Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 12.11.19

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Kansas steamrolls Milwaukee; Devon & Doke set career highs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everyone? Welcome into this Wednesday 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. Victory last night for the Jayhawks. They covered at the 11th hour as well as they went by 27. 26-point favorite Jayhawks win 95 to 68 over Milwaukee. Kansas pretty much controlled this game. You know, it's kind of a tale of two halves as Kansas got out to a huge lead in the first half. And then maybe the last five minutes or so, Milwaukee was putting forth a little bit better effort,

and Kansas maybe got a little lax defensively with a huge lead, and that kind of carried into the second half as well as it really turned into a game of trading baskets. But we'll go through the game, we'll look at some of the final numbers, top performers for the Jayhawks, and then as the show goes on, we'll hear from Bill Self, Devon Dotson, some other KU players as well, their reaction. KU improves to 8-1 on the year, eight-game winning streak. Of course, their only loss was that Champions Classic game against Duke back on November 5th, but they've rolled off eight straight since then. And they are likely going to be the number one team in the country

come Monday's new AP poll. Of course, Kansas has to defeat Kansas City at Sprint Center on Saturday. That game's at 4 o'clock. But with Louisville's loss last night to Texas Tech, which we'll talk about, there's a spot open for the Jayhawks. They're likely going to be the number one team in the country heading into a battle in Philadelphia against Villanova. So it should be fun, but we'll take a look at this one first. Of course, Kansas was coming off two pretty marquee victories. They defeated teams that are currently in the AP Top 25 in Dayton and Colorado.

Dayton, the championship game of the Maui Invitational, and then Colorado on Saturday, a game that Kansas, Kansas again got out early and pretty much controlled throughout but this one against a Milwaukee team who entered at just five and four Kansas was big favorites but they came out with the same energy right off the bat Ochiai Abadji who had a good game against Colorado started off great in this one well. He had a couple threes immediately to put Kansas up 6-0 at the under-19 timeout. So Kansas immediately had two threes on their first two possessions. Devon Dotson stole the ball and scored in transition. And Kansas had eight points with 18.30 to go. Led 8-0 after Ochai's third three of the game already it was 11 nothing Jayhawks and Milwaukee had to use their first timeout at the under 16 timeout it was 15 to 1 Jayhawks and it was pretty much coasting until the end of this game we'll talk a little bit more Devon

Dotson a couple big threes and Kansas led 23-4 with 14.09 to go. So right off the bat, you had Ochai was 3-3 from deep, and Devon was 2-3 from deep, and Kansas, just like that, was up by 19. Milwaukee had to take another timeout. Jayhawks were 5-8 from threes really early in this one. Another Dotson three made it 28-12 Kansas, and while Milwaukee had 12 points, Devon already had 13. Kansas at the under-12 timeout of the first half of this one

led the rebounding battle 14-2. Jayhawks were 12-18 from the field and 6-11 from threes. Isaiah Moss got in on the party as well. The 7-3 of the first half for Kansas came at the 10-50 mark, and Kansas led 33-12. Kansas extended the lead to 40-12 on a Marcus Garrett steal and score with 8-40 to go. And this was maybe my favorite part of the game. Kansas up 40-12. There's just over seven minutes to go in the first half.

And defensively, Kansas causes a shot clock violation. That's something that really gets the field house jazzed. It really gets Coach Self and the other coaches happy, is Kansas continuing to show their energy on the defensive end. They caused that shot clock violation, and you just loved to see it, and the crowd was feeding off that as well. Kansas' biggest lead came at 45-15 after Yudoka Azebuki hit a hook shot. Actually, it was kind of Kareem-like after his own offensive rebound hooked it in, and it was 45-15 with just under six minutes to go. That was pretty much the point where there was a lot of trading baskets the rest of the way. The halftime score

was 52-27 in favor of the Jayhawks. Take a look at some of these halftime numbers for Kansas. Yudoka Azubuki already had a double-double at halftime. He had 10 points and 10 boards. And Devon Dotson, who's carried Kansas so much this season, particularly early in games, at halftime had 17 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists, along with no turnovers. And Ochiai Abadji, coming off his 20-12 game in just one half play, had 9 points and 5 boards. Even more impressive for Kansas, they led the rebounding battle 29-9. Yeah, that should be expected when you have the size and the depth over a smaller team, but still that's an impressive number. And KU, 8 of 17 from 3.

