Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Lessons Learned in the 2023-2024 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Season for Bill Self and KU

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On Jayhawks, lessons learned for KU, top takeaways, good and bad from the 2023 to 2024 season. 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. Give me a follow on social media at D Johnson radio. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of locked on Jayhawks and making it your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere.

Starting point is 00:00:37 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 going into the classroom lessons learneded on Jayhawks, we're going into the classroom. Lessons learned for the Jayhawks in the 2023 to 2024 season. What can they take away from this year? Because, you know, if you have a bad season,

Starting point is 00:00:53 you might as well learn from it. What are some of the good takeaways? Because there still were some good things I think you can take away from this year. What were some lessons learned the hard way? And then we'll finish up with KU women's basketball on this episode of the show. First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $200,000 in bonus bets

Starting point is 00:01:17 if your first bet of $5 or more wins. That's $200 in bonus bets of your first bet of $5 or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started. So let's start with the good. Let's introduce it. Normally it's like, do you want the good or the bad news first? Normally you want the bad news first. Let's start with the good.

Starting point is 00:01:35 Let's ease into this thing a little bit here. I do think as much of a rough season as it was for Kansas, especially to expectations, not just, I guess, program season-wide expectations. Every year you go into it with for Kansas, especially to expectations, not just, I guess, program season-wide expectations. Every year you go into it with high expectations, but also the expectations that were put upon you when you were the preseason number one team. Obviously, you didn't reach those expectations, but there also is that easy reminder that Kansas is still a hell of a program. Yeah, maybe they haven't had a ton of second weekend tournament success over the last, you know, whatever.

Starting point is 00:02:08 It's been six seasons, albeit you had the one COVID canceled year and you had no Bill Self in last year's tournament to try to help you with some of those things. Like, the fact that this program is sustaining itself as one seeds, two seeds, three seeds, four seeds every year in the NCAA. Like, you just keep taking cracks at it. It was like Bill Self in the elite eight. Like you keep making it to the elite eight. Eventually you're going to win some of these games. And so he had some of the elite eight losses. Well, guess what?

Starting point is 00:02:32 The last two elite eights he's made, he's been able to one and get through. So like keep making it in as a one, two, three, four seed. You're going to make runs in given years. And that's kind of the way to play it because March can be so random. It's just like, just take as many dart throws as you possibly can. And that's the thing here as, as rough as this season was compared to those expectations, they still got a freaking four seed and won a tournament game in a really

Starting point is 00:02:53 down year. And I know that's not the measurement for Kansas basketball. You're looking to win big 12 championships, final four banners, national championship banners. And that is totally understandable. And those are the expectations. And by those expectations, this season did not live up to those. But that's kind of the point here that like, it could be worse. In your down year, you got a four seed, which for a lot of other programs would be their up year or like upper middle year. You know, you had one home loss all year long. You beat Connecticut, who is the defending national champion, is in the Sweet 16. You beat Tennessee, who is in a Sweet 16 right now, right?

Starting point is 00:03:30 You beat a Yale team who upset Auburn in the first round of the NCAA tournament, right? You beat a bunch of Big 12 teams who made the tournament, or like you beat Houston, who's in the Sweet 16, right? Like if this is what a down year is for Kansas, obviously the idea is don't repeat this year many more times, but we've been through this before as that, the idea that, you know, if this is your low point, you're going to look back on this in 10 years and be like, yeah, that's just unbelievable and incredible what they were able to do. Because like, let's not forget, I mean,

Starting point is 00:03:58 there were some years in the Roy Williams era where they were getting like an eight seed, you know what I mean? Or they were getting like a 60. So a national title here in 88, there were 60. Could you imagine going into that tournament? What KU fans were feeling? I don't know. Maybe that was a little bit different. Not every game like aired nationally and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:04:15 But anyway, the other good takeaway from this is I think the one last ride bump still exists for Kansas, which I think is going to be pertinent going into this next season, possibly for Kansas. And what I mean by that is, and I think you see this nationally across college basketball, and it's not new that it's happening in Kansas, but they've been on a nice little heater here of late. So 2017, you get your one last ride, one final season, basically is what I'm saying, where it's a player coming back for that one final season and going, hey is my last year no matter what like I'm gonna leave it all out on the line I'm gonna have this big improvement I'm gonna have a great year so you had that with Frank Mason

