Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will the ROAD STRUGGLES continue for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball at Utah Utes?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's Locked on Jayhawks, we preview Kansas going on the road to the Utes of Utah. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, what's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Hey, what's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to every dayers catching each and every episode. And thank you to you for listening to every year podcast, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:35 We're going to be previewing Kansas at Utah on today's episode of the show. Get into the headlines for KU. Get to the scouting report of what the Utes bring to the table. Keys to the game for KU, get to the scouting report of what the Utes bring to the table, keys to the game for KU, and players to watch for the Jayhawks going up against the Utes. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. And right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Do that with FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:01:03 We'll get started with the opponent scouting report and the headlines for the ku utah game then move to those keys to the game and uh then after that we'll we'll finish up with uh the players to watch for this one so uh headline number one here kansas is projected on ken palm to win their next five games with the inclusion of this one which if you tail back to the colorado game would mean six straight wins they're projected to win their next five games with the inclusion of this one, which if you tail back to the Colorado game would mean six straight wins. They're projected to win this one by seven points, which is the third closest, you would say. The BYU game is a one-point game projection.

Starting point is 00:01:35 The Texas Tech game at home is a four-point. This is seven points. So I guess this is more of a medium-tier difficulty game for you, which makes sense because it's a road game. Winning on the road is hard. But going back to the idea of the schedule seemingly opening up for KU at this point in time, it only opens up if you take advantage of it, right? If you lose some of these games that it just doesn't matter. We don't talk about it anymore, right? And for Kansas needing momentum, needing to find themselves, needing to find that energy, needing to find

Starting point is 00:02:04 the right lineups and rotation. It's not just about trying to win these games. It's about what the long haul can do for you. And then also trying to win these games to build that momentum and kind of get your confidence up. So can you take care of business, especially on the road where so far this season, you were just three and five on the year on the road. You were not good on the road last year either. That's been a consistent.

Starting point is 00:02:25 It seemed like maybe they were starting to figure it out with that little two-game road trip they had in January, but that hasn't really carried over for Kansas. The other part of this and it being on the road is how is Kansas going to handle the altitude and the travel? This is something that's a little bit more unique to this specific matchup, this specific venue for Kansas going on the road and taking on Utah. Because you look at it and you have a two-game trip.

Starting point is 00:02:57 And Bill Self talked about this in the postgame where, you know, it would be one thing if it was a Saturday, Monday, it would be easy to stay. But being a Saturday, Tuesday where they're at BYU at Utah, or or i'm sorry at utah then at byu what do you do do you stick around there and it sounds like they are going to stick around there maybe that's the best thing this team needs that they'll just have like a day off in utah that they can sure they can practice or whatever they can do some sightseeing or something because like i don't know i i don't know that there's any like you know locker room confrontations or i don't know fights or anything like that like i don't know. I don't know that there's any like, you know, locker room confrontations or I don't know, fights or anything like that. Like, I don't know, metaphorically speaking, die for each other. Right. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't feel like a group that has everybody's back to the very fullest. You know

Starting point is 00:03:52 what I mean? And so maybe just having like a day off where you're kind of on the road, you're away from home things and distractions and doing things you would normally do. Like, maybe that ends up being the best. Like, maybe we look back to, I don't know, maybe this is just me being optimistic, but maybe we look back to it in a couple of weeks and we're like, and I can see the story now. It'll be like CJ Moore in The Athletic or something like that.

Starting point is 00:04:12 I don't know, sorry, it'll be like, it was 2 p.m. on a Monday in Provo, Utah, and the aquarium was splashing with fish, and Kansas attended, and Hunter Dickinson and Floyd Budunga bonded over their love for sea turtles. I don't know. You know what I mean? It's such a stupid thing, but it's like,

Starting point is 00:04:35 it can't hurt at this point. But also, from the altitude perspective, how does that affect Utah? Utah wants to play fast. How does Kansas do? A team that hasn't always been super engaged has been a bit lethargic at times how do they do when it is hard like you have to exert more energy to match the same amount of energy you would when you're playing it up at altitude and then how do you