That's an area where Kansas has wanted to get going a little bit. I don't think it's been a major concern, but it's good to see the shots fall. 8 of 17 from 3 in the first half, and all 9 players in KU's rotation scored in the first half for the Jayhawks. Inaruna had a layup, and Christian Brown had a three, so that was good to see. Second half, again, was a lot of trading baskets. Milwaukee ended up, if you went back to the first half, going on a 20-8 run that cut it to 53-34 before the first media timeout of the second half. But again, a lot of trading baskets.

The most explosive basket of the night that really got the field house up and celebrating was a Devon Dotson alley-oop to Ochai Abadji. That gave Kansas a 66-41 lead with 12.5 remaining. And Ochai took what looked like it may have been, Devon, I don't know if Devon will admit it, but it looked like it may have been, I don't know if Devon will admit it, but it looked like it may have been an underthrown lob, but Ochai grabbed it and did the reverse slam and put Kansas up 25 and everybody in the fog on their feet.

A couple other notable things. Kansas was up 71-49. Devon Dotson missed the front end of a 1-1, but Yudoka Azubuki, who had great energy all night, got the offensive rebound, went up and scored and put Kansas up 73-49. We have not seen Doak get too many offensive boards off missed free throws, so that was good to see as well. This game actually got as close as 82-66.

So Kansas, a 26-point favorite, was leading by 30 early in this one, but then Milwaukee, relatively late in the game, under four minutes to go, had cut it to 16. So everybody bet on Kansas. It was like, well, what happened? What happened to that 30-point lead? All of a sudden, Kansas, with their starters still out there, they go on a 12-0 run capped by Chris Tehan hitting a three

after the starters had been pulled that made it 94-66 with a minute to go. And a 12-0 run gave Kansas a 28-point advantage. Milwaukee hit a two to make it right at 26, the line in this game. And then Marcus Garrett, one of two free throws, plus a block on the final Milwaukee possession, gave Kansas the 95-68 win. And not only the win, but the cover for anybody who was interested in that for the Jayhawks as well. So that was good to see.

Kansas wins it 95-68. Jayhawks have won eight straight games. And they've also got three straight covers, if that's important to you. So the Jayhawks love what we saw, especially the energy. And Bill Self will talk about that as well. Because it could have been easy to come out flat, a little bit flat, and that's not something we've seen from this year's team. Against a team you know you're going to beat, Kansas kept up the energy and kept everything good.

If you're a Spotify listener, use Spotify Wrapped to show us your top Locked On podcasts for the year. Take a screenshot and tag us at LockedOnLive and LockedOnJHawks, which is L-O underscore Jayhawks on Twitter, and we will share and retweet. Coming up after the break, we'll hear from Bill Self and KU players. We'll go through some of the final numbers of this one as well. This is LockedOnJHawks, part of the LockedOn Podcast Network, your team every day. well the big story in college basketball last night was number one going down and it was at the hands of a big 12 team as texas tech who is without their top player jamias ramsey who's a freshman leading scorer for the red Raiders, 17 points a game. He had to miss this game in New York last night.

Part of the Jimmy V classic because of a hamstring injury that's continuing to nag Ramsey. And he was not a part of the Tech lineup when they lost the last two games. They were both overtime losses for the Red Raiders. So Ramsey did not play, but Texas Tech, behind 18 points from Davide Moretti, 8 of 8 from the free throw line, defeats number one Louisville, 70-57. T.J. Shannon had 13 points for Tech, and Avery Benson, a walk-on, had 10 points. Kind of an ugly Chris Beard, Chris Mack-style game, as there was not a lot of scoring. Tech just 7 of 27 from 3, and Louisville was even worse, 3 for 17. Chris Beard, Chris Mack style game as there was not a lot of scoring.

