Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Pass Iowa State on Way to Big 12 Title Game Thanks to Defense and Interior Attack

Episode Date: March 11, 2023

The Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team got through the Iowa State Cyclones 71-58 in the Big 12 Championship semifinals. Norm Roberts was able to guide KU to the win even without Bill Self, as Jalen Wilson, Dajuan Harris and Gradey Dick stepped up. Defense and 2-point offense ruled the game for Kansas, who now heads to the Big 12 title game.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL 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 recapping KU's win in the Big 12 semifinals over Iowa State. Moving on to the Big 12 championship. We'll do a little preview of that as well with 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. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts.

You can also find us on YouTube. You can also hear me on Rock Chalk Sports Talk Monday through Fridays from 3 to 6 on KLWN in Lawrence. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're recapping KU's semifinal victory over the Iowa State Cyclones. I only got to watch bits and pieces of the first half, and then I got to watch a little bit of the end. I went back and had time, got to rewatch the game afterwards,

and it felt a little bit similar to the West Virginia game in certain regards. Now, I'll get to that in a second, but Kansas wins 71-58. And it was kind of led by, like, it was a solid offensive outing. You had some nice things happen for you offensively. You're playing one of the best defenses in the country in Iowa State. Now, that's not as much the case with West Virginia, but it was mostly a game about the defense and a game that you ended up winning by double figures, a game that you kind of controlled

the whole way through, but at the same point in time, like you never really stretched out the big lead or pulled away until maybe the final, you know, in the Iowa State game, maybe a little bit later in the game than the West Virginia game, but both kind of in that like last three to six, seven minute range of the game. But yeah, the interior offense was really good for Kansas. They hit a couple of shots on post-ups. They were really good on, on some of those short rolls and throwing lobs and having the big men throw

down dunks or finishing at the rim. Jalen was just really good. Overall. Grady Dick was searching for his shot. DeJuan Harris in control one more time for KU. Kansas shot 68% on two-point shots. I had to double-check that when I looked at that and I saw the number. 68% on two-point shots.

I was like, wait a minute. Is this right? Are we watching the same KU offense here? Is this the KU offense that doesn't have a post-up threat doesn't have like the the traditional center down low do i do i have the right team here i mean it's been an offense it's been good at two-point shots they're 69th in the country um in big 12 only games they're third in the country so they've been bad at it but 68 that's like like something Gonzaga would do against like San Francisco, you know? 68%, that was KU's highest two-point offense game of the season.

The second best was Texas Southern. That was 65.4. Then you go to Kansas State, Missouri, Baylor, Seton Hall, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Harvard as the other games where he hit 60% or more. Unbelievable game. And again, that's an Iowa State defense that is one of the top 10 defenses in the country. So he hit 60% or more. Unbelievable game. And again, that's an Iowa State defense that is one of the top 10 defenses in the country. So you did really well on twos. You didn't really shoot it well from three, but because you shot so well on twos and

the defense was excellent for KU, that's how you come out with the victory. You held Iowa State to 39 and a half percent on two point shots. So there was a 30 30 swing in what you did inside the arc versus what they did now they shot well from three and that kind of kept them in it for a little bit of time but in the end the the mass onslaught of that interior game was too much and here's where the ku defense really came into play you forced 22 turnovers from i State, and that included 13 steals for KU. You know, it's one thing to force 22 turnovers. There's a lot of dead ball turnovers, throws out of bounds, you know, just them making self-inflicted plays.

Those are still helpful for you as a defense and really going to hurt the opposing offense. But the types of turnovers KU is getting with 13 of the 22 being steals are the types that it is going to help the KU offense. So if you're looking, why did they shoot 68% from two? Yeah, they did a good job finishing around the rim. They also got a lot of steals that led to open buckets in transition, which if you're getting a wide open layup or dunk in transition, guess what?

You're going to shoot 100% on those, right? 99.9%, right? With the occasion of like a weird missed dunk. And the edge there led to Kansas being up 25-6 in points off turnovers. You won the game by 13. You were plus 19 in points off turnovers. Typically, that's a number you'd expect Kansas to do well at because they're good in transition.

But this is a TC or an Iowa State defense that is one of the best in the country. They came into the game number two in the entire country in turnover rate defensively. So, like, they're a good team at winning points off turnovers as well. You beat them 25 to 6 in that category, and that combined with the two-point shooting, which, again, was kind of the circle there of what caused what was why you won the game, because you probably gave up too many offensive rebounds i think you have a 15 offensive rebounds in the game you know it's once you get closer to 20 that's where it's like a real problem 15 is not good to be clear again if you go by

offensive rebound rate defensive rebound rate that's the better number to look at but um just in terms of the raw stats like it's not a great number for KU to give up. You also had 17 turnovers offensively to where I kind of thought the recipe for success in this game for KU was hold Iowa State to 12 or 13 offensive rebounds and only have 11 or 12 turnovers. And if that happened, you'd feel good enough about the possession game that you should win out in some other areas. But you weren't great holding on the ball.

