Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - NCAA Tournament in Question? Kansas Jayhawks Suffer Worst Loss of Bill Self Era to BYU Cougars

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas absolutely eviscerated, embarrassed by BYU. We get into the game. What it means is Kansas in danger of losing out on their NCAA tournament streak. We'll discuss all that on today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Thank you to every dayers catching each and every episode. Thank you wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Kansas demoralized. I mean, pick a word that you want to talk about and it would probably apply for this one. There's probably some very colorful language that I'm not going to use on the podcast today

Starting point is 00:00:59 that would probably be pretty fitting for how things went here. And if you're watching on YouTube, I think our graphic about sums it up so kansas uh loses big to byu and it i mean i could get into the individual stats i could get into the fact that byu shot you know bonkers from three or i don't know i say bonkers like they're a good three-point shooting team and kansas left them open and stuff i could get into the idea that kansas continues to not be able to get to the free throw line and that Kansas just doesn't have the shooting to consistently space the floor, hit threes at a consistent level. I could get into the idea that we talked about before the game, one of the keys to the game was not turning the ball over and they continue to

Starting point is 00:01:38 have trouble turning the ball over when they're on the road and they did it again against a BYU team that's not particularly great at forcing turnovers and I guess I have been kind of talking about these things and I could talk about the individual performances which we will a little bit along the way here about players who you know struggled and some of that will get intertwined and kind of the big picture stuff but I think when you lose a game like this where you lose by as many points as you do to BYU where you're never in the game, where you get just absolutely destroyed right after you lose a bad game at Utah and right after everything is being questioned,

Starting point is 00:02:11 right after there's rumors coming around from Mike Vernon talking about some blowups in the locker room, so to speak. Like, wherever... After all of this happens, this is not just a game that I'm going to break down what happened in the game. And I don't even know if we're going to get to our game awards. We are going to get to the NCAA tournament discussion and what's next and

Starting point is 00:02:30 everything. But this is just kind of a big picture thing. Like this has to be a big picture conversation. So I'm talking about that. This is just kind of an absolutely stinky team. This is a team that yes, like you can continue to look back if you want and be like, oh, they beat Duke. So like, I still believe in the potential. That was a completely different team than they are now.

Starting point is 00:02:54 That team ain't coming back. That team is dead. The team is dead. What's that Taylor Swift song where she's like, you know, I'm dead or she's dead or you know that that's this kansas team and if there was any question about this team showing any fight after all of those things would happen you got a resounding answer to that the answer was nope because kansas lost 91 to 57 that is a 34 point loss that ties the biggest loss of the bill self era at one point of the game gary baddour tweeted out that uh that they were in danger of losing their biggest game in program history, which was like 40 points in Nebraska, 1900.

Starting point is 00:03:32 I don't know, was that game 40 to 0? It would not shock me if that was the case. So anyway, you lose by 34. That ties the USC loss in the NCAA tournament. And I tweeted this out at D. Johnson Radio that Bill South now has six losses of 29 or more points at Kansas three of them have come in the last two seasons since the calendar year of 2024 four of them have come since 2021 when you include that USC loss this is a bad trend you have now lost 14 of 50 okay let me rephrase that Bill Self has lost 59 games at

Starting point is 00:04:06 Kansas by double digits, so even by 10, which sometimes that's not even a blowout. The game just balloons there with late free throws and stuff, but 24% of those losses have come over the last three seasons, including this one, so this one and the two previous, right? So a quarter of them have come in the last three seasons when he's been at Kansas coaching for over 20 seasons, right? I think this is what, 21? Year 21 for Bilsaft. He's had 41 losses by 13 or more points. 13 of those have come over the last three seasons, which would be almost a third of those. And here's the big one. Bilsaft has had 15 or now 16 losses by 20 or more points in his time at Kansas of those 15 losses by 20 or more points or 16, excuse me, 16 losses by 20 or more points, seven of the 16 losses by 20 or more points for Bill Self and his entire time at Kansas have come in the last three seasons this year and

Starting point is 00:04:59 the two previous years. So, you know, whether you want to talk about the program slipping or this is just this core of players that they've just had a really bad run evaluating talent for a couple years right i mean you're not going to hit every year and maybe all those years where you did hit in a high degree like you were due for a couple years of this being bad i don't know but this is the worst team in the bill self-air i i do know that i do know that i was pushing back on it you know at times throughout the season i thought they were better than last year because you had the injuries because you had more depth on this year's team it doesn't matter this is the worst team of the bill self era and it's not even close and they have kind of quit on the season

