Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #2 Kansas Jayhawks Overcome 13-Point Deficit with Win at Indiana Hoosiers

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we recap KU's win at Indiana, overcoming a 13-point second half deficit to getting a road win at a 7-0. 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. 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. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube feed,

Starting point is 00:00:43 anywhere that you get your podcasts. Thank you to every dayers tuning in to each and every episode. You can also like and subscribe to our show on our YouTube feed, anywhere that you get your podcasts. Thank you to every dayers tuning in to each and every episode. And on today's show, we're talking KU Indiana, Jayhawks win on the road in Bloomington, big comeback in the second half, tough environment to play, and boy, was it a fun one as KU comes out on top. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by PrizePix. Go toicks.com slash locked on college and use code locked on college or you locked on excuse me for a first deposit match up to 100 it's called locked on for 100 daily fantasy sports made easy with prize

Starting point is 00:01:15 picks so kansas again just finds a way to win um this has been kind of the theme so far this season for ku right they've just had a lot of times where they've had to find a way to win. This has been kind of the theme so far this season for KU, right? They've just had a lot of times where they've had to find a way to win, whether it was the Kentucky game where at one point they were down 14, whether it was the, I guess, even the like Eastern Illinois game in there, maybe a little less so with the Tennessee game, the UConn game kind of finding a way to win late because UConn was hitting all these, you know, crazy last end of shot clock, you know, situation shots and everything. Just finding a way to win has kind of been the theme for KU this year.

Starting point is 00:01:54 And that's, I mean, typically a theme a little bit for Bill self teams that they just do so well in these close games better than most teams normally do when you play this many kind of close games. So it is kind of an odd conversation because I think typically when you continuously have to win where you have to just find a way to win, eventually you feel like you're going to be playing with fire and eventually you're going to lose some of those games.

Starting point is 00:02:22 And you see some of KU's metric ratings, like where they're dropping, where they're ranked outside of the top 10 right now, despite being ranked in the top two in the AP poll. And we'll see. I don't know if they'll be number one or Purdue will hop them to number one in next week's AP poll, but there is a difference between those two. And there is a real skill in finding a way to win at the end of the games, and you have to execute that, but you don't want to overdo it.

Starting point is 00:02:46 You don't want to have too many games that way. I don't think this game, to me, gets chopped up in the same way that we've had some of those conversations of, like, the Eastern Illinois game where it's like, well, you found a way to win that's good, but you don't want to even be in that situation. I don't view this game in the same light of, like, oh, but you shouldn't have been in that situation. I mean, I don't

Starting point is 00:03:05 think you can chalk it up that way because Indiana play a really good game. Like you look at how Indiana shot the basketball much better than they normally do. You look at how Trey Galloway played, like that was the best game of his career. You look at how Mackenzie Mbako played, like that was maybe the best game of his early freshman career, right? There were a lot of things you point to. And I saw this from some basketball coaches, like an Indiana fan, Tony Adragna. He posted this earlier yesterday. This is before the game started with KU Indiana.

Starting point is 00:03:45 When in the Mike Woodson era for Indiana, they shoot above 32% from three. When they hold opponents to a two-point percentage of 48%, below 48%. And when they rebound more than 74% of the opponent misses. Those three things. When those three things happen, they're 12-0 in the Mike Woodson era. When two of those three things happen, they're 31-4. Even when two of those three things happen, they're 12-0 in the Mike Woodson era. When two of those three things happen, they're 31-4, even when two of those three. When one of the three hit, they're only 8-16, though, when none of them hit, they're 0-8. All three of them hit against Kansas.

