Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Lessons Learned for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball from the 2023-2024 Season and Final Four Participants

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, what lessons can Kansas learn from the season and what teams ended up making it to the Final Four? 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. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. You can give me a follow on Twitter at DJhawks. You can find our show with Locked on Jayhawks anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. So make sure you're subscribed to it so you're catching all of our action here

Starting point is 00:00:43 with Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's edition of the show, we're going to be talking a little bit about lessons that can be learned by Kansas basketball here in the 2023 to 2024 season that they can apply for next year and moving forward. And also lessons that can be learned from what teams made it to the Final Four, how they play, roster constructions, things of that nature. And comparing this KU1 to last couple ones or under Bill Self in terms of where they excelled, where they were better, where they're worse, where they were the same. First, today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks 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.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply. All right, well, let's start here. What lessons can Kansas learn from this season? Because it was obviously a down year for KU, and if you're not going to take lessons away from it, then it's almost like, what's the point? If you learn some good things out of this that lead to success in the future, that's great, right? Kansas learned some lessons, I think, from the 2021 season,

Starting point is 00:01:52 and they ended up winning a title the next year. And that next year wasn't the perfect team, you know, probably wasn't a top five team just overall in the Bill Self era, but they figured out some other things and, you know, we're able to tighten up a little bit and also bring back, you know, four or five starters and still have some continuity. And I think there's some similarities there. So what are some lessons that this year's team can learn from last year? Well, I think one of the big things is need depth. And this has not been a new lesson. There have been other years that Kansas has played a very thin roster. I think back to, you know, even the 2017 season, that team was relatively thin.

Starting point is 00:02:28 Yudoka Azebuki gets injured and, you know, they weren't the deepest team in the world. Still, they at least had like a decent enough bench. The next season's team had an even more thin bench with the 2018 squad. That team was very thin in terms of the lack of depth. So you could have easily said, well, shouldn't you have learned a lesson there? Well, then you had 2019, which was a deep team in theory of having a bunch of guys that you thought would compete for a lot of spots and do a lot of things but not a lot of them ended up being ready or meshed well so that didn't really work out um and then you had kind of more of a thin team you know uh this year obviously and this year's team I think the big difference is this was probably the weakest bench in KU.

Starting point is 00:03:05 There have been other benches that KU has implored. I mean, shoot, that 2017-2018 team that made the Final Four, they were, before Silvio De Sosa arrived at mid-semester, you know, Clay Young was playing real minutes, in-game minutes, in a game against Syracuse, who had like a seven-footer, and he was like trying to defend him in the post. So, like, it's not new that Kansas hasn't had like a team that wasn't ultra deep, but the difference was still, you look at like the 2018 team

Starting point is 00:03:31 and you have Silvio De Sosa by the end of the year coming off the bench, which was like a quality big man to have come off the bench. You know, you look at starting Devante Graham and Malik Newman and, you know, having a Lajeroick and Svema Kyluk, and that's a lot of firepower on the offense. Okay, you had Marcus Garrett coming off the bench of that team who was playing like 20 minutes per game, you know? So, like, you at least had guys, even if it wasn't the deepest bench, who would come in and you could trust them coming off the bench. You look at this year's team, and that wasn't really the case, right?

Starting point is 00:04:01 I mean, could you – Nick Timberlake played well at the end of the season in the NCAA tournament. Elmarco Jackson had some moments here or there, but whenever Nick Timberlake or Elmarco Jackson or Jamari McDowell or Parker Brown came into a game, did you full well trust and know coming into that game that you knew what you were going to get, right? You think of the championship team, Jalen Coleman lands, you knew what you were going to get when he came off the bench, going to make threes for youalen Coleman lands you knew what you were going to get when he came off the bench he's going to make threes for you right you knew what you were going to get when Mitch Leifert came off the bench he was going to be a solid enough shot blockers back up big and hit that right-handed hook over and over again by the end of the season you knew

Starting point is 00:04:35 what what you got with Remy Martin the beginning of the year or maybe the midway through the year you didn't you didn't even know if you had him but by the end of the year you knew you were having this you know lightning in a bottle score coming off the bench. So you need depth to a certain degree. It's not that you necessarily need 10 or 11 deep. It'd be great if you could have it in today's day and age in the portal. It's very hard to establish that. Still, look at UConn and, you know, that's a team who has really the last two years,

