Kansas 85 - Eastern Washington 47

Comments and Observations

A clear emphasis on getting the ball inside, where KU had the obvious edge, was smart in the first half.  Why that disappeared in the second half is anyone's guess.  Other than appearing to play a bit too fast at times, KU performed as expected in this obvious mismatch of talent and experience.  What an incredible night for Adris DeLeon!  He and Kellen Williams actually both performed better than anyone on the court based on boxscore statistics.  Obviously, you can't win playing two on five.

Four Factor Analysis

• eFG% - Advantage KU 49-40%.  KU should have shot way better than this.
  
• TURNOVERS - Advantage KU 30-15%. As expected.
  
• OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING - Advantage KU 44-14%.  No match, as expected.
• FREETHROW RATE (FTM/FGA) - Advantage KU 30-10%.  Unexpected boost for Jayhawks.
  

CONCLUSION - Could have been just a bit less lopsided if the FT line had been owned more by EWU, as expected.  Instead, KU dominated every category.

Player Performance Analysis

This was one of those games where my ratings could be put to the test.  Guys like Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers had fairly "quiet" nights to the casual observer, but in fact they were contributing heavily with steals, assists and solid freethrow shooting.  In the final analysis, the highest game impact rating went to Robinson, followed closely by Chalmers and Darrell Arthur.  Robinson may only have shot 37.5 eFG%, but KU's sheer dominance on the offensive glass minimized the damage from those misses.  On the other hand, he made all six of his freethrows, which boosts efficiency very nicely.  The other big advantage he had was zero turnovers.  On a night when KU scored 1.2 pts/possession, any TO is considered costly.  He backed it up with 3 STL and 2 AST in 26 MIN.  Chalmers struggled even more with his shooting (28.6 eFG%) but again wasn't penalized much because of KU's rebounding.  Meanwhile, he contributed 8 AST and a whopping 6 STL against only 1 TO in a team-leading 27 MIN.  Arthur had a strong all-around game, with 62.5 eFG% (including a 3FG), 6 REB (4 OREB), 2 STL, 1 BLK and 2 TO.  It was probably his 2 TO's that kept him from the top spot.

Darnell Jackson had one of the more obviously big games of the night, but he also had four very costly TO's.  Kaun and Aldrich both made the most of their limited time.  Aldrich shot 50 eFG% and owned the defensive glass (6 DREB) while swatting shots (3 BLK).  Kaun shot well and did a little bit of everything, even making 3-of-4 FT again.  It was enough to make Kaun's performance the most efficient of the night for any KU player.

It was a somewhat disappointing night for Reed, Stewart and Rush.  Reed's first game back from his ankle injury resulted in 1-of-3 FG shooting, but he was solid with his entry passes, including 3 AST and 3 REB for the night.  Stewart didn't do anything too wrong, but he didn't shoot particularly well (41.7 eFG%), so his 17 MIN did not result in a whole lot.  Rush really struggled shooting again (40.9 eFG%) but made up for it with a huge rebounding night (10 REB, 3 OREB) but did turn it over twice.

Both DeLeon and Williams had sensational shooting nights for EWU.  Williams backed it up with 11 REB, while DeLeon made 5-of-5 FT but did have 4 TO's.  Although, turnovers weren't nearly as costly for EWU players as they were for KU, since EWU wasn't scoring very efficiently. 

Comparison to Pre-Game Projections

(Not enough data went into these projections for accuracy.)