Well, they get back in the win column. No one is really super excited about it, especially whenever there's college football playoff games that landon. Uh So, on the last show, Cam had to watch the Detroit Lions win the NFC North whenever he was on a live show. And now you a I don't want to say closeted, but closeted to a lot of people on the show. You're a Notre Dame football fan. Is that correct?
Yeah, I'm a I'm a low key Notre Dame fan. I'm not like pounding the twenty four to seven recruiting rankings for the Irish or anything, but I like, I enjoy Notre Dame.
Yeah, and they are playing in the college football playoff game. We pushed the start button on the record about a minute after they did you see the pass interference?
Oh? I did give it? Okay, last thing that I saw before.
You saw that.
Yeah.
And that's because anytime that the that a team that you root for and a pivotal college football matchup is going on, Obviously, the right thing to spend your evening, the right the right thing to spend your evening talking about is Kansas and Arizona State on a Wednesday night at the fog in early January.
Am I right, Hey, it'll hurt a lot less to watch Notre Dame lose on a scoreboard on another tab of my computer than on live. That's okay, you're saving me some pain.
As long as it does not end with uh with the on a two point play of the hot dog cart being hit by adjacent bean pass like that.
Never happened, Ryan, That's such a weird example for you to give. I've never seen that. But what just.
Happened in the football game, You're going to be quite happy with as it is. It is. It is something good happens. That's amazing that you don't have a TV screen. I I think that you have to figure out the log in like that. Yeah, you need. You need to have your ESPN log in on the computer. How do you not have this going? Uh?
You know? I I tried, but I have to use my parents cable because I don't pay for cable right as do I log in? And it was giving me a lot of trouble, So I said, whatever, Ryan, Ryan is waiting to do this of utmost important podcast to talk about all of Arizona State's thirteen second half points.
So after all, yeah, no Cam. Today, Cam is in public hiding after picking Kansas State to win two straight road games and getting both of them very incorrect.
And he didn't even like witness protection came to him for that. That was, he didn't like seat that out. They were just like, no, that this guy needs needs help.
He needs especially especially after both of us, like we have given him now multiple chances the last two shows. We have given him an opportunity to would to retract his prediction after telling him how stupid it was to pick that team on the road, and he denied that opportunity. And while he's got two l's and pick them, And suddenly that has breathed a slight, slight glimmer of hope and do your chances of not finishing last and pick them.
Yeah, there's a window, folks, there's a window. It's it's crack, but we're there.
You just need him to keep picking Kansas State about fifteen more times. And if he does that, then I think that your chances might be creeping back in. Just like Kansas's chances of winning the Big twelve. They've gone up a little bit in the last week, right by winning two games they were heavily favored in. Yeah, every bit helps, everyone helps their two and one they beat
Arizona State. Two man show today on ITP. I am Ryan Landrith, I am Landon Fields Landon is you know the meme of the guy who is just growling in anger with a happy face mask over. That's you right now having to miss the end of a college football playoff game to talk about Karriansas and Arizona State. But that is because you get paid the big bucks to work the essential jobs.
Yeah, that's only been all day for me, so I've had a lot of practice.
All right, let's talk about the basketball game. If the sound ever works, it's working well in that area, working about as well as the refs and the college football playoff game number eleven Kansas seventy four, Arizona State fifty five. Hey, you know what, I know that there's a whole lot of things you'd rather be doing at times than talking about the mediocre Kansas Jayhawks at times. First half was
ferry mediocre. But where would you be in life? Where would you go in life if you weren't able to one day tell your grandkids that you talked about bill selves first ever win over the Arizona State Sun Devils.
That's true all Remy Martin really is Bill's kryptonite because when he's on Arizona State, they beat him, and when he's on Kansas, Kansas melts down until they win a national championship. So Verie Martin very kind of like a nexus level player in college basketball. For Bill self anyway, I.
Kind of tipped my toe in the water just a little bit and said, you know, no one said this part out loud. This is on Twitter, so great things about to happen, and I was like, you know, no one wants to say it. But while we're on the topic of Remy Martin, Bill self really really mismanaged that situation, and if they lose to Creighton, we're talking about that being one of the most frustrating transfers ever. And Remy was so good that he overcame that BS and one
most outstanding player of a region. Anyway, despite being mismanaged all year end, I had my fair sheriff. Well he was hurt, spare me. He was not injured when Bill self yelled at him for scoring twelve points in three minutes in that exhibition game. We all know that Bill self mismanaged that situation and it wound up working out because Remy's really freaking good. But just the reminder, whenever we talk about Arizona State, I like to throw that
out there. Bill self botched the Remy Martin situation and got bailed out because Remy's good.
Correct. I agree. If you listen back to the twenty twenty two version of the podcast, you will note that I agree there as well.
That season almost broke us and then they won it all.
But like it did break us. That TCU game broke.
Us, Yeah, it did, and then very well, yeah, let me just quickly pull up the box score. So Kansas lost the TCU that day to fall to like twelve and four in Big Twelve play. They did not lose the rest of the way. They won their last two Big twelve games, They won the Big Twelve Tournament, they won the NCAA tournament. But remember that night whenever Bill was just trying Mitch Lightfoot and David McCormick over and over.
March first, twenty twenty two was the and I'm looking at the box score of this and in that game, Remy Martin played twelve minutes in a game Kansas scored sixty four points. And yes, yeah, you may ask yourself, well, in no way that was less than Mitch Lightfoot played. Oh but Landon, what if I told you that Mitch Lightfoot played more minutes than Remy Martin. They got really, really lucky that they slipped past Creighton, because if not, oh boy, would we be salty about that season.
Yeah, I honestly do think I think your take there is great that if that season ends to Creighton, or you know, if they faltered a Providence because that was another weirdly close game or you know, whatever, then yeah, we look back at that season as like one of the bigger missed opportunity seasons in the Bill Seal fair are maybe the biggest.
Yeah, and they that's the only season since twenty eighteen that they have made it past the second round and just barely, as you said, slipped past both Creighton and Providence in games Remy scored like twenty eight to thirty percent of their points.
Yeah, it's funny that that guy was good. He scored two thousand points and it's almost like he knew how to score.
I think Kansas has some good players on this team. We'll see if they have Remy Martin caliber players, but in this game they did beat Arizona State as into Allen Field House on their Bobby Hurley sized horse rode an unintimidated Arizona State team who built a forty two to thirty six half time lead by making threes and keeping Kansas's offense out of sync. Everything changed at the break. The Jayhawks played their finest defensive half in literally years.
Shack Moore was a spark plug, Zeeke Mayo was a lightning rod, and kJ Adams energy willed Kansas into a nice performance. A dominant second half saw that Kansas outscored the Sun Devils by twenty five points that earned them both a nineteen point win and a cover for the Jayhawks. Is it a little premature to play the rap or are we giving beil self kudos? Sir? No, because you know, I don't know, take your back.
Yeah, this was a very interesting game. We were texting obviously in the first half, especially very strange half of basketball where it never really felt like Arizona State was outrightly out playing Kansas. I didn't think anyway. I didn't think Kansas played so badly in the first half. I think Arizona State shot the ball well in the first half,
felt like a very fluky kind of half. That being said, Arizona State's thirteen points in the second half, which is the fewest any k opponent has scored in a half since TCU in February of twenty thirteen. Not the YMCA game, the other one. Yeah, the other game, which people forget, was like a blowout and reverse yeah, or both of both. Those games were basically the opposite of each other. Yep.
I didn't think they had that second half in them necessarily, But Kansas now in all three of their Big Twelve games, have played really outstanding defense, at least in a half
against all of their teams. I think they played really well on defense in the second half against West Virginia, a comeback that comes up ever so short in a worse performance for Kansas and a better team they played obviously UCF they were very good, and then this second half was genuinely like one of the most dominant defensive halves I've seen Kansas play ever, maybe maybe the most. It was impressive. It was really impressive. What did you make of it?
Yeah, I mean I was gonna go exactly where you did there. They've played. Of their last five halves, four of them have been really good, especially on the defensive end. They were plus twelve against West Virginia in the second half, and it wasn't enough. They needed to be plus thirteen or something some numbers. Maybe it was plus eleven. They
need be plus I don't know, whatever it was. And then obviously both halfs against UCF were so ridiculous outlie early that it was almost strolled them in the trash, and then they dominated Arizona State in the second half. They didn't play horrible in the first half either. They were six points worse than the middle of the Big
twelve team. Like that is going to happen. It's not like they went out there and just got deep pants for a half, and then they proved that they were the significantly better team of these two in the second half. I think that as Kansas now number four in the country on Ken Palm defensively, I think a lot of us entering this season expected them to be their best
offensive version of themselves in a long time. They brought in a lot of scorers we knew guys like Rylan Griffin and aj Storr, both who were prominent offensive players at their last school, they would be coming off the bench to potentially bring huge impacts. We thought this team had seven or eight guys that could bring offensive fireworks. Now I'm wondering, with Store not being as good and Shackmore being a little bit of a surprise, now you're
seeing a team. At least what I saw in the second half of that game was a team figuring out who they were a little bit. That was a team that's kind of realizing, Okay, the best version of ourselves might be a defensive stalwart more than a Hey, let's overwhelm you and blitze you. It's not the prettiest thing to watch, but it's been effective for to the last five halves in Big twelve play. That being said, I
don't think we've learned a whole lot about Kansas. You expected them to certainly be at worse two in one in these three games, probably would have expected three and zero. They were favor it's an all three. They did not win all three. We are going to learn a lot about Kansas in the next week at Cincinnati and at Iowa State. At SINC. They project to be a slim favorite in a very close coin flip game at Iowa State, they will be an underdog, a situation they're very rarely
in Underbill self. You gotta win at least one of those two games. Otherwise they're two and three, and I think we're talking about a team that still hasn't rounded that corner. If they go beat Cincy and play Iowa State within a bucket or two lose at the end, I think we're all feeling like this team has turned a corner. Is that fair?
Yeah? Absolutely. I think the next two games are pivotal in the opinion of the team and in their actual trajectory and in where they're going to finish in Big twelve play, because I would still as of today pick them to lose at Iowa State.
Certainly they're an underdog in that game. They're certainly an underdog, but Iowa State also isn't They're not playing at the JJ Reddick Duke teams like Iowa State was up like eight in the second half in Utah the other day. Like that's a that's not an impossible to win game. It's a tough matchup, for sure, But this is the preseason number one team in the country. We expect them to contend in every game, if not be in a position to win all of them down this stretch, they
should be. They should play Iowa State as close as any team has played Iowa State all year. That should be the expectation.
