Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Women's Basketball Earns Second NCAA Tournament Trip in Three Seasons with an 8-Seed

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas women's basketball back to the NCAA women's basketball tournament for the second time in three years. 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 give me a follow at D Johnson radio on Twitter. Thanks for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere. You get your podcast. You can check out our show on KU men's basketball and their path being set.

Starting point is 00:00:38 We released that as well. This is our episode talking about the woman's team, making it to the NCAA tournament as well. So we'll break that down, what it means, their first round matchup with Michigan and the region pot ahead, everything like that for KU. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash Lock lockedoncollegetermsandconditions.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Apply. So the KU women's basketball team, men's team getting a four seed, women's team getting an eight seed here. And they are going to be playing in Los Angeles because how they do it in the women's bracket is the basically top seeds, the higher seeds of each pod gets to host. So their one seed in their pod is the Trojans of USC, which means they're going out to LA for that. And this is their second appearance in three seasons after not having one under Brandon

Starting point is 00:01:38 Schneider. So it's been a nice kind of development over the back end of his coaching sin here in Lawrence. Obviously last year there was disappointment that they didn't make it. They ended up winning the NIT. There was, you know, wanting to get back here. There was high expectations this year. There was the struggle of the early parts of the season where it looked like this wouldn't happen and there was going to be a disappointment. And then they overcame that.

Starting point is 00:01:59 They got hot at the right time. And not only did they make it in, but they made it by a pretty clear margin where it doesn't even seem like they were really even on the bubble at this point, finishing in with an eight seed. The nine seed that got assigned to them is the Wolverines of Michigan, which means obviously they'll be playing Michigan in the first round. Two years ago when they were in the NCAA tournament, they were in the 8-9 matchup as well. And they beat, I believe it was Georgia Tech.

Starting point is 00:02:23 It was the largest NCAA tournament women's basketball win for KU in program history. And then they played a tight game with Stanford in the first half. Second half, Stanford pulled away and won and blew up. But now they get the opportunity, a couple years older for some of the players to possibly get another crack if they can win this first game, add another one seed. And in this case with USC, still a really good team. I don't know that they're as dominant as that Stanford team was two years ago. A bit of a younger USC team this year too than maybe that Stanford one was.

Starting point is 00:02:54 And I think the big thing is if you would have said Kansas got an eight seed, which obviously they did, you just didn't want to be in South Carolina. You didn't want South Carolina who's undefeated to be your one seed. And I guess from that standpoint, it's kind of a check here for Kansas. So those are kind of the things you need to know at most. Let's get in a little bit more on the Michigan matchup, specifically the rest of the region and maybe expectations for the KU women's basketball team on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:04:52 To learn more, just visit www.amazon.com slash LockedOnFireTV. Kansas is going to be playing Michigan in the first round. More on the matchup. The Wolverines, 20-13 on the air, 9-9 out of the Big Ten. Kansas, meanwhile, 19-12, 11-7 out of the Big 12. Kansas has been hot, though, coming through the back half of this season for the Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:05:15 So that's kind of been nice to see for them. When you look at Michigan specifically, obviously Kansas lost in the Big 12 tournament, but Michigan had won three straight regular season games going into the Big 10 tournament. There is a couple common opponents here. Kansas lost on the road to Penn State. Michigan also played Penn State, except Michigan was able to beat Penn State.

Starting point is 00:05:38 They won 80 to 75, and that was also on the road. So that's not just a common opponent, but that's a common location and where you played them now both teams also played Nebraska from the Kansas point of view the Nebraska win was one that was successful that was back on December 20th when Kansas played Nebraska and Michigan got to play Nebraska twice Kansas beat them 69 to 52 so 17 points in the two games combined. For Michigan, they lost both games to Nebraska. They lost the first one in Lincoln by 19 points on January 17th, so that's not that far after when Kansas beat them by almost 20. And then they lost at home to Nebraska back at the beginning of February by 6.

Starting point is 00:06:18 So you can take a couple things from those common opponents. Kansas on the year has been, when they've played right over this back half of the season, when they've got it going, they've been a good defensive team. They protect the rim. They protect the paint with Tyana Jackson. The defense has gotten going when they've kind of been at their best. They're not a very fast team. They don't score a lot in transition or fast break points. They don't get a ton of bench scoring. It's not a very deep team, but they pound the ball inside. They get buckets on the inside. They've got guards that can create driving lanes. And when they're right, the guards are creating shots, they're hitting shots, and they're playing good team defense all around. From the Michigan

Starting point is 00:06:52 standpoint, also not a team who's going to get out in fast break and also not a team who's going to play at a very high tempo. So I think those things are probably good for Kansas that you don't have to worry about a clash of style, but they're also a team that wants to, you know, kind of pound it inside. They've been a good rebounding team so far this season, really on both ends of rebounding with offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding. Not a team that's going to launch up like a ton of threes necessarily, though they have shot them extremely efficiently, even though it is on lower volume on the season. Defensively though, this hasn't been a great Michigan team. And that's maybe an area where Kansas can take advantage in this game,

Starting point is 00:07:30 especially with them being hot right now. I mean, obviously, they're the better seed here. So theoretically, that kind of makes you a favorite coming into this game. And then if you can get by Michigan, you're most likely looking to play in USC, assuming they can get by the 16 seed. USC, 26-5 on the air, 13-5 in Pac-12 play. They are a team who wants to get maybe up and down a little bit more in terms of the fast break scoring.

