Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - No Self, No Problem: Kansas SECURES Road Win at Colorado in Jacque Vaughn's Head Coaching Debut

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks rally past Colorado behind Melvin Council’s second-half surge and interim coach Jacque Vaughn’s debut victory, as KU fans wonder about KU’s outlook without Bill Self. Can the Jayhawks keep momentum on the road and overcome key injuries?Derek Johnson breaks down Kansas’ 75-69 win, spotlighting Tre White’s dominant 17-point, 15-rebound performance and standout contributions from Flory Bidunga and Darryn Peterson—who fought through a tough ankle injury. Analysis covers KU’s defensive adjustments, the switch-heavy scheme, and the impact of low turnovers forced. The episode explores the coaching decisions, Jacque Vaughn’s candidacy, and upcoming challenges, including a rivalry clash against Kansas State. Will KU’s road resilience continue with lingering injury and coaching uncertainties?Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Melvin Council, Jock Vaughn, and KU helped the Jayhawks get it done on the road. Big win at Colorado. And I'm ready to go to bed, but not yet. So we got to recap the game. 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 with Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

And thank you the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. show as well as making locked on the number one sports podcast network. On today's episode of the show, we recap KU's victory at Colorado, Nobel self, Jack Vaughn filled in. We saw some injury stuff with Darren Peterson. There was a lot to talk about in this game. So let's just get right into it. Then we'll get to our game awards and what's next, all that coming up as usual. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook with obviously the divisional round of playoffs coming up. We got college basketball and full swing. FanDuel is the best place to get in on the action. So visit fanduel.com to get your profit boosts and different action throughout the 2026 sports season.

Okay, so KU wins at Colorado and a game that was kind of a tale of two halves like KU struggled to stop Colorado in the first half, though KU's offense was able to put up 40 points in the first half to still maintain the lead. And then in the second half, it became more about, you know, making some stops on Colorado. It seemed like Colorado didn't make as many. of the good looks as they made in the first half. That was part of it. But it also felt like KU had a lot of blocks. It felt like KU stepped up the defense. I think at one point late in the second half, Colorado,

had like 11 straight misses coming down to the wire before, you know, kind of got to garbage time and, you know, they're fouling and making shots and stuff like that. So that's kind of what turned it. But, you know, obviously everybody wanted to know who was going to be the head coach for Kansas when it was announced that Bill's health was going to miss this game. and obviously he has the health situation. Now, we've since heard an update from KU in that he's expected to return to practice later this week. Now, as part of that, we've not seen in the update is he expected to return to the game on Saturday at Kansas State.

So that'll be very interesting what happens there for KU and how long does Bill Self wind up being out essentially because of coaching stuff. The one thing that's interesting is obviously it was kind of going around is we saw the dispatch was called for chest pains. We know that the release mentioned more just being under the weather and an IV. I don't know what the connection is there or if one's just a false alarm or not, but you would think if it's just under the weather and an IV, you would think he would be coaching on Saturday. So that worries me a little that maybe there's more to it than just that. But I guess we'll kind of wait and see on that and hope that, you know,

Bill Self comes back and more importantly for his specific health, he's all right and everything. So anyway, that puts you in a position where, okay, who is going to be the head coach? I think most fans wanted it to be Jock Vaughn, right? Because he could potentially be the next coach for Kansas. And obviously by title, Jeremy Case is the associate head coach. But it wound up being Jock Vaughn as the guy. And I'd be very curious, like, was that a conversation of, you know, was Bill Self like, hey, let's just make it the associate head coach, Jeremy,

or let's make the longtime, you know, an assistant, Curtis Townsend, or did he want Jock Vaughn to step up because he's been a head coach at the NBA level? So like he'd be suited for this. Or was this brought on by, you know, the athletic? department or was it a joint conversation i don't know i'd just love to be kind of like in the in the meeting room to see how that that conversation came up but i think this is the result the k u fans wanted to see and jock von ends up you know now one and oh as the uh kansas head coach right um and i i think that it's hard to evaluate like the the people who are staunch hey jock vaughan