I think that should be the expectation. And we'll see, we'll see. Yeah. So I think the Cincinnati game is huge coming up. Obviously we'll get to at the end of the show. I think that is a huge game to see where Kansas is at. I also think like trailing by six to an okay areas, I mean okay, they're not great to a serviceable to average ish a zone.
Right now, they are one of the last four or the first four out on Joe Lenardi's brackets. So like like a middle of the pack Power five team, they're as average as teams getting this in Power five.
If if in a normal like in a traditional Kansas bill self like the streak kind of year, if you're just down by six at half en route to a nineteen point win, I don't think that is like I honestly don't even think that's especially noteworthy. But because of what these teams have been in stretches this year, and obviously what they were at the end of last year. I think it becomes a much more tangible red flag. So we'll see. I do think the future will speak
a lot more to what Kansas is. Should we hop into Shack Moore here, Ryan.
Yeah, I did not think we would be leading off a podcast with Shackmore, but here we are. And I didn't think we'd be talking about AJ Store being horrendous, but here we are.
Yeah, Shack Moore, let's start with him. Though I am very excited to get to AJ Store. Shack has earned the title of a spark plug kind of guy. In two starts. He had eight points in twenty two minutes, three five shooting, but his highlight play was a steal on an inbounds pass turned a dunk as Kansas was surging early in the second half. He changes the team's identity into an elite defensive one. Depth is when you
have depth players that actually perform, it's pretty nice. It can give you a variety of looks in a variety of styles, and Shack Moore has absolutely provided a really nice, very very solid change of pace in the last couple games.
Yeah, like we knew at the beginning of the year, you can say what you want about to Wan, kJ and Hunter, but we knew that those three guys were going to play prominent minutes and we all know that they can play at this level. They're all at minimum serviceable, if not very good at their peak basketball players. Then in came all the transfers, aj Store, Zeke Mayo, Ryland Griffin, Shackmore, David Koit, all of those guys. You have five transfers,
and then you throw in Florie Bedunga. You have six guys. That's nine deep. You don't need that depth to give you nine superstar performances every night. That's just not how basketball works. By the middle of January, you expected a couple of those guys to be really good. Zeke Mayo all big twelve caliber guard. He is blossomed, Ryland Griffin looks like he's on his way and we certainly know the upsides there. And Shack Moore has been really good. I also think that David Koite has been about what
you could have hoped for. He's shooting thirty nine percent on the season this year. He's been a good bench piece. Those guys have all been good, but Doonga has has shown flashed the brunch as well. Aj Store hasn't been as good as we thought he would be or even close. Ryland Griffin hasn't been as consistent. So whenever you have six question marks, you really only need three of them
to show up and give you a good performance. And if that happens on this night, Zeke Mao very good, Shack Moore very good, and the third piece, Ryland Griffin pretty good. So of those six guys, three of them were good and three of them were eh. And Kansas was nineteen points better than Arizona State at home. Like that's what you need. That's the point of depth. It's so you don't have a situation like when they played Speaking of Cincinnati last year and you literally have nobody
that can go make a shot. I think Shack Moore has been exactly what Dewan Harris's ideal compliment would be if he could draw it up in a lab. I thought he played really well. He's clearly earned Bill selfs trust quickly, and we didn't even know that this guy was gonna be helping enough to play at all a few weeks ago. Good to see him out there. I don't think he's relinquishing that starting spot anytime soon with he he plays like a very Bill Selfie Kansas guard
and that that's not Remy Martin. That right, There are guys that you may think are more exciting to watch, But Shackmore is an effective player who, under Bill's self, you expect to win a lot of games. That's what he did.
Yeah, I agree, I agree. I've liked Shackmore a lot. He's a very Bill Selfie guard. I will say, if I was too, this is an nitpicking, because I don't think he's really been anything too outurly nitpick. If I was to prognosticate a concern that we could be having with Shackmore later in the year, it's that we could also start complaining that a lineup of Dewan Harris, Shackmore, kJ Adams, and Hunter Dickinson is not exactly lighting up the scoreboard.
Yeah, then there's one shooter on the floor in that lineup that.
Would be the worry. Shackmore has knocked down a couple threes. He's not like a complete non factor out there, but I could see that being a problem. Not yet, certainly, not yet, And I think absolutely continue to start and continue to play shack More a lot of minutes until
that proves to be a genuine problem. But I could see that happening of Zeke, and that even happened a little bit in stretches of this game where you could see Zeke Mayo, and to his credit, he can do it, but he was trying to force a lot of offense at times because the rest of the team was not in a spot where they were going to score a lot, and he was having to kind of force some shots for some buckets, force the offense a little bit himself.
And that's not a situation I think you should be in, even though Zeke is a very capable player in those spots.
Well, and they have four guys that can play the point on this roster. They almost had five, but al Marco Jackson hurt himself in October. Like these are all guys who are either combo guards or primary point guards, and to one and Shack are very similar basketball players. So yes, you are going to struggle to get offense in a lineup where at best you have one true
shooter on the floor. However, if you overwhelm your opponents defensively and there aren't any offensive juggernauts in the Big twelve, you should be able to win games in the high sixties low seventies. Will selves done his whole career, But they have to be flexible. There are going to be teams and opponents and matchups. We're having Zeke Mayo play primary point and putting athletes around him, guys that can score, and trying to play faster. That that's better. You kind
of saw that a little bit against UCF. Bill self let Zeke Mayo be the primary point guard at times there and they hung ninety nine. In a game like this. The defense was a disaster in the first half, and they clearly went for that kind of approach and they held Arizona State to the fifties. Like that, that's much more of the way Kansas wants to play. And I personally think that Dewan Harris was Kansas's best player in
this game. His final line was nine point seven assists, a donut and the turnovers that is zero and three steals in thirty two minutes. Defensively, brilliance Offensively, I thought he was myro and a game that will go under the radar, but he was just in control of that whole second half. He was also the victim of the refs with that horrible, stupid ass he got in the landing zone. Well, sure, because the guy stuck his leg into him, like he was also the victim of that.
But I thought Harris was Kansas's best player. He's not spectacular, but wow, can that guy win a lot of games quarterbacking the Jayhawks.
Yeah, this this was like an idyllic Dewan Harris performance. This is this is kind of like the summation of what he does, the platonic ideal of Adwan Harris game, if you will, Like, he's not gonna be super flashy, he's not gonna score a ton, He's gonna he's gonna make a lot of nice passes, gonna a lot of assists, take care of the basketball, and play really good defense. That's exactly what he did here. I don't have a lot to add there. I think that's I think you're right.
I think he was really really good in this game. Didn't do a ton that was flashy, but was as solid as you can hope from a twenty ninth year point guard.
Well, and whether we like it or not, we are starting see a rotation take shape, Like it's always around this time that Kansas begins to figure it out, and you see that rotation. At the beginning of every season, we look at the roster, we salivate over it, and we say, oh my gosh, this team's got thirteen guys. Like all these guys are studs. But you know, over the course of a year that guys will and won't climb and up the ranks of the rotation. And sure enough,
here we are. Injuries, performance aside all that stuff. Here's your rotation. You have your five guys that started this game, Harris Moore, Mayo, Adams, and Dickinson. Like it or not, they're all in the rotation. They're all getting starter minutes. Flori Bajuna is the big off the bench, and then as of right now, there's two guards that are coming off the bench. There's Rylan Griffin and there's David Koit.
I saw a couple people talking about how Quoit shouldn't play as much, he should not play more than Ryland Griffin, but he's been very solid statistically and he's an experienced ball handler. That's the guy. You have to have a ballhandler that can come off the bench. Those are there eight guys right now. Aj Store in case the second half was an indication not in the rotation, not in the circle of trust. Rare Key's passmore, not in this rotation, not even close. Zach Clements is hurt. This is who
you have right now, like it or not. This is the rotation. We can argue all we want, but I don't think a lot is truly gonna change over the next few weeks. Sparring and injury. These are the eight guys they're going to ride or die with most nights.
Yeah, I totally agree. And let's let's let's talk about the one of the guys that we, uh, we're definitely not sure should be there. It's kJ Adams. He had six points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals in thirty two minutes when he played poorly Soda Kansas. When he ignited the defensive effort in the second half especially, the team was much better. Ryan. Was he good enough?
Yeah, he was really good in the second half. The second half was what you wanted a kJ. He made a couple of plays and he Okay, here's the thing with kJ, Like, let's let's give kJ a couple of flowers here, because number one I saw I posted on Twitter that kJ what he does best is he brings energy better than anyone on the team, and people are like no or he can bring the energy in scoes No. kJ is the best energy bringer, arguably of the bill
Self era. His energy is contagious. That second half was ignited by two strong defensive plays by kJ Adams where the entire team feasted off that energy. Only he can do that. Secondly, it is a very well balanced box score. kJ has rebounded quietly the last two games. Seven in each of the last two contests. Three assists that's great, couple steals, couple blocks, big time moments. Those are stat
contributions that we haven't seen from kJ. kJ Adams can do things that no other player on the team can. I get it if you want to question how important they are. But he is not losing any playing time. It's not going to happen whether we want it to or not. This is who they're going to ride with. And it's time to focus on the positive things that he does because we can bitch about it all we want. He's not gonna not play.
Yeah, I mean, certainly at this point he is not. I think he was good enough. I think he was solid this game. I'm still kind of baffled as to why and Arizona State did a did it more than UCF. But I'm still a little bit baffled as to why people aren't truly playing the the Creighton Missoo defense, the West Virginia defense. I just don't I don't get it. At least try it, try it until it proves that it's not working. And like Arizona State did a little,
but it's surprising. But yeah, kJ Adams, you're You're definitely right about the rebounding. He's he's quietly been a better rebound in the last few games. I don't think he's still a very like good rebounder, So I'm I'm assuming that number is gonna go down because I just don't think he's a very handsy rebounder. It's very odd he like for a guy that is theoretically so strong, I mean,
look at him. You know, he's got like absolute Greek god arms mostly like it's crazy, but he doesn't feel like he's super strong at the rim on on on the glass anyway. But now he was definitely good enough. He continues to do a lot of the little things very well. He defends pretty well, can pass all these things that we've talked about as major pros for kJ Adams. He did really well in this game, and I wouldn't suspect he's gonna do those things well most of the
rest of the season. I still think in what will probably be an inevitible loss in the tournament, kJ Adams is gonna have like three points and two rebounds, and we're gonna say, man, who could have seen that coming. Hopefully I'm wrong, but that's still where it kind of feels. But he's not playing so poorly to take him off the floor, at least not this game. He was very, very bad in the West Virginia game, but that was the two games ago now, so we'll see what happens.
