Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 11.26.19

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

Jayhawks dispose of Chaminade; BYU awaits Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everyone? Welcome into Locked On Jayhawks. I'm 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. Quick turnaround today, but not as quick as it'll be tomorrow should the Jayhawks pick up a victory tonight over BYU. Kansas, of course, defeated Chaminade in the quarterfinals of the Maui Invitational last night. The final score was KU 93 and Chaminade 63.

During this show, we're going to take a look back at last night's game, go through some of the stats, what everybody kind of expected of dominant performance on the part of the Jayhawks, even though it was kind of a slow start. And then the second segment, we'll hear from Bill Self and KU players. Then the final segment, we'll take a deeper dive on tonight's opponent, BYU. That game is at 9.30 Central Time, so kind of a late one tonight.

You're going to have to stay up late, make sure you catch our Jayhawks. And then, as I said, should it be a Jayhawk victory again, it'll be an even quicker turnaround. And the opponent Wednesday, if Kansas wins, will not be Michigan State. We'll talk about that as well next segment. Okay, so this game started with the Silver Swords. I actually, I'm pretty good about knowing mascots, but I did not remember Chaminade, so I had to look them up earlier this week. But Chaminade, the Silver Swords, actually got up 5-0 in a game that Kansas, I believe, closed at 35-point favorites. KU was a little bit, I don't know if it was jittery nerves or what, but they were just sloppy early. Marcus Garrett had a couple nice takes that eventually tied this game at 7, and then KU essentially put the game away just like that. That's the good thing about

Marcus Garrett in my mind is he does a little bit of everything. We'll get to the box score a little bit later, but he also, to me, has this innate way of knowing when the offense breaks down, when he needs to go to the cup and get a basket or get fouled. And he did that on a couple different occasions, cutting the KU 7-3 deficit to 7-5 and then cutting that to the 7-7 tie. And that sparked Kansas. Ochai Abadji, Devon Dotson, Isaiah Moss all hit shots, and it was a 17-0 KU run that made it 20-7 in favor of the Jayhawks.

Chaminade didn't necessarily go away immediately. They put together a 7-0 run a little bit later to make it 27-17, but then the Jayhawks got back to their ways. Isaiah Moss hit another three. He had three on the night. I have in my notes from the game last night, Moss three bad offense, and I think that's kind of what Bill Self was talking about it was a possession where Kansas was trying to run their stuff and wasn't having a lot of success so eventually got to a point where they just had to shoot and Bill Self has said so many times in the past the thing about Isaiah is he's a guy who you can run bad offense and then come away with three points because of his ability to hit shots and that was the situation on that particular possession and of course it's been the situation many times for Moss already

this season 30 to 17 after Moss is three and then Ochiaibaji came alive this is a guy who struggled a little bit the last couple games 0 of 9 from 3 he had that phenomenal dunk in transition you know I didn't even see the ball I'm shocked it didn't get blocked because he had three Silver Sword players going up to block the shot. But Ochai somehow threaded the needle between all of them. And was able to throw it down with a two-hand slam in transition. And that was piggybacked by a couple Ochai threes that made it 41-22. The score at halftime was 47-27 in favor of Kansas. Devon Dotson led the way with 14 points.

Obagi had the 11, including the 8 in a row. Kansas had 24 points off Chaminade, 16 turnovers. Chaminade looked like a bad team out there in terms of they turned the ball over 27 times in this game, and a lot of it wasn't forced by Kansas. We'll give our guys credit. Marcus Garrett, of course, had four steals, and there were a couple great defensive plays by Kansas without question,

but Chaminade also had a lot of traveling calls. They threw the ball out of bounds a lot. They threw the ball to Kansas a lot. They ended up with 27 turnovers. They kind of mirrored what Kansas did against Duke in the first game in the Champions Classic back a few weeks ago. But anyway, Kansas with 24 points off those 16 Chaminade turnovers in the first half, and they led by 20. Second half, similar to the second half against East Tennessee State, was all about Yudoka Azubuki. Yudoka big time got involved in the second half. He only played seven minutes in the first half and was scoreless because of two fouls.