Starting point is 00:05:38 the crazy part of this too is bill self at the beginning of this game went with the absolutely wonky starting lineup and we've seen the lineup game with the absolutely wonky starting lineup, and we've seen the lineup before, but the wonky starting lineup, you have DeJuan Harris, Zeke Mayo at the one and two, and then you go with the three big lineup because when you're a team that can't shoot and you're playing a team who can shoot

Starting point is 00:05:56 and is going to space you out, the best thing to do is play three big men. So they play KJ Adams at the three, they play Flory at the four, and Hunter at the five. And play four, but don't get the five and Hunter Dickinson. Or I'm sorry, Flory at the four and Hunter at the five. And, you know, that wasn't the lineup ball game and everything like that. But the crazy thing to me is the intention of that starting line, at least how I read it, was Bill Self saying, you know what, screw this. If we're not going to be very good, like I'm going to go out the way I want to go out. I want to go out swinging.

Starting point is 00:06:23 And these are the guys that I feel like I can get into the foxhole with. These are the guys that, yeah, we might not be able to make this pretty. Our offense might not be very good, but these are the guys that I think are going to try for me and are going to put, you know, the front of the jersey out there and are going to give me the effort that I need that we can just try to ugly up some of these games, right? I'm fine losing 63-58 or I'm fine trying to eke out some of these wins in an ugly way if that's what it takes. And that felt like the intention to me for what Bill Self was doing by starting that starting lineup. But then you go out and you lose by 34. And in a game where you start that starting lineup,

Starting point is 00:07:00 where the idea, again, is to play with more energy and, I don't know, aggressiveness and have more of Bill Self's trust, you get off to a horrible start. You're not checking shooters in the corners who are like elite three-point shooters. You get down 8-0. You get down 22-7. You still look like you're lethargic. You still look like you're making mental lapses. You still are having bad turnovers. It didn't matter. And obviously, tonight was more than just not caring. Like, you don't lose by 34 points by by not I mean that's a big part of it right but like obviously you have a team that's a bad fit playing together you had bad execution it was mental breakdowns it was playing bad and quite

Starting point is 00:07:38 honestly being a bad basketball team right now that is playing an outdated style of basketball you don't get to the free throw line. You don't shoot threes. You don't shoot them well. You shoot a lot of mid-range. And yeah, it's an outdated style of basketball. I know you play two, three big basketball. I think it's safe to say they're just not a good team through the month of February. And one that if the season started, you know, today, if you were to redo the college basketball

Starting point is 00:08:03 season, I don't think this team would end up being an NCAA tournament team. I think they had some good stuff going for them at the beginning of the season that has not carried over at all. And in fact, in a way, like the locker room, players not getting along, whatever it is, has fallen apart. And so, like I said earlier, like the team that beat Duke, this is not the same team at all, obviously. Fortunately, they did build that nest egg early in the season

Starting point is 00:08:26 by beating Duke and beating Michigan State. All that stuff does count. And the NCAA Tournament Committee got rid of, on the team sheets, the last 10 games, which could be very helpful to Kansas. And so going back to the question that I kind of talked about at the beginning here, does this mean Kansas is no longer a guarantee for the ncaa tournament i do think that is a real question like if you know the way they're playing you don't feel like they're guaranteed to win any more games and if they don't win any more games i don't think they're

Starting point is 00:08:59 going to make the ncaa tournament right at that point in time you'd be sitting there it gives away your five games in big 12 play remaining right right? And then you'd have at least one Big 12 tournament game, right? So you're sitting at 17 and nine after the BYU loss. Let's say again, in that hypothetical where you go 0 and 6 down the stretch, you'd be 17 and 15. I don't think that gets you in the NCAA tournament. What's the likelihood you lose every game? I mean, I don't know. If you're playing where you're just quitting, it's hard to win games you know even against lesser opponents like oklahoma state and colorado it's hard to even win those games when you're just kind of quitting so i i don't know i would still think they're going to win one or two down the stretch and if you win one even

Starting point is 00:09:38 you're you know at that point you're 18 and 14 you win two you're 19 and 13 i do think that gets you in with those wins that you had in the non-con because you play in the Big 12. But again, it is ugly, and it's not a guarantee at this point because, yeah, you could hypothetically lose those games. So this team just kind of stinks, man. They're certainly more talented than they play, and they're certainly more talented than the record indicates,

Starting point is 00:09:59 but they're not that talented. And beyond it all, they're a bad fitting team. They're just kind of a summation of Bill Self's recent whiffs in the portal, I think both overall and how he'd use them and how they fit in with the team. And it's a team who doesn't seem to get along. It's a team that doesn't seem to take joy in playing together or bring pride to that Jayhawk logo or the Kansas across the chest in front of the jersey.

