Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Locked On Jayhawks - Episode 3

Episode Date: October 17, 2019

Kansas basketball gets a 2020 commit; Big 12 Preseason Poll is released; Bill Self discusses Azubuike; Where is UT football vulnerable? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everyone? Welcome in to this Thursday edition of Locked on Jayhawks. 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. Excited to continue this podcast week one here. And what a great time it is to be a Jayhawk and to be covering college sports. Kansas basketball tips off on Thursday, a week from today, against Fort Hayes State in their first exhibition game. And of course, KU football begins the back half of their season on Saturday.

That's a 6 p.m. kick in Austin against Texas. And of course KU football begins the back half of their season on Saturday. That's a 6 p.m. kick in Austin against Texas. A little bit later in the show we're going to preview Texas a little bit more and maybe pick out a few spots where Kansas could potentially be successful against a team and specifically a defense that has not been as dominant as in years past. And we're also going to hear from KU men's basketball coach Bill Self regarding his thoughts on Yudoka Azebuki being named preseason Big 12 Player of the Year and maybe hear some of his thoughts as well on where this team is, what he's seen through the first couple weeks of practice

in advance of that exhibition opener next week. First, we're going to keep it here with hoops, but we're going to talk about the news of the day. A couple pieces of news, actually, in regards to Kansas basketball. First off, Kansas picks up a big recruit. It's a four-star big man opting to play his college ball in Lawrence. His name is Jethro Muscadine. Jethro, which is spelled G-E-T-H-R-O. Jethro Muscadine

chooses the Jayhawks, and he becomes the second commitment in the class of 2020. Ty and Grant Foster, a JUCO player, a wing, committed to Kansas yesterday, but this time it's Jethro. He's a big, he's 6'10", 215 pound center from Aspire Academy in Louisville, and just before noon today, actually, he announced his 200% commitment, in his words, to play at the University of Kansas. Musketon talked about how it just felt right, and it's just what was where his heart was telling him to go to be University of Kansas basketball player and this is a guy who's ranked 131st overall by rivals.com so he's a part of the rivals 150 and he is a player on the rise I mentioned his stature at 6'10 215 he's a guy who can do a lot of different things.

He has his entire basketball career in front of him, particularly because of that size and because of his ability to grow. I mean, look at what Muscadine says. He says, I really like to compete. I like to work hard. I have a lot of skills. I can push the ball down and make some plays. I really try to help my team win. That's all I I care about my biggest strengths would be how hard I run the floor

I can pass it rebound block shots and shoot it too. This was Jethro musketeer asked by Red Raider sports Com in August to list his strengths and if you see video on this guy you see he can do a little bit of everything We're not gonna compare anyone to Joel Embiid because you'll think about Embiid of today, but perhaps a similar skill set in this 6'10 musket in, in that he can shoot the ball, and as he said, he can run the floor, do a little bit of everything. So that's going to be a big get for this Kansas team, particularly because you just don't know who is going to be back next season. Yudoka Azubuki will be gone. We know that he's a senior. Isaiah Moss will be gone.

He will be a grad transfer senior this upcoming season. Mitch Lightfoot could be back. We never know if he's going to end up redshirting this year. We'll find that out soon enough. Those are the three seniors on the team. Then you're going to potentially lose guys like Devon Dotson, Ochai Abadji, David McCormick, Silvio De Sosa. All of those guys might not be on the roster for Kansas next season. So you've got to get as many guys in here as possible. And from what people were concerned about with the NCAA allegations to Kansas is that they weren't going to be able to get anybody. And that was the case, at least for the 2020 class before yesterday, when Kansas picks up a wing and now a big today. Yesterday, Ty and Grant Foster, a six'7 Juco player, he commits to be a Jayhawk next basketball season.

And today it's a 6'10 Jethro Muscadine, who played sophomore and junior years in high school at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Air, Kansas. And he actually played a year in Juco with current Kansas player Jalen Wilson as well. So that'll be exciting to watch Jethro and of course Tyen have a chance to make an impact right away for this team next season. Other bit of Kansas basketball news from today is indeed the Jayhawks were picked for the ninth consecutive year as the preseason champions of the Big 12 Conference. Take a look at the standings. Kansas got eight first place votes of a potential nine. Bill Self not able to vote for his own team. No coach is able to vote for his own team in the preseason poll. So KU, 80 points. They got eight first place votes. Baylor

got one other first place vote and Texas Tech got the other one. Kansas, place vote, and Texas Tech got the other one. Kansas, Baylor, and Texas Tech, the top three in the preseason poll. Texas was picked fourth. You've got to think it's going to be an important year for Shaka Smart at the helm in Austin because not only did Texas miss the NCAA tournament, but Texas Tech, they were the national runner-up. So it's interesting, as a fan of Texas, what your expectations are for Shaka Smart when you've got Chris Beard having all sorts of success down in Lubbock. West Virginia, hoping to get out of the cellar of the Big 12. They finished last year. They were picked fifth. They're going to have two big guys up front.

