Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 12.10.19

Episode Date: December 10, 2019

KU football lands OL recruit; Bill Self self-scouts, discusses Milwaukee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Jayhawk Nation? Welcome in to this Tuesday edition of Locked On Jayhawks. I'm your host, 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, on today's show, we're going to hear from Bill Self and Silvio De Sosa, who were made available to the media yesterday. KU basketball has a game tonight against Milwaukee. 7 o'clock tip at Allen Fieldhouse.

A couple games this week for KU. Milwaukee tonight at 7, and then UMKC at Sprint Center, 4 o'clock on Saturday. Bill Self's going to talk about Milwaukee later in the show. He's also going to touch on a little self-scouting for this team almost a quarter of the way through the season and talk about the program consistency as this is the final game in Allen Fieldhouse for the decade, if that means anything to anybody. I don't think it does to Coach Self, but it is the final game of the decade,

the 2010s at Allen Fieldhouse. Kind of weird. Kansas will play tonight, but then their next three games are going to be away from Allen. Mentioned the 14th at Sprint Center. And then there's a week off. They play the 21st in Philadelphia against Villanova. And then eight days off, the 29th at Stanford, before they're back at Allen Fieldhouse for the conference opener against West Virginia on January 4th. So that's kind of an outlook of the next four or five games for Kansas. before they're back at Allen Fieldhouse for the conference opener against West Virginia on January 4th.

So that's kind of an outlook of the next four or five games for Kansas. But Allen Fieldhouse in the 2010s ends tonight, and we'll go through some of the ridiculous stats that this KU team has put up in the 2010s at home a little bit later as well. So we've got all that coming up. First, kind of want to touch on some news with KU football. Three-star offensive tackle Armage Adams-Reed has committed to the Jayhawks, and that's great news for Les Miles and company. Of course, this KU offensive line losing the likes of Andrew Tovey and Hakeem Adenoji to graduation. So it's good news. O-line coach Luke Meadows, wide receivers coach Emmitt Jones,

were down in Texas leading the recruiting of Armage Adams-Reed. Emmitt Jones, he's from Texas Tech, and he's a wide receiver coach, yes, but he recruits the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the KU football team, and he's pulled in guys such as Steven Parker and Velton Gardner, who will hopefully be very impactful players next year and throughout their time at KU. Adams committed yesterday on Twitter, saying, committed, quote, respect my decision, no questions please, end quote, with himself in a KU jersey. So that's good to see. I mentioned Kansas didn't, they're losing their guys in Tovey and Adenogy,

but they didn't have anybody in Les Miles' recruiting class last year. It was a smaller recruiting class because of some decisions that happened from head coach David Beatty, previous head coach David Beatty. So with KU losing some guys, plus they lost a couple guys who initially had committed and then decommitted, Tommy Brandt and Jackson Stephan, both of whom were three-star prospects. They are no longer in the mix for KU. So they needed to make this happen. And getting Armage Adams is going to be big. KU also got a commitment over the weekend from defensive back Karan Pronte. He's a three-star DB, and KU is now up to 26 total guys in their recruiting class for next season. And

the addition of Adams Reed gives Kansas three offensive linemen now. Garrett Jones, who's a guard, and Nicholas Martinez, who is a tackle. Both of those are three-star guys as well. Leif Magnuson is another tackle expected to visit this weekend. So hopefully good news for Kansas as they look to improve their offensive line depth, and they're going to need that. That's going to be big. Of course, that's where it all starts for success for an offense is up front and in the trenches. So Armage Adams-Reed, the newest addition to the now 26-man recruiting class for Les Miles and company.

