Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Recap: #3 Kansas Jayhawks Earn Beautifully Ugly Win in at #24 TCU Horned Frogs Behind Defense

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

Recapping the #3 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team earning a beautifully ugly road win in Fort Worth, TX against the #24 TCU Horned Frogs. Defense ruled the day for Bill Self's squad as Kevin McCullar came up huge with Dajuan Harris and Gradey Dick also chipping in large games. Importance of the win for the Big 12 race and GOATs of the game for KU.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at Linkedin.com/lockedoncollege Terms and conditions apply.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL 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, we recap KU's win in Fort Worth to get them one step closer to winning at least a share of the Big 12. 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. Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence, your flagship station in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day, free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts,

whether it's from the audio side or tuning into us on YouTube, where you can subscribe to us as well. Make sure to hit the like button on all of our podcasts, if you could, certainly helps us out. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're recapping Kansas, going into Fort Worth, taking down TCU, getting a little bit of revenge, and certainly a gigantic leap for KU toward winning the Big 12 title. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, a fish sportsbook of Locked On.

Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On today to get started. KU takes down TCU in Fort Worth 63 to 58 they came home with the ball certainly a little bit of I don't know pettiness maybe after the game but in a fun way um uh you see the players wearing the the funky town t-shirts that TCU had given out to all the students um they got the basketball back after TCU took a basketball from Allen Fieldhouse. They take one back from TCU. So you know that that 23 point, I mean, Kansas is not accustomed to losing at home, period. So you lose at home by 23. That's a statement, right?

And you knew that Kansas were going to be playing with a chip on their shoulder. I think you saw that in this game. They played very tough, very physically. TCU obviously did, but that's their MO. Kansas was able to, at certain times, match that or at certain times outdo that. At other times, TCU outdid it. But in the end, you come away

with a gross kind of ugly win, but there was something beautiful. There was something gorgeous about that gross, ugly win. And Bill Self loves those types of games. He does. He, he loves the types of games when nobody's really making shots and you're not supposed to win the game. Like you're not executing perfectly. It's an ugly offensive game. Maybe the other team's playing really good defense. You're not supposed to win those games. And that's why he

loves them because you made the other team play bad. You did the little things that would win you a game like that, whether it's playing really good defense or small intricacies over the course of a game. Those are the things that really endear Bill Self. Now, it's kind of a fun balancing act, because in most years, if you have a stretch of games, maybe early in the season, but I don't know, even when KU won like the comeback against Oklahoma State and OU, those weren't like ugly wins. They were just ugly and how KU had to win them with the comeback. But it wasn't ugly in terms of, okay, you had to win this grind out, you know, 65 to 63 type of game or like last night, 63 to 58.

But we've seen other times, like last season, they went on a stretch where they were winning games, but like there were ugly wins at the start of Big 12 play and they kept stacking them up back and forth. And if you keep stacking up ugly wins, then eventually it becomes, all right, this probably isn't a recipe for continued success. You can't continue to win this many close games. As great as Bill Self is in close games,

eventually you're playing with fire. One of these ugly games is going to turn ugly for you right but if you have an ugly win now and then which this team hasn't really had like for the most part when this team's winning games they're winning them by a big margin or you know comfortable enough or they're not really ugly games and that was kind of a question for me of could this team win a game where they make the other team play bad? Because we know this team's ceiling can be really, really good. It's really enticing. How many really good teams did they blow out in the non-con, whether it was Indiana or Missouri? We saw them beat Baylor by 16. We saw them beat, right? We've seen them when they've

played at their high level, they're really, really impressive and they can be one of the best teams in the country. But when they're not really impressive, can you do what last year's team did, right? Last year's team, Ochagbaje struggled a bit shooting the ball through, you know, I don't know, maybe the first half, three quarters of the game against Creighton, but you did enough in making them struggle outside of their three-point shooting, though overall you figured it out offensively. The Providence game is the one that really comes to mind. You made them play ugly. A game that you did not play well offensively, I think you had 26 points at halftime, and you were up by like nine points at halftime because you made them play that style of way. So can you ugly up a game?

