- 4 days ago
KU Insider Henry Greenstein checks in with all the latest from Lawrence.
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00:01And now, digging deeper with the teams you follow, it's another Sports Daily Insider
00:08interview on KFH.
00:11And it's back.
00:13Very nice.
00:14Henry Greenstein, Orange Journal World, KUSports.com, back with his Hawaiian shirt to celebrate
00:19on a Hawaiian shirt Wednesday.
00:21Henry, how are you this morning?
00:23I'm just fine.
00:24It's my one and only Hawaiian shirt, so I think you guys are going to get pretty sick
00:28of it.
00:28No, good.
00:29But it doesn't matter.
00:30Other than that, how often do people need to do laundry, you know?
00:34Once a week.
00:35Yeah, but other than that, everything's fine.
00:37I mean, this is kind of a quieter week when you consider no basketball games.
00:43And then after this week, though, a frenzy for basically the entire month that follows.
00:51So we'll see how all that goes.
00:52We will.
00:54Let's start with basketball because it is an exciting time.
00:57KU's played two.
00:58I love these exhibitions.
01:00I do.
01:01But they dropped both of them, Louisville and Duke.
01:04I don't think we care all that much about that.
01:07Correct me if I'm wrong.
01:08But I do think we can maybe begin to surmise and try to learn some things.
01:13And right out of the gates to me, I am concerned with the thing that we've been concerned with now
01:21for three years.
01:22Is this team going to be able to shoot threes?
01:26Well, it certainly helps that they have Trey White back and he shoots 40 percent and has shown no signs
01:32of letting up on that front.
01:34But the problem is that everyone else has been extremely inconsistent.
01:38And I think you saw something closer to what they would want it to look like against Duke when several
01:44people chipped in a couple threes each.
01:46You know, Keanu Dawes got a couple and they think he can shoot 37, 38 percent.
01:50So that's not really an aberration.
01:54Dennis Parker got one off the bench.
01:56Tay Kinney can make some.
01:58Like, I think that's kind of the envision is that's how they envision it, is it being sort of a
02:02group effort in that way.
02:04But the problem is, you know, for much of the opposition, it looks like your number one three point shooter
02:09is going to be Leroy Blyden.
02:11And he's had some issues so far just getting his shot off, picking his spots against larger defenders than he
02:17was used to, honestly.
02:19So that's been one area of concern.
02:21I agree.
02:22Of course, man, people love to complain about shooting.
02:26Like, that's that's always going to be something PTSD, right?
02:30It's a little PTSD, of course.
02:32And, you know, Melvin isn't going to make three for six threes like he did in the Louisville game.
02:37Like that was a that was that was definitely more the exception than the rule.
02:41But yeah, I mean, it's something worth worrying about.
02:44It's just difficult to know exactly how much of an issue it could be, because we still have no sense
02:49of what the rotation for this team is going to look like and who is actually going to get significant
02:53playing time.
02:54That was one big takeaway for me from the exhibition is just this is very much still a work in
02:59progress.
03:00A lot of talent there, but no real sense of who's going to play more than anyone else and who's
03:06going to be confined to the end of the bench.
03:09Henry, let's talk about Stokes.
03:11I mean, such such a physical specimen for one.
03:14I mean, you just see the guy and you're just like, oh, my gosh, wow.
03:16Wow. He's getting to the line.
03:18I know it's just a couple exhibition games, but against some talented exhibition teams with Duke and Louisville.
03:24Let's see. Against Louisville.
03:26Where was he at?
03:28I think he was. He was like 9 of 14 at the line against Louisville and then 11 of 15
03:33against Duke.
03:35Duke, definitely with that size.
03:37I mean, we don't know if he's going to get to the line that much every single game once reality
03:41kicks in.
03:42But as physical of a player as he is, how much can we count on him getting to the line?
03:49Yeah. Referees learning to officiate Tyron Stokes is going to be an adventure this year.
03:54I think there will be games where other teams fans are up in arms because he gets 20 free throws.
04:00And there will be games where KU fans are up in arms because he gets four free throws.
04:03It's like I think this is going to be a recurring thing.
04:06But right now, I see a process of Stokes trying to figure out, okay, at this level, what sort of
04:13bodies can he muscle through and run over?
04:15And what sort of length can he shoot over?
04:18Because it's so much different than what he was dealing with at a high school level.
04:20As long as you consider, you know, he was playing in Washington State.
04:23Like, it's not like he was playing against the highest level of competition in high school.
04:27It's quite an adaptation.
04:29Quite clearly, though, these bully ball skills are going to translate.
04:33And his passing, which is the thing that coaches have praised as much as anything, is also going to translate.
04:38You saw that with the seven assists he had against Duke.
04:40There were some really impressive ones.
04:42He found a cutting Trent Perry when he was posting up.
04:44I liked that play.
04:47You know, he's got a good rapport with Kinney already.
04:49They've obviously known each other since middle school.
