Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #5 Kansas Jayhawks Win Against Defending Champ #4 UConn Huskies in Wild Allen Fieldhouse

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas wins the battle of the last two national champions. Top five showdown. They come away with the 69-65 victory. Vegas always knows. We're recapping the game on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:20 Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. Find us on our YouTube page. Thank you to the everydayers.

Starting point is 00:00:50 Tune in to each and every show. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're recapping Kansas-Yukon. Jayhawks victorious 69-65 in a top five showdown. We'll go through the game, the overview, go to the game, what's next for KU, and a little bit on an ode to a great season for the KU volleyball team to finish up. we are brought to you by fan duel make every moment more right now

Starting point is 00:01:10 new customers get 150 in bonus bets with any winning five dollar money line bet that's 150 bucks if your team wins visit fanduel.com locked on to get started kansas 69, Connecticut 65, Jayhawks entered in number five, Connecticut entered in number four by Ken Palm, Kansas entered in at number seven and Connecticut entered in at number three. Oddly enough, the Jayhawks have actually dropped or some other teams around them, but it's, you know, whatever the offense has gone up, the defense is basically the same. They're still one of the best teams in the country. And that's what this win indicated. I think UConn is one of the best teams in the country. And so you winning the game is indicative that you, too,

Starting point is 00:01:52 are one of the best teams in the country. It's not like we didn't know that. They're preseason number one. But I kind of thought if you lost this game, maybe there was going to be thoughts of, okay, Kansas is still a top-ten team if you lose this game. But maybe they're on the second tier of the title contenders. You win this game and feel still in that top tier of title contenders.

Starting point is 00:02:09 Maybe that's overreacting to a random game in December, but I don't know, maybe that's how it would have felt, especially on the cusp of the Eastern Illinois game, which we said at the time, if you win this game, that erases that. Doesn't it feel like the Eastern Illinois game was erased? Who cares what happened in that one, right? So an excellent start for Kansas. They got off hot. They were shooting threes. UConn was shooting a bunch of threes. game was erased who cares what happened in that one right so an excellent start for Kansas they

Starting point is 00:02:25 got off hot they were shooting threes UConn was shooting a bunch of threes they were just on higher volume you were doing it more efficiently on lower volume and you got up 38 26 like two minutes ago in the first half and it was like man Kansas dominating this game I think Dan Hurley said in the post game the crowd got into it and you know kind of got them on their heels uh Bill Self said afterwards that was one of the best environments it has ever been in allen field house so you know shout out to the fans who are in attendance and the students for making that a thing obviously allen field house is always great and in the uh you know crowd in the attendance and people making noise are always great the environment's always great but uh it was another level in that game and at times that

Starting point is 00:03:01 sometimes we see like when they're playing missouri or you know some of these other big conference non-conference matchups. So an excellent start. They finished the half strong to tighten it up. And then you kind of waned a little bit. There was a moment there where I think you had like 12 points over 14 minutes of game time between the end of the first half and the start of the second half. And they took advantage. Right. I mean, Tristan Newton was unbelievable in this game. It would have still had you in front by the lead if you would have been executing more offensively,

Starting point is 00:03:28 but you weren't making shots. They were getting offensive rebounds. And then you hit that big run at the end. Did Ted Lasso, did Jason Sudeikis give some sort of words of encouragement at the under eight timeout or something? Kevin McCuller came back to Kansas, and boy, did he come up clutch. You can do this all the time with every sports team. Uh, Kevin McCuller came back to Kansas and boy, did he come up clutch that there's, you can do this all the time with every sports team. And also there's, you know, we, we never look at it as well.

Starting point is 00:03:50 If you didn't get this player, what else would you have done? Where would it have been the ripple effect? What would you have done in the transfer portal or picking up other, but what would Kansas have done if Kevin McCuller didn't come back for another year at school? You know what I mean? Like, where would they be right now? And he has been unbelievable so far this season. He puts up 21 points in this game and he hits those big threes. And I mean, he was, he was also taking on the challenge at different times

Starting point is 00:04:14 through the game, having to guard Tristan Newton. Now KU was switching a lot as they normally do. So it wasn't always on him, but that tires you out on both ends. And you know, he was, he was so impactful in this game and hit some of the biggest shots of the game. And honestly, like I'd imagine there were a good amount of NBA scouts either there or watching the game because you have a lot of, you know, NBA players on Connecticut and players possibly on Kansas. And I've seen Kevin McCuller even, you know, be a late first-round pick and some updated mock drafts.

