Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #4 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Survives #13 Baylor Bears 64-61 Without Kevin McCullar

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas gets a little bit lucky and finds a way to beat Baylor. We recap the game 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, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. Thanks for joining us. You can find me on social media at D Johnson radio. And thanks for making locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Your first lesson every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like, and subscribe to the show on today's edition. We're recapping Kansas Baylor Jayhawks, find a way to win, maybe a little bit of luck sprinkled in there for them to get over it. The near meltdown at the end.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Injury woes and issues for KU. In the end, a win's a win. We'll get to the goats of the game. What's next for KU and more? First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That is why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.

Starting point is 00:01:15 Kansas scathes one out, survives 64-61. The final score for the Jayhawks as they take down the Baylor Bears in Allen Fieldhouse. It's a top 15 win and one that you needed. You need to hold serve at home, and you were able to do that. So a couple of check marks. And if you just ignored what happened in the game, then you'd be totally happy. You'd be totally fine. But the end of this game was an absolute mess for KU. And really you can talk about the end of the game kind of stretching out a while. I mean, Kansas had double digit lead, nine point lead. I think it was 11, like 61 to 50 with, I don't know, six, seven minutes to go. And then you let them kind of get back into it by giving up a couple open threes.

Starting point is 00:01:51 You have a turnover in there from a Marco Jackson that leads to one of them. And things get a little closer. Then down the stretch, Eve Meecy ends up becoming, you know, J.J. Redick at the free throw line after he'd been a bad free throw shooter. KU can't do anything right on the offensive end, turning the ball over, missing the front end of a one-on-one, mistaking things on the defensive end, giving up open threes. But fortunately for you, you missed them and you get a little bit of luck at the end there.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Now, you could say it was bad luck because Kansas didn't have Jamari McDowell or Kevin McCuller coming into this game and that, you know, KU missed a bunch of layups in this game, and that could be bad luck. And KU missed a bunch of wide open threes too. So what does be bad luck, and KU missed a bunch of wide-open threes too. So what does that change with Baylor having them at the end of the game? Right? That's all fair conversation and stuff, but you did need a little good fortune your way

Starting point is 00:02:32 because if that game goes to overtime, Baylor hits one of those threes at the end, goes 64-64 in overtime, probably not a good thing for KU. Not just because momentum would be on their side, you would have had an injured, gimpy DeJuan Harris there playing in overtime with a team that only came in with seven scholarship players available into this game. And you ended up deciding to play a partially injured DeJuan Harris over El Marco Jackson. That's how much more trust you had in that guy over the other.

Starting point is 00:03:00 So overtime would not have been great for KU as it is. It's already not great. The KU has a quick turnaround with a road game on Big Monday at Texas Tech. But KU went one for the last 10 from the other. So overtime would not have been great for KU as it is. It's already not great. The KU has a quick turnaround with a road game on big Monday at Texas Tech. But KU went one for the last 10 from the floor. The only make was that DeJuan Harris floater that kind of rolled in, crawled in over the rim. And certainly that was a big one for DeJuan and the offense. Pretty ugly game though, overall for the offense. I mean, you didn't have Kevin McCuller who leader in the big 12 in points per game. So obviously your offense is going to take a hit there. But KU was just 5 of 21 on threes.

Starting point is 00:03:29 They bricked some good looks. They had some good open ones. Johnny Furphy, 0 of 6 from 3. I liked his aggressiveness. You need him to keep shooting them because this isn't a team that has, you know, threes growing on trees. Somebody's got to take them. And so you like the aggressiveness.

