Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Recap: Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Lose by 20 to Cincinnati Bearcats Without McCullar & Dickinson

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas loses by 20 to Cincinnati shorthanded in the Big 12 Tournament. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Johnson, you can give me a follow on social media on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio I love you. And wherever you're listening to the show, we certainly do appreciate it. On today's show, we are going to be, I guess, breaking down what happened for KU and their 20-point loss. I think you kind of knew and you might have had an inkling what was going to happen when they were without Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller. But certainly there were actually some positive moments as they kind of fought along the way and nearly had it in their favor at one point, but also things did not finish that way for KU and a back-to-back 20-plus point loss for the Jayhawks. So we're going to be breaking it down.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Go to the game. What's next for KU basketball as they have a long layoff now before their next game, a little bit over a week and about half a week to Selection Sunday. Maybe that's good for a team that's a little bit beat up, but we're going to break that down on today's show. First, we are brought to youlection Sunday. Maybe that's good for a team that's a little bit beat up, but we're going to break that down on today's show. First, we are brought to you by Nissan. This episode is brought to you by the Nissan Rogue Pathfinder or Armada. Are you the kind of driver that likes to push

Starting point is 00:01:33 things a little further? Ever wonder what adventure could be around the next corner? Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure. Check them all out at NissanUSA.com. So Kansas falls by 20 points to Cincinnati. And yeah, I do think the score ended up a little bit further than the game actually was. Like Cincinnati was kind of keeping like their starters in there at the end of the game, even when Kansas like threw the walk-ons out there. And realistically, that was, I don't know, maybe closer to a 12, 15-point game. But still, that was rough. And another one where it's just like, yeah, yeah, that wasn't great for KU.

Starting point is 00:02:13 And unfortunately, there have been too many of those moments so far this season for this team. I thought it was very interesting. You heard Fran Fraschilla on the broadcast, who I know gets a lot of gruff from a lot of KU fans and stuff. But he kind of went in on Bill Self for self for, yeah, that, you know, this is kind of on the coaching staff too. And I don't necessarily think he's wrong there.

Starting point is 00:02:30 Like at the end of the day, you as a head coach of college basketball, you're in charge of building your roster. You know what I mean? So the roster faults, yeah. Part of it's NCAA, right. Cause you had the scholarship limits, but you didn't have to take all the scholarships in one year. You know, you could have could have spread it out one in one and one. You could have done this or that in the transfer portal. How many other targets did they have in the portal, whether it's like Harrison Ingram or Jalen Tyson or I don't know, on and on and on down the list that ended up

Starting point is 00:02:56 having great years at other schools that you didn't end up taking, whatever. I actually, as far as the game goes, I thought Kansas played well the first 10 minutes of the game, but they were down. It was like 25 to 18, 22 to 18 before they hit a three, I think then 27 to 18. And even through that moment, I was like, you know, they're not even playing that bad. Cincinnati's just hitting some tough shots. Cincinnati coming in and big 12 regular season play was shooting under 30%, about 29 and a half percent from three point range. And they were hitting a couple of tough ones. Like there was that one like what 26 27 foot three from straight on there was uh maybe another contested one or two in there like they were

Starting point is 00:03:29 just hitting tough shots I thought Kansas was actually playing okay we have the talent deficit and they're just hitting shots and you're not hitting shots early in the game and then it felt like Cincinnati started hitting more of those shots and that it maybe started to weather on Kansas you lost confidence a little bit and that led to a bit of an avalanche at the end of the first half to where Cincinnati goes up big. But give Kansas credit because even after that happened and that momentum shift, Kansas came back out at the start of the second half and played really well, got it done on the defensive end. K.J. Adams took over on the offensive end.

Starting point is 00:03:58 He was excellent. That was really cool to see for him and honestly gives me more confidence in the idea of like next year I would love to see for him. And honestly gives me more confidence in the idea of like next year, I would love to see your two five men be KJ Adams and Flory Badunga and have, you know, KJ maybe play 25 a game, but doing got play maybe 15 a game or if it's an on night for Badunga, maybe you play five minutes of two big basketball. If you really want to get extra minutes in there,

Starting point is 00:04:20 but for the most part play that way. I don't know. I really liked kind of the style of play that you had there. You just didn't have anybody around him that could make shots or make shots consistently. And then he obviously got hurt, and at that point Cincinnati was, you know, going to start hitting shots again, and they did. And then he comes back into the game.

