Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Most Important Big 12 Tournament of the Self Era for Kansas Jayhawks + KJ Adams Small-Ball Five Talk

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Is this the most important Big 12 Tournament of the Bill Self era for Kansas Jayhawks basketball? How it could look without Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar as KU prepares for Cincinnati or West Virginia on Wednesday in Kansas City. Why KJ Adams playing small ball five could be a fun thing this team needs to succeed. Plus Whose Stat Line is it Anyway?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer.Amazon Fire TVFire TV recently created Fire TV Channels to deliver a constant supply of the latest videos from your favorite sports brands, all for free. That includes all of us at Locked On and most of the big pro leagues and college conferences as well. To Learn More, visit www.amazon.com/LockedOnFireTVNissanOur friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUV’s with the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure. Shop NissanUSA.com.LinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, is this the most important Big 12 tournament in the Bill Self era? Some more Hunter Dickinson talk as he undergoes his shoulder injury. We'll finish up with whose stat line is it anyway. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. Find me on Twitter at D Johnson radio. He's Nick Schwert at Nick underscore Schwert on Twitter. And on today's episode of locked on Jayhawks,

which you can listen to for free anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Thank you for making it your first listen every day. We are going to be talking Big 12 Tournament. Is this the most important Big 12 Tournament of Bill Self's tenure at KU? Some Hunter Dickinson talk, and whose stat line is it anyway for Kansas moving forward?

First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Nissan. Are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little bit further? Ever wonder what adventure could be around the corner? Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure. Check them out today at NissanUSA.com. So joined by Nick today, and normally when we get to this point a year

with the Big 12 Tournament, it's the conversation of, does this even matter? Like, what do they have to play for? They're going to be a one seed anyway. Should they even care about this? Now it's like, oh, depending on how you do, you can be a two seed, you can be a three seed, you can be a four. I don't know if Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson are hurt, would it be crazy if the tournament committee was like, yeah, we're going to dock you a little bit. You're going to be a five seed. Dare we say that in the Bill Self era. So I guess there's two ways of going to this because on that standpoint, like there was more to play for, for KU in this big 12

tournament than a lot of other ones. But on the flip side, with the injuries that KU has, you could still make the argument that, yeah, they shouldn't care about this at all. Just get everybody healthy for the NCAA tournament. So where do you kind of lie on the importance of this big 12 tournament to this year's KU team? Well, I think it depends on the situation with Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller. If both of those guys, like, let's just say theoretically, they get cleared to play, they are able to go. There is no risk of them being re-injured. If it's just like a, do you want to push it? What's the point? That's different than just saying, Hey, these guys can't play because if they can't go

let's imagine KU's coaching staff is going into this week saying no Kevin no Hunter our two leading scores our two best players some would argue um I'm thinking can we get out of this week without anybody else being injured like what would it look like hypothetically if we gave Charlie McCarthy and Wilder Evers a little extra run just see if you know how much juice is in those tanks because at this point I'm kind of operating under the assumption like it's pets are pets heads are falling off mode Derek so I'm like nobody like can we just keep Furphy healthy can we make sure DeJuan doesn't get injured because what happened in that Houston game Kevin with the knee Hunter Dickinson with what looked like a dislocated shoulder I thought the season was over like that felt like okay we've went through all of this

drama we've went through all of these ups and downs with this team all season long especially with Kevin and the knee it's just been back and forth this team downs with this team all season long, especially with Kevin and the knee, it's just been back and forth. This team looks good. This team looks like they're pretty average. In that moment, in the midst of what was an absolute boat race down in Houston, I thought, okay, I'm done. We're done here.

