Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KJ Adams RETURNS, No Dajuan Harris, Diggy Coit EXPLODES: Kansas Jayhawks Find a Way vs UCF Knights

Starting point is 00:00:01 Kansas found a way they survived UCF in a high scoring affair. KJ Adams back, DeJuan Harris out. Weird lineups, three big lineups. Lots to talk about on today's recap of KU UCF. 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 up? Derek Johnson here.

Starting point is 00:00:30 This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks, we're breaking down, recapping the Kansas UCF game. Lawing down in this game, high-scoring game.

Starting point is 00:00:48 K.J. Adams back. DeJuan Harris was out. Weird lineups all the way around. We're getting all of those. Game awards, what's next, and plenty more on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Super Bowl 59 is here, and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet bet just five dollars and if you win you'll score 200 bucks

Starting point is 00:01:08 in bonus bets download the app or head to fanduel.com and you can get started today so kansas wins 91 to 87 and this is a i don't know like the win itself it feels underwhelming because you were expected to win this game by a lot. You only win by four. You were in danger a lot of the way. There were certainly some moments where you were worried about the game result and also what was going on with the team. But at the end of the day, you needed to win this game. After you lost that Houston game the way you did, you needed a pick-me-up to try to bounce back any way that you could to get that win.

Starting point is 00:01:43 And they were able to find a way to do that and that is the important thing here I was curious how they would come out in this game you know after you lose the way you did on Saturday against Houston I think that it was going to be a big question of how it would mentally affect Kansas coming into this game would it lead to Kansas having a renewed spirit of, you know, oh my gosh, like we blew that game, but now we're ready to turn things on because that was a wake up moment for us. And, you know, we played this other really good team really well. We just screwed some things up and now we're going to be highly motivated, ready to go. Or was it going to lead to a bit of a, I don't know, like kind of a somber start to the game and kind of a,

Starting point is 00:02:26 like a deflating ad. Like there were moments in the game where people, I think deservedly so on social media where, you know, questioning like, are they enjoying playing out there? Are they playing with energy? And I think those are real questions early in the game, which again is important why you win this game so that hopefully you can move past that because for the whole game, really the defense, woof, that was not good stuff for KU on the

Starting point is 00:02:49 defensive end. They got torched from three. UCF goes 14 to 36, 39% on very high volume three, and you're giving up a ton of free throws. So like they're just going to be super efficient in that game on the offensive side of the court. And I think Kansas kansas just looked slow out there they just you know we've seen that before this season where they've lacked energy or been a bit lethargic here there but i think going back to the idea that maybe you would play this game with with a little of that somber attitude and kind of the way that that i described it after you know you lost the houston game this ended up being your third worst defensive efficiency game. Or excuse me. This is, let's see, the fourth worst defensive efficiency game of the season for KU.

Starting point is 00:03:31 Houston, Kansas State, North Carolina and UCF are the other ones there. But you look at it and I think that related to their defensive struggles, right? You were giving up a lot of open threes and it felt like it was maybe a laziness of rotating or not quite getting out there quick enough on shooters that was allowing them to hit those open shots. And so I thought that was really bad early. The lackadaisical turnovers were, I think, a part of that as well, right? You're just not as sharp. You're not as focused. You're not all the way there. And that led to a lot of bad turnovers early where they weren't always like forced by UCF. There were some things that Kansas was just shooting themselves in the foot. And so you ended up with a lot of those early.

Starting point is 00:04:10 Kansas did at least weather the storm there. They ended up with 12 turnovers, which, you know, if you would have said that was going to be the case through the first, what, like 25 minutes of the game, you would have probably taken that because obviously it could have been a lot more. But through all of those things, they found a way to push through in the second half, really the final, what, like 13 minutes of the game. They found a way to push through in the second half really the final what like 13 minutes of the game they found a way to push through in a game they did not have to one harris who i think was very much missed uh in this game more on that in a second they found a way to win so credit to kansas for being able to do that and you held a 34 to 18 point in the paint advantage so you know you did well there you

Starting point is 00:04:43 were super efficient as much as the defense was bad for KU this game. The offense was really good for Kansas. 48% from the floor, 10 of 21 from three. So you shot almost 50% from three-point range. The free throw shooting was excellent. After a game where you missed key free throws, and yes, the one Harris, you know, got a lot of heat, and I did bring that up. That was an important part of the game.

