Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: Kansas Jayhawks Fall Short of Bowl, Blown-Out by Baylor Bears 45-17
Episode Date: November 30, 2024Kansas Jayhawks football fans, brace yourselves! The Jayhawks faced a tough 45-17 defeat against the Baylor Bears, leaving fans questioning what went wrong. With standout performances from Devin Neal ...and a challenging defensive outing, this game was a rollercoaster of emotions that capped off a disappointing season for KU.Derek Johnson breaks down the Kansas Jayhawks' offensive highs and defensive lows, spotlighting key players like Devin Neal and Jared Casey. He explores the strategic missteps and potential roster changes as the team looks ahead to the offseason. Discover how the Jayhawks plan to tackle their defensive challenges and what the future holds for star players like Jalon Daniels and Logan Brown as well as coaches like Jeff Grimes and Brian Borland.Tune in for an in-depth analysis of the Kansas Jayhawks' season and offseason strategies. Don't miss out on the insights that could shape the team's path forward!For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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)
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On today's Locked On Jayhawks, a disappointing finish to a disappointing season.
Kansas smoked by Baylor. We recap KU's loss.
You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks.
Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio,
Blue Sky at Derek Johnson.
This is Locked On Jayhawks.
Thanks for making it your first listen every day.
Thank you to every dayers catching each and every show.
You can find it anywhere you get your podcasts, as well as YouTube,
where you can like and subscribe to the show.
And on today's edition of Locked On Jayhawks,
we're recapping KU losing to Baylor.
They lose by 28 points.
We break down what went wrong in the game,
what went wrong in the season,
as Kansas now falls a game short of bowl eligibility
and all the momentum that they built up
comes to a screeching halt in this game
as the defense couldn't stop anything that Baylor did.
And certainly there'll be some conversations
about what needs to be done now in the offseason for KU.
So let's start here.
Kansas falls 45-17 in the end.
A game where Kansas had 491 yards of offense.
They had over 200 yards passing and over 200 yards rushing.
They were balanced offense.
They averaged almost 7 yards per carry.
It wasn't the most efficient game in terms of uh completion
rate or anything like that but the passes they did complete they averaged over 23 yards per
completion and you look at that and you would say okay well you know maybe kansas lost the defense
didn't play well which obviously happened in this one but to lose by 28 in a game like that happens
i don't think there's a better statistic that i can show in how bad the defense performed in this game than to say that, that the offense did those things and they still lost by
28. Now, obviously the offense for KU didn't end up having a great game. So let's get into that as
well. By the way, this episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app,
create an account and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Now, what I mean
by the offense didn't have a great game overall,
even though the yards were there, is that the situational plays,
obviously you only put up 17 points in the end.
So it's not just on the defense.
When you get blown out, it's going to be a culmination
of a lot of different things.
And obviously this mostly probably is about the defense,
but I think in the end, too many mistakes.
And I think in the end, that becomes the theme of this season, does it not?
Like, you had a chance to make bowl eligibility despite all your struggles, all your one-score losses.
Well, didn't have to worry about a one-score loss in this one if you're Kansas.
Just, you know, not really in this game.
And the theme of this season ends up being too many mistakes or plays on the small margin of error.
And again, you lose this one by 28,
so it's a little tougher to point to one mistake that happened.
But think about this.
Because in a game where your defense couldn't stop anything they were doing,
your offense basically had to be perfect, and you weren't.
You missed a field goal on the first drive.
You had the overthrown interception later in the first half. get stopped on fourth and one which i
mean that absolutely sucks that's the final run play of devin neal's career um i i will say though
i at the very least like i do want to give the offense a little bit of credit a little bit of
a hat tip that as much as that game was out of their favor and that it was pretty clear they
were going to lose but the offense still kept trying to make plays right maybe the execution wasn't there but they were trying there wasn't a quit level it felt like the defense in
this game it felt like there was a level of quit in the second and third quarter and maybe it was
just a bad game maybe it was just a bad schematic matchup and bad this or that but when you see them
not gang tackling a bunch of guys running to the ball that didn't happen guys missing tackles business decisions it's hard to say that like i don't know like and put it this
way the execution wasn't there for the offense when it needed to be in a game like this where
your defense was struggling that much but the effort was there it felt like the defense i don't
think effort or execution was there and um it was just a, it was accumulation.
