Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What's WRONG with Kansas??? KU Jayhawks Suffer Ugly Loss at Iowa State Cyclones

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's a longer list of problems than you might want to make it out to be. Kansas loses an ugly one in Ames. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Going on, Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Going on, Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show and sticking with us because times have not been as great as you might have hoped for here so far this season.

Starting point is 00:00:35 We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. On today's episode, we're recapping KU's 17-point loss, 74-57, in Ames to Iowa State, and why the list of problems for KU isn't just one thing you can point to. There is a long list of issues for this team. We'll get into what went down in this one, maybe try to give at least one little positive in there for KU out of this one,

Starting point is 00:01:01 and then we'll get to our game trophies and what's next for the Jayhawks on this episode of the show. First, this episode of Locked On Jayhawks is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, where if you had been on KU in this game, did not come out big even though there were six and a half point underdogs. Big upsets to game winning drives. The NFL

Starting point is 00:01:17 playoffs are better with FanDuel. New customers can get $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Win or lose, just visit FanDuel.com and you can get started today. So Kansas loses 74-57, and this is a growing trend recently for KU in losing these big games. Over the course of Bill Self's tenure in Lawrence, he has lost 57 games by double-digit points.

Starting point is 00:01:44 So that's really not that much. He's been at Kansas for 20 seasons. 10 points counts as double-digit points. So that's really not that much. He's been at Kansas for 20 seasons. 10 points counts as double-digits, right? There's games that are close and you lose by 10. That's basically three a year. However, 12 of those have happened over the last two and a half seasons. So 2022, 23 season, 23, 24 season, and now there's 24, 25 season, which is still ongoing, which that one's not as bad as this next

Starting point is 00:02:05 one Kansas has suffered 41 losses in the Bill Self era by 13 or more points so that's about two per season for Bill Self at Kansas 12 though have come over the last two and a half seasons so they're averaging you know maybe over four we'll see what ends up happening this year four per season recently so it's happening more it's happening more progressively and this was another example that though the game was closer for a majority of the game even though it didn't finish that way as iowa state finished on a 12 to 2 run this game was indicative of the laundry list of problems for ku and there's a very simple explanation of why kansas lost this game it's that iowa state is the better team i i know that doesn't sound fun to say when you're kansas basketball and you go into every season, you go into every game,

Starting point is 00:02:46 you're like, we should be the better team, and those should absolutely be the goals and the aspirations. But I'm telling you right now, Iowa State is the better basketball team. And they were playing at home. And you played a bad game. Like, you didn't play well. And yes, you could say Iowa State had a bunch of turnovers and they were without Milan Momcelevic, and those things are true as well.

Starting point is 00:03:02 But when you have those three things, when you're the worst team, you're on the road, and you don't play well, you're not going to win those games. That's the very simple explanation of why Kansas didn't win this game. But the long laundry list of things of why this team has problems, some people want to point to, oh, it's the K.J. Adams dilemma with playing him next to Hunter Dickinson, and oh, it's, it's Bill Self's, you know, he's not playing the rotations the right way or it's, it's this, they're not rebounding well enough or they're not three point shooting well

Starting point is 00:03:32 or whatever it is. Like a lot of times people want to point to one thing or maybe they want to point to two things. I'm here to tell you, like, it's, it's a lot of things. It's a lot on those lists. Yeah. Part of it is sure. At times the offense can get clunky and clogged up when you're playing KJ next to Hunter for extended minutes. And sure, Hunter's lack of hustle can be, I don't know, I find it hard to believe that the guy that is supposed to be your best player, so to speak, in Hunter Dickinson, when you

Starting point is 00:03:58 see him having some of those lack of hustle plays that cost you during the game, you know, it's one of those things where it's like lead by example right if the top guy is not doing it then how do you expect everybody else to do it and you see so many 50 50 balls that would i would say it's way i don't know a single 50 50 ball that went kansas's way in that game like off the top of my head i'm sure there's one or two that i'm forgetting about but like i would say dominated you and hustle and when you're the underdog on the road you gotta win the hustle plays right and that keeps happening over and over again so like that's one problem that's not the only problem that's one problem that the kj thing like we said um but again that's not the only

Starting point is 00:04:32 problem right and that's still manageable and that's further down the list to me like why is dee coy playing all these minutes uh if we're talking about the playing time dilemmas for this team you know i i look to it and i'm like okay dg coit is i forget what the number is henry greenstein of the lj world like tweeted out uh dg coit's numbers over the last month it was really bad it was i don't know something like 20 shooting from the floor over the last month he goes oh for one in this game um and i think he was the one who gave up the three after hunter didn't hustle for the rebound so it's like why is he playing crunch minutes i don't think that was the intention here uh Flory plays well, and then you kind of take him out. I mean, it's just, it's a

Starting point is 00:05:10 lot like, why is Rylan Griffin not really playing for the second half? He's your best like floor spacer and shooter off the ball and defenses really respect him when he's out there. And it seems like he's, he's doing a good job of hustling over these last few weeks. So like there are issues with all of those things there are issues with your your 60 year veteran point guard dewan harris you know missing a billion free throws having some turnovers and looking like the worst version of tomeen lipsy which is kind of what happened in this game so and there's things that maybe i haven't even touched on yet i'm just basically saying there are a long thing list of things that for KU are causing these issues.