Starting point is 00:04:42 That game probably got a lot of attention. For him to go three of four from three and hit some of the big shots he did, especially the one over Johnson coming at him in the corner. And he's able to get the high Archer in for the three. That is so big for him personally in his potential NBA drafts. So I feel great for him. So cool for KJ Adams,

Starting point is 00:04:59 man. We're going to get to our go to the game. We'll talk more about KJ and Kevin McCuller, but the story that KJ just had to go through with his mom passing away, and I think he's going to the funeral tomorrow in Austin. So, so cool for him to do what he did in closing out the game with the free throws and just to have an excellent all-around game in general. I thought it was very interesting because you look at the Connecticut team last year that won the national title. Andre Jackson was one of their key pieces. And they went through a transition period with Jackson where at the beginning,

Starting point is 00:05:28 it was great. Then in conference play, teams started basically, he wasn't like a big shooter, but he had a good feel for the game. He was a good defender. He was a good passer. He was a good rebounder. He was a good cutter. He could hit a little push shot in the lane.

Starting point is 00:05:41 And they took advantage of that eventually, but it took some time to figure out when other teams started guarding him that way i think there are some similarities between you know kj adams and andre jackson a lot of you know andre jackson more of a ball handler point guard type but i thought that was kind of interesting that he had that big game against connecticut who had him kind of a similar role and dan hurley very complimentary or complimentary i guess would be the right word of uh KJ Adams in the postgame. Now there's a real chance because now Kansas has wins over Tennessee, Connecticut, and UConn.

Starting point is 00:06:12 There's a real chance one of those three teams ends up being like a one or two seed in the NCAA tournament. The other two, maybe two, three, four seeds, right? So like these are big wins that could move you up in line. These are big wins that could keep you in front of somebody in a tiebreaker scenario. These are big wins that tack on your quad one wins and everything like that. So big deal for Kansas to win this game, even though it is in December. And you know, what's funny is like, honestly, outside of the three point shooting, because KU went bonkers

Starting point is 00:06:37 from three, nine of 14 to three, not high volume, but insane efficiency. Kansas did a lot of things well and not well that they normally do. Now, it wasn't everything, but normally Kansas goes into the game and they have the advantage on two-point shooting. In this game, it was less pronounced. It was like 44% to like 42% or something like that. We still had it against a team in UConn who came in and typically that's been their calling card. They've been the dominant two-point shooting team. So you still had a slight advantage there. We're used to seeing that with Kansas. You still were a team who's good at passing.

Starting point is 00:07:10 Like it wasn't one of KU's insane assist total numbers. I think it was 13 for the game, but like they're still moving the ball well and getting good looks whether they made them or not. And they did some things poorly that we're used to seeing them do poorly so far early in the season, right? You missed some key free throws,

Starting point is 00:07:23 even though you came up clutch at the end. You didn't force turnovers in this game. I think UConn had like eight turnovers or something like that. So there were certain things that were very indicative of what you've just kind of been all season, but it feels a lot better when those sorts of things happen and you win the game. And it feels even better when your win is against a top five opponent. I'll say this too. Even though you held that slight edge on two-point shooting, they did stifle you more than anyone else. I mean, maybe Marquette, but that was kind of a different thing. UConn is a really good shot blocking team in two-point defense. They stifled you more than anyone else, and most teams can. not a lot of other teams have a Donovan Kling in a 7-3 center

Starting point is 00:08:08 who could be a lottery pick in the NBA draft and I think that's impressive too you showed that against an elite opponent who can take away your main offensive strength I don't know maybe you'd say the passing's the main offensive strength maybe it's two-point offense but one of your main offensive strengths they they they mitigated it they made it less of a strength and more of just a thing that you edged them out in you still found a way to win and that's the good sign and that's the crux of this all and I think this win for Kansas Kansas has some flaws like every team in the country does you showed in this game that you can beat elite opponents, even with some of your flaws and having something taken away. One of your strengths was kind of taken away.

Starting point is 00:08:51 Some of your flaws still showed up in this game. This was not Kansas just playing a perfect game and edging out a win. Like again, they didn't force turnovers and you had some rebounding stuff and like some of that stuff will happen. You still beat an elite opponent. Now did nine of 14 from three, did no Stefan Castle for UConn.

Starting point is 00:09:08 Did some of that stuff help mask some of that? Yeah, you bet it did. Did it help to be in front of that Rocky Salon field house crowd instead of on a neutral quarter at UConn? Yeah, of course it did. But also UConn got a bananas game from Tristan Newton.

