ITP: Road woes continue as Kansas gets Cyclone'd in Ames

So the Fred Hoiberg coached Iowa State Cyclones in the year twenty fifteen have defeated the Kansas Jayhawks. Wait wait, wait, I'm getting a text from what seems to be just the Big twelve in general. Oh, it's not twenty fifteen anymore. Yes, twenty twenty four, and Iowa State is still hitting threes against Kansas and still beating them in Hillton Coliseum. Welcome Inside the Paint. Liane's on the show and I'm opening it for some reason. Yea,

I am the co host, Johnny Kansas. Oh that is kind of weird whenever you go first, because then I go second. Right, I'll just I'll just say I'm ashamed of Kansas Twitter. How about that? How about that? Are Kansas X? Because you know that's why. So this is a very bizarre setup today on Inside the Paint. First off, there's no Nick because he's a quitter. He's already mailed it in. Second of all, Landon, you are not at your normal recording headquarters. I'm in a

hotel room that's about two hundred square feet. My life is five feet from me. Our neighbors in the room behind us are just one wall away. So they all get to hear the parade. I'm sure how lucky everybody is. Yeah, so this is weird parade. Dedicated and confident and confident and dedicated are we? Why aren't you? What is your setup? It's weirder than mine. Yeah, it is weirder than yours. I'm also not in my house like you said. I'm in what amounts to a large hotel room.

It's basically like a cabin in Cocker City, Kansas, which, for the keen eared listeners out there, is where the world's largest ball of twine resides. I'm not here for the ball of twine. I'm here because my aunt and uncle are moving to They're moving in the area and I was helping them out today and it wasn't until well after I offered to help that I

realized that this show was going to have to happen. So my gracious uncle has allowed me to record on his work laptop with audio software that I have not used before in what is a very echoe uh recording spot. Though I did check previous audio and it sounds okay, So my apologies. If it doesn't, we're gonna roll with it because you all, you know how fun it is to try to Frankenstein together. So when we're missing one of the audio funds, actually the worst thing ever. Yeah, it's it's bad.

Yeah that so hopefully we don't have to do that. But that's how that's how dedicated. Everybody here is talking about Bill's Jayhawks on a day when the Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl and landon your they're not even your favorite team right now. The Detroit Lions decided to are also out. Yeah, they they decided to North Carolina in the second half of the Championship game

themselves there in the second half in Santa Clara. Uh you. Nick has said that you have become so I don't care about the outcome of sports, that that's become something you care about. The Chiefs are going to the League Super true. The Chiefs are going to Super Bowl. Kansas has lost three out of five, And do you really like you're just kind of okay, let's see what how happens on both. Yeah, I have no actual emotion

towards either of those things, to be quite honest, that's interesting. I've become way more interested in, like just what is more interesting than exclusively my team winning, which is weird, because that's never how I've thought before. Yeah, I get it. I get it because the Chiefs have won a lot. The Jayhawks have won a lot. Jayhawks of USS have lost a

lot recently. We have a whole bunch of interesting takes here. They are either the worst basketball team ever if you're on Twitter, or if you're me. It's all a fluke. There's no in between. There's no method to madness whatsoever. So let's go ahead. Let's blow the airhorn, which is going to be at a quiet volume today because of the sound setups that we have. I love. I love losing like two percent of my hearing every

show. All right, you know what, just for you all, blast that just once and then Angie can't get Nope, I'm getting a very not very I'm not getting a very supportive face over there. So let's go. Let's go ahead and keep it down. Here we go. Number twenty three, Iowa State, seventy nine, Number seven, can Kansas seventy five, seventy two. Well not for Kevin mccover, my good sir, splashing in

that one win in some money iving friends would disagree with me adamantly. That last shot mattered for some, but not for the game story, because really it didn't. You're right. It was a last second three that turned a seven point l into a four point one, an ugly first half that saw ninety eight combined second half point so we did get to see some offense in one of these games for the first time since the Hoyberg days. Iowa State

built a ten point lead five minutes in the second half. Kansas never caught up. Oh yeah, and then there was Iowa State making fourteen threes, which is the most they've made in a game in three years. The Jayhawks cut the deficit to seventy four to seventy two inside the final minute, but the fourteenth and final three of the night on a broken play. Nonetheless, at the shot clock buzzer splashed through the net and it ended Kansas's comeback bid

sent them to their third road loss already. I watched the first I tried to watch this game on a Southwest flight, and that went about as well as it sounds. Nick was texting me updates and then I got to see I actually by the time I got the CBS Sports iPad app, because not Paramount, because why would they make it easy? And the airport Wi Fi

set up right when we got to the baggage claim. I got the iPad on and at seventy four to seventy two with a minute left, just to watch that very last three pointer that was yeaded at the last second go, and so it was all for not really Kansas. I may as well didn't watch more or less didn't, but I saw that that was fun. You actually got to watch. What did you think? I mostly got to watch.

I was still helping my aunt and uncle move, so I saw most of the game somehow, but it was mostly on like a forty inch TV while eating a sandwich. So it sounds like still a smaller teav than normal robust analysis today. Hey, that's okay, because I went to YouTube and watched the highlights of this game, and they're basically just all Iowa State less than twenty five percent three point shooters making threes. That's all it was.

They did happen a lot. Yeah, yeah, we gotta start with that, by the way, Like I'm sure we'll give plenty of analysis, but let's go and get into this here. Iowa State fourteen for thirty on threes. That's forty seven percent. Trey King, who had made just three threes all year, goes out and makes four. UCF West Virginia and Iowa State, none of whom are necessarily good three point shooting teams have now gone thirty three for seventy one shooting threes against KU, which is forty seven percent.

Let's let's let's just do this here. Are they really bad at guarding the three? I'm just gonna ask you yes or no? Because Twitter is Twitter has all sorts of opinions. Sorry x, sorry Elon. They are fine guarding the three, but that is not why teams are making threes at this rate. Okay, I think they could be better at allowing in rhythm catches and ball screen defense and all those kind of things. I think they could be better than they are. However, teams are making threes at like historic

rates against them. That's not because of mediocre defense. That's because of weird basketball luck. For the most part, some threes teams are making can be more directly contributed to the idea that Kansas is not defending the three point line very well. They are seeing some more open shooters at times, but I think that's a very miniscule percent in comparison to the threes that they're actually giving up, which, as you have pointed out, Ryan is fluky, is

lucky. But it's happening very consistently, which is really weird. Like, I don't know how to quite pair those things, because consistency usually does not mean luck. It's actually usually the proof that it isn't luck. But in this case, I do think there is some weird fluky thing that keeps happening. This happened a couple of years ago too, We had very similar conversations where Kansas was giving up a lot of threes, but like there was no

real reason why other than teams were just simply hitting more. Even if there was maybe a slight decline in defense, the increase in made threes was so much. I think that's what's happening again this year. It's a very weird

thing to observe. Yeah, And what happened after those stretches, I mean, what happens is then you have a seven or eight game stretch where the pendulum swings back, and you have those month's worth of games where teams shoot twenty seven percent instead of forty seven percent from three against you, and all the people go on Twitter and talk about how great Bell self is for fixing this defense. And I told you on the last show that three point defense,

the biggest attribute of it is more or less luck. There've been. I mean, Iowa State was one of the worst three point from an efficiency perspective, one of the worst three point shooting team in college basketball entering this game. And they go out and they make more than they made in the game in three years. Kansas had an allowed fourteen threes in a game since February of twenty nineteen. Like, did they just forget how to guard?

They held Cincinnati to three threes the other night, so and that was after a West Virginia game where they didn't guard, and then they did guard really good against Cincinnati, and then they just sucked again in this one. I guess I don't. It's really hard to keep up with. Three point shooting is more or less flukey. It always has been. We've seen random performances

and bill South Kansas teams. If there has been one achilles heel over the years, it's been that they've been very susceptible to getting blitzed from three point range in games that they would win nine out of ten times right out of ten times, and they don't. And this isn't a game that they would have won that much. But we've seen it in tournament losses the double digit

seeds, and I think that's kind of what you had. What happens whenever you have strong interior defense, and teams just say, were our best chances to launch threes? And in this case, Iowa State did not have a lot of interest in trying to go up against the worst defender in the history of college basketball, Hunter Dickinson, as I've been told on this show. So they, I said, just decided their best shot was to launch threes,

and it worked. And here we have Kansas allowing fourteen threes, losing to a top twenty team gonna be top twenty come Monday on the road by just four points. Like I this is the part where we kind of transition into now what because they've lost three out of five. The four and three record is the worst they've ever been through seven games in the Big twelve race. Under yourself, what happens next? Like is this, Are you feeling

better about this team now than you were before it? Are you feeling better about them than you were before the UCF game. Where does all this stack up? Is it time to sound the panic alarm? Uh No? I mean well, I think that depends on exactly where you were before the startup conference play. I guess uh No. For me, I don't think so. I don't think it's time to hit the panic button. I feel almost exactly the same probably about this team right now than I did going in to

it. I think Iowa State is like pretty solid and I think and very hard to beat at Hilton, Yes, exactly. That's one of the that might be the best home court not named allenfield House in the Big Twelve. That's a place that KAU has lost before, and they've had great teams that have lost up there before. I don't know. I'm not super worried about it. But then again, I think almost exactly the same about this team then I did going in. I think Kansas is a good basketball team that

