Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: McCullar Drops 34, Timberlake Arrives as #2 KansasJayhawks Basketball Beats Yale Bulldogs

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, we recap KU's 75-60 victory over Yale headed into the Christmas break. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere that you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the action. On this episode, we're breaking down Kansas 75, Yale 60,

Starting point is 00:00:47 recap of the game, what happened after kind of a tumultuous first 30 minutes. KU explodes the finish line with phenomenal just three-point shot making down the stretch and unbelievable game from Kevin McCullers. So breaking that down, go to the game, what's next for KU on this episode. First, we are brought to you by GameTime download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with game time Kansas 75 Yale 60 Jayhawks moved to 11 and one headed into the Christmas break and again very simple similar to what happened last year in KU's final game before Christmas break.

Starting point is 00:01:25 They were playing Harvard, another Ivy League team. And that was a six-point game at like the 10-minute mark. KU ended up pulling away late, and Jalen Wilson had an unbelievable game. This was a close game. You're actually down in this one with like 13 minutes to go. And you end up pulling away late. Kevin McCuller has a big time game. So very similar between the two performances from last year to this year, but it's kind of a sloppy

Starting point is 00:01:51 look ahead type of game. Not necessarily look ahead to your next game or opponent. Look ahead to, hey, we're all traveling tomorrow. It's Christmas break. Get to see my family. Maybe you're not totally locked in and maybe you saw that a little bit early in the game. We've also just seen at times this year, KU has kind of played to their opponent, right, where maybe they've played down to their opponent or in the bigger games they've played up to their opponent. And that certainly has been kind of reflected now. Like every game, KU is like dropping in the metric ratings, even though they're winning these games. Like Ken Palm, I think they're ranked like 15th in the country now.

Starting point is 00:02:28 And so for the first, what, 30, 32 minutes, I guess 28 minutes, because they were leading to like 13-minute mark, things were a little bit ugly. And then, kaboom, Kevin McCuller was unstoppable for KU all throughout the game. He was – they were just kind of leaning on him on the offensive side of the ball, and he had the best offensive game of his career. He, about a week or two ago ago had his career high with 25 points he shattered that with 34 in this one he

Starting point is 00:02:50 could not miss and the one NBA range three he took from kind of straight on a bit centered to the right uh was just kind of the big one there and then he banks one in because why not in a game that he was having he had almost half of KU's points. He was unbelievable to lead the way, but it wasn't just about him in that eight-minute stretch. The shot making for KU was all around. They got kind of white hot from behind the arc for the final eight or so minutes of the game. Obviously, a perfect 12 for 12 from the free throw line. Never going to snuff at that for a team who at different points early in the season was struggling there. So they've continued to show, I think, strong progression in shooting the free throws, which is a good thing.

Starting point is 00:03:27 But yeah, this was a, Yale was leading 42 to 41 with around 13 minutes to go. And they led still for a majority of the game. I think they led for about 21, 22 minutes of the game. You led for about 14, which means now over the last two games, you've only led for this game in Indiana for a combined like 18, 19 minutes, whereas your opponent has led for almost 60 minutes of game time, yet you've won both games.

Starting point is 00:03:52 But you from there won 34 to 18 over the final, you know, 13 minutes to go. It was also 47-43. You were in front by four at the nine-minute mark, you won the battle, the final nine minutes, 28 to 17. So you closed really strong. And that was impressive to see when all things are working, when things are clicking on all cylinders, when things are working on the offensive side of the ball, how impressive this can be, because I think we saw again in this game, especially in the second half, the KU defense can really ramp it up. And if you can match that ramped up defense with what you saw on the offensive side of the ball, that's how this team becomes kind of a juggernaut.