Starting point is 00:03:42 We've seen them go in for him. You've got to like the process more than the results but the results were not great today and KU was team 521 there were only 7 of 16 on layups which means that Kansas is now 21 of 44 on layups under 50 over the last two games there's a lot of points you've left on the table there just 11 assists for KU against Baylor that is Kansas' lowest of the season by two assists when they had 13 of them in a win against Connecticut. So I don't know, even though the assist numbers have been low. I guess every time they have low assist numbers, they win a top 15 game, so it's okay, but still. Somehow, they still led 30 to 21 points in the paint, but still

Starting point is 00:04:22 that's like 10 points below their season average, conference average in terms of points in the paint, but still that's like 10 points below their season average conference average in terms of points in the paper game. And overall you look on Ken Palm, that was KU's fourth least efficient offensive game of the season. What are the other three lost to Marquette, lost to Kansas state, lost to UCF. Your offense played bad enough to nearly lose this game, but you found a way to win it on the other side of the ball. Kansas won that game in the turnover department and with defense. Those are the two things that stood out in this win for KU. It was mainly the first 21-8 in the turnover battle for KU, 17-5 in steals. So you forced a lot of those turnovers yourself. They did have a couple that were dumb plays themselves, and you led 17 to 5 in points

Starting point is 00:05:06 off turnovers in fact it was KU's best turnover rate defense game of the season so turnovers is what won this game basically for you the defense as we go back to the luck thing you got a bit lucky at the end that they missed some of those open looks and it also wasn't a good defensive rebounding game for KU but overall I, I will say, besides that maybe last minute where you were giving up an open of flurry threes and the defensive rebounding, that was still a really good defensive game for KU. That was about as good as I've seen them this year

Starting point is 00:05:37 outside of the UConn game. UConn game would probably be number one. This would probably be number two in terms of just switching defense, the actions that they had on that end of the floor, getting out to guys quickly. Irony is it was really bad in the final minute, but for the overhaul of the game, it was very good. And in the end, that was KU's second most efficient or best efficiency defensive game of Big 12 season, according to Ken Palm,

Starting point is 00:06:01 only trailing the home win over a bad Oklahoma State team. So defense really good, turnovers even better. Oddly, I feel worse after this game about the bench players. You had a situation where the bench players, you know, obviously Timberlake has started it a day, but long-term, when everybody's healthy, is a bench player. Had increased run. They played over 50 minutes total between just the two with the guards with el marco and timberlake and there were some good moments like timberlake hits a couple threes he has that awesome transition dunk he had a steal here there el marco had some good defensive

Starting point is 00:06:34 stands i think wound up with like four steals but um there were still too many of the negatives right whether it's the el marco turnover that to a three by Baylor in key moment that kind of gets them back into it. Nick Timberlake missing several other open threes, making the bad turnover from Nick Timberlake at the end of the game, missing the front end of the one-on-one. I think he's 0-3 on the front ends of one-on-ones this year, which shows you that I feel like most of this for him is mental. I mean, you have a career 80% basically free throw shooter who's shooting like 65 this year on free throws so because of what happened at the end it was basically a disaster and I know Bill Self doesn't have like what other choice do you have with McCuller out

Starting point is 00:07:15 right now right like you kind of made your bed by having this thin of a roster and yes the NCAA stuff made KU have less scholarship players this year but that was your decision to basically eat all of the ones that you have to use up over the next couple of years in one year. You could have spread it out. You could have had 11 scholarship players this year. You could have had 12. Decided not to eat it up and all in one year. And this is a little bit of fruit of that labor right now. You know, do you start playing Jankovic a little bit? Well, clearly I feel like that would have been tried right now. If that was viewed as a real option, Jamari McDowell, I continue to want to see Jamari McDowell play a little bit more. He was obviously sick today, so it wasn't available.

Starting point is 00:07:50 And I think Nick Timberlake might have been sick recently, so maybe that's kind of going around the team. But it feels like Self hasn't totally trusted him. Even in games where Jamari's played more minutes or played longer or played well, that hasn't led to more minutes in the next games. I don't know. Is the next opportunity that Jamari gets and he does that, is that the one that can take it to the finish line

Starting point is 00:08:08 because we are close to the end of the season? Maybe. I don't know. But oddly, I feel even though in a lot of ways there was more production from Timberlake and El Marco than we've seen in a long time, I almost feel worse about it because of how that game finished up. Of course, beyond the result, the game is pretty notable for the injury news and the things that happened before the game and in the game. Kevin McCuller came in hurt, didn't play in the game.

