ITP: Sleepy Jayhawks outlast Eastern Illinois at Allen Fieldhouse

Well that was close. We almost had to open this podcast with I don't have an exhale drop on the board, but but just no metaphorically exhale. This is our reaction from a what turned out to be I don't know. I don't want to use the phrase nail bier because I don't think any of us actually thought they're going to lose, or even it's more likely than not

that they lose. Their Their lowest win probability at any point in that game, according to ESPN, was still like seventy six percent, But not how we expected to spend a Tuesday night watching our thirty eight point favorite Jayhawks sweat one out down the stretch. How's about that? This is inside the Paint on Rock Chalk Blog. You just get two of us today. I'm Ryan Landrath and I'm Nick Whiper. Nick, where is where is landon? He's on a date from what I heard. You hear that? Yeah, he's

out with a woman tonight. Very congratulations Land and congratulations Land And that's extremely exciting. We waited a long time for this moment. Uh. Nick found his Remy Martin last year, and now you have found hopefully misses right uh and obviously we are. We are just kidding because missus right is the couch at this point, because Landon is he's just tired tonight, I think is

uh is, what's is? What's going on? So uh oh rats, maybe next time Landon, But Nick, you and I are going to talk about Whenever the schedule came out and we saw this game sandwich between Maui and the Titanic showdown between the two last national champions, I think we thought this would be the sleeper podcast, just like the the game was supposed to be a sleeper. Well, the game lived up to a little more building than we thought, So I guess that means with just the two of us that

we've got to be a little bit more more lively today. I mean, are we up for this? I don't know if we're up for this. It's it's pretty late for me, but I'm up for it. All right, all right, let's let's uh, let's talk about it. Since you're up for and most of the Jayhawks were not down to number five Kansas seventy one Eastern Illinois sixty three, Nick, I'll let you go ahead and read the game story and then we'll start analyzing exactly what in the world we're supposed

to take away from this. Yeah, entering as a thirty eight point favorite, that's a pretty big spread. Kansas raced to a seventeen point lead through seventeen minutes appeared well on their way to ruling the Panthers, but from the three minute mark of the first half to the three minute mark of the second half, Kansas extended their lead to thirty. No. Eastern Illinois outscored KU forty three to twenty nine, most of the second half within a possession or

two. The Jayacks did close out in a twelve to five run to put it away a bit, but this was an underwhelming showing against the team fick to finish last in the Ohio Valley. Ryan, you got on this show a couple of nights ago and said, Eastern Illinois you thought, on paper was the worst team Kansas was gonna play all season, and they go out there and only beat them by eight. What is your immediate reaction to that?

I did say that, And statistically, if you're a Ken Palm believer, if you're a metrics believer, or if you just know stats, which are this Eastern Illinois team beat Copp and State forty eight to forty six two weeks ago. Then all of those things will tell you the same thing, and that's this Eastern Illinois team is bad and Kansas, you know, things are weird. We're going to talk about maybe why this was closer, way closer than anyone he thought basketball is weird, and watching this game, it

was clear Eastern Illinois played a lot better than they had been. Kansas looked very lethargic for most of the night. And what you got is proof that just about anything can happen on a given basis, on a given night in college basketball. I have never in my time, we've done ten seasons, eleven seasons of this show. We've previewed every game. We've been aware of

the point spreads, and that extends beyond the show. I have never seen a thirty eight point favorite for a Kansas game against the Division one team. They were in the forties against Shamanad. But thirty eight is the largest number I've seen in at least a handful of years. And honestly, looking at this, that line was a trap the whole time. Sure, Eastern Illinois is bad, but just the psychological angle you're coming off Maui, you're getting

ready to play Yukon. Like this game from a betting perspective, was not in a good spot for anybody looking to back a big Jayhawk win. Now, certainly we thought the talent gap between these two teams was large enough that it wouldn't have surprised us. I was at the game with my grandma and I said, at halftime, I bet they score fifty in the next half, because even at that point up by light twelve. But halftime it felt like they were due to play much better, and they they didn't score thirty

five in the second half. It was it was a very sloppy showing. So I'll ask you what contributed in your opinion to this being such a weird game. Are you blaming some Maui jet lag, Are you blaming them looking the head to the Connecticut game, or just basketball happening. Sometimes I think it's more basketball happening. I mean they, like you said, like we had just read in the notes, they got up to a seventeen point lead.

So usually when Kansas is playing bad at home against an inferior opponent, it's usually like, you know, they come out the gates and they're really slow, and you're like, wow, this is a bad start. You know, maybe it's going into halftime. Typically Billsolf teams do not, you know, play bad in the back half of the game. Usually the second half adjustments are good enough, especially to overcome an Ohio Valley team. But like we said, in this case, they just completely fell apart, could

not score. The ball, had a huge drought, and Easter Illinois was making shots weirdly. I know, you say, a team that just scored forty nine points against copp And State a few weeks ago, but they were making shots. They were they were hitting stuff that I don't think that team has hit all season long. And I don't know if they were just you know, juiced up because of the Allen Kilos. Energy was a little bit low and that run started to take place. Because I do know no minimum

momentimum. Basketball is really really fickle. But I do think this is attributed to maybe a little bit of looking ahead to Yukon. You know, they

had that a huge emotional week last week. kJ Adams, you know, obviously losing his mother and that the emotional toll heading straight to Maui, the team playing a game for him, for his mother, right then after games for his mother, then after that in Hawaii, and then quickly, you know, coming back to the States to play a game against the team that you know, you usually don't get up for a game against Eastern Illinois.

So I think, like you said, there's a lot of little, tiny factors that maybe contributed to it, but I really just think it's just an underwhelming basketball game. I don't think we'll see something like this on knocking Wood for the rest of the non conference slate, but definitely a wake up call to this team struggles. You know, we've talked a lot about Dewan Harris, will talk about him in a few minutes. Really rough showing for him

offensively in this game. But a guy who didn't have a rough game offensively was Hunter Dickinson. Yeah, Dickinson was really good. I'll get to his stats here in just a second. I think that everything that you said was excellent, and I think that's it's more. The first thing is basketball happened. They won this game by eight points. They missed a handful of free throws. If these teams shoot an average percentage from three, then all of

a sudden, this is like an eighteen point win. Which wouldn't jump off the table, but it would also be a little bit closer to what you expected. Eastern Illinois hit some shots that I do not believe they would hit again if these two teams played another game tomorrow. A lot of off balance shots from a team that statistically entered as one of the worst offensive teams in college basketball. Kansas missed every three they took in the second half. Dickinson,

as you mentioned, was great, mccullor was very good. Everybody else stunk. Kansas opened the game up eight nothing, and it looked like with Dickinson having seven rebounds before the first TV time out, it looked like they were just going to destroy this squad. And then the team's actually played even after that over the last thirty five minutes pretty wild. I still want to point out that a game like this happens every single non con slate with Kansas

last year, and it's easy to forget these games. Last year, the fourth game of the year was against Southern Utah. They were up one in the final two minutes before Grady dick hit a dagger three that saved them. The year before that, Remy Martin had to rescue them against Steven f Austin at home, and the year before that, Tyan Grant Foster, now one of the better players in basketball, had to rescue them against North Dakota State.

Every single year there is a game kind of like this, and we obviously have seen each of the last three Kansas teams either go out the first weekend or win the whole thing. So clearly, having a close call with a much inferior opponent a non conference play doesn't have a lot of jurisdiction as we're determining how the rest of your season is going to go. I think they got caught looking ahead pretty straightforward to Yukon. You mentioned kJ Adam Mom.