It was a giant math equation of everything that could have been a mess for KU.
You give up over 600 yards to Baylor, 293 on the ground, not six yards per carry.
You gave up 310 passing yards.
At one point, their quarterback was nine for nine to open up the end.
195 of their 310 passing yards at one point their quarterback was nine for nine to open up the end 195 of their 310 passing yards were after the catch they had four touchdowns you did not force any turnovers
you're minus two in the turnover battle and yeah again you could go back and be like well there's
those missed opportunities offensively where you know let's say you make the field goal on the first
drive of the game okay now it's 45 20 instead instead of the overthrown interception what if
you get you know another field goal on that drive it's not 45 23 instead of getting held
to a field goal you know you get a touchdown on that one drive okay now maybe it's 45 27
maybe to be to know what doesn't fumble and you at least get a field goal there it's 45 to 30
maybe you don't have the interception the end zone you get a touchdown now it's 45 37 uh you don't
have the stop on fourth and one maybe you score a touchdown i'll send it to tie game now it doesn't work like that because you're going to still make
uh some mistakes maybe you're not going to make all of those but point being it could have been
at least a little bit closer if that happened but on defense it was everything i mean you get
marvin grant toasted twice deep which this was something going back to last year like craig
young was this super athletic linebacker safety hybrid but the advantage of having craig young on the field was that super-athletic linebacker-safety hybrid, but the advantage of having Craig Young on the field
was that he was a super-athletic linebacker.
And they had him playing as, like, a slot corner all the time
to where he was getting targeted a lot, giving up a lot of catches.
You lose that advantage you're going for.
And I felt like all this season long, I felt like Marvin Grant
would have been better off being, like, the third linebacker on the field,
but a lot of times they ended up having to use him as, like, slot corner.
And in some games, that's actually okay, right? if he's matching up a linebacker this or that like
but you can't have him going up against a receiver who i think on in college football
somebody dm me this college football 25 i think monterey baldwin has a 98 speed
why are you matching that like again it's not great for marvin grant that he gave up those
touchdowns but i almost view that more as like malpractice from the, like why as a coaching staff, are you having him line up?
Shouldn't you have Marvin Grant being guarding somebody else?
And if you're like, oh, but you know,
they spread us out and we didn't have a matchup for him on the field.
Okay. Then, then play, play nickel, play dime,
put an extra corner out there and put Marvin Grant in as one of the
linebackers instead of Cornell Wheeler or JB Brown or Taiwan Berryhill or
something like that, where you play a little bit smaller.
And yes, you could say, well, how would you do stopping the run?
Guess what? They didn't stop the run in their base defense anyway.
So what would it have mattered? I don't know.
But there was zero pass rush in this game for KU.
KU only got three tackles for loss.
They ended up with three sacks, ironically enough.
But I don't know. It felt like on the key plays, like there was just nothing there.
Baylor, for the most part, just avoided throwing at the corners.
Like, I don't really blame the corners and Colby and Mello Dots,
and I know Mello gave up that one touchdown on the in route,
but like, for the most part, everything was over the middle.
It was against the linebackers.
It was against the safeties.
And I thought this was a really bad game for the linebackers.
I mean, KU missed a billion tackles.
It was everybody was missing tackles, but a lot of game for the linebackers i mean ku missed a billion tackles a lot it was everybody was missing tackles but a lot of those were the linebackers and uh we
mentioned baylor likes to run it up the middle they did and ku couldn't stop it because they
couldn't make tackles right and the defensive line didn't get great surge that's to make it
harder on the linebackers but they were getting beaten coverage they were getting beat unable to
make tackles and in a season where there has been some lowlights for the linebacking core,
they've had some more highlights, I think, this year
than a lot of years past,
because I thought J.B. Brown, for the most part,
this season was a solid player for KU.