Starting point is 00:10:20 There's just too many holes. There's too many things working against them. There's too many questions, too much not caring. And it is more than just one thing being wrong. There's a bunch of things wrong with this team. You can't, in my opinion, just point your finger and say, it's all on that guy or it's all on that thing. It's on, you need all your fingers pretty much, right?

Starting point is 00:10:38 And maybe another hand to be able to do it too. And so you're left with the worst team of the Bill Self-Hero team that is no longer guaranteed to make the NCAA tournament. Even though I still think they will make it. And I think above all. It's just a really bad team to watch. And spend your time. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:10:59 Is brought to you by TurboTax. And you know honestly after watching this game. You need an escape. Taxes. Doing taxes sounds like a better time than watching that game. This is a message from sponsor Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was dealing with piles of paperwork and frustrating forms, and then waiting and wondering and worrying if you were going to get any money back. Now, Taxes is easily uploading your forms to a TurboTax expert

Starting point is 00:11:21 who's matched to your unique tax situation. An expert who's backed by the latest technology, which cross-checks millions of data points for 100% accuracy. While they work on your taxes, you get real-time updates on their progress, and you get the most money back guaranteed. And while you go about your day, no stressing, no worrying, no waiting. Now this is taxes into a TurboTax. Get an expert now on TurboTax.com.

Starting point is 00:11:42 Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com backslash guarantees. I continue on with the show here. Locked on Jayhawks, please subscribe. Thank you for joining us anywhere you get your podcasts or on our YouTube page, KansasLewis91 to 57. I do want to talk a little bit more about that starting lineup here for KU because going back

Starting point is 00:12:07 to the starting lineup, the idea was to go out with the guys you trust. At least that's how I viewed it from Bill's off. I don't think he viewed that. I would hope not. I don't think he viewed that starting lineup as saying, hey, you know, this is going to give us a strategic advantage tonight, or this is our best fitting roster. Again, if that was the case, then I have some other questions. I think this was more so just, him saying hey i don't know that i can trust these other guys and if we're gonna lose we're gonna go out losing my way and i want to send a message to the team and um at the very least if i have guys i can trust like maybe i can call plays one way and maybe we can just grind up the game and find a way to win that way. But to not start the game off with any energy

Starting point is 00:12:47 when you do that just makes it seem like the entire thing is lost. And I think this honestly goes back to me for like the, what I said in the Utah game, after the Utah game, the post game, thank you for an everyday and already caught it. You could have one or two players. If you're playing five people at once, you can have just even one or two players who doesn't care who's missing out on rotations who's making mental lapses who's making physical mistakes who's not hustling as hard as possible and even one or two guys doing that on the court at all times is going to make everybody look like they're playing that way because then it makes all of a sudden if you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing then somebody who is doing what they're supposed to be doing is like oh crap that guy's wide open i'm gonna go try to cover for them and then it looks like

Starting point is 00:13:26 they're scrambling when they were actually doing the right thing you know and so i don't think it's necessarily every player again but it's enough guys and it's enough players who don't seem to be having fun playing together that it does look like everybody and maybe at this point it is seeping into everybody by by just being kind of something that is going around and everything like that. But strategically, if we're talking about the starting lineup, that was a horrible matchup to do it. You're playing a team in BYU who shoots a billion threes and shoots them at a high percentage. And again, BYU knocked them down 14 of 36. Who would have thought 39% from three point range? Who would think that having slower footed big men would make things more difficult? It's like I've said this before, KJ Adams is a very good defender.

Starting point is 00:14:07 The one thing that KJ Adams is not a great defender on is off-ball defense on good three-point shooters. But in this game, they had him doing that. It's like you're taking away your advantages that you're having there. And then furthermore, if you're just going to go, this is what I really don't understand from the starting lineup. If you are going to say, hey, these are the guys I trust. This is going to be our starting lineup. I want to, you know, have the guys who are tough or whatever. I mean, one, I could probably point

Starting point is 00:14:35 to somebody and be like, I don't know, in the starting lineup, if I point to that guy as being like the epitome of, of hustle and of being tough, but you know but we'll leave that alone for right now. If you are just going to go with the guys you trust and want to send a message by making that your starting five, why would you still play the other guys and keep the rotation in a mess? Because you look at the final stats here for Kansas, and I guess it does get a little bit out of sorts because you're in a blowout and so you're throwing out even more different lineups so it's like in a game where you thought okay he's gonna go with this crazy starting lineup he's gonna narrow down the rotations and he's only

