Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RETURN: Jayhawks Darryn Peterson Back, Kansas BLASTS Missouri Tigers 80-60 in Rivalry Border War

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks dominate Missouri Tigers with a statement 80-60 victory as star guard Darryn Peterson returns from injury, though leaves the game after just 23 minutes played due to possible precautions, tightness, sickness or something in between. Can KU sustain this momentum and fix their rebounding woes ahead of Big 12 play?Derek Johnson breaks down Kansas's thrilling rivalry win, praising Tre White's 20-point, 13-rebound explosion and Peterson's electric 17 points in limited minutes. The recap spotlights how Peterson’s presence renewed KU’s offense and opened up the floor, while tough team defense held Missouri to just 34% shooting. Key talking points include Melvin Council's defensive lockdown, Bryson Tiller’s critical blocks, and rotation decisions that could shape KU’s bench depth. Looking ahead, Derek Johnson previews the high-stakes road test at NC State, lingering concerns about rebounding, and what Kansas needs from its supporting cast to stay atop the national conversation.Can Bill Self and the Jayhawks cement themselves as championship favorites, or will familiar obstacles resurface?Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Omaha SteaksSave big on unforgettable gifts with Omaha Steaks. Visit https://OmahaSteaks.com for 50% off site-wide and an extra 20% off select favorites during their Cyber Sale.And for an additional $35 off, use promo code COLLEGE at checkout. RugietIf you’ve been thinking about taking the next step, now’s the time.Head to https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto get 15% off your order for a limited time.Rugiet Ready. Feel present. Feel confident. Feel ready. Aura FramesFor a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting https://AuraFrames.com to get $35 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames - named #1 by Wirecutter - by using promo code COLLEGE at checkout. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Darren Peterson was back, at least for a little there, but KU look really good in a 20-point win over your rival, the Missouri Tigers. So that in itself is reason to celebrate. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

What's going on, Derek Johnson here? This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. And thank you for joining us here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. And on today's edition of the show, we are breaking down, recapping KU's 20 point brilliant win over the Missouri Tigers, but it was slow start for KU, but then we're awesome from there.

Obviously, it was Darren Peterson's return. That was great news. It was a early end for Darren Peterson, which might not have been great news. I don't know. Was it more time and score and situations? is there something else there? We're going to end all that on today's recap episode of the show. And today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. So, KU beats Missouri 80 to 60. We'll get into the Darren Peterson stuff here in the show. But I just wanted to start here at the very least. Like, you smacked your rival Missouri by 20 points in a game that you were kind of down, never really by too much, but down at the beginning portions of the game. You weren't playing a great game.

You were getting dominated on the glass. And then you started to figure out the rebounding thing as the end of the first half came to a close. And then you have that great play at the end of the first half with Trey White. It carries over it in the second half. The first shot defense is there all the way through for KU. You see the impact of Darren Peterson that he has on a team and the energy. Energy for KU, I think was great. I think Dennis Gates said after the game it was like a 90-10 KU crowd.

And that was obviously a big, I don't know, home court advantage type of thing. It's not Allen Fieldhouse, but it's still helpful for KU at the very least. And then you get Trey White playing as well as he did. And boom, Kansas beats your rival by 20 points. And at the end of the day, like, is this going to be as big a win as maybe being in Tennessee, although Tennessee has kind of faded a little bit since. No, it's probably not. But like, this is a potential NCAA tournament team who came in ranked top 40 on Ken Palm

and you beat them running away by 20 points in a game that, you know, there were still moments where you weren't playing a great game. and that Darren Peterson, it's his first game back and stuff like that. So overall, it is a very impressive effort for KU. Now, obviously, as we look to the biggest positives and biggest negatives of this game, I think one of the biggest positives or maybe the biggest positive is this was Darren Peterson's return, right? I mean, you end up with the game where Peterson comes back and it was not as efficient as the first two games we saw him.