Bill's definitely gonna keep playing him.
Yeah, if they want to win the way that Bill self wants to win, kJ is an important piece. If they want to win with shut down defense, if they want to win with slow, methodical offense that plays, you know, pass the ball around, find the best shot you can every possession instead of just trying to get shots up in a hurry. kJ is a good fit. Something else that kJ has quietly gotten a lot better at his free throw shooting. Entering this season, he was a sub
sixty percent free throw shooter. Twenty one for twenty seven this year, that's seventy eight percent. Like we saw Jalen Wilson improve substantially in his last season as a free throw shooter, Kj's kind of done that as well, and that's helpful for this team has And we talked about it a few weeks ago, are they ever going to
draw free throws? We all kind of agreed Big twelve games more physical, they would eventually get to the line a little bit more, and they can shoot the hell out of the free throw like thirteen for thirteen in this game, you just have to get to the line. And they are a team of good free throw shooters.
Yeah, And they showed that against West Virginia at least Zeek Mayo did. We've been saying this most of the season that if this team can get to the line, they're going to make a lot more than they're gonna miss. And you've started to see that a lot, and I hope that continues to be the case. It certainly seems like that's been sort of a mandate or at least a real attempt to get guys to the free throw line, attack the cup, get there. It's worked out pretty well.
They've they've definitely shot well from the line, and I think that is a ceiling elevator, especially for a team that may struggle on offense at times. If you can get free ones at the stripe, then that's gonna help you a lot.
Yep, and we we must give Bill Self his rap. I'll give it to him here myself because somehow, and I don't know how this can be possibly true. That was Kansas's first win over the Sun Devils in three attempts. In the Bill Self era, Bobby Hurley entered as something very few college coaches can say. He was undefeated at Allen field House. Who can say that? Is it just uh DeVry, just the West Virginia coach? Now can anyone else say they're undefeated at Allen field House? I don't
think anybody else can. They don't lose non conference games ever, and all the Big twelve teams lose their once a year.
Who is San Diego State's head coach that time?
Oh yeah, yeah, Steve Fisher can say that he was undefeated at Allen field House. That's a good call. There are probably a couple if he.
Can say he's one hundred percent three point shooter in his college career.
But that's true. Yeah, it's it's it's it's a very for one, it's a little cheap, but it is. But it still counts only Gonzaga. They are the only team that has late Kansas multiple times under a self and remain undefeated against Kansas. And of course, as you can know because you follow this show, there is absolutely no team in an intarnation that I'd rather that be true less about than again Zaga Bulldogs, who are.
Two and oh they didn't do it in field House though that is true. They did in Orlando and then wherever the tournament was last year.
Yep, And yeah, I was gonna say, in one of the most in a little bit more crucial of a setting, they managed to take that. So we talked about the rotation, We talked about the point guards, talked about the refts. Reffs they were atrocious and Hunter Dickinson's moving screen was terrible. He also got hit in the nuts and the Refts just kind of stood there and watched them hunched over for three seconds before they go, oh, I don't know if that's I think we should probably call it a foul.
Sure should. Refs haven't been super kind to Kansas this year, but that's fine, you know they if we're being honest, KU opponents are probably due a couple of those. We've all watched the games. Yeah, tell me about the big guys, at least with Hunter who was what you know, what's very interesting Landon is Hunter Dickinson is not going to get mixed up with Achem Elijah One from a defensive
center capability chart. I understand that. However, it's pretty amazing that for how bad Hunter Digginson is on defense, Twitter says that Kansas is still setting up as a top five defensive team in college basketball.
Yeah, and he was once again quite good here. He had fifteen points, twelve rebounds to assist, three steals in three blocks thirty four minutes. He also brought the house down with that one handed and one dunk. There are people, most of them on Twitter. Whether or not they actually live lives is yet to be proven, but they do
believe he's a negative for the team. Huh. I do disagree with that, despite his liability on defense at times, And like you said that, honestly, a couple of their best stretches of defense this year have been with him on the floor.
So sure all of them, actually all of the ones that come to mind.
Yep, yep, you're correct. Flory was quieterlimited min he scored four points? Did he actually foul out? A forgetting this? Did I did forget this?
Five twelve minutes? That's not great?
That's not good. No, that's not good. Maybe I just I think I must have just stopped paying super close attention, as this was like an eighteen point game with a minute left or something. But right I miss that. That's not good. Not good.
Here here's a sequence. And I've gone back and forth with a with a particular Twitter account many times that insists Hunter Dickinson is just dog poop. That's that's that's the inclination. And this is a back and forth and the Twitter mentions I said, Hunter Dickinson's vision is very underappreciated, and it's so exceptionally rare for a player of his size. He's always looking down the court, he's always looking towards the basket. He's a smart player, as you'd expect because
he's thirty years old. Ha ha ha ha. And the response says that is probably the only decent thing that he does. And I respond and say, well, he averages eighteen and eleven, but yeah, I guess that sucks. And the response says, I'm glad the box score is all that matters. Yes, points and rebounds are important, believe it or not. And the response says, so is defense and so is effort. And it's like, Okay, they have the fourth best defense in the country with him getting the
second most minutes. Like, I just don't know, what do you want? The team is good on defense and he plays a lot, Like is that not enough? What is going to be enough for Hunter Dickinson? Is it making every shot? Someone's like he misers a bunny every game. Yes, he doesn't shoot a hundred percent. What do you want? You want him off the team? You want Flory in his fivey twelve minutes playing the five all the time? How's that gonna go?
Yeah? And like I am, I'm someone who is very willing to be critical of Hunter Dickinson, but I do think it, Like I also have been very vocal about the people that only criticize Hunter Dickinson being really weird, because yeah, guys, he's aftering like seventeen points in his career, Like that's pretty good. And yeah, you can't only analyze box score to understand, but like you can't suck and
average like eight teen and eleven all time. You know, like one of those two things can't quite be the case. And he hasn't been bad. He's been pretty good. Yes, there's been moments where he has been truly unbelievably bad
on defense. Even in this game, you saw Arizona State kind of understand how to play him a lot of the time, and that was get him out in space and utilize and take advantage of his lack of athleticism to get him in bad spots, get him in the air a little bit, dribble around him, put him out in space, make him chase. And when you can do that, yeah you can score. And Arizona State did, especially in the first half, pretty much only in the first half.
My half court Eaves could have once again maybe scored more than thirteen points for Arizona State. But he's still really good. He's really good, and he is an absolute force down low. And when you can pair him with guys who can make some shots, and Kansas does have a couple of guys that can do that, You're gonna be just fine.
Well, congratulations Land And because a college kicker moment did not actually go poorly just now, and they are showing a very sad James Franklin on the sideline as his It appears it appears that Penn State this is gonna shock you. You might want to sit down first. It appears that Penn State is going to lose a football game against the team ranked in the top ten. I know that is just gonna win.
The same amount of titles at Penn State as he did with Kansas.
No, that would be zero last time I checked, that would be zero bowl games? Right? Zero bowl games? Or was he still here whenever they just destroyed like half of the UNLV starting line.
I think he was technically on that team that beat UNLV's JV squad.
Yeah, a very broncos over the Chiefs Week eighteen bowl win there for the Jayhawks against a completely picked apart UNLV team. But hey, at least the twenty twenty four bowl game was much better, right, Right, That's what I thought here. I'm gonna just.
Scamp Pea Colorado was really good.
I'm just gonna Stampede speaking of Buffalo Stampede, haha. Through everybody else here, and then you can have the AJ store floor because we don't have a lot to talk about with these three guys. Zeke Mayo twenty three points, five of eight from three, eight for fourteen overall thirty two minutes. It's pretty clear that for Kansas to make noise in this tournament, he's going to have to be Zeke Mayo is gonna have to carry their offense, because if you take out his five for eight from three,
Kansas was two for fifteen. That is bad. The three point shooting. I still think they have enough pieces where it'll be okay. They were seven for twenty two. That is fine. At the end of the day, Ryland Griffin nine points, three rebounds, eighteen minutes. He's starting to play more, looks more comfortable. I know that we have mixed opinions on store, but it's nice to see Griffin not get buried. I think Bill self understands how pivotal of a piece
Griffin is. His pull up jumper. He's the first player or not including Zeke Mayo, the first time they've had a player since Grady Dick where it really did feel like every time he shoots, the ball's going in. David Kuoy didn't score, he did, He just played twelve minutes. And yeah, the people on Twitter who don't want him to play, no, you do. He's shooting high thirties and threes and he can handle the ball off the bench. That's pretty good. He shouldn't play a lot. He should
be eighth out of the eight. I think I think Florie needs to play more than he is, but like Quoit should be. Koit should be eight in minutes, but Quit needs to play fifteen to twenty minutes a game.
Yeah, Koit needs to be in the rotation for sure. I think this was the last two games from Griffin have arguably been in the best two games of a season. I thought he was really effective.
He didn't get and what made him so good really well, what was really encouraging we He was four for four from three against UCF, so of course he made an impact in a day where you make four threes, but this game he was just one for four from three. The one he made was on an offensive rebound after he missed one earlier in the possession, so he still was able to go out and get you four to two point baskets or three two point baskets, whatever that math is nine points on just one for four shooting.
That's the sort of contributions that they need to see from him. He was very good and he is a lethal player. All right, go ahead, I know, I know, and now it's time.
Let's do it. AJ Store played a really poor four minutes, maybe the worst few minutes you can possibly play. He finished with minus seven in four minutes in a game that Kansas won by nineteen. He did not play in the second half against West Virginia and Arizona State, which we are taking out the UCF game because everyone's numbers were insanely inflated, and I guess you know that's how
basketball works. But nonetheless, Kansas minus twenty two with aj Store on the floor against West Virginia and Arizona State and plus forty when he doesn't in a game they lost. They are still plus forty with him off the court. I have I think I praised AJ Storer one time on the show. It was early in the year. I don't remember who it was against. He did play really well early. Otherwise I have very much been on the AJ Store is not good and should not be playing
because he is not playing well at all. Train and I get you and Kim especially have been on the this looks really bad for recruits, and that's like not unreasonable, But I also sure maybe it looks bad for recruits, but it's not that he This is not a Remy Martin situation. This is not the it's not and Bill's just not playing the issue store sucks right now and that could change. Maybe it will. I hope it does. But he's bad. He's really bad right now. He cannot play.