Starting point is 00:08:31 So that makes this, on one hand, actually more impressive for KU that you gritted out a win without one of your, if not your, best player. Doesn't sound like he's going to be good to go for Monday, though. This was Bill Self after the game. He said he can't imagine McCuller being a lot better on Monday because he could hardly move today that's not great okay um Jamar McDowell was sick maybe that's something that he can be back for Monday although who knows how much he's going to play and then DeJuan Harris rolls his ankle at the end of the game good sign that he came back into the game we saw this happen last year in that close home win over West

Starting point is 00:09:01 Virginia he was able to bounce back okay, but injury bugs starting to come pretty hard for KU in a way that they don't have the depth to kind of deal with. And who knows with the ankle swelling over the next couple days, road trip, quick turnaround with Lubbock, how is DeJuan going to play? Is he going to be available? How available is he going to be or how 100% is he going to be?

Starting point is 00:09:20 Is he going to play at 80%? And if he's only playing at 80% without Kevin McCuller, against a good tech team and a tough place to play, that's tough. I guess in the end, you get a weird, ugly win that maybe you were fortunate to, maybe a little bit lucky to. And the weird thing is I don't know how you could feel better about this team after the game, which is odd considering it is a top 15 opponent. Normally, being a top 15 opponent, you're feeling so much better about the win.

Starting point is 00:09:44 And, in fact, this is what Bill Suff said after the game. He said, this is probably the least happy I've been after a win because that's not how you play basketball. I'm disappointed that we can make those four or five plays in the last minute and put us in harm's way. So like, in a weird way, you don't feel better about your team after top 15 win. But maybe that was never a possibility. When Kevin McCullough was ruled out before the game, maybe that was never an option. Maybe this just became, as soon as he was ruled out, all about survival. Maybe this just became about who cares about how it looks,

Starting point is 00:10:16 just get the dang win with one of the Big 12 Player of the Year candidates out. So while it's not a game that I'm going to use as evidence to be like they're playing better or this was a good run of play, it's an important game in that you did get the win, in that what it means for the Big 12 title race, in that I bagged on the team earlier in the week that they haven't been able to grind out these types of Bill Self type wins. And in a weird way, this one was that, even though it wasn't with how they executed down the stretch. So I guess be happy you found a way to win with a lot of things going against you.

Starting point is 00:10:53 And that is a positive to find a way to do that. But you can't continue to play like that down the stretch and continue to have wins like that. And certainly that makes for this one a very interesting win, but still a top 15 nice resume win booster for KU. Let's continue on with our goats of the game on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs.

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Starting point is 00:12:26 He had 5 assists to just 1 turnover, and he had 2 steals. He obviously hit the last KU bucket, which they obviously very much needed there. And he was the main defender on Ray J. Dennis, who came in over his previous 4 games. I think they showed a graphic 18.5 points per game in that span. Well, Kansas and a lot of DeJuan held Ray J. Dennis to just three points on one of five shooting. He also had six turnovers.

Starting point is 00:12:49 So great job by DeJuan Harris cutting off the head of the snake, so to speak, with the opposing point guard for Ray J. Dennis and Baylor, who's been kind of an all-big 12 candidate. He was awesome for KU in a game that you needed him to score more without Kevin. He found a way to do that with the 14 points and obviously took care of the ball and helped force a lot of turnovers, which was kind of the name of the game. KJ Adams gets a good go here. 13 points, six or seven from the floor, four rebounds, two assists, and three steals. Still want to see the rebound numbers go up to where they were during that one kind of

Starting point is 00:13:18 four-game stretch where that feels more like an albatross now, but offensively, he was really good for KU. I feel like KJ doesn't get a lot of foul calls as much as he maybe should or could I don't know what's up with that but anyway he was overall really good for KU again for some turnovers for you and he again stepped up with the 13 points on six or seven in a game that wasn't ultra efficient for the KU offense KU defense until the final minute then he got a little bit lucky in there, but still in the end, Baylor went 41% from the floor, 31% from three, which you gladly would have taken coming in.