The team has to be exhausted and a little not focused. Maui jet Lag had a couple people say, well, the other teams I played in that tournament didn't look jet Lag. Yeah, okay, I mean there's a bunch of angles. They didn't really look too interested. And this came from the start, and you know who said that. The Jayhawk players after the game said, yeah, we were sleepy in this one. So it happens. But because something like this seems to happen every year, and you never

actually thought Kansas was going to lose that game. It really isn't worth looking into that much. Okay, now let's talk about Hunter Dickinson. Go ahead and read me his stats. I know you kicked to me. I'll take Kevin McCuller here in a little bit, But tell me about Hunter Dickinson, who might be the only player we're not concerned about. Yeah, Parker Brown, Sorry, wrong, white big Parker Brown's a white flag, not a

Hunter Dickinson. I consaided twenty five points, thirteen rebounds in three blocks, and another dominant performance. Well on his way to I think being a favorite would be a favorite if Zach Heaty would just leave college and go to the NBA or do something with his life instead of staying around in East Lofayette,

Indiana. Hey, if I don't know who has decided who in the world the history of the world said, you know, I'm gonna turn down twenty million dollars to go back to East Lofayette in Indiana to play basketball at Purdue for Matt Painter, a guy who's never got squeaked his nose out of the second into the second week into the NCAA tournament. That's how it feels. But hey, before you before you say that, Zach ed he's been in college forever. The guy you're talking about has been in college. Every bit

is long. That's how basketball is now. I guess, yeah, tell me about who I'm with you is one of two, one of the two best chances to win National Player of the Year. He did underwhelm and undersize Panther front court early and often grabbing seven rebounds before the first team. He time out eleven for fifteen from the floor. Look at that efficiency and is now shooting sixty seven percent on the season. He played thirty five minutes,

including all but one of the final twenty nine minutes. Yeah. So he played the first five and had six and seven like immediately, and then Self's like, okay, that's enough of that. Hunter, Come sit your butt on the bench so I can watch Parker go out there and sniff his own

farts. And so then they kind of fall back in the Okay, they just but obviously Bill self assumed I'm sure that they were gonna win this game by a lot, and he was planning on probably playing Hunter Dickinson about twenty to twenty two minutes and then the rest of the game happened, and Hunter only sat for about thirty seconds in the second half. They needed him out there the entire time. Dickinson tremendous. He overwhelms lousy teams, he overwhelms

great teams. He's one of the two best players in college basketball, and there really isn't a lot for us to take away from it. As much as we would love to sit here and talk about how great Hunter Dickinson is, which we can definitely do and will do, I feel like the minutes on this recap should be dedicated to other things when there just isn't anything to

analyze from Dickinson's dominance. There's a little bit more to talk about with Kevin McCuller had an excellent second half eighteen points, thirteen of them coming after halftime, on eight for eighteen from the floor in thirty seven minutes. He added five assist and he didn't turn the ball over. That's the big stat I'm looking at here, because he had a bunch of them in Maui and then

quickly eradicated those woes. The downside is that he missed both of his threes, dropping him back to the same thirty percent mark that he shot last season and the year before that. We talked at the beginning of the year about how we really wanted to see him take a leap forward from a three point shoot. It looked like he did. Yeah, it looked like he was going to in the first few games. And so that's that's surprising for me

to read. It doesn't feel like he's dropped under thirty percent. But yeah, wow, no, and it doesn't feel like that. And I also I am not sure I think he is a better shooter. Like, we only have six games worth of sample here. There just isn't a lot of data. We're not really gonna have an idea as to what guys shooting percentages are until we get to the start of January. And at that point I

think we're gonna have a pretty good idea. But I think mccullor well in the year in the mid thirties, I think thirty five thirty six, with how he plays in all of their aspects of his game, would be a colossal improvement. But he was good. He scored down the stretch and on a night when very few players were interested in scoring the ball. Okay, now, on that note, we got the two leaders on this team out

of the way. Let's talk about some of the bad. Kansas was three for fourteen shooting three that's twenty one percent, which is a season worst, including zero makes in the second half. The Panthers of Eastern Illinois made nine on the night. I don't think that you had going minus eighteen on three pointers against Eastern Illinois on your bingo card at the beginning of the night. But well here we are. We said at the beginning of the season,

Artario Morris can't be on the team anymore. Suddenly the three point shootings looking a little thin. I assume that you still feel that way. And the way that they started the year and the first two games by shooting great,

that looks like a little bit of a mirage. Yeah, well absolutely, we You know, the team has very little depth from the three point line anyway, So coming into this year, we are very, very, very concerned about this because you gotta trust guys like Furfey and Timberlake, and neither of them. Furfey has a little bit more reason in a wiggle room for that. You know, he's a nineteen year old straight out of high school, decided to take a little year early, so that development is not gonna

be a problem or at least not a concern right now. But Nicholas Timberlake has just been a huge, huge, huge disappointment so far. I know we talked a lot about him being from you know, thousand and different competition. He was the best player by far on thousand. I'm pretty sure some kids I played middle school basketball with probably started for tousand last season. But yeah, I just shooters shoot though. That's the thing. It's like,

why is this guy struggling so hard to make threes. It's like it's not a size thing. You know, going up against bigger guys or better competition typically does not affect shooters as much as it has for him. He's in a slump. I don't know if it's the pressure, just being anxious about, you know, getting off to a good start this season, but it's been horrible in all regards. And Almarco Jackson the same way from the three

point line. Maybe expect a little bit more from him. And earlier on too, we'll talk about Dewan Harris, but earlier on the season it looked like, you know, especially the Kentucky game where he stroked all three or four of its threes really was looking surprising this game, kind of like Kevin McCuller is seeing his three point shooting percentage slump again. I don't know if, like you said, there's enough sample size to make any determination on that,

but this team is going to struggle to shoot the three ball. You've got to find answers, and I just I don't know where they're at. What do you think, Well, let's go ahead and talk about those guys, because the three point shooting is definitely this team's biggest struggle. McCuller, Dickinson, phenomenal players don't have a lot of questions there. I think Harris and kJ Adams for the most part, don't have a lot of questions there.

You know that they're gonna be there. And everybody on Twitter is talking about how this team only has four players. I'm not sure if there are any teams in college basketball that have more than four really good players, Like, no team has nine guys at this level or anything. But your five through ten can't be in total no shows like they've been at this point in the year. Timberlake, I thought he was on his way to having one

of his better games. He had five points made two shots in eleven first half minutes, and then Bill didn't play him at all in the second half. I'm assuming he was available and just didn't go out there. Almarco Jackson had a five point three steel line in twenty two minutes, but he was just two for six from the floor. He's struggling to shoot threes, even though he did make one in this game. Johnny Furfy six points fourteen minutes, one for four from the floor, so not a whole lot there.

Jamari McDowell had a good stretch but played the least of the four, which is a trend and none of us can figure that out either. Scoring a point in eight minutes. I still am. I'm patient with Timberlake. I think Timberlake will be okay. I don't know if he's going to be Jalen coleman Lands level consistent for you, but I think he's going to give quality off the bench minutes. This is a guy that's done this in college and

at a very high level. I know he was at talisand but he scored seventeen to night back to back years like he he has shot the ball from the same distance that he's shooting now and had considerably better results, and then you have a concussion down in Tennessee. Like, I don't know, I'm patient on Timberlake Furfey, I think you're just seeing a really raw freshman that he's gonna have glimpses this year, but isn't gonna be consistent there for you.

El Marco Jackson, I feel like kind of should be better than he is, even though self said that he'll he'll get there. And Jamary McDowell feels honestly like maybe the best of any of them at this point in his career, but he's playing the least. I don't know how would you fix this? If you were Bill selfh would you continue to start El Marco Jackson? And and if not? And if so too, I guess how would you distribute these minutes? Is your priority trying to see the ball go through

the net from three? Or is your priority something else? From this two guard debacle? What was the first part of that question you asked? Are you just trying to get three point shooting from your two guard or are you looking for other things? I mean this with this team probably looking for other things. But I mean typically in a Kansas traditionally in a Kansas offense. I would say the two guard is responsible for making some threes, at least

in Bill Self's teams. The past few years that has been the case. So this year's kind of an anomaly in that in that regard, But for this team, I mean, you hope Elmarco Jackson's gonna go out there and make at least one, but that hasn't been the case so far this year. Yeah, and Jackson was a good shooter in high school and that hasn't materialized us far. And Timberlake obviously has been a mess. I still think that we have enough cupcake games on the schedule coming up to watch the Jayhawks

play that you're going to see somebody start to establish themselves. Kansas plays UMKC, they play Missouri, Indiana hasn't been very good. That that game's gonna be tough. They play Yale. Like these games, they're not gonna win all these by eight. They're gonna have some blowouts in there, and I think you're gonna see guys like Timberlake and Furfey and McDowell play better. Like what I would do, and I've been straightforward with this, I would continue

to start Almarco Jackson. I think his ceiling is the highest, and I think he's the one that you definitely need to develop the most. But I would play Timberlake twenty minutes a night, like I would have Timberlake shoot seven or eight threes whenever they're not playing Yukon caliber teams. I want to see that, you know. It's like I always compare it to like starting a

car. I don't know for sure if this old car that's not really reliable is going to start on a cold winter day, but I'm gonna try to crank that key several times and keep trying to forestart it. Because I mean, if if I have this car in my possession and I'm not actively trying to start it, why is Temberlake on the roster if you're not actively trying to get him three points? Shit? It's like, I don't know what

does that mean? Park What car is Parker Brown? Then Parker Brown is the plain white old mini van that you throw out there when the other cars are busy or you need one, and it could be worse. I guess it performs, but it's definitely not gonna be fun. I was gonna say salvage title, Oh oh, that's rough. It's really old, right, because he's been in college since like nineteen eighty. Yeah, really old car, really old, unreliable, don't expect much out of it. Yeah,

and you don't get much out of it. And it's like you trade out your Porsche for it too, because you go from Dickinson down to Parker Brown too. It's just a brutal downside. And Kansas, I will say too. So, Kansas this year is shooting thirty six percent from three. That is about one hundredth out of three hundred and sixty five teams. And they played a very tough strength of schedule. They've had great games, they've had

terrible games. But overall, if you pick ten college basketball teams, Kansas is better than six or seven of them at shooting threes, and considering how much else they do, well, that's not too bad. If they shoot thirty six percent as a team from three this year, they're gonna win thirty plus games before the NCAA tournament. I agree, So they're gonna be They're gonna be just fine. Thirty before the NCAA tournament's a big stritch. They're

gonna win twenty five plus before postseason play. How about that? All right, let's talk about Dewan Harris. Go ahead and read his stats and then I want to I want to have a little chat about Dewan Harris. Yeah, Harris scored one point on a zero for four, not outing from the floor in thirty six minutes. He did have nine assists to three turnovers, but Eastern Illinois completely ignored him when he had the ball, smothering mccouller and

