Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 11.22.19

Episode Date: November 22, 2019

Ochai Outlook; Les Miles talks state of the program; Breaking down the Cyclones Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Jayhawk Nation? Welcome in to today's 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. Got a packed Friday show for you here today. Gonna talk about Kansas hoops in the first segment, dive into Ochai Abadji and the season he's had thus far. We'll hear from Bill Self, Ochai himself, and Devon Dotson here in this first segment.

Second segment, we'll have our Big 12 outlook and go through our Friday five picks, five lines that I like for this weekend. And then we'll hear a lot from Les Miles and Carter Stanley as well. In the third segment, we'll break down Iowa State as KU travels to Ames, its final road game of the year. And we'll hear from those guys and see what kind of problems this Iowa State team can cause for KU as the Jayhawks on the gridiron are looking for their fourth win this season. Alright, so let's start by talking KU hoops. Of course, we've got the Maui Gym Maui Invitational coming up on Monday,

the opening round of the actual games that have taken place on the island. There's been some on-campus games, of course the KU East Tennessee State game last Tuesday, which is a 12-point Jayhawk win, officially was a part of that tournament, but obviously it was on campus and not a part of the island bracketed games. And if you look at the bracket, you'll see that it's Kansas against Chaminade for one of the first quarterfinal games, and the winner of that will take on the winner of BYU and Dayton. On the other side of the bracket, the other big name aside from our Jayhawks is Michigan State. They're going to take on Virginia Tech. That game is actually before the Kansas Chaminade game and then Georgia

against Dayton. Georgia has a high-flying freshman guard in Anthony Edwards who is highly recruited. So a lot of star power as always in this Maui Invitational. So looking forward to that. First game is going to be Monday at 8 o'clock against Chaminade. Let's talk a little bit about Ochai Abadji. We've talked a lot about Silvio De Sousa, David McCormick. Of course, we've heard from Doak and Dotson, guys who are staples of this team.

But Ochai, of course, is a returning starter as well as a sophomore. Only played about 18 games last year after burning his red shirt staples of this team, but Ochai, of course, is a returning starter as well as a sophomore. Only played about 18 games last year after burning his red shirt following some things that just didn't work out for Kansas. Some injuries and, of course, the Silvio De Sosa situation last year, and a couple guys who just did not perform as well as Bill Self and the coaching staff expected them to. Guys like Charlie Moore and KJ Lawson. So it wasn't long after Ochai burned that red shirt that he was entered into the starting lineup. And the first couple games this season, Ochai was perfectly fine. He was back to his normal self.

First game against Duke, 15 points, six boards, and four steals in that game. That's what we expected. He hit four threes as well. And in the second game, he hit three threes against greensboro 13 points pair of steals pair of assists for ochi but the last couple games have been a pair of four point efforts from abaji which is kind i wouldn't say concerning but it's a little bit surprising particularly if ku scores 112 in a game like they did against monmouth you'd expect ochi to be in the teens at least because he that's one thing he does.

He is a scorer. And then, of course, last game he kind of took a backseat as well. It's Yudoka Azubuki when KU is focused on feeding the ball inside. Bill Self met with media members at his press conference yesterday, and he was asked if Ochai is struggling or how he would define Ochai's performance thus far this season. I would say that his play of late has not been poor. And I just met with him, but it hadn't been great either.

He's just kind of been out there. He hadn't made shots the last two games, and he's pressing a little bit to do that. But I'm not worried about that. I want him to shoot it when he's open, and I want him to be aggressive. And I think he's going to be a terrific player. And I think he's going through some things that everybody goes through in the necessary steps you have to take to become a real good player. Coach Self reminds us that, yes, while Ochai is a returning starter, he's not as experienced. He's not the veteran that many people may think of him as. Everybody looks at him maybe as a veteran, a returning starter, whatever.

