Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SEASON FADING: Jayhawks Lose UGLY to Arizona State | Is it PANIC Time for Kansas Basketball???

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is a full-fledged five, whatever alarm. It is the worst offense of the Bill Self era. It is one of the worst losses of the Bill Self era. And this Kansas team officially has some real problems at the wrong time of the season. 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?

Starting point is 00:00:33 Derek Johnson here with Lockdown Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you, every day. Or's catching each and every episode of the show. And thank you for making lockdown the number one sports podcast network. On today's episode of the show, we're breaking down KU's horrific loss at Arizona State. The season seems to be crumbling toward the end of the season for the Jayhawks. So we're going to break down what went down in the loss, what this all means.

Starting point is 00:00:56 We're going to get into the state of the program here because it's not very good at this point in time. We'll finish up with what is next to finish up the season for KU basketball. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time and get tickets to the KUK State game, probably a little cheaper now. Download GameTime app, creating an account, use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. So KU falls to Arizona State. And yeah, that was about everything that was bad about the KU offense, right? I mean, we've talked a little bit about it.

Starting point is 00:01:27 I mean, just on an episode earlier this week about KU's offensive struggles and how this has been the worst offenses of the bill. off of here, but it hasn't been the worst. Well, after this game, I'm pretty confident that it's going to rank out as the worst. I mean, this is just a pitiful first half performance that was a little better in the second app, but then did not close at all to finish the game for KU. I mean, it's just like the shooting. I mean, you shoot under 30% from the field. That is, that is impossible to do for a game. I just, I don't understand. How can you be this bad? on the offensive end of the floor. How do you have a player like Darren Peterson who, yeah, he couldn't make a shot tonight,

Starting point is 00:02:09 but is supposed to go top three in the draft? How do you have a player like Florida Bedunga who could be drafted? How do you have some of these guys? And you can't do anything on offense. I don't know. Is it a scheme thing? Is it a chemistry thing? Like, gosh, man.

Starting point is 00:02:25 I don't know. It just it almost feels like I know it's not actually because you still do have the hope that they get it turned around. Like I do remember the national title winning team not to say. this team's going to win a title. They're not. But the national title winning team lost the TCU in the last week of the regular season and kind of an ugly game and then was able to overcome it and beat Texas in an ugly senior day win. And then they ended up winning the Big 12th tournament, got hot, won the NCAA tournament.

Starting point is 00:02:50 So there's still hope that, hey, maybe you beat K State. Maybe you can get hot in the Big 12th tournament and carry that over. Like, that would be the hope for KU. But it does feel like they are inching closer to, mortality rate on this season, so to speak. Like, we are limping to the finish line here. This is the fourth loss in the last six games for Kansas. And Cincinnati's playing really good ball right now, but still with Cincinnati and Arizona State, Cincinnati kind of a bubble team at this point, that's two potential

Starting point is 00:03:19 non-NCAA tournament teams. And then the two losses you had to NCAA tournament teams were blowout losses. So, like, they are limping to the finish line. And it feels like the amount of goodwill, the amount of momentum that they built up in winning those nine consecutive games are just like officially gone at this point in time. They're just a bad road team. They're one of the most inconsistent teams in the country. They're one of the most inconsistent home and away teams in the country.

Starting point is 00:03:47 They have one of the, I mean, realistically, like I think Michael Swain tweeted out from Fog.comnet that like since the BYU game, they're in the 90s in offensive efficiency. So this game probably lowered that ranking. I mean, if we just look at the power teams, the power four teams, I guess basketball, I don't know, Power 5 because you include the Big East, I guess. In the Power 5 among teams that are going to make the NCAA tournament, where will KU's offense rank among those teams? It'll probably be near the bottom,

Starting point is 00:04:15 which is a crazy thing to say that Kansas could have one of the worst offenses among NCAA tournament teams that are not mid-majors. You know what I mean? That's kind of where we're at after you can't do anything offensively for a first half and then in the important moments down the stretch of the game, again, is not a very good, typically Arizona State defensive team, right? And unfortunately, this is just kind of where we're at with the program right now. Like I said, segment two, we're going to kind of get into a little bit,

Starting point is 00:04:42 the state of the program and everything. But I just like the idea of making the second weekend right now sounds so appealing and sounds like a pipe dream to a certain standpoint, right? Like maybe that's an overreaction to an in-the-moment in-game loss and stuff for a team that still has shown the ability to beat some of the better team. teams. That was kind of case for the last two years teams too, right? Like two years ago or I guess three years ago, whatever you want to call that, like they beat Yukon on their home floor, you know? A couple of years ago, you're beating Iowa State and some of these really good programs in the country, but you didn't do anything in the NCAA tournament. And that's, I don't know, I hope that's not the case for this team, but it feels like it's trending in that direction, right? And it's not even just the result here. I mean, it is the results. You can't lose by double digit points to one of the worst teams in the big 12. where you played the worst half of basketball I've ever seen KU play. So it is a little bit about the result.

