Kansas Dominates Texas Tech on Senior Night

It is always tough to write about games like these because of the domination, so I will skip the game for a second and again say thank you to Kevin Young, Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford. All four of them had a chance of not finishing their career as Jayhawks, whether it be because of potentially transferring or having to transfer in, and all four ended up contributing in very meaningful ways to a team that went to a national championship game.

And, if Kansas plays how they have lately, the best could be yet to come. The Jayhawks held Tech to just .61 points per possession, and are now holding the Big 12 as a whole under .9 points per possession. They held Tech to just 34.2% shooting on two pointers, and only allowed them to grab 14% of their misses. And take away Jordan Tolbert who went 5-9 from the field and the team went just 9-28 from two. (I make that point not to say you can cherry pick numbers to make Kansas look even better, but to point out that Jordan Tolbert is really really good and a whole bunch of people missed on him if he had to end up at Texas Tech).

Offensively Kansas scored 1.15 points per trip, but again illustrating the difficulty of evaluating these types of games, that featured an extended stretch of basically no points when the second unit was in the game. Continuing to share the ball well, Kansas had 18 assists on 24 field goals, and pretty much no matter the opponent scoring 1.15 points per possession when shooting 2-11 from three is pretty good.

• Jeff Withey had 22 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks in his final game in Allen Fieldhouse, finishing with a flourish. He was 7-8 from two, and made one of KU's two threes in the game.
• Kevin Young had 14 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks, and also made all of his free throws, which is potentially huge going forward.
  
• Elijah Johnson struggled with his jumper, but made 3 of his 5 twos and had 12 assists next to just 2 turnovers. It would be nice to see him make the three, but he is making both smart and good passes now, and continuing to finish well at the rim.
• Travis Releford had 13 points thanks to going 8-10 from the line and added 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. I would also grade his Senior night speech as the best one.
• Perry Ellis had 6 points and 7 rebounds for a pretty nice game. He still can't finish at the rim but he has turned into a pretty good free throw shooter and hopefully can draw some fouls in the tournament. He has also turned himself into a pretty versatile defender who can block shots, post defend, and guard guys on the perimeter.
  
• Ben McLemore struggled with his jumper (and if there was ever a game in which to struggle with his jumper it would be this one) but made 5 of 9 twos and went 3-4 from the line for 13 points. He added 5 rebounds and 2 assists in his de facto Senior night.