Starting point is 00:04:52 he takes the jump from being a good all big 12 level point guard to being national player of the year then you get the next year Devante Graham again goes from being like all big 12 level good to being all-american uh in his one last ride. 19 didn't really happen. Then 2020, you had the one last ride of Yudoka Azubuki after he came back, where it was like, is he going to go in the draft? Is he not? He was kind of injured through the process. Comes back and is maybe the most dominant player in college basketball that year. Then you get the one last ride of Ochag Baji into his senior year, which he came in.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Kind of same thing with Frank, where it's like, okay, he's like an All-Big 12 caliber player. He turns into an All-American and National Player of the Year candidate. Then Jalen Wilson, again, good player, but then he comes back and he becomes an All-American and just a stud. Kevin Kohler this past year was the latest one where it was like, okay, you have one last ride here, and you turn from being an All-Big 12 third-team performer to being a player who, if he didn't have all these injuries, would have ended up

Starting point is 00:05:44 on one of the main three three all American lists, right? So that ride has still existed for KU, even in the portal era with everything that's happening. And in fact, you have basically three straight years where it's happened with a wing. What does that mean for this next season with like DeJuan Harris? It's his final season, right? Now we've seen DeJuan in the NCAA tournament games really, I would say, pick up his game offensively a little bit. I'd love to see that if that was over the course of regular season. Now, one of the big things I think they can do, and this is something that Bill Self said earlier this season,

Starting point is 00:06:17 was that DeJuan is better as a 30 to 32 minute guy where you have another ball handler who can handle the ball and handle some of the minutes there to where DeJuan can exert more energy, you know, defending and when he has to scoring the basketball and stuff. And this year, maybe that wasn't as possible. So if you bring in another combo guard, I think it'll elevate DeJuan's game a little bit more there. And I wouldn't be surprised if he still has another gear that he can get to for KU. What about KJ Adams too, right? I mean, part of with KJ, we have to kind of wait and see the fit and everything.

Starting point is 00:06:48 Like, is Hunter Dickinson going to come back? If he doesn't, would they add another center? Would they play KJ at the five? Is he going to play the four? Like, what's kind of going to be the fit there, and how is that going to work? Is he going to come back? All that sort of stuff, right? But same thing there.

Starting point is 00:07:00 Like, basically what I'm saying is I remember going into Frank Mason's senior year, and at the time I was working with Rock Chalk Sports Talk and us having conversations about going into that 2016-17 season in which Frank eventually won national player of the year there were a lot of conversations that offseason about who's going to lead this team in scoring you know that's just kind of a fun offseason content thing that doesn't really matter that much no probably not but it's kind of a fun fodder to talk about and it was like okay yeah Frank's kind of Mr. Consistent Dependable like good player but Devontae Graham this guy's starting to like be on the up and up like could he be the guy or what about Josh Jackson he's

Starting point is 00:07:33 coming into the program like could he be the guy that leads you in scoring that year and then it ends up being Frank and it's not even close he averages 20 points per game he wins national player of the year um my point being I think sometimes we can get caught up in the, okay, this guy's been the same guy we've seen for two straight years, or the same guy we've seen for three straight years. And in reality, they're still 20, 21, 22, 23 years old. They are still developing basketball players. So don't just assume that a player, even if they've been the same player, they've been sophomore to junior year, whatever, that they're not, they don't have another gear that they can get to because maybe it's not the best thing to expect that,

Starting point is 00:08:09 but it does absolutely happen, especially for this Kansas program. I think another big good lesson that we learned for KU this year was what Johnny Furphy was and kind of the Johnny Furphy breakout because that was kind of a nice surprise. He was obviously a late get for KU as a freshman, and the idea there with Furphy was that I think when they brought him in, you're going to be a two-year guy. You know, you come off the bench this year, you make an impact as a bench player. And then next year you're ready to go as