Starting point is 00:05:37 But it's also about what it looked like. And in the second half, like, again, I will give them credit. They continued to fight back. They made it a close game at one point. They got it to within five at different points. They got it to within two. They had it within striking distance at different points in the second half. But even for the start of the second half and for a majority of the first half,

Starting point is 00:05:56 heck, I even watched the video of them like walking into the arena. they look like zombies, man. It was the body language. The team looked dead and broken. Like, did something happen? Because all we've heard all season long is how the team gets along with each other and likes each other and how there's good chemistry. That did not look like a team who liked each other and had good chemistry.

Starting point is 00:06:19 That looked like a team who did not either want to be there or had no energy or was hungover or I don't even know. They did not look energized at all. And that was the worst body language. lack of effort and honestly like combined with selfish play that I've seen from a KU team in a long time the amount of times are like you're running a transition play and somebody just takes it themselves instead of pitching it ahead to somebody else or passing somebody else like I don't know man this team seems to have some serious serious problems right now and you don't have any more time

Starting point is 00:06:52 to fix it it's senior day big 12th tournament NCAA tournament that is it and like there's possessions where I'm watching in the game where, and, you know, again, like in the same way that the team responded and made it closer, I thought Flory Bedunga, you know, responded well in the second half and played better. Still couldn't make consistently shots around the rim. But like there was a moment early in the second half where I'm watching like KU battle for offensive rebounds. And I'm looking at Flory standing at the elbow just standing there watching. And I'm like, why aren't you going for it? And I thought that was kind of a microcosm of the team for KU, right?

Starting point is 00:07:25 And again, you did show some more fight as the game went on in the second half. half, but KU is in serious danger right now. Again, this is one of the worst offenses that we've seen of the Bill Self era. And this did it no favors, right? And then of course, there's the Doug Sermon's piece of this, right? Like, Doug Sermon, screw off, man. You are a horrible ref. You can't, you get the call wrong and then you eject Bill Self for arguing with it with the quickest double technical that you've ever given on a call that you got wrong. And then you give Jogvon a technical for didn't even look like he was going that crazy, a guy who historically has not been somebody who picks up, you know, technicals at a high level.

Starting point is 00:08:13 This felt like a hit piece on Kansas from Doug Sermons. I saw C.J. Moore tweeted this out too, which I thought was a good point. Doug Sermon's nine, name of nine days. And it's not like he's doing all the, all of those nine games, you know, in one stage. or at one university. He's traveling. He's getting crappy sleep. He's, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:32 taking red eyes out of these places to get to a new place. And then he's running around with college athletes for two hours. Maybe that shouldn't happen. And Doug Sermon's already, he sucks to begin with. But like now for adding that to it, now for adding sleep deprivation to it, like, yeah, he's just the worst, man. But bottom line here is this, right? So TCU beat Texas Tech earlier.

Starting point is 00:08:56 today, which sounded like it was going to be a great result for KU, because it put the ball in KU's court that they controlled their own destiny, that if KU went two and O, they were going to get the three seed in the big 12th tournament. The good news is Iowa State lost Arizona to where Kansas, the other night, where Kansas, as long as they can just beat Kansas State on Saturday, will still secure a top four seed and a double buy in the big 12th tournament. That's the good news. But you had an opportunity to score that three seed in the big 12th tournament. And the importance of that is that if we look at Kansas potentially getting the four seed in the Big 12 tournament, yeah, you get the double by.

Starting point is 00:09:29 That's cool. But you know who you would be playing in the Big 12 quarterfinals? Iowa State. And you know who travels as good as any program in the country for their conference tournament? It's Iowa State. And you know who just beat you by 20 points last time you played Iowa State? So you could have set up not having to play them. And instead, you know, even if you beat K State, it is good to get the double by.