Starting point is 00:04:39 Thankfully he was okay because that would have been torturous after what's already happened to Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller. And then, Kay, you kind of lost all momentum you couldn't hit water if you fell out of boat which was kind of an all-game thing but you at least had those stretches of good defense and KJ Adams just kind of taking over an offense that carried it for you and Cincinnati started to not miss everything over the second half of the second half and just kind of pulled away from there. So, I mean, honestly, like the score looks worse, like I said, than the game actually was. And when you consider how much Kansas was down without both those guys, which yes, you could say like, okay, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:16 you go back a couple of years ago, Kansas and their title year, Ochag Baji had COVID and he missed that. Or I don't remember if it was COVID or flu, whatever. I thought it was COVID. Missed that game at Iowa state and Kansas still won that game on the road. Like you have to be able to overcome good players not playing and winning. It's a different situation for this team though, because they are so thin. And again, that can go into the conversation of roster construction, which we can talk plenty about in the off season, which might be sooner than we might have hoped. But nonetheless, defensively, Kansas are actually okay in this game.

Starting point is 00:05:46 I mean, Cincinnati hit a lot of threes, but I thought a lot of them were tough shots. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. That was something you kind of knew was going to be the case coming in. You just tried to mitigate it as much as you could, especially after KJ got hurt here and there. And without Parker Brown really being able to play a big role, that was going to only be even worse.

Starting point is 00:06:07 But you held them to 38% shooting. You had that nice stretch at the start of the second half that allowed you to get back into it. This just came down to Kansas couldn't do anything on offense. And if you get just an average performance, I would say, like a season-long performance from Johnny Furphy and DeJuan Harris, you might have ended up winning this game. I know that sounds crazy, lost by 20, but I don't know. At the very least, it's close down the very stretch because KJ Adams is good enough for you to do that. Your defense, honestly, overall, even with them hitting shots,

Starting point is 00:06:35 and some of those numbers are even boosted by them hitting shots at the end of the games against your walk-ons, might have been good enough. But 34% shooting for Kansas. They were just three of 20 from three and Kansas now is really limping to the finish line here 22 of 82 from three over their last five games they had never been a high volume three-point shooting team this year um I guess in the non-con they were a good efficiency shooting three-point shooting team but you know that kind

Starting point is 00:07:02 of fell off as the season went on for them. They basically, we know this isn't a great three-point shooting team. Certainly, you expect them to be better than 26.8% over those last five games, but it does bring up the question of with a team this thin, do you get worn down as the season goes on? It's not just the injuries, but it's even the guys playing do you have more more tired legs and you're not able to to make those shots as consistently I don't know you did have more turnovers than them you had nine less points off turnovers no one could hit an open shot to one missed a bunch of layups around the rim um Furphy and Timberlake couldn't hit open shots okay you couldn't hit contested shots no one could could create shots for Canada. The one guy

Starting point is 00:07:45 who was actually kind of creating shots, to be honest, was on Marco Jackson. Like he was the one guy who off the dribble was able to get to separate and get himself an open shot. Unfortunately, he couldn't make them. So it was like the move was good, but the shot wasn't going in. And the lone exception to all those obviously was KJ Adams, but that doesn't apply to jump shooting because that's not what he does outside of, I guess, those little elbow, you know, mid range jump shots. But honestly, what he does outside of, I guess, those little elbow, you know, mid-range jump shots. But honestly, the style of play, like I said, I think you actually could have something there.

Starting point is 00:08:10 Like, hypothetically, if Nick Timberlake was the guy that you thought was coming in from Towson, 40% from three, and, you know, Furphy was more of the guy shooting three, he might just be hitting a freshman wall right now before the last, like, five games, what we've seen from Furphy from three. And DeJuan Harris was the guy early in the season who was shooting you know high percentage on three on on low volume but could make them if you know you left him open if that was what was actually surrounding KJ Adams in this game I think it would have been actually like a very fun style of play but unfortunately we didn't get to see that happen and it was the complete opposite it was a very not fun style of play with Kansas being unable to score the basketball.