Same for Cornell Wheeler,
when he was not having to play injured or anything like that.
But there's been some lowlights even then for the linebackers,
whether it's one of the guys off the bench or whoever.
There's been a lot of lowlights for the KU linebacking core in the entire lance leipold era and this was one of the worst linebacker games i
can remember like there was that duke game i think in uh was that lance leipold's first year
at the helm of ku that they they like lost and kind of a shootout in duke and that was like
one that i remember being very bad with linebackers this was certainly up there i also thought the
scheme was really bad it was basically very simple for baylor they were like we're either going to hand off up the middle
or we're going to throw a screen to the outside and it's basically wherever we have numbers we're
going to go with that it felt like ku was just playing zone every single time and this is
something i've got on it before that like you have these two corners who are probably going to be
playing in the pros next year play more man-to-man and when you're going up against me if you're
playing man-to-man that's going to basically take away the pros next year. Play more man-to-man. And when you're going up against me, if you're playing man-to-man,
that's going to basically take away the screen
as long as your guys are fighting and winning off the blocks.
And it was just an inability to adjust.
There was a lack of adjustments.
I didn't like the scheme to begin with.
And I think Brian Borland has just never really figured out
how to guard tempo.
Like that's been something that KU certainly struggled with
in his entire time that KU certainly struggled with in his entire
time at KU.
And I think to me that the,
the difference in play calling was apparent in this one.
Like Jeff Grimes,
I thought had an overall fine game.
There were certainly some moments,
like there were a couple like first half drives,
there was like second and long,
and they kept throwing behind the sticks where they kept running on first
down when Baylor was basically saying,
Hey,
we're going to go out all out on the run. But I thought Dave Aranda, who was calling plays as the head coach to call the
defense for Baylor, outperformed Jeff Grimes, the offense coordinator. And that was something we
talked about in the preview. Would Jeff Grimes know more about the tendencies of Dave Aranda,
or would Dave Aranda know more about the tendencies of Jeff Grimes? It felt like Dave
Aranda knew more about the tendencies of Jeff Grimes. There were
several plays in the game where I noticed a safety or linebacker or a DB point something out or creep
up exactly where the play was going. So they knew what he wanted to do and it became too predictable.
I thought overall though, again, if you go back to some of those stakes they made,
the offense would have actually had a good output. So even though some of that stuff happened,
I think that stuff might be picking Nitz a little bit more.
But still, I would have given the advantage to Aranda over Grimes
and based on what we kind of saw overall.
It was more so that like, you know, I mean,
that was just a big advantage for Baylor.
They let go of Jeff Grimes in the offseason.
They get Jake Spavadol, and that was a huge advantage for them.
Spavadol over Brian borland in this matchup so um it just sucks because at least if this was a close
loss like obviously people would be heartbroken with with how the season ended and they came so
close if there was a close loss and it'd be that heartbreaking way and it'd be sad but i think it
would be a little bit easier to give salutes to like the seniors for people to be like man
but thank you to devin Neal and Colby Bryant
and all these guys like that.
And I'm not saying that stuff's not going to happen
or it doesn't deserve to happen because it does.
But I think right now everybody's PO'd, and deservedly so,
about kind of the final effort here in this game.
Because I think at one point in the second half, it felt like –
if Kansas came into this game 3-8 or 4-7 where it's like,
what are they playing for?
And you had that type of performance.
You would sit here and be like, okay, I can understand how that would have happened.
They were playing for a bowl game.
And I don't know.
It's just very weird how that would have happened.
And obviously, I will say, great job by Kansas.
I do want to finish on kind of a positive note.
Great job by the team, by the players, by the coaching staff to keep this team together on like the big picture for the season when they were two and six to even finish.
