Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SHAKEEL MOORE Electrifies Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas Jayhawks 74-55 Win vs. Arizona State Sun Devils

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked On, Jayhawks, Shaquille Moore and Rylan Griffin show the path for Kansas to be at their very best this season as we recap the Jayhawks' 19-point victory over Arizona State. 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 at the Johnson Radio on Twitter. And thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. Thank you for tuning into the show, whether it's your first time, you're in every day or tuning into each and every show.

Starting point is 00:00:43 You were ready for Shaquille Moore to dunk the ball. He hadn't dunked the ball yet this year. And we talked about on a previous episode way back in the summer I retweeted this go on Twitter at T Johnson Radio best sub six foot three dunker in KU basketball history when I say history it only goes back like 15 years but he had the most career dunks most of the season had a huge dunk in this one and that felt like the play of the game for KU we're going to recap Kansas Arizona State 74 74-55, as Shaquille Moore and Ryland Griffin had some big performances for KU, not just for this game, but moving down the road.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Kind of opposite for AJ Storr in this game. So we'll break all that down and more on today's episode, get to our game awards and what is next. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where you can go from big upsets to game-winning drives, the NFL playoffs are better with FanDuel. New customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed win or lose. Visit FanDuel.com to get started today. first half you did not think that uh you'd be talking about a 19 point kansas victory you certainly didn't think after you gave up 42 points in the first half and arizona state could not be stopped that arizona state would only score 55 points the second half defense was remarkable for kansas uh obviously when you only give up 13 points and a half like that's more than just you

Starting point is 00:02:00 that's them missing some shots too because even the best defense in the world you're still going to give up some open shots you know what i mean um but that was an unbelievable second half performance defensively and um it felt like their pride was probably a little bit tested in the first half and i'm sure bill self challenged them at halftime and they came out you know really well and at the end of the day like that's why kansas won the game you hold them 13 second half points and 55 points you're going to win that game and obviously there were a lot of things that went well for ku in this one you know hunter digginson has his classic double double wasn't his most efficient game but you know did that dewan harris had a good scoring first half zeke mayo once again steadied the offense as being this just consistent uh go-to score for ku like

Starting point is 00:02:43 those are all reasons in addition to these ones I'm about to list and other ones as well, why they won the game. But the ones that really fell top of mind were the performances of Shaquille Moore, Rylan Griffin. And then I think it was just kind of underlined by the energy of KJ Adams. I thought KJ really brought, because I know it sounds silly to say

Starting point is 00:03:02 like beyond the box score stuff, but like the first half felt a little sluggish. And at some point we do need to have the conversation of like, why does this keep happening? Why do you keep having sluggish first halves? You know, albeit at least in this one, the hole was only six points to overcome as opposed to like the Missouri or

Starting point is 00:03:18 the Creighton or the West Virginia ones where the holes were too big to overcome. So at least, you know, there was a little bit more there. But KJ helped provide that energy in the second half, and it felt like that just started to fester with the rest of the team. And then it felt like Rylan Griffin and Shaquille Moore provided that energy in other ways. And I think this is back-to-back games with Rylan Griffin where he's made shots.

Starting point is 00:03:43 I mean, one of four from three. So it's not as good as the four for four from three he had in the UCF game, but so four of nine from the floor, nine points. But he also was out there making hustle plays, you know, doing everything he could from an effort perspective. And that's what you want to see. And I think the reason you see Shaquille Moore in the starting lineup now for back to back games is he's not necessarily going to be, I mean, he comes away from this game scoring eight points, you know, one assist, one rebound. This wasn't a game that Shaquille Moore is going to look back on one day. If he looks back at his

Starting point is 00:04:15 past, like game logs or box scores or basketball reference page and be like, man, you remember that game at eight points, one rebound, one assist, but. But the impact felt so much more substantial than that. In fact, on my Twitter, I mean, this is going to be still going on, so I don't know where it'll end up. But this is through the first 70 votes. I put, who's today's KU basketball MVP? 90% of the vote was Shaquille Moore from people who have voted so far on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio.

