Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Recap: #5 Kansas Offense Overcomes Oklahoma State's Stellar Defense in Stillwater

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

Recapping the #5 Kansas Jayhawks winning in Stillwater against Oklahoma State behind top-notch offensive execution. Injury updates to Dajuan Harris and Kevin McCullar. GOATs of the game from Gradey Dick to team passing.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, Kansas with a big-time road win in Stillwater over Oklahoma State, we discuss the biggest takeaways from maybe KU's best offensively executed game of the season. 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 on Rock Chalk Sports Talk, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day.

We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also subscribe to us on YouTube, hit the like button, give us a good positive review if you could. And on today's edition of the show, Kansas with the ultimate offensive execution game as they're able to come away with a victory against Oklahoma State, a big time victory. It moves them into a tie for first in the Big 12 standings after Texas lost earlier this week. Baylor is also a part of the tie there. And we're going to be discussing that game all day. I'll go to the game coming up later here on this edition of Locked on Jayhawks. But first, this episode of this show brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked on. Make every moment more.

Visit FanDuel.com slash Locked On today to get started. Kansas wins 87-76. Oklahoma State coming into the game had allowed seven or more points, so just 70. Again, Kansas scored 87. Seventy or more points six times, two and four in those games. They have a really good defense. Their offense sometimes can struggle though they do have those three guards who can consistently hit three

point shots that do give them a bit of a higher ceiling offensively and you know we saw a couple of them like Bryce Thompson was hitting everything in the mid-range last night um but you know kind of cooled off in the second half so they do do have a high ceiling offensively, maybe not as high as a team like Kansas, but for the most part, they're a pretty inconsistent, not great offense. It's the defense that carries them. So if you can find a way to score, but it's easier said than done, it usually sets you up well. So they'd only given up 70 or more points six times.

They'd only given up 75 or more points twice. That's it in 25 games. Kansas put up over 80 on them. One of the best offensively executed games for Kansas of the season. They were cutting so hard. They were setting really good screens. They were attacking the basket hard. They were passing the ball really well.

It led to a bunch of open shots against a really really good defense that's about as impressive as an offensive outing as you could have you for kansas and obviously a huge victory because you now do move into that tie for first place with five games to go as you take on texas uh in the regular season finale on the road you take on baylor this saturday so you have chances head-to-head against both of them but you you're, I guess, maybe in the driver's seat again, even though it is tied. Like, people are kind of expecting you, like the betting odds, favor Kansas at this point.

The biggest hope here, I mean, you hope it's not a win-the-battle, lost-the-war type of game because Kansas wins the battle. They win the game. It's a very important game. They find a way to win it. But you hope they didn't lose the battle because of the injuries. Bobby Pettiford was on the bike after being in the game for a few minutes um that was to a lesser extent than these next two but dewan harris rolls his ankle that didn't look

like one of those rolled ankles though that you know you you look at and you go oh man that's disgusting like that was you know the patrick mahomes. Apparently, after the game, he was, this is according to Matt Tate for the Lawrence Journal-World, he was just taped up, but he wasn't in a boot or anything, so that's probably a good sign. I feel like he'll be okay for Saturday, but what if he is a little ginger walking on it? What if he doesn't have his full quickness or agility

or cutting against a Baylor team that has three of the quickest, best scoring guards in the country? That's a problem. Kevin McCuller rolls his ankle. He's had ankle problems. Sometimes earlier this season, he's had ankle problems that have really plagued his career at Texas tech. So you hope this isn't a,

the start of something and B that this is something he can play through. But again, it's not just, can you play through it at 80% because this isn't Patrick Mahomes where, Hey, if you play through it at 80%, you can still be a pocket quarterback. And maybe every so often you can take off and run in a straight line.

This is, hey, can you shift in basketball and cut back and forth and, you know, try to avoid a shimmy shake and backpedal with a guy that you're guarding? And those are KU's two best defenders against a team who relies on their guard play offensively. So you hope that you won the battle and didn't lose the war in that regard with those injuries. But again, same thing that Matt Tate reported with Kevin McCuller, that it was just taped up. He wasn't in walking boots, you would think. That's a good sign for both. But, you know, that is a little bit scary going into the game against Baylor on Saturday.

