Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks vs Creighton: Defending the Three and a Possible Big Man All-American Matchup

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas goes on the road for the first time we preview Kansas at Creighton. 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, Blue Sky Derek Johnson. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Thank you for making it your first listen every day. We're going to be previewing number one Kansas going on the road against the Creighton Blue Jays. First true road game of the year for Kansas. We get into our headlines for the matchup. We get into our opponent scouting report of Creighton. Matchups of the game. Players to watch.

Starting point is 00:00:53 Plenty more coming at you on today's episode, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, just visit Fanduel.com to get started today. So this one taking place on Wednesday night, 730, late night game, I guess. I don't know. KU placed on the date, whatever. This will be KU's first true road game of the season, and it's a week where KU has two true road games

Starting point is 00:01:26 when you're looking at this game, when you're looking at the Missouri game upcoming on Sunday. And so, you know, obviously playing on the road in college basketball is very difficult. You can be playing, you know, a much lesser opponent, and that's still going to be very difficult. We saw that last year. Obviously, Kansas didn't have one of the better teams last year,

Starting point is 00:01:42 but their first road game of the season was at Indiana. That was not a great Indiana team, and Kansas almost lost that game. Indiana played a good game. So you're going to have a fired-up home crowd with Creighton and then Missouri on the weekend as well. That's going to make things more difficult for you. And in the case of Creighton, it is a tough home court environment. They really fill that place out. It's a big arena.

Starting point is 00:02:04 It holds around 20,000 people, so you get loud. And they have pulled some big upsets over the years. You look at beating UConn in some of these years and some of these other highly ranked Big East teams and opponents that they've gotten to play. They've done really well on their home court in their time under their head coach, Greg McDermott. And I'll be interested to see what the visiting attendance is like for Kansas,

Starting point is 00:02:26 because obviously this is a three-hour drive, basically, for people from Lawrence to go up to the game. And are they going to have a good road contingent to this game, especially with some of the early season struggles for Creighton to this point? I would imagine this was one, though, that a lot of Creighton fans circled before the season started and bought their tickets and are excited to get the opportunity to play against. So it'll be interesting to see with KU how much they get up to this game.

Starting point is 00:02:51 I think it's really interesting because I don't know. It seems like there's a contingent of Creighton fans that hate Kansas. Is that a thing? I've seen some of that on social media, which I've always been like, wait, what? Because it's like you're rarely playing against each other. I don't know. I've always thought Creighton was kind of cool like i don't know i don't know what's up with that anyway um this is going to be a interesting rematch of some fun past matchups you have the 2022 ncaa tournament game which creighton nearly pulled an upset over

Starting point is 00:03:17 kansas that kansas ends up winning that game gets by and ends up winning the national championship and you can look back and you know obviously the north carolina game took the craziest comeback for kansas being down 15 points at the half and you know you were down early in the miami game and uh the providence game got a little dicey late after you gave up a big run to them with with i don't know around like under eight minutes to go something like that i would say outside of the carolina game though the craig and game was probably the closest kansas got to losing in that n that NCAA tournament game. It was a pretty crazy game, but there's a lot of new faces on both teams since then. And I think what's interesting, too, in that 2022 game, Ryan Kalkbrenner was injured in the previous game, didn't end up

Starting point is 00:03:58 playing. He's injured right now. Is he going to end up playing? That's one of the other key headlines in this one. Before that, the previous the previous matchup 2020 it was 73 to 72 in allen field house that was a crazy game uh as well that was with the covet year so it was like cardboard cutouts and stands and stuff and then before that you have to go all the way back to 1974 for the previous matchup there's plenty more beyond that but that was a barn burner 55 54 kansas win in the midwest regional semi-final uh then kansas ended up beating oral roberts in the next round made the final four roger morningstar the father of brady morningstar had 18 points to lead the way for kansas in that game there's a little trivia for you okay what about the uh opponent scouting report here for the blue jays creighton comes in at five and three

Starting point is 00:04:40 on the season they have a uh nice top 100 win in the most recent game over notre dame and it is an even better win considering they were without ryan kalkbrenner which again that is one of the big headlines is kalkbrenner going to play did not play in the last game but i i don't know it would make you think that playing the number one team in the country at home like i don't know i i i just feel like if if you were making me guess i would assume he plays but i don't know. I just feel like if you were making me guess, I would assume he plays, but I don't know that for sure. Now, all three losses, it's not necessarily truly indicative that they're just this close to 500 team at five and three because all three losses are to good teams.

