Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #9 Kansas Jayhawks Cruise Past Texas Longhorns + McCullar Injured + KU WBB Top 10 Win vs KSU

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

Recap of #9 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball cruising past Texas Longhorns 86-67 in possibly the final Big 12 meeting. KU dominated inside Allen Fieldhouse despite no Kevin McCullar, who's injury seems pretty concerning according to Bill Self and could potentially sideline him for the season. GOATs of the game like Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris, Johnny Furphy, Nick Timberlake, the bench and more. Plus, Kansas women's basketball defeats #10 Kansas State Wildcats 58-55 as S'Mya Nichols and Taiyanna Jackson went off to help KU make a push for the NCAA Tournament.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedIn These days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll getONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL 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)

On today's Locked On Jayhawks, Kansas smashes Texas' impressive victory, but some bad news about Kevin McCuller. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Did Kansas win the battle but lose the war? That's kind of what it felt like on Saturday's game, but an impressive outing beating Texas. We're going to recap the game on today's episode. I'm Derek Johnson.

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, and we'll be going through our goats of the game, good and bad. We'll also touch on KU women's basketball, who earned a top 10 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats and certainly an important one for possible NCAA tournament hopes for the KU women's team. We'll touch on that coming up later on in the show.

Before we get into the recap of KU Texas from Saturday, though, today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers join and get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit FanDuel.com slash locked on

to get started. Kansas dominates Texas 86-67 as they cruise to an easy victory over the Longhorns and the final time that you might be playing them, you could play them in the Big 12 tournament. But if that doesn't happen, then this would certainly be a good way to send it out for the last time you

play them before they go over to the SEC. You know, really never a doubt type of performance, just an all-around domination for KU. You shot 62% from the floor. You played very strong defense. I thought especially setting the tone early in that game, you didn't really let up a lot of open shots. You didn't let Max Acemas get started. You didn't let him get free. Some of the shots that Dylan D'Sou or Acemas did make, which there weren't a ton of them for Acemas, they were well defended, right? You didn't

really allow anything easy. And the very strong defense combined with the efficient offense shooting 62% was just a clinic that KU put on. And I think what made it honestly even more impressive was that they did all that without Kevin McCuller. And you did all that with some normal bench players. In the case of, you know, Nick Timberlake in this one having to start playing really well, I thought. Like Nick Timberlake, obviously, you to start playing really well, I thought. Nick Timberlake, obviously, he had double-digit points for you, and really every player off the bench made some sort of contribution. Parker Brown had a couple of blocks in seven minutes of play. Jamar McDowell continues to hustle and play, I think, fine defense,

and he scored five points and hit a three. Marco Jackson had four assists, including the behind-the-back assist, which is a little bit of when you're struggling, like do you really want to try that? But when I look at Elmarco Jackson's struggles, it's like I want him to be more confident. I want him to be super aggressive, use the athleticism that you have because that's your skill.

And so I actually, even if that would have ended up being a turnover on the behind the back pass, I would have actually appreciated that more than seeing the classic play where he catches the ball, drives to the elbow, kicks it out, and then nothing happens to it, right? That is more of what you're looking for. You want him to be aggressive. You want him to, because he is a talented, skilled, athletic basketball player. But speaking of which, with Kevin McCuller, you know,

him being out kind of becomes, I don't know, one of the big storylines. Certainly from a long-term perspective, that's the biggest storyline from this game. Like Kansas blasting Texas, you know, that doesn't all of a sudden show that they can make a final four. It doesn't change their resume all that much. It was nice to see. It was a good win.

It was good to see from what some of those bench players did. And, you know, it sets you up in the right direction heading into these final four it's important and everything but the kevin mcculler injury is the bigger long-term effect impact and story out of this game it is becoming or is already there very concerning that he's playing than not playing and now based on some of the comments, it almost makes it seem like it's not even going to be the yo-yo. It's just going to be, you know, axed to it. Because Bill Self said on the pregame radio,

he said McCoy has a bone bruise on his knee. Whenever he gets hit or there's certain movement, it hurts to the point he can't operate. He's doubtful for BYU game on Tuesday. the goal is to have him 100 in the ncaas he's quote not close end quote to that now then in the post game he added that he's not sure if kansas will get kevin mcculler back this season he said it's week to week with his bone bruise on his knee self-hopes McCuller will be able to help Kansas in the postseason so that's not ideal that's not great and I do think going back to comments a couple weeks ago about you know operating a little bit differently playing to something else especially after Houston won at Baylor this Saturday where it becomes a little