Starting point is 00:15:13 gonna play the guys he trusts well he went with that starting lineup but Shaquille Moore played 14 minutes AJ Store played 18 Rakeese Passmore played 12, Ryland Griffin played 14, David Coy played 14. It wasn't a narrowing of the rotation at all. And so that's what I don't get. If the thought process is just go with the guys you trust, cut the rotation to seven. I don't care. Try something, right? If it means AJ Storr gets zero minutes, if it means this guy gets zero minutes, you know what? At this point, try something try something right if that is the avenue you want to go with stick to that avenue or if you want to go with the avenue where it's like hey we're going to let aj store and rylan griffin play 30 minutes a night and just see what happens

Starting point is 00:15:53 then go with that avenue but you can't be middling it and that's what they're trying to do right now so that's why i didn't understand the starting lineup and then the continuation of that and it's not like the aj store minutes for instance were something special like store was was bad in this game he had four turnovers in 18 minutes um he was one for five from the floor i mean a lot of ku players were bad right i mean hunter dickinson um goes five of 13 so he continued on his his struggle shooting the ball and just looked like he didn't want to be there at different points he was minus 39 on the box score for KU nobody else was uh minus 30 or below DeJuan Harris who you know I do think hustled a little bit he had seven assists but it seemed like early in the game DeJuan was like hey I'm gonna try to be a scoring point guard and that ain't the game get two points on one of

Starting point is 00:16:39 seven like that wasn't good I can keep going down the line I don't need to do this because really nobody played I guess David Coy had a good game for KU off the bench and it was nice to see Rylan Griffin hit a couple threes. But like this wasn't anything that I can point to and say these individual players.

Starting point is 00:16:52 Point being, I just don't understand. Like pick a side, pick a side of the aisle, I guess, so to speak, on what the logic is there. And I do think I have one other kind of big picture thought. And this is something

Starting point is 00:17:04 that goes back to what I think with DeJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson struggling. It's not impossible, actually, to play two big basketball. Now, tonight was a different thing, right? You started three big basketball, which that I think is kind of impossible in today's day and age, but it's not impossible to play two big basketball in today's day and age. I mean, Houston is one of the best teams in the country they play two bigs who can't shoot now you could say that uh in the case of juwan roberts like he can at least like take a guy off the dribble from the high post and power into him and he has that little you know runner shot that he banks in so like it gives him at least enough offense but neither of their big men are are knocking down consistent mid-range shots or three-point shots the reason why they make it

Starting point is 00:17:50 work is i mean there's a lot of reasons they make it work one they're you know so good at getting offensive rebounds so they take advantage of playing two-big basketball which katie doesn't always do but they have scoring guards around the two bigs right emmanuel sharp is a flamethrower when he gets going lj crier same thing and milos uzon has has fit in seamlessly for them and can score from different levels and they've got guys off the bench who can score from the guard positions if you have guys who can get buckets for you at the guard positions you can play two big basketball right in specific settings you think back to, I guess, I don't know, there have been teams recently, like whether it's North Carolina,

Starting point is 00:18:29 if you want to go back to like some Roy Williams days, or if you want to even go back, like, I don't know, if you want to look at the Duke team that lost to Kansas in the Elite Eight, I know they lost to a Kansas team in the Elite Eight, but like that was a one-two matchup that they lost, and over time they played two bigs. I don't know. You see teams be able to do it, point being.

Starting point is 00:18:45 But again, it goes back to the idea you better have scoring guards around it and the problem is dewan harris is not a scoring guard and you saw that in this game and so it's like this is what i've kind of been saying all along and a lot of people have been echoing and saying and stuff like that it's that if you have dewan harris on a team with a bunch of scores around him it works unfortunately that's not this team if you have hunter dickinson with a bunch of i around him, it works. Unfortunately, that's not this team. If you have Hunter Dickinson with a bunch of, I don't know, scoring wings who can defend, like you look at his first year at Michigan, he had Franz Wagner, who is a great all-around wing, and then I think it was Isaiah Livers, the other, who was a scoring and defense wing. You have two-way wings. It can work with Hunter Dickinson. Kansas doesn't have that.