And KU picked up the slack because of their guard play. But second half, Doak dunks and finishes close to the basket. That is his bread and butter. And he was doing that. He even had a left-handed lay-in in there. And Yudoka ended up with 15 second-half points. Isaiah Moss is three, put Kansas up 66-40. And then David McCormick got involved late.

McCormick kind of got a little bit of the end-of-game minutes, you could say. So he wasn't facing maybe Chaminade's best. But that being said, he had some nice moves in there. He had three consecutive baskets. And what you love about David is the energy that he shows. We'll hear from him in the next segment, too. He talks about getting on the floor and how that's a part of Kansas' culture. Well, he had three straight baskets. One was a follow jam to put the Hawks up 28.

He had a left-handed baby hook, put Kansas up 70-40, and then another basket. So three straight baskets by David McCormick, kind of about midway through the second half of this one. Christian Brown and Tristan Inaruna didn't have their best games as KU freshmen, but Brown, give him credit, he kept fighting. He ended up with seven points. He had a big three to put the hawks up 30 at 75 to 45 and eventually walk-ons and some more turnovers for kansas as guys came in late but shout out to michael jankovich he had another three and elijah elliott he had his first three

pointer of the year as kansas closed out chaminade 93 to 63 and now the the Jayhawks are going to take on the BYU Cougars, who knocked off UCLA last night. We'll go over that game next segment as well. But very happy, of course, to see Kansas come out and not have to deal with the team that Michigan State had to deal with first off because you've got to be worried when you're facing a team like Virginia Tech Kansas gets the draw of Chaminade and you don't want to take that for granted because Virginia Tech is now 6-0 and they've got a lot of guys and when you're facing Chaminade you know

that you overmatch them in many different areas so that was a plus that Kansas essentially got a win automatically in the first round so that they wouldn't have to worry about going to the loser's bracket, something that Michigan State is going to have to do. Treat yourself to the meal you deserve and have your favorite restaurants come to you with DoorDash. Right now, our listeners can get $5 off their first order or $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code LOCKEDON. Listening on the go? If you can't visit DoorDash right now, you can find this and all other offers from LockedOn sponsors at LockedOnPodcasts.com slash offers. KU over Shamadan 93 to 63. We'll hear from Bill Self and the guys after this break.

This is LockedOn Jayhawks, a product of the LockedOn Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. There were two other Big 12 teams in action yesterday. Of course, holiday tournaments in full swing, and they were both losers. K-State falls to Pittsburgh 63-59. The Panthers are now coached by Jeff Capel, and they improved to 5-2 with a 4-point win. K-State suffers their first loss of the season. Wildcats now 4-1. Leading scorer. K-State suffers their first loss of the season. Wildcats now 4-1.

Leading scorer for K-State was Cartier Jada. He had 13 points, 6 assists, but it took him 14 field goal attempts to get those 13 points. DeJuan Gordon had 12 points for the Cats, and Xavier Snead had just 8 on 3 of 13 shooting as K-State falls to Pitt. And then Oklahoma, they got down 14 to nothing to Stanford. You'd think it was a football game with that score, but the Cardinal got out big on the hardwood, and they won 73 to 54 as they did not look back.

Not OU's best performance. They got 17 points from Austin Reeves on 6 of 14 shooting, 12 points for Alondis Williams, and 10 points from Brady Manick. But they fall by 19 at Sprint Center in the Hall of Fame Classic, the same classic that Missouri fell in handily to Butler yesterday, and tonight it'll actually be the Sooners and the Tigers hooking up as OU against Missouri is the first game of the Big 12 slate tonight. That game at 6 o'clock at Sprint Center, so that'll at least be a good crowd in all likelihood for that one. West Virginia is in Mexico for the Cancun Challenge, and they tip off tonight at 7.30