Dickinson with extra help and Darren Harris to shoot the ball. He's averaging six points, seven assists, and three turnovers per game this year, but he scored seven or fewer in every game beside Kentucky. You just mentioned I just read in the stats that they're not guarding him. Are you wanting Harris to be more assertive in making taking those shots? Obviously miss all of his shots in this game, but are you wanting him to drive, take more threes,

create more score scoring opportunities for himself? What do you think dewe. Harris needs to do to get more points for this team because he needs to score for this team to reach any ceiling they want to have this year. Yes, yes, he has to score more. That is that is absolutely correct. We know he's capable. We've seen him do it inside the arc, outside the arc. He doesn't look to score because he likes to set up his teammates. At some point that just becomes no, he's just not

looking to score. He has to score the ball more than this or you're gonna put up like Dickinson and mccullor gave you forty three and you barely got to seventy against Eastern Illinois because he got nothing basically from Dewan Harris. My hot take on Dewan Harris. And I'm not here to tell you he's not good, and I'm not here to tell you that he had He's not He's a D two point guard and all that, like we've seen on Twitter. Uh, But my hot take isdwe Harris, the exception of one half against

Kentucky has been pretty mediocre this year. He hasn't been very good compared to what we know he can do. Now. Dwan Harris has always been a player that has gotten better throughout the course of a season, So I think

he's going to be just fine. But yes, he has to look to score the ball more because Kansas just doesn't have the pieces around him for him to just focus on passing it. And in this game, Eastern Illinois knew he wasn't gonna shoot it, and they just didn't guard him like we've seen teams do that before, and it made life on his teammates a lot harder. Harris was brilliant against Kentucky and has been very okay against everybody else.

And I thought that Kansas was better with Harris on the bench last night at times whenever al Marco Jackson played the point in the first half was when they made their best push. So I don't know. That's what I think the Dwan Harris thing is. I don't think anything's wrong with him. I just think he has to look to score the ball Moore, which sounds easier said

than done, I guess. But when he doesn't look to score, you're gonna have seventy point nights, even with the other two stars being brilliant. I also think the turnovers have been a little bit uncharacteristic for him to start the year. I know it's three per game, but that he has been lauded as you know, a guy who does not turn the ball over, right, So just a little bit sloppier. I think to start this season,

which is kind of surprising. Obviously he's, you know, an assist machine with Hunter Dickinson down low, but yeah, I want him to take and look for more shots. We saw in the Kentucky game a glimpse of how good he can be scoring the basketball. Why not become a little bit more assertive. You know what, guy, what college basketball player does not

want to shoot open threes when they get the chance. I just think, I don't know if it's you know, Bill Solf just coaching him to, hey, hey, let's take some more shots, or what to get through his mind that you've got to start daring teams to guard you. Like the amount of disrespect. Obviously very disconcerned with Kevin mcclutran Hunter Dickinson, but the amount of space and leverage teams are giving you is a huge advantage for KU, especially if you have a guy who's proven he can score the ball.

If it's not three, it's into the basket, creating plays. I think Dwan Harris needs to be more assertive. He's a great point guard, probably the best in the country, but just some parts of his game where he just can do a little bit better at executing. I think, yeah, it's that simple, Like he's trying to do too much of a good thing at this point and he's got to look to score the ball more than he is. It's just that simple. He is. He has had a little

bit more uncharacteristic turnovers for him. He's been sloppier with the ball, which you can get away with if you're also putting up ten points. You only put up, you know, less than seven and most of your games, and suddenly those turnovers carry a lot more weight because you're not making up for those possessions as much so. And also Kansas doesn't really have another point guard,

like I know, el Marco Jackson is. He can kind of combo guard it, but al Marco is not a guy that you're gonna want quarterbacking your team in the big minutes. It's it's right or die with Dewan Harrison, and they just need him to be They just need him to be a little bit better than he has been. Think he'll get there. It's only been seven games. We talked about the bench. It was not good.

We talked about Nick Timberlake, who was kind of good in his limited minutes but then didn't play there is kJ Adams, who had ten points, four for four from the floor, three assists, two seals, two blocks, three rebounds thirty two minutes. Not a whole lot to analyze. There feels like a pretty solid line for kJ. He's had a brutal week and he put forth some really quality minutes. There not not a whole lot to take away from from his game. I assume what do you take away from No?

I kind of want to jump back to Nick Timberlake. I want to ask you this question, why do you think Nick Timberlake didn't play it all in the second half. I think it's a Bill Self trust issue right now? Yeah, I do. I think it's he's played the least minutes. I mean, guys like Furfey and McDowell have played more so as Jackson, and I also don't think that Self felt like that Timberlake deserved to play over

those guys even though none of them were playing that well. That's what concerns me the most about Nicholas Timberlake. It's not like his competition is just so fierce that there's not time to get him the minutes, like we've seen happened with Kansas guys in the past. Uh, And yeah, guys like Travis Relliford and Elijah Johnson that wound up being starters on Final four teams that were third string guys as a freshman. Like, it wasn't all that was just

because there were so many good talented players in front of him. Here, Nick Timberlake can't get on the floor ahead of one for four Johnny Furfey and Jamari mcdowan is one point, like, man, he needs the That's not a good sign. It's just it's so bizarre though, because Bill self, you usually prioritizes getting you know, guys with that much experience in years under the belt into the game before he does freshmen, right and baby freshmen like

that's yeah, that's that's signaling like some trust issues. I don't know like that. That's just that's very odd to me. Yeah, it is pretty

bizarre. Something that will never and I mean never be bizarre is whenever this happens at the Fog because what else would you expect from Cooper with a k Jacoby who went two for three while being a twenty five percent three point shooter for his career, and then I know that Nikhil Shelton made four as a twenty nine percent shooter, he's not white, but it also kind of fits

the Bill. I'm so tired of being tweeted at whenever I point out that the white guys are making off balance crazy threes against the Jayhawks and the people on Yeah, Ryan, Yeah, that's all I hear. They leave them wide open. They're just open looks every single time. Apparently every single you make an anecdotal comment on my own account, right, yeah, Apparently the twenty five percent of threes that these guys have made in their life, every

one of them has been face guarded by Marcus Garrett caliber defenders. But then when the Jayhawks come to town, they get the whole side of the floor to themselves. Like it makes no sense with this logic. Kansas is not the best three point shooting team I've ever seen, or three point defending team

I've seen. It's probably say, yeah, they definitely aren't. It's probably Bill self's biggest weakness as a coach, because we have seen this team get burned more often than they should from teams that shoot the ball in Kansas doesn't seem to adjust quick enough. But come on, there are plenty of times where you have the goofy looking lousy shooters that hit those step back, falling

sideways threes that the defense is irrelevant slash fine. It just feels like yeah, And someone on Twitter is like, there's no magic reason why teams shoot better against Kansas. Yeah, I think there is. I think teams do shoot better against Kansas. I think teams play better. I think there's a little more juice in their step, and we've seen that work the other way, where then they come out totally flat. How many times you've seen Case

State get so geeked up they can barely think straight. Then they just get blown out out of the shoot against Kansas. But I think that, Yeah, I think teams are a little extra fired up to play the Jayhawks. I don't know if that makes the ball go in the bat ask it more, but based on the evidence, it definitely doesn't make them play any worse.

What are your thoughts? Yeah, No, I agree that That's always been kind of my feeling as well, is that you know, people are always like, oh, Alan Fieldhouse is so intimidated, intimidating, but these guys want to go into Allen field House and play their best basketball. I

mean, they're not you know, these are college basketball players. I granted, Eastern Illinois players have probably never played before a crowd of more than four thousand people, let alone sixteen thy three hundred, but I mean, I mean, I guess they have because they're always you know, they're schools collecting checks, two million dollar checks to go play by games against power five schools.

But besides that, these these players are are there to play ball, like they're gonna play their best against Kansas, particularly, you know, teams like ky State regular conference foes for Kansas, they get everyone's best shot.