They're going to be a problem for a lot of Big 12 front courts. And Derek Culver, who's a sophomore, and newcomer Oscar Shibui, they're going to be quite the one-two punch down low for the Mountaineers. Oklahoma State was picked sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll. Iowa State seventh. Of course, they lose a lot of talent. They do return preseason all Big 12 first-team selection. Tyrese Halliburton,

but they're picked 7th. Oklahoma picked 8th. They squeaked into the NCAA tournament each of the last two years. Kansas State, how about them? They are picked 9th in the Big 12. As they lose, Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes, and Dean Wade. They return honorable mention preseason all Big 12 selection Xavier Sneed, but after that there's not a lot of veterans on this Kansas State team. They have a pretty good recruiting class coming in for next season, but perhaps it could be a down year in

Manhattan for Bruce Weber and company. And then it's TCU rounding out the 10 teams in the Big 12 in the preseason poll. TCU picked by nearly every team to finish last in the poll. They, of course, do not return players like Jalen Fisher and Quat Noy. They do return preseason all-first team Big 12 selection Desmond Bain, but kind of like K-State, they got their one veteran returner and not much after that. So the Horned Frogs picked dead last in the Big 12 preseason poll. And for Kansas, they've got two guys on that preseason All-Big 12 first team in Azubuki and point guard Devon Dotson,

and they've got a lot of depth and a lot of experience. And certainly the coaches in the Big 12 think that the Jayhawks can take that trophy back after Kansas State and Texas Tech shared the Big 12 title last year, which ended the Jayhawks' string of 14 consecutive titles. I'm going to get a chance to hear from Bill Self after the break. He's going to talk a little bit about his preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, Yudoka Azebuki, and maybe some of the things that he's seen in the early practices for this KU team, not far out from the first exhibition game

and not far out from their first regular season game, a November 5th tilt against the Duke Blue Devils at the Champions Classic. The Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. We only have 12 practices left before we play Duke and so I'm thinking we only practice 10 times we only practice 16 times so these next 12 days

we can't waste any and need to get a lot of stuff in And that's Bill Self talking about how soon it is that Kansas and Duke will be doing battle in the Champions Classic on November 5th and the limited number of practices that he and Duke will be doing battle in the Champions Classic on November 5th and the limited number of practices that he and the guys have available until then. So obviously early stages of the year are coming up

and Coach Self is going to be looking to improve every area he can before the Hawks take the court officially. The Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. Sean Kellerman here bringing you Locked On Jayhawks. Bill Self was made available to the media yesterday, and of course yesterday it was announced that Yudoka Azubuki was named preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, and Coach Self was asked about his expectations on his big man.

He needs to play to an all-American status for us. He's going to get opportunities. Of course, his opportunities will be in large part determined by how well we shoot the ball from the perimeter. Because if we don't, everybody will put two guys on him. I expect him to be the best big man ever. Coach Self was then asked if Doak being named Preseason Player of the Year made the big man even hungrier.

Obviously the preseason stuff doesn't mean anything, but it could be confidence builders, or it could be initiate undue pressure too, because you feel like you have to live up to something. So we haven't talked about that yet. I didn't even say congratulations yet for something that we haven't done anything yet. But I do think that this will excite him, which is good. Especially when you've been in a situation where you haven't played two or three years. And we mentioned yesterday that Yudoka Azubuki has obviously really struggled with injuries ever since he's been at Kansas. His freshman year, he played just 11 games.

In his junior year, he played just 9 games. So that's what Coach Self is referring to. Basically hasn't played at all two of the three years that he's been in this program. And then his sophomore year, Doak played in 36 games. But remember, that NCAA tournament, he was not 100% the whole way. So hopefully, no wrist injuries for Doak, knock on wood, and that he can stay healthy because he certainly deserves it. Jayhawk Nation is very happy that he's back because he and Devon Dotson are the centerpieces of what we're hoping is a Final Four caliber type team in Lawrence this year. And speaking of that team, Coach Self yesterday was asked if he's learned anything about his squad in the this year. And speaking of that team, Coach Self yesterday was asked if he's learned anything about his squad in the early practices.

