Boy, did the Jayhawks need this one.
After a brutal road trip to the state of Utah brought to the surface some of the roughest moments around this basketball program that we’ve seen in years, KU returned home for a matchup with Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon and took out all of its frustrations on the Cowboys en route to a 96-64 win.
KU led 52-23 at halftime and only added to its lead for much fo the second half.
The Jayhawks shared the ball, knocked down 3-pointers, played hard and fast and delighted both the home crowd and their head coach.
We won’t worry too much about the fact that OSU entered the game at 13-13 overall, 5-10 in Big 12 play and 13th in the latest conference standings.
That matters. It should put KU’s latest win into context a little bit. And the Jayhawks will need to show that they can play a similar style, with passion, heart and solid execution, both on the road and against higher-ranked teams.
They’ll get their chance to in the coming weeks, but none of that mattered on Saturday. The Jayhawks did all they could do in this one and brought back a little life and joy into the Kansas basketball world.
Next up, KU (18-9 overall, 9-7 Big 12) will back on the road on Monday night at Colorado. Tipoff is slated for 10 p.m. central time on ESPN, and the Jayhawks will enter that one having lost their last four games away from home.
Here’s a look back at just some of the many highlights and memorable moments from Saturday’s win over the Cowboys.
LIKES
• Ball movement is back! – You have to go back to Dec. 14 to find a night when KU wing Rylan Griffen had 3 assists in a game. And he matched that total in the first half of this one on his way to a KU-high 6 assists on the day. Griffen’s assist total on Saturday matched the number he had in the past five games combined. It wasn’t just Griffen who was a part of the Jayhawks’ eye-popping ball movement. Zeke Mayo, KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris and others played a big role in it, as well. But the fact that Griffen was a part of it was the perfect way to underscore just how much of a step forward the Jayhawks may have taken in this department during Saturday’s win. They shared it not only because they were told to or felt like they needed to find some chemistry. They shared it because doing so was often the right play, and so many of the extra passes and extra passes after extra passes led to even easier shots than the ones they were facing before the passing barrage. No single moment illustrated this better than late in the first half, when Rylan Griffen had the ball in the corner and could have taken a shot but instead elected to swing the ball to Zeke Mayo on the right wing. Mayo, who already had a hot hand from the outside at that point, also could have taken a shot. And his was more open than the one Griffen passed up. But instead of launching it, Mayo zipped a pass to Hunter Dickinson at the opposite block, where the big guy stood all alone for the easy bucket. KU coach Bill Self roared with approval on the sideline, and the Jayhawks’ mojo only grew from there. KU finished the game with 23 assists on 38 field goals.
• 3 is better than 2 – The Jayhawks were great from the outside in this one, knocking in 8 of 17 from downtown in the first half (47%) and hitting a pair of triples in the first 3 minutes of the second half to keep their lead well above the 20-point mark. KU finished the game 14-of-30 from downtown. So many of KU’s 3-point makes were the result of the passing we talked about above. But some of it was just a matter of guys jumping up and making shots. That’s not always the best offense. But when they go in, you’re usually not going to find too many people who argue. Zeke Mayo led KU with 5 triples. Diggy Coit also hit 5. Dajuan Harris knocked in 2. And Rylan Griffen hit 2, as well. KU entered the game shooting 33.9% from 3-point range for the season and 32.8% from 3 in Big 12 games alone. The belief all offseason was that this team added enough shooters to make last year’s woes a distant memory. And Saturday showed that can still be the case.
• Just play, don’t think – For weeks now, this Kansas team has been paralyzed by overthinking every step, every dribble and every play, good or bad, that happens on the floor. While there’s an element of that that’s required in every game, there’s also something to be said for just letting it go and playing loose and free. KU coach Bill Self has been looking for this team to do that all season and there was a stretch during the first half of this one when that was exactly what they did. The 19-2 run that spanned just 5 minutes turned a 23-19 KU lead into a 42-21 run-away with still 3:57 to play in the first half.
• Signs of life – Midway through the first half, after the Kansas defense forced Oklahoma State into a near-shot clock violation just before the under-8 media timeout, KU senior KJ Adams hit the deck after chasing the down the loose ball as the shot clock expired. Immediately, two of his teammates — Hunter Dickinson and Dajuan Harris Jr. — rushed over to help him up off the floor. A foul was called on Oklahoma State on the play and Adams went to the free throw line after the media timeout. While he missed the front end of a one-and-one trip to the line, the Jayhawks got the offensive rebound and Zeke Mayo buried a 3-pointer to put Kansas up 31-19 after the sequence. Mayo’s assist came from Rylan Griffen and the two exchanged celebratory love after the play. None of this sounds like THAT big of a deal. But it’s something that has been missing of late with this Kansas team.
DISLIKES
• Early turnovers – It wasn’t the best start for the Jayhawks, who turned it over 4 times in the first few minutes and looked out of sync doing it. The groans in all four corners of Allen Fieldhouse were easily heard, and, at least for a bit, it looked a lot like the Jayhawks’ recent struggles had followed them into Saturday’s home game vs. the Cowboys. This team’s in a tough spot right now because, with everything being so difficult and seemingly going wrong, nobody’s really in the mood to give them any leeway for working through their miscues. They did it anyway on Saturday and it paid off big time, with the Jayhawks hitting the stride midway through the first half and never looking back.
• Nothing else – This was the entry in the “Likes” category after the BYU game, and, in just a few days, the Jayhawks got things corrected enough to earn getting the same entry here in the “Dislikes” category. Again, you have to consider the opponent and the fact that this one was back at home. But it was, in every way, just what Kansas needed at the exact time Kansas needed it.
WHAT THE?
• Cheer me now, cheer him later – If you’ve been paying attention at all this season, you know that KU senior KJ Adams has drawn more than his share of criticism over his play and the things he’s struggled with throughout the season. As a result, freshman big man Flory Bidunga has become a bit of a fan favorite, with the KU student section even going as far as to chant “We Want Flory” during the opening minutes of a recent home game. On Saturday, when Bidunga first checked in during the first half, he received a huge roar from the Allen Fieldhouse crowd. But later in the game, when Bidunga checked in for the first time in the second half, it was the man Bidunga was coming in for who received the ovation. KJ Adams. It’s been a rough season and a lot of the love between the Jayhawks and their adoring fans has been lost and/or tested. But these moments on Saturday were a reminder that if you play hard and produce, they’re still gonna love ya.
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