bit tougher for the path. Theoretically, Kansas could win out, and it still might not win the Big 12 if that was Houston's only loss. So it becomes a lot harder to winning the Big 12 title, and that even takes Kansas winning out, which is going to be very difficult, even more difficult if Kevin McCullers is out for a few of those games. Do you just sit Kevin the rest of the regular season and maybe even the big 12 tournament and just say, you know, hopefully you're back in the NCAA tournament. That's almost the feel that I'm getting. I think that would be the smart thing to do for what it's

worth. You know, and maybe in a weird way, the fact that Kansas isn't in a position where it's like, Hey, we have to grind this thing out to win the big 12 title because they're in a position where they're two games back with four to go. Maybe that actually behooves them for the NCAA tournament that Kevin's not going to be like, you know what, I'm going to try to play through this injury and play at 60%, and it's going to make it so I'm 60% the rest of the season. I would rather he not play these next two weeks

because realistically Kansas is probably going to be a two or three seed in the NCAA tournament regardless. I don't know that there's that much difference in the path just get Kevin healthy that's the biggest difference for Kansas in the postseason or at least as close to 100% as you possibly can and the yo-yoing him playing some games than not playing other games I don't think that works for this just let him sit and let him get that health even if it costs you losing at Baylor and at Houston as a result of that. Anyway, back to the game. Kansas was 29 of 44 from two.

That was good for just under 66% from the floor. That led the Jayhawks to a 52 to 34 advantage points in the paint. Kansas also had a 34.8% offensive rebound rate. That was a top five game for Kansas this year in terms of offensive rebound rate. And all of that interior dominance, the offensive rebounding, the scoring inside, getting whatever bucket you wanted, that kind of was the game. Like Texas hit nine threes at 35%. That's very good to solid, right? Kansas only attempted eight three-point attempts.

Kansas had one more turnover than Texas, which actually helped Texas lead by two and points off turnovers. Second-chance points only favored Kansas by one. Fast break points by four. Texas had three more steals and one less assist against a team who typically thrives there. None of those stats signal that Kansas should have blown them out. Like, yeah, you could have squinted that and say, okay, a lot of those are close.

Like, Kansas could have won the game. Probably was a close game. All of those together though, do not signal being a blowout, which it was because guess why? Scoring easy buckets at a high volume and at a high rate, doing it a lot and getting them, getting a high number of them, making a lot of them. That's built self basketball. Like that, that is the most important thing to do in basketball. That's the big thing with, you know, we hear analytics tossed around in basketball all the time. The idea there is taking the most efficient shots and maximizing efficiency, right? It's, it's not, it's, I don't know, you don't term Bill Self basketball, analytic

basketball, but there is a lot of crossover there that you might not realize because the idea is getting the most efficient shots. And I think sometimes people cross over that, oh, people are in analytics are trying to tell you the three point shot is the most efficient shot in basketball. It's not, that's not what they're saying. Actually, the most efficient shot in basketball is layups and dunks and shots at the rim. Three point shots are more efficient from an analytic perspective than mid-range shots. That's something that would be argued there.

But that is the one thing they've lost, and that's what Kansas did in this game. They buried them inside. They got easy looks whenever they wanted to. DeJuan Harris was able to drive and kick or drive and take a layup. They had good seal-offs on the inside. Hunter Dickinson was great on the inside. This was KU's second most efficient offensive Big 12 game, according to Ken Palm. And that's how you wind out with a blowout win where you led for 37 minutes and 20 seconds of the game. When you can

do that repeatedly over and over again, take the most efficient shots in basketball and continue to make the most efficient shots in basketball, things are going to be set up for success. And Kansas was just able to dominate by getting easy shots and preventing Texas from getting easy shots. Sometimes basketball can be a simple game, and it was on Saturday. All right, we're going to continue on with our GOATs of the game, good and bad for KU and KU women's basketball beating number 10 Kansas State on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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And official sportsbook partner of Locked On. On to our GOATs of the game. Kansas takes down Texas in a blowout win on Saturday. Next up, they'll have BYU coming up on Tuesday. We'll have a preview for that right here with Locked on Jayhawks. Make sure you're subscribed to the show anywhere you get your podcast or on our YouTube page. Thank you to every dayers tuning in to each and every episode.

