Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 11.11.19

Episode Date: November 11, 2019

Hoops upends UNCG; Jalen Wilson breaks his ankle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Jayhawk Nation? Welcome in to this Monday edition of Locked on Jayhawks. I am Sean Kellerman, Learfield IMG College Broadcaster and University of Kansas Insider. This is Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, giving you insight, numbers, and a chance to hear from all the voices within Kansas athletics. Well, it's a victory Monday today as the basketball team pick up their first win of the regular season as they defeated UNC Greensboro in the home opener, 74-62. That game was Friday night, of course, at Allen Fieldhouse. And we're going to talk about that. We're going to hear a lot of sound from Bill Self, Yudoka Azubuki, and Devon Dotson.

And then later in the show, we'll recap the Friday Five. We'll take a look around the Big 12, both football and basketball, all the action that was going on this weekend. All right, but first, let's break down this game a little bit. We knew it was going to be a challenge. KU was a 14.5 point favorite in this game. They end up winning 74-62. They win by 12. UNC Greensboro is a team who comes from the same conference as the likes of Wofford and Furman and East Tennessee State, who's another team that Kansas will see here pretty soon, but it's a conference that's pretty top-heavy, or at least it was last year. You had Wofford

in the NCAA tournament as a 7 seed. UNC Greensboro could have been in the NCAA tournament, but they were one of the first teams left out. They got a lot of athletes. KU, of course, coming off a loss. That's not going to be, that was not thrilling for Wes Miller's bunch because, you know, you never like to wake the beast when that comes up, but that was the situation they were facing. First half of this was definitely close. Devon Dotson got things going on the right foot for Kansas. This is on the very first defensive possession. Dotson had things going on the right foot for Kansas. This is on the very first defensive possession. Dotson had a steal and an assist to Marcus Garrett, who finished in transition. And at the first media timeout, KU was up 7-3.

There were some missed opportunities in the first half. KU had some open shots that didn't fall, and it kind of went back and forth. This game was tied at 24-24 at the under-4 timeout. UNC Greensboro, pretty much the entire game was going with a 1-2-2 press, and that was one of the reasons that Bill Self ended up going the majority of the game in a four-guard lineup, the other, of course, being defensively, trying to be able to get out to all their shooters who could stretch the floor. But again, we kind of saw Kansas struggle getting into their half-court offense

and get to a position where they want to be, which is in the half-court offense, running the high low when you've got two bigs in there, and feeding the post. So that was not the case. But Kansas did go into halftime leading. Devon Dotson took over. He hit all four of his free-throw attempts toward the end of the first half and hit a three to make it 36-30 with under a minute to go. Unfortunately, the Jayhawks had some trouble shooting free throws again. Yudoka Azubuki was 0-4 in this one, and Marcus Garrett

was 0-2. At the end of the half, under five seconds to go, Marcus Garrett missed both of his free throws, and Silvio De Sosa rebounded the ball and missed a bunny, a thing that's been a problem for Silvio in the early stages of this season, but it was 36-32 in favor of the Jayhawks at the half, and then KU kind of took over beginning of the second half. And Ochiai Abadji, three, made it 45-34 with 17 minutes to go. Isaiah Moss piggybacked that with a three of his own, and KU was up by 14. The game was never really in doubt after that. Kansas led by as many as 21 points. Yudoka Hazabuki had a massive one-handed flush that made the game 64-43 with under nine minutes to go, and KU did not look back. UNC Greensboro actually, they kept fighting. They went through a stretch where they made seven consecutive field goals late in this game, and they cut the lead to 10, but Tristan

and Aruna had a big shot to put Kansas back up by 13 with 3.29 to go, a three-pointer from the top of the key. As it was, Kansas wins it 74-62. Devon Dotson was big in this one. 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Marcus Garrett also had double figures. He had 10 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. Ochai Abadji had 13 points, 4 rebounds, no assists for Ochai, 2 assists rather for Ochai. Yudoka Asabuki had his first double-double of the season. He had 10 points and 10 boards. And really the most unfortunate thing about this game, we're happy about the win, but we are crushed for KU freshman Jalen Wilson, who broke his ankle on a play 27 seconds in.

