KU's Big Men Combined for Two Points and Things Were... Fine?
Breaking down a weird game
First of all, I’m glad everyone is safe after KU’s jet blew an engine shortly after takeoff from California. That is terrifying.
While yesterday’s tilt with Stanford ended up as a resounding Jayhawk win, those who remember the game later in the season will probably think of it as an ugly game. That’s how Self will remember it, at least: “Both teams were so inept offensively that I’m sure it was a hard game for a lot of people to watch the first half,” he said in his post-game presser.
I’m not here to make a case that yesterday’s game was overflowing with rich creativity or aesthetic quality. But it was a telling game in a lot of ways, and one that the Jayhawks will take something away from despite the fact that most people were watching the end of the Dolphins-Pats games (Chiiiiiieeeeeefss) by the end there.
Stanford isn’t particularly good—at 11-2 after yesterday, they’re still in the mid-50s in KenPom’s team rankings. But they could not score against the Jayhawks. When their first field goal went down, almost 12 minutes into the game, the home crowd erupted with a sarcastic cheer for the ages. Kansas had hands in every passing lane, switched with effectiveness, and gobbled up every loose ball and rebound.
The offense sucked in the first half, sure. Jerod Haase—did you know that Jerod Haase went to KU? Vitale-led broadcasts always come packed with hard-to-find nuggets like this for the diehard fans—had a great gameplan for Kansas’s big men, who combined for two points in 46 combined minutes. That scans as alarming, and objectively it probably is alarming, but this production seemed to yield little impact to the game’s result.
Stanford swarmed McCormack and Doke with double teams all day, and forced turnovers by exploiting both players’ mutual weakness—passing out of said double teams. To be sure, having McCormack and Doke on the floor on defense assured that Stanford would not get a single good luck up close. But on offense, their shared floor time limited the team’s offensive opportunity yet again.
When it comes to college basketball analysis during the preseason part of the schedule, there’s very little to go off of. It was pretty easy to look at the roster, look at Self’s track record, and predict “oh baby, here comes the high-low!” Before Doke’s injury last season, Dedric Lawson looked like the ideal frontcourt partner to revive that style of offense—it followed that we would give it another shot this year.
While Doke is 79.8% from the field (lol), KU’s offense clogged up with both McCormack and Doke out there, and other lineups look quicker, nimbler, and more dynamic. Isaiah Moss snapped out of a cold spell to the tune of three early-second-half threes, and once again we got a glimpse of what opens up for Kansas when someone can shoot the ball even a little.
For a moment in time, this Kansas team looked like a huge roster that could play small. But it’s actually the other way around, now that they have more information and results to look at. They look most dangerous when playing small (at least according to position) and utilize a big man as a balancing point rather than the center of gravity.
The NCAA tournament is extremely hard to win, and benefits the teams that can play an entire menu of styles competently. The Jayhawks could be such a team.
Now, they just need to run some stuff for Enaruna.
Streak Talk Jayhawk Rotation Notes: 19 minutes for Christian Braun. 27 for Moss. 11 for McCormack and Enaruna.