against UNI. TCU is in Vegas for the MGM Resorts main event. They play at 8 against Wyoming. And KU, of course, against BYU tonight, 9.30 Central Time. Jayhawks took care of Chaminade in the quarterfinals of the Maui Gym Maui Invitational last night, 93-63. And here are Bill Self's thoughts after the game. I don't think we played great, but I don't think we played poorly either. I thought Chaminade did a good job of getting after us. And, you know, I think the game was much closer than the score at halftime. And we were able to get the ball inside to dope the second half,

which was a big bonus for us. But certainly happy to advance. And, you know, what an atmosphere for an opening round game like this. And, you know, the games have been obviously great so far. The game this afternoon was incredible. We'll look forward to playing whoever we get because we know either one will be a tough opponent. And that opponent indeed will be the BYU Cougars

who we'll get into in the final segment. But first, let's take a look at some of the final numbers from the game last night. 30-point KU victory. Devon Dotson led the way with 19 points on 7 of 12 shooting. 3 of 7 from deep for Devon. 5 boards. He did only have 1 assist, which was kind of interesting to see. I'm sure that number will be heightened the next couple of days in the Maui Invitational.

Other scores and double figures. There were 5 in total for Kansas. Yudoka Azubuki had 15 on 7-of-8 shooting. All of those came in the second half for Big Doke. Isaiah Moss off the bench had 13 points. He was 5-of-7 from the field, 3-of-4 from three. And then Ochai Abadji had 11 points. He didn't play too much in the second half.

He played about 26 minutes in this game. And David McCormick, who played a lot of minutes late, had 10 points. He didn't play too much in the second half. He played about 26 minutes in this game, and David McCormick, who played a lot of minutes late, had 10 points. So those are the double-digit scores for the Jayhawks, and Isaiah Moss, who Kansas did not have in that game against Duke, if you'll remember. Very impressive. 13 points, three of four from deep, and he's just a pure shooter. Here's Bill Self after the game talking about Isaiah. If he can make 50% of his threes, that's a huge bonus for us. And I actually thought he looked the quickest he's looked since he's pulled his hamstring. And, you know, to me, the best play was when he ran down a loose ball because that, you know, he kind of had to stretch out to do

that. So I think that should give him some confidence as well. And it's good that Coach brought that up. That's one thing that I noticed for this team. Kansas was going to win this game. Everybody knew that. It probably wasn't going to be close, and it wasn't. But the Jayhawks are out there. They're on the floor.

They're fighting for loose balls. And that's what it's about at University of Kansas. And the guys on this team, they know that that's what Coach Self is looking for. One of the guys who it seems like is always all over the court with his energy and his length is David McCormick. Here's David after the game talking about how the effort that KU shows is just a part of the culture. It's a part of our culture. It's always competing. My coach talks about the difference in trying and competing. Competing is actually having that production and making sure, just not thinking about going for a loose ball,

but making sure that you try to save it or dive on it or get that extra possession. And that's just the culture that we have among our team. Indeed it was. Kansas turned it over 14 times. Of course, some of those came late as Michael Jankovic and Elijah Elliott each turned the ball over late in this one. But Chaminade turned it over 27 times.

And KU got a lot of points off turnovers in this game. 36 total points off turnovers, including 24 in the first half. Take a look at some of the shooting numbers. Kansas shot 55% from the field. Chaminade actually was decent as well. They shot 55% from the field. Chaminade actually was decent as well. They shot 46% from the field, but KU got up 19 more shots because of the turnover differential. Three-point percentage. KU was 12 of 29, 41%. This on the heels of the 1 of 14 performance against ETSU last Tuesday, so that was good to see. And Chaminade shot 33% from beyond the arc.

KU again, some struggles at the free throw line. They were 5 out of 11 from the line. Marcus Garrett was 2 of 4, 0 for 1 apiece. For Inaruna, Brown, and DeSosa, Yudoka Azubuki was 1 for 2. So kind of interesting, some misses from the charity stripe. Hopefully something that KU can correct beginning tonight against BYU. Go back to that three-point percentage, and that's what it's all about for the Jayhawks this year, right?

