Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks' Path to Repeat NCAA Championship Goes Through the West and the Region of Death

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

The Kansas Jayhawks were awarded the third #1 seed, giving them the West, surprisingly behind Houston. Unfortunately for KU, this could be the region of death with potential games against Arkansas/Illinois in Des Moines, Saint Mary's/Connecticut, and UCLA/Gonzaga in Las Vegas. Why the committee didn't favor KU and why the argument was dumb, plus a quick lookahead to the first weekend as Kansas expects Bill Self to return.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

I'm Derek Johnson. Welcome into another edition of Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's show, KU gets the region of death, so to speak. Let's discuss their NCAA tournament path as March Madness is officially upon us. 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 from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day.

We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts, and you can also find us on YouTube. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're discussing KU listed as a one seed, but certainly not the one seed that people would have thought, getting in the bracket of death, the region in front of them, and the little two-game pod in front of them. We always hear coaches talk about all the time,

just three two-game tournaments. You got to focus on three two-game tournaments. It's a two-game tournament at a time, so we'll look at that two-game tournament on this episode of the show. I guess first things first, overall thoughts on kind of the season and that got them to the point here. Obviously, if you would have said before the season started that with as much as KU lost with Ochagbaje and Christian Brown and

David McCormick, Remy Martin, Mitch Lightfoot, all these guys, that if this Kansas team was going to get the third overall one seed, you'd be like, okay, sure, let's do it, right? Unbelievably impressive season by Bill Self and by these players as much as they lost last year to now earn their way into being one of the one seeds that even though they got the third one seed, I'm sure they were still in contention for maybe the number one or number two one seed as well.

So impressive job by KU to even get to that point. And it's the 10th one seed in Bill Self's time at Kansas. That's in 20 seasons. Every other season, Kansas is getting one seed. Like it's almost like you've become numb to the idea that, oh, Kansas is going to get a one or a two seed. Right. And think about if you want to view it that way, too. How many other years Kansas has been a two seed where it's like, oh like oh darn they didn't get a one seed this year but they're a two seed right and like think about for alabama for instance i think this is their first time ever getting a one seed in program history i know alabama is a football school and you don't

you know they haven't always been like great at basketball but like that is incredible that you're doing it once every other year. And for some of these schools, it's like, oh, yep, first time ever. Yes, we did it. So I guess if you're looking for some positives, because KU obviously did get in a very difficult bracket, well, every time KU has made a Final Four under Bill Self, they've been in the bottom half of the bracket. In 2008, they were the fourth one seed, bottom left region.

In 2012, they were the two seed in the bottom right region. In 2018, they were the third one seed, so the bottom right region. And then last season, they were the third one seed in the bottom right region. Actually, the third one seed has done pretty well for KU in recent memories it's the years that they've been like the number one overall one seed or the number two one seed that the 2011 team that loses to VCU or the 2020 2010 team that loses to Northern Iowa now does that actually like have any bearing on what they're going to do probably not but hey you know any any extra good juju any extra good luck any extra good little stats or nuggets that come your way this time of year uh are never really a bad

thing but obviously the biggest shock or the biggest i don't know thing that people were mad about is that ku is not ahead of houston and i think that if houston would have won the american athletic conference championship there there still would have been some people that would have been upset about it and or surprised about it but it probably would have been a lot less the fact that Houston got blown out by Memphis in the AAC title the same way that Kansas did to Texas except Texas is like an elite two seed that could win the title whereas Memphis is like a solid eight seed I guess um that certainly that Houston seemed to matter and Kansas's did not we heard some very head-scratching comments from the committee chair about why they were ahead of Houston and that they lumped

together quad one and quad two wins as if those are the same thing to which Kansas still had more of them to begin with. And they cited the idea that the Kansas had lost a bunch of games by a good amount of points to which I would say, well, Houston didn't play teams that could beat them by a good amount of points, whereas Kansas did. So why was that the case? And then they also cited Bill Self. There is a possible uncertainty for the tournament, but KU literally said on Saturday night that they expect Bill Self back next week. And I guess if you're the committee who are you to say they're lying you know what I mean like I don't know that just feels like you're crossing kind of a weird line if that's the place that you're going to honestly I would have been a lot more comfortable because if you look at a lot of

like the metric sites or if you just look at like betting odds and stuff like Houston is kind of the team to beat to win the title in a lot of those different areas if they would have just come out and said yeah we just we just think Houston's a much better team you know Kansas lost seven times they lost by double digits all these times or whatever I could have probably got on board with that a little bit more now to be clear be clear, I have always been, and I will continue to be, that the bracket should be seeded by resume, to which KU's resume was astounding this year, and it was better than Houston.