And you know that's a cliche, but I think that it's true. And obviously in this game Easter Illinois, I think if you simulated this game one hundred one thousand times, I don't think they're gonna replicate that three times, which is really hard to say because you know, kay, you hasn't been playing their best basketball at this point in the season. But you know,

that's that's just how it happens sometimes. Yeah, guys like Pooper with a keg that come in there, and a good thing it wasn't Ali with an a this time. Oh man, Yeah, speaking of you and I Bob Boleseby's the new ad there. I saw that. Yeah, boy, what an interesting what an interesting job for for Bob Bowlesby to be the big twelve just keeps on getting richer, and Bob Bolsby continues too well. He's yeah, he's interimediet Northern Iowa. No, yay, Bob, all right.

Kansas did have eleven blocks and eleven steals. That's pretty Uh, those are two pretty big numbers. You don't see that every day. Parker Brown had two of those blocks. He played five minutes. Those are the five minutes Dickinson was on the bench. And honestly, we're probably too hard on Parker. He's easy to punch on. He's he's a perfectly fine backup big that's probably going to have some some rough moments when they start playing better teams.

Uh. From the floor fifty percent for the Jayhawks, twenty one percent from three, sixty seven percent of the line, and minus three on the glass. Getting out rebounded by Eastern Illinois when you have Hunter Dickinson on your team's not exactly the best look. In fact, you could actually say it's quite ass. But you know, they won the game. Uh So overall they're six and one, they've won every one of their seven games except for one

and through through the first this is it for November. They finished November with a six and one record. And what are your thoughts? What do you think about the way that we've seen this team play this far? I mean, I think it's right where I predicted. I think I had them going six and one at this point in this season. I thought they'd lose, and nowI you know, I didn't believe it would be as bad as they did against Marquette, you know, and not be a competitive game because usually

the Kansas gets up for those games. But as he's look in the past few years too, these mid season, these things, giving the week tournaments, KU has just laid an egg. The Dayton game a couple of years ago, the Gonzaga game they got absolutely Mickey Mouse and the Mickey Mouse Tournament.

And so it hasn't been can you has not been the best that they've been since you know, ydo Ka Zabuki went in and beat an exciting dat and team and Mawi a couple you know, like what six years ago, and at this point, so you know, the expectations I think k you fans so high companitiason obviously the number one ranking, but I've I've alluded to it, and I'm alluded to it again. This team without Arteria Morris is

pretty drastically different than what it would be with Arterio Morris. You look at this roster, you look at them play against Hestern Illinois the other night, a very clear key peep piece missing, a clear score missing in the two guards spot, which we did see, you know, and people are like, well, you know, there's no guarantee that Artery Morris is gonna come in. He he He scored a lot of points in those those two games in Puerto Rico, so I think that he was going to be a huge

lift for this team offensively, and obviously things shape out that way. You know, the guy can't keep his hands off of women or you know, just in general be a good person. So that's disappointing. That's more disappointed than him not being able to play basketball. I want to make that clear. But you know that's a huge, huge loss for this Kansas team. So that expectations after that, I think still stayed pretty high. Team.

I think k You fans in particular, weren't too concerned. But now you're starting to see a few flaws and that's they're gonna guys are gonna happen. You know, you have a freshman playing starting minutes in that spot. You know, Johnny Furfey barely played high school basketball. Now he's played in college.

And then you got these transfers come in. And obviously we knew Hunter Dickinson was gonna gell him immediately and Kevin McClure is going to be a star, but you know, still question marks about other guys like Dwan Harris. Can he make that leap like we just talked about scoring. So a lot of things answered for this Kansas team, but they've got a really really comfortable stretch after this Yukon game to really get things rolling, get comfortable, and

rack up some wins before they start conference play. Yeah, I think that you summed it up pretty nicely. I think that Arteria Morris would have really helped this team. They don't have him. They're just fine without him, but it's it's it's definitely puts pressure on the other guys to be a little bit better. And overall, you know, this is the sort of game

that it happens every now and then you mentioned the tournaments. I think they won every tournament between twenty fourteen and twenty twenty that they played in the little Thanksgiving feast weeks and now I don't know if the Gonzaga loss was technically a tournament in Fort Myers, it was an event, but we're gonna count it because it makes the stats sound better. This is the fourth straight year that

they didn't win that tournament. Obviously the Dayton loss, the Tennessee loss last year, and then Marquette this year, so four straight years that they did not win their tournament. They schedule brutal and they haven't made it through November

unscathed in a while. But overall, it's hard to be disappointed with six and one, considering they already have two wins over top twenty teams on their schedule, neither one of those games being at home their neutral site top twenty wins, and they have an opportunity to get the best win of their season thus far with Yukon coming in here in a couple of days. If they win the Yukon game, I think they get an a through this point in

the season. If they lose the Yukon game, it'll be kind of disappointing to see him lose two out of four of the big games. But until then, this team is perfectly capable of doing it, and until they don't, until they are considerably coming up short of expectations, I think that this team is going to be just fine Big twelve games. Well, we do have some Big twelve notes here, as the majority of these conferences or these

conference opponents, have already finished out their November schedules. Iowa State they place fourth in the ESPN Events Invitational, or as Nick likes to call it, the Mickey Mouse Invitational, after blowing a ten point halftime lead and losing to number twelve Texas A and M. Unless they are able to beat Iowa at home next week, the Cyclone's best win of non con is going to be

a four point escape over a four and three VCU team. I know a team that is also in the Big twelve that could use a win over VCU. Damn it Bill. The winner of the tournament, as if anyone cares, was number nineteen Florida Atlantic, who romped Virginia Tech by thirty four in the title game. Iowa State's gonna be like ten and two entering non con play, and everyone are entering conference play and everyone's gonna be like, Wow, it's a sexy record. Don't don't, don't fall for it. We

all see what's going on under that under that mask. Yep. And then Kansas State needed overtime to avoid getting Oral Roberts. They beat a two and four Oral Roberts team eighty eight to seventy eight at Brandwage. Cincinnati six and zero also needed overtime to beat a five lost Kamala Harris team in Washington, d C. Yeah, you think that Kamala Harris went in the locker room after they almost beat Cincinnati and told him that they played so good. Probably

she's not. She's doing everything but be vice president. Oh oh wow. I mean, I don't know if are there any is there? Yeah? Is there anyone that's that would defend Kamala Harris in the first place. She's the Parker Brown of politicians. Oh, that seems kind of harsh. That's a real that's a that's a title that I don't know if I could use, even though, yes, as you said, I couldnot name a single

thing Harris. She's She's Okay, I'm not I'm not saying that Parker's anything as terrible as she is, but just basically on like an output an output perspective. Like Similarly, yeah, there's not a whole lot of news surrounding Parker Brown's been Parker Brown has probably had better productivity as vice president than she has, but let's let's get past the politics. Sorry for that. Speaking of politics, there's six Big twelve teams that are main undefeated Baylor, Oklahoma,

by U, Cincinnati, Houston, and TCU. On the contrary, West Virginia and Oklahoma State both already have three losses. Mike Boytan is going to be done after this year. He is very likely that West Virginia and Oklahoma State are both looking for coaches. West Virginia obviously has an interim coach right now. Oklahoma State Boyton's got to be on his way out. One tournament appearance, uh, and it was the Mickey Mouse COVID Tournament where Cunningham

was the favorite in the region. They couldn't get past the sweet sixteen. Yeah, that Mike pointon about time for him to go. The Big twelve teams that are undefeated shore are interesting because I still kind of think Oklahoma sucks and BYU was picked to finish second last in this conference. And they are in the top twenty right now. So the league, you know, we say every year, is this the year the Big twelve takes a step back? We always say yes, and then the Big twelve is always really good.

Ten top forty teams on Ken Palm right now can't help but think that maybe they won't just be really really good. Once again, let's look at TCU's wins. Speaking of things that are not very good, Jamie Dixon scheduling like Bill self, but the opposite. TCU has beaten en route to starting six to zero Southern Omaha, ut Rio, Grande Valley, Mississippi Valley State, alcorn State, and Houston Christian College. Jamie Dixon's oprah win with the payouts to the y HBCUs, you get a bye game, and you get

a bye game. And this is all of us shocked that TCU has managed to win all those games. My goodness, no one really knows how good they are, because how could you with that schedule? But I do know that Ernest U Day Junior has started six games for the horn Frogs and is averaging three points and five rebounds. Like he has not been very good, supposing he says a foully a ton. Gosh, darn, that guy averages almost three foul fifteen minutes of action a game like just he's been pretty raw

and we'll see. Uh, he's gonna have to guard Hunter Dickinson when the horn Frogs come to Allen Fieldhouse for a conference opener here in a few weeks. So not sure that's gonna go too good for old Ernest h Who are your top five teams in the Big twelve? Right now? You've watched the months worth of action? How would you rank the top five teams? And yeah, I think it's still pretty clear the top four. Who the top four? It's obviously Kansas, Houston, Baylor and sorry Baylor. And why

am I blanking on the other good team Texas? Texas is up there. I probably leave Texas at five, and then wow, good Radio completely forgot the other team I was gonna put up there. I mean, it's Kansas at one, it's Baylor at two. I think I know Houston's ranked higher. I know that people like I know people have thoughts about the Cougars.

