Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #1 Kansas Jayhawks Led by Dickinson, Harris Over #17 Kentucky Wildcats in Champions Classic

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas defeats Kentucky in the Champions Classic 89-84, back and forth game. Jayhawks grind it out, find a way to win. We're discussing on today's edition of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:21 your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day, free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:48 We're breaking down the game. Kansas 89, Kentucky 84 in the Champions Classic. Number one team in the country moves to 3-0 on the season in an impressive win over a Kentucky team that I think is much better than their ranking of number 17. But we'll get into that as part of the recap. First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 if your team wins. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started today. So Kansas, again, wins by five here. And it was, I don't't know a game that KU started off as as good as you could to open up the game with with the 9-0 lead or 9-1 lead and then Kentucky you know starts to look really good they start hitting a bunch of threes they start showing

Starting point is 00:01:38 off their speed you start making some mistakes turning the ball over doing some little things and then you go down at half is a big three by Hunter Dickinson, I guess really five-point swing by Hunter Dickinson at the end of the first half to kind of get you back in it. But then Kentucky balloons the lead a little bit again in the second half. And then you just chip back. You get it within striking distance. You're down six with, you know, around five minutes to go. And then DeJuan Harris just goes bonkers from three-point range.

Starting point is 00:02:02 Do you think Antonio Reeves is regretting firing up DeJuan Harris? Because I certainly think he is. That was an over-my-dead-body game from two guys, Hunter Dickinson and DeJuan Harris. And then your third guy, Kevin McCuller, had a triple-double, and KJ Adams played really well too. So I think it was pretty apparent in this game that Kentucky is a good basketball team. They have a lot more spacing and speed and athleticism than we're used to. And that was even without some of their seven-footers. Although, you know, there is a part of me that thinks Kansas would have actually fared better if Kentucky did have their seven-footers,

Starting point is 00:02:33 just in terms of they would have played a more traditional game. And for Kansas this year, I think they're going to struggle more with the teams that can spread you out and shoot a bunch of threes. And that allowed Kentucky to do that. But even then, Kentucky is going to end up being, I think, a top 10 team when you add on the seven footers with all the athleticism. So for you to beat a really good opponent here who was hitting a bunch of threes early really speaks well to what you can possibly be as a team. It wasn't perfect. There were some defensive breakdowns. There were too many open shots that you gave up to Kentucky that led to a lot of the

Starting point is 00:03:02 threes and some second half shots that they ended up having good looks led to a lot of the threes and, you know, some second half shots that they ended up having good looks, but just didn't knock down like they did in the first half. You missed a good amount of free throws. You know, there were stretches in the first half where you didn't do a great job rebounding the basketball is if you're watching on YouTube, we're pulling up the kind of final stats from this one. But, you know, even though it's not perfect, that's it's not supposed to be. It's early in the season, right? I mean, you had some sloppy turnovers. You only are able to force eight from Kentucky.

Starting point is 00:03:30 There was a lot of things you did well as part of this game, too. And if Kansas ended up losing this game, it would be easy to look back and just be like, OK, well, you know, look back to the 2019 Champions Classic. KU loses in a close game to duke because they have a billion turnovers and then they end up being the best team in the country or heck look back to the last time you lost in kentucky 2022 you get housed in allen fieldhouse that team ended up winning the national title so if you lost this game it wasn't to be all end all and for the same reason we should probably have the same process kansas winning this game does not guarantee that

Starting point is 00:04:03 yeah they see uh everything's great. Like they, they for sure are the best team in the country. Like, you know, they can lose to Marquette in the second game of the Maui Invitational next week. They can lose to Purdue or UCLA or Gonzaga, right? Like it doesn't make them impenetrable, but it's a really nice resume win early in the season. Boosts up your quad one wins as the year goes on and shows you what you can be, even though you didn't play a perfect game and there were moments where you felt like things were going great, you still found a way to win in a lot of those ways. So it's usually hard to win a game when you're giving up kind of the math game

Starting point is 00:04:36 and the three-point differential. Kansas goes just 6 of 18 from three, which is crazy. They went 1 of 12 from three without DeJuan Harris. DeJuan Harris went 5 of 12 from three without DeJuan Harris. DeJuan Harris went five of six and three. And the one miss from DeJuan was that late shot clock on KU's last offensive, I guess, real offensive possession where he just had to take it. So he was on one today. Rest of the team, not so much.

