In the TV business, we call it the “hero shot.” That’s where the director cuts to a close-up of a player who just scored as he runs downcourt. The problem with cutting to a hero shot is that sometimes the viewer misses the next play. In other words, sometimes it’s better to keep the proper perspective and be wary of celebrating too soon. Life — and basketball — comes at you fast.
So it is with the Kansas Jayhawks, who will undoubtedly fall from their perch as the No. 1 team in America following convincing road losses last week at Creighton and Missouri. The latter was especially stinging because it came against KU’s bitter in-state rival, but this team has bigger problems than wounded pride. Kansas seemed to have established itself as a championship contender early on with wins over North Carolina, Michigan State and Duke. Now, this team’s weaknesses have been exposed for all the world to see.
So what’s the matter with Kansas? Nothing that can’t be fixed, but here are the three items at the top of Bill Self’s to-do list:
Get those guards to be more aggressive
I’ve often said that at home, you can win by shooting threes. On the road you need to shoot frees — as in free throws. Yet, the Jayhawks currently rank 361st out of 364 teams on KenPom in offensive free throw rate. Their 13.5 attempts per game ranks 351st. It’s no surprise that that deficiency got exposed on the road. In the two losses, the Jayhawks shot a combined 19 free throws, making 14. Missouri alone outscored the Jayhawks 26-9 from the foul line. At Creighton the margin was 14-5.
Hesitancy begets inefficiency, and that was kiss of death against Missouri’s full-court pressure. The Jayhawks committed 22 turnovers. “I would err on the side of giving them credit because if I just say we sucked that would take credit from them,” Self said. “But we did suck.”
Get A.J. Storr going
A big reason for optimism in Lawrence was the arrival of Storr, a 6-foot-7 junior wing who averaged 16.8 points last season for Wisconsin. Yet, Storr has looked very uncomfortable for much of the season. He lacks certainty in his decision making and confidence in his shooting. He was especially bad on Sunday, scoring just two points on 1 of 7 shooting in 18 minutes off the bench. On the season he is averaging a mere 9.3 points.
This is starting to become redolent of last season, when the Jayhawks basically had four solid starters and no one else contributing. Storr was brought in to be a strong complement to returnees DaJuan Harris, K.J. Adams and Hunter Dickinson, but so far he hasn’t emerged. Ditto for the other bench players. That has led Self to do a lot of reshuffling in his lineups. “A.J. has had some really poor days since Creighton,” Self said. “I know who should be our starters in theory, but it hasn’t translated from practice to games yet. We’ll just have to hang in there and see if we can develop that because at this time I don’t feel great about that.”
Deal with reality
Yes, Kansas deserved to be No. 1, but if you look at the roster, you won’t find any surefire pros. There’s a chance that not one of these players will have a significant NBA career. That’s not the only barometer for how good a team is at the college level, but it should factor in how the Jayhawks prepare for the road ahead.
“Our margin for error is not near as much as what has been with some of our other teams,” Self said. “I don’t think we’ve separated ourselves from a talent standpoint at all. We have good enough players to win at a high level, but we have to be a unit.”
Kansas lost those games last week largely because it didn’t have the proper sense of urgency at the start. Creighton jumped out to a 10-2 lead out of the gate. Missouri was up by 18 with two-and-a-half minutes to go in the first half. You’d think by now the Jayhawks would understand that their opponents and their crowds bring their A game every time out. If they’re not able to meet that energy at the tip, they’re going to keep running uphill.
Following the Missouri loss, Self assigned blame on the coaching staff. “I don’t think we had ’em ready to play,” he said. “I don’t know that we’re close to finding our identity yet. If we don’t find it, then it won’t be a fun year.”
Like I said, there’s plenty of time for the Jayhawks to fix these issues and their coach is the best in the business at doing just that. But the twin losses were a sober reminder that there are no heroes in December. If the Jayhawks want to fly high again, they need to figure out who they are and play accordingly.
OTHER HOOP THOUGHTS
- The SEC’s domination of the ACC in their two-day challenge last week (the SEC won 14 of the 16 games, many by large margins) sparked a lot of discussion about just how bad the ACC is. And yes, there are reasons for that. Unlike the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, the ACC is filled either with private universities who don’t have the same size and enthusiasm of state school alumni bases when it comes to funding NIL collectives, or state schools who think they’re above chasing that cash. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Virginia.) The new pay-for-play revenue sharing model that goes into effect next season should lessen the dependence on outside money, but it won’t eliminate it. Last week’s results should be a huge wake-up call to this once-proud hoops league that tradition can only carry you so far. In the current era — and the one that’s coming — if you don’t devote resources to winning, you won’t win.
However, that narrative should be secondary to the more significant development – namely, that the 2024-25 SEC is shaping up to be the strongest conference in recent history. Missouri’s smackdown of Kansas was further evidence of that. I’ve got seven SEC schools in my Top 25 this week and four in my top seven. Every single team in this league is ranked No. 68 or higher on KenPom. For a frame of reference, the lowest-rated at-large team in last year’s NCAA Tournament was Virginia, which finished the season 68th on KenPom.
Of course, I’m not saying that all 16 SEC teams will get into the tourney, but I am saying that in my 30-plus years on the beat, I’ve also never seen anything like this, at least at this point in the season. When it comes to SEC hoops, I guess it just means more.
