Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #4 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball's Road Woes Continue in Overtime Loss to Kansas State Wildcats

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kansas is very bad on the road. They lose again, this time to a rival K-State. We recap the game on this 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, at least through the rest of this week. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:37 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 of the show, Kansas' road struggles continue. They drop to 1-4 on the road in Big 12 play, and this time to Kansas State in overtime. We recap the game, what went wrong for KU, what this loss means, go to the game, who stepped up, who did not, and what's next for KU men's basketball.

Starting point is 00:01:03 First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started. So obviously this feels like you took two steps forward with the Houston win, one step back with this one. It doesn't completely erase what you did in the Houston game, but it certainly makes it not as, I guess,

Starting point is 00:01:29 enjoyable or good of a taste in your mouth and makes it a little bit less meaningful because to win the Big 12 is, we kind of talked about, yes, it's very important to beat some of the other good teams, which you did against Houston. But the true test of when Kansas wins the Big 12 is they're more consistent than the other schools. They win the road games. They go four and five on the road. They go five and four on the road, right? Six and three on the road. Well, you're already one and four on the road. So you got to win out on the road, which includes difficult games at Texas Tech, at Oklahoma, which both those are top 35 teams in the country, at Baylor, top 20 team in the country,

Starting point is 00:02:03 and at Houston, the top five team in the country. So good luck doing that. Kansas just plain sucks on the road right now. And it's kind of mind-blowing why that would be, because typically what you would correlate with being bad on the road is like you're a young team. You don't know how to handle the road environment. Kansas is a veteran-filled team.

Starting point is 00:02:22 So why is this happening for KU? These are the games you got to win if you want to win the 12, and they just can't right now. And as great as the Houston offensive game was, this was the complete opposite, right? Everything was falling for you. Execution was crisp and perfect against Houston. And this game against Kansas State, not so much.

Starting point is 00:02:42 And it's crazy because if you would have told me coming into the game that KU would win points in the paint 38-30, points off turnovers 21-8, they would have seven less turnovers overall. They would lead fast break points 16-9, and they would have 21 assists. I thought they would have been fine and would have won this one on their own. And Kansas got up 41-30. And at that point, you know, you have the close first half.

Starting point is 00:03:07 Second half, you come out. You have that great start. And then you give up a couple like Tyler Perry threes and buckets. You let them back in the game. You go on a bit of a scoring spell yourself, and you just can't get the stops. And all of a sudden, you let them back in the game, and from there, it's wide open.

Starting point is 00:03:21 You had a chance to kind of put your foot on the throat, maybe get it up a little bit more, and you weren't able to do so. But that also means, because Kansas got to the 41-point mark with 17-23 to go in the game, that means that they scored only 29 points over the final 22 minutes and 23 seconds of the game between the end of the second half and overtime, which is, if you're wondering, okay, what does that pace out to be, if that were, say, a 40-minute game, that would only be 51 points in a game, especially after

Starting point is 00:03:49 what they just did in the game against Houston. You just could not buy a bucket. You didn't do the little things though, either to kind of grind one out. You know, you did win the turnover battle. That is one of those little things that you did at least well, 16 to nine there, but you didn't do the other things beyond that to kind of grind it out and that's typically when we're talking about like Bill Self his favorite wins that he has it is the ones where you're not shooting the ball well where the ball is not going in the basket where you're not having your best offensive game but you find a way to win at all costs right and maybe the best team that Bill Self had at doing that was that 2011

Starting point is 00:04:25 to 2012 team. It wasn't always the prettiest thing in the world. They didn't have a super deep bench with, you know, T-Rob and you got what basically a six man rotation. You got Justin Wesley, who's basically a walk on transfer in from Lamar is coming off the bench is like your seventh or eighth man, right? That team didn't have a bench. This one doesn't have a bench, but that team was able to win ugly consistently. And this team is still trying to figure that out. And maybe this team is not built in that same way because maybe that one is more of filled

Starting point is 00:04:52 of tough grinders and defensive guys. And maybe this one is just a little bit differently. And that's not, you know, something that can be in the cards for this one and they need to win in a different way. That's fine. But that is what typical Bill Self teams do. They win these grind out games. And think about some of the grind out ugly games K Self teams do. They win these grind-out games.

