The 8th-ranked Kansas men's basketball team sent its fans home for the holiday on the back end of a blowout win at Allen Fieldhouse, 87-53 over Brown on Sunday afternoon.
The Jayhawks never trailed and used a dominant second half on both ends of the floor to put this one away early.
• PHOTO GALLERY FROM KU-BROWN •
Senior guard Zeke Mayo led the Jayhawks with 25 points and big man Hunter Dickinson recorded another double-double, with 15 points and 13 rebounds, along with 4 assists and 0 turnovers, in 24 minutes.
No KU starter played more than 29 minutes (KJ Adams) in this one, adding a little meat to KU coach Bill Self's claim that he wants to rest his starters more as the season moves along.
Next up, KU (9-2) will take a few days off for holiday fun and then jump into Big 12 Conference play on New Year’s Eve, with a 1 p.m. home game against West Virginia.
After that, it’s two games a week against Big 12 competition until March 8.
Here’s a look back at some of Sunday’s action against Brown, which will play at Kentucky's Rupp Arena in its next game on Tuesday, Dec. 31.
LIKES
• All hail Zeke! – It didn’t take much to see that KU senior Zeke Mayo was the star of the game’s first five minutes. But it wasn’t just because he put up points. It was the way those points came that really stood out. Mayo was aggressive but stayed within the offense. He shot when he was open, kept an eye out for those openings and didn’t hesitate or force anything. His 10-point spurt that helped Kansas race out to a 16-7 lead, included a pair of 3-pointers and a nice finish in transition to cap off what was probably the play of the game. On the defensive end, Hunter Dickinson blocked a shot in the paint, grabbed the rebound off the glass and immediately launched a pass to Mayo on the run-out. Like a wide receiver adjusting to a deep ball in the air, Mayo turned his body twice to get under it and then finished with ease after gathering the ball. Mayo didn't stop there, finishing with a game-high 25 points on absolutely smooth shooting and added 8 rebounds and 4 assists to his impressive final line.
• Flory above the rim – When he’s good, he’s great. And it’s not hard to see why KU coach Bill Self lists freshman big man Flory Bidunga among the best players on this entire roster. He showcased that in a not so subtle way on Sunday, doing all of his damage above the rim on both ends of the floor. In the first half alone, Bidunga caught and finished two rim-rocking lobs in KU’s half-court sets and also blocked two shots — on consecutive possessions, no less — to give the Jayhawks a lift in his 8 minutes. He finished with 4 buckets on 4 shot attempts — all lobs — including one off the glass in transition from Shak Moore late in the game. The minutes will be there if Bidunga keeps playing like this. And the key is to maximize his efficiency when he is on the floor by limiting his fouls and upping his impactful plays, just like he did against Brown.
• Storr in transition – I know it’s easier to say than do, but, man, AJ Storr sure looks incredible in transition when he gets going. The latest example of this came midway through the first half on Sunday, when he caught an outlet pass after a Brown missed and used one power dribble to jump-start his approach. From there, it was all instinct and he outran everyone to the rim and finished a smooth layup while looking like the only player on the floor. It was a far cry from the wide-open missed 3-pointer that he shot a few possessions earlier, when he had all the time in the world to shoot but looked like he thought too much about that and aimed it rather than shooting it. I don’t know about you, but if I were as good in transition as Storr is, I would do everything I can on the defensive end — and more! — to create steals, deflections and turnovers that could lead to run-outs so I could find a little rhythm on the offensive end.
DISLIKES
• 2nd unit struggles – KU's first substitution of the day was a massive four-person swap, with only KJ Adams staying on the floor. It came after a 9-0 KU run turned a 7-7 game into a 16-7 KU lead. But that didn't last. It was a huge moment for that second unit in that, (a) Self showed some trust in them to put them all out there together and (b) they had a chance to add to the lead or at least maintain it. Instead, the Bears got right back into the game, forcing Self to go to his starters again for much of the rest of the half. We know Self's not a platoon kind of coach, but he has said that he'd like to get that first five more rest heading into the Big 12 season. Maybe that will still happen, but in this one Diggy Coit, Shak Moore, AJ Storr and Flory Bidunga didn't quite do enough together to ensure that will happen moving forward. It was good to see Moore get extended minutes (14), but it's also clear that there's still a little rust to shake off there.
• No bonus streak grows – After 3 games and six consecutive halves of not reaching the bonus on offense, it looked like KU would snap that streak on Sunday when they drew 6 fouls on Brown in the first 10:37 of the game. But the Bears were not whistled for another foul during the final 9:23 of the first half, partly because of the way they played and partly because the Jayhawks didn’t force contact or create many moments/reasons for Brown to foul. Typically, that means a lot of jumpers and less time in the lane. It didn’t hurt them in this one, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on as the Jayhawks open Big 12 play. KU did not get to the bonus in the second half either (Brown had 6 fouls in the first half & 6 fouls in the second), so now the streak sits at 4 games and 8 halves heading into Big 12 play.
• Rebounding at the rim – Call it a lack of focus or desire, but, either way, Brown was incredibly active around the rim all day, getting all kinds of hands on misses and second-chance opportunities for the visitors. On one such meltdown, when the Bears got 4 cracks on one possession midway through the 2nd half, KU coach Bill Self just put his hands on his hips in disbelief after watching the Bears score at point-blank range. Dickinson was in there for that stretch, and you can bet that Self will address it once, twice, maybe 30 or 40 times before their Big 12 opener next week. There was another stretch, after Brown rebounded its own missed free throw, in which the Bears got 2 cracks from point-blank range and then possession after KU knocked the ball out of bounds. Following that one, Self plucked Dickinson from the bench and sent him back in for Bidunga.
WHAT THE?
• No review? – Early in the second half, KU wing Rylan Griffen folded in the paint like a sack of potatoes after getting hit in the head with some kind of contact by a Brown player. The officials let the play go on momentarily, as Kansas had the ball and a fast break, but once Zeke Mayo missed a 3-pointer and Brown came away with the rebound, play was stopped so they could tend to Griffen. He was helped up and taken back to the locker room but returned to the bench pretty quickly but not the game. It wasn't anything nasty or malicious, but it seemed strange, in an era where everything is reviewed and over-reviewed to death, that the officials didn't want to look at it. Or, if they did, they looked very quickly and saw there was nothing there. I'm good with not slowing the game down, but a blow like that seems to get a second look 99 times out of 100.
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