Starting point is 00:09:20 KU is still figuring stuff out. You basically played a six manman rotation in this one. Like, ideally, you'd like to think, okay, maybe our seventh guy, maybe our eighth guy, maybe even our fifth and sixth guy who were part of that six-man rotation are going to be much better players come a month from now, come two months from now. You take the win, and you feel validated. You are 7-1 with wins over Connecticut, Kentucky, Tennessee,

Starting point is 00:09:43 and your only loss is to a top three or top five Marquette team. Things are pretty good in Lawrence. And oh, by the way, Jason Sudeikis and Sue Bird were there. So, you know, pop culture capital in addition to the basketball excellence from what we saw against UConn. We're going to take a quick break in the action, get to our goats of the game, good goats, bad goats, coming up here with

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Starting point is 00:11:07 When I was growing up, goat was a bad thing. You were kind of the scapegoat of something bad that happened. So the good goats here, we're going to start with KJ Adams. 18 points, that was second on Kansas. In a game where DeJuan Harris struggled shooting the ball,

Starting point is 00:11:18 he hit the early three, but he finished, I think, one of seven. To be clear, I don't have DeJuan in either of these. I thought DeJuan was fine. The shooting wasn't great, but he was still, I don't know, calm, reliable as a passer. And, you know, did some stuff good defensively. Tristan Newton made some of it go for not when he was on him.

Starting point is 00:11:34 Sometimes he was, sometimes he wasn't. But that's a story for later in this episode. K.J. Adams, 18 points on six of 10 from the floor. We saw him hitting that push shot. He's gotten actually pretty good at that, like little 10 to 12, the 14 footer either at the elbow or just inside the free throw line, whether it's a push shot or I'm actually taking the jump shot.

Starting point is 00:11:55 It's looked pretty good. He also had five rebounds, which I know that's not like a super high number that sticks out, but that's one of the higher numbers he's had so far this season. So, you know, they're there too. He's a good passer to assist in the game. And how about this? He started two

Starting point is 00:12:08 of 13 on free throws this season. We had a Brian Haney, most of the Jayhawks on during Rock Chalk sports talk earlier this week. And he pointed out and he mentioned it on the broadcast earlier this weekend, Eastern Illinois. If you remember last year, KJ struggled to start the year from free throw shooting. And then he finished the year really well. I don't remember what the number finished at. It was around 60% on the season. But if you just go from after the 2 of 13 start, he was closer to 65, 70%. You look at conference-only numbers, KJ was shooting well from the free throw line.

Starting point is 00:12:37 So this year he struggled to start, and this is what Brian pointed out. Also, 2 for 13 from the free throw line, the exact number he was last year before he turned it around i think he went two for three again it's eastern illinois so that'll work if you're kj and you're shooting 65 from the free throw line you take that he went six of nine today and uh he hits the final two that that sealed the deal when you were up to you needed him to at least hit one to make you feel like okay we can either foul or just hope you know we have insurance if they make a three and then he hits both to seal the game.

Starting point is 00:13:07 And awesome. I know his mom's looking down on him. He's going out to her funeral tomorrow in Austin and just really cool stuff. Really, really happy for him because he's just, I don't know, he's just such a good kid. He tries so hard and really like to see that happen to somebody like KJ. Kevin McCuller, 21 points. Went six of 10 from the floor.

Starting point is 00:13:29 Three of four from three, as we talked about. That's big for his showcase. Also had five rebounds. And he was having to exert a lot of energy on the defensive end, whether he was guarding Spencer kind of coming around ball screens or switching on Tristan Newton. He was having to exert a lot of energy on both ends of the floor and came up with seemingly the biggest shots of the game for you

Starting point is 00:13:47 during that big run in the second half. He was excellent, and he has been a steady, consistent force all season long, taking that Jalen Wilson, Ochag Baji-type jump right now is what Kevin McCullers is doing. Hunter Dickinson, it's funny because I don't even know. I'd actually – I'm going to look this up. But Hunter Dickinson, from a statistic output, from just a like, okay, this is how many points he had, this is how many rebounds he had.

Starting point is 00:14:12 This has got to be on the low end for him, right? He had 15 points and nine rebounds against Connecticut, six of 12 from the floor, so 50%. So the 15 points are his second lowest of the season. The only one lower was Marquette. The nine rebounds, he had eight rebounds in three games. So it's one away from being tied for his lowest of the year. So in theory, the statistical output is like, okay, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:33 15 to nine is still really good. But for Hunter Dickinson, it's like, oh, both those are below his averages. Well, he had four blocks in this game. He played 38 minutes. And part of this is the four blocks. He holds Donovan Klingin, who is the possible lottery pick, big man for UConn, who's a national player of the year candidate too. He helped hold Klingin to eight points on three of eight shooting.

