Does KU need a full-blown rotation shakeup?
And other thoughts from two road Ls
A throwback to the good times
Last night, a Chris Teahen buzzer three-pointer locked in a sneaky KU cover (KU +8.5), neatly obscuring the fact that the Jayhawks trailed Baylor by double digits for long stretches of the game. Baylor is undefeated— they look great!—but last night’s game underlined KU’s recent struggles with their half court offense.
Though the Jayhawks fought hard in Waco and in Stillwater last week to stay in the games, late execution eventually doomed them. I feel like we know less than ever about which lineups work, and when faced with a great defense in a 5-on-5 situation, the Jayhawks might be playing to a weakness instead of a strength.
The loss to Baylor knocks KU to third in the Big 12 standings, behind the Bears and Texas. KU will have to win both rematches in order to avoid the season sweep at the hands of Scott Drew and Shaka Smart. While there was plenty to be discouraged by on Monday night, it’s clear to me as ever that there’s a compelling team here, albeit one that’s going to require some big tweaks ASAP to get back on track.
A place to start: Harris and Garrett
Depending on when you were watching, you might have seen some novel KU lineups last night. Tristan Enaruna played almost as much (18 minutes) as David McCormack (19 minutes). Mitch brought some energy, screening and rolling hard to the rim without requiring scripted post-ups. If Braun hadn’t made shots in the first half, Baylor might have blown the game open even further.
But one thing stood out to me clearly last night—it’s going to be tough to play Marcus Garrett and Dajuan Harris together. Garrett has earned Self’s loyalty, but it’s probably time to take some of the playmaking pressure off of the senior. My fascination with Harris is well-known, but when both Garrett and Harris are both on the floor, defenders are keeping a foot in the paint, daring them to shoot and jacking up the spacing. In these situations, players like Jalen Wilson are just standing around—cuts to the basket are getting swallowed up.
Going forward, KU’s success is going to rely on reading matchups more closely. David McCormack has gotten a lot of heat from the fans—and his shot-clock-expensive half-court post-ups too often go nowhere—but there’s been matchups where he’s been genuinely useful (like OSU, who couldn’t reliably put a body on him). Dave was overmatched last night by Baylor’s rotation of high-motor bigs (how good a nickname is Everday John, by the way), and KU might need to rethink its own player groupings on an opponent-by-opponent basis. Right now, everyone knows to stop us in transition and make us play half-court offense. Baylor was sitting on everything, and the Jayhawks had few counters.
Not having a regular non-con schedule spiked the notion of a low-stakes trial-and-error period, and now KU will have to figure its rotation out while avoiding a slip in the Big 12 standings. I trust Self to unlock this, but decoupling Harris and Garrett is a start.
Something To Feel Good About
While back-to-back conference losses puts KU in a hole, you can’t say its for lack of effort. The Jayhawks are grinding as some early-season stars (Jalen Wilson cough cough) fight through slumps. They might be playing badly at times… but they’re playing hard.
KU needs to figure out their best lineup, and which group should be out there during crunch time when buckets are needed. Right now, that would be Agbaji, Braun and… ? I’ve advocated for Garrett to move back into his junior-year role of off-ball slashing, but he and Harris can’t play together. I’d love to see KU commit to playing small more, and for longer periods, switching everything on defense and flying around on offense. While smaller groups bring up concerns about rebounding, I’d argue that McCormack isn’t one of the five best rebounders on the team.
Bill Self does not fully trust the three pointer, and sometimes the Jayhawks pass up good perimeter shots hunting for great ones. I’d love to see more quick actions at the beginning of sets—pin-downs or pitch-outs to a corner—to get a good shot early in the clock.
KU’s next two games are winnable ones, against OU in Norman and TCU at home. This is the strangest basketball season of all time, and I’m (maybe delusionally) considering the fact that KU lost to Baylor after six days of prep as yet another externality. We’ll know more about this team in a week. Hang in there.