Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Recap: Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Stomps the Sooners in Norman for Key Big 12 Victory

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Recapping the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team heading into Norman, OK and winning 78-55 against the Oklahoma Sooners behind a stellar defense and a balanced offense. GOATs of the game from Dajuan Harris to Kevin McCullar, Ernest Udeh, the KU centers, Jalen Wilson and more. Plus, a look around the Big 12 conference in basketball.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, we recap Kansas winning big in Norman against the Oklahoma Sooners. A little late, better late than never. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Is Kansas turning the corner? The Kansas Jayhawks winning big in Norman, Oklahoma, and certainly they've looked pretty impressive in each of their last four wins. They obviously have the Iowa State game in between that didn't go as well,

but since then they've looked really good. 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, free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we are going to be going over that KU win in Oklahoma, 78 to 55, down in Norman.

Impressive victory for KU, albeit not the best opponent you're going to play in Oklahoma and maybe the easiest, I guess, environment to play in in the Big 12 here. But still, anytime you win any Big 12 game against any of these opponents, especially on the road and especially by double digits, especially by 23. It's very impressive. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is due by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn Jobs, you can hire qualified candidates more efficiently by matching open roles with people who have the skills, values, and experiences to help you achieve your 2023 goals.

Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege, terms and conditions. Apply. Kansas 78, Oklahoma 55 down in Norman. A kind of disgusting start, to be honest, for KU. You get down 8-2. You have four points to the first, like, eight or nine minutes of the game.

Neither team is really able to separate or pull away, and it felt like that one stretch in Norman where Oklahoma held you without a field goal for 13 minutes in the second half. Fortunately, this one was in the first half, so it left way more time in front of you. And they weren't really able to score either, so it kept you at arms bay. Whereas you had the scoring drought in the game at home. You got up on 10.

That was a little scary, five minutes left. This time you were only on four, so it was like, oh, okay. That's not a big deal at all. Kind of a disgusting start. Then KU kind of got it going. They got out in transition a lot. They started attacking the rim. The depth showed up once again.

That's been kind of a common theme here in some of the recent games, and we saw the depth really show up in your two previous home games but you missed it in the iowa state game on the road you got it in this game at oklahoma with the way that ernest uday played for you off the bench mdr rice still solid minutes um it's just important that you're getting some of those contributions now that you haven't always been getting to different points the defense put the clamps down on oklah Yes, it wasn't a perfect game. Yes, Oklahoma, not this elite offensive team, but they give you a lot of struggles in the first game that you played between these two teams, and you were able to really turn it on defensively

in this go-around. You created a ton, a ton of ton of steals that led to those easy transition plays, and what I think we saw in the two games in the series with Oklahoma, the Sooners half-court defense was pretty good against Kansas overall. It's that when Kansas was able to get out in transition, which to be clear, Oklahoma, like stylistically, they like to try to send guys back to avoid giving up transition plays. Like that's part of their style. They just try to avoid that.

And maybe it's partially because they don't have as good of, you know, maybe athletes as a team like Kansas where they're not going to be as good in transition as the other team. But they make that a goal to avoid that. But if you're turning the ball over and a team like Kansas has 16 steals, there's only so much that you can do to avoid transition play. Kansas was able to get out in transition. They were able to kind of score at will there and get some easy buckets

against a team that overall plays pretty good defense and does a pretty good job in the half court. You were able to kind of avoid that there. Really good game, once again, for DeJuan Harris being aggressive, Kevin McCuller being aggressive. We talked a lot about DeJuan's impact when he's aggressive in scoring and Kevin McCuller's impact in terms of when Kevin McCuller's scoring, it can kind of be an X factor.

Take this team to the next level. Talked about the bench, how important that is to get the bench contributions that they kind of have and did in that game. Jalen Wilson having a nice bounce back game. He had a tough start first handful of minutes, a couple handfuls of minutes against Oklahoma, and then he really turned it on and had fun there. So kind of an all-around performance for Kansas.

Defense really impressive. You hold them to 78 or to 55 points, excuse me. And in that, I don't know, game, it's obviously, you know, because you look at it now, Oklahoma's tied for last in the Big 12. You can make the argument they're the worst team because Tech has kind of shown some life lately that maybe Tech is turning a corner, and they had some of their losses.

Texas Tech did with some injuries to guys like Pop Isaacs. Fardoz Amick was out for a big chunk of the early part of the season. Like maybe at this point in time, Tech is better than Oklahoma. Maybe Oklahoma is the worst team in the Big 12. But even the worst team in the Big 12 beat Alabama by 20. Even the worst team in the Big 12 has a couple Big 12 wins. Any win you take is important. But something I was talking about last week,

if you view the number to win the Big 12 as 12 wins, which I don't know if that'll be the case this year. Like right now, Ken Palm has it as Texas getting to 13, and I still kind of think that 13 gets it done to win it outright. If Kansas were to win at Texas in the final game of the season, I think 12 would probably do it to at least get a share. And who knows, maybe Texas will kind of fall apart. We'll see how they do against Texas Tech on the road tonight.