Starting point is 00:05:04 There were other players, too, that were missing all their free throws, right? Like Ryland Griffin missed them at the start of the second overtime. AJ Storm went 0 for fourth free throw. Kansas had a bad free throw shooting game against Houston overall. They bounced back in real way. 25-29, 86% on free throws. That was big time in this game. You needed each and every point.

Starting point is 00:05:19 15 offensive rebounds on 36 misses. That means Kansas grabbed 42% of their misses when they did miss which they weren't missing that often how about the bench scoring for gay you're right 29 to 2 bench point advantage and obviously that's a little bit um i don't know like kj adams coming off the bench and then playing starter level minutes like that counts to the bench points even though it sort of isn't but like still um a year ago, Kansas wasn't getting any bench scoring, right? And so 29-2 bench point advantage. 18-13 second chance points because of the offensive rebounds.

Starting point is 00:05:51 You did some things really well in this game. And honestly, I don't think a lot of people viewed it this way because after the Houston loss and because of where things have been this season, everybody was just stressed out with how the game was going. But objectively, now that you won, you can, I i think look back at the game and be like oh that was actually a pretty entertaining game you know they won 91 to 87 like that was an entertaining basketball game um but what's interesting is is as bad as ku was on the defensive end of the court in this game the two biggest defensive possessions of the game ku found just enough defense i guess

Starting point is 00:06:23 maybe you take two of the three because the other biggest possession was when they were down three and you fouled them, which by the way, that went about as poorly as you could have hoped for. Bill Self is not usually like a foul down three guy. I think he has done it before. He brought up possibly doing it in the national championship game, which who knows, he might've just brought that up to test their confidence to be like, no, like screw you. We're going to defend, you know confidence to be like no like screw you we're gonna defend you know maybe he wanted them to do that but point being he did it in this one and it almost turned to disaster because uh Darius Johnson it was very close whether he was getting the shot off or not uh to be clear it wouldn't matter because even if they did call a shooting foul he missed the first free throw so you know it wouldn't matter either way but um point being um kj adams on the two other b big defensive plays where uh kishon hall

Starting point is 00:07:07 is driving one he just stayed with him the whole way the first one and then the second one after he missed that shot which again like that was the ultimate kj adams experience it was like he has this great defensive stop then on the other end of the court it's like wait why are they going and again this isn't even necessarily maybe a kj thing it It was more of like a, why is Kansas deciding to go in a very critical offensive bucket to try to get KJ Adams a score? And it's like, what's going on here? But then the other end, he hustles his butt back, gets the steal on Keyshawn Hall. He had two huge defense plays.

Starting point is 00:07:37 And if you remember Keyshawn Hall, who just absolutely torched Kansas night, 34 points. He was excellent. 11-11 at the free throw throw line five of seven from three he was shut down in the game at UCF and uh I think like that's a perfect example of how good KJ has been this season on the defensive end of the court problem was when you were playing three big men KJ is not matched up on Keyshawn Hall or you know if KJ is not playing as much, maybe he was getting into groove early. But, you know, it was it was kind of hilarious that Bill Self said before the game that KJ was going to play the limited minutes. And then we see him starting the second half. We see him playing 26 minutes in the game. I think the big worry for people and a big worry for me is that, you know, I'm cool with KJ coming back.

Starting point is 00:08:23 I think KJ has a very valuable role on this team which is a defensive stopper which we saw the importance of that in a game like this where you were struggling on the defensive end of the floor but i think the big qualm is okay can you be closer to you know 22 minutes per game right and can you continue to get flory 20 minutes per game well you were able to get them both over 25 minutes per game but you did it in a weird way where you were playing three big lineups altogether. And that's not really the way that I think I want that to happen. Can we just never play that three big lineup again? Like I'm not really a big fan of that because going back to

Starting point is 00:08:54 the issues of guarding the three point line, if you have three big men on the court, it's going to be harder to have guys who are typically slower footed than guards get out and guard threes on the outside. But speaking of lineups, it felt like Bill Self was trying to make a statement in the second half to the players with that three big lineup. At least that's how I took it, right? I took it as him saying, you know what? Screw this. I don't care.