Starting point is 00:04:14 They're now 12-1. They're now 31-5 when two of the three hit. So, like, Indiana objectively played a really good game. It sounded like a lot of KU fans who made the travel up there really enjoyed the experience, that they loved the town of Bloomington and that they thought it was a great environment and everything. They said everybody was nice and it was great. But that was a great environment. It was.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Indiana certainly, you know, they always pack the house, but that was a great energy level for the game against Kansas. So you had a team who played really well. You had a crowd who was really into it. Your first true road game of the year. They had players playing above what, you know, maybe their normal level of play is. Kansas missed some open looks and a bunch of layups early.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And you survived Indiana playing well in a great environment in Assembly Hall. Like, I don't know what Indiana is going to finish. I know right now in Ken Palm, they're ranked like 80th. For my money, I think they're better than that. They have a lot of – like, Kahlil Ware is a future NBA player. Centers don't get drafted high anymore, so maybe he's a second-round pick in the future or something. But, you know, he's a dude.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Malik Renu is a really good college player. You look at what Mackenzie Mbako is going to eventually be like, yeah, it's not a complete product right now. He played really well in the game. He's going to eventually be an NBA player. I don't know if there'll be a tournament team or not. Either way, that's a solid win on the road, especially how it went. The spread was six points. He won by four on the road. Like this is not classified as the same mark as, oh, you just found a way to win like those other ones. And if you keep having to do that, eventually you're going to play with fire and get burnt. No, this is a really good win on the road.

Starting point is 00:05:50 Other positives from the game revolve around KU having a low turnover rate. So you did a good job avoiding that. You forced your third highest turnover rate defensively. So that was something we talked about coming in. Could you force turnovers? They did. Oddly enough, Indiana actually had more transition points in this one, which we kind of talked about in the pregame.

Starting point is 00:06:08 But you still passed well. You had an 18-10 edge in assists. You saw all-American level stuff from Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller. DeJuan Harris was great. Looked for his bucket, and you saw the effect of that. K.J. Adams continues to really impress, and you executed extremely well in those key moments. And, again,

Starting point is 00:06:25 like you had one of your worst shooting and overall offensive games and still won on the road with a team giving you a really good shot. So it was, it was a good win. It was a good win for Kansas. That's how I come away from the game. The execution key moments is going to be so pivotal. Once you get to big 12 play, once you get to the NCAA tournament. And typically with Bill's off teams, they are experts at performing in the pivotal moments, right?

Starting point is 00:06:52 And so that was important to show in this game. Over the last six, eight, nine minutes of the game, you were A-plus at executing and playing at both ends of the floor. I mean, you were down eight points with, I guess, nine minutes to go. I think it was 58 to 50. So from there, you finish on, what, a 25 to 13 run over the final nine minutes. So, I mean, just think about how difficult the Big 12 is with all these unbelievable teams.

Starting point is 00:07:15 You're going to have basically all of your games come down to the final six, eight, nine, ten minutes of the game. There's going to be very few games that you win running away. You have to be able to execute in these key moments, and you showed that at Indiana in your first true road game of the year. One piece of this game is it felt like we did take a bit of a time machine to two or three weeks ago in figuring out the five through nine situation, some for better, some for worse, because you go back to two, three weeks ago,

Starting point is 00:07:44 we were coming off the Maui Invitational, and Jamari McDowell had just played like 26, 27 minutes against Tennessee, and Nick Timberlake had a tough Maui Invitational. Marco didn't have a great Maui Invitational. And it was like, okay, is Jamari starting to make inroads? And then Jamari didn't get a ton of playing time over the last couple weeks regardless of that I feel like Bill Self has continuously gone back to Nick Timberlake above McDowell like

Starting point is 00:08:11 Timberlake's getting in before Jamari McDowell's been getting in like every game Nick Timberlake's been playing more minutes than Jamari McDowell's been playing since the Mount Invitational I feel like that's happened because Bill Self understands, like, there is a bit of a long game to it. If you can get Nick Timberlake up to snuff, and he is what you hoped he would be when he came in, a 40% three-point shooter, and you have a 40% three-point shooter that's able to play off of Hunter Dickinson,

Starting point is 00:08:40 that is lethal on the offensive side of things. Like, think back to 2020 Kansas. You had Doak, who was this ultra-efficient offensive weapon inside, and Isaiah Moss, who was a good three-point shooter on the outside. You were able to run a lot of same-side actions where, you know, if you gave Doak the ball on one side of the post, you put Isaiah Moss in the corner over there, and if that helped defender try to double on Doak,