Starting point is 00:04:56 Kentucky wound up 12 of 38 from three, so just about 32%. They killed you in the first half with nine of them. One thing that's becoming apparent, though, and I don't know, we've talked about this in seemingly every game recap and everything coming up is that KU has been dominant at two-point shooting. I mean, Kentucky shoots like 34% on two-point shots in this game. Kansas, meanwhile, you're looking at them going 22 of 41, so well over 50%, and that backs up what they've done in each of their

Starting point is 00:05:25 games from two-point range so far. So like it's Hunter Dickinson inside. It's KJ Adams bullying smaller players inside. It's DeJuan Harris or Kevin McCullough being able to penetrate and get an easy bucket for someone else. And Marco Jackson occasionally is being able to get inside. They are a dominant two-point team on both sides of the ball right now. And, yes, you do have your concerns about the shooting and three-point defense and some of the things that you showed in this game that you should get better at as the season goes on because we are still in just game three. But that's a great place to start for a team.

Starting point is 00:05:56 That's a great place to start for a KU team as part of this one. And, you know, they were able to dominate the points in the paint 42-24. And, you know, in the end, you hold points in the paint 42 to 24. And, you know, in the end you hold Kentucky, it wasn't your best overall defensive game, but when you say you held them to 33% from the fields and you held them to O of their last eight and you finished on an 11 to one run to finish the last two 59, boy, did you defend when it kind of counted here, which is kind of the most important thing. So big picture, again, this is not the be-all end-all for KU because of the fact that there is so much that you kind of have in front of

Starting point is 00:06:30 yourself here moving forward. And the Maui Invitational is going to serve as even more opportunities to get better and play good teams. And then you have Connecticut and Indiana and Missouri and the Big 12, right? Like there's so much to go from here. But if we're just evaluating what we saw today, you know, yeah, there is those kind of ups and downs, but you get the win, which kind of glosses over some of this more. And now you're six back again of Kentucky in the all-time win total. You know, Bill Self gets his fourth straight win in the Champions Classic, another win against John Calipari head-to-head. And it just feels like you kind of cement yourself as that number one team in the poll, at least for the time being,

Starting point is 00:07:07 before you do head over to Maui. So really important because when you do look at that Maui field, it would be easy to lose two games. Not that I'm predicting Kansas to lose two games. The odds are against that, but how easy would it be to lose to number four Marquette and then lose to number 11 Gonzaga in back-to-back games? Like that would not be an indictment on a team that's going to happen. Like some good team is going to lose two games, maybe even three in the Maui Invitational this year. So to have this win now under your belts and to get there knowing that,

Starting point is 00:07:38 you know, even if something like that does happen, that you're still going to be okay. I think that's part of the importance of this one too for KU. But yeah, overall, man, I just go back into it. Hunter Dickinson, that's why you acquired him. That's why there was the fanfare and the hoopla and the hype about getting this kid because in a Bill self-sit, like he was already a great player. He could take over a big game. And in a Bill self-sit, not only did he take over a big game, he did a Nick Collison, 27 and 21 for Hunter Dickinson. But again, again man DeJuan Harris like that dude just doesn't let you lose 23 points five of six from three seven assists Kevin McCuller gets a triple double for you I have some questions about the bench right now I think

Starting point is 00:08:16 it can get better as the season goes on because it's a young bench so I expect that to be better for KU but uh if you're looking at the stats on our YouTube page KU was outscored by their bench 31 to 4 in this game now KU is obviously going to play the at the stats on our YouTube page, KU was outscored by their bench 31-4 in this game. Now, KU is obviously going to play the starters a good amount, but by the way, shout out to Jamari McDowell getting in there at the end, and he was able to play four minutes for you. Maybe Jamari ends up being the KJ Adams freshman role this year. If you remember, we're going back to KJ Adams freshman year for the KU team that won a title two years ago.