has some flaws. I do think overall, they actually aren't that great of a defensive team. I think they actually do have some genuine defensive flaws, but I still think they're a very solid team. I don't think you have a ton to worry about. I think there's a very good chance that they lose like less than three games the rest of Big Twelve play, even though the schedule is a gauntlet. I don't think Kansas is going to be lose seventy five percent of their road games in the Big Twelve. I don't think

that's the team they are, So no, I would not panic. I a would state as good, and the Big Twelve is a very difficult conference to win road games in. Well, in the Big Twelve. I mean, for that standings, the Jayhawks very well may have cost themselves eventually, whether it's an outright or a shared Big Twelve title, by losing to two of the three worst teams in the league on the road. Right, if they don't win the league, they're not going to be four games out of

first. If they don't win the league, it'll be by a game or two, and we'll point to the UCF and West Virginia games and say that's why they didn't win the league. However, one bill self said yesterday that he didn't think that conference titles meant quite as much now that we're not playing a balance schedule, which is partly true and also partly sounds like something you'd only say whenever you realize your chances of winning the conference title are not as

good as they were at the beginning of the year. But the other part is that has no bearing whatsoever on Kansas reaching its ceiling. If they end up finishing second or third in the Big Twelve because they lost to UCF. Did that keep them from finishing first? Yes, it did. Did that keep them from reaching what they could and how well they could be playing by that point in the year. No, it won't have anything to do with

it. Kansas fans value conference championships more than any basketball fan base in the country. Still, after the streak has ended, that I think that's died a little bit, but it's still something fans want to do. Kansas has won seventeen to the last twenty Big twelves, and I agree with you.

I think they're going to win the Big twelve. I'm gonna call the shot right here, and I put this on Twitter and I said, you know, you can laugh at this take and blow it up if it winds up being a disaster, which it could, but if I'm right, I want some apologies. I think Kansas goes nine to two in their last eleven Big

Twelve games. I think they finished thirteen to five, and I have one of those losses as a loss in Houston to end the regular season, So I guess I'm kind of saying I think they might win nine of their next ten games, and I think they'll go into that last game of the season in a similar spot as they last year, where it's just going to be I'm not gonna say a meaningless game, but they'll already have a piece of the Big Twelve wrapped up by the final game of the year. That I

think. I mean that I've looked at the schedule and I feel better about Kansas now than I did before the game. I think they played well at Iowa State. The offense scored seventy five points against a really good defense. It took Iowa State making fourteen threes to keep it that close, and you can guarantee that Iowa State didn't walk out of that thinking, oh man, if we got to play Kansas again tomorrow, we've got them. I think

Kansas played fine. I think the games you're looking out of the UCF and the West Virginia games, which were both fluky and nature yesterday, they just got beat by a good team on the road, and they played pretty well. I think Kansas played a B B plus game yesterday. That's just basketball.

It happens. You can't be in the camp of this league is so good all our teams deserve to make the tournament and then also be on the camp of why didn't we beat every road team, like even West Virginia and Oklahoma State, or even West Virginia and UCF have been better in the last couple weeks that we thought so. I don't know, that's my stance. Could these losses cost them a big twelve? Yes, quite possibly. Well that matter. No, I still think they're one of the five best teams

in the country. Can you I ask you this, every loss, can you name five teams right now definitively better than them? You know, I think it's a very good question. I think it's an interesting question. I think I'm starting to get close because I'm starting to hedge that Houston might be better, which would give me like Purdue, North Carolina, Yukon, Arizona, Houston. See, I'm not ready to say Arizona. They both have four losses. Kansas is a better schedule. I'm definitely not ready to concede

North Carolina. Yet you don't think Kansas is at minimum eight and one in the ACC with that schedule? Oh and to be fair, yes, the ACC and the PAC twelve are absolute garbage. Let's switch to you and C's schedule. With Kansas's. They've played four road games and they've played TCU at home. They've played Cincinnati at home, They've played you know, Oklahoma at home. I bet North Carolina has multiple losses if they're in Kansas's shoes.

I agree, I definitely agree. So you bet, and like this conference gives you so many chances for quad one wins. I don't know. Do you think they win the Big twelve? Not outright, I don't think they win it out right. I'd be surprised. Okay, but you think they could. But you think they'll finish top three in the Big twelve? Yeah, I would at the same rate. I would be very surprised if they finish much worse than that. Yeah, I think. I think third would

be decently low. How many conference games they win, I think the prediction that makes the most sense right now is thirteen. Okay, again, I don't think they will. I don't think they are going to lose that many more road games, and I don't think they'll lose more than maybe one home game. So I'll say thirteen and five. I think that's usually how Kansas figures it out. I could see twelve and six at the same rate I could see fourteen and four, because I do think this is a really good

team, but that schedule is pretty brutal. So I'll say there's two losses in there. Okay, So thirteen and five would put them entering the Big Twelve Tournament at twenty five and six, and then what we're gonna give them two Big Twelve Tournament wins? Say they're twenty seven and seven with all those quad one wins, that's a one seed. Yep. That was last year.

Disagree that they were. That's exactly what they were entering the tournament last year, and a lot of people thought they were in line to be the one overall until their coach's heart stopped working right and they had to They got boat raced by Texas in the Big Twelve title game, and even then people had thought they had an argument to be at minimum the second one seed.

And we know how that worked out. We do. They were paired with a bunch of teams that are that wind up being pretty good and it didn't go good. So yes, I'm gonna say they still in the Big twelve. I haven't seen I feel better about them. And and you know what, people on Twitter can say, Oh, this is such optimism. This is so here's the other thing that i'll I'll say about this. Which side of the coin would you rather gamble on? Based off of the track record

here? Could they fall through the floor and finish fifth in the Big Twelve and lose in the first round and get a sick seed? Yeah, absolutely that could happen to them. But what happens more that or they have Yeah the thing that has never ever happened exactly exactly what happens more they don't get it figured out in February or they do, because nine times out of ten they get it figured out in February, and even the times they quote unquote

don't, they're like a four seed. Yeah, that's the that's the worst case because there's so many the one, they're so good at home, and two there's so many opportunities for quality wins in this conference. What's the floor if the floor falls out there like a five seed, look at their resume. Yeah, when you when you can out coach and out talent pretty much everyone. You play every single night and you have one of, if not the single best home court advantage in the sport that you're just gonna win a

lot of games. You're just gonna win a lot of games. And they're starting five. I would put up against just about anybody's the bench is killing him. Let's get into that here. Let's talk about Hunter Dickenson, who has been accused of not playing super well in physical games. This was a pretty physical game. Kansas was had a big foul advantage. They shot a lot of free throws, and I think you got to give him credit for

most of that. Yeah, he was slow out of the gate. I honestly, I'm not even sure if he read his style line I'm so tired. No, I did not. You sound quite tired. Let's we can theme roll through this. I can get you there one hundred. Dickinson twenty points, fifteen rebounds, four cysts in thirty eight minutes. He fouled just twice as well, nine to eighteen from the floor. Did start slow,

definitely picked it up in the second half. He snapped an OH for twelve streak from three with one in the final minutes, which was big that drew Kansas very close. Kansas did well in the glass overall, finishing plus six. It's by Iowa State making everything. So I'm definitely happy with Dickens's performance. He was big reason why the game remained close at the end. I

imagine you are as well. I think it's funny how people act like this offense is so hard to watch and they're clunky, and I'm pretty sure that the worst Kansas has shot in any of their Big twelve losses is like forty seven percent from the floor, like they I know it was over fifty in the first two in this one. Yeah, forty five in this one, and that was just because of the three point shooting, which wasn't very good. Twenty for forty on twos. Dickinson also making fifty percent of his As

you said, yeah, Hunter Dickinson, it was just fine. You knew that he'd have a pretty good matchup in this game, and he did his part. Twenty and fifteen should be enough. And we're gonna talk about kind of I think we're gonna have the kJ Adams conversation later, which I'm gonna have some spicy takes on that that some people are not going to be crazy

about. But I think considering the the group of players that Dickinson is playing around, it's remarkable he gets twenty and fifteen as much as he does. Yeah, I agree. I mean he continues to be really, really good. I think it was a really good second half from him. I don't think there's too much more to analyze there. I thought he's softer on defense and a lot of people like, but that really wasn't the problem here.

Let's talk about mccullor and then we'll get into the refs because huh, I'm trying to keep that down as I'm trying to be quieter, but I don't know if I can do well Whenever we talk about the well, I can't shout it, so refs there. You have to think of that as volume twenty. Kevin mccover hit two threes late to get his point total up to sixteen, including one right at the horn that was very important to some, but he really struggled overall. He was five for eighteen from the floor.