Starting point is 00:13:51 And they had no made field goals in the last four minutes and 32 seconds. And again, yes, took a little bit of luck on them missing the last two open threes. But still, before that, first, whatever, 39 minutes of game, 38 minutes of the game, you know, outside of a mistake here or there, which is just going to naturally happen over the course of the game, right? You can obviously point out certain things. The overall part, I mean, pretty good. It was Baylor's third least efficient offensive game of the season per Ken Palm.

Starting point is 00:14:17 It was their fourth worst effective field goal percentage game of the season, and it was their worst turnover rate game of the season, according to Ken Palm. Give credit to the KU defense for doing a lot of that. Hunter Dickinson's first half. First half gets a good goat here. In the first half, he had 13 points on 6 of 11 shooting. He had four rebounds, one assist, one block, one steal, played 14 minutes of action. So he's really efficient out there and had a really good first half. Unfortunately, as we get to our bad goats here, Hunter Dickinson in the second half pops up because this is Hunter Dickinson's second half line. Two points on one of eight shooting, three rebounds, one assist, zero blocks, zero steals in 18 minutes. That is part of KU struggling so much in the second half offensively

Starting point is 00:15:03 is that they couldn't get Hunter Dickinson going. And he was missing some easy ones, which will bring us, I think, to another one. KU Bunnies. KU Bunnies is a bad goat here. DeJuan missed, like, two layups and that little floater that was, like, within three, four feet. That seemed like it was pretty wide open. Hunter Dickinson missed, like, two or three bunnies that he normally makes. KU's a team seven of 16 on layups you're not going to win a lot of good games shooting like that on the easy ones um yeah

Starting point is 00:15:30 Timberlake and Marco Jackson get a bad goat here so Timberlake before the last minute wouldn't have been on here not that I was going to put him on good goats he had a couple threes he had the one dunk there were still some negatives that happened over the course of the game. But if the last minute would have just gone normal or he just wasn't in there, he wouldn't have been on either side. It would have been like, okay, you got decent enough bench production, right? And considering that you haven't gotten much at all, you know, a C-plus performance from somebody off the bench,

Starting point is 00:15:59 a B-minus performance is normally like graded on a curve in A. But then the last minute happened where he throws the, or well, he, he throws the ball out of bounds. Then he, um, I believe missed the assignment on the guy getting open from the corner and three, then he misses the front end of a one and one. Then he, if you go back and watch, there's a kind of opposite baseline view where you can see DeJuan Harris comes into the screen on the last three attempts for Baylor to tie the game. And clearly he was expecting a switch, and it was just DeJuan on two players. It was DeJuan on the screen guy and the three-point shooter. Nick Timberlake was supposed to be the other guy, and for some reason he was on the wing double-guarding somebody else.

Starting point is 00:16:44 So then you had that happen. And then Omarco, he had some good flashes too he had four steals in the game he forced a lot of turnovers in the game where that was the big thing for ku so he gets credit for that but total it up the two of them had 52 minutes played nine points scored in 52 minutes on three of eight shooting two of seven from three two rebounds one assist three turnovers five fouls did have the five steals and one block so to average it out that basically means the average of Timberlake and Amarco in this game was a 26 minute player with four and a half points one rebound 0.5 assist to 1.5 turnovers two and a half fouls did get the two and a half steals and yes some of the defense stuff was good guess what if Marcus Garrett even his defense, played 26 minutes and scored four or five

Starting point is 00:17:28 points with one rebound and zero or one assist to one to two turnovers, it would still be a bad game, even with Marcus Garrett's defense. So it is a problem there, and it didn't get any better in this one, even with more playing time. The last one here, or I guess two more, rebounding. KU was out-rebounded 42-25. That was KU's worst offensive rebound rate of the season. And it definitely hurt not having Kevin McCuller,

Starting point is 00:17:54 not just because he's one of your better rebounders. I mean, if you're ranking rebounders on KU, one's probably Hunter Dickinson, two is Kevin or Furphy game-to-game, third would be the other one, And fourth would probably be KJ. Well, if Kevin out, you lose that ability. And honestly, you could argue just in terms of offensive rebounding, it's Kevin or Furphy, maybe even KJ.

