Recap: Kansas at South Carolina

January 8, 2007

Kansas 70 - South Carolina 54

My Observations

Finally, a workman-like performance from Kansas against a clear underdog.  And it came on the road to boot.  More than anything, it was the Jayhawks' sizzling shooting from the field that did the Gamecocks in.  Not one Kansas player was more than one made field goal away from shooting at least 50 eFG%.  And yet, somehow, South Carolina threatened toward the first half to make it much closer than most KU fans would find comfortable.  Reason?  Rebounds.  But hey, you rarely dominate in everything, and as I had forecast for this game, even more than most games, it would be KU's shooting that would matter, and it certainly did.

Four Factor Analysis

• SHOOTING - 62-47 eFG% advantage to Kansas.  Game over.
• OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING - Tale of two halves, with USC winning the 1st and KU the 2nd.  In the end, it was essentially a tie (37-34% advantage for KU), but Kansas should have fared better.
• TURNOVERS - Nice advantage for KU (21-26% of possessions).  But a slow game, so this represented about 3 more useful possessions for KU.
• FREETHROW RATE - In favor of USC (15-8%), but it should have been way more in their favor if not for miserable 42% FT shooting.

CONCLUSION - Could have been closer if South Carolina had made more freethrows, but the significant shooting difference would have kept this in KU's win column.

Player Performance Analysis

Any other KU fans secretly hoping Mario will turn it down a notch to make sure he stays around another year?  Mario keeps bringing his best stuff and making the game look way too easy.  An assortment of finger rolls, 3-pt shots, and moves to the basket ... Chalmers is the real deal.  When he started limping, it was as if KU's season was momentarily hanging in the balance.  Regardless, it's no surprise that Mario takes MVP honors this game and likely in the overall season standings once I run those numbers.  19 pts, 5 stl and deadly shooting.

Nice to see Julian Wright have his second strong game in a row.  He didn't score a ton, but he made all his shots, active on the glass, and even chipped in 3 steals.  Very efficient game for Julian, including a couple of nice feeds.

Preseason All-American Brandon Rush continues his midseason surge.  Yet another good shooting night is rapidly making his early season shooting woes a distant memory.  There's practically nothing Rush didn't do on this night, scoring 12 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk, including 2-5 on 3FG's.

Sasha Kaun had a nice, roughly mistake-free game.  He missed a dunk but rebounded immediately and scored.  He had no turnovers and 4 offensive rebounds (6 total).  This is characteristic of what we should expect from Kaun the rest of the season.  He's not much better or worse than this.

It was a relief to see Darrell Arthur start making shots again.  8-for-12 shooting is much closer to what DA has shown in the past.  In this game, though, he didn't do much of anything else.  Only 2 rebounds (0 offensive), 2 pf's, 2 to's, and nothing else to boost his contributions.  He did play more minutes than usual because Kaun was in foul trouble.  So, it's comforting to know he can perform fairly well over longer stretches of the game.  He's still far from being the overall contributor he was earlier this season.  Clearly, that distinction has to go to Chalmers at this point.

Robinson and Collins both played at a subpar level on paper.  Both scored only a handful of points, but Robinson chipped in all-around with 3 reb, 5 ast, and even a blocked shot.  Meanwhile, Collins shot worse from the field, had only 1 assist and no steals.  He did play 22 minutes, which is a bit higher than usual.  Clearly, Self is bringing Collins along at a measured pace, seeing what he can do over slightly longer and longer stretches of the game.  Collins needs to be more consistent before he is considered the superior guard though.  Russell has the ability to contribute in other phases of the game even when he's not scoring, but Collins is more reliant on shooting to contribute.  And of course, his obligatory one charging foul per game.

It was a strong effort from Brandon Wallace for South Carolina.  No surprise, though, given how efficiently he's played all season.  The unfortunate injury to Tre Kelley is what kept South Carolina from having much chance down the stretch.  They needed to keep pace with a hot-shooting Jayhawk team and just couldn't hang.  Kelley shot a miserable 3-16 from the field (2-8 from 3FG).  The only other player other than Wallace to have a decent game was Day, who  shot 3-4 from behind the arc.

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