So ten seasons ago, way back in season two of this illustrious podcast,
these words were spoken. Calipari is the god. Himself is a dwarf.
Calipari is a god and self is a dwarf. And all that has happened
since is this self put down his bills to Malvi. Because Kansas is played
Kentucky eleven times in the John Calipari, Bill's self us like their eras five
different games have been decided by six points or fewer, and Bill's self is
five and oh against John Calipari when the game is two possessions or less.
Just remarkable how he always gets PayPal Cal's number, Self put his bills.
And what a freaking game because he had some help from superstar players on the
court. Just a brilliant basketball game that we get to really open the season
with. By recapping, Nick has already put the John Calla Berry old enough
to l in that halftime interview from a few years ago in the notes.
So we are live and well and kicking. This is inside the paint.
I think we're gonna rebrand ourselves to this is the Hunter Dickinson fan appreciation Podcast.
I'm your host, Ryan Landras, I'm Gimlee Thedorf. I'm a slightly
shorter Parker Brown. Well, we'll get to you, Parker. Don't you
worry. Kansas beats Kentucky, and I know the season's only ten days old.
The best game of the basketball season thus far, just a brilliant showing
from two very good basketball teams in Chicago, A game that went back and
forth and every which direction, and it ends with the number one team in
the country getting the last laugh. We're gonna talk all about that game,
and then what's up next? Guys, Maui, Oh, these freaking jay
Everybody talks about how hard it is to be a college athlete because they got
to do class and play at the same time. How about an all expense
paid, week long vacation to Honolulu. It's not Malay this year, it's
Honolulu for the Malai Invitational. Have either of you what's the closest either of
you have been to Hawaii? Uh? Salt Lake City? Close? Okay,
what about you? I was in my mother's womb when she was in
Hawaii, so I don't know how that counts. I've also been in like
San Francisco, so that's probably the closest I've been to Hawaii. Also probably
the closest I've been to a third world country. Yeah, I've been.
I've been to Los Angeles and I was. What is Los Angeles closer to
New York or Hawaii? It's probably closer to New York by miles. It
probably is closer to New York. Is Los Angeles closer to New York or
Hawaii? Google says Hawaii is three thousand, nine hundred and wow, they're
basically completely even. They are within ten miles of each other. So yes,
Los Angeles is right in the middle. That's wild, okay, but
close enough. All right, let's talk about how close Kentucky was to beat
in Kansas, but ultimately they don't get it done. Let's talk all about
it. We need a Hunter Dickinson airhorn because that guy kicks ass, and
so we'll work on it. Number one Kansas eighty nine, Number seventeen Kentucky
eighty four. Game story. Who's up first, I'll take it. Let's
see what we got here. Kentucky. They use their speed and shooting to
overwhelm Kansas and take control of the game. Late in the first halt,
they made nine threes in shocking development. Everyone just sit down. An opposing
team made more threes than anticipated against the Jayhawks, I know, anchored by
Reed Shepherd because who else. That led the Wildcats to take a seven point
lead into the break. They led by fourteen fifty eight to forty four with
sixteen minutes to go in the ball game before Kansas cleaned up its turnover woes.
They rode Towan Harris and his three point shooting of all things, and
Hunter Dickinson too a furious comeback, but it was after Kentucky grabbed another six
point lead at the final TV timeout, which also kJ Adams fouled out right
around the same time, and it looked thought this would be the end of
the game when kJ finally fouled out, but it was not. KYU used
its best push of the night, closing on an eleven to one run to
edge out Kentucky and sees a thrilling eighty nine to eighty four win. A
really really good way for a lot of people anyway, officially kick off the
college basketball season. Nick, what were your general takeaways from a high scoring,
very fun, maybe a little stressful affair that Jayhawks do win. Yeah,
My biggest takeaway is that KU has the best three headed monster in college
basketball this year. Ryan alluded to last night after the g he was saying,
arguably, this is they have three of the best top ten best players
in college basketball on this roster. I mean, when have you ever seen
a guy in general, I mean since like what was the last when Thomas
Robinson then went for like twenty five and ten or more, and then Hunter
Dickinson rolls out on the court puts up twenty seven points and twenty one rebounds.
And then you've got a guy who puts up a triple double, which
is also pretty unheard of for KU and another guy who scored a combined three
points in the first two games of the year and against mid majors and scores
twenty three and goes five for six from three, just all around talk about
veterans stepping up to play. I think this is one of the best examples
I've seen under Bill self where guys really just came to play. And such
an example too. I was alluding to it last night as well. It's
like it's almost like you just know that comebacks coming in the second half with
Bill self, you know, down fourteen. We'll talk a lot about how
that happened, but down fourteen early in the second half, and they just
always respond and they responded in such a way, especially with this group of
new guys who obviously Hunter Dickinson hasn't been in the Bill Seff rotation for very
long. All these freshmen, you know, Jamari McDowell coming in there and
playing huge minutes down the stretch, just all come together to beat a really
good Kentucky team. We shot the lights, shot shot the ball really really
well. So overall, I think it's just a great a great example of
grit, and I think this team is a really really good team and shaping
up to be that way heading into a tough tournament next week. What a
fun freaking basketball game. Like to everybody that tells me that they have to
start with Manhattan and Ryder and Santa Claus State and all this, like,
no, no, no, no, Kanada's Schedule's tough. The Champions Classic
is wonderful. College basketball needs more like this in their non conference slate.
It's gotten better over the last few years. But what a freaking brilliant basketball
game that was. Kentucky's not going to get penalized at all on the rankings
on the seed line on anything at the end of the year for losing to
Kansas. As long as you don't get blown out of these games, there
really isn't a way to truly lose in the grand scheme of how it affects
your tournament seeding. That was a blast, What a great test for Kansas
and a battle landon. You and I both predicted Kentucky would get blown out
in this game. I'm amazed at how well they played, and to be
fair, they got outscored by a boatload in the paint. If they make
like nine threes instead of fourteen, then this is a double digit l for
sure, so they definitely shot over their heads. But I'm not one hundred
percent convinced. We didn't just watch two of the best like four or five
teams in the country play. So just a brilliant game. I don't understand
anybody who isn't a fan of having these sort of matchups scattered all throughout non
conference play, because this be even though there was a chance Kansas was gonna
lose, and at one point they were definitely a favorite to lose, you
guys both got admitted, this is way more fun even if they had lost.
This sort of game is way more fun than watching them draw mid major
after mid major in November. Oh yeah, yeah, I don't. I
don't need Kansas to have le Moyne and Stetson exclusively on their non gone schedule.
This is or D two Eastern Oregon. If you're Gonzaga, yeah,
we'll talk about they're Gauntlet. So there's a few different takeaways that I have
from this, just I'm not very organized, so just to throw out a
few of them. It felt the whole first half, despite that brigade,
that Kansas was always going to win. I don't know if there was a
moment in that first half, despite KU trailing by as many as ten at
one point, that they weren't still my bet to win. Dickinson makes the
shot at the end and acts like he has a really big penis with the
forearm, and you're like, Okay, you know what, Kansas still probably
gonna win. They're only down seven. Kentucky's plus like twenty one at that
point on threes and they're only up by seven and a half. But really,
it was the first stretch in the second half that made me think Kentucky
might win this game. They came out, they were going at the basket,
they got Dickinson turned around a little bit. They were shutting down Kansas
on the offense or in the defensive end. That's when they built the fourteen
point lead. And even though you knew Kansas was going to make a push,
it felt like Kentucky was really in control of that game at that point.
And then Cali Perry made some just mind boggling decisions with how he took
Reed Shepherd out, and Dillingham sat for a long time and it's like,
I have no idea. The concept of just playing your best players is something
that I would think would be obvious, and Cali Perry just didn't do it.
For a while. The plus minus in this game for some of Kentucky's
players is crazy. I figured Kansas did in control whenever they they made the
push. And then you know, we watched some ref ball, we watched
some some free throws, a lot of free throws, and we watched Dwan
Harrison, Hunter Dickinson do great things. Okay, let's laid off with Hunter,
Dickens, and Nick go ahead and talk about I feel like like I
always struggled to figure out who we should talk about first. There's three absolute
superstar contenders here, But I feel like we gotta go with the guy that
just posted the first twenty twenty game in the history of the Champions Classic.
Yeah, ridiculous stat line dominated Kentucky for twenty seven points, twenty rebounds,
thirty seven minutes, eight for twelve from the floor, added three steals ten
for eleven at their free throw line. Was also a big factor, as
any of these stats, like we've talked about, clearly a perfect fit in
billsolvs. Offense. Maybe looking at Naismith favor and what's sure to be a
season filled with ridiculous you know, box score figures from him, landon,
you think that this is gonna be the nasti player of the year when it's
all said and done. I mean, he's just a really good chance.
I'm not landing, but yes, good chance. This is the Naysmith winner.
Yes, I don't care if Zach Edy actually wins it. Hunter Dickinson
will be the best player in college basketball this year. This is this is
a match made in absolute heaven. We knew he was gonna be good,
but he this dude is a truck, Like my goodness, and Kentucky didn't
have their seven footer twenty seven and twenty one. Yeah, I thought you'd
have a great game, and I thought that meant like twenty five and twelve.