Starting point is 00:05:00 two, three, four guys coming off the bench who are like really good players. So it's definitely possible that you can accomplish it and that you can acquire it but I think the bigger thing is if you can't quite do that at least have like two guys off the bench that you can trust and I think that goes back to the comment Bill Self had with Fran Fashilla back in like the Big 12 tournament how he said we want eight starters and I think that makes sense right even if it's seven starters where it's like your first two guys off the bench are guys that you full well trust. I think that can be enough overall, but you do need to accomplish that because you didn't have it this past year. Needing experience in the program, not just experience overall, I think was a lesson

Starting point is 00:05:36 learned this year, you know, because for the most part, like you look back to Bill Self's best teams, they've had teams that have returning a bunch of starters. They have teams that have returning a bunch of players in the program. Now for the longest time, it was kind of impossible to decipher. Is it more important that they've just been in the program or is it more important that they're just older players in college basketball? Because, you know, up until the last three, four, five years, the transfer portal hasn't been as rampant or as prevalent where both of those things were in the same circle. You know what I mean? Like, it was like, oh, if you are an experienced player, you probably were in Bill Self's system a while.

Starting point is 00:06:14 But now that the transfer portal is around, it's hard to say, well, and you go back to the 2022 National Championship season. You still didn't solve it that season because you could say, well, they had a ton of experience. Like, you had Jalen Coleman-Lanz lands you had four or five starters coming back off the bench I mean Jalen Coleman lands like 25 years old you had Remy Martin who's like a fourth fifth year player Mitch Lightfoot was like a sixth year player you know so you you could have easily said oh it was experience but also what is the common theme there you think of it four or five starters Mitch Lightfoot guys who were in the Bill Self program and Remy Martin it took time to get together so maybe we should have took that more as being like, yeah, it's not just that

Starting point is 00:06:48 experience. Like it's not just the being old helps with Bill Self. It's the being old and knowing his system helps being here for multiple seasons helps. And so you look at this year's team and, or I guess this past year's team, I should say, even though you had Hunter Hunter Dickinson who was an experienced player first year in the Bill Self program and I don't think there was any hiccups on the offensive end but certainly maybe there were some hiccups on the defensive end there right and uh guys like Nick Timberlake like experienced player but not experienced in the Bill Self system so like I think as we look at it it's and maybe this is too hard to replicate in the transfer portal era but I think it we look at it it's and maybe this is too hard to replicate in the transfer portal era but I think it's more important for KU and Bill Self to have players who are in

Starting point is 00:07:30 his system for multiple years than it is to have like if you have the option between a player in your system for a second or third year or you have the option of a fifth year grad transfer I think in the Bill Self era I'm taking the the two or three year guy in the Bill Self. And I think that's prevalent when you're talking about guys like Marco Jackson and Jamari McDowell, that you don't want these players to leave. You want to develop them in your program because Bill Self does best when those players come from within. But that also should give you a little bit of confidence if they do indeed bring back four of their five starters. I think the other one here is you need a floor of shooting like you need a certain level

Starting point is 00:08:07 of where you're going to be it's not that you have to have the ceiling of the 2018 team and the 2017 team from three you gotta at least have a floor there and there were too many games where Kansas went three of 14 or something like that this season and that just can't be a thing for this Kansas team and so they've had other years where they haven't shot it great like I go back to the 2021 season Kansas shot 33.6 percent from three and that's exactly what this team shot from three now the next season Kansas shot 36.1 percent from three and won the title can they get up to that this year a big reason why was Ochagbaje went from being more of a streaky shooter to being one of the best shooters in

Starting point is 00:08:44 college basketball right and that's kind of a big reason why, but it is actually funny because they made that jump in three-point shooting from 2021 to 2022, enough to win the title, with basically one guy. Because if you think about it, DeJuan Harris was, you know, your starting point guard. I guess you had Remy Martin coming off the bench, but over the majority of the season, he just wasn't available or wasn't playing. So that certainly did help. Christian Brown was, you know, a good three-point shooter, but didn't take a ton of them. And Christian Brown actually shot better percentage-wise his freshman year

Starting point is 00:09:09 than he did by his junior year. And then Jalen Wilson, that season that they won the title, shot like 20-something percent. He shot 18% from three in the NCAA tournament. Dave wasn't shooting threes. So my point being, if you can have like one guy go off, the problem is I don't know who that would be. Maybe if Johnny Furphy comes back, he could do what Ochai did that year,

Starting point is 00:09:26 and that would be enough for you. But the point being, shooting is very important in today's age of college basketball, and you can't have enough of it, and that's really not something you can skimp out on. You don't have to be the most dynamic three-point shooting team in the world, but you have to be at least proficient at it. And I think that's what we learned a lot this season, even though that was something that was kind of a scare coming into the season. The other one is to me, I don't know, maybe this is a lesson I'm taking away. Center is the most