Tech just 7 of 27 from 3 and Louisville was even worse, 3 for 17. Jordan and Wara led the way for the Cardinals with 14 points. But just kind of a muddied up game that Texas Tech led by 3 at halftime. And then they kind of just didn't coast, but they didn't give up that lead at all. And they ended up pulling away at the end to win by 13. Huge win for Chris Beard, who continues to be in the conversation as one of the best coaches in America. The other game was another big win for a Big 12 team. Baylor holds on in the number 11-ranked Bears defeat,

number 18 Butler and Waco, 53-52. Baylor led by as many as 16 points in this game. They led by 13 in the second half at 37-24, but it came down to the final possession. Butler had almost completed the comeback when their top player Kamar Baldwin tried to attack the rim on the last offensive possession, and Mark Vidal had a crucial block, one of three blocks on the night for Vidal, with one second left denying Baldwin and denying the Bulldogs as the Bears win by one point in a low-scoring affair. Bandu and Teague for Baylor both had 10 points.

Again, not great offensive performances from deep. Baylor was just 6-27, and Butler 5-15 from beyond the arc, but two big-time wins for Big 12 schools last night. Other games in the top 25 that happened last night, another upset. Wasn't necessarily an upset according to the line, as Penn State ended up being a one-point favorite before tip of this game. But Penn State at home defeats No. 4 Maryland 76-69. And at University Park, they chargeded the court, did the Penn State fans,

and the Nittany Lions pick up a seven-point victory over a Big Ten foe. And then another upset in the top 25, Colorado, who Kansas just defeated at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday. They were back at home in Boulder, and they lose at the Coors Events Center to Northern Iowa, 79-76. So the Buffs, who remained in the AP Top 25 at number 24, despite losing to the Jayhawks, will be out of the poll next week. Losing to a team they were favored to beat by 9.5 in the Panthers.

UNI wins by 3. They scored the last 6 points of this game. So kind of an interesting night. Some big-time upsets last night. But most importantly, the Big 12 gets a couple wins, and the Jayhawks hold off a Milwaukee team, 95-68. Again, as I mentioned in yesterday's show, not a ton of action around the Big 12 and the top 25.

There are two Big 12 games tonight. Alabama's at K-State, and Winthrop is at TCU. Both those games are at seven. And in regards to the top 25, number 15, Arizona hosts Omaha at seven. And number five, Michigan is at Illinois in a Big 10 battle at eight. Remember, Illinois is coached by former Oklahoma State coach Brad Underwood. They almost upset Maryland over the weekend before Penn State was able to do the deed last night. So it should be interesting to see if Illinois can put together another upset bid tonight at home against the Wolverines. Kansas wins 95-68 at Allen Fieldhouse last night over Milwaukee. For the Jayhawks, they were led by Devon Dotson and Ochai Abadji, who both scored 22

points. Devon had a career- high nine assists in this game and Ochai had eight boards another career high performance for the Jayhawks talked a little bit about it but Yudoka Azubuki he had 15 points and 17 rebounds in this game a career high 17 rebounds for Doak and Doak one for one from the free throw line seven for seven from the field Doak's about 45 46 field goal attempts away. I'll try to get that number for you. From officially having enough field goal attempts to be the best field goal percentage shooter in NCAA history.

Yudoka Azubuki shooting over 80% from the field before the game last night. It was a perfect 7-for-7. You love those point-blank dunks that Doak gets. He is certainly a dominant force inside. Bill Self met with reporters after the game, and here's Coach's opening thoughts. I'd say the first 15 minutes we were pretty good. I don't know how many points we had, but we had to have 45 points with five minutes left in the first half or something.

