Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS VS TOWSON PREVIEW | Will Darryn Peterson Return from Cramping Issue vs NC State for Jayhawks?

Starting point is 00:00:00 KU takes on Towson, and it sounds like Darren Peterson actually has a chance at playing in 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. Well, Eric Johnson here with Locked on Jayhawks, part of the Locked on podcast network, now the number one sports podcast. podcast network. And on today's edition of the show, we are breaking down the latest on Darren Peterson. I guess sort of good update, sort of bad. It feels like everything is a little bittersweet with every update we've been getting with Peterson from Bill's office. So break that down what it means for the KU-Towson game. And moving forward, we'll preview the game itself. Towson scouting report, players to watch for both theme. KU's keys to the game and plenty more.

Starting point is 00:00:52 This episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Okay. News code locked on college for $20. off your first purchase with game time. All right there with a little update on Peterson coming into this game. So we heard from Bill Self on Monday, around noonish, I guess, or Monday morning. And reading a tweet here now from Matt Tate from R1S1 Sports. He said, self on Darren Peterson's outlook for Tuesday. I have no idea.

Starting point is 00:01:21 We didn't practice yesterday. I just saw him in the hallway going to lift with the guys. You know, okay. So that's not the worst update the world. and then he later says in the tweet said it wasn't a hamstring some quad type cramping says it was evident he wasn't moving at the pace he needs to play at and I do think that is like if you go back and watch the Missouri game there's a couple times he kind of gets like blown by in that game he just didn't look like he had that same burst and the amazing thing is he looked like an older version of Joe Johnson like Joe Johnson at the end of his career like could post up and score and stuff like that and it would still be effective it just didn't have the same burst or whatever. That's the thing that's crazy is he didn't have that same burst. The last few games, he's still scoring and hitting jump shots and stuff. But I guess that's good and that's bad, right? It's good from a standpoint that it's not the same injury because

Starting point is 00:02:12 cramping versus being worried about pulling or snapping a hamstring or whatever is like cramping, you can you can get over it from it. Like I guess if you have a bad cramp, I don't know. It's not as bad as saying, hey, I pop the hamstring and now I have to have surgery or something like that. You know what I mean? Like with cramping, it's like, okay, well, I have to miss the rest of this game. But if I hydrate up and yada, yada, yada, I can be back for the next game. The reason it's bad news, though, is that this cramping thing is clearly not going away and it can be a persistent issue.

Starting point is 00:02:47 So if it's causing Peterson to not play like 100% version of himself and play with his full burst and it is something that is preventing him from finishing games, that's obviously an issue for KU. Like, do you go, do you start going about this and putting him on kind of a minutes restriction in the first half? Like, do you try to limit his minutes in the first half and in the first half of the second half so that he can close the game? I don't know. I think it's very interesting. Now, this was another tweet from Matt Tate. He said, cell phone, Darren Peterson clarifies, because I think he, there was a follow-up question to whatever he was asked about.

Starting point is 00:03:23 He said, he hasn't heard the word hamstring one time in the last couple of days. And that's coming from our medical staff. staff. I know it's frustrating for him. He gets out there and can't move. We've got to figure that out and we certainly haven't done it yet. It seems like there's a little bit of mental stuff at play here, which you can understand, right? The thing with injuries isn't just the physical side of it. It is the mental side of it. You're worried, you know, are you going to do it again? You have to like regain the trust in the muscle in a very real way. And I think people who have, you know, undergone serious injuries at some level, like you do have to kind of regain the trust. And, go through that process of like feeling like you can fully trust it to a stand by it like it's a big deal when obviously this isn't the injury but like it's it's it you think like when you tear an ACL like it's a big moment when you have the mental capacity to be able to be like I'm going to fully plant and fully do a juke move similar to how I was before like there's just kind of a mental block and so I don't know if that's kind of happening here but again the fact that it would be

Starting point is 00:04:26 cramping would tell me that okay he should be playing in the taus. game if it was just cramping now again do you rest in these next two games just for the sake of it but if it is cramping as the issue doesn't and i'm not a doctor or trainer so i could be completely wrong with this but like when i think of cramping i think of okay do you need to get like think about it you're missing all these games you're having cramping issues before it now you're missing all these games and now you're coming back in the swing of things and playing you know 25 30 minutes in full basketball games like you're running up and down against power for opponents you're not in game like you can be as good of shape as you want people say this all the time like athletes say

