Kansas Basketball: A (semi) Statistical Recap of Kansas State
by fetch9 on Feb 14, 2012 9:01 AM CST
in Kansas Jayhawk Basketball 2011-12
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PrintI noted in the game thread last night that winning ugly games like that isn't necessarily a trait of a national championship team (beating the absolute bejeezus out of worse teams is the mark of an elite team) but it absolutely is a big part of a conference championship team. Every year there are a few games where the contenders play poorly on the road and the perfect storm for an upset seems to happen. Conference championships can be decided on the outcomes of those games alone.
To be perfectly clear, the execution down the stretch was terrible on offense. There were multiple missed free throws and turnovers, and, coupled with a poor offensive foul call, it looked like the Missouri game all over again. Fortunately Kansas State countered with some poor execution of their own, including a lob play for Will Spradling (!?) and Kansas was able to escape with a win despite scoring just .95 points per possession.
The offense was particularly abysmal when having to run half court sets, as they shot just 5-18 on two point jumpers last night (thanks to KSinDC for that tidbit). Still, it's tough to say that you can take out the dunks and transition opportunities as a way to point out that the offense was even worse, because part of the plan last night likely was to get the ball to the rim as much as possible to get K State into foul trouble and to get out in transition as much as possible to prevent them from getting set up on defense.
But forgetting the offense for a second, the defense had another strong game, holding the Wildcats to just .85 points per trip, .14 under their Big 12 average. That included Kansas State going just 4-18 from three, with all four coming from Jamar Samuels, who is now 8-35 on the season. I am no math major but I believe that means he doubled his total in one night. For once something like that doesn't come back to haunt us.
If you were watching the game thinking that Kansas State was dominating on the glass, you were correct. They nabbed 44% of their misses, but the fact that it wasn't much higher than their Big 12 average was likely a contributing factor to the win.
The bad trend starting to take shape is the defense's relative inability to force turnovers. K State is one of the most turnover prone teams in the league but only turned it over on 17.7% of their possessions last night, and Kansas is now 6th in the league in forcing turnovers. They're starting to resemble Texas of last year, a tough defense that didn't let anyone make shots but also didn't really turn anyone over either. As we see with them, that's not a good thing. I don't think the two point defense will weaken like Texas's did last year, but it is something to watch. Plus the offense is (or should be) a little more reliant on transition opportunities than any in recent history, and forcing turnovers is obviously a big part of that.
- We start, of course, with Jeff Withey. Withey had 18 points, 11 rebounds and 9 blocks, yet again narrowly missing out on a triple double. He went 6-8 from the field and 6-7 from the line, even shooting our two technical free throws. He is no doubt benefitting from being able to roam free thanks to all the attention on Robinson, but his offensive game has improved tremendously in a short period of time.
- Tyshawn was the leading scorer with 20, but needed 19 shots to do so. He also missed a couple of key free throws late. Still without him going 3-6 from beyond the arc as well as some other excellent plays he made there's no way Kansas wins.
- Thomas Robinson had one of his worse games this year, going 3-7 and scoring 10 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. He also had 5 turnovers and 4 fouls and generally seemed frustrated by the Wildcats' big men.
- Justin Wesley: 6 minutes played, 3 fouls.
- Releford had 4 points, and missed both of his threes (though both looked good to me), but grabbed 6 rebounds and had an all around effective game.
- THARPE WATCH: 1 minute played, zeroes across the board, but should have had an assist on an awesome pass.
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The turnover issue doesn't really concern me...
Not included in that turnover line are WIthey’s 9 blocks. But considering the effect, and how many lead to runouts, I’d say we’re still getting in transition a good amount.
Agree on the turnover issue
I wonder about two possible reasons we may not create as many turnovers:
- We have two true post players that are not as active with on-the-ball pressure.
- We are playing our starters around 35 minutes, and do not have the benefit of subbing fresh legs at our leisure.
I think the lack of bench contributes to fewer turnovers in a different way
All of our guys are very concious about avoiding foul trouble (you could especially see this with Robinson last night), and I think that make the guards less likely to go for the swipe and makes us less likely to go to trapping defenses.