We're just going through the motions. And now sitting here on a Monday night, not knowing what those guys' statuses are going to be into the tournament. Like I can't get any lower than I am right now in terms of my KU optimism. So let's not, let's not push our luck this weekend. I don't think this team has a great chance of going on a run in March anyway. They certainly won't. If you're pushing guys to the limit, or if there's anybody else that has a nagging injury that we don't know about, it's not happening. You're not winning

the big 12 tournament. You maybe win a game, maybe two, but I don't think this team seed line is going to be affected based off what they do this week in Kansas city. I'll say this, Derek, you mentioned two seed. If no, that would take winning the big 12 tournament that would take winning the big 12 tournament I don't even know if that's enough frankly if this team winds up on the two line the committee we have to reevaluate like how we're doing this stuff because I get it resume versus who the best teams are Kate there is no way and I know we watch more KU than we do anybody else there is no way way you can convince me. This is, this is a team with like a top eight resume in college basketball. Sure.

But I think that's the beauty of Bill self, right? He, he, I mean, there, there are other years. I think back to the,

what the 2015 year where they got kind of beat up by Wichita state in the second round, that team was, was realistically, they played like a four seed, you know, they got a two seed because of the resume and because of Bill Self, right? Okay, can we call timeout really quick?

I'm calling a timeout, and this also serves as a technical foul for me. I was negative last week. I'm starting off first five minutes of this episode negative. We're going complete tone shift the rest of the episode. I'm going to be positive. I'm going to be optimistic. I'm going to be glass half full. So hold me to that, please.

Okay, well then, how about this for a scenario? I'm going to be positive. I'm going to be optimistic. I'm going to be glass half full. So hold me to that, please. Okay. Well then how about this for a scenario? What is like the ideal scenario this week for KU? Because the ideal realistic scenario, I guess, because I agree with you. I don't think it's realistic without knowing right now, because like you said, we're recording this on Monday night, without knowing the status of Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller,

probably not realistic to expect them to win the Big 12, but you have to acknowledge there is a certain level of, as much as I agree with you, if Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson are 50-50, you don't mess with it. You prefer to have them for the NCAA tournament. There is still a level of this team has been so up and down. This team has not won more than two games in a row in the calendar year of 2024. You need to show you can win games at some point like you need to build

confidence you need to win games at the end of the day that does matter so like the ideal scenario isn't losing in the first game so that you have extra days to rest up what is the ideal scenario of what could happen this week in Kansas City? Well, I think I'm thinking about more of the players, the guys, than I am the results. I want to see who's going to rise to the occasion of your two go-to offensive creators are out. So DeJuan, Johnny, KJ, you guys can't just be the same guys

that you've been all season. Someone or multiple guys are going to have to step up and look at this week as an opportunity to say, okay, Kevin's out, Hunter's out, it's my turn. Like, I'm ready. Pass me the torch. Like, I can do this. I can take over.

I can be the number one option. I think the obvious guy for that, Derek, is Johnny Furphy. He's the next best player. He's probably going to be playing for the Toronto Raptors at this time next season. I don't know what the mock drafts have him at, but this is your opportunity to say, okay, you're getting first round love. You're getting some lottery love. Go out and show it. For him, selfishly, he can make himself a lot of money over the next two weeks, especially with those two guys sidelined. But I think that's a trickle down effect because it's not just like Johnny Furphy leads Kansas to the big 12 championship game. It's okay. Johnny steps up

now who fills his role as like being this ancillary scoring option. Maybe that's Nicholas Timberlake. Maybe that's El Marco Jackson, right? Like all of these guys now get to step up a rung or two rungs in terms of their role, in terms of their opportunity. Like we've been talking all season about the bench minutes, who's going to rise up between Timberlake and Elmarco and even Jamari McDowell. Hey, here's your opportunity to solidify a role in March. And this, and you can do it. Like we talk all the time,

regular season has this player turned a corner. Has that player turned a corner? Usually it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things like Nicholas Timberlake's had a few nice games and yeah, you could say he's, he's gotten a little bit of a bigger role, but in terms of the pecking order on this team, he's still,

you know, fifth or sixth option in terms of scoring. Not if you do it in March, right? You do it in March with two guys are out. All of a sudden, NCAA tournament next week, you're going to give yourself the best chance to win. What is the best version of ourselves? And so in a weird way, we saw this for a few minutes in Houston and it did not look pretty. Granted, game was already out of hand. That was just a different set of circumstances. That thing was just kind of snowballing out of control for the team all day long.