Let's start with our good goats here. We're going to start with DeJuan Harris. DeJuan was excellent, 14 points on 7 of 11 shooting. He did miss the one layup, but the other layups were all good. Six assists to zero turnovers, and he had two rebounds and a steal. That makes it now over the last two games, DeJuan Harris has 13 assists, zero turnovers. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good. Also, over those last two combined, he has 25 points, which anytime he's averaging double digit points over a stretch that's very good but it's the

facilitating the offense it's it's having the ball on a string it's setting everything up oh and on top of it all you know he was the primary defender on max ace miss max ace miss had five points he had three points until he hit a shot in the final like couple minutes of the game and that's one of the better offensive guards in the Big 12. So this was probably one of DeJuan's better games of the season. And when you get good DeJuan, you get really good Kansas, right? Like, I think that's what, like, you didn't have Kevin McCuller. You still won by 20.

Being an outfield house helps, obviously. Having all the bench players contribute helps, obviously. But that's the big swing skill to me, right? Like, if Kansas is going to go far in March, DeJuan Harris is going to be playing well in those games. Hunter Dickinson gets a good go here. 20 points on 9 of 17 shooting, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block. I was a little surprised he didn't have any offensive rebounds

against a Texas team who's not a great defensive rebounding team, but we have talked about that before. Kansas's not a great defensive rebounding team but we have talked about that before Kansas not a good offensive rebounding team either either anyway Hunter was was really impressive and he continues to struggle from three went 0 for 2 from three-point range I continue to believe you got to take those shots because again he's not like airballing these threes he's not you know just breaking them off the backboard without hitting the rim or just hitting the side of the backboard they're like going into the cylinder and popping out or something, right? Like eventually they're going to fall.

We saw that at the beginning of the season. The beginning of the season was unworldly hot. Now it's unworldly cold. I think at some point it's going to settle in the middle and you just hope that now maybe if you get to the NCAA tournament or something and they're still not falling by that point over these next couple of weeks, then at that point, I'm cool saying scrapping it and just being like, yeah, probably not in the cards, like read the room a little bit there. But you got to keep shooting them, get out of the slump.

But overall, Hunter was really good in this game. KJ Adams was good for KU, 16 points, eight rebounds, one assist, two steals. I definitely feel like this game means a lot to him being from Austin. They showed some of the stuff with Brock Cunningham, who I guess is one of his really good friends. That was kind of cool to see. And he was excellent for KU. Just did a little bit of everything. And I think it was really nice to see him get back to the point where he had a big rebound game, eight rebounds.

There's no reason he can't be a great rebounder, right? He's 6'7". He jumps out the gym. He's strong as an ox. He can box players out. He's athletic and quick. There's no reason he can't be somebody who is averaging six seven eight nine ten rebounds per game like he has the physical tool set to do that so I want to see this more and we saw that one stretch earlier in the season but it kind of dissipated it was nice to see again in this game and I hope that can be something that can continue because you know when you're looking at areas on the margins can Kansas improve here or there to become a better team to become more of a threat in the NCAA tournament.

I really do believe that is one of them. Nick Timberlake gets a good go. 13 points, 3 of 6 shooting. He hit a 3-point shot. He had 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal. But the play of the game for KU is the Nick Timberlake alley-oop where it gets thrown up to him. And I saw Wayne Seldon kind of talking about this on social media that it was similar to like the Jamari Traylor one against Texas.

I think the Traylor one takes it another level because Traylor was like a foot or two above the rim on that one. And there's something fun about doing it on the road where you like quiet the crowd and everything. But when you consider Jamari Traylor's, you know, what, 6'9 or whatever, and Nick Timberlake is more of a guard, there is something like different about it. There have been some, honestly, now'9", or whatever, and Nick Timberlake is more of a guard, there is something, like, different about it. There have been some, honestly, now that I think about it,

some pretty incredible, like, highlight dunks that Kansas had in their series against Texas. I think back to the one, and I think it was Tarek Black against, like, Cam Ridley or something like that against Texas, like, a decade ago. Anyway, Timberlake was really good. And you, especially if Kevin's out, you're going to need more of this from Nick Timberlake, but the bright side is he has actually typically there's a game or two of exception to this rule.