Starting point is 00:05:17 They're all the top 50 Ken Palm opponents. Now, two of them did come by double digits. They lost by 11 and 18 in two of them. So that's not great. They also had some closer games. Like their season opener, despite Kalkbrenner having like 50 points, was kind of a closer game than you'd expect against a not great opponent. And for those reasons, they're now ranked around the 40 range,

Starting point is 00:05:37 around the 50 range on Bartorvik and Ken Palm. But also you have to take into mind, like their loss to San Diego State, for instance, that was without their really good point guard and Steven Ashworth, right? And then you also have Ryan Kalkbrenner who's, you know, getting injured along the way. So they've been a little bit beat up. I think they're better than the record indicates or where some of those rankings indicate, especially with you playing them on their home floor. So you look at that personnel, Steven Ashworth, he is in year two with the program transferred in from State, where he was part of that Utah State team that made the tournament, lost to Missouri in the first round, ends up going to Creighton. And so far this year,

Starting point is 00:06:11 he's been money. 15 points per game, 41% from three, over five assists per game. He's a stud on the offensive end of the floor. Six foot two, Pop Isaacs, you might remember him from Texas Tech. He is a chucker. He plays both the one and the two over 14 points, over four rebounds, almost four assists per game. He can hit threes from really deep. He can hit some really tough shots, but also sometimes the shot selection isn't great. And he's only shooting 36% from the floor right now, shooting 33% from three. He is somebody who you go into a given game, and if you're Kansasansas you hope it's not one of these bigger games pop isaacs could easily go 4 of 15 in this game pop isaacs could also easily hit six threes in this game like that's the type of player that he is so you got to make sure you you contain him and prevent one of those explosion games uh then they've got jamiah neal who's transferred from

Starting point is 00:06:58 arizona state 6-5 guard who plays uh kind of on the wing for them and he's been a good player on both ends of the floor good defender uh filling up the stat sheet 10.6 rebounds four and a half assists per game just doing a little bit of everything uh 44 from the field he has struggled from three-point range which that's been the thing in his career like he's always shooting in the mid to high 20 from three going back to his arizona state time so not a great three-point shooter but does a lot of other things to help the team win games uh at the four they pretty much have a couple six foot ten guys that are stretch six foot ten big men that are kind of very similar to each other so Jackson McAndrew and Isaac Trout um McAndrew is putting up really good production eight points five rebounds in 18 minutes a game

Starting point is 00:07:42 and then you have Trout who also the idea of both those players that they can be these stretch big men both of them are only shooting 31 from three right now but uh the true talent shooting might be that they're both better than that and they do create some matchup problems by both being 610 but being able to shoot the ball on the offensive end of the court and then of course at center theoretically if he plays is the seven foot one ryan kalkbrenner he's been fantastic when he has played this year 18 points 8.6 rebounds three blocks per game 78 from the floor um if they can't if he can't go in this game maybe you see some small ball with trout and mcandrew at the five which would cause kansas some uh defensive issues but would be good for the kansas offense

Starting point is 00:08:23 and you'd also see more of, you'll see this guy regardless, but you'd just see more of him. 6'9", 250-pound Frederick King, who has modest numbers so far this season and throughout his career at Creighton, but in the game he got to start without Ryan Colt, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 blocks. So acquitted himself just fine in that matchup. Now what they do well. Offensively, this is a top 15 offense in two-point percentage.

Starting point is 00:08:48 They're shooting over 60% on two-point shots so far this season. But do keep in mind that in the game against Notre Dame without Kalkbrenner, they shot just 52% on two-point shots. So that's a big difference there if they don't have him in this game. They've been knocked out on free throw shooting. They've been a great passing game. I mean, all three of those guards can really pass it and get four or five assists in the game for you. They also launch a ton of threes, and they want to play fast.

Starting point is 00:09:15 They don't really go for offensive rebounds. Like some teams, you see low offensive rebound rates or low D or whatever, right? Because there's not a good offensive rebounding team. Other times you see teams with low offensive rebound rates because they're just like, no, everybody get back. or low D or whatever, right? Because there's not a good offensive rebounding team. Other times you see teams with low offensive rebound rates because they're just like, no, everybody get back. We don't want to give up transition points. We don't need the offensive rebounds. And so for Creighton, they're one of those teams.

Starting point is 00:09:35 They're not really giving up much in terms of the transition game, and that's been a strength of one of this team. They're in the 95th percentile right now in transition defense, only giving up 5.4 transition points per game which counters what kansas wants to do on the offensive end of the court so that becomes interesting uh on the defensive end they don't foul like kalk brenner is an elite rim protector three blocks per game throughout his career he's been elite at playing vertical and not fouling uh they've got a top 25 two-point defense and when you look at the

Starting point is 00:10:03 kalk brenner era like they've been solid at three-point defense every year, which makes sense because if you have that really good shot protector back at the back end, you know as a guard, hey, if I get beat off the bounce on a drive, like I have that guy back there, I'm going to have an easier time contesting on the outside, knowing that in the back of my mind, right? So more contested shots over the long haul,

