Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What To Takeaway from Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Losing Exhibition to Arkansas Razorbacks

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

Recap, analysis and takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks basketball losing to the Arkansas Razorbacks in an exhibition game. Lot of negatives for KU but it also is an exhibition game without Hunter Dickinson, Shakeel Moore and Rylan Griffen. What you can and can't takeaway, game awards, a strong performance from Dajuan Harris and Rakease Passmore and what's next for Bill Self's team with Washburn, Howard and North Carolina and Michigan State next.For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!ROYDownload Roy for iOS or Android and enter referral code LOCKED ON and you’ll automatically be entered into a sweepstakes to win $5,000 cash. Visit JoinRoy.com for additional details. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited. Get off the sidelines and into the NIL game with Roy.ZBiotics Pre AlcoholGo to zbiotics.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use LOCKEDONCOLLEGEat checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE and get $50 instantly when you play $5! You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE LinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Well, that wasn't great. KU smoked by Arkansas in their exhibition. We break down the game in a recap on today's Locked Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. This is Locked On Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show.

Thank you to the everydayers tuning in to each and every show. Thank you for making it your first listen every day. And you can give me a follow as well at DJohnsonRadio on Twitter. KU falls to Arkansas, 85-69. Certainly not the ideal performance you were hoping for in the first exhibition game for KU. Obviously some key injuries that they were without some key players. We'll get into what this all means, what happened,

does it mean anything, some game awards as part of our game recaps. We're going to be doing that this year. And then what's next for KU? This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Thankfully, I don't believe you could bet on the game on FanDuel, so you couldn't have lost money. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed.

Just visit FanDuel.com to get started today. So Arkansas 85, Kansas 69, obviously not the best performance to kick things off. And, you know, especially when you view it from, okay, the last time we saw this team, they were getting ran off the court by Gonzaga and you just didn't feel like you had a cleansing moment in this game, even though it didn't end up happening. I think the thing that I'm most concerned with, just to kind of rip that bandaid off right here, is that you still don't really have a bunch of guys who can beat people off the dribble consistently. Now, Arkansas is a athletic team. That's what happens with John Calipari teams. You get a lot of these five-star kids who are super athletic,

super fast, super quick. So not everybody you play is going to be that athletic to be able to stop you off the ball, right, to where there will be better matchups for some teams. And even the Kansas team that won a title a couple years ago, they weren't a great matchup when they had to play uber-athletic teams. And fortunately, they didn't have to play you know a ton of those in their NCAA tournament path but um because you know they lost by 20 points to a John Calipari

team too but um point being like I am a little bit concerned with that like you saw DeJuan Harris be able to do it pretty consistently actually in this game which was nice to see Zeke Mayo hit a nice three early he ended up with seven points but that wasn't really something that he is expected to be doing and didn't do consistently in the game is, you know, athletically beat people off the dribble. He's more of a, you know, three-point shooter type of guy, create a three-point shot type of guy. You know, with AJ Storr, you didn't really see it with, I don't know, you just didn't really see that creation off the dribble. And while I didn't expect it to be, you know, this super athletic team from KU's standpoint, I wasn't expecting this to be a great athletic team.

I don't know that I thought it was going to be that stark of a contrast when they did play Arkansas, even knowing some of that stuff with what typically John Calipari teams look like. And I think you saw that on the defensive end too. Arkansas was able to get a lot of open shots, I would say, driving or on pick and roll or guards penetrating through the lane. I mean, both of their young guards with Boogie Flynn and Wagner ended up with over 20 points in the game.

A lot of reason was because of that. Like Arkansas, I thought early in the game, they were just making some good shots. They only ended up six of 24 from three and they still whooped you. So those are not good things that make me feel better. I will say to give a little positives here, like I did like DeJuan Harris being more aggressive offensively. It was nice to see that's in his game and that he could do that in, you know, it wasn't just a game where he went seven of seven from three. Like, yes, well from three but he did it in a myriad of ways um i i like the fact that you were without hunter dickinson and you still led arkansas in points in the paint offensive rebounds and second chance points so like that stuff should only get even better when hunter dickinson's back

in the lineup obviously no Jonas I do for Arkansas and that helped KU a little bit there but still and it's also impossible to know without the key pieces there like I mean yes again Arkansas is missing Jonas I do he might end up being the starting center for them he's a good player Kansas was out three without three of their top what eight players you could say top seven, honestly. Like, I mean, you could argue that Hunter Dickinson's their best player, right? You know, maybe you'd argue somebody else, but I think he probably would be at the top of that argument, regardless he's in the conversation. I mean, he's your All-American candidate, right?

