Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 12.2.19

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

Football bows to Baylor in finale; KU hoops rises in AP Poll Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Jayhawk Nation? Welcome in to Locked On Jayhawks, brand new week of content for you. 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. We're going to hear from those voices today. We'll hear from Les Miles, Bill Self, and some KU basketball players as well. We're going to talk about the atrocity that was the KU football game on Saturday, really ending the season on a bad note. And then in the second segment, we'll recap the Friday Five, my climb back to.500.

We'll take a look around all the action that went on in the Big 12. Perhaps the most exciting weekend in all of sports is Thanksgiving weekend when you have basketball and football both going on. And then final segment, we'll take kind of a look back to the victory in Maui for the Kansas basketball team. Going to get a chance to enjoy that one for a little bit as Kansas is not back on the hardwood until Saturday, 6 o'clock tip against Colorado, that game at Allen Fieldhouse.

And Colorado will be coming in as a top 20 team as the new AP poll was released. Where are the Buffaloes? Where are the Jayhawks in the new AP poll? Make sure to fill you in on that as the show goes on. All right, well, we'll look back now on this KU football game, and I'll spare the listeners kind of a play-by-play of what went down in this game. This was a game where Baylor, who was ranked 9th in the country, came in as a 14-point favorite, so that's relatively low for a team that's 10-1 going up against a 3-8 team, even on the road, and unfortunately, it wasn't much of an atmosphere as Jayhawk Nation didn't

show out. You know, it's bad timing and everything atmosphere as Jayhawk Nation didn't show out. You know, it's bad timing and everything with Thanksgiving weekend, but also, you know, you're trying to send these seniors off good, and there just was not a very good showing, to put it frank. But Baylor came out, and they proved their worth as a top-ten team. There was some worry also that they were going to be overlooking the Jayhawks, and, you know, that was maybe part of why the line was what it was. Kansas showed some promise in Ames last week.

Baylor has the Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma coming up this weekend, and maybe there's going to be a little bit of a struggle for the Bears to keep up their intensity, keep up their focus. We learned right away that was not the case. Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, really their best drive of the day, definitely the best drive with having the first teamers out there, was the very first drive. Kansas got the ball, and they moved the ball down the field.

There were swirling wins all day, all weekend really, in Lawrence. But all day on Saturday there were swirling wins. Kansas got a 3rd-and-5 completion to Puka Williams for 20 yards. That put Kansas in Baylor territory for a first down. Eventually, though, Kansas was staring at a 3rd-and-7. Stanley was sacked, and that put KU at a 4th-and-11. So KU's quarterback at a 4th-and-11 at the Baylor 27. Kicking was not an option because of how windy

this atmosphere was how windy it was at the stadium so Kansas opted to go for it it was a fourth and 11 play and it was incomplete to Stefan Robinson 11 plays 92 yards in total if you count what the yardage that Kansas lost and they took off almost five minutes off the clock so there were some positives even though Jayhawks didn't come away with any points in that one. Baylor, however, came out, like I said, completely focused. They had an immediate 30-yard rush from one of their three tailbacks, John Lovett, 30 yards on the outside. Then their quarterback, Charlie Brewer, found Josh Fleeks for 12 yards

and Denzel Mims for 25 yards to the KU6. Backup QB Jerry Bohannon, who we saw a lot of in the second quarter, then ran it in from six yards out. And just like that, a minute and a half, Baylor was up 7-0. So you went from being happy that Kansas took five minutes off the clock to all of a sudden, all right, well, the Bears just needed four plays to get down the field and get on top. That was the unfortunate case for the Jayhawks. Kansas then went three and out, and then it was one play and a touchdown for Baylor. After a tough punt into the wind from Kyle Thompson, just 17 yards, Brewer found Tyquan Thornton for a 51-yard

touchdown, and with seven minutes to go, under seven minutes to go in the first quarter, it was 14 to nothing Baylor, and matters just got worse after that. Baylor would end up going up 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. Jermichael Hastie had a 13-yard touchdown run to go up by the three scores, and in the second quarter, it was all Baylor again. 13-0, the Bears outscored the Hawks in quarter number two. They got a touchdown, another touchdown out of Jamichael Hastie, a couple field goals as well. It was 34-0 at halftime. And unfortunately, perhaps the only positive of the first half for Kansas

was the fact that they got two excellent punts from Kyle Thompson. He was a preseason All-Big 12 selection and really hadn't performed up to that standard this year. He had the 17-yard punt in the win that I mentioned, but he used that win to his advantage. His other two punts, 72 and 68, awfully impressive for Kyle Thompson. That being said, you hate to hang your hat on what a punter does, and that's what Kansas had to do.

