Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - 12.9.19

Episode Date: December 9, 2019

Jayhawks defeat Colorado for 30th straight time at Allen Fieldhouse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up Jayhawk Nation? Welcome in to this Monday 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. It's another Victory Monday for us here at the University of Kansas as KU, in a battle of two top 20 teams, picked up the victory on Saturday at Island Fieldhouse over the Colorado Buffaloes 72-58. Throughout this show today, we're going to recap the game,

go through some of the final numbers, and we'll hear a lot of reaction from head coach Bill Self and KU senior guard Isaiah Moss as well, as the Jayhawks had no problem taking care of the Buffaloes. Really, it was a defensive clinic put on by the Kansas team. And we'll talk about that and hear from the guys regarding that as well. We'll also take a look around the top 25 in the Big 12. Everybody in action over the weekend and Friday 5 recap as well.

Alright, so let's look at this game. Kansas really controlled this game throughout. They were 10.5 point favorites were the Jayhawks. And, you know, at the beginning it looked like it was going to be kind of a back and forth battle. David McCormick got Kansas started right away. A couple of 15foot jumpers. KU alum and current Colorado head basketball coach Tad Boyle said they were going to live with that with McCormick hitting those jumpers. Now we've seen with David throughout the year that that's one of the areas of his game that he has improved. So it's good to see him be able to hit those, especially when teams are in zone

like Colorado was at times, be able to hit the 15-footers, that is key. Then Kansas got out to a 6-0 lead when Ochai Abadji, perhaps the player of the game, had a follow-in transition. Kansas was up 6-0. It got a little closer early when Austin Seawort, Lucas Seawort rather, of Colorado hit a couple threes to cut it to 9. The game was 10-9 after back-to-back threes from Seawort, and both of those threes were off Yudoka Azubuki. That's something that a lot of teams are going to try to do against Doak is force him to get out and guard the perimeter, or if he's not out there, then they could hurt Kansas offensively being able to hit threes. Really, the threes, the majority of this game though for the Buffaloes were not falling. A Yudoka dunk put Kansas up 14-9 and then a Tristan

Inaruna follow in transition put Kansas up 19-9 with nine and a half minutes to go. At that point Tad Boyle called a timeout and Kansas was leading the rebounding battle, a stat which they dominated at that point 17-6. And Tyler Bay, Colorado's top player who averaged 14 points and 12 boards a game, their leading scorer had no field goal attempts at that point in the game. Colorado would come back. They'd get a McKinley right three over Doak again. It was 19-12. So Colorado was getting some decent looks but missing them, which was kind of a trend throughout this one, at least in terms of perimeter. And they did not have a two-point basket the under-eight timeout of the first half. Kansas, meanwhile, did not have a three-point basket.

They were 0-6 from three, but they led 14-0 in the paint when this game was 19-12. Kansas continued to expand their lead, and Ochai Drive made the score 30-18 with just under two minutes to go in the half, and then with under two seconds to go, Yudoka Azubuki finished off a dunk and one. He would miss the free throw, but the assist to Marcus Garrett gave Kansas the 34-22 halftime lead. At halftime, Kansas was 15-30 for 50% shooting from the field, and Colorado was just

27% from the field. KU did not hit a three. We saw in the games in Maui, Dayton, and BYU, Kansas not very many threes from the outside, and that was the same case in the first half of this one, 0 for 6. Colorado was 4 of 15 from 3. The Buffaloes would end up shooting 34 threes in this game for a team that really does not shoot very many. They entered 327th in the NCAA in three-pointers attempted, but that kind of shows how well Kansas was defending and denying anything to Bay and company in the post. KU led the rebounding battle at the break 24-13, and Tyler Bay had just two points on 0-1 shooting at halftime. Marcus Garrett had three first-half steals. Ochai Abadji and

Yudoka Azubuki both had eight points in the first half to lead Kansas. Much of the same in the second half. Kansas got out to a 45-27 lead with just over 15 minutes to go when Ochai Abadji hit his second three of the game. And then finally, Colorado had something good go for them offensively when Deshaun Schwartz threw down a dunk with 14 minutes to go to cut the deficit to 15, but then he immediately picked up a technical foul for hanging on the rim. Devon Dawson would hit the free throw, and Kansas went up 46-30. Colorado got within 12 a couple different times. They got a 3 from Daniels to make it 49-37 with under 10 minutes to go. And then again, McKinley writes 3, cut it to 54-42 with eight minutes to go.