Starting point is 00:09:52 but then your path in the Big 12 tournament becomes Iowa State in the quarter of idols, Arizona, and then one of the other Big 12 juggernauts potentially in the final. So you made it about as hard of a path as you could possibly have by losing this game. That was one of the worst halves of basketball I've ever seen KU play in the first half. Beyond the disappointment of the body language, the play, it is complete danger time now. KU is playing their worst ball of the season at the worst possible time. to do it. And I don't even like, is there a single player? Like, like, forget from the team aspect, a single player that you feel like has an up arrow next to their name, right? Like if you were doing like

Starting point is 00:10:33 NBA 2K ratings, is there a single player that at the next ratings update coming out tomorrow would have an increased rating from where they were of just, I don't know, a week or two ago? I don't think there would be. Like nobody's in form right now. It's just kind of an absolute failure of the finish to KU. You won nine straight games. It seems like you were going to have an opportunity to do some really cool things. And now you have just completely imploded at the end of the season here. And the lack of offense, the, I don't know, like, if you're not going to be a good offensive team, you better try your butt off.

Starting point is 00:11:09 You better hustle as hard as you can. You better, you know, do a lot of little things to help you win games. And unfortunately, the effort stuff, the physicality stuff has been very inconsistent for this team. The odds has kind of stayed below average to bad. That's just not kind of a winning formula right now for this team. And I just don't know if they're going to get it. I mean, we just heard the quote from Bill Self like last week that like this is the latest in the season that I just don't really know what we are. And it feels like we continue to not know.

Starting point is 00:11:40 All right. Let's get to stay to the program and some more game notes next. This is Lockdown Jayhawks. I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball. And this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot. Celebrating the work, no highlight reel can ever capture. Number one ranked Yukon dominated St. John's 85 to 49 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, extending its winning streak to 47 games.

Starting point is 00:12:06 The Huskies kept a perfect 31 and 0 regular season, including 20 and 0 in the Big East. Yukon is winning by nearly 38 points per game, the third largest average margin in Division I history. Since 1999 to 2000, Yukon has nine undefeated regular seasons, as many as all other programs combined and has turned six of those into national championships. These moments are earned off the clock, those long before the lights ever come on. The sweat, the fakes, the doubt, the scrapes, and coming back for more every time. Mazda puts that same drive into every detail. Wins to find the moment, putting in the work, that defines you. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you.

Starting point is 00:12:50 Thanks for joining us. And don't forget and check out the Everyday Air Club. We can get the ad-free version of the show, locked on podcast.com slash everydayer. So state of the program here is Kansas falls to Arizona State, 70 to 60 on the road and now is sitting at 21 and 9 on the season. So KU is now ranked 20th on Ken Palm after the loss. And the significance of that,

Starting point is 00:13:17 if KU were to finish the season ranked, 20th or worse on Ken Palm, again, where they're at right now. That'd be the third consecutive season that KU would finish a season ranked 20th or worse on Ken Palm. Would you like to take a guess? Here's a little bit of trivia for you. How many times in the Bill Self era prior to these last three seasons has Kansas finished a year 20th or worse on Ken Palm?

Starting point is 00:13:43 Ding, ding, ding, the answer is zero. It has happened zero times, but now we are trending toward it happening the third consecutive. season. That's not great. The consistently bad offense year over year, right? I mean, this is kind of one of those same stats now, right? KU after this game, it dropped them to 54th in offensive efficiency on Ken Palm. So not currently the worst of the Bill Self era, though it is the third worst at this point. It would be the third straight season, though, where KU had a non-top-50 offense.

Starting point is 00:14:15 And you can go back to data from 1997 on Ken Palm, from 1997. to 2023, KU only had two non-top 50 offenses. They have three in three consecutive seasons. So those aren't great for the state of the program here, right? I think most people know this stat. KU has only made one second weekend since 2018. Obviously, the one was really cool. They won the national championship,

Starting point is 00:14:40 but there just hasn't been the consistency there. And after this loss, I think if you polled a majority of people, I'm sure there's still be some optimistics in the crowd that they can get it going. But I think probably a majority of people, if I were to poll them, would say that they are not expecting a second weekend after these last two games for KU. So that's not great either. But I guess that one is one that we will wait and see what happens there. Did you know the last time that KU outperformed their preseason Ken Palm ranking?

Starting point is 00:15:09 Actually, right now they technically are. They're preseason 21. They were number 20. So actually right now would be the first time they have done it since. But if they keep trending in this way, they won't. 2020. They actually were third preseason finished third on Ken Palm in the national title year. But yeah, they consistently have been underperforming where they've been ranked in the preseason. So that's another not great thing here too.