Yeah, that stretch, that four minutes that you talked about, And keep in mind, this is already a guy that's having to wait now two games in a row, thirteen minutes just to get on the floor. He is on
thin thin, I says is. And he goes out there and immediately, like you missed this play, immediately throws an inbounds pass right to an opposing player under his own basket and gives up a layup, like immediate, three seconds into his year, he does that, and in his four minutes, the only thing he had two of on his stat cart as turnovers, including the one under his own basket he missed the contest to three. Then he lost another possession.
Whenever he was trying to drive against three guys at once, his man made two different buckets on him, and it was all over in like two hundred seconds. Then that was it, Like it was it was insane. They are so much poorer with him in the game. And we've witnessed with our eyeballs AJ Storr being a good basketball player for a power five team in Wisconsin, a Wisconsin team that finished top four in a major conference last year.
We know the capabilities are there, but I believe I don't remember who was Someone on Twitter said, did you see aj Storre when Hunter Nigginson threw down that dunk and the bench exploded? And aj Storer could not have looked more and less invested. He just looked so mad. At this point, it's fair to question how bought in he is. And it's also fair to wonder how bought in would you be if you are playing this poorly in a season that you truly expected to be a
more valuable part of the team. But you can't do anything about it now. Right exactly you expected it. We thought he'd be their second leading scorer, like that's what he was brought in to do, and at this point he is not giving Bill self a reason to play him like he's not I don't know, I'm I am very close to being right in your camp and just being like this is a waste of time. He's not good enough, he's not playing. He's not one of their eight best players right now. He cannot play.
Yeah, fully agree fully agree, and to hear this is also much worse than he's been playing in the last few games. Was performance he's had all year, which does make me wonder maybe he will begin to trend upward, but again that's based purely on the pass, not on anything that he has done really this year, at least not in the last like what two months at this point.
And Bill's self has remained very complimentary of Store honestly, like we saw him throw Remy under the bus a lot, like he has continue to pump up the practice things. Store was really good in practice and all that here our Store. In the games that matter for Kansas. He scored thirteen points against North Carolina. He was legitimately good in a game if they only won by three. We saw that just six points and foul out in twelve minutes against Michigan State that was bad, did score eleven
points and had a nice second half against Duke. Give him two points there, Creighton nothing, Missouri one for seven, North Carolina State two points in seventeen minutes, West Virginia a minus fourteen and fifteen minutes, and Arizona State no points, minus seven and four minutes. Like, he has not been good in a game against an opponent that you've heard of, unless you count UCF since before Thanksgiving. That's the wrong way.
And even the UCF stuff as much as maybe you are screaming at your phone right now with Spotify open saying, but he was good in that game, Uh he was, But even that was garbage time largely, like that was the game is over and here comes aj Store to score some some more or less irrelevant baskets.
Yeah, exactly, he has not made or he has not played in a consequential moment and also played well and said consequential moments since the Duke game, And honestly, was he only on the floor because Hunter Dickinson got tossed Like that also played a factor too. They had less guys.
They kind of had to sink or swim there Creighton, Missouri, West Virginia, and Arizona State three ls where aj store has been a minus by a lot and all of them, and they beat Arizona State where he barely got on the floor and was undoubtedly the worst part of the team of the team.
I also do want to point out because as much as aj storre like, he is the one playing and thus he is largely responsible for that. Obviously he is responsible for his output in that way, I do still want to point out I think he's been put in a very bad position, like tell me what he's actually supposed to do stylistically on this team, Like I'm not really sure what it is, and you could say and
I and I said this in the preseason. I think this was sort of the general consensus or certainly what I thought was the opinion, and certainly seemed to be the player profiles that he was supposed to at least kind of replace Kevin McCuller. He wasn't nearly as good as a rebound.
It's that he was supposed to be to drive to the cup guy that was supposed to be his yea he drive to the cup.
Three man, Yep, yep, he was the slasher. The driver could knock down the occasional three, but wasn't gonna light it up from out there, and it was going to be an athlete and a good defender on the perimeter.
That was what AJ Store was supposed to be. But when you are trying to recruit shooters, which they did recruit shooters, and also you have guys, as we've talked about at length, the Dewan Harris, kJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson trio, I'm just not sure how aj Store really fits in with the rest of those pieces because he's like a true kind of traditional small forward in that way like Kevin mccullor or Jalen Wilson were, but not as good
as those guys. And obviously that is more just like that's his thing and that you know, you can't predict every time. Not everyone's gonna hit, and that's just kind of the way that goes.
And that's okay, well, and we knew last year, but we knew last year. I mean, you look at the numbers. Aj Store. Not a rebounder plays he's six seven, less than four boards a game in thirty minutes. Not a rebounder, not a passer, has never averaged more than zero point nine assists per game in his career. Doesn't block shots. Has thirteen total in his career, thirteen total blocks. He's sixty seven, not five to seven. Like, he doesn't do that. He's not a guy who's gonna get you steals averages
less than one half of one steal per game. Aj Store has forty steals in eighty three career games. He's not going to He's not gonna do that either. Not a three point threat. Shot just thirty two percent last year. He made less than one hundred threes and eighty three career games. He was brought in here to do one thing, drive to the cup and score. He's a good free throw shooter. But he doesn't get to the line either. He's got to score at the rim. He hasn't done that.
So we shouldn't be shocked that he's not contributing in any other way because he's never done that. But last year he did score at the Cup. He's not doing that. That's the problem. That's the and that's the piece they need the most right now. They need a downfield driver, guy who can go to the cup and get you two points more often than he can't or get fouled, go to the line and make them that way what we've seen Zeke Mayo make that adjustment. He's driving to
the cup a lot more since conference play started. AJ Store could not look less interested.
Would you play him against Cincinnati at all?
I mean, I still think that I would put him in the game about twelve minutes in, assuming that you're not down, you know, twenty three to ten, like we've seen Kansas get down in that spot in recent road games. I still think I try it. He's a good athlete, and inevitably with his his bo of work, he's a Division one athlete like you should be able to occasionally get something. We saw it against U and c we
saw it against Duke, like it should be there. But I'm fine using him in the role where if I try it for three minutes and he's bad, I'm not trying it again the rest of the night. That's it.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's exactly what happened here. You throw him out there, you give him maybe five minutes. Maybe if he plays well, you can at least try him again, and if he doesn't, that's that's it.
Like kJ Adams is listed just like AJ Store at six foot seven. We all think kJ is probably a better athlete. But kJ Adams has seventy one blocks in his career in one hundred and twenty games, Like, that's about point seven a game. AJ Store has thirteen blocks in three years. Like he doesn't contribute And you say, Okay, it's not a huge difference. It's won every couple games, Okay, But kJ Adams averages what in the last couple of years almost three assists per game, AJ Store under one
for his career. kJ Adams will get your steel a game. AJ Store won't even get you close. Like all those little things we talk about kJ not putting anything on the box score. AJ Store doesn't put anything in the box score if he's not scoring at the rim, correct, Yeah, I mean didn't he He just had a zero zero zero zero zero game for proof.
Yeah, I mean and with the blocks things specifically, I mean, AJ Store is also a more true perimeter player, and he's gonna be defending on the perimeter a lot more than K where kJ is defending in and around the paint and at the basket a lot more. But I mean, yeah, points taken. Yeah, this is definitely the case of AJ Store has like one thing to do and he looks deeply, deeply uncomfortable doing it, and that is driving to the cup and trying to draw contact. And he's just not
trying to do that at all. Which maybe you could blame that on Bill, because it does seem like from early reports that Bill might have gotten his head a little bit, which you know has never happened before. Bill's never gotten anyone's head before.
Oh no, that's happened.
But yeah, he has to do that, and we're definitely seeing a guy who has one particular skill set uh not utilized that almost at all, and he doesn't really
have anything else to do, which a little bit. Ending a nineteen point win for Kansas, uh in a game where they held their opponent to thirteen points in the second half and played truly outrageous defense and played really well in a game where you know, Brylan Griffin played well and Zeke Mayo was great, and Hunter Dickinson was great and kJ even had a pretty good game, uh. Ending on just ranting by a J Store. But I guess, well, that's that's the talk game for Kansas.
That is the talking point because to one more throwback to you brought up the Kevin Coher thing. Absolutely, he was brought into be Kevin mcculler's replacement. Kevin mcculor was a really good score at the rim like we needed aj Stort to be. But Kevin mccullor did a lot of things in the box score. He had two triple yes, like, he did a lot of things in addition to being a very defensive player. None of that has been seen from aj Storer. I still think it could work. We've
seen it happen at the power five level. We like the thing with Nick Timberlake that made us lose. All hope is he's never done it for a team better than thousand. We saw a J Storre do it against big ten teams every night like it's there, it's in the tank. But yeah, what you said about Bill self and he got in his head about driving to the rim,
well we'll see. I don't think the season is too far gone for aj Storre to ever contribute because I saw Remy Martin, who was albeit a much better player than aj store go through a season of crap and still came out off the bench to be a star in the NCAA Tournament. Aj Store has the ability to do it, but he's gonna have to show something because he's not showing anything in his four minutes that would make Bill Sell say yes, more of that. He's also starting to lose a lot of the fans on Twitter.
I was banging the gong as hard as anybody's saying self, it's on self. He's got to play more. After this type of performance. I'm sitting there wondering how in the world anyone on Twitter could say, I need to see more of this guy. It hasn't worked. Forty four percent from the floor for Kansas, thirty percent from three They were a perfect thirteen for thirteen at the line. That definitely deserves some praise. Finally, Kansas, they'll self recruit himself
some free throw shooters and it's on display. And they were plus ten at the glass on the glass after being like minus six in the first half. Really good second half, really good performance overall. You'll take it. But we're gonna learn a lot about them this weekend, Right, that's your attitude. I'm happy, but I didn't I didn't doubt that they were gonna play well against Arizona State. Now come the test, right, that's your attitude.