Starting point is 00:05:05 And think about some of the grind-out ugly games KU has had. They're not winning them. You know, like the UCF game would have classified in this. Like West Virginia and Iowa State, they shot so well. Like that's kind of a little bit different. But like this one would certainly classify in that same arc. And so you mix in some maybe a little bit of crap luck, which is going to tend to happen to you when you're playing on the road.

Starting point is 00:05:24 Like how'd that one tip in go in where it felt like it was off you? The one shot by Tyler Perry, like at the end of the shot clock buzzer. I don't know that that's skill on him. He's a good player, but a little bit of crap luck with that going in. Them getting hot from three. There's a little bit of crap luck in that. Then again, we kind of knew that would happen, right? Tyler Perry and Kim Carter came in.

Starting point is 00:05:41 It combined 32% from three. They went seven of 17 or 41%. And the more this continues to go on, the more I am starting to have questions. Is Kansas doing something wrong on the defensive end, even though there is some maybe negative luck or reversion there? Nonetheless, they hit more threes, just those two guys, than KU did as a team.

Starting point is 00:06:01 In fact, they more than doubled up. Just those two guys more than doubled up what Kansas did from three-point shooting. There was the rebounding woes. KU was out-rebounded 43-33. They gave up two more second-chance points. So many missed key free throws for Kansas, especially by your guy, right? You're counting on Kevin McCuller as your veteran player. You're counting on him to be able to hit key free throws on the road,

Starting point is 00:06:26 right? Missed layups. How many missed layups did Kansas have? Well, I have the number for you. 14 of them is the official number of the amount of missed layups for KU. The bench is still a very, very real issue for Kansas. And it had to play more in the first half and overall for the game because of some of the foul trouble, which was a recipe for bad things to happen and then you have poor play in late possessions of both halves like and and that's what's frustrating too you go back to last year's game in manhattan remember k you struggled to execute down the stretch they had some opportunities there was the timeout play there was uh they didn't even like get a shot off on on the last play of i think regulation and overtime so you have some poor play late in the halves where the end of the first half,

Starting point is 00:07:05 you miss a layup out in transition. The end of the second half, you did execute the one dunk play, but just in key moments before maybe your last possession, you're not executing well in some of those key moments. And there's your formula for getting beat on the road. There's your formula for losing on the road to what is currently a non-NCAA tournament team. I don't know, maybe after this win, this will pop them back on the right side

Starting point is 00:07:27 of the bubble. But if K-State is not an NCAA tournament team, because right now UCF's not, West Virginia's clearly not, that would mean you have three of your road losses of the four are to non-NCAA tournament teams. Now, I guess the one positive, NCAA tournament games aren't on the road. They're not at home either, though, and sometimes they can have kind of a road environment. I guess you could also, you know, I made some comparisons that Houston win on Saturday. After the game, I said, reminded me a lot of the 2022 victory over Baylor when you blew out a really good opponent who ended up getting a one seed, competed with you for the Big 12 title. And you ended up getting that blowout win after you had some questions at the end of January, and that was important to show what the team's ceiling was.

Starting point is 00:08:08 But we forget that two games later, on a big Monday, on the road, KU lost the silly game that they shouldn't have lost at Texas. I think like Trey Mitchell like banked in a three or something like that, and some weird stuff happened. Maybe this is like that if you want to look at it glass half full. Then again, that team at that point, that was only their second Big 12 loss they're eight and two this team six and four maybe this big 12 is a little bit different i don't know do with that comp what you will at the end of the day you can still accomplish a lot this season regardless of if you win the league or not and you can still win

Starting point is 00:08:37 the league to be clear too like at the end of the day even after as frustrating as this is in the road struggles you're only one back in the lost column of first but unless things completely turn on on the road that's not gonna happen and beyond that KU just keeps losing to K-State in sports and obviously that's not fun and that sticks in your craw and I I know there's the cliche that like they care more and when when KU's playing K-State that oh this is their Superbowl. You hear that all the time from KU fans. And I think sometimes it's used as, as kind of a disarming statement. And sometimes as a statement to try to, you know, make fun of your, your rival and little brother and stuff like that. But I'll say this, you can tell who cares a lot in this rival. And if the alternative is, Hey, I'm going to get made fun of

Starting point is 00:09:25 for how much I care about beating my rival, but we're going to win the game, I know which side I'm taking there. So figure out a way. I don't know. This is just frustrating. You think of the football loss and the two basketball losses in Manhattan and the way that you've lost some of these games. You lose.

