What do we think folks? A statement-making blowout would have been nice following the loss, but a win is a win. Here are our takeaways.
Furphy’s Not Slowing Down
In case anyone thought Johnny Furphy’s last 2 1st half performances were a fluke, last night should have everyone convinced that Furphy-mania is here to stay. With his parents in the stands, the freshman went off for a career high 23 points, a complete game performance including a late dagger 3. On the night he only missed one field goal attempt, going 3-4 from deep and 6-7 overall. That is about as good a night as anyone has had all season. Then on top of that you add his rebounding, and it just gets better and better. Going up against the best rebounding team in the Big 12, Furphy not only grabbed 11 rebounds, but did so going up against two giants inside where he had a significant size disadvantage. He has the Jalen Wilson knack to know where the ball is going to go and the Christian Braun athleticism to go up and get it in front of taller centers. Self said “Without him on the boards, we would have really had it handed to us. He was the best player on the floor.”
His scoring and rebounding were both on full display during the opening minutes, where he flew in seemingly from out of nowhere to grab an offensive rebound, kick it out, and then relocate to get the ball again for an open 3.
Defense
With all that said, we’re not going to let Furphy off the hook defensively. He’s young and possesses the size and athleticism to become a good defender relatively soon, but there are just some players who seem to take advantage of him as of now, both in terms of strength and quickness. A Dan Skillings blow by dunk was the most glaring point although Skillings is a great athlete who could get NBA looks if things go well. There just seems to be moments where you wish McCullar was guarding instead. KU has created a nice defensive identity through switching everything, but if it were up to me I would hide Furphy a little bit more and have McCullar fight through screens to stay with the best opposing wing or guard. As of now it’s pretty easy for opposing teams to get almost whatever matchup they want. That’s just my idea though. It might be too late in the season or maybe Furphy won’t be as much of a liability as I’m making him out to be
Rebounding
Going up against the best rebounding team in the conference and one of the best overall, a struggle was expected on the boards going into this one. But it’s still worth noting that Cincinnati had 16 offensive rebounds, grabbing one on 38% of their misses. It is a little concerning that KU’s leading rebounder by a significant margin the last two games is a freshman guard who hasn’t been starting too long. The staff has reportedly challenged KJ Adams to improve his rebounding and while he had 10 against Oklahoma, he hasn’t had more than 5 since then. On the season, Hunter Dickinson has been a quite a good rebounder, getting 11 boards per game. But if you look at his last 5 games, he had 14 against Oklahoma, but not more than 6 in any of the other 4. This includes a late possession against West Virginia where he appeared to have an easy rebound, but got out hustled by a mountaineer who kept the possession alive. And while we’re on the topic of West Virginia, let’s not forget it was 3 straight offensive rebounds with under a minute left that sealed the upset win. Every starter but Harris has the tools and/or experience to be a great rebounder. Rebounding seems like it’s never the main issue in a game, but it will be tough to win the conference if it doesn’t improve.
ESPN Halftime Report
The ESPN halftime report with Greenberg and Jay Williams brought up a few interesting points. The first, which got a lot of backlash from the jayhawk faithful, was that KU’s best offensive players can’t defend, and the best defenders can’t score. While this is obviously a slap in the face to Kevin McCullar, I can see it ringing true for Furphy (good offense, needs defense), Harris (good defense, needs scoring), and Dickinson occasionally (random big guys have been having good games against us recently, although he shut down Victor Lakhin).
The other point that they brought up was KU’s lack of athleticism and natural scoring, saying how Jayhawks have a good system to score some points despite this, but just need a lot more things to go right than they have needed in the past. I think there’s a lot of truth to this one. All season I’ve looked with optimism at how KU leads the country in assists per game. And while I’d rather lead the country in assists than not lead the country in assists, I do think it is indicative of a lack of individual creation and a reliance on scoring within a system. Scoring within some sort of system is great, especially when your coach is Bill Self. But when things break down, when you go up against a great defense, you need some individuals who can create offense out of nothing. McCullar and Dickinson have potential there, as does Furphy.
A Few More Things
McCullar’s inefficient night had me looking back on his past games this season and he’s actually been a decently efficient scorer since a rough stretch against Missouri and Indiana. Hopefully Monday night was more of an outlier rather than precursor in terms of his shooting. It was weird that I was more comfortable with a KJ midrange shot, than a McCullar one last night, but that’s the world we live in now (shoutout to the KJ midrange though, looks pretty good).
The annual Dajuan Harris rollercoaster is currently in a little bit of a dip, with a lot of fans upset at his current play. First, let me ask, who else do we have? Even the most avid Elmarko fans would agree that Harris is about the only option for point guard right now. But I can agree that him not looking to score is making it easier for opponents to guard everyone else. Last night though, he had at least a couple possessions where his driving to the rim opened up some kick-out 3s. A few more of those per game could go a long way.
Run from it, hide from it, we can’t ignore the recurring problem from the past two seasons. Kansas had just 2 bench points last night, and it very easily could have been zero if not for some late Elmarko free throws. A couple things to note though. This KU team is deeper than they were 3 weeks ago. While the bench points remain the same, Furphy’s explosion is a much needed scorer that wasn’t there before. The difference is that he is scoring so much that he needs to start. Another important thing to remember is that benches don’t exactly win in March. A solid rotation of 8 guys seems like the goldilocks amount. KU’s 3 bench guys just happen to be 2 non scorers and a scorer who’s not scoring very much.
And speaking of said scorer, Timberlake appeared to have some sort of quarrel with Self last night. The jayhawk scoopmeister Mike Vernon is saying that it’s nothing to worry about. With Furphy unlocking his offensive superpowers, Timberlake could be the last piece if he can get a little consistency coming off the bench.