Starting point is 00:09:50 important defensive position on the floor. It's not that you have to be a rockstar defender at center. Like I wouldn't describe David McCormick as a rockstar defender, but KU had some really good defenses with David McCormick because he was at least adept you know he would at least hustle hard on icing the ball screens and he wasn't a great rim protector you know and Hunter Dickinson is is I think just as good of about a shot blocker if not slightly better honestly and is you know both are at least good like post-up defenders if you're going one on one in the post the big difference there was was Dave even though he wasn't the most fleet of foot was still better in those spacing settings and you know the the seasons that KU had David McCormick at center their defensive rankings were

Starting point is 00:10:37 17th 12th I guess you could say second in the doke year and 17th in 2019 so So like, you know, they were, they were able to do some things. This year's team is like 20th. So it's not that far out, but point being, I think center is the one position where it's like, you, you can't really get away with a bad defender. You can get away with a bad defender. Who's a shooting guard. Like, okay.

Starting point is 00:10:56 For instance, the 2020 team that, that had the tournament canceled you don't guys book. He was like the best defender. Well, Marcus Garrett was the best defender in the country. Yudoka Azubuki was the most impactful defender in the country. Maybe this is a bad example because you had two of those guys who were studs, but like Isaiah Moss wasn't a great defender.

Starting point is 00:11:12 He was like below average probably, but he was a good three-point shooter and he had a lot of other good defenders around him and he wasn't a center. And I think that's kind of the point here. To me, that's the one position you can't really skimp out on defense. And I think there's a reason why a big correlation.

Starting point is 00:11:26 Think about all the Big Ten teams up until this Purdue team that have had a slow-footed, really good center who have flamed out early in the tournament. Kofi Coburn never made a second weekend. Luka Garza never made a second weekend, who was like, you know, National Player of the Year. Zach Eadie, until this year, had lost to a 15 and a 16 and a 13 seed or whatever in the NCAA tournament, right? Like it just becomes a little bit, you become less matchup proof in the NCAA tournament, I would say. So I don't know, do with that what you will.

Starting point is 00:11:54 I also wondered, this was a lesson I wondered if he was going to learn, turned out not being the case, if Bill Self would view it as he's only going to take like power six guys moving forward in the portal. But I don't think that would be a smart lesson to learn because just because you've had like two or three guys that haven't worked out, that's still such a small sample size. And I'm glad he didn't take that away because they already added Zeke Mayo, obviously, who I think will be a great fit for KU.

Starting point is 00:12:15 All right, what can we learn from this year's final four teams on this edition of Locked on Jayhawks? First, this episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small businesses, you want to find quality professionals that are right for their role. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free.

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Starting point is 00:13:04 Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on college that is linkedin.com slash locked on college to post a job for free terms and conditions apply well those are lessons kansas can learn from this past season what about lessons we can learn from the teams that made the final four you know they clearly had success what are some things they did well well going back to the conversation about the defense this is going to go counter with that but maybe there is hope that you can win with more of a slow-footed center who is more offensive base than defensive base because you could say NC State made the final four and DJ Burns is probably an even worse defender than Hunter Dickinson is but he's really skilled on the

Starting point is 00:13:43 offensive end of the floor you know you could say with Zach Eadie. Now, Eadie has a big impact on inside the paint because teams are fearful of going at him and when they get there. But he's not a great defender in space, you know, and he's just dominant on the offensive end and the rebounding and everything. Donovan Klingin is kind of the exception here because that dude is huge, but he is very quick and fast. That's why he's going to be a lottery pick. I guess for bama centers but i don't know maybe there's enough there

Starting point is 00:14:08 you could say okay those are two examples of being able to make it work now the counter would be well produce surrounds ed with a bunch of shooting i think that's the goal for ku um i i think furthermore on the idea of playing big basketball you could also say well but kansas plays a second big next 100 against and that makes it tough i will say there actually is more too big basketball. You could also say, well, but Kansas plays a second big next to Hunter Dickinson, and that makes it tough. I will say there actually is more two-big basketball here than you might think. Purdue starts Trey Kaufman-Wren. He's 6'9", 230.

Starting point is 00:14:32 He's made eight threes, and he rarely attempts them over the course of the season. So, like, is it that different than you playing K.J. Adams? Now, you could argue, though, where, okay, the difference is Purdue brings in Mason Gillis at the four as the backup four, and he shoots over 40% from three. And Kansas doesn't have that right now. And Trey Kaufman-Wren, you know, for Purdue, is not playing the minutes that KJ Adams played this past season.