But Kansas continued to slowly but surely pull away. Another three from Ochai, who hit four in the second half, gave Kansas a 61-45 advantage with six and a half to go. So Kansas had some lulls offensively through this game, but they were six of seven from 3 in the second half, which was something good to see. A Devon Dotson steal and layup put Kansas up 23 at 68-45 with under 5 minutes to go. That capped a 10-0 Kansas run, and I really loved what I saw out of this team defensively. They were locked in every possession. Their hands were in the passing lanes. Colorado, very many possessions in this game, couldn't get anywhere closer than 25 feet from the basket.

And when they tried to penetrate via pass, Kansas was in the passing lanes, deflections and steals, and they kept it up throughout until maybe the last three or four minutes of this game when Colorado would end up cutting it to 14 as CU ended the game on a 9-0 run. So that wasn't great to see, but Kansas still won comfortably at 72-58. Great atmosphere at Allen Fieldhouse, and the Jayhawks pick up a top 20 win over a team that, yeah, probably didn't play their best game of the year, but Kansas forced them into shooting 34 threes. Not a particularly good shooting team in Colorado. Kansas forced 17 turnovers as well defensively and really controlled this one.

Points in the paint was, again, completely controlled by Kansas. Yudoka Azubuki had 12 points in this game and 6 boards. Kansas' top performer was Ochai Abadji, 20 points and 12 rebounds for Och. Isaiah Moss had 8 points and Devon Dotson had 18. He had 10 free throws in the game. For Colorado, Evan Batty was their top player. Their big man inside. 14 points and 7 boards. But Tyler Bay was held to just 5 points in this game. 3 field goal attempts for the Buffs best player. So good to see. KU dominates the top 20 team, 72-58.

And you can kind of, if you're a Kansas fan, I think you can get excited about this team. I understand Kansas turned the ball over 21 times in this game. That's two games this season where KU has given away 20-plus extra possessions. But at the same time, they've got a dominant force inside in Yudoka Azubuki. They've got one of the best guards in the country in Devon Dotson. And what a piece Ochai Obagi is as well. Incredibly athletic.

And if he can kind of stay consistent with his performance and his production, this Kansas team, with their talent and their depth, they're going to be a problem. And I really like what I see from them. And like I said, I love the intensity, particularly on defense, even when games seemingly are out of hand. So love to see that from the Jayhawks. Coming up after the break, we're going to hear from Bill Self and Isaiah Moss.

They're going to talk about what Kansas did defensively. Yeah, Colorado missed some open shots, but KU also did a great job limiting anything for the Buffs offensively. Like I said, Bay and McKinley Wright were unable to produce for Colorado, and they needed not only those two guys, but more production from other guys as well if they wanted a chance in this one. This one was really never in question. So we'll hear from them after the break. We'll recap games in the Big 12 and the Top 25, go through our Friday Five as well. 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 on Twitter, and we will share and retweet. LockedOnJHawks on Twitter is LO underscore Jhawks. This is LockedOnJHawks, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network The local experts on the biggest stories Before we take a look at the Big 12 and Top 25 action

Go ahead and go through my Friday 5. Entered this week right at 500, and it ends up being a 2-3 week. The worst part was that I got two wins off the bat and then ended up dropping the final three. Victories Friday night was a Duke minus 7 at Virginia Tech, that game in Blacksburg. And the Devils actually got down in this one 20-8 before coming back and easily covering the minus 7. They won 77-63. Other win was the Big 12 championship game, Baylor and Oklahoma. I had a feeling this one was going to be close, and it went into overtime. Oklahoma won it 30-23 in overtime.

And now, of course, they have a spot in the college football playoff. Baylor covers the plus 9, so those were the two wins on the week. College football game that I lost was the American Championship. Memphis minus nine against Cincinnati. I liked the Tigers to cover that nine. They did win but they did not cover it. Back-to-back games against Cincinnati. Memphis with the victory but no cover. Memphis won 29 to 24 so that minus 9 was a loss for me and for the Tigers. And then two NFL games went incredibly awry. Carolina plus 3 at Atlanta. I guess I gave the Panthers too much credit. It was all about fading the Falcons because I think they're a train wreck, but I guess it's time to realize that the Panthers aren't far off from that either. They recently,

of course, let go of their coach Ron Rivera. They've got some decisions to make at quarterback as Kyle Allen has proven that maybe he's not the guy that can lead this team to where they want to go. And then maybe the one that hurt the most, the one that I was most surprised by, Oakland plus three against Tennessee. Tennessee ends up blowing out the Raiders. It doesn't hurt as a Chiefs fan, but I really thought that Oakland was going to be able to at least cover that three. I figured Oakland had a decent shot to win at home, but man, it's time to drink the Kool-Aid if you're a Tennessee Titan fan because they have been pretty dominant with Ryan Tannehill as quarterback, which is a sentence that not many people could have envisioned ever