Starting point is 00:14:56 Now, Klingin was in a bit of foul trouble throughout the game. Dickinson had four fouls too, so he had to deal with a little bit of that. But Dickinson was excellent at helping prevent that. And UConn didn't have a big two-point shooting game. Like UConn came in one of the top three teams in the country in two-point offense. They shot 42% from twos in this game. Now part of that is other guards or KJ or somebody else,

Starting point is 00:15:17 but a lot of it is Hunter Dickinson being at the rim and being a presence. So credit to him because I thought he was really good in this game, even though the statistic output was far from, you know, the Kentucky game or the Tennessee game necessarily. Contributions from Elmarco Jackson and Johnny Furphy. I couldn't quite get there putting either one like on the list. Like Elmarco had like six points and Johnny Furphy had a couple of big threes for you, but neither one's stats like jumped off the page. Bill Self though said after the game that both played well, so we'll just take it from him, I guess.

Starting point is 00:15:47 He knows more. He'll forget more about basketball than I'll know, that's for sure. But they made some key plays when they needed to. The second three that Furphy hit was a very important shot, and moments before he had missed kind of a good look from three, but he was able to get one back and knock it in. El Marco, you saw a little bit of the mid-range. I thought that was really good to see him hit that mid-range jump shot

Starting point is 00:16:08 because that was kind of an indication. I think he hit two mid-range jump shots. He had a little confidence going for his shot, which you like to see there. But I thought he played hard. I mean, there was a lot of time that he was guarding Tristan Newton, which we're going to get into the Tristan Newton stuff here. Yes, he went off. I don't think that was as much about Kansas messing up.

Starting point is 00:16:27 Yes, there were a few times they left him too open. I think it was more about Tristan Newton just having a really good game and just going off and being a good player. Like, I don't think it was as much about like, oh, you know, you messed this up. You know, there was like one three where I remember him being wide open, some of the foul stuff. But like, I don't know, it was kind of a good effort there.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And I love the turnaround. Like as freshmen, you're going to make a mistake early in the season. And that was a bad mistake. It was. The throw to KJ Adams when you're trying to preserve the lead. But to see the freshman not get in his own head and come back, and I forget who was driving for UConn. It might have been Diara.

Starting point is 00:16:59 And he kind of strips it from behind, and it hits off his leg and goes out of bounds. That play was so critical for KU, and credit to Marco for that. The last good go we have here is Jamari McDowell's celebration. Now, McDowell didn't get really in the game much, which is a bit of a surprise, that's for sure. Certainly, it seems like Furphy is just going to be the first guy off the bench. I mean, the way this is going, like,

Starting point is 00:17:22 this was a perfect game to show who built up of trusts, right? Marco Jackson and Johnny Furphy are kind of guys right now. But that was an awesome celebration by Jamari McDowell. And I still think Jamari is going to have some moments this season and going to have a bright future at KU. So I think this, you know, the next game like UMKC, you're going to go deeper on the bench. And moving forward, that'll probably be a case for the next month uh barring some close moments late in games maybe if you're with that with like missouri yale or indiana or something like that but yeah that was a fun celebration with him doing the uh i don't know the hutzpah you have uh lots of intestinal fortitude i guess

Starting point is 00:17:59 would be the way to put it our bad goats here bench depth now was this just more about bill self was the and what he wanted to do and go with the guys he trusted um i think you did see tonight what it would probably look like in an ncaa tournament game i think ideally in a tournament game you're maybe seven deep so maybe somebody else gets more but normally part of your rotation is having a backup center because normally your center might like Doak was going 25 minutes a game. Dave was going 25 minutes a game. With Hunter, he can go. We saw tonight like 38 minutes a game.

Starting point is 00:18:29 So maybe come March, this is what it looks like in the rotation. But Parker Brown, Jamari McDowell, Nick Timberlake combined for four minutes played in this game. So you didn't have a lot of bench depth in this one. The final two minutes of both halves of play were a little bit of adventures. So Marco Jackson hits the mid-range jump shot with like 217 or two something and change in the first half. At that point, you're up 38-26.

