode of the show. Make sure you subscribe to the show anywhere you get podcasts, including on our YouTube page. What's next for KU? They're going to be versus Colorado. That's the upcoming game where they're wearing those hideous looking jerseys. Cool story on the jerseys. They're kind of ugly, but whatever. If they play great in them you know nobody

Starting point is 00:20:05 cares honestly if they if they win the game by like 30 points and you know if you gave me that exchange they'll wear the jerseys the rest of the season but like they'll play better the rest of the way i'm not even saying they gotta win every game the rest of it just like play better play with energy the rest of the way if that's the difference boom then i love them they're the best jerseys ever uh but anyway verse colorado coming up and colorado has been very bad this season like usually tad boyle um there hasn't been like a super high ceiling with colorado when he's been there like they haven't had that season although i think they were going to be pretty good in the covet year in the tournament but they haven't had that year where they've been like oh we made the

Starting point is 00:20:36 elite eight and we're three seed or whatever it is uh but usually they have like high four usually they're a very decent team well guess what they are only 12 in big 12 play now Now they did just play Houston pretty close by 10, I guess, but that should be a game where you should win and you should win by double digits. It's going to be alarming if Kansas has to skin or get that one out by the skin of their teeth. Then after that, you're going to be on the road for a little bit of a mountain trip if you're Kansas. And this can be tricky, right? So you're going to be at Utah on Saturday, at BYU the following Tuesday. And what i find interesting there is what are they going to do a traveler they're just going to stay out there for the whole time because that might be a good thing you adjust to the altitude that's going to be there for ku otherwise if you're bouncing back and forth in and out of the altitude with

Starting point is 00:21:16 all that travel there you can absolutely see them losing one of those two games and um you know having tired legs and stuff like that but i don't know no game feels like a gimme at this point for ku which is such a weird spot to be in from where we've been in so many past years we're like oh yeah they'll win all those home games and yeah i mean worst case you know they'll get upset once or twice here on the road but not every time now it's just like i don't know they might right like um and i don't need to be pessimistic here like it's just it's just where we are right now with with things here So hopefully they turn things around in these next four games and they get hot or these next five games and then they're hot going into that final three-game stretch,

Starting point is 00:21:50 which is going to be a very difficult final three-game stretch. And then you're hot going into those and you go 2-1 in that and then you feel like you're a new team headed into the Big 12 tournament and who knows what's going to happen, right? That's the hope here over this next upcoming stretch. All right, 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.

Starting point is 00:22:06 And we'll see you Monday for a little transfer portal deep dive on a target for KU already ahead of the 2025 off season. See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Lose at Kansas State Wildcats: Inconsistently Consistent KU Can't Capture Momentum

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