You could argue that Rylan Griffin ends up being a starter on this team. At the very least, if he's not, he's going to be playing a lot of minutes off the bench. So he'll be your sixth guy probably if he's not starting. And then with Shaquille Moore, like, you know, I guess it depends. Like is Floyd Badunga technically the second guy? What happens if Shaquille Moore is really your seventh guy because he's playing more minutes, even though your backup center is always in the rotation.

So there's a chance you were missing three of your top seven or three of your top eight guys. And obviously that's going to have a big impact, especially when, you know, some of these things you're talking about defense and athleticism. Well, that's Shaquille Moore to a T or with Ryland Griffin, like I would say he's a pretty good athlete, you know? So, and with Hunter Dickinson, it at least gives you size inside, which I don't know, maybe changes things a little bit in terms of teams driving it. I don't know. It's an exhibition, though, that you were,

without your probable leading point score, leading rebound getter, and your first option on offense, and we've heard Bill Self call Shaquille Moore the best on-ball defender on the team, and you could argue that Rylan Griffin is the team's best three-point shooter. Those are a lot of bests on the team to be without in this game. So Kansas is going to be okay. Could you make the argument that if the expectation placed upon this team

is to be the number one team in the country, which is the expectation that was given to them by the AP poll, that even despite some of those losses, even despite not having some of those players, that you should still be able to weather the storm and beat a team who's predicted to be worse? Okay, maybe there's a little bit of truth in that. Could you also say that there's some truth in the fact that it would have been okay if you would have lost close? If you were lost by four, five, six points, it would have been okay.

But the fact that you got smoked shows that there are more signs of problems than you might have hoped for. Yeah, maybe there's some truth to that. What about the fact that the whole point of this offseason, the whole point of what Bill Self did with the transfer portal of bringing players in, the whole point of that was Self did with the transfer portal of bringing players in, the whole point of that was, again, going back to the quote about wanting eight starters and wanting extra depth

for kind of this exact scenario. I mean, it's not just this scenario. It's motivation. It's competition. It's being able to go to the bench, game in and game out. But it's also a little bit of this scenario where, hey, you have some injuries. Some players are out. Some players are not going to play. You still need to be able to be

competent. You still need to be able to be good. And if that was the goal, then all the extra depth they loaded up on surely didn't show up in how this one went. So was the goal of that, did it not end up coming to fruition? Again, maybe there's a little bit of truth in that too. Here's the thing though. Arkansas is a top 25 opponent. I don't know. Maybe they end up being even better than that. Like remember last year, KU loses.

That was a closer game, obviously, but they lose at Illinois. And obviously KU ended up having their own problems last year. But that Illinois team ended up being really good. They made the Elite Eight. They had, I don't know, one of the best offenses in the entire country. Lost them in the closest game on the road. What if Arkansas ends up being a top 10 team in the country? I mean, they're going to have one of the best backcourts in the country, right?

With what they showed, like Wagner looks much improved. John O'Davis coming off the bench, like that's such a big luxury for them and then Boogie Fland looks like the real deal they're gonna have if that's the case every game one of the best backcourts in the country and they've got other talent around them like what if Arkansas just is a top 10 team this team this year and Arkansas is a very tough place to play like that is top 25 home court environment it's probably much higher than that um and so you know you can say that well the whole point of the offseason was to load up on more depth to overcome losses and injuries like this one but it's another thing when like like okay there's never been a whole point of hey let's load up on depth so that if our star player gets in like it's like the Chiefs.

It's like, hey, we load it up with where we're going to try to, you know, get all the best players and get the best defense in the world. But if Patrick Williams goes down, it doesn't matter. You know, you can have all the extra plans to have good depth and have good players behind. But if your best player, if your All-American candidate goes down, that's another thing. And also, it's almost like the added depth was more about, okay,

can your bench make an impact game to game? And it was also more about like, okay, listen, even if you were healthy, you could easily lose on the road against Arkansas. The difference is you want your depth to be good enough that you don't get blown out in a Big 12 tournament game to like a nine seed Cincinnati. That is what you're trying to avoid. Not as much this, at least, I don't know, maybe kind of what I'm thinking here. So not ideal of how much you lost by that. You never really felt like you were in the game after maybe the first quarter. Who knows what Arkansas ends up being, but with all the injuries and it being an exhibition game,

I think KU is going to be fine. I also view it a little bit as you're still in that early portion of the season. And also we've seen KU get blown out by John Calipari teams and be okay. So maybe that's part of it too. But when I think about this Kansas team, like if you're just going with the Jimmys and the Joes, like they have a lot of solid players, a lot of good college players. You know, there is very much talent on this roster, but if you're just going with the pure talent of the Kansas roster versus the Arkansas roster, if you're looking at it from an NBA perspective, say for instance, maybe you go with the Arkansas roster. But what is the advantage that Kansas has?