Starting point is 00:09:01 you had an open corner three for one of your best shooters. Like ideally, Bill Self would love to be able to do that with Nick Timberlake. And so that's why he continues, he's continuing to go back to him, hoping that he's playing the long game that I know it's not working right now, but you're hoping that at some point it's going to click. But I do wonder, like eventually, the more and more this happens where Timberlake struggles, right? And Jamar McDowell comes in in key moments and performs well the more that starts to eat away but Bill Self to where eventually he will just be like okay I'm pulling the court on this like at some point I do have to make that move and we have seen Bill Self go with

Starting point is 00:09:37 the guy that you know maybe the the ceiling isn't as high but the floor is much higher and that helps everybody else's ceiling I certainly think back to Landon Lucas, the 2015-16 season for KU. They've lost three straight road games. Landon Lucas becomes the guy at starting center. Last two months of the season, they're the best team in college basketball until they lose in a close game in the Elite Eight to Villanova. I wonder if something like that could happen with Jamari McDowell at some point here.

Starting point is 00:10:01 I don't know if we're there. Bill Self made some postgame comments to make it think like maybe we're getting closer to that. So we'll definitely see how this affects it. But I was impressed with Jamari McDowell at some point here. I don't know if we're there. Bill Self made some postgame comments to make it think like maybe we're getting closer to that. So we'll definitely see how this affects it. But I was impressed with Jamari McDowell. Certainly feels like though we are not much more closer to settling where everybody comes in the order of the five through nine spot, which is not that different from where we were a couple of weeks ago. All right, we're going to get to our goats of the game, good goats of the game, bad goats of the game. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride

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Starting point is 00:11:23 Bad goats is kind of the scapegoat old sense of the word then we'll finish up what's next for ku men's basketball with just a couple non-con games to go uh so we'll start with the good goats here dewan harris gets a good goat uh 12 points he is was five of nine from the floor two of four from three and hit a couple big kill shots he hits the one floater win so uh hunter dickinson gives you the first lead of the game you go up i think it was 62 61 they go down they hit a shot to go up 63 62 duane harris then goes down and he hits a floater from the middle of the lane to put you up 64 63 you never trail again from that point they tied it to 64 then kevin mccoy hits a three so he hits a big shot there then he hits the kind of kill shot um that was basically your last shot from

Starting point is 00:12:12 there it was all free throws that uh gives you a nice little two possession lead after trey galloway had just hit a shot so uh and that was kind of that runner from the outside of lane banked in also had five assists two steals twoounds, 40 minutes of play. He's played 40 minutes back-to-back games. I think this was DeJuan's best game since the Kentucky game, and the Kentucky game best game of the year so far. The Indiana game was second best. It's not that he has to score.

Starting point is 00:12:36 I say this all the time. He doesn't have to score 15-20 every game. If he does, it's great. But can he get to 8, 10, 12? Can he hit some big shots for you in key moments? And he did in this game on the road. Hunter Dickinson gets a good go. Not his most efficient game, 8 of 17.

Starting point is 00:12:49 It's not like bad efficiency, but, you know, compared to some of his other games. But 17 points against a really good center in Kalehware and good size in Indiana. A team who does well defending the paint. He had 14 rebounds. He's been unbelievable rebounding each and every game this year for KU. One assist, one block, one steal.

Starting point is 00:13:07 And it wasn't always on the defensive side. Hunter Dickinson guarding Keller Ware, who was their leading scorer, coming in. Like sometimes KJ Adams got switched on to him. Both of them, whichever one was on him, even I think there was a point Kevin McCuller had like a block. I can't remember if that was on Renew or on Ware. So it wasn't all Hunter Dickinson but he does get some props as does the next guy we're going to talk about with KJ Adams for helping keep Kelly aware to just three of 12 shooting he came in shooting over 60 he held him to three of 12 better that's on Hunter better that's on KJ Adams. KJ gets a good goat here too.

Starting point is 00:13:51 14 points for KJ, six of 12 from the floor, four rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal. He just continues to impress each and every game. He is so good at finishing at the rim. He takes it so hard up there. And if you get anybody who is his size or smaller, even somebody who's like six, eight, six, nine, because he was so used to going up against, you know, taller players last year as a center, I think that has helped him progress his game this year. And I really think he's been your third best player so far this season. Like Hunter and Kevin have been your two best players. There have been a lot. I mean, over the last two weeks, you could argue KJ has been your best player. He's been so, so good this season, and he's been so fun to watch.