I want to see him do it against quality opponents first, so I'll put them at three, and then Texas is there Originally I thought that somebody like like Kansas State could be there, or I mean, I think the fifth best team in the league right now is probably is probably based on their resume. Yeah, I still think I would put TCU as my fifth best team in the Big Twelve. They are still like, we don't know how good because they haven't played anybody. But I think they have one of the five

best rosters in this conference. I don't know, we'll we'll, we'll see if we get that far, but for now I would go one Kansas, two, Baylor, three or three Houston, four Texas and five TCU. We will see if we get to that point. Other games, there was an acc SEC Challenge going on this week, which made ESPN all sorts of Tingley inside, and it produced some pretty impressive results. One of the impressive results, though nick, did not result in a particularly entertaining game. Yeah,

Number twelve Kentucky was college basketball's most impressive. This team. Remember when we were talking about how good this team could be. They hung ninety five at number eight Miami and the acc SEC Challenge. Fun fact, I didn't realize Miami was a private school until a couple weeks ago. Reeed Shepard scored twenty one points and is now shooting sixty three percent from three this year.

The Wildcats of six and one, with their only loss being the Big Gag against the Ahawks KU has a really mark he win on their resume already. I still can't believe that the voters haven't moved Kentucky up to the top ten. Maybe they'll get there now after what they did against Miami, but there's no way that they should be ranked behind like Houston right now? Are you

joking? How is Houston ranked a head of Kentucky. My eyeballs have watched both teams play, and my eyeballs tell me Kentucky is one of the ten best teams in college basketball. Come on, get it right. Great win for them. Then there was also this explosion of points in one of the best offensive showings of the season. Number seventeen North Carolina hung one hundred on

Number ten Tennessee's good defense, riding a monstrous first half. I think they scored sixty one in the first half and holding off a furious comeback by Dalton next en route to a one hundred to ninety two win. The tari Hills got twenty seven from R. J. Davis, still in college, and twenty two from Armando Baycott, still in college. Dalton next had forty seven on thirteen of seventeen for Tennessee and then rolled his ankle late, too little,

too late. This game was honestly very similar to Kansas West Virginia in the Wiggans year, where West Virginia got off to a huge lead and had all the offense and then one player almost willed them back single handedly. That's kind of what happened in this game. But I don't know if Dalton Neck will go number one in the draft like Andrew Wiggins did. But a good

bounce back win for the tar Heels. Yeah, and another team with a surprise win, Tony Bennet's Virginia Cavaliers made number fourteen Texas same one one hundred tonight. No, they beat him by twelve, but they didn't even get to sixty points to go figure, the final score is fifty nine to forty seven. Should we just skip ahead and band Tony Bennet from college basketball at this point? Seriously, he is the worst person alive. I don't I

know that that's not fair. He's obviously not the worst person alive. But I cannot believe that this man is allowed to coach and is allowed to wear a national championship ring for what he has done to this beautiful sport. Because fifty nine to forty seven is a Big twelve football game, not a basketball

game. Give me a break. Excruciating to watch. We'll talk about Duke Arkansas here and a second because of that game is about to end, so we'll go ahead and talk about K's next opponent, Number four, Yukon. They beat New Hampshire by twenty despite only shooting like four for twenty eight on threes or something gross like that. So Yukon has now won an all time Division one men's basketball record twenty four straight non conference games by double digits.

Obviously, if they get to twenty five, it probably would be their most impressive of any of them, because that game will take place at Allen Fieldhouse. Just crazy how they are rolling there seven to zero. Included in that streak, by the way, is all six of their NCAA Tournament wins from a season. Agouh. Yukon is not just a really good team coming in

here, but they have all the wheels churning. They are a force at this point Yeah, and number eighteen Villa Nova, fresh off the Battle for Atlanta's tournament win, lost another game to a local Philadelphia school, this time seventy eight to sixty five to Saint Joseph's. How did this team win the Battle for Atlantis? Great question. They're really good in that tournament for no inexplicable reason. I don't really understand it, but they're just really good in

that tournament. But yeah, they have a loss to Penn, they have a loss to Saint Joe's, and then they have some really nice wins in between there. But they're going to be a very hot and cold team. They're gonna be like a sixth seed and I don't know. They feel like a team that could be sneaky sneaky good in the tournament. They usually are, and with their inconsistencies that can be anywhere and anywhere. The only thing that they're not is consistent. Louisville, they're four and three. That's as

many wins they had all last year. Good job, Louisville. They beat Bellermine, who's actually pretty good, which means that I think our time making fun of Louisville is over because we now get to talk about who is actually the worst Power five team, which is California, who has now lost four in a row to Montana State. You know what this would be better with drops they've lost to Montana State. U tip ak. You almost did two yep, Tulane and San Diego State. I won't scream at him for that

one. San Diego State at least you've heard of, but you get one more for losing to Montana State. You tip in Tulane. That is very difficult to do California. There's no reason why cal should be this bad. No, they have, They have access to just a gold mine of recruits out there. UCLA is good, USC is good, Stanford's had quality teams. Why is cal this bad? No idea. They are total and complete. Another team that's total, incomplete poop is Louisville. But they won,

They'd be in a former D two team. They're four and three power five team. Like you said, but I wanted to You already said that, but I wanted to repeat that Louisville won a game against beller Mine. They did. Yes, Louisville has. Louisville's doing a little better. Like and Kenny Payon said some quote about how they had a player that almost didn't suit up because he didn't have the tights or the leggings that he wanted to wear.

And nobody knows if he was serious or not, or if the Louisville program is in such desiree that somebody almost didn't suit up because they didn't have their their apparel that they wanted. But no one knows, because Louisville, right, and now we do have we do have a result in the duke game. Arkansas takes down number seven Duke in Fayetteville. Uh, they are winning by multiple possessions with five seconds left, so we are we are gonna

go ahead and put that one in their column. The Blue Devils, who Jeff Goodman wearing his clown mister Rogers makeup said was better than Kansas, and really this is a this is a bad day for that take because Kansas didn't exactly look very good yesterday, but still Kansas not worse than Duke. Blue Devils now have played two quality opponents? Are they played three quality opponents?

The other one Bee Michigan State, who they beat and then obviously losing to Arizona at home and now to Arkansas in Fayetteville final score of that one eighty to seventy five. As here they come, They're gonna storm the floor. Eric Musselman's still acting like a well, he looks like a pompus. He looks like a pompous douchebag. But clown works too. That's that. And that they they have like four security guards getting John Shier off the court.

That's so cute. I wonder if Duke fans at this point just wish he gets trampled so they could go ahead and throw a big check at somebody else. The ranks team to lose in the last since last show h starting off with the private school. Number eight Miami lost Kentucky and actually the highest ranked team to lose since the last show just lost. Number seven Duke. Yeah, they lose in Fayetteville to the Razorbacks joined that club, and number ten

Tennessee lost to North Carolina. Big name schools here this week. Number fourteen Texas A and M lost again, this time to Virginia. Should count six losses. Number eighteen to Villanova lost to Saint Joseph, which would count as a twenty losses. Number twenty one Mississippi State, who you didn't know was in the top twenty five, and by you, I mean anyone listening, because nobody did. They lost to Georgia Tech. First ranked win for them,

I'm guessing in a long time. And number twenty three Alabama lost the Clemson, which has never happened in the college football playoff. That's right, Yep. Lots of teams there. So Duke Duke cost you a pick him point, Nick, But you are still I believe you're now six games in front of Landon because you had another week where you extended your lead a little bit. Landon has never won pick them. I mean you gained a game on him, didn't you, and you were five in front of him.

I haven't updated those final standings down here. I just said, oh, it's been updated. Yes, you know we now have forty games picked. Yes, you have a five game lead on Landon and we just ended November. So that's that feels That feels about right, because we know how Landon does in these in these competitions. All right, ask Rock Chok blog if

you ever have questions that you want us to answer. On the day we record each show, I always send out a tweet or whatever they're calling it on x now and you can reply to it and we will tweet the bots reply with ask questions too. Yeah they do, I do not have. I do not Oh yeah I do have U I do have an ask RCB. This is in response to this tweet. I'm gonna read two of them

here, and this is all Elon Musk's fault. You. Jackass at JEVC eight seven five six four eight seven eighty six says there are a lot of scam you have to be careful. You can get back your funds. Reach out to you at blah bah blah blah blah with detailed information about the scam. You will get back your funds. And then there's also at hop skiply Mouth who says yes hot skiply Mouth, who says there's a great change of recovery. In my honest opinion, I'll suggest reach out to at depth a

Depta da. She was that recovery. Nicholas Timber like playing good perfectly useless. I might click that link. I'm not clicking the link to recover my lost top notch service, even though this account can attest for his good job to humanity. Elon, I hate you. I hate this product. I can't believe I have to use it. So I thought we have twelve ask garcbs Nick, and because of the bots, we only have ten. Awesome.