Starting point is 00:08:46 And Kansas has now lost four of their last five games. They've lost five of their last seven. This was the first time that they have lost by 20 plus points in back-to-back games since the early 1900s. This stat was found by Adam Sullivan. So shout out to Adam for finding this stat that, yeah, it's, they lost 37 to 15 against Missouri on February 1st of 1919. And then they lost by 20 at Missouri on January 31st of 1919. So, I mean, you're talking about a very, I mean, a hundred years,

Starting point is 00:09:21 a hundred years, that's not the kind of history you want to be making when it's a negative thing so I mean it's tough to say what this means it's pretty clear that if all the conversation that Bill's have had about you know Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCuller being back for the NCAA tournament obviously if that stuff's true then um it's a very different discussion than what you take away from this game if that stuff ends up not being true and it's more of a ploy by KU to try to secure a better seed in the NCAA tournament, then things probably aren't going to go well for KU in the NCAA tournament. If today was any indication of that.

Starting point is 00:09:58 But if Hunter and Kevin indeed are back, then you can maybe point to this and say, okay, well, that was nice to see KJ Adams go off. And that was nice to see Kansas show a lot of fight and show a bit of a competitive spirit, because that was something I didn't like in the Houston game. It felt like, you know, there was kind of a give up there. There was no give up in this game. You were just kind of out talented or outmatched in a certain way. But I think the bottom line is kind of the same. Like, do you feel good about this team making it on a deep run in the NCAA tournament? Do you feel good about this team

Starting point is 00:10:28 making it out of the first weekend? What about making it out of the first round, especially now that, you know, they're at best going to be a four seed, at worst might be a six seed, where you're going to play a dangerous team, hypothetically, in the first round. I'm not saying it can't happen.

Starting point is 00:10:41 I'm not saying they can't make a run to the Elite Eight if these guys are healthy and, you know, everything kind of comes together together we've seen them beat some of the best teams in the country and obviously the the NCAA tournament is weird and I'm not saying what are you hoping for I'm just saying objectively if you do take a step back and be real here what is the what is the real expectation like what should the real expectation be Like what should the real expectation be? You know what I mean? Like is, is the real expectation. Can they make it to a second round?

Starting point is 00:11:09 And then you think on top of that, it's kind of a cherry on top. Obviously you don't view it that way because expectations are high at Kansas and you are Kansas and, and everything. But I don't know, man, pretty far away.

Starting point is 00:11:20 The worst team of the bill self era at this point, but I guess you got a new chance in the NCAA tournament to wipe that away if you can make it to the second weekend. All right, that'll do it for the opening part of this. Let's get to our goats of the game, and then what's next for KU men's basketball as they await Selection Sunday. First, we were brought to you by Nissan. This week's March Madness Bracket Highlight is brought to you by nissan this week's march madness bracket highlight is brought to you

Starting point is 00:11:47 by our friends at nissan each week we're picking one team that stands out a team that's pushed it further than the rest just like any of the all-new 2024 nissan suvs these guys were able to take it to the next level you know for instance the houston cougars can be described as an armada the top-seeded team is as hardcore as it gets so it's no wonder they're expected to land a top seed in the tournament after their first season in the Big 12 you can take the Nissan Rogue the Nissan Pathfinder or the Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure just like Houston's trying to find their next big adventure they're going to be trying to make it on to the Final Four. Kansas is looking for just a new adventure in general.

Starting point is 00:12:28 They would love to get in one of these Nissan Rogue Pathfinders or Armadas. You can go to shop if you're interested at nissanusa.com. All right, on to our goats of the game. Let's start with our good goats here. KJ Adams was fantastic, 22 points our goats of the game. Let's start with our good goats here. K.J. Adams was fantastic. 22 points on 9 of 14 shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block. It was good to see that he shook off that injury. I mean, honestly, at that moment in time, if you had to pick between,

Starting point is 00:12:58 hey, is K.J. going to be hurt or are you going to come back and win the game? I don't know if I phrased that right, but basically you would take the one where K.JJ is healthy because at the end of the day, like this win, maybe it's the difference between being a four seed and five seed or something. I don't know, but that was good to see, but yeah, he was awesome. He was driving to the rim. He, he used his ability to say, Hey, you might be taller than me, but I'm going to catch the ball at the three point line. And because you're a center and you're sagging off in the lane, I'm going to get a running start. And I am a locomotive when I get a running start, so you ain't going to stop