being said, but the Titans are on a roll. They're 8-5, and of course with the Texans loss, Titans pretty much control their own destiny for the AFC South title. Alright, so let's look at the Big 12 as I close out my Friday 5. 2-3, 19-20, and 2 overall, and we'll try to get back to 500, maybe even over 500 this week when we go through our picks on Friday. Big 12, first a shout out to the KU women. The KU women's team is 8-0 after their 76-66 victory yesterday against Florida in the Big 12 SEC Challenge. So we'll keep an eye on the KU girls. Of course, the one football game was the Big 12 championship game,

Oklahoma 30, Baylor 23. So OU gets an opportunity to take on LSU, who was impressive in their SEC title game victory over Georgia. So OU and LSU, Sooners open as pretty big dogs, plus 13 in the first semifinal of the college football playoffs. Hopefully they can show out well for the Big 12. Men's hoops that went on in the Big 12. TCU lost on Friday night to USC 80-78. Kevin Samuel led the way

for the Frogs 17 points and 11 boards. Saturday's games, West Virginia follows to St. John's. West Virginia was the lone unbeaten team in the conference, but they lose 70-68 in New York despite 12 points and 18 boards from Derek Culver. Baylor defeats Arizona in Waco 63-58. Maceo Teague with 19 points to lead the Bears. K-State loses at home to Marquette 73-65. Cats have lost three straight. They're 5-3. Cartier Jada

was the leading scorer. Four in double figures for the Cats. Jada had 14 points. Sunday's game, Oklahoma State. People were loving them early in the year, but they lost to Georgetown at home, and then they get blown out yesterday by Wichita State, 80-61. Lindy Waters had 11 points, but Oklahoma State was just 3-16 from 3. Wichita was 11-26 from 3. Texas 60, Texas A&M 50. That game was in Fort Worth. Jace Febris led the way with 17 points. And Iowa State in that rematch against Seton Hall,

they get their revenge as the Cyclones win it 76-66 over the 16th ranked Pirates. Tyrese Halliburton, Rasier Bolton, and George Condit each had 17 for Iowa State. Notable games that happened in the top 25. Number 4, Michigan defeated Iowa 103-91. Maryland, number 3, barely snuck past Illinois 59-58. Anthony Cowan Jr., huge 3 late in that one to save an upset from the Terps. Ohio State, sixth in the country.

They blew out Penn State. They are just rolling. Chris Holtman's squad looks pretty dang good early in the season. 106-74 over Penn State. Virginia and North Carolina, just a mess of a game between two teams that don't really have much at all offensively right now. Virginia wins 56-47. Current rankings, Virginia fifth in the country, Virginia 5th in the country, North Carolina 7th in the country,

but UNC with back-to-back losses, they're going to be dropping in the AP poll that is going to be released today. 19th ranked Dayton, 78. St. Mary's, 68. And 9th ranked Gonzaga, 83. Number 22, Washington, 76. That's your look around the Big 12 and the top 25. Not much going on at all in terms of college basketball. There's a Big 10 game, Minnesota and Iowa, but nothing from the Big 12, nothing from the top 25, so quiet night on that front.

Of course, for our Jayhawks, they won big over Colorado. The score wasn't even as close as the game was played. Kansas, as I said last segment, they led comfortably in this one. They led 70-47 at one point. Colorado ends on a 9-0 run to make it a little more respectable. Jayhawks win 72-58. Coach Self, maybe not as high on the offense, but he's pretty happy about the defensive performance. Here's Coach after the game. Defensively, we're pretty good until the very end. They missed some open looks that they probably normally make a higher percentage.

But we did a good job switching out and did some good things. Offensively we weren't very good. And our inability to pass the ball was obviously pretty evident during some stretches. But if we got a shot, we were fairly efficient. But obviously, we got to be better caretakers of the ball in order to play really good offensively. While it maybe wasn't an offensive clinic for the Jayhawks, they did get a great performance from Ochai Abadji. In my opinion, Ochai kind of the best kept secret of this team up until this game on Saturday.