04:51So, all that is to say, like, I think certain elements of his game will probably take longer to settle
04:58in than others.
04:59The shooting is going to be interesting to watch.
05:01You know, earlier in the offseason, self-set, if that's supposed to be his weakness, then we're in good shape.
05:07But two for seven isn't, like, exactly ideal, but also not the worst.
05:12He hit a couple early in big spots.
05:14The stroke looks good.
05:15But, in essence, like, yeah, he's going to be as advertised.
05:20I think that it will be a nightmare for opposing teams trying to figure out how to match up with
05:24him on both ends of the floor.
05:26I was impressed with what he could do defensively going up against a larger big man as well,
05:30which lends some credence to the merits of the small ball lineup, which we can talk about that a little
05:36bit if you guys want to,
05:37because Bill Self basically spent the entire final 30 minutes of the Duke game playing small ball
05:42because he was mad about how his team defended ball screens, which maybe doesn't bode well.
05:47But, yeah, lots to like from Stokes, and I think there will be lots more to like.
05:51And, by the way, I think KU fans are really going to appreciate his emotion and his passion for the
05:56game.
05:57Small ball and you aren't a great shooting team.
06:01But that's an interesting combination.
06:05But Taylan Kenny, the other freshman, might as well just talk about Taylan Kenny.
06:09He took a bunch of them.
06:10I don't – we don't know as much, or at least I don't, about him as Stokes because Stokes was,
06:14you know,
06:15the number one player, so everyone kind of followed along.
06:16Is Kenny a shooter?
06:19That's not like the primary element of his game, and he was really streaky in that area when he was
06:24at overtime elite.
06:26I think he's – the problem with Kenny's game to me from an offensive standpoint is that a lot of
06:31it seems to be built around
06:32taking contested pull-up jumpers in the mid-range.
06:35He does a lot of that where he gets down to the low block and pulls up from there or
06:40a few steps inside the three-point line.
06:42And that is not exactly the archetype of an efficient, high-level, high-major scorer.
06:49That being said, I really like his vision.
06:52I really like his quickness.
06:53You know, I didn't know what Kenny was going to specialize in either because he – his skills are pretty
06:58wide-reigning,
06:59but I didn't know what would translate.
07:00He looks fast.
07:01He doesn't look phased by the intensity or pace of the game in any way.
07:06And off the dribble, he looks pretty good.
07:09I just think that that mid-range is not the best habit to enter college with.
07:14But I think there's a lot of reason to be encouraged by his play,
07:17and I think that the stat line he ended up with in terms of efficiency was kind of unflattering to
07:22him,
07:22but it was still a good performance where he really sparked KU's offense against Duke.
07:27All right, Jacob, do you have any more basketballs?
07:29I'm just going to go ahead and shift the football if we're ready.
07:31Yeah, I mean, I just – I wonder, watching them real quick, Henry,
07:36against those two teams who are more experienced with probably, you know,
07:41not leaning into young players quite as much, are we – does it alter the thought of where this team
07:49might end up being?
07:51Like, do you see this team at the end of the year being able to – and these were both
07:54close games.
07:55But do you see this team as a team late in the year that could be one of the top
07:59team – top 10 teams in the country?
08:01Yes.
08:02I didn't – I was not adversely affected.
08:05You know, first of all, Duke looks like an absolute behemoth.
08:09I mean –
08:10They will be.
08:11They are unbelievably talented, and they did what they did to KU,
08:16despite the fact that their highly-touted freshman was completely ineffective for almost the entire game.
08:21I think they will be one of the top two contenders for a national championship as their ranking currently reflects.
08:29So I don't think anyone should be too disheartened by seeing KU lose to them.
08:34But as for whether KU can be a contender, absolutely.
08:37I think this team – like I said, they have so much talent at this point with their weight game
08:41additions.
08:42We haven't even seen TKR yet, as you guys alluded to.
08:45Yeah.
08:46And it might be a little bit, by the way, because Bill Self says his conditioning is not great.
08:50So I don't know.
08:51Ready for the start of the season a little bit?
08:52I mean, Self said he'd be – I would expect to see him against Fordham,
08:56but I don't think he's going to play significant minutes or be maybe what people expect of him for a
09:00little while,
09:01based on those conditioning comments that Self has made repeatedly.
09:04Like, I wouldn't expect him to play a lot in the early stages.
09:07I don't know.
09:08We haven't talked to him yet, so I'm not exactly sure what he was up to between the summer week
09:13and now.
09:13But it sounds like to get up to game speed, he needs a little bit of work.
09:17But all that is to say, like, I think this team can go very far.
09:21It helps when your highest ceiling player is a freshman,
09:24but you also have these kind of established known quantities and counsel.
09:28At the same time, those guys have still only been around for three or four weeks.
09:32Like, they need to get integrated into the fabric of the team that was together all through the summer.
09:37I think it will be a process.
09:39But I think by the time conference play rolls around,
09:42they should be considered a contender for the Big 12 title, absolutely.