Third quarter, a couple more touchdowns for the Bears. It was hasty again. He ended up with three touchdowns on the day, and 48-0 was the score at the end of the third quarter. Carter Stanley came out of the game. I read somewhere that Carter had gone to Coach Miles and Coach Brent Dierman and said, hey, give Manny a shot. Manny Miles, the backup quarterback, he was a senior as well, playing his last game. Manny Miles was able to lead Kansas to a touchdown score. He actually had a very phenomenal play as Miles spun out of the Baylor defense and ended up firing a dart to the back

of the end zone, caught by Andrew Parchment for KU's lone touchdown. But it was a game with very few highlights for Kansas across the board, and you hate to have the season end that way as the Bears win it 61-6 in Lawrence and rough numbers across the board. Carter Stanley was 13-26, 95 yards and three interceptions in this one before he took himself out of the game. Manny Miles, three of six, 24 yards, a touchdown and an interception as well. Andrew Parchment had another touchdown.

He had a good season to go along with Stephon Robinson, who also he ended up leading the team in touchdowns. Actually did Stephon with eight, but Parchment got the touchdown on senior day. Five catches, 43 yards. Puka Williams had 22 carries for 116 yards in this game. The only good thing about this day, aside from the fact that the Jayhawks did honor 23 seniors who played their final game, was that Puka Williams was able to get 116 yards on 22 carries, back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons for Puka, becoming the first Jayhawks since Gale Sayers to accomplish that feat. So that was one of the solaces you could take from this,

but unfortunately not a lot going on for the Jayhawks. Here's Les Miles talking to the media after the game. It's obvious why we didn't do well. We turned the ball over, turned the ballhawks. Here's Les Miles talking to the media after the game. It's obvious why we didn't do well. We turned the ball over. Turned the ball over six times. That's uncharacteristic of teams that I coach and uncharacteristic of this team. They turned the ball over twice in special teams,

and you can't win football games doing it that way. And in the same vein, this team has taken some strides to improve, and this game was not indicative of the team that played game after game for the Jayhawks. Kansas had the six turnovers, like Coach said. Three of them interceptions from Carter Stanley. Not all of them were his fault. It wasn't the best game for Daylon Charlotte and the KU receiving core as they had had such good times throughout the majority of this season, but they were unable to execute anywhere near where they had been the

majority of the season. So he had three interceptions for Stanley. He had one from Manny Miles and then two punt returns resulted in the other two turnovers for Kansas. So six turnovers. They end up minus five on the night in turnover battles. And the Jayhawks lose this one big. As I said, perhaps the only good thing you could take from this is in the final game, Puka Williams surpassed 1,000 yards on the ground. Here's Coach Miles talking to that.

To me, one of the things that this game needed to do was to accomplish the opportunity for Puka to get his career rushing and giving him the opportunity to handle his, you know, get the career in the 1,000-yard mark. If there's something to smile about about this game, that was the idea that he was a part of, those two drives that certainly could have scored. As the week goes on, we'll hear more from head coach Les Miles kind of wrapping up this 2019 season in which Kansas finishes 3-9,

1-8 in Big 12 play. He's going to talk about where he thinks this program is. He's going to talk about recruiting and where he thinks needs to be the top target for this Kansas team that loses their quarterback. They lose one of their top receivers on the outside in Daylon Charlotte. And, of course, a lot of guys in the secondary and defensively, Bryce Tornadin and Mike Lee, specifically Hassan Defense as well. So this KU team is losing a lot, but we'll hear more from Coach

on what the focus is going to be, kind of what his staff is going to be as this week goes on. Audible has the world's largest selection of audiobooks and audio entertainment. Start listening with a 30-day Audible trial. Choose one audiobook and two Audible originals absolutely free. Visit audible.com lockedoncollege.

Listening on the go? If you can't visit Audible right now, you can find this and all other offers from Locked On sponsors at lockedonpodcasts.com slash offers. This is Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. A lot of games going on across the Big 12, of course, over the weekend

with men's basketball and football in full swing. And let's take a look at what happened on the gridiron first. A couple football games on Friday, Texas and Texas Tech. It was the Horns getting down 14-0 in this one, but they ended up coming back and winning big, 49-24. Texas with Tom Herman. You know, there's not necessarily scrutiny for Tom Herman, but there have been some games where maybe there's been

some concerns from Longhorn fans. Is he eventually going to be on the hot seat? Well, he avoids disaster here with that victory over Tech. UT ends the season 7-5 and bowl eligible Texas Tech 4-8. Of course, they were the team that Kansas defeated on homecoming about a month ago. West Virginia, they were 13-point underdogs, but Friday night they defeated TCU 20-17. Both teams finished the season 5-7 shy of bowl eligibility. The Saturday football games, in addition to the Baylor trouncing of our Jayhawks, it was Oklahoma 34, Oklahoma State 16. The Sooners end up 11-1 and Oklahoma State 8-4.