should be the next coach for kansas next head coach for kansas versus the people who are like no like just to hire the best candidate you can get it, doesn't have to be somebody within the family. I don't get this game is going to like sway your opinion one way or the other because like the staunch supporters are going to be like, well look like they won on the road like Kansas has been struggling when on the road. They won on the road with Jacques Vaughn and there were some nice plays like after timeouts and stuff. The staunch defenders against it might be like, okay, but it's a win at Colorado and like how

much of the game planning was really like the game planning was probably done even partially by Bill Self. coming into this game, like how much was there really an impact on this one specific game, right? So I don't know. Like, again, you want Bill Self to come back. You want Bill Self to be healthy. But like, if you are evaluating Jacques Vaughn's candidacy, he has head coach, and who knows?

Like, does he, is that something he even wants or is he going to want to go back to the NBA? You know, does it behoove you to have a couple extra games of tape on Jock Vaughn here? Again, you want Bill Self back. Like, that is the first priority. But in some way, could it be a blessing in disguise? I don't know. That's just trying to be optimistic about things, right? The biggest positives from the game beyond Jack Vaughn getting that win in his debut, and I thought he, you know, acquitted himself well for what it's worth.

The second half defense was obviously one of those for KU. Like you look at Colorado. So in the second half alone, Colorado was at 31% from the floor. You compare that to the first half. Colorado was 40%. You look at three point range. Colorado was 43% in the first half. They were 29% in the second half.

Um, so it definitely did seem like KU's defense picked up. But again, I thought Colorado missed some decent looks in the second half. So that obviously helped with that, but it felt like at least the interior defense picked up for KU in the second half. And maybe that would be another, you know, tally in the mark of what Jock Vaughn helped do in this game. Like did he make some adjustments at halftime that helped KU get over the edge, right? Um, also road Melvin council continues to be a thing. He's been so important for KU in this road games. Now, obviously if you're looking at like the split stats, like you're going to,

to wind up with, oh, Melvin Council's stats look better on the road, you say? Well, duh, because they played six games on the road versus 12 games at home, and he had 36 points in one of his road games. So, of course, he's averaging 17 and a half points for game coming into this one on the road compared to 11 at home, right? That's just kind of how it works. But still, the overall stats look good on the road, and that continued in the first half was a bit more of a struggle for Melvin.

He was missing some shots, and then in the second half, he goes four of six from the floor, 10 points in the second half. This was another one of those classic Melvin counsel's second half kind of pick you up when you really need it moments, which really continues to endear him to the fan base. I think in general, one of the other biggest positives of this game was getting

Flory involved offensively in the second half. That was something where it felt like he wasn't really getting involved offensively in the first half, right? But he ends up with nine points on four or four shooting in the second half had some of the biggest makes of the game. Colorado is double teaming. Darren Peterson, on top of it, Peterson's dealing with

you know, the rolled ankle and stuff. So they're making him less viable of an option. And Kansas had to counter. They had to find other guys to go to while Melvin Council, Ford Padunga, like those guys stepped up in a real way. And then the last one I would say is this. The fact that Darren Peterson like kept coming back into the game, right? I mean, that was a bad twist in ankle, man.

It would have been really easy to cut things down. So credit to him for coming back. Obviously hated that it has. happened like one of the biggest negatives of the game was that it did happen. One of the biggest positives, though, is that he kept playing and obviously ended up making a three banked it in after that. But it's going to be interesting because a lot of times those rolled ankles, we saw it to a less, to a more extreme extent with Bo Nex, right? And the, the AFC division around Bo Nex fractured his ankle and he like kept playing on it. I don't think Peterson fractured his ankle, but he might just sprained it like that looked pretty darn bad.

And a lot of times those ankles, it's one of those things where it's like, okay, when you stay. on it. You know, you can deal with it, but after you let it sit and then it starts the swell, Peterson might end up missing some action because of that ankle. So we'll kind of wait and see. That would certainly be unfortunate to not have them with this upcoming big stretch, but, you know, got to make sure he's healthy, right? But it was good to see him kind of fight through that stuff. And I think that hopefully endeared it to KU fans. I know, you know, some KU fans have been questioning like, you know, what's going on here? But some of the cramping stuff, but I think that should be a good indication that he is tough and he is a competitor, right?