So I still would have had Kansas out of Houston, but I think I would have been able to stomach that reasoning a little bit more than the reasoning that they did give, which is certainly a little bit unfortunate there and very surprising. And nowansas doesn't get kansas city and honestly you know what if if kansas city would have been the region of death like if kansas city where the midwest was the region that ku got in the west everybody i think i would have at least been like oh that's actually good if they're not in the midwest i think the bigger deal isn't necessarily that they don't get kansas city i think the bigger deal is that the west is absolutely loaded it is one of the most loaded regions i can remember in recent memory i mean i i was talking

with scott chasen who works for the kansas city star and he brought up uh the the 2014 region i forget which area it was but that featured like you had one seed undefeated Wichita State. You had the eighth seed, which was Kentucky that year, which ended up going to the title game. The fourth seed that year was Louisville, who was the number one team in Ken Palm, but they were the fourth seed. You had a two seed Michigan who was like the big 10 champs.

It was an unbelievably loaded region from start to finish. That's like this region this year. And it's very unfortunate that KU slid to the West for that very reason. And a lot of those schools are from the West Coast. You're basically playing road games if you can make it to that point. There's no cakewalks even through like the second round in this region for KU. So very, very difficult. But I think the hope here would be that you would you would hope this pisses off the

ku coaches and players and it gives them a little extra chip on their shoulder right sometimes being uncomfortable can be a bit of a good thing sometimes being able to have a bit of a chip on your shoulder can be a good thing and there could be something unifying about the idea that the team is like, are you kidding me? We didn't get put behind them and we're the defending national champs. And now we got to go on the road, but you know, we're going to have this team camaraderie bonding opportunity. You can spin it that there could be a good thing out of it. I know a lot of people will remember the, the Oregon Elite Eight or just the KU Texas game that was in the T-Mobile Center

from just last weekend and be like, okay, well, at least we're not there again. Certainly the path is very difficult, but that would be kind of the hope here, that KU turns it into a positive. But yeah, absolutely the bracket of depth because every year there's always like a team or two in KU's region where people are like oh no they're screwed they're gonna lose that goes

a little too far because what ends up happening like especially I remember the 2018 season where it's like are you kidding me they got Duke is the two and Michigan State is three and it's like well you're only gonna have to play one of them but the problem for me becomes what does it look like on your half of the bracket and also beyond that are there other opportunities right because the NCAA tournament is so weird one team can that you thought was going to be a big issue for your team gets upset the problem with this bracket for KU that's different than other ones in the past is that if one team loses it's like uh whatever that mythical creature is where you cut off the one head and then two more grow back. Because it's like, okay, well, UConn's really good and they scare me,

but what if they get upset in the first round? Oh, no, now you're playing St. Mary's, who slows it down, and KU doesn't do well against slow tempo, blah, blah, blah. What happens if, okay, well, Arkansas could be a match of nightmare. Oh, well, they lost. Well, that's good. Oh, no, but Illinois beat us in a secret scrimmage, right? Like, there's a lot of just different options that make it cover a little bit more, so where there's not as good of a chance that you do get an open bracket,

which certainly makes this bracket very, very difficult. If you just look by Ken Palm rankings, KU is the fourth highest rated team. I think by Bart Torvik, they're the fifth highest rated team in their own region. All right, we're going to get on to some more look at KU's region, their first weekend pod and some other stuff here. But first, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Built Bar. Are you looking for a delicious treat but don't want all the fat and calories? Then you got to try a Built Bar.