So Oklahoma State still likely going to get a pretty solid bowl game. They got 104 yards on the ground and a touchdown from Chuba Hubbard, who continues trucking along. And then for Oklahoma, it was a lot of Jalen Hurts as well, 13 for 16, 163 yards and a touchdown through the air. Hurts, 16 carries, 61 yards. So only about a 3.8 average per carry on the ground, but a touchdown. Sooners also got 160 yards and a touchdown out of Kennedy Brooks. Other big 12

game was K-State. They were five-point underdogs at home, but they defeated Iowa State 27-17. Cats threw the ball just 12 times in this game, and they ran 49 times, highlighted by Jordan Brown's 91 yards and touchdown on the ground. So K-State, they're feeling pretty good about themselves. They finished the year 8-4, whereas Iowa State finishes 7-5. So it'll be interesting the next couple weeks to see where the bowl invites, how the bowl invites will look for those teams that are bowl eligible in the Big 12.

We'll keep you updated on that, of course. And then big game this weekend, Baylor and Oklahoma. Both teams clinched before the final week of the regular season in terms of the Big 12 championship game that takes place in Arlington, and that'll be exciting on December 7th. So basketball-wise, of course, we know the Jayhawks took out Dayton and Maui to win the Maui title. Basketball actionwise, of course, we know the Jayhawks took out Dayton in Maui to win the Maui title. Basketball action on Friday.

Iowa State ended up 1-2 in the battle for Atlantis. They lost to Seton Hall 84-76 in the fifth place game. Iowa State got a big-time performance from Tyrese Halliburton in every game of this tournament. In this particular game, Halliburton had 19 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals. He is going to be a potential lottery pick, absolutely, in June's NBA draft. Rasier Bolton, he had 20 points to lead the way for the Cyclones, but they do lose by 8 to Seton Hall. Other game, Creighton 83 over Texas Tech 76 in overtime.

Chris Beard's team loses two straight games. They fall out of the AP top 25, and kind of surprising as Texas Tech got down big early. They gave up 46 points in the first half to Creighton. Very surprising for a Texas Tech team that's been stingy defensively under Chris Beard, but they did outscore the Jays by 14 in the second half before ultimately falling in overtime. Texas Tech in this game was led by Davide Moretti. He had 23 points. Then a little preview of our Friday five picks. Oklahoma State on Friday night on the hardwood defeated Ole Miss 78-37.

Oklahoma State got four players in double figures, and they were favored to lose by a point. Ole Miss was one-point favorites in this game. OSU puts it on them with a 41-point victory. A couple other basketball games. Texas squeaks past McNeese, 73-71, behind 14 apiece from Courtney Ramey and Andrew Jones. And then West Virginia had a battle yesterday to wrap up the Big 12 slates across basketball. They survived defeating Rhode Island 86-81.

So that's your Big 12 outlook. A lot going on, and of course there's a lot going on tonight as well and the rest of the week as men's basketball kind of comes into the forefront here with football. And you've got your bowl games, but essentially half the teams in the Big 12 are no longer going to be in conversation in terms of football. So a lot of men's basketball talk. Of course, we like that here at KU, and we'll see how that goes. All right, let's take a look at the Friday 5

before we talk about upcoming Big 12 games tonight. Of course, Friday 5, back to 500. Three and two week. So my official stats for the season now, 17 wins, 17 losses, and a pair of pushes. And I did it on my third consecutive winning week. Three wins, two losses. Start with the two losses. They both came on College Football Saturday.

Losses that I'm not thrilled about, but I can take them. You can't win them all. Alabama falls to Auburn in the Iron Bowl 48-45, so Alabama will not be in the college football playoff. They will not be in the SEC championship game, as it'll be Georgia and LSU taking part in that one. Other one that I like didn't work out either. I like Michigan plus nine at the big house against Ohio State in the game. And once again, Jim Harbaugh cannot get it done as he is now 0-5 against Ohio State. And how about Michigan? They've only defeated Ohio State twice since 2001.

Buckeyes are 17-2 against Michigan in that time frame. I should have known better. Michigan gets completely blown out 56-27 to Ohio State as the Buckeyes continue to rule that rivalry. And it will be interesting to see. LSU-Georgia is a big game this weekend, of course, but Ohio State and LSU, are they on a track to meet each other in the college football championship game?

