Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Why is Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Bad on the Road + Johnny Furphy NBA Draft Prospect + KU Bench Woes

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Why is Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball so bad on the road after dropping to 1-4 on the road in Big 12 play with a loss at Kansas State Wildcats. Possible solutions for Bill Self's KU team, what it me...ans. Johnny Furphy struggled in Manhattan but has been excellent since becoming a starter; does he have a legit shot at the 2024 NBA Draft and Gradey Dick vs Furphy. Whose Stat Line is it Anyway featuring the Jayhawk bench woes.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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 LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, very simple question. Why is Kansas so bad on the road? We'll get into some Johnny Furphy NBA draft discussion. Is that something that is realistically on the table? And finish up with whose stat line is it anyway? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson.
Starting point is 00:00:34 You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLW in the Lawrence, at least for the rest of the week. He's Nick Schwert. Give him a follow at Nick underscore Schwert. Find me on social media at DJohnsonradio. You can catch this podcast, Locked on Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcasts for free, including on our YouTube page. And on today's episode, KU's road struggles continue. They lose at Kansas State in Manhattan.
Starting point is 00:00:57 And on top of that, for KU, they now drop their fourth conference game. This is just the third time they've had at least four losses through the first 10 games of Big 12 play. We'll get into some Johnny Furphy talk. It was obviously at an all-time high after the Houston game, maybe an all-time low since he's been a starter after the Kansas State game. And we'll finish up with whose stat line is it anyway. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account,
Starting point is 00:01:17 and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase with GameTime. So very simple question, Nick, on the first side of things. Why is Kansas so, on the first side of things. Why is Kansas so bad on the road? Is this just something that you find to be plaguing everyone in college basketball? Is this something that you think you can point to? Is there any rhyme or reason? Why do you think this is happening?
Starting point is 00:01:41 You weren't at the game on Monday, were you? Were you watching on TV? Yes. So did you catch the point at the end of the game when Jay Billis was talking about this, when he was talking about good teams, top 25 teams, or top 10 teams losing to unranked teams? And he said, quote, we've never seen anything like this in college basketball, which I always laugh that this, like in college basketball has a lot of tropes that people like to recite, which is, oh, it's wide open. It's wide open this year. You know, we've never seen anything like this. There's so much parody of Derek, Derek, there's so much
Starting point is 00:02:15 parody in college basketball. And now that's becoming the line this season, which is we've just, we've never, we've never seen it in 150 years of college basketball. This is unlike anything we've ever seen. I don't know if that's necessarily true. I think we just need to talk. I have a stat for you. Okay. That's kind of interesting.
Starting point is 00:02:35 This is from OptaStats. After Kansas State's win over number four Kansas, there have now been 26 wins by unranked teams over AP top 10 teams in the last 31 days. That is the most such wins over any 31-day span since the poll expanded to 25 teams back in the 1989 to 1990 season. So what you're telling me is we've never seen anything like this in college basketball it's true it's true maybe there's a reason people are saying it no but you're right I feel like it's been wide open there's no dominant team every year since maybe I don't know the Kentucky undefeated team maybe there's been a year or two since then I don't know well okay so I when I look at these four road losses UCF West Virginia Iowa State and then K-State the other night, I almost separate them into two halves. I think the UCF game and the K-State game belong
Starting point is 00:03:32 in their own grouping and the West Virginia, Iowa State game belong in their own grouping because the West Virginia and Iowa State game, I didn't think KU played that bad in either one of those games. It's the other team shot the lights out. I think West Virginia made 12 threes, Iowa State made 14. And that's kind of the thing that we always talk about with KU. You're going to get the other team's best shot on the road. It's the biggest game of the year for them. Those guys are amped up and they execute, right? You hit a bunch of threes. How many times has KU season ended in March because the other team got hot from three and KU couldn't keep up with them. This team specifically, however, I think is not suited to combat that. You can have the other team go off from three, but if you're a super efficient team and you're just the better team, which KU has been in all four of those losses, you can find a way
Starting point is 00:04:19 to get past and sneak out of there with a win. This team hasn't been able to do that. K-State and UCF, I didn't think either one of those teams played particularly well, especially the K-State game the other night. That was an ugly basketball game. I think I said to my fiance at one point, this isn't even a battle of who's going to win. It's who's going to suck less.
