Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks' shooting surge vs Washburn: What it means for the season, starters and rotation

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Kansas Jayhawks Three-Point BarrageThe Kansas Jayhawks basketball team showcased a remarkable transformation in their exhibition win against Washburn, sinking 15 of 33 three-pointers. This performance marks a significant shift from last season's shooting struggles. David Coit emerged as a standout, leading the team with 19 points and demonstrating impressive decision-making. Meanwhile, Rylan Griffin's quick shooting ability added a dynamic edge to the offense. Defensive efforts were highlighted by Flory Bidunga. The unexpected starting lineup changes, including Coit starting over Zeke Mayo, add intrigue to the Jayhawks' evolving strategy.Will the Kansas Jayhawks maintain this momentum as they head into the regular season? Tune in to explore these game-changing developments and insights.For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!ROYDownload Roy for iOS or Android and enter referral code LOCKED ON and you’ll automatically be entered into a sweepstakes to win $5,000 cash. Visit JoinRoy.com for additional details. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited. Get off the sidelines and into the NIL game with Roy.5-Hour ENERGYWhat’s your Fan Fuel this week?! Whatever it is, do it with a 5 Hour Energy! Available on 5HourEnergy.com. Shipped nationwide. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE and get $50 instantly when you play $5! You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET !Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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)

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, KU, Downs Washburn, 84-53. They could make a lot of threes. Let's talk about it. 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 find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio, and this is Locked On Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast,

including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. Thank you for making it your first listen every day. On today's episode, recapping KU's 84-53 exhibition win against Washburn. What went down? Well, certainly a lot of three-point shooting for KU, which was nice to see after we all endured last season

for the Jayhawks. We get into what happened in the game, some big takeaways from the effort, our game trophies like offensive and defensive MVP, and what's next for KU with the real thing coming up after this. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where you can make every moment more. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit FanDuel.com to get started today.

So Kansas wins by 31, 84-53. Could have even been more than that. Kind of let off the dogs at the end. I think they finished one for their last seven, something like that. It was a much more impressive effort than the Arkansas game, but obviously that would be easy to do. Arkansas, very good team. Top 25 opponent, top 20 opponent. Might end up even being a top 10 opponent, right? Playing them on the road versus Washburn, who, albeit a very good D2 school, is a D2 school there, not Arkansas, right? So it's going to be easier to look better. You're also playing at home.

It's important to remember that and that you just did get kind of your butt whooped by Arkansas, and you can't let that get away. But there were a lot more bright spots that you saw in this game about what this team could possibly be. Certainly it was interesting that the starting lineup changed from the get-go for Kansas, but it didn't matter whether it was the starters or the bench. 35 bench points, and you hit 15 threes. Both of those things, and yes, again, you're playing a D2 school, and you could go back to a couple of KU's early games last season,

like you think about the Manhattan game, where that was just a bad team that they played. And yeah, they got bench scoring in that one and they got three point shots. So, you know, there's no guarantee that this would be no different than that, but it felt differently to me because you had a bunch of different guys making those shots. And the fact that you had all those bench points that you went 15 of 33 from three, that stuff wasn't happening for last year's team. And even in the games last year, where you were making a high percentage of threes, where you made, you know, 45, 50, 60% of your threes, it was on like 15 attempts. The fact that you launched up 33, I think is a very good sign for this team. But yeah, that starting lineup,

I found maybe to be, I don't know, the biggest takeaway from this game that we saw a different starting lineup. You still saw AJ Storr in there, which I thought if you would have told me coming in that there was going to be a change to the starting lineup, you know, minus somebody being healthy. Obviously, we didn't get C. Hunter Dickinson back in this game. Obviously, Shaquille Moore didn't end up playing, but I would have thought that, okay, Rylan Griffin's back playing. Maybe that was the switch in the starting lineup. Maybe it's Griffin over Storr. Then again, maybe it didn't make sense because Griffin coming back off the injury, and maybe you also go back into the comments that Bill Self said earlier this week about that he feels like he's messed up AJ Store a little bit and taking away what you know he originally is or what he

was originally brought in to do at the highest level something we talked about earlier this week on Locked on Jayhawks and the idea that you know if you basically are saying you want to give him a longer leash to do those things you wouldn't take him out of the starting lineup. Although, ironically, he was taken out of the second half starting lineup. So I don't know what to think of all that. But yeah, it ended up being David Coit being the other starter as opposed to Zeke Mayo. And with Zeke, he had a good early start to the Arkansas game,

but then faded a little bit in that game. I don't think it was the best matchup for him. Arkansas is very quick athletic guards, and that's not as much of his game. So you go with Coit in this game, who is more of the quick athletic guard. Both guys are good scorers, just in a little bit differently in how they get it done. I think Zeke probably maybe a little bit better of a passer, though. I've been impressed with David Coit's unselfishness and ability to pass. I know he led the team in shots in this one, but it felt like he's not just going to take contested shots. He'll make the extra pass, which I've been impressed with. And Coit ended up taking advantage of that starting role. 19 points to lead the way for KU.