That would certainly have a big impact right there. But let's say 12 gets a share of the Big 12. There are basically, at this point, because Oklahoma State has turned it on, there are essentially seven teams competing for a Big 12 title. Now, maybe realistically like a team like tcu who's in seventh at six and six right now are they really in it i don't know probably not but tcu's a plus game is as good as anybody's a plus game in the conference if not the country so um i guess they're still like you know they're a good enough team they have the potential

like we saw baylor start oh and three and then win five straight like a TCU real off five straight and then you're 11 and six like of course they could right so I think that if you look at those seven teams and just say theoretically all those teams are really good if we just split with all of them that puts us to six and six that means between the other three teams bottom three teams at that point in the with West Virginia Texas Tech and Oklahoma you have to go 6-0. Because if you go 6-6 against those other seven teams, six not including yourself, to get to 12 wins, you'd have to go 6-0 against the other teams. And what that means is you wouldn't have a margin for error

with losing to Oklahoma, losing to West Virginia or Texas Tech. You already won in Morgantown. You already won in Lubbock. You get both those teams again, but it's at home. That left the one road trip up potential between those three teams with Norman. So even though Oklahoma's not, you know, some great team or probably not going to be an NCAA tournament team, it's a very important win for that reason. And if that's the math we're going to do to get to that point of 12 wins,

that's not a, I don't know, perfect plan because Kansas already lost at home to TCU, so now you're putting a lot of pressure on winning in Fort Worth. And you still have some tough home games with some of those teams in that grouping. But the point is, it just kind of, it's not quite a must win, but you probably needed to realistically go one and one in the next two between at Oklahoma and at Oklahoma state. Now the at Oklahoma state game is the possible cherry on top game,

which you really could use winning to kind of keep pace with Texas again, especially depending what happens in their game against Texas tech. Cause if they went in Lubbock, you lose an Oklahoma state. Now you're two back again with that 0.6 to go. It gets even, even more difficult, or I guess at that.5 games to go. But this one was very important just to come out with the win in any way you did. And the fact that you did it in the fashion you did, where it makes it feel like you are kind of turning the corner.

You've won four of the last five. All four of those wins have been by nine or more is a very important thing that you feel like puts you on the right path. And now you're playing Oklahoma State, who might be hotter than any team in the conference to give you a real test and still water on Tuesday night. We'll have a preview of that one on tomorrow's show. We're going to get to our goats of the game, though, first for the Kansas-Oklahoma game.

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That's linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Goats of the game. Start with the good. DeJuan Harris, once again, very aggressive, attacking 16.7 of 11 shooting. He goes one for one, hits the three, which it wasn't like a NBA range three, but that was, what, two, three, four feet behind the three-point line, and that's not really something that we've

seen Dewan show like we know he's been a very capable three-point shooter when left open but we hadn't really seen it from a little deeper range that could unlock even something more and that was kind of cool to see too but three assists three rebounds when you've needed him to score when other teams have basically said we're going to try to make you score he's done that the last few games you can just see it makes KU such a more complete offense. Kevin McCuller gets a good go for Kansas. 13 points. You have four of eight from the field. You have five rebounds, five assists. This is a nice little stretch for Kevin. So Kevin kind of struggled offensively in the first month of the season in November. Then in December, he really got it going again

after coming back from the groin injury, which he suffered against Tennessee, missed the Texas Southern game. Then he kind of got it going. And then he had the struggle at the start of big 12 play. And now you're looking at a run of five or six games here where he's scoring in double figures. He's active with rebounds and passing, and he's continued to just be kind of a rock for you in a stud defensive player. But it's just having him score 10 to 15 points per night. It's not going to be like the flashiest points. Although he, i feel like every game he's good for like one or two and one place it's just having that other base player who you know is going to play a wide amount of minutes because of what other ways he really impacts the game

because of that it's really important that he does give you at least something on the offensive end and he has been in this latest stretch and boom kansas won four of the last five like those two things are very connected session gets a good goat here for kansas uh kj adams at 10 points three rebounds he went five of six from the floor um he had some really impressive buckets too like we continue to see uh him add more confidence in his repertoire whether it's shooting that jump shot i think he went one of two it's free throw which if he goes one of two on the mid-range free throw and jump shot every game you 100 take that like first of all that's a good shooting percentage from that spot um for two point mid-range shots like 50 is actually very good and also especially for him because it it's enough to

keep the defense honest space him out a little bit you see him continue to be more comfortable with that spin move and even at foul trouble, but he still found a way to be good. Ernest Uday, like both Ernest and KJ probably deserve this individually, but I think it's even more lopsided when you kind of add their two numbers together. Ernest had eight points. He had four rebounds. He went 4-4 from the field.