He only played 27 seconds in this game, and he is going to be out for an extended period of time. A broken ankle after he had just checked in. He said he heard it pop. And unfortunately, Jalen is going to be out for perhaps three months, 10 to 12 weeks. Could be a timeline. But here we are, November 8th. That would put him back in February. Best case scenario, probably. And then you're thinking, all right, well, how much catching up does he actually have to do in terms of actual basketball? Bill Self spoke to reporters after the game about Jalen's injury. He said, call timeout. And I'm like, you know, coaches can't call timeout, you know,

in the first 38 minutes. And, but I didn't know he was hurt as bad as he did. It was, and he didn't either, but he said, I felt it pop. And so I'm glad there was a stoppage right there. But yeah, it's a bad one. He broke it and requires surgery early next week. And timetable in return will probably be close to three months. So I'm not going to make it to tell you that he'll for sure set the rest of the year. But the likelihood of that's pretty strong. And you just hate it for Jalen Wilson, like I said.

I mean, this is a guy who came in as KU's top-rated freshman, joining Tristan Inaruna and Christian Brown, and Wilson came in and was actually rated 44th, slightly ahead of Inaruna, who was 47th. This is according to rivals, and Christian Brown was 93rd. But he's a guy who you were trying to figure out what his niche was going to be. You were trying to figure out which of these freshmen can step up and prove that they're going to have to deliver. And now it's going to be Brown and Inaruna, and they're going to have to, in staying healthy, be major contributors for this team because this team is down to nine

guys now, and three of those guys are big. So you've got six guards on the perimeter. So when Kansas goes four guards, you've got two guys coming off the bench, and they're going to need to contribute obviously in a big way. So hopefully Jalen Wilson can get back as soon as possible. He has speedy recovery and can get back on the court so we can see some of the things that he can do. And most importantly, we can hopefully see how he can help this team win so speedy recovery will keep you updated any information we have regarding Jalen and his injury Yudoka Azubuki talked to reporters after the game and was asked if the guys had a chance to catch up with Jalen afterward oh yeah we did talk to him um it's a pretty um sad situation for him like you know like I know

I know I know the feeling so you know I just tell him to keep his head up and I'll encourage him and hopefully he'll get better. Doak as we know is a guy who's dealt with many injuries in his career two of his three seasons have been essentially wiped completely out due to injury he was asked about Jalen's emotions following the broken ankle. It was good like he was he had good, you know, he was like feeling positive about it. And, you know, he wasn't done. I just wish him a speedy recovery. Take a closer look now at the numbers and mentioned Devon Dotson. He led the way, which is great.

We're going to hear from him in the next segment. But 22-8-6, not too shabby. Only one turnover following that really uncharacteristic performance by Devon and the whole KU team last Tuesday in the Champions Classic against Duke. You look at the bench, KU got better bench production, 17 points compared to just 8 they had against Duke. So that is another positive in this one. And then the turnovers, only 10 turnovers after having, of course, the 28,

just two off a school record against Duke. So that was positive as well. Kansas shot 46% from the field, 38% from three, and just 10 of 19 for a 53% clip from the free throw line. UNC Greensboro shot 39% from the field, 26% from three, and they were bad at the free throw line as well. Six of 13 for a 46% clip. Kansas out-rebounded the Spartans 42 to 35, and second chance points, that was another, it's an area that Kansas is trying to improve on. Greensboro won that 10 to 9. Both teams were even with the 17 bench points. Points in the paint was kind of interesting,

28-26 in favor of the Spartans. Isaiah Miller and Devon Dotson were the best players on the court in the first half. Miller, UNC Greensboro's top player, he was their preseason conference player of the year pick. He had 17 in the first half and no one else had four. He got into a little bit of foul trouble in half number two, so he wasn't on the court as much, but also Kansas did a better job limiting him. Miller ended with just 19 points, so just two in the second half. So a lot to get to, a lot more sound we'll hear from Coach and the guys as KU defeats UNC Greensboro on Friday night, 74-62.

Next segment, we'll recap the Friday Five, and we'll hear more from Yudokaz Buki and Devon Dotson. You're listening to Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Two and three week in the Friday 5 this week and it included probably the worst beat of the year for sure. Let's talk about the wins first. There was the NFL game yesterday. It was Baltimore minus 10.5 at Cincinnati, and that was an easy cover.

