Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #3 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Suffer Bad Loss In Morgantown to West Virginia Mountaineers

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

Recap of #3 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball losing 91-85 in Morgantown to the West Virginia Mountaineers after WVU was hot shooting the ball, resulting in a bad loss for KU. Bill Self's team couldn't get a stop or make a few rebounds, but did have some positives like Nick Timberlake's performance. GOATs of the game like Kevin McCullar, Dajuan Harris, Johnny Furphy and more. What's next for the 'Hawks with Cincinnati and Iowa State, Big 12 title talk and some KU Football news after Jordan Peterson, defensive backs coach, is leaving for Texas A&M and could cause a shuffle for Lance Leipold.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas lost in Morgantown. Bad loss for KU against a team who played at a very exceptional level. We're going to try to break it down and work through this 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. 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 that you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's episode, we are recapping KU's loss at West Virginia, a frustrating loss for the Jayhawks that drops them to 3-2 in conference play. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. Kansas loses 91-85 to West Virginia in Morgantown.

Morgantown stays kind of a house of horrors, so to speak, for KU. The loss drops Kansas to 15-3, 3-2 in conference play. Oddly enough, their Ken Palm rating, like their offense and defense, are now more even after the game, top 25 in, which that's typically like kind of a good thing, but it was a bad way of going about getting there. And although I guess overall, they're now 19th in Ken Palm from the loss. I mean, this is on its own. There's three ways of kind of looking at this loss. There's the first way, which is you just ran into a buzzsaw here, right? Like West Virginia has not been a good team this year. They're seven and 11, even after the win, which is you just ran into a buzzsaw here, right? Like West Virginia has not been a good team this year.

They're 7-11 even after the win. That is their second win in a Big 12 play, though clearly they've been a little bit better at home. They beat Texas who just beat Baylor, though they also lost by 14 to Kansas State at home. So I don't know. But you just ran into a buzzsaw because West Virginia shot well above their worth. They came in not a good shooting team.

West Virginia came in shooting 30% from three-point range, which was in the 300s in the country. Even after the game, even as hot as they were, that raised their three-point percentage to 31.8, which is still 253rd. So even after that performance, they're still a bad three-point shooting team. They shot 57% from three against Kansas on solid volume. They also came in shooting 28% in the mid range. I don't have necessarily yet the specific numbers in just the mid range, but if we're just looking at two point shots,

they took that were not dunks or layups. They shot 45%. So that's well above that. They came in at 73% on free throws. They shot 84% from the free throw line. So from every level, you ran into a buzzsaw, a team who played well above their worth, a team who played to a level that if they played anybody in the Big 12, maybe they'd win that game. Now, maybe you could say, okay, if they play Houston, like Houston's defense is so good, they're not going to let them get that comfortable. Okay, I'd be there for that argument. But for the most part, they're beating probably every team in the Big 12, but maybe one the way that they played in this specific game. So in that standpoint, like it's not a bad loss

because if you just played a team that played that well and you weren't going to beat them, you know, what are you going to do? Well, the second way of looking at this though, is that you did run into that buzzsaw, but you also failed to do the things that you can control that still would have given you a chance to beat a team who was shooting out of their mind, right? Because at the end of the day,

even though West Virginia was shooting that well, you were tied at halftime. Even though West Virginia was shooting that well, you were in a game late. You were in possession of the basketball at times in the final, you know, whatever it was, 12 minutes where it was tied or down one or down by two or down by three or something like that.

And you just couldn't come through. And the things that you could have controlled a little bit more, you did poorly at them. You were out-rebounded 31 to 22. You know, if they're shooting that well and they're winning the rebounding battle, that's a huge problem because now they're getting even more possessions off of that. Kansas, in a game like this, if you're going to play a team who's shooting that well, you better gobble up all the rebounds you can on the offensive glass

to give yourself extra possessions, all the defensive rebounds so they're not getting extra possessions when they're shooting that well, you better gobble up all the rebounds you can on the offensive class to give yourself extra possessions, all the defensive rebounds, so they're not getting extra possessions when they're shooting that efficiently. And they had nine offensive rebounds. You had five. That doesn't sound like that big of a difference, but those four really were the difference in this game. And it really boils down less to the total offensive rebounds, although in the end, West Virginia had a 34.6 offensive rebound rate. That is the second worst allowed by the KU defense this year. The only worst game in terms of your defensive rebound rate in a game this year, it was Eastern Illinois.