But this week, it's free and easy. Nobody's looking over their shoulder. Nobody's wondering if they're going to get yanked. You all have an opportunity. And if somebody seizes it and really has a breakout performance in Kansas City, they could be doing themselves a huge favor heading into the NCAA tournament. Let's say Dickinson and McCuller are out for their opening game at the very least. Does Michael Jankovic get minutes?

Like real minutes. Okay, real minutes. See, that's so, I mean, how many guys would you have to get through? Because it's not just, well, Jank get minutes. It's who's playing like crap. Like who's playing terribly to the point where you're turning. Well, actually, let me rephrase. Who has a better chance to get minutes?

Would it be Michael Jankovich or Dylan Wilhite? Because then your big men left without Hunter would be, what, Parker Brown, KJ Adams? Yeah, that's what's crazy. That's what's crazy. That's what's crazy is, okay, do you think Parker starts? The burn the red shirt on Zach Clements this late in the year? Do you think Parker starts, or do you think KJ starts at the five? You know what? Let's get into this coming up,

because I actually wanted to kind of talk a little bit about this as it pertains to Hunter Dickinson. So we'll take a quick timeout and then get to that with Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by Nissan. Are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further? Ever wonder what adventure could be around the next corner? Our friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUVs with the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. The 2024 Nissan Rogue is perfect for city drivers and great escapes.

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Shop NissanUSA.com. And again, that is with Nissan, NissanUS usa.com. And again, that is with Nissan Nissan usa.com. All right. So we were just talking about KJ Adams a little bit there. And do you start him at the five? So I think with Hunter Dickinson, I don't know his, his almost feels more, his injury feels a little more black and white to me than Kevin McCullers. Like once we find out what it is, it's you're either out for the season or it like you're, you're going to be fine basically. Right.

It was a clean pop in and out. Maybe with Kevin, it feels like we've been on kind of the rollercoaster, but that's neither here nor there. If Hunter Dickinson is out, it feels like he would be out for good. Seemingly to me, I don't know,

whatever, whatever ends up happening. So do you go with KJ Adams at the five? Do you go with Parker Brown at the five? Well, I think I would go with KJ at the five because think about it. What have been some of the biggest problems that this team has had? Some of the biggest flaws that this team has had? We've talked about

this. It's the roster construction flaw of basically having two big men where you saw the one screenshot going around on social media. I'm sure of Hunter Dickinson catching the ball in the post and all five Houston players are within a step of basically the lane or the free throw line, where it's like there's no spacing out there. And it's not that it would be completely solved. Like how much would teams still respect or disrespect,

like some of your shooters on the outside? That remains to be a question. But having an extra guard out there, just having the potential of somebody else who can shoot. And defensively, we know KU has struggled against ball screens. We know KU has struggled against teams who can space you out. We know KU has struggled against teams who can basically shoot a lot of threes. And I think if you're playing KJ at the five, it at least, even though you're going to lose some on offense, it's going to help with that.

But even me all saying that, like, I think we, because Hunter Dickinson is so skilled offensively, we like to get to the point where it's like, oh, if you have KJ Adams at the five, you know, the offense is just not going to be nearly as good as it was with Hunter Dickinson at five. Okay. But it's not like the offense has been great.

The offense ranked like in the mid forties on Ken Bob, you know? So I would personally go with KJ at the five. But that being said, I feel like Bill Self would go with Parker Brown. So you, at the beginning of your answer, you said, I feel like I would go with KJ at the five and here's why. And then you gave, you know, a really good explanation. I'm going to do something similar. I would go with KJ at the five as well because he's way better than Parker

Brown. There's my explanation. because he's way better than Parker Brown there's my explanation like he's just better Derek I know like KJ's we always joke that like the better KJ's playing the taller he gets in our heads but when he's playing poorly it's like well he's six two you know what do you want him to do out there he's a six two five man so he's trying his best um I've actually I don't know if I'm excited per se but i'm i'm interested to see stylistically what changes specifically with hunter out like we've seen kevin out plenty um and like not not even really about like who's going to be taking the shots who are they running offense for but the one negative or i think to me the biggest knock against Hunter is he's slow.

