Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks vs Houston Cougars: A Battle for Defensive Supremacy in the Big 12

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is this the two best defenses in the country? Kansas battles Houston for a showdown atop the Big 12 standings. We preview the game. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here at D. Johnson Radio, and thanks for making Lockdown Jayhawks your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Thank you to every dayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get podcasts or on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's edition of LOJ, we're previewing Kansas and Houston, a top 12 matchup overall, a matchup of the two of the top teams in the Big 12. And are these the two best defenses in the country? We'll get into all that on today's episode, as well as the Houston scouting report, players to watch, matchups that can determine the game and more. And we'll have crossover episode as well for this preview coming out early Saturday as well. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:09 You can get tickets to the game. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime, where you can get in for $111. Right now I'm seeing upper baseline in Section 1 for $111. So check that out with GameTime. Okay, so K ku takes on houston this is a 530 tip happening in lawrence and uh one of the big headlines coming into this one is are these the two best defenses in the country so right now you look at at ken palm and houston

Starting point is 00:01:38 comes in with the number one defense in the country with a rating of 86.7 that basically means their adjusted defensive rating against based on the opponents they play they're giving up an adjusted 86.7 points per 100 possessions okay uh duke is second tennessee's third kansas's fourth at 89.7 so you're talking about a three-point swing there for houston kansas but then it's, you know, a little over a, I don't know, a three point swing would be the same distance of Kansas to fourth. And I guess like Illinois and ninth. So I don't know. But point being, you have Kansas and Houston, both in that conversation. If you're just looking at the overall numbers, then you look at another site like Bartorvik, for instance,

Starting point is 00:02:22 which is another analytical site. And on Bartorvik, Houston has the number one defense in the country. Kansas also has the number four defense in the country. Then if I filter things down, though, to just since January 3rd, which would be a Friday, January 3rd. So it would be before the weekend of games that happened the weekend of January 3rd. What's the importance of that? Well, that's when Shaquille Moore entered into the starting lineup for KU. And it's not just that he entered in the starting lineup. It's that he started playing real minutes because it's not that he was playing 20 minutes per game off the bench.

Starting point is 00:02:54 And now that he's a starter, he's playing, you know, 25. He was playing, you know, very sparingly. And now he's playing 20 minutes, 25 minutes a night and starting for KU. And since that point, the number one defense in the country has still been Houston. The number two defense in the country has been Kansas. So you can make a real argument that right now these are the two best defenses in the country. And yeah, I guess if KJ Adams isn't going to play, which is going to be the case, you know, that maybe knocks Kansas down just a little bit without him defensively,

Starting point is 00:03:23 but maybe they're better on offense. I don't know. So I don't know. Maybe a battle to see who the best defense is in this one. But still no KJ for KU, which is unfortunate because you would think in a game where you need to be tough, you need to be rugged, like this would be a matchup that KJ could be helpful, especially because Houston plays – they're not playing –

Starting point is 00:03:42 I guess they have certain lineups with Terrence Arsenault at the four where he can shoot the three and stuff, but they're playing a lot of lineups of kind of two bigs who are non-shooters right and and so I think it might help to a certain standpoint and he was really good in KU's win versus Houston last year at Allen Fieldhouse he had 10 points on four or five shooting he had a team best seven assists he also had four rebounds one block and one steal so it'll be interesting to see how they do without him in this one, I think more so than either of the first two games with TCU and Kansas State. If Kansas has any hope of winning the Big 12 or being in the league title race,

Starting point is 00:04:14 you got to win this game. Now we can talk about the importance of it. Obviously, winning the Big 12 is no longer as important as it was when Kansas had the Big 12 title streak going, right, where you were trying to break or you know break NCAA records by having the longest streak of conference championships right there's not that same pressure to it also because the league is so gigantic because it doesn't feel like there's as much regionality with conferences anymore where it's just like I don't know the realignment has made it so that it doesn't matter as much like if i gave you the option right now of being a let's say a two seed in the ncaa tournament but you finish say third or fourth in the big 12th right versus winning i don't know i guess winning the big 12 is gonna probably get