Starting point is 00:13:27 me. I'm going to get to the rim. I'm going to either make a tough layup, or you're going to foul me, or you're going to foul me, and they're not going to call it. But K.J. Adams, really good game for KU. Jamari McDowell gets a good goat for Kansas. Seven points on three of six shooting, six rebounds, two assists. He actually, among KU's non-walk-ons he had Kansas's best plus minus of the game at minus five which that does not speak to a good game for Kansas but um I I've understood I think I had this conversation about I don't know two three weeks ago maybe a month ago on an an episode that I've understood for a while the idea of, okay, we're going to continue to go to Timberlake and or El Marco ahead of Jamari

Starting point is 00:14:10 McDowell in the rotation because the idea of if we can get Timberlake right and being a 40% three-point shooter would be so helpful in this year's team. That's not happening. And at this point, I think Jamari McDowell has the higher floor. I think he's a better defender than Nick Timberlake. He's a better rebounder than Nick Timberlake. And honestly, right now, I have just as much faith that he's going to hit an open three as Nick Timberlake. So I would prefer to see him ahead on the rotation. Now, with as thin as the team was in this game,

Starting point is 00:14:39 everybody was going to have to play. So it really didn't matter as much who was going to play more, this or that. But I don't know. That's kind of where I'm at Jamari more than a Timberlake, I guess the Patrick Cassidy three that that's cool. Anytime a walk-on can hit a shot. Usually it's a lot cooler though,

Starting point is 00:14:54 when you're the team that's up by so much that you have to put in the walk-ons just to like not run up the score. So that's not as cool. And then, like I said, the competitive spirit at the very least, that was something that I didn't like in the Houston game, that it felt like, you know, for a lot of guys, that wasn't there. In this game, I felt like that was there, even though you lost the game. And at the very least, like, that is something positive to take away here.

Starting point is 00:15:15 The Bad Goats, DeJuan Harris, I was super wrong. Coming into this game, I put him into Hawks to soar. I thought that he was set up to have a big game. And the reason why was, you know, over the course of his career, he's had a lot of games where he's known when to score, when to pass. And I thought in this game, he would be more aggressive. I guess he kind of was, he was three of 11, he took 11 shots. So he was a little bit more aggressive there, but unfortunately he wasn't making the shots. He passed up a couple open threes to instead

Starting point is 00:15:40 drive around and it eventually ended up in like somebody taking a mid-range shot um he missed what two three four layups i mean um it was at one point for him for chill on the broadcast he was like those are shots he has to make you know like that's just kind of part of it especially right now he kind of said like what do you do if you're running an offense because you just set something up that you got to want harris a you know slightly contested layup and he couldn't make it if you're not making those those, then what plays are you calling? You're not making open threes either. It's like, what are you supposed to do?

Starting point is 00:16:08 He also had a lot of turnovers in this game, five assists to four turnovers, so not a great DeJuan game for sure. Johnny Furphy really struggled, two points, one of eight shooting, O of three from three. He had eight rebounds to his credit, had some good defensive stats, though did give up a couple baskets on the defensive end, to say the least. So with Furphy, it's kind of been, I guess, that freshman wall, you would call it, over these last five games.

Starting point is 00:16:31 He's shooting under 30% from the floor. He's shooting under 20% from three. And like I said, I don't know if it's the freshman wall or if teams are finding something in the scouting report, but they need him to get going for the NCAA tournament. Marco Jackson gets a bad goat here. The dunk was sweet, and that is unfortunate that we don't get to talk about this as much. If this is a game that Kansas wins,

Starting point is 00:16:56 is it similar to the Wayne Seldon dunk against Baylor? I mean, the Wayne Seldon one was more of straight-up posterizing the guy. It was dunking on him, dunking over him. Whereas with El Marco, it was like dunking with a couple guys, converging on him. But it was still an awesome dunk, man. And that was pretty sweet. If you take away that dunk, though, El Marco was just one of 10 shooting. He finished two of 11 for the game.