He wasn't dunking on middle schoolers out there. He was dunking on six
eight and six nine guys. Yeah, And the twenty one rebounds is absurd,
Like I've never I mean, I've never seen a KU player of twenty
one boards. I mean, what do you want to what do you want
to gotta do? Like, so Thomas Robins try Mitchell's incompetent. Trey Mitchell
is like pretty solid. So Thomas Robinson was the last Jayhawk to get twenty
rebounds in a game. He had thirty and twenty one on New Year's Eve
against North Dakota. The list of players to have twenty five and twenty in
a game under Bill Self, Wayne Simeon, Thomas Robinson, Hunter, Dickinson.
That's it. We've talked about Dickinson in comparing him to both of those
guys, and that list fits. But what sets Dickinson's game apart. Wayne
Simons came against South Carolina State, Thomas Robinson's came against the University of North
Dakot. Hunter Dickinson went out there and did it against a Kentucky team that,
if I have a vote, is in the top ten come Monday's poll.
Little different story who Hunter's doing it against. We talked about how he
might be like Dedrick Lawson, old man at the gym kind of no,
no, no, no, no. Hunter Dickinson is a freaking lunatic out
there. He makes threes, he rebounds everything, and he's got a lot
of game. This is a guy who's gonna be in the NBA next year.
Enjoy your one season because he is going to By the time all said
and done, Bill self has coached Naysmith winners. Bill self has coached first
round draft picks. Bill self has coached first team All Americans. Hunter Dickinson's
the best offensive player Bill selves ever had. Dickinson still is the old man
at the why. He's just extremely good at that. He's better than the
old man at the why. He's so much he has so many more elements
to his game than old man at the gym. Throw it in the post,
just go up like. Dickinson's a better three point shooter than that style
of game. Dickinson was out at the top of the perimeter, setting up
kJ Adams to do his thing, which is really what fueled the Kansas coming
back. Like, and he's an outstanding outlet passer. That's one of the
things I noticed about Dickinson. So yeah, that's an extremely underrated part I
think right now. Yeah, his passing ability and his ability to look ahead
very high and three steals, like I don't know, there's no weakness in
this guy's game. He's the best offensive player of the Self era. I
don't know what the stats are going to look like at the end of the
year. I predict you're gonna see a lot of big numbers. But for
blow for blow, there's this is the best fit in bill Selves offense,
and we knew it was a match and boy Bill has to just be thrilled
every single day that he gets this guy on his team. I want to
talk about Hunter Dickinson's shot at the end of the half. He's now five
for six on threes this year, where he made the three and then immediately
flopped the forearm right in front of the crotch as if to say, Hi,
I know that we're the number one team and we're all down three possessions,
but look how big of my is and I thought it was awesome.
I love having that Christian Brown energy. I don't care what the score is.
I'm still gonna get in your head. That's what Hunter Dickinson does.
He is a villain. I don't care if Bill self says he's not.
And it's fun to have a villain on your team. You guys agree,
I think it is fun because you know that the other teams can't stand that
guy, and this guy can a million percent back it up, probably even
more than Brown can. And Brown definitely could back it up. But this
is another level I think. And yeah, I think. I think he
earns his his bleep talk. I think he earns it a lot. And
then he gets in the front of the camera and says we're the all time
wins leader after the game. I love that stuff like that. Yeah,
he knows what he's doing. He's a very smart guy. He knows exactly
what he's doing, and he is the exact sort of player that every single
person would hate if he's not on their team. But because he is on
your team, you think he is the best. Awesome, awesome, awesome
performance by Hunter Dickinson on the biggest stage you can have at this point in
the season. Okay, let's talk about Kansas and the Champions Classic, because
really this changed when you guys came on the show. Daniel, Josh and
I dreaded Champions Classic week every year because they would always do something preposterous and
lose. Kansas started one and four in the Champions Classic first five years.
There are seven and one since seven to one in the last eight Champions Classic
games. Put those together, that is a eight and five record, which
is the best among any teams, tied with the Blue Devils. They've also
been behind at the five minutes remaining mark in four of their last six wins.
So all these games are coin flips. That's the Kentucky game from twenty
eighteen or twenty seventeen. I think the Kentucky game from twenty twenty, and
the Kentucky game from twenty twenty three and the Duke game from last year.
These are all fifty to fifty games, and Bill self just manages to find
a way to win all of them. That seems to be a staple in
what they do. Uh. They they've turned around in a hurry and the
Champions Classic and and this this is the best This and the Wigans Duke game,
I think are my two favorite Champions Classic games. Yeah, those are
both really good ones. The Frank Mason Duke game is also right, it
was a great one. Yeah, I forgot about that game. Yeah,
and that's a game that that Duke didn't have Jason Tatum or Harry Giles in
uh and so people were like it doesn't count, And now people are like,
it doesn't count because Kentucky didn't have Bradshaw and a couple of their big
guys. That Frank Mason Duke game was also kind of weirdly important because they
lost a weird one their first game, and they would have started zero to
two had they lost that, which obviously, you know, I think that
team would have been just fine, but that would have been really weird,
so that it was a good momentum builder, I think. Yeah, and
that team only lost five games, all lost to Illinois Indiana and yeah,
yeah, Josh Jackson was really rough in that game. And who is the
I want to say James Bradbury, but that's the corner for the Eagles in
the Super was it James Blackman? Is he the guy who just went bananas
out there in Hawaii and Kansas, Is that right? And remember those military
colored uniforms honor and courage. I think we're on the back so that do
you remember that? Yep? Yeah? Were't they supposed to play in a
airship or a carrier and they had to move it inside. Yeah that happens
most of the time. They're supposed to play in one of those because it
gets too humid or whatever. Yeah, let's play a basketball game on a
humid and slippery surface in the they a ship, just so we can get
an angle of it on TV. So Michigan State and North Carolina did that
in the twenty eleven opener and it was just an amazing site. It was
on Veterans Day. Obama was there obviously the present at the time. It
was just an amazing site. And they've tried to replicate that like every other
year since with random games and then no one works. Yeah, it hasn't.
That was a one time thing. I think. Okay, something that's
not a one time thing is the one Harris being good at bat basketball Land
and tell me about boy, the arc for you on this show going from
maybe wanting to one aris to never play three years ago to now being like,
this guy's the best point guard in the United States. Yeah, he
easily is. Twenty three points seven of twelve shooting, including five of six
from three. Mind you, the only miss was an end of the shot
clock guarded heave because the offense just had a bad possession. In general,
it was Jamari mcdallas fault. Yeah, that threw him the ball back.
He was five for five really yeah, inflow of offense actual takes five of
five, added seven assists to that in thirty eight minutes. Hair scored eight
straight for Kansas after the final TV timeout, including two from deep that tied
them at eighty three. He is the best point guard in the country.
I mean obviously again, I mean he's not going to score at the rate
of a Frank Mason or Advante. Graham or anything like that. But I
think skill for skill, impact for impact, he's right there, I think
with guys like that as far as what he does for this team. Yeah,
and he's also like, infinitely better than Marcus Garrett ever was in the
Kansas uniform. And no one should ever compare these two players because they're not
not even close. It's not even close. So Harris, they're down six,
right, after the final TV timeout and Harris launched a three, and
if he misses that in Kentucky gets the ball back. It's probably Curtains at
that point for Kansas, but that goes in, Kentucky gets the gets a
bucket back. So Kansas now down five. Another Harris three. He makes
that one, and it's like, oh, wow, he's keeping them or
maybe the three second three tied. There's two free throws in there. I
don't know. Harris made two free throws out of three that took him from
down five to tie, and I don't know which one came first, but
all of them were like, Wow, he is single handedly at this point
keeping them in the game. Nick Dwan Harris best point guard in the country,
if not clearly one of them. They keep leaving him open. He
keeps making them pay. How much of his performance? How much of his
performance did you love on Tuesday Night? I loved all of it. And
I think there's a stat I read. I can't recall exactly what. I
think it was like sixteen and one ku is something around there. When to
one Harris scores over ten points and again, yeah, so him being a
scorer this year. I talked about it on our he's an intro. How
important it was that one Harris gets going offensively, and how badly they need
him now, especially with Arterry Morris the questions at the two guard spot,
and he answered that call. I think there was a comedy made on Instagram
or something. I saw it floating around that After the first game, someone
criticized him only having one point and he said, I'll shoot when I need
to shoot, and he needed to shoot and he made five or six threes.
You know, I've been very critical in the past of his ability to
be a shot maker, but it seems like this guy is just has been
preparing the offseason. He's ready to shoot when he's He's more confident too.
For a while, there was like he was wide open last year a few
times he wouldn't shoot the ball. This year, this game particularly, he
was open, shot the ball, wasn't afraid to pull up splash every time.
His form looks a lot better too, in his jump shot, so
that I mean teams are no longer going to be able to let him have
all the all the real estateing ones at the top of the key, which
I don't get it. They keep doing it, and it doesn't make sense.
He's a forty career three point shooter on almost one hundred and fifty attempts.