The games where he has had a bit longer release, because I think he knows there's a bit longer release, Johnny Furphy being out or now Kevin Kohler being out. You think back to the Texas Tech game where he actually had a double digit scoring game. He's played better. So maybe this is what the doctor ordered in terms of him stepping up. But if you go back to the Texas Tech game where he actually had a double-digit scoring game. He's played better. So maybe this is what the doctor ordered in terms of him stepping up. But if you go back to the Bill Self comments about Kevin McCuller's injury, you know, sounded like there is a possibility. We don't even see Kevin McCuller even in the NCAA tournament. If that's the case, I mean, it's impossible for this season to survive

without Nick Timberlake becoming basically a double-digit per-game scorer because that's going to be his strength. It should be offense, not defense, so you need him to score. Johnny Furphy gets a good go here, 16 points on three shots. Didn't know that was possible, 16 points on three shots. The reason why he got to the free-throw line, 9 of 11 at the free-throw line he converted him to, and that's something that this Kansas team,

Hunter Dickinson does not draw a lot of fouls, whether a bit of that's on him, whether a bit of that's on the refs. Maybe it's just the Big 12 letting him be physical. Either way, he doesn't get to the free throw line a ton. DeJuan Harris doesn't get to the free throw line a ton. And especially without Kevin Kohler, who does get to the free throw line a pretty good amount, you need somebody to be able to do that. And Johnny Furphy feels like he is starting to add that to his game. He certainly has been somebody who can hit an open shot, who can score in

transition. Not really someone yet who can create for the dribble off himself and score off the dribble, but he's starting to develop even more now that he can drive on a line drive, that he can get to the free throw line. And that's another added skill as he continues to just progress week in and week out for KU. He also had eight rebounds, one assist, and two steals. Bad goatee for KU. I would say turnovers a little bit. I mean, 14 turnovers, it's higher than you average. It's not a great game for you. It's not like a horrible game either. You did have more turnovers than them, but I think specifically, and we've seen this at different times throughout the year, and I think this is probably true if we were watching a lot of other college basketball teams too because it's 18 to 22 year olds and

this is gonna happen heck it probably even happens in the NBA like you're gonna have certain times during the season or certain games where maybe you're not as locked in you have sloppy turnovers right like that start of the second half for Kansas where it was just like sloppy turnover after sloppy turnover where you left them a little bit of an open door to get back into the game if they would have executed better on offense and or your defense wasn't playing as good and or they were just hitting some shots like if Max Acemus comes out in the the second half and you know hits a three or hits two threes or something while you're just consistently turning the ball over to start

second half all of a sudden you let it turn into a bit of a game toward the end of it over the last stretch of the game so you you did leave the door open from that, and a lot of them were just sloppy, like you causing your own mistakes, turnovers. That was, I think, one of the bad goats. The last one here for bad goats, because I think every player kind of did their job or plus on the game, but Kevin's health. Going back to that with Kevin McCuller, at this point in time, it doesn't sound like he's going to play Tuesday against BYU.

I would prefer just to say instead of being like, hey, we're going to use him in the hard game against Baylor and then have him sit the following game against Kansas State. No, just let him sit all of them for the regular season. Maybe he can come back for the regular season finale against Houston or the Big 12 tournament. Maybe it doesn't make sense to bring him back for the Big 12 tournament. Because hypothetically, you could have to play three games in three days. And if you end up falling to the five seed, you could have to play four games in four days if you make it all the way to the Big 12 championship game. And maybe that wouldn't be great

for somebody who's resting on his sore knee. Then again, you do want to shake the rust off at some point. Also, how does this affect KU's NCAA tournament seeding? I mean, the good news is that without Kevin, they were able to get that blowout win against Texas, but also they got blown out by Texas Tech without Kevin McCullers. So it is going to be important that while you're not playing Kevin, you do still rack up some wins. It's going to be understandable if you lose at Houston or whatever, especially without Kevin.

I mean, with or without Kevin, it'd be understandable. But it's going to be important you play well so the tournament committee doesn't ding you too much so that you don't end up being like, oh, they gave us a four seed. Because realistically, we would have been a three seed, but they had questions about, is Kevin going to be back for the tournament or not? And maybe that's part of too with the big 12 tournament. If you can get Kevin back, even just playing that the tournament committee

goes, okay, we see he played. Right. But I guess that's kind of a future thing. And certainly it is a little bit scary. Kevin's had injury stuff over the, throughout his career. And that was something we brought up in the off season that we were a little bit worried about that this team was so thin and that was something we brought up in the offseason that we were a little bit worried about, that this team was so thin and that they basically are counting on Kevin to stay healthy, and that hasn't really happened throughout his college career.