But yeah, overall, just insane offensive game. You made shots from two-point range. You made shots from two-point range. You made shots from three-point range. You executed so well. You set good screens. You had a good amount of offensive rebounds. You passed the ball extremely well. You didn't turn the ball over.

About as great of a game as you could kind of envision there. And even in the first half, like, you know, you're up 39-37 at halftime, and that was because I think you finished on a 6-0 run. Even when you're down 37-33, I found myself sitting there going, you know, this isn't the worst thing in the world. This is either going to be, because at that point, it was Bryce Thompson and Caleb Boone. They had

carried Oklahoma State, and they were just hitting everything. In a lot of those cases, they were tough mid-range shots. And, you know, there was a part of me that was just going, either this is going to be one of two things. Either this is going to be a tip-your-cap night where Oklahoma State is just unconscious for the entire game, there was a part of me that was just going, either this is going to be one of two things. Either this is going to be a tip your cap night where Oklahoma State is just unconscious for the entire game. And you just kind of tip your cap and go, well, you beat us.

You got us. Or it was going to be a game where they cooled off in the second half. And I think they cooled off a little bit in the second half. And so either way, I felt kind of comfortable with where KU was at because they were executing and getting open shots offensively. That you felt like even though Oklahoma State was kind of going bananas in the first half you were still right in it and then eventually you take the lead off that beautifully executed play that Grady Dick has that rainbow three from the corner to give you that lead and then Grady Dick has that huge surge to start the second half too he ended up having an unbelievable game Kevin McCuller had that great stretch when Jalen Wilson was out

after he picked up the third foul in the second half. You also had DeJuan Harris who had to take himself out of the game because of the rolled ankle. And you're like, okay, who are we going to rely on? Who's going to be the guy that carries us here for this little stretch of a few minutes? And Kevin McCuller took over, hit a couple of big shots for you, made some big plays. That was a really important stretch as anything too. And you had to deal with so much foul trouble over the course of the game to Jalen Wilson. And we haven't really seen him be in foul trouble so far this season, but Ernest Uday was in foul trouble. KJ Adams was in foul trouble and everyone just kind of

stepped up. You needed bench contributions. You got them. Doesn't mean everybody off the bench played well, but you got enough bench contributions in the game. You got enough contributions from your other starters. I mean, Jalen Wilson up until what, like three, four, five minutes left in the game had nine points. And up until that, that and one rebound, he had like 11 points. So everybody else had to step up and they did. And in the end it's

a gigantic win for the big 12 um both in terms of now you're physically tied for first you can kind of see the end of the tunnel with just five games remaining and you control your destiny and you have both teams playing and if we view it this way there's a couple way to look at it if if 12 is the number to win the big 12 you're at nine right now you have three more home games hold serve at home and you get to 12 that simple right if 13 is the number win out at home and win one of two on the road tcu or texas we also had the uh the metric we talked about i don't know metrics is i don't know why i use that word that's a bit too strong but uh the idea that hey if you go six and six against the top seven,

you're obviously with those, so it's six other teams times two games, 6-6, and then you go 6-0 against Tech West Virginia OU. That gets you to 12 wins too. And as part of that, going 6-6 against the top seven, well, you already lost at home to TCU, so what if you lose on the road to TCU? That means you would have to make up either winning in fort worth against tcu to avoid that or just sweep one of the teams in the the top seven and oklahoma state represented an opportunity to sweep one and you

did so um the math is now working out you know if you lose at home to baylor on saturday then that kind of set you back again but to get to 12 wins at the very least who knows if that's enough but it certainly puts you in contention and not just for uh winning the big 12 but certainly still a one seed because this is one of those years if Kansas finishes second in the big 12 with 12 wins I mean they have two more quad one wins than everyone else if they finish second in the big 12 at 12 wins i mean they have two more quad one wins than everyone else if they finish second in the big 12 at 12 and 6 and somebody's 13 and 5 and then they win the big 12 tournament they're still getting a one seed you know they might never even have to win the big 12 tournament

that situation like maybe they just make the big 12 final maybe both those teams get a one seed so um obviously you want to win the big 12 and and this sets you up for it. But, yeah, interesting there. Okay, let's get to our goats of the game. But first, this episode of Locked brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The midway point of the NBA season is here, and now is the perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That bonus bet's back.