I think it was his worst game of the year until those late makes. Turned it over five times. Also had four fouls. Just a ton of damage done to Kansas there. Pretty difficult to be upset with a guy who's won them so many games. It's gonna happen. Iowa State. It's a good defensive team, but the zero for six from three killed them early. He also had seven rebounds and three assists, but he struggled mightily until the very end. We've said he's their most clutch player. He showed that again

with some big shots down the stretch. It was a little bit too late, but a frustrating outing for McCuller, who just didn't get the role on a couple of shots, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, with a couple of foul and turn it over a lot. I'llbe it against the team that forces a lot of turnovers. Kansas did okay turning the ball over or not doing that. Mccullar had almost half five of their eleven turnovers. It's gonna happen, right, Nothing to be too discouraged about. Just

ran into a good defense. Still managed to score sixteen, which is a mark of a great player. Yep, very similar to one I think we've said in pretty much every loss. Uh mccullar not the problem. Yeah, there might be a low shooting percentage, but I mean, he's the guy that you want taking a lot of these shots, and he does and sometimes they don't go in, but he was still very solid. All Right,

you want to talk about the refs, let's do it. Let's let's talk about the well I'm trying to This is the part where normally, you know what I would do if I wasn't in a hotel room, I would turn up the volume all the way and play a bunch of times. But because I'm in a hotel room, I'm also not gonna push this. And most of all, because we're in a hotel room, I'm definitely not gonna sit here and do this. But I'm glad you're not doing that because you're in

a hotel room. Obviously, Yeah, so can't do that. But well, I'm not gonna read what I wrote about the refs and the notes. But every game, it's every game, they're so bad, just just so bad. I don't know if they are, like, I don't even know if they're they're not even really more than a footnote. In this game, there was a really bad foul on kJ Adams as Kansas was trying to make a push, but it felt like Dickinson was getting bodied a lot and then

some easy stuff on the other whatever. Big twelve. Probably shouldn't have that conversation because we know what team we root for. We shouldn't talk about home court whistles. But you know what, I'm going to anyway, screw them. Okay, I don't. I don't have a lot of details. Just that's my thoughts. Yeah, I meither. I mean, there was bad calls. There's always bad calls. I think they go in the direction about

teams. Yeah, I don't know. I'm never as quite as compelled by talking about the refs as you are, But I mean, who could be really really not sure how the team that attempted half their shots as three pointers still managed to take as many free throws as the team that took just about every shot they took inside, including several times where Dickinson and Adams looked like they were just bodied with no calls. But hey, you know what,

then who they played now, Oklahoma State. They're gonna have like a twenty one to seven foul advantage in his next game, and people are gonna be tweeting about it, So I'm not gonna make that criticism. Okay, let's talk about Johnny Furfrey. He continues to be very very good. Yeah, fifteen points, six rebounds in thirty five minutes for the Aussie five of eight

from the floor, and three of five from three. Since being inserted into the starting lineup five games ago, which, man, that's already been five games, Furfey's averaged fifteen points and he shot fifty percent from three. He has been a stone cold killer. And yeah, I think, what's that off in the distance. Oh, it's the NBA theme, which doesn't have a theme. I don't even know it's it's music that I associate with the NBA. It's Adam Silver's bald head in my eyeballs. He's playing like a

like a lottery pick right now. Well, not so fast, not if you work for Not if you're the senior national recruiting analyst for ON three Recruits, which is a website that I've gotten a lot of information from over the years. And this is from a writer over there that has forty five thousand Twitter followers, And this is a tweet I thought, I thought this was a just a satire post. This is from Jamie Shaw five, who's one of the riders over there, says, since Kansas moved Johnny Furfee into the

starting lineup, the Jayhawks are now three and two. They are just four and three when Furfey plays at least eighteen minutes this year, But they were thirteen and two when Almarco Jackson was starting for the Jayhawks. That's worse than any take Rock Chalk Blog has ever had, and we've had some bad ones. I agree, because look at the fifteen teams they played with al Marco

Jackson. Yes, some of them were Eastern Illinois exactly. Yeah, Furfee has been Kansas's third best player at worst over the last five ish game and he's an eighteen year old freshman. He's not a good defender, No, he's not a good defender, but he's giving them what they need on offense. He's also part of the reason the bench is literally giving them nothing now because he was the only good piece to come off of it. But they

said they need a guy who can step up and shoot threes. They said they need a guy who can who can give you double digit points and and take a little bit off of mcculu and Dickinson. Well, here's a guy that's made fifty percent of his threes and he's averaging fifteen to night. The rest of the bench has to do something. Furfey is two hundred percent of what we thought he'd be. Can anybody else be fifty percent of what we thought they'd be off the bench? Anybody not Nick Timberlake. It's not Nick

Timberlake's been a better player this year than Almarco Jackson. That's crazy. I think he has been in conference play. He genuinely has been in conference Oh it's not. It's not even a debate. And conference play you have as many threes in conference play as Almarco Jackson do have as many? How many more field goals as you have? Like three? Three? Those stats are in the notes. We'll get there whenever we talk about the horrible bench. In fact, that's coming up. But first, you know, Kansas does

have a white guy. We did talk about that, but of course we have to talk a little bit about that volume going down. I would normally yell white guy of the game, but you know this by now. I actually had two or three different people tweet me fire up the Mario music on Twitter. Whenever this was happening, Trey King going four for seven whenever he entered having three all years. Great, but he's not white, so you know we can't do that. What what do you want to read that?

Sound? There you go? Yeah? Three for five? Yeah, he looks like the Dodo bird that drops the watermelon in the first ice Age film. That was my takeaway. Time to google that real quick. You're not an ice age person, Come on, I love the ice Age as I guess. It's a really long time ice age. Yeah, okay almost almost. Yeah he looks like Mala yep, yep, yeah, yeah he does. Rock Chalk Blog got a good take. See that's better than the Johnny

Furfy sucks take that I just read you on Twitter. Yeah, there's how many different white guys is Iowa State had that have done this? I remember who was? I I remember their faces, and I don't even remember their names. I can't. Here's that one guy who actually played in the NBA for a minute, Matt Thomas. Yeah, Matt Thomas, that's the one.

I remember. That's the big one. Every every time he would and and and he had like a dunk over Brandon Green, I believe, and in a game that was just as the as the floor was falling out in garbage time there, and I was like, oh not just as he's not just the white guy at the game shooting, he can also do that against them. Yeah. No, Matt Thomas and Milan mom Silovitch or whatever, Yeah they are. There are two peas in a pod up there in ames

Iowa. Great, although that wasn't even as bad as the bench for Kansas to two points the second game in a row, Parker Brown his only shot. When Parker Brown is your only bench score, you know things are tough. Oh that means things are out of yeap. But wasn't that negative because he got a flagrant fowl and therefore did not play in the second half. Nick Timberlake, shockingly, everyone sit down was over three in seven minutes.

Jamar McDowell did play some, he got he got the down and backs in, he got some cardio in, get some of the pilates going for him, because he, yep, didn't do anything else. And then there's a Marco who've already discussed all he did when his eight minutes was foul three times. I didn't realize it was that little that's atrocious. In seven Conference games.

Marco has as many baskets as he had fouls in this game, which is three zero made threes, which Ryan and I have combined four as we cover, Yeah, five turnovers which Ryan and I actually have less of, Yeah, and fourteen fouls. Wow. What wasn't that was just to go through all this? Timberlake should play more. Self didn't play any bench in the second half until I think El Marco subbed in and immediately fouled somebody whenever

they sat in McCuller, like fifteen minutes in the second half. Timberlake needs to play more. You have to ride or die with this guy as your sixth man. I know you don't want to do it because you're probably going to die if those are the two options here. But El Marco Jackson is unplayable. He is not a big twelve caliber player, and every game my opinion of him gets worse. I used to think that it Self figured the best path of his team reaching its ceiling was to play El Marco and develop

him so he'd be good in January. Well, they kind of got bailed out with Furfey being as good as we hoped El Marco could get in January. And oh my gosh, al Marco is so bad. The argument used to be he'd at least give you solid defense, and he's been a genuinely horrible defender in conference play. Everything two fouls per game in addition to his what is that zero point two baskets per game in conference play? He's unplayable. You have to give Timberlake like twenty minutes and don't play El Marco.

I don't need any Alamarco Jackson ever. Did you know that in like in Europe when they're talking about soccer, unplayable actually means like the best player on that Lionel Messi is unplayable in Europe, Yeah, which means the exact opposite for al Marco. Yeah, he's not Leo Messi. Yeah, he's been really bad and he's gutting worse, which is pretty upsetting because he was not

this bad in non Con. Now I know that's non Con, and like that happens because non Con is not playing at Iowa State every night, So like, I guess that's not a huge knock. But you can't, you can't drop this much, and that is really a problem. He's not gonna be at Kansas next year. He's not going to be here next year. Come on, he won't play over the guards that they have, No, Yeah, because they would bring in He's he's lousy, he can't score,

he can't shoot like you can. I think I think a big part Harris is definitely gone, right or does he technically have eligibility? No, Dewan Harris is gonna be their point guard next year, sir, Yeah, then he's gone. Yeah, then there's no chance. I say, if Harris leaves, then I could see it, maybe because he could compete for the point guard spot, which I do think he would be appreciably better at with

a year of development. But no, Ifdwan's there, and he will because Dwan is not an NBA player, then yeah, there's no reason for him to return. And not only that self has completely stopped. At least he's really tried to not play el Marco and Harris together quite as much. So it's like he's realized the offense is a total shutdown here and now that fur if he's playing thirty five minutes a game and mccullor's playing a lot of minutes, there is not a way to play Harris and Jackson at the same time

because it's absolutely unplayable. We're gonna wrap up with a couple of guys here. Dewan Harris nine points, seven assists, the two turnovers, made four of us six shots. We're fine with that game, right? He played fine? Yeah? I saw people on Twitter at k Tweets The News is one of my favorite Twitter accounts, was talking about Harris and got into some dust ups with some other fans for cave tweets. The News suggested Harris didn't play well, missed a couple big shots down the stretch. He did the

floater was a big one. I thought that overreaction with people going against his takes was way too strong. I think Dwan Harris, we've talked about a lot on the show, is definitely not above criticism. This was not a game. I thought he hurt them in this l is on the bench and the three point shooting by the Cyclones. Harris was fine. Let's talk kJ thirteen to five and three for him, three for six, shooting seven for ten at the line, all things to get considered. A pretty quality performance.