You know, if you would have said when they were two and six, they're going to finish five and seven with three right wins.
I don't know that you would have been like super ecstatic about it, but you would have been like, well, at least they finished the season strong.
You know what I mean? Because at one point when you're sitting at two and six,
you were looking down the barrel and going,
could it be two and 10 with the way this season finishes?
And they do deserve some credit for that.
They do deserve some credit
for being the first team in program history
to win two straight ranked games,
to win three straight ranked games,
for creating some fun memories those Saturdays,
for keeping you entertained all season long,
for having a great senior day
and some of the home performances.
And I think a great job as well
that they deserve credit for not bottoming out.
Like that matters in recruiting.
That matters from entertainment perspective.
That matters for building the next team.
That the jumping point isn't going to be jumping off
a two and 10 season, right?
Like that stuff matters and credit to them for that
and credit to some of the careers of the players, right?
Like obviously this wasn't the final way you wanted it for Devin Neal and
Colby Bryant and Melo Dotson, whoever, but overall,
all of those players like, and you know, I'm skipping over many others.
Their careers were still great at Kansas.
They still went to back-to-back bowl games from where this program was like
all that stuff deserves a tip of the cap,
but also this was yet another missed opportunity in a season marred by exactly that
and certainly a uh i guess a very kansas football thing get everybody's hopes up they got everybody's
hopes up in the offseason and then it dipped down then again everybody's hopes up coming in this
week and unfortunately kansas football things happened as ku has still never won in waco
and the average defeat is uh around 30 points in their last eight games
in Waco.
All right, let's continue on.
Go to the game.
Good, bad, all that stuff.
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We will have a KU basketball recap up for you, whether it's Sunday morning or late Saturday night
as well. Okay, what are our good and bad goats of the game? Well, let's start with the good go out
on top. Devin Neal gets a good goat here. 20 carries in the end, 133 yards, a touchdown,
6.7 yards per carry also to
catch for five yards and that catch for five yards could have easily been like a loss of two yards
those are plays that i'll never forget his i'm a ku the ability to turn plays that should have
been zero yard gains negative two yard gains into plus three plus four plus five that kept you on
schedule unbelievable season unbelievable career and i obviously didn't end the way you wanted to get
stopped on the fourth of one he had that drop on the last drive as well so that absolutely sucks
but i'm not going to remember devin neal for that stuff i'll remember him for all the great moments
he provided over his course of his career with ku i still think he deserves a statue he's the
all-time leader for rushing yards rushing touchdowns he today by having over 100 rushing
yards had his eighth 100 plus yard rushing game in a season which ties him
for the record uh all time at KU he also had another until today I guess it makes it a top
six season but coming into the year top five season in terms of uh most of those with last
year so unbelievable for a career and a good game still to go out for Devin Neal even with Baylor
kind of keen on the run especially as the game went on I thought the receivers did a good job for Kansas in this game I know none of them had more than
three catches like Quinn Skinner three for 77 Luke Grimm three for 73 LJ Arnold had one for 22
I thought the collective of them like they made some nice catches especially on some big plays
for Kansas overall I thought Jared Casey gets a good go here too two catches for 57 yards
he had some nice yard after catch on uh those and that'll be another guy certainly to be missed here
around kansas he also had some key blocks there were some nice plays on some some big devon
neal runs especially early in the game where where casey was providing a pivotal block
as a part of uh kind of all of that um i guess i'm trying to think like off the top of my head so let's see
baylor had four tfls they had zero sacks kansas had 491 on offense um off the top of my head i
thought the offensive line did a pretty good job now maybe there was a couple plays like there was
one pointed out where they shifted the wrong way and you know maybe you gave up a few pressures
like here or there like i doubt it was a perfect game for the KU offensive line,
but I thought overall they played good enough to win,
and Calvin Clements obviously got the start in this one with Logan Brown out,
and I thought he acquitted himself just well.
You watch the Chiefs game on Friday, and it's very noticeable
the struggles of their left tackle.