That should make you happy. But yes, if you ever have a question, you're sitting there listening, going, oh, these questions are complete garbage. Mine's way better than theirs. Sure, get on and ask us and we'll probably answer it. I don't think that there's much of anything we won't answer. Let's start with this one at Ryan underscore landrath Nick, give me in a little bit of an update on your car chronicles. You gotta update the masses on how your last few weeks have been. I wouldn't.

I'd say my last few weeks have probably been one for the books. I would say so. Yeah. I decided about at the beginning of November that I was gonna I saved up a bunch of cash and was gonna pay pay for a new car and get rid of my old one. And I found a nice deal in a car in Little Rock, Arkansas. And unlike the Razorbacks to Night, this was not a win. Had it driven up,

had an uncle live there, had it driven up a couple weekends. A couple of weekends ago, he was actually coming up for a wedding in Casey, so it was convenient. Got my car. The next day, I'm driving up to my sister's apartment and I start to smell oil, and I got out of the car and I look under and obviously it's dripping on the pavement. My dad was standing out front and he's like, it does smell

like oil. So we got the dipstick out and there was like no oil left in the car because it had leaked all the way on my way from my apartment to the my sister's apartment. And if you look to this day, there was a gigantic trail of oil in my apartment complex driveway that marks my tracks as I drove that car to my sister's apartment. Anyways, long story short, took it in to get a service to see what was going

on, why it was leaking oil. The smart mechanic the dealership in Little Rock didn't screw the oil flilter on all the way, but in the process discovered that the car had been in an accident report before that and it was not reported and there was a lot of damage. So the dealership did not tell us about that. Called the dealership marched down there. You didn't buy this on Craigslist like this a dealer, a dealer with seventeen dealerships. You

think they haven't figured out by now. But we marched it back down. I got my check, my money back, and then the same weekend that Saturday, I went to a dealership in Casemo and found the same car, same year, twenty twenty three, niece On Ultima, with a few more miles of black, which I actually liked the black color better. Now since I've gotten it, found that car and thank goodness, knock on wood, there's nothing wrong with it and it's been driving good. So got it for

the same price as well. So worked out, but very your your week had been there, but it was kind of like Kansas and East in Illinois, like it was really rough. But now now that it's over, you're like, whoo, I got what I wanted out of it, which is a do We'll see how the Yukon game go. That seems like getting a flat tire or something. Getting yeah, head on delition with a Semi. I love the car crash downs on the board here. That was me after

I left the escape room three years ago. Oh I always forget that. Yeah, Nick, and I did an escape room together, and you got you hit somebody on your way home. Yeah, dude slamming on his brakes at the ninety fifth and ninety fifth Street exit on I thirty or sixty nine, Great Night Day, Great sixty nine Highway is the worst highway ever. I don't know the construction. It's the construction. It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. Yeah, you live right off of it, don't you,

so you get a deal with all of it. I do some Uber and door dash deliveries while my wife works overnight sometimes, and I will avoid anything. I don't care what the payout is. If I have to drive several miles north or south on that highway. It is pitch black. There's construction workers everywhere. It goes from merge lanes the single lanes like you have Jonathan County drivers and their soccer moms and their Mercedes and Accuras, and they don't

care. Two speeds at eighty five or twenty five and no one between. It's it's painful. Yeah, it's quite bad. Speaking of bad at k tweets, the news thinks that the rebounding is bad, says, why doesn't this team rebound? Kansas is seventh and average height, and they're two sixty sixth and offensive rebound percentage and one hundred and second and defensive rebound percentage.

I have an answer to this, I'm curious what you think's I really don't have an answer for this, to be honest, I mean, Hunter Dickinson's doing his part, but you know, you'd think that KG Adams would be a little bit more effective rebounding. I don't know what you think. I think part of the reason that they're not as good in the offensive rebounding metrics

is because they make more of their first shots than most teams do. I know percentage is just the percentage of their misses, but I mean, Dickinson is the only rebounder on this team. Like Bill self pointed this out, Bill self said, we need the We need Dickinson, kJ and Kevin to get the rebounds. And Digginson's doing it. McCuller did and the double double games, but he's not going to be a guy that you can consistently count on to get you seven or eight boards game. As great as that be,

Dickinson is like having two rebounders at once. I mean, there are plenty of teams out there that they're two leading rebounders average eight and six and like eight rebounds and the second leader is six rebounds. Well that's basically together what Hunter averages. But yeah, they're just they're not a very good rebounding

team. I suspect that will get better as they get their positioning ready because guys like al Marco Jackson and UH and Kevin McCuller have to be better rebound in the ball for this team to take off at kve tweets and news call your shot? What household item will you break when kay you inevitably doesn't give it to Dickinson and consecutive possessions in a close conference game? Oh boy, thinking of things, Yes, Landon will rip his shirt off, which I

don't believe he's done since the Jalen Wilson fumble in Texas. Yeah. I don't break a lot of stuff, but I'm absolutely hitting a table or hitting the floor when Hunter is wide open and instead El Marco's like, but what if I shot this three from the logo? Because that's happening at some point at kam liple Golf. You know, whenever Cam asked a question, it's about to get good rank these meats, turkey, ham, prime rib. I've never had prime rib before, so wow, it's good. It's probably

closest to ham of any of the major meats. I think it goes ham turkey prime rib. Honestly, I'll say that as well. I think ham, like a good honey Ham on Christmas is hard to beat. Turkey is good if it's the dark meat. The white meat is isn't very good. It's like Parker Brown. Oh all right, Well, I don't know if it's that bad, because that might just be dog crap out of a trash can. But it's it's white meat with cranberry sauce on it, then oh

that's a good call. It's literally white meat. Yeah. And I think that a running shit on the show has now turned into excessively dumping on Parker Brown. But and I'm not needing to do that too. I'm sure he's a great guy, but I mean, we've got to have some sort of punching bag on this show, right Yeah, I'm here for it, Like we don't have Tian Grant Foster to make fun of anymore. And he's one of the better players in his conference right now. He's playing great. Yeah,

at co p fraud. Why would opponents play any defense outside of Kansas out against Kansas outside of fifteen feet they have zero guys that can make a jumper, and a two three zone where everyone is inside the free throw line would give them fits. I was thinking about this and I'm surprised more teams don't zone Kansas, especially with Hunter Dickinson being kind of because to beat threes you have to hit to beat man, I'm having a hard time with words

today. In order to beat a zone, you have to hit shots. You have to hit threes. This team just doesn't have a lot of guys that can do it. But I do kind of suspect if you saw them zone, I think Kansas would slow the game down so much where their defense would be able to keep them in it. Kansas is also pretty good at getting to the free throw line, so I think they would try to attack that way. But whenever you turn the ball over a lot you don't shoot

the ball well from three, eventually somebody's gonna zone you for sure. At dick underscore taser, did you guys see what Reed Shephard is doing over on those Kentucky Hills. Guy is playing like an elite. Kentucky might end up being on top of the class when it is all said and done. Maybe in spite of Cal Yeah, I've heard that one before. I've seen plenty of talentsed Kentucky November teams. Then Caliperry does something weird. They lose to a seven seed in the second round. Yep, he's good, though,

