A Very Brief Lafayette Preview

Kansas gets to take a break a bit after a gauntlet of games (that somehow they all won) and take on the Lafayette Leopards. Currently ranked 133rd in KenPom, Lafayette is about as all offense/no defense as it gets, ranking 27th offensively and all the way down at 314 on defense.

It could get interesting for Kansas, relatively speaking, in that the Leopards rank 8th nationally in 3-point shooting, making 43.1 percent of their attempts. They don't shoot threes often, but when they do they're pretty good looks. The Leopards generally take one of the first good attempts they see, playing relatively fast paced on offense. They also assist on almost 60 percent of their field goals, so they are going to put a lot of pressure on Kansas's perimeter defense.

Defensively, though, it's brutal. Lafayette has played a weak schedule this year, and still allows their opponents to shoot 47 percent inside the arc. They also rank 348th in defensive rebounding, so it should be a pretty big day for (insert post player here). Fortunately for Kansas, Lafayette never forces turnovers, so it should allow Kansas an opportunity to run its offense and see if they can get good looks.

Lastly on that side of the ball, I expect Lafayette to run some zone defense so we'll get a chance to see Kansas's much improved zone offense in action.

Individually, the player to watch is Don Trist. The Senior ranks 11th in usage rate, shoots 60 percent on twos, and draws a ton of fouls inside for the Leopards. Like Alan Williams and Josh Smith, I expect Kansas to double team him on the catch and hopefully they will do a better job before the catch than they did on Williams and Smith. This might be a game for Landen Lucas to get some playing time, as he's probably the team's best post defender, though it could also be a good opportunity for Cliff Alexander to learn post defense in a consequence free enviroment.

A pair of sophomores will matchup at the point guard position. Mitch Lindner is a smaller guy like Frank Mason, and has good assist/turnover numbers (26.4/15.9).

Lasty, I want to mention senior Joey Ptasinski. He's not very good defensively and doesn't shoot all that often, but when he does good things happen. He's shooting 57.4 percent from three this year, and ranks 2nd nationally in offensive rating and leads the country in both eFG and true shooting percentage.

I think this will be a good game for Perry Ellis, and for the Jayhawks in general. I'll take them to win 78-60.