Filled in really well for KJ when he was in foul trouble, and Ernest just is an absolute lob threat it seems like early in the year Kansas was having a lot of issues throwing those lobs to like Ernest Uday and Zuby Ejever it felt like sometimes maybe they were forcing it a bit they were just trying to do something that wasn't there sometimes maybe the pass was bad sometimes maybe the roller's timing was off or his jump was off or he just dropped the ball. It seems like they've figured out that chemistry. It seems like they've figured out that connection, which makes sense,

because in cases of both those centers who are really catching the lobs with both Zuby and Ernest, although Zuby obviously, you know, been injured, though, came back in this game. It feels like they've really ironed out their kinks. And like I was saying, it makes sense because you have young freshman centers. It was going to take some time to establish that chemistry. It seems like KU really has with their ability to hit those lob dunks, hit those alley-oop dunks. And even though this isn't a Kansas team who gets those easy duck-ins

and post-ups, you have to find other ways to get easy baskets, to get dunks, to get open two-point shots. That's one of them right there. Get those alley-oops, and Ernest is providing that for you right now. But, yeah, I thought both of them did really well defensively, too. You add up their stats, that's 18 points and seven rebounds between the two of them. If you add in Zuby Ejifer, who got a few minutes, too,

the center's combined for 18 points, 9 of 10 from the floor, eight rebounds, three assists. That'll play. That's all conference numbers right there. The defense gets a good goat for Kansas. Oklahoma was held to just 41%. eight rebounds three assists that'll play that's all conference numbers right there the defense gets a good goat for Kansas Oklahoma was held to just 41 percent on two-point shots that is their third worst of the season I thought that KU did a lot better job in space with Ernest Uday out there like the Baylor game is the one that's exciting and that's a tough game Baylor has one of the

best offenses in the country three really good guards for Ernest, he was just kind of trying to get back into swing of things when he came in in that game. He got lost a few times on ball screens. I think you've seen that part of his game really improve here. Like in this game specifically, he was really good. And we've seen it a couple times, not just this game, but in recent games where he's been switched on to someone and he's actually forced to steal.

Like it happened against Texas that led to a run out. I think it was the run out that led to like the Grady to step back three. And he got a steal happened against Texas that led to a run out. I think it was the run out that led to the Grady to step back three. And he got a steal in this game that led to a run out. He's had good active hands in those situations. He's a freshman. He's still green in that regard. There are going to be times he still does get lost in pick and roll or doesn't know where to go.

There are going to be times where he does get matched up on a guard and no center, even good switchable centers in the NBA are going to like keep a switch in front of them every time. But can they hold their own? Ernest in that game very much did. That's going to be important for you playing the way that you really want to. And we've seen Kansas kind of switch five the last couple games. We saw in the Baylor game. And like I said, it kind of was problematic for Kansas in the first half though

they really picked it up in the second half we've seen some past seasons where KU's made a switch in what they do defensively like you think of the the season two years ago where it didn't end well for KU they lose in the second round to USC but from like February till the tournament started before they had their COVID issues they became like the best defense in the country for that like stretch and they just changed up how they were like guarding ball screens and doing some different things that you know i'm not an expert at but bill self certainly is and i wonder if that's the switch they're going to make moving forward they're just going to be a a switch everything type of team and just sticking with that um kind of mentality and everything that you're just going to be used to that and they can kind

of hone their skills in that regard. They did it against Oklahoma and it worked out pretty well. But yeah, 41% on Tuesday night game for OU, the third worst of the season. And you flip that to the first time they played, Oklahoma's two-point percentage was the worst that Kansas has allowed defensively this year. So you had your worst two-point defense game against OU at home. You had one of your best in the game in Norman.

Good switch from the defense there. KU also forced 24 had one of your best in the game in Norman good switch from the the defense there KU also forced 24 turnovers 16 of which were steals that is an insanely high number leads the easy buckets defense was great led to good offense for KU uh the last one for good goats Jalen Wilson after his slow start uh I think he started one for five I don't remember his 0 for 4 1 for 5 but he was for sure one for five so I don't know if it was 0 for 4 and then he hit the shot or if it was like one for four and then he went one for five. I don't remember his over four, one for five, but he was for sure one for five. So I don't know if it was over four and then he hit the shot or if it was like one for four and then he went one for five, but either way, it was one for five.