Again, not the guy you're gonna blame, But tell me if I'm crazy for this take. I think kJ Adams is the biggest liability on this team, not because he's the worst player, but because of what he does at his position versus what the strengths of this team really need. kJ Adams doesn't rebound, and kJ Adams doesn't shoot, the fact that he doesn't shoot

kills Hunter Dickinson. The fact that he doesn't rebound kills Kevin McCuller. You have a four out there who catches the ball on the perimeter and plays a lot of time catching the ball at the perimeter, and defenses don't even bother putting a body on him because there's no thought of him shooting the ball. He's not going to shoot it. Dickinson gets double teamed so much as a

four. I'd love to have a guy like La gerald Vick, not actual La gerald Vick, but think of his skill set from that twenty seventeen to eighteen team Junior Vick, not the senior Vic that had a super nova November and then fell apart. Lagerald Vick was the same size as kJ Adams. He was a big athlete like kJ Adams, but he could shoot the ball. He rebounded better than kJ Adams, and because of that, Udoka didn't get double or triple teamed nearly as much. And I think Dickinson's a better

player than Youjok. He's definitely a better call as player than at the time sophomore Udoka. I think kJ not being able to rebound and not being able to shoot is really really hurting this team. He's an excellent player, he's an excellent success story, and he is a likable, likable kid. Totally get why so many people like him, But he is a rich man's Jamari Traylor. Jamori Traylor looked like an NFL safety and he was six foot eight

and he couldn't rebound at all. He could dounk really good, but he couldn't shoot and he couldn't rebound. And Trailer. Obviously Kj's better than Trailer, but the limitations are still the same. And I think that's the problem where Hunter Dickinson can go beat you have fifteen boards and you're only plus six because kJ can't do anything as the foreman on the glass. Yeah, I don't think that is a crazy take. I do really like kJ. I'm a fan of kJ, And again, I think you're right. It's not

like it's not that he's a bad player. I think he's actually quite a good player, but yeah, he he does not fit this team's specific needs. It's a really weird thing where like this team's specific weaknesses are kJ adams weaknesses. Yeah, which does make for a weird thing, even though I don't really think that's necessarily his fault. It's not like there, it's not like those are KU's weaknesses because of kJ Adams, Right, it's a weird

situation. Yeah, there's other reasons why those are the weaknesses, but he also feeds into that, and I do I also have noticed many many times we talked about it before on the show, uh that when kJ has the ball on the same side as Hunter Dickinson, it's an instantaneous double team. It's a double team before Hunters even touches the basketball because Kj's defender doesn't need to be out on him because he's not going to shoot. And that is

that's a really unfortunate situation to be in. And the thing that in the Dickson is still averaging what he does both on the glass and scoring the ball while simultaneously being called soft by KU fans blows my mind. He's one of the two or three best players in the country because of that, like, that's that even furthers his case for being so good. M Yeah, I

agree, it's is really weird. I do like kJ a lot, but I do also agree that, yeah, if this team had a guy that could kind of play the middle of zones and could play perimeter offense well and could knock down corner threes a bunch, they would be appreciably better probably. And they've done this before, right, Like the twenty team that was really good played Marcus Garrett as the four, and he had similar rebounding numbers to kJ. This year, the team that was in the final four with VIC

had similar rebounding numbers. But I guess I just remember those teams having won a little more depth than being able to shoot better, whereas kJ I thought he'd be a better rebounder by this point in his career not having a jump shot. Maybe I'm just watching the NBA too much, but like I watch Arizona and Yukon where all their guys can shoot and they can all rebound, and I think that that weakness really gets exposed. I don't know, maybe

I'm over maybe I'm looking into it a little bit too much. But like next year, if Hunter Dickinson stays, which I predict, I don't know what I think is gonna happen there two million bucks at Kansas. I don't think he's getting drafted, so who knows. But if Dickenson stays, when you bring in Florie Badonga, who is a six foot ten guy who's played the center in high school, and he would probably like, that's the four that I would love to see Hunter Dickinson get to play with because he can

rebound the ball really well. You need to do one of those things. But then what happens, what happens with that rotation if Dickenson and Adams are both on that roster next year, right, Yeah, it is gonna be really strange if you have those three guys all on the team. kJ can't play the three, No, he definitely can't play the three in modern college basketball. I am wary of him playing the four. As this conversation's going, obviously, like whenever I say odd, whenever I say who's the first

NBA four that you think of? Like the skill set wise is like Nicolay who shoots what from is like a different animal because he plays point guard half the time. Exactly. They can all handle the ball at that level, but like, you don't have to be an electric three point shoot. Geez, just Okham, Yeah? Who are who are all guys that aren't? Like Ben Caro is a good example because he's not gonna shoot, He's not

gonna light up the nets from three. But you can't just leave him as the only guy on the freaking court when he steps and he can hit mid range all day if you want. Yes, kJ has attempted two mid range shots all season, Like that's yeah, it's hurt. It's a couple more than two, but it's not much more than two. I think when the offense goes cold, I think that weakness right there is one of the most

pressing because they got a point guard that can distribute the ball. I know people want Harris to score more, but he can just tribute the ball and find the open guy. You have two elite scorers, one that plays center and one on the wing. Furfey has now stepped up as a third, very reliable scorer away from Dewan Harris throw to. So if they can't score, I think it's the defensive alignment, with kJ having a big lot to do with it. Two other small things that I'll say number one I want

to talk about with the refs. I forgot about it. Then the technical foul. I think it was kind of a weak call, and then I thought, well, if you're gonna call the one on Ernest D. Dade Allen field House, you kind of have to be okay with that one, right. Yeah, probably, and self earned the tea. I think that he kind of wanted it. We see him do that every now and then. Second thing, Kansas Iowa State one of the best rivalries in the Big Twelve. Like that rivalry has venom, it has, but I think it

has a lot of respect. I don't think that Iowa State fans hate Kansas because of their fans. I think they hate Kansas because they win. And I think Iowa State has similar respect from Kansas. Oh, you're a team that is usually a thorn in our side. We more often than not loose split the series with you in a season. I think Kansas fans have a lot of respect for Hilton. I think Kansas fans have a lot of respect for the coaches that Iowa State has had. With Hoiberg, Steve prom had

some success and also Burger has been excellent up there at maintaining that. And yeah, I think that it's a really fun rivalry, and I think Bill self has a lot of respect for that rivalry as well. It's ridiculous they're not playing the return game at Allen Fieldhouse, but instead we get to watch them play Oklahoma fricking state twice. Yeah, no, I agree. I think they should have kept and protected the Iowa state rightley. It's always been

one of my favorites. Also, a quick bit of a live producing here. We normally do like our little pause in between segments. Here, let's just keep it rolling because I this is a different software, so it might work. It probably would, but if you're good, let's just go onto the next thing. When we're there. I'm good with that. The only thing that makes me nervous is then we got one take where if anything gets messed up on that take, we're rolling with it. As long as you

are you trusting it? Are you trusting to your computer? You're Kevin McCuller computer to make that threat? If you will, I am trusting it. So far, we're on a more of a ten for fourteen with Color Night than the five of eighteen. Oh I like it? Okay, Well, then in that case, Yeah, let's do it. Kansas. Forty five percent from the floor, thirty five percent from three, seventy four percent on the glass are on the from the line, plus six on the glass,

and only twelve turnovers. Those are numbers that I think had you seen at the start of the game, I think we would have pick Kansas to win. Right, you would have seen those those five numbers. I think you pick Kansas to win. The fourteen threes? Did it? Yep? I agree? And those threes they will even out, they will even out. And if I'm wrong, okay, I'll be the first person ever in college

basketball to watch a team give up forty seven percent the whole season. The defense is not as bad as seams, and it will be just fine, but it is annoying when crappy shooters and Trey Kings and all timer. That's one of the ones we'll remember for a while, the guy that made more threes in one game than he had all year. I agree, that fits the category perfectly. All right, let's do other games, big twelve games. Well, you mentioned earlier that you thought Houston might be better than Kansas,

So go ahead and talk about it. Number four Houston seventy four Ema bitches fifty two. Not a good day for the Wildcats. No, it's not. The Cougar's defense was the story of the day again, as they forced eighteen in case they turnovers and surrendered just nineteen baskets. They also got seventeen points from Jamal. Is it Sheet or Shed? I think it's officially Sheed, but Nick has called him both, so you can't go wrong. One will not trust Nick at all, she forever, even if proven wrong.

All right, Is Houston the favorite to win the Big Twelve? And Ryan, I think you say no. I might very slightly favor them right now. It's in it. There's a few interesting angles here. They're the betting favorite. The metrics definitely say they're the favorite. I also know what I've seen with Kansas. Kansas has been through an eighteen game Big Twelve grind. So is Baylor, who I'm not counting out yet. Houston hasn't yet. Houston still got six road games left. I would say it's if you

like. I think if you simulate this season out one hundred times, I think the amount of times Kansas and Houston win the Big Twelve is very close. I would still pick Kansas because I've seen them do it so many times and I've literally never seen Houston do it. But if you wanted to, they're clearly one of the five best teams in the country. That defense is ridiculous, and I think they've adjusted quite well so far in Big Twelve play.