Starting point is 00:04:29 So just excellent close when the finish line was in sight and when the offense finally came to life, you were able to dominate the game. I mean, as much as that final eight minutes probably will stick out in the minds and Kevin McCullers 34 for the game, to me what stood out the most about that game was KU's defense. You held Yale to 27 points in the second half, and that was even after they made four of their final five shots that were kind of in garbage time. So if they don't just start hitting some shots late in the final minute or two

Starting point is 00:05:02 when the game was out of reach, then they're getting held to, I don't know, 20, 22, 24 points, something like that in the second half. So really impressive effort by the CAYU defense, and that allowed them to get some easy buckets. You know, I was actually getting ready as the game was going on. You're starting to write down notes, getting ready for this show that I was going to come on and getting ready to talk about, man, the offense looks like a mess, right? Because in the first half, when you're down 25 to 14, right,

Starting point is 00:05:28 and just throughout the game, you have 47 points with nine minutes to go. So that means you have 47 points in 31 minutes of play. That's not going to get it done a lot of nights. I was getting ready to talk about, you know, offense is kind of a mess. I think there were at least three stretches to that point where you had no points for three or more minutes of game time. Just going into lulls that it didn't help that, you know, what was kind of a tough offensive night was compounded because KU's one of their strengths, passing the ball, became a problem because they were just normal passes

Starting point is 00:06:02 that they were just straight up missing. Like instead of going to a guy's chest, it was going like, you know, three feet to the right or something like that, or thrown off the opponent's head or something, or just given away just careless turnovers to make things kind of tenfold. That kind of a lack of shooting or a lack of willingness to shoot or more than anything, a lack of spacing for the KU offense was kind of the issue and could be the issue moving forward. And I still do have some reservations and qualms about those things. Every time you saw KU try to get the ball to Hunter Dickinson in the paint or in the post, two, three, four defenders around him

Starting point is 00:06:35 ready to swarm, right? You have to show that you can do what you did in the final eight minutes of the game consistently over the course of a game, be aggressive, shooting the ball, hit those shots. And that is the importance of Nick Timberlake, who had a great game in this one, because he can be one of those spacers that a defense can't collapse off of if he is right, and he is doing what he did in this game, each and every game. But I think the difference was pretty apparent to me in that final stretch of the game that kind of changed what the offense looked like. The defense started giving you chances to get out in transition more. You know, that's something that I've kind of mentioned over the coming weeks

Starting point is 00:07:11 that you look at last year, KU was top 15 in steal rate defensively. They were a really good turnover defense team. It makes sense. You have DeJuan Harris, Kevin McCuller, and some of these guys. And you look at this year's team, and they ranked outside the top 100 in steal rate. They ranked in the mid-200s in turnover rate defensively, which you still have Kevin McCullough. You still have DeJuan Harris. KJ is actually averaging more steals per game than he

Starting point is 00:07:32 did last year. Hunter has given you over a steal per game as kind of a aware center of knowing where things are and you'll get a steal out of that every game. There's no reason you can't be as good of a theft team as you were last year. So I want to see that more, especially for a team that has struggled at times on offense, you know, get extra possessions that way, get you easy buckets that way. And we saw that in this game, you forced a higher turnover rate in this game did Kansas than any game they've had this season. So this was their best turnover rate defensively. And that mostly came in the last 20, 25, 30 minutes of the game. You ended up with a 23 to seven edge in points off of turnovers. And that was a big reason why you were able to get easy baskets off those live

Starting point is 00:08:17 ball turnovers that you got. And even when it wasn't defensively, you still found ways to speed up the game, which was important in mostly slow game, especially over that last stretch of the game. You led them 19 to nine and fast break points. Most of that came over those final moments where you were getting in transition and hitting threes. And I think the other thing is you gained more confidence. You moved the ball.

Starting point is 00:08:37 Well, you finally got aggressive from the outside. I think some of that stuff was kind of there all game long. Again, like I said, anytime you dumped it to Hunter, there were three, four guys around him. And that's going to be something you're going to have to deal with all year long because teams are going to do that continually. We saw it in the Indiana game. We saw it in the Missouri game.

