Kansas Basketball: A (semi) Statistical Recap of Detroit

First things first, it sounds like Tyshawn's injury is just a bad case of cramps and so he should be able to go on Sunday against Purdue. That's great news because not only will Kansas need Tyshawn in order to make a dream run to New Orleans, they'll likely need him to beat an underrated Purdue team on Sunday.

As for the game against Detroit, it went pretty much according to plan. Detroit hung in for awhile but eventually Kansas's superior talent coupled with Detroit's inability to shoot caught up with them. Ray McCallum had just 8 points on 4-10 shooting and overall the Titans shot just 3-17 from beyond the arc, negating KU's own poor effort (5-16).

The main negative was that Kansas got beat on the glass pretty bad. Detroit nabbed 32.7% of their misses while Kansas was only able to rebound 21.9% of theirs. That is a number (especially defensive rebounding) that is going to have to get better for Kansas to win games deeper into the tournament.

Elsewhere, Kansas shot 53% from two but mostly it was a ho hum day that seemed like an exhibition game more than an NCAA tournament game after the first few minutes. Statistically KU didn't dominate other than in terms of forcing Detroit to miss a lot of shots, but they went on a 34-7 run and iced it.

• Thomas Robinson had 16 points on 7-13 shooting and 13 rebounds in the win, but also had a couple dumb fouls that he'll need to fix in order for Kansas to advance.
• Tyshawn played only 23 minutes thanks to the cramping issues, but had 10 points on 5-8 shooting (5-6 from two) and also had 3 boards and 2 steals. His best play was definitely his coast to coast take at the end of the first half.
• In his absence, Elijah Johnson stepped up big time, playing great defense and shooting 3-4 both from two and three. I note this every time he makes one, but if his recent hot streak from beyond the arc holds form, Kansas goes from a potentially dangerous team to a very dangerous one.
• Even though he had 9 of them, I think Jeff Withey struggled rebounding a bit. He also struggled from the field, going just 1-3. He did make 5 of his 9 FTs and block 5 shots though.
• Releford had one of his weaker games offensively, going 1-5 from three and only grabbing three rebounds, but he did play his customary good defense.
  
• Kevin Young gave the team some big minutes, going 2-5 from the field, 5-6 from the line (!) and dishing out 2 very nice assists.
• THARPE WATCH: Naadir Tharpe gave the team 13 minutes to mixed results. He made some nice passes and got some open looks (and defended well), but also had a couple bad turnovers
• Just because....