They lost kind of a fluky game to TCU, which I guess you could say Kansas has a few fluky losses at this point, and their win over BYU the other night was really impressive. That was kind of the moment where I was like, Oh, these guys have are They're pretty They're getting adept to winning Big twelve games pretty quickly. I think they're gonna go through a tough stretch, but I think that this end there, we're looking at one of the two best teams in the Big twelve pretty clearly, I think,

right, yeah, I certainly think so. I think they're definitely better than Baylor. Well, I got to give more analysis than you did there, So why don't you go back to back number twenty Texas Tech eighty five, number eleven Oklahoma, And I told you that Porter Moser was complete Oklahoma eighty four. He may indeed be Dogwater The Red Raiders remain in first place somehow with a narrow road win in Norman. As Chance McMillan hit a game

winning three with thirty seconds left. McMillan went off. He had twenty seven off the bench. This game had one hundred and seventy one points going against everything we've ever known about the Big Twelve. Yet neither one of these teams came close to hitting fourteen threes. Yeah, that's a weird thing to put in there, r I. No Big twelve teams ever hit fourteen threes. That's illegal. Go to jail for that, yeah, Porter Moser, not great. Texas Tech a fluky? What are they? Five and one,

six and one, five and one? They're fluky at five and one, but they are decent. So let's look at Texas Tech. They're five and one there in first place in the Big twelve. I predict that that is about to hit the wall quickly. Texas Tech needed to overcome an eleven point second half deficit to beat K State. They needed to overcome a sixteen point a halftime deficit to beat BYU whatever. Maybe you say they earn those because they're at home. They're tough to play and then they also had this this

narrow win over Oklahoma. So we talk about Kansas being pretty unlucky. Feels like Kansas is one and two. In the coin flips, they won against TCU, and they lost the UCF and West Virginia with some fluky stuff. Maybe say Iowa State was a little fluky two. They talked about Houston losing a fluky game. Texas Tech is three and zero. Then here are their next four games are They're wow, God, Texas Tech schedule is so soft, it really is. They do have road games at TCU and at Baylor,

and then they have Kansas at home and at Iowa State. Those are four of their next six. I predict four of those next six will be els. They do have a softer schedule because it's unbalanced. But no, I don't think this team is even one of the four best teams in the Big twelve. I would put them sixth right now, behind Kansas, Houston, Iowa State, TCU, and Baylor in some order. But they're better than expected. And Grant McCaslin as of right now, should be a National

Coach of the Year front runner because they have one. I just don't think it's gonna last, what say you, Yeah, that's certainly my expectation for Texas Tech. They are better than we thought. But yeah, I think I think they'll lose at minimum three of those four that you mentioned. And with the big too being so, what are the other two games out of that stretch, UCF at home and Cincinnati at home? I mean Cincinnati could absolutely win there. Yeah they will. I think there's a very good chance

they will lose four of the next six. I'm looking at Oklahoma. They're thirty fifth in the net right now, they are three or where. This is all messed up. I'm trying to find Oklahoma's record against Quad one opponents. Yeah, they're two and four against Quad one opponents. This isn't This doesn't feel like a team if they finish eighth or ninth in the Big Twelve. It feels like a team that's gonna need to win Big Twelve tournament games to get in, which is part for the course with Porter. I don't

need this team. I don't need to watch them play ever. Again, I don't need to watch them go six and six the rest of the way in the Big Twelve, and I don't need to watch them lose to a what an eight seed in the NCAA Tournament. I know what they are. I think I've said that about almost every Big twelve team that's ever existed, including maybe this one. Cincinnati sixty eight, UCF fifty seven. It was

a strong second half for the Bearcats. They outscored the Nights forty one to eighteen to avoid a home upset, since UCF almost had the same Big twelve record as Kansas through seven games and needed a second half meltdown to avoid that. Dan Skillings had twenty one points. Had you been told that at the beginning of the season that Kansas and UCF almost had the same record through seven games, do you think it would have been more likely that UCF was great

or Kansas something went very wrong. Yeah, I mean Hunter Dickinson's tearing his acl If they're only one game better than UCF through seven, I'm like, man, they're only two and five. That's brutal. And we thought Kansas would roll through the first seven. We thought one loss at most. We thought Kansas would roll their entire slate and they still might win the rest of them. But hey, we've talked about some crappy games. This one definitely

will make up for it. TCU one hundred and five, number fifteen, Baylor one hundred and two and three overtimes. Wow, that was fun. I didn't watch it, but it sounds fun. I watched some highlights. There was some awesome plays. The gold Jersey sucks. That's why they lost that arena, I think is cool. Jamiir Nelson had thirty points, which

is pretty awesome for TCU in the winning effort. Baylor made just five threes in fifty five minutes of basketball, which means they're on pace to make between fifteen and twenty against bill Yeah. That puts in perspective just how crazy that is. Fourteen threes Iowa State made and Baylor made five and they had basically an extra half. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, that is That's insane. One of these two teams you think is winning more Big twelve games, TCU's

at four and now Baylor is at three. On one less game, Baylor will win more. Baylor will win more because TCU does more stupid things. But I'm starting to wonder if TCU floor might be the higher one or TCU's ceiling rather. Uh, Baylor is definitely weird. I don't buy Baylor on dred percent right now. But see, Baylor's a team I trust to get it together. They were three and three through six games last year and wound up being I think the second best team in the Big Twelve. Like they

they this is a team that's been there before. It's a coach that's been there before. He's won this league a couple of times. I have confidence on Baylor getting it together and being better over an eighteen game stretch than TCU. I don't know what that means about the tournament, but TCU will do something stupid like lose to West Virginia on the road, and then they'll look fantastic against Kansas, and then they'll lose to Texas at home and do a

bunch of weird stuff. It's just what they do. But I think they're both very talented. I think these are the third and fourth best teams in the Big Twelve. Yeah, I think that's very likely true. I don't know who I would put better than them. It's not the team that lost this game number twenty one BYU eighty four Texas seventy two. Did you hear about the horns down stuff? Yep? So stupid? Come on, Why there was a bunch of guys. It was T shirts, right, It

wasn't even like chest paint. It was just T shirts shirt so they weren't shirtless, as if they would be shirtless in the stands. Yeah, yeah, question. Yeah. They had a bunch of T shirts that just said horns down, like you know, imagine guys doing the chest paint that spells a word. That's what they did. And then they were asked to cover them up in the game. This is just like, I don't get this.

How is this any different than any team saying, oh, we're not in Kansas anymore, Kansas comes town, it's the same, or I don't get it, or how about this? How about whenever you have boy, did I not put it on the soundboard? I may not have put it. You know what I'm about. We talked about this yesterday. It's whenever Kansas goes to Kansas State and they can't run out on the court without hearing

you know that this k State can't exist without this happening. No, and I always state chanted it yesterday too, like and and and then BYU's coach after the game was like, oh, you know, I want to apologize to Texas. That's not us. That's not who we are. Stop making horns down sound like a racial slur. It's not like. And also the Big twelve should not be in this business to protect Texas at all. They should get Yes, I don't know if it's a Big Twelve thing or what.

I don't know if Rodney Terry is flapping his arms like the bird that he looks like. I don't know what it is, but I do know Rodney. Yes, no one in the SEC will do this because it just means more so, right, yeah, yeah, And as Nick pointed out, every SEC team has the silhouette of the state that they're playing, that their home state is on their court, which I yeah, that's yeah.

If there was a team that would do it, it'd be Oklahoma. As for this game, as a bunch of white guys made baskets and BYU won. The Cougars shot sixty four percent from the floor. I wrote, I wrote in the notes that Rodney Terry is using his time being a certified you know it says bitch ass nerds, So that's that's what he is. And instead of coaching defense, BYU. By the way, Land has made seven threes as a team can't wait to see how many they make against Bill.

Just like if I gave you an over under on ten and a half threes for BYU at Allen Field House, you're betting the over. Yeah, I mean on it, like for real. Maybe they're gonna hit like a at least, and it's they're all gonna be by white dudes. Texas sucks. I this is the final year that I have to watch Texas go eight and nine or whatever, eight and ten or nine and nine or whatever in conference games and then still have all the suits and ties vouch for them as a

tournament bid. They've never won a single thing worth mentioning in my lifetime, and I don't need to see them in my conference ever again. Oklahoma State seventy, West Virginia sixty six, Landon, I regret to inform you that West Virginia has not won a game since defeating Bill's jay Hawks. Shocking Kirk

Cruse that did his best to try though he made six threes. Thought he was playing against Kansas and it looked like the Mountaineers were set to win the game, and said to improve my pick'm record, But I was wrong, and they led by six with five minutes left. But then scored five points the rest of the way. That's bad, but ninety one on Bill. So they barely got one hundred and twenty and two games this week because they are in fact bad, and that is an embarrassing loss. That's a four

points from somebody named Brandon Garrison for the Cowboys. I've never heard of that man. Apparently he is not trash, but both these teams are. And he wrote way more about this game than I thought you would, considering it's Oklahoma State and West Virginia. Yeah, probably didn't need all of that, but hey, at least you know now about the Brandon Garrison game. As for so, I'm on the East Coast right now, and the sports are

weird, like Kansas Oklahoma State on Tuesday starts at nine o'clock. My wife works at nights. I'm used to staying up till two o'clock in the morning every night because we're used to that schedule in the in betweens. I normally like the East Coast sports times, but boy, having to stay up until eleven o'clock at night whenever we're out of town to watch Oklahoma State at Allen Field House, that just seems a little mean, like I don't need that.