It's 17 of them. Jalen had seven turnovers, gave up 15 offensive rebounds, but you were so dominant at those other things. You were so dominant at two point shots and preventing their two point shots. Again, about a 30% difference between the two that even those things combined with Iowa, Iowa state shooting 42% from three, you'll one going away in the final three to five minutes of the game. And so circling back to this being a little similar to the West Virginia game, KU led for 35 plus minutes in both games. So, I mean, that's seven eighths of the game at the very least,

like it's very little of the game that you're not leading for. And then when you add in times when the game was tied, like times the other team led is very, very slim. But for a majority of both games with Iowa State and West Virginia, both cases were against good opponents. Even though you led for a majority of it, it felt like you would push the lead to six, seven, eight, nine points, and then the other team would hit a little bit of a spurt or run, and they'd get it to a two, three, four, five, six-point game somewhere in that range.

And then once you got to the final kind of moments of the game, whether it was three minutes to go, four, five, six, whatever, the final moment of the game, you did what winning teams do. You did what championship teams do in March. You went for the kill shot and you accomplished it. You delivered the kill shot down the stretch. You dominated down the stretch and pulled away so that you don't have to worry about, hey, are we going to turn it over against the press? Are we going to make or miss our clutch free throws? No, just put it out of reach so it doesn't even matter. And that's one of the best ways to avoid being upset

in the NCAA tournament. There's crazy things that happen down the stretch of games with turnovers, missed free throws, with buzzer beater shots. You know what the best way? Kevin Flaherty of 24-7 Sports says this all the time on RCST. The best way to not lose closeherty of 24-7 Sports says this all the time on RCST. The best way to not lose close games is to not play close games.

Because if you play enough close games, something weird is going to happen against you, and it's going to be a little more fluky. So for Kansas, don't play close games. Well, pull away at the end. You did it against West Virginia. You did it again against Iowa State. But collectively now, this is amazing to me. I don't know if this is as cool of a stat for other people, but KU has now led for over 73 of the possible 80 minutes of play

during the Big 12 tournament against the competition they've played. So 73 of the 80 minutes, they have been in the lead. They have been in control of the big 12 tournament they've been unbelievable so far they were playing absolutely great basketball right now in kansas city and i i think that's just so indicative of how well a team could play because if you own the lead for a majority of the game you could lose the game late but over the course of time you're going to win more of those games it's kind of the process thing right and that shows really good process for what they've been able to do here and you add up that it's against two really good opponents i would say

it's going to probably be a five or six seed in the ncaa tournament like wouldn't shock anybody if they made another sweet 16 west virginia is going to be a very dangerous i don't know what seven eight nine seed ten seed in the ncaa tournament that would shock you if they got like a ten seed and they upset the seven and then upset the two no wouldn't like they're a very good team and you were just able to control both games against both opponents the defense hitting another stride you're getting good play from a minimum of four of the starters which is kind of the recipe for success and then if all five go off that's when we see the a plus games for ku that's happened in these last two games we've seen a little bit of flashes from from some of the bench to certain regards and even though kevin mcculler has been injured and dealing with some stuff

you're still looking really impressive which speaks to uh how those other four starters have kind of been doing all right we're gonna get on to our goats of the game but first this episode of locked on j is brought to you by fan dual sportsbook the midway point of the game, but first, this episode of Locked on Jay is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The midway point of the NBA season is here, and now's the perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook app, because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first bet doesn't win. Just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. Then you can bet on everything from the money line to points for scores and uh threes drained i'll just tell you this i am blindly

going to put a same game parlay on fangirl duel tomorrow jaylen wilson get 20 plus points jaylen wilson get 10 plus rebounds it's hit the first two games he is on a mission right now he is on a tear i'm gonna say it happens again and uh that'll probably pay off pretty well usually him to score 20 plus is around even odds. Him to get 10 rebounds is usually around slightly plus odds. You can probably get that parlay together at like plus 200, plus 300. So get in on it. And sometimes they've been given a lot of college basketball boosts lately.