Starting point is 00:15:30 They're sitting at nine losses now. So it looks like another double digit loss season, right? If you're going to lose in the NCAA tournament, that would guarantee it. I think we can probably assume you lose in the big 12th tournament once. You lose in the NCAA tournament once. Boom, you're sitting at 11 losses. What is the significance of that? this would be the third consecutive 11 or more lost season under Bill Self. Should it finish that way? Again, the number of those prior to the last three years is zero.

Starting point is 00:15:59 Also, just fit this one in. They're now 0 and 5 all time at Arizona State. So I bring up all these stats to say the state of the program is not doing great. Now, it has not fallen off to the point of where like, you know, like Indiana was so good under Bob Knight. And then you have the Kelvin Samson situation and stuff. And now Indiana is a team where it's just like they're just scraping by to make NCAA tournaments it feels like and have the occasional year where they get like a five seed or something like that. And obviously they had the one one seed year with with, uh, oh gosh, I'm blanking on the name of the head coach. Uh, anyway, Tom, whatever.

Starting point is 00:16:31 But, um, now you look at Kansas. It's not falling to that level. Like this team is probably still going to get a four or five seed, but that's another piece of this loss. You ain't getting a three seed now unless you do some damage in the, the big 12th tournament, right? you're going to be a four seed. And if you lose to Kansas State or if you lose in your first big 12th tournament a game, you might be a five seed. But anyway, that's neither here nor there, I guess.

Starting point is 00:16:55 But you know, here's another thing for state of the program not being great. There was just a story that came out today about like the budget deficit for KU and funds being used on the roster as opposed to like paying staff and stuff like that. So who knows how much they're going to be able to afford on next year's team. And then it's like the question of you continue to spiral down this whole. and you're like, well, who's even going to be back? Because there have been rumors circulating, what's going to happen to Florida Bedunga. It's like, Derek Peterson's going to go pro. Melfin Council graduates.

Starting point is 00:17:23 Trey White graduates. It's like, Omarco Jackson was so bad today. Like, is he just going to be, I don't know, is he going to be forced transferred? He was a minus 25 and plus minus in the Arizona game. Let's see what he was in this game for KU. O'Marco was minus eight, less than I thought, although that's in four minutes. minus eight and four minutes is wild. So it's just like, again,

Starting point is 00:17:49 it goes back to the question of like, what players played well in this game. But yeah, when we go through the state of the program, the answer is it ain't good right now for KU. So let's just finish up with some game notes from the game for KU, what's next as well.

Starting point is 00:18:03 I'm not going to give out any awards or game balls. Probably not deserving in this game. So we'll get to that next. This is locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by TurboTax. It's time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing tax,

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Starting point is 00:20:01 Don't forget you can join the Everydayer Club, get the ad-free version of the show, and join our Discord server Lockdownpodcast.com slash Everydayer. Our Kansas Falls to Arizona State, 70 to 60, some quick game notes just to go back over some of the things we open the show with. Again, Doug Sermans stinks. It's not the reason KU lost the game solely, but it didn't help the fact that, you know, KU had three technicals given out to the coaches that they had a flagrant given out to El Marco. And listen, El Marco, that was a really dumb pass and then he went and fouled him. But the guy was going for a hammer dunk. He looked like he was going through the ball. I didn't think I was flaker. But nonetheless, it's not the biggest deal

Starting point is 00:20:40 in the world. You're out free throw 30 to 16 after you were. just out free throwed was it 34 to 11 or something the game before. So it's been rough a little bit for KU with the free throws pretty significantly the last couple of games. So again, the reason you lose this game is because you shoot 29% from the floor. Your offense does not, I don't know, it doesn't show any like signs of chemistry for consistent periods of time. There are moments there, but for consistent periods of time, it does not.

Starting point is 00:21:05 You have 17 turnovers, which I think is a big part of that, which leads to Arizona State winning the points off turnovers 18 to 11. And the crazy thing is KU got 25 offensive rebounds. That's got to be their high on the season. And they only scored six second chance points. I don't know if that's a lack of toughness of not finishing around the rim or if that's just like dumb luck in a specific game. But it's one of the two.