Starting point is 00:09:16 I'm playing the guys I trust. And if you don't want to do the little things, you don't want to, you know, rotate right on the defensive end of the quarter or whatever it is that is preventing some of these guys from playing. I will play the most archaic lineup. I'm going to play a lineup that, you know, I never dreamed of playing, but I'm just going to do it because I'm just going to throw the five guys out there that I trust the most tonight. And I don't know if that was it, or if he actually thought like that was going to be what would help them win the game. But like, I do think a bit of it was him trying to make a statement

Starting point is 00:09:46 obviously part of the lineup construction was you know due to dewan harris being out that throw wrench and things sounds like he rolled an ankle in practice so i don't think it'll be a long-term thing but i i don't know like ankle sprained ankles can be you know weird depending on the severity right he could be out a week. He could be out four weeks, right? You just don't totally know. So that'll be kind of interesting. You did severely miss him in this game, right? I mean, if we think about DeJuan Harris, you think of the ability to avoid dumb turnovers. I know every now and then he has them, but against Houston, like he had 12 assists to one turnover. He certainly would have helped with some of the early turnover problems that Kansas had. You look at DeJuan Harris being a good defender. Well,

Starting point is 00:10:24 certainly would have helped with that to have another good defender to guard Darius Johnson who really struggled in the game in Orlando when DeJuan was there but he goes 5-8 from three in this game when DeJuan was not there so it certainly hurt Kansas to not have DeJuan in this game and it was certainly weird going back to more weird lineup stuff then in a game that the defense struggled and you didn't have DeJuan Harris you would have thought Shaquille Moore was going to play a big role on the team. Well, Shaquille Moore plays 12 minutes and he takes zero shots. So it's like that was weird.

Starting point is 00:10:50 Then you get Diggy Coit, who plays a ton, and that's probably correlated a little bit there with maybe a little less minutes for Shaquille Moore because Diggy Coit went off. It was the Diggy Coit game to a certain standpoint. Like he was really good for KU and they don't win that game without Diggy Coit hitting some threes off the bench. You also saw another weird thing.

Starting point is 00:11:07 Rakeese Passmore came in before AJ Storr, but it was very limited time. He was a minus four in like, it says he played zero minutes. So he was under a minute plate and he was a minus four somehow. Didn't do anything. AJ Storr comes in after him

Starting point is 00:11:23 and AJ Storr actually looked pretty good for a little bit of stretch of time. to the free throw line five points but wasn't doing well on the defensive end and then we just don't see him in the second half so that was weird riley griffin gets yo-yoed again he actually gets the start but then plays less minutes than kj in the first half then kj starts for him in the second half uh griffin still ended up playing 26 minutes though uh at the very least which was good because i think he opens up the spacing for a lot of the players and then we had the three big lineups it was just the weirdest lineup game ever i i think we're getting to a point like bills of needs to cut things down i i don't know who that is that you need to leave out of minutes i don't know if

Starting point is 00:11:56 jj store hard to say david coyte after today's game but like maybe just divvy those out to everyone else get them more in the flow of things and yeah you're at a point where you just need to move on with things in some way. So bottom line here, this would have been a monumental loss. If you would have lost back-to-back home games for the first time in the Billsoft era, it would have felt like the season is over. It would have felt like you were just kind of giving up on the year. But you survived another day.

Starting point is 00:12:17 You hopefully get a momentum boost here. You hopefully get a pick-me-up from this game after the low that you had from the Houston game. And hopefully the tape can be used to fix some defensive flaws and that this will just be kind of an exception to the rule on the defensive end that you just didn't have the energy after the Houston game and that you can get the energy back on the defensive end and combine that with what was good offense against UCF here. All right, let's get to our game trophies. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:13:40 for each and every game. Let's start with this one, best moment of the game. The early moment where Flory gets the steal, passes it to Shaquille Moore, who throws up the lob to Flory Badunga. That was just awesome. And it was a little bit, even though it was a little different,

Starting point is 00:13:52 it was a little reminiscent of the play he had against UCF down in Orlando. And he continues to do like two to three things every game where I'm just like, that's different. Like most basketball players at this level, like don't do those sort of things. Then he had the block that eventually led to Zeke Mayo hitting a like 25 foot three to go up 16 to 10. That was a really cool sequence there. The second half, as you were trying to mount the comeback, there was a cool little sequence where KJ gets the ball in the high post.

Starting point is 00:14:20 And as soon as he gets it, he knows he's going to Hunter and quick just kind of touch passes it to hunter who gets a dunk which is then followed by in the next offensive possession kj getting an and one bucket that was a cool sequence there um the d3 that put ku up 71 to 67 felt like a big moment of the game and then uh i think it felt like this moment would be the one where i was like okay ku is gonna you know find a way to win this one unfortunately it ended up you know being tied 84 8484 after this. But at the time, Flory gets that offensive rebound that it bounced around a few times, and he just rips it away, fires it out to Zeke, hits the big three. KU goes up 84-79, and I guess the rest is history from there.