The Ravens killed the Bengals 49-13. I didn't really understand why that line wasn't bigger at all, but I think now odds makers will be even higher on Lamar Jackson and company. Jackson is right in the middle of the MVP race after another phenomenal game, and if you've got him on your fantasy team, you're loving every minute of it because Lamar is certainly getting it done for Baltimore. They actually ran a package in that game, the Heisman package. They had Lamar Jackson, Mark Ingram, and in that game, the Heisman package. They had Lamar

Jackson, Mark Ingram, and Robert Griffin III, all Heisman winners in the backfield at the same time. Ended up being an option pitch to RG3, but Lamar Jackson saying afterward, yeah, that's our Heisman package. It was dope. So they could do whatever they wanted against the Bengals defense, and fourth-round pick Ryan Finley really couldn't get anything going for the now 0-9 Bengals. So Baltimore football was the first win of the week and the other win was that Minnesota plus seven game against Penn State. The Golden Gophers are going to crack the top 10 as they are undefeated at 9-0. They won that game outright 31 to 26 so they easily covered the seven points in that one, P.J. Fleck has got that program trending all the way up

alright, let's go to the losses, get this one out of the way, I didn't like it, I'm not really sure why I gave it out, but I had an opportunity, Ohio State without Chase Young was hosting Maryland and the Terrapins were 43.5 point dogs they end up losing 73-14

it was not as bad as it sounded in terms of the line, at one point it was The Terrapins were 43.5 point dogs. They end up losing 73-14. It was not as bad as it sounded in terms of the line. At one point it was 59-14. Ohio State got two late fourth quarter touchdowns to put them away. But the Buckeyes, number one, and will they continue to be number one? We'll have to wait and see. They and LSU right now are likely going to be the top two teams in the college football playoff as those teams LSU picked up the huge win of course on Saturday against Alabama other loss got two college

basketball games and they were both losses the Baylor I guess I forgot about the Scott Drew factor they were minus five against Washington and Alaska for the armed forces classic and the Bears were up with six minutes to go, 61-51. Not only did they blow it and not cover the five, they lost outright. Washington ends the game on a 16-3 run, and it just completely, Baylor just completely imploded when it mattered most.

There was a three-pointer made by Naziah Carter of the Huskies that tied this game at 64 with a minute and a half to go. And then a made layup by Isaiah Stewart gave the Huskies a two-point lead with 30 seconds to go. And Baylor could not score. A couple missed jumpers, a missed layup, and Washington ends up putting away the Bears 67-64. So a tough, tough loss for Baylor and the Big 12. And then what I think is probably the biggest beat of the year in terms of the Friday 5 for me is that Vermont game, Vermont at St. Bonaventure.

Catamounts end up winning 61-59. They were minus 4, and I like that, but they don't cover. It was 61-55 with 9 seconds left, so Vermont needed a stop for a win. Kyle Lofton of the Bonneys made a layup with three seconds left to cut it to 61-57. So you're still thinking, all right, you've got a chance. Worst-case scenario, at a push, or the Bonneys are probably going to foul and send Vermont to the line to give the Catamounts a chance for the cover. But that's not what happened as Ben Shungu threw the ball away,

stolen away by Dominic Welch, who made a layup as time expired, and the Bonneys lose by two, and they cover in doing so. So two wins, three losses, and this week's Friday 5. The Jayhawks in their win on Friday, of course, did not cover, but they did win by 12, 74-62 over UNC Greensboro, and now they've got a week off this whole week to prepare for a very beatable Monmouth team. That game will be Friday at 7 o'clock at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas kind of ran away with this one early in the

second half. Greensboro didn't go without a fight, but this game was particularly close in the first half, 36-32 at halftime. Yudoka Azubuki with reporters after the game, and he was asked if there was any special halftime message from Coach Self. Coach just asked us to be more aggressive. Like, they're a good team. Like, you know, we give credit to them. They are really hard to guard against, and they have, like, four guys that can't really shoot it.

And Coach just was like, hey, we should keep hunting them, because they press a lot hunting them and you know because they press a lot and you know that's what that's what pretty much what coach said as we know the key to any potential success for this jayhawks team is their floor general devon dotson and he had that stacked stat line i mentioned last segment devon six assists one turnover perhaps most importantly after having those numbers flipped against Duke in the Champions Classic last Tuesday. Here's Devon talking about the new energy that KU came out with on Friday. Yeah, you can say that. We know what we didn't do Tuesday night

and we wanted to correct it and bring that energy. It was a home opener, so we just wanted to feed off the crowd and really just get it going. Devon continues crediting his teammates for the success he had. My teammates, they did a great job getting to open spots, knocking down shots and making themselves available. And I tried to get in there and make the smart decision and, you know, really just, yeah, just play. So UNC Greensboro went with that 1-2-2 zone press pretty much the majority of the night,

and it didn't really work. Coach Self said that it didn't work for forcing turnovers, but it was meant to try to prevent Kansas to getting into their half-court offense, and Coach Self said it was successful on that front. Coach Wes Miller, who's in his ninth season as head man at UNC Greensboro, and many people think may be in line to take over Roy Williams' job potentially sometime down the road at North Carolina. That's how highly regarded he is. He said he thought the press was pretty successful for about the first 16 minutes