Yeah, I would, I would fully echo that. Good win for sure, great winn aast u CF good win here against Arizona State. Now go play a desperate Cincinnati team on the road who still has talent. And then you'll play one of the best teams in the country and the best team in the conference in Iowa State, in a building where you've historically struggled. And if if you get a couple wins there, then let's let's let's fire up the final four horns and sirens and let's have
a party until then. Yeah, I gotta see it, got to see it.
Bay Big twelve games. Here we go again with eight Big twelve games. I guess we already did a long recap about one of them. Starting with the best team in the conference, number three Iowa State eighty two, Utah fifty nine. We knew it would be a blowout. Iowa State covered anyway. Game was kind of close for a little bit, but Iowa State put their foot on their throat quickly. Taman Lipsey twenty points, Curtis Jones another twenty
three off the bench. The Cyclones are three and oh tough, little trap game for them this weekend, they go to Lubbock to play Texas Tech ahead of a colossal showdown with Kansas. If they get through the next two games and they're five and oh, I think you have to say they are undoubtedly the favorite in the Big twelve.
Would agree, Yeah, that's going to be a very interesting one at the Red Raiders this weekend.
Number twelve Houston sixty five, TCU forty six. Good lord, I don't understand why we need TCU in the Big twelve. Do you know what they do here?
Do we need them less than? Like BYU?
Do away with half these teams? If we're being honest, we could go back to the Big eight and keep you know, get rid of UCF and Cincinnati and basically get rid of all Brett your Mark's progress, right, I.
Would probably vote for that. Yeah, if given that, because.
Just TCU is just awful. TCU has never played a good basketball game. I believe that's the case, right and hit the history books show that they've never played a good basketball game.
It's very few, much less than everyone else. It feels Cam bet on this game and it was a push. Should he call the number? I think yeah, I think he should have called the number five years ago.
Speaking of Cam, here is Cam's random fact of the day that he sent us to read on the air. He says, Andian condors terrify me because they can fly up to one hundred and twenty five miles an hour. I'm not fact checking this. This is just straight from the inbox, which is Cam doesn't always say truthful things here, so we're rolling the dice. And he also says their wingspan is longer than kJ Adams by three feet, which
Kj's got a big wingspan. So these sounds like Bill needs to recruit him some of these birds to go out there at allen Field. I'm picturing the scene in Jurassic Wildness.
What what I'm dogging the I'm googling Andy and Condor. They're really large, upsettingly large.
Wow, Oh my gosh, they're real. I was picturing like they're not extinct either, they're alive.
Yeah, so big.
They look like they look like turkeys on their heads, and they their wingspan is just colossal. He wasn't kidding.
No, that's a very big bird. Y. I would not want that coming at me in one hundred and twenty five miles an hour.
And Andy and Corndor. They are scavengers. They eat remains of deer, cow, sheep, and the like, and some would say the souls of their victims because they're huge. Uh Cam. Most of the things Camp sends in this group chat I cannot read Camp. Uh Camp sent another fact had an alarm clock that I certainly cannot read on the air, but it is really really funny. So yeah, mischief cam Cam is spending some time with his girlfriend, who I believe lives a couple of states away. That is more
important than the show. Landon you decided that watching Notre Dame beat Penn State was not more important than the show, So that's where I rank.
I didn't decide that.
Oh is that my fault? Is that me being a boss and being laying down the law because we didn't want to get done at midnight?
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna need a one hundred percent raise of my current salary.
I'll do you better. I'll do to two hundred.
Anyway, let's get through our second and big twelve game. TCU needed garbage time to get a twentieth basket as compared to their nineteen turnovers. Yet again, folks, it tails all this time, Emmanuel sharpled Houston in scoring, but he only had fourteen points because again, the game was sixty five forty six. This is the fewest number of points anyone has scored against Houston since what the last dam damn it?
There's your hint.
Oh yeah, I remember that game. I watched it.
Kams has also scored forty six points in Houston. I believe that Arizona State scored thirteen points against Kansas in this game. I believe if Houston had scored thirteen second half points, they still would have won that game. I think they only needed like seven to beat Kansas in the second half. That there were something we were.
Big, twelve teams that didn't hit sixty. There was two that had hit fifty. What are we doing?
Did you?
Yeah?
This is painful, really really painful?
And two and a half.
And but there was never a question when Jerome Tank came to town, Oklahoma State was gonna see a hula hoop sized basket up here in front of them. Oklahoma State seventy nine, Kansas State, Ima, bitches sixty six. Oh my gosh, somebody has to fire Jerome Tang like enough already, not it, guys, we don't even like Kansas State, and I'm starting to feel bad for them because this is you want to talk about a guy who has undone progress quicker than anybody thought possible. Jerome Tang's Wildcats have
now lost eleven, count them, eleven straight road games. They were never competitive and still watered despite shooting fifty one percent. Hard to do, primarily because as they turned it over nineteen times. Turnovers are a thing. You're gonna notice a trend among Big twelve losers. This week, Oklahoma State got twenty seven points from someone named Abou Osmine in front
of approximately four hundred fans. They earned their first Big twelve win by beating well Jerome tank Gross Baylor sixty eight, Cincinnati forty eight. If Kansas doesn't beat Cincinnati, I know they're desperate, but forty eight damn points.
Baylor dropped the Bearcats to zer to three in league play heading into Saturday's game with the Jayhawks. Both Nord ched Omier and VJ. Edgecomb scored eighteen for the Bears. Where are these teams finished in the league. I think Baylor top five. I think Cincinnati seven, not seven. Way too few teams there, like fifteenth, or sixteenth.
Cincinnati won't be a bottom two team. They're probably around there. They won't you're right, probably around ten or eleven.
Yeah.
The problem is, though, they're racking up losses like that, and we saw last year the difference betwe between like the third place team and the seventh place team in the Big Twelve was a single game. When you're losing all these coin flips over and over, and I get it, their schedule has been tough, but you lose a coin flip, but home to Arizona, there's one. You lose a coin flip back Kansas State, a team a lot of teams
are gonna beat this year. That's another one. Like you're sliding down the rankings and they're killing they're already pretty underwhelming tournament resume, Like they are not an NCAA tournament team right now despite a good record, and you only get to forty eight against Baylor. Baylor, by the way, they're in the top four. I think the best four teams in the Big twelve right now are pretty clearly in some order, Iowa State, Houston, Kansas and Arizona and Baylor.
I guess it's five. Those are the best five with Texas Tech hovering around that sixth range. There are five There are four good teams in the Big twelve, and I would put Texas Tech and Baylor in the probably pretty good category. Right, that's fair. We have six teams that we would say are either anywhere between really good and probably good.
Yeah, I think that's I think that's pretty a pretty fair assessment.
Texas Tech seventy two BYU sixty seven. This is a great road win for the Red Raiders. They want and probo doing the opposite of Cincinnati. They won a road game in a place where not a lot of teams will get one. They got six threes from Elijah Hawkins, and they put together a second half comeback to win in a tough environment. BYU as a team only made five threes, They're not gonna beat anybody when they do that. Richie Saunders made zero. What do you think happens when
Kansas comes to town? And why is it? This one zero? That's the ball just flying in the basket one after the other. There it goes, Oh, Richie's got eight threes and we haven't even hit the second TV timeout yet. How's that possible? Arizona seventy five, number twenty one, West Virginia fifty six. So much for our West Virginia hype. This is it falling right off the tracks. Oh okay,
it just stopped playing, much like Arizona did. I guess, uh yeah, might have to replace the West Virginia whatever their team name is.
The Wildcats are a very surprising three and zero after what were they six and five or seven and four in the non cong.
They were It was worse than that. I think there were four and five. I think this was a team with a losing record through the first couple months of play. It was shocking.
They were not good. But they've opened big till play really well and they completely controlled The Mountaineers got twenty one Benz points from kJ Lewis. Of course, Caleb Love was three for ten. He almost refuses, out of sheer force of will to shoot a high percentage, just thirty six percent from the floor for the Mountaineers. Javon Small did not make a fade away with guy right in his face from behind the basket to ice this one. So yeah, wells Virginia gets ranked, they're probably gonna drop
out immediately. In Arizona, Arizona might actually be the good team we thought they were going to be.
Yeah, they have a lot of talent and Tommy Lloyd's a good coach. We figured that team would eventually rise to the top, or at least the top ish of Big twelve play. They look really good. We'll see if they're I don't think they're consistent enough to avoid a four out of five loll. That's absolutely coming at some point. But they are starting to come back to the surface a little bit after a pretty unlucky non con start.
UCF seventy five, Colorado seventy four. So Landon if the transitive property if Kansas is fifty one points better than UCF, I think that means they're fifty two points better than the Buffalos, who are zero and three. They shot fifty two percent to just thirty nine percent for UCF. They also made fifty four percent of their threes, and they were plus five on the glass. But oh, whenever you ask yourself how did they lose? You forgot that team plays in the Big twelve, so they must have had
a lot of turnovers, twenty two of them. That's gross twenty two points from Jordan Ivy Curry and it was Keyshawn Hall blocking a shot in the final two seconds that preserved a victory for UCF, who is hilariously two and one in conference play with a fifty what are they like minus forty six in three games and they're two and one something? Yeah, I think so amazing, just amazing. In the big twelve standings, we're starting to see a little bit. We'll see what we're at through about six games.
But the top three teams are all pretty good. Houston, Iowa State, and Arizona. They're the only three out of sixteen to make it through the first three games at three and zero.
I think four of the five tied for fourth place teams makes mostly sense KU, West, Virginia, Baylor, Texas Tech, and UCF at two and one.
And then we're starting to get into mediocreville here Kansas State, BYU, Arizona State, TCU, and Oklahoma State. I think that Kansas State might actually be like one of the three best teams in that set of five, which is truly impossible. They're one and two.
I think, so tied for fourteenth is Colorado, Utah and Cincinnati. I think Cincinnati will I think you are right, Cincinnati will not finish. I don't think in the in the true bottom here, Colorado and Utah are gonna have a tough go of things.
I thought Colorado was better than this, maybe just because they're they've produced pros before, they have a pretty respectable coach. I'm surprised they're this bad. Okay, if you had to bet right now, how many Big twelve teams finish lower than Kansas State? Uh? Because like theoretically, Kansas State has a as an upper half of the Big twelve home court advantage usually that usually helped them get a couple
extra wins for sure, a game like Cincinnati. I don't think Colorado or Utah's home court advantage is beating Cincinnati.
No, I think it's like four. I think it's Colorado, Utah and like two of the two well UCF probably, and then I.