Of course, all the talk's been about Devon and Doak through the first seven games, three of which were in Maui, and those two guys named co-MVPs with the numbers that they put up, and they were obviously impressive and are without question the focal points of this offense, but KU's got a real player in Ochai Obagi, and Coach says with him, it's all about worrying about the right things. Worry about the things you can't control, and I don't think he's rebounded the ball well like he's capable of, and he goes and gets 12 tonight and three offensive,

which was great, and then I think you worry about the right things, and what does he go, four for five or four for four the second half from three? But I thought Ochai played really well. The one thing that we do, we give away so many points when we have numbers in transition. Ochai gave it away. Doc gave it away twice. It just seems like it just drives me nuts that we don't score better in transition, but I thought Ochai was by far our best performer today. Ochai hits four threes in this one, four of

six. Devon Dotson, 0 for two from three, and Isaiah Moss, 2 of four off the bench from three, and Aruna was 0 of one. Kansas just 13 threes. They did hit six of them. Is that perhaps a step in the right direction for this perimeter play for KU? We made six threes on the game and we're excited about making six threes. And six threes is a very low number. So Ochai and Isaiah and Devon have to be our best shooters. Christian is a really good shooter. He just probably ain't going to get the same opportunities. But we need Ochai to be a 35% three-point shooter for us this year. We need Dot to be above 35, and Isaiah needs to be around the 40. If those three guys are able to do that, then we'll be

a good shooting team. We won't shoot as many as other teams, but we'll be a good shooting team. Well, it was good to see, and I really think that this KU team eventually is going to have more consistency from beyond the arc. You've got a guy you can count on to be a consistent shooter like Isaiah Moss. Yeah, beginning part of last year, you could say LeGerald Vick maybe was that guy. Years before, of course, you had Devontae Graham and Frank Mason who you could count on to shoot from a high clip. I really think that Devon Dotson is going to be a good three-point shooter for this team, and we know what Isaiah Moss and Ochiai Obagi can be as well.

And then you've got pieces like coaches talked about off the bench, like Christian Brown, Tristan, and Aruna. Those guys can contribute as well. I am not worried about the three-point shooting of this team, and hopefully we'll see moving forward that that can be a really good part of the offense because we know that Kansas is pretty dominant in the paint, as we've seen with Yudoka, Azebuki, and company. After the break, we'll hear more from Bill Self.

He's going to talk about KU's defense. Isaiah Moss will chime in as well. This is Locked On Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is sponsored by Blue Chew. Guys, remember the days when you were always ready to go? Now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed. Listen up.

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Just pay $5 shipping. Again, that's B-L-U-E-Chew.com, promo code CODE to try it free. BlueChew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. Jayhawks in the NBA over the weekend. There were a couple games for a couple different guys, but there were also a bunch of did-not-plays for one reason or another. Let's start, of course, with Devontae Graham for the Hornets. In two games, Devontae averaged 20.5 points, 8 assists, and 4.5 rebounds. And, of course, DT was in the field house on Saturday,

taking in the KU Colorado game. Always great to see him. And, yes, it was a very loud, rambunctious cheer for one of the all-time favorites for Jayhawk Nation in Devontae Graham. Good to see him still contributing in a very big way for Charlotte in the NBA. A couple Pistons were former Jayhawks. Markeith Morris, now he didn't play in their game over the weekend because of a neck injury.

Sviatoslav Mikhailuk, in nine minutes of action, got three points and one rebound for the Pistons. Two games for Andrew Wiggins, but he did not play in the first one. He's had a little bit of trouble staying healthy this season for one reason or another. Wiggs did have 19 points, three assists, and two rebounds when he played in the T-Walls game on Sunday. Joel Embiid played in one of two games as well. Embiid had a bit of a trick hip, but he got back out there against the Raptors in the Sixers win yesterday. 10 points, 8 boards, 6 assists for Embiid in 30 minutes. Good game for Marcus Morris for the Knicks, a struggling team, but Mook had 25 points in that performance.

Kelly Oubre had 19 points and 5 boards in one game for the Suns, and in that game, Shaq Diallo, 2 points, 7 boards, and 1 assist. And another big game for Ben McLemore. You love seeing it for the Houston Rocket. 30 minutes for Ben, 27 points. This just one game after a 29-minute 28-point performance for Ben McLemore. Love to see it for Ben. Games tonight featuring our Jayhawks. Ben and the Rockets host Sacramento at 7 p.m. The Pistons, Svee and Keefe, are in New Orleans to take on the Pelicans at 7, and the Timberwolves