Starting point is 00:14:58 Worst moments of the game, I mean, defense as a whole, specifically three-point defense was really bad for KU. The lack of energy, especially early. Having to watch three big basketball, I didn't really enjoy that to be honest not that the possession where you were not ready for the inbound and letting the guy who had over 30 points in this game get an and one to tie it at 84 that was certainly one of the worst moments of the game I mentioned we got the ultimate KJ experience. I think we got the ultimate Hunter experience too late in this one, because this was a, you end up with a game where Hunter Dickinson puts up big numbers and had a real positive impact with the numbers he was putting up for KU. 24 points, right? Those are some key points for KU. But you also get

Starting point is 00:15:38 those plays that people point to where, yes, it is just one but it's it's a play that is just etched in people's mind to get mad at you know players like hunter who are producing and are putting up you know big level stats and are doing very important things but it's like the play where uh derrys johnson drives misses the layup gets his own miss and hunter's just standing there standing up vertically instead of getting the rebound and he gets three tries at it and puts it in. That was certainly frustrating. That was the ultimate Hunter experience. They're like, overall, Hunter has a positive impact on the game.

Starting point is 00:16:11 Overall, Hunter has 24 points. But a lot of people will point to that and be like, dude, what are you doing here? Like, make that hustle play, right? So you can understand. I try to get both sides of the coin here, which maybe that just pisses everybody off. Anyway, also almost a foul up three because that was very close. to try to get both sides of the coin here which uh maybe that just pisses everybody off anyway um also almost the foul up three because that was uh very close and that could have been disaster time but it wasn't also you had to inbound it late that could have been the worst moment of the game but

Starting point is 00:16:33 it wasn't maybe that's the best moment that you got the well you didn't have to get the inbound in you just got fouled on it so you didn't have to worry about a deja vu with the using game appalling stat of the game honestly the combined free throw and three point shooting is pretty appalling like okay this stat's also pretty appalling Kansas didn't make a single field goal in the past final 256 of the game yet they still won by four so that's pretty wild but um the combined free throw shooting was 40 of 46 which is very good um to say the least between the two teams 40 of 46 is a combined 87 percent between the two teams and that's after a game that kansas was really bad on free throws and kansas opponent was not good on free throws either then when you look at the three-point

Starting point is 00:17:15 shooting the two teams were 24 of 57 combined um that would equate out to being 42 percent from so the shooting was outstanding in this game. As much as the defense wasn't very good, give credit. Both teams were making the shots, right? You don't always see that at the collegiate level. It did feel a little bit like an open NBA game. I'm an NBA guy. It's different.

Starting point is 00:17:40 They have more spacing. It makes it harder on defense. But anyway, yeah. Also, the amount of missed floaters and mid-range shots by KU, it felt like every mid-range shot, floater, push shot they were taking was not going in. And it's one of those shots where it's not really a high percentage shot that you should be trying to take very often either,

Starting point is 00:17:56 like just go to the rim and try to get fouled at the very least or something. But Kansas actually has been pretty decent at those shots so far this season. They weren't today. They certainly were missing a lot of those. I'd be curious to see what the numbers will be exactly after the game but i'd imagine that one will be pretty appalling compared to their season average um offensive mvp okay so we have two guys for ku who went for 24 points hunter dickinson 24 points zeke mayo 24 points so i could go with either of those hunter though struggled he missed a lot of shots early. 7 of 17.

Starting point is 00:18:27 He got a lot of his points at the free throw line, which credit to him for making his free throws. 10 of 12. He goes 3 for 4 at the end there, which were key that he was able to do that. Also, 4 offensive rebounds. But he had 0 assists, 0 turnovers. Just 7 of 17. Again, good offensive game, but do I want to give MVP? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:18:40 Zeke Mayo, 24 points. And he hit some big shots. 6 of 10 from 3. He had 9 rebounds three on the offensive end also five assists for him but also had four turnovers uh also took 20 shots to get the 24 points so again good offensive game he had the best plus minus on the team for ku at plus eight do i want to give him mvp i don't know i think i kind of want to go with dc coin dc coin had 12 points he had four freight from three um he had an assist as well. Did have two turnovers.