Starting point is 00:09:39 I think you got swept in baseball, like all these things. I don't know what it is. It certainly gets a little bit frustrating. And I think a lot of KU fans would certainly agree with that. All right, let's continue on with our goats of the game, good and bad on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate from FanDuel,

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Starting point is 00:10:50 Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. On to our goats of the game. Good goats here. Let's start with DeJuan Harris. DeJuan Harris played an excellent game. I thought this was DeJuan's best game of Big 12 play. He ended up with 15 points on five of 10 from the floor, eight assists, two rebounds, two steals, one block. He played 43 minutes of action. I'll be honest. I thought he was KU's best player on the floor in this game. I mean, think about some

Starting point is 00:11:19 of the defensive plays he made where he was able to get a steal or pokeball off somebody out of bounds on Kansas State. The passing, the scoring was there. And I think he missed his first two or three shots of the game. So from then on, he was kind of locked in, even shooting the ball too. This becomes just the second game in DeJuan Harris' career that he scores double figures and they lose. The other one, Arkansas, this one to your rival on the road. So that tells you that even the two losses are games that easily could have gone the other way then again it also is a little frustrating when and where those two losses are but DeJuan was really good overall in this game and honestly you look back to it I think

Starting point is 00:11:54 he's had a nice little run of play now you're probably looking at about two or three weeks where he's looked like old DeJuan Hunter Dickinson gets a good goat 21 points 12 rebounds another double double for him two assists one, one block, one steal. He easily could have had more points. How many shots did he have where it felt like it was halfway down? I think it was like two from the block. Both of his threes felt like they were right there, and they just kind of rimmed out.

Starting point is 00:12:17 And I know it's frustrating when you see a guy continuing to shoot threes and they're not going in. I think he's like one of his last 17 or something like that. But the process is right. We saw what it was like early in the season that he can hit those shots. He was shooting like 60% through like non-con play. And it's not like those were air balls that he shot against KC. They were halfway down and out.

Starting point is 00:12:34 I think he's got to keep shooting because Kansas needs him for three point volume in the same way they need everybody who shoots their threes. They don't shoot a lot of them. They don't make a lot of them. They need Hunter to make one or two every game. So I think you got to just kind kind of keep shooting them but overall he had a good game and in a game where kansas wasn't really able to do much offensively he at least provided a nice little spark on that end kj adams gets a good goat here 13 points four assists only

Starting point is 00:12:57 two rebounds so again that's something that you want to kind of point out and be like yeah could that number go up a little bit especially in the game where you weren't great on the glass so yes point valid there. But also had four steals. It was his, honestly, second straight year. Like, remember last year he fouled out of the game in Manhattan too, and there were a couple calls where it was like, those are nickel-dimers. I don't know about that.

Starting point is 00:13:14 That's how this one felt too. Felt like he kind of got screwed over a little bit by the whistle in Manhattan back-to-back years. But I thought he still played a good game for KU. He obviously had the dunk that tied it and eventually sent it into overtime. Fouled out in overtime, though, and then anytime you're bringing on a player from the bench for KU, that is not going to help any causes. Turnover battle gets a good go here.

Starting point is 00:13:34 KU had seven less turnovers. That was nice to see after the Houston game when they had three turnovers. You had 18. You wanted to see if you could force more. You wanted to see if you could stop having them yourself. And, yes, there's still going to be some that are like, oh, that was dumb. Why did that happen? Why did this happen?