Starting point is 00:18:53 They finished on a 5-0 run to finish the half, so that wasn't ideal to get them kind of back into it. Then with two and a half left in the second half, you were up 63-57, and then Caravan hits a layup and then things get a little i guess they only outscored you by two over the final two and a half but like um you know things got closer than that for certain moments and you almost let things get out of hand with you know some turnovers or missed free throws or you know not making stops here there so things got a little crazy there in the final couple minutes of both halves but you found

Starting point is 00:19:23 out uh or you dug deep and and figured out a way to win at the very end. The other bad goat here, you still need to force more turnovers and get more on the glass in general. They offensive rebounded you 10-5. You'd like to see that get closer to even. Now, they're a really good rebounding team, so it's tough to do. But KU has the personnel to be a good rebounding team. And again, the only forced like eight turnovers in this game. That's a number that I think KU has the personnel to be better at. And then the last one here, I don't even want to say

Starting point is 00:19:53 defending Tristan Newton. So I'm not going to, because again, I thought he was just hitting tough shots and playing kind of above his shooting. I mean, he came in 32% for his career in like four or five years of college, 29% this year. So you don't bank on that happening from three. The one thing that I think you would like to not do is maybe foul three three-point shooters in the same game. That's kind of a recipe for causing some issues for you. All right, that's our go to the game.

Starting point is 00:20:17 Let's finish up with what's next in a little KU volleyball here with Locked on Jayhawks. Finishing up with what's next for KU and a little KU volleyball. So what's next for the basketball team? They're going to take on UMKC on Tuesday. That'll be a 7 o'clock game. Then they'll get Missouri on Saturday. So, you know, that one's different because Missouri's not as good of a team,

Starting point is 00:20:39 obviously, as Kentucky. But the emotional level from the crowd, from, you know, you would hope the players certainly is going to get up there. I think it helps that you have DeJuan Harris. I've talked about this before. He's from Columbia. It probably helps set the tone. Obviously a lot of these core members are a couple of starters with KJ and Kevin were in that environment last year, which I think would help going to Columbia and getting to experience that. So having that in the rivalry, that'll be fun.

Starting point is 00:21:05 And then you're at Indiana the following Saturday. But you should from here be able to go, like they're favored to go 5-0 the rest of the way in the non-con. At the very worst, like maybe you get sniped at Indiana or something like that on a weird Saturday morning. Maybe one game you get sniped in some way. At worst, you should go 4-1 in these next five. But yeah, 5-0 is what

Starting point is 00:21:25 you're going to be picked to do from Vegas and Ken Palm and all those different sites. Now, I did want to do a quick ode to the KU volleyball team here. They lost in the second round to Penn State. It was a tough draw for them. A lot of people thought Penn State should have been one of the top four seeds in hosting on their own and would have been tough for KU. It is unfortunate they lose in the second round. It doesn't take away an unbelievably great season for them. They won, I think, 23-24 games. They finished second in the Big 12. They had some unbelievable wins over the course of the regular season,

Starting point is 00:21:52 whether it was sweeping Kansas State, whether it was winning at BYU, the only team to win at BYU in the regular season. Just a lot of fun memories and moments, Houston, UCF games, all that sort of stuff for the team. It's a very talented team. They won a ton of fun memories and moments, Houston, UCF games, all that sort of stuff for the team. And it's a very talented team. They won a ton of awards. They're going to be back for more next year. They fought tooth and nail to the bitter end.

Starting point is 00:22:12 They were up 11-9 in the fifth, just could not quite close it out against Penn State. But future's very bright. I feel very bad for Reagan Cooper, who was unreal to finish out this match. And this season for KU, she's a grad transfer transfer did win her first NCAA tournament game by them winning the first round. So that's cool. She got to state. She did that. But it just sucks for her that she, she graduates because she was so epic at the end of this year.

Starting point is 00:22:35 I think they lose three players to graduation. She's obviously, you know, one of them they'll lose one of the middle blockers and then they'll lose one of their DSs. I guess you never know nowadays with the trades from portland how all that stuff works but um everybody else can like come back like cameron turner can come back who was the big 12 setter of the year caroline bn can come back for senior season i don't know how all this works with the covet year if they have two more years or one or whatever uh but then they have the number one recruiting class coming in the big 12 top five in the country so ku KU Volleyball going to still be really good next year,

Starting point is 00:23:06 and I think next year they can maybe take another step up if they can get some progression from players. Freshmen come in hitting hard, and maybe you add another transfer portal player too because it worked pretty well with some of the additions you had this past year. But a shout-out to them because another unbelievable season for Ray Bouchard and the group. Just an unfortunate ending, but it always is.

Starting point is 00:23:23 Whenever you don't win the title, it's never going to feel fun, right? All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts. You can like and subscribe to us on our YouTube page. We'll be back later this weekend to talk about whatever bowl game that KU gets selected to. Then we'll get to a KU UMKC preview earlier next week. This has been Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #5 Kansas Jayhawks Win Against Defending Champ #4 UConn Huskies in Wild Allen Fieldhouse

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