Starting point is 00:04:57 you a one seed right so maybe that that that's but let's say okay let's say finishing fifth in the big 12 and getting a two seed in the ncaa tournament because you're non-conning you have a good big 12 tournament or something like that right versus finishing second in the Big 12 and getting a two seed in the NCAA tournament because you're non-conning, you have a good Big 12 tournament or something like that, right? Versus finishing second in the Big 12 where you're just like a game behind first, but getting a three seed, like which one are you taking? I don't know. I think I'd rather just take the one where you get a two seed in the NCAA tournament. So it is unfortunate in the imbalanced schedules, but still, you want to win the league, you're

Starting point is 00:05:20 in the league. Of course, you want to hang another banner for a Big 12 championship, right? You're two games back right now of Houston, who's the only undefeated team in big 12 play uh at seven and oh on the season and so i mean there's gonna actually be other teams like iowa state and arizona who are gonna be rooting for kansas in this game because you're running out of opportunities for houston to lose and so if you're kansas you lose this game you'd have your third loss houston would be sitting at eight no you'd be three games back and you still have to go to houston that would be kind of a wraps0. You'd be three games back, and you still have to go to Houston.

Starting point is 00:05:45 That would be kind of a wraps on you most likely having a chance to win the Big 12 title. So if you want to still have a chance in it, you want to still be in that title race, win this game. And for what it's worth, I believe this would be probably the first time under Bill Self that they haven't won it for two straight years. And it would certainly be the first time they weren't really in contention for two straight if you do lose this game okay opponent scouting report houston comes in at 15 and 3 on the season they're riding an 11 game winning streak 7 and own big 12 play and they've been dominant on conference only games they have the second most efficient offense and the first most efficient defense there's balance they're very good um overall in the year they are top 15 on offense they are number one defense nationally and

Starting point is 00:06:26 all three losses they've had were close to good teams five against Auburn and again they were up by I want to say a point or two late they lost an overtime to Alabama who's a really good team and then they lost by three in overtime to San Diego State and 14 of their 15 wins have been by double digits so like they're just a very good team you look at the personnel for houston uh oklahoma transfer point guard milos uzon is six foot four he uh is averaging about nine points five assists per game over steel per game 44 from the floor 36 from 377 at the foul line big shoes to fill for jamal shad he hasn't been jamal shad but he's been a good player for them uh then you have six one sharp shooting guard lj crier he leads the team 13.8 points per game elite shooter 42 from three and also 94 at the free throw line he's got a super odd stat sheet like doesn't get more than two rebounds or assists per game he's under two

Starting point is 00:07:17 and both he doesn't get more than a stealer block per game he's below 40 on two point shots but he's such a good three-point shooter and just shooter overall that it just doesn't matter. He's still such a valuable player. Then you have Emmanuel Sharp, 6'3 scoring guard, who I think might be one of the most underrated players in the conference and honestly the country. He's going for 13.8 points per game, three rebounds, 1.3 steals, doing it very efficiently. 46 from the floor, 46 from three, 93 from the free throw line. They also have Malik Wilson, who's a 6'3 senior guard. He'll kind of play 46 from the floor 46 from three 93 from the free throw line they also have malik wilson who's a 6-3 senior guard he'll kind of play all over the floor for all three of those

Starting point is 00:07:49 guys uh shot it well but low volume from three uh terence arsenal is interesting bouncy athlete he plays the three and the four for them depending if they want to play bigger or smaller lineups he's getting over eight points per game uh getting good steal numbers, just 21 minutes per game, and shooting it well. 47 from the floor, 40 from three, 72 from the foul line. The three big men that they mostly use, it is a combination. They're all 6'8". Jawan Roberts is 6'8", 235, but he has like a 7-foot-plus wingspan. He's just super tough, one of my favorite players in the conference.

Starting point is 00:08:23 Ten and a half points per game, over six rebounds. He's at 55 percent uh not a super diverse offensive game but he's a tough nose will finish at the rim play great defense will rebound will get put backs uh really good player for them then they have javier francis 682 35 if you remember he got hurt in the early going of the island fieldhouse matchup uh but he's at five and a half points 4.2 rebounds 1.2 blocks he's just a good defensive rebounding center again not a guy who has a super diverse offensive game but still impactful in other ways six foot eight 230 pound jojo tugler he's somebody who's popping up on nba draft boards for them the reason why for six foot eight center is he has a

