Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 11.1.19

Episode Date: November 1, 2019

KU hoops blows out Pitt State; Friday 5 picks; Previewing Sunflower Showdown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Jayhawk Nation? Welcome in to the final edition this week 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. Alright, that was a victorious final exhibition game last night against Pitt State, KU 102, Pitt State 42. It was a complete blowout from the beginning, probably more so what Bill Self had in mind than the first exhibition game when the Jayhawks actually were only leading Fort Hayes State by two at the beginning of the second half. So Pitt State not so much.

KU got out to a 24-4 lead in this one and did not look back. The Jayhawks had eight players score eight points or more. They had three in double figures. Interestingly enough, so many different guys played, but Ochai Abadji led the team with his 19 points. Nobody scored 20 points in this one. Devon Dotson had 12, and David McCormick had 13, and that was it for the double-digit scorers in this one.

But Kansas really was just dominant no matter who they had out there. In terms of rebounds, this game was a decided advantage as expected in an exhibition game. KU pulled down 52 rebounds. Pitt State had just 30. And how about KU? They shot 40 of 74 for a 54% clip from the field. 40 main field goals.

They had 27 assists. That was one thing that I noticed early when watching this one, was that KU was sharing the ball well, and the ball moved for the most part throughout the entire game. So it was impressive. Kansas, 27 assists and just four turnovers. Devon Dotson shook off the rust a little bit. He, of course, did not play in the first game against Fort Hayes State.

He came back, and he missed nine of his first ten shots. Not really Devon-like. He's usually very efficient with his shots. But then he came back. He hit his final three. He ended up with 12 points on four of 13 shooting, two of seven from deep, and Devon had seven assists and no turnovers. No player had more than one turnover for Kansas in this one. Yudoka Azubuki had a better game than Ford Hayes, in which he only had five points. Big Doak in this game had eight points, 12 boards, and three blocks in limited minutes.

And that's the thing is a lot of these guys put up some big-time numbers without playing very much. Other notable performers, Silvio De Sosa had nine points and ten rebounds in just 22 minutes. And how about Tristan Inaruna? He got some run. He ended up playing 21 minutes in this game, played the majority of the second half. Inaruna had nine points, eight rebounds, and 5 assists with no turnovers. So he, just watching him, looks like the makings of an NBA player without question. He's so long. He's wiry.

He's got an opportunity in his time at KU, however long that lasts, to put on some weight and to make a difference at the college game. But man, he's got NBA build. He's got NBA game, hopefully. Christian Brown also played in this game, and he let the game come to him. I was really impressed with that. Brown didn't overthink anything when he was not getting very many shot opportunities in the first half.

He ended up playing 21 minutes as well. He had nine points on three of four shooting. All those attempts came in the second half. Like I said, the ball moved very well throughout this one. A dominant performance by KU in the final exhibition game against Pitt State. So those are really just two tune-up games, a 30-point win and a 60-point win for our Jayhawks. And now we focus on Duke. But looking back on this one, here's Bill Self after the game talking about how his team performed.

I thought we played pretty well. You know, we shot it pretty good and took care of the basketball for the most part. And, you know, statistically we did some good things, but I don't know. You know, that may be a little bit, you know, unbalanced because they missed some wide open shots too. But I thought Doak protected the room better. I thought there were some good things that happened. I mentioned the 27 assists on 40 made shots. Bill Self was asked if he thought the ball moved as well as it appeared it did.

When we had that first group in there that got off to a good start, I would have liked to have probably seen them play another three or four minutes together because they were on a pretty good roll. And it seems like to me when we sub, especially with the four perimeter players or Jalen and Christian and Tristan and Isaiah, it seemed like to me the ball just didn't move quite as crisply as it did before. But overall, I thought it was fine. So that first group that Bill Self alludes to is Devon Dotson, Marcus Garrett, Ochai Abadji, David McCormick, and Yudoka Azubuki. And McCormick got the start, and how about this line? In 14 minutes, David scored 13 points, 6 of 7 from the field.