He's the least experienced returning starter out there for the most part because he only played two-thirds of a season. And the other thing is he didn't have many of the experiences before he got to college that a lot of guys have had. So he's just young, and he's going to go through this, and it's good he's going through it. And it's a necessary step for him to become great. And we all know he'll take that. But the biggest thing is he just needs to go out and just be Ochai, just play with a free mind and have fun and

not worry about consequences or what happens. Just go out and play and enjoy it. Ochai Abadji also was made available to the media yesterday, and he was asked, is it just a confidence thing, or is it just kind of the flow of the game type situation? Where's Ochai's confidence right now? There's confidence. I get that from Coach, too. He trusts me.

He knows what I can do, and keeping me in the game from what I was shooting and all of that shows a lot of the trust he had for me. Yeah, Ochai still played 35 minutes in the game against East Tennessee State, and it wasn't as if he was playing poor like Coach Self, but he was just kind of another guy out there. Of course, he's had at least one steal in every game this year, so he's a presence on the defensive side of the ball as well. But Coach says that Ochai is just a people pleaser,

and he just needs to let it go and just go out and play. He just needs to understand that what others think and him trying to please others is totally irrelevant. Just play for yourself and play for your teammates and see what happens, and good things will happen. Well, the fans love him. Of course, he's a local kid from Kansas City. He's got that big smile and he's probably the most athletic guy on the team. If you've seen some of the warm-ups, we hope to see a lot of the high-flying dunks that he displays

in warm-ups at some point this year. His first dunk, his first basket as a KU player last year against TCU was a design alley-oop out of a timeout from Coach Self, and we got to see how high-flying Ochi really is. Well, we know he's got the athleticism. We know he has the defensive prowess, and we know that he can shoot well. The last couple games he hasn't shown that as much as he's 0 for 9 combined in the last two games from three. A little bit surprising, and as for the on-court leader for the Jayhawks, Devon Dotson he's got a

simple piece of advice for Oach just keep shooting um you can't you can't really get into you know all that stats you know whatever yeah you just keep keep letting it fly and uh don't worry about it just worry about um the shots that are going in and um and you can you can watch film to see uh in different plays where you can improve on but you know just keep shooting that's devon dotson who said that ochai still ochai still smiling as usual still being his normal self and it won't be surprising when ochai gets out of this funk and you know kind of completes the offensive attack for this ku team that has a lot of talented guys and we've seen spurts from every single one of them already in this short season,

only four games in. But we're going to add three games to it pretty quickly to this season's schedule, and stats, as we know, can change really quickly this early in the season. It'll be Shamanod, KU's first opponent in the Maui Gym Maui Invitational, Monday night at 8 o'clock, and we'll preview that on Monday. We'll hear more from the guys, more from Coach Self, and of course next week, all week, we'll break down the games as well. A little bit later on the show, we're going to hear from Les Miles and Carter Stanley

in Kansas football. Of course, next segment, we'll have our Big 12 outlook and check in on the Friday Five as well. This is Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's take a look around the Big 12. A lot of action last night and this weekend. Exciting time of year. These holiday tournaments are getting going in the Big 12. They've got teams in Myrtle Beach.

They've got teams going to Las Vegas and New York. Of course, the Jayhawks are going to Maui. Action yesterday. Baylor defeated Ohio 76-53. They're in the Myrtle Beach Invitational in Conway, home of Coastal Carolina. Texas lost to Georgetown. UT was a seven-point favorite in that game, and Georgetown ran away with it late. They won 82-66.

Matt Coleman in that game, 22 points, 6-6, 3s. So Georgetown gets a date with Duke tonight. TCU, a game winner, a three-pointer with three seconds left by R.J. Nimhard, gives the Frogs the win over UC Irvine, the team that toppled K-State last year in the NCAA tournament. Frogs 59, Anteaters 58. Nimhard hit a three with about a minute and a half to go as well. He finished with 20 points, five of nine threes, including that game winner. Chris Beard's squad, the Red Raiders, defeated Tennessee State 72-57.

Davide Moretti led the way with 19 points. And Oklahoma had no problem with Maryland Eastern Shore. 72-57. Davide Moretti led the way with 19 points. And Oklahoma had no problem with Maryland Eastern Shore. That was a 91-64 Sooner win. And Christian Doolittle had 18 points in that game. Looking forward to today's games. Baylor is at Coastal Carolina, of course, continuing on in that tournament. Texas gets a consolation game against the Cal Bears.