Starting point is 00:08:33 a real player for this team. And he obviously got in the starting lineup a little bit early. I think part of that was an opportunity that was open because nobody took that role. Like if Nick Timberlake or Marco Jackson would have fit to the hype of what the preseason would have been, then those guys would have just ended up starting and Furfew would have probably stayed off the bench the whole year long. But then once he got that opportunity, he really seized it and he looked excellent. Looks, I mean, he could be a first round draft pick if he goes this year. He is somebody who if he does come back, like for my money,

Starting point is 00:09:05 he's going to have a great opportunity to be like a Big 12 Player of the Year candidate and to be an All-American. That's how highly I think of him if he does come back next year for Kansas. The other last big lesson here I had on the positive side was I think just glad to be moving forward from the NCAA repercussions soon. So this year you still had to deal with them in a way that the past, whatever it was, the past six years, you had to deal with more of the black cloud hanging over your head, the idea of something could be happening. And it's almost this anticipation

Starting point is 00:09:37 game that's getting you. Then this year was the first year where you're dealing with the repercussions of the actual tangible punishments, right? Taking down 2018 Final Four banner, which I still think that stuff is so incredibly stupid, whatever. But the scholarship one is kind of the big one as it pertains to this season, right? In that Kansas, basically, you lose three scholarships over the course of three seasons. This year and the next two years. And they basically opted to try to divvy out several of them this season in addition to that used one of the scholarships on a player who's red shirt and Zach Clements so you did see real tangible repercussions from the NCAA situation honestly more this year than you did with the

Starting point is 00:10:17 cloud hanging over you because you still want a title with some of that happening but now you really are moving forward you know last year felt like the but now you really are moving forward. You know, last year felt like the start of the process of moving forward because you actually found out where your punishments are going to be. And maybe the punishments ended up being a little bit more, I don't know, harsh is still too strong a word, but more harsh than you expected in terms of how it really did impact this season. But now you have gotten a majority of those scholarships out of the way. You're going to have more scholarships available moving forward. You're going to be moving further out of this NCAA stuff for recruiting and selling the

Starting point is 00:10:49 program and all that stuff to kids and not have as much negative recruiting, at least about that coming against your way. So I think that's a good thing to be moving forward that you are going to be moving on from that continually if you're Kansas. All right, let's continue on. What lessons did they have to learn the hard way this year for KU? First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Say goodbye to busted brackets because FanDuel lets you bet on every game of the tournament.

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Starting point is 00:12:49 basically things that didn't go well. Well, I mean, this is really, I don't know, is this like the first time this, there've been other years where KU has been more limited and having them. Certainly I think of the 2021 season. Maybe that was more just, you had players who were still burgeoning into that, but you to have bucket getters and shooting. And as much as Bill Self, even in like the early parts of his career at Kansas, when he was running the high-low and you would have really talented and skilled big men, Kansas still had like really good shooting teams from the outside. Like you go back and look at it and like, like go back to, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:13:27 let's say 2006 or something like that. They're 45th and three point percentage, 2007, they're 22nd, 2008, they're 14th, right? Like every year they were top 100 outside of Bill Self's first year there until 2012, which that was more of a grinded out team. And then besides that, you had top 100 years like every year through 2018, except for like one in there. So like they've always had the bucket getters, whether where you're thinking of guards or wings or whoever it's been, they've got guys who have been able to create their own shot and get buckets off the bounce. And yes, some of the lighter years for Kansas, which have been, I think, some of their worst

Starting point is 00:14:02 years, they've maybe only had one or two of those guys on the court at all times, right? So you think of that 2021 season, well, okay, Ochagbaje was solid at that point, but he wasn't the same guy you saw in the national championship year a year later, right? Like David McCormick had a good back half of the season in the Big 12 play, so that would be one that you could give it to on the block, and he was able to make stuff happen. Jalen Wilson was kind of a bit of that, but he was still growing in his role, but he didn't really have it from the guard position as much with, you know, some of the guys that you were getting there. So I think it's so incredibly important.