- Keeping it in the SEC, you won’t find many more impressive victories than Kentucky’s win over Gonzaga in Seattle on Saturday night. Not only did the Cats come back from 18 points down, they did it without their starting point guard Lamont Butler, who was out with an injured ankle. When Mark Pope brought in his former player from BYU, Jaxson Robinson, we all talked about the scoring punch he would bring. But he filled in admirably for Butler at the point and dished a game-high five assists to no turnovers. Unfortunately for the Cats, the win came at a cost as another guard, 6-foot-3 senior Kerr Kriisa, suffered what turned out to be a jones fracture in his foot during the second half. He’ll be out the next month or so.
- You probably have noticed there are lot more technical fouls being whistled for taunting in response to gestures that seem to be rather innocuous. This is by design. The men’s basketball rules committee has made sportsmanship a point of emphasis. With regards to gestures like the “ice in my veins” point, three goggles and the like, the distinction to be made is whether the player is doing it in celebration or whether he is directing at an opposing player or bench. If it’s the latter, it’s an automatic T.
The “ice in my veins” gesture is especially problematic because it could easily be construed with a player mimicking a gun — and that is a very specific no-no. I’m all for celebrating and having fun, but everyone needs to be cognizant of the fact that if there’s any inkling that a player is taunting, he’s going to get teed up.
Inside the SEC: The Ace Scorers Dominating at Ole Miss and Texas A&M
Plus: Tre Johnson’s MVP honors and Tennessee powerhouse Chaz Lanier- In case you haven’t noticed, I am all in on Michigan State. The Spartans entered their game at Minnesota last Wednesday as the second-worst three-point shooting team in the country. They drilled 11 of 22 from behind the arc and won going away, 90-72. Then they made 9 of 23 in an 89-52 win at home over Nebraska on Saturday. The thing that’s so impressive is that this team has at least seven players who are capable of converting from long-distance. That includes 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Xavier Booker, the heralded recruit who is finally playing impactful minutes. Michigan State doesn’t have a go-to player like it did last season in Tyson Walker, but in a season where there is no dominant Big Ten team, I could very well see the Spartans rise to the top of the standings.
- North Carolina’s R.J. Davis and Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis were runaway choices to be named preseason All-ACC. Davis was the league’s player of the year last season. But thus far those two are mired in protracted shooting slumps. Davis is shooting 24.3 percent from three and scoring 18.1 points per game. A year ago he averaged 21.2 on 39.8 percent three-point shooting. That would not be as much of a problem if North Carolina had the type of frontcourt size and depth it has had in the past, but the Heels are woefully thin in the paint. They rank 242nd in the country in offensive rebound percentage.
As for Sallis, he is averaging 16.3 points on 24.6 percent three-point shooting, down from 18.0 and 40.5 last season. Normally, I’d say players of this caliber are too good to be this bad for much longer. But the season is five weeks old and the turnaround hasn’t happened yet.
- Former Oklahoma State point guard turned broadcaster Doug Gottlieb took over at Green Bay this year with much fanfare. Preditably, his Phoenix have struggled to a 2-8 start. One of the bright spots — or so we thought — has been the play of 6-foot-5 senior guard Anthony Roy. He went into Saturday’s home game against Cleveland State leading the nation in scoring at 28.0 points per game, but Gottlieb had suggested earlier in the week that he was not happy with Roy’s shot selection and was considering reducing his playing time. Gottlieb followed through in a major way by having Roy sit on the bench for the entirety of Green Bay’s 83-61 loss.
Gottlieb, who is still hosting his daily show on Fox Sports Radio and is as media savvy as they come, was cryptic after the game as to the reasons behind the benching, saying only, “There’s things that transpired that I don’t find appropriate to play today and I made the personal decision to not play him. I know how I want to do it and too many times in my life and too many times in the last six months I have acquiesced.”
After the game, Roy posted a statement on social media admitting that he had skipped the team’s pregame shootaround and described being sat out “a very humbling experience.” It’s impossible to know everything that goes on at practice and inside a locker room, but this is the type of moment that is not only teachable for the player involved, but for every other player who comes into the program. It will be interesting to see how this plays out the rest of the season – these situations often times go south, as Gottlieb knows well. But in the short term, it appears that Gottlieb’s message got through.
- This week’s best player you haven’t heard of (yet) is Penn State forward Yanic Konan Niederhauser. The 6-foot-10 junior forward from Switzerland transferred from Northern Illinois, where over two seasons he averaged 5.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. Through the Nittany Lions’ first nine games, Niederhauser is averaging 13.3 points on 69.2 percent shooting to go along with 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. He is a mobile big with an intriguing skill set and an excellent lob finisher. Mike Rhoades has Penn State on the cusp of the top 25, most notably with am 81-70 home win over Purdue on Thursday.
- Don’t look now, but Rhode Island is still undefeated under third-year coach Archie Miller. The Rams went 21-44 during Miller’s first two seasons, but they are 9-0 with wins last week over Yale and Providence. To be sure, Miller didn’t put together the hardest non-conference schedule. KenPom has them projected to win the next seven games. But the win over the Friars gave URI bragging rights as well as a jolt of confidence. As is typical of Miller’s teams over the years, the Rams aren’t always the prettiest offensive team, but they win with defense and toughness. URI ranks 11th in the country in effective field goal percentage defense and fourth in three-point D.