It was close to it. And then we didn't play as well the rest of the half. And then obviously second half we just traded baskets for a while. So I didn't think we played very well really after the first 15 minutes, but we were really good the first 15 minutes. An incredibly impressive first 15 minutes when KU built up that 45-15 lead. Ochai Abachi told reporters after the game that coach said to the team that was one of the best starts to a game that Kansas has had in a while. So coach was asked about that

after the game. Yeah, it is. I mean, I thought we were really good early. I mean, it was 15 to 1 before you could basically sit down. I mean, I could be off base, but I think we had eight points with like 18-30 left in the first half and had 15 at the under four timeout or something like that. And I think we had 25 with about 12 left or 13. I mean, we made shots. And of course, everything looks better when you make shots, but we guarded too. And then after that, it was a trade baskets type game. But I thought we looked pretty good. We shared it pretty well, and everything was pretty good. When we subbed, though, in the first half and the second half,

we weren't as good when we went to our bench. And that's one thing that we got to improve on. We did get to see extended minutes from Silvio De Sosa and Christian Brown, particularly in the first half. And then I wouldn't say Milwaukee put score pressure on Kansas in the second half, but they did score 41 points. Kansas didn't go to their bench quite as often in the second half. So it was good, at least for a little bit, to see some extended minutes from some of those guys who have not been able to get those minutes, particularly the close games that Kansas has been playing. Silvio ends up playing just 11 minutes in this one.

Tristan Inaruna plays 10, and Christian Brown plays 15, hopefully against Kansas City on Saturday. Those guys can get some more run. For Kansas, though, the hot start was all about Ochai. He had three threes before Milwaukee even scored a point. It was 11-0 Jayhawks. Devon Dotson was asked about getting Ochai involved and finding the right hand. I thought it was amazing. Yeah, like I just wanted to, you know, come out aggressive

and try to, you know, you know, look for some shooters. You know, my teammates set them up. So, you know, when I see it, I see them feeling it. That, you know, uh lights me up and uh excites me Devon was dishing it out with those nine assists and obviously Ochai back-to-back great performances as he's now averaging 21 and 10 over his last two games and I said I think after the Colorado game I said hey Ochai to me has been our best kept secret it's all about Devon and Doak, as it should be. Those need to be the focal points of the offense, and they're certainly the first two public enemies for any opposing team. But, man, this Ochai, he's a real player. He's so athletic, and he can do a little bit of everything.

Looking forward to watching him continue to grow. After the break, we'll recap some action among NBA Jayhawks last night. A familiar face getting it done again. And we'll hear more from Bill Self as well. As KU defeats Milwaukee 95-68 last night. They are now 8-1. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories.

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when you use our special promo code CODE. Just pay $5 shipping. Again, that's B-L-U-E-CHEW.COM, promo code CODE to try it free. Blue Chew is the better, cheaper, faster choice. And we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. Three Jayhawks in the NBA were in action in last night's games.

And once again, it was highlighted by one Devontae Graham. Devontae, who was in the field house for KU's game against Colorado on Saturday. In between games, he made it happen and had to get up early, hit a 6 a.m. flight to get back home for a game on Monday. Well, Devontae Graham is just killing it. He should be getting all-star votes left and right. Charlotte won 114-107 at home against Washington last night. And DT was the best player, 29 points on six threes.

He also dished out six assists. An all-time Jayhawk favorite. Hopefully keeps this thing going at the NBA level. And he is well-deserving of an all-Star bid, at least in the early stages. So we'll continue to track that. The 76ers defeated the Nuggets in Philly 97-92. Joel Embiid, 22 points, 10 boards, and 6 assists. Always good when JoJo is healthy.

And the New York Knicks, they are bad. They lost at Portland 115-87 in a game they never really had a chance before the first tip. Marcus Morris 10 points and three boards. Tonight's games, we've got some Jayhawks in action. Devontae and Charlotte are back in action against Brooklyn. That game at the Barclays Center. Houston and Ben McLemore are at Cleveland. Utah is at Andrew Wiggins and the Timberwolves.