Starting point is 00:08:41 KJ would come in for the last, I don't know, two minutes of a game. He might have a game here or there where he fits a specific role that you needed from him. And I know part of it was, was kind of forced because of the KJ Adams foul out of the game, but comes in just to play defense for you and help you close out a game. That's a good place to be because it shows Bill self trust you. And even if it's not a huge role in year one,

Starting point is 00:09:01 it usually shows that you're going to have a much bigger role in year two, which we'll wait and see what that with Jamari McDowell. But again, Kansas wins 89-84. Let's get to our GOATs of the game. What stood out? Who was the best player for KU? What went wrong for KU, even in the win on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks? First, this episode of the show is brought to you by eBay Motors.

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Starting point is 00:10:13 On to our good goats, bad goats. If you're new to the segment, good goats, greatest of all time. Bad goats, the old word, which I remember growing up early. It was like, oh, that's a bad thing if you're the goat. You're kind of like the scapegoat here. And then we'll finish up with what's next for K KU so I think the first good goat you gotta go with Hunter Dickinson he was the steady force the entire game 27 points 8 of 12 from the floor he goes 10 of 11 at the foul line too I mean those were money because KU wasn't I don't know KU wasn't

Starting point is 00:10:38 uh bad at the free throw line 75 they finish uh but obviously they missed nine of them. 21 rebounds for Hunter Dickinson. He was just excellent. He was dominant on the glass. You had to take advantage of that matchup because they were without their seven footers. So they were going to try to take advantage of KU and space him out a little bit. KU was going to try to play him down low, and Hunter Dickinson was able to do that and more. The last shot he hit where he's kind of behind the backboard and has to somehow like angle it in unbelievable make by him but you saw the repertoire of everything you saw him hit the big three at the end of the first half uh you saw

Starting point is 00:11:13 him hit a lob dunk from DeJuan Harris I mean just everything from Hunter Dickinson exactly why you brought him in and this was a game with zero assists it was a game where he needed to score more and he did there's gonna be other games where teams might double or triple him, and he's going to have to get assists. And we've seen, like, the first game of the year, he had five assists. So, Hunter Dickinson very much living up to the hype so far for KU. DeJuan Harris gets a good go here. 23 points. He was 7 of 12 from the floor, 5 of 6 from three.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Again, he had one total point in – or he was averaging one point per game in the first two games. He didn't even take a shot in the first game, which I think was more indicative. He knows if he doesn't have to score, he won't. But if he has to score like what happened in this game, he will. He's just such a smart player. He played 38 minutes in this game.

Starting point is 00:11:57 He's defending his butt off. There were a couple turnovers that were unorthodox for DeJuan, but overall seven assists to go with the 23 points. Career high for DeJuan Harris. Unbelievable seven assists to go with the 23 points. Career high for DeJuan Harris. Unbelievable game. Took over at the very end, and I just can't say enough good things about him. And that's going to be a really dynamic duo and a tough duo to beat with DeJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson.

Starting point is 00:12:16 Kevin McCuller gets a good go. Not a good shooting game for Kevin McCuller, but I think Bill Self would love this game. Bill Self loves the guys who can still impact the game when you're not making shots. Kevin McCullough was 3 of 11 from the floor. He was 0 of 3 from 3. We've seen him shoot the three ball well through exhibition play in the first couple of games.

Starting point is 00:12:32 But that didn't happen tonight. Still had 12, 10 rebounds, 10 assists for a triple-double. A couple fouls that I don't know that I totally agreed with. But, you know, he's having to take on a big brunt defensively. He was spending a lot of time having to guard Antonio Reeves, and you might think, okay, well, Reeves had 24 for Kentucky, hit some tough shots, and made a lot of buckets in key moments. Kansas was able to hold him to 24 on 25 shots,

Starting point is 00:12:55 so that was a positive for KU, and Kevin McCuller was a big reason why. And the one lob pass that he had from half court to KJ Adams, unbelievable pass from Kevin McCuller there. Speaking of KJ Adams, he gets a good go to 16 points. He was at eight of 11 from the floor, four rebounds, three assists. He ended up fouling out, which certainly hurt KU. There was the one foul that that was like a ghost foul where Mitchell's kind of going up on the hook shot beside him and is like, where was the foul? And you see Bill Self just throwing his arms away and everything. But KJ was really good in this game.

