‘Patient’ power forward David McCormack no longer ‘trying to rush plays’ for Jayhawks
A dominant player at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, McDonald’s All-American David McCormack admittedly had difficulty adjusting to college basketball his freshman year at the University of Kansas.
No longer “sped up,” the 6-foot-10, 265-pound Norfolk, Virginia native, who committed 27 turnovers in 34 games as a freshman in 2018-19, is starting to play to his No. 35 national ranking in the recruiting Class of 2018.
A career-high 28-point scoring performance in KU’s 98-57 victory over UMKC on Saturday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City hiked the sophomore power forward’s scoring average to 9.9 points per game on 62.7 percent shooting.
He has just 12 turnovers in 168 total minutes.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the game slowing down (for me),” McCormack said after hitting 11 of 14 shots and 6 of 6 free throws in Saturday’s rout. He also had seven rebounds, two steals, one assist and two turnovers in just 16 minutes, 36 seconds.
“Coming off of our first year, coming into this year, I know that was my biggest thing: waiting for the game to slow down, being more patient and not trying to rush plays. That’s what I’ve been focusing on and that’s why my game has changed a lot,” added McCormack, who averaged 3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds as a freshman. He’s pulled down five rebounds a game through 10 outings this year.
He explained that technical aspects of the game are “slowing down” for him now.
“The best way to describe it,” McCormack said, “is you get the ball, (and) instead of trying to rush and get a quick pass or trying to make an open look, to just wait for the open looks to come to you.
“People are going to be moving. The defenders are going to be on their toes. As a player, those right moments of when to shoot, when to pass, when to drive ... those moments are just going to hit you, and you’re going to see it more clearly when the game slows down.”
KU coach Bill Self has noticed the improvement in McCormack between the player’s freshman and sophomore seasons.
“He can shoot the ball. He’s worked hard,” Self said. “His range isn’t three-point, but 15 to 18 feet (he’s effective). He can make free throws (15 of 22, 68.2%).”
Looking mighty comfortable shooting the mid-range jumper Saturday, McCormack said afterward: “That’s my game. I’ve been working on my mid-range, expanding my game and my shooting.”
KU outscored UMKC 52-24 in the paint. Senior center Udoka Azubuike and junior forward Silvio De Sousa scored nine points apiece for the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks (9-1).
“When you have our size (6-10 Javan White had 12 points; no other UMKC player is over 6-8), you really have two choices: You can front it and try to bring backside help for lob-protect, or you can try and lap off the other big, which was effective in the first (half), but then they buried us in the second half,” UMKC coach Billy Donlon said. “We gave up transition layups that eighth-grade teams shouldn’t give up — and I don’t mean that to be disrespectful of Kansas. That’s all on me, I’m the head coach. It’s not our players’ fault, that’s my responsibility,” Donlon added.
Game plan discussed
UMKC led 13-10 nine minutes into Saturday’s game despite playing without injured point guard Jahshire Hardnett. By halftime, the Jayhawks led 43-24.
Donlon explained his team’s strategy: “We wanted to make (Devon) Dotson ... we wanted to make it hard for him to catch once he gave it up. In the first half, we did that.”
Dotson had 10 points at halftime and finished with 18.
“We wanted to try and trap Dotson’s ball screens,” Donlon said. “We wanted to try to make guys shooters who aren’t great shooters ... (Marcus) Garrett made two threes in the first half (eight points in the half and 13 for game). If he makes one of those, that’s three less points. But at the end of the day, when you play Kansas, you can’t give up 24 points in the first half on turnovers for touchdowns...”
KU had 18 points off turnovers and six second-chance points off rebounds in the first half. UMKC (5-7) committed 22 turnovers overall to KU’s 10 and was outrebounded 39-24.
“I thought we could get some decent looks. I joked that we were the (Los Angeles) Lakers in the ‘80s, because we had about six layups roll around and go out, which maybe we would have had a little better number,” Donlon said. “And that is credit to their shot-blocking. You’re always worried about it, but we did have a lot of balls spin out in the second half to maybe get it to a little more manageable number. I thought we got the ball to some decent places for us.”
UMKC hit 42.3 percent of its shots to KU’s 57.6 percent.
Nice half for De Sousa
De Sousa had no points and no rebounds in five minutes the first half. He finished with nine points, seven rebounds and three blocks in 20 minutes.
“I was excited. He had me out of my chair a lot,” KU guard Dotson said of watching De Sousa from the bench. “He picked it up the second half as far as his activity level. He was blocking shots, offensive rebounding. It was great to see him playing like that.”
Best game in KC in Self era
KU’s 41-point victory over UMKC marked the Jayhawks’ largest margin of victory in a game in Kansas City in the 17-year Bill Self era. KU beat Washington State by 37 (78-41) in 2012-13 and Ohio by 37 (88-51) in 2007-08, both at Sprint Center.
It was KU’s biggest margin of victory in KC since a 100-46 victory over UMKC during the 2002-03 season at Kemper Arena. That was Roy Williams’ final season at KU.