That game that you only won by eight that you were supposed to blow them out. You want to know what the next one worst was, what their third worst was? Marquette, which you lost big. You want to know what the next worst was? TCU, which you very easily could have lost in Allen Fieldhouse. So, I mean, there's a strong correlation when you don't rebound well, that's kind of what happens, but it really does boil down to the final possession. It really, I want to say at the beginning of the half too, they got a bunch of offensive rebounds, but it's really that final minute possession when they miss a shot,

Quinn Slezinski gets the offensive rebound and then basically earns the foul because of it and then misses the second of the free throw. And they get the offensive rebound with the shooter getting there. And Johnny Furphy had some struggles as a young freshman kind of boxing him out. And it's really that possession there that boils it all down that if you would have even just grabbed one extra defensive rebound, even despite the way they shot, you might have won the game, which is honestly pretty incredible on its own. But that's kind of what I'm talking about where it's like, yes, they shot above their worth and it would have been hard to beat them on that

day regardless. You had chances if you played tougher, you had chances if you would have done the things you controlled that you still would have been able to do it. I mean, honestly, the turnovers overall were good when you look at the overall turnovers, but there were a few dumb ones and key moments or unforced ones.

But I don't know. Overall, you were down 14 or up, I guess, whichever way you want to look at it. You had seven less turnovers than them. And I think beyond that, West Virginia did shoot way better than you'd expect, but you could still always say, yeah, you made them a little more comfortable

than you wanted early in the game. You let them get into a rhythm. There were, yes, there were a ton of those shots where West Virginia made where they had a hand in their face and they were contested, but still there were a few breakdowns here or there, right? Like you could have taken away the breakdowns at least, and maybe made them miss one extra three. If you take away the breakdowns here, there are two extra threes or one extra mid-range shot. And who knows, maybe that's kind of the difference in the end. So that's the second way of looking at it where it's like yes they were above style yes there are certain things we could have controlled and uh ended up with it and then the third way of looking at this is just the

scorched earth this is one of the worst losses of the bill south era now it's hard because if you go back to the idea of a team that you played just played out of their mind it's hard to be like well that's one of the worst losses the bill south era typically when we think of worse losses we think of when ku played really bad like i think some people's one of the worst losses the Bills have ever. Typically, when we think of worst losses, we think of when KU played really bad. Like, I think some people might argue that the UCF loss is worse. Not that UCF is worse than West Virginia, but because of how poorly KU played. But if we're just looking at this from a standpoint of what the teams finished or where they were, how good your opponent was. I went back and looked in the Bills of era, going back to the 2003 to 2004 season.

Top 10 worst losses for KU by the opponent's final Ken Palm ranking. Now, obviously, Missouri is still going to have plenty of games to play that their final Ken Palm ranking could adjust. But currently, among those top 10 losses, the worst loss they've ever had was the Topeka YMCA game. That was at TCU in 2013. They were at 265th. That was a bad one. But that was one of those where it was like KU played bad too,

and the opponent was bad. 2006, they lost at Missouri. That Missouri team finished 151st in Kenpom. 2008, for the 08-09 season, they lost on the, at the time, Sprint Center to UMass, who was ranked 138th by the end of the year. And then the next worst loss would be this one that they suffered. West Virginia, 131st so far this season, even after the win. They were closer to 150 before they beat Kansas.

And so that becomes the fourth worst. Then you go down to Missouri in 05, which would be 101st. That would be the fifth worst. And then you have some other ones in there, like at Oklahoma State, Washington at the Sprint Center, Bucknell in the NCAA tournament at West Virginia in 2019, which was another bad West Virginia loss on the road, and at Texas Tech in 2009. Now, as you can see, there are some years where they've had bad losses and still had pretty spectacular seasons or ended up winning the Big 12. And maybe that can happen for this Kansas team. But bottom line, this has been kind of a theme for KU all season

long, playing down to lesser opponents we think about it from the non-con when you played down to eastern Illinois or UMKC made it a game in the final five minutes of the contest you know even on the road like yes they just had the at Oklahoma State game earlier this week where they crushed it but the other three road games you played which is now three is bigger than one at Indiana you scathed that one out and Indiana turns out has not been a very good basketball team right ever since that uh kind of game and really overall in the season Indiana hasn't been great so far this season they're ranked 96th on Ken Palm and Indiana is 12 and 7 at UCF right I

mean we went through that one last week and now this one at West Virginia a team who earlier this year lost by eight points at home to Monmouth a team who earlier this year lost by one at home to Radford, a team who lost by eight points on a neutral site to UMass, a team who lost at home a couple weeks ago by 14 to Kansas State. This is a bad loss, a lot of ways you look at it. So, I mean, I will say besides the doom and gloom, I do think there were some really nice flashes from Johnny Furphy, even though you had some of those dark moments at the end.