FanDuel even lets you combine your bets at a chance for an even bigger payout with same-game parlay. Don't miss the chance to get your no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets when you go to fanduel.com slash locked on. That's fanduel.com slash locked on to learn more, make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Puts of the game, starting with the good

here on Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to try to have an episode, by the way, coming at you on Sunday morning to recap whatever happens in the Big 12 championship game. And then we'll have a Monday morning episode talking about what seed they got, the region, the path, and everything with the NCAA tournament. So be on the lookout for all of that upcoming. But goats, good goat, Jalen Wilson. Jalen Wilson had seven turnovers and he still had

an excellent game there's not many players you could say that about and certainly that's something you want to shore up but he was so good from the start he he just kept you afloat and got you going and provided that energy like the way he started the game it wasn't just about the scoring but it was about the energy and a lot of that was because he was scoring that really lifted up the rest of the team i thought he ends up with 25 points for the game he ends up with 10 rebounds in a game that you didn't do a great job on the defensive glass but if you don't have jaylen it's an abject disaster on the defensive end of the glass because he was good at able to uh kind of bring some down he also had three steals which contributed to ku's 13 steals for the game which we already talked about was one of the biggest portions of the game but he's in uh

kind of command mode right now he's he's at four straight 20 plus point outings and you look at the last two the efficiency numbers are kind of coming around as well after the first two of those 20 plus point outings of the four straight were you know under 40 but he was still grinding his way there so really impressive stuff so far from jalen wilson and what we've seen in the big 12 tournament has you feeling good that you know he had that really strong run of play then he had a bit of a rut where like for a six or seven game stretch he was averaging like 12 points per game you feel confident that he is out of that stretch that if it was him hitting a bit of a fatigue wall or if it was just you know good teams doing a good

job scouting and now he's he's figured out the adjustment whatever the reason is he seems to be trending again in the right direction headed into the ncaa tournament looking like that guy that for much of the season wasn't just a first team all-american and national player of the year candidate he was the guy that was going to win it if Zach Eadie ever fell off, which Eadie obviously never did. DeJuan Harris gets a good goat. 11 points, six assists, four steals. KU stays undefeated in games where he scores in double figures. He passed it all around. You saw some of the nice passes on the pick and rolls to KJ, who really benefited from his play and just getting everybody involved. The four steals again.

I mean, he's now got nine steals in two Big 12 tournament games. He's really having a good showing after being named to the, well, not just all Big 12 defensive team, but also the Big 12 defensive player of the year. I wonder if he is playing with an extra edge for not being, though, on the first, second or third team, though. You saw Seth Davis put him on his third team All-American list, and yet he couldn't even get on the third team all big 12 list i'm sure he's playing with an extra edge and he he has to be on the all big 12 tournament team right he's been so good these first two games and he's putting up numbers double digits in both games a bunch of

assists a bunch of steals the value obviously is there they're playing in the title game which usually the team who wins the Big 12 title gets like two, maybe even three guys on the team. Team who loses it might get one or two and then somebody else might get like one. DeJuan has got to be on it. If he's not, it's a crime against humanity. I'll have a vote for it.

So I will tell you I'm voting for DeJuan Harris. I guess I shouldn't say that because what if DeJuan in the championship has zero points on 040 shooting, right? Then it probably would feel bad about it. But no, I feel good that DeJuan Harris will probably be on that all Big 12 tournament team. Grady Dick's aggressiveness, I think, gets a good goat here. So it clearly wasn't a bad game.

It was a good game overall for Grady. But I think the most important part or the best part about it was how aggressive he was. Like 15 points. 15 points is a very good number for Grady to be at, to be clear. But 15 points on four of 10, like 40%, that's not, you know, top-notch efficiency from Grady. We know he can have games where he goes four of six just from three-point range. He went four of 10 from the field in total. There were a couple times maybe he got lost a little bit defensively uh maybe a couple times where uh i don't know he he was still a freshman out there i guess is the way of putting it but you know overall i thought that the aggressiveness was

nice to see because we saw that in the west virginia game and shots were going down he scored 18 points but what happens when when the shots aren't going down as much like will you still continue to be aggressive because that was kind of the problem with with the past couple of games before the big 12 tournament that it's not just shots weren't falling it's that he lost the aggressiveness and again i'll say it as i've said many times a semi-contested shot for grady dick is going to be a higher percentage shot than an open shot for a lot of other guys. DeJuan Harris kind of spoke about that yesterday at Big 12 Media Day.

So, or not Media Day, I'm sorry, like post-game after the semifinal. So, I think that was a good sign that you got it back-to-back games and how active he is. Because it's also about Grady Dick opens things up for other players on the floor you know and so so if he's creating that gravity and forcing defenders to really get on him and it opens up a driving lane for somebody else like that's a win as well all right we're going to finish up with our bad goats we also have a limbo goat here with locked on Jayhawks but first if you're looking for a delicious treat but don't want

all the fat and calories then you've got to try a built, if you're looking for a delicious treat but don't want all the fat and calories, then you've got to try a Bilt Bar. If you're like me and you want to eat healthier snacks, you don't want to dig into the chips and everything, but you want something that still tastes good, Bilt Bar is perfect. They are 100% real chocolate, and they come in unbelievable flavors like churro,