Starting point is 00:13:28 And he, yes, he's not a great rebounder. I think that's something you just got to kind of live with. But like his power and his defensive play and his intensity is so fun out there and so energizing for a team. I think some of the most endearing players that you can have as a program are the players that are going to get the crowd hype up. And when they make big plays, they're going to let you know it. And when they make big plays, they're going to, you know, they're going to hit their chest. They're going to fist bump. They're going to pump up the crowd. It's going

Starting point is 00:13:56 to get everybody going and it adds momentum and juice to the team. Every team needs those players and every player to a certain extent celebrates when they do something good. But there's level of it like the ultimate pinnacle when I think of this are built up players is Thomas Robinson when Thomas Robinson made a big play you heard about it you saw it on the screen he was an imposing force and you see that with KJ Adams and I absolutely love it um so KJ was I think really impactful in this one and there was a moment where it felt like Kentucky was putting like like there was a moment toward the end of the first half where Kentucky was putting so much stress stress and constriction and pressure on Hunter Dickinson that it wasn't allowing KU to get good passing angles to get him the ball down low in the post and in the paint and I think KU's

Starting point is 00:14:38 reaction eventually was hey we're gonna move Hunter Dick and we're going to now post up KJ Adams. Because as much as Dickinson has a size advantage, with KJ, we have a strength advantage with whoever we're going against. And he's used to playing against 6'10", 6'11", 7' last year. It's going to be nothing for him to go up against a 6'7", 6'8", wing when he's trying to seal him off or pin him down low. And he was able to take advantage of that and hit some big buckets for you at the end of the first half to at least keep you in striking distance then he hit some big ones in the second half so KJ Adams gets a good goat here as well for KU I already mentioned the two-point

Starting point is 00:15:12 shooting and the two-point dominance for KU I think that well deserves a good goat here if you're Kansas and then I think just closing out the game like that's always an important thing and they closed out very well and showed composure down the final handful of minutes, especially with, you know, even I thought Furphy played a lot better in the second half, even though nothing really statistically popped up. I thought that Timberlake at least, you know, defended well and wasn't a problem out there in the final couple minutes of the game. Jamari McDowell didn't mess anything up out there, you know, played solid defense and everything. So a good composure for KU down the stretch. As far as the bad goats here, I do have to highlight the bench play. Again, you were outscored 31-4 off the bench. This is always going to be a Kansas

Starting point is 00:15:53 team once we get to conference play that the starters, that the top five or six guys are playing a lot more minutes than the rest, but you're hoping to have a little more production than you had today. So with Furphy, McDowell, Brown, and Timberlake, that's just a combined four points from those four players on a combined 38 minutes from play, and they were one for nine from the floor. So not the best stuff that you saw. Furphy looked a lot more out of place in this game than he did in the first two games, which makes sense. For him, he's making kind of a quicker jump up into the high-level competition, so it makes sense that he looked so good in the first two,

Starting point is 00:16:29 but this one may be a little tougher. I think Furphy is going to be good to go by the time we get into conference play, but it's going to take some time. You're going to have some lumps like games like this, and that's the case with a lot of young players, which KU is pretty filled with on a lot of these kind of secondary role spots for the team when you look at Furphy, Elmarco even though he's a starter and Jamar McDowell so I thought he played a lot better in the second half but obviously the stats didn't show it Timberlake 0 for 4 from the floor

Starting point is 00:16:57 felt like he was kind of forcing it a little in the first half I don't know what he finished with plus minus wise but I can't imagine it was great because it felt like a lot of times he was in there things were not going well for KU I thought Parker Brown was fine out there and Jamari McDowell was was pretty good but you're looking to get more out of your bench and that's something that I think will continue to progress as the season goes on for KU and I think more so you continue to not really have the obvious answer for the fifth starter it felt like Furphy was making inroads the first two games but this game game, I think of the three, I mean, Marco Jackson had the best production overall, but none of them really stood out to me in one way or another. Again, I think all three of them

Starting point is 00:17:34 in different ways are going to be fine by the time we get to conference play in a month or two here, but yeah, you're still kind of searching for that at this point in time for KU. Obviously, the three-point defense in the first half, three-point offense for the game minus DeJuan Harris gets a bad goat here for KU. You're going to have to find a way to manufacture more because it's tough when that math problem starts out doing it to overcome kind of your two-point dominance. I guess creating chaos and forcing steals might get a bad goat here.