Memphis is at Phoenix to face Kelly Oubre, Sheck Diallo, and the Suns. And Marcus Morris and the Knicks are back in action at Golden State tonight as well. That's a look at your Jayhawks in the NBA. Kansas defeats Milwaukee 95-68. Jayhawks will likely be the number one team in the country come Monday's new AP poll. And on tomorrow's show, we'll get a chance to hear from Bill Self on what his thoughts are of potentially being number one. We talked last segment about the start to the game and how Kansas got up 45-15 with just about six minutes to go in the first half, and Coach admitted that that was maybe one of the best starts

of any Kansas team in recent memory. Second half, not so much. Defense kind of broke down a little bit, and it was a lot of trading baskets between the Jayhawks and the Milwaukee Panthers. Here's Coach talking about second-half defense. Obviously, our energy wasn't very good. We've been actually pretty good at turning people over,

and tonight we turned them over eight times. So we didn't get many deflections or much energy. And I do think this is pretty common. When you make shots, your defense is never as amped up because you don't feel like you have to get stops every possession to win. And when you miss shots, I think it's easier to kind of turn it up. And when we made shots early, I thought we got a little laxed. Defensively, second half, we guarded the arc okay,

but we didn't do a great job protecting the rim at all. We got beat too much off the bounce. I'm not going to get too hung up on it, but I do think that time and score a lot of times lends you to kind of get a little relaxed, and I thought that was pretty evident that was the case tonight. Coach saying he's not going to get hung up on the kind of trading baskets in the second half, which maybe is a little bit different tone than we're used to Coach saying.

He's used to saying there's no excuse. You should act like the game's 0-0, that sort of thing throughout, but kind of a different tone across the board for Bill Self this year. I think he knows he's got a really good team. I think the guys really enjoy being around each other and a little bit more of a positive tone across the board for Coach Self. And yeah, you can't get too upset about kind of coasting to a victory which is essentially what kansas did when you get out to a 30 point lead and basically do everything right the first 15 minutes or so against the team that uh you should have beat handily and the jay hawks did just that part of the reason they did that is taking advantage of their size once again

it was the big fella udoka azubuki havingbuki, having a big-time game, a double-double, 15 points, and a career-high 17 rebounds. Doak talked to reporters after the game about the coaches challenging him to be better. The coaches, they challenged me to go out there and get more rebounds. And I also challenged myself, like, I want to rebound that much in a few games. So I just decided to go out there and just dominate on the rebounding end. Bill Self had said earlier this week when he met with reporters, he referenced Thomas Robinson

and talked about how Thomas Robinson used to get angry when, not only an opposing team, but when his own teammates on a free throw attempt would get the ball, get a rebound, because that was Thomas' opportunity to pad his stats and of course t-robs final year at ku he had a ncaa leading double double number of 28 and t-rob he had that energy constantly he wanted

to get the boards and coach said i don't know if we we have guys who have that sort of want to in regards to going after rebounds. Well, we saw Doak last night have his, by far, his best performance rebounding the ball. Here's Coach talking about the big fella. I thought he was great. I thought he and Ochai and Devon all played very well. But the first half, he went after every ball. I was really pleased and impressed and thought he played extremely well. Coach always finds a way to motivate guys.

Here's Devon Dotson talking about how Coach has been challenging 35. Coach has been challenging them. That's what Coach does a great job of, making sure we don't feel comfortable. He makes us um you know uncomfortable in practice and uh challenges so he was great on the boards today and um yeah he dominated on the boards kansas did get out rebounded in the second half by two but like we heard coach say earlier 29 to 9 at halftime no matter the size advantage is pretty impressive it was all headlined by Doak of course Doak one of three Jayhawks and double figures with the 15 points Devon and Ochai both with 22 seven points of

peach for Marcus Garrett and David McCormick and Isaiah Moss had eight points Marcus by the way in this game also dished out seven assists a little bit of everything from Marcus who certainly has become a fan favorite with everything he can do on the court on both sides of the ball. That'll do it for our show today. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll hear more from Bill Self in reaction to this game. He's going to talk about potentially being the number one team in the country. He's going to talk about his secret, what he thinks basketball is and its root, how to win basketball games.

He gives two key points as to how a team can win a game. So stay tuned for that on tomorrow's show. And then on Friday's show, we'll preview the Kansas City Roos that are going to take place Saturday at 4 o'clock at Sprint Center in Kansas City. This is Sean Kellerman signing off for Locked On Jayhawk, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.