Think finish yeah, like yeah, Kansas State though it maybe five because I think BYU sucks. Why did Camp? But again, the home court advantage that they should get a couple of games there, I guess it's a better it's a harder place to play. Why did cam bet twice on Kansas State winning a road game when they are seven and seven? They're not just like a tough luck Arizona
record team. They are just flat out awful there. They are complete and utter and they shouldn't be because there's a lot of money on that roster.
Yeah. I agreed with him the first time, foolishly, and this one I didn't get.
Yeah, it was. It was painful. There's lots of pain in other games, mainly from SEC teams. Chaos was everywhere and the it just means more conference this week beginning with one of the worst performances for a number one team in the history of college basketball. Number eight Florida absolutely ran over Like this Tennessee picture of the old lady that lives down the street from you that's backed
over her garbage can one hundred times. That's what they did to Number one Tennessee this week in Gainesville, seventy three to forty three on a night where the balls made. This is this is a real stat. Twelve baskets in forty minutes. If you're wondering. The worst basketball game ever was Kansas and TCU in February twenty thirteen, the one that Kansas lost. In that game, the Jayhawks and they're
fifty five points. They still managed despite their suckiness to score eighteen baskets and seek it's twelve in forty minutes. Just impossible. At one point, the walls were impossible, an incredible and unfathomable one four twenty five from three. And this is the number one team in the country Sea Land. And it's because of the way the ap poll works. You cannot move the clearly or clearly superior Auburn Iowa
State duke teams. You can't move them in front of Tennessee because by law, the balls haven't lost one yet, so we can't do it.
It's true, it's truebelieve. To bring it back to the most relevant piece of that, you mentioned someone backing over their trash can. Did you know that that is what happened the first time I tried to drive anywhere on my own, when I was like sixteen.
I think that you told me this. Your mom was in the const of you. You hit the.
Trash can, and she was waiting. She watched, she was watching me drive away from the door, and I backed into the trash can, and she made me pull back in, and she drove me to Culver.
I was gonna say, I assume that then the ride did not continue. She did not say, you know what AJ store fields. That's okay, just get back out there and play a few more minutes, because you you know there's the trash Canothy.
Yeah, I did the villa off because you noted well. But I did start my career as a J store that's yeah.
Now, Landman's a fine driver. You've been pulled over for driving in the left lane too slow, which you know that's something just at.
All, not too even too slow, just just being there for too long.
I legitimately didn't know you could get a ticket for that, being in the left lane too long. I didn't know that was a ticket.
It was only a warning, but it was still absurd.
Yeah. Yes, because you can't write a ticket for that. Every judge in the country would rip that in half if it actually got charged as a ticket. Good Lord, that's.
So also bad. Week four number six, Kentucky, who lost at Georgia eighty two sixty nine, could call Ryan in the midst of the Bulldogs best starting quite a while, even with Anthony Edwards didn't quite do this. Mark Pope has done a good job with the Wildcats. But Ryan, you say that he's getting on your nerves for how he handles end of game scenarios in blowouts.
Yeah, he's one of those. We're down thirteen with forty seconds left, so I'm gonna call time out after we make a shot and try to drop a play. I got my clipboard up there. I'm really acting like I'm Drexon and oh in my way. Yeah, come on, bro, just take your alt's over at that point, you're not coming back from thirteen down with forty seconds left. But oh my am I glad the dial landed on me for this one land And because let's talk about frauds,
Porter Moser. You know, if you go down the street and you ask your neighbor, the same one that ran over the trash can not landing the old lady, and you ask your let me see your nineteen eighty two World Book that you refuse to throw away, and you open the dictionary that comes with that set, and you go to the f section and then the f RS and you look up frauds. They're in that under that partion that says frauds. Is a picture of Porter Moser in his Oklahoma pullover. Because oh my gosh, I'm so
tired of watching this pace all over the place. Clown coach his team to on the wrong side of the bubble status. Fresh off a huge loss at Alabama, Number seventeen Oklahoma eternally thirteen two slash zero to two in league play eternal Parter Moser record, Oklahoma gets a huge break. They draw number ten Texas A and M on a night where Wade Taylor, best player arguably in the whole SEC, is out due to an injury. So Oklahoma boat races
them in the first half. They have a fifteen point second half lead, they get an insane thirty four points and nine threes are a season and a half worth for aj Storesworth for a guy named Bryson Goodeine, he has nine threes in the game. Surely that's enough for a win against a shorthanded team, except it wasn't because the Sooners were outscored twenty one to eight in the
final eight minutes. Zurich Phelps scored thirty four for the Aggies, and Porter's so fraudulent the fraud alert sign is blinding for Miles and Miles in the rearview mirror, Oklahoma team lost eighty to seventy eight to become zero and two in SEC play. They are awful this team is not a tournament team.
To be fair, there's not much else on the horizon in Oklahoma, so that fraud alert sign does get a lot of play.
Good line, good line. See, we can make that joke because we're from Kansas, where everything is very so much lore to see right, it's just slightly brown or dirt here in Kansas and mar snow right now.
Slightly larger cities.
Oklahoma's not a tournament team. They're not. I don't They're not a tournament hope. This is They're the same team they always are. They're gonna go like seven and fourteen in SEC play.
The only game that went about is predicted, was number two Auburn taking care of their business by beating a not very good Texas team in Austin eighty seven eighty two. Although that's score line not the most impressive for Auburn.
I mean it was it was like seventy four to fifty eight, and you know how that goes. You've seen You've seen enough of those games to blow covers and whatnot. The early favorite in the Big Ten is probably number twenty four Michigan, who rolled number twenty two Ucla on the road ninety four to seventy five in a game that Mick Cronin left him complaining about how his guys aren't superro In didn't know that he coaches eleven aj stores.
The Wolverines are four and oh and look like the favorite and the impossible to keep track of who is and who isn't in the Big Ten.
That's what I say, although note were the games in the conference, including r fifteen Oregon eking out a win past Oalhouse State on the road seventy three seventy one to get revenge for the football game. Although my guess is that Oregon basketball fans are not as passionate as organ.
Football totally pulls it even now, even scoreboard one to one.
Number twenty Perudue winning at Rutgers for their fourth straight win, and we're sixteen Michigan State beating the breaks off Washington at home. I do fear that Tom Mizzo has a good squad. He does, he'll also lose in the round of sixteen to a team that's seeded higher than his every single time.
Washington. By the way, last week we picked Washington to beat Illinois, like, oh, they're at home, let's not do that anymore. Washington is awful. Washington is just terrible and okay, so I actually forgot to put a note in here. Number four. Duke was up fifty six to forty seven against Pitt's with eight minutes left, and then all they did was keep the Panthers off the scoreboard the rest of the night. The final score seventy six to forty seven. That is a twenty zero run in the game. Cooper
Flag had a great dunk. That's great, That's everything. But Landon I want to talk about quickly, and some ascarcbs may have to be sacrificed for this, but I'm prepared to do it. I want to talk about de Paul because DePaul basketball where cam lives. I looked up some stats about De Paul and we know they've been awful, but somehow they were even worse than I thought. Why are they so bad?
Yeah, it doesn't. This doesn't make any sense to me because I feel like every time I like moderately check recruiting, which is, to be fair, a little less than less these days, I feel like DePaul always pulls a few guys,
like a couple that are good. They're also in Chicago, a notoriously like great basketball city, like theatically you'd get guys that accidentally commit to you in Chicago, right, like they just you think you just for just being a power conference team that you would like fluke your way into tricking the committee into putting you in off like a nineteen win season. Once they just can't get there. It's really it's astonishing to me, and I think it's very funny.
Well so horrible, awful, lousy de Paul. They get a draw against five and nine Seaton Hall. They led them by nineteen game. You don't say, especially when you're up nineteen and they wound up losing. They have not won a conference game since January twenty twenty three, when Jalen Wilson was willing Kansas to victories or being iced by his coach. DePaul is three and forty five in their last forty eight Big East games. And it's not like the Big East is just loaded with juggernauts either. It's
three and forty five. I'm convinced that I could coach a team three wins and forty eight chances with Chicago recruits.
You think you think you can get to four wins, but it's apparently it's a lot harder than the.
Looks truly impossible ranked teams to lose in to the last show, we begin at the top. Number one Tennessee got just obliterated a time and a half to Florida.
I'm sorry, I was I was reading tweets about Notre Dame going to the national title. On Number six Kentucky they lost to Georgia.
Number nine Yukon got upset at Villa Nova as to cut into an ascarcb here at show me, Hawk says, I wonder who Yukon just lost to. Certainly a team that would be a great matchup for Kansas. Okay, fine, you know what, Here you go.
Here comes the two seat.
Big for Kansas. I love that matchup. Good Lord, good Lord.
Number seventeen Oklahoma they lost Texas, A and M.
Yeah, they're gonna be on this list eternally because one more time they are Yeah, I guess they get rid of them entirely. Number twenty one West of Virginia. Speaking of teams that are about to disappear from this, Liz lost to the Fighting Caleb.
Loves and Number twenty two Ucla they lost to Michigan.
Good week for Lanta and pick him he climbed back a little bit. Cam was eight and seven, Lanta was twelve and three. That's gaining four games in one half week. That's pretty good. Landon, You're you're the gun that's being held to your temple for your punishment. Here it it got a little further away. It's not like four inches from your temple.
Yeah, Like yeah, whoever was holding that gun started considering Cam as an option, Like a little bit.
I'm just separating here at this point, like I think I'm what, I'm a solid ten plus games ahead now. It's like, yeah, it's about ten whatever. It's gonna take a colossal choke a Kansas would be Michigan choke for me to wind up in that spot. But hey, you know, you never.
Know, Hey, you don't. You don't have to. You don't have to outrun the bear. You just gotta outrun the guy who can outrun the bear.
That's right, That's right, all right, We're gonna machine gun fire through these ascarcbs just simply because we got to get to a preview and this show is late. I'm we're not doing kJ Adams questions, we're not doing rotation questions just because we've done it. So many times. A couple questions about AJ Store at Mayo Zeke Berner, have you given up on AJ store yet? At DS conscious, what are the chances AJ stores next? Nil? Our check bounces?
And then definitely a little bit about his effort at Preston's cursik as someone who cares and is deeply invested, how do we get AJ to care and be deeply invested? Your thoughts on all the AJ store stuff that we didn't already say.