Starting point is 00:08:59 seven foot six wingspan so like flory i think measures in it like a seven two wingspan i want to say it was the report for florida so think about this uh jojo tugler is like an inch shorter than florida and he has four more inches on his wingspan is he probably tie his shoes without bending his knees um not so much of an offensive threat but five and a half rebounds per game 2.3 blocks per game in just 20 minutes per game so i'm basically between francis and tugler they're getting constant elite defense 10 rebounds per game three and a half blocks per game from their two centers what houston does well well they played a very slow they're a boa constrictor right they played a very slow tempo they're going to slowly grind you out they're going to slowly strangle you and that is what their defense does to you and they're going to slow it down they limit teams is 4.4 fast break points per game which is best nationally kansas themselves averages over

Starting point is 00:09:50 12 points per game in transition so uh that'll be very different here but it's the number one defense they're a top 10 defense and turnover rate they are a top 15 defense in steel rate this is nationally uh they have the number one defense in block rate two point defense and effective field goal percentage so they're a bow constrictor they will slow it and then all of a sudden uh they will strike with their fangs every now and then on the offensive end because they do have a really good three-point shooting team they don't turn the ball over offensively they crash the offensive glass with authority they play tough and they don't get the ball stolen so you look at that combined with them being an elite three-point shooting team where they're hitting 39.9 percent

Starting point is 00:10:29 of their threes that's a top five rate nationally that is a lethal combo you completely shut teams down on the defensive end of the court you force turnovers you don't turn the ball over and get offensive rebounds what does that mean you're winning the possession battle you're getting more shots up than the opponent when they are getting shots up they're contested and they're not going in very much for the opponent. When they are getting shots up, they're contested, and they're not going in very much for the opponent. And when you're getting shots up, you're hitting threes at a very high rate. Now, where they've struggled with, even though they hit threes at a high rate, they don't take them at that high of a rate.

Starting point is 00:10:54 So, you know, maybe you can get away with a game where even if they do shoot, you know, 35% from three, if it's lower volume, they don't get to the free throw line well on offense. And they have not been that good at shooting two point shots they uh are only shooting under 49 from two which is outside the top 240 in the country they are third in big 12 only games in defensive rebounding so maybe this is a strength but nationally they rank outside the top 140 in defensive rebounding rate which is still above average but compared to all the things they're so good at, not quite as much as strength.

Starting point is 00:11:27 All right, let's get into matchups of the game players to watch. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, where you can attend the KU Houston game, go to GameTime, you can filter on to the GameTime picks, you can filter on your all-in pricing tab so you don't have to be surprised at checkout and boom i'm looking at this where you can get in the upper corner 167 dollars for what should be an awesome matchup between houston and kansas in allen field house uh you can also get if you're looking for afc championship tickets you can do that on game

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Starting point is 00:12:44 Download GameTime today. Last- minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Continuing on with our KU Houston preview, we'll have crossover episode, further preview in this. And don't forget to check out Lockdown College Basketball for your second listen every day. All right, matchup number one for Kansas and Houston. Play tough, physical, and with energy. I think about this from a kid's perspective they haven't

Starting point is 00:13:07 always played tough this season they haven't always played physical this season they haven't always played with energy this season you would think late night tip on a saturday night not super late but you know a nighttime tip i guess you would say against a really good opponent coming into your building you should have all those things that you should be ready to play with but we know it's been a bit of a hit or miss thing with kansas and when they have played with that energy and physicality and toughness they're a very good basketball team right it's when they don't when they run into issues and you're gonna get punked if you don't do that against this houston team and i think it also applies to a couple different areas um scoring at the rim like that's somewhere where if you score at the rim well like that can relate to toughness right well kansas ranks 97th percent down nationally

Starting point is 00:13:48 in getting 39.7 points in the paint per game houston's defense ranks number one in the country at holding teams to just 19.2 paid points per game can you be tough against tough defense and continue to finish over them even though it's going to be more difficult in this one plus teams are only shooting 53 at the rim against houston uh that puts them in the top 15 at the rim compared to kansas who's shooting 69 at the rim which is a top 40 number so something's got to give there you're gonna have more contested shots with players with long wingspan can you show toughness and finish over them rebounding the ball houston gets over 13 offensive rebounds per game they are in the 97th percentile in offensive rebound rate well two of ku's four losses have been bottom four defensive

Starting point is 00:14:31 rebounding games for ku and three of the four ku losses have been bottom four offensive rebounding games for ku when ku doesn't rebound the ball well it probably correlates a lot with hey they're not playing with as much toughness and energy so they're not rebounding as well they tend to lose those games well houston will take advantage of it if you're not there defending the rim houston shoots almost 66 at the rim that puts them in the top quarter of college basketball so you better be tough in defending the rim because they're going to be coming in hard hustle balls this ain't you know all 50 50 ball stuff like it is important kansas needs to win more than 50 50 balls than they have been doing this season, and Houston has really turned those in to advantage them.