You figured it wouldn't be. Missouri has more length that you can kind of, you know, throw at him and stuff like that. But he's still, even like it wasn't a bad efficiency game. six of 14 is you know he was 50% on twos he was 33% on three he's like it was fine um it's just for peterson you're always expecting like oh he's going to shoot 60% he's going to shoot 50 you know but it's 17 this is super efficient 17 points in 23 minutes is bonkers and the the per the point per minute numbers that this dude is putting up in the three games that we've seen them are absolutely ridiculous to this point in the season and you can just see he's so fun to watch

like there were a couple shots that that missed by a little bit or or maybe he was shaking the rust off and, you know, maybe they normally go in if he's more in the swing of things. But still, some of the skill and the shot making and the ability to get off certain shots that other guys can't even attempt are incredible. Like the one contested three he hits in the second half, the one deep three he hits in the first half, a couple feet behind the three point line. That one like turn around mid-range shot in the lane. Like those are shots that I'm not sure anybody else on KU can hit.

Maybe Trey White can hit a few of them here and there, but it's not going to be as consistent as Darren Peterson. So it's those moments, and it's not just the impact of having Peterson, having another guy who can make shots for you, who can make tough shots for you, who can make them when the shot clock is winding down. It is also having a guy who is going to open up the floor for the rest of his teammates. Now, Peterson only finishes with one assist in this game. It's not always him directly making the pass. It's just opening, like, every time Peterson, I don't remember if they were doing this from the start of the game, but certainly Missouri, he started doing it as the game wore on there was a moment there where Peterson um was and by the way

I'm trying to keep right now as I'm recording bill self has not met with the media yet so like I'm waiting to see if he's going to say anything about you know what the situation is here as we're speaking but anyway point being Peterson um like he's getting hard hedge they're sending basically double like when he'd have a ball screen they'd send two at him to basically be like hey we're going to get the ball out of your hands even if it leaves us vulnerable on a four on three for a brief moment, and that's going to open up the floor for other players, an opportunity to make a play, right? That's going to give you an opportunity to maybe get the ball into Flory inside instead of it getting denied or him getting double-team. So like, you look at it

all the way around and it just makes things so much easier for everybody else. And, you know, Kansas is a team, nine of 21 from three. That's 43 percent, obviously an outstanding shooting game in this one. And Peterson contributed to that. He hit three-three-pointers, 33 percent for him. But the rest of the team goes six of 12 from three. And it's like, okay, yes, everybody shot well. They clearly shot better than they did in the Yukon game. Part of that you're maybe getting more open shots. Maybe you're playing a worst defense in Missouri.

Well, you are than you were in Yukon. But another part of that is just what is one of the reasons you're getting more open shots, you say? Is it because Darren Peterson draws a crowd, draws an attention on the offensive end of the floor? and it can it opens up the game for other players i think that is absolutely true now jemar mcdell hits some threes when like he's on the bench so like it's not all of that but uh yeah that's kind of one of the thing so this is the post game radio interview by the way i'm pulling this up um mike vernon just tweeted this out so uh he says quote i wasn't worried about his hamstring today i was worried about him sick and throwing up or whatever he's dehydrated he's dealing with all this stuff

and i just thought let's just back off a little okay first of all i don't know i feel like bill self hasn't been totally forthcoming this whole way. And the fact that he's getting like his his hamstring rolled out, we can literally see that on video during the sideline. I don't know. That makes me think otherwise. But we do know in the pregame he mentioned that. I'm fine with that, right?

Whatever. If that's the case, like if you're like, hey, we're killing Missouri, this is first game back. We don't want to overdo it with him. Cool. That's totally fine with me and my worry level goes down on all this. So that's obviously good news for KU. So we'll let you know if anything else comes out of that.

Obviously the bad news, though, would be that, yeah, he still did have to, you know, go to the bench. and we haven't seen him play a 30-minute game, but also, like, given the, I don't know, limited nature of this injury, why even risk it in a game where you did win by 20 points? I get it. You do have to see it eventually,

but like, still is a lot of time left in the season, guys. We're in December 7th. So I'm just glad that he was backed, and we'll get back to the other stuff a little bit after that. Beyond that, I think some of the other biggest positives for KU and this one. And by the way, real quick, as it pertains to Peterson, I forgot about this, too. They have, what, three games left between now and January 3rd when they start Big 12 play. So if ever there's time for Peterson to get time off between games, like this is it.