Other biggest negatives in this one, I don't know. Why did KU go back to switching five, right? I don't know if that was a Joch Fawn decision. I don't know if that was a Bill Self, like pregame decision. They wanted to go back. And it wasn't the full game. It just felt like at times in this one, KU was switching five and then Colorado was hunting whatever guard they could get on a KU big man. and that was a recipe for not success for the KU defense, right?

So I feel like KU made strides defensively that the previous games when they were just switching kind of one through three or at times one through four when it was just one big man. And it felt like they kind of went away from that a little bit in this game. I don't know, maybe it was just part of the game and Colorado was just doing well there so it starts to stand out a little bit more. Maybe that was part of the adjustment in the second half because it didn't seem like it was happening as much in the second half, but I did think that was interesting.

Then the other one is turnover defense. That's been an issue for KU this year, not forcing enough steals or turnovers. There's been some bright moments here, there, but this was not one of them. Only three turnovers forced at Colorado that normally is not going to get it done for you on the road playing defense. But bottom line here is this. I mean, doing it without Bill Self, like that adds another level of, okay, just find a way to win. You're without Bill Self. Darren Peterson gets hurt at one point.

just find a way to win, right? That's true no matter what. But especially on the road in the Big 12, it's the same notion. Just find a way to win the game. And you're playing on the road in the big 12th, just in general, but also with KU's recent road struggles. And they found a way to do that. They won 75 to 69. And this was a game that I know it was close for a lot of it and pretty much the whole game. But KU was in control, 35 minutes and 23 seconds with the lead. Colorado only led for two minutes. So that's impressive to me. to be able to do that on the road. And for a KU team that was one and three on the road,

and had their road struggles over the last three seasons to get that done here in Boulder. Was a good sign for Jock Fawn's first performance as the interim head coach, I guess, for KU and Bill Self. Let's continue on with our moments and plays of the game. Stad of the game awards. We'll give out game balls, what's next for KU, all that and more.

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Do you want to get the ad-free version of Lockdown Jhawks? Well, you can do that by hitting this up in the show notes or going to Lockdownpodcast.com slash everydayer and you get an invite to the Lockdown Everyday or Club Discord server, which includes a group chat for just our Jayhawk fans. Lockdownpodcast.com slash every dayer. Okay, moments and plays of the game. I thought there was that one stretch where KU hit three straight threes. It wasn't three straight. It was like they had three straight scoring possessions that were threes. There were a couple misses in between there. But specifically the Darren Peterson back-to-back threes of those, that was very early in the game. He made it like 11 to, I don't know, 114, 117 or something like that. I don't know.

It's late at night and, you know, it's happened ages ago. But the one that really stood out to me, and that was just, you know, kind of good setting the tone. Colorado was playing that kind of extended out, like almost like a, I don't know, like a one-three-one kind of look at kind of this zone defense. And a lot of times in college, it's like you get that first ball reversal against the zone. and the guy's just going to grab the ball and kind of survey and look around and then you're going to have the long winded passing and trying to find an open shot against his zone. And Darren Peterson just, he's just like, oh, yeah, that's a pretty good look against his own. I'll just take it. And he knocks it down. And that is not a shot that you see college

guys take very often. Like that was a pro take for Darren Peterson. And I don't know, I just really appreciated that. And then we're going to fast forward to the second half. It was 4844. Jamari McDowell actually gives up a bucket at the other end right after this, but he hit a big corner three to make it 51 to 44 right before that. That was a key moment. Really key moment to when Flory Bedungo wins kind of a hustle wall for KU on the defense end, dives on the floor, saves it to counsel. Moments later as he's jogging up the floor, gets down low, counsel delivers it to him,

and then Florey makes an and one and makes the free throw to make it 56-49. That gave KU a little bit of breathing room. then Colorado gets to a point where I think it was like a nine to two run. They tighten things up and they make it 60 to 59. So I guess in 11 to 4 run or a 9 to 2 run. And Bryson Tiller gets a big block, which then Melvin Council gets the ball out in transition. Euro steps through and makes a bucket. And then Melvin counsel gets a steal that he probably should have been whistled because he was out of bounds when he did it.

