Before I get to the statistical part, a couple of notes on the (semi) part:
1. First, a hearty thank you to the couple of UCLA commenters who stopped by after the game and were completely pleasant to converse with. Sure we disagreed on the overall refereeing during the game, but it was done in a respectful way. And kudos to the KU fans in the OGT as well.
2. On the foul: By the book, it was an absolute foul. And I am 100% in favor of calling it by the book regardless of whether the foul occurs with 17 minutes left, 7 minutes left, or .7 seconds left. And, when taking the two nonsense 4 point plays into account as well as a number of other shady calls (on both sides, no doubt) it all evens itself out. Still, it does feel weird winning that way. Like we should be apologizing for something.
Still, a win is a win. And while UCLA is not as good as Arizona, who is a top 10 team in KenPom right now, they are still a good team who is probably the 3rd best team in the Pac 10 right now. They were pretty lights out from three, shooting 10% higher than their season average, and 10% higher than last year's season average as well. Tyler Honeycutt in particular terrorized the Jayhawks, going 5 for 6 from three. Although given that he only shot 30 threes last year it seems less likely that this will end up being some kind of developing trend and more of a case in which a player just got hot. It happens, move on.
Player notes after the jump:
- My main positive about this game: Kansas won a game in which its best player shot only 5-11 from the floor (and 4 of 10 from two) and was 5-11 from the line. Woof.
- The evidence for my point that Tyshawn is the most underrated Jayhawk in the last few years mounts: 17 points on 7-10 shooting, including making his only three, as well as a couple of clutch jumpers in the waning moments. He only had 4 assists to 3 turnovers, but he acted more like a shooting guard than point guard last night, so no major complaints. Also, the 5 steals were nice.
- Elijah Johnson's time in the rotation is pretty much over now, and will be on December 18th.
- Beyond making the game winner, Mario Little had a sneaky good game: 9 points and led the team with 8 rebounds (including 4 offensive). He took 9 shots, which is too many for him, but a couple of them were on that sequence in which he blew the two layups.
- Tonight's game is why Brady needs to be in the rotation: Nothing flashy, only 6 points, but really heady play all night. The telling sign for me was when he passed up 2 decent looks to get Reed the ball where he could shoot a wide open three. He also had three steals and played pretty good D on Honeycutt down the stretch. We're not a young team per se, but I think it's fair to say we are fairly immature, and Brady is going to help with that all season.
- Speaking of threes, kudos to Tyrel getting his shot back. 3-4 on threes and tied for a team high 17 points.
- I really have no idea why Releford only played 9 minutes, but after the weekend he had it is kind of disappointing to see.
- Anything else?