So anyway, quick side note there. Trey White, by the way, this is my other biggest positive from the game. Trey White, okay, Darren Peterson is KU's best player when he's healthy and he's on the floor. Today, Trey White was KU's best player. Part of that, Peterson's only playing 23 minutes. You know, Peterson's shaking the rust off. but Trey White had 20 points, 13 rebounds. He was super efficient.

He did it on nine shots. He also had three assists, and he did that in 36 minutes of play. Trey White was outstanding for KU in this game. And so I guess it's not just the biggest positive in how good he looked, right? Because he did have more of a down game against Yukon. It's also the fact that we get in limited sample size here, right? It's the two games and the exhibition games, but we had not seen Trey White play, I would say one of his good games while Peterson was also in the lineup.

Like all of Trey White's awesome games came after Peterson was hurt. And so it is a conversation of like, okay, can he be really good when Peterson's out there as well? I think we found out today, yes, that is the answer, astoundingly. So I think that is great news because Trey White today looked like KU's best player when he was back. And I think long term, Peterson's your best player. But yeah.

Also, I would say this, like now that Peterson is back, you default Melvin counsel to more of a, he doesn't have to score first role. Counsel goes four of ten from the field. He has eight assists in the game. And he's scoring more in transition when he's shooting as opposed to some other situations, which I think is a positive for KU to emphasize his other strengths. I will say the biggest negatives in this one. Rebounding continues to not be a strength for this team.

It was better as the game went on over the last, I don't know what, 25 minutes of game time, like the rebounding was good. But overall for the game, you give up 16 offense of rebounds. for a while. That was why Missouri was winning the game. When this team rebounds well, they're a really good team because they are a really good defensive team. And yes, they're going to have some slow moments on the offensive end. But when you have Peterson back, Peterson and White, and like you have enough on offense to be competitive with a really good defense. If you can rebound, which I think they have the personnel that they should be able to be a good rebounding team,

they're going to be pretty special. I thought you saw the juxtaposition of that when they weren't early in the game versus when they were as the game went on. And then the last negative here is it feels like both jaden dawson and cole rosario are out of the trust tree right now which it is a plus and a minus right like part of that is jemario mcdowell is playing really well right now um marco didn't have uh you know much of a game to speak of in this one specifically but he had been playing well in recent games so part of that is other guys you know outperforming but the negative here is this and obviously it helps if tray white's hitting threes if peterson's back because he's going to hit threes and the way mcdowell's hitting threes like that you're going to be

able to survive it. But for this team, like, wouldn't it be nice to at least have one of those two with Rosario or Dawson, giving you the ability to at least hit a three or two per game off the bench? That would be certainly nice for KU. And clearly neither is in the Bill Self circle of trust. And again, I'm not, I'm not saying Bill Self should be playing the more. I'm saying those guys need to earn their way into that circle of trust because that would be super beneficial for KU. So bottom line here, KU didn't play well for like, what, 12, 15? minutes of game time. It was Darren Peterson's first game back in terms of shaking rust off. Everybody had to get used to playing with Peterson again. He only played 23 minutes and you still

beat your rival who came in as a top 40 team on Kenpom by 20 points. I'll take that any day of the week. All right. Let's get to our game awards and what's next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by game time. Hey, the World Cup is coming back to America for the first time since 1994 and with 48 teams for the first time ever, it is going to be massive. But let's be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That's why the game time app is clutch, finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With game time, you can track price drops in real time, get alerts when great seats open and buy tickets the moment they hit the app. It puts the power back in your hands and makes going to

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And by the way, thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now you can actually take it up to the next level and join one of our discords as part of the everyday air club. Okay, so KU beats Missouri by 20 points. And I guess in the post game as well, this is what Bill Self said. We just talked about the radio interview. He also said that Darren Peterson did fine. He was just coming off the hamstring,

but it was sick as well. This is coming from Jordan Gusky of the Capitol Journal. Self-noted he was nervous that Peterson might not play coming into the game. So that would have sucked if he ended up not being able to play because of the sickness and stuff. Okay, so KU ends up winning by 20. Let's get to our moments and plays of the game. I think, I don't know.