Starting point is 00:05:06 this all the time there's difference between being in great shape and being in game shape it is just different and maybe peterson you know just needs to get back into game shape to mitigate some of the ramping right like and so from that standpoint if that's what it is if by playing in more games you're going to get better conditioned for game shape then you want to keep playing him through these games um and so the fact that it's not the hamstring like that is at least a positive for for kind of the long term there but then with it clearly having some sort of impact it's like again do you risk playing him in these games but if it's just cramping why would you not play them in this? I don't know a lot of I think different opinions and voices and like we've heard so many different things coming from

Starting point is 00:05:44 what's going on here that it's hard to really narrow in and focus on what is what I do think regardless of if we see Peterson against tauson or not I would really like to see col Rosario and Jaden Dawson get a little bit more time in these next two games, right, assuming that you take care of business and don't play with your food, so to speak, if you can take care of business and allow those guys a little longer leash in these games to see if they can, you know, get a little bit more development to see if they can catch a little bit fire because in the situation where Peterson were to miss more time later in the season, I do think it'd be really important to have at least one of those two guys, Rosario or Dawson, somebody that you

Starting point is 00:06:21 could trust to play 10, 15, 20 minutes off the bench and be able to provide some of the shooting that you would lose with Darren Peterson. Obviously, you can't fully replace Darren Peterson if he does have to miss games or miss time, but you would like to at least have a little more shooting than you have outside of Darren Peterson when Melvin Council is not making nine threes in a game. As far as the importance of this game for KU, you want to finish the 2025 calendar year strong. You want to get these last couple wins and go on a hot street, go on a winning streak headed into Big 12 play and kind of continue to build yourself up as a team, whether that's continuing to play without Darren Peterson if he doesn't play or if he does play,

Starting point is 00:07:01 that's continuing to kind of build playing with him because you've still played more games without Darren Peterson than you have with to this point in time. I also want to see, you know, I guess kind of a slump busting opportunity for some guys. Like for Florey, he struggled a little bit against NC State and have his best game against Yukon. Like I want to see him have a big game. Bryson Tiller started the season so hot, feels like he's maybe hitting a little bit of a freshman wall right now. Can you get him back to playing to the level that we saw earlier in the year, right? And it's just that you can't afford to lose one of these next two games. I know they're expected to win and win big, but we have seen Kansas, you know, get upended here or there on occasion.

Starting point is 00:07:40 And we have seen Kansas even in some games they've won at this late stage in December when maybe your focus isn't fully all the way there. And the game ends up closer than you would expect. and whether it was like, gosh, was Tarleton State or Stephen F. Austin who came into Lawrence and like Remy Martin had to hit some late shots to kind of push KU over the edge. KU needed like a 20-point effort from Jalen Coleman-Lands to get by like George Mason on like a, I think it was like a January game. KU's lost to Davidson before one of the teams are upcoming. So like the Cornell game we think back to when was that, I think it was December.

Starting point is 00:08:13 I don't know. I think it was 0-8 for the 0-8-09 season or maybe it was in the 9-10. Anyway, there are other games that you could point to in this situation. still do got to take care of business and you can't afford with the upcoming slate of the Big 12 to fall in one of these games. So just take care of business, focus what you got to focus on and get it done. And it'll be interesting too because Towson is coming off of like nine between games. So that would have given them extra time to rest. That would have given them extra time to practice and be the best version of themselves coming into this game. I would have given them

Starting point is 00:08:44 extra time to scout for Kansas. Now, how much are they really scouting for Kansas versus using that time to just better themselves. Like at the end of that day, Towson's in a position where if they're going to make the NCAA tournament, it's going to be based on, hey, we won our conference. So like, are they getting prepared for conference more than they're getting prepared for Kansas? But still, it gave them extra time to get ready for this game, which

Starting point is 00:09:03 certainly will pose its own challenge in one way or not. Let's get to that Towson scouting report. Players to watch KU. Keys to the game and more. This is locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Omaha Stakes. The holidays are here.