Starting point is 00:19:22 You can make it work with KJ Adams, right? If you play him in a specific role and have the right personnel around him, Kansas doesn't have that personnel or play him in the right role. And then you combine all three and it doesn't work. I don't even know if it works with two of the three, but the problem is you have all three on the same roster when you could make any one of those individuals. If you just had the choice, there were three pathways and each pathway led to a different way and you had one player on each pathway i think you could make any of the three pathways work i don't think you can make it work with all three guys and that is kind of another big picture thing that has been happening all season long and i think you saw a

Starting point is 00:19:58 little bit more of in this game all right what's next for kuU besides feeling like a funeral? This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for joining us on this depressing episode of Locked on Jayhawks. I will say there is a little bit of a freeing feeling of this game, at least for me. I don't know. Because it was after the Utah game. I was like, yeah, I think the title of the thumbnail was Rock Bottom. And I wasn't really expecting them to win this game, but if you do win this game, maybe you get your hope back up.

Starting point is 00:20:32 I don't know. I think people's hope is kind of cratered at this point for this season, and so it's just like, okay, well, now you don't have to get ultra invested where you're not living and dying with every win and loss. I don't know. I say that, and then you're going to get to the next game, and you're going to get your hopes back up again because that is just the nature of things.

Starting point is 00:20:47 You've seen so many great memories with Kansas basketball that you're not going to remove yourself from the hope that easily. Anyway, what is next for Kansas? It's Oklahoma State on Saturday. Home game. Is there any? Okay, so I think when you look at what's coming up here for Kansas, obviously the NCAA tournament streak.

Starting point is 00:21:02 Is that going to continue for KU? As I laid out earlier, I think if you can win two games, you're for sure good there. If you win one game, I think you're okay, but you'd definitely be leaving it up a little bit for interpretation. If you lose every game, I think you're out. So I think they're going to be okay, but it's not a guarantee. So that streak, I guess, is in jeopardy for now, even if it's unlikely. But you lose this game on Saturday, then it does become like a real conversation i think uh because this is your most winnable game remaining on saturday at home and then the other streak that will be in jeopardy will be the senior day streak which that one

Starting point is 00:21:34 almost feels like i mean arizona is a really good team you're playing at home i don't know we'll see how that one goes for ku and then um the other streak that that you're talking about possibly not getting is the seasons of winning 20 or more games, which I think that goes back to the 88-89 season when they missed the tournament. Obviously, they were ineligible that year. I want to say they won 19 games that year, and that was when you were playing less games, I believe.

Starting point is 00:22:00 So that one would break here if you're Kansas. The other streak that could be interesting i think it's going to be okay saturday but like i do have a is it going to be a sellout i don't know i don't know i mean the the cum rating of this team is is so far down and it's not like you know i i've had plenty of conversations with ku fans over the the weeks about you know some of the the ku basketball teams that, because it's weird. You still look at it, and they were four seed in that NCAA tournament reveal. And obviously, with the result of Saturday and tonight, maybe now they're more of like a six seed.

Starting point is 00:22:36 Who knows? Maybe even a seven seed. But you could still go back into, you know, some of the later Roy Williams days at Kansas. Like, you look at the 1999-2000 season, they got an eight seed. You look at that 98-99 season, they got a six seed. And so you think about it from that vantage point and you're like, well, is this really as bad as those? I think it's worse, one, because you're tanking in you do get an eight seed i mean that team still went 24 and 10 it's just that and you just had a bunch of freshmen on the team like your freshman nick calls and freshman drew good into where it was like okay at the very least you know even this team's an eight seed they're built into something and i'm getting a four seed the next year make back-to-back final fours the rest is history right that's not the case with this team it's

Starting point is 00:23:21 the most experienced team in the country you're're not building to something. This is what you were supposed to be built to. And it has all come crumbling down. What is the highest level of earthquake? It's not an F scale. Seven? I don't know. Whatever. That's what it is for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:23:36 So, yeah. Not a fun one. Kansas bad tonight against BYU. And might just be bad the rest of the way. All right. We'll see you later this week. We are going to talk because I think it's interesting, especially now, what KU players do you want to come back

Starting point is 00:23:49 on the roster and build around Darren Peterson? Because even though there is a big stink on this team, I do think there are some players that you'd like to have back to build around the roster. Bill Suff has done better with players returning in the program. So we'll get to that on Thursday's episode, and then on Friday we'll have a KU Oklahoma State preview. And you can catch all that right here,

Starting point is 00:24:09 anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - NCAA Tournament in Question? Kansas Jayhawks Suffer Worst Loss of Bill Self Era to BYU Cougars

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.