Starting point is 00:04:40 Again, I don't know where that will end up, but that's kind of how I felt too, right? The impact that he made when the game was was not necessarily at a point where Kansas was blown out when the when the game was still at a either team can claim this game spot and right before Kansas went on that big run to kind of put away Arizona State Shaquille Moore was the igniter of that run he ends up with two steals they lead to huge highlight plays that just completely change the momentum of the game, the energy of the team, the energy of Allen Fieldhouse, which obviously is always energetic, but it becomes another level when you're making plays like that. And so when you look at Kansas, and yes, there are certain

Starting point is 00:05:20 issues you could talk about, about what's their pick and roll defense going to be like? Or are they going to have enough spacing or this or that? At the end of the day, if they just play with a high level of energy, like at least the floor is going to be higher on the team. You know what I mean? Like, and you're going to end up with results like this. When we've seen them play at a high energy level, they've been able to blow out teams. They've been able to beat some of the better schools in the country even through some of their flaws because guess what most teams in college basketball are going to have flaws like there isn't going to be really a perfect team that is uh very rare when that happens it's a shaquille moore provides this energy um for you he provides somebody else

Starting point is 00:05:58 who is a good athlete who is quick who is fast right when bill self talks about being an athletic team he's not always talking about and andrew wins, who's a 6'8 wing, who can jump out of the gym and dunk it. He's talking about guys who are quick. He's talking about guys who play fast, who play fearless, and that is Shaquille Moore. And I think he embodies in a real way what Bill Self is looking for, especially when you add on what he brings to the defensive side of the ball. He is a good defender, and he can make big plays like he did in those two steals, and he obviously has that big highlight with the dunk. And so the importance of the performances that you've now seen for really back-to-back games for Rylan Griffin, and I'm trying to think off the

Starting point is 00:06:37 top of my head if it stretches back any further than that, if you were to say like four or five games or something like that, but certainly the last two games, and now the last two games, I guess you would say we should kill more since he started both games is that you're looking for things of okay they lost these games to west virginia and missouri and creighton or whatever like i remember going back to the nc state game they won that game but you looked at a lot of little things that happened in the game and it was like yeah but they're still kind of doing the same team they just played a better game or made some more shots or played a worse team you were at home,

Starting point is 00:07:05 whatever you want to call it. You're looking for tangible reasons of, okay, not only are they doing better, not only are they seeing wins, but they're doing certain things better or they're changing things to lead you to the result of why. And then once you can figure out, okay, why is it changed? Why are they doing better? You can decide if it's sustainable or not.

Starting point is 00:07:24 And this feels sustainable to me right if rylan griffin is starting to be the guy you're hoping for that can give you you know 18 20 25 minutes per night off the bench and hit some threes for you and play with a high energy level like that that's exactly what you're kind of looking for here if shaquille moore can be that good defender that gives you another good defender and another athlete and another ball handler on the floor that is what you you are looking for. And so it changes what KU's ceiling is as a team if you're hitting on some of these players, right? Now, if you want to talk the ultimate ceiling raiser, that would be if you could figure out AJ Storr as well. But you do start to get to

Starting point is 00:07:58 a point where it's like not everybody's going to hit. If you can hit on Rylan Griffin, and this is the start of that, and you can hit on Shaquiffin um and this is the start of that and you can hit on sakil more and this is the start of that and i think diggy coy is giving you more than maybe you expected in the preseason and you hit on zeke mayo it seems like that's kind of already happened right um if you really just have the one miss in the portal which ironically is the guy that maybe you were the most excited for or maybe had the most hopes for in AJ Storr, that still ends up being a pretty good result in the end. Now, will this be sustainable? Will those guys continue to play that way? I look at a lot of what they did and it feels sustainable to me.

Starting point is 00:08:34 This wasn't, like I said, Shaquille Moore having a good game because he went three for three from three or Ryland Griffin going four, four from three. They combined, went one of six from three or rylan griffin going four four from three they combined with one of six from three but they both had unbelievable games with game changing moments for ku and that's why it feels repeatable to me and feels like it can be the start of changing what ku ceiling is down the road and in the future now as far as aj store i do want to touch on that real quick that was a rough first half he comes in he throws the ball away away, just looked like he wasn't mentally engaged, makes a defensive mistake, makes another defensive mistake that ends up leaving Hunter closing out a corner three that they did miss.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Then he can't secure a rebound, ends up fouling the guy. He misses a bad shot three, not in the rhythm of the offense. Drives, turns it over. That leads to a side three for Arizona State to go up six. This was all in the span of like three minutes, and he played in the first half. And I know everybody likes to pile on KJ Adams because at times the KU offense can look clunky, and there's not spacing at times when he's playing out there next to Hunter or Flory or whoever it is.

Starting point is 00:09:37 But I've always felt that, and I've said before, yeah, if KJ was playing 18 to 22 minutes per game, maybe that would be more ideal, right? And I've said before, yeah, if KJ was playing 18 to 22 minutes per game, maybe that would be more ideal. I've said it before, too. But part of that to me is I'm not blaming KJ. It's almost blaming, I guess, the coach for putting him in that position. But Bill Self, why are you putting him in that position? It's not his fault that he can't do these things, I guess. Why are you letting it go that long?