His only miss was a 3, and he also had 5 rebounds. So a lot of these guys performed very well. And I would not be surprised if you see David getting the call just because of how good this start was for the initial five in this game. If David gets the call to start against Duke on Tuesday, Silvio had a chance to start the first exhibition game. David gets the call in exhibition number two. As you just heard from Coach Self, he was very happy with how that first group moved the ball. We'll see after that. The depth of this team, no matter who you go with, is just unreal. That was something that really struck me

last night. It was 24-4 before your two highest rated freshmen even came in the game. Jalen Wilson and Tristan Inaruno were on the bench, and KU was just dominating, and it's just amazing the depth of this team. We got to see Isaiah Moss a little bit. He only ended up playing about five minutes. He was a part of the first substitution group. Bill Self saying after the game that he did not re-injure himself, did Moss, but coach is going to have to see how practice goes Sunday and Monday to decide Moss' availability on Tuesday, because clearly he's just not at 100% yet.

But, man, you just look at this team. You've got the starting five that I mentioned, and then off the bench, you've got somebody like Silvio De Sosa. He would start for any team in the Big 12. Mitch Lightfoot, he's a redshirt candidate. They're thinking that we're probably going to see Mitch redshirt this season,

and he's a guy who might start for every other team in the Big 12. So kind of amazing, the depth. And that's just talking about the bigs. Of course, I mentioned the guards, the depth on the wing. Unbelievable. Christian Brown, Moss when he's healthy. You got Jalen Wilson, Tristan and Aruna. Just so many guys. And that was my main takeaway from the game last night. I know it's an exhibition, but man, this team just has so many guys, so much talent. So it'll be exciting to see. The one down spot maybe

last night was Yudoka Azubuki continuing to struggle at the free throw line. It's crazy, Allen Fieldhouse just erupts when he makes a free throw, and perhaps that gets in his head a little bit, but Coach Self was asked after the game if that's a big concern and how KU is going to deal with that moving forward. He's just got a mental block with it, and so we've got to do something. I've got to do something to help him with that. But he makes them in practice, and it looks different in practice. In games, obviously he's got a totally different feel to it. But, yeah, that's going to be a concern each and every game.

Just without saying what know with with just stating the obvious is you know late game situations what do you do so so uh because he's got to be able to make at least 50 percent or they're just going to you know hack a shacking the one silver lining i guess you can take from doke's free throw struggles is that kansas has different guys they can turn to this year you know they're years past with Doak where he was really the only big guy that could be in the game when it mattered most. So if Silvio De Sosa and David McCormick, who are much better free throw shooters, if they can stand in for Doak when it matters,

then maybe we can avoid that hack-a-shack situation that has happened before in the past. A couple years ago in Norman when Lon Krueger elected to go with that strategy, that comes to mind. But anyway, we'll see how that goes moving forward. Otherwise, it's nothing but positive for the Jayhawks. We have so much to get to in this show. We have so much to get to

next week. Monday and Tuesday's show is going to be packed with KU hoop sound in advance of that Duke game on Tuesday night. We're going to hear a ton more from Bill Self. We'll hear from Devon Dotson, David McCormick, Silvio De Sosa, Ochai Abadji, all of that. You're going to hear from all those guys as the week, as next week gets going on Locked On Jayhawks. So looking forward to that. Hope you can tune in.

Coming up a little bit later on the show, we're going to get our Friday 5 picks. We're going to preview the Big 12 football games happening tomorrow. And, of course, there was one last night that we'll recap. And we'll talk KU football, KUK State, and the Sunflower Showdown on Saturday at 2.30. The Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's talk some Big 12 football now as Week 10 is underway. And KU's got a pretty big game coming up this weekend in the Sunflower Showdown. I am Sean Kellerman. Follow me on Twitter at Sean Kellerman.