Starting point is 00:04:39 Which team is not going to be quite as bad as the other team down the stretch and escape with a win, And that was K state. So it's tough for me to like sense a theme, an overarching theme that is plaguing Kansas. And these four, I think the other night you just saw on offense for KU, what every team is going to try and do is collapse on Hunter Dickinson. He's able to score out of it sometimes because he's one of the best players in basketball. But aside from that, they just had no offense.
Starting point is 00:05:10 Kevin had a bad night. Furphy couldn't hit any shots there. It's just stagnant, man. Like they, somebody will try and drive into the lane. They'll run a little bit of motion at the top of the key. DeJuan will take two steps in the lane. Nope, nothing there. Desperation. He back out to 35 feet. Okay, now it's Johnny's turn. He's going to try and shit. And they just kind of do that over and over again.
Starting point is 00:05:29 It's really bad to watch because none of those guys are really adept at going and getting their own shot. And I felt like possession after possession, that's what we saw from them on offense. K-State made a couple big shots down the stretch. That was the difference in the game. I know it feels like a cop-out answer, but, I mean, are you seeing anything that seems to be constant in all these losses? I think there are two things, but I want to preface this by saying you look at Bart Torvik and you point to the numbers of since Johnny Furphy
Starting point is 00:05:59 became a starter, which would go back to January 13th in the Oklahoma game. From that point on, Kansas has been a top five team in college basketball. They rank fourth on the offensive side of the ball. Now, I do agree with you. They don't really have the guy who can create his own shot, and I think that is part of it because we just saw them dice up Houston, but the way you dice up Houston is more with passing because they're such an aggressive defense that how many times did we see Hunter Dickinson catch the ball in the high post and then sling it the opposite side of the court. And that just kind of lead to some opening for KU. When the going gets tough at the end of a game in a close game,
Starting point is 00:06:34 and this is usually what happens when you're on the road. In so many past years, Kansas has had that guy who can get you a bucket in late game situations. A lot of times it's been a guard. You think of Sharon Collins and Frank Mason and Devontae Graham, some of the great ones to do it in Bill Self's time. You don't necessarily have that on this year's team. That could be one thing that maybe I would look at. The other thing is, and this is typically something that has been like a Bill Self calling card. They excel in winning ugly. They excel in grinding out wins. And in games where you didn't play that well, they find a way to win. Now, I agree with you with the Iowa State and the West Virginia games. Those weren't the types of games where it's like you had to grind it out to win. The UCF one,
Starting point is 00:07:13 that would have been one where it was like, you didn't play well, but you grind it out. You found a way to win. And that would have been the same case with the Kansas State ones. And honestly, those are some of Bill Self's favorite wins year in and year out. And like when I think of the best Bill Self teams to do that, like I think of like the 2012 team, right? They grinded its way out and found a way to win games in a way that was unorthodox in a lot of other situations. And this team just hasn't been able to figure that out. And I don't know if that's something that they can figure out.
Starting point is 00:07:43 Is that something that the personnel just does not allow them to? Because that's where I'm kind of struggling with this. When I look at some of the, maybe the KU teams that had bigger doubts that still went on tournament runs in March. I know the 2018 team had a one seed, but still that team had a lot of doubts. But they were just so elite on the offensive side of the ball. You look at the 2012 team, yes, there were certain doubts. The bench was very short, just like this one was,
Starting point is 00:08:07 but they could grind their way out, man. And that's the thing where I'm coming to with this one. I'm like, well, you know, this one offensively is probably actually better than now that Furphy's in the starting lineup. The 2012 team was offensively. Like the bench is just as short. The defense is better than that 2018 team was, you know? But like it's the lack
Starting point is 00:08:25 of calling card and the lack of one thing that they can just count on and be like that's going to take us over the top i guess so this is i know what you mean by calling card i would argue that simply having hunter dickinson is a really good calling card like it's about as consistent as anything you know this side of zach edady in college basketball, giving Hunter Dickinson the ball, right? That's going to net you a lot of good offensive possessions. You touched on a couple of things there. First off with the bench, any of those teams who had that guy at the end of the game, who could go and get you a shot, but they also had the bench bench and I think you talk about margin for error for this team like Monday night Kevin McCuller may be the worst game of the season for him
Starting point is 00:09:11 bad game for DeJuan Hunter was asked to do a lot when those guys have off nights there is no Remy Martin to come off the bench. There is no Christian Brown, 2020, Marcus Garrett, 2018, Svee and Brandon Green, 2006. All of those teams had Silvio, 2018, the year they go to the national championship. You had to have him in that Elite Eight game versus Duke or your season is over. And I think so many great wins, whether it be regular season or post-season during the Bill Self era, have included a guy coming in, maybe it's only four points, right? Maybe it's a big guy, maybe it's Mitch Lightfoot coming in and giving you six points and four rebounds in 12 minutes. But that was the difference.
