Tonight, Kansas basketball played one of their best all-around games of the year, defeating Long Beach State 91-61. Here are my takeaways.
Lagerald Vick will be very difficult to pull from the starting lineup
It’s hard to say what Vick doesn’t do well. After starting the season shooting only 12.5% from three-point range, Vick has made seven of his last eight, including all four attempts tonight. In his postgame remarks, head coach Bill Self agreed, “He did play well and he shot it great.” Self said. “He’s improved a ton and that’s obvious. He’s confident, he’s reacting instead of thinking for the most part, and you know, he’s not always going to shoot the ball like that, but after getting off to a really poor start shooting it, I think he’s made seven of his last eight three’s and he attacks the rim well, and he’s going to end up one of our best defenders, so he’s improved a ton.”
Vick is also a terrific rebounder for his size (“6’5.) He’s the team’s second leading rebounder behind Josh Jackson, at 5.5 per game. Ideally, Vick could be a “3 and D” type of player for KU this year. He can hit perimeter jump shots and play solid defense on several positions. He’s also an adept ballhandler. There’s no reason why Vick couldn’t be one of the most valuable Jayhawks this year because of his shooting and defensive versatility.
We may just have to settle for a horribly inconsistent frontcourt.
This sounds like an assertion that will come back to bite me later, but there’s not much evidence that the rotation will become what we hope. Carlton Bragg wasn’t great tonight. He scored six points and had six rebounds, but also picked up three fouls in 11 minutes. Udoka, in the words of Bill Self, was a “non-factor” tonight. He scored eight points, including the only point from KU’s bigs in the first half on a banked in free throw. His seven rebounds led the team.
Landen Lucas didn’t play because of a mild oblique injury. His status for Stanford on Saturday isn’t yet known. Dwight Coleby provided some solid minutes again, getting five rebounds in 12 minutes. Mitch Lightfoot was a non-factor as well. Even against an average and small frontcourt in Long Beach, the KU frontcourt couldn’t be a major factor in the game. Self acknowledged this issue after the game, “You’re not going to win consistently against good teams relying on the three-point shot all the time because there’ll be times where you don’t make them. So we’ve got to get where… at least a big can block a shot. We get no blocked shots tonight. I think bigs can rebound better, and I think we can score with angles better. Certainly we can shoot our free throws better. But we’re not going to be a team that scores 20 points per game out of the post.”
This is the best passing team Kansas basketball has had in some time.
Just watching it, this should be evident. At any one time, there are four plus passers on the floor: Mason, Graham, Jackson, Svi, or Vick. All can pass it pretty well. Jackson and Graham are capable of highlight assists on a nightly basis. To that end, this team can run, and run fast. Older fans will have flashbacks of some of Roy Williams’s Kansas teams, who ran teams out of the Fieldhouse regularly. This may not be the most athletic team Self has had at Kansas, but with four ballhandlers usually on the court, defenses can almost never keep the Jayhawks from rushing down the court.
The passing skill should eventually get the big men going. We saw flashes against UNC Asheville, when guards constantly put Azubuike in scoring position on the block. It should also get Bragg going as well. Bragg is a very good passer for a big man, and could be a key cog in the Jayhawk fast break once he gets into the flow of the game.
What’s next
On Saturday, former Jayhawk Jerod Haase brings the Stanford Cardinal into the fieldhouse for a 2:30 P.M. matchup with Kansas. Keep watching this space for previews and all your Kansas news and opinion.
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