Starting point is 00:04:56 recover from this i know this is a bit of like getting into the byu game too but like how do you recover from playing that game in the altitude and again re-bring up that energy for the game at byu so that'll be a challenge for ku in this one now utah comes into it at 13 and 11 on the season and five and eight in big 12 play they've won two straight at home and uh they're actually they have a winning record at home in big 12 play even though they're just five and eight they're four and two at home in big 12 play and even though they're just 5-8. They're 4-2 at home in Big 12 play. And they actually beat Colorado recently by a nearly identical score to what Kansas did. 72-59 was the win for Utah on their home floor. But this is a non-top 80 team on Ken Palm to where, yeah, you're expected to,

Starting point is 00:05:38 like, if you're going to find a way to win some road games, these are the ones that you kind of got to get, especially if you're Kansas. And you already have dropped a lot of these other games okay the personnel for utah they uh are very interesting personnel i think they're a lot different than a lot of other teams in the league and it's also weird because they're a big team but they do play fast you would think if they're big they're going to be like a plotting type of team whereas if they were like small they'd try to play quick it's it's kind of a unique uh oxymoron in a certain way but they use a six foot six point guard and that would be gabe madsen he uh averages a team best 15.3 points per game also plays some you know he'll play all

Starting point is 00:06:15 around but uh team leader in scoring he gets two and a half assists per game he is shooting just 38 from the floor so times maybe can be a little inefficient a little bit of a a chucker. 32% from three, so a little bit below national average there. But he does have go-off ability, and that's what makes him scary in an individual matchup, right? 28 points against Cincinnati, 20 points at Iowa State. He's at 24 more five other times. If you include the Cincinnati game, he's at 24 more points six times this season. And the thing that makes him dangerous is even though

Starting point is 00:06:45 he is 32 percent from three which is not like a super highly efficient number he's taken over 200 three-point attempts this season and like give you a comparison Zeke Mayo and Ryland Griffin have like 12 more three-point attempts than Gabe Madsen has all by himself, which means that can be a good or bad thing. If Kansas does a good job on him defensively or he's not feeling it, it kind of shoots you out of the game. The flip side, though, if Gabe Madsen is hot and you let him get into a rhythm, he's going to keep letting it fly, and then all of a sudden you end up

Starting point is 00:07:21 with a game where he's 5-8 from 3, and it changes the game, right? I believe Gabe's brother is Mason. There's a Mason Madsen, right? I don't know. Maybe it just happens to be that way. Regardless, he is also a good shooter, and he's more of the high-efficiency shooter. Eight points per game, 39% from three on over 100 tries.

Starting point is 00:07:40 So that'll stress you as well. They have the Mike, I don't know the last name, pronunciation. I know by mongolian mike he is uh from mongolia and that is his nickname he's a six foot nine guard slash wing here's another player who's basically a shooting guard but he's six nine and he shoots well from three to thirty five percent on solid volume so again you can see the size all the way through ezra asar is a name you'll hear throughout this preview here today he is a six foot eight 238 pound wing they won't just play him at the fourth they'll play him at the three he averages 11 points four and a half rebounds per game he's on 52 percent from three now he's not a three-point shooter only one of seven from three though me just saying that Kansas is just going to leave

Starting point is 00:08:20 him wide open from three and he's going to go two for two this game watch it happen um but regardless he is very interesting and then you have a a player in jake wallen who's a little lengthier at 610 but he's only 212 pounds and he can play on the wing um for them as well right so you can kind of have those two as your three and four and you can use them in different matchups like i'd imagine here asar because he's 238 pounds maybe it makes sense for him to be guarding kj adams and maybe for wallen he ends up guarding you know ryanley griffin i don't i don't know we'll see uh but wallen is 39 from three he's kind of a solid connective piece like low volume shooter good

Starting point is 00:08:54 rebounder but he shoots it well uh that's the five for utah they have a combination seven foot one 245 pound lawson lovering he is averaging about nine points five rebounds per game good passer from the center position two and a half assists per game 62 from the field good around the rim but he he doesn't have any range horrible shoot i mean that will be something interesting i i can't think of a time where kansas did this i can remember some times where it happened to kansas with like udoka but um if it gets to a point like basically, basically, you could do the Haka. It doesn't sound as cool. Haka Lovering.