West Virginia hosts Boston University tonight, and Oklahoma State hosts Western Michigan. In terms of games on Sunday, Baylor will continue in the Myrtle Beach Invitational against an opponent to be named later. Texas Tech is going to host Long Island, and TCU is at Clemson. That game taking place in Vegas on Sunday night. Of course, Kansas football, talking about Big 12 football, the Jayhawks are in Ames taking on Iowa State at 11. There's another 11 a.m. kick. West Virginia hosting Oklahoma State. Baylor hosts Texas at 2.30. That'll be an exciting game. K-State is at Texas Tech at 6 o'clock, and TCU is at Oklahoma at 7 o'clock. All those games, college basketball going along. Going to dip into college basketball for a game. Three college football games and one in the NFL. College basketball game is actually tonight.

It's the championship game of the 2K Empire Classic in Madison Square Garden. I talked about the matchup a little earlier, but Georgetown and Duke hooking up. The Hoyas are 4-1, and we know Duke still has not lost this season. I like the Hoyas to cover 13 points in this one. Georgetown plus 13 at Duke. I just think that Mack McClung is something special. This sophomore you guys have probably seen on YouTube with all the dunking highlights and everything. And I think Georgetown basketball under Patrick Ewing is on its way back. Duke, you know, it pains me to say this because Kansas lost to them, but I just was not that impressed by them. They've had some impressive games in the past. Of course, they've got Trey Jones. They've got a lot of talent on that team, a lot of young

talent, Matt Hurd and Vernon Carey Jr. But I think 13 points is too many. I like Georgetown to cover that in an emotional game in New York tonight. I like the Hoyas and the 13. All right, tomorrow's games, college football, Navy minus 3.5 against SMU. I like the Midshipmen covering that 3.5. Navy obviously embarrassed last week against Notre Dame. I think they bounced back in a big way. Speaking of bouncing back, Kansas State, they're getting 2.5 points in Lubbock against Texas Tech.

I think that defense wins out in this one. I think K-State wins that game outright. Certainly going to take the 2.5 points given to me. Wildcats plus 2.5 in Lubbock. Oklahoma, speaking of teams that were down after last week, well, at least for OU, they were down in the middle of last week, 28 to three losing against Baylor. The emotional comeback win, and I think OU is out for blood. They smell an opportunity to get into the college football playoff. They're minus 18 against TCU in the night game Saturday

night. I think the Sooners are way too much for TCU. I think TCU has a good defense, but it's not going to be able to put up with Jalen Hurts and company for OU. I think OU minus 18 is the pick. And then one NFL game, I think the Panthers are getting too many points at New Orleans. The Saints kind of got back to who they are last week after the embarrassing loss at home

to the Falcons, who all of a sudden are big time. Falcons beat both of these teams the last two weeks, and now they're 3-7. Kind of weird. The big win over the Saints, and then a 29-3 win over the Panthers. So people, I think, are very down on Carolina, but I expect Carolina to cover the 10 points at New Orleans on Sunday. So those are your Friday 5 picks for the weekend. Tonight's basketball game, Georgetown plus 13 against Duke. Tomorrow's college football, Navy minus 3.5 against SMU. K-State plus 2.5 at Texas Tech. Oklahoma minus 18 against TCU.

And Carolina Panthers on Sunday plus 10 at New Orleans. OU hasn't covered in a couple weeks now, so I think the Sooners get that done against TCU. There's your Friday Five for the week. All right, talking, of course, KU football, and we're going to transition to talk specifically about this Iowa State game next segment. But first, Les Miles met with reporters earlier this week and he was asked about kind of the state of this program how does coach Miles feel like things are going where does he think this program is and coach Miles spoke to that I think it's going really well I think the the things that we've done we've put in place will be things that will stay there a long time. And I think we're going to be better.