that they were doing it, but after that, Kansas was able to get past the press of the Spartans. He also was asked if the press becomes way less successful, I guess, if Devon Dotson or somebody of his talent level is bringing the ball up the court, and he said, yeah, it makes it a lot more difficult. Devon had no problem at all breaking the press. I thought he and the KU guards did a really good job keeping the ball in the hands of the Jayhawks because we know how much of a struggle that was against Duke. Here's Yudoka Azubuki talking about Devon's bounce back performance. That's pretty much what we

need him to do. He pretty much came in and did it. I'm proud of him for taking that step from last game to this game and being that point guard leader that we needed and cutting out a ton of us. That kind of showed the growth on the church. Well, we also got a chance to see the Jayhawks get some shots up from behind the arc.

They only had nine official three-point attempts the game against Duke. They hit four of them, including that last bank shot that was good by Devon Dotson. In this game, Kansas was 10 of 26. I think that's more around the number of shots from three that Kansas is interested in. Ochai Abadji hit the most. He was three of eight from three-point range. And Isaiah Moss got some run. He played the majority of the second half. He actually started as Kansas coach Bill Self went with the four guard lineup the majority of the night so Moss started half number two and uh in place in replacing David McCormick who played just 11 minutes in this game Isaiah Moss a three-point specialist in his three years of Iowa was two of six from three and we're going to hear Bill Self's thoughts on the senior grad transfer and Yudoka Azubuki talk about how Isaiah Moss brings a different dimension to this KU offense and something else that they can potentially take advantage of as the year goes on.

So we'll hear more from those guys after the break and we'll recap the Big 12. There were four Big 12 football games in action on Saturday and of course a lot of men's hoops games taking place as well. Marquee road win for one of the teams. Stay tuned for that. With Roman you can get a free online evaluation and ongoing care for ED all from the comfort and privacy of your home. Just go to GetRoman.com slash locked

to get a free online visit and free two day shipping. The Lockdown Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. Wrapping things up here on this Monday edition of Locked On Jayhawks. I'm Sean Kellerman. Thanks so much for tuning in. Remember, follow me on Twitter at Sean Kellerman. Follow the show at LO underscore

Jayhawks. Before we hear a little bit more from Bill Self and the guys regarding Isaiah Moss and his importance to this team, particularly now that this team is a little thinner without Jalen Wilson, let's do a recap of what the Big 12 slate was this past weekend. Of course, Kansas football did not play. Tomorrow's show, we're going to get a chance to hear a lot of sound from Les Miles, his press conference that was held today, and his thoughts on KU's upcoming battle with Oklahoma State. That game in Stillwater on Saturday, 11 a.m. kick.

With one exception, there were great games across the Big 12 on Saturday. The exception was two of the bottom dwellers in the conference, Texas Tech and West Virginia. Texas Tech goes into Morgantown, and they win easily 38-17. West Virginia had a touchdown in the last play of the game to make that game a little closer, but the Red Raiders had that game bagged pretty much from the beginning. So West Virginia falls into a last place tie with the Jayhawks with a 1-5 conference record. Crazy game in Fort Worth. John Mayers hits a 51-yard field goal to send the game to overtime at a 9-9 score. And three overtimes later, Baylor picks up the win and they stay unbeaten. They are 9-0 and solely in first place in the Big 12

Conference with their 6-0 conference record. TCU had opportunities. A couple drop passes loomed large for the Frogs in this one. They lose by 6, 29-23 in three overtimes. Close game in Austin. It was another win for Dicker the Kicker and the Texas Longhorns as they defeat K-State 27-24. So Texas, they're 4-2 in the conference. K-State falls to 3-3 in the Big 12. And then another crazy game, a game that Oklahoma thought they had in hand and it came down to needing to get a stop on a last-second two-point conversion attempt by Iowa State, and they did do just that, did the Sooners.

They hold on to defeat the Cyclones 42-41. Crazy game in Norman, Oklahoma, 15-point favorite. They hang on, and they are just one game back of Baylor, and that sets up a massive game, as we know. It's coming up on Saturday. Oklahoma and Baylor are going to do battle, and that's going to be a great one. All eyes are going to be on that for a night game between the Sooners and the Bears. All right,

probably the best win for the Big 12 this weekend in basketball was Texas going on the road, and they defeated Purdue at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette. Awfully impressive win for the Longhorns. Shaka Smart, many people think that he is fighting for his job this season, and they trailed this game early in the first half, but they came back and ended up picking up a marquee win, 70-66 over the Boilermakers. Oklahoma had another road win as they went to a Big Ten foe as well, and they defeated Minnesota in a game they ran away late, 71-62, the Sooners over the Golden Gophers.

