A (semi) Statistical Recap of Iowa State

First off, let's get to the real reason Kansas was able to win yesterday:

We could spend all day trying to decipher that last comment, but instead let's applaud a Missouri fan (and probably graduate, assuming he could find his way to the school once) for being able to string multiple English (or semi English) words together. We'll work on having them make actual sense next.

Less funny than Kansas winning on pure referee elixir is the start of yesterday's game: Kansas came out as cold as Iowa State was hot, and trailed by at least 9 at two separate times. Though they fought back to go into the half down three, Iowa State again stretched that lead out (after the game HCBS remarked "My halftime speech was good - we went in down three and came out down twelve"). Kansas actually didn't take the lead for good until there was 10:24 remaining, and the game was quite a bit closer than the final score indicates (obviously) with the nine point margin largely coming via some fouls at the end.

Kansas was pretty bad offensively in this one: though they faced a good Cyclones offense, they allowed .93 points per possession, over a tenth more than they had allowed in Big 12 play so far. It still was far lower than Iowa State's 1.08 PPP in Big 12 play so far however. If you're searching for a main culprit, it came on the glass where Iowa State grabbed 34.8% of its misses. That's not a terrible amount for Kansas to give up, but it's a 10% higher rate than the Cyclones had rebounded during Big 12 play so far, so that is a lot of extra points to grab.

Offensively Kansas scored 1.05 points per trip, about a tenth lower than their current Big 12 rate. They had a 50% eFG, but struggled mightily at the line, shooting 50% from there as well. The one major positive to take away from this game is how well the Jayhawks took care of the ball: Kansas, if you can believe it, turned it over on just 9% of their possessions. Iowa State struggles to turn people over, but I figured if one team could do it it would be Kansas

This game does raise a couple of interesting questions: did Kansas get caught looking ahead to the Baylor game, or are they in big trouble on Monday? Also, with how well the Cyclones came out yesterday and Hilton Magic, is it time to go into the return trip expecting a loss or will this close call wake up the team and cause them to play a focused 40 minutes?

• Good Tyshawn showed up, to say the least, with a career high 28 points, 6 assists and 4 steals. Taylor went an uncharacteristic 5-9 from the line, or else he could have had a 30 point night. He shot efficiently though, with a 54.7% eFG.
• Your eFG leader yesterday came from a bit of an unlikely source, as Elijah Johnson put up a 61.1% mark. I guess that's what happens when you make 3 of 8 threes. Johnson had 5 assists as well, making this another game where statistically he looked good, but watching the game he seems lost or something.
• Jeff Withey, offensive superstar: Withey had 13 points and 11 rebounds on 6-10 shooting, and even made a jumper from just inside the arc. He also had 7 blocks to increase his league leading total.
• Conner Tehan......sigh.
• Kevin Young was a +25 in 16 minutes of playing time. Single game +/- (and +/- in general) is pretty meaningless, but I found that awesome anyways.
• These days even when Travis Releford "struggles" he has a good game: he had 7 points and 7 rebounds, with 3 assists and 0 turnovers. It would have been nice to see a bit more of the patented Travis Releford defense though, but let's not nitpick.