January 12, 2022

Some quick notes about that wacky ISU game

Even though Tuesday night’s home game against Iowa State got shoved to ESPN+1, it felt can’t-miss, as least as far as weeknight conference games go. Roy Williams, who hadn’t been to a game since he left in 2003, showed up and seemed to be having a great time—he had never heard the “Rock Chalk” chant live before! KU was coming off a bad (looks less bad now!) loss to Texas Tech over the weekend. Tristan Enaruna was back as a Cyclone, signifying the second revenge game opportunity of the season from the 20-21 KUBB roster. Remy Martin was out, and Self threw 6’7’' freshman KJ Adams into the starting lineup at the 5. There’s a lot to unpack here!

Then KU delivered another uneven performance that required a late bailout from Dajuan Harris on a play drawn up for Ochai. It feels like every game this season has been an emotional rollercoaster featuring bursts of great basketball followed by long offensive slumps where the ball is sticking all over the floor. The tension is hard to follow, and this year’s group is proving to be much more polarizing than expected.

Last night’s late-game funk couldn’t have come at a worse time, and ISU made big shot after big shot in the late moments of the game. KU ended up winning by one in a matchup where they were favored by 13.

And yet, at the end of the day, to my surprise, I feel like the results were more encouraging than not? KU will need to make plays late in games if they’re going anywhere, and Dajuan Harris showed us that a Jayhawk is willing to be decisive late. Ochai is still enjoying quite an icy season. Remy Martin is a big part of this team’s recipe for success, and he wasn’t playing. It’s tempting not to read into things too much.

But… but! I still have no feel for how KU wants to play. Self sent Dave McCormack to the bench—he only played 10 minutes, and those minutes were… rough. It’s clear that Self once saw McCormack’s production as a key to this season’s prospects, and it’s finally sunk in that this development is just not going to happen in the time we have before March. All of the sudden, a seemingly deep team at the beginning of the year feels like it has a lot of roster holes. We don’t have a rim protector. We probably wasted a couple scholarship spots on guys who don’t play, or won’t factor into this season’s end result. (Cam Martin thrown a schollie to be a 23-year-old redshirt… woof!)

Part of me wants to lower my expectations dramatically, polish up Braun and Ochai for League-ing and adding to my beloved NBA headcount, to consider a run to the Sweet 16 a qualified success. The analytics suggest that KU is a good team; KenPom has them at the seventh best offense with the seventh best overall efficiency margin. We’ve never been pace-pushers with Bill Self at the helm but we are 75th in tempo… I feel like this group would be the one to try a faster style of play with, but maybe it’s too late to keep throwing spaghetti at the wall. KU shoots 36.9% from three—an OK number—but that number is closer to 30% when you take out Ochai Agbaji’s 47 makes on 99 attempts. Jalen Wilson hasn’t been a consistent contributor.

It is what it is—let’s call this feeling acceptance. There’s a lot of games left! Time is an ambient concept these days. Maybe there’s enough space to find our groove.