This was just, I thought, a game-changing moment. Like, KU was down two. They missed a shot. And I think Peterson actually missed the shot. and then Missouri gets the rebound, I think it was Robinson, and Peterson goes up to him and just forces a jump ball. They're being strong and active and quick-handed. And that goes from KU being down to with Missouri having the ball to they get the possession arrow for the jump ball, and then they go on a quick 4-0 run. And then from there, they just kind of sprint to the finish line at the end of the half and the second half.

I thought that was just kind of an important unheralded play. I think a fun sequence was there was a moment where, again, this was after KU really struggled to rebounding in the first portion of the game. and Florey had like a really good rebound in traffic after he was sitting for a while. He got sat on the bench because they weren't doing well rebounding, comes in, makes a great contested jumping rebound. And then on the other end has a good catch on a dunk over Mark Mitchell, who had a big dunk over Paul and Bea earlier in the game. That was a fun sequence.

I think the Peterson three that was well contested, that you just like high arcs, it almost looked like a one-handed shot that made a 4730. That was a fun moment. But I think the moment, the play. of the game has to be you're up 30 to 25 at the end of half Missouri has the ball chance to hold for the last shot chance to cut it to a one possession game at half time you get a stop you get the long rebound with two or three seconds Melvin counsel gathers it pitches it ahead to Tray White very aware of the clock stops hits a three with the foot like an inch before the three point line and puts KU up 33 to

25 at half and that had to be such a backbreaker for Missouri who played a pretty good first half and then wound up being down eight at the break. That's kind of a rough one for them. And that was, I think, the player of the moment of the game for KU. Our stat of the game, I think we have to go with, I don't know, I guess you could look at KU being 9 of 21 from 3. I mean, anytime this Kansas team shoots above 40% from 3, that is a storyline and that is a big bonus for KU.

So I do think that would be in the running for stat of the game. I think you could probably also look at the fact that, I don't know, I just find this kind of interesting that KU was only six. of 14 on layups in this game and still one by 20, but this would be more of the stat one that was just a side note. Missouri was only 9 of 24 on layups in this game. And that to me speaks of the rim protection value of Florey Badunga, the wingspan of Bryson Taylor when you're playing too big basketball, the wingspan of some of these players that, yes, like maybe Missouri makes a few more bunnies around the rim, but I think part of that was just the KU defense

kind of forcing that. So I think that would be in the discussion. And then the last one, I think this is just in general, which this is an all-encompassing. stat involving that one. Missouri was just 34% from the field. They came into this game, one of the most efficient offenses in terms of field goal percentage, effective field goal percentage in the country. Now, part of that, they'd played a very weak schedule. And when you're getting these, you know, steals and easy transition buckets, of course, you're going to go one for one on the easy runaway layup. But still, they'd been very efficient coming in, and you held them to be very, very, very inefficient in this game. So that's our stat of the game.

Our awards of the game, lame of the game. That goes to Anthony Robbins. and flopping after, you know, it's one thing to, I'm not a fan of flopping regardless, but like at least if you're going to flop, like if that's your identity, make that of your identity, you know, like when Jamari McDowell raises his hands up and you flop, like, okay, sure, like that's going to be your thing. But to like puff your chest up, walk into Jamari McDowell just to lead to the flop, doing the, hey, I'm a tough guy act to lead to the flop. Come on, man, you can't do both.