That was not noticeable at all in this game, so that's a good sign
because certainly you'd
expect calvin clements to be a starter next year bryce cable do will depart we'll see what happens
logan brown he can come back for another year just go to the nfl early what does he decide to do but
if he's back or he's not either way there is another tackle spot open and you figure calvin
clements has the head start on that race and so that was a i think good boosting point for him
to finish out this regular season.
What about the bad goats of this one?
I didn't give any good goats to anybody on defense.
Now, maybe that's not fair because maybe there were some players that, like DJ Withers had five tackles in a sack.
And I thought he looked pretty good.
But also, it felt like consistently the KU defensive line was getting blown off the ball.
How much of that was Withers?
How much that was other guy?
Maybe Withers deserves a good goat.
I'm not entirely sure.
Maybe even like, I don't know, the corners deserve a good goat for ku because it
felt like all of the passes for baylor were over the middle of the field or targeting linebackers
and safety so like maybe they actually did their job i don't know but um as far as the bad goats
here i'm gonna say uh tackling just in general like i mean i'll be interested to see what the
missed tackle numbers are in pro football focus afterwards because uh that was bad ku picked i i would imagine that's going to be
their worst tackling game of the season and k picked a bad time to do it against an explosive
baylor offense and when you look at bad matchups for ku teams that run tempo and teams that have
speed all over the field tcu baylor i mean ironically colorado didn't give him as much
trouble so i don't know why that one was different but yeah that uh certainly was a problem for KU um pass defense I guess overall run defense everything
uh was it was kind of a bad goat there um I guess uh short field offense right once you got like
inside their 30 yard line uh you missed a lot of opportunities to score some more points that
wasn't great I would also say uh the special teams was not good for ku in this one
uh you missed the short field goal in the early going you also kept like all season long trying
to return kickoffs and then you'd stop like inside your own 15 inside your own 20 now the first one
of the game you did that got stopped at like the 14 you got bailed out because they had like a
roughing the the uh or i don't know unnecessary roughness uh call on the first play of the game stuff like
that um and then i i just i don't know i guess uh schematically i it'll be interesting to see
what ku does with brian borland because i believe his contract is up at the end of the season does
he just retire and i thought overall brian borland showed some growth this year over the course of
the season he had some games where he adjusted a little bit more he threw some blitzes out there
and it was a little bit better in ku's defense I think overall has been on a arrow pointed
up every year in the light bulb era um maybe last year to this year it's kind of plateaued a little
bit more it still hasn't been good enough and and I certainly have some critiques of it um I don't
think it's been you know today it was an abject disaster I don't think this full season it
certainly was that so um this certainly leaves a bad taste in your mouth
that'll probably make you feel like it was worse than it actually was.
But I think it probably would behoove both parties,
whether he wants to retire or go to a different job, whatever,
for Kansas to look somewhere else and get kind of a fresh perspective in there,
to say the least.
So it'll be interesting to see what kind of happens there.
What is next?
That, the offseason, plenty more.
We'll talk about that next.
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All right, thanks for joining us here on Locked On, Jayhawks.
Obviously not the conversation we were hoping to have after the KU football game.
Now, you might be wondering, okay, they're 5-7.
Do they have a chance of making a bowl game with APR scores?
Well they have the 73rd nationally APR scores.
And 11th in the Big 12.
So it would.
I guess it's not impossible.
Because not every team who is ahead of you in APR score.
Is going to be 5-7.
Some of them might be 4-8 or worse.
Others are already going to be 6-6 or better. So maybe there's a chance you work yourself to like of the available five and seven teams fourth or fifth and then the
top three teams in front of you like maybe two get in over five and seven and a couple of them
are just like no we don't want to play in the bowl game we have a new head coach like the players are
going to opt out or whatever and maybe you luck into it i don't know but also based on the effort
you saw or the lack thereof in that game do Do you want it? I don't know.