Starting point is 00:05:45 It's not as simple to say as, Oh, it's just because they're playing this one guy or they're not playing this one guy. Yeah, sure. That can be part of it, but like there's more to it than that.

Starting point is 00:05:55 And that is a little bit frustrating because even though it's, I don't know, it's almost like it's harder to fix because it's just like, there's not as much you can do. And so you look at this game and like Curtis Jones goes for 20 points in the first half like Kansas doesn't have the offense to keep up with that if Curtis Jones is going to go for 20 points and a half like Kansas is not going to win that half right now Kansas is a defensive team that doesn't have much on the offensive end of the court I mean you have 111 points over your last two games of basketball here if you're KU and KU hung in there to their

Starting point is 00:06:25 credit I know the 17 point uh deficit doesn't show that's necessarily the case but KU did at least hang in there a little bit uh in the second half like this one got away from him at the end of the game but like um you know yeah you you at least like hung in there it was a game till the final what like three minutes four minutes something like that but you just had too many errors um You just had too many mistakes. You didn't play a good enough basketball game. Like it just comes down to that. You went four of 11 at the free throw line, right? You fouled them too much. They went 18 of 25 on free throws. You had 17 turnovers, right? I mean, you're not going to win many games on the road where that's the case. That led to a 23 to 14 edge for them in points off turnovers. You lost the rebounding battle, 43-33.

Starting point is 00:07:06 They had four more offensive rebounds, 13-9, and they led in second chance points. This goes back to the hustle thing we talked about, 16-5. So fast break points was 10-4. You're just not going to win games that way against teams who are top 10 opponents. Maybe you can get away with that against Cincinnati, but you're not going to be able to get away from that in this game.

Starting point is 00:07:26 And Kansas continued to, you know, not too great from 35 to 16. I guess it was better than Cincinnati, but that's still just 31%. So it's a long list of things that lead to this. And I think the playing time decisions are the ones, though, that people really want to harp on. And I'm fine if we want to talk about those a little bit more here because those are the ones that feel most. It's almost like when a coach in football right they make a mistake with a timeout or uh not going for a fork down that they should or something because

Starting point is 00:07:54 those are the ones where it's like you know if you're fancying on your couch like you might not understand the complexities of x 24 right you know flow x y on on three or whatever you know i don't know just whatever right um you might not understand like okay that but you can understand the basic stuff and and that's what this kind of comes down to where it's like okay you know i might not be able to drop as good of an out of time outplay as bill self but like i can see what's going on with the rotation and have questions. Why is the equate playing these real minutes in these games? You know,

Starting point is 00:08:28 why is Ryland Griffin not getting playing time here? It seemed like the Flory Hunter lineup was working a little bit. Why didn't they, you know, go to that a little bit more and continue doing that in the second half. Right. Those are real questions. I think those are valid questions.

Starting point is 00:08:40 And I mean, I don't know. I don't know. It's just like, it's like, what do you, what do you want to do? I don't know that it's going to change. So it's one of those things where it's like, as much as I want to, you know, complain about it, it's, is it going to change? Is it going to matter? You know? And that's a frustrating spot to be in as well. So I I'm here for uh if you want to talk about that but uh i guess if you do want me to throw out one positive just to end on a little positive note here before we get to

Starting point is 00:09:09 our game awards the defense was still good for ku i mean iowa state had 74 points but they got a good amount of those i mean 12 of those points came in the last three minutes of the game the game was put away kansas held iowa state to 41 shooting, and it took Iowa State going 8 of 13 from three-point range. That's 62%. They shot 62% on threes. They got to the free throw line 25 times, and they still only scored 74 points. That is just the third time all season that Iowa State's been held under 80 points, and that ties their season low for points in a game. So I will say this. The defense is still good for Kansas. they have to figure out the offense right now the offense is ugly can they figure it out do they have the personnel do they have the right rotations and lineups i maybe that's

Starting point is 00:09:55 where the lineup stuff comes in right maybe that's where that playing time stuff comes in to figure out that offense but i will say at the very least the defense was still there so bottom line you know they're better teams than KU this year. I know that sucks to hear, but like teams on another tier from where KU is. And when you play one on the road and you do things that relate to playing poorly, turning the ball over a bunch, losing the hustle stats, and there's an underdog, like that's what's going to happen. And this doesn't change to me that Kansas can still be a good team.