Starting point is 00:14:23 And he hit some pivotal buckets for you. I mean, you look to the point when you were down 13, their biggest lead of the game, you were stuck in the mud, couldn't do anything. It's 50 to 37. He gets a big dunk,

Starting point is 00:14:33 gets you fired up a little bit. And all of a sudden you start chipping away at the lead. Just tough shots made. Even, even the play is where like he saves a ball from going out of bounds. Okay. You misses the shot, but they eventually get like a couple balls go out of bounds. They eventually get free throws out of it. Just the little plays like that that KJ does that make you go. Kevin McCuller gets a good go here. Kind of a Jalen Wilson grind it out type game, right? Last year for Jalen, there were some games where KU

Starting point is 00:15:02 offensively was stuck in the mud a little bit and Jalen basically had to be like, okay, well, there's five on the shot clock again. We're not doing anything. I'll just force up a shot because we're not going to be able to get it anywhere. And that would hurt your efficiency a little bit in some games to where Jalen might have a game where he would have 25 points on 20 shots, but he would will his way to the free throw line. He would will his way to points when things weren't working around you. He was kind of your bailout guy. And that's what Kevin McCuller has kind of become this year. He's your bailout guy. When things aren't working in the shot clock,

Starting point is 00:15:30 when the defense is playing well, you need somebody to take the shot. And that's been Kevin McCuller. And so he had just a 3 of 11 shooting game, which is not going to be one of the prettier shooting lines for Kevin McCuller this year. But if you do phrase it as 21 points on 11 shots, that's an unbelievably efficient game. This is why we have metrics like true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage, because, you know, getting to the free throw line is so important there and can

Starting point is 00:15:58 impact your efficiency overall. Because three of 11, not an efficient night, but 21 points on 11 shots is because you went 13 of 16 at the free throw line. So that helps you out there. He also had six rebounds, four assists, three steals, one block. He is the Ed Reed of college football, of college basketball. He's just this free safety. He gets steals off the ball. He gets blocks, just an unbelievable defensive player. And he grinded his way. Those 21 points, hit some big free throws for you. Jamari McDowell gets a good go. I know it's only a game on the box score that has three points, one rebound, one assist, and it's eight minutes of play, so it's hard.

Starting point is 00:16:33 But he really capitalized on those eight minutes. He was really good for you down the stretch. He hit a big three. You were down 58-50, hits a three to make it 58-53. The rebound he had in traffic at the free throw line defensively was a really good rebound. I think the biggest thing I can say about Jermaine McDowell, Bill Self described him a couple weeks ago that he plays with Moxie.

Starting point is 00:16:52 And I think that's a good way of describing it. But it's also that he's not fearful. He's not afraid of the moment. In fact, he wants to do it in the moment. He was the one who took the three at the end of the first half that he like opened himself up on kind of this like sidestep, step back type three to get open. He got a pretty good look at it. He missed it.

Starting point is 00:17:13 KJ gets the offensive rebound, gets fouled toward the end of the first half or like at the end of the first half for like a second or two. But he takes that one. He takes the one when you're down 58-50. He's not afraid of the moment. And you can't always say that about young freshmen. And I think that is a really good skill to have for Jamari McDowell. He's done a good job defensively. He was plus nine on box score, plus minus. I know that's not a great stat for an individual game perspective, but I did think it told a bit of a

Starting point is 00:17:37 story for Jamari McDowell in this game. That was tied for the best on the team with Hunter Dickinson. Preventing inside shots gets a good go. Indiana did go 10 of 13 at the rim, so it wasn't the best on the team with Hunter Dickinson. Preventing inside shots gets a good go. Indiana did go 10 of 13 at the rim, so it wasn't the best at the rim defense overall. They shot 77%. It was preventing the amount of them. You only let Indiana get 13 shots at the rim, which meant that only 22% of their field goal attempts were at the rim.