You can follow LockedOnJHawks on Twitter at LO underscore JHawks. All right, so there was a game last night on Halloween night between West Virginia and number 12 Baylor. Baylor was looking to stay undefeated. They've shot all the way up to number 12 in the standings in the AP poll, and they survived, I think is the best way to put it. Baylor 17, West Virginia 14. A 36-yard field goal by John Myers gave the Bears the win. That was way back early in the fourth quarter, and then there was just no scoring. It was a defensive battle battle throughout but the bears did what they do and they won they improved to eight and oh on the year and they're five and

oh and big 12 play they sit atop alone atop the big 12 conference standings tomorrow's games tcu at oklahoma state is at 230 the same time that ku hosts k K-State. K-State, by the way, ranked 22nd in the country. So you've got K-State at 22, Baylor at 12, and Oklahoma at number 10. And that is it, just three representatives of the Big 12 in the top 25 poll. Look at the standings. Baylor is on top with that perfect record. And then Oklahoma, following their loss in Manhattan last week, they're in second place at 4-1. Everybody else has at least two losses. Iowa State, Texas are both 3-2. K-State, TCU are 2-2. Oklahoma State's 2-3, and then a trio of 1-4 teams, KU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia. Of course, it'll be the Big 12 championship game that decides whether or not the Big 12

even has a fight in terms of getting somebody in the college football playoff. Their best shot, obviously, was Oklahoma, who was ranked number fifth. They dropped to number 10 after the loss to K-State. So it's going to be, right now, it would be Baylor and Oklahoma battling it out in Arlington in the Big 12 championship game. And the winner of that would certainly hope to make the college football playoff. But as I mentioned, there's going to need to be a lot of help going on around the rest of the conferences because number 10 in the country is the best the Big 12 can offer, and that's not going to get you very far.

So not a very big slate of college football games in the Big 12 this Saturday. You do have TCU, Oklahoma State, two teams that are middling in the conference. They're both trying to get to bowl eligibility. Obviously, you know, they're both thinking they're in good shape. Oklahoma State's 5-3. TCU is 4-3. So TCU's got one more game. Oklahoma State's got one more win.

Big 12 has a lot of teams who are thinking they're still alive for bowl game potential. KU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia, I mentioned, they're the three 1-4 teams in the Big 12. They're 3-5, so they've got four more games left to each of those teams. They still have an opportunity, they're thinking. Already clenched a bowl, obviously, Baylor and Oklahoma. Interesting fact, of the 13 winners of the Big 12 championship game that are still in the conference, Oklahoma's won nine of them.

Nine of the 13 victors of that game, Oklahoma has been crowned. Of course, a couple teams that are no longer in the Big 12 have won the Big 12 championship game way back when. Nebraska won a pair, Colorado 1-1, Texas A&M 1-1, but otherwise it has been dominated by Oklahoma, and maybe Baylor's going to have something to say about it this year. The Bears will end the season in Lawrence, interestingly enough, and they've got three games ahead of that if they're trying to stay unblemished. It's really amazing what Matt Rule has done with that program since taking over. Two years ago, Baylor was 1-11, and now here they sit at 8-0.

So mad props to Matt Rule and Baylor. They're doing pretty good in the athletic department as a whole. Their men's basketball team is ranked heading into this season. Their volleyball team, before losing to Texas, was ranked number one in the country. And, of course, we know about the Baylor women's team. So everything is good in Waco, and they're hoping to keep the good times rolling with this football team. All right, let's transition to the Friday Five now.

Here are the picks that are going to hopefully lead me to my first over 500 week since doing the Friday Five here in Week 3. All right, we're going to start with Notre Dame. Ian Book, their quarterback, is coming off a horrible performance, to put it lightly, against Notre Dame. He was just 8 of 25 for 73 yards in that big-time loss at the Big House. But Brian Kelly has professed faith in his quarterback. There's not going to be any controversy, Coach Kelly says.