Starting point is 00:08:54 Until you can show you can deal with that. And KU, right now their offense is ranked outside the top 30 on Ken Palm. It would be one of the lower ranked offenses in Bill Self's history. So in the end, you do win by 15, close for the spread. I think at some places it was 14.5, some places 15, some places it was 15.5. So I hope you had good luck with what you got the number at. But in a game you were probably looking ahead a bit into the Christmas break,

Starting point is 00:09:19 you started rather lethargically. There are still plenty of questions about how elite this team is and how elite they can be and about the offense and why they keep playing maybe closer than you'd think to some of these teams. But in the end, you're 11-1 with a pretty incredible resume headed into the Christmas break. There are more things to worry about, so let's not worry about it. Let's get on to our goats of the game, good and bad for KU,

Starting point is 00:09:44 and what is next for the Jayhawks. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite sporting event should not be stressful. GameTime is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for sporting events, music events, comedy, theater near you. They have killer deals on last-minute tickets, and their best price guarantee means you can stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hyped for the fun that you're going to be having. So for instance, you might be going out to the guaranteed rate bowl. Maybe you

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Starting point is 00:10:36 create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off the first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem code locked on college for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. All right, let's get to our goats of the game here.

Starting point is 00:10:55 And by the way, we have plenty of KU football content we've been talking about. So you can find that anywhere. You get your podcast here with locked on Jayhawks. We're going to have an episode tomorrow about some of the depth chart stuff, Austin Booker stuff for KU football. And then on a Tuesday, we'll have a KU UNLV preview. So thank you to every dayers tuning in to each and everything. All right, good goat here. Surprise, surprise. Who is our first good goat? Kevin McCuller, 34 points, 11 of 18 from the floor, four of seven from three-point range. He was eight of eight on free throws. He had six rebounds, four assists, two steals,

Starting point is 00:11:26 and one block. So still active on the defensive side, still able to get a bunch of, I don't know, stocks, I guess they call them steals plus blocks. How about Kevin from the free throw line? He's kind of on a heater at the free throw line right now, but yeah, everything was going for him. The banked in three was kind of just the chef's kiss to an unbelievable performance. He carried the KU offense really all game long. He was just keeping them like mildly afloat. And then at the end, when you went white hot, he continued to raise his game and go white hot with you.

Starting point is 00:11:56 KJ Adams defense gets a good goat here. Not a good game for the KJ Adams offensive side of the ball. Only two of eight from the floor, six points. And I think that did contribute and then has been over the last couple of games to some of the spacing problems for the KU offense. Now we've seen him up until this game have a stretch of games where he's scored 14, 16, 18 points.

Starting point is 00:12:17 So he's found a way to deal with that. Nonetheless, with the spacing stuff that you've dealt with here. So that'll be something KU's gonna have to to figure out. If you're playing these two bigs together and one of them's not shooting, we'll see how they do figure it out because more and more teams are starting to just pack the paint and sag defenders off. Defensively, he was excellent. He kind of wins you that game on the defensive side. Danny Wolfe came out of the start. They're a seven-foot big man.

Starting point is 00:12:44 I did not realize how athletic and quick and how quick a footwork and that spin move that he had very athletic. I would say for a seven footer was Wolf and he was giving Hunter Dickinson issues. We know Dickinson, you know, for as great as he is, the one fault is kind of the defending in space or more athletic players. Right. And Wolf was giving them issues. They eventually put Parker Brown in, then they eventually put KJ Adams on him. And once KJ Adams was on him, it was a tough night for Danny Wolf. Wolf finished with 11 points on 12 shots, two turnovers.

Starting point is 00:13:14 I don't know how many of those were specifically on KJ. I think Wolf had at least two buckets on Hunter Dickinson. So what you're talking, I don't remember if one was a three, seven, only six points, something like that for a guy who is a really good skilled offensive player when KJ was guarding him. And maybe even a pocket of that was when Parker was on him. So it might've even been less. It might've been like two or four points. He was able to stay in front of him.

Starting point is 00:13:34 He was able to out physical him. KJ was your MVP on the defensive side of the ball because he took away what was one of their best matchups in the half court for the game and made it a just negative or neutral for their side of the ball. So not the best offensive game that we've seen from KJ, but defensively, he took over that game. You know who else took over the game defensively in the second half? DeJuan Harris. So DeJuan for the game, and DeJuan Harris we're going to put on here for a good go. DeJuan for the game had 10 points, 3 of 5 shooting, 2 of 3 from 3. But it was mainly the second half that got him on here.