He went 5 of 10 from three, had the most made three-pointers on the team. He also had three assists, which was tied for third on the team. Only two players were in front of him with KJ and DeJuan Harris. He even had two steals in the game. So you got a little bit of that. And now, honestly, like I'm going to be doing my rotation projection for the season on Friday. I'll be completely honest. I've never felt more lost, whether it's been in the offseason

or like I actually felt okay in the offseason. But where I am now after the second exhibition game, I've never felt more like question marks over my head. I have no idea what the starting lineup is going to be at the start of the year, what the starting lineup is going to be at the end of the year, what the rotation is going to be, how many players are going to be in the rotation, how many minutes is everybody going to play? I feel so incredibly lost because it's like with AJ store,

he didn't start in the second half. Like is AJ store only going to play 20 minutes a night, at least to start. And then eventually he's going to play. I don't know. Like his David quite going to start is, was that just something where he wanted to see what it looked like? And then he'll go back to Zeke Mayo.

Is he going to go with Ryland Griffin to start? Like, I have no idea and no idea how this is going to shake out for bill self. And it got even murkier after this performance, but in a good way, like last year, it was almost like, who's going to start.

Oh no, this guy didn't play well. Do you start the other guy? Oh no, this didn't play well. They're like, that didn't work well. This is a good thing to have. Like last year, it was almost like, who's going to start? Oh no, this guy didn't play well. Do you start the other guy? Oh no, this didn't play well. Or like that didn't work well. This is a good thing to have. It's like, you know, with the exception of AJ store, who maybe continues to try to find his footing for KU, but he might have the highest ceiling of all these players we're talking about as being possible starters. So do you try to go for the highest potential? Do you go for the guy like Zeke Mayo or David Coit or Ryland Griffin? It's just tough, and all three of those guys with Coit, Mayo, and Griffin

had really good moments in this game. They combined for 49 points. They combined for 13 made threes. So, like, it's a good problem to have coming away from this one. But, yeah, I have no earthly idea about where I'm going to go with that on Friday's show. There were some bad, obviously the turnovers were bad at times. It felt like KU certainly hit a slog at certain points,

especially in the end of that first half offensively. 16 turnovers is too many, but also like you got to think, the way I view this, like there is a lot of talent on this team, but there is a lot of meshing that still needs to happen. There is still a lot of like these guys playing together that needs to happen. And so there are going to be growing pains. And also as the season now starts, the rotation is going to tighten a little bit. Like for instance, in this game, Jamari McDowell, who might end up red shirting played 13 minutes. He was minus eight. Zach Clements was 0 for 2. He had four fouls in 14 minutes. So that's 27 minutes. Maybe Zach plays a few minutes here and there, right?

McDowell might end up redshirting. But what that means is that's a lot more minutes to go to the guys who are more the core rotations. You're going to have more time playing with each other and getting adjusted to the certain lineups you're going to be in. So there's going to be some of that expected stuff early in the season. I also found it super interesting that the KJ Adams, Flory, Badunga lineups, which I have not loved and don't really want to see during the course of the season, because like I've said, if you're going to play Zach next to KJ, that can work because in theory, Zach can shoot.

If you're going to play Hunter next to KJ, that can in theory work because Hunter can shoot or Hunter next to Flory. That in theory is like playing Hunter next to KJ kj you know can do more dribbling and passing right there's more stuff that kj can do but um and at least shoot even like close to a mid-range shot but like point with kj and flory you don't you have two non-shooters on the floor at the same time but it's weird to me because it didn't really work in the first half and then when you started the second half by starting rylan griffin and david coit it actually kind of worked because you had enough spacing with coit and griffin that those two worked and there's two takeaways from that one is that okay maybe it is more doable than we think as long as you have the prerequisite

shooting around it but two my bigger takeaway from it is that when you have Hunter Dickinson now out there with David Coy and Rylan Griffin that's going to be a lot of fun because if they were providing enough spacing for the defense to respect Flory and KJ what does that do when it's Hunter and KJ out there so that's really exciting uh speaking of that that good three-point shooting and the spacing it provided KU going 15 of 33 from three shout Shout out to Kevin Flaherty of Kansas City Sports Network for this one. So he put this out there, and this was when Kansas at the time had three guys with four made threes. It ended up with two with four and then the one with five.

That was at the under-12 timeout when he posted that. But then he ended up looking it up, quote-tweeted it, and Kevin found that last year Kansas had four total games where a single player made at least four threes in a game last season. They had none where two players in the same game made at least four threes. Kansas had three in the same game here. So shout out to Kevin Flaherty who does great work with Kansas City Sports Network on that stat.