And I think Book, who started the season off so hot, is due for a big performance. I think Notre Dame is going to take it out on Virginia Tech. Irish are minus 17. I think they cover that. SMU and Shane Bichelle, they have had a good season, obviously. It's going to be a battle of two ranked teams. I like the six points that SMU is getting at Memphis. And obviously, it's never easy to win on the row when you're playing an in-conference rival, but I think SMU has had some struggles and they're due to cover. I think six is too many points.

SMU plus six. All right, the Pac-12 is dying to have some sort of competitor for the college football playoff, and Utah is ranked all the way up to number nine. I am going to fade on Utah. They're going to be on the road, a tough place to play at Washington. Washington's getting three points. I'm going to take Washington plus three against Utah. And Miami, the U, they have switched quarterbacks once again,

from Nicosi Perry back to Jaron Williams. Williams came back in and led the comeback against Pitts. the Hurricanes won on the road last Saturday. I think that he's able to continue that confidence level that he's brought into this Miami team. He was obviously a redshirt freshman who started a lot. They've gone back and forth a lot between Perry and Williams. I think Jaron Williams is the guy now. And Manny Diaz is expressing faith in him. I'm going to do the same thing.

I think the U getting three points is the bet at Florida State against the Seminoles. And then for my fifth one, I'm going to go to the NFL. I'm going to take Houston minus two against Jacksonville. That's the London game at 830 on Sunday. The Texans, of course, had that big win at Arrowhead against the Chiefs a couple weeks ago. They have not covered in back-to-back weeks since then. They snuck past an Oakland Raiders team, a really pesty Oakland Raiders team, last week. The Texans won at home 27-24.

Yes, they're going to be without J.J. Waugh, but I think Deshaun Watson and company are going to show out. And I think the talent differential between Houston and Jacksonville is going to be shown in London. It's only minus two. I think the Texans cover that. So those are my five picks in this week's edition of the Friday Five. Trying to eke my way back toward 500. Notre Dame minus 17 against Virginia Tech. SMU plus six at Memphis.

Washington plus three hosting Utah. The U plus three at Florida State And the Houston Texans in London Minus 2 against the Jacksonville Jaguars Friday 5, let's write the shift this week And get right back to it Alright, coming up we're going to do our final preview Of Kansas State, KUK State 2.30 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium

On Saturday, should be a great time, great atmosphere. There's going to be a lot of purple in the stands, and hopefully it's going to be a ton more crimson and blue. Get a lot of Jayhawk Nation out there in support of our guys who are looking for what would be a big fourth win of the year and a big win in this Sunflower Showdown series. The Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. Talking about erectile dysfunction isn't easy.

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We've been celebrating the KU football win over Texas Tech last Saturday on Homecoming, and of course we've been previewing KUK win over Texas Tech last Saturday on Homecoming. And of course, we've been previewing KU K-State and the Sunflower Showdown, a series that Kansas has not won since 2008. Ten straight seasons, K-State has taken it, and there's been a lot of purple the past 20 years or so in terms of the winner of this game. It was a 52-21 win by the Jayhawks back on November 1, 2008. So exactly 11 years ago to the day of today was KU's last win. Nothing but K-State, Manhattan, and in Lawrence.

Last year's stung. It was 21-17. K-State wins it in Manhattan. KU had a chance for a game-winning drive, but the ball slipped out of Peyton Bender's hand, and the Wildcats took that one for 10 straight. So it's time. It's time to pick up that victory, but it's not going to be an easy task.

K-State, always very fundamentally sound. They're one of the better defensive teams in the conference. Head coach Les Miles talked about how K-State plays all three phases. They play all three phases. They're a quality defensive team. They're a quality offensive ball club. They play special teams. They have time of possession as theirs.