09:46All right, Henry, let's talk about KU football.
09:49They get a conference win, their first conference win of the season in Lawrence this past weekend,
09:5425-24 in epic fashion with the block field goal
09:57and just epic fashion with the fourth quarter comeback.
10:00They were down 21-10 going into the fourth quarter.
10:03They answer right away to start the fourth quarter to get a touchdown.
10:07But even with 2-40 left, Henry, after Baylor hit that field goal to make it 24-19,
10:13Baylor had basically an 87% chance to win that game with 2-40 left in the fourth.
10:20How huge was that for the program to get that victory?
10:24And it always kind of probably feels a little good.
10:27Or maybe kind of – there's a lot of ways to feel about it when you beat a team
10:31and they fired their coach after.
10:34But still, that was a big win, a big moment there in the new booth.
10:38Yeah, I mean, basically nothing has bounced KU's way in this brand of game
10:43over the last two and a half years.
10:45So, with that being said, I mean, it was just – sometimes, first of all,
10:50sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, right?
10:52I mean, they give up that catch and triple coverage from midfield at the end of the game
10:56and everyone's seeing it and thinking, oh, it's like Cincinnati last year.
10:59They're about to give a game-winning field goal.
11:01And, you know, thanks to Baylor's incredibly conservative play calling,
11:05they still end up having to go for a moderately long field goal.
11:08But at the same time, most teams can probably make that.
11:11Like, we could have – we could be spinning an entirely different narrative
11:16if Baylor didn't come out with an extremely low trajectory kick.
11:19And the craziest thing, by the way, is the first two extra points that that kicker kicked
11:24both deflected off of Blake Harreld and went in on Saturday.
11:30You don't figure out by the end of the game you got to block number 94 in some way.
11:35Like, it's crazy if he ends up deciding the game with that blocked field goal.
11:40But, yes, KU desperately needed something like this.
11:44I won't go as far as to say that it's a game they weren't supposed to win,
11:48which is my big thing.
11:49KU has not won a game that it wasn't supposed to win in, like, two years.
11:53Because KU was ultimately favored by the time this one kicked off for some reason.
11:58But it is a huge boost to their hopes of full eligibility.
12:02And this is really the stretch of the season where they need to get hot.
12:05Because these next three games are their best chances for the three wins they need.
12:10So, the more confidence they can pick up during this pivotal stretch,
12:15the better their chances become.
12:17And it was nice to see, you know, Isaiah Marshall grow up before our eyes, as they say.
12:23The defense makes some big plays and make things uncomfortable for DJ Lagway.
12:27And, overall, just kind of a quality and dramatic win the likes of which KU
12:32really has not had in recent memory.
12:34I mean, I think you're right.
12:36I mean, I think we could think of him as three kind of must-win games for the bowl.
12:40I've transformed this whole season in my brain, Henry.
12:43Has Isaiah Marshall got a chance to take the Jalen Daniels path
12:47and be the quarterback for a long time?
12:49I think he does.
12:50I think he does.
12:52I think he's going to be good.
12:53And I think he's going to be quarterback for a while.
12:56Yeah.
12:56I mean, he's got a certain moxie about him, first of all, and leadership.
13:00For a young player?
13:00Yeah, and his teammates believe in him.
13:03And just, I mean, think about how we were talking after the Missouri game
13:05when he couldn't throw the ball to a guy three yards away from him.
13:08It's been a bit of a transformation.
13:10He still needs to get better at those kind of mid-range, in-rhythm throws.
13:15And there have been times where he's been out of sync with wide-open receivers
13:18on some occasions.
13:19I understand it.
13:19But the arm talent is greater than I think we believed entering the year.
13:24And that combined with the right kind of personality to be a leader.
13:27You know, we'll see how he does in these final five games.
13:31But right now he's on a trajectory where might as well try to retain him
13:35and run him back is kind of where I see it right now.
13:39And Dylan Edwards, 156 yards, graded 30 carries, a lot of carries.
13:43But, boy, he was big in that one.
13:44That was a big one for him as well.
13:45It seems like KU's kind of establishing some guys.
13:48Yeah, I'm a little worried about the fatigue element with that.
13:51I mean, his previous career high was 20.
13:54By the way, that was the most plays KU's run on offense in a game since the 2022 Liberty Bowl.
14:00They ran 92 plays.
14:01But, yeah, more like what we expected out of Dylan Edwards.
14:06The question is, can they sustain that when he doesn't have the kind of body that's built
14:11for that sort of workload?
14:12And your backup running backs right now are a guy who came in a month ago
14:16who wasn't playing football and a guy who was playing safety.
14:20So it's kind of an interesting situation.
14:22Henry, we appreciate it.
14:23We'll follow along, get all the coverage as we ramp up to college basketball
14:27and into another college football weekend at the Lawrence Journal World.
14:30Follow him at Henry Greenstein on X.
14:32We'll see you next time.