Starting point is 00:09:29 Is there one with an L? Anyway, Lovering is only shooting 39% on free throws this year. So if this game gets to a point where they're finding momentum, do you bring in, I don't know, Rakees Passmore just to, like, foul him? I don't know. Kind of interesting. to like foul him i don't know kind of interesting uh but then also six foot ten 235 pounds zach keller and then six foot nine 220 pound keanu dawes dawes plays the four and the five and dawes is over seven points over five rebounds 64 39 70 splits he's been a good player for them too a couple players that play smaller

Starting point is 00:10:01 roles look out for six foot three guard hunter Hunter Erickson is 38% from three. And then Miro Little is a good passer for them. When he is in the game, he takes on some of the point guard duties. And then Madsen can kind of play more on the wing. But both of them are kind of ball handlers in that way. What they do well overall as a team for Utah, they play big. Like we said, you heard a lot of the guards at 6'9", 6'6", right? But they're still able to shoot the ball they're third in the country in average height and yet also top 80 in

Starting point is 00:10:30 the country in three-point rate on a decent 34 they're also top 60 in two-point offense nationally which is fourth in big 12 only games they're top 30 in two-point defense nationally thanks in part to a solid block rate uh they're a very good passing team they're number one in the country and assist to field goal make rate nationally now i do say that and and sometimes i say sometimes if that number gets really high which sometimes it does for kansas it's not just indicative that you're a good passing game it can also be a little bit indicative that you don't have guys who can just kind of shake guys off the balance and get a bucket themselves but it does mean you're a good passing team uh then they're a solid offensive rebounding team they're also solid at getting the free throw line

Starting point is 00:11:07 both of those top 90 nationally and they're second in big 12 only play for free throw rate what they struggle with they're not the fastest or quickest team right i mean that is the one thing if you're playing very big it might not be the shiftiest team but they are going to play fast is the thing and the reason why you go back to the altitude, you're trying to, you know, tie your teams down. They turn the ball over a good amount. They're second to last in big 12 only games. They don't force many turnovers themselves. They're last in big 12 games. And then also in those conference games, they've been a poor defensive rebounding team and have sent teams to the line a touch too much. The other thing, and this goes back to the Loveling free throws, but it's not just him.

Starting point is 00:11:46 Utah is only shooting 62% at the free throw line this season. That is one of the worst in the entire nation. And yet somehow it has gotten worse in big 12 play. They're down to 59.7%. So if this does come down to a close game late, you would hope that that continues and they miss some free throws. And you guessed it. Yes,

Starting point is 00:12:02 they are worse than the big 12 in a free throw percentage. All right right let's get to the keys to the game players to watch this is locked on jayhawks and our episode of the show today is brought to you by factor meals looking to optimize your nutrition this year well factor makes eating well with chef prepared dietitian approved meals that are fresh never frozen and ready to heat and eat in just two minutes. With 40 options across eight dietary preferences each week, you can customize your meals to fit your lifestyle, whether it's calorie-smart, protein-plus, or keto. Plus, Factor even offers wholesome smoothies, breakfasts, and grab-and-go snacks to keep you fueled all day long. I love how Factor takes the stress out of meal planning. That's always something with me and my wife.

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Starting point is 00:13:19 and don't forget to make Locked On College basketball your second listen every day. Get you prepared for the big weekend of college hoops, including the selection committee releasing their early top four seeds in each bracket on saturday okay keys to the game for ku number one is limiting two point shots of the utah offense utah is only two and ten this season when they shoot below 56 on two point shots so if you can limit the two point shots they've not had a lot of success winning those games they are 11 and one very different record when they shoot above 56 on

Starting point is 00:13:51 two point shots um and it's interesting too because the two wins i mentioned they're two and ten when shooting below 56 the two wins are colorado who's the worst team in the big 12 and queens who was outside the top 200 nationally basically, if you can limit them on the two-point shots, you're probably going to win. Now, when you look at where they take them, analytically, it's a strong theme. They rank low in mid-range shots. They rank low in the paint but not at the rim, kind of floater area that I guess I'd call it. But they rate highly in terms of the percentage of their shots that come at the rim, which means specifically, if you want to slow down their two-point offense, you need to slow them down at the rim.