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But, you know, there was one bet that I did hit on yesterday on FanDuel, which I absolutely loved. You could have got DeJuan Harris at plus 450 with eight-plus assists. I did that bet individually, so that felt great, but I also parlayed it on one with Jalen Wilson to score 15-plus and then KJ and Kevin to both get 10-plus. That barely missed my points. That was a little bit unfortunate, but still felt good about the process there.

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That would be one Grady Dick. Best game we've seen Grady play in a little bit, I guess. I don't know, maybe just a week because the Texas game was really good, 21 points there. But around that Texas game, he had three games where he was like at single digits and maybe struggling to get a shot off or defense was face guarding him, whatever it was. He was excellent against Oklahoma State.

26 points, 10 of 17 from the floor, 4 of 9 from 3, 3 rebounds, 3 assists. Again, he has that shot from the corner. And, you know, that point, he scored a late two toward the end of the first half. And prior to that, he had two points. But even then, it was like, okay, he's going to go into half with four points. It felt like more of a quiet night. Then the loudness certainly picked up when he hit that corner three

at the buzzer at the end of the first half, which super fun play for Kansas. It was just like pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. You know, nobody like dribbled the ball. And so Grady then catches fire from there. He comes out in the second half, hits like the deep mid-range. He hits another three. Like he just got going and he could not miss.

It felt like in the second half of that game, it just takes KU to another level when they're able to get him open shots. Now, part of that, you can't always depend on. Sometimes you are getting face carded. Sometimes certain things the defense does will take him away, and you have to take advantage of, hey, if we're going to take him away, then that's going to leave other guys possibly open. But he was really good last night, and sometimes, I say this all the time,

that's the way to beat a good defense, shoot over it. And if you got the shooters, give us a chance to do it. And that was the case with Grady Dick last night. But, yeah, excellent game for him. Kevin McCuller had 15 points. He was 6 of 9 from the floor. And I mentioned the stretch that, you know, you had Jalen Wilson out with foul trouble. You had DeJuan Harris getting injured.

You needed somebody to steady you. And he kind of did that. He hit that one kind of deep mid-range shot, which was like, no, no, no, no, no, yes kind of shot. And he steadied you for a few minutes there, making some other plays that really kept you in the driver's seat for when those guys did get back. Eight assists as well.

That's a new career high for Kevin McCullers. He was really good at dicing them up. He also had three rebounds. Excellent game for Kevin. He was also so good defensively. I mean, there is like one or two plays every game that you notice. I'm sure there's more that end up happening, but maybe

you don't notice as much because maybe they still end up scoring or maybe like the pass never comes in. I don't know, but there's a play or two. It seems like every game that maybe as part of the rotation, Kevin McCuller is supposed to help somewhere and sees it faster

than normal other guys would see it. And so makes it there when normally the other team would get an easy bucket out of it, or he is just like an extra defender to the side and sees that maybe the help defense is going to be there a little late or is in the wrong position or maybe the help defense gets dragged somewhere else. And he just comes down so quickly and reads the play so fast that it turns into what could be like just a wide open layup or dunk for the other team all of a sudden he has like a steal or a block and like the the play where he like shuts down the alley-oop and like sees that from like he is so cerebral and good on the defensive end so uh kevin mccullough certainly a good go kj adams 15 points he was also six for nine from the floor he had four rebounds uh one assist um i think that this it almost got lost on me that he scored 15 points.

