With this KU team, it might be time to redefine what pretty basketball looks like
Bill Self grabbed the bottom of the microphone, smirking slightly as he said what was likely going through many Kansas fans’ heads following the Jayhawks’ 72-56 win over Stanford on Sunday.
“Both teams were so inept offensively,” Self said in the first minute of his postgame news conference, “that I’m sure it was a hard game for a lot of people to watch the first half.”
An offensive display, it was not. KU led 28-18 at the break with the two teams combining for more turnovers at that point (24) than made field goals (17).
If one prefers watching flowing offenses and pinpoint shooting ... this was likely not great entertainment.
Waving this off as “ugly” basketball, though, misses something important.
Though Stanford did struggle offensively, there was a good reason that happened.
“I thought our defense was really good,” Self said.
And it’s worth going back for a second and third look to see how KU accomplished this.
Here’s a great example: One of the Jayhawks’ best defensive possessions came at the 14:14 mark of the first half, and it shows how many things must be done properly for a team to give itself the best chance of success on that end.
Starting at the 14:09 mark — when Stanford’s Tyrell Terry comes up from the lane to get the basketball — here’s a list of all that happens over the next few moments.
1. Devon Dotson gets caught on a guard-to-guard switch, and he yells and points for teammate Isaiah Moss to take Terry
2. Moss recovers well and passes off his man to Dotson, then prepares for another ball screen, with teammate Marcus Garrett already talking to him before it happens; the two switch that screen as well
3. Following those exchanges, Moss is guarding Stanford 6-foot-9 big man Oscar da Silva, who tries to post him up inside; Moss fights for position, though, and gets around to fronting da Silva while preventing a pass inside
4. Teammates Udoka Azubuike and Ochai Agbaji also do their best to discourage a pass to da Silva — Stanford’s leading scorer — with immediate recognition of the mismatch; both assist by putting both feet in the lane to make it look crowded, while also knowing they can give strong help, as both of the players they are defending are non-shooters from three-point range
5. Stanford swings the ball again into another ball screen, and Garrett slips around it; what’s important here is that both he and Azubuike have high hands to discourage a pass to the rolling man on the pick-and-roll — a play Stanford loves to seek out to get shots at the rim
6. Moss recognizes the play and stops the progress of Stanford’s roll man Lukas Kisunas to give Azubuike time to recover around the ball screen; this helps prevent a potential layup and will also mean he’ll have to quickly recover to his own man
7. Dotson steps up to help cover for Moss, anticipating a pass to the top of the key and stealing it when Stanford has a brief moment of bad spacing with two players in the same spot
Everything that took place above happened in 11 seconds of real time. That short span, for KU, required communication, cohesion and anticipation — and also all five defenders on the court.
The final result was a Stanford turnover.
“I thought we played the scouting report,” Self said of his team’s performance defensively. “I thought our switches were good. I thought, for the most part, we defended the arc and kept the ball out of the lane, which is kind of hard to do sometimes.
“I thought we guarded against Villanova, too. But I thought we were turned up defensively.”
This could be the start of important progress for KU. It’s one thing to be good defensively by simply relying on talent; the Jayhawks obviously have plenty of that with a feared rim-protector (Azubuike), multiple guys who can slide well (Dotson, Garrett and Agbaji) and even some length coming off the bench from its perimeter players (Tristan Enaruna, Christian Braun).
It’s another thing, though to completely buy into becoming an elite defensive team. That takes a studying of tendencies and prep work and talking with teammates and a tough mentality.
KU took a step Sunday toward becoming one of those rare teams that has both of those above qualities. The Jayhawks, while holding Stanford to its worst point-per-possession total of the season, also moved itself up to second nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency behind only Virginia.
This is impressive considering recent history. Self, while fully earning the reputation of being a defensive-minded coach throughout his career, hasn’t seen his team crack the top 15 in adjusted defensive efficiency in any of the last three seasons.
That’s likely to change in 2019-20.
KU began the season with the ingredients needed for a dominant defensive team, and if Sunday is any indication, the Jayhawks are quickly embracing the extra effort needed to make other teams play poorly.
It may not always be pretty. And it can look choppy at times.
But this can be beautiful basketball too ... if one simply knows where to look.
