It's back for another season!  A statistical look into the rear view mirror at last nights Kansas Jayhawks basketball game.   Was it pretty?  Nope it sure wasn't, but I never truly felt like Memphis was going to beat the Jayhawks except perhaps when that final three was hurled into the air.  It wasn't the Kansas we'd seen through three games, but basketball is a game where off nights happen.  Win it with defense and rebounding.  On to the stats

First up the game flow chart.  Pretty straight forward really.  What's the score?  How does it correspond to the clock? and most interestingly, how safe is the lead?  Felt safe last night to me, but that might be my overwhelming confidence in this team right now because obviously it really wasn't ever safe.  Blind optimism is what I like to call it.

Four factors to winning.  Here's a quick breakdown:

eFG% - effective field goal percentage (eFG%).  eFG% is like field goal percentage except that it gives 50% more credit for made three-pointers (since it accounts for more points).

TO% = Turnovers / Possessions.

OR% = indicates a team's ability to get second chance shots, which dramatically improves efficiency.  Offensive Rebounds / (Offensive Rebounds + Opponent Defensive Rebounds).

FT Rate = This isn't just a measure of how many free throws a team makes, but the frequency in which they go to the line.  Free Throws Attempted / Field Goals Attempted.

Those things in mind Kansas did a solid job in every department but turnovers.  Par for the course last year as I recall.  Hopefully we can get that under control soon.  Still no real secret how Kansas won this one.  Rebounding and defense.

Game
Points	55	57
FG Att	55	43
FG Made	19	20
FG Pct	34.5	46.5
FT Att	16	21
FT Made	11	16
FT Pct	68.8	76.2
3pt FG Att	25	5
3pt FG Made	6	1
3pt FG Pct	24.0	20.0
Rebounds	25	36
Off Rebs	9	8
Def Rebs	16	28
Team Rebs	3	2
Assists	4	10
Steals	9	8
Blocks	3	6
Turnovers	13	21
Fouls	20	14

Statistically the team obviously didn't produce offensively the way we've come to expect.  21 turnovers is a concern and hopefully shooting at a better than 46% clip will be the norm.  Rebounding and defense was the key though.  Memphis held to under 35% from the field partially due to their tendency to chuck threes, but I'd like to think our defense had something to do with that.  6 blocks, 8 steals and a dominating performance by Cole in the middle.  He was changing shots and making blocks all night long.  Hence all the 3 point attempts maybe?

Player impact chart shows a whole lot of Cole last night.  This is a team with so many weapons and they've really lacked the focus on the inside game in the first three contests.  It's nice to see them go down low to the reliable big man when things were tough.  Also nice to see X. Henry getting involved in the rebounding.

		S	MIN	PTS	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PM	3PA	3P%	OR	DR	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF
	E. Williams	*	39	21	6	18	33	6	8	75	3	11	27	2	4	6	0	1	1	2	0
	W. Kemp	*	35	7	2	9	22	2	2	100	1	3	33	1	0	1	3	1	0	2	0
	R. Sallie	*	33	5	2	10	20	1	1	100	0	6	0	1	3	4	0	4	0	1	4
	D. Mack	*	24	7	2	3	66	1	3	33	2	3	66	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	4
	P. Henderson-Ni	*	19	3	1	3	33	1	2	50	0	0	0	0	4	4	0	1	0	2	3
	W. Witherspoon		26	4	2	6	33	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	2	5
	W. Coleman		24	8	4	6	66	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	5	0	2	2	3	4
		S	MIN	PTS	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PM	3PA	3P%	OR	DR	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF
	T. Taylor	*	33	2	0	4	0	2	2	100	0	0	0	0	3	3	5	2	0	7	1
	S. Collins	*	32	12	5	7	71	1	2	50	1	1	100	0	5	5	2	2	0	2	0
	X. Henry	*	32	11	3	11	27	5	6	83	0	2	0	1	5	6	0	3	0	4	2
	C. Aldrich	*	30	18	7	10	70	4	5	80	0	0	0	4	7	11	0	1	5	0	2
	M. Morris	*	15	4	1	1	100	2	2	100	0	0	0	2	4	6	0	0	1	3	2
	M. Morris		31	10	4	7	57	2	4	50	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	2	4
	T. Reed		18	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1
	E. Johnson		7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	1
	T. Robinson		2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1