Starting point is 00:10:22 So no, you know, go bounce back at home. Beat a reeling Kansas State team in outfield house. At the very least, you won those three games before to where you didn't set yourself up in too big of a hole after losing this one. But 3-2, not the start you were hoping for through the first five in Big 12 play. Game awards next. Our episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Starting point is 00:11:17 with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. Continuing on with our show, and don't forget to check out Locked On College Football, Locked On College Basketball for your second listen every day. On to our Game Awards, Kansas falling by 17 at Iowa State. Let's start with our best moment of the game. I think in the first half, the moments when you hit the back-to-back threes from Zeke Mayo and Rylan Griffin made it a two-point game.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Felt like, okay, they're hanging in there. Here we go. They got a little bit of momentum going. felt good immediately followed that did not feel good but at the time that felt good and then i think the highest moment of hope might have been at least you know maybe me watching the um i think kansas is down five in time i want to say it was 57 52 for badunga goes to the free throw line uh on an and one he misses the free throw but aj store gets the offensive rebound and able to get Kansas another possession.

Starting point is 00:12:07 It's like, okay, if they can score here, this can either be a four or five point swing. They get it to Zeke Mayo, who gets a bunch of separation on like a really big striding leg step back three. And as soon as he shoots the ball, you're like, oh, this is going to be the turn. This is going to be, and then it's short.

Starting point is 00:12:23 And then from there, things just didn't go well for KU but you know for that brief moment of time that the ball was in the air was like okay this is going to be it right here I think the worst moment of the game um let's see we have all the KJ Adams missed layups in the first half that was not fun the possession where he just kept going up is just like dude just pass the ball pass the ball out um all the DeJuanris missed free throws one for six which again you lose by 17 so it's like in the end of the day it didn't really matter but when the game was a five point game three point game you know seven point game like there's two three extras if you would have been four of six or something those did matter and you don't really

Starting point is 00:12:57 expect that from from a veteran like dewan uh the 80 run to end the first half uh that was after those back-to-back threes that i mentioned from zeke and rylan that felt like it was going to get you back in it at halftime, that you were going to be right there. And then you give up an 8-0 run and that was kind of a gut punch to you. Obviously, good credit to Kansas for not giving up from there and fighting back and making it a close game for a majority of that second half, or at least within two possessions for a majority of that second half. But that was certainly a gut punch at the end of the first half. And when you look at it, that basically means, you know, I don't know when exactly the 8-0 run started. Let me see if I can go find this on the box score. Because again, over the last three minutes of basically give or take three minutes of the second half, they outscored you 12 to 2. So this was over the last 2.09 of the first half. So if you take the final, basically 2.09 of the first half, final three minutes, basically, of the second half, that means basically in a five-minute span, they outscored you 20-2. And hey, the rest of the game, that means you basically won the game by a point. I think the worst moment, though,

Starting point is 00:13:59 is this one. It was the one where, I'm trying to think, I think it was a five point game at the time um and it was off the missed shot the ball kind of goes on the ground instead of going forward or diving for it hunter lets it go thinking it's going to go out of bounds and deshaun jackson picks it up for iowa state and the amount of times this stuff kind of happens game to game it feels like once or twice a game where okay he was just letting a ball go, being like, oh, it'll go out of bounds or somebody else will get it. And then the other team gets it. It's happening too much.

Starting point is 00:14:33 And it's very frustrating. It's not something that shows up in the box score, right? Like it's not, you don't get a negative one on your rebounding for that happening, but it's happening too often. And it's not something like you think about the best Bill Self teams. They've had like hustle play. They win those hustle ball. I don't know. It's just not happening this year but anyway um so then that happens and then diggy coy lets to mean lipsy get open for three and to mean lipsy knocks it down i would say it was good from three all night long and boom just like that the uh

Starting point is 00:14:57 cyclones that felt like the nail in the coffin at that point in time okay um our next one is the uh offensive mvp which i mean right now kansas's offense is in a rut um it's really tough because zeke mayo is a good score but it's like if you're not playing rylan griffin and aj stores not earning his minutes you're struggling to find the scores right and especially in a game where hundred against and struggled he goes six points on three of ten shooting and he had four turnovers and those two we had to start the second half were really bad so it becomes like who else is going to score kind of thing right um and so it's hard just like do i pick zeke mayo for your offensive mvp in a game where he only went seven of 19? You know, with three turnovers like that, that's not a good split.