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Starting point is 00:10:41 and more all for just five dollars a month or fifty dollars a year go to our uh URL which you can find at the bottom of our YouTube screen or in our YouTube notes, but I'm going to say it right now, Lockedonpodcast.com. If you're a listener, locked on podcast.com slash every day or locked on podcast.com slash every day or check the link in the show notes to learn more. All right. So KU takes on Towson and the Tigers come into this one, six and four on the season. We've got a 15-year head coach in Pat Scary. And two solid wins, Rhode Island and Liberty are barely outside the top 100. They have played two big 12 schools, though, and those did not go great. Towson, a 17 point loss to Houston, and then in their last game, which was, again, all the way back

Starting point is 00:11:22 December 7th, so a long time between games, 25 point loss at UCF. They're in the top 150 on Kenpom, top 170, a little bit lower on Torvik. Both of them list them as having a better defense than a better offense, but they're relatively balanced between the two. When we look at the four strengths for the tigers, one of them is height. They are top 60 nationally in average height. So this will be a team that is not one of the mid-majors that Kansas is playing, where it's just like, okay, they should just tower over them and dominate inside. Like, Towson has a lot of high. I mean, they've got two, six, nine dudes and a seven-footer who play the five. They've got a six-nine two-thirty guy. He got the starting four. And they've also got a couple six-seven wings.

Starting point is 00:12:03 They've got a couple more six-six wings. They've even got a six-eight wings. So, like, they have really good size three through five, specifically one and two. It's just kind of normal size. That leads to them being a good rebounding team. They're in the 90th percentile right now in offensive rebound rate. So they really crash the offense glass and they grab them. 91st percentile in defensive rebound rate. So they go do a good job clearing the boards there. They also do a good job playing slow, which I guess you could say like is that really something they want to do. And it kind of dictates like it's easier, I think, to slow a team down than speed them up sometimes, right? Like if you're forcing turnovers and steals, that's a whole different situation.

Starting point is 00:12:41 But like, you know, if a team wants to run and then the other team just parks it in the half court and takes up 25 seconds before shooting, you can't really force them to speed up outside of just pressuring the ball relentlessly over and over again. But they're 360th nationally in adjusted tempo. And where you see that payoff, I think part of that goes the rebounding numbers on the offense, they slow, but that allows their bigs to, you know, get down the court and get in position to get offensive rebounds. It also helps them rank 82nd percentile in fast break points allowed per game.

Starting point is 00:13:13 So by playing slow, it allows them to slow. the opponent down. It allows them to, you know, maybe they're not, you know, I don't know, in situations where they're just taking quick fire shots that's going to lead to a quick run out the other way. They're going to be able to get numbers back and prevent you from scoring and fast break, which is obviously something that, you know, we heard Bill Self this week talk about. He wants this team to play even faster. So that becomes interesting there. Mid-range shooting is another strength for Tauson. They're in the 90th percentile for how often they're shooting from the mid-range. And they're also making them at a 41.4 percent clip,

Starting point is 00:13:44 which is in the 77th percentile nationally in mid-range field goal percentage. Now, some of the four weaknesses for Towson shooting the ball outside of the mid-range, right? Again, good mid-range shooting team, but everywhere else in terms of shooting, not at the rim stuff, right? 216th in the country in field goal percentage. 329th in the country in three-point percentage. They're only shooting 28% from three. 318th in the country in free throw percentage, 260th in the country, and a fact, effective field goal percentage, 292nd in the country in true shooting percentage.

Starting point is 00:14:19 Any way you shake it, not a good shooting team that you're taking on. And the thing is, even though they are good from the mid-range, analytically, that's the, we saw it with last year's Kansas team. You know, they were actually a pretty decent mid-range team. But if you're choosing the different zones, you want to be good at shooting, like, it's nice to have some good mid-range shooters and be able to shoot in the mid-range because if a defense locks down the other spots, it's nice to have kind of a get-out- jail free card here and then, but when that's what you're relying on,

Starting point is 00:14:48 analytically, it doesn't end up being the most efficient offense. Passing has been another weakness for Towson so far. 361st in the country in assist rate. They're also 316th in the country in assist to turnover rate. So those have not been good. Defending at the rim is another weakness for this team. So you would think, okay, they've got a big team, they've got all the size, they should be good defending at the rim.

