Kansas 71 - Cornell 66

Player Performance Analysis

Ask pretty much anyone who this game belonged to, and you'll hear "Sherron Collins" almost automatically.  Yet, the numbers give Ryan Wittman almost the same level of credit.  He was absolutely incredible for most of the game.  Imagine what would have happened if he hadn't struggled the last quarter or so.  You have to give credit to Brady Morningstar's defense, something that doesn't show up in the boxscore, and as a result, in the numbers above either.  Collins carried this team on offense, while Morningstar bailed the team out of defense (with much needed help from Aldrich, of course).

Collins finished with a career-high 33 PTS on 63 eFG%, a figure that's remarkably impressive if you take into account that he was creating it largely himself and because no one else on the team was able to do much offensively.  He added 2 STL, 4 REB, 3 AST while turning it over just once.  Pretty remarkable stuff for what he was being asked to do.

Cole Aldrich didn't look dominant, but in the end his efficiency was right around his season average.  He only took 8 shots, making 4 of them, but he chipped in 3 OREB (9 TREB) and swatted 3 shots to go with his 2 TO in just 23 MIN (1st half foul trouble).  Tyrel Reed was the other guy with a solid offensive night, shooting 1-of-2 from 3FG (75 eFG%), pulling down 3 REB (1 OREB) and 0 TO in just 12 MIN.

From a game impact standpoint, that was it as far as players who gave an above average contribution.  Morningstar rated out neutral, but we know what he did with his defensive work on Witmman.  Xavier Henry had an unusual night in that he struggled big time on offense but put in some nice defensive numbers.  X shot a paltry 35 eFG%, made only 5-of-9 FT's (equivalent of 2 TO's basically) and committed 3 outright TO.  The only offensive plus for him was 2 OREB.  On defense, he pulled down 4 DREB and had 4 STL.

The Morris twins and Tyshawn Taylor didn't make a single field goal combined.  Taylor was nearly invisible with just one shot, 3 AST, 1 STL and 1 TO in 22 MIN.  Marcus had 3 STL basically in 24 MIN.  Markieff at least pulled down some boards (6 TREB, 1 OREB).

Cornell's efforts were clearly spearheaded by the sharpshooting Ryan Wittman.  After cooling off in the latter stages, he finished with 24 PTS on 56 eFG% shooting, 5-of-14 from 3FG, 4 REB (2 OREB), 3 AST, 2 STL and 1 TO in 35 MIN.  Coming in second was not the expected Jeff Foote, but rather Mark Coury who made only 1-of-2 FG but led his team in rebounding (7 TREB, 2 OREB) and chipped in 2 AST, 2 STL with 0 TO in 24 MIN.  On a night when Cornell was turning over the ball with regularity, Coury controlled it well.  Foote didn't fare that well, committing 5 TO, which easily wiped out most of his positive contributions from elsewhere (63 eFG%, 12 PTS, 6 DREB, 1 BLK).

It is pretty remarkable that only one Cornell player (Jon Jaques) shot less than 50 eFG% against the nation's #1 eFG% defense.  In addition, every Cornell player with at least 10 MIN played finished with a rating above zero (NCAA average).  Not so with the heavily favored Jayhawks.

Offensive and Defensive Performance

Using the outcome of the game and the adjusted offensive and defensive efficiencies for each team, performance indicates (in PTS per 100 Possessions) how each team would have fared against an average team.  That is, KU's offensive performance is how many points per 100 possessions KU would have scored against an average defense.  This provides a standard performance we can compare across teams.

Four Factor Analysis

(Actual statistics moved to Game Projections table below)