Taking Out Wildcats
As Saturday’s Blue Blood Battle approached, KU was starting down a possible four-game losing streak, the first-ever in Self’s tenure at Kansas. Kentucky isn’t any good, as our community of Rupp Rafters lurkers will tell you, but they had the type of length that has bothered small-ish Kansas lineups and a high level of talent, which has been the hallmark of the Calipari era. Would KU come out tight? Would they press, and amplify the self-inflicted wounds that defined losses to KSU, TCU and Baylor?
Nope! Instead, KU delivered one of their most cool-and-collected performances of the year, featuring demonstrative bounce-back games from multiple struggling players. We weren’t perfect, but the execution was there, and the bench… did stuff? Kentucky had to chase us all game, and we easily outlasted them. KJ Adams and Kevin McCullar were back at it. Great win!
Next on the Wildcat tour came KSU last night, which was a funky game that should have been like, a 50-point KU win had we not been subject to the John Higgins show. KU grabbed control early, and though they never quite put KSU away, there was no doubt about who was the better team was. We got Jerome Tang totally twisted, which feels like an accomplishment in his first and final season at K-State:
The luxury of having a Kansas basketball-related newsletter is that sometimes there’s not much more to say than “hey, nice wins!” This is why KU football can move the needle with some fans—the drama at KU basketball never really gets to that sort of inflection point. Anytime it feels like KU basketball is against the ropes, they respond. It’s cool, and though it’s easy to take for granted because it’s basically clockwork, we should try not to do that.
Anyway here’s some bulleted observations!
The Ernest Udeh Jr breakout is inevitable. He still has no clue where he is on defense but he’s getting more confident and is generally chaos (the good kind!). We can use his fouls, too.
Bench play leveling up is a big factor for this team. We’re going to need Yesufu and Bobby P to get buckets and create from time-to-time.
Zach Clemence still headed to the rafters. He made a three!
KJ Adams is back, baby. After a short funk, KJ was back doing KJ stuff. We run plays for KJ Adams in the year of our lord 2023. What an incredible story!
Gradey Dick, man. Up to #5 on DraftNet. He’s both more athletic than I ever expected and a player with canny timing—kind of a low key steals guy! Only one last night but plenty of deflections. 15/5/2 on 43% three point shooting as a freshman after a short little funk. That’ll play.
K-State sure is proud of that lavender that isn’t their color
I feel good for Kevin McCullar. His last three games more closely resemble the player we saw at the start of the season, and now he’s got a little juice. He’s not afraid to take a big shot.
This team still flows through Dajuan Harris Jr. As expected, Self + staff smashed the scouting report for K-State. KSU doesn’t close out on Harris on the perimeter, and Harris got set, took his time, and made them pay. That Harris can hit the 3 reliably (above 40%) is massive for KU’s spacing.
I need to do a whole post about Jalen Wilson’s improvement, but man—HE IS SO GOOD. He knows where to be, is absolutely fearless, and he is dying to take the big shot. We’ll need it.
An aside but I love when I see our guards/wings who work out with Peter Danyliv do something that Self clearly didn’t teach them: a nice reverse layup that seals off the far side of the rim, a crafty gather, a jab step that unlocks a new crease in the floor. It’s not that Self doesn’t know how to coach this stuff, it’s just that there isn’t enough legal practice time to do that kind of detail work. Put some respect on Peter Danyliv’s name! Let’s get him on the payroll!
While I fantasize about KU being a four-seed and completely ruining the #1 seed’s selection Sunday—imagine drawing us on that line—we’re on the 1 line again and we’ll probably end up there. Ho hum diddily hum! These are the good ol’ days. Rock Chalk.