Starting point is 00:14:34 I've said this before and I'll say it again. I think at all times, the best teams are the one where you basically have, you have at least three, probably four guys who can get a bucket on the court at all times. So it doesn't mean everybody is a lead at offense. That doesn't mean it's a very, you know, it's not one of those things where I can be like, well, if you to qualify here, you have to be shooting this percentage or you have to be doing this or that. No, it's kind of, you know, it is, you see it, but like, for instance, okay, you go back to the 2022 national championship team for Kansas. Well, I wouldn't quite call Dwan Harris a bucket getter, right? But who else was he on the court with when, if you're just looking at the starting lineup,

Starting point is 00:15:09 because you could also bring Remy Martin off the bench and then add another bucket getter in there. Ochagbashi, okay, averaged like 20 points per game. He was an All-American. Yes, bucket getter. Christian Brown, first-round draft pick. Yes, that dude could go get his own bucket, right? Jalen Wilson. Yes, he could go get his own bucket. And there's different ways of getting your bucket. Some guys are drivers like Jalen was. Some guys are three point shooters. Some guys are beat you off the bounce, but you have to have guys who can get your bucket. And then you have post-up scores, right? Like Dave, isn't going to catch the ball at the top of the three point arc and go beat you. But if you threw it to him in a half court setting, and then you could also throw in Mitch Lightfoot. And he had a very efficient hook shot that year,

Starting point is 00:15:45 where it was like, okay, that is a bucket getter, right? And so you look at this team and it was like, okay, DeJuan Harris, not really a bucket getter this year. Timberlake and Elmarco weren't really bucket getters for you this year. So now you're kind of down that way. Furphy, in a way, was kind of a bucket getter in the same way that Christian Brown was, like elite transition player, but Brown had even more in the half court. So that one would be kind of a have to. Hunter Dickinson was a bucket getter in the same way that Christian Brown was like elite transition player, but Brown had even more in the half court. So that one would be kind of a half to Hunter Dickinson was a bucket

Starting point is 00:16:08 getter in the half court KJ kind of plus or minus as well, but you're running out of guys who can really take it off the dribble and create for you. And that's the other thing, like you need at least one or two guys who can create off the dribble for you in those half court settings. And that's what, you know, like Jalen Wilson was able to do, or some of the best years Devante Graham or Frank Mason were are able to do. And you didn't have that this year. And I think that really hurt. I spent too much time on that one. Other lessons learned the hard way in this day and age, it is really hard defensively to have a slow center who can't at least hedge. Well, Kansas has had good defenses under Bill Self without a center that's been, I would say, a super quick or super nimble guy. Like, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:16:50 Obviously, you think of some of the best years of Bill Self. They've had this, like, dominant rim protector and maybe shot blocker on the inside, whether it's with, you know, Cole Aldridge or Jeff Withey or Yudoka Azubuke just a few years ago. But they've had some other good teams defensively without one of those guys. Like I guess you could kind of go back to the 08 team. Like that was the best defense in the country. And like Sasha Khan was a seven-footer.

Starting point is 00:17:15 He was solid. Darnell Jackson, solid defensively, right? But neither of those guys like fleet of foot or anything like that. You take a look at like the 2016, 2017 teams, like the 2017 team wasn't as good defensively. They were 24th. They're still top 25. The 2016 one low key was third in the country on Ken Palm in defensive efficiency. And both those teams had Landon Lucas starting at the five, like Landon Lucas wasn't an elite shot blocker and he wasn't like a switchable defender. He wasn't like the most nimble guy in the world.