Starting point is 00:14:09 I thought in the first half it was a bit more lethargic, to use that word again. And I didn't think it was ultra-aggressive. I think he had one steal in the first half, but I didn't think it was as great of a defensive half in the first half. And, yeah, it wasn't as active on that side of the ball. But in the second half, he goes for seven points, four assists, three steals, one block. So, you know, you think about that, if you would have done that for both halves, that's 14, eight, six, and two. So the second half was excellent for DeJuan. And in a game where I talked about this, you were able to speed them up a little

Starting point is 00:14:42 more. You were able to get some transition buckets. You were able to get some easy buckets off steals. A lot of that was DeJuan Harris causing pressure. And there were a couple other balls that he tipped up that maybe they came down with that he could have easily ended up with another steal or two in this game. I thought that was vintage DeJuan. You're looking for two things for DeJuan Harris. So I think to this point in the season, it's been a lot more up and down. You had the high of the Kentucky game. I thought he was really good against Indiana, but there have been a lot of moments this year and a lot of games this year where I think on the overall, DeJuan Harris was better last year than he has been so far this year.

Starting point is 00:15:16 But if he continues to play like that, where you're getting eight to 10 to 12 points per game, and you are being a big 12 defensive player of the year past, that's why he becomes valuable. In the early games of the season, you weren't being that great defender and you weren't scoring as consistently. If those things happen, that's why he is so valuable. And we saw that in this game. Nick Timberlake gets a good goat here. Wasn't perfect, you know, still going to be some defensive shortcomings, but I think that's always going to be the case. But he tried his butt off there and ended up getting a couple steals. That right there, Nick Timberlake's game, is exactly what KU was hoping for. And when I say that, I don't mean he has to average 13 a game.

Starting point is 00:15:57 He scored 13 in this one. His most since the opener when he scored 13 points. Like, yeah, that'd be great if he did. But it just hit a few shots, you know. It just opened up the spacing of the offense. be able to put him on the same side as Hunter Dickinson. Just hit a few shots, show him you can make them when you're open, take the pressure off the offense and play hard. It's just, it's that simple. And he did both and he was rewarded with extra playing time, 29 minutes. He was rewarded with good looks, obviously no Johnny Furphy that

Starting point is 00:16:24 allowed for a bigger leash for Nick Timberlake, and he took full advantage. 13 points, 5 of 10 shooting, 3 of 7 from 3, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals. And for what it's worth, of course, another Jamari McDowell solid moment in the game before that doesn't lead to any more minutes in the next game to try to figure out how that's going.

Starting point is 00:16:42 But hopefully this gets Nick Timberlake started because maybe he just needed a confidence booster. And maybe this is just that far as the bad goats go. I had to put on Marco Jackson on here, just two points, one of six shooting three rebounds to assist the three turnovers. He had the one three where he was wide open in the corner. It goes off the side of the backboard. He had the two drives where he was wide open in the corner. It goes off the side of the backboard. He had the two drives where you get the ball in transition. And the first one he takes, I think it was like one on three, one on four,

Starting point is 00:17:12 and he takes it to the hoop and doesn't get it. And then the second one he took, it was one on two. And then more numbers are coming back for both teams. And he takes the one on two, and then he gets stuck in the air without a shot. So he has to pass it out, and he turns it over out of bounds. Not the best El Marco Jackson game, and I think you saw that with Nick Timberlake playing down the stretch and closing the game and playing a lot more minutes there. Defensive rebounding gets a bad go here.