Starting point is 00:14:31 You need to cut them off on the shots at the rim, whether it's preventing them from getting a lot of them, right? Like, I mean, doing a good job staying in front of guards, trying to drive, doing a good job walling up on guys trying to post up. So when you're looking at specific targets here for KU to keep away Ezra Asar he takes almost five shots at the rim a game and then you have Lovering and Dawes who combined for about six so big man defense specifically this isn't a situation as much where it's hey these Utah guards are getting by guys and consistently living in the lane and finishing the lane. It's pretty consistently either a big man or in the case of, again, they're kind of

Starting point is 00:15:11 wing three, four type and a SAR, like he can drive a little bit and finish inside, but he is kind of a big forward. So for Kansas, I'll be interested. I think it makes most sense to put KJ Adams on a SAR. And even though that would mean you have like a wing and Ryland Griffin or a guard potentially guarding a six foot 10 dude, he's more of a three point shooter. And so you look at a SAR with his strength. I think having KJ on, I would help wall him off in a certain way and help kind of match the physicality and the strength.

Starting point is 00:15:40 But that also means that a hundred against it needs to be good. And I kind of one-on-one post-up defense, which he has been pretty good. Like when he does that specific type of defense, like that's where just being huge can kind of pay off. Number two is off-ball defense for KU. Utah's in the 99th percentile for assist rate during conference-only play. And overall, over the course of the entire season, they're number one in the country in assist to field goal made rate. So what does that mean?

Starting point is 00:16:02 They're getting a lot of baskets off of passes from other guys, right right so that means your off-ball defense has to be in tune if you're Kansas that means you have to you know do a good job of staying on shooters right because if they drive and kick and you have bad off-ball defense they're going to splash a three right in your face that means you need to watch out for backdoor cuts and just cutters in general right because they're going to be having a lot of ball movement trying to get those easy buckets and if you don't have a good game on the off the ball defense side of things you're going to give up too many easy buckets and a lot of those two point shots that we just talked about and this is kind of one where i am a little bit scared because that lack of energy that lack of consistently playing with that motivation that we haven't seen this Kansas team do

Starting point is 00:16:46 is something where this could get you beat, right? If you're not as focused and you're not playing with as much energy, a lot of times that's when you get beat on a cut to the rim and give up an easy basket. And when you look at some of the times that for better or for worse, you know, Bill Self has pulled guys for making a mistake. It's off-ball defense mistakes. So I think that's going to be a huge one in this game. Number three is guard the corner. And certainly that a lot of, I mean, guys aren't really dribbling into corner threes. So this goes back to the idea of guarding off the ball if you're KU.

Starting point is 00:17:18 But they shoot a lot of threes, especially from above the break, which is kind of weird because they're not shooting them well above the break. Actually, Utah is only shooting 26% from three above the break. That is literally first percentile nationally. They're the worst team in the country, basically, in above the break shooting in terms of just the percentage. Now, I say that, they'll probably go off against kids. But nonetheless, they've been nails shooting from the corner. Utah's hitting 39% of their corner threes. And when you look at Big 12 only games, they're over 40% on corner threes specifically.

Starting point is 00:17:48 And if you're looking for specific players, try to bottle up here. Gabe Madsen leads the Utes in attempts from the corner. He's hitting them at a 37% clip. Hunter Erickson off the bench is shooting 36% from the corner. And then Jake Wallen, who going back to, okay, if you have a guard or a wing on Wallen at 6'10", so that you can put KJ on a SAR.