But yeah, again, it's just Washburn, but like it is still telling at the end of the day, and that was pretty exciting. It was also telling that in the second half, all of AJ Storrs' minutes, it came with the rest of the twos. He's playing in lineups that are with Zach Clements, that are with Jamari McDowell, or some of these other guys who are clearly backups for the team. Same kind of for Zeke Mayo. So I found that interesting too.

While I noticed Rakeese Passmore did at least get in for a few minutes, even though he went 0 for 5, played again the same amount of minutes as AJ Storr. He was up one on him in the previous game. Maybe he's down one. I don't remember. But it was right there. And Passmore actually got in with the starters, with four starters around him. So I found that kind of interesting if you're looking into where Bill Self

is seeing the rotation. I don't know. We'll get into that Friday again. Big question mark. All right, let's get to our game trophies and then what's next for KU. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by GameTime, which 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 only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. Their curation makes it easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and more. So it's not just sports. You can head to whatever you want. And their all-in pricing allows you to toggle the features so that you see the total up front with no surprise fees at checkout.

I know that always grinds my gears. You're going through checkout and you're like, wait, that's an extra way more money than they were advertised for. Just toggle the all-in pricing and then you won't be surprised. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime Picks. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOllege for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOllege, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E, for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. Game trophies for the KU Washburn game. Let's start with a very illustrious award, I would say. If you've ever seen Talladega Nights, I think this is Talladega Nights,

which, by the way, man, been a while since that came out. All Jacked Up on Mountain Dew. This is the All Jacked Up on Mountain Dew award, and it goes to David Coit because that dude is action incarnate. He is energy incarnate. I mean, like I said, it's interesting because for a guy who averaged over 20 points per game at Northern Illinois, you look at the stats and he's taken so many threes and so many shots in a game. And I'd imagine at Northern Illinois, you know, you know,

your role is going to be when you're the best player there. Like I'm going to get more shots up. But what I've been impressed with is how many times do you see a guy who is in a previous role such as that come to a school like Kansas and Bill Self is asking him to dial in the role and they can't they just keep chucking shots and it might upset Bill Self with Coy it feels like that hasn't been an issue and like I said I think it's interesting because he took 12 shots he led the team in shots he led the team in threes but all of them felt in the rhythm of the offense to me like maybe there was one he checked two he checks or there, but like that's not that crazy. It felt like they were open.

They were in the rhythm of the offense. There were times where he made the extra pass, where he made the initial pass to somebody. Like it was not a selfish 12. It was a very unselfish 12 shots how he got about. I was very impressed with David Coit from that standpoint, but it leads to a of action and he's able to get off shots in different ways he's a very quick player he's got a quick release um dude launches from three but he's also like pressing like he's picking up the guy 94 feet across the way which I mean that's how you endear yourself to Bill Self right there if you can hit shots on one end and you can guard a guy 94 feet the other way,

super impressive. And so with David Coy, if you're playing solid defense in addition to what you're bringing offensively, which is an extra ball handler, more quickness, which is what Bill Self a lot of times correlates with athleticism, you're able to hit threes, you're able to make up offense for the team in a way that we didn't see as much from last year like a guard being able to go get his shot that's a very real thing for Bill Self

offenses and I was just really impressed and and you know I go back to when David Coit came aboard we we talked about this if you're an everyday or you might remember this that David Coit had good synergy numbers on defense I think he was in like the 63rd percentile on defense last year and I want to say it was maybe even better the year before I don't remember the year before but for sure I want to say it was like the 63rd a year ago which is classified as like good on synergy but then you take into account the Northern Illinois last year was a really bad defensive team and to have good synergy a good synergy rating on a bad defensive team that could weigh that down makes it an even bigger boost now maybe you have to adjust it for a curve come into a

higher level which obviously this game wasn't a higher level against Washburn that it'll come back to haunt him against better teams because maybe the lack of size will hurt him against bigger guards later in the season against better competition right maybe that is something there but my big worry was okay but Northern Illinois wasn't a great team. Their defense wasn't good. How real are those numbers? Well, I was really impressed with the effort he gave and the ball pressure he was at least providing. And if he continues to do that with the offense, it's going to be hard to keep him out of the rotation and out of that starting lineup. So lots of energy for David Coyton. Lots of things happen when he is out on the court. Offensive MVP, honestly, probably should go with David Coyt.