Starting point is 00:17:35 That was actually the third-worst defensive rebounding game of the season by defensive rebounding rate for KU this year, so actually one of their worst on that end of the floor. And a lot of it just felt like hustle rebounds. Like there was a stretch where it felt like Yale in the second half specifically got, you know, four or five offensive rebounds. And I don't know, like a five minute stretch or something to where there were balls that kind

Starting point is 00:17:57 of like tip to the side, or maybe somebody didn't fully engage to go after. And it felt like you could have gotten more there. So not KU's best defensive rebounding game. And then the last thing is the sloppiness early KU finished with 12 turnovers which you know you'd like to be even lower than that but that's not like a horrendous number that's going to take you out of the game either but it was specifically the first part of the game 11 of those 12 turnovers came in the first 30 minutes of the game actually 30 minutes the 11th one came at 10 minutes and zero seconds. So if you

Starting point is 00:18:27 look at the final nine minutes and 59 seconds of the game, KU had just one turnover. That's another reason why they played so well down the stretch, stopped turning the ball over. They had none in the final six minutes of the game turning the ball over. But early in the game, just sloppiness, and a lot of them were unforced, just throwing the ball away, throwing the balls, like I said, wide of people or throwing it into the other player, throwing the balls, like I said, wide of people, or throwing it into the other player, making ill-advised decisions on passes. So those are the GOATs of the game. What is next for KU men's basketball?

Starting point is 00:18:54 We'll get to that coming up on the other side. This episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action.

Starting point is 00:19:18 The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of options, including spreads, player props, over-unders, and more. I'm still waiting to see the player props up for the bowl game with the guaranteed rate bowl for Kansas and UNLV. I'd imagine they're waiting closer to game time because there's opt-outs and all that sort of thing, but you'll be able to get on those. Right now, Kansas is favored by 12.5 against UNLV. The over-under is 67.5, so it should be exciting.

Starting point is 00:19:42 Lots of points. And visit fanduel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. Get started fan dual, the official partner of the NFL. What's next for KU men's basketball? Well, they'll have Christmas break.

Starting point is 00:19:57 So a lot of the players will travel back home tomorrow. And then I believe they'll get back on the 26th, a couple of days back for them. And then being back on the 26th, I'd imagine they'll practice on like, you know, the 27th, 28th, maybe do a walkthrough on the 29th, the practice 29th. And then they're back out at Wichita State. So that does give you a chance to maybe have a practice two, three practices. I don't know. I don't know how the scheduling works before the Wichita State game. But then you have Wichita State and the T-Mobile Center. That'll be Saturday, December 30th, which weird thing for Wichita state. They just played at the

Starting point is 00:20:28 T-Mobile center against Kansas state last night. So they're, they've two straight games, T-Mobile center. I haven't seen that before where it's not like a tournament and they're spaced out, right. They're having to drive T-Mobile center, come back, drive T-Mobile center. Right. So that's kind of odd, but Wichita state is, is a team around the range, I would say, I guess, of where Yale is. Right now on Ken Palm, Yale's 111, Wichita State's 114. Obviously, KU's had some struggles at times at T-Mobile Sprint Center at the time. So Ken Palm has it as a 12-point game. Then after that, you'll start Big 12 play in the new year.

Starting point is 00:21:01 On January 6th, you'll be hosting TCU. That gives you the week off again to practice, get prepped for that game and everything like that. But Big 12 play is right around the corner. So all these questions we've had about KU developing the five through nine, have they made enough strides? Have they made enough steps? Do they have more time in Big 12 play?

Starting point is 00:21:17 How difficult is the league going to be? We've talked a lot about, well, KU's dropped in some of these metric rankings. Does that come back to haunt them in some of these games against good opponents? Is that indicative of predicting the future that KU is about to go on a kind of losing streak here or there? Or are they just going to keep winning? I guess we'll have to wait to find out. And you can react with us right here on Locked on Jayhawks every time.

Starting point is 00:21:40 So we will be back tomorrow with some more KU football content. We also are going to get to our KU UNLV preview for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. That'll come out on Tuesday. Hope you have a happy holidays. Merry Christmas. KU comes out on top 75 to 60 over Yale. This has been Locked on Jayhawks. Find us anywhere you get your podcasts. Like and subscribe to us on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:22:02 See you next time.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: McCullar Drops 34, Timberlake Arrives as #2 KansasJayhawks Basketball Beats Yale Bulldogs

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