Of course, any time any news comes about regarding Kansas football recruiting, I'll keep you updated here on Locked on Jayhawks. Certainly, this is how the program is going to rise up to the levels that we want it to be. It's going to start in the offseason with recruiting, getting the right guys, getting talented guys in, and molding them into Big 12 caliber players. All right, so let's transition now to KU basketball. Let's talk a little bit about the decade thing, go through some of the numbers. Kansas, in this decade, is one win away from 300 wins. They're 299 up and 67 down. That's good for an 82% winning percentage overall. And at Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas has played 157 games since January 1, 2010,

and they've won 150 of them. 150 and 7 at Allen Fieldhouse in this decade. By the way, their soon-to-be, we hope, 300th win at Allen Fieldhouse, or in general this decade, will make Kansas just the second program to reach the 300-win plateau. Gonzaga, 304 and 54. They've won an 85% clip, and Kansas right behind that. So awfully, awfully impressive for Bill Self and company. Those are just kind of stats that don't mean a lot, I'm sure, to the coaching staff or the players, but just kind of cool as a fan to look

and see, wow, this program has had an insane amount of success. So it's good to see that. Now, Coach Self talked to the media yesterday, and he talked a little bit about he thinks that sometimes Kansas gets a little bit of a bad rap despite all the success because he kind of compared it to, you know, there are some teams who are roller coasters who maybe have high highs and low lows, and he was making the motion with his arm.

And Kansas is more so pretty consistent. You have maybe lower highs, but higher lows. So he was talking about that. And here is what he said about reporters about, you know, maybe KU isn't always getting the best rap. I think we get kind of caught with a bum rap sometimes that we haven't, we've maybe underachieved in some certain areas. I don't think that's happened a lot. I think it has happened some. It happens to everybody. But I think it's because we've been pretty consistent that people expect us to play at the highest level when basically over the course of time, we pretty much have played at our highest level for the most part.

And it's not always true. We've got to obviously get better in the NCAA tournament and have more deep runs, even though we've had a lot, but have more deep runs. But I am proud of the consistency factor, and I think there's certain things that go into that, and it's that way with many programs across America. Unrealistic and even unfair expectations sometimes for a KU program that not only under Bill Self had that streak of 14 consecutive Big 12 titles but they've been to nine Elite Eights under Coach Self. They've been to three Final Fours including a National Championship and a National Runner-Up so this Kansas team is always going to be there.

You know, we could go into all sorts of stats about how successful the program has been. You talk about the fact that Kansas has never been lower than a four seed in the NCAA tournament, consistently getting ones and two seeds in that tournament, always in the conversation and as a top 10, top 15 team, always in the conversation as a national title contender and again the consistency at home and the consistency in general of the regular season is just really a testament to how great coach self and his staff have been how they've been able to get talented players in here mold them into head coaches hall of fame system as well so it's kind of nice at the end of the decade here to look back at everything Kansas has done and really be appreciative of everything we've got as fans of Jayhawk Nation.

Now, hopefully no national championships this decade, but hopefully the back end of this season we can change that narrative as well. Coming up after the break, we'll hear more from Bill Self, talk about self-scouting of this KU team, and we'll hear from Silvio De Sosa as well. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. No Big 12 games last night, and there were actually no games in the top 25. The closest thing to it was Iowa beating Minnesota 72-52 in Iowa City,

but it's a little bit of a quiet week in terms of college basketball. I'm not sure if a lot of the programs are kind of going through what Kansas will have next week with finals week, so no games. That could be a situation, but we'll go through some of the games that are taking place. First off, in the Big 12, Texas Tech, man, they've lost three straight, and their next test is against number one, Louisville. That game is tonight at six o'clock. It's in New York, so neutral site for Chris Beard and company. It's the Jimmy V Classic. Texas Tech, of course, has fallen out of the rankings, and hopefully they can get Jamias