Starting point is 00:10:25 mean teams don't shoot as well from three against you. Now, what they've struggled with this year, they've turned the ball over a lot. And a lot of them have been by nature of just getting the ball stolen. Their two lead guards, Isaacs and Ashworth, really good assist numbers, but they're also averaging almost six turnovers per game. They haven't been a great offensive rebound team as we talked about,

Starting point is 00:10:43 but again, that's strategic. They do shoot one of the highest three-point rates in the country in terms of the number they get up but they haven't shot them efficiently they haven't made as many they're only shooting 31 so far now is that just um are they a really good shooting team because usually they are under greg mcdermott and they just have had a slow start three-point shooting and there's going to be a big reversion to the mean coming and you hope it's not this game i don't know uh they also really aren't like forcing turnovers on the defensive end they're ranking near the bottom uh nationally in turnover and steel rate defense so as far as the importance of this one shown you can win on the road continuing your dominance overall and trying to pick up another resume building win

Starting point is 00:11:21 in this one against uh you know creighton on the road which even if Creighton isn't you know top 20 team like maybe you thought in the preseason uh they're probably still going to be high enough that this is either going to be a quad one or quad two win because it's on the road uh by the end of the season all right let's continue on matchups of the game this is Locked on Jayhawks this episode of the show is brought to you by Better Together. Introducing Better Together, the first cooperative daily fantasy platform where teamwork triumphs talent and you can play with your friends, not against them. Pick more or less on real-time player stats,

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Starting point is 00:13:02 All right, matchups here. Number one, Kansas defending the three-point arc. So, yes, again, Graydon is only shooting 31% from three so far this season. They've yet to really get it going there. They haven't shot it super well. And, yes, I do think some of that could be poor shot selection at times. I do think that contributes to it. But I think the long history here with their head coach

Starting point is 00:13:26 and even some of the personnel you look at i mean ashworth is shooting over 40 from three but like there is enough there that it scares you because the the exorbitant amount of threes that they take 30 they're taking 33 point attempts per game okay meanwhile like think about this so they're taking 33 point attempts per game they've only taken 20 mid-range shots for the entire season this is a team that values the analytics shooting at the rim shooting three balls and they had a game like to show you this now this was not a good three-point shooting game but it shows you that they have no problem letting it fly against nebraska they went five of 10 on two-point shots. They went 12 of 42 on three-point shots.

Starting point is 00:14:08 Now, part of that was there was a good article in The Athletic from C.J. Moore talking about some of the teams started to, after Ryan Kalkbrenner's early dominance, do what Fairleigh Dickinson did to Zach Eadie and Purdue in the NCAA tournament, where they basically just bracketed the big man down low and said, we're going to dare you to shoot threes. And because Creighton hadn't been hitting threes in the early portion of the season, it worked very well. But in this game, they're playing at home. They're

Starting point is 00:14:31 going to be ramped up. If they're hot from three, it's going to be tough to beat because they're coming at such a high volume, right? It's one thing if a team shoots 40% from three and they're only taking 16 in a game. It's like you can overcome that. They're taking 30 a game. If they hit 13 of them, if they hit 14 of them, it's going to be really hard to win this game you're going to have to have a really good three-point shooting game or do a lot of other things at an elite level if you're Kansas to win this one so defend the three-point arc as much as possible and when you look at the two main culprits Ashworth and Isaacs are the two that I'm looking at but it's also they have big men who can shoot, which could be a problem for KU

Starting point is 00:15:05 because we've seen them struggle with some stretch big men. So I'll be interested to see what some of the defensive adjustments in this game are for Bill Self on the defensive end of the floor. And when you look at it, all three of Creighton's losses this year were by far their least efficient offensive games because teams were able to either get lucky

Starting point is 00:15:21 from three-point defense or do a good job guarding the three-point line on the defensive end of the court. Number two, if Kalkbrenner plays especially, but regardless either way, KU still finding easy buckets inside. Creighton is 0-3 this season when allowing teams to shoot 47% or higher on two-point shots.

Starting point is 00:15:42 When teams are below that mark, they're 5-0. Now, that's not even like that big of a number. But it also goes back to last year when they had Ryan Kalkbrenner. Last year, they were 8-6 in games where teams shot 47% or higher on twos. So basically a coin flip for them. When they held teams to below 47% on twos, they were 17-4. There's a big difference there there's been a big difference so that means over the last two seasons now they're eight and

Starting point is 00:16:08 nine when teams shoot 47 are better and they're 22 and four when they don't so if you can score on the inside against you know something that for them is a strength normally um and it's score on the inside and score from two it not even like an elite or a great late rate, just not like a really bad one. You can beat them, right? It's turning one of their strengths into basically more of just a neutral, I guess. And the problem is teams have only shot under 60% at the rim against them, only 43% on all two-point shots this season against them.

