Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #6 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Wins Ugly Road Game at #25 Oklahoma Sooners 67-57

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas back. They finally got another road win, one kind of an ugly one, but that's kind of what's been missing for KU. We discuss the significance, importance, and recap KU's win at Oklahoma. 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. Give me a follow on Twitter at D Johnson radio.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Thanks for making locked on Jayhawks. Your first listen 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 of locked on Jayhawks, we're recapping KU's 67-57 win in Norman at Oklahoma. KU finally gets back on their winning ways on the road.

Starting point is 00:00:52 They find a way to grid one out. You have a return of Kevin McCuller and plenty to talk about from this win for KU with a basically a week off in between their next game. 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's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply. Kansas 67, Oklahoma 57. It was a rough first half for KU that did have a good close you fell behind I think it was 31 21 then 34 23 and then you go on a 6-0 run to finish the half and get it down to within five where it was like okay Oklahoma shot really well from three in the first half you did not play well in the first half the fact that you're only down five on the road is kind of a blessing in this situation now they've been in some of those situations before this year.

Starting point is 00:01:45 Like, for instance, the at-West Virginia game, I think, was tied at halftime despite the way that they were shooting. Iowa State, you were down, what, like three or four or something like that at halftime, and again, you weren't playing great. And it was like, okay, you're still in those. This one, you took advantage of it, though. And it was kind of an ugly, gridded-out type game for KU. They only scored 41 points in the first 30 minutes of the game.

Starting point is 00:02:10 Now, the offense did pick it up in the final 10 minutes of the game when they scored 26 points over those final 10 minutes. But for the most part, it was kind of a gridded out win. And you outscored Oklahoma 44 to 23 over the last portion of that game after you got down 34 to 23. And that's what kind of the bottom line is to this for me. You held Oklahoma to 23 points in the final 22 minutes and five seconds of the game. Bill Self said coming into the matchup on his Thursday press conference, he said one of the things we worked on a lot over the course of this week was the defense and trying to figure out a way to make other teams play bad. And that's kind of how I view this win for KU. This was not a thing of beauty from the offensive side of the ball. You figured out a way to make

Starting point is 00:02:54 them play worse in the second half, and that was shown by the 23 points you allowed over the final 22 minutes and change of the game. So I think one big reason for the difference was just Oklahoma's three-point shooting. There were still some open ones they missed in the second half. There were still some, you know, well-contested ones that they made in the first half. Like you had the one that was made that was actually an arm out in front of it that was like, you know, a few feet behind the three-point line. But for the most part, a lot of Oklahoma's threes in the first half,

Starting point is 00:03:22 you know, they were open. Like the two corner threes that Jalen Moore hit, you get a late contest from KJ Adams, but you gave way too much space up there. The three that like Javion McCollum hits where he's like walking back to the three point line, Nick Timberlake is kind of just running out with an arm up like, you know, that's not really sealing a guy off. Some of the ones that Milos Uzan hit, like he hasn't been a great three point shooter this year but he was like wide open so like you look at the first half and you were giving up too many open threes and yes Oklahoma was shooting above what you'd expect them to but you were still allowing

Starting point is 00:03:53 more open ones than you'd hope second half I thought you tightened up on that it doesn't mean that you didn't give up any open threes in the second half um just naturally there's going to be some open threes that are shot against you from a game-in, game-out perspective. But I thought you tightened up a lot more, and there were a lot less open ones in the second half than the first half. And beyond that, you were pretty constricting inside the paint or inside the arc really all game long because Oklahoma was just 8 of 27 on two-point shots in this game. Compare that to Kansas, who was 12 of 18 at the rim,

Starting point is 00:04:23 and Kansas shot 16 of 28 in the paint. They went just 8 of 27 inside the arc on all two-point shots, and that is what led to the shift. Once you started defending the three-point arc at least more reasonably in the second half, they weren't able to do much, and you made them play bad, and that is such an important skill for a team to have and something this Kansas team is still trying to find. Now, I don't know that one half of basketball doing that makes me think that all of a sudden this has been a skill that's now unlocked for this KU team you have to do it in more games coming up you have to do it consistently and like you're going to be playing a Texas team upcoming here who has a

Starting point is 00:04:57 couple guards one in Max Acements who will pull from 30 feet then you're going to be playing a BYU team was basically five guys who will shoot three. So, like, those will be good tests if this carries over. Can you continue to make teams play bad? But it was nice to see. Kansas also led 30 to 14 points in the paint. So, you know, dominance on the insides we're kind of used to seeing. 13 to 6 second chance points, 18 to 13 points off turnovers. You just kind of, you know, elevated in a lot of different ways.