Starting point is 00:15:09 Get on the floor fast. Get on the floor first. But also, Houston, part of it is, by them hustling, they're getting more second-chance opportunities. Houston gets 14 second-chance points per game. That is 94th percentile nationally. To KU's credit, they actually rank 85th percentile nationally uh to k who's credit they actually rank 85th percentile nationally and preventing second chance points on the defensive end but

Starting point is 00:15:29 i think that just speaks more to k who's just got a good defense overall so it's going to help with that but uh yeah when those 50 50 balls when those hustle balls and then the last one here that i would include in this toughness and energy stuff staying strong with the ball houston gets a ton of steals and turnovers and they lead them into points uh they're getting 18.7 points per game um off turnovers that is 96th percentile in the country now again kansas has done a good job avoiding these but uh let's bring that into matchup number two which is move the ball without turning the ball over Houston's in the 96th percentile in steel rate they're in the 91st percentile in steals per game at 8.7 and they're in the 100th percentile in Hakeem

Starting point is 00:16:12 percentage what is Hakeem percentage is a combination of your steel and block rates right so basically how often are you causing chaos or you know steals and blocks are very effective defensive plays right um so they're the best in the country at it. Kansas is coming off a bad turnover game in Fort Worth where they had way too many, I think 17 in the game. But honestly, Kansas has been pretty solid at avoiding them so far this season. It's a different animal playing Houston. And Kansas saw that both times they met Houston last year.

Starting point is 00:16:39 So in the loss to Houston, Kansas had 18 turnovers. In the win against Houston last year, Kansas had 18 turnovers. But win against Houston last year Kansas had 18 turnovers but the difference Kansas had nine assists in the loss they had 20 assists in the win and you look at the game that they won in Allen Fieldhouse Kansas shot lights out they're making all their threes they're hitting all the shots that they needed to hit I don't think you can expect Kansas to shoot as well as they did in last year's matchup so if you're like okay let's you know what are ways if you're not going to shoot as well that you can still win this game well okay turn it over less win the possession game more I want to say Houston only have like three turnovers or something you had like 18 so have that be a little bit better maybe get those

Starting point is 00:17:18 turnovers cut to 13 to 14 if you could continue to try to get high assist numbers and the difficulty here is Houston is so aggressive. They blitz you. They double. They hedge. They do all these different things that make them such an aggressive defense that force these turnovers. You have to have really precise passing.

Starting point is 00:17:34 You have to have quick ball movement. You have to have a good understanding of where you're going to go with the ball. You have to work it side to side, and you have to do it quickly while also being patient, while also threading the needle and being cautious. It's a very difficult thing to do, and that's why Houston has the number one defense in the country and a lot of those opportunities. You look at them having a top 15 offense in adjusted offense efficiency.

Starting point is 00:17:56 I don't think they're actually a top 15 offense. I do think they're a good offense because they're so good shooting threes. But realistically, if they weren't getting all these steals that were leading to easy runouts, easy layups off of turnovers, where would they be? If you were just looking at like half court offense, it's not going to be as good, still going to be good, but it's not going to be as good, right? But the difficulty is for Kansas, you have to be aggressive to counter their aggressive defense. A lot of skip passes, passes across the court. Those are going to tend to lead to more turnovers, but also you need to be clean at it because they thrive on those so it's a very difficult thing to do and that's part of what makes houston so good number three guard the corner three

Starting point is 00:18:33 and the paint houston doesn't take many corner threes only 58 on the season so that's like what three to four a game but when they do they go in they're shooting 52 on corner threes this season now beyond that houston is just one and three this year when they get held to 44 or below on two-point shots versus 14 and 0 on the flip side uh the ucf loss wouldn't have counted into this but it was trending toward it ucf shot 49 um on or i'm sorry houston shot% on two-point shots in that game. So I'll be very interested to see how KU defends Houston, how they line up, right? Because Houston does play with three smaller guards around those two big men. And like, is KU, because there's two, the biggest scoring threats are obviously Cryer