It doesn't make anything star just because he does not immediately. He's not
like a Grady Dick level. If I have his space, I'm gonna shoot
anything kind of guy like, he'll think about it and that'll usually give the
defense just enough time to adequately close or at least make it a little more
of an interesting jump. And he doesn't have the quickest release either, which
helps that. And he also has a low release, lower release, and
he's also just a not a super tall player. All those kind of things
contribute to they can kind of afford to play off of him because everyone knows
that, even though he can make it, his instinct and his desire is
not to pull the trigger most of the time. But you think that's why
that first make for him was really important, because I think it gave him
the confidence he's almost going out of the game Wick, Yeah, exactly.
At his first three point attempt of the season. He saw that go down,
and I think that gave him gave him a nice little boost to try
to take a lot more, which became very very important. Hunter Dickinson said
he's the best point guard in America, and Hunter Dickinson knows more than I
do, so I'll roll with it. Dewan Harris Kansas is twenty six and
one. By the way, Nick, to complete that stat when he scores
at least ten points. Name the loss it was last year? Wasn't it?
It was? It was? It was a very map it was a
very consequential loss. Was it Arkansas? It was Arkansas? That's the point.
Yeah, are you guys looking Are you guys looking forward to de one
Harris going forty and three in his career when he scores at least ten and
the losses are all NCAA tournament games. I was gonna say this year's big
twelfth title and this year's Elite eight. Hey, yeah, I'm not so
sure. Want Harris is a lock for two more years. Tawan Harris is
gonna play in the NBA at some point, he is, he is a
bit. I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know this
year, but Dewan Harris is gonna be on an NBA roster at some point.
He's Kevin mcca he's too small, Kevin mccullar twelve points, ten rebounds,
ten assists. That is a triple double. First one we've ever talked
about in the history of the show. It hasn't happened since twenty twelve.
Third triple double in Kansas basketball history. That's dad has an asterisk because they
didn't count it when Wilt was here. I know, but still officially just
three have happened. Cole Aldridge, Jeff Wiittye, and now Kevin McCuller.
What's the difference between those two and this one? This one had assists,
not blocks as a third category. He was just three for eleven from the
floor in thirty seven minutes. But when he and Harris cleaned up the turnovers
in the second half, that is when Kansas made its push through a half
court assist to kJ Adams for an alley oop whenever they were really making their
big push to close. Dude had tenn assists and he didn't even know it
too. After the game, self said he had a triple double, and
he goes, wait, I had a trip, bubble, got one rebound
at the very very very last micro second. Is what did it? Yeah?
Kansas made its push behind the passing of its two senior leaders There's a
lot of things to like you out of this team, but the fact that
they're led by seniors is the big one. Kevin mcculluor has. It's got
to feel like he's been playing college basketball to everybody else for ten years.
But man, this guy's good and he impacts the game in so many ways.
He wasn't making shots, still made such an impact. And he also
only wears one leg sleeve. And I have only seen really good NBA players
where the one single legs leave, so that explains why he's so good.
Wow, as someone watching an NBA game right now, Lebron James is indeed
only wearing one. Most of the players are wearing none or two. Uh
huh, But Lebron only one, and Marcus Garrett war two and look Landon,
Yep, that's it. That steals the deal. He would have taken
one of them off. He would have turned into Frame Mason from behind three
point lines. All gotta do exactly. Yeah, mccullar s God, McCuller
is so good, he's so smart. He was the third best player in
this game and he had a triple double. If that goes to show just
how preposterous this game was for Kansas. McCuller and Dickinson are the first D
one teammates in twenty plus years to have a triple double and a twenty five
and twenty game. Like, Kansas got something real special out of those two
in this game. And their point guard also had twenty three and seven yep
on basically five for five from three and kJ Adams, who people are really
sleeping on, played well too. We'll talk about him in a minute too.
Any takeaways from Kevin McCuller. He made three baskets and still manage to
have a triple freaking double. Yeah, and I don't even think he was
I think those baskets were pretty big, and he shot some free throws.
I think he went six of nine from the line or something like that.
Not like stellar, but knocked down some big free throws. Nick, what
are your takeaways from Kevin mccullar's triple double? Yeah, I think, like
Ryan said, he hit hit the nil on the head. Not great shooting,
which is I think is gonna be fine. I think he's gonna be
a great shooter this year, but he did make up for that another way.
And just love to see being a team contributor these guys are not afraid
to share the ball. Hunter Dickinson made it a common in his postgame interview
on ESPN that he has a lot of unselfish guys around him. That's exactly
who Kevin McCullin to want Harris are. So when you have a team of
guys willing to give up the ball for the best option, the best shot,
you know that the ball is not gonna stick and the offense opens up
a little bit, which is what we saw down the stretch from k You
had that huge run. So a great game from Kevin McCuller. Excited to
see how he improves the shooting this year. Wasn't there tonight, but still
great. I'm not sure there have been two more KU players, two more
bill selfie players than McCuller and Dickinson. I don't know if they exist.
Like this is a really good team. Yeah, maybe they're Maybe they're on
this team. I told you guys before we started recording, this Kansas team
is the best roster they have had since twenty eleven. This is a dynamite
roster that I am stoked for in as national championship or bust. I'm higher
on this team than I've been on any Kansas team in a very long time,
including ones that have made final fours and one championships. But I am
not sure in my lifetime I have seen a more Bill Selfie player than Kevin
mccollor. What an amazing addition. That was just the smartest highest IQ player
that I've seen play here in a long time. There's a reason he wins
a lot. He won a lot at Tech, he wins a lot here.
It's not a coincidence that Kevin mccorrs on all those teams that win.
The fourth main player that we need to talk about here is kJ Adams,
who had one of the quietest sixteen point games you're ever going to see,
as it was Adams who shifted to the post as Dickinson stayed up by the
perimeter. That was one of Bill Selves's big moves in this game, where
they used Hunter Dickinson to draw some traffic out from the basket and then just
let kJ Adams pick and roll and throw down lobs Kentucky to death. Adams
finished eight for eleven from the floor, plus four rebounds and three assays before
fouling out after twenty seven minutes. We talk about the Big three and might
honestly be the Big four. kJ is one of the most quietly there,
very effective for man. Bill self said after the game that nobody was happier
that Hunter Dickinson committed to Kansas than kJ Adams because that allows him to play
the four and get a ton of matchup advantages. He has such an athleticism
advantage on so many college fours that he can just do what he did in
this game against he was he was excellent. Yeah, it was interesting to
watch the kJ Adams I think is a hugely important piece for this team for
a couple of reasons. One he is he is gonna be a little bit
of a matchup nightmare I think for a lot of teams because he is gonna
have that like in the NFL for the Chiefs Travis Kelcey often they talk about
him. He is slowing down a little bit these days. He's still very
good, of course, but in his prime especially, he was too fast
for linebackers defending him, and he was too big for corners. So if
they put a corner on him, you know, he would just be able
to just throw him the ball. He's gonna be able to get any linebackers
he's gonna run by. I think kJ Adams has a little bit of that
in him. Like if you play a guard on him, he's gonna be
able to He's stronger than most guards and he can jump with a lot of
guards. But then the same thing's true for true post players. Put a
post play on him. He's pretty fast, and he's actually decent off the
dribble, and obviously his incredible athleticism. He's for college centers. He's gonna
be able to be more athletic than a lot of college centers. So I
think he's gonna present a lot of matchup nightmares. Also as a guy who
can actually put the ball in the basket, something that last year's Kansas team,
which I don't know. This Kansas team's depth is a question mark.
There's a lot of potential, but you know, I want to see it
against a real team. It definitely did not show up in this game.
But last year's Kansas team sometimes it was literally only Jalen Wilson scoring the ball,
and it was just like, can anyone, anyone give him support?
And that's why that Kansas team had a relatively low ceiling because they didn't have
that consistently, But this team has genuinely like Kesey Adams is a guy that
can easily average over ten to night, and obviously of Hunter Dickinson and Kevin
mcullor, who I don't think are gonna have too much trouble scoring the ball.
And then you throw dew One Harrison there, who can definitely score when
he has to as well. And so I have a lot more confidence in
this year's kind of top four guys than I did in last year's top four
guys, even though two of those guys are the same guys. Three those
guys are the same guys. I think that year's step is pretty big,
and that kind of reminds me of the twenty one twenty two team, where
the twenty twenty twenty one team was okay, and then all those same guys
just took a step four and developed and you added a really important piece and
look what it got you. And so I'm not calling this team to win
the championship, but I do think they share some similarities. And Landon,
you talked about Travis Kelce, who you know, I don't know he's not
feeling twenty two, but I mean he should shake it off right. Yeah.
I try to think of another song title. The only thing I could
think of was the word red, which you'd think he plays for the Chiefs.
I think I'd be able to say that somehow, but so easy.
Hey that now, whenever kJ Adams starts dating k Perry in a few years,
then we'll know, Wow, they really are Travis Kelsey two point oh,
Nick, any thoughts on kJ Adams. I can't believe how far this
guy's coming. I don't think we ever we compared with Jamari Trailer as a
freshman. I onlyk we ever thought he'd be a consistent scorer. But that's
exactly what he is. He's a pivotal piece on the number one team.