Ramsey back, their most talented player of freshmen, but they're going to open as seven-point underdogs in that game against the top team in the country, according to the polls, the Louisville Cardinals. Other game in the Big 12 tonight is also going to be a good one. It's number 11, Baylor, hosting number 18, Butler. So how about that? The Bears and the Bulldogs in Waco, Texas tonight at eight o'clock. Baylor opens as a six point favorite. That game is part of the Big 12 Big East Challenge and should be a fun one. Catch the second half of that one after the KU Milwaukee game ends tonight. And then a couple of games in the top 25. They're both pretty good. Maryland is ranked

fourth in the country. They survived that potential huge upset at home against Illinois over the weekend. They're traveling to take on a Penn State team who has been impressive the first part of the season. They got crushed by Ohio State over the weekend, but Penn State has been impressive otherwise. Maryland on the road is a one-point favorite, so that should be fun tonight at 6. And then an 8 o'clock game featuring a top 25 team. Hey, how about this? Colorado, they're still in the top 25.

They're ranked 24th in the country, dropping four spots after losing to Kansas over the weekend. The Buffaloes are nine-point favorites at home against UNI. That game tonight at 8 o'clock. So that's your look around the Big 12 and the top 25 for games tonight. We'll recap that on tomorrow's show, as always. So we're about a quarter of the way through the season for the Jayhawks, and we know that coaches, whether it's assistant coach Jaron Tower, Curtis Townsend, Norm Roberts,

those guys are in charge of scouting the opposition, and it pretty much rotates. It's not always every other, but each assistant coach is in charge of a scout for each opposing team. Well, Bill Self was asked yesterday if he had to do a little self-scouting on his own team, what would that look like? Pretty sound defensively.

I would say we've been decent, a decent rebounding team. Not great, but probably just about above average. I think that winning the most important possessions, I think we've been pretty good at that. I think offensively we're just inconsistent. And it's not so much from shooting the ball, it's just we don't get as many attempts is what I like because we turn it over too much. But I would say you eliminate passing, which is actually a pretty vital part of the game.

I think that we've actually been pretty good on both ends. Not great, but pretty good. And I think the one thing that remains to be seen is how we react in pressure situations because we've been in two and one we didn't do very well, another we did very well. So we need to have some more of those. In all likelihood, Kansas is not going to have any of those end-of-game pressure situations. The two games this week, with opponents being Milwaukee tonight and then Kansas City on Saturday, Kansas 26-point favorites tonight at home against Milwaukee. I think that number maybe won't be quite as high against UMKC in Kansas City Saturday,

but still these are two teams that Kansas should win comfortably, and hopefully they're able to play crisp games. There shouldn't be any overlooking, I'm sure, but sometimes it's not as easy to get hyped for a team or a school that the name isn't as recognizable as some of the other teams Kansas has played. Yeah, Duke's the big game on KU's schedule, but you look at it, and the last two games KU's played have been against top 25 teams. I mentioned the Buffaloes are ranked 24th. The game before that was Dayton. Dayton, after another impressive week, they're up to number 14 in the AP poll.

So that win from Kansas, looking better and better, and that'll be a very good win come season's end against a team many think is a potential Sweet 16 team in the Flyers. So we heard Coach Self talk about scouting of his own team, some of the things they do well. In general, a pretty positive tone, which is good to hear, except passing. And I think Kansas has had the two games with 20-plus turnovers this season. And in transition, that's really been where Kansas has struggled,

kind of surprisingly, because they've got so many athletes, some high Flyers, and a point guard who's excellent. He's going to be a Bob Cousy Award finalist, in my opinion, and Devon Dotson. But transition has been an issue for KU. Here's Coach talking about that. I've never seen anybody that's as athletic and as talented as what our guys are screw up more two-on-ones and three-on-twos. It's unbelievable. We'd be scoring six more points a game if we were

just pretty good at converting, let alone being really good. I think there's a lot of things. I think Dot has to become a better lob passer. That's what we play to and we don't throw it. I think Ochai needs to attack the rim more and not be so much a passer in transition and be a finisher. And then I think, obviously, we put our bigs, how many times we throw the ball to our bigs in bad situations that hang them out to dry. I just think we got to understand the game a little bit better. But I mean, those are things that are correctable,

but certainly early in the season, that would be something I would think we'd be better at than what we are. With all the ball handlers and the talent that Kansas have, I think it'd be safe to assume that that's going to improve. But, yeah, there are going to be some games where you might need four to six of those points at the end. So that'll be something to keep an eye on watching the game tonight and moving forward. Silvio De Sosa was also made available to the media yesterday. And coach, really high on the defense, maybe not as high on the offense. Silvio says he's not worried about the offense. We're not really worried about offense because it's going to come regardless.