But credit to him for grinding his way to it and then scores another bucket. And that was a huge 4-0 run for KU to make it 64-59, right? And then I think kind of a forgotten play is it was right after the under four timeout, Colorado shooting two free throws with I think it was McKaley. and he makes the first run. So it's 64 to 60. Second one he misses. And it's kind of a, not a guaranteed rebound for KU

between Trey White and Bangat Doc. And White kind of reels it in with one arm. And that was a really big moment because if Colorado gets that rebound with Doc, you already have a one point possession. You have a chance to make it, especially on those scrambles, you have a better chance at getting an open three or something.

And you could have really, transition the momentum. That was a really big rebound by Trey White. And then I think you get the Darren Peterson Bank three to make it 69 to 60 and then the exclamation point dunk by Melbourne Council that gets you to 75 and wins the game for KU. So a lot of good moments there. I think overall, though, you have to look at the council kind of swing that turn the game. And let's bring that into awards real quick because I do think I do want to mention this. I do think KU gets an award for a little bit of a friendly whistle at times in this game, right? That was a super helpful thing that that was not called out of bounds or whatever that call would have ended up being with Melvin Council. Maybe a couple

plays like, okay, could that have been a gold hand? Could it not have been in general that happened in this game? Obviously, if you're looking at at player fouls for the game, like Colorado had 16 of them, Kansas had 15 of them. So it's not that big of a difference if you're looking at that perspective, but there were a few calls that helped gay you. And obviously, there's going to be missed calls on everybody. I normally don't talk about the refs a ton. The question to me becomes this. Like, there's going to be, can we just be like honest about this? There's going to be games over the course of a season where you're going to get screwed by the whistle. And there's going to be games over the course of the season where you get a friendly whistle.

It could just be two plays, but it could be two key plays, kind of like this one. And then there's going to be some game, most of the games are going to be kind of, you know, back and forth or whatever. The question is what you do, what do you do about it? You know, and the games that you're getting screwed over, do you not let it affect you and bother you and still grind through? And the games where you get benefited by it, do you take advantage of it.

That's what the best teams do, right? This isn't a, this is an NBA 2K where you can get the same whistle every game. That's just not how it works. So if we can be real about this, did Kansas take advantage of it? They absolutely did. And credit to them for doing that. other awards in this game the fran can't help himself award i mean just in general talking about a lot of that stuff um but the worst was when he went on that like two minute tirade on should this been a goalt then

should have not have been they should have made the call so that they could review blah blah blah and meanwhile Darren peterson rolls his ankle becomes kind of the story of the game and it's just like oh doesn't even get brought up and then they come back from break and bring it up like come on what are we doing here what are we doing here um next award we have is our Wiggins' second jump award. If you remember Andrew Wiggins, it was always noted by Bill Self for having like the best second jump he's ever coached that,

you know, he could quickly get back up to that second jump. And Darren Peterson missed that one mid-range shot at one point and ended up going getting his own miss and tipping it back in to make it 44-41. I thought that was kind of a little bit reminiscent there. All right, let's give out some game balls, offense, defense overall,

and what's next for KU. Next. Thanks for joining us here on Lockdown, Hawks making us your first listen every day. Don't forget you can check out Locked on College Football. Recap the season or Locked on College of Basketball. Gets you ready for the final push of the College of Basketball season once college football season ends right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network.

And thanks for making it the number one sports podcast network. Okay, let's get about some game balls for KU. So let's start with the offensive game ball for the Jayhawks. So Trey White scores 17 points on six fuel attempts. That is super efficient. He was nine of ten on free throws. So he got there a lot. and he made them a lot.

And a lot of those free throw attempts, too, came at key moments where it felt like the game was getting back really close. It was back to a two-point game or something. And he was able to just kind of steady things and get KU to the free throw line and make an efficient shot. He also had two offensive rebounds. I mean, overall, try what I had 17 and 15. That is an incredible game.