Because over the course of an NCAA tournament, if you want to win a title, if you want to make a Final Four, chances are over the course of a four to six game sample, there's going to be at least one game where you're not going to play up to par. Can you make the other team play down back to your level and make it ugly so that you can win the game? And that's why I think last night was so important because I don't know that there's another game I would point to this year where that was maybe the case. And so that showed me they can do it. And it wasn't't just you want an ugly game against you know one of the bottom feeders in the Big 12 I know TCU is technically in the bottom half of the Big 12 standings but we know that's a really good team we know they've been dealing with injuries we know TCU is the type of team that

like would it surprise you if TCU made a run in an Elite Eight or Final Four no not really like their A-plus game is very very good but you uglied it up and you showed that you could do that against a good opponent on the road that was really impressive and i think in most years you know a lot of times you're almost like after an ugly win you kind of just sigh you're like whew thank goodness they got through that but this year because it was kind of the first one it felt refreshing to me it was like that was cool that was cool they got an ugly win um so in the end defense ruled the day for kansas he held tcu to 30 from the floor didn't really force a ton of turnovers they had 14 offensive rebounds which weren't totally ideal

but you were able to match some of those things but you didn't have like a huge turnover game you got a good amount of offensive rebounds too in the end it was just you being able to prevent them and um you look to what kevin mcculler and DeJuan Harris did defensively. They went back to what they kind of did against Baylor, where instead of just switching five, they said, hey, DeJuan, you stick on Mike Miles. Kevin McCuller, you stick on Damian Baugh. Or if it happened to be that you got switched on the other, like you just stick on your guy. And in the end, Mike Miles and Damian Baugh, who are two of the better, you know, that's that's one of the better guard duos in the Big 12. It's not the best because you're Baylor, but it's certainly one of the top ones up there and you held them to 8

of 30 shooting for the game between those two and as a team they shot 30 so defense ruled the day for kansas um i i think probably a little more further proof in that game that you know jalen is still the team's best player but dewan is the most important everybody keeps bringing up the oh he got four points they're undefeated like they're good to go and that happened again last night so uh when you just have him being aggressive even even when the shots aren't falling for dewan like you obviously you know it helps if the shots are falling and um you can't sustain over the long period of time if you only shot 33 from the floor like you did last night but it's more about the aggressiveness it's about you, just opening things up for others

because you are being aggressive, so they have to honor your shot. And that's going to maybe open up a lane for somebody else to make a cut later in the game. His defense was so good on Miles. He has 26 assists to two turnovers in the last three games. He had 8-0 last night against TCU. He was fantastic. And I think one other key stat that stood out to me besides what the defense did because you know

it wasn't a great offensive game it was 19 to 19 in fast break points now we know Kansas is a very good fast break team they're a very good transition team as good as they are TCU is the number one team in the country at least coming in in transition points per game right they they're a deep team they're athletic they're fast they're physical they get out in transition and they really score on the transition so you basically took away what has been in most games for them and certainly was in allen field house a big strength for them and you turned it into a not a weakness but you turned it into a net neutral right it was it was 19 to 19 she took away one of the biggest strengths and said nope it's just nothing right it doesn't really apply

to this game and that was certainly important for ku to be able to do that but in the end the reason this victory is so big which it certainly is the path to the big 12 is uh at least a share of it is super clear now like there's there's light at the end of the tunnel because even though Texas is favored to win against Iowa State, it's being played in Austin. Even though Texas winning that game, you would look at it and go, oh, well, both these teams are tied for first. Why would the path for Kansas be right in front of that? Well, it's because Kansas still has two home games left against West Virginia and Texas Tech.

Obviously, you could still lose both those games. We've seen West Virginia come into Allen Fieldhouse and give KU quite a scare, and it feels like at some point they're going to get a win because there have been so many of those crazy KU comebacks that it's like at some point they're going to get over the hump. With Texas Tech, we've seen them win in Allen Fieldhouse before, and they're playing a lot better basketball right now.