That game should start, yeah, wife, that game should start at three pm Central time, Like, we don't need this just played at nine am Central time. Honestly, just move it up twelve hours, make sure, and Oklahoma State will make twelve threes and it'll be a five point game with two minutes left. I've seen that story before, or maybe not, maybe they're maybe they're really that bad. Big twelve standings. We're starting to get a lot of different records here. Texas Tech is alone in first for

now. They're five and one, tied four second. Iowa State in Houston five and two. I was waiting for Nick and then I realized he's not here. Kansas, Kansas State, and TCU are all tied in fourth with four wins. They're four and three, Purple purple, and a team whose colors make purple seven alone is they are three and three. Eighth place. Feels like we're all the mediocrity sits here in this league. Oklahoma and Texas, yeah, which are their mediocre at their finest. Ucf B YU and

Cincinnati the guys leaving and most of the new guys. They're three and four by use, the best team out of that group, right, Yeah, I think you're right. I think Cincinnati might be the second best too. Number thirteen West Virginia. They are two and five, and then the gap is closer, but still in last place is fourteenth Oklahoma State. They are one and six up. If West Virginia or Oklahoma State played in the PAC

twelve or the ACC, would they be a top five team? Oklahoma State in the PAC twelve maybe maybe not in the ACC, I don't know, but they would be way better than this. Okay, let's take a look now, I'm just curious standings. Okay, Atlantic Coast Conference. Boy, what a stupid conference. This is so okay. The fifth Wake Forest is in fifth place. They're five and three in the ACC. You're telling me

what Virginia couldn't get there? They might, I don't know. They are bad, but with their current form, they would be closer to that than two and five. Fifth place in the PAC twelve is an Arizona State team that is eleven and nine on the season. Yeah, in the PAC twelve, I think both teams could be tough. Five that's just terrifying. And the PAC twelve is about to be dead, and I think there's too many teams in the Big twelve. Now. I know I'm not brat your mark,

but I I'm kind of tired of all these teams. I missed the balance schedule. I am going to go yell to cloud other would get ready for twenty team leagues in nine nine years. Yeah, conference titles are really gonna become obsolete here pretty soon. Other games, well, that is ten

wins in a row for number three North Carolina. We always start with the ACC because whenever I look up other games, it puts that conference first alphabetically, and I just don't care like we should just we should just boycott the ACC for a couple of shows. I know UNC is good. They're nine to Oh. They beat Florida State on the road, which is their toughest conference game other than the Duke game. By the way, Houston Kansas not

College Game Day because Duke Carolina are playing the same day. Duh. North Carolina has a three game lead in the win call him in the league race. They are going to win that league and they will be a two seed that loses to a seven seed because Hubert Davis is bad. Always gets moist for this game. Oh yeah, boy, moist is an understatement too. They are soiled, sir oof. That depends on how kinky you are. I guess did you even read about duke? I was thinking about that joke.

I didn't, And I don't know if that that word that you just said has ever been said on the show in four hundred and forty shows like like, so there's for Yeah, I don't know when it would have been said when we when we have talked about that, we talked about basketball. I mean that's true. I mean I don't know. I mean we get off on some weird tangents. Man, I think kinky could have come up,

and it's now come up three times in every one seconds. So maybe when we're talking about Mary, I don't I don't know, Like I don't know what else. Yeah, our duke by Joel whatever, Duke the basketball team who moved up to second in the ACC. This does not make me kinky or horny or anything similar to that. Duke. I hate Duke.

I had to beat Clemson seventy two to seventy one, fouling a what you might call controversial, what I might call rigged on the Tigers, rigged fowl, not really, with less than half a second left on Tire's Proctor Duke needed thirty three free throw attempts to barely survive a middle of the pack ACC school. Yeah, it's totally fine, John Shire. Plenty of national championship contenders need thirty three free throws to beat Clemson, not home by one,

that's totally They replaced john Shire with Freddie Prince Junior. One would anyone notice? Two? Would anyone care? Three? Would they be a better team? I was gonna say, I'm waiting for you to say, would they be worse? And no, I don't think so. And Shire, it's hard to bury a guy that's so young, because you know, I mean, Shire and Hubert Davis are so new in their tenures, but they have

so many resources. Davis's team's pretty good this year, and yet I have no confidence in that man whatsoever to go deep in a tournament, which sounds kind of stupid because a year and a half ago he was in the national championship game. Though that was more as Baylor blew it. And if honestly, if Baylor had lost that game, I think the heat is way up on Hubert Davis because then they'd have second round loss and no tournament would be

his two years Duke. They lost in the second round last year and this year. I think they have a top three team in the country in terms of talent, and they're just not very good. And they have just a gift of a schedule. They have two against Louisville, they have two against Wake, they have two against Pitt. Like, this team should be seventeen and three in league play and they're just here's interesting. Here's an interesting thing

that I thought about while watching the Duke game. If we were as separated from Kansas as we are to Duke, would we be saying the same thing about Kansas that we're saying about Duke. Maybe, But I think the saving grace with Kansas is you definitely wouldn't be able to question their coach. I think that's the biggest problem I would do that. It's the coach. The second thing is I think you'd still look at it and you'd say, well, they got two of the best like five players in the country, and

they always went at home and they always win the big twelve. So I think they'll figure it out. But I think that, yeah, I think it's closer than you think. I think Duke and Kansas from fans that are not Duke or Kansas fans. I think they're kind of thought of as in similar boats right now. The Pac twelve another league that is bad, and we're talking about them for a long time. Also in Arizona, they are

definitely the favorite in that conference. I mean, if they don't win this conference, like, yeah, they will see they'll win it by three games. They went into Eugene and took down Oregon eighty seven to seventy eight. Caleb Love went off for a career high thirty six points. Arizona and Oregon are both tied at six and three, but the Wildcats are the only ranked team in the league and they should win it with ease. USC, by the way, is an outright possession of last place, otherwise known as the

Brownny Curse. Yeah No, and lebron are Bronnie James's stats in conference play I have been abysmal. I haven't checked him in a week, but he Marco Jackson of USC, I think he's been about as bad as El Marco.

I think he was averaging like three points a game in conference play for a while against much worst competition, by the way, So that's that's just sad, even though it kind of unfair to knock on Brownie James because he didn't get off to any sort of like he's been behind because of that freak health scare that he had and which wasn't wasn't able to get on the same

page with every rate. I assume he comes back right like he's like, I know, there was always a thought he was gonna be a one and done, but he's got to. I mean, he's just not very good right now. Yeah, and that's in obviously with who his uh, who his dad is. I'm sure he can get better quite quickly. The SEC was uneventful over the weekend, as it typically is. Number six Kentucky barely

escaped a terrible Arkansas team in Fayetteville sixty three to fifty seven. Number five Tennessee handled Vanderbilt, while Mississippi State brought down Number eight Auburn for the tigers second straight loss. Well, there's your answers about Auburn. They finally played a couple of good teams on the road, and they lost them both this week. But the current league leader is none other than Alabama, and another win for Ken Palm, who is six and one at the right place at

the right time. Yeah, oh oh, I forgot about that because now we have to deal with Terren Shannon junior. So I totally forgot about Alabama being that team last year. Alabama should have entered the polls on Monday. They hung one hundred and nine on LSU. Because Nate Oates is him in a certain sense in basketball as a Number two Purdue one at Rogers Tet revenge

from last years buzzer beater. They won by eight. Zach Edy joined the two thousand point thousand rebound club, becoming just a sixth player in Big Ten history. To get their congrats. Zach, I don't know if I can. I don't know if I can count this or make this joke because the basketball team I root for has Hunter Dickinson on the roster. But I don't think that should count. Whenever you play twelve years, Uh, it should.

He's been sensational, He's very, very good, and it will be all the more shocking when they lose to an eight seed in the second round. Number thirteen Wisconsin beat Michigan State by fifteen to reach eight and one in league play. We're getting the point where Michigan States Ken Palm rank is almost as good as the number of losses they have. The Spartan are now twelve and eight overall and four and five in league play, and it took Ken

Palm until today to move them behind the Jayhawks. Pretty certain Kansas would be a decent favorite over Michigan State at this point, the Spartans are bad. Also. Number ten Illinois survived Indiana thanks to a Time Person of the Year nominee Terrence Shannon Junior making six free throws in the final minute. If only he could, like he made that lead safe? Make women feel safe? Oh impossible? To tesk, what can you say? In the Big East?

Number one Yukon obliterated Xavior ninety nine to fifty six, speaking a comfortable they have a comfortable lead in the Conference Rice something no woman has ever fell around Arren Shannon Junior orl Terra Morris. Oh. Number fourteen That may or may not be true. Great Sport fourteen Marquette rolled Seaton Hall and number seventeen Creighton beat Paul. They are the best three teams in the league at the bottom of Georgetown per the Huge who is one in eight and to Paul.

