A (semi) Statistical Recap of Nebraska-Omaha

Now that’s more like it. Kansas cruised to a 45 point win over Omaha, scoring a remarkable 1.49 points per possession and allowing just .88 points per trip. Probably the toughest test Kansas faced all night was from Dan Dakich.

There isn’t much to learn from these games really, but with conference play upcoming it is a positive sign for the Jayhawks to get back to a game like this, if only for the fact that because of their lack of depth they need as much rest, both physical and mental, as they can.

Offensively, Kansas shot 64 percent on twos and 59 percent on threes. I still think KU’s shooting splits between home games and non home games is mostly luck (from three anyway) but there is no doubt they feel more comfortable in Allen Fieldhouse. And there’s no doubt (obviously) that Kansas isn’t going to lose many games when they shoot almost 60 percent from three. They also grabbed over 40 percent of their misses, and turned it over on just about 15 percent of their possessions.

Defensively, Kansas had a pretty good statistical game. Omaha shot just 34 percent on twos, and even though they were able to get off a lot of threes, they had to take pretty long ones to get open looks. Kansas limited the Mavs to rebounding just 21 percent of their misses as well. The lone black mark was the Jayhawks forcing turnovers on just 12 percent of Omaha possessions, which is something Kansas needs to do more of this season.

• Lagerald Vick had another nice output, with 3 turnovers being really the only black mark against him. He was 5-9 on twos and had 9 rebounds.
• Devonte Graham had another great night (somewhat quietly it seems) going 5-7 from three and adding 8 assists to just 2 turnovers.
• Svi Mykhailiuk stole the show for the most part, going 4-6 on twos and 6-7 from three. He also had 4 assists and 2 steals.
• Malik Newman was just 2-6 from three, but made all 4 of his twos, and added 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
• Udoka Azubuike didn’t explode on the scoresheet like he did against Nebraska, but was 5-7 from the field and had 12 rebounds. He also added a nice up and under to his post move repertoire, giving opponents yet another thing to watch out for.
• Marcus Garrett missed a three badly, but had a typical Marcus Garrett game, going 2-3 on twos, with 5 rebounds and 2 assists, as well as some really nice defensive plays. He goes under the radar at times, and still isn’t there offensively, but it says a lot that we are already talking about a typical Marcus Garrett game like it’s a thing.
• Sam Cunliffe made his KU debut with a couple high flying dunks, a three, a couple rebounds, and a couple assists. If he defends as hard as he did last night as well, he will be a nice addition to the roster.
• James Sosinski got in and made both of his shots. Not bad.