Starting point is 00:18:08 Well, the good news is Wallen is more of just on the offensive end, kind of a spot-up three-point shooter. So maybe you can get away with it because he is 50% is Wallen on corner threes so far this season. Let's get to our players to watch. Maybe it's some of those guys. Maybe it's somebody else. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started,

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Starting point is 00:19:25 All right, finishing things up on this Kansas-Utah preview of Locked On Jayhawks. Players to watch. So for the matchup, I think I actually have three little notes here I want to get to. Who guards Gabe Madsen if you're Kansas? That's going to be super interesting to me of how they decide that because he's 6'6", to where it's like, okay, do you – and again, they have's 6'6 to where it's like okay do you and again

Starting point is 00:19:46 they have all these other bigger guys that it's like okay does Zeke Mayo guard him because Zeke Mayo's closer to like 6'4 right where maybe it makes a little bit more sense to have him on him then again get mad since they're leading scorer and you know I wouldn't classify Zeke as great as he's been on the offensive end as being a defensive stalwart necessarily so do you just deal with having to want harris on him and he's just giving up size but he's trying to make life hell by just being a pest and poking the ball free maybe that might be the best way to go about it you put like is this a game where shaquille moore plays a little bit more minutes because even though he's not the tallest he's at least stout even though he hasn't necessarily played his best ball over the past couple games so i I don't know what you do there in terms of guarding him.

Starting point is 00:20:25 I think that'll be interesting for KU. And then Battle of the Bigs for Kansas. There's lots of size on both sides of the ball. And the two main centers for them in Lovering and Dawes, they average like 16 and 10 total. So they've been good players. They want to go on the inside to those guys. For Hunter Dickinson, can you hustle up and down the court in the altitude?

Starting point is 00:20:43 And can you have a good offensive game against another big man who's kind of able to match your physicality and size down low? And then the last one here is not getting in foul trouble for whoever is guarding a SAR because going back to what like I would probably put KJ on him. The one thing you have to worry about a SAR draws two and a half shooting fouls per game that ranks in the 98th percentile nationally at his position. So basically he's as good as anybody in the country because he's this big physical forward who finishes at the rim. Are you going to be able to defend him and defend the rim without fouling him?

Starting point is 00:21:16 And that would be an area where if, you know, KJ gets in foul trouble, Flory's not going to have the physicality or the strength yet to match up as well with a guy like that. And so you start to wonder how that kind of works through so can kj defend asar possibly if that is indeed the matchup without getting in foul trouble would be the other big one now high on the go-off meter for ku um when i'm looking at what utah's profile looks like they give up a lot of shots and open shots in the mid-range which is analytically not the worst thing in the world that they do. You know, you're better off giving up an open mid range than you are an open

Starting point is 00:21:49 layup, obviously. Right. But we know Kansas takes mid range and kind of floater shots at a much higher rate than a lot of other teams in college basketball. So I'd be looking at three players who take a lot of those Hunter Dickinson, KJams zeke mayo they collectively uh those three players they're taking five and a half mid-range shots per game and then they're taking an additional seven and a half attempts basically in that floater range right so basically between like from five feet out of the rim to inside the three-point arc those three players are combining to take like 13 mid-range ish shots per game right that's a good amount so if utah is giving them up open and teams have hurt them there then maybe you look to those

Starting point is 00:22:32 guys and say okay they should be able to hit them a little bit better than this one uh also cbd analytics has a stats called uh d-r-a-p-m i don't know what the r-a-p rapm stands for it's the d stands for defensive i'm a genius i can tell you that um it's essentially a measurement of like box score statistics so your production right did you put up 18 and 10 did you you know put up 25 points whatever mixed with like how your team performs per 100 possessions when you're out on the floor and kind of basically the goal of it is to measure like your impact when you're on the court right um so anyway utah's center in love ring has a negative dra pm so basically a negative defensive rating by this metric and so hunter dickinson going back to he being one of the guys that sticks out in terms of some of the mid-range stuff and then in addition

Starting point is 00:23:22 to it maybe the guy who's guarding you isn't the best defender in the world let's go with hunter dickinson having a big game on the road in utah i almost said provo that would have got me in a lot of trouble from utah fans and i not mean to well see now i got myself in trouble because i said i almost said that i know you were not in proto provo i know that's where kansas is going to be on tuesday anyway uh we'll be back for that kansas byu preview coming up later in the week. We'll also be back for Kansas Utah Postcast coming up this weekend and maybe a little on whatever happens with the

Starting point is 00:23:51 selection committee coming up this weekend to see if Kansas is in the top four seed line or if they're on the outskirts or what all that. Maybe a reaction to that on Saturday as well. Alright, see you then this weekend and later next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Will the ROAD STRUGGLES continue for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball at Utah Utes?

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