They have the best coach in college basketball in Bill Self. That's not going to give as much of an advantage in the first game when you're not running all your plays and figuring out your defense system. Probably a little bit more roll the ball out and see what happens from KU in this game than you will have later in the season so uh not really concerning but not a good thing either that's for sure all right let's continue on what are our game awards we'll get to that new segment that we're going to be doing in post-game recaps for KU basketball next first this episode of the show is brought to you by Z Biotics pre-alcoholic probiotic drink. It's the world's first genetically engineered probiotic.

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Thanks for making this your first listen every day. You can check out Locked On College Basketball, Locked On College Football for your second listen. Check out our KUK State preview as that one gets ready on Saturday night. All right, our game trophies. This is going to be, you know, if you're new to the show, we typically have done in the past for basketball, and we will continue to do this for football. We do our goats the game we have the good goats which is like the greatest of all

times new adage of the word we have the bad goats which is the old adage of the word which is kind of like the scapegoat well we're going to do something a little bit different we'll leave that for football we're going to do this for basketball so we're going to do game awards for basketball and some of these will be consistent awards others will be new awards each game depending how we see fit. So one of them that we're going to have that is a consistent award is our offensive MVP, and that would be DeJuan Harris. DeJuan Harris, 26 points, 11 of 17 shooting.

He was 4 of 5 from three-point range. You could probably say he was the overall MVP of the game for KU, although Bill Self said in the postgame that that would actually be Ricky's pass more. So, you know, I guess if we're going to Bill, that would be the answer there. But as far as offensive MVP, I thought DeJuan was really good, and KU didn't have a lot going for it on offense in this game, and Arkansas was defending them pretty well,

which that was even without Jonas Aydoo, a really good defensive center. So DeJuan gets the offensive MVP in this game. Normally I'm going to give a defensive MVP I had trouble kind of coming up with who that would be so not applicable on this one I think KU certainly had their defensive issues in this one and uh I don't know that you know I guess I could go with like somebody who had a couple steals or you know Flory maybe getting some action with blocks but like I don't think anybody had like a great defensive game to earn singling out in terms of that. Okay. What about the Remy Martin season opening award? That's going to go to one AJ store. I don't know if people remember this. Obviously everybody

remembers the finish to Remy Martin. You know, people probably a lot of people remember some of the beginning of Remy Martin and some of the early games he had. I certainly remember, was it like Tarleton State where he had to hit like a big shot late for KU to seal the game? I don't know how many people remember this part. KU's first game of the 2021 to 22 season, it was the Champions Classic against Michigan State. Do you know how many points Remy Martin had in the first half of that game? Correct answer is zero. Do you know how many shots Remy Martin had in the first half of KU season opening game? The correct answer, also zero. Doesn't that seem crazy for Remy Martin, a guy who is this shot first point guard, who his best skill is being a bucket for you, had zero shots in KU's first half and they didn't really need him. I mean, Ochai was going

off, KU dominated that game. But it was almost like in that game, because you heard all offseason, you knew Remy Martin was this gifted offensive player and talent and scorer, but you heard all offseason from Bilsaft trying to get him to play their way and do some of the other things, do some of the little things that make them win there. It's a lot of similar stuff that we're hearing about A.J. Storr, who A.J. Storr is this very accomplished player. He's a very talented offensive player overall, but now you're coming into a new system. You're being

asked by a Hall of Fame coach to get even more out of your game, to do other specific things that maybe you haven't been forced to do at much of the level that you have to do now at Kansas. And it almost felt like in that first half of that first game that Remy Martin played at KU, he was almost trying to prove a point. He was like, hey, I don't need to shoot. I'll do all the other things you wanted me to do. I don't need to shoot. And that's how I kind of felt watching A.J. Stort tonight,

I think specifically in the first half. I think overall for the game, he ended up getting some shots up. But I felt like you didn't really notice much in the first half. I think overall for the game, you know, he ended up getting some shots up, but I felt like you didn't really notice much in the first half. And it felt a little bit to me, like he wasn't in his element that I do wonder if there is a lack of comfortability there for AJ store that now he's kind of in his head about like, you know, listen, my, the normal best part about my game is I'm a bucket.