Also per the Huge, who is zero to nine and three. God, that's horrible. That's almost as bad as some of our jokes. By the way, the Terrence Shannon Junior and Artaria Morris Common Denominator both leged incidents happened in Kansas. Wow, that sucks. What a great state. I mean, I don't least it's not the state's fault. I guess at least probably. Okay, the Mountain West should be our new league. I think I think that should be the new league that we cover because they're just really,

really fun. I watched some of these highlights too, because the hotel i'm end does not get many channels besides Sports Center. Wyoming beat number twenty four Colorado State seventy nine seventy six in overtime. Josh Allen must be happy awest the dates Hailey Steinfeld, maybe also because of this, but certainly because of that. Also because he didn't have to play a football game against Patrick Mahomes this weekend, so therefore he's not sad. He was sad because of that.

Also. Number eighteen Utah State beat Boise State in overtime. Fun games everywhere. This league is better than the ACC. Yeah. I have a joke about literally look at the next paragraph. Oh yeah, there it is Detroit Mercy still buns. They will be rest of the year. They're own twenty two. They lost to Green Bay seventy eight sixty four. Jordanis must have had a good day Green Day one Utah State one seventy. Mercy shoots

twenty six percent. As a team. Their best three point shooter shoots thirty one percent, which means they would shoot forty six percent against the Jayhawks. That's that's just that's just so sad. True. I like the Detroit Mercy stick. I like how we all I like how we always we always find ways to talk about them because Louis Mercy DePaul exists and is an abomination upon our eyes and the sport. But yeah, Detroit Mercy is getting clowned. Yes they are. They They may not win a game the whole year.

They are so so bad. Ranked teams to lose since the last show a list that you will not find on on this list is Detroit Mercy. But instead, you know, you always know who the highest ranked team to lose since the last show is. It is always number seven. Lost to Iowa State Membrad Auburn then lost to Mississippi State, number eleven Oklahoma get them away from my top twenty five lost to Texas Tech. Number fifteen Baylor, who's mid I think maybe a little bit mid, though very talented. They lost

to TCU number sixteen Dayton. You didn't know Dayton was ranked? You out there listening, did you? You didn't know they were sixteen. They lost to Richmond, who you also didn't know beat Dayton the other day. Number nineteen Memphis lost to uab Man. If only we could have guessed that the AAC team was overrated. Yeah, I know, it's shocking. It's hard to imagine how Houston got that one seed last year and number twenty four Colorado

State lost to Wyoming, the fighting Josh Allens, What is Wyoming? Are they the what's their mascot? They're the cowboys? They are the cowboys. That's right. Sometimes it just fits last weekend pick up. Don't know, didn't add it up. I'll do that in a minute. All right, let's do ask Rock Chalk blog. I saw this was a sleepy segment before. You have not seen a dang thing yet. Hey, Nick isn't here, so we don't have a Nick question, which kind of makes me sad

because I like doing that. We're going to start off with who we shouted out earlier here at kau Tweets and news with just that chef's kiss tweet just says why didn't Kansas guard Trey King like Clay Thompson from the jump? Clearly this team just sucks at defense? And then send And the best way to sign off a tweet sad exclamation mark. That is your favorite way to sign off at tweet? I do that all the time over text too, And

yes, that is so hilarious. Yeah, they clearly should have anticipated this, Like people are like, well you go to My favorite thing is people making it sound like that the twenty three point shooter. Oh there goes the speaker there just fell off my So my current setup for this is microphone. I have to get at mouth level, So it is on top of an ice pin, on top of a suitcase, on top of a bed. And I can't believe that we got two thousand beats into the show before we

had a cap size there. But is that the only thing that's gonna be off level in the hotel room tonight? Oh boy? Yeah, We've walked a lot of steps down here sir, I am tired and go into bed.

A lot of it pacing from the Chiefs win. But anyway, my favorite thing is my my favorite thing is whenever people are like, he may shoot twenty percent, but you can't leave him open, and they act like the reason he's shooting twenty percent because every one of those threes he's taken and missed this year has been a contested guarden three guarded by prime Marcus Garrett defense.

Exactly. The first open threes he's taken all year are the ones that he's shooting up against Kansas, which some of them were kind of open. There were also plenty of NBA range bombs. Didn't they make their first like seven threes and a half or something like that. I think it was like six and like seven of eight or something like that. Stupid, that's unbelievable. Yeah, all right, here's a good question from at Kamlipolk Golf Cam.

I'm so sorry about the Lions, my man. You did not deserve that they get all the way to this point and then they pull they pulled the pre Mahomes Chiefs. I feel like that's the game that the Chiefs would have rate these hires from best to worst. Oh my gosh, John Shire, Rodney Terry, Juwan Howard, Mike Boyton, Mike Woodson. Oh, I think the best is shy Well, he's also got the best team Woodson.

Uh, Okay, the worst tire here is Rodney Terry. Juwan Howard has had a little success, also punched the man, and he had Hunter Dickinson in like three five stars on the missed the tournament. Yeah, that's true. I think the best Boyton might actually be the best because he has the least like of those schools. Oklahoma State is not the same as Indiana, Duke, Texas or Michigan and they have. Honestly, I feel I don't even want to rank him. I feel like they're all like exactly the

same. It kind of feels like the Spider Man meme where you got five of them all pointing at each other. Howard had the highest ceiling the lowest floor. Oh, I sure. Have you seen what Mike Boyton has done with some of his worst Oklahoma State teams. I'll be at fewer resources, I might give you that, but I mean, have you seen what Juwan Howard has done with those resources? I see, if I had to pick

one to be my team's coach. It's Shire. It's not close, but that's just because I think the other four are abominations and Shire hasn't been proven to be one yet. He's still not good, though, but you are probably right. And Kim Lipole also says, at what point during the game did you look like the PTSD dog helicopter dot meme. I didn't get to see it directly, but whenever we landed, or well I didn't land the pilot landed, and I got on my phone and saw that Trey King was

four for six or whatever it was at that point. And then we're gonna have a lot of questions like this at r see and Coat underscore. Sc Are we bad defense or do teams just play out of their minds against the Jayhawks literally the worst defensive team that's ever played basketball? Yeah, yeah, definitely. We kind of talked about that earlier. I think that they overall, they're a perfectly fine, not great, not bad, whatever, perfectly

fine three point shooting team on defense, as most teams are. You're not gonna find the stoutest defense against three pointers, and you're not gonna find one that just totally sucks. And lets guys. Shoot, it's all about the same. It's all about athleticism, which Kansas has lots of. That is decently true. I like, that's the best we're ever gonna get whenever it comes to a three point defense analysis. Oh boy, at dick underscore taser.

Hey Cam, I'm gonna need you to pull the PTSD Chihuahuah gift for a dot meme for this one. This is Wayne's exact tweet. Can't believe I'm about to say this. The bench is a giant sad sack. Don't say it. Marco Brown and Nick Timberlake couldn't score in China. I hate myself for thinking it. Starters sit less than a Buckingham soldier. Stop yourself, Wayne Kerr, don't do it. Break glass. In case of Clements,

question Mark, that's such a sad and funny tweet. Clemens is better than anybody on Kansas's bench right now, not close, And like that's so true, but it's so unfair to him. He wanted a red shirt. He's way he has red shirted half his season. Like, yes, he would help, but Wood he though, because like they don't need help with the five, they do not need help with the five, but they do

need a warm body that can play. I think the answer is, and I know this sounds stupid, I think the answer, and I'm gonna tie in a question here for Matt Preston Skirsik. Why are we being so hard on Timberlake? If three pointers Okay, this is more a rock chalk blog takes. If three pointers are mostly luck, as some of the fan base believes, he's simply having the most unlucky season of his career, why are we not overly sympathetic to someone who's fallen victim to unfortunate luck. Yeah,

that's also more or less a good point. Like it is kind of hard to say three point defenses all luck and then say three point offense all skill. But like, I think the answer is, you gotta play Timberlake a lot more. And I know that kind of sucks. I think, Okay, here's my joke that is not fully a joke. Play Michael Jankovic and his own Oh God, really like a six man Mike jenk I'm not six, maybe like eighth. I think Mike Jenkovic has more threes in Big Twelve

play than el Marco Jackson. I don't remember who he made it again. It's more than none. Might have been the witch toa state game. I don't remember, but I know I've seen him make it three more recently. Yeah, whatever, close enough. I'd like to see Timberlake play more. I don't. I'm getting I'm I'm giving up on Jackson entirely. I don't player off the bench play, which is like finding the three ugliest people alive and saying you're the prettiest. I get it, but he has been the

best option. My my wife made a that's mean face at me. They're fine, you want a better analogy. It's like fighting the three worst basketball players and saying you're the best. Happy, Okay, I got a thumbs up. Let's go at cope fraud ranked the remaining road games by most likely to least likely win. Case State Tech, Oh you, Baylor, Houston the most likely wins, Oklahoma the most. Oklahoma and KSE State are the two most likely They're gonna win both of those games. Case State's barely better

than u sef in. Oklahoma's environment is buns. As you said, Houston is the toughest. Correct. UH Tech might be tougher than Baylor right now because the environment's better maybe I'm gonna say, oh, you k State, Tech, Baylor, Houston in that order most likely to least likely, and I say they win four of them. Come at me. This is the the Jayhawks right now. Just had their Christmas Day against the Raiders game at Arrowhead, and everyone's like, well, I think they're done, guys.