So they're not gimmies. No game is in the Big 12. Certainly both games that you're going to be expected to win. Certainly both games that you're going to be expected to win by two-plus possessions, based on what I would imagine the betting line and the spreads will be. And you look at that, well, if Kansas just wins those two games, even if they lose in Austin in the finale, then all you would need is Texas to lose one of their next three, which is very possible when you look at their schedule. Texas is playing Iowa State, which is a home game, so you kind of expect Texas to win.

But then after that, they're at Baylor and at TCU. Will they lose both? I don't know. Maybe not. Will they lose one of two? Probably think so. Now, if Texas wins out, puts the pressure on you, then it does come down to the game down in Austin, and we'll see if that happens. But at the very least, this sets you up that, yeah, that kind of covers

you till then, and realistically, you should be able to at least get a share of the Big 12 by just taking care of the games at home that you should. And that is very important for what KU is able to do. Also, this is important for the one-seat conversation. Saw a lot of people last night saying, yeah,. Also, this is important for the one-seat conversation. Saw a lot of people last night saying, yeah, they should be in the conversation for the number one overall, or at least the number two overall now after this.

They're up to 14 quad one wins, which that's more than the American Athletic Conference in total. It's more than the bottom 12 teams in the ACC. It's ridiculous how many quad one wins they've kind of crewed here and the run that they have gotten on to this point in the season. We're going to finish goats of the game. We'll get to our good goats. I think we have one or two in limbo and then our bad goats after that. First, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

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I had last night, I had Grady Dick to score 20 plus points. Barely missed that. I had DeJuan Harris to get 10 plus assists at like plus 640. Barely missed that, but love the process on both. You know, certainly Jalen, I'm sure, heard a lot of people's like parlays and stuff with that. But I did hit the Grady Dick over-under for points there. So we were good there. And you can bet on all those individuals for every KU game.

One of the things that I'm going to be in on with some of the Big 12 games tonight is find which team you think is going to win, and you can go to FanDuel and you can do a bet on margins. Pick them to win by exactly between 1 to 10. You'll get a plus- somewhere between plus 160 plus 200. So that's kind of my go-to for tonight. FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at bigger payouts with the same game parlay.

Don't miss the chance to get your no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. And bonus bets when you go to FanDuel.com slash locked on. That's FanDuel.com slash locked on to learn more. Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Getting on to our goats of the game. Kansas taking down TCU 63 to 58 in Fort Worth.

Let's start with the good goats here. Kevin McCuller. Kevin McCuller was fantastic last night. A game that Jalen Wilson only scores seven points. A game that KJ Adams is in foul trouble and goes just two of eight from the floor, a game that as great as DeJuan was, he was just three of nine. So you needed somebody to pick up the offense.

Grady Dick certainly did, which we'll get to him in a second here. Kevin McCuller did as well. He had 15 points. He went six of 13 from the floor. He continues to struggle shooting the three ball. He was 0 for 2 from three. And I'm not saying that you're going to expect him to be like this you know dominant point shooter moving forward or that he's going to all of a sudden shoot 35 to 40

but the run that he's been on lately is he's being closer to like a zero to 10 three-point shooter when we know over the course of his career he's closer to high 20s low 30s type of guy so if that corrects even a little bit to where you you know, for a two or three game stretch, he does shoot 33%, 35%. That would be a huge boon to what you're already getting right now. But he also, you know, seven rebounds, big in there, three assists to zero turnovers. He was good kind of facilitating. He had two blocks. He had the block on the three where he just came out of nowhere toward the end of the first half and then honestly i thought this should have been three

blocks on kind of that that like one of those final possessions from tcu where uh they were going for the shot inside he also had a steal his defense was master class i i think to me like to show that tape to whoever is voting on the naysmith defensive player of the year he needs to win that award he does he is the best perimeter defender in the country he's the most versatile like you could argue that you know dewan harris is just as good as kevin in terms of on the ball at his specific position but what what adds to kevin mcculler i think is that um kevin's a little more like kevin can because of his size like the one just doesn't have you know the size and strength that kevin has kevin can also defend not like basically every position on the floor we you know it's not ideal that he's on a center but we've seen him hold his own against centers and

even come away with like a stripped ball or something at times so uh his versatility his defense his help defense his understanding of the game bill self said last night after the game like he didn't really ever expect to coach someone with the defensive like IQ of Marcus Garrett and boom here comes Kevin Kohler who is uh kind of on that level so Kevin Kohler gets a good goat probably the MVP of the game last night um DeJuan Harris gets a good goat he had uh six points three of nine from the floor so not a great shooting game but again it's about the aggressiveness, being willing to take those shots that maybe opens things up for other players on your team. That was so important.