You can't have it both way. I'd be the flop guy that's trying to get the extra advantages for your team in the game, or be the tough guy don't be both which by the way i really did appreciate k u i know it led to it double technical and whatever but like i don't know it felt like the last two years for kansas it's not every player but it felt like as a whole the last couple kansas teams it didn't have the overall fight in them right where it's like hey a guy might fall down on a getting foul then it's like nobody's there to pick him up like one guy runs to pick him up that doesn't feel like this team it feels like they are together and when florrie got i don't think they were upset about

a foul on Florey because he grabbed the rebound and fell down. It was a foul, whatever. I think whoever that I forget who it was for Missouri who fell forward from behind. I think he said something to him when he was on the ground. I think that's what got. If you watch back the replay, it looks like that's what kind of got the attention of Melvin Council and Jemar and McTowell. And just to have your teammates back in that moment, again, even if it was a technical

that wasn't a double that just went to Missouri, I'm not saying that's worth it. You can't do that every game. Like you do need to be the bigger man at some situations and like walk away. But this early in the season, in a game like that, in a rivalry, I kind of appreciate it. Like, I, like, it just, I don't know, it sends a message. And for those guys specifically, right, counsel is the defensive guard, the soul of the team. Jamari is this role player who's the gritty role player. I don't know.

I kind of liked it. Anyway, zone killer goes to Bryson Tiller. Yes, I'm aware that those rhyme, zone killer, Bryson, kill, Bryson Tiller, tough to say. I guess it'll be like downtown Terry Brown. because now that you've, and I think you saw it a little in this game, Missouri goes to the zone early in the second half. Bryson Tiller helps destroy it. And now that you think about it, like,

Bryson Tiller is kind of the perfect solution for the zone for KU, because you can play him in the high post. He can shoot from the mid-range. He can shoot from three. He can pass it a little bit. He can dribble off the bounce. We've seen him take some dunks to the rim off the bounce. He can grab you an extra rebound when you're playing too big basketball,

and he's got good touch and finesse in there, right? He can cut even a little bit too, like, He was doing really good against the zone, and I think that's helpful for KU in future matchups. And then the Y Bill Self appreciates your award, that goes to Jamari McDowell. In a game where we barely saw Jaden Dawson and Cole Rosario, we saw Jamari McDowell continue to kind of flex his muscle of being in the rotation, right? He drops out of the starting lineup of Peterson back, but he still plays 24 minutes. He scores seven points. He hits a couple threes.

Those are valuable to KU and what they're asking him to do. But it's also the little things, right? I mentioned, you know, getting up and being gritty. in that way, right, being kind of a, I guess, an enforcer, for lack of a better term. But this is the one that I really noticed in the game. I don't know when this was exactly in the second half, but there was a moment where Missouri gets on transition play, gets in a fast break. And number five on Missouri catches the ball at the left wing.

There's kind of the left free throw line extended. And it's basically a two-on-one. He's got it. And then they've got Cruz, who's like their best three-point shooter in the corner. And McDowell is basically guarding both guys. And Cruz, again, being their best. rest three-point shooter. I'm sure in the scouting port, Bill Self said, do not leave this guy. And I think in a lot of situations in that, like, your brain just goes out the window there

if you're on defense and you just go to the guy with the ball immediately. And he would have gone immediately to number five, who would have made the extra pass to the corner, Cruz would have hit the three, right? What McDowell did is he kind of took a step. He took like a jab step to number five. But the whole way through, he knew in his mind and was staying on Cruz in the corner. Five, falls for the jab step, throws it to Cruz in the corner. McDowell is still there for the contest, Cruz misses the corner three. It's those moments of realizing the scouting report

that if you're wondering, why is this dude playing? I mean, one, him hitting threes and making some of these other good plays is important, but it's paying attention to those little things that Bill Self Values you and all coaches would value. Our last award of the game goes to touchdown of the game. Congratulations to Devin Neal for getting an NFL touchdown. All right, let's finish up offensive and defensive

and overall game balls and what's next for KU. This episode of the show is brought to you by Omaha Steaks. The holidays come with two big goals, feeding people well and finding gifts they'll actually love. And when you want both handled in one move, Omaha Steaks is the way to go. From hosting to gifting, they deliver the world's best steak experience right to your door. Because during their sizzle all the way sale, you can stock up and save in a huge way, 50% offsitewide at Omaha Steaks.com.