Starting point is 00:10:02 But the thing with KJ that I will always love and appreciate, he would die for this team to win. Like, this dude hustles for everything. He wears his emotions on the sleeves. And yes, he would like for that to translate to more rebounds and stuff like that. I'm not arguing against that. He's not always the greatest fit in the world. But I will take that 10 times out of 10 over a dude who is not showing he cares on the court. When you see the videos of him on the bench or in the huddle, standing at the back,

Starting point is 00:10:35 looking disinterested, doesn't look like he cares that much. And maybe that's just, maybe it's been a tough time for AJ Storr it's hard for him to, you know, figure things out of what he wants to do. But like for as much NIL money as you're paying these guys, I think it is a fair criticism to wonder like how much care level is there. And so I don't know, it just kind of got me thinking of like how much crap KJ has taken. Again, if you want to blame Bill Self for playing in that much, I think that is a fair criticism, but don't it to kj adams because he is doing everything in his power when he is on the court at the very least like he is giving his full effort you can talk about the execution not always being there but he's giving his full effort at all times so that's not always the case for a guy like aj store and then this goes back to the idea that like i think nick schwert who we have

Starting point is 00:11:22 on the show here summed up perfectly tweeted out like He tweeted out like, oh, look at that. Shaquille Moore didn't have to prove he deserves to be on the court by playing a ton of minutes. You can do it in smaller minute loads. Speaking of which, I was weirded out by Flory Badunga playing that little in the first half. But Flory, I love you to death. Okay, let's get to our game trophies coming up next. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Rocket Money. Rocket Money can help you

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Starting point is 00:13:08 on Thursday night and Friday night. All right, game trophies. Kansas 74, Arizona State with 55 points. We're going to go best moment. I think just the Shaquille Moore back-to-back steals. Those were really good moments in the game. It leads to two big-time buckets. It really changes the way that that the game goes um and you look at it and arizona state only

Starting point is 00:13:30 scoring you know as little as they did in the second half like those plays kind of um i don't know emphasized where the exclamation point to the defense ku was playing in that second half so to me that's that's the best moment of the game. We have dunk of the game. I think there's some good candidates here. K.J. Adams had that good dunk in the first half where it felt like he got his head up to the top of the box at the backboard. Then you have the Hunter dunk in transition with the Quaintance foul in the second half where Hunter had missed a couple bunnies. This wasn't the most efficient game for Hunter, but that was kind of like, hey, okay, get in the hoop. where like hunter had missed a couple bunnies this wasn't the most efficient game for hunter but that was kind of like hey okay get in the hoop you know what i mean

Starting point is 00:14:08 and he gets fouled uh with it as well that was a good dunk there for hunter um you had the the steal from shakil more that leads to the shakil more dunk and again he is the king of dunks for six three or under i think he had eight of them last year i think 28 in his career so he adds another one to his career there then you have the Ryland Griffin dunk which came off a steal too and that was kind of cool because it was back-to-back dunks from guys that you don't normally see dunk a lot right like Griffin's more used as a shooter and with Shaquille Moore you know he just hasn't been on the court enough to maybe show that but also it is the novelty of this guy who's who's not the

Starting point is 00:14:42 tallest guard in the world even though though he does have those past stats. We hadn't seen it at KU, right? So for me, if I am going to pick the dunk of the game, I guess you have a flurry dunk in there too. I'm going to go with the Shaquille Moore dunk off the steel, because I think that emphasized that people are saying MVP of the game, right? Worst moment of the game, the AJ store first half minutes. Those were really rough. I think those would have to be the worst moment of the game, right? Worst moment of the game, the AJ store first half minutes. Those were really rough.

Starting point is 00:15:07 I think those would have to be the worst moment of the game when I think back to this one. I have a new game award for this one. It's going to be the Flory wow moment of the game. And this is one that ideally we'll be able to use every game because Flory wows you in a lot of different ways. I think we all know what it would have been in the UCF game. For this game, I have two options.

Starting point is 00:15:26 There was the play where Jihad gets the ball in the post and tries to work past Flory with a post move, and Flory just like, he ain't having it. He's just sticking his ground, and he's like, you ain't getting space. And then Flory jumps up and blocks the shot on the hook shot, jump shot, whatever you want to call it. That was a wild moment of the game.