But it's mainly about the facilitating and the defense here for DeJuan. Eight assists to zero turnovers. Excellent, again, taking care of the ball. Some of the finds he had, the one where he kind of looks to the right and throws it to the cutter in the middle. I think it was to K.J. Adams. He had five rebounds. And this goes for really everyone with Kevin and DeJuan and a couple others. They could have had a couple more assists

too. They had that play where they had KJ posted up behind the defender and he just couldn't finish once or twice. But DeJuan, fantastic. He held down Mike Miles defensively, who's one of the better offensive players in the conference. I think Kansas really finds that. It seems like every year Bill Self makes that adjustment in February on the defensive end of the better offensive players in the conference uh i think kansas really finds it seems like every year bill self makes that adjustment in february on the defensive end of the ball at least over the last couple years like the 2020 to 21 season they changed up i think it was how they i don't know if they were they changed up to like drop coverage or uh icing ball screens or how they totally did it but they changed things up defensively and they went from being you know not a great defense to

being like over the the final two months of the, like one of the best, if not the best defenses in the country before the COVID stuff hit. And then they ended up getting blown out to USC. Then last season, the defense went from being like, is the defense going to be good enough to just like slowly increasing every game and got good enough that it was top 15, top 20 by the end of the season. They're starting to hit their stride now. They're top 10 on ken palm uh we'll see what they continue to do moving forward if they will switch five or if they'll do what they've kind of done where they've said we're just going to stick kevin and uh dewan on certain players maybe that's dependent on what teams you're playing like the tcu and baylor it made sense because you have those two really good guards maybe for playing a

team like i don't know oklahoma who they have grant surefield so maybe you just say we're just going to stick one guy on you and then everybody else which is i don't know what they're going to do moving forward but certainly they've made a lot of strides on the defensive end ball uh grady dick gets a good goat here 19 points on 7 of 18 from the floor he had a tough second half shooting the ball but overall the presence was still felt what he did in the first half i mean there was a moment there kansas was down 25-21 in the first half, and you had foul trouble, two to Grady Dick, two to Jalen Wilson. I think KJ or Ernest might have had two. You had foul trouble all over the floor.

And I was kind of sitting there going, man, if you can even make this thing tied at halftime, I think you take it. They ended up being up, what, four at the break? And Grady Dick's a big reason why, because of his offensive presence in the first half. He also had six rebounds. He had a bunch of good offensive rebounds or tap-outs for the team to come up with. I don't know how many he did or didn't get credit for on some of those tap-outs, but maybe could have even gotten a few more offensive rebounds. He also had two assists. Grady Dick was really important for you. And in a game that, yeah, nobody really shot it well. So, 19 points

on 18 shots. It's not the most efficient game in the world, but also, nobody was really efficient last night, so that's one of the more efficient games that you saw last night. Grady Dick was really good and deserves a good goat here. Also, the defense talked about this earlier. He held them to 30%. He held firm for the finish, too. I think the

defense down the stretch, that's what won you the game. Kansas got to their 60th point at the 445 mark left in the game. So you were up 60 to 53 with 445. And basically, you scored three points in the final. It was minute 23. KJ hit one free throw, and then Kevin hit those last two free throws. Outside of that, you didn't score. But you still held on the lead and you

never even let them cross 60 over a 445 span when you really needed it. Your offense wasn't able to really do much, but your defense held them in arm's length. And that was really impressive from what you saw from the defense overall from Kansas and kind of ugling up the game and taking out TCU after they put up 83 on you in Allen Fieldhouse and just put up 100 on Oklahoma State over the weekend. We're going to finish things up here with our honorable mention and bad goats with locked on Jayhawks. So I do have two honorable mention good goats. I didn't put it in limbo because I don't think it was quite in the sense of like, oh, was it bad? Was it good? I think it was definitely more good than bad. the two that I'm going to talk about here, but I couldn't quite get it into good, and we'll see why in a second.