Starting point is 00:05:22 I do think there's a lesson to be had here about KU's need to be a strong defense. You do need to figure back out the offense. All of a sudden, they're ranked 45th on Ken Palm in adjusted offensive efficiency again in the 40s. This was one of the three worst built-off offenses by that metric, and that continues to fall off. And really, since the Baylor game, you've seen that fall off. But I'm a little less I don't know it's one of those things where when you look at the time from when Johnny Furphy started his first game on January 7th or I don't know January 13th whatever it was against Oklahoma to when Kevin McCuller got injured right before the Baylor game they were a top five offense on Bart Torvik maybe you just chalk up the bad offensive performances

Starting point is 00:06:03 recently to okay no Kevin McCuller and then game, Kevin McCuller coming back and clearly having to shake some rust off because he didn't have a very good shooting game. So maybe what you can convince yourself is when everybody's healthy and everything is shaking the rust off, this can be a top tier offense. We've seen the proof in the pudding since Furphy has been a starter, but can you get the defense up to that level? And really you know, really you look at the Baylor game in this one. So what that makes two of the last three games where the defense has been pretty good for Kansas overall. And I think realistically, this isn't going to end up being a top five offense in the country. You know, you don't have enough guys who can kind of get their own shot off the dribble.

Starting point is 00:06:47 It can be a proficient enough offense. You have to be one of the top 10 defenses in the country. Right now they're 10th in defense efficiency. Maybe they have to even be, you know, better than that. And you have some of the personnel to do it with Kevin McCuller and DeJuan Harris. Now, certainly there are limitations from some of the other personnel and the lack of depth that you have that make some of that a little bit tougher. But can you consistently make other teams play poorly? That, to me, has been one of the calling cards of past Bill Self teams, especially why they've done well on the road.

Starting point is 00:07:14 You think a lot of their road wins in the past, it's made the other team play poorly, and you had an All-American candidate step up and hit some big shots. You know, this year, you look at it, and you haven't made a lot of other teams play poorly when you've gone on the road, but you did in this one. And if that is a skill that you are sustaining moving forward, that's big news for this Kansas team. But yeah, because that's just kind of the wind that Kansas hasn't been having. Like you weren't able to make West Virginia play poorly on the road.

Starting point is 00:07:38 You weren't, you know, I guess you made UCF play poorly enough on the road, though not really in the second half, you more played poorly in that game, but you didn't really make Iowa State play poorly on the road. Can you do this consistently moving forward? Now, I said last week, coming into the week, you would almost take a one-in-one week playing that Texas Tech at Oklahoma. You came in on the week with just one Big 12 road win on the year,

Starting point is 00:07:59 and those are two top 25 opponents playing on the road. Not really ever last week did Kansas look great like there wasn't really a moment maybe that one stretch in the second half for for KU Oklahoma where they hit you know it was like back-to-back threes Kevin Kohler hits the corner one um then you later have like a Johnny Furphy three a few possessions later that stretch maybe uh for a brief period of time but like for sustained periods time, there was not really a point this past week that Kansas looked great, but you go one-on-one on the road. You have injuries that you have to deal with.

Starting point is 00:08:33 You're without Kevin Kohler in the first game. I think one-on-one kind of keeps you in play for the big 12 title convention. You're not in a great situation. And when you look at Houston and Iowa State's upcoming schedule, they're going to be playing each other, even Texas Tech. It's going to be tough for Kansas to win the league without probably winning out at this point in time.

Starting point is 00:08:55 Maybe you can have one more loss, but realistically you probably got to win out. But that was the point. You kind of had to go one-on-one to give you that chance there. And beyond that, you're trying to get a top four seed, like clinch that double bye in the Big 12 tournament and everything and get as high of a seed as you can. But I think more than anything,

Starting point is 00:09:12 you just kind of wanted to get back to playing Kansas basketball. You kind of wanted to get back to just playing well on the road and overall feeling like regardless of what happens in the conference, whether you finish second, third, or fourth, that you're trending in the right direction, that you're playing good basketball, that you feel like you have a real shot, regardless if you win the Big 12 or not, to make some real noise in March. And this felt like a bit of a slump buster for you.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Can this carry over to some momentum now for Kansas? I think it becomes the real question. All right, we're going to get on to our goats of the game for KU. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. When you're hiring for small business, you want to be finding all the quality professionals that are right for your role, which is why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs, which has all the tools to help you find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn isn't just another job board. They have a vast network of more than a billion professionals, which makes it the best place to hire. Gives you access to professionals you can't