It felt like a very quiet 15 points, and maybe the reason why, he only played 20 minutes. He had to deal with foul trouble, but that's pretty crazy. 20 minutes, 15 points for K.J. Adams, four rebounds. That would have been a good 30-minute game for K.J. Adams. So overall, he was very effective and able to get you some good buckets he hit I think a couple of those mid-range shots he had at least the one that I remember toward the end of the game that kind of gave you that that little cushion before they went down and hit a three which was important and kept that at seven

as opposed to five that is such a big difference with the two to three possession games. Last one for good goats here is team passing. Kansas had 26 assists. That's an insanely high number. DeJuan Harris had nine. Kevin Kohler had eight of them. You passed the ball and shared the rock so well last night. They also had just 10 turnovers. So it wasn't just like, you know, you're throwing the ball all around everywhere

and it's high turnover, high assist. You took care of the ball, but you made good passes. 26 assists to 10 turnovers. I mean, DeJuan was obviously a big reason why. He ended up with five points, nine rebounds, five assists. He was really good last night. Shot wasn't totally falling for him, but he was really good as a facilitator. And meanwhile, you like compare that to Oklahoma State.

And this was part of what I was saying in the first half. Like KU was only up two at the end of the first half. But KU was up, I think it was 18 to 12 in points in the paint. So you were getting easier shots. And they were also up, I think it was 13 to three in assists. So like clearly, I know that's not always the best metric to decide who wins the game. Because, you know, some teams are just better in isolation, like Baylor. Baylor's really good in isolation.

Some teams are, I don't know, maybe it's not necessarily an assist that you're going to get. What if you just dump it to the post and the forward or center down low, like Shimmy shakes a guy and so they don't get an assist and he gets a bucket and it's unassisted like there are things that you don't always measure hey the best passing teams are always the one that are going to win but when you have that big of a difference there 13 to 3 and assist that really does show how hey one team is just kind of settling into jump shots off the dribble that are contested the other is is getting these open looks. There should be a difference in the score more than two,

and that ended up playing out in the second half. But KU was so good passing the ball. All right, we're going to get on to our bad goats in just a second in our little bit of both here with Locked on Jayhawks. All right, we're back with Locked on Jayhawks here. And coming up, we'll have later in this week, we're going to try to get one out tomorrow examining the onesie candidacy for KU basketball.

The early bracket reveal comes out on Saturday. And then on Friday's show, we'll have our preview of the KU Baylor game for college game day. So we'll start with, we'll get onto our bit of both goats here, I guess, because I had a little of these and then we'll get to our bad goats,

which we don't have a ton of a bit of both. Jalen Wilson. Jalen ended up with, I don't know. It's hard to call it the biggest play of the game. Cause even if it doesn't happen, like KU maybe wins the game, they had enough of a cushion,

but it wasn't. You know know it wasn't for sure thing it certainly was the biggest killer play of the game it certainly was the biggest uh nail in the coffin type of play exclamation point type of play whatever term you want to use for your uh end of the game type of college basketball play where he catches the rebound goes up with it flips it in off the window somehow gets fouled earns the end one that was huge and also he had foul trouble so like you know when you look at his overall stats at the end of the game you have to realize that hey well it was inhibited by foul trouble otherwise the numbers would have been even better but also you know prior to that and one play he would have wound up with for the game 11 points and three rebounds which

would have been a very you know i don't know pedestrian might be even too positive of a word for jaylen wilson you know for a lot of guys that's a great game but for jaylen we're used to seeing every game 14 and 8 14 and 9 you know and uh i think that there were a couple plays in that game too, where, you know, maybe Jalen was having trouble ramping back up the intensity after having the foul trouble,

or he was trying to make sure he avoided the foul where you noticed him maybe not go as hard for a rebound as normal or, or this or that. And, you know, at that point it was kind of a, a weird game for him because of the foul trouble. But in the end, he had the last laugh because of that.