and Andrew Wiggins are traveling to Phoenix to take on Oubre, Diallo, and the Suns. So with not a lot of college games on tonight, perhaps you could take in some of our Jayhawks in the NBA. We'll recap those games tomorrow and let you know how the guys did. Our Kansas Jayhawks, they picked up the victory over Colorado on Saturday, 72-58. And of course, we have a game tomorrow night. Pretty quick turnaround as the Jayhawks will host a Milwaukee team that is 5-4. Kansas realistically should be looking at a 2-0 week. We're not going to take anybody for granted, but should be able to beat Milwaukee at Allen Fieldhouse tomorrow night. And then the Jayhawks shootout is on Saturday, 4 o'clock,

at the Sprint Center in Kansas City against the UMKC Roos. So hopefully a couple victories for Kansas this week. On tomorrow's show, we'll preview the Milwaukee game tomorrow. But, of course, let's look back at that victory of our top 20 team in Colorado. We know that Kansas was very good defensively, and we know that they have the potential to be extremely good on the defensive end. Here's Bill Self comparing this team to some of his past teams on that end of the ball. There's no question that this team's better defensively than the last two teams we've had. I wouldn't say that about the team before when we had Josh at the four and Devontae and Frank

and Svee and LeGerald out there and Doak. But this team has potential to be better defensively. Tristian and Christian have got to come through better for us to do that, though. We're so much better defending the arc whenever we play for guards. Even though it kind of hurts Silvio and David's minutes,

if that's the way it is, we'll just continue doing that. But I do think we can get really good on that end. Coach continues talking about the defense, bringing up not only the guys who are returning, but mindset-wise what they bring to this defense. We have enough experience returning and a nice blend of newcomers. I think your point's pretty good, though, because we're pretty connected on the defensive end. We've gotten much better at switching and things like that. Offensively, I won't say we're quite as connected, but defensively I do think we're pretty connected.

That's just a result of having three good know, we got three good perimeter defenders, and Marcuses can guard anybody. So it helps when you have individuals that are good defensively that kind of understand the team concept. So maybe not the cleanest game for Kansas on offense, and maybe benefited from a few missed open shots from Colorado. But Kansas, like I said, they were pushing the Buffaloes out. They really couldn't get any penetration. They couldn't get anything on the interior, so got to credit KU for that.

And it was all about the passing lanes from what I saw. I had a chance to catch up with Isaiah Moss after the game, and here's Isaiah talking about what he thought the Hawks did well. I think we got a lot of deflections. You know, we just tried to get them uncomfortable, like Mark said, just knowing the Scotland Port, knowing what everyone wants to do. We just tried to, you know, take it away from them and try to get them uncomfortable like Mark said, just knowing the Scotland Port, knowing what everyone wants to do. We just try to take it away from them and try to make them uncomfortable. Moss is a guy who we all know he was brought into this program for pretty much one reason

and that was to be a shooter. Coach Self though after the game talked about how when they saw Isaiah at Iowa, they liked how hard he tried defensively. And maybe they didn't see that the very beginning of this year or the offseason heading into this season because Isaiah had that hamstring injury. But Isaiah Moss, he was out there, he was defending. He's not going to be a guy like Marcus Garrett who can get you four or five steals a game occasionally. But here's Coach talking about Isaiah's defense.

I would say in the last two weeks or so, I think he's sliding his feet pretty well. I think he's become a pretty solid defensive guard. And one thing that he does do well, that he's a good blockout guy. Very rarely does he miss a blockout. So I think that he's actually done pretty well. Well, if Isaiah can be a defensive contributor as well, then that's just going to add one more element because then you're going to have your first guard off the bench coming out and being just as stout defensively as three guys who we know can really be the head of maybe one of the best defensive backcourts in the country with Dotson, Ochai, and Marcus Garrett as well. So it's been fun.

It was great to see Kansas kind of put their foot on the throat of Colorado early and then never hold off. They stayed in tune. They stayed locked in. And they really coasted to this victory over a top 20 team. Good to see and something that we haven't seen maybe even the past couple years. I think you're starting to see the talent differential with this team staying healthy compared to some of the Kansas teams even of recent memory. Of course we know the the team with Devontae went to the final four but they didn't have the depth and certainly didn't have the talent and returning experience that this team does.

So we're excited about the ceiling of this team. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we're going to talk more about the Milwaukee Panthers. Preview then, we'll hear from Bill Self and KU players as well who were made available to the media. A little bit later today, they're meeting with the media. So we'll get their thoughts, and I'll have that stuff ready to go for you on tomorrow's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks so much for tuning in. they're meeting with the media. So we'll get their thoughts and I'll have that stuff ready to go for you on tomorrow's edition of Locked On Jayhawks.

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