After the one for five start, he went six of 12. He ended up with 18 points, five rebounds, five assists, picked it back up after that slow start, which really felt like a carry over from the Texas game, shook it off easily.

That's what you expect from your All-American candidate, from your National Player of the Year candidate, and Jalen continues to show just that. Our bad goats of the game, we only got two of them, I guess. Joe Yesavu really struggled, really liked his game against Texas, so you were hoping that he was going to be able to build off of it. Obviously, Bobby Pettiford didn't play, still injured, and you're kind of hoping that Joe can maybe take advantage of these minutes where he goes I have a higher floor for minutes now um confidence in me

I'm gonna get things going well he had zero points oh four from the field in nine minutes the thing that gets you is like if you come in off the bench and you're asked to just be a shooter which is basically what Joe's being asked to do come off the bench be a scorer there are going to be nights where shots just don't fall you know he's he's a what five foot ten guard like he's not a six foot ten big man he's not zach edie who's just gonna like oh down night frame is only shooting 55 no like shooters are gonna have bad shooting games um so that's understandable but some of it was very wild which that part of it you don't totally love but again at the same point in time because that is his role,

I wouldn't be shocked if on Tuesday against Oklahoma State, he comes in and he goes two for five from the floor. But certainly for him, his best chance to further cement himself as a big part of this rotation and be a super helpful piece as being that scoring option is to take advantage of these games where Bobby Pettiford is out and there might be a few more minutes to go around as one of those kind of two leadlead-guards, ball-handler types. Even though he still is more of a backup two to Grady Dick,

he still could play some minutes as your ball-handler, as we've seen as time over his two seasons with Kansas. The last bad goat is just Oklahoma. They've just, since that Alabama win, they just haven't looked good at all, and they've kind of fallen apart there, not great attendance and everything. They weren't very good in the game. Certainly Kansas did a lot to allow that to happen, but yeah,

Oklahoma might end up being the worst team in the big 12, but it's funny because literally two weeks ago, we're talking about this team as being like on the outside, looking into the bubble, but that they were in a bubble team. So I do think that, you know, if Oklahoma was in,

I don't name your other conference, like maybe the big 10 or the SEC or the ACC, probably have a good enough record that they would be an NCAA tournament team. But that was certainly a struggle for OU in that game against Kansas. We're going to finish things up here, getting on to just looking around what the Big 12 is at and what we've got coming up in the next day or two. But first, this episode of Locked on Jets is brought to you by Bilt Bar.

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This episode came out a little later than I wanted. I was traveling back from Phoenix and got in a little later than normal, so I'm trying to put this out as much as I can. That'll certainly have a big impact. If Texas loses at Tech, that is a huge loss, I guess, to keep everyone in it to a team who's at the bottom of the Big 12. But Tech has kind of found some life here, beating Kansas State and then having kind of a weird storm court or court storming,

if I can say things right, at the end of the game. So we'll see. But they seem to be picking things up. And then for Kansas, the Oklahoma State game. Like, Oklahoma State, after winning at Iowa State, has really emerged. Moose, as he said, when he's been in the lineup, I think they're 7-1 in Big 12 play. And the one loss is barely to Kansas and now in Fieldhouse.

Like, if Oklahoma State beats Kansas, they're a true big 12 title contender at that point especially if texas loses to texas tech tonight and then you still have all those teams clustered together tcu is kind of in tough position after losing to baylor but it's funny because right now at the top you have texas in nine and three baylor and kansas is eight and four and then you have that cluster of teams after before the season started it was i guess the Big 12 season started even, it was Baylor, Texas, Kansas. Those were the three favorites. And we went through all these tribes and tribulations, roller coasters.

TCU blows out Kansas. Kansas State starts out super hot. Iowa State with their great season. And now it's just funny because we got six games to go, and it's the three that you kind of expected at the top. Certainly there will be a lot of shaking and shifting moving forward, but I just think that's kind of funny, and that makes a very important week for Kansas at Oklahoma State

and then Baylor at home. Definitely have to take care of the Baylor game at home, but I think you look at it, and it's almost like you need either a win in Oklahoma State or a Texas loss tonight at the very least. If you get both, even better. It's a cherry on top. But realistically, if you can just kind of keep it within a game striking distance, not move back two games again, that would be pretty ideal for Kansas.

We're going to preview the Oklahoma State game on tomorrow's show. We'll have that up for you ahead of the game in Stillwater. But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find me on Twitter. Let me know if you want to talk about anything at D Johnson radio. You can subscribe to us wherever you get any of your podcasts. We're on, you know,

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