Starting point is 00:10:08 find anywhere else. LinkedIn does all that while making the process easy and intuitive. Hiring is easy when you have that many quality candidates. So easy, in fact, that 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. You can check out linkedin.com slash locked on college to post your job for free. 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring. Again, linkedin.com slash locked on college. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Under our goats of the game, start with the good goats here. let's go with hunter dickinson for a good goat hunter had 20 points he was 9 of 16 from the floor 16 rebounds four assists he had a game high in terms of box score plus minus plus 15 he was the only player with uh plus minus

Starting point is 00:10:59 above eight or higher for ku so he was having a big impact and it started the game he got that little bunny and missed it and it was like uh-, here we go again. Because at that point, it made him, I think, three of his last 21 through his last 22 or something from the floor. And then from there, he was awesome. I mean, some of the shots he was hitting, twisting around the drop steps, fading back, banking it in that beautiful feathery hook shot. That's what we're used to seeing. And he really carried the offense. I mean, he had almost a third of your team's scoring output in this game. Also was really good on the glass in this game with 16 rebounds. The four assists, he was able to find open guys. Just did a little bit of everything for you. And I love to see the response from him after he had

Starting point is 00:11:38 bar none, his worst game as a Jayhawk in Texas Tech. How was he going to respond? He responded in a very real way, which is what you need from your All-American candidates. Johnny Furphy gets a good go. 15 points. He was three of five from a three-point range. He also added nine rebounds, a good day on the glass for him, two assists, and had three steals, doing a little bit of everything. He had that one transition dunk where he's just cutting through the defense. It was a great find by DeJuan Harris. He had Kevin on his right and Furphy cutting through and kind of had the eyes in the back of his head to find him, and then he throws down that dunk. And I mean, just the idea of

Starting point is 00:12:15 what he has brought to the team continues to be there, even though the offense wasn't really there as a whole for KU. You're able to work a lot of actions between Hunter Dickinson and Johnny Furphy that are, are very helpful to the offense, whether it's same side actions or putting them on the opposite side and have Hunter Dickinson, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:33 fling it to that side. If you would have just made your free throws in this one and, or Kevin would have had a better shooting game. You might've ended up with actually a pretty decent offensive performance overall, but as it stands, this was actually like one of KU's bottom, you know, third, bottom, fourth offensive efficiency games of the season. But Johnny Furphy is not a reason why.

Starting point is 00:12:54 He hit shots. He needed them to going on the road. Nice to see what he did again in another game for you. DeJuan Harris had 11 points. He went just four of 12 from the floor. I still put him on good goats anyway, though, because he had seven assists to zero turnovers. Kansas was really good at avoiding turnovers in their two game. Not as good in this one as the first one, but against Oklahoma this year. He also had a steal, but I felt like DeJuan had two or three times in that

Starting point is 00:13:19 game where he poked a ball loose, whether it went out of bounds or went to your team or he got credit for the steal or didn't. I felt like that number could have been higher. But he had a couple of big layups for you. He had the one that puts you up by 10 with whatever, five or six minutes to go where it felt like, okay, you feel like you're in a good position here. But again, just seven assists, zero turnovers. That's so impactful and important for what you're getting from DeJuan. And even though it was just four of 12, I do appreciate the aggressiveness, the aggressiveness of him shooting threes. He missed a couple threes.

Starting point is 00:13:49 I want to see him take more threes. I would rather him shoot 37%, 36%, 38% from three on another two or three three-point attempts per game than I would see him shoot 45% on two attempts per game. Double up that number. Even if the percentage goes down a little bit, because it's still going to be helpful. You saw that aggressiveness in this game, KJ Adams in the second half specifically, it was a rough first half for KJ Adams. But in the second half, you finished with nine points on three of five shooting three

Starting point is 00:14:19 rebounds to assist two steals. So if you would have done that for the whole game, puts him on pace for 18.6 rebounds, four assists, four steals. That would have been really good. Fortunately, he didn't have that the first half, but the second half, he was outstanding and really helped KU, you know, get their way back into it and kind of grind through the game in what he produced in the second half and, you know, hitting some of those short rolls, getting steals. He had that one steal that led to the dunk on the other end. He was really turned up in the second half after having kind of a lethargic first half. And I thought that was a big difference, both in terms