Starting point is 00:10:03 You got a little bit of spark from the bench, and that was the difference. You got a little bit of spark from the bench and that was the difference because you had an off night and you got picked up by somebody giving you some clutch minutes down the stretch. This team does not have that. If the starters have an off night, it's done. There's no grinded out unless they are just able to find something, that extra gear down the stretch themselves. But when you have an off night, that's kind of the point, right? You're having an off night. You're just not going to find it. Like I thought there was a point late in that K-State game. I think it was when Kevin had the turnover when he stepped out of bounds. They kind of showed him
Starting point is 00:10:38 and he looked like a guy who just knew this ain't it for me. Like this isn't my night. I want to get like, he looked like a guy who just wanted to get out of Manhattan and go back to Lawrence. And I did it. It was a rough night. Couldn't hit a shot. Couldn't hit a layup. Couldn't hit a free throw. This team doesn't have any break glass in case of emergency player or spark off the bench. And I think that just makes their margin for error. So razor thin. Those starters have to be on their A game every single night because we can look at K-State or UCF and say, those are kind of pushovers. And they are in the scheme of the Big 12, but you look at other conferences, there are teams who aren't even going to sniff the NIT. These are still quality
Starting point is 00:11:24 opponents at the bottom of your conference. And with K state, you know, this as well as anybody like doesn't matter how bad K state is. They come off their worst game. You're coming off your best game. You know, you're going to get their best shot in their building when that place is
Starting point is 00:11:36 juiced. So I just think the margin for error of this team is, is so razor thin. And with eight games to go, there's really not a ton of indication that that's going to change at all. All right, he's Nick Schwartz. I'm Derek Johnson. We're going to continue on with some Johnny Furphy talk
Starting point is 00:11:52 on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks in just a moment. First, we are brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite sporting event should not be stressful, and with GameTime, you can have the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all your sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. Perfect if you're a procrastinator because you can get the tickets the same day of. They have last-minute tickets, and their best price guarantee means you can stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hyped for all the fun that you're going to be having at whatever sporting event you might be going to.
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Starting point is 00:12:40 Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDON for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So Johnny Furphy has been sweeping the nation with some of his recent play. He obviously just had his worst game as a starter, just four points against Kansas State. And KU certainly could have used maybe a made three or something in that game.
Starting point is 00:13:04 But very completely opposite ends, because if you go back to the Saturday game against Houston, he was electric and was really a game changer with his ability to hit shots from the outside for KU. I think he adds so much to the offense since coming in for a Marco Jackson. When you just have the three-point shooting, when you have somebody else that can open up the floor for guys on the inside because he has to be respected out there. When you look at even the rebounding, I know he's had a couple plays
Starting point is 00:13:27 where you think of West Virginia, K-State games late where he gives up an offensive rebound. But overall, he is still a better rebounder than you're getting with Elmarco Jackson. Gives you more length and all sorts of other stuff out there for him. But this has been kind of a burgeoning conversation of late of if this is going to be Johnny Furphy's only year here in Lawrence. And I know some people have kind of brought up over the last week to the idea that with
Starting point is 00:13:49 NIL being from Australia, there's some weird like rules in the US where if you're not from America, you cannot get NIL money while you are here, which is why we've seen like Zach Edie. They played a random game in like Toronto this past year so that they could get him money while he was there. Oscar Shebway had games in Puerto Rico or something during the offseason, the summer, so that that could happen for him. I would imagine that KU has already planned and thought of that ahead. But anyway, as far as you think of Furphy being an NBA draft prospect, having the potential to go pro after this year. Do you think that is ludicrous? Do you think it is a real possibility? Oh, it's definitely a real possibility. I think
Starting point is 00:14:31 oftentimes it's like sort of plug it into the calculator. Like, will you be drafted 13th or higher? Yes. Okay. You're probably going. Are you a late first round pick? Are you a fringe first round pick? Okay. Maybe you consider coming back for another year, improving that stock, becoming a lottery pick. I think it's pretty obvious at this point that if you are in a lottery pick, you are a, somebody, a team is using a high value draft pick on. They are going to be invested in you. They are going to be invested in making sure you develop and turn into a guy that can help turn around a franchise.