Starting point is 00:18:15 He's better on the offensive glass than defense glass typically. But it was KU's worst offensive rebounder rate of the season. And it's not just not having Kevin a good rebounder. It's that, okay, now all of a sudden, instead of Furphy being boxed out by a two, it's Furphy being boxed out by a three. And everything shifts up a little bit, right? It was also a bottom five defensive rebounding rate game of the season for KU. So bottom five defensive rebounder rate, worst offensive rebounder rate,

Starting point is 00:18:41 bad rebound game overall. Baylor came in a good rebounding team, especially on the offensive side. Defensively, they were more of a middle of the pack team, and that led to Baylor almost winning the game, 15 to 4 second chance points for Baylor. The last bad goat here is injuries and illnesses. You see the injuries happening to Kevin McCuller leading into the game. Seems like something that's going to be a little bit more long-term for Kevin

Starting point is 00:19:05 because it sounds like he might miss Monday's game. Honestly, though, given the state of where this season is for KU, I continue to believe they're better suited for the tournament than winning a Big 12 title this year, and I know you're not going to completely give that up. I'm not saying to do that or to change your goals. That should still be the goal. You still fight for that. But if you're giving me the option of having a healthy Kevin McCuller for the NCAA tournament and it costing you an extra game in Big 12 play that makes you end up finishing second or third in the Big 12,

Starting point is 00:19:35 and because of Kevin being healthier in the NCAA tournament, you can make a run into a second weekend, third weekend, I might take that, honestly. So it is what it is. But you hope that he can get healthy and okay. Jamari McDowell being sick, Duane Harris getting hurt in this game. That's obviously a big storyline coming from this game. I'm dealing with some sort of illness, voices going away, all sorts of stuff.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Not fun right now. All right, let's continue on what's next for KU men's basketball on this edition of Locked On Jayhawks. First, we were brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel America's number one sportsbook because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet that's 150 bucks if your bet wins bet on all your favorite NBA players and teams with the Super Bowl finishing up later tomorrow you can get quick bets live same game

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Starting point is 00:20:49 Finishing up Lockdown Jayhawks. What's next for KU? Well, two road game week, which this is a little bit scary with how much KU has struggled on the road in Big 12 play. One and four on the road in Big 12 play at Texas Tech and then at Oklahoma. And what makes the Texas Tech one even more difficult, not just Texas Tech's got a really good offense and a really good place to play, is that you could be without Kevin McCuller again. Maybe you're still without Jamari McDowell.

Starting point is 00:21:15 Maybe it's not 100% to Juan Harris. We will wait and see. That becomes very problematic. If Kansas can win, I almost go as far to say, if Kansas can win at Texas Tech shorthanded like that, I would almost go as far to say it would be,U. I don't know. The Houston win is so big. KU's second best win behind the Houston one of Big 12 play. Second best or second most important in terms of what it would show for the team, the rest of the depth, the rest of the bench, winning on the road, right? You can make the argument it would be most important if they

Starting point is 00:21:41 could do it. But I would still say the Houston win, pretty important when you're beating one of the best teams in the country, especially the way that they did. Then at Oklahoma. Honestly, at this point, if you guaranteed me one and one next week, do you take it? I don't know, man. If you told me they were going to be healthy both games, I think I'd roll the dice, try to get the two wins. But given what we know right now on the injuries, I think I would take the one and one.

Starting point is 00:22:06 All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time for a KU Texas Tech preview with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #4 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Survives #13 Baylor Bears 64-61 Without Kevin McCullar

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