Starting point is 00:21:27 Crazy thing is KU still outscored Arizona State points of the paint 24 to 20. And then it was just, I mean, it was really just one guy for Arizona State. I mean, no, I take that back. Jop and Odom were both, you know, Jop got going. He had the two threes. He had 19 points. Odom was unbelievable for Arizona State. He had the 23, and then Johnson didn't have a great game,

Starting point is 00:21:47 but he made a couple big shots late for Arizona State. The thing is when you look at this from the Kansas perspective, you walk away from it going, who played well from Kansas? And I don't think you have an answer to say, this guy did. I mean, Trey White scored 16 points and had 14 rebounds, right? If you just look at the box score, you go, wow, Trey White had an outstanding game.

Starting point is 00:22:06 He was only 6 to 17 from the floor. He had that little dust up with Tony Bland. seemed like that, I don't know, he just wasn't making a huge impact. I don't think Trey White had a bad game. I don't think Trey White had a good game either. I think it was just a middle tier game, which, again, considering the numbers, you wouldn't expect that. Melvin Council, he goes three of 11.

Starting point is 00:22:25 He had four turnovers, which is a high number for him. Not a good game for counsel, right? Tiller, three points on one of five. They haven't been getting a ton from Tiller of late. And, you know, that continued to be a case in this one. Darren Peterson, I will say this. the one thing about Peterson's game that I really liked in this one, we finally saw Darren Peterson the playmaker.

Starting point is 00:22:46 He had four assists and made some nice passes. And I also appreciated that Peterson got, you know, his, his nose dirty on the glass, 10 rebounds was good to see. He also had five steals, which I continue to say that Peterson's an underrated defender. Here's the problem. Darren Peterson went three of 18 from the floor, right? So that means you're two starting guards when it combined six of 29 between counsel and Peterson. So you can't say that they played well, right?

Starting point is 00:23:11 Flory, again, you look at the box score, 14 points, 13 rebounds, looks pretty good. He was minus 12 in the game, right? He was just not really there. I don't know if it was a focus thing or just, I don't know, like not one to get hurt, looking ahead to next year's contract or something. But he wasn't there in the first half in the first 25 minutes in game when things got away from him. So you look off the bench, like I thought Cole Rosario tried hard, but, you know, there's a limitation there.

Starting point is 00:23:36 Same with like Jamarie McDowell, Marco was the worst player on the, floor for either team. So like you just go up and down the list. Nobody played well for Kansas. Again, you can say some people had mixed games or they had like an average game or whatever, but nobody had a good game for Kansas. And when you combine all that, playing on the road, your coach gets ejected. You have all this foul throw. Like, and that's the unfortunate part. This isn't just a one off. I think if KU beats Cincinnati at home or if KU wins at Arizona and you lose a game like this, maybe you could scrub this one away and say, yeah, that was just a an incredible outlier shooting performance for KU to shoot 29% from the field.

Starting point is 00:24:14 Like it was just one of those days. Nothing was ever going in. Better to get it out of the way now than the NCAA tournament. But this is now the trend for this team. The offense is tanking. They've lost four of six games. And that is what is worrisome is that this is a microcosm of all of those things. So now what is next for KU?

Starting point is 00:24:31 You're at Kansas or your verse Kansas State at home in Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday. K state is not very good. They've already fired their coach and Jerome Tang, obviously you beat the crap out of them in Manhattan, mostly with a late surge in that game. But at the same point in time, K-State has nothing else to play for. And they're going to try to come in and ruin your senior day. And if you play with this same lack of energy you did against Arizona State, that is going to be a game on Saturday, right?

Starting point is 00:24:55 If you can refocus and play like you have at home, you should be able to blow them out. And the hope there is that it can get the vibes back up and get you right for the big 12th tournament, in which, as I've discussed before, if KU beats Kansas State, it's great. They get the double by. What's not great is now likely the path would be Iowa State, Arizona, and then another juggernaut. But the flip side to that is if you want to prove yourself that you deserve a better seed in the NCAA tournament or you want to prove that you're back and that you're playing your good ball again, well, what better way than to beat some really good opponents in Kansas City?

Starting point is 00:25:26 So, yeah, things looking like KU is going to get a four or five seed in the big 12 tournament and a four or five seat in the NCAA tournament now. but I guess we just wait and see what this dramatic up and down season has to unfold on Saturday against Kansas State. All right. That'll know for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. Thanks so much for joining us on the show. You can find us on our podcast page as well. But for you and join the Everyday Air Club to get the ad-free version of the show.

Starting point is 00:25:51 And we'll see you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SEASON FADING: Jayhawks Lose UGLY to Arizona State | Is it PANIC Time for Kansas Basketball???

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