Starting point is 00:15:16 But I think it was Jesse Newell who told me this a few years ago. It's a very simple equation. Will your draft stock ever be higher? A guy like Christian Brown two years ago, KU wins the title. He wasn't a lottery pick, but all of a sudden, strong March run, face of an NCAA championship team, first round pick. Yes, coming back for your senior season is not going to turn you into a lottery pick. This is as high as your draft stock's ever going to be. Go capitalize on that. Johnny Furphy's a freshman.
Starting point is 00:15:59 If he's the 17th overall pick, if he's the 22nd overall pick, I think you could make a strong case that coming back for another season, getting in the weight room, developing, taking on more of a leadership role, taking on more of a go-to role in the offense, I think there's a legitimate case that he could turn into a lottery pick, a top 10 pick. Because what is there that's not to like? He's 6'9". He's shown, like you said, a pretty good ability to go and get the ball. He's just kind of a smart player. He's a really good shooter. If you're an NBA team, what part of that are you not signing up for? Right? Yeah. I think there's still some things that he could show. I mean, the defensive end of the court, I think everything is there that why can't he at least be an average defender? You're talking about a good athlete. Now, some guys are better up and down athletes maybe he's not a good lateral athlete
Starting point is 00:16:47 which that's more defense but he seems to be a good athlete he's long he's lengthy and he seems to try hard like those three things usually you turn into at least an above average defender there uh the shooting like you said i think he needs to show more off the dribble like can you create but that could come with coming back next year um What I would say, one thing on the defensive side, and I think, I don't know how much you paid attention to this, but Grady Dick, obviously McDonald's All-American last year, he ends up being a lottery pick and he's had a rough go of things in Toronto and they sent him down to the G League and then they brought him back up and then they sent him down to the G League, and then they brought him back up, and then they sent him back down. The whole thing with him has been working on his body because he got to the league and they realized, oh, wow, you're getting pushed around. You're getting manhandled. You're
Starting point is 00:17:35 way too skinny to play in the NBA. Grady Dick was about 200 pounds soaking wet. It's about what Johnny Furphy's at. I think some teams may say, okay, well, we can, we can get you in a weight room. Like we can work on your body here, but it may cost you in draft stock. Like, yeah, we're not really sure if you have the physique, if you're physical enough to play in this league. Well, you come back to Kansas for another year.
Starting point is 00:18:00 You put on 10 pounds muscle. You're 220. You're playing more physical. You're taking contact. You're finishing through contact inside. You're 220, you're playing more physical, you're taking contact, you're finishing through contact inside, you're not getting pushed off your spot on the perimeter. All of a sudden, that makes you a much more attractive draft prospect. Yeah, and I guess I've still been pumping the brakes because as much as I can see it, and I think from a long-term perspective, he is KU's best NBA draft prospect on the roster.
Starting point is 00:18:22 I remember doing this with Ochagbaje. You remember when they pulled his red shirt and it was a little bit different, but he comes out, he had some nice flash plays in the early going, maybe scoring seven, eight points in the first few games. And then like maybe a month into him pulling the red shirt, he has that game against Texas where he scores like 24 points. And I think he had another 20 point game in there. And there was a conversation. It was like, wow, is this 20 point game in there. And there was a conversation. It was like, wow, is this guy? He's super athletic. He's a wing.