They're competitive. They're actually pretty good listeners. They're trying hard. We've shown flashes where we shot it decent, pretty good, and we've shown flashes where we better be the best darn offensive rebounding team in America too uh but but uh I like them I like them I don't think that we're we're we're close to being a good team and you know you get kind of teased a couple practices because you make shots but make shots you know based on camouflages all the things you don't do behind that so so uh but

I do I do like our guys. I think we have potential. And how could you not be excited about this team if you're Bill Self or if you're anybody out there in Jayhawk Nation, as this team has the veteran leadership, and they certainly have the talent. I mentioned the three seniors earlier in the show, with Yudoka Azubuki, Mitch Lightfoot, and Isaiah Moss. Now, Moss is a grad transfer, but he's still an older guy

who's going to have an opportunity to make an impact on the court right away. And if you're looking at the depth chart of this team, of course, Devon Dotson is your starting point guard. Marcus Garrett likely slides into the backup point guard role because of the departure of Isaac Mackey McBride about a month ago. Now, Bill Self did saykey McBride about a month ago. Now, Bill Self did say, following McBride's departure, that Marcus was probably going to be the backup point guard anyway because McBride was more of a combo guard.

So Devon and Marcus, they're going to be the guys running the show. I wouldn't be surprised if you see Devon Dotson playing 36 to 38 minutes a game. I don't think that's probably what the coaching staff wants. They want to be able to keep Devon fresh. But as we've seen, you just got to have those guys on the court. Last year, it was Devon Dotson. You couldn't really take Devontae Graham off the court in the 2017-18 season. You couldn't really take Frank Mason off the court the year before that. So, the guys running the show are certainly going to be important. What I'm interested to see, without question, is the wings. You've got so many options on the wings. The aforementioned Moss is going to

get a lot of time, particularly because of his ability to shoot the ball. And you're going to have Christian Brown, who impressed me at late night. He's going to be an opportunity. And then a couple wild cards, Jalen Wilson and Tristan Inaruna, a couple freshmen. Where are they going to fit? They're 6'8", they're built about the same. Wilson's a little bit bigger, and he was a little bit higher recruited as well. But these are guys who are going to see some time at the three and maybe the four as well. But obviously, you've got Ochai Abadji as your top wing guy.

This is a guy who's projected to go in a first round, the NBA draft, by many outlets. So you've got a lot of options on the wing, so it'll be interesting to see the early stages of this year, how that plays out. And then, of course, you've got the bigs that you have not had in the past couple of years, the talented bigs, Yudoka Azubuki, Silvio De Sosa, and David McCormick. And then you've got Mitch Lightfoot as an option as well. So Kansas has the depth that they've been missing for a while, and it's going to be exciting to see without question. We're going to hear more from Bill Self tomorrow. He's going to talk about any potential redshirts for this team

as I just went through the laundry list of guys who potentially could play. But we'll hear from Coach Self on his thoughts on that. When we get back, we're going to transition to Kansas football as they're just two days away now from their battle with Texas in Austin. The Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to the final segment of this Thursday edition of Locked On Jayhawks. I am Sean Kellerman. Remember, fans, you can follow me on Twitter at

Sean Kellerman. Follow the show on Twitter at LO underscore Jayhawks. Just got done talking some KU hoops. Kansas picked for the ninth consecutive year to win the Big 12. Of course, KU looking to actually accomplish that feat, which they did not

last year, breaking their string of 14 consecutive titles. And we heard a little bit from Bill Self as well regarding what he's seen from this team and his expectations for Yudoka Azubuki, the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. And, of course, getting excited for our first game a week from today in Allen Fieldhouse. Going to transition now to talk some Kansas football and have to start with this. I was hoping to be able to bring some Tom Herman sound, Texas head coach, onto the show today. And I'll tell you, there was a 27-minute press conference with Tom Herman when he spoke to Texas reporters on Monday, and in 27 minutes, there was not one single question about Kansas. Of course, Texas was coming off their loss in the

Red River showdown to Oklahoma, but still, I could not believe it. I was listening to it, just waiting to get something good, Herman's thoughts on Kansas, and there was nothing throughout. And in fact fact Herman even quipped sarcastically at the end of the press conference and as he was walking off the stage said beat Kansas he exclaimed that because it was kind of funny that no one had said anything to him or requested any information on Kansas at all now this was on Monday so the Oklahoma loss rivalry game loss was fresh to Texas media, but still it was interesting.