And so I want to take this team that I have here, you know, one game at a time, but certainly an opportunity to win two. And, yeah, I think we're in a position that we need to be in. So Coach feels good about it. And as KU fans, before the season, we were probably thinking what four wins would be a success with the scholarship problems and not being where we want to be in terms of talent on this team. So that's still very attainable with two games remaining.

The unfortunate thing is that you get Iowa State on the road, and it stings to even say this, but the last two games against Iowa State, the Cyclones have outscored our Jayhawks 72-3. So that is hurt. And then you got Baylor, a team that only has one loss, and it was to Oklahoma last week at home. So it's not going to be easy, but Coach Miles feels good about where this team is. Now, they are still 3-7, so Coach talked to reporters,

and he wanted to clarify something. I'd like to have won every game. Let's talk the way that, you know, certainly that's the case. But I didn't expect it to just be a one-season stop. I figured that we would be doing long-term work here. And frankly, I think the work that we've done speaks for itself. But also, I think our guys are capable. And I think we've not shown our best team yet.

And I think that we can do that as we go forward. After the break, we'll take a deeper dive on Iowa State, take a look at some of their personnel and some of their stats as well. And hopefully Kansas can pick up a big-time victory in Ames tomorrow. This is Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. Just one NBA game last night featured our Jayhawks in the NBA, and it was Phoenix.

It was a successful one. The Suns did lose 124-121, but our guys got some runs. Sheck Diallo in 14 minutes at 8 points, 3 boards, and 1 assist. And Kelly Oubre Jr., he was the leading scorer for the Suns in that game last night, 25 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists for Oubre, who's really finding his niche in Phoenix. Tonight's games, Markeith Morris and Sfima Kailouk and the Pistons host the Atlanta Hawks. Devontae Graham travels to D.C. as his Hornets take on the Wizards. Joel Embiid, 76ers,

hosts the Spurs tonight as well. And Ben McLemore, who's also found his niche a little bit, he is traveling with the Rockets to take on the Clippers tonight at 9.30. A lot of games in action Saturday as well that feature our Jayhawks, and a couple Sunday as well. We'll recap all of that and keep you up to date on those guys as I try to do here on Locked on Jayhawks, of course, come Monday's show. All right, well, we talked a lot earlier today about the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, and we talked a little bit last segment about Kansas football, and we heard from Les Miles on

where he thinks this program is. Let's transition a little bit to talk about Iowa State and dive into the numbers that these Cyclones are putting up and some of the top guys this team has. Brock Purdy actually leads the Big 12 in passing over 320 yards per game, and he's second in total offense behind only Jalen Hurts, the Heisman candidate, Oklahoma's quarterback. Some of the other top guys for Iowa State, Brees Hall, he's a freshman running back. He's sixth in the Big 12 and rushing over 76 yards per game. And Deshante Jones is their top receiver. He is just ahead of both Andrew Parchment and Stephon Robinson in terms of receiving yards per game, nearing 75 receiving yards per game, good for fifth in the conference. And Les Miles, when he spoke to the media earlier this week, talked about the last two games and

really keyed in on how the defense could be something that could be improved big time. I know statistically we're not necessarily where we need to be in on defense but in third down we were we stopped them eight of twelve times. We got turnovers in key situations. And so defensively, things like that, if that continues, that's just what we'd like to have happen. Offensively, we need to sustain drives and finish. And if we do that, again, I think our guys are capable.

We've just got to get consistency. Well, defensively, as we know, it's not going to be an easy task against the offense featuring some of those guys that I mentioned. And then offensively for Kansas, it's been up and down, right? The last four games, too good, too bad under new offensive coordinator Brent Dierman. Of course, he faced better defenses the last two times out than the initial two games under Coach Dierman. but Carter Stanley met with the media earlier this week, and he was asked, are the defenses showing you something different? Is that what's led to the struggles

in the last two games? I'd say a little bit. Every team that we've played has done kind of their unique thing. Like, you know, the past two were K-State state and oak state you know they they each had their own deal it's not like they ran the same thing they kind of stopped us but um yeah i'd say our previous four games we've gotten some pretty different looks um you know some we've been able to find more success against than others but um you know it's a little mix of everything one guy who continues to put up numbers for this kuU offense is top receiver Stephon Robinson. After the first month was really ruled by Andrew Parchment, who hasn't necessarily cooled off. It's just Stephon's kind of come into the limelight a little bit.