Starting point is 00:14:49 because he's the energy guy too, right? So it's not just about the performance, what he's adding to the stat sheet. It's about the energy he's providing and the tone he's setting for the rest of the team. So for bad goats here, I want to get one out of the way real quick. I thought about putting Kevin McCullers shooting on here because it was a rough shooting day for him he was not seeing anything fall rough offensive game and it is a little bit concerning that we've kind of seen that now over what the last two or three games that he has played the shooting the efficiency has fallen off a little bit i think jalen wilson had this happen last year though too for a stretch and then it came back like i think it'll come back, but also he was shaking the rust off

Starting point is 00:15:26 after missing time. He did so much for you rebounding and on defense. And again, coming back off that injury, I kind of gave him a pass, but certainly something to monitor if he can get that efficiency back up after these past couple of games that he has actually played in. K.J. Adams in the first half gets a bad goat. He played 12 minutes in the first half. He had zero points and one rebound. So the second half KJ Adams is great. And it was a big reason

Starting point is 00:15:49 why you turn things around and won the game. First half KJ Adams was a big reason why you were behind in the count because you weren't really getting anything there. And for a team that doesn't really get much from bench, you're very much counting on, you know, that core four. And now that's starting five with Furphy in there to get production from all five of the starters night in, night out. Can't really have an off day. The bench still gets a bad goat here. I actually liked the Jamari McDowell minutes, and I'm getting to a point where I am wanting to see Jamari McDowell more. I've understood it for a while, and maybe I still will, because we have have seen certain guys even though it is more of a rarity you know whether it is a Malik Newman or Remy Martin who the light switched once it hit to

Starting point is 00:16:31 March and that sometimes we get caught up in this idea of oh is this the deadline you know do you have to have figured out by February do you have to have figured out by the middle of February by the end of February by the start of March turns out with Remy Martin he didn't get it really figured out till like the big 12 tournament middle of March. Right. So it is a little bit different because you know, the amount of minutes and what he was coming in and what he was for KU. But point being with the bench,

Starting point is 00:16:55 when you look at guys like Nick Timberlake and Marco Jackson, there is not a hard deadline. Like theoretically, you know, Marco Jackson or Nick Timberlake, one of them could break out in the first round of the NCAA tournament. And then all of a sudden they just get hot for the rest of the NCAA tournament, right? Like that stuff, it can't happen. It is more rare, but it does happen, right? So I understand that from a standpoint, you continue to play those guys because the ceiling of a Marco is athletic guard, McDonald's All-American. If he realizes that ceiling at

Starting point is 00:17:21 some point that year, this year to have that guy coming off the bench would be very impactful. Nick Timberlake, the ceiling is hitting, you know, being a 40% three-point shooter on high volume, right? Having that guy come off the bench, having a 40% three-point shooter off the bench would be very impactful. So, like, you don't want to give up on that. You want to continue to take cracks at it and hope that eventually something just randomly clicks.

Starting point is 00:17:42 But we are getting later in the game, as much as I said, there's not a deadline, to where I feel like Jamari McDowell, yes, maybe the idealized ceiling of what Jamari McDowell is as a freshman versus what Nick Timberlake can be as a six-year player. Maybe the ceiling of Nick Timberlake this year, if it all hits, is 40% from three versus with Jamari McDowell, it's 33, 34% from three. I just feel like the floor is almost better with Jamari McDowell at this point. And because you're not really getting anything from the bench, I'm almost to a point where I'm just like, forget the ceiling. Just go with the floor guy.

Starting point is 00:18:14 Jamari McDowell is going to try hard. He's going to go after rebounds. He's going to try his butt off on the defensive end. I think he's a better defender than Timberlake. Maybe not quite as good of a defender as El Marco, but he's a better shooter than El Marco is and is comfortable playing kind of off the ball in a way that maybe El Marco isn't quite as much.