Great point
I think it is a good bet that our lack of depth hurts us in this area for a number of reasons, including fatigue and lack of fouls to give.
KU very well could have lost this game, but for KSU going cold.
After KSU took the lead 37-36 with 11:49 remaining, they did not score again until 5:12 left in the game. I would like to attribute the drought to good defense, but offensive ineptitude may have been more of a factor.
Probably a bit of both.
After watching KSU four or five times this year, I’m pretty convinced they’re just not very good. They’re going to make you earn your points but their offense is just hideous.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
I watched some of their game against Alabama (obviously before the suspensions gutted their team),
and they did put together a few dazzlingly effective stretches against a defense probably even tougher than their own, but that doesn’t seem to be the norm for Martin’s squad.
"There is nothing shrewd about running a red light and later finding out it kept you from being hit by an asteroid." - philofthenorth
by KeepItCopacetic on Feb 14, 2012 2:11 PM CST up reply actions
Just amazes me where we're at this year with very little consistent offensive production from our guards BESIDES TAYLLaylor from our guards
Just imagine what this team would be like if we could get anything offensively from our guards besides Taylor on a consistent basis. I’m thinking about 6 or 8 from each guy regularly.
How about getting Elijah to the FT line?
He’s only shot 20 all year (Teahen and Young have shot more and Wesley is just two behind). With all his minutes, he should have a lot more FT opportunities, but he just doesn’t. I’m not sure if this is him being tentative or the coach trying to get him to NOT drive or maybe focus on shooting 3’s. Any ideas?
He looked more aggressive last night in going to the basket than I remember throughout the season.
Maybe that will be the next improvement we see.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
This ^^
I was thinking about that this morning that EJ seemed much more tuned in to the game than he has been in a while. He was active, took some shots, guarded well. Hopefully this trend continues and we get even stronger yet.
by MichiganJayHawk on Feb 14, 2012 2:31 PM CST up reply actions
"with all four coming from Jamar Samuels, who is now 8-35 on the season."
I really thought once he started hitting these with ease we were done for, someone unlikely going off with 3s seems to be a story that’s often told in our losses.
Glad to see Withey taking the confidence boost and running with it unlike a few other Jayhawks who seemed to disappear after what could have been breakout games. I’m glad the announcers now have another go to story besides T-Rob’s tragic month and Bill Self’s quote about TT.
Robinson needs to find a way to stay at least somewhat aggressive if he gets into foul trouble. He knows 2 in the first half means sitting and it looked like it really affected his play. Seemed like he just disappeared especially on the defensive end.
Scoring was tough to come by
in large part due to the extreme physical play allowed. The officiating hurt both teams. I get that there was a “let them play” attitude, but that takes its toll. And I’ve always thought the octagon was a very cold and rebuffing place to shoot the rock effectively.
by BCRavenJHawkfan on Feb 14, 2012 11:43 AM CST reply actions
good call on the physicality
thought there was way too much hand-checking and grabbing in the game.
by I need more Esteban on Feb 15, 2012 12:11 AM CST up reply actions
I felt like KSU's offensive rebounding and our transition game were two sides of the same coin
KSU was sending everybody but one to the offensive glass on each shot, and we were making them pay by looking for runouts on defensive rebounds.
Most of our dunks came in transition, so our half court offense was woefully inefficient last night. Hopefully it was just a bad shooting game (they happen), and not a sign of bigger problems.
ah damn
kenpom updated the team but not the player stats when i wrote it
I write everywhere. You're probably better off following me on twitter
Tyrady Morningreed v.12?
Obviously not nearly as much production, but it seems like Young & Wesley are almost becoming the same player for our team. Obviously, there are plenty of differences, but they seem like the same player for our team to me, and usually only one at a time and one per game. Kestin Younley?
Interesting Thought
The only difference I see is that Tyrady had similar skill sets (with a few exceptions), and Kestin is kind of an alter-ego situation. KY is somewhat of an offensive threat and a good passer, but lost on D. JW can be solid defensively, but not much threat on offense.
Pretty impressive...
Unfortunately, it will likely drop down a few spots after Saturday. On paper, playing Tech is about as bad as it gets.
by hiphopopotamus on Feb 15, 2012 8:33 AM CST up reply actions
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