We talk about big guys who can stretch the floor. He just doesn't move well. He's a tremendous player, but things can kind of get stagnant with him, especially the way you're feeding him post-opportunities. Those are just kind of clunky plays. He just happens to be better at them than everybody else in college basketball. You put KJ out there at the five in a lineup with DeJuan, Furphy, who knows, El Marco, George Amari, and Timberlake.

You got four guards. You're running. You're gunning. Now, just because you're running and gunning doesn't mean you're knocking down shots. But that brand of basketball is much, much different than the one that they've played and I would guess and I'd be curious to get your take on this as well I would guess going into this tournament with everything that's taken place this season and with those two guys potentially being out for this week if not longer I would assume Bill Self is not going into this in like drill sergeant mode. And I mean that for the tournament, the postseason in general.

I mean, like he's going to be telling these guys, hey, it hadn't been a great year. Nobody expects you to do anything. Two of our best players are out. What do you have to lose? Right. And maybe they just aren't good enough to like overcome their shortcomings but there's part of me that just wonders like what if what if that can open things up a little bit not to the point of like a final four run but what if that can open things up where all of a sudden you know el marco jackson's out of his head a little bit nicholas timberlake's

just out there playing his game knocking down shots furphy's doing his thing in transition we know what dewan and kj kind of are at point. But I don't know if it's a better brand of basketball, but it's certainly a different brand of basketball. And the one that they've been playing all season has been pretty hit or miss. Maybe there's some juice to whatever they're bringing to the table in KC. Right. And, like, I'm hesitant to say it's going to give them a chance to be better because that sounds ludicrous.

Oh, you can be without, you know, two All-American. I think more specifically, though, for me's it's less about possibly losing Hunter which I know we had a conversation about this last week of building the roster for next offseason I'll be completely honest man I'm kind of starting to waver to a point where I'm like give me KJ coming back instead of Hunter if you had to choose between one of the two and just play, you know, you have KJ Adams 25 minutes per game as a five and you let Flory Badunga, your five-star big man play 15 minutes per game as the backup five. And if it's a game where you're playing against another true big man, where you need, you

know, more of the true guy, then maybe it's 2020, whatever it is. I just feel like the defensive side of the ball, even though it's rated higher than the offense is something where if you're not going to be a great offense, you better be an elite defense. You know? And I think even though KJ does not give you like great rim protection, Hunter wasn't a great shot blocker anyway. So wouldn't you rather have the defense that can switch five that,

that can get out to ball screens better, that can defend threes better than they have kind of this season. And so I do think there is a part of me that thinks this almost gives them a, if you don't have Hunter Dickinson for the NCAA tournament, I almost feel like you have a better chance of making a second weekend or making an elite eight in a weird way because you're less, you're more matchup proof, but you also have a worse chance of making a final four or something like that because you don't have the star power. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. I think the problem that I would have in just like the lead up to the season or getting my hopes up is I get the pieces

are different, but in some respects, they'd be very similar to what we saw last year when this team got outclassed by Arkansas. Where was that at? Bill South in the tournament though. Yeah. But like, come on, but that was not a team that people were thinking was going to go on a

final four run. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's hard when you see what Yukon did in the tournament to be like, even if they get by Arkansas, it's hard to be like, well,

they would've got through you, you know? Yeah. So I don't, I don't know, man. I just, KJ is such an interesting player because he does everything you want him to do in terms of like ball movement, like probably not a better passing big man. He has improved offensively. He's still very limited. Like we all know that,

but in terms of just knocking down those little floaters and he's great in transition and finishing above the rim, like there's a lot to like, there's a lot to like, but at the end of the day, he is six, five. He's a power forward who can't space the floor. And he's not a great defender either. It's like, oh, like, yeah, you could psych yourself into him being like a mini Draymond Green. Well, Draymond Green's one of the best defenders in the NBA. So like there has to be more than one thing to hang your hat on when you have all of these characteristics that are not prototypical of a player at your position. And it just becomes increasingly difficult.