But if we're just talking to offensive game ball here, 17 points on six attempts, 50% from the floor, 50% from 3, 90% at the foul line. He had two offensive rebounds. He had four assists. It's going to be hard to be. beat that, right? But here's your other candidates. Melvin counsel at 18 points. He was seven of 13. He has some of the biggest shots of the game. And he has three assists, right? So that would certainly be in contention here. Darren Peterson gritted his way in injury and still at 16 points.

He had two offensive rebounds. So that would be in contention. And then Florey, if we're just talking the second half, if we're talking second half, Florey, you're getting nine points on four four shooting. For the game, he also had two offensive rebounds and he had two assists. So those guys you're kind of looking at here. To me, it mostly comes down to White versus Counsel for the argument of most impactful on the offensive end. Counsel had the biggest moments of the game, but I think the consistent force throughout the game was Trey White. I'm going to give Trey White the offensive game ball here for KU. Defensive game ball for KU becomes interesting because you look at Flore you have in four blocks, and that was huge. Tiller had one block.

Andy had a steal, and then Melvin Council had two. steals. Not a ton of steals overall for KU. It honestly felt like Hans had more than five blocks, to be completely honest. But you look at the stats, the blocks that Florey and Tiller put up, but it doesn't tell the full story of the game because Colorado was able to, you know, get switches with guards onto the bigs and put them in uncomfortable situations and score. But it's like, is that on Florian Tiller? Is that on the scheme? Or like, how do you, how do you account for that when assigning a defensive game ball essentially here, right? But I do think in general, like you look at Ransich, he goes just three of 10.

He had 19 points in Allen Fieldhouse last year. You look at Bangat Doc. He had just six points on three of 12 shooting. So, yes, the KU Biggs at times when they had to switch five got targeted by the other guards, but that to me feels more like a scheme thing than it does what they did. because the fact that the Colorado front line didn't go off. And in fact, that kind of, I mean, that's six of 22 from their starting four and five. And then it combined five blocks in a steel makes me want to give it to Tiller and Bedunga for the defensive game ball here.

We'll do a split to the KU front court, even though it led to call, like, I'm basically assigning me blame for the issues KU had to the scheme as opposed to the players, if that kind of makes sense. Okay, overall game ball, I think that has to go Trey White as well. Again, if you want to make the argument of just like gritting it out and give that to Darren Peterson, if you want to make the argument of the important plays of the game and counsel had 18.7 rebounds, three assists, two steals. So he filled it up as well. I get it. But Trey White had 17 points, 15 freaking rebounds.

He had 13 of KU's 36 defensive rebounds. He had 15 of KU's 45 rebounds. He also led the team in assists. Second on the team in points. Tray White is the game ball winner of this one. All right, what's next for KU? So they're going to be on the road at Kansas State coming up on Saturday. And is Bill's off going to be on the sidelines of that, right?

That'll be kind of a big question there, right? And obviously, look, at Kansas State, they just beat Utah tonight. Their team that's struggled so far this season. But that almost makes them even more dangerous in this game because, like, if they're not going to be an NCAA tournament team, this becomes what they have to play for. Like seriously. And it becomes a very difficult situation because they always go all out in this game. They've beaten you three straight times in Manhattan. And you've had your struggles on the road. You just won one on the road. Can you show consistently consistency and win another one on the road?

You've now won three straight games overall. You're starting to build momentum. Don't suffer a setback in Manhattan. Go out win the game. We'll both of stuff be there. That'll be a big question. Darren Peterson be there, right? Is the ankle going to get worse and swell up over the next couple days? That'll be a big question. A lot of storylines kind of coming into this one for KU. On paper, they're going to be favored. But, you know, rivalry games, throw it out the wind or whatever the old cliche is there. I don't know for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. If you did not stay up all the way for the game, then I hope this, you know, gives you a recap of everything that kind of happened throughout the game. And make sure you're subscribed to the show. I am going to bed. See you next time on LOJ.