Starting point is 00:07:51 Middling tempo overall, but when they have the opportunity to score in fast break, they're basically doubling up Kansas in terms of their fast break points right now. Not a team who scores nearly as much in terms of their points in the paint. They take a lot of threes, and they make them at a very high rate. And they've got one of the best, I guess you would say, young players in the country in just a freshman in Juju Watkins, who is putting up unbelievable numbers, 27 points per game. There's only two other players on the team who are averaging double figures.

Starting point is 00:08:23 And there have been some games, though, with Watkins where she's gone like 10 of 30. So if you can have good team defense on her, you know, maybe you're shooting yourself out of a game a little bit here. I'm not saying Kansas is going to win this game or move on. But I do think that it is something where you have an experienced Kansas team going up against a USC team where, you know, Juju Watkins, their best player, is a freshman. Right. And they do have upperclassmen around her, like Mackenzie Forbes averaging 13 half. against a USC team where Juju Watkins, their best player, is a freshman, right? And they do have upperclassmen around her, like Mackenzie Forbes averaging 13.5. She's a senior. And Ryan Marshall is averaging over 10 points per game.

Starting point is 00:08:52 She's a junior. But when your key player is a freshman and you have this veteran-laden team with Kansas players of four- and five-year players, and also it'll be a fun freshman matchup with Samaya Nichols and Juju as well when you look at that standpoint. But it's one where if Kansas plays their game and plays their style, right? We saw them beat Baylor earlier this year. We saw them compete with UConn and Virginia Tech and some of these good schools. There's no excuse why Kansas can't at least be competitive. So let's finish off. What should be the expectations here for KU and just kind of as a program moving forward.

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Starting point is 00:10:08 LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnCollege. That is LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnCollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. What is the realistic ceiling for this team? Well, I think when you look at having having we always talk about guard play wins in March right well you have veteran guard play when you look at Holly Kerski here she's been around the block a time or two right Zakiya Franklin same thing Wyvett Mayberry same thing and Samaya Nichols been excellent she's a young player but that goes into the idea of having

Starting point is 00:10:39 guard play you've got your stud center who can help you out defensively when you've been playing right when you've been playing over this back half of the season, the defense has really picked up for Kansas and looked like a really good defense across the country. So, I mean, the realistic expectation, I think, becomes can you win your first game and be competitive in the second game? But the ceiling is why limit it there? You know, if you are a veteran team with good guard play that is kind of peaking at the right moment, even though you'd be an underdog if you're playing USC, you know, why limit yourself?

Starting point is 00:11:07 Right. So I do think there is an element for me that still would be a little bit, I don't know. If you look at a big picture to say that in the Brandon Schneider era, only two NCAA tournament appearances through however many years and haven't made a second weekend yet. Like I still feel like this, this program, there's no excuse why they can't be a consistent team that is consistently top 25. When you look at the facilities they get to use at Allen field house and you know, you see like the, the WNIT final, you know, you have like 12,000 fans there. Like the support of the volleyball program there is if, if there is, you know, you have like 12,000 fans there, like the support of the volleyball program. There is if there is, you know, a good program, like people will come out and support it and everything. And so I do think the ceiling of the program is more than what we've seen over the past whatever decade. But I think you're more getting to it over the last couple of years.

Starting point is 00:11:59 And I think this is another step in the right direction. The question becomes, you know, after this year, you're going to lose a lot of those veterans, a lot of those seniors. Are you going to take a step back next year or, or like Smyrna is going to come back and be a superstar and you're going to build off of this. That becomes the real question. I think that's why this is important because if this does end up being more of your ceiling type year as a program where you do have all these veterans and they came back for this year,

Starting point is 00:12:20 then it is even more important to make that deep run this year to really show what the ceiling of the program can be, which basically what I'm saying is I think there's no excuse why it can't be one of the better programs in the country. All right, well, we'll see what they're going to do. We'll have a preview for you in that Michigan game more in depth coming up later in the week. We'll also get to picking the tournament bracket with some past history and parameters. We've got Nick Schwert scheduled to join us. We're going to have some KU preview for their game for the men's side when they're getting ready

Starting point is 00:12:50 to take on Sanford. So make sure you subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcasts. Thank you to the everydayers out there. You can also find us on YouTube as well and check out our men's episode talking about the path open for them and what they need to do and the tough matchups ahead for them. All right here with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Women's Basketball Earns Second NCAA Tournament Trip in Three Seasons with an 8-Seed

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