Because if I told you this, if I was like, hey, what's the perfect lineup around KJ Adams? Let's just say KJ is a non-negotiable. He is going to be in the starting five next year. What is your ideal lineup that you're going to put around him? And you can answer that if you want. But I think the issue is that if I gave you three or four or five other like different types of big men. It would be easier to come up with more options. There isn't just a finite number of options on how to build a championship caliber team around him. And with KJ, I just feel like the options out there are very limited and that makes it

increasingly difficult to try and build whatever your ideal roster is around them. Yeah, no, that's totally fair. I think it just opens you up to play a style of basketball. If you can get another scoring guard in there running a bunch of the pick and rolls, the switchability on defense, if you get the shooting around it, I think it can be deadly, especially if you have a good big man coming off the bench that you know you can switch styles to, which they're going to have a top 10. Is there a chance? Hey, is there a chance? I know you don't want to get probably too ahead

into next season, but is there a chance that if I gave you Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams, and Flory Badunga, that the freshman would be the best option that he might be the easiest player to build around next season? I mean, it's possible, but we've gone through this before.

With freshmen coming in, the hype is always so high. How often do those guys live up to that? And how often it's honestly probably a bigger rate of guys who struggle in year one. And when I look at Flory Badunga, I see a center with who's like six foot eight with an insanely big wingspan, like a seven, four wingspan. Who's got an insanely high motor who can't really shoot it. Who doesn't have a refined offensive game yet, but he's a good shot blocker and rebounder. And when I think of all those things, you know what other center I think of

who was a freshman one and done at Kansas? Sheck Diallo. And he didn't really get on the court much at Kansas. Or Cliff Alexander. You know, take your pick. Here's the problem with what you just said. Are you already putting Flory Badunga on portal watch? Like are we already worried about this guy leaving after his freshman year?

Cause you didn't actually paint a very rosy picture. No, I, I actually, I don't know. I've heard some stuff from, from recruiting people that there is maybe more of an expectation there to be a multi-year player. So I don't know. I don't know. You never know for sure. Ernest Uday was a multi-year player too, Bob.

Yeah. And Ernest Uday, I know for a fact was coming in with the idea of being a one and done so okay you never totally know where things go with that but i i don't know it's almost at this point i'm not even going to project if a player wants to stay or is going to stay more than a year because it's an impossible thing to figure out can we just finish up all right fine fine fine okay no if you have one more thought it better be worth it like we's like we had Joe Ellenbead. He was like the one freshman big guy that Bill Selves brought in that was just aces from day one. And then he like broke his foot and his back with a month to play.

And we were robbed of whatever that would have brought. And since then, all the McDonald's All-American big guys we brought in, like you're flunking out. We're flunking with, but I just want one guy, one guy to come in and hit the ground running. All right, let's finish up.

Whose stat line is it anyway? First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel sports book. Say goodbye to busted brackets because FanDuel lets you bet on every game of the tournament. So you don't have to worry about, Oh, I didn't get the first round pick right, so now I'm not going to get any points in the second round. Well, guess what?

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Right now, if you're still a believer in Kansas to make the final four, plus 700. How about some other big 12 teams though? You got Iowa State at plus 550. Baylor is going off at plus 800. Texas at 22 to one. I don't even know if they're going to make the tournament, but whatever. You can bet on them and plenty others with FanDuel.