Starting point is 00:15:44 And then the alley-oop that he had like moments after it might have been the next possession or a couple possessions after the ball from juan harris was thrown well behind him and short but he's like up in the air he's reaching back he's grabbing it and he's throwing it down just he makes plays like that which are not simple look simple and that is your uh i'm gonna go with that one for the flory wow moment of the game the game, offensive MVP for this one, you know, a hundred against it at 15 points, but again, just five of 15 from the floor. Rylan Griffin had nine points for you off the bench, but this is an obvious one, right? It's, it's email. He had 23 points for KU. He was really keeping you in it in the first half. And then he had a bit of a lull,

Starting point is 00:16:25 missed some shots that he normally makes in the first part of the second half, but then he finished strong as well. 23 points, 8 of 14 from the floor, 5 of 8 from 3. Just again, continues to be your most consistent perimeter scorer, and we continue to look at the home away splits for Zeke Mayo, and it's pretty remarkable what he has done inside Allen Fieldhouse, which is really cool for the homecoming kid. Our defensive MVP, you could actually mention Hunter Dickinson, three blocks and three steals, but I think there were some times that Arizona State was maybe taking advantage of him in the first half

Starting point is 00:16:58 that those numbers maybe look. It's almost like with Hunter, he's that corner who is going to maybe give up a touchdown maybe give a couple big catches but he's also gonna end up with like an interception and then it just leads to all sorts of like discourse or like the fan base being like but but look at the stats and then other people like no but you don't understand so uh you could if you wanted to argue just from the stats perspective duuan also had three steals and a block, but also the main guy he was guarding, Alston Mason, had 19 points, 15 in the first half. So I don't think I would go with that one necessarily. I think the answer here has to be Shaquille Moore.

Starting point is 00:17:34 I mean, Shaquille Moore had those two steals. They changed the way that the game went on. And you look at it for Arizona State, I think he was kind of switching between Adam Miller, who went just three of nine from the floor and had two turnovers and BJ Freeman who finished just three of 11 from the floor with two turnovers even when he was on Freeman he was giving up some some size certainly but he played really well on the defensive end of the court and that's what he can bring to the table right I mean if you are going to have some chasing issues on offense you better be a good defensive team and uh certainly helps when you have Shaquille Moore out on the floor because you're talking about DeJuan Harris,

Starting point is 00:18:08 who is a former Big 12 defensive player of the year. And even though he struggled in the first half with Alston Mason, you still like his defense overall. You have Shaquille Moore, who's a good defender. KJ Adams has had a good defensive season. When you bring Flory Padunga in there, there are a lot of avenues, even with Kansas' struggles at times against teams who can space you out again at times against teams who can you know pick and roll you to death even with some of those issues kansas overall has ranked

Starting point is 00:18:34 pretty well on the defensive end of the court so far this season i think a lot of those guys the personnel is the reason why let's finish up here for ku what. What's next for the Jayhawks? This is Locked on Jayhawks. So on tomorrow's episode, which will be on Friday, because this will be technically Thursday's episode, thank you if you're listening right away on your late Wednesday night, but Kansas-Cincinnati preview will be next up for you, and then we'll have our Kansas-Cincinnati recap coming at you this weekend as well as we are in full force of big 12 basketball season here okay so what is next for ku well

Starting point is 00:19:10 they're playing at cincinnati and as much as it felt good to win on the road at ucf and to win by as much as you did very impressive performance it still doesn't change all of KU's past road struggles this year and last year. Now these next two games at Cincinnati and at Iowa State, you have a chance to change that narrative. You win both games, we ain't going to be talking about the road struggles, right? Especially the one in Ames with as good as Iowa State is and as difficult of a place to play as that is. But it's a tough place to play, too. And Cincinnati's got a good team. They're reeling a little bit here, but it's certainly a team that can get you on their

Starting point is 00:19:52 home court. I mean, they got you in the Big 12 tournament last year on a neutral court, but you'll certainly feel a lot better if you can win this one, because then it would be three straight wins versus if you lose this game, you're sitting there two and two in Big 12 play going into Ames, which is not going to be comfortable. So this is a very important game for KU. It's a very important game for Cincinnati, who's lost three straight games and is trying to reel their way back up into making it to the NCAA tournament for the first time under

Starting point is 00:20:18 Wes Miller. But we'll have a preview for you on tomorrow's show for the Jayhawks Bearcats coming up on Saturday. This has been Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for tuning in today. Hit me up at DJohnsonRadio. We'll see you next time anywhere you get your podcasts. We're on our YouTube page with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SHAKEEL MOORE Electrifies Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas Jayhawks 74-55 Win vs. Arizona State Sun Devils

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