Robinson has really turned it on. He had a stretch of three games earlier this year where he had two touchdowns in each game. And after the touchdown against Oklahoma State last week, he now leads the team with seven touchdowns. He's a junior, and Les Miles was asked about Stephon's confidence earlier this week. I have always seen him as a very confident guy. I don't know that it needed to grow much. He knows his assignments. He knows where he's supposed to be.

He tells the guy next to him how to line up. He makes very difficult catches. He is a physical player. He's a really great blocker. I'm a fan of Stephon Robinson, and he doesn't need much more than what he has. Robinson, seventh in the Big 12 in receiving yards per game, just one slot behind his teammate, Andrew Parchment. Some of the other notables for this Iowa State team, their top half of the conference in both offense and defense, fourth in offense and third in defense in terms of scoring. They're scoring 35 points a game and giving up just 25 points a game. Their rush offense is led by Brees Hall,

but overall they're just eighth out of the 10 teams in the Big 12 in rush offense, but second in rush defense. So that's been a storyline for Kansas football the past couple weeks is Puka Williams. He was bottled up against K-State and then again against Oklahoma State. Again, you know, it's not necessarily all on Puka, right? It's on the offensive line and that has been a big time struggle and it's going necessarily all on Puka, right? It's on the offensive line, and that has been a big-time struggle, and it's going to be a tough task against a really good Iowa State front seven coming up tomorrow. Iowa State, in terms of pass offense, of course, led by Purdy.

They're second in the league, 326 yards per game, and they're also fifth in pass defense. Tough to get to Purdy as well. The second fewest sacks allowed in the Big 12, Iowa State, in their offensive line. And defensively, Iowa State has a guy named Orion Vance. He's second in the league in terms of sacks per game. So a little bit of everything for Iowa State.

They put up a Big 12 high, 72 points in a game earlier this year against Louisiana Monroe. And they're 6-4, but, man, they're probably thinking they could be 10-0, as ridiculous as that sounds. Iowa State 6-4, 4-3 in Big 12 play. Their lone non-conference loss came in Ames, a rivalry game against Iowa, 18-17. Not sure if fans remember that from earlier this year.

There was a muffed punt at the end of the game that kind of dug the grave for Iowa State. They lost that rivalry game by a single point. And their losses in Big 12 play are close as well. They lost to Baylor 23-21. They lost to Oklahoma State 34-27. That was probably the biggest surprise. That was in Ames on homecoming. And then, of course, the Oklahoma game a few weeks back.

Iowa State was down 42-28. They scored two touchdowns and were a PAT away from tying it with 24 seconds left. But Matt Campbell and company opted to go for two, and Brock Purdy's pass was intercepted. The onside kick was not recovered by the Cyclones, and the Sooners barely hung on 42-41. So 6-4 for Iowa State, but two of those losses are by one point, and all four are by seven points or less. So can Kansas come back and give Iowa State a game? It's not been the case the last two times these teams have hooked up. Four straight wins for the Cyclones, including a 72-3 scoring margin the last couple games, Iowa State and

Kansas. That game is tomorrow at 11 o'clock in Ames. Certainly hope everybody out there in Jayhawk Nation is tuning in and cheering on our Jayhawks. Hopefully they can shock the nation and pick up a victory and give us a little bit more excitement, a little bit more scoring than we've had the last couple games against Oklahoma State and K-State, respectively. All right, on Monday's show, we've had the last couple games against Oklahoma State and K-State, respectively. All right, on Monday's show, we've got a lot of basketball talk. Of course, we'll recap the football game, but Maui Invitational, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, next week. So we'll hear all sorts of sound from Bill Self, Ochai Abadji, Devon Dotson as well, and we'll preview the game Monday night against Chaminade, the opener of the Maui Gym Maui Invitational, 8 o'clock on Monday.

Thanks so much for tuning in. This is Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.