No. 4 Kansas survives scare from Harvard, wins 75-69

Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. Midway through the second half. The following scene takes place. Perry Ellis had just come up empty on another layup attempt, an errant attempt that had too much velocity and too much English. No. 4 Kansas led Harvard by just a bucket. The stress level inside this old barn was ratcheting up by the second.

In the moments after Kansas was whistled for a foul, ending another quiet possession, Ellis walked past the Kansas bench and stepped into the line of sight of Kansas coach Bill Self.

“C’mon!” Self yelled. “Show some emotion one time.”

Ellis, the Jayhawks’ senior power forward, jogged back on defense. In moments like this one on Saturday, Ellis can cut an enigmatic figure. He is an All-American candidate who will likely lead the Jayhawks in scoring, but his facial expressions can be limited to grimaces and stone-faced stares. He does not shout or preen or do anything of the sort. On most days, he just scores.

On Saturday afternoon, as the game hung in the balance, and Harvard tied the game with 7:35 left, Self requested more. Ellis did not respond with fire. But he did reel off five straight points — a three-point play and a jumper — that shifted the momentum in the Jayhawks’ 75-69 victory, an ugly act of survival against an Ivy League opponent that entered with just two victories.

“I’m just glad we got the win,” Ellis said, standing outside the KU locker room. “I’m missing bunnies and stuff. It’s something I’m going to get out of. I just try not to think about it too much.”

As Kansas improved to 6-1 on the season, the backcourt duo of Frank Mason and Devonte’ Graham provided most of the manual labor. Mason finished with 21 points, five assists, four steals and three rebounds. Graham offered 12 points, three assist and three steals. But as Self pondered the close call, he took a moment to assess Ellis’ mini slump. In the Jayhawks’ last three games — all victories — Ellis is averaging just 10.6 points and six rebounds. On Saturday, he converted 5 of 11 from the field, missed a handful of easy looks and finished with just four rebounds.

“I don’t know,” Self said. “He’s such a good player. He played way below the rim today. He hasn’t been the same since we got back from Maui, and I’m not speaking negatively at all, because I love his game. I think he’s so good. But he hasn’t been himself. He hasn’t been aggressive.”

The performance of Ellis served as an approximate proxy for the rest of the Jayhawks. In 40 minutes, Kansas was outrebounded 39-31, taking a beating on the boards, and Self fixated on a list of mental errors. There was guard Svi Mykhailiuk, forgetting that KU was trapping the post, which led to a Harvard dunk. There was guard Wayne Selden, limited by foul trouble all game, trying to fake a charge in the final minutes. Yes, another Harvard layup. There was Kansas, hitting just 13 of 25 from the free-throw line.

But the play that bothered Self the most came in the opening minutes. Leading 7-2 with 16 minutes left in the first half, Ellis and fellow forward Jamari Traylor allowed Harvard’s Agunwa Okolie to swoop in for a one-handed dunk. The Jayhawks have six post guys, Self explained, meaning a wealth of options should someone get into foul trouble. That nobody stepped up to hammer Okolie? That was a cardinal sin.

“That just is unbelievable to me,” Self said. “I mean, unbelievable. So one foul when we’ve got 30 to give? And we can’t foul once? That’s the kind of mind-set we’ve got to correct. Because if we correct that, we’ll obviously become more aggressive.”

For Self, aggressiveness was the key word Saturday. Facing a dearth of rebounding and toughness, he turned to junior forward Landen Lucas, who had missed Tuesday’s victory over Loyola (Maryland) while battling a sprained big toe. Lucas started the second half against Harvard and snared eight boards in 24 minutes. Lucas’ extended time, of course, came at a cost. Freshman forward Cheick Diallo, who made his season debut on Tuesday, played just seven minutes. Freshman forward Carlton Bragg logged just nine.

Self said he preferred to roll with Lucas because the burly junior provided the best defensive option on Harvard big man Zena Edosomwan, who hit Kansas for 10 points and 11 rebounds.

“He was by far the only big guy we had that could guard him one on one,” Self said. “And then we trapped some to help him a little bit, but for the most part, he did a great job there.

“When (Lucas) plays the minutes he plays and he doubles everybody else’s rebounds, that’s not a good sign. Obviously, the bigs aren’t rebounding the ball like we should. But I thought Landen played really well.”

When it was over, after the Jayhawks had ducked Harvard’s punch, Self was — perhaps surprisingly — not overly critical of the performance. He was unhappy with the rebounding, unhappy with the mistakes, but not overly displeased with the effort.

“I thought we played better than the score,” Self said. “I really did. I thought we played better than the score. Perry obviously had a rough night. But we got the ball right where we wanted it. And I don’t know how many layups we missed and free throws or the outcome wouldn’t have been as close.”

On Wednesday, Kansas will return to Allen Fieldhouse to face Holy Cross, a first opportunity to move on from Saturday’s sloppy outing. For starters, Self said, the Jayhawks need a little from their front-tier players, and for the moment, that begins with Ellis.

“He’s got to become more aggressive and more of a quick-twitch athlete, and he’s not right now,” Self said. “But we know that he can get that back. That is something that we’ll bank on.”

No. 4 KANSAS 75, HARVARD 69

TableStyle: SP-bkwideplayersCCI Template: SP-bkwideplayers

Percentages: FG .439, FT .800. Three-Point Goals: 7-19, .368 (McCarthy 3-7, Johnson 2-5, Steeves 1-2, Miller 1-4, Perez 0-1). Blocked Shots: 3 (Egi 2, Cummins). Turnovers: 19 (Johnson 4, Edosomwan 3, Egi 3, McCarthy 3, Cummins 2, Steeves 2, Okolie). Steals: 3 (Okolie 2, Steeves). Technical Fouls: None.

TableStyle: SP-bkwideplayersCCI Template: SP-bkwideplayers

Percentages: FG .475, FT .520. Three-Point Goals: 6-14, .429 (Mason III 2-3, Selden Jr. 2-3, Graham 1-2, Mykhailiuk 1-6). Blocked Shots: 5 (Traylor, Mickelson, Diallo, Selden Jr., Ellis). Turnovers: 12 (Traylor 3, Mason III 3, Ellis, Bragg Jr., Selden Jr., Graham, Mykhailiuk, Lucas). Steals: 11 (Mason III 4, Graham 3, Ellis 2, Bragg Jr., Traylor). Technical Fouls: None.

Half: Kansas 38-29. Att: N/A. Officials: Duke Edsall, Mike Roberts, Andrew Walton.

AP-WF-12-05-15 2237GMT

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 3:19 PM with the headline "No. 4 Kansas survives scare from Harvard, wins 75-69."