Starting point is 00:15:10 That's not been the case. opponents are shooting nearly 70% at the rim against them. And you're like, how is that the case against a team that has all this height and is as good at rebounding as they are? Well, I think maybe just not a lot of like, it might be more positional size and good fundamentals of like boxing out to get the rebounding as opposed to just like pure length and athleticism because their team leader in blocks per game is at 0.6 blocks per game. you know that's like what florrie averages every what like seven minutes he's in the game or something like that um and overall teams are scoring over 33 points per points in paint against them so this should be a game k you should be able to get the ball inside and then uh don't they don't draw fouls on the offensive end which again you would think okay they have bigs they get the ball inside but um

Starting point is 00:15:58 they actually do a good job of not fouling on the other end but offensively they're not to the free throw line at all they are 344th nationally in fouls drawn per game they're 320th nationally in free throw attempts per game. Players to watch in this one for KU, Melvin Council, 13 points, 5.2 assist, 4.1 rebounds per game. Those numbers sound great, but I think the question we're all wondering,

Starting point is 00:16:21 how does he follow up that legendary 36 point performance at NC State? Obviously, you don't expect 30 every time or in this game, but if Peterson does end up being out, it's going to be imperative that he can consistently give KU double figures in the games he's out. Even if he's back, though, I just want to see how he responds to this. He's probably going to get a very warm welcome and a lot of barks. I've had a lot of people reach out to me or mention me like,

Starting point is 00:16:46 why are they like booing Melvin Council when he, you know, I'll have like the occasional like, like my parents will text me or something or a friend will text me and be like, why are they booing him when he has the ball? It's like they're not booing. They're barking. They're barking. So you'll probably hear a lot of that on the TV broadcast. And if you didn't know what it was, that's probably what it is.

Starting point is 00:17:04 Okay. Jamari McDowell is my other player to watch because if Peterson does, if Peterson ends up playing, then Peterson is the guy to watch here. But the shadow player to watch if Peterson can't go is Jamarie McDowell, zero points in 19 minutes against NC State. And if Peterson doesn't go, they're going to need more contributions for McDowell. It's not that they need him to be a 15 point per game score.

Starting point is 00:17:25 But I think the best versions of Mcnail have been, you know, he hits one or two, threes. He scores five, seven somewhere in that range of points and provides a few other contributions on the defensive end and stuff. So he becomes one to watch for me. Should Peterson be out? Peterson's in, then Peterson would take his spot there. Towson, for them, Tyler Tejada is a 6'9, 230-pound power forward.

Starting point is 00:17:46 There's some places to have him listed as a guard. It's very interesting. It's 6-9-2-30. I guess he's kind of a point forward. And he's going for 18.8 points per game, really good there. 46% from the field, 28% from 3, 94% at the line. So not a team who's getting to the line of time, but when he's getting there, he's converting them at a very, very high clip.

Starting point is 00:18:07 And then Dylan Williamson, or Dylan, Dylan Williamson is a 6-4-1 junior point guard. He's going for 15.6 points, 3.3 assists per game on 43, 3479 splits. Those are the two leaders in points per game. Let's finish up with the keys to game for KU, player matchup, Hawks the Soar, all that next on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by game time. Hey, the World Cup is coming to North America for the first time since. 1994. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, that just means more matches going on, it's going to be massive. But let's be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part.

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Starting point is 00:19:31 Again, download the app, make an account, and use code locked on college. for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go with game time today. Finishing things up on the show today with Keys to the Game for KU, little player matchup and Hawks to Soar as well. Let's start here. Keys to the game for KU offense. Pound the Rock inside. Towson is seeing opponents shoot about 70% at the rim against them.

Starting point is 00:19:58 And in the NC State game, Kansas didn't get much from the combination of Tiller and Bedunga. I think it was, what, 10 combined points between the two of them, you need more. And especially if Peterson is going to be out, whether it would be this game or in a future game, like, you need the post presence of those two. And Bill Self talked about it this week as a presser that he wants his bigs to play big. He wants them to play bigger, right? And impose their will a little bit more. Well, this is a matchup.

Starting point is 00:20:23 Then, you know, I think that's going to be an emphasis. Go do it. Right. And then I would just say avoid a sluggish turnover game, right? This is a game where KU is a big favorite. And you just worry, okay, coming off a rivalry game against Missouri, a packed road environment at NC State where you win a nail biter right before that, you're losing an incredible atmosphere game against Yukon and Allen Fieldhouse. You're playing in the players era before that. Like the different levels of competition, KU has gone up against this one, there was that quote from Dan Hurley, I think it was last week.