I can score the basketball, but now he's thinking about all these other things. And to be clear, he's, he does need to, does need to be a better rebounder and be a better defender. Those things aren't just going to help KU and help him. It's going to help him go higher as a possible NBA draft pick. But you can't let it take away your main identity. The reason that you are here, the reason you got second team all Big Ten, that you got as much money as you probably did in the transfer portal, that you got as much attention in the portal, and that Kansas brought you to begin with was because of your scoring. And yes, they want to add those other things to your game,

but you cannot lose your original identity. And that's what it kind of felt like a little bit in this one. So definitely feels like this could be kind of an underlying story to the season with Bill Self and AJ Store kind of clashing and trying to figure out how things work. If we're going to go with our improved chances at a role award, I would definitely throw Rakeese Passmore in there. We mentioned Bill Self calling him the MVP of the game for KU. He had 11 points, four of seven shootings, six rebounds. Actually ended up playing one more minute, 19 to 18, than what AJ Storr ended up playing. So definitely feels like Rakees is earning his way into a regular rotational role for KU. I think Shaquille Moore had an improved chance because when DeJuan Harris wasn't in at point guard, you saw KU struggle even more. And was that just

part of DeJuan having a really good offensive night and David Coit going 0 for 5, which isn't always going to happen? Yeah, but it didn't look as comfortable out there all the way. So it feels like Shaquille Moore could be that guy who has that best chance to be kind of the backup point guard minutes when DeJuan does go on the bench specifically, even though he didn't end up playing. And also when you need athleticism and defense, it's like, okay, well, Shaquille Moore would be perfect to come in and help you out with that. And then honestly, like if we're talking about roles, like maybe Rylan Griffin's chances of starting go up now, right? You saw AJ Storr struggle a little bit.

KU goes 7 of 23 from 3. They go 4 of 10 at the free throw line. They could certainly use more shooting out there. Well, maybe it ends up being Rylan Griffin. And then the last award we're giving out here, the I Can't Guard or Stay in Front of Boogie Flander Award. That goes to everyone on KU because nobody could slow that dude down. All right, what's next for KU?

That on the other side. Our episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where you can get Kansas at 10 to 1 odds to win the national title at FanDuel. Maybe you're not feeling that after this exhibition, so you could short them. You could go to the Big 12 odds and pick Houston at plus 250 to win the Big 12 instead of them. I don't know. Take it wherever you want to go, but you can get on NFL games. You can get on college football. You can get on the World Series. There's so much going on right now, and you can get that season going with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

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Make sure you're subscribed to the show. If you give us a thumbs up, certainly helps if you're watching on our YouTube channel. We will have another episode probably on Sunday afternoon, recapping whatever happens in the KUK State game. So what is next for KU men's basketball? Well, they're going to have their exhibition game against Washburn on Tuesday. And obviously if you struggle in that one, that is even more of an indictment, but you know, Washburn actually has a pretty good team. MIAA, they were picked to win it. So, which is a very good conference in D2. So that'll be interesting. But obviously KU should be able to cruise through that one.

And it'll be a good opportunity to, you just hope, you get like guys like Hunter Dickinson back and whoever. And you could say, well, it's another exhibition. Why even play them if they're going through injury? Well, you do want them to shake the rust off a little bit before the actual season starts, especially knowing you have the Champions Classic, you have North Carolina in your first handful of games.

But that one's coming up on Tuesday night back in Allen Fieldhouse. And then after that, it have the Champions Classic. You have North Carolina in your first handful of games. But that one's coming up on Tuesday night back in Allen Fieldhouse. And then after that, it is the real thing. You're playing Howard in your season opener, and then you have North Carolina. Then you have Michigan State off the rip. So not a ton of time to really figure everything out. And that is the, you know, like we talked about earlier, like there is some positives to getting more reps for guys like

Flory Budunga and Zach Clements and whoever else, in case you need them by not having Hunter and Ryland Griffin and stuff. But the negative is now they have less reps playing all together and figuring out, you know, how to be in sync with each other, that it's one less opportunity that you had to do that before the season does start with those really tough games right off the rip.

But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page. Again, we'll be back for a KUK State recap later this weekend. So thanks for joining us on today's show and see you then.