Starting point is 00:18:03 They normally average almost 35% of their field goal attempts were at the rim. They normally average almost 35% of their field goal attempts being at the rim, and they're obviously efficient at them. So the fact that you were able to do a good job preventing them from even getting those shots, and where you saw the exchange was 10% more than normal of their shots in this game came from in the lane, in the paint, but not at the rim. So what does that tell me? Because they only went eight of 19 on those shots, 42%. What that tells me is KU did a good job fronting the post or guarding the post or doubling the post or just doing a good job of having strength and not letting the guy bury you in the post to where a four-foot hook shot becomes a seven-foot hook shot.

Starting point is 00:18:51 And that can be the difference in a make or a miss. And that was the difference because Indiana, when you put it all together, was 18 of 32 on shots in the paint plus at the rim. That's 56%. Normally, they shoot 63% on those shots, and it's because you prevented them from getting too close at the rim. That's 56%. Normally they shoot 63% on those shots, and it's because you prevented them from getting too close to the rim. Bad goats here for KU. Nick Timberlake was 0 for 2, missed a couple open threes, missed the front end of a one-and-one.

Starting point is 00:19:18 Those are things you've got to be able to do if you're the shooter on the team. He had one rebound, one assist, one foul in six minutes. He was minus five and plus minus. It just hasn't been working, and it's unfortunate. But maybe the light will go off at some point. Maybe he can become this year's, to a lesser extent, like a bench version. I guess Remy Martin was off the bench. A smaller roll bench version of Remy Martin or Malik Newman

Starting point is 00:19:41 where things click in March, and he's just a guy that can come off the bench in March and hit one or two threes for you um overall the five through nine rotation minutes besides Jamari McDowell it was a collective minus 10 if you get rid of Jamari McDowell for the rest of the guys in that five through nine I thought Marco played well in the second half after having kind of a lackluster first half um but yeah just it wasn't your best overall like we kind of talked about earlier with the 5-9. Anyone defending Trey Galloway. He got switched on everyone, drove on everyone, scored at the rim on everyone, hit a big three late. He had a couple threes in the game. He just had a great game, and you couldn't figure out how to stop him. And then mid-range and corner

Starting point is 00:20:19 three shooting. Kansas was 2-13 in the mid-range. They were 1 of 5 from the corner, so 3 of 18 collectively in those two zones. Meanwhile, at the rim, it was 69% for Kansas, 50% in paint twos, and almost 39% on threes above the break. They shot the ball well from those three zones, but specifically the mid-range where they

Starting point is 00:20:40 took a lot, 2 of 13. That was not great from KU. We're going to finish things up here with Locked on Jayhawks with what is next. All right, what's next for KU men's basketball after taking down Indiana? They're going to have another kind of week off. They play again on Friday at home in Allen Fieldhouse against Yale.

Starting point is 00:21:01 That'll be Friday, December 22nd. And Yale's a pretty good team i mean yale is uh the the pick right now to win the ivy league which we know the ivy league winner usually can cause some issues in in the ncaa tournament a lot of years it's kind of a lower seed is like a 12 or 13 seed um they have kind of struggled of late so i don't know if they've had some like injuries or something like that but they all ranked just outside the top 100. Pretty good three point shooting team. They don't really turn the ball over.

Starting point is 00:21:30 They were in the Princeton offense and everything. So we'll see how they do in this game, but it's always tough when you play that last game before Christmas break, are all the guys mentally focused. That's the biggest thing for Kansas, having that mental focus. Then they'll have the Christmas break, then the Wichita State game, and then a brutal Big 12.

Starting point is 00:21:49 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. I am currently dying from my voice, so apologies for that. We'll be back at it sometime next week. I think probably on Tuesday I'm going to have Monday off to help secure the voice a little bit. And we'll, on Tuesday, get an early preview of the KU football bowl game because on Tuesday we'll be officially a week out for that with more KU basketball, more KU football content throughout the week. It's been locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:22:09 You can find us anywhere you get your podcast. Thanks for joining us. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #2 Kansas Jayhawks Overcome 13-Point Deficit with Win at Indiana Hoosiers

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