Starting point is 00:19:05 But it's like, you know, with Zeke scoring 24 points, you might expect him to score, I don't know, 17, 18 points, especially when he's played at home. Like with Hunter, I went into the game expecting him to get 20 points after the game he put up in Orlando. So if you're just viewing it as like found money as you got more than you were expected, what were you expecting from diggy

Starting point is 00:19:25 coit tonight it's like okay maybe he would come in and hit one three right you have four out of him right and there were some game-changing big shots some of them that just kept kansas hanging around in the middle part of it and then that other one that that made it 71 to 67 so i mean actually go diggy coit and uh pick kind of a new name here for offensive mvp as far as defensive mvp you know the stats uh just in terms of the raw stats, I should say, would say Flory Badunga. And like some of the blocks that he has are just unbelievable in the job that he does to protect the Reds. Five blocks in the game for KU. He also led the Jayhawks with two steals. Everybody else on the team combined had four. Nobody else had more than one. So,

Starting point is 00:19:59 you know, that's certainly important. I do think there were certain times when, you know, whether it was flory or whether it was hunter whether it was miscommunication or whatever one of those two you know might have left an open three-point shooter so i'm gonna ding him a little bit there um i still think he overall had a positive impact on the defensive end even though kansas overall did not have a good defensive game but i'm gonna go with kj adams um he didn't get a block he did get a steal which was that key steal at the end, but those two defensive stops on Keyshawn Hall,

Starting point is 00:20:29 like those were the difference in the game. So I'm going to go with KJ Adams as the defensive MVP, though, but if you want to give it to Flory, I'd be cool with that too. What's next for KU? We'll discuss on the other side of Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by us. This is Locked on Jayhawks. We're already back.

Starting point is 00:20:52 That's right. Anyway, so what's next for KU? At Baylor is the Saturday game, and Kansas hasn't had a lot of luck going into Waco in recent memory. I'm trying to think the last time they won in Waco. So last year, KU goes into Baylor and loses by eight. Then the year before, they went into Baylor and lost by six. The year before that is the one I remember. That was the, I think, Remy Martin just came back. It was like his first game back. And k you got out to a hot start and then couldn't hold it and they lost by 10 in waco so that would be three straight losses let's see 2021 they lost in waco by eight so it'd be four straight 2020 was the year they won at baylor which that was the awesome uh udoga game where they hung on late and uh got the win over

Starting point is 00:21:39 i mean those might have been the two best teams in the country that year so um four straight losses in waco it's been tough maybe they're due for one to finally win in in waco um baylor hasn't been you know as good as some of their recent teams they're still a good team they're ranked right around top 25 on ken palm they've won you know two straight games i think they're playing right now against byu so we'll see how that one goes so it could be three straight games but um they're a team that um it certainly has a lot of talent and i think it'll be very interesting because um they don't have like a cacophony of bigs to throw at you and one of their good bigs is only six seven so what does that mean for ku and playing these girth lineups and playing these giant lineups but it'll be a big opportunity for kent's because as I said in the Houston game, I think if you viewed it as versus Houston and at Baylor, if you went one-on-one of those two,

Starting point is 00:22:28 again, it's Kansas basketball. So like you want to win every game, right? I don't want that to be the standard that like, oh, can you just go two-on-one in this straight, right? You're trying to win every game and that's the expectation of Kansas. But if you said you went one-on-one between the at Baylor game and versus Houston, you would have said, okay, that's at least acceptable, right? Which means you need to win at Baylor toone between the Appalachian game and versus Houston, you would have said, okay, that's at least acceptable, right? Which means you need to win a Baylor to get back the loss that you had at home to Houston. And then, big Monday, versus Iowa State after that. And then, at Kansas State after that. This is a big three-game stretch for Kansas for rivalry reasons, for reasons.

Starting point is 00:22:58 I mean, if you win those next three games, you're going to feel like this team is back. And you're going to feel like, oh, okay, their only loss in that recent stretch is a game where weird stuff happened against Houston. Flip side is, you're going to feel like this team is back and you're going to feel like oh okay their only loss in in that recent stretch is is a game where weird stuff happened against you flip side is you're losing waco you got iowa state coming into town on monday night and then you've lost the last two years in manhattan on k-state it's going to feel like you're uh staring down the barrel so um big opportunity on saturday i guess for uh one way or another but it was important to win this one against ucF to avoid feeling like you had really hit a rut and you were going to stay there after the way you lost that Houston game. You did at least come out on top.

Starting point is 00:23:32 And at the end of the day, you won the game. And that's the important thing. 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 tomorrow. Nick Schwert is going to join us. Long time no see. So I'll catch up with Nick and talk a little KU hoops on that episode.

Starting point is 00:23:48 See you then.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KJ Adams RETURNS, No Dajuan Harris, Diggy Coit EXPLODES: Kansas Jayhawks Find a Way vs UCF Knights

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