Starting point is 00:18:29 So I would like to see more minutes for him. I don't know if we will see it, but that was key for him, having that little putback at the end of the first half. I thought he played well in the minutes he was out there, but then he, like, didn't really play in the second half. But for what it's worth, overall, the reason I did put the bench, circling back to this, on the bad goats, the bench played 22 minutes combined. They had two points on one of three shooting, two rebounds, two assists, one turnover, zero steals, zero blocks, four fouls. Again,

Starting point is 00:18:55 total let it out. If that was one player, you'd be ragging on them today. So that's why that one is there. And then the last one here is free throws. Not quite as bad as Virginia. Virginia was one of 11 on free throws yesterday. Still somehow won that game. Kansas though was really bad on free throws though too. They were nine of 18 on free throws. And all of a sudden, if you go 12 of 18, 13 of 18, which would have been more like a normalized number, maybe at times where you're down, you're in front. Or maybe instead of the game feeling like, okay, they still kind of got a shot at this point. You know, it's just completely put away.

Starting point is 00:19:27 That stuff will come back and haunt you in other games. And it has. Like you look at the Kansas State game where Kevin McCuller missed all those free throws against K-State, not just the one and one at the end there, but when he missed the two the prior time before. Like there are other games where the free throws have and can come back to haunt KU. And this was one where it didn't,

Starting point is 00:19:45 but it is one of those process things where later down the road it could. So got to see those free throws going at a bit higher rate than that. Nine of 18 on the day for KU. Let's finish up with what's next and real quickly touch on the NCAA tournament committee who released their basically early mock selection of what things would look like at this point in time on this episode 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,

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Starting point is 00:20:51 the season. But the Texas Tech one, they're favored in their last six games here. So Tech maybe could win out. Maybe if you get Houston-Iowa State who are going to be playing here, dropping a couple games. Who knows? You can do all that and more with FanDuel. Just visit fanduel.com slash LockedOn and shoot your shot. FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. So finishing things up here, what's next for KU

Starting point is 00:21:13 and touching on the NCAA tournament stuff. So it's a one-game week this week. You're off through the rest of the regular week, and we'll have an episode about what that can accomplish and what that can do and the positive impact that that can have for this KU team and then you're going to be taking on Texas on Saturday it'll be two straight home games Texas Saturday and then BYU the following Tuesday which Texas has been kind of a weird up and down team they have some certainly a lot of top end talent but they've gone through some you know slow little losing streaks or losing stretches and then some winning stretches.

Starting point is 00:21:46 So it should be a good one in Allen Fieldhouse. Also, the NCAA Basketball Tournament Committee released their mock selection of what the tournament would look like as of Saturday morning. Kansas was a two-seater in that, which may be a tad surprising when you saw Iowa State on the three line, when Iowa State was ahead of the Big 12 standings on Kansas, beat Kansas head-to-head, albeit in Ames, not getting the return trip in Lawrence. But I think a lot of that, and this is kind of what they said, had to do with the non-con schedule of KU being so good. And that's why it

Starting point is 00:22:14 gets kind of buoyed up a little bit there. Obviously, you win your game at Oklahoma, which ends up being another quad one win that you can kind of add to the fold. So maybe that resume strengthens a little bit there. But certainly, you'd think that's 6-7-8 because they listed the rankings. KU's the last two seed. Tennessee's the sixth, who KU beat. Marquette's the seventh, who beat KU. I don't know. Maybe you could argue that with Marquette getting stomped by UConn

Starting point is 00:22:36 and Kansas winning an OU, that Kansas jumped Marquette yesterday and that once you jump Marquette, if six and seven is Tennessee-Kansas, like the head-to-head of Kansas-Tennessee doesn't apply if, if six and seven is Tennessee, Kansas, right? Like the head-to-head of Kansas, Tennessee doesn't apply if Tennessee's six and Kansas is eight. But if Kansas is seven and Tennessee's six, maybe the head-to-head does apply. Then maybe Kansas now all of a sudden is six. Point being, if Kansas ends up, you know, even if you end up like third in the Big 12 in the regular season, but with their non-con, if they end up winning the Big 12 tournament, I think Kansas still can get a one seed.

Starting point is 00:23:03 But that's a good spot to be in the two seed. I think a lot of people would take the bracket that they had necessarily to where they're at. I don't think there's one like super advantageous. Maybe if you can get the South with Dallas because you have that big alumni hub there, but it feels like Houston's just kind of going to get that. So at this point in time, like whatever on where you're located and everything, more important to get Omaha on the first two rounds probably for Kansas. But that obviously a good sign for KU that even with some of their recent road struggles, they were viewed as a two seed and then added a nice win on the road to boot

Starting point is 00:23:33 even after that came out. 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. Back later this week with some more KU content. Later.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #6 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Wins Ugly Road Game at #25 Oklahoma Sooners 67-57

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