Starting point is 00:14:56 KJ Adams is playing, you know, 30-plus minutes per game, whereas with Trey Kaufman-Wren, he's playing 17 minutes per game. So the point is you can make it work, but maybe it needs to be more limited. And maybe that's something that Kansas can do, right? Maybe KJ Adams starts playing 22 minutes per game, right? 25 minutes per game where you're playing two big basketball for 10 minutes a game, 15 minutes a game. But then outside of that, you're using him as a backup five and you're able to make that work a little bit more. NC State, they start DJ Burns at the five, who we talked about. Diara is there starting four-man. He's made 21 threes over the course of the season, but 31% clip. Is he respected out there enough?

Starting point is 00:15:31 Because that's the biggest thing. It's are you respected out there more than are you making them at a high clip just because you want to open up the spacing on the floor? They'll even play minutes with Burns next to Middlebrooks, which we saw, and those two are combined two of 18 from three. So it's not like they're getting a bunch of threes from that two big lineup either. UConn plays Steph Castle, who I know that's not a four man, but he's playing at the three. He's 26% from three this year, and last year's team for UConn would play Andre Jackson, who shot 28% from three, and there were times during the season for UConn where teams were

Starting point is 00:16:04 basically just sagging and letting Andre Jackson be be like you want to shoot five threes in the game we're gonna let you you know and there were some games that they lost because of it um and then so i i don't know and maybe the fact that like a guy like diara and jackson and castle even shoot it at all is enough for it to be a difference there and i'm totally open to that and everything my point being is that you're not that far out from tweaking a few things, adding more shooting, adding more bench play that it could still work and that early in the season Kansas was able to make it work when they were kind of hitting shots more consistently from the outside and Hunter Dickinson was shooting from the outside. Keep

Starting point is 00:16:43 that in mind too. It's a lot easier to play Hunter Dickinson next to KJ Adams when Hunter Dickinson's shooting well from three. He was shooting bonkers to start up the season. He went ice cold during Big 12 play. So point being, it still doesn't need tweaks. I'm not saying that you're perfectly fine just rolling out the same thing. You need to adjust the minutes

Starting point is 00:16:59 and the shooting around him and all that sort of stuff. But I guess my point being is that it's not like an impossible task. Okay. I would also say that just the three-point shooting would be the last one. Like think of NC State. They had a bunch of guards who could create shots and make shots. Purdue, you know, they have a bunch of guys who can shoot threes at a high level.

Starting point is 00:17:17 Fletcher Lawyer and Braden Smith, 40% three-point shooters. Mason Gillis off the bench, 40% from three. They have a bunch of guys who can shoot three. UConn, Cam Spencer can knock down a bunch of threes. Tristan Newton can create a bunch of shots and hit some threes, right? Like they have a bunch of guys who can, Alex Caravan hits a bunch of shots. Alabama just is filled with guys who create shots and make threes. That's the other big one. Just need more three point shooting and dynamic scoring and creators. And I do think Kansas has made the right first step in that because that's exactly what Zeke

Starting point is 00:17:44 Mayo and Riley Kugel are bringing to the table. All right, let's compare this KU team to past KU teams with some of the stats that this year's team put up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Let's compare this year's team. And thank you for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:18:01 And we'll be back for plenty more this week. Still talking more off-season talk it's also spring football showcase for KU this Friday so we'll give you a spring football preview coming up later in the week make sure you're subscribed every podcast and on our YouTube page so where does this KU team compare to other Bill Self teams well 23 wins in total for this Bill Self team that is uh the second worst. The only one worse was 2021. That was because of COVID, though, that they had less games. When you go by winning percentage, this one is the worst. Now, the good news is 2021 team won 13 more games the next year and won the national title.

Starting point is 00:18:35 11 losses. That is also the most. They previously had 10 in 2019 and 10 in 2014. The next season in 2015, they lost nine. The next season in 2020, they lost three. So different examples of how they did the following season. 10 conference wins and a 56% conference winning percentage. Those are by far the worst. The next lowest was 12 and six with a 67% winning percentage in 2021. Again, they ended up winning the big 12 and winning the national title the next year. Also the round of 32, which is outside of 2005 and 2006 when they lost in the first round, tied for the worst there. Okay, what about some of what they did overall as a team profiling? Like where areas they need to get better? Well, effective field goal percentage,

Starting point is 00:19:15 they were about middle of the pack for a Bill Self team. They were actually one of the best, in fact, they were the best turnover rate offense in the Bill Self era. So this was the best offense that Kansas and Bill Self has had at this was the best offense that Kansas and Bill Self has had at not turning the ball over. Unfortunately, even though they didn't give up extra possessions there, they didn't win many back because this was the worst offensive rebounding team of the Bill Self era. It was a 25.7% offensive rebound rate. The second worst is 28.7%, which was actually the year before. And then the previous worst one would have been 29.4%, which was 2018, which was obviously a team of a bunch of shooters.