Probably you do because the practices would obviously be worth a ton for a Kansas team that's going to be losing a bunch after this season.
So that's what's next for KU is the offseason.
More specifically, conversations with players and coaches
that you want to try to retain and try to get them to stick around
or you want to move on.
And then interviews with other coaches or hitting the transfer portal
hard hitting scouting hard whatever it might be to figure that stuff out now when you look at the
KU football roster for next year uh it seems like Daniel Hyshaw isn't going to be a part of the team
so um you know could they go out there and get a running back but right now you're way too early
like starting lineup projection for KU on offense could be like what Jalen Daniels a quarterback
running back is like Savion Morrison Harry Stewart Johnny Thompson uh receiver maybe it's like Doug Emelian and then
Jaden Nickens Keaton Kubeka I don't know like some of these other uh freshmen coming in probably
some transfer portal pickups their tight end you're looking at like will DeSean Hanneke come
back Layton Cure umensive line could be actually pretty good
if Logan Brown comes back for another year
because you'd have him, Calvin Clements.
I think Kobe Baines, Bryce Foster, Nolan Gortica have another year,
and then you still have guys like Amir Herring
who are kind of developing.
You brought in some freshmen or will be bringing in some freshmen
to build out some depth on the defensive side of the ball.
So, I mean, offensively, you'd be looking at,
well, does Jalen come back?
That is a big conversation.
I threw him in with the starters. starters he can but that's not a guarantee
that he does right does kansas pony up enough nil does he want to transfer somewhere else uh
with the way that he finished out the season then again with the two interceptions does that
damper it a bit going back to where it was the beginning of the year yeah you know i don't know
what's going to happen there if it's not him is it isaiah marshall is it david mccomb whoever
uh but offensively right now you look at it and there's a chance like if Jalen does end up
leaving if Logan Brown does end up leaving you have two returning starters on next year's team
now if both of them come back you could have four and if you count Calvin Clements that'd be five
right and you can add with the transfer portal but that has to be a little bit scary defensive
side of the ball Dean Miller can come back for another year I think another year in the offseason i think he showed enough flashes this
year that that'll be good for him to come back you have all those young defensive ends sean warner
by joe dylan brooks who was injured dac brinkley that uh you expect that unit to actually take a
big leap next year defensive tackle is going to bring a lot back withers done taylor again you
never know who transfers at this point in time uh but you look at the linebacker core you already
got an early start with bengali kamara you got to do more because there's going to be a
lot more departures there corner you feel probably good about where Jalen Todd's going to be next
year Jamil Croft Demaryius McGee kind of lost favor so we'll see what happens there you do have
some safeties who rotated in like Taylor Davis so that'll be interesting but you know again you look
at the defense side of the ball and it's like the only returning starters you might have
might be on the defensive line.
So I guess it depends.
Like, is Jason Gilliam a starter or whatever?
There's going to be a lot of open playing time, point blank,
for KU to go after people in the transfer portal
and how well you do there.
We've seen teams, you know, hit rich in the transfer portal
in a given offseason, and they have a 10-win season.
We've seen other teams strike out on a hard,
like look at Florida State this year, and then a horrible year so uh it is a bit of a roulette in
a certain way but now you're just trying to figure out who you want back who you're going after
figuring out your nil stuff figuring out the stadium funding national signing day hitting the
portal hard getting ready for a very important spring ball uh and uh again at least even though
this will leave a sour taste in your mouth the finished season
good on the seniors for at least not bottoming out here that you get those big ranked wins at the end
that a down season for Lance Leipold is still better than any of the previous seasons going
back to Mark Mangino and at the very least maybe you built up enough positive momentum
in the three previous wins that you can keep all those things moving forward that you can
keep donations coming in you can keep NIL and the stadium funding going and have a better jumping off point to try
to get back to a bowl game next season.
All right, 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 be back for a recap of the KU Furman basketball game, hopefully a little bit better
result for the Jayhawks.
We'll talk about that then right here on LOJ.
See ya.