Yeah, he's He's such a monster, so versatile. Like Lennon said,
in his size that's played an advantage being a little bit quicker, and it
just has athleticism shows, you know, with all these dunks. Just a
great, great all around player. And I'm glad kay you has him as
a piece in the starting five. Didn't love the three. I don't think
Bill self did either. Bill did that thing where he stretched both of his
hands up in the air and just kind of looked exasperated after they weren't really
choosing great shots at the time anyway, and then kJ launched a three it
did not go in the basket. Speaking of threes that did go in the
basket, Kentucky, good lord, what do we think about Kentucky and what
do we think about John Calipari? Because I'll give you my thoughts first.
Kentucky's a damn good team this year. Boy, I didn't think this team
could shoot that well. And this is one game they made twelve threes though
that I mean, you take out Antonio Reeves and they made fifty percent of
their threes. Dillingham made made four in a row in like less than three
minutes in a stretch, and you knew reed Sheperd was gonna make a bunch.
Kentucky looks like a team that's gonna be there in April. I don't
know if they'll get there, because we all know that they can do some
goofy stuff in the tournament. They're gonna lose some weird as he's looking Peters,
yeah, exactly, But they look like a team. They're this good
this early. Wow, are they gonna be good later? And they did
this with I mean I've seen mock drafts that had Justin Edwards Pegg as the
number one player in the in the draft, and DJ Wagner is a top
ten freshman too. They went one for eighteen together and Kentucky still put up
eighty four on the number one team that's thought to have a very very elite
defense. That's that's that tells you a lot. But John Caliperi got out
coached down the stretch here. He didn't play the guys that got them to
that point in the game. He didn't play the guys that got them to
that lead. Dillingham said on the bench way too much. I know he
had he was in foul trouble, but that just should never have. He
never should have been out as long as he was in the second half.
They were up six in the closing minutes, and I don't know what the
hell that last play was because that was just awful. John Klipari is two
and six against Bill self in his last eight games. Spanning the last ten
seasons. They haven't made the Final four since twenty fifteen. Is this a
make or break year for cal UMake or break might be a little strong,
but he definitely has to get things going back into title contention, They're way
better than the seventeenth best team in the country, way better, Nick,
what do you think about Kentucky? I think I think they're great, And
what's scary for them is that they didn't even have three of their seven foot
or taller players, which, like, like you've alluded to already, the
three point shooting would have been decreased if he had three big men in there.
But this Kentucky team, I mean, considering where they were in May
after losing out on Hunter Dickinson, that team the roster was pretty much in
shamble at that point with John Calipari kind of like what Bill Soft did in
this offseason put together the pieces to make a team that has a chance of
winning the title in April. So I think it's a very good Kentucky team.
I think they will be in the top ten soon when they get those
guys back, and I think they're gonna run the table in a really bad
sec Yeah. And the thing with Kentucky that impressed me the most they didn't
turn the ball over against the really good defense they were playing really fast like,
and they didn't turn it over despite being real young. They do that,
and they're gonna be They're gonna give a lot of people a lot of
problems. Speaking of problems, let's talk about the two spot for the Jayhawks.
Al Marco Jackson had seven points and twenty four minutes on one for four
from the floor. He launched a three inside the final four minutes that wasn't
even close and wound up getting him benched because Bill self was caught saying I
can't trust him on the sideline. I think my main takeaway at this point
with Jackson as I've yet to see him score a basket that wasn't directly set
up by somebody else. Every single one of his buckets this year has been
Harris or McCuller finding him in transition. And he's still making more than he's
missing, but still he hasn't shown a whole lot. Nick Timberlake and Johnny
Furfey combined to go zero for six from the floor with five fouls and no
points in twenty five minutes. They were both awful. It was actually Jamari
McDowell who was thrown into the Lions then with four minutes left after not playing
all night, that completely stabilized the position. He closed the night out by
playing mistake free basketball. He grabbed the game ceiling rebound on the Kentucky would
be game tying three, and McDowell hit two, not even hit the rim
game ceiling free throws in the final seconds. Ball are there? He needs
to play more. But give me a summary on your thoughts on the two
position right now? Who should play? What are your thoughts? Nick?
Go for it? Uh yeah, I think at this point, uh clear
this this Nick isn't doing the job. I think I should be the two
guard for ku oh okay, need a different Nicholas in there. Just kidding,
I do think with Nick Timberlake, you gotta have a little bit of
a longer leash. He's this is a guy transitioning from playing basketball against you
know right, we don't want it's it's way too early to sell Nick Timberlake
bye bye bye. Yeah yeah exactly, yeah yeah, I hate that joke.
But but uh yeah, I think Nick Timberlake is is gonna be good.
I think it's gonna take a little bit of time. He played a
thousand before this. This is the thousand toughest game of the season. When
they came and paid played a by game at all infield house. So I
think that just the step up, you know, the the anxiety about playing
in a bigger stage, I think that's gonna wear off. I think this
shot is gonna get comfortable. But right now, it just seems like he's
kind of a no man's land when he's in the game, just kind of
a just not there, not present on you know. Defensively, it seems
that like at times this lapses, and even offensively just kind of seemed like
some dead space in the Kentucky game. So I'm interested to see how Bill
Seff tries to get him integrated, you know, running plays for him.
Specifically, Bill self has been so good in the past with running plays for
wings who need that confidence, need the ball to go down in the hoop.
So I'm not concerned about Bill self getting him going scoring the ball wise,
I am concerned though, like we've alluded to already, the athleticism doesn't
always seem like it's there. You know, the guy who did seem to
come in and plug the holes. We'll talk about him in a second,
but Jamari McDowell just seemed to have a little bit more athleticism, a defensive
pepinist step than Nick Timberlake did, And I think part of my concern with
that is that defense is less. Defense is coachable, but it's more like
ingrained in a player at this point. A guy in Nick Taberlink's like position
in his career, it's more ingrained in him to be a better defensive player
should be at least by this point. But I think that that's got to
improve for sure. What about you, Landon, Do you think that Nick
Timberlake's gonna be looking at Bill self saying this, I promise you it's gonna
be me. Well, Nick is right, he doesn't need to be more
in sync on defense. Oh I like it. Only yes, yeah,
only shot. I was trying to think of a social network reference as well
that we'll see if we get there. Yeah, I don't know. He
looked really bad. But then this is also kind of like when you have,
you know, either small school or young shooters like this is this is
kind of what you sign up for a little bit is every once in a
while they're gonna go cold. At the same time, you hope it doesn't
happen very often, but you kind of know it's going to. And that
is kind of what happened. I don't know, is it, you know,
partly I think we have a different a different take if if Furfey you
know, or Timberla for that matter, if they knock down, you know,
a three or two. I don't think we are sitting here saying like
the two guard was a disaster. I'm not sure why Jamar McDowell didn't play
like at all. I know l Marco Jackson was not really that bad.
I agree, though he does not seem to be able to get his own
shot at all yet. That may come with time. But McDowell was really
good at the very end. I think he played the spot very competently,
did what he had to do, defended well. It was smart enough on
offense for the most part. Yeah. Timberlake, I don't know. He's
looked very out of sync in the last He didn't look great against Manhattan and
then looked really bad mostly against Kentucky and then Furfey. He was at least
out there for a stretch where the Jayhawks played well and made up ground against
the Wildcats in the second half. He didn't do anything really particularly in that
stretch, but he was out there at least. Yeah, I don't know.
It's it's gonna be really interesting. I think Jackson is still the guy
you have to go with, but I think McDowell should get more run next
time. I mean, you can't. You can't really afford to have someone
around Timberlake have a slip. Oh hey, I see, look at you,
sir. Everybody's getting on this. I'man I making. We have to
do our offering. You have to make one justin Timberlake joke. Every time
we talk about every time Nick misses a three. So do your study and
on justin Timberlake song. It's all I got is Jackson will be fine.
He's still getting his feet wet, he's getting acclimated. He was the right
call for most of the night. He's the most athletic of these guys.
McDowell. Yes, mcdowello's great, like and I understand that that it was
a really small sample size, and ultimately, you know, it's not as
much as what he did as much as what he didn't. He didn't turn
it over, he didn't lose anything out of bounce, and he didn't take
any bad shots. But that's what they needed. That's what we've talked about
what they need in this game. Timberlake. It's gonna take him some time
to get acclimated to this. He's gonna have several games where he shoots the
ball. Well, that's what he's here to do. He's here to come
off the bench and make threes. If he does that, no one's gonna
care about the rest of it. And the furfy's just not there at this
point. He's better than we thought he would be, but he's not at
the point of being consistent enough yet to really consider him for the big minutes.
The bench had four points in this game. Parker Brown's running alley oop
that was set up by a point guard that came with eight minutes left,
and then Jamari McDowell's two free throws. Those are the only four bench points
all night for Kansas. They were just blown away, and total bench points
the final total thirty one to four in favor of Kentucky. So yeah,
if there's a weakness, it's that because Parker Brown his stats at this point
two points, tore rebounds, eight minutes, Kansas was much worse when he
was out there. He's not Hunter Dickinson, Prince Sayer, I never ever
need to see the Dickinson and Brown line up together again. Either, don't
need that, don't really need a lot of Parker Brown, if we're being
honest, just whenever Hunter Dickenson's gassed, because that was a highly mitch lightfooty
yes performance from Brown. What was the lie if they put in nearer the
end of the game that I just said that I hated when it went really
bad, mccullor was out, Dickinson was out. Yeah, it was Timberlake,
Brown and Jackson, and it was just like, oh okay, it's
Harrison, it's the Will Smith looking around and no one else is there.