Uh, I kind of have given up on them a little bit. The cares an invested thing is a really hard one. So that's just such a personal thing, like that's between him and Bill and I don't I don't really know. I think it's probably very hard when you know you're not playing well and you did come in as one of the most highly not just highly touted recruits on the team, but like one of the more highly touted recruits in the country, and you're having this
season at a prestigious program. That has to be frustrating. I sympathize with him from that perspective, like, that's tough to know what's happening to you in real time. Probably I don't know, And he Twitter.
He sees the Twitter backlash. He can see that just as easy as anybody else can. Like that. That sucks. And people that are trashing players on social media, you're not helping anything. I don't always tweet positive things about everything, but I'd like to think that rock Chock blog doesn't just dog on players like I've seen some people do out there where they openly wish for people to leave the team and they say players suck and they say players just are losers. And it's like, no, I think
AJ's effort is just fine. It's just not working. The fits not working. It still good, but nothing no criticism with him as a person or his effort or his hustle at all. He just isn't putting up basketball stats like we thought he would. It's simple as that. Sometimes it doesn't work. Yep, yep, be disappointed, but don't be personal. At show Mehawk says, do you think Kansas should start scheduling road games and the non con against mid majors
like when Alabama played at North Dakota? Adds Kansas inside the Swinny Rec Center, which for those of you who don't know, is umk c's home arena, would be super cool. I'm down for that, especially because this team has been just so kick as on the road the last couple of years.
I think it'd be fun. I was I was in the Swinny Rec Center earlier this year, and I was wondering what it would be like if Kansas ever came there. I don't think they'd ever do it, but it'd be fund I'd be super down for games like that.
I mean, they're clearly not afraid to schedule anybody, so you may as well. Like I'm glad that they've gotten rid of the Sprint Center game that was that was kind of a dud. Like, you know, at least they're always looking to tweak the schedule a little bit. We'll see what the tournaments going forth looked like, because it doesn't help that they took away to non conference games. The schedule so big now for Big twelve play that they got to play twenty league games. You only get
eleven spots in your non con. Then you play a non con tournament, you're only down to eight, and then you want four or five cupcakes and you only got three left. Like it goes. Your spots go really fast. At cam Lipole Golf says, will Hubert Davis be a mall Easter Bunny or a mall Santa next? Oh? No, did North Carolina basketball lose again? Did they freaking lose again? North Carolina lost?
Uh?
I don't know what Cam's talking about. They haven't played yet. They've actually won two games in a row. They play, they play at North Carolina State on Saturday. Surely that won't go wrong.
If I had to bet, the mall Easter Bunny would be really funny.
Yeah, that would be uh. And you know the mal Santa thing, depending on the part of the country goes to I, I would fear for his Uh. I would fear for some bits of how that would be handled.
Why is that, Ryan, I don't understand. I need you to explain why to me.
Well, it's because he's bald, and Santa Claus isn't baald.
Oh hell right, right? Yeah obviously, Well, I mean's quite the hat would go a long way in that regard. But I get you.
But he's also tall, and I don't know he's skinny. You know, Santa's not a skinny guy.
Santa doesn't wear glasses either, So.
That's that's right. Yeahtary, No, there you go, he done more of those glasses. At m HKU thirty two. Kansas currently sitting at eleven to one to win the Big Twelve and twenty five to one to win the National Title or either of those odds, enticing no, those never work. I hate national title or Super Bowl champion futures bets, but eleven to one to win the Big Twelve. I think if they play this season out eleven times, they win the Big Twelve at least.
Twice, I would think so, Hell yeah, I would think.
So maybe that one do they have to win it? Outright?
Like?
Because if I don't know how that works, Like, if they tie, is that count I would assume No, I'd assume it's whoever's the one seed in the Big twelve tournament is the tiebreaker at Preston Skirsick and at the
Wheelwheel two. Close this out here, just because we're short on time, with a couple of questions about Shack Moore says in terms of pure basketball ability, has Shack Moore established himself as a top five player on the team, and also after seeing the Floory block Donkeans UCF and then the steals by shit against Arizona State, what are some of the moments that have popped so far this season.
Shack Moore is probably not, in terms of just ability, a top five player on the team, but he might be a top five fit for what this team wants to do.
Yeah, not top five on for ability. I mean he is skyrocketed up in the last couple of games. I mean he definitely, you know, he's had a couple of skials in the last couple of games. He did knock down a couple threes. His hustle and finishing is pretty nice as well. Yeah, I definitely there's been a lot of moments or several moments that have popped in just
a couple of games, which is impressive. But now I wouldn't say he's top five ability, but I think you are onto something that if this team does become a lockdown defensive team, or at least that's what they hang their hat on, then Shaq Moore is a very very important piece to that because they.
Got a long way to go their fourth and Ken Pom defense right now. Obviously, there's there's plenty of games left and they're gonna play much tougher opponents too. But Kansas has finished as a top five defensive team under Bill Self on Ken Pump twenty sixteen, where they were a stones throw away from the final four against the team that I don't know. I'm not gonna tell you it was, but I just played to drop a few
minutes ago about it. Team was very good, and that was a team that was kind of for a while and then just blasted off when they found their group. And twenty twenty a team that was eh for a while and then took off when they found that identity. Like top five defense, Bill self, teams are really really good. He can win with those teams. Might not be super pretty,
but they can win with those teams. And as for the plays that have popped this year, the honestly the scene from this season thus far for me until the last week was Hunter Dickinson kicking the duke guy in the head. Like that was the scene that I thought of first. I'm trying to think of just iconic moments from this season. Yeah, just those two, I think, right, Shackmore's steeling dunk and Flori's Coast to coast stealing.
Slam Hunters and one one hand dunk from the past games pretty high on that list. I would say the.
Game had a game tying and one that it just got about quickly because they lost.
I think there has to be something from the North Carolina game because that was a pretty epic game, but I can't think of one off the top of my head.
Oh. Then the Duke game probably had a couple of plays down the stretch, but that was just more stops. They had good defensive possessions. At the end of those two games. Hunter are also eight Michigan State alive for like a half and then they just coasted from there. Yeah, I think we'll get them. They're gonna have some some games where that those opportunities will certainly be on table. If you ever have ascarcps Twitter hashtag, you know the drill drop, Come on, come on, go there we go Bay.
All right, now we preview a game, and I think you could argue this is the most important game of the season thus far for the Kansas basketball Jayhawks. And it's certainly not going to get that vibe from reading the matchup on paper, but we'll talk about it. Number eleven Kansas at Cincinnati on Saturday, one one to one at one pm on ESPN plus. Yay everybody's favorite. What is that three ESPN plus games out of four this year. Good Lord H.
Wes Miller's since Addie. Bearcatz entered the season as a top twenty five team that returned most pieces from a team that got better throughout the year last season. They started this year ten and one, with an aarrow lost to Villanova being their only non con blemish. But they are zero to three and Big Twelve play after playing kase State, Arizona, and Baylor to start their league schedule.
Arizona and Baylor those are respectable. Losing to ky State at home not as much, I don't think, but nonetheless, the Bearcat's not dead, but a bad start to conference play for sure.
Pretty brutal when you're fir. I know we laugh about ky State, but their first four conference games are at Bramldge, Arizona at home, at Baylor, and Kansas Like that is.
Shit, Bramlage, I forgot about that.
That is true, But I mean that if at Kansas State, who's five hundred, I get it, they're not very good. But if at Kansas State in Bramledge is your easiest game of four, that's a brutal stretch. All League caliber guard Dan Skillings Junior is their best player, averaging thirteen points in four rebounds. He's a very good thirty eight percent three point shooter. His point guard is Edger and James's son, Jisel James, a plus name. I'm sure it's not his real name, but we'll roll with it, who
adds eleven points and five assists. He is a sub thirty percent shooter from deep, so not as much of a threat, which means he's going three for four of this game. The three man is White Guy of the Game candidate six foot eight Samas Lakotias, who averages thirteen and three and he shoots EIGHTEAM best forty percent from three. Excellent basketball player. He is fees size and shoots accurately. Dane Thomas and Connor Hickman are the reserve guards of note.
A lot of these guys shoot pretty well and they're all decent athletes.
And in the front court they have some size in length as well. They pair former Texas for Dylan Mitchell with seven foot center Aziz Bendago. They combined to average twenty Senegal that makes a lot of sense with that name, to average twenty points and thirteen rebands while both shooting almost seventy percent from the floor. Both try contact well, but either shoot well from the line considering their size, they're both very good at avoiding fouling as well. Aaronton
Page and Tyler Betsy also get minutes. Arrington Page and Tyler Betsy, like you were joking about on the last show, Ryn, do sound like names that you just like thought of or put in the like Madden simulator and then just typed. Those could be real people or not. But nonetheless, Cincinnati does have some size and that has quelled Hunter Dickinson in the past.
I was positive that Tyler Betsy would be a white guy with that name, especially with Betsey, but he is not, so that gives Kansas a little bit of hope. I guess the Bearcat. So here's my scouting report. I'm not very good at scouting reports and non con because we're so early in the season. Cincinnati was the first team that I felt pretty good about writing a scouting report for because we saw basically this team play twice against Kansas last year. We saw their numbers last year and
they are similar. They're a very good defensive team. Last year Cincinnati team was one of the best rebounding teams in college basketball. They're not as good at that this year, but they're even better on the defensive end. They keep opponents off the glass as well as anyone in the country. Their three point defense has been top ten nationally. Good. They're a very good shot blocking team, and they play good,
not great, but good inside offense. Their slow pace and experience keep turnovers and fouls as low as a conference's best clip. But the weaknesses they're a mediocre thirty four percent three point shooting team. Good, they're okay, not great. Their biggest weaknesses are all associated with the free throw line. They average ten megs fifteen attempts and just sixty three percent as a team. Those are all bottom fifteen national numbers. So they're pretty good on the on the offensive effort,
and they're really good on defense. But the explains right there. While they're losing close games, they're not getting the line, and when they get there, they're not making free throws.
All time. Kansas is four and five against Cincinnati, but they've only played three games since nineteen sixty seven, and two of them were last year. This is their first matchup in Cincinnati since the sixties. It's worth noting that the worst performance in Kansas basketball history, as something we have discussed much on this show, came last March FIRSTUS Cincinnati in the second round of the Big Twelve Tournament.
Jayhawks lost seventy two to fifty two to the Bearcats in a game where if you take Kids Adams twenty two points away, the team had thirty points. Other than that, twelve of forty eight shooting and three of twenty from three. Nick Timberlake, Johnny Furfey, and Almarco Jackson combined to go five of twenty eight. I do anticipate a better outing from the Jayhawks than that.