I think someone else's turn. And it's like, really, I've seen this happen a few times before. Decent analogy. It's fine. They play it a lot better than the Chiefs did in that game, to be fair, Yeah, they they did, and which should make you even happier at DJ Radar. How do they win the Big Twelve? Is a one seed still possible? Because last year's team was five and three at this point and they won the Big Twelve, we got a one seed? Oh yeah, Both

those are very much on the table at ky Eden. Why didn't Bill transfer in someone like Jalen Coleman Lands instead of Nick Timberlake. I think he did. I think that Timberlake what he tried to do. Yeah, that's that's Timberlake was a better three point shooter throughout his career than Jalen Coleman Lands was. Yeah. Yeah, No, that's that's the exact guy tried to go

get and he just missed this one at show me Hawk. If Kansas City had a second baseball team that played in the NL sent, would anyone want that that played in the NL Central On the Kansas side? Would you root for that team? Or would you still work for the Royals? Are you kidding me? I would throw the Royals in the nearest dumpster. I need any excuse I can to get rid of that stupid ass baseball team and their

petition everyone in the city to sell either for an NBA team. I'd sell them both for an NBA team if we're being honest, but that I don't need the Royals want to move anyway? I yes, I would root for any baseball team that move here because odds are they would be better than the Royals. Correct, I don't need to be loyal really? Okay? And the final question here, I say this for last Land and this is a doozy. You got to hear me out on this, but it is.

It's one straight for you from at Rockchalk aj and I can't read the first line because it is a bad word. This one is for Landon Why are your friends takes so and then a not very nice word substitute for bad Ross and Rachel. It starts with an S and ends with a hit. Yeah it does, Yes, it does very good. Okay, here we go. Ross and Rachel are absolutely supposed to end up together. Now, hold on, hold on, you gotta hear me out. They have a child

together. He's loved her since the ninth grade. He's her lobster land in your tike socks, Your face sucks, and I hope A scammer calls you about your car's extended warranty. You fall for it and get all of your money stolen out of your bank account. Then when you look at your bank account and see that it's at zero dollars, you sad on your couch and think, hmm, that's fair to show that you're wrong. Here's a one hundred word essay from chat GBT on why Ross and Rachel are meant to be

together. Send it to me. It's gonna take a screenshot and send it to me. I'll read it, all right, I will. I will do that if you mean to pivot, because could you even be more wrong? Oh? I love that good comeback. I'm like no, no, I know he loved her since the ninth grade. They made out because she watched a video of him being nice once. And that's even when I liked the relationship. That doesn't make any sense. They only have a kid together

because that was interesting in the writing room. Yes, yes, if two people actually had a kid together, I understand that vastly increases the idea that they might end up together. Fine, I will slightly grant you that. The biggest problem I really have with all of that is that it's not even that Ross, like I just don't like him even I don't, it's that he doesn't have any like real redemption arc. I feel like, like, yeah, he gets better later in the show, like in the last couple

of seasons. I think he's a little better than he is in the middle point of the show, but like he never acknowledges that he was like the worst for a long time, and yet he still like is rewarded for that, And that's like crazy, that's my like more analysis take of that. But Ross is the worst and Rachel deserved Joey come at me. Rachel and Joey forever easily the most energy Landon has shown this podcast. With a Kansas

loss and with plenty of other chaos that was that was good. I am having a hard time rating Ross higher than fourth on the Friends Power ranking list. But Landon, I think that your your hate for poor Ross is a little overblown. Uh, and they're The pivot scene is one of the best in the Anti VICH is one of the funniest scenes in the show. You are not wrong, just not a Ross guy. Hey, I just wait till a guy the other things that made him a garbage person. Just wait

until a guy named Ross. Well, there goes the speaker again. That's two. I don't know if you heard that or not. Just wait until just wait until a guy named Ross makes a bunch of threes against Bill's Jayhawks. Whenever he increases that to happen and it didn't actually shocking, Yeah, I forgot about that. They had plenty of other helps or if you ever have asked ARCB used Twitter hashtag ask RCB. All right, now, it is eleven thirty at night on the East Coast and this game is going to

suck. And we just previewed this two weeks ago, so you're gonna get a quick one today. Oklahoma State at probably soon to be like ten. Kansas on Tuesday, Big Tuesday at nine o'clock. It's it's Super Tuesday. It's right, it's at eight o'clock. It's nine o'clock where I'm at whatever? Uh And it is the last real lay up for Kansas. They're nine and eleven overall are the Cowboys. They just won a conference game, and we just previewed this matchup two weeks ago. Javon Small six'y three.

He's the team's point guardy leads with fifteen points and four assists. He's a good three point shooter forty one percent, really good three point shooter. Sure's backcourt with Bryce Thompson, who is a really really really good three point shooter. Against Kansas exclusively, he avers thirteen points. While shooting he is actually thirty seven percent three point shooter in general. Keon Williams and Jerri's Hicklin are

the wings. John Michael Wright also still around, probably gonna make five more threes against the Hawks because he likes to do that as well. The big man of no is Eric Daily Junior. He averages ten and six. Brandon Garrison here a last game, and Mike marsh alternate between the center spots. They're both six to ten, they both blocked a lot of shots. They both can't stay out a foul trouble. Oklahoma State's an okay three point shooting

team. They're actually a pretty good one. They're they're above average in that sense, but they're also a really bad free throw shooting team, and they don't force any turnovers. So they very likely won't win an Allen field House even though this is one of those teams that every two or three years almost beats them. But they did last year, so this should be one where they roll. They almost did last year, so it should be one where

Kansas role. Kansas has won eleven or twelve versus Oklahoma State. Maybe just read this, who knows a nine L LAS ten Lawrence Mike Boyton with a win would become the first coach ever to beat theirself twice on field House. But that isn't gonna happen. No, Kansas wins seventy seven to sixty. Yeah, it's not gonna be that close, seventy nine to sixty two. By that close, I just mean it won't be really close whatever, you know what I mean? At this point, Yes, Kansas will win.

There isn't a lot of analysis. Oklahoma State couldn't stop a nosebleed the last time these two teams played, and as long as this also, if there's a hope for getting a bench going, this feels like the game where Nick Timberlake or l Marco Jackson scores nine points and we're like, yes, I think the bench is waking up. Guys. Yeah, we'll see. It won't mean that, but you might think that, right, That's what I meant. Yeah, let's pick the other games. Number four, these rankings

are gonna shipt Number four Houston at Texas on Big Monday. Houston, let's not get ourselves. You think, yes, I'll say Texas wins. I think Houston's gonna lose on the road more sooner rather than later. I will take Texas in the Moody Center, Number twenty Texas Tech at TCU. Give me the horn Frogs, yep. Number eleven Oklahoma State or number eleven Oklahoma

rather at Kansas State. I kind of want to pick Oklahoma in this because I think kse State is really overrated, but I just don't like the Sooners roster very much. I'm gonna say Case State wins at Brambleche I will agree. Number fifteen Baylor at Central Florida. I will take the Bears skid to end at three in a row YEP. And Cincinnati at West Virginia. Who do you want here? I do not know. H you have control. I'll pick whoever you don't want, all right, Cincinnati, it is Other

games. Number twelve Duke at Virginia Tech Hokies YEP. Number ten Illinois at Ohio State. I like Terrence Shannon Junior's play. I don't like anything else he does, but I think he's enough to beat Ohio State. I think I agree he's gonna copy everything, copy this one. Number fourteen Marquette at Villanova. Who do you want Villanova? I will take him over the fighting Shakas on the road, even though I don't feel good about that at all. Arkansas at Missouri in the Buns Bowl. Oh my gosh, this is

a horrible basketball game. This is so bad. Why is it on here? At Arkansas? I'm trying to find what ESPN Analytics thinks. If they think Houston has an eighty two percent chance to win an Allen Field House, well what do they think they'd okay? Missouri at Arkansas? Arkansas? Oh my gosh, Missouri's at a sixty seven percent win chance and they're oho to seven in conference play. These teams are combined one and thirteen in SEC play. Did you say Arkansas? I did, I'll say Missouri, let's let's

let's go Tigers and number thirteen Wisconsin at nebrasketball. I will take the fighting Hoiberg's I was going to as well, and I still will. All right, let's do it. Next show coming out? What probably Thursday Night's the record time, right, that seems to be our normal time. Yeah, it should be should be good for me. And then Houston on Saturday. Kansas plays three of the next four at home. They need to get it going, and what a big win that would be to keep their season from

falling into the toilet. But first they got to a past Oklahoma State Till then whatever. We'll probably get Nick back, that is, if he's not too busy yelling out a cloud for suggesting that Taylor Swift is attractive, or tattooed women are attractive, or anything is attractive, and hopefully we'll have all three of us back on. Ryan Langris, I'm the holiday armadillo. Thank you for powering through neither one of us is on our normal podcasting computers.

Neither one of us is in our normal podcasting zip codes. Just a weird, but that's dedicated. It's what we do. That's what this show is. Baby. This is hard hitting stuff from what I have the news in Orlando on the TV because it's I haven't turned the TV off since the NFC title game ended. And the way they're talking about the Chiefs is so funny.

They keep showing old videos of Patrick Mahomes from like the Ravens games from many years ago, and I don't know if they know those aren't the highlights from today's game, but the result was the same because Lamar Jackson sends Patrick Mahomes cards on the third Sunday every June. Yeah, when those happen, why goodbye.