He led the team in scoring. He had five made threes. Like I said, he had three assists. He ended up plus 44, which was by far the best plus minus in the game. But, you know, we talk about this all the time. Individual game box score plus minus, probably not the best tool overall. Honestly, I could go with Zeke Mayo in this one. That run he had in the second half was

really cool. He ended up with 16 points, four of six from three-point range. But the guy that I'm going to go with is actually Ryland Griffin. Ryland Griffin had 14 points. He was four of eight from the floor, four of seven from three. He also had five rebounds in the game. And he ended up plus five on the plus minus minus so not nearly like the plus 44 of david coy but david coy was playing more at the rest of the starters you know rylan griffin's getting more minutes with jamari mcdowell and zach clements and some of the other players that's going to weigh that down and i could give it to any of three of those guys but here's why i want to give it to rylan griffin i mean first of all he's got such a quick trigger he's always ready

to shoot wherever he is and that is such a boon for this team, especially once Hunter comes in there and what that is going to do for being a dynamic offense. But it's just to me, Ryland Griffin completely changes the flow of the offense when he's on the court. And I even look to the start of that second half when David Coit, you know, gets some three pointers and I'm like, oh, Ryland Griffin is helping open you up, right? Maybe, because even in the first half, like David Coit ended up 3 of 7 from 3. In the second half, he was 2 of 3 from 3. But it just felt like everything was more open when Rylan Griffin was on the court. And that's not something I can really quantify other than just what it looked like

and felt like to me in the game. And having a wing shooter who can do those things who can shoot off the dribble who can you know just provide you so much from the perimeter is so important for the spacing and the gravity of the offense so we went with him for this one defensive MVP I'm gonna go Flory Badunga he ended up with four defensive rebounds which was second on the team KJ had six by the way that's a great sign to see which by the way we saw a lot of KJ as a small ball five so I don't know if that was just from nature of Bill Self unhappy with Zach Clements in this one I don't know if that was you know something that they're

actually going to look into because I actually kind of liked it when you had a lot of guards slash wings around KJ I thought that could be you know fun minutes but if you have Flory and Hunter are you really going to have time to do that? I don't know. Maybe in a pinch, but whatever. Anyway, Flory with those four defensive rebounds. He also had four blocks in the game and all of them were awesome. He is a good shot blocker. He has very lanky arms. So yeah, Flory blocks for days.

It's defensive MVP. How about dunker of the game? Do we want to go Flory? Do we want to go KJ Adams? Both of them had good dunks. How about we give it to Flory and give an assist to KJ Adams? Because we're going to see, I think, a lot of those specifically. We saw in the game where KJ catches it on a short roll. Defensive big steps up on him. Flory slides in from behind.

KJ, who's a good passer, throws up the lob and Flory finishes it. That's not going to be the last time that we see that over the course of this season, that big-to-big passing. And it's one thing when KJ would do it with maybe Hunter Dickinson. Flory is a different athlete. He can really get up there, and it's a better mix for that specific play. So, yeah, that for dunker of the game. What about the near dunk of the game?

We almost saw a really good one with the posterization of AJ store. Instead just ended up going to the free throw line where AJ store drove and tried to dunk on a Washburn player. And then Ricky's pass more in transition, got down, had the breakaway, but got rim stuffed in the end. I'll go with AJ store because you know,

for pass more, he just got stuffed by the rim for store. He had to deal with some bodies in front of him for the near dunk of the game all right what's next for KU men's basketball we discuss on the other side all right thank you for joining us on locked on Jayhawks we're going to be back for KU basketball season preview we will also have a KU basketball rotation projection which right now things are going quickly in my mind. Like how the heck are you going to do this? How wrong are you going to be?

Which I'm wrong all the time, so I guess nothing's new there. But we'll also have a KU Howard preview later next week and maybe some recruiting news later this week for KU as well. So make sure you subscribe to the show and get it anywhere you get podcasts. You can check out Locked On College Basketball, Locked On College Football for your second listen every day. All right, what's next for KU men's basketball?

So it's the real thing after this. You got to wait a little less than a week. Monday against Howard, they're going to be playing that one on November 4th against Howard, and that'll be an opener where you really need to tighten up and figure things out because what we talked about earlier, Kansas has a good collection of talent, but you're still figuring out how to mesh with each other, how to play with each other, what the best lineups are. Well, after that, you don't have much time to figure it out on the run

because if you're still figuring it out, I mean, there obviously are still going to be moments of figuring it out. But if it's really a struggle, you're playing a North Carolina team with some veteran guards and has a lot of talent on Friday, November 8th, and then you're taking on Michigan State on Tuesday, November 12th. Things get real as part of the schedule right after that for KU men's basketball. But it certainly feels like the season is officially here.

Allen Fieldhouse, the new addition, I guess you'd say, with the students feels like the season is officially here. Allen field house, the new edition, I guess you'd say with the students lower on the floor, with the new court, with the video boards and the corners and the updated sound system, all that stuff has been officially christened. And it is the start of KU men's basketball season. It is exciting.

And what you saw today should excite you only more for KU. 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. Again, we'll be back for some KU basketball season preview stuff, a little KU football as well, and we've got a rotation projection for you later in the week. This has been LOJ. See you next time.