It should be fun to check that out. A couple winners on NFL Sunday for me. In addition to, well, let's talk about the the college football championship game. Should be fun to check that out. A couple winners on NFL Sunday for me, in addition to, well, let's talk about the men's basketball Friday game. It was the Oklahoma State trouncing that I talked about earlier. They covered the plus one against Ole Miss very easily with a 78-37 victory. So that's one win, two losses, and then I got two more wins with my NFL picks from yesterday.

I liked the Steelers plus two and a half at home against the Browns, and the Steelers won it 20-13. That was a game where you thought emotions might be running high because of the whole Miles Garrett, Mason Rudolph thing. And it was a good, well-played game throughout, but the Browns is a favorite. Man, it's tough to pick them, right? So the Steelers, they've done it without Ben Roethlisberger.

Of course, they don't have Lev Bell and Antonio Brown. Juju Smith-Schuster and James Conner have both been out, but they continue to get it done. They're now 7-5 and in the thick of things for the AFC playoff picture. So mad props to Mike Tomlin and company in Pittsburgh. And then, like I said, do not trust Philip Rivers as a favorite ever the Chargers got down big to the Broncos at the beginning of this one they had a chance to force overtime when Mike Badgley hit a long field goal to tie at 45 yards at 20 16 seconds remaining I believe there was but

Chargers committed a defensive pass interference that set up a game-winning Brandon McManus field goal from 53 yards out. Broncos cover what was, when I took it, a plus 2.5. They actually got down to plus 4.5 before the game started, but they win 23-20 over the Chargers. Both teams now 4-8. Of course, the Chiefs, our hometown team here in Lawrence, they picked up a big victory over the Raiders yesterday, 40-9. And Chiefs control their own destiny at 8-4 in regards to winning the AFC title.

AFC West title, I should say. And then we'll talk about Ravens, Texans, Patriots, of course, as the season goes on and well into the playoffs. So Friday 5, 3-2 week, 17 up, 17 down, and two pushes. Looking forward to this week as well. Coming up in the final segment, we'll hear from Bill Self and KU players still kind of soaking in this Maui Invitational Championship. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

your team every day. A lot of action featuring our Jayhawks in the NBA over the weekend in addition to all the action that was going on at the college game. Let's take a look at some of the top performers and kind of go through everybody here, but Devontae Graham continuing to get things done in Charlotte as Ditae in two games averaged 20 points and 6 assists. Svee and Keefe, Sveatoslav Mikhailuk and Markeith Morris

both play for the Pistons. Svee averaged 8 points and 2 assists in two games over the weekend. Markeith Morris averaged 9.5 points and 2.5 assists. Big numbers again for Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. Embiid averaging nearly 30 points and 14 boards in his two games in action.

Marcus Morris did not play in the Knicks game yesterday. Cervical spasms. But Mook had 20 points and 7 boards in the Knicks game on Friday night. Kelly Oubre had another double-double. 22 points and 10 boards for the Suns. They played on Friday. Sheck Diallo, 4 rebounds in that game. And how about Ben McLemore in the game where the Rockets poured in 158

and James Harden himself had 60 on eight threes. Ben had a double-double, an impressive one at that. 24 points and 13 boards for Ben McLemore, so he continues to shine in Houston. Andrew Wiggins in one game, 18 points, six boards, seven assists for Wiggs and the T-Wolves. And how about this? Frank Mason III, he has been called out from the G League and FM3 played in a game for the Bucks over the weekend. Ten minutes, he got four points and dished out two dimes. So good to see that from Frank. Hopefully he can continue to play for Milwaukee. A tough team to crack the rotation for. Milwaukee, one of

the best teams in the league, but getting an opportunity here for a little bit. He's been averaging nearly 24 points and 6 assists in the G League. Good to see Frank come up and kind of get the royal treatment of being in the NBA, and hopefully his time to be a regular is coming soon. Three games in action tonight for our Jayhawks in the NBA. It's Kelly Oubre, Sheck Diallo, and the Suns taking on Devontae Graham's Hornets. The Jazz travel to Philly to take on Joel Embick Diallo, and the Suns taking on Devontae Graham's Hornets. The Jazz travel to Philly to take on Joel Embiid and company, and Marcus Morris hopefully back out