So I guess there is danger that this could get chalked up with so many of the years that KU has had a key player. Typically it's been big men that was injured coming into the NCAA tournament. All right, let's finish up. KU women's basketball scored a big-time victory on Sunday with this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Kansas Women's Basketball victorious 58-55 over No. 10 Kansas State Wildcats. It was a game that Kansas had an unbelievable start.

I think it was like 17-8, 17-5 that they opened up the game with, and then they just couldn't really buy a bucket in the second quarter. K-State hits a couple late shots at the end of the first quarter, ends up taking a two-point lead at the break. Kansas has the last possession of the first half, and they turn the ball over instead of getting a shot up. Kansas State has a pretty good third quarter. But they kept it close.

Defense played well. You were able to make enough stops when you needed it to. And then you just kind of gritted it out at the end and you made your surge at the end of the game as you hit some big shots late you know whether it's Holly Kersketer or Samaya Nichols or Tyano Jackson some of the defensive stands you made turns into a gigantic victory for KU women's basketball and it's a couple things it's it's the continued turning the corner since they were close to being at 500 on the season. The defense has really picked it back up to where it was last year when they were having all their sorts of success.

And you see that reflected in this game where you held Kansas State a top 10 team to 55 points. Diana Jackson, excellent. And she was a big reason why. 11 points, 7 rebounds, 8 blocks. Nearly had a triple-double with rebounds and blocks as part of that. And she held Ayoka Lee, who was a National Player of the Year a couple years ago, to just 7 of 21 from the floor. So, Tiana Jackson was excellent for Katie to win this game.

There's also the burgeoning superstar as a young freshman in Samaya Nichols. Samaya Nichols had 22 points in this game on 8 of 16. It's her sixth time this season with 20 or more points. And she, it is amazing. On a team that brought back these four starters and has all these veteran players who have produced big-time numbers and career stats and all Big 12 awards, it is the true freshman with Samaya Nichols who is leading the team in points per game. And in the biggest moment of the season, when Kansas, who is right now a

bubble team, was playing their rival at home, the top 10 opponent, she had one of her best games of the season and went for 22 points. She was hitting mid-range shots. She was driving to the rim and finishing. She had that beautiful spin move that was able to knock in some layups after getting the defender to kind of shed off of her as part of it. She is a burgeoning superstar and she is only, you know, touching the surface or touching the ceiling of what she could possibly be that, uh, I don't know. I guess I saw it. Kansas is going to be playing Iowa next year on the women's basketball front. I don't know if Caitlin Clark will be back or not probably go off to the WNB.

I don't know. You make a lot of money in NIL of college women's basketball that she could come back and use her COVID year. Maybe she'll feel like she accomplished everything. I don't know. I guess depends if they win the title or not, but that would be really fun to see a sophomore year Samaya Nichols against a fifth year Caitlin Clark. I am actually very much hoping that happens. And maybe that would be a game that, you know, a lot of KU fans are interested in. And even though it's not in the state to, you know, travel out to and go see because that would be a lot of fun. But this is a big impact for KU to possibly make the NCAA tournament.

They came into this game, and when they were sitting at 10-9 or 10-10 or 11-10, whatever it was, they had a stretch where it was like, okay, you need to win all these five games. They did. Then it was like, can you go 2-2 in the last four here? And part of that, you needed to beat one pretty much really good opponent as part of that between Baylor Kansas State and Oklahoma and then they have one coming up against UCF which is like one where they're going to be heavily favored in and should win

the game still got to play it and still got to you know perform and everything but this sets them up that now if you just beat UCF and now you win your first game in the Big 12 tournament which will be you know if you're going to end up being the sixth seed or something, then you'd be playing the winner of the 11-14 matchup in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. Then there's a chance that you could make it into the NCAA tournament. They were one of the first four out, according to ESPN's bracketology before this game.

I'd imagine this definitely puts them on the right side of the bubble. Realistically, though, so basically what I'm saying is if you can win two games the rest of the season between regular season and Big 12 tournament, you've got a, I would say, above a 50% chance of making the NCAA tournament. But if you want to secure being in, if you win three games in that stretch, I think that would probably stamp them being in. This was a great first start and a big-time victory for the KU women's basketball team.

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. We'll see you next time with LOJ.