For honorable mention, good. I have Ernest Uday. I couldn't quite get him all the way to good because it's 14 minutes with six points, one rebound. It's not enough for me to say that's goat status, but at the same point in time, it was definitely more good than anything. So that's why I give an honorable mention here. He also had one block. He had three steals. He continues to, you know, once every game, maybe more,

it feels like he gets a play where they're just passing the ball to somebody in the lane and he just has active hands and he hits the ball away with his massive length and it leads to a steal for KU. Ended up with, like I said, those three steals there. I thought he was really impressive last night and you needed him to. He just has active hands, and he hits the ball away with his massive length, and it leads to a steal for KU.

Ended up with, like I said, those three steals there. I thought he was really impressive last night, and you needed him to. KJ Adams was in foul trouble. You needed good minutes from Ernest. He gave you a really solid 14 minutes against some big dudes down low with Lampkin and Cork for TCU, and you kind of held Lampkin. I know Lampkin's dealing with an injury, so that certainly matters, but he only had two points. Cork didn't become a big issue for you after he was really good in allen field house earnest was really really impressive for you last night i thought that

was one of his better games but it's funny he only had like one rebound i i just thought he had a really good game for you uh jaylen wilson's rebounding gets an honorable mention good i couldn't put jaylen as a whole offense wasn't good enough for you there but in a game that you needed the rebounding tcu got 14 offensive rebounds okay you got 13 now jaylen only got one offensive rebounder uh rebound he's more known for being a defensive rebounder but that's the point here he had 13 total rebounds he had 12 defensive rebounds if jaylen's rebounding wasn't the thing in that game tcu might get 18 19 offensive rebounds and then it's probably a different story with who ends up winning the game. So Jalen, even though it wasn't a great defensive rebounding game overall for KU,

because of Jalen's defensive rebounding, you avoided it being a disaster defensive rebounding game that probably allowed you to win the game. Our bad goats here, we have three of them. One of them, the bench guards, as great as Ernest was off the bench, you didn't really get that contributions from your bench guards. You got 17 minutes from Bobby, Bobby Pettiford, Joe Yes, and MJ Rice.

They combined for four points on two of four shooting, two rebounds, zero assists to two turnovers. It's kind of a empty calories a little bit. There didn't really get much footing from any of the individual players. You had like bad turnover by Bobby. MJ had like the one missed shot where, where he got an opening and missed the shot. And then the very next time down the floor, he like doubled someone thinking that it was his guy when it wasn't. And it led to somebody being open. Like,

uh, you know, Joe just had that like three that was blocked on this. So I don't know, not great from, from the bench guards. It has been hit or miss with those guys really all year long and kind of on the down end of the roller coaster on this one for those guys. KU shooting from all levels gets a bad goat. You went 16 of 35 on layups, so bad there. KJ went 2 of 8. Jalen goes 3 of 11. You shot 19% on threes.

You shot 67% on the free throw line. Not a good shooting game. You shot 37% in the second half, 39 for the game. In the end, though, it didn't matter because the defense was that good and the last bad goat i have here fran pronouncing kevin mcculler i don't know what was up with it why did he keep calling him kevin mcculler like it was like a h at the end of it is are we missing something here do we not know something why was it kevin mccull? And it felt like it kept getting more pronounced as the game went on. It went from Kevin McCullough to Kevin McCullough at the end of the game. So I don't know what was going on with that.

All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We'll be back. Won't have an episode coming out technically on Wednesday. It's going to come out on Thursday, and we're going to be examining the race to the finish line in the Big 12, like who still is a candidate to win the Big 12, who's technically still in it, what those teams have to do, what they have left on their path ahead.

KU's maybe path to the number one overall seed as well. We'll be talking about that. And then on Friday's show, we'll preview the Kansas-West Virginia game. But that'll do it for this episode. Don't forget to find us wherever you get your podcasts. You can find us on YouTube. Subscribe to us. You can hit me up on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio.

See you later today on Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Till then, bye.