It was all about not being able to hit down as many threes as they needed to last year. Charlie Moore, Quentin Grimes, KJ Lawson just did not bring to this team what Kansas had hoped. And then when you lost LeGerald Vick, you knew that you were losing a big amount of production, at least from behind the arc. Well, Ochai Obagi, one of those guys who's a pure scorer, he's going to score in many different ways, including hitting threes.

And he had been struggling the last two games shooting. I don't think it affected his confidence or anything like that. He's a scorer. He's going to score. We know it's going to come back to be a part of Ochai's game. It came back last night. He had eight big points in the first half, essentially in a row. He had 11 points in the game in total. Knocked down a couple threes as well. Here's Bill Self talking about Ochai. I thought he played fine. I actually thought he and Dot and Marcus were all pretty

good the first half. The second half, I don't think anybody got any rhythm offensively like those three were in the first half, and Doe got a little bit better second half. But Ochai's a good player and a good scorer. He made a three, and that dunk he made in transition was pretty impressive too. Those plays obviously give you confidence, and he seemed like they have a lot more tonight. Ochai was 4 of 9 from the field in this game, 3 of 6 from 3.

For the second straight game, this Kansas team also dominated in the paint. They had 54 points in the paint against ETSU and 50 in the paint against Chaminade. A lot of that coming in the second half. Yudoka Azubuki and then David McCormick late for KU, and that's where this team wants to be on offense. They want to be down low in the paint using their bigs as an advantage, particularly against smaller teams. That was the case.

Self still not happy about how this team looks on the court with two bigs out there, so we're kind of stuck in this. We're going to rotate Doak and Silvio and David at the 5, and that's going to leave Doak and Silvio and David at the five and you know that's going to leave some guys without playing much Silvio De Sosa just played 11 minutes last night Doak eventually got his groove he only played 19 minutes because of the first half and then David McCormick played 17 minutes so just not a lot of minutes to go around when you're only playing one big that being said KU still dominant in the paint with that one big when they're running

that system, so that is good to see. Coming up after the break, we'll take a look at the NBA Jayhawks from last night's game, and we'll dive deep on KU's opponent tonight, the BYU Cougars. That's all next on Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. in action last night's Joel Embiid, perhaps the most bizarre box score of his life. 32 scoreless minutes for Embiid. He was 0 of 11 from the field, including 0 of 4 from 3, and also missed all three of his free throws. 13 rebounds for Embiid, so that's a positive, but you almost never see that with a guy who we think is going to be a perennial all-star in the league. So he'll wash that one away as the Sixers fell to the Raptors.

Other Jayhawks in action, Andrew Wiggins, 25 points, 6 boards for the T-Wolves. Devontae Graham had 16 points and 8 assists for the Hornets. And then the Pistons also played. Markeith Morris got 17 minutes. He had 5 points. And Sfi Mikhailuk, he hit 4 threes, 12 points for the Pistons last night. So good to see Sfi, who's been kind of up and down in terms of his minutes and everything. Good to see him get out there, knock down some shots.

That's certainly one of the main reasons that keeps him on the Pistons roster. So always a guy we cheer for in Jayhawk Nation. All right, let's take a look at the BYU Cougars. They're 4-2. They're coached by first-year head coach Mark Pope. He comes from Utah Valley. BYU last night won 78-63 over UCLA in the nightcap of the quarterfinals of the Jim Maui Invitational. Game was really close.

This game was actually tied late, but BYU, they were hitting some shots, and by that I mean some deep shots, some crazy acrobatic shots. I mean, it was kind of crazy watching that second half, but they did everything they needed to do, and when all was said and done, the Cougars shot 62% from the field in that game against UCLA, 31 of 50, and that includes 9 of 18 from deep. There were 7 of 8 at the free throw line as well. BYU pulled away late. They led by as many as 20 late in this game, so they can shoot. We know that for sure. BYU was led by Jake Toulson. He had 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting, 3 of 7 from deep. A pair of threes also for Tyler Hawes, otherwise known as TJ. And Nixon also had two threes.