Starting point is 00:20:58 And he was like, when I wake up on the day of like a buy game. I don't know. He basically, yeah, I forget the exact quote, but he was basically just like, it lacks motivation for me, for lack of a better term. So you just wonder, like, is all the motivation and want to going to be there?

Starting point is 00:21:19 You know, ideally it is. Ideally it is, and they're able to kind of get up for this one, but could this be a game where Towson has it, an eight-point game at the under-eight mark or something, and Kansas has to make some plays late? Ideally, you're kind of avoiding that. And I think avoiding the sluggish turnovers where you're just not, you know,

Starting point is 00:21:38 it's the unforced turnovers that would really get you, especially against the team who doesn't force a ton of turnovers. Like that's just kind of what I'm looking at here. Like basically just stay focused is kind of the bottom line there. And then the KU defense, I think you actually, because going back to them being a good mid-range shooting team, I think you live with that. I'm not saying you just leave them wide open and they're like, take as many as you want

Starting point is 00:21:56 because clearly they're comfortable there. I'm just saying you don't sell out to stop the mid-range because think about this. They're one of the top quarter teams in college basketball shooting 41% from the mid-range. Here's the basic math on this. A 41% mid-range 2 is the same as shooting 27% from 3, essentially, give or take on the math. Okay. So I'm not saying you leave them wide open, like what NC State did to Melvin Council. I'm just saying you don't tailor your defense to stopping that.

Starting point is 00:22:26 You kind of live with it. I would say in general, the key for the KU defense here is going to be defensive rebounding. Again, they're in the 90th percentile and offensive rebounding rate. And we go back to the importance of the bigs. Okay, I want to see, you know, I want to see Bryson Tiller have like a eight to ten rebound game. There have been some recent games for Tiller where the reaped have dropped down a little bit. And, you know, I think some of the questions for Tiller coming into the year where we're about, okay, how would he play as the five, you know, maybe more so being more of a traditional power forward? And how would he look offensively in terms of, okay, does he want to be more of a face-up guy and a stretch?

Starting point is 00:23:02 big as opposed to what Bill self typically values is like the back-to-the-basket post-up guy. But the thing that I've been that I want to see more of, and we saw it early in the season, Tiller was averaging like 8, 9, 10 rebounds per game at OTE. And some of these really, like I think in the NC State game was four in high 20s minutes. I want to see him get back to having a big rebound game. Obviously doing a good job on the defensive end would help there for KU. And then our player match up here is Melvin Council versus Dylan Williamson. Williamson second on Towson in points per game.

Starting point is 00:23:32 shooting solid 34% from three. So counsel defensively going to have his hands full a little bit there and then counsel just backing up that 36 point performance. I think that'll be a good matchup in the game. Our Hawk to soar in this one. So Towson is top 15 in the country and the amount of times that they get their own shots blocked, meaning the teams have really feasted blocking shots against them. And what do we know Kansas does well? They block shots. And who do we know does that very well for Kansas? Well, it's a couple guys before we've been doing a primarily among them. So I think a big blocks game for Florey. And then we go back to, hey, they're giving up 70% at the rim. Okay, that's a Flory thing as well. I think Flory, too, who didn't have his best game

Starting point is 00:24:12 against NC State. We've seen a little inconsistencies in Flory, which, you know, does make a little bit of sense with him being a younger big. I could see this being another high peak valley moment for Flory Bedunga in this one and having a big game, having a double double, having, you know, three, four, five blocks against Towson. All right. That'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks, you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And did Locked on Jayhawks make your Spotify wrapped? Prove it on social media to secure a free to secure month of our brand new Everydayer Club. Just tag our locked on network on any social platform and we'll drop you a code. Be one of the first to join the Everydayer Club to get your favorite show ad free and exclusive access to the members only Discord channel. For those of you on video, we are going to head over to the 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network on audio. Make sure. to make locked on college basketball or locked on college football your second list every day and we'll see you next time for k u tausen postcast right here on locked on jhawks

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KANSAS VS TOWSON PREVIEW | Will Darryn Peterson Return from Cramping Issue vs NC State for Jayhawks?

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