Starting point is 00:19:21 and Sharp. Sharp is a little bit more built than Cryer is. Cryer is a little quicker and quick release, I would say, than Sharp. Does it make sense to put like Shaq Moore, who's got a little bit more strength to him on Sharp, and then maybe put DeJuan Harris on LJ Cryer? Or does it make sense to have Zeke? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:19:43 I'll be very interested to see how KU kind of defends them. But yeah, you got to slow them down at the rim and from the corner from three. All right, let's finish up here with players to watch. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on today's episode of the show. We'll be back at you for a crossover episode tomorrow for KU Houston to get you ready.

Starting point is 00:20:02 And then also we will recap the KU Houston game on your Saturday night. All right, players to watch for the Jayhawks against the Cougars. We're going to go with Hunter Dickinson against Houston's stud defensive centers. So Houston, obviously, they're two defensive centers. And Tuggler, who's got a 7'6 wingspan, and Francis, who's just an excellent defender himself. That's a heck of a rotation you can throw at guys. They are giving up some good height, right? I mean, I get it.

Starting point is 00:20:29 The wingspan is there, but there is something to the idea of, okay, Hunter's 7'2". If the guy who's going up against is 6'8", even though the wingspan is going to be up there to block the ball, you have a more clear view of the rim by not having somebody's head right at your face,

Starting point is 00:20:45 right? Does that kind of make sense? So I do wonder if Hunter is able to take advantage of that in any way. And he had a really good game for Kansas in the Allen Fieldhouse meeting last year with Houston, 20 points on nine of 15 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists. Now in the 30 point loss that they suffered in Houstonston he had 11.6 rebounds he did get hurt though those numbers probably would have been better if that would not have been the case um i don't know does that lead to him having any ptsd of having the injury i think it was the shoulder injury to where uh you know if he tries to do what he did against tcu that that earned him a weird technical um you know do you not do that against houston knowing what happened last year i

Starting point is 00:21:23 don't know but kansas needs him to perform uh against the houston defense he did last year and i'll be very interested to see how it works and houston you know probably they like to be aggressive they will send doubles right and the good thing about hunter and we saw in the tcu game he's really good at finding the open man and getting assists off of it that's going to lead to a made three so kansas has to be good about finishing those threes if Hunter gets doubled and finds the open man as well. But I think this is going to be a fascinating, super fun matchup at both ends of the court both ways.

Starting point is 00:21:54 High on the go-off meter, the honest answer is kind of no one because if these are the two best defenses in the country, or at the very least these are two of the best five, I don't know, kind of no one for the KU side. If I was looking at the Houston side, Cryer two of the best five. I don't know. Kind of no one for the KU side. Like, if I was looking at the Houston side, Cryer usually plays well in Allen's Fieldhouse, but if I'm going to pick someone for Kansas, I am going to go with Dickinson.

Starting point is 00:22:11 Again, 20 points last year in the meeting in Allen's Fieldhouse. I don't know that they'll necessarily be scoring from Hunter, but I could see him having five assists. I could see him having 15 points, right? So I think that'll be very interesting. I'm also very curious to see how Flory performs against their more rugged big men, like the length and the athleticism and the springiness of flory versus the toughness and the strength of those big men for houston i hope this

Starting point is 00:22:34 isn't a game that he's in foul trouble because i can see that kind of being the case but that'll be interesting um i can also say this league when you go back and look at some of their losses the players who have gone off it's players who are willing to let it fly and let it fly from deep or with a slightly contested hand in your face. You have to be willing to take some, you know, maybe higher, not necessarily like super tough threes, but ones that aren't wide open and be able to make them and maybe be able to make them from a few feet behind the three-point line.

Starting point is 00:23:00 And so I looked at Zeke Mayo, who has played really well at home this season and has played really consistently for Kansas, scoring the ball in Big 12 play. And those would be the two guys that I'd be looking at here. 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 for more TU Houston content.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks vs Houston Cougars: A Battle for Defensive Supremacy in the Big 12

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