Starting point is 00:17:19 Five points, 0 of 4 from three. Did have nine rebounds. That was good to see him use his athleticism there and with the dunk. He also had two assists. He was – I don't know. I want El Marco Jackson to come back another year. In this day and age with the transfer portal, you never know what's going to happen from both the player's perspective

Starting point is 00:17:38 and from the team perspective. Are they going to kind of show the door to somebody? I still think something is there in the future for El Marco. You the athleticism like I said earlier he was able to create his own shot and get his shot get to the spot he wanted to he just wasn't hitting him and so maybe with a full off season you know maybe this is something where El Marco in 10-15 years ago would have been the classic guy that would have sat the bench and not really played much and then by the time he's a sophomore junior would have been really good but in today have sat the bench and not really played much. And then by the time he's a sophomore junior would have been really good, but in today's day and age,

Starting point is 00:18:07 and because Kansas is a thinner roster, they had to play him. And so we got to see a version of him, which wasn't fully up to snuff, but anyway, it obviously wasn't a great game overall. And then Nick Timberlake gets a bad goat here too. Five points on two of nine shooting,

Starting point is 00:18:20 just couldn't buy a three until the very end when it was kind of little too late. I think he, in the two T mobile center games this games this year he's now two for 14 four rebounds one assist and again I mean how many open threes are like maybe not wide open but like pretty open semi-contested maybe threes did he pass up to give it to somebody else where you could tell there was a lack of confidence there for Nick Timberlake. And that's not what you like. He's in there to shoot threes for you and knock him down. And that hasn't happened consistently for Kansas so far this season.

Starting point is 00:18:51 All right, what's next for KU as they await Selection Sunday and the NCAA tournament on Locked on Jayhawks? Fire TV is your destination for sports from live games to highlights to in-depth analysis. Fire TV offers amazing viewing experiences with smart TVs as well as the Fire TV stick that you can plug into your existing TV that provides access to millions of movies and TV episodes as well as free and live TV. Whether it's opening weekend for baseball or the college basketball tournament, you're going to want to have Fire TV. Fire TV recently created Fire TV channels to deliver a constant supply of the latest videos from your favorite sports brands, all for free.

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Starting point is 00:19:55 That is amazon.com slash lockedonfiretv. What's next for KU men's basketball? Well, they're done. It's pretty crazy that you're not used to them playing on a Wednesday. what's next for KU men's basketball? Well, they're done for, it's, it's pretty crazy that you're not used to them playing on a Wednesday. Well, now they're not even playing on the Thursday or Friday and Saturday. So you're going to get to watch a lot of other college hoops around the country, I guess, or you can just deprive and just, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:22 take the time to yourself, do whatever you want. But selection Sunday is coming up on Sunday. Kansasansas will be in the ncaa tournament that feels good uh that that'll happen there's a very real chance this becomes the new lowest seed or worst seed i guess you could say of the bill self era previously it's a four seed which has happened twice now one of the years they made the elite eight so maybe a little good juju there the other year lost in the second round by a billion points to uh auburn and uh i it's possible they get a four it's possible they get a five i i think uh resume wise and what they put together four would probably be the floor but because you have the injuries kevin mcculler and hunter dickinson and you don't know what's going to happen there it's not unthinkable that they could drop to a five or a six. And it's something that

Starting point is 00:21:08 Joe Linardi was talking about before the game. And so Joe Linardi before the game was basically on their like studio show and saying that even though Bill Self said that these players are this and that, the tournament committee basically isn't going to take that as true. They have to go based off of what they've seen. And that is a little scary for Kansas that makes me think they might just end up on that five or six line. Now, honestly, I would almost take a six seed over a five seed. I guess one, you get the, going back to the good juju of the 1988 team maybe,

Starting point is 00:21:54 but also I feel like the path of going, okay, if you're the six seed, maybe having to play, you know, 11 seed, then maybe playing a three seed, then I don't know, it is better than having to play the classic five, 12 upset game. Then you get a four seed, then you get a, I don't know, is better than having to play the classic five, 12 upset game. Then you get a four seed. Then you get a, I don't know, maybe that's stupid, but I, it's late and you know, things did not go well. Anyway, I think you're going to see Kansas between the four to six line basically

Starting point is 00:22:15 is what I'm saying. I think it's more likely they'll probably be like five seed, but the ending matter of that is that they're not going to be in Omaha. You know, they're going to have to ship out somewhere. Could they end up in Spokane? Could they end up in Salt Lake City? It's not going to be a super close destination for KU fans to go to would be my assumption at this point because you kind of lost that privilege

Starting point is 00:22:36 with how you finished out the season here. All right, we'll be back later this week to break down maybe more on the tournament bracket and Selection Sunday. Certainly we'll have an episode out to react to it for Kansas and get to that later in the week. Thanks for joining us here with Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for tuning in to each and every episode. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. See you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Recap: Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Lose by 20 to Cincinnati Bearcats Without McCullar & Dickinson

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