I'd love to have him on this Kansas team. My gosh, all right, here's one Aboutnwan Harris at Kate Eden fourteen has the Wan Harris regressed. Seems to be a little less athletic and slower than every opposing point guard Kansas has played. Even the Booger kid on Eastern Illinois looked a little more athletic, thought Harris. I don't know if he's I don't think he's regretsed. I don't know if there's been much of a visible improvement this year. He's

off to a slow start. The exception of Kentucky, and we said that against Marquette, we said he looked like he was outgunned a little bit. He was outstrengthed or whatever you want to use as a word there. I think that that's probably going to be the way it is, but more often than not, he's his intangibles are good enough to help fight you back. Now, at some point, you're gonna want to see tangibles, not just

intangibles. I'm with you. I'd like to see him too, but at least for now, he's plenty smart enough to win you a lot of games, and whenever he scores ten points, they win every single time. Four more here at aj Stevenson. How much would you love a reality TV show of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey? I literally don't care. So here's a

thing. I love Taylor Swift being a big Chiefs fan. I think that's awesome because you know, everybody's tired of the Chief and everybody's tired of Taylor Swift, so you combine those two things and everybody's just like like all those years we had to watch the Patriots win, and then I had to watch Peyton Manning be in every commercial and I hated it because he won all the time. The Chiefs are in those glory days right now and everybody else is

sick of them, and that's awesome. But are you a little Travis kelseed out based on these commercials? It's every single ad break it's my homes or Kelsey. Yeah, I don't. I just I don't watch a ton of TV, so I don't really see those that much. But I mean the whole Kelsey Swift thing. I I my hot take and this is you know, people have joy and find joy in different things. But it's like, do you guys not have something more like important to do with your life or

just like go out and going outside for a walk. You really wrapped up in the life of two celebrities that don't give a rats but your name, you know, you know, it's just it's it's really weird. But that's always existed. Celebrity cult followings have always existed base of mental health issues. Probably I don't know, but it's weird. Wow, that's uh, that's rough, Nick, because you know what you are. You know what you are. With a take like that, You're that's you. You're a big

fat anti hero. With a take like that, I'm sure all the That doesn't help my odds with women because they all like the Swift Yeah exactly. I mean, if you're gonna you know, if you're gonna talk trash on Taylor Swift. The percentage of women in your dating pool that are compatible. That just took a nose dive. Uh. And but it's brilliant marketing. Like since that it sorry, go for it. Everybody's talking about being tired of Taylor Swift. Have you seen the NFL's numbers with women since Taylor Swift

started watching Chiefs games? Like? They love it, they love everything about it. I'm just saying her music's been mid since she was a country artist. O. That's she was a country artist at her best. I do agree with that. And now she now, Olivia Rodrigo might be putting out better music than her, and that's a little that's a little strong. Olivia Rodrigo had an amazing song in the Hunger Games film that just came out. But but boy, unless she's edited oblivion, I'm back. That just isn't

And it's two guys doing basketball podcast railing on millionaire pop star. I know, But yeah, I would listen to Taylor Swift singing Underwater before I listened to Olivia Rodrigo. You stopped that need Landon's take on this Landon. If you're listening, let me know over text and I'll read on the next show. What would be like? Yeah, I think I think both of them are cute. That's fair. I'm landon. That's fair. That's fair. That's also fair. Next question at Elliott rus in h I was going to

ask about this team's depth. Sure, you guys covered it, Yeah, a little bit earlier there. So he says his question is instead, will this team live up to the building at the end of the season or will that be determined by their upcoming game against Yukon. Oh so you're already, you're already. It's curtains for you. The Bill was national title that it's that that's not happening. They're in the top five. You can't name five teams more likely to win it. I didn't say that. I don't think

they're I'm just saying I don't think they're going to win it. Well, I don't know if anybody's gonna win it, Like, I don't know who. I don't know who we're talking about. That says I think they're gonna win it in November, like I don't know. I think people maybe people act like the Bill self teams man getting all choked up here and others Bill

Self slander. Don't talk about Daddy Bill that way. People act like the bill Self teams struggling a little bit compared to expectations in November is unusual, and Missouri and Case State fans are so tired of this because they're like, every year Kansas squeaks past a couple of underwhelming teams in non conference play, the fans say this is the worst softest bill Self team of all time, and then they wind up winning thirty games and getting a one seed, like

that's always what happens. I want to see what happens against Yukon. If they get completely plastered against the Huskies, then maybe we have a little different conversation. But for now, I have no reason to think that this team can't live up to the billing. And yeah, the game against Yukon we'll talk about in a minute. At Preston. Skursey has two more questions here.

Who has been the most underwhelming defensively this season? Coming in with Harris McCuller and kJ, I thought the starters would be pretty dominant defensively, but at times it feels like they just get slashed. Your thoughts on that, Yeah, I mean I think that's probably right. I mean, Kansas really struggled defensively when they were turning the ball over against Kentucky. Other than that,

the defense has been fine. The defense has given up fifty six, sixty one, fifty six, seventy three, sixty and sixty three in the games that aren't against Kentucky. Defense has been great. It's the offense that's been the bigger problem. Yeah, they have gotten blown by a couple times, and they're not the most athletic teams, so you're gonna see that happened. But Harris has been fine defensively. So is mccoller. kJ has been

a little exposed. He's he's kind of a rough four in certain matchups on the defensive end, just because he's undersize compared to a lot of guys. But I don't think the defense has been underwhelming at all. I think that they've been very good. It's the offense, particularly of players not named Dickinson or McCuller, that's been very scratched my head, because if this offense proves to be good, then the defense. I mean, they're like the number

three defensive team according to Ken Palm. Right now, the defense has been very good. Last question here from at me without and you realistically, what would it take for Dewan Harris to shoot the ball. Good question, man, I don't know, like we all want to see it. We've been wanting it forever. Yeah, I mean, just just make it happen. If Nick Timberlake played longer than eleven minutes, would we have seen a better performance, giving that he was actually making some shots. Yeah, I don't

understand why Timberlake it wasn't worth a look in the second half. I would have liked that. Maybe the game got a little too close for Bill's liking. He played the guys he trusts. That's my guess. Yep. I want to see timber Lake play twenty minutes in one of the upcoming games. You're not gonna see it against Yukon, and if you do, it's because something's either done really good or really wrong. But I think you're gonna see

Timberlake play more minutes. And let's face it, if he's still this, if Timberlake is in this exact same spot in January that he is in December as we start, then we're gonna be having some tougher conversations about this team because they need Nick Timberlake. They need Nick Timberlake to be eighty percent of the shooter. He was a thousand. Yep. If you ever have asked RCBS, use the Twitter hashtag ask RCB and once I sort through the bots,

I'll find your question. Thanks toealing Oh, Elon boy, what are we ever gonna do with Elon? Not like he cares he's making his dollars. Speaking of dollars, what a big money showdown we've got here, as it is time for a sonic blockbuster Number four Yukon at number on five Kansas. We welcome the month of December, the best month of the year because guess what happens twenty four days after this with a top five showdown at Allen Field House. Game will tip at eight o'clock at night, so it is

going to be a late night at the Fog. Yeah, and they are welcoming the defending national champion Yukon Huskies the Big East. They enter at seven to zero in the season. They have five cupcake wins plus neutral site victories against Indiana and number fifteen Texas. All seven of their wins have been by double digits. They've been rolling through their schedule. Yep, no hiccups whatsoever.

They did beat Texas by just ten to barely extend that streak. But they dominated Texas from start to end, and it felt like they should have won by more. Their leading scorer is senior wing Cam Spencer, who right out of the shoot against a really good team we get a prime candidate for But Spencer is a stud against just about everybody, so really not really not

going to surprise anybody if he makes threes. This is not a very good three point shooting team, but he is elite sixteen points per game, forty eight percent shooting the ball from three. The point guard is Tristan Newton, who is a role player. Last year that's absolutely taken off sixteen points and seven assists. He specializes slashing to the basket. Stefan Castle is their top recruit. He was a top ten recruit. They have Solomon Ball, Hassan

Diara. These are guys who are projected to be I mean these are most of these guys are freshmen and they are all absolutely terrific, loaded with talent from top to bottom. Here I believe is Castle the guy who's been hurt that that's getting ready to come back or who Yeah, Castle is their elite recruit. He played in the first two games of the season. And then

got injured and is targeting. He hasn't officially been cleared, but all signs points to him playing tomorrow, which would be yet another jolt in their arm yep. The front court is anchored by seven to two center Donovan Klean, who averages fifteen and six plus two blocks per game while shooting almost seventy percent from the floor. He only plays about nineteen minutes per night, which allows them to slide the starting four Alex Caraban over to play the five when he's

out. Carabine averages fifteen and six as well, team's best free throw shooter at eighty seven percent. So much to love here, So much to love here. They got everybody on the floor can shoot the ball. They're they're big guys or elite free throw shooters like you want to talk about. They just scored eighty eight on a Granted it was allowsy team, it was New Hampshire, whatever, but they did it while only making four threes. This is a team that can beat you in so many different ways, and they're

one of the better teams that I've seen in terms of scouting. Whenever I get all their statistics up to put together this little blurb there's not a lot of weaknesses here. They are elite on offense. They average eighty nine points per game. They lead the nation with a sixty six percent two point percentage. They have one of the best post defenses in the country, mainly because they're so tall. They are leading the nation at keeping opponents off the glass.