But defensively, that's one thing I feel like we're getting better every single day. If you see the way we do in practice, the way we work on different practices, it's just so exciting to see guys doing it. And, you know, I just love it, and I think we're going to be really good. Always love hearing from Silvio, getting a chance to talk with him for all he's been through. And hopefully he is going to be a guy who can get a lot of minutes this week and make a big impact because we know that he can be an impact player on this year's team. We just haven't had a chance to see it too often this season.

Of course, a variety of reasons, four-guard lineups, and maybe a little rust for Silvio having to sit out last year. But we'll hear more from Bill Self and Silvio De Sosa. They'll talk about Milwaukee and KU's toughness after the break as well. So stay tuned for that. 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 of $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 LockedOnPodcast.com. You're listening to Locked On Jayhawks, local experts on the biggest stories. Jayhawks in the NBA last night. Ben McLemore and the Rockets lost at home to the Kings 119-118. McLemore, pretty decent game. 12 points, 4 boards, 4 assists. And you love to see Ben performing.

It's kind of surprising of all the teams you would think that McLemore would end up going to and contributing from a points standpoint. You probably would not think the Houston Rockets, who've got a couple volume shooters, Macklemore would end up going to and contributing from a points standpoint. You probably would not think the Houston Rockets, who've got a couple volume shooters, I think it'd be fair to say, and Russell Westbrook and James Harden. But Macklemore, 12-4-4 after back-to-back 27-plus point performances. So good to see him still out there. The Detroit Pistons won at New Orleans 105-103. Sfee had 8 points, 1 board, 1 assist.

He got 20 minutes. Keith had 5 points and 7 boards in 19 minutes. Andrew Wiggins and the Timberwolves lost in Phoenix 125-109. Wiggins had 23 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists. And for the Suns, we've got 2 Jayhawks. Kelly Oubre, 24 points and 4 boards. Shaq Diallo played just four minutes. He had two points and one rebound.

Tonight's games, Devontae Graham is back in action. Hornets host Washington at six. Joel Embiid and the 76ers host Denver at seven. And Marcus Morris and the Knicks are at Portland at nine tonight. That's your look at Jayhawks in the NBA. All right, we'll take a look at kind of what's at stake tonight for the KU team. Final game of the decade in Allen Fieldhouse. Of course, with a win, they would improve that record to 151-7 in the

Fieldhouse, which is just insane since January 1st of 2010. But more importantly for this season, Kansas is looking to extend their 7-game winning streak and improve to 8-1 on the year. Jayhawks are looking for their 25th straight win at Allen Fieldhouse, which would be third longest, or currently the 24th, is third longest in the NCAA. Tennessee first 31 straight, Gonzaga second 28 straight. KU is fourth in the NCAA with 52% field goal percentage. Of course, that's led by Yudoka Azubuki, who leads the NCAA with 52% field goal percentage. Of course, that's led by Yudoka Azubuki, who leads the NCAA, as he did two years ago in field goal percentage.

This year, Doak 80.3% from the field. Always helps when you get those point-blank dunks like Doak has so often. And then Kansas, of course, led by Devon Dotson. 19.5 points per game. That's first in the Big 12 Conference. Milwaukee is a team that, again, they're going to come in as big underdogs. They were picked preseason seventh in the horizon, so this isn't one of those top mid-major teams like we faced earlier in the year, like East Tennessee State or UNC Greensboro.