Just visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and bet on college hoops until they cut down the Nats FanDuel, an official sports book of Locked On Network. Let's finish things up here with some who's stat line is it anyway? I only have one question for you today and it's a simple one, but it requires five answers. So Hunter Dick that was really simple i know right uh basically this is what is the best five-man lineup according to net rating that kansas has shown that does not include hunter dickinson on the court because they might be without hunter dickinson now this is a

small sample size i will tell you that so you, you don't want to read into it too much necessarily, but if you would like to take a guess, what is the best five-man lineup that does not include Hunter Dickinson? So my, my instant reaction would be that maybe there were some games early when like Katie was racking up impressive wins in the non-con when they were beating you know tennessee and kentucky and uconn indiana maybe like that makes me think like is is el marco jackson in it and i know how you like to play these games it's always like leading to your next point you're gonna be like so like you're gonna be like so i mean like should jank play 30 a night is that really what we're getting at here um so i'm going to go duane harris has to be on the court yes uh i'm assuming kevin mcculler is on the court no you're not going to give me kevin okay wow so

this is this could be a good thing both those guys are out um okay johnny furphy yes kj adams yes um Okay. Johnny Furphy. Yes. KJ Adams. Yes. Is this a small ball lineup? Would it be a small ball lineup? Is, is, is a Marco Jackson a part of this lineup, Derek? Nope.

Okay. I'm really just going to name every player. Yeah. I mean, you have like three players left. You have a name. Jamari McDowell. No.

Okay. Nicholas Timberlake. Yes. Okay okay we're getting somewhere and parker brown yes parker brown is is the correct answer so maybe circling back around um how many minutes has this lineup played now you we can't do this exercise without you telling me that yeah it's uh it's like 12 possessions or something like that. So not very much. But the net rating out of curiosity, the net rating there is plus 13.5. And you might be wondering, okay, is that good?

Is that bad? Here's a graphic which shows all of KU's lineups this year. And this is some of the ones that have played even more possessions and minutes than that one necessarily. So like the DeJuan, El Marco, Kevin McCuller, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson lineup, that one's plus 15.1. The DeJuan, Timberlake, Kevin McCuller, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson lineup, that one's plus 15.2. So it's a little bit above those, but I don't know, maybe not as big of a drop off as you think, I guess. Well, we'll find out. We'll find out because you're right. 12

positions, 12 possessions is what, like 10 minutes into a basketball game, if that. So, uh, we're going to find out exactly how potent this team can be. The thing is that, that is, that is fascinating about it is it's not like, okay, Hunter's out. So this guy has to come in and kind of fill his role. There's nobody else. They're not going to feed Parker Brown in the post. They're not going to really feed KJ in the post. All right, real quick, we got some breaking news, so I just want to touch on this at the end of while we're recording.

Bill Self said Kevin McCuller will not play this week, but that's a positive, too, because everyone thinks that the time off will obviously help him. He will play in the NCAA tournament as well. So, I mean, obviously, if that were the case, that'd be good. But do you think that could just be posturing from Bill Self to make sure the committee doesn't ding them for not having him? Bill Self's savvy like that.

Like, he chooses his public statements very deliberately. Is this at Hawk Talk? Is this where he's talking about this yes so i i wonder if we're gonna get an update on hunter dickinson as well or maybe that'll be more of a because with the k with the with the kevin stuff it's a bone bruise so like you're gonna bang it it's gonna hurt worse you're gonna take some time off it's gonna feel better you're gonna come back you're gonna bang it again it's gonna hurt worse again so like it doesn't surprise me that he's gonna come back because there's never really been any concern that it's going to hurt worse again. So like, it doesn't surprise me that he's going to come back because there's never

really been any concern that it's like a structural issue with his knee Hunter though. Like the thing that's funny about that is like Hunter being out is a much bigger loss. It's a bigger loss. KU completely changes how they play. Like we were just talking about. So I don't know,

like, I don't even know if it would Dean KU having Kevin out versus having Hunter out, where I do think like the committee would seriously have to consider that. All right. He's Nick Schwert. I'm Derek Johnson. Give him a follow at Nick underscore Schwert. Myself at D Johnson Radio.

We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.