And, you know, they have all of the markings of a very quality football team. Now, I like the matchup. I think it'll be one in which they'll have some advantages and we'll have some advantages. And which team will have the better quarterback? That's an interesting question. Obviously, people are very high on K-State's Skyler Thompson. He is a dual-threat quarterback, to say the least. He's done a little bit of everything, and boy, did he impress

last week in Manhattan against Oklahoma. but we like our guy too. Carter Stanley has had back-to-back phenomenal games under head coach Brent Dierman, or offensive coordinator Brent Dierman, and Brent Dierman has obviously led this offense to a whole nother level. Two straight 500 plus yard performances for this KU offense, and and Carter when made available to the media earlier this week talked a little X's and O's about his new OC. Coach Dierman here he's done you know just in the few weeks where he's been our coach he's done some great work with us with you know just some fundamental stuff and some great quarterback drills. KU interestingly enough is seventh in the Big 12 in passing offense and how about K-State they're just 10th they're 10 seventh in the Big 12 in passing offense. And how about K-State? They're just 10th.

They're 10th in the league, dead last in pass offense. So Thompson certainly can run the ball, but they have not been able to get as much going offensively throwing the football. Of course, they're under new head coach Chris Kleiman. So both of these programs are going to have head coaches getting their first taste of the Sunflower Showdown rivalry. K-State always is very good in terms of special teams, and defensively they've been pretty good in recent years as well,

kind of staples of Bill Snyder's team. K-State is first in the conference in terms of pass defense, as they're allowing just 187 passing yards per game. Very, very impressive for the Wildcats. But KU, we know they're trying to do everything they can to turn around their defense too. DJ Elliott is going to have Bryce Tornadin back on his squad. And it's going to be interesting because you're going to have the K-State option runs. They run a lot of those.

And they did it with Alex Delton, who now transferred to TCU. They do a lot of quarterback draws. So it'll be interesting to see how well the KU linebackers can stay home and prevent Skyler Thompson from running free. Sam Ellinger also, as we know, he had his success in Austin against this KU linebacking core. But hopefully these guys like Gavin Potter and Jay Dineen and some of the other guys who have been playing linebacker for KU

are able to continue to improve and limit Skylar Thompson. And hopefully there's a great crowd there. That was one of the reasons KU was able to come back against Texas Tech on homecoming. And Coach Miles, when talking about the Tech victory, talked about the atmosphere at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Well, it's exactly the the the style of atmosphere that you want to demonstrate on a week-in week-out basis we would love to have that that stadium full just like that and and or you know maybe a little a little deeper into the uh

into the upper upper deck um but it makes a tremendous difference when the local faithful step into that stadium and go to make a noise. I can tell you this, the atmosphere for me was electric. So can Jayhawk Nation show out on Saturday? It's a 2.30 kick tomorrow. I'm excited for this one. I haven't been as excited for a KU-K-State football game in quite some time. I'm excited for the final four games of the season, but man, just like we said last week, if KU can get this one, then we're talking,

all right, we got an actual shot to make a bowl this year in the first year under head coach Les Miles, despite the close losses this team has had. That being said, K-State, they're going to be out for blood as well. They're feeling like they're 5-2. They're feeling like they can beat anybody remaining on their schedule, including a tilt at Texas. Makes sense. You go and you beat a top-five team like Oklahoma, puts you to 5-2.

You're thinking you could beat anybody on your schedule. So K-State fans are probably thinking there's a path to 10 wins. We don't know if that's accurate, if that's realistic at all. But KU is certainly going to hope they have something to say about that and snap this long losing streak to K-State tomorrow. Looking forward to it. I personally like this matchup for Andrew Parchment. I think Parchment with the pop passes, the screen passes, he's a guy who could get loose offensively. And on the defensive side, look out for Mike Lee. I think Lee could force a turnover in this one. Hard hitting safety and hopefully the KU defense can win the turnover battle. That's

always a huge number, as we know, and particularly against a K-State team that's usually so fundamentally sound. Can KU win the turnover battle and pick up the victory in this one? Can't wait for it. Been a great week talking about the Jayhawks and looking forward to next week. We'll recap KUK State. Obviously, we'll look forward to KU Duke in the Champions Classic. A couple basketball games next week to get the college hoop season off on the right foot. Duke on Tuesday and UNC Greensboro back at Allen Fieldhouse on Friday. Thanks so much for listening to Locked On Jayhawks, a part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.