That was Thewan Harris in that in that shot. But you know who was
there most of the night was Reed Shepherd. He made three threes and three
attempts to then he airballed the last shot. Can believe that that doesn't although
a couple of those makes were just stupid. Yeah, one was from about
four feet behind the free throw line. He basically was elbow to elbow with
Bill self whenever he shot it in the first half. Yeah, Yeah,
the two, the two will be just fine. They need Timberlake to make
shots off the bench and Marco Jackson will improve. That's what they need.
If Jackson is a complete dud. They may have some problems there. But
Ifson and Timberlake are both not good, like actively not good in Big twelve
play, then then I think you're you're you're relying on two freshmen who have
shown like competency but no real flash. It's certainly not against the one good
team they played, then I'd be more concerned. But also again I think
I think your big four is is you know, has a case to be
like the best top four players in America on any team. So I think
you do have a little more room to play there. But yeah, it's
a there's a there's a real question at the two guard. Yeah, and
will be for a little while, but hopefully, I mean they don't need
to have the answer now, they need to have it before, you know,
middle of Big twelve play. We'll see if they get there. Final
numbers k forty eight percent from the floor, thirty three percent from three.
They were plus three on the glass and a good seventy five percent of the
free throw line. kJ Adams was zero for three, so you take him
out of the equation and they were up and over eighty. Digginson's a great
free throw shooter. Wow, does that make a difference. They have a
big that can make free throws. Really haven't had one since deedrig Lawson was
there. Jeff WHITTI was also a really good free throw shooter. The difference
it makes whenever the guy that gets fouled the most is also really good at
free throws. Super super nice to have. But yeah, at this point,
Kansas is the number one team. They showed it, They've earned it.
They beat a team that looks like they're only going to get better from
between now and the end of the year, and that was just a whole
lot of fun. They have three of the best fifteen, maybe more than
that players in the country, and that was college basketball at its best.
Despite the refs. I posted on Twitter that there are ten minutes left in
the game, which means that this is gonna take thirty eight real time minutes,
and I went back in I looked at the time of that tweet and
the time I posted the final score tweet thirty seven minutes apart. People can
really tee up how many freaking minutes those refs are gonna milk with the monitor
time in the fouls. Any final thoughts on this game? My thoughts Bill
self good, Kansas good. Yeah, those are about my thoughts. I
think Kansas is set up for a lot of success. I just don't know
how teams are quite going to be able to match the barrage of talent that
they have at the top of the roster. Maybe it's because Kansas doesn't have
quite the barrage of talent at the bottom of it. But I think that
is definitely more of a TBD thing than anything set in stone. So yeah,
Jayhawks, really impressive performance, very resilient one. Nick, What about
you? Yeah, I was also really impressed with this performance. And I
know we came into this game expecting them to win by a little bit more.
I think a lot of us were confident, but just the way they
responded in the second half was really impressive. Usually KU teams don't do a
good job when another team barrages them from threes. Uh, I thinking of
the a certain Northern Northern Illinois Northern Iowa team. But on it that was
about when Justin Timberlake was popular back in when when they lost that game,
Tally for Ali was actually a backup dancer for Justin Timberlake. But outside of
that, just a great game for KU. Good start. Yeah, and
KU's got to guard the three better like that's a thing Like in this game
normally the people in the mentions are like, whoa, the threes are wide
open, Like they didn't make enough adjustments to guard the three point line.
They look slow closing out. It's gonna happen with a young or with a
team that's young in terms if they haven't played a lot of games together.
I expect that to get better because the recipe to be Kansas, well it
darn sure isn't. Let's go challenge Hunter Dickinson all night. Teams are gonna
shoot threes against them. They need to be better at guarding it. Other
games, well, there's not a whole lot In terms of Big Twelve games.
The Big Twelve has gone thirteen and oh since we lasted a podcast on
Saturday Night, including Nick winning you a couple of dollars, literally a couple
of dollars Texas beat Rice tonight, congrats, go spend your winnings on a
McDonald's coke. That was so that was so stupid. I didn't realize,
so Ryan, I don't gamble anymore. But Ryan sent me that ESPN bets
was giving out like two hundred dollars in free beats, like four five fifty
dollars free bets. And I was stupid and thought, oh, I'll do
I'll bet can I'll bet Texas minus four thousand against Rice because I'll get fifty
two dollars and fifty cents and I can withdraw that money. And I completely
forgot that the principal fifty dollars they do you don't. They don't give it
back, You don't get your bet, just get whatever you win. So
I turned fifty dollars fifty cents that you didn't have before, sir, And
it didn't cost you anything to get there. How about that smart gambling only
by one half of one chocolate shake at McDonald's. Yeah, that there,
You just just asked for that. Hey, Hey, in twenty thirteen,
before a couple presidents ago. Is very true. Only Kansas's win came against
anybody with a pulse. The other twelve Big twelve wounds were crapped. Oklahoma
State got its first win of the season. They beat sam Houston State and
Land. In this one's for you, Texas Tech beat San Jose State and
a game that featured a total of ninety eight points how about that gosh yeah,
fifty two, like fifty six to forty two, I think was the
final score of that game. In honor of that game Ku in Texas Town.
The fourth quarter too. I think if the teams combined for less than
one hundred, everyone in the stadium gets their money back, that feels fair
because they watched some traumatic stuff in order to get through that two hours or
if the refs are the refts two hours and forty five minutes. Since I
took that joyous paragraph, land and I believe that sets you. You have
to lead off with other games. Let's see what got here. A big
winner this week was number four Marquette, who went into Champagne and beat number
twenty three Illinois. It can be Kansas. It was an exhibition, but
still that game seventy one sixty four in favor of the Golden Eagles behind twenty
four points from Tyler Koleik. The Golden Eagles dominated in the paint, holding
a forty four to twenty advantage Inner Maui with as good as a chance of
anybody to cut down the nets out west, that's that's gonna be a fun
game. The very likely semi final with the Jayhawks. Yeah, I gotta
get past UCLA first, but yeah, Kansas will likely their path if it's
Chuck, their path to Maui Championship will be Shamanad, number four Marquette and
number two Perdue. And if they lose to Marquette, they're probably getting like
number seven Tennessee in the loser's bracket. There's going to be top ten teams
that lose multiple games in Maui this week. Yeah. In the other champions
Classic game, number nine Duke top number eighteen Michigan State seventy four to sixty
five to bounce back from their loss to Arizona. Caleb Foster led the Blue
Levels with eighteen points off the bench. The Spartans, meanwhile, are already
one and two with the Thanksgiving Day showdown against number three Arizona looming next week.
Is Michigan State bad? First of all? Why is? What is?
Do you guys think Michigan State should not be in this event anymore?
Do you think they should be replaced with like Yukon or Villanova or I was
thinking about that as they were losing the Duke. I don't know there because
they're there because they wrapped the Big ten. You get a school from each
of the four major basketball leagues. That's why Champions Classic. The last time
they won a title, Landon and I were just barely conceived at that point.
In fairness to Michigan State when this event started, Yukon had three Fever
titles and what's their face Villanova had two Fever titles. So but now at
this point, yeah, it's not really looking like they're one of the four
true Champions Classic teams. I think Michigan State is americanuation. You know,
since the Clinton the inflation has gone up, since the Clinton administration, Michigan
State titles has not. Oh, look at that business, mister Whitebert over
here talking about I'd like that we could sneak in a couple of economic lessons
in the middle of every podcast. The amount of serious romantic relationships I've had
is the same, though it's a flat line. Stonks are not up or
down in that case. As for Michigan State, to answer your question,
Nick, I think they're really talented. But this is what they do.
Every year. They start slow, they win a few games that turn people's
heads. In January, they enter as a sixth seed, They take down
some over seeded three seed as John Roth's theme, I almost said something I
can't say on the air, gets real excited and tweet January February hizzo,
and then they fizzle out in the next round and never really amount to anything.
That kind of feels like that's Michigan State one oh one. They'll probably
lose nine er ten. He's not wrong about January February Izzoh, it just
it should be Marches though, and it's not. Yeah, yeah, it's
definitely not. They they haven't made a final four since when it was twenty
fifteen. No, they've wait at the year that that Tech made the finals,
right because Mahomes was there, because they should they should have won it
and they didn't. Yeah, so they've made they make a final four of
a few years. But yeah, that I thought they'd be better. Their
roster is much better than this. If they lose to Arizona, they're probably
out of the top twenty five four weeks into the season. Hard to do
when you start in the top five. Oh, it's my turn, isn't
it's trying to read number two. Perdue took down Xavier at home by twelve.
I'm just putting every Perdue boring score in here every week because I like
finding out how Zach Edy did. Twenty eight and eleven was his line.