Starting point is 00:13:49 And there is a little bit of human nature in that. But I don't know, seven less turnovers. Take that each and every time. For the bad goats, Johnny Furphy. This was a definite reminder that Johnny Furphy is a freshman. He only had four points on two of seven shooting, 0 of four from three, four rebounds, four fouls. He struggled on defense, gave up a couple drives,

Starting point is 00:14:07 maybe fouled the guy. He obviously missed the box out toward the end of the game on the airballed miss mid-range shot by Tyler Perry, then ended up leading to a stick back. I think it was by Kaluma. And that's now two games of your road losses with that one and the West Virginia one, where Furphy is, like, by making the addition of adding him over Elmarco Jackson in the starting lineup,

Starting point is 00:14:28 one of the other things that goes up for you beyond the three-point shooting in the offense is rebounding. Furphy is a better rebounder than Elmarco. But in a couple of key moments, he's missed the box out, and that certainly hurts you. Now, boxing out, I had somebody reply to me on Twitter about this. Boxing out on air, is a hard task. It is a little bit different.

Starting point is 00:14:48 And so, yes, that is a valid point, but, um, I don't know, it still stands a little bit and yes, it was just a reminder that he's still a freshman. Like he's not perfect. He's going to have some ups and downs. And, uh, I I've kind of talked about before, like, I know a lot of people are saying that, Oh, he's popping up on NBA draft boards and, and, you know, I, I can see it and I can see why, but I remember some of that conversation happening when Ochai ripped his red shirt off and having a couple of good games early and then maybe dipping down a little bit.

Starting point is 00:15:13 And then again, going up to like having like a 20 point game against Texas or something like that, people having those conversations, he ended up being a four-year player. I'm not saying Johnny Furphy is going to be a four-year player, but I am pumping the brakes on the NBA draft stuff. And I think you saw a little bit more why today he's not somebody who is perfect on the defensive end. He's not somebody who really can create his shot yet. And I think those are things that would make a lot of sense to come back for next year. But anyway, that's conversation for another day. Kevin McCuller gets a bad goat here. You know, 15 points, six rebounds, six assists, four steals. He impacted the game in a lot of ways and some of the totals and, you know, good passing game, good stealing game, all that stuff. But you go six of 18 from the floor, you go one of five on free throws. That's what really

Starting point is 00:15:57 kills you. And it's specifically, it's specifically the free throws and the layup at the end of the first half, right? If you make the layup at the end of the first half, I know it's impossible to know the butterfly effect of how does that affect the game from then on, like the game management and how teams approach it from then on. But it's easy to be like, hey, game was tied at the end of regulation. Those two points would have been nice, right? And also you missed both free throws on one of the trips earlier, right?

Starting point is 00:16:21 So if you even go one of two there, then the one and one at the end of the game, maybe there's a little bit less pressure there. Maybe in your mind, you're not thinking about, oh, I have to make two. Maybe you're just thinking, I just got to make one. We're going to be good. I do that all the time, right? And I know he missed the first. So again, it's kind of procedural and who knows how that all works, but that's very rough. And the thing that makes it the toughest is he's the guy you're supposed to count on in those situations. And for it just to not go in and to not have that, I guess, kind of isolation, last-minute, last-second-shot type of guy right now

Starting point is 00:16:53 on this team, it's definitely tough. The bench gets a bad goat here. Elmarco Jackson plus Parker Brown plus Nick Timberlake played 21 minutes combined, two points, six rebounds, zero assists, two turnovers, two fouls. So I guess good rebounding numbers, but everything else on there, not so good. Elmarco did hit that one shot, but also he had that really bad bricked mid-range shot. Yeah, just continually not really getting much from the bench. And it'll be interesting with the NCAA tournament. I've kind of said all along along I think this team is built better for the tournament than they are for the regular season because of

Starting point is 00:17:28 the lack of depth because of the lack of bench you're gonna have longer TV timeouts but here's the thing if you get if you don't get like a good seed like Kansas is very dependent on getting a good enough seed to where they're playing a bad team in the first round basically because as we saw in this game quick turnaround one day between games two days between games however you want to view it right playing Saturday to Monday that'll be the same as in the NCAA tournament when you're playing Thursday to Saturday or Friday to Sunday and with the lack of depth that affects you more for that second game in the turnaround but if Kansas plays if Kansas gets a one or two seed and plays some crappy team and beats them by 20, 30 points

Starting point is 00:18:05 and starters only have to play 28, 30 minutes, maybe that can help you there. But if you end up getting a three seed or a four seed and you're playing some good little underdog school and you really have to stress the starters a little bit longer into the game, does that make them more prone in the second game? Maybe the depth could come into play in a negative way there.