there tonight for the Knicks. They will take on Frank Mason and the Milwaukee Bucks. So that is a recap of your Jayhawks in the NBA. Now let's transition back to the college game. Our Jayhawks, of course, picked up the Maui Invitational Championship. We're going to celebrate that, hear from the guys after that here in the next couple days as we've got a while to sit on it before KU takes on Colorado on Saturday at Island Fieldhouse and the Jayhawks did it behind major performances of course from Devon Dotson and Yudoka Azubuki both of them set career highs in that championship victory on Wednesday. Doak had 29 points and Dotson had 31. And Devon Dotson today was named the Big 12 Player of the Week for his performance in Maui. Kansas, in terms of the AP poll, they shoot all the way up to second. Number

two, as a couple teams ahead of them, had lost. Louisville goes up to number one. Kansas is two. And how about Michigan? They check in at number four. They were unranked before their trip to the Bahamas, but they pick up three wins over three pretty good programs. Iowa State, North Carolina, and Gonzaga. So Michigan goes from unranked to number four in the country. Maryland, by the way, is number three. Virginia closes out the top five. It wasn't the greatest weekend for the Big 12. You had a couple losses for K-State, a couple losses for

Iowa State. Neither of them are in the top 25. Iowa State falls out. Baylor is ranked 18th. That's the only other Big 12 team in the top 25. You dig a little bit deeper, and 30, 31, and 32, if you want to go by number of votes, all belong to the Big 12. Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and West Virginia, in that order, are all receiving votes. But just Kansas at number two and Baylor at number 18 in terms of the AP top 25 released today. All right, let's hear from Bill Self.

This is Coach Self after the game on Wednesday in Maui, talking about what a great game it was and what a performance. I don't know how people felt, maybe not the most artistic at times. That was a great basketball game and two good teams competing against each other and in a terrific atmosphere. Proud to be a part of it and certainly very fortunate that we came out on top. But that was a lot of fun. And it was probably the least control I can remember having from sideline because it's so loud. And, you know, our place is loud. Our place isn't any louder than that because you have space in our place. There's no space in this one. And so I thought our guys competed. And, of course course these two were were absolutely terrific those two guys next to him of course were devon dotson and yudok azubuki

named co-mbps of the maui invitational tournament now devon he played all 45 minutes alongside ochai abaji he had a crucial layup take to the basket well he had a lot of them that's what he does best but the one that put kansas up-82 gave KU a little bit of breathing room. Eventually, free throws closed it out for Kansas. But Devon, playing all 45 minutes, was asked about, hey, is fatigue a thing in this game? Because it seems like you still had that extra jolt of energy. Yeah, I mean, at that point, you just got to tough it out.

I mean, I really didn't feel it. I mean, I think I could have played a little bit longer, but with that much intensity and that much adrenaline going, you don't really feel the tiredness. Your whole focus is to try to win that game. I'm proud of the guys. Every one of them stepped up, and so I'm happy. Devon and his teammates certainly competed throughout this one.

It was a back-and-forth game. Dayton, the team that Kansas beat, they have jumped into the top 25. I think that was kind of a foregone conclusion after that performance, whether it was a win or a loss for the Flyers. But Anthony Grant's squad checks in at number 19 in today's edition of the AP Top 25. They competed, and so did our Jayhawks. Here's Coach Self talking about how everybody competed well. I thought both teams competed, and my guys really competed

when we really didn't play very smart in some certain areas. But, you know, we made up for it by trying really hard. You know, I got to be very happy about that. Remember, we heard David McCormick talk about how Coach talks about the difference between trying and competing. So it's always good to hear competing in Coach Self's vocabulary. And these guys try hard. That's one thing I've noticed in the first seven games of this Kansas season.

Jayhawks are 6-1, and to me it seems like, yeah, there have been bits and pieces maybe where they haven't been competing always, whether it's a blowout or just kind of lulls, that sort of thing. But I think for the most part, each of these games, Kansas has been competing, particularly since that Champions Classic loss to Duke. Maybe that will be a blessing in disguise. Kansas 6-0 since then. Of course, they didn't have the opportunity to face Michigan State like they could have had the Spartans won their first two games in Maui.

But I think it's safe to say that KU got tested pretty well by BYU and, of course, by Dayton in the championship game on Wednesday. Later this week, we'll hear more from Bill Self and Devon Dotson. We'll hear from Yudoka Azubuki as well. Yudoka, a huge performance. We'll talk about that and how he is continuing to prove that he wants to be the most dominant and best big man in the country. A little bit later in the week as well, we'll hear more from Les Miles on the state of Kansas football. Of course, we'll update you on any recruiting news,

anything that comes up as the week goes on as well. This is Sean Kellerman thanking you so much for joining me. This is Locked On Jayhawks, a product of the Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.