There is perdue Kansas. The matchup you want in the Mali finals, Yeah,
I really do. I think we all one hundred Dickinson versus Zach eaty
Man. Yeah, there will be points. There will be points to be
had in that game if that matchup occurs. Two top twenty five teams took
shocking losses as sixteen point favorites Gonzaga's biggest competition in the WCC. In number
twenty three Saint Mary's, I say Gonzaga did not lose to Heat. I
thought the pause was because you saw Gonzaga and figured I was gonna put something
really nasty in the notes, trying to bait you into reading it. So
either way, kudos of Saint Mary's did lose to the fighting Dame Dalla's Weaver
State and Andy Enfield's hot wife says Ryan, He's not wrong. Attractive woman
couldn't save number sixteen. UIs see in a seventy to sixty home loss to
the ant eaters of uc Irvine. So that lost for k State to the
Trojans looks pretty bad after or eaten. They get eaten by some ant eaters.
There you go, eaten by the ants or the ants eaters. Yeah
whatever, Yeah, I just alad for me man. I don't know what
next riding, and I don't know if it's over, but it's gonna roll,
just gonna roll with it. And it looks yes, one hundred.
Sure he's obviously talking about Saint Mary's being just an awful number two for Gonzaga.
Uh yeah, okay, go ahead, we're actually I actually just made
a joke about Villanova making threes against Kansas, which doesn't count anymore because those
games never existed. For the second year in a row, Number twenty one,
Villanova took an upset loss in the Big Five Classic, this time losing
two pins. Called it the Wildcats were guilty of our favorite stat on the
show. They had more fouls twenty three than baskets twenty two. It was
the most absurd college basketball thing like this just does not happen in the NBA.
Like no, NBA makes so many baskets and plays far too clean of
basketball to let anything like that happen. Avere all of these quality games,
and we had number eleven in Zaga playing d two Eastern Oregon and they beat
them by a KU over Shamanad like score one twenty three to fifty seven.
Ku took cocaine before tip. K you did score one hundred and twenty three
against Shamanad a few years back in the in the twenty fifteen game, I
think, yeah, that game, that was fun. Oh is it my
turn out? No, it's not my turn it sure is, it's yours.
Yeah, no, it's oh wow, Well I get the shortest one.
No, great show, great show. This is this is such quality
quality stuff. Same for Louisville who actually won, they won a game.
They're not quality, but they did win popp And State the Cardinal take down
Coppin State by twenty and they have a winning record after one game on the
schedule. They're halfway. They're halfway to their win total from a season ago,
and we're not even eating Thanksgiving turkey yet. Yay, Kenny Payne,
You're doing a better job checking in on some former Jayhawks and how they've done
through the two weeks of the season. Cam Martin has actually been the best
of any of the guys that transferred out last year. Twelve point thirteen rebound
performance for Boise State against D two Vanguard, not the investments company, but
a institution of higher education the other night. That's the high watermark for any
of these guys. Yeah, the rest of the list is real sad.
Like Bill self clearly knew what he was doing. I think he would have
preferred to keep one of Edge of Four and Ooda, but he was much
much more okay with letting these guys walk out the door than some of the
fans wanted you to know. Ernest Ouday has one basket in three games.
He has seven thousand and one field goal this year and three TC wins totally
forty two minutes, so he's playing starter minutes. Kyle Kuffin Zubi Edge of
Four are both averaging about five per game. Bobby Pattifer Joe YESAFU they're starting
for Washington State and he'st Carolina respectively. They're both getting about six points a
game. Nothing real spectacular. And then there's MJ. Rice who hasn't even
suited up for North Carolina State yet. He took a leave of absence from
the team over the summer and has yet to suit up and play a game.
So Kansas isn't missing much like Hunter Dickinson. This is kind of like
an fantasy football when somebody offers you eight bench players for like a superstar.
Like Kansas traded all this stuff and got a hundred Dickinson and they're there.
That is the much better side of that coin I got. Yeah, it
is. It's it's a little bit too bad to see guys like that.
I still would have liked drums to do on the team, but it is
what it is. Ye also what is what it is? Ranked teams lose
since the last show, number seventeen. The PayPal cows cals a goden self
is a dwarf, but not anymore. Actually, Kansas coach Bill Seth's stubborn
ass. He's so stubborn at beating Kentucky at this point. Yeah, that's
right. Here, you go, get up for it. Step Bills to
number eighteen. Michigan State lost to the Blue Devils number twenty one. Villanova
lost to Kansas in the twenty eight no pen in twenty twenty three. That
looks like I put a number one twenty three. It almost looks, oh,
I'm just okay, all right, We're just I was gonna make a
two Villanova Joe, because you know, but if you want to, Okay,
I talked right through your oh Mary, and I will never talk through
oh ooh man, so do it again. I don't know. This is
this is what happens when we do the show exclusively over the internet. Now,
which is fine, it's fine. It's a very easy way to do
the show. But uh, you know, sometimes you just talk over each
other for twenty sometimes and sometimes Nick makes funny jokes that don't make any sense.
But yeah, number twenty three, Oh Mary, they lost to Waiver
State, which is about as bad as Bruce Weber at k State. And
then number twenty three Illinois. They didn't lose the Kansas in the exhibition game
raising for money for Maui, but they did lose the Marquette. Who k
you might play in Maui. Oh wait, nope, not Maui in Honolulu.
Sorry. Yeah, boy, Imagine listening to that if you were like
a little bit high or whatever, how confusing all that? Or I mean,
imagine listening to that if you just like opened a permanent mark her.
Imagine listening to this podcast if you're a sober Yeah. I can't say that
I've ever done one of these sober even though I believe Lambon's the only one
of us that ever has drank live while doing a podcast. I've done it
several times. It's fun. It's it's you should every time that you hear
the the famous ass drop, you should chug a shot and see how plaster
you by ascarc I've done a couple shots, and if I did that every
time you hit that drop, I would not be alive. Well, I
mean here just because I feel generous. Ass. Oh it's not playing over
and over. Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.
Oh no, it's still not there we go. Okay, this is manslaughter.
There you go go take a few shots. Okay, now, speaking
of shots, hopefully they're better than than Johnny Furfy's the other night. Ask
rock Chock blog. If you ever have ascarcps, log on to Sir Elon
dot com slash act and right questions. Yes, it's like he's next kid.
It's kind of like in SpongeBob where every five episodes Plankton would try to
take over bikini Bottom. That's kind of Elon Musk like with Twitter and but
there Plankton never wins, and Elon Musk has a lot of money, so
he always wins at Cooper Reeves ten. If Jamari doesn't go in late to
guard Reeves, do you think that Kansas loses the game? And conversely,
if he had played all game, would he have been too tired late to
play? I think at this point we're a little bit over analyzing Jamari McDowell,
who was really good, But it also was a very small amount of
minutes against a completely exhausted Kentucky team, and McDowell didn't do as much as
it was what he didn't do. He didn't turn it over, he didn't
take bad shots, he didn't foul. Kudos to him, for sure,
but playing something tells me they got the sweet spot amount of minutes from Jamary
McDowell. Yeah, I think I still would have liked to see a little
bit more of him, But yeah, I think extrapolating much more is very
difficult considering. Yeah, it's not like he came in the game, knocked
down three threes and want it. Yeah, he just played like competent defense
and didn't do anything egregious. Nick, here's one for you at Matt Underscore
Gallon time. What is your favorite breakfast food? Uh, probably pancakes.
Pancakes are well, they're so looking for biscuits and gravy. But yeah,
that's like, that's also what what is your favorite breakfast restaurant? I don't
go, uh, it's probably actually First Watch. Like if I had to
pick, there's a I don't know. You're so happy sixtieth birthday land.
First Watch is good. First Watch is fine. It's it's it's fine.
I live right by one. I pick up some hardly ever, but no,
I I think I hops better than First Watch. I hops better.
Yeah, that's that's not true at all. The answer is place. What
other place can you show up? What other place can you be the only
one that shows up sober at two am? The pancakes. Hey, my
wife's first my wife's first waitressing job was at I Hoop. And it is
true. They never closed that restaurant, like they are open twenty four hours
a day at all times. They never cleaned that restaurant. Correct, Yeah,
all the markers you want come to Denny's. Angie was fifteen when she
first started working there, and they did not care. They were like,
you, so you're on the overnight shift and she's like, no, I
have high school tomorrow. What are you talking about? And that job didn't
last very long because she's like, I'm not gonna work these crazy hours,
So she had to go work at Culver's, which was totally above board all
the time. That's correct. Yeah, Culver's never open too late, always
very organized, not like Landa, And I could tell you some stories from
that. Also for Matt Gallentine, why does the offense look so good one
second and want so bad the next, Well, that's basketball for you.
The other team's trying to play defense and they have good plays. Yeah,
Parker Brown happens. He just sits on the bench and infects the entire offense
with bad. Also, just a quick PSA for anyone playing basketball. If
you throw, if you're trying to throw a pass to your big guy,
don't have that pass hit the rim. That's that's bad. That's not gonna
Actually is that Jackson that did that? I don't. It happened like three
times? Yeah, I know it's it's it's harder than it looks to throw
an entry pass. Uh, but it is when the guy's seven too.