Starting point is 00:18:20 The layups get a bad goat here. I mentioned earlier, 14 missed layups. There were 14 of 28. How many of them felt like they were halfway down and just popped out? And that's frustrating. That's going to happen to you on some occasions. You just hope it doesn't come back to haunt you in a key moment like it did for the 07 team in the Elite Eight where they missed a billion layups against UCLA. And that's something where it's like, I don't even know if that's like, I mean, the process is right. You were getting layups, which are supposed to be good shots. I don't know if it's, you need to be tougher. I don't know if it's just crap luck or what it is,

Starting point is 00:18:51 but certainly the layups were an issue for KU today. All other forms of shooting though, that's the problem. We're an issue as well. There were three of 15 from three. I think the last made three was with like two minutes into the second half. So you're getting nothing from the perimeter for the final 23 minutes, basically of game you weren't hitting really mid-range you weren't really hitting anything in this game the offense was uh just kind of stuck in the mud and then rebounding minus 10 in the rebounding battle for KU against K-State I think Kansas State ended up with nine offensive rebounds whereas Kansas ended up with six offensive rebounds. So, I mean, not a huge difference there. If you go by rebound rate for Kansas in this one, this was their second worst

Starting point is 00:19:34 offensive rebound rate game of the season. The other ones on there are Tennessee, West Virginia, UConn, and Oklahoma State, for what it's worth. And then for the defensive rebound number, this was more of a, I guess, kind of middle-of-the-pack game for them in terms of the defensive rebounding number. So not a great defensive rebounding game, or I guess an average defensive rebounding game. Not a great overall rebounding game with the offensive rebounds for KU. Let's finish up.

Starting point is 00:20:01 What's next for KU? How can they try to get the taste out of their mouth on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks? What's next for KU? First, we are brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home that winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks,

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Starting point is 00:20:53 eBay guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers. So what's next for KU basketball? And by the way, I will say thank you to every day for tuning in to each and every one of our episodes. If you want to cheer yourself up, go listen to the recap show from the Houston game. Maybe that'll make you feel

Starting point is 00:21:09 a little bit better. Go watch some highlights or something. Get ready for the Super Bowl. I don't know. Do something else. Whatever it is. I have had this question,

Starting point is 00:21:15 by the way. I will be stopping my work at Rock Chalk Sports Talk at the end of this upcoming week. I will be continuing to do this show here with Locked On Jayhawks. So if anybody had that question, which I saw,

Starting point is 00:21:27 I had a few people shoot me something on Twitter or something asking about that. So there's your answer to that. But what's next for KU men's basketball. They're going to be versus Baylor. That'll be this Saturday college game day going to be in town. You know, Kansas has done so well. Bill self has done so well coming off of losses. Good news is they'll now have a long week off to really work on stuff in practice, to get guys rested up, to get ready for the Baylor game,

Starting point is 00:21:50 and now you should have an extra edge from losing this game. So that is the positive for KU, and that certainly becomes a big-time opportunity to get a win. Then after that, it's a two-road game week, which that sounds a little scary for KU, does it not, with the way that they're struggling on the road? At Texas Tech the following Monday, at Oklahoma the following Saturday. Honestly, the way I'm viewing it with this next three games,

Starting point is 00:22:12 Baylor at Texas Tech at Oklahoma, win two of the three. Win two of the three, I think you're content with that. I think it keeps you at least in the Big 12 race, at least keeps you in the discussion of being like a two-seed or maybe even a one-seed with opportunity If you can win some more games down the stretch, win all three. We're really talking something cooking again here for KU, but win at least two of the next three, including holding serve at a home against Baylor. Baylor team that so far has had some big, big 12 or close, tight, late big 12 losses,

Starting point is 00:22:41 including also losing in overtime at Kansas State. They have one of the best offenses in the country, and this will scare KU fans a little bit. They're number one in the country in three-point shooting at 41.8%. Then again, it's usually been the teams who don't shoot well from three that just go off, so maybe that's actually okay. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, though. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts,

Starting point is 00:23:02 including on our YouTube page. We'll be joined by Nick Schwert to talk about the road struggles, Johnny Furphy, plenty more on our next episode of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #4 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball's Road Woes Continue in Overtime Loss to Kansas State Wildcats

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