Starting point is 00:15:49 But it's also like, well, who else was going to score like he had to shoot it? He had to. He had to take tougher shots than normal because nobody else was scoring. So I guess I would give him offensive MVP. Actually, you know, I'm going to give it to Rylan Griffin. He only played 19 minutes. He had seven points. Honestly, I was surprised to even see when it was 19

Starting point is 00:16:06 because it felt like it was going to be like 12. But seven points, three, four from the floor. I think he just opens things up a little bit more for the offense when he is out on the court for KU. So I would go with that one for KU. Defensive MVP. This is interesting because, okay, I could have sworn that DeJuan Harris was the one

Starting point is 00:16:26 guarding Curtis Jones in the first half when he had 20 points and then I think KU switched Shaquille Moore onto him in the second half I'll have to re-watch the game and double check that but if that is the case you know that would get credit for for being defensive MVP for KU uh in the meantime I'm gonna go with Flory Badunga he only only played 11 minutes, which again, to me is like, I think Flory should be getting 15 to 20 a night at this point for KU. I could even argue for more than that, but that's kind of bare minimum. He had four blocks and a steal, and he was just that run where KU got into it, where KJ was injured and Flory had to go out there with Hunter Dickinson.

Starting point is 00:17:00 He was swatting shots. He was just making a chaotic defensive impact when he was out on the court. So I'll go with Flory being that one there. As far as our most appalling stat of the game, oh man, I certainly think four of 11 at the free throw line for KU is rather appalling. I mean, anytime you shoot that poorly on free throws, like that is not good.

Starting point is 00:17:22 The 17 turnovers is also pretty appalling for ku um being out rebounded by 10 when we thought that could be at least one possible opportunity like iowa state coming into this one had struggled defensive rebounding and big 12 only games didn't really carry over to this one and they won the hustle plays like that one is certainly appalling but i'm gonna actually go with this k Kansas had 10 blocks in this game and they lost by 17, which is pretty appalling to me that you would have that many and lost by 17. So it's either that or it's the, I say all the time, like I'll bring up the plus minus numbers because I think they're interesting, but sometimes the plus minus numbers in an individual game can be very

Starting point is 00:18:00 misleading. And that would also be a good appalling stat in this one because would you like to guess the only ku player who finished with an with a zero or a positive on their plus minus it was david coy at a plus one so uh yeah i i don't think that's totally indicative of what happened in the game and then our final award here is the boo award of the game so many boos to choose from you know i i think you could walk out um somebody who donates like tens of million dollars to charity uh at the middle of halftime and then the iowa state fans would just be like boo i think it's just in their nature that's just what they do i think if honestly if anything if you get booed by an iowa state fan it's a good thing because that's like the sign of respect, I think, if anything. I think, you know, instead of being like, I love you, they say they just boo.

Starting point is 00:18:50 So plenty to choose from. Pick your own on your boo of the game. All right, that'll do it for the Game Awards. What is next for KU as they try to shake this one off? And this episode of the show is brought to you by PrizePix, the place to get real money sports action with over 10 million members and billions in winnings. PrizePix has changed the game in daily fantasy sports. Whether it's the playoffs or regular season action,

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Starting point is 00:20:14 Thanks for joining us. Don't forget you can check out some good news. Hunter Higgins, who's a four-star defensive end, committed to KU. So we got a bonus episode of that up on Locked on Jayhawks. What is next for KU? Well, they're going to try to bounce back Saturday against Kansas State at 1 o'clock in Allen Fieldhouse, and they should bounce back. Kansas State has not been good this season.

Starting point is 00:20:32 That will be alarm bells if Kansas loses at home to Kansas State. Honestly, it'll be alarm bells if they struggle and they have to win that one close. But I guess right now, if the offense isn't getting going, then it might have to be kind of a grime it out type of win so we'll see how that one goes for ku but a good opportunity to bounce back in that way and then you'll be at tcu during the week next week and um you know at the end of the day you would have liked a better showing in this one than losing by 17 again the score is probably closer than that score indicates. But if you can win these next two and you win at TCU, if you would have said a week ago between at Cincinnati at Iowa State at TCU,

Starting point is 00:21:14 if you can go two and one, would you take it? Especially at that point when you had already lost at home to West Virginia? I think a lot of people would have signed up for that. Now, you still have to win at TCU to accomplish that, right? There's no guarantee that's going to happen. And TCU has played you really tough over the past couple years right almost beat you in Allen Fieldhouse last year they beat you in Fort Worth recently so it's going to be tough to do that but uh opportunity here for for KU to to keep riding the ship overall even though they lost this game because the three previous games they were playing better basketball and we'll see if they can continue that and keep the defense going in the positive light and try to

Starting point is 00:21:44 figure out some of those rotations and playing time in the offense a little bit better in this portion of the Big 12 schedule, especially before that Houston game the following Saturday. All right, 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. We'll be back at you on Friday. We're going to preview that Kansas-Kansas State game. So join us then right here with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - What's WRONG with Kansas??? KU Jayhawks Suffer Ugly Loss at Iowa State Cyclones

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