Starting point is 00:16:42 It's obviously easier said than done. Kalkbrenner getting three blocks per game. He's been great so far this season and throughout his career at helping limit things on the defensive end of the court. If he goes, obviously this one becomes a lot more difficult. How much is Hunter Dickinson going to be able to just try to score over him theoretically? Because it's one thing when a guy's blocking shots as a help defender,

Starting point is 00:17:01 if they're the same size, is he going to be able to get some of his post moves off? So it'll be an important game for Hunter if Kalkbrenner does go. Number three, floater game strong. Creighton opponents only take 20% of their shots at the rim. So about one in every five shots going against the Creighton defense is at the rim. Well, the division one average is closer to 30%. And the reason why, again, this all goes back to Kalkbrenner, this all goes back to the rim protection. If you have a big seven foot one dude who's good at blocking shots and you drive to the rim and you see him right there, you're probably not taking that shot. So as effective as they are defending at the rim, they've also done a great job at scaring you from taking

Starting point is 00:17:38 shots at the rim, which helps make them an even better defense. But teams have also shot a bunch of shots in the paint, but away from the rim against this team, like higher than the national average, which are basically floaters, push shots, basically those five to 10 foot shots in the paint runners, things like that, which again, makes sense because you're seeing the seven foot one dude who blocks a lot of shots.

Starting point is 00:18:04 And you're like, you know what? Instead of going into him and trying to lay it up over him and getting it blocked, I'm just going to pull up from a few feet back and throw up a high floater that hopefully goes in. Usually those are a little lower percentage than layups, obviously, which makes sense why, but those are going to be shots you get more often if Kalkbrenner can go, which means think about the players who take a good amount of those floaters push shots short mid-ranges runners it's kj adams it's dewan harris it's zeke mayo it's uh mid-range shots from hunter dickinson on little pick and pops those four guys really need to be on their game now now that's four of your five starters so obviously they needed to be on their game anyway but like those are ku's four leaders in terms of paint shots, not the rim shots. The good news is all four of them do rank above average to good compared to the rest

Starting point is 00:18:50 of the country in field goal percentage in that zone, in that area. All of them are in the 54th percentile or better in shooting percentage in that area. So again, all of them are above average or better. Most notably, DeJuan Harris, who is in the 78th percentile at 53% in such shots. Let's get the players to watch. Maybe DeJuan will come up there. Maybe some of these other players will get to that on the other side for Kansas Creighton.

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Starting point is 00:20:21 But, you know, you can have some fun up at Omaha. A lot of fun stuff to do. All right. Players to watch for this one. Kansas and Creighton let's go with our player matchup and this is obvious it's hunter diggins inverse ryan kalkbrenner if kalkbrenner is healthy you have two all-american big men going at each other what does that matchup look like right um and everything we talked about in the team matchups like those two guys can have a heavy impact on it for both ways of the court now if, if Kulkbrenner isn't healthy in this game,

Starting point is 00:20:45 I think it goes to DeJuan Harris versus Steven Ashworth. Ashworth has been an elite shooter. He's a really good offensive player. He hasn't been the best defensive player, so DeJuan maybe can score a little bit. Plus, you go back to the DeJuan floaters, and Ashworth does have higher turnover numbers. Maybe DeJuan can get some steals there.

Starting point is 00:21:05 So I think that'll be a fun matchup. Offensive end of the court for Hawks, the sore here, players we think can have good games. I'm going to go Zeke Mayo. Neither of Creighton's lead guards are great defenders when you look at like Evan Miyakawa or I don't know, some of these other places. And for a game that could have a bit more pace,

Starting point is 00:21:21 a bit more transition to it, I think that fits Zeke Mayo's game. I think he's comfortable in the open court and scoring some points, and he has a good little floater game and good touch to him in that mid-range floater area. So I think Zeke Mayo could have a good game in this one. Defense-sided ball, we're going to go DeJuan Harris. There's two lead guards for them, Ashworth and Isaacs,

Starting point is 00:21:40 combined 5.6 turnovers per game. If you add Jemiah Neal, who's their basically third guard, that's eight turnovers per game between the three of them. And Harris is KU's best thief. Obviously, he's going to have his hand full with Ashworth, but he's also a smaller guard too, so you don't have to worry about giving up a ton of physicality or being overpowered there either. So we'll go to Juan Harris on the defensive end of the floor.

Starting point is 00:22:04 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. We'll be back at you for a recap of whatever happens in the KU Creighton game as well. So stick around for that right here with Locked on Jayhawks. See you next time.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks vs Creighton: Defending the Three and a Possible Big Man All-American Matchup

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