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If you're close to a Sam's Club, run in, grab a 13-bar box, and then you'll really be storing up. Maybe you can share with some of your friends if you're watching the tournament together. Hit flavors like brownie batter and churro. You can thank me later with Bill Barr. KU's first weekend features Howard, the 16 seed. I feel like this is the first 16 we've had in a while that isn't like the play-in game. And I don't know, I'm probably forgetting somebody,

but it is kind of refreshing just to be like, okay, this is who you play, you know? So they're going to be up in Des Moines. They didn't get Kansas City. They did get Des Moines, which is a good thing because they'll have a lot of fans in attendance. Certainly, I'd imagine Illinois will have a good amount of fans in attendance. They travel well, and also they're not too far out. Arkansas travels pretty well, too. They're really into basketball. They're like, I don't know, they might be the most into basketball of the SEC school, so they'll probably travel well also.

But the Howard game is a game that you expect to win big the howard game is a game you expect to blow them out i'm not going to spend a ton of time on that uh we'll get more into like our our preview i guess later in the week but um thursday saturday is the two games for ku they're going to be playing the kind of Thursday early game, I guess would be the way of putting it. I think it's the one o'clock game for KU on Thursday. And when you look at who they could be matching up between the winner of Arkansas and Illinois, it's very interesting for both because, well, one, I guess you can get revenge for the Liberty Bowl if you do play against Arkansas. But if you play Illinois, you can get revenge for the secret scrimmage.

So perfect revenge opportunity for KU. It's a tough eight, nine matchup to put it at the very least. Now, which one does KU match up better against? I don't know. I would probably lean toward Illinois just because they're the worst team. Arkansas is ranked 20th on Ken Palm. Illinois is 33rd. So from that standpoint, you probably go for Illinois there. Arkansas has a lot of talent. Anthony Black is going to be a first round pick in the NBA. He's a freshman. Nick Smith is going to be a lottery pick in the NBA.

He's a freshman. Jordan Walsh is a young freshman. They have a lot of guys in their lineup who have very high potential, but they're inconsistent, and that's why they ended up as an eight seed. But the reason you don't want to play, what if you get the inconsistent side of it where it's them at their high peak, where they're causing you issues? Black being 6'7 at the point guard is a little scary too because your point guard play like whoever you have at the point guard is a little bit smaller um but i guess they are a little bit smaller on the wings and everything so i don't know i i don't love the arkansas matchup

they're a team that will really really defend you get up india um they don't really shoot the ball well but they're good in transition. They're athletic. They run fast. They run hard. If it's Illinois, I guess it'd be another matchup against Matthew Meyer, who we were used to seeing with Baylor. But they have some good wings. So Terrence Shannon kind of plays all up and down the lineup for them.

Matthew Meyer, as I mentioned, like RJ Melendez, they've got a good center in Coleman Hawkins. They're both good teams that are capable of beating you. You're going to be favored in either one though, and you're going to be expected to win. But you know, if you play a C game, like it probably won't be enough to get through in that round. I'd be curious where KU fans stand on playing like power five competition in terms of those second round games. Cause off the top of my head,

those have actually gone better for KU. Like you think back to losses to Northern Iowa and UTEP in the second round. Whereas like you think back to some of the times you played some of these power five or power six, whatever they are schools that have a big pedigree. Like when you played UConn in 2016 or when you played Michigan State in 2017 and or, you know, you play some of these power five competition, you've done better. So I don't know what to totally expect. I think for KU, you just hope to make it out of the first weekend and then hope that maybe some of the bracket broke in front of you,

but it should be a pretty tough first weekend with the winner of Arkansas and Illinois. We're going to finish things up here, talking more about the overall region, not just this kind of first little pod, the two-game tournament for KU on Jayhawks. But first, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The midway point of the NBA season is here,

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to break down a little bit more with KU headed into the NCAA tournament. And then we'll get into a preview later in the week for maybe the pod ahead. Or I don't know. Should I do a first-round preview? I don't know. It's against Harvard. I guess we've been doing it all season long. So we'll do it again.

And maybe we'll approach it a little bit differently. But nonetheless, you look outside of KU's little first weekend pod with Arkansas and Illinois. The 4-5 in this region are very very dangerous there I mean there's a chance VCU could upset St. Mary's and who knows VCU could even make a run to the sweet 16 it's a hot team it's a good team wouldn't be crazy at all um also wouldn't be crazy if Iona upset Connecticut like you have Rick Patino uh just some of those former Big East clashes. And what if he upset UConn? I will like Dan Hurley as great of this UConn team is there.