This team is not one of the stronger mid-major teams. They're led by Tajon Lucas, 15 points, 5.3 rebounds. Darius Roy averages nearly 14 points a game. Those are both guards for Milwaukee. And Bill Self talked to media yesterday, and Coach talked about how Milwaukee got off to a pretty good start. They're off to a pretty good start, you know, and they could have easily won against Drake and had every opportunity to, and games are close.

I haven't watched the two games in which they score 115 and 105 or whatever in those two games, but, you know, they play very similar to us, and they got some length to them. And all of them, at least statistically, can shoot the basketball because they all shoot threes. Some of them haven't shot a great percentage yet, but they all shoot them. So we're going to have to defend all five spots. Yet another team that Kansas is going to have to defend all five spots from the perimeter. So hopefully that being said, we still get to see some two big looks that we have not seen too often, see what David McCormick

and especially Silvio De Sosa can do in that look. Silvio's been relegated to the bench all too often this season. Milwaukee is 5-4 on the year. They started with a victory over Concordia, Wisconsin. Then they lost in triple overtime to Western Michigan. So they were 1-1, then they rattled out three straight wins over Wisconsin Lutheran, UMKC, who Kansas will face on Saturday, and North Dakota.

And then the Island of Bahamas Showcase, Milwaukee lost to Rice by 6. They defeated Morgan State by 5, and they lost to George Washington by three. Then they were on the road. Their last game was a week ago today at Drake, and Milwaukee lost by three. So yeah, this team is five and four, but every game is pretty close. Their last three losses. In fact, you go back, all four of their losses are by six points or fewer. So yeah, not the most impressive record, but every game has either been a win or has been a close loss for Milwaukee. That being said, the Jayhawks are 26-point favorites in this game and should have no problem taking care of the Panthers tonight.

One thing that Bill Self has done that I've noticed this season is he's handed out some superlatives that maybe isn't Bill Self-like. He usually waits until later in the season to talk about some of the things that this team does well. But we heard last segment in the self-scouting, he was talking about some positives of this team. Another thing he talked about in terms of positive is toughness. He loves toughness. That's the word that comes to mind when you think about Bill Self

and what he looks for in his team. And here's Coach talking about that. I thought we were tough in Maui and tough against Dayton. And tough doesn't necessarily mean playing. Tough is, you know, you play 37 and 35, and then 20 hours later you play 45. To me, that's pretty tough. And then being mentally tough enough to finish the game. So I think we've done some things to show that we are.

But, you know, toughness is, you know, Frank and Devontae, toughness is when you're down three or four minutes left and they think, okay, now it's going to get fun. I don't know that we have that mindset quite yet, but I do think physically and everything, I think we do enjoy not allowing other people to play well. So that's definitely a form of it. Perhaps the KU player that epitomizes toughness the most is Marcus Garrett with his ability to battle every possession, particularly defensively and then offensively. He needs to go get a bucket, and then he'll go do that.

He's not afraid to attack the rim either. A lot of tough guys on this team. Of course, Devon Dotson comes to mind. But Marcus Garrett, maybe he is the guy to look to as the toughest guy on this team of course Devon Dotson comes to mind but Marcus Garrett maybe he is the guy to look to as the toughest guy on this team here's Silvio De Sosa talking about how Marcus helps him especially defensively in practice he actually helps me a lot during practice though he he always tells me what I know where I should be where am I what am I supposed to do when I'm regarding the full man you know and I'm pretty sure you guys know Marcus Garrett is just so important for us.

I love being his teammate. He just helps everybody out. If you're doing the games or practice, if you're screwed out, he's going to be there to cover up for you. He's going to help you. He's just a great person. That's Silvio talking about Marcus Garrett. And again, hope to see Silvio out there a lot.

These two games this week, Kansas 71, Milwaukee five and four. Hopefully the Jayhawks show out tonight. We'll recap the game, of course, on tomorrow's show. Thanks so much for listening. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.