Starting point is 00:19:51 That's something they have to get better at. No way around it. This was a team that was above average in two-point offense for a Bill Self offense, 54%, which the previous best for a Bill Self offense was 2011 when they shot almost 57%. Three-point offense for Kansas at 33.6%. That is one of the worst. In fact, it is the tied for the worst in three-point percentage. The other one they tied with, 2021.

Starting point is 00:20:16 But as we mentioned, the next year they went up to 36.1%, but that took Ochagbashi being superhuman from three. Maybe Furphy can do that. Maybe your additions of Zeke Mayo and Riley Kugel and anything else you add in the portal can do that, but that is something you need to jump up. The other ones that were the worst, 2004 was 33.7%, but that's in an era where three-point shooting wasn't as voluptuous, I guess.

Starting point is 00:20:37 I don't even know if that's a word, but it sounded cool. And then 34.7% in 2023 was also kind of near the bottom, 34.1% in 2020. But that team was so good at everything else. Free throw shooting, 72.2%. That actually ended up being KU's best percentage shooting at the free throw line since 2015, oddly enough. They also shot threes at a very low volume, their lowest volume of attempted threes since 2015. The assist rate was the highest of the Bill Self era, but there's a certain level of like the assist rate being good where it's too high, where it's like,

Starting point is 00:21:11 okay, it's so high because nobody can create shots off the dribble. Nobody can create shots unless they're being assisted. And that's a problem. So it's like, you want to have a good assist rate, but you don't want to have too good of one. And I think that's what we saw this year for Kansas. Like for instance, the 2008 team that won the title, that was a 61%. Now that team was loaded with options, but that's still 6% less than 2024. If we take a look at, I don't know, let's say 2011 team, they were 60%. 2017 team and 2018 team were both in like the 55 to 56% range. The national title team in 22 was 54%. Like you have to be able to get your own shots.

Starting point is 00:21:50 As far as the defensive side of the ball, effective field goal percentage defense, 48.3% for KU this year. That was their worst until 2018 when they were at 49.1%. And the 48.3 they gave up this year was their second worst of the Bill Self era. So even though there were shooting problems and spacing problems on offense, this was by one metric the second worst defense of the Bill Self era too. They also forced just 16.5 turnover percentage. That is the second worst of the Bill Self era.

Starting point is 00:22:20 They were a solid defensive rebounding team. It was their best defensive rebounding team since the 2020 team. And before that, you'd have to go back to the, oh gosh, 2011 team. So this was a good defensive rebounding team. Two-point defense, though, 45.8% against. That was one that was okay, I guess you could say. They were actually a decent two-point defense, but the three-point defense obviously is where things were for this team.

Starting point is 00:22:53 Yeah, was there a little bit of bad luck maybe involved in that? Yes, I think you could say a little bit there. But at the end of the day, as we kind of know, I think more than just the bad luck was Kansas just not having a good three-point defense, which was like bad ball screen defense and, you know, not getting out to shooters, leaving guys open too often, not being able to ice ball screens and hedge with slower big men, playing two bigs, things of that nature that made them a bad three-point defense. Because in the end, it was 34.6% against them. That was the worst given up by KU since they allowed 35.6% in 2017, 35.5% in 2014, which was a young team, a freshman-laden team.

Starting point is 00:23:38 But the difference is on those teams, the 2014 team, 31% of opponent shots were coming from three. In the 2017 team, 34% of team shots were coming from three. This year's team, 41% of team shots came from three, which tells you they were getting more open looks and they were more comfortable firing them. So it's not just that they shot them at a high percentage, they shot them at a high rate. And that obviously was a problem for KU. So I don't know, just some interesting comparisons there with this year's bill self team to other teams you can take that for what it's worth and building the roster and and for where they go from here but uh i just thought kind of some interesting stats that i wanted to share all right that'll do it for this episode of locked on jayhawks we'll be back with uh what kansas still needs to accomplish with other decisions still to

Starting point is 00:24:20 come and what they still maybe need to add or work around in the off season uh the rest of the way for KU because we still haven't even gotten to the end of the regular season, I guess, technically, or the end of the NCAA season yet with National Championship Day today. So we'll get to that. We'll try to get Nick Schwert on later in the week. We'll have some KU football content as well. This has been Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on today's show.

Starting point is 00:24:40 Find us anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Lessons Learned for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball from the 2023-2024 Season and Final Four Participants

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