It's like there were times in the first half. I don't get super animated
during these games anymore, but I was like, actually, like sitting up
and twitching and kind of like moving a little bit. Every time they didn't
throw Hunter the ball. It's like, I can't believe they're not passing the
ball to Hunter. It's all like you're missing him. He's very tall,
He's the big guy in the middle that's making everything he shoots. He scored
twenty seven on twelve shots. That guy, he needs to touch the ball
a lot. And then they put Parker Brown in the game, and Bill's
like, hey, let's call some loves for him. And I was losing
it, but you know, eventually, all's well, that ends well at
Casey Sports kingdo one how many minutes should starters play against shamanad Ads? I'd
give the reserves and La Marco a lot of times. Yeah, I'd like
that, especially with two more games coming. Hunter Dickinson's going to score twenty
and what like eighteen minutes against Shamanad. Don't need him getting tired. Yeah,
I think the reserve should play a lot, try to build them some
confidence, build in some chemistry. Let me look up what's happened in the
past. So when Kansas played Shamanad in twenty nineteen, they beat them by
thirty points and nobody on Kansas played more than thirty one minutes, and that
was Devon Dotson, and then the starting lineup Udoka az A Bouquet only played
nineteen oah, I played twenty seven, so not a lot. When Kansas
played Shamanad in twenty fifteen, the game they scored one hundred and twenty three
points in, the player that led Kansas in minutes had twenty eight, and
that was Devonte Graham. A lot of low twenties, high teens. It's
probably what you're gonna see. You're probably gonna see Dewan Harris play in the
mid twenties, Kevin mccullor two, and I suspect this is gonna be a
seventeen minutes for Parker Brown and fourteen fifteen minutes for Johnny Furfey sort of game,
which is, if we're being honest, what they should do. But
Kansas is going to win by twenty five thirty points if they play the backups
in this game, So no reason not to at Olhart Casey, if you
could live in any fictional world, where would you go? Example Harry Potter,
ooh, I like that, Lanta. This is a good question for
you. Yeah, this is This is a really good question. I mean,
so like the answer people are definitely looking for here is like, oh,
I would go live in Star Wars or I would go live in Star
Trek or whatever. My real answer might be Fraser, so I can go
live with Fraser because I love Fraser so dearly the sitcom. If I was
gonna give a better answer, yeah, I'd go I'd go kick it on
Naboo. Uh, seems pretty there, Natalie Portman lives there. It seems
seems optimal. Yeah, give me a Naboo in Star Wars, pretty place
in a pretty pretty people. Probably. I haven't seen enough of these movies,
Nick, have you seen enough of these to answer no? My answer
would be in a world where I'm in a dating relationship and not doing this
podcast. Oh we had to throw in that last bit. Huh. My
answer is not Narnia because Narnia is cold and I don't like cold. So
well, clearly you didn't watch the end of the movie, sir. Yeah,
does a big roar and unfreezes everybody. It does. It gets less
cold, but it's still it's still cold because it doesn't turn from you know,
an eternal winter to July and an instant out there. Uh it's still
very much cold, just with the sun out now. Uh So, I
don't know. Give me, give me somewhere hot, give me somewhere in
the desert. That's the fictional world. I don't there. There you go,
tato wine. There you go universal to place where there's a very few
other people and they're mostly criminals. Hey, that sounds like a good place
for me to go with my ku basketball takes at AJS and underscore officials.
Should McDowell play Moore kind of touch about that? Yes, the answers,
Yes he should. Yes, at show Me Hawk. Would Johnny Furfey aka
the Kansas Kangaroo take UMKC to an NCAA tournament Berth No, No, but
he'd be very good, be fun to see. He would be Lebron James
on some of those early Cleveland Cavaliers teams that he lugged around to a better
record than they should have, but they would not go to an NCAA tournament
appearance. I don't think at food sports guy, do you think Nick Timberlake
settles in as a reliable shooter and role player as the season goes along?
Yes? I do. This is a guy that has thousands of college basketball
minutes. I know they're at thousand, but he has shot the ball and
proven himself as a quality shooter for multiple seasons at the D one level.
He will settle in when the game slows down a little bit for him.
He's got a nice chunk of games in December against you know, the the
frickin' what did they play? Like? Eastern Utah, Eastern Illinois? Thank
you, Missouri's not any good. They play Yale like U and k season
there like there's there's plenty of time for him to settle in. You guys
aren't pushing the panic button scale of one to ten. How concerned are you
about Timberlake. I'm gonna say I'm a two? Uh four? Haven't here
in the band in seek that's my number? It's five, isn't it?
Okay? I'm gonna say five. All right, there you go. I
like it a few more here at Kate Eden fourteen. What was the real
reason why le gerald vic quit playing at Kansas? Oh, that's like a
legit basketball knowledge question. The rumor that I remember hearing the most, which
I know is not what you wanted to hear. A rumor I remember hearing
that it had something to do with his kid back in Memphis and that he
needed to get home. But I think what happened to self threw him off
the team. I think I think because remember the Case State game they lost
in Bramwoo's Vic didn't play very much. There was a report that his mom
can fronted Bill self. I think Self said, all right, I put
up with this long enough. I'm done. We'll come up with this Memphis
story to say face a little bit, but your asses off my team.
I think that's what I say. I think it's very likely they came to
some kind of agreement that it was just both were very clearly unhappy, and
I think they I think they've very arguably mutually parted ways with gerald Vic in
the first like emphasis on, Bill self asked him to go the first like
seven or eight games that season with gerald Vick was a god Nam sharpshooter,
like he was unbefore eight he had like seven for eleven against Stanford and he
scored thirty three back in that game. Yeah, let me let like La
gerald Vic. We there was La gerald Vic for all America going on at
some point, and that was the year that Mahomes took off for the Chiefs
and Kayu was number one to start, and it felt like everything was gonna
be amazing forever and ever. So le Gerald vick Uh scored two thirty two,
thirty three sixteen in fifteen, twenty seven, zero, five and twenty
nine and the first nine games of that season that is what, four games
of twenty seven plus and three games of five and less, like just all
over the place, eight for eight, seven for twelve and seven for eleven
games from the three point line. Preposterous start. And then it died,
and it died hard. La gerald vic in his career had one twenty point
game against the Big twelve school and that was that was it. But heat
man was he fun November Lagerald Vick was fun Landon Nick and I were like,
woo, they're gonna win fifteen straight and now it's not even fourteen because
darn right, wow at Elliott rusen h one, I only have one question
because all my other ones would be too long, and I doubt Nick wants
to go through a whole thread. Look if that Nick, your influence is
spreading, sir, Your influence of having a bad attitude has spread to our
listeners. Bill Selvin, I think that was there beforehand. Ye, Bill
self is the best coach in the country. So why did they go away
from Dickenson and or with that the players? Yeah, beats me that.
We just kind of talked about that, but I was losing my mind.
Okay, any any anything, any any knowledge? Come on basketball. I
got a text and that took my took my attention. Well, Elliott says
he loves Elliott says he loves the content, and now he's gonna hate the
content. It's all oky. Thanks Elliott. I'm so sorry. I'm a
douchebag sometimes, not usually, but occasionally. Speaking of the next question here
is please don't answer. I guess I didn't really realize how much of a
show boat, which you could say douche left the team that Hunter Dickenson is
doesn't seem like that's been Bill's brand historically. What is the relationship going to
be like at this team faces adversity? Are you guys worried about Hunter Dickinson
acting like a jackass? Not really, No, I'm not either. I
think the team I generally don't like show voting. I just like show your
skill in the court. But going back to land and being an old man
for liking First Watch that boy, Yeah, I gotta tell you Landon Nick
has been on this show and talked about wanting to go to bed early and
and not liking women with tattoos. But man, the First Watch being your
favorite take is the oldest man take in the history of this podcast. We
need to hang a man or sorry that I've only like four breakfast places ever,
two of them being like I Hop and the Big Biscuit. You grew
up home school, how was going to the I Hop or Denny's after church
not like a weekly tradition for you guys. That's like that's everybody. Well,
so the weird actual reason for that is because my church never had its
own building, so we had afternoon church, which really it was only like
an okayish NFL fan until I moved. That's so we had like after church
dinner mostly. And I don't know if my town even had an Eye Hopper
or Denny's. We only had like it was only like a town of twenty
thousand way back in Michigan, right the Michigan days, yes, where you
walked outside in the middle of site stealing a coat on. I mean Jim
Harbaugh did contact me once about if I had a camera, which I mean
I did. He said he would mail me tickets. It never happened,
though. Once a show, Landon says something that makes me think it's josh
and not Landing on the other end of this line, and there that was.
That was it. That was very very Joshua Briscoe Lake, Sir,
can't wait to hear you on eight ten and eight years or whatever that would
whatever that would that, that's that's fine. I'll vouch for you. You
can have me be your reference, sir. I'll put forth a portfolio of
your greatest hits, which is mostly just me streaming Mary and then predicting the
Arkansas score that Kansas lost by basically, and then right then how they're going
to lose the duke in the Elite eight, and then at the same time
still managing to lose all the piccameres despite getting that game right. If you
ever have any askarcbs you know what to do, go on x dot com
and tell Elon Musk just stop with the damn bots, because oh my gosh,
it's every tweet that I boast at Rockshok Blog. Kansas takes the lead
response from a thousand symbols. I just made twenty dollars betting on sports.