peanut butter brownie, coconut almond. They only have 130 calories, four grams of sugar, 17 grams of protein, and you can order them online so that they just show up at your door. It's perfect. It's nice and easy. Go to built.com to do that. You can also though, if you're somebody who likes to pick stuff up in person, or maybe you just want to give it a try, you got a Walmart or Sam's club near you. Perfect. Go to Walmart, go to the pharmacy section. You can get a four bar box, cookies and cream, double chocolate, chocolate coconut puffs how about going to your sam's club and you know when you're buying all these things in bulk well get yourself some built bars you can

get a 13 bar box brownie batter churro some of the other amazing flavors or again you can still order online at built.com you can can thank me later with built bar. So I do have one in limbo. It would be the KU center play. The reason I couldn't get it up to good goats is going back to the rebounding stuff. KU gave up 15 offensive rebounds to Iowa State. That's not all on the centers. We

know KU is very dependent on the wings to come up and rebound. And I do think a big part of that is now to be fair, Iowa State did a really good job on the offense glass. Both games they played KU in the regular season too when this was not the case.

But Kevin having his injured back, I think certainly hurt that because Kevin is your second best rebounding wing. Jalen Wilson's the first. Kevin's the second. And that certainly hurt you there. I think you only had one rebound

for the game. He couldn't be as aggressive for it. And also you only played 12 minutes. So I think that certainly hurt you there I think he only had one rebound for the game he couldn't be as aggressive for it and also he only played 12 minutes so I think that certainly impacted it but that's why the KU center play ended up in limbo as opposed to on a good go but overall the stats look really good and I thought they had like nice impact plays at key moments there was that stretch where Iowa State got up a point kind of in the middle of the second half and Ernest Uday made some big plays out in transition like KJ had a couple really nice finishes off feeds from Dwan Harris total it up the two of them had 12 points on five of seven from the floors a good efficiency five assists how about that uh four rebounds two blocks and the steal again you give

up too many offensive rebounds you only had four rebounds so that's why you're in limbo here but also the the assist going more into that with the five assists um with the way that iowa state pressures they put so much attention to the guy at the top and they always make him panic and then they try to force you to throw it one way so that they know where it's coming and they intercept the steal or that they put you into a more difficult situation where you're not going the way you're trying to go but because KU has this is mostly KJ he had four of the five assists but Ernest had one too KJ is basically a you know a four man a wing with ball his ball skills in terms of what he can do passing the ball and dribbling the ball which helps so much in this matchup to where you just throw him the ball in the high post and

he's not like your traditional center where he's like oh no what do i do with it right and that's what i would say can kind of bank on sometimes they get teams centers to have the ball in the high post where they have all this pressure around them and they don't know what to do and they turn it over he doesn't have to worry about that as much with kj which is uh super helpful there our bad goats kevin's back um suckeducked to see Kevin get injured on the, he was going for the, trying to rip the ball away and made it worse maybe. I feel like, you know, there was some talk like,

did KU clinch the number one overall seed with that win against Iowa State? It certainly seems like a lot of people are leaning yes, but maybe still up in the air i think it might be better just to rest kevin for the big 12 championship after tweaking it but again back spasms can be something that go away quickly um i don't know i'd just rather have him healthy for the ncaa tournament uh but that that certainly stinks and uh you know you're relying on some of the bench guys a little bit more than you've been used to over the course of things.

And that is part of the problem because here's our other bad goat, Bobby plus Joe minutes overall in the Big 12 tournament. So in this game against Iowa State, they combined for 31 minutes. They only had two points on one of four from the floor. Now, the two points, again, ultimate Joe Yesavu experience because that layup was a very fun highlight and was a tough layup to make in transition but also when you look at the end of the day 31 minutes two points on one of four with three rebounds zero assists to two turnovers two fouls one steal that's not getting it done uh from both those guys and if you combine it in the big 12 tournament bobby pettiford and joe Yesifu in the two games have 53 minutes of play, nine points scored on four of 12, five rebounds,

one assist to four turnovers, five fouls, and two steals. Not getting it done. You're going to need more, especially if Kevin's back is going to continue to linger into the postseason. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back to recap whatever happens for KU in the Big 12 championship game out in Kansas City.

And then we'll have an episode the next day talking about KU in the NCAA tournament draw that they will receive on a Sunday. We're getting to that fun time of year. I know everybody is looking forward to filling out their bracket. Nothing like seeing

that blank bracket, right? But anyway, you can hit me up on Twitter at D Johnson Radio. You can listen to all the shows on YouTube or anywhere you find any of your podcasts. You can also hear me during the week on rock truck sports talk. Have a good rest of your day.