Starting point is 00:17:45 Right. But if you can be smart defensively, like that's one of the things, if you can know your positioning, um, Bill Self can scheme around it. Like same with David McCormick, right? Like you look at, uh, some of the years that David McCormick over the last month of the season in 2021, Kansas had one of the best defenses in the country finished top 15 that year, national title year, they finished 17th. So, like, again, David McCormick, not the most nimble guy in the world,

Starting point is 00:18:09 and he had to play with, like, a broken foot throughout his career at Kansas. So, like, that made him even less mobile than he could have been. It was kind of the funny part about, like, the crab defense. He looked like a crab shuffling up and down playing defense. But high effort, knowing where to be, and at least mobile enough to at least hedge a ball screen or ice a ball screen to make things a little bit more difficult. You saw none of that this year with Hunter Dickinson. And I do think as dominant as he is on the offensive end of the court and as productive as he is overall,

Starting point is 00:18:39 it's not impossible to win with it. Like I continue to, in my mind, go back to the idea that Hunter Dickinson his freshman year made an elite eight with Michigan as a one seed. And that team was possession away from playing in a final four. And then who knows what happens from there, right? So like, it's not impossible,

Starting point is 00:18:58 but I liken it to if you have a slow center defensively, like think about the reason a lot of Big Ten teams have struggled in the tournament. Like I go back to like the Iowa teams, Luca Garza, who's like national player of the year, but they're losing in the first weekend of the tournament because they get exploited on the defensive end with some of the slow bigs. Kofi Coburn at Illinois is another example of this. He like didn't make it to a second weekend. Some of these dominant bigs, but once you get into a tournament setting

Starting point is 00:19:23 and teams will just spam the same play over and over and attack you over and over with ball screens what happened to Gonzaga it makes it a lot tougher so it's I the metaphor I was going for I liken it to having a middle tier quarterback in the NFL you can still win a championship you can still win a Super Bowl in the NFL with a middle tier quarterback but everything around him has to be more tightened up and more perfect and that's how I view it if you have a slower big man right that Michigan team had basically I mean you had a early second round pick in uh was it Isaiah Livers at one of the wing spots and then you had a first round pick who's like a borderline all-star every year now in Franz Wagner if you have a couple wings that can be switchable and cover up a lot defensively like that's one way that you can kind

Starting point is 00:20:01 of make up for it if you have a bunch of shooting around him you can kind of make up for it. If you have a bunch of shooting around them, that can kind of make up for it. So it's not that it's impossible, but it just makes it a little bit harder. But it is something to kind of keep in mind moving forward. I also think the portal is I'm looking at it from the Kansas perspective should be for supplementing a roster, not building it, right? Because I will say this, a lot of the teams who have had success with the portal, it's been guys who've stayed two years. Think about the Texas team that Chris Beard put together last year, made the Elite Eight year before, you know, they were out what in the first weekend. And I think in the second round, I want to say to Purdue, a lot of times the guys who stay two years, that's when they really hit their success out of the transfer portal. So I do think that is kind of interesting. UConn,

Starting point is 00:20:43 for instance, Tristan Newton, he was good last year, but he's like all-American good this year. So maybe that's something good for Kansas. But I think specifically for Bill Self rosters, portal's more about supplementing than building your foundation, so to speak. I also don't think you can just automatically think every freshman is going to give you an upgrade.

Starting point is 00:21:01 We're already going to see that in the offseason. Everybody's going to assume that these three freshmen coming in are all going to be upgrades over Kansas. But we see it all the time, whether it was on Marco Jackson or MJ Rice or Bryce Thompson or Quentin Grimes. It's a different varying degree. Some of those guys are still in the rotation. Some of those guys are starters.

Starting point is 00:21:15 Some of those guys are playing big minutes. But it's hard for some freshmen. It takes some time. Like Wayne Seldon, it took a couple of years, right? So don't just automatically think just because a player is new and shiny and has a high recruiting ranking, he's going to automatically hit the ground running. I think that pertains to when you're building a roster. Don't just assume that, oh, they upgraded this position because this freshman is ranked 27th in the country.