Three in double figures for BYU. 20 from Toulson, 15 from Hawes, and then Colby Lee. Their token big now had 13 points on 6 of 7 from the field. I say Colby Lee is their token big because BYU is without a guy who is named to the preseason top 50 wooden award watch list in Ueli Childs. This is a guy who is a beast. He averaged 22 points and 10 boards, averaged those numbers last season for BYU. And the NCAA did what they do.

They suspended Childs. He's out the first nine games of the season, which includes the duration of this Maui Invitational. The NCAA determined that Childs was not in compliance with the new rules instituted last season, how student-athletes can now sign with an agent and retain their eligibility. Apparently, Childs hired an agent before filing the proper paperwork and childs you know would come out and say to the media quote there was some confusion with this new process and i made decisions that have caused an outcome that none of us like i just want everyone to know that my intent was never to do something wrong in quote so what happened was last march childs declared

for the 2019 nba draft and signed with an agent while exploring his options and agents were permitted to cover certain expenses during that time but one of the questions was whether Childs chosen agent was certified by the NCAA so I don't know it's it's very confusing to me as I is everybody in Jayhawk Nation specifically and a lot of people around the country you know how do you decide? How does the NCAA decide that, hey, Childs gets nine games, but Chase Young, the Ohio State defensive end, gets two games, which, by the way, were against the bottom feeders in the Big Ten,

Maryland and Rutgers, on the gridiron. And then, of course, you have James Wiseman. He got suspended, I think it was 12 games, but they were trying to get it down to nine, something to that effect, whereas Silvio De Sosa, when he got suspended for a smaller sum in a similar situation, got two years. So it really doesn't make any sense, but bottom line in terms of this game tonight is that Childs will not be playing for the Cougars, so they're going to rely on those guards. Jake Toulson, who averaged 17 points a game, and TJ Hawes, who averages 12.5 points a game.

It's going to be a rebound-by-committee situation for BYU. No player on their team without Childs averages more than 5 a game. So I envision this being another four-guard situation for Kansas. I think if it was UCLA, we would have seen more of the too-big look for the Jayhawks. But I envision a lot of four guards. Again, as there's going to be a lot of guards out there for BYU and KU, their bigs have not proven yet the ability to stay on the court to a point where Bill Self is happy with it.

So that'll be something to look out for. This team, as I said in their game last night, they can shoot well from three, so that'll be a point of emphasis as well for the Jayhawks. All-time series, Kansas is 3-1 against the Cougars, but they have not played since 1993. That was the NCAA Midwest Regional. Kansas won 90-76 in the second round en route to a Final Four appearance. Rex Walters led that Jayhawk team with 28 points in that game. He was 9 of 15 from the field. Five Jayhawks were in double figures as the Hawks defeated the Cougars by 14 back in 93.

26 years since these teams have met on the hardwood. All right, Kansas and BYU tonight, 9.30 Central Time. The winner gets the championship game, which is at 4 o'clock Central Time tomorrow. Of course, we'll preview that should the Jayhawks advance. We'll preview whoever KU's opponent is tomorrow on the show, whether they win or lose. Of course, they'll play tomorrow no matter what, but we're going to plan on it being the championship game

if they can hopefully knock down these Cougars tonight. 4 o'clock tomorrow would be the championship game. Tomorrow's show, we're going to obviously recap tonight's game against BYU, and then we'll take a look at the opponent. Might have some special Thanksgiving previews on tomorrow's show as well, as there will

be no show on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving to all, but we'll be back for the Lockdown Jayhawks on Friday's show, so be sure to tune in to that. Thanks so much for tuning in, and Rock Chalk, this is the Lockdown Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.