Starting point is 00:18:47 He can shoot it a little bit. Like this guy might be a one and done right away. Turns out he was a four year player. I'm not saying that's going to happen with Johnny Furphy. I actually tend to believe that if Furphy comes back for year two, even though you could have DeJuan and KJ back, even though you could have Hunter Dickinson back, it would not surprise me at all. Sophomore Johnny Furphy was KU's best player, and he was their All-American
Starting point is 00:19:09 candidate, and he even led them in points per game, maybe not with Hunter Dickinson. So none of that would surprise me, but I guess point being, I am still kind of pumping the brakes on it because this is the true test right here. We see it with freshmen. There is a wall. There is an adjustment that has to be made, and maybe this was the start of it with Kansas State so what are we going to see from here are we going to see very next game he goes for 20 against Baylor with college game day you know maybe then you start talking about okay he is learning on how to adjust to the adjustment but what if we do see a handful more of games in a row where he does have six seven eight points I want to ask you something you don't necessarily have to answer it now. Maybe we can discuss, you can give me your answer next week. You can ruminate on this,
Starting point is 00:19:49 but like talking about Grady Dick. Okay. I know I'm comparing two skinny white guys who shoot threes with nice hair. Uh, is Johnny Furphy better than Grady Dick was? I'll answer this quick. I actually think the answer right now is no. And I know there is this prisoner of the moment situation. Here's what I keep coming back to. Oh, you've thought about this. Yes, I have. If Grady Dick had the luxury of playing with Hunter Dickinson, how many more or how much better would the three-point percentage be? How much more consistent would he be? Because if you remember, there was that stretch in Big 12 play where teams started face-guarding him,
Starting point is 00:20:28 and it had a real impact on his consistency game in and game out where certain games he might have four points or something like that. If he had Hunter Dickinson in the post where Bill Self could just run same-side actions with him, don't you think that he would have just been even more lethal? Yeah, probably. I think Grady was so good at getting to his spot and just being ready to shoot.
Starting point is 00:20:51 There was an aggression level, a confidence level that he had. If you could take Johnny's skill set and just give him a little bit of Grady's swag, yeah, maybe that's the separator. Because I think from an energy standpoint, from a rebounding standpoint, I think Johnny's a little bit better. But you're
Starting point is 00:21:14 right. Prisoner of the moment, we forget. Grady Dick wasn't just another dude. He's one of the best shooters in the country. All right. Let's finish up. Whose stat line is it anyway? I got an interesting one on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, we are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate from FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.
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Starting point is 00:22:25 Finishing things up with whose stat line is it anyway? And this is going to be more of a list question. I only have one for you, but it includes a handful plus of players. So here's the question for today. There are seven player seasons, so individual seasons. They're all different players, so you don't have to worry about that. But basically seven players in the Bill Self era who have played 10 or more minutes per game and all of these players played 20 or more games too.
Starting point is 00:22:50 So it's not somebody who was like, oh, walk on who happened to play 10 minutes one game. 10 or more minutes per game, shoot below 40% from the floor and below 31% from three. So all three of those things, 10 plus minutes per game, below 40% shooting, below 31% from three in the Bill South era. You want to go through this and try to get the seven players. And I think there's maybe an interesting bit of information at the end here. Below, okay, below 40%. So basically, we're talking about guys that played a lot, but they didn't really contribute a whole lot to the team.
Starting point is 00:23:24 Is that what we're getting at? Basically, struggled shooting the ball, struggled with efficiency. Okay, first one that comes to mind. I'll say this too. All of these players are in the last decade. Okay, that helps. First player just off the top of my head that comes to mind is Charlie Moore. Is Charlie Moore on the list?
Starting point is 00:23:42 That is right. Sophomore year, Charlie Moore, which was his one year at KU was the 2018 to 2019 season yes he is one of them okay um last decade so that would take me back to 2014 which would have been the Wiggins Selden year um part of me wants to say Carlton Bragg but like just because he was a big guy, I'm assuming he shot above 40% from three. Did all these guys shoot? Are all these guys shooters? Or is this kind of a trick question where I could have taken zero threes? I'll say this.
Starting point is 00:24:14 There was one in the 2014-15 season that you might not think of, but then when you start realizing the context, it makes more sense. 2014-15, that would have been Oubre. Who else was on that team? That would have been Devontae's freshman year. That wouldn't apply to him. It would have been Svee's freshman year. Svee wasn't that good, but he didn't play enough, did he?