Texas Tech had no problem disposing of Bethune-Cookman. That was a 79-44 score in that one. Iowa State, the big loser of the weekend, as Iowa State falls on the road to Oregon State, 80-74. Iowa State's defense is going to be something to keep an eye on. They can score, but they can give up a lot of points too. And then an overtime is going to be something to keep an eye on. They can score, but they can give up a lot of points too. And then an overtime victory for the K-State Wildcats. They defeat UNLV in Las Vegas 60-56. Oklahoma State, no problem with UMKC. Final in that game was 69-51. And as we know, Baylor, my pick in a Friday 5, minus 5, they're up by 10, they blow it completely, Washington

ends the game on a 16-3 run, and the Huskies defeat the Bears in Alaska 67-64, other game that was in action on Friday was West Virginia and Akron, high scoring affair, the Mountaineers win it 94-84 over the Zips, a team formerly coached by West Virginia's head man, Bob Huggins. So that's the recap and the Big 12 slate on Friday. A lot of games on Friday with college football still in full swing. Three more weeks of college football.

Jayhawks are going to be in action in each of them, of course. Stillwater this weekend at 11 a.m. It'll be Iowa State on November 23rd in Ames, and then the final home game of the regular season, Senior Night, will take place on November 30th against Baylor, who knows, they could be 11-0 and going for a perfect regular season at that point, but we'll have to wait and see. Of course, for our Jayhawks, they picked up their first win of the season as they defeated UNC Greensboro on Friday at Allen Fieldhouse, 74-62, they were led by Devon Dotson's 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists,

and of course got contributions from Yudoka Azubuki and Ochai Abadji as well. Doak with the 10-10 double-double. Abadji had 13 points, and that's four straight games to include the exhibition where Ochai scores on double figures, so he is obviously going to be a large part of this offense. Marcus Garrett scored double figures as well with 10 points. No double figures for Isaiah Moss, but he was able to play 25 minutes and had 8 points. He is just the definition of a spot-up shooter, right? I don't think we're going to see him attacking the basket too much,

but he has come to this program to be a shooter from the outside. He got off six threes and made two of them, and his presence as a shooter is good for many reasons. Bill Self told reporters after the game that he thought he played well. I thought he did great considering. I don't think he's 100%. He still looks a little slow to me compared to what he did before he got hurt, but he can stretch it. He's a good shooter.

I thought he made three, but I guess one of them was toes on the line. But he'll make us play much better offensively. And then the other thing is I thought he played at a good pace and demonstrated some poise. I didn't think he looked rushed at all when he had the ball offensively. Isaiah Moss also brings a veteran leadership to this team. He hasn't been with the program for very long, but he is a senior along with Yudoka Azubuki,

and those are the two seniors whose eligibility will expire come the end of this year. Mitch Lightfoot should be back next season after redshirting this year, as long as no one else goes down, right? Then we'll have Mitch back for 2020 and 2021, and that'll be great well Yudoka Azubuki a guy who enjoys operating inside when there's four guards on the outside and we'll hear more about that later this week talked about his thoughts on Isaiah Moss he's a good shooter um like when he's in the game like he's a big part of our offense I mean when he's in the game he kind of like helped me too probably like when the double

team comes it's a good shooter like I kind will always tell me in practice that hey once i get up the team and you're wide open like just come to my side i'm kicking it to you while you should be ready to shoot it so we have that chemistry together and like you said like you just see see what he did today um he's a good he's good for us we look forward to a lot more where that came from out of isaiah moss he and christian are going to be key parts of this team. Of course, Tristan and Aruna as well as KU looks to find a solid rotation, of course, that will not include Jalen Wilson for the foreseeable future because of his broken ankle.

Well, we had a chance to hear in this show from Bill Self, Devon Dotson, Yudoka Azubuki, their thoughts on the game, and we're going to have a lot more sound for you the rest of this week. No game until Friday. Home tilt with Monmouth at 7 o'clock at Allen Fieldhouse. We'll hear more from Doak and Bill Self about this four-guard lineup and how important they think that's going to be as the season goes on. We'll also hear more from Devon Dotson, more from Tristan and Aruna as well, and of course we'll talk Kansas football as game week is back,

and we prepare for Oklahoma State on Saturday. Thanks so much for listening. We'll chat with you tomorrow. This is Sean Kellerman signing off. Locked on Jayhawks, a part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.