I do think Nick Timberlake had some really good flashes off the bench. Those are positives moving forward when you look at the final destination of where this team is going to go. Kansas shot almost 68% on two-point shots. That's really good. You outscored West Virginia 44-26 in the paint. They had six less turnovers. You had seven more points off turnovers. You led

eight in fast break points. You had 22 assists to seven turnovers. That's a great turnover or assist to turnover ratio. You created eight steals in three blocks, all good signs and numbers. And most of those win most games, to be honest, when you put a lot of those together. But for your margin for error that you had today today it was cut to a minuscule amount the way that they came out shooting and so therefore you didn't make those few plays you needed to to win in a close road game in the big 12 and by the way about the call at the end when Marco Jackson ripped the ball away West Virginia was getting close to being a 10 second call steals the ball away it looked clean I didn't think it should have been a foul I thought it was a clean steal steal, but here's the thing. I'm not going to complain about it because a, you had

other chances to avoid that, get the, some of the rebounds, right? Like make a shot here or there, or don't turn it over here or there. And I also said this after the TCU game, when you won the TCU game off the flagrant foul, which was kind of a 50, 50 call, guess what? It's just going to happen over the course of the big 12 play. There's probably going to be another game that goes KU's game, KU's way. And there's probably going to be another game that goes ku's game ku's way and there's probably going to be another game that goes against ku where there's going to be a call that you don't like or you feel like maybe it's a little bit favorable to you over the final two minutes of the game that's just what's going to happen because in so many close games it's going to be impossible for there to be every foul you

agree with in a close game that you're like oh that was the difference right so i i don't think it was it probably went against you, but whatever, like it happens and it will continue to happen for both sides. It'll equal out over the course of the season. But overall, this is kind of a crushing loss as much as it could be through the fifth game of Big 12 play for Big 12 title hopes. Bill Self's overcome way more than this before. So you don't count it out.

I'm not saying Kansas is not going to win the Big 12. All I'm saying is that the battle is very much uphill now. Maybe to win the Big 12, it's only going to take 12 and 6 at this point with the way we've seen teams lose a couple times already early on in the year. And at the end of the day, if Kansas goes 11 and 7 or 12 and 6 in conference play and they still get a two seed or something in the NCAA tournament, like big picture, they're still going to be fine and still going to have a chance to do some stuff in March. But for Kansas, a team that takes pride in winning their league title for just in general teams, if you win your conference, you're going to have a better chance to go further

in March because you're going to get a better seed. You might get a better draw out of it. Theoretically, if you win your conference, that means you're a better team, right? So theoretically, you should have a better chance to go further in March. So it's not ideal for the results. And you still look at those final 10 games for KU. They're pretty gnarly. I said kind of all along, I thought Kansas would have to go 7-1 or 8-0 in their first eight games to win the Big 12. Now, that was under the assumption that I thought 13 or 14 would win the league.

Now, maybe it's 12 or 13 wins the league. So maybe this is OK. But you still have that Iowa State next Saturday, which could give you your third loss. So I don't know, not looking great for KU as that respect goes. But if this is the loss that, because typically we see in January, there's usually the years that KU wins a big 12.

There might be that one rut. There might be that one loss in January, kind of lights a fire under them and they get it going from there. All right, let's get to our goats of the game and also some KU football news. Not a great day in Lawrence, Jordan Peterson, the KU defensive backs coach and stud recruiter,

is leaving to Texas A&M. First, though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NFL regular season is wrapping up, but there's still time to get in on the action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's 150 bucks in bonus bets, win or lose.

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24 points on 10 of 14 shooting. That's excellent efficiency. He hit that big shot. It was unfortunate that his foot was on the line. But four rebounds, five assists. Kevin was really good for you overall in this game. And you kind of needed him to stick around because with the way that they were shooting, you easily could have lost the game by 10, 15 points if your offense was what it was two weeks ago.