Ah who put him in charge? Ryan is drowning in twenty first century existential
It's to be fair, to be fair. Eli Musk is too worried about
what he's gonna name his next kids. True, we'll be worried about any
bots. Oh my gosh, bots actually name his next kid for him.
It is capitalism. They want me to pay money to buy that check mark.
So I don't have the bots because that's what Elon does. You don't
get the bots if you have a check mark. I'm not buying a check
mark to tweet bad Ku basketball takes. What should I name my kid?
I'll just say Elon ten times. If you ever have ascarcbu you already know
at this point, or if you want this for but it's like you knew
it was coming, all right. Kansas Preview and Tournament Preview Number one,
Kansas versus Shamanad. Somehow we've gone. We've done three Shamanad previews in our
time on the show. That's three too many. Monday November twenty at at
eight pm. Now, guys, about six people will watch this game.
Why is that because it's Shamanad. Also because the Chiefs and Eagles Monday night
football game is going on right at the same time as this, which boy
that I'm glad it's Shamanad. We were talking about how we didn't want to
play shaman relegated my phone. Yeah, oh phone. I thought it'd be
at least a tablet or something. A phone is just sad. You're you're
gonna have to zoom way in to see what to see. Hunter Dickinson whipping
out the forearm penis gesture against Port Shamanad literally put his balls by a Shamanad
player's face, like four times. If Shamanad played six players for forty minutes,
would they beat Kansas It would be closer than it would be, or
that it's going to be. I don't know if they win, say they've
won eight games in this tournament. The twenty twenty three Maui Invitational will take
place at the Stan Sheriff Center, which is on the campus of the University
of Hawaii due to the damage and Maui due to the wildfire out break earlier
in the summer. This arena holds about five times as many people as the
Lahanya Civic Center did just an iconic venue that's been used for years and years.
The mural, the small two thousand person capacity that arena was not damaged
in the wildfires, should be used next year. Hopefully when the people of
Maui, hopefully by means a little bit in this tournament, are able to
get back on their feet, they're going to be doing some nice things for
the people in Mali, raising money and donating a lot. I believe they
said during the Kentucky game that Kansas will be auctioning off all of their uniforms
that are worn in this game for Maui wildfire relief funds. Excellent. Hopefully
the people of Malia he can enjoy what's going to be a great, great
tournament. Yeah. Otherwise, there's no preview against sham Nad because I don't
think Ryan could have been bothered to google any stats. No, they don't
matter, They really do not matter. Kansas will win this game by a
lot of points. Let me look up some players on Shamanad's roster. I
can't find any stats. You're not gonna be able to bet this game.
They have a player named Jessilla. They have a white guy named Lennon Lindholm,
who is from who is from Dubois, so he is absolutely making at
least a couple. And then they have the so okay bet. Right now,
they have white guys named Ross Alec from Sydney, Australia and Carson.
Which of those three will make the most threes? Oh, I'm currently watching
through Friends for the first time, so I gotta go with Ross. Hey,
wow, fat Friends. It took Matthew Perry dying for you to watch
Friends. Huh. I was in the middle of the second season or third
season, I think when he died. So sad. It's a good show,
too, very good show. Kansas is three and zero against Shamanad.
Those victories are by forty eight, fifty one, and thirty points. The
thirty point game probably should have been an l constrain. They didn't win.
Buy more. There will not be a line here, kase Shamanad is a
D two school. Just know Kansas is going to win by a lot of
points. We're not gonna preview this. You can give me a score if
you want, but Kansas big. Let's preview the Maui Invitational though, because
this is gonna be really fun. Loaded loaded, loaded, loaded. These
rankings are gonna shift a little bit, but none of these teams lost,
so good chance. These are all top ten teams. Number seven Tennessee and
Syracuse tipping off at one thirty pm on Monday, twelve straight hours of Maui
basketball. I will take I was gonna say the Orange team, but they're
both Orange. Rick Barnes's teams normally do pretty well in these Thanksgiving week tournaments.
We saw that last year with Kansas. I will say they beat Syracuse.
Yeah, I agree, Yeah. And then Number two per Due and
number eleven Gonzaga, probably the best of these four games. Maui second game
at four pm. Here's my upset call. I will take the Gonzaga bull
Dogs, who always played pretty well in these tournaments. Mark Few will be
significantly better of an upgrade when compared to Matt Painter in this game, I
think Gonzaga wins and takes down Purdue well. As long as he didn't have
a few drinks a few hours earlier, I think Mark Few will be quite
a bit better. I was thinking this as well, but I'm going to
disagree. I think Zach eighty's too much. Yeah, Purdue UCLA versus Number
four Marquette. This is the last game of the day. Kansas and Shamanad
tips off at eight o'clock. This game doesn't tip off till ten thirty.
Boy, Marquette got a crappy deal. They're going to be playing close to
midnight at their time before this game tips off, and I'm going to say
that does not make a difference. But I think this is the closest of
the four. Marquette narrowly beats to UCLA. I do think this will be
close, and I do think Marquette wins ils Se Marquete wins. So then
if we kind of project forward our bracket, I have a Tennessee Gonzaga Kansas
Marquette second round and I will say Kansas over Gonzaga in the championship, I
think that I have a Tennessee Perdue Marquette. I'm gonna go with Kansas and
Perdue the matchup everyone wants to see, and I think Kansas will win that
everybody there is in the top seven, I'm mostly win Kansas Purdue, with
Purdue topping Kansas. Okay, all right, that is that is a crazy
amount of talent here. Somebody's gonna lose multiple games, multiple teams may ranked
teams may lose multiple games this week, and the rankings are just gonna be
a big cluster because basically everybody in the top seven thinking at least one L
this week. My hot take is if Kansas makes it out of this week
without an L, they're getting into mid January before they get one. They'll
have a shot. They'll have a real shot if they can get through this
tournament. If I gave you over under Kansas minus forty, what line would
you What side of that would you say? I'd probably go under, considering
it's forty, but that would be they're gonna fin It would have been that
would have been enough to cover two of their previous three wins. I think
they win. I think it's in the forties, something like one hundred and
fifteen to seventy five. They didn't win by forty. In the second game,
they won by thirty eight. It was forty eight, wasn't it now?
It was ninety nine sixty one. Are you talking about Kansas and Shamanad's
history? Oh oh, oh, oh, I thought you were talking about
two of their previous three. No, No, No. Two of their
previous three. They two of the three times yes, you are correct either
way. I think general parody in all of college basketball is going up.
So I think not that this game is going to be actually close, but
I do think it will be less than forty my actual score. If I
have to give it to you, I'll say one fifteen to seventy five.
Give me a number. I will go one to oh three to seventy five.
I'll bet you rock chock blog if they score more than that. Well,
I also think there's a very they're going to play the walk Ons,
who will score. Probably they scored ninety nine against Manhattan. They're scoring more
than ninety nine against Shamanad. Probably there's a good chance we'll see limping to
the finish line here as Nick doesn't care. That's that's that's fine, Nick.
Give me a score. Score which game Kansas, Yeah, Kans Shamanad
Kansas one and ninety seven, Shamanad three. And it's one of the white
guys. It's Alec right at the buzzer, makes it three from half court.
Ninety nine points isn't cool? You know, it's cool? One hundred
points all right. So here's how this is gonna work. I believe all
three of us will be back at the We're gonna do a show right at
the end of Kansas Shamanad Late Night Monday Night show because they're gonna win that
and we'll get you ready for the next game. If Kansas wins Game two,
it'll be Land and and I very late with a show that will come
out in time for the championship game. If Kansas low is Game two,
we're just gonna wait till after the tournament is over, because that's right before
Thanksgiving. But as long as they keep winning, you will keep getting shows
before they play next. Brutal, brutal tournament to play in as far as
trying to figure out shows, but a really really fun one to watch.
So looking forward to a awesome Thanksgiving week tournament that is sure to be on
deck and until early next week. This is inside the Paint on Rock Chuck
Blog. I am Ryan Landreth, I'm MLS Comeback Player of the Year Alo,
and I am Shamanad senter Poor Shamanad. Shamanad's about to get very very
so. Okay, who would win this game, Kansas if you did not
allow mccolor, Harris, Dickinson or Adams to play or Shamanad? Who's that
a team of who's the point guard is Almarco Jackson, Johnny Nick, Timberlake,
Parker Brown, and Mike Jankovic. Yeah, I think they still be
I think I think they still beat Shamana. I think Almarco Jackson looks like
like Lebron James compared to Shamanad. Yeah. I think that's probably true that
there would be people that would go to that arena in Hawaii because they've never
been right, because it's it's normally in now in this time, it's in
Hawaii, that would walk out of there thinking al Marco Jackson is the greatest
player that's ever picked up a basketball. He would probably have like twenty two
and ten easy. Yeah, he's quite good. H random stat before we
go, a different Kansas player has had at least ten assists in each of
their three games. Wow. Wow, Wow, that's actually really impressive in
that wild Yeah, I just I just put that one together. Brilliance all
up here in the mind. Okay, somebody say bye, Audio Smuchachos