Starting point is 00:18:03 KU had four blocks in the game, which is like a fine number. They only had seven steals, though. Now, I don't know where to go with this. Kentucky only had eight turnovers. On one hand, you have DeJuan Harris, Kevin McCullough. You should be creating a lot of steals and a lot of chaos with some of your other players, too. On the other hand, Kentucky had nine total turnovers

Starting point is 00:18:20 in their first two games combined. So, like, maybe they're just really good at holding onto the basketball. Maybe that's not something you should be worried about, but it is something that I am monitoring because KU hasn't forced like a lot of steals in the first couple of games of the season. And that's certainly something, if you're not going to be a great, you know, this or that team, you try to make up for it in other ways and you have the personnel to do it

Starting point is 00:18:38 well. That's something that I kind of want to see. So yeah, that's our good and bad goats for the game. All right, let's talk about what's next for KU. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Score early this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Right now,

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Starting point is 00:19:17 Boy, did that work well. Did not hit the Kevin McCuller over points, but did hit the Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller over rebounds. Those were good. You can get in on those, future player props for the games. You can get in on those future player props for the games. You can get in on the KUK state game coming up this weekend. Lines been bouncing around six and a half and like eight and a half so far. So I think some of that is trying to figure out who the quarterback is going

Starting point is 00:19:35 to be. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel, an official partner of the NFL. Early look at what's next for KU men's basketball after this one. They're 3-0. They're going to have the rest of the week off. So that's some extra practice days. I'd imagine they'll have a travel day tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:19:54 Maybe they get a day off. Maybe there's like one day of practice. I don't know when they're heading out to, I guess, Honolulu this year for the Maui Invitational. But I'd imagine one or two days of practice, maybe one day of practice stateside, one day of practice in Maui. But that's a couple extra chances to drill down on some things. Then you get Chaminade at 8 p.m. Central time on Monday.

Starting point is 00:20:16 You'd imagine KU should be able to roll in that one. Good opportunity to get some other guys playing time. And then if you do win on Monday like you're expected to, on Tuesday you'd play at 9.30 p.m. Central time. So if you thought tonight was Monday, like you're expected to on Tuesday, you'd play at 930 p.m. Central time. So if you thought tonight was late, having to be the late game, getting delayed a little bit like you're used to wait till next week, because that's at 930. And you got UCLA Marquette. The winner of that is what you would get in Marquette, just number 14 in the country, their team that spreads it out, their team that can shoot the ball from the five five position and they just won at illinois today which we saw how difficult that was for

Starting point is 00:20:49 ku when they went to illinois in the exhibition play so uh that's certainly one that grabs your attention if you win that one then you play wednesday at 4 p.m central if you were to lose in your second game and play in the third place game that would be wednesday at 1 30 p.m central and uh you'd be looking to i don't know Purdue Gonzaga like one of the there's a lot of good teams in the Maui Invitational so no matter what you're gonna have chances for quad one wins for big time victories and uh honestly if you go two and one it's a solid Maui Invitational but it's Kansas basketball so the expectation is to win whatever you're playing in and that'll be the expectation once you go into this one and who knows maybe we

Starting point is 00:21:23 get 100 against in Zachach Eady matchup, which I think a lot of national college basketball people would certainly be in on. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back on Thursday with a KU football bowl possibility episode. Then we'll get to our KUK state football preview for the rest of the week, and plenty to come here with Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:21:44 Like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube page. Have a great rest of your day. We'll see you next time. It's Kansas, Downs, Kentucky, 89-4.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #1 Kansas Jayhawks Led by Dickinson, Harris Over #17 Kentucky Wildcats in Champions Classic

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