I will say that is a positive thing that ever since Furphy's been in the starting lineup, the offense has really risen up here over these last three games. This past game was maybe more about the defense. DeJuan Harris gets a good go here. I know that the stats, these are not like jump off the page stats for DeJuan at all. Four points, five assists, but he controlled the game. This is what you're asking from DeJuan Harris. Yes, ideally, you want the aggressiveness.

You want him scoring eight, 10, 12 points. And that, yes, I agree with that. And yes, that was a little bit lacking here. But this was not a game, like I said, about KU's offense letting them down. KU had a good offensive game, and DeJuan Harris was in control, had the fingerprints on it. He had four points, five assists, zero turnovers. That's been the big thing with DeJuan.

In the games we felt like he struggled, it's because he's been unorthodox having three, four turnovers. And the other thing has been, can you be a defensive menace? Well, he was in this game. DeJuan Harris had five steals. The rest of Kansas had three. So DeJuan did have himself a good game on the defensive end. Nick Timberlake gets a good go here.

Played 14 minutes off the bench, had 12 points on four of seven shooting, one rebound, one assist, and one steal. He was a big reason why Kansas was tied at halftime, despite West Virginia at one point being nine of 11 from three. It's because Nick Timberlake was getting a bunch of buckets for you in the first half I mean the the combination of Timberlake and Furphy in the first half was almost half of your production on the offensive side of the court Timberlake had an excellent game off the bench for KU Johnny Furphy's first handful of minutes specifically gets a good go here so in the early going Kansas had 13 points about you know a handful of minutes through gets a good go here. So in the early going, Kansas had 13

points about a handful of minutes through the game. Nine of those points were from Johnny Furphy. He started three of three from three, and he impacted all of their first 13 points because he ended up getting an offensive rebound at one point, led to somebody getting fouled, hit the first free throw. Then they missed the second Furphy got the offensive rebound, and that led to another three. So first 13 points of the game were all either scored or contributed by Johnny Furphy. He was excellent in that first portion of the game.

We'll get to the rest of the game, though, coming up the rest here. I put in limbo here the front court for KU. Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams combined had 30 points. That's good. They were 11 of 20, solid efficiency. They also had eight assists and two blocks and two steals. All. That's good. They were 11 of 20, solid efficiency. They also had eight assists and two blocks and two steals. All that stuff is good. But also West Virginia came in in the last five games, allowing 75% at the rim. They had no Jesse Edwards in this game, which is

why that stat has kind of been that way over the last five games. Felt like you could have dominated even more. And beyond that, they also had six turnovers between the two, which was six of KU's seven turnovers. So it was basically all the turnovers. I thought Hunter Dickinson struggled on defense against Sumnik. And the big thing here was that you only got nine combined rebounds from Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams. In a game where we talked about what was one of the differences, you almost won the game, even despite their hot shooting, if you would have done a better job on the boards. And not all of that is Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams, right? It was for a few.

It was supposed to box out kind of at the end there, right? It's not just all them. But we saw KJ be this dominant rebounder for like a four-game stretch, and then that's kind of dissipated a bit. Hunter Dickinson's been a great defensive rebounder so far this season. He only had three defensive rebounds in this game. You need those to go up so you can win on the margins to win on the road in the Big 12. As far as the bad goats, Johnny Furphy after the first handful of minutes. I said Furphy in the

first handful of minutes was a good goat. The bad part came after that. He started three for three from three. After that point, Johnny Furphy finished just one of nine from the floor. He had four points, the final, whatever that would be, like 35-ish minutes of the game. He did have seven rebounds, but it's the ones he missed at the end that were very costly. And I do think this is a good lesson with Furphy that, yes, he is still a young freshman. And I still think overall this is the right call.