Starting point is 00:24:52 Oh! Oh! Wayne Seldon. play enough did he oh oh wayne selden you actually worked by it sfi was one of them but okay he was 16 years old so like you know that one makes sense but that's what i'm doing with furphy now too like furphy's 18 but like the worse he plays the younger i make him like he had a bad game versus case i'm like well he's 11 years old like what do you expect from the kid for all we know he's like 20 but anyway okay okay those are two of them i'll give you a hint on another steldon was not selden did not qualify no selden did not qualify here okay the rest of these are from 2019 on okay 2019 on um kj lawson kind of had some of those vibes quentin grimes kind of had some of those vibes but quentin i don't think he was as bad as um i don't know give me give me give me something So I will give you one was a McDonald's all American. One of them ended up transferring a couple of times.
Starting point is 00:25:48 I think now he's with like Cleveland state if he's still in college. And then another one transferred into the program recently. Cleveland state. Is that Tristan and Aruna? That is Tristan and Aruna as a freshman in 2019, 20. So, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:02 what about Bryce Thompson? Bryce Thompson was 2020 to 2021 talk about a guy talk about a guy i just even though i see him twice a year i kind of completely forgot about the whole bryce thompson plan here um okay and the last one was a transfer into the program who has since transferred out and then there are two other ones on the current team. What about Joe Yesifu? Joe Yesifu from last season is on this list. And you said there are two on this team?
Starting point is 00:26:34 Yes. Okay, well, I'm going to go with Nicholas Timberlake. Yep. And Elmarco Jackson. Yes, and Elmarco was the reason I had to make this 31% because it was 30.3. Everybody else was under 30% from three, so he was just above that, so I just altered that a little bit.
Starting point is 00:26:51 So a couple things to take away from that. One, everybody we named on the list, obviously we'll wait to see what the current guys, did not make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament on those teams specifically. I think there's maybe something to be said about the bench. Now, Tristan and Aruna, they didn't have the tournament, so that's maybe fabricating the truth a little bit.
Starting point is 00:27:10 But the rest of them lost out. And I think there's something to be said about if you're having to play someone who is not very good 10-plus minutes per game, what does that mean about the team? And now you have two of them on the same team. And they're here and they're your sixth and seventh guys you know what i mean it's not just like oh we don't always play it's like well you kind of have to because you don't have anybody else i talked about this on our
Starting point is 00:27:34 podcast this morning this is and you mentioned like the 2015-16 season that's when i kind of remember it very vividly is whenever you maybe have a hole in your lineup or you're not really sure like who the sixth guy is and the seventh guy, maybe the pieces don't really fit. Fans will start to go to this thing of like, Oh, well, let's get this guy some more minutes. And maybe, maybe, maybe he needs some run. Like maybe Hunter Mickelson, like maybe, maybe he should be in the five spot.
Starting point is 00:28:02 What if you put Mitch at the four, right? Or what if you played small ball and you got in Aruna at the four maybe slide tie on Grant Foster he's got a tie on he's you know he's pretty electric out there it's like there is no save here like I know we do this it's like it's not the pieces it's how they're being utilized but the the fact of the matter is you just, you don't have the pieces. And that's what this team is. Your starting five is great. Your starting five is as good as any starting five in college basketball.
Starting point is 00:28:32 I would put this five against any other five. Problem is that starting five has to play 38 minutes for you to look good. Because the second you go to Parker Brown or Nicholas Timberlake, the entire thing falls apart. It's like a well-oiled machine, but you can't take one piece out. And yes, it's a very real problem, not just because you can't take them out because you look so bad, but because of that, now you got to play these guys 38 minutes a game. And I don't know if you thought this, but Kevin McCullough looked gassed, looked gassed versus K-State. It's a quick turnaround, Saturday to Monday.
Starting point is 00:29:06 I get it, but, like, you know how the NCAA tournament works, right? Right? Thursday to Saturday, Friday to Sunday. It's not going to get any easier for these guys, and the fatigue is only going to progress throughout the season. So, I mean, no matter how you look at it, it's pretty concerning. He's Nick Schwert, at Nick underscore Schwert. Nick,
Starting point is 00:29:25 where can people check out your work right now? Could be wrong podcast. You can check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Also at could be wrong pod on Twitter. All right. You can give me a follow at D Johnson radio. Find our podcast here with locked on Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcast and on our YouTube page.
Starting point is 00:29:39 See you next time with LOJ.

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