They're just a four seed, but they're like a top five team in Ken Palm. They've lost a lot of close games and Dan Hurley has never made a sweet 16. So it is possible it opens up. But realistically, you're probably going to be playing at least one of St. Mary's or UConn if you make it to the sweet 16 and both teams are very very tough yukon is really good on both ends of the floor they've got the dominant big man not just with sonogo but clingen their backup center is a really good center also they've got athletic kind of wing guard types they would just be a very tough matchup for kuU. And then for St. Mary's, it's the tempo that would worry me.

KU's had some struggles this year against teams who play at very slow tempos. Think back to like Wisconsin, for instance. St. Mary's is just that. They execute very well. They cut very well, which has given KU some problems in certain games. They're switching schemes. And they'll slow it down they actually guard you very very well so that could be a very tough matchup if you get there i will say i i know saint mary's

is on the west coast and and you'd be like oh no they're playing in the west region on the west coast saint mary's is a very small school if ku plays saint mary's ku will probably have more fans in attendance than saint mary's the issue you run into is the bottom end of the bracket, where if you're playing UCLA or Gonzaga, that might be a little tough with fan support. KU gets great fan support no matter where they go, and I'm sure, actually, there's a good amount of fans who are chomping at the bit to be like,

oh, I'd love to go to Las Vegas and get to watch KU play some NCAA tournament games. So they'd probably have very good fan attendance, but it might be similar to when you play Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament. If you play gonzaga or ucla in the uh elite eight to where it's kind of like a bowl game atmosphere um but you know certainly i know a lot of people have bad flashbacks to the 2007 elite eight where kansas lost to ucla in the elite eight that was in i want to say san jose uh it was either san Jose or Oakland. Yeah, I think it was San Jose.

It was kind of a road game. The KU missed like 19 layups, but that bottom end of the bracket is really tough too. You'd see a lot of teams coming out of there. I think TCU could give Gonzaga trouble if TCU can get by the first four game. Keep in mind, like a first four team wins like every year. So who knows?

It could be that one or it could be the other one. But if TCU does get by, I think they could give Gonzaga some fits with their defense. But it almost feels like we're sleeping on Gonzaga because everybody has kind of dispelled them this year. And maybe that makes them more dangerous, even though UCLA is without Jalen Clark. And I know one of their big men is hurt right now, but it sounds like he could be back by the second round or the second weekend, possibly. It's kind of questionable. But even without Jalen Clark, like they almost and they probably should have they kind of blew the game they missed some free throws late courtney ramey hits a big shot uh a really good arizona team in the pac-12 title game even

without him which showed how good they can be they're really balanced they're really good on both ends of the floor they have the experience they made the final four from a couple years ago it's a very very difficult bracket for ku and kind of the uh bracket of death so to speak um and as I kind of said before normally it's not really worth overreacting to multiple good teams on the other side of your region because at most you have to play one but the problem is you have to worry about all rounds this time second round matchup difficult sweet 16 matchup difficult elite eight difficult where it does kind of just add up and that is why it is kind of the region of death or the path of death for for ku going in and then you do add in the kicker of all those teams being

so close to home so ku's really gonna have to earn this you know last year ku got a pretty open bracket and you know maybe had a couple things fall their way, which helped out. You played a 10 seed in the Elite Eight. You played a Villanova team with an injured Justin Moore. You played an eight seed in the title game, and I'm not taking away. You have the path in front of you, and you win it all, and KU still had to earn it.

And if you get to those points as those other teams, that makes them the good team. Other teams couldn't take them out, so why should we hold it against you? I'm not trying to take away from anything. But my point being here is you're not going to have that same favor this time. You're going to really have to earn it with seeding. Go out and take it. Have that chip on

your shoulder and, you know, go get an even tougher path. Go do what Florida did in 06 and 07 and repeat as champions. That's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to be joined by Nick Schwert for tomorrow's episode to break down a little more, and we'll get to a preview of the, I guess, first-round game with KU Howard on the episode.

You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can hit us up on YouTube or wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also catch me, Rock Truck Sports Talk, 3 to 6, Monday through Friday.