Starting point is 00:21:36 And that player could come in and be good. Can't set a lot of success with freshmen. Johnny Furphy and Grady Dick and Josh Jackson and Joel Embiid and Andrew Wee and Javier Henry and all these guys. So it's not like it can't happen. I'm just saying, don't expect all of them to make this big impact. The last lesson is just don't want Kansas number one in the AP poll. Besides Kansas over the last two decades, 13 of the 15 AP preseason number one teams made the second weekend of the tournament and seven of the 15 made the final four. like when you're ap preseason number one you're like basically guaranteed to be a really good team except for kansas because every time they've done it under bill self they've lost in the first weekend and that is just a weird thing that has happened for kansas so i guess you root

Starting point is 00:22:18 against them being number one yeah just go into a season we're number two we're number two that's what you want for ku all. Let's finish up here. Talk a little bit about KU women's basketball on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by our friends at Nissan for this week's March Madness bracket highlight. Each week, we're picking one team that stands out, a team that's pushed it further than the rest. Just like any of the all-new 2024 Nissan SUVs, these guys were able to take it to the next level. The Oakland Grizzlies are this week's Nissan Rogue.

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Starting point is 00:23:51 basketball game and currently they're trailing USC 33 to 24 in the second round. USC, the one seed in the region hosting the game because the first two rounds are at the highest seed who gets to host. So Juju Watkins picked up two fouls in the first quarter for USC. They kept playing her through it, but kind of a bad start for KU. Honestly, good that they're even within nine because it was at one point USC kind of ballooned up the lead. I think it was 24 to nine at one point, and that included USC leading 16 to zero in points off of turnovers. So if KU can just tighten up the turnovers, USC is hitting a lot of threes too. Some of them have been contested and well-played defense.

Starting point is 00:24:30 You just hope that those stop falling in the second half, stop turning the ball over, and maybe you can get back into this thing. Maybe you can continue to get Juju Watkins in a little bit more foul trouble. She had an excellent start to this one before she had the two fouls. I'll say this, though, and we'll wait and see what kind of happens here. I do think this game is extremely important for Kansas because as much as it is a bit playing with house money, you're the eight seed playing on the road against the one seed. I think it really will show what the trajectory or the ceiling of this program is and

Starting point is 00:24:59 can be in the Brandon Schneider era. And I mean, this is such a super senior late in team. You have, I think three super seniors on the think, three super seniors on the roster, three COVID seniors on the roster, and then a fourth senior on the roster, I believe with Wyvett Mayberry. And honestly, it might be four super seniors. It's hard to not see that as like, okay, when you build up a roster

Starting point is 00:25:19 where you have that many seniors and super seniors, and you come back after a team who won a tournament game and then won an NIT, that this is kind of a destination type season in terms of what I'm talking about here is like that you build it for one special year and this would be that special year. Now, obviously you have a stud freshman in Samaya Nichols,

Starting point is 00:25:39 so that really does raise your ceiling and what you can be moving forward that if you get to build around that, that maybe the ceiling does get higher after this moving forward. Maybe the recruiting keeps up after this moving forward. But when you look at it, you can easily be like, well, Kansas loses four of their starters after this season. So you better take advantage of this run now before you lose all this players. And if the ceiling of the program ends up being you're an eight seed that can win at max one tournament

Starting point is 00:26:05 game you know that's not that's not bad like that's solid right like that's fine but I just I continue to have high hopes for the program because you do have these great facilities you do have great basketball fans here that you're still trying to kind of grow for the women's game and I think there's no excuse why this can't be a top 25 national program and why this can't be a program that's making the tournament every year, not just peeking in as an eight seed and winning one tournament game. And I'm not trying to make any declaratory statements. I'm just saying, I really hope they can win this game and come back in the second half, because to me, it would really show that yes, the ceiling of this program is for them to be that level of

Starting point is 00:26:43 team as opposed to, okay, nice season. It was cool. Great turnaround for them, which all of those things would be true. I just want there to be that next year to kind of get to, and I think that's what this represents if you can beat USC or come back and certainly make it a game at the end of things. All right, we'll be back to break that down if Kansas does come back and win. We'll also have a portal episode talking about the guard position,

Starting point is 00:27:04 what could be back for KU next year, what they could try to add, who are some player names to keep an eye on. Break that down if Kansas does come back and win. We'll also have a portal episode talking about the guard position, what could be back for KU next year, what they could try to add, who are some player names to keep an eye on at this point in time, targets to watch. So make sure you're subscribed to the show anywhere you get podcasts, including on our YouTube page. We'll see you next time on Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Lessons Learned in the 2023-2024 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Season for Bill Self and KU

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