That's kind of how this game is viewed, perhaps not only by Texas, but by a lot of teams in the Big 12. It's a team you need to beat, and you don't need to necessarily change anything schematically. You just got to be who you are. Perhaps that's how Texas feels. Perhaps that's the case, but we know that our Jayhawks are going to go out, and they're going to put their best foot forward in hoping to take down this Horned team. So when you're looking at Texas, in the past, maybe they haven't had the high-scoring offense that they've featured a lot more of this year, but it's been their defense that's really made them such a tough beat. Now, this year that has not been the

case. Now, these statistics are just going to be from conference games because non-conference opponents are so back and forth. It's so different between who you are. I mean, Texas played LSU in the non-conference and they're ranked second in the country right now, if I'm not mistaken. So Texas has had certainly their fair share of battles. So we break it down to conference games. Everybody plays everybody. We're three games in now. So that's just about as accurate as we can be on where these teams really stand. Surprisingly, as I mentioned, Texas is not what you would expect them to be defensively. You look at scoring defense and and Texas sits 7th in the Big 12,

7th of the 10 teams in scoring defense. They are also 8th in the league in pass defense, and in terms of total defense, that puts Texas at 8th in the league. So this is a team that's been in the top 15, approaching the top 10 for basically the entire season and they've got some vulnerabilities particularly on the defensive side of the ball as they're down there with Kansas and Kansas State and many defensive categories so this is an opportunity for Kansas and new offensive coordinator Brent Dierman to get some points on the board we

understand Texas usually has elite athletes in their football program on both sides of the ball, and they certainly do have some great athletes, but this is a team that can be vulnerable at times. Another area that Texas can be vulnerable is in terms of sacks, both for and by. Texas has not had a sack now in back-to-back games and they are tied for last in league in sacks by and they're dead last in league in sacks against in three games Texas has just twice brought down the quarterback and they've allowed 12 sacks on Sam Ellinger. This is an opportunity for guys on the outside of Kansas defense, like Azur Kamara and Najee Stephens-McKenzie,

to put some pressure on Ellinger and perhaps tally up some sacks, put Texas in some second and third and long situations, and maybe even force Ellinger into some mistakes, which the Kansas secondary could then take advantage of. Clearly Texas does not have a dominant offensive line. KU can attack up front and from the outside and hopefully take advantage of some of the things that some of Texas previous opponents did as well. On the flip side you have Carter Stanley, a guy who's been up and down as Kansas quarterback throughout this season.

He has an opportunity now to hopefully have some time in the pocket granted by his offensive line and be able to make some plays happen. Now, we've talked in the past, Carter Stanley is not going to be expected to make all the big plays and the highlight reel type stuff, but the first thing he needs to do is take care of the ball, and the second thing he needs to do is convert on third downs and keep drives going. It would not surprise me at all if Kansas opens this game with a similar approach to what they had a couple weeks ago

here in Lawrence against Oklahoma, where they were slowing down the game so much that they were legitimately huddling up before every play which is something that you just don't see anymore in college football but the goal of that was to keep Jalen Hurts and Oklahoma's offense on the sideline and it's going to be similar I think I think Kansas is going to do what they can to slow this game down offensively keep Sam Ellinger and that Texas offense on the sideline and go from there. Ellinger may or may not have his top target, Colin Johnson,

who's a big-time NFL prospect, on the outside. Johnson had been injured. He returned for the Oklahoma game, but last I heard he was still being evaluated for a concussion, so we're not sure on Colin Johnson, but they will have Devin DuVernay and a lot of guys who can make a lot of plays, as always, for this Texas team. Coming up tomorrow on the show, Locked On Jayhawks, we're going to bring you a final preview and prediction for that Kansas-Texas game.

We're also going to break into a new segment that I like to call Friday Five, where I look at five game lines from Saturday's college football games and tell you which ones I like. Friday 5, so the initial segment, initial instilling of Friday 5, will take place tomorrow after I preview the Kansas-Texas game and give my prediction on that. Been a great show. Looking forward to the final show of the week tomorrow

and what should be an exciting weekend for Kansas athletics. Of course, the final weekend before KU basketball hits the court and KU football trying to get that first Big 12 win on the road and shock the nation in Austin. The Locked On Podcast Network, the local experts on the biggest stories. We'll talk to you tomorrow in Rock Chalk, Jayhawk.