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And for an extra $35 off, use promo code college at checkout. Terms apply. See sites for details. That's Omahasteaks.com code college. Thanks again for joining us here on Lockdown Jayhawks. Checking us out anywhere you get your podcast and make sure to check out tomorrow's episode as well. Okay, so KU wins 80 to 60 against Missouri here. Let's give out our game ball.

So offensive game ball, I think you could probably argue just having Peterson back is super helpful for KU. But we're going to go Trey White. 20 points on just nine shots for Trey White is super efficient. Again, getting to the free throw line so well, which adds to his efficiency, 7 of 8 at the line. He also got three offensive rebounds. That was second on KU and, you know, KU got 12 offensive rebounds in this game. So that was important. And White also finished with three assists to one turnover.

So Trey White gets the offensive game ball. Three threes as well for Trey White. Defensive game ball, I don't know. This is interesting because I didn't even realize this. I remember team one or two live, but Tiller ends up with five blocks. That is pretty incredible. So I don't know, maybe he should be up there for that. And a game where Missouri missed a lot at the rim.

I mean, KU had seven blocks. So I'm going nine of 24. on layups, basically seven of those are blocks. If you figured, you know, if you don't block them, maybe three of those go in, that's an extra six points for Missouri, right? Or four of them go in, that's an extra eight points. So that would certainly be in the conversation. Florey had two blocks and a steal.

He was the only player with at least one block and at least one steal. But this is actually going to be my pick. Melvin Council had two steals. That led KU. But beyond that, he had the main matchup on Anthony Robinson. And Robinson wasn't the team's leading score coming in. But he was the team, I mean, I don't know, kind of the heart and soul. I guess of the team. Maybe that's Mark Mitchell, but like Robinson came in shooting 39% from three.

He goes one of five from three, one of six for the game in this one. He had three turnovers in this game. And again, just five points on one of six shooting from the floor. I think Melvin Council really changed the way that Missouri could get points from the guard. And like, at the end of the day, Mark Mitchell was the only one scoring. Jacob Cruz hits three threes off the bench, gets 11 points. Mark Mitchell gives him 21. He looked really good and aggressive driving. Nobody else from Missouri had more than seven points. So it really was an overall effort. You could give it to Tiller. You could give it to Flory. You could give it to a lot of these guys. But I'm going to go Melvin Counsel for that answer. And then our overall game ball is still

going to go to Trey White, 20 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, one turnover. He was just great overall doing a little bit of everything for KU in this game. And he had the play of the game, as we discussed earlier in the show. What is next for KU? So next up, they have the week off, which that week is obviously helpful from a practice perspective from a, I don't know, learning more of the playbook and doing more of what Bill Self wants to do with this team perspective. But it's also important for Darren Peterson's situation. I guess you would say, like those are all going to be important things for KU to have these, you know, a next handful of days off.

And then it's going to be at NC State. That'll be a tough game. It's a tough place to play. They're solid team. And obviously one of the other storylines here is Darian Williams. With that whole recruitment, was he going to go to KU? Was he whatever he winds up at NC State? that adds to the intrigue, I think, in this one.

But also, for KU, because of you already do have the three losses. Like, I think ideally you would have been coming into this game with two or less losses that you'd still want to win it. But it'd be a little bit easier to afford a loss because they are coming in with the three losses already. It's almost like winning at NCS, I guess the way I would have looked at it. If you would have said you could go two and one between the, like after the player's era between the Yukon game, the Missouri game and the NC State game. I think two and one would have been a solid mark, especially at that point we didn't know the status of Darren Peterson.

But now you're sitting in one and one. That means you have to go to, you have to win this game to go to the two and one, right? So I think it's going to be a very important game for KU. And obviously the last time that we saw them in a true road environment, you're getting worked by North Carolina on the road. So that's another opportunity. Like, how is this team going to be in true road environments?

We've seen them play on neutral sites with the players era and with the Duke game and with this one, I guess technically, even though it was basically a home field for KU or home court. But it'll be another true road environment. That's going to be important because if you want to contend, you want to win games in the Big 12, you're going to have to win in some very difficult places to play. I don't know it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

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