Defensive rebounds allowed they are first. They are excellent passing the ball, protecting the ball, blocking shots, and making free throws. You're good at all that stuff, You're gonna win a lot of games. They lost a lot from their national title team, and yet here they are one of the best three four teams once again. They're also very well coach Dan Hurley looks

like he's on his way to being an elite tier of coaches. The weaknesses, which are far and few between, include just a thirty one percent three point shooting mark as a team, though getting castleback would help that long term, you'd think, and fouling a lot. This team has been in foul trouble, and you know that it's hard to get a good whistle at Allen Field House, so maybe Kansas can use that to their advantage. They played

a pretty week schedule and still are committing sixteen seventeen fouls per game. Jayhawks are going to need to make their free throws to escape with a victory in this one and all time. Kansas is three to zero against the Huskies. They've played twice in the nineties with Roy Williams, and then they beat them pretty good in the twenty sixteen NCAA turn game. Jamari Trailer dunked a lot of basketballs Uh, that's that's what I got for analysis, Give me a

little bit of keys to win. What what are you looking for? Kansas wins the game of what happens kind of analysis. I think Kansas wins this game if they are able to reverse the trend that happened in the Marquette game and really play uh play there, like control the game by playing their speed of basketball, which is a little bit slower than Connecticut. They really need to avoid these fast break points, and that's going to start by not turning

the ball over. This is a Yukon Huskies team who can get down the floor quickly. They have a lot of, like you said, a very high scoring offense. So if Kansas can obviously defense is going to be a huge part of this. But if Kansas can limit the turnovers and give Yukon fast break opportunities. I think that that's going to have a huge help to this team's ability to win the game. That was what burned them in Marquette. Uh so, I think that's gonna be a huge, you know,

key to the game obviously. And uh see, I'm excited to see what Hunter Dickinson can do against this Yukon front court. I wouldn't be shocked if he kind of takes a step back in this game and some other guys need to step forward. But yeah, my keys, the game overall, limit your turnovers, and this team just needs to shoot the ball well against Yukon. You're not gonna win the game if by playing a slug fest like they did against Tennessee the other night. They've got to be able to shoot the

ball well. They need Nick Timberlake to score a couple of points, a couple threes, and uh yeah, if they want to win, they're gonna have to score the ball. I'm gonna pick this game, though, saying Yukon is gonna win this game. I think the skis these these are two teams heading in different trajectories right now, and It's hard to say that because Ku, like we talked about earlier, a little fluky win. They still win by eight against a poor Ohio Valley team. But these are two teams

that are a little different place right now. Kansas a little disoriented at least trying to figure out the roster drop down to five, and then Yukon, a sneaky number four team in the country maybe should be higher. Obviously said Blemish, haven't lost the one a game by less than ten points this season, won all of them. And I think that they come into on field

House not intimidated by the atmosphere. This team is, like you said, a lot of freshmen, but season Dan Hurley is a great coach, and I think that they come in and they controlled the temple of the game and keep Allen field House quiet. And this is a really good team. And just at this point in the season, you know, if this game is played in maybe late late February, we'd be talking about something different. But I think Yukon's gonna win this game, seventy eight to seventy. That's a

take. That's a good take. You take Yukon to win, but you have their their streak of ten ten plus point margins and noncong games dying. So I immediately after Kansas looked terrible against Eastern Illinois, sent out of Okay, guys, give me a give me your thoughts what happens against Yukon. I wanted to check the vibes, and they were pretty fifty to fifty.

You had plenty of people that were saying Kansas is going to lose, and you also had people saying that no, they're gonna bunce back, They'll be okay. I tend to think that two things that happened this week, Kansas has going for it. You know, I don't know how much I believe in the psychology, but I do think that if you're gonna draw up a storm for what's gonna happen right before Yukon, it's a game like the one

they had. Clearly they're going to be very focused for the Huskies. I saw a couple of people saying that they think this game is gonna be like when Kentucky came in here two years ago and just wipe the floor clean with Kansas. I don't see that happening. This is a very talented, very prideful batch of Jayhawks that even if they are out talented, which they probably are in this game, I don't see him getting mopped. Here's the thing

with Kansas. The defense is very very good. Yukon excellent on offense, not as much on defense as they are on offense. Jayhawks playing at home, very good on defense. Yukon's not scoring ninety like that they've been rolling through everybody. They're gonna have to make shots to win this game. They're gonna have to make contested shots to win because Hunter Dickinson is matched up with

another guy his size. He's not automatically gonna be the best guy on the floor, but he's gonna bring very quality defense against the team that can spread it out quite a bit. I think you're gonna see them try to ace Hunter Dickinson out, kind of like how Marquette did, and we saw that work. My analysis on this game, Kansas is at home and Bill Self

is their coach. They haven't lost a non conference home game since San Diego State ten seasons ago at this point, and I trust that the Jayhawks will bounce back, especially at home, because everything my eyes have ever watched them do under Bill Self tells me that's what they always do I think that Kansas

finds a way to get past Yukon. I don't necessarily think Yukon's better than Kansas, but I think Kansas makes one more play than the more talented team they're gonna face, and Kansas escapes with a seventy six to seventy one victory. A thriller, a classic at the fog. I don't know what it'll look like, but I do think it'll be very competitive and very entertaining between two teams that Nick you said, Yukon's not gonna be intimidated by this environment.

They've played in the biggest games you can play in battle the last two national champs. I think that kJ Adams and and then like kJ two, being a guy who it's a little bit a little bit more different of a matchup, They're gonna be very focused on Hunter Dickinson. kJ Adams is gonna have to play well and look for Nick Timberlake to make two threes in the second half. Kansas beats Yukon by five and shuts all the doubters that are in my Twitter mensons up. If they lose this game, are you are

you panicking or what? I don't think it's time to panic. This is a really, really good Yukon team and they're gonna, like you said, they're gonna have nine games after this that they should win all of them. I'd start to panic if they lose any of the next few games, but you know, Yukon, if they keep it close and respectable. If they're to lose, I don't think that would be huge. But like I said, it's it's early in the season. This team is still figuring it out.

Unless they get twenty eight baald or something, I don't think there's reason to be concerned. Yet. Love home and homes with powerful teams. Love how they scheduled this, Love how are we gonna watch the return game next year? Great work by both Kansas and Yukon. And and you know another thing that we're used to Kansas having a coaching advantage. Dan Hurley is one of the He might be one of the five best coaches in college basketball at

this point. That guy just flat out knows how to assemble basketball teams and win u. Yukon hasn't lost the game since Geez Win's Yukon's last loss because obviously they they obviously ended last year on at least six in a row. Yukon's last loss was March of twenty twenty three. Shaka Smart was the last coach to beat the Yukon Huskies. They've won thirteen in a row. The

buck stops here. Jayhawks win all right other games. So this game is part of the Big twelve Big East Battle, which you forgot about because nobody remembers that that's a thing. But there are a couple other games that are a part of that event that We're gonna pick Number fifteen Creighton at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are starving for a quality win. Do they get it? Yes? Wow? No, I'm okay, it's gonna be crazy. I agree. I think Glahoma State might be the worst team in the league at

this point, So we will all go with the Blue Jays. Number six Houston at Xavier. Good test for Houston, not not so sure Xavier is good enough. Landon thinks that they beat Houston, which is probably how you always beat Landon and pick them for being totally honest. And then you want to know what the absolute stupidest thing in the world is Nick based on this next game, what do you think I'm gonna say? Purdue is Perdue playing

at Northwestern. What's stupid about that they're playing conference games in December in non conference play? The Big One always think and the Pac twelve does too. It's just really stupid. Like the conference race is gonna look very different because of these games being played so early. Number one Perdue at Northwestern, Uh, Purdue is do to go down. I will say that it happens Northwestern wins, I'm gonna stick with Purdue and then number three Marquette at Wisconsin.

I went with the Badgers to beat Tennessee at home. They didn't do it, and Tennessee's already got three losses. I'm not trusting them to take down a Marquette team that I know how good they are. I will take the Golden Eagles. Yeah, Marquette. We will be back this weekend. Before I want to say the next game is going to be really, really slow, but that's what we said last time, and look what happened. They

play U and k C. The Ruse are the Jayhawks next opponent. And we don't know at this point when we're going to be doing a podcast, but it will be at some point, probably sooner rather than later, before that game and then yeah, we'll have we'll have the whole band back together. Uh but but but wow, right that that's gonna be Uh that that should be every bit as fun as Yukon. Right, Like if they beat

Yukon, I don't care what the spread is. I'm betting you and KC to cover because Kansas is gonna be sleep be in that one again between you, Yukon and Missouri. Oh boy, mmm mmm mmmmm for it. In the show this is inside. This is a great way in the show. Good radio, Nick whipert we do we only do the best radio here just giving us what Elon, what Elon expects from from us, after what he

gives me on Twitter. I want to I want an Ai bought to do this show with us and see how how much he knows about Kansas basketball. That would be amazing. If anybody is going to develop that would be you. Like, how about you find out how to do that and we'll and we'll do it. We'll see. Maybe I'm not good with that stuff, but sign off somebody, bye bye man and hope you had fun on your date. It didn't happen