Yeah, Bill self said, Alamarco Jackson is going to be one hundred percent by March. He obviously isn't gonna play, he's not up to game speed, but he'll be one hundred percent healed. And everybody on Twitter was like, I can't wait to see al Marco next year, and that made me realize, Uh, I better enjoy these last twenty games because I am not really looking forward to el Marco Jackson bouncing the ball off his foot as Darren Peterson is screaming, please pass me the big orange ball.
I want to go score with it, and al Marco's just like, but what if I drip up between my legs for fifteen seconds and then turn it over? Not looking forward to that, But in this game, I think this is the toughest position of the season, the toughest prediction of the season.
I agree.
I get the suspicion that we are gonna do the opposite of what we normally do.
Okay, so that means you are gonna predict a Kansas loss and I'm gonna predict the Kansas win.
I get that. I get that vibe. Is that the vibe you get?
I was leaning that way?
Okay, I'll go first. Then I am going to pick Cincinnati to win this game, and I think it is is razor thing. This is a fifty to fifty game, and ultimately, if Kansas goes up there and lose, as we've said before, just don't get trounced. If they go up there and lose seventy four to seventy one, and a game where you can say you know they were there a couple five. Look, Cincinnati's good, They're zero to three.
This is a desperate team that's gonna be a loud building to try to get their guys back in gear, and I just don't like the size they're gonna throw it at Kansas. Hunter Dickinson hasn't been super effective when you pair athleticism and size in the front court, and I'm hesitant to trust the surrounding perimeter pieces now with Shackmore out there more to make enough threes to keep Kansas in the game. But Cincinnati can definitely be gotten
on offense. They just scored forty against Baylor, and Kansas is a really good defensive team. They'll need to lean on their experience and their turnover forcing ability to get out of here with a win. Could they do it? Sure? Will they do it? I'm gonna predict them to lose because I think Cincy eventually has to get one here, and I'm gonna pick Cincinnati to win seventy two to
sixty seven in an ugly, frustrating game. But I would love to be wrong, and if I am wrong, I'm gonna change my tune about this team quickly because that would be two straight road wins.
I am. I don't feel overly confident about this, but I am going to take Kansas to win. Everything you said about Cincinnati, I agree with and Kansas has had matchup problems and I think is pretty matchup dependent. How Ever, Cincinnati has just not played well this season play.
They just haven't four top opponents are Villanova and the three Big Twelve games and they're oh and four.
Yeah, yeah, they haven't played. They haven't won a game against a great team, against a good team, really, and I am going to say, I'm gonna trust Kansas's defensive trajectory here and stuff. They're gonna win like.
Seventy to sixty ow boat race kind of almost.
Keep him at arm's length by the end. Just the way Cincinnati has played. I don't know if Hunter Dickinson's gonna have like a great statistical outing here. He probably won't. But I think Kansas is gonna find a way, and I don't think Cincinnati is going to be good enough. And I'm gonna trust that Kansas is going to play just well enough. And I feel not good about that prediction at all, but give me the Hawks well.
And at the beginning of the season, we would have said, Okay, if they can be three and two through the first five conference games, then the schedule opens up a bit because we knew at Sinca and at Iowa State were two very tough games. I think three and two would have been considered the low water mark, but we would have said just don't be worse than three and two acceptable.
It would have been the acceptable mark.
Right, And if they win this game, they will put themselves in a position where that is locked in. They cannot be worse than three and two through five, and then you're in a position where screwt go shock Iowa State on the road and put springboard yourself. Right. If they get two dubs this week, people are gonna go from winning the season to be over and calling Bill soolv wash to saying this team could win a Natty in a two week span. Oh wow, is that surprising
fickle fans. But if they lose both these games and you're two and three in league play, eh, that's gonna feel real bad, especially with Iowa State and Houston potentially two full games in front of you, and you're not even three games in the league play. If you want to be a contender, if you want to contend for a title in the Big Twelve, if you want to contend for a one seed at Cincinnati in a game that Ken Palm says, you have a fifty six percent chance of winning. That has to be a win.
Yeah, I agree. I think that's that's true. If you're two and three, the Big Twelve race is probably done for can I think Cincinnati is good.
I picked them to finish in the top six of the Big Twelve in the preseason and our preseason show. I love their returning talent. I think that they're due to get one. I hope I'm wrong. It'd be awesome if Kansas can keep them at Bay one more game and then since he can go win their games. Because you're right, they haven't played well against the good teams on their schedule. We'll see what happens. It should be a close game. I'm not expecting. Well, maybe I will
based on what's happened. I'm certainly not expecting it to be thirteen to three at the first TV time out in Kansas. Just never get us up the whole game. I think it'll be very close throughout other games in the Big Twelve. Number three Iowa State at Texas Tech trap game. Give me the Red Raiders.
Yep, I agree.
I just think that's a tough place to play. Iowa State look going ahead of KU a little bit. They can't win them all. B YU at TCU, Oh my gosh, you want to talk about a toilet bowl. I don't want. I don't I don't even want to pick this game. Or I just want to take an l And it's kind of like the people who take a knee, like in the middle of a highway to protest things or whatever.
I'm just gonna gonna take. I know I'm gonna be shamed, I know I'm gonna be chastised, but I just don't even want to pick this game because I hate it so much.
TCU.
I think TCU sucks. I will go Cougars on the Road, Jay Horrendous Basketball Game Number twelve, Houston at Kansas State. I feel confident in this one. I think the Cougars will win.
I do too. K State will score less than sixty.
Yes, maybe less than fifty. Oklahoma State at Utah. I said I was never gonna pick Utah, and I am sticking with it. Pokes on the Road.
Uh, give you the Utes. The Utes get one here.
They better if they can't get this one. I don't know which one they're getting. Baylor at Arizona State Baylor hasn't shown me anything that would make me think they can win on the road. I'll take the Sun doubles.
Yeah, I was gonna say, give me a little Arizona State bounce back performance here forks up.
Teams are are two? Are three and oh right after or two and oh after losing after playing Kansas and conference play, and let's see if that continues. UCF at Arizona Zona by as many points as legally as allowed in a basketball game. See, I think it's actually kind of close. But you're you're definitely not a fan of UCF. I agree. Arizona starts four to oh. Number twenty one West Virginia at Colorado. This has to be the spot for the Buffaloes, right.
Give me the Mountaineers. Close? Close? Yes, okay, what's Virginia?
You really think UCF and Colorado are the worst teams ever? And I it definitely could be true.
They're playing like it, especially Utah.
Yeah, well yeah, that's who Sat losses a lot of them other games. Number nine, Yukon tries to bounce back at Georgetown. We will pick them to and the Ryan needed a seventh game to make this a round number So I threw this freebie in there. Take your win Landon.
Yeah, it's gotta be gotta be the Huskies here.
Number eight Florida at Arkansas. You ready for this? I know, I know he was just called the biggest fraud of the year, but I am taking John Calipari to win this game. Florida, fresh off there win over number one, goes down to a desperate Arkansas team.
I think Florida's really good, and I think Arkansas is the last few years of Cal. So give me Florida washed.
Cal is a thing. Number one Tennessee at Texas. Not betting on the upset here, Vole's big. Yeah.
I think Tennessee comes out pissed and Texas does not score a lot of points.
Somebody should find out when is the last time a team played number two and number one in the same week, because that is Texas's week. Horrendous draw for them. Number seventeen Oklahoma at Georgia. I'm just profiting. Lots of doubs picking against Porter and I'll take them. I'll take another one. Bulldogs, Yeah, give me the dogs. Was that a wolf? Did you give me a wolf? Is that what that was?
There was a wolf in there?
That was a wolf. Well, you know we also had Nick Doo that once. That's US Bulldogs. It's not gonna be that close either. Porter sucks. Number five Alabama at number ten in Texas A and M Saturday primetime game. That's a barn Burner.
Is wayde Taylor back.
We don't know it was a lower body injury. I am all in on the Crimson Tide.
I think they win same.
I think they might be a top three team in the country. Right now. Here's another tough one. You didn't know this team was ranked this I did you. I certainly did. Number six Kentucky at number fourteen Mississippi State, Oh man, how good is Mississippi State? Are they? Yeah? I think the SEC is just that. On the road, I agree. And number sixteen Michigan State at Northwestern Spartans are just steam rolling right through everybody. I say that they get tripped up here.
Eh oh okay, I do not sparty.
I'm hesitant to p a lot of road teams unless the road team is playing at Well, let's see the road teams that I picked to win. One is playing Rodney Terry, one is playing Georgetown, one is playing one is Jamie Dixon you want to. Yeah, So I'm picky about who I pick on the road, I guess, and one's playing Kansas State, who I feel pretty good there.
So our next podcast coming Sunday, where we will we're expected to have Cam back much like way Taylor, he is questionable for the next one, and then we get to prepare for a game at Ames. When was the last time they wanted Iowa State? They never went there anymore?
Yeah, it's been a now they they won there. They won there when we did not think they would without o Chai in the year.
So it's still been three years. But yeah, it's been a it's been a hot minute. Iowa State went through a stretch where they were so bad for a couple of years and now they are not. It's amazing what happened, coach. Yeah, they're they're a wagon. Well Landon, you get a you get an MVP award, and I don't really know what you want to do with it. Think of it like a dundee. You just put it on your desk for being perseverant and doing a I really wish I wasn't
here right now show for the fans. And we carried through and gave him a good one. This is I t P and Ryan Landers.
Uh, thank you, thank you, Ryan, I I really appreciate that. I will stare at that at my uh my bedstand for for weeks on end, if not years.
Just don't hit a trash can.
Hopefully, hopefully the locker room culture will be will be good at I T P. After tonight. Uh, there there may be fine's handed out. It wasn't. I was just a little to miss Notre Dame. But they're in the championship. Let's go Notre Dame today.
And honestly, it may have been better for you to not watch it because you, like, seriously, that was you gotta know. Now you just missed James Franklin being sad.
And now I've won the right to watch Riley Leonard throw like three interceptions against either team that he plays in the national time. It will be Ohio State.
But and we'll make sure that we schedule a podcast for that night too, just for you, sir.
Yeah, I'm skipping that one.
Sorry, all right, We'll see you on Sunday. Stay out of trouble. Don't hit any trash cans.
Always good advice I would know. Bye.