KU has looked better overall, especially in the offensive end of the court with Furphy starting over El Marco. But it certainly is a bit of a reminder that, hey, this guy's still a freshman. He's not going to be a complete product right now. I think looking back, you would have loved, if you're Bill Self, to throw his first starts in there at the beginning of the season or in the middle of non-con

when he could have worked some of these things out then as opposed to in Big 12 play. But I understand why he continually was going with El Marco Jackson because you felt like, okay, McDonald's All-American, super high ceiling. If he can hit, that's going to be a huge boon for us. And unfortunately that never happened. So I do think Furphy is going to continue to get better and learn from this. I still think Furphy is on a very high track for what he can become. And I like the move they put him into the starting lineup, but this will be a good lesson for him

moving forward. Let's finish up with a quick what's next for KU men's basketball and then more on KU football with Jordan Peterson leaving the program. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite sporting event should not be stressful. GameTime is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all your sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. They have killer deals on last-minute tickets, and their best price guarantee allows you to stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hyped for the fun that you're going to be having. They have flash deals and last-minute tickets available for everything.

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Finishing things up here with what's next for KU men's basketball and some KU football stuff. Real quick, for KU men's basketball, they're going to be versus Cincinnati on Monday. It always does feel good when you lose on Saturday to have that quick turnaround with a big Monday, especially at home where you feel like, okay, you can get back to it. But Cincinnati's been a good team. This is not just a pushover. Like I said, we've seen KU play down to their competition.

Even if you view Cincinnati as a bottom half Big 12 team, that doesn't really mean anything because A, the Big 12's really good, and B, that point on KU. But good opportunity bounce back there. And then it's at Iowa State next week. If you go 2-0 next week, I think it does excuse this loss a little bit more because I was almost chalking up at Iowa State as a game that they might be underdogs in very slightly to begin with so I think it kind of gets you back on track a little bit if you can go 2-0 but that is much easier said than done against two really good opponents and Iowa State just went into TCU got a big win on Saturday Cincinnati beat TCU this past

week I guess just all three of these teams kind of beaten up on them. Now, as far as KU football, Jordan Peterson was the defensive backs coach for Kansas, and he is leaving to go to Texas A&M. It seemed like they were going to fend him off, fend off Texas A&M, who has a new coach with Mike Elko, when they promoted Jordan Peterson to co-defensive coordinator, which makes this kind of peculiar a bit, the timing. I don't know if Texas A&M just backed up the Brinks trucks even more or what specifically happened. We know A&M is sitting on certainly a lot of money there. Now with Peterson, he was the one holdover from the Les Miles staff and really impressed in everything that he did, both in terms of as the DB's coach, where he's coached up and helped develop some really good defensive backs for KU to recruiting, where he has done an unbelievable job on the recruiting trail.

And with Peterson, I believe Texas A&M is his alma mater. So you can understand it from his point of view, though, going from co-defensive coordinator at a Big 12 school to a safeties coach specifically at Texas A&M is very weird. But again, Texas A&M has all that money. So I'm sure he's being given money properly there. But the question is what impact does this have on KU? Because Peterson, I would argue this is a bigger loss for KU than Andy Kotelnicki. KU was able to kind of keep things running with Jim Zebrowski and the personnel that they had and Lance Leipold and Kotelnicki was a big loss too. But with Peterson, he has such a close knit relationship with that secondary group. And you think about how much talent KU has in that group.

Mello Dotson and Kobe Bryant decided to come back for another year. You have safeties in Marvin Grant and OJ Burroughs, right? You have transfer coming in like Devin Dye to join Jalen Dye. And then you look at the recruiting aspect. He had been KU's top recruiter on a recruiting class that was one of the best that we've seen that KU bring in. And he was in charge of a lot of the big guys. The Desert Edge three, the big players coming in from Arizona, including Deshaun Warner, your top recruit in the class,

those are Jordan Peterson. You know, Jalen Todd, the stud corner, like that was Jordan Peterson. So the scare here is what happens as a repercussion of this. The transfer portal is closed. So I guess that gives KU some time to figure some stuff out here, but come the end of spring ball, do some of these players, whether they're returning guys who came back to be with Jordan Peterson, do they leave to Texas A&M? Do they leave to another school?

Do some of the young incoming freshmen leave at that point? Or is KU able to retain them as much as KU is starting to recruit the class of 2025, re-recruiting that DB room, re-recruiting those freshmen who came in with Jordan Peterson, that's going to be about as big as anything that KU does at this point over the rest of the offseason. We'll dive deeper into that

because it's certainly an interesting topic that I can't just get to here in a few minutes. So we'll get into that more coming up this week with Locked on Jayhawks. Monday, we'll be back for a KU Cincinnati preview. Make sure you subscribe to the show. You can find it anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Have a good one. See you next time.