So I didn't quite put him in the good goat section, but he clearly wasn't a bad goat. So I just gave him a little bit of both here. I thought the bench would get a little bit of both here. Joe Yesavu at eight points, which you'll take that each and every game from him off the bench. But he also was inconsistent. He was three for eight from the floor.

But then again, also, like, he filled in some good minutes for you when Bobby Pettiford, DeJuan Harris are injured. So bit of both from the bench, partially with Joe Yesfu. I will say like everything with Joe Yesfu, it is either this insanely pretty play, like it's like, oh, he splashed this three or he made this like awesome dunk for a little guy or he made this awesome layup like over length or you see the athleticism or it's like when he misses it's like a very bad miss it's like very short it's like a line drive that looks like it never had a chance um but you got a

little bit of both there i thought the bigs off the bench with earnest and zuby again you get a little bit of both there uh you fouled too much from the big position. Ernest ended up fouling out. They combined 22 minutes between Ernest Uday and Zuby Edgeford. In 22 minutes, not a lot of production. Four points, three rebounds. That's not much. You had the one play that Zuby couldn't catch it,

and it led to a turnover. So you had some negatives there. You also did have some some positives like play where Zuby did make a really tough catch into a double team off the bobble and then was able to get it out for the assist to Grady Dick that was a great play the I think there were three plays where Ernest Uday was able to use his length to either bat a pass in the passing lane and then there were two of them uh and I'm kind of combining them here. I think there was one where he did it in the passing lane,

maybe two, and then there were definitely two where he was behind a guy trying to post up, and he just used his length to just smack the ball up in the air or away from behind him without reaching in because he has such long arms that led to a turnover and a steal for K ku on that end that is so impactful to have a big man who is that spatially aware and is able to use his hand because you know when you're that size you're not going to be great defending in space so how can

you use something in your way and in college basketball like if you compare it to say the nba the court is more condensed it's a smaller court three-point line is shorter um the the paint is a little bit smaller so there's going to be less room to get those passing lanes if you're just that big and that long as earnest is stick your hands out you're going to bat some passes around and he's done a really good job of that in recent games he did that really in this game but again overall just four and three in 22 minutes for the backup big. So a little bit of both there. MJ Rice, Bobby Pettiford, pretty thrown him off the bench, but also you needed those minutes, even as small as they were, because he had foul trouble and injury to some other guys.

So that's why the bench as a whole, I think a little bit of both. Honestly, from where we were, what, three weeks ago, you would have gladly, this would have been one of the better bench performances of the season, but we've seen some better ones here of late. So that's why it is a little bit of both finishing things up with our bad goats, um, foul trouble. Okay. You struggled with that. Now I do think there was a bit of a tight whistle probably in the second half, but there were also some where KU, you know, you, you couldn't get out of your own way. Like, uh, with Ernest Ernest, the one where he immediately comes in

and picks up his fifth foul that was just so unnecessary and he didn't have to do that and was obviously important against you. With Jalen Wilson, him picking up his third foul, I thought it was funny. He was like, no, the foul wasn't on me. I didn't do it. Then they show the replay and his elbow hits the head of Bryce Thompson. It's like, well, I don't know.

But you have to avoid foul trouble, especially for a team like this that is lacking depth, though. The depth does seem to be improving. That was certainly a story for Kansas that almost cost them in this game. And then ankles, ankles get a bad goat. I am fed up with ankles. Kevin McCuller, DeJuan Harris dealing with ankles. Patrick Mahomes was dealing with ankles.

Everybody dealing with ankles. Can we please stop with the ankles? We just need to invent like indestructible angles somehow. Like, you know, I don't know if we need better like ankle guards or better ankle tape. Or we just do like surgeries on people's ankles when they're born. And they just become robotic ankles. Whatever it is, I am fed up with ankle injuries. That's going gonna do it for

you know on jayhawks we'll have more content coming later this week you can subscribe to the show wherever you get any of your podcasts you can find us on youtube you can give us a like subscribe there you can hit me up on twitter at d johnson radio uh and uh till next show see you then you can all see me on rock truck sports talk later today till then bye