Freshman Christian Braun provides ‘spark’ in KU’s 60-53 win over West Virginia
Three members of Kansas’ basketball team played the full 20 minutes in the second half of the Jayhawks’ 60-53 come-from-behind victory over West Virginia on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse in a physical Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.
To nobody’s big surprise, Bill Self, KU’s 17th-year coach, went with Devon Dotson and Ochai Agbaji from start to finish in the half.
The third ironman turned out to be freshman Christian Braun, the same person who played two minutes against UNC Greensboro, four against Duke and Dayton and eight against East Tennessee State, BYU and Colorado. He’s the same Braun who averaged 11.5 minutes a game the initial 12 games.
“We decided to go with our toughest guys. Christian is one of our toughest guys,” Self said of the 6-foot-6, 205-pound freshman guard out of Blue Valley Northwest.
“Christian was a stabilizing force for us,” added Self, who also went with Udoka Azubuike 17 minutes and Marcus Garrett 16 the final half. The only two subs were Silvio De Sousa (four minutes) and David McCormack (three minutes).
Braun responded with six points and four rebounds with an assist and steal in the half as KU erased a 30-24 halftime deficit. The Jayhawks trailed by as many as 10 points that first half.
“We had to play small to have a chance to drive it or do something,” Self said. The Jayhawks indeed were able to survive a 3-of-17 three-point shooting performance and 19-of-30 effort from the line by driving effectively the final half.
Braun recorded what turned out to be the game-winning shot.
He drove, hit a floater and added a free throw with 11:57 left to erase a 38-37 deficit. That shot opened an 8-0 run that gave the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks (11-2) a 45-38 advantage.
“He played fairly conservative offense, made a couple big plays,” Self said of Braun. “Defense and rebounding … he went after the ball.”
Braun — he finished with five boards — took to heart some words of advice from junior guard Garrett (12 points, six assists) who spoke to Braun when he saw Braun would be starting the final half.
“I told him we need a spark, stops and be quick on the perimeter,” Garrett said. “We needed him.”
Braun responded so well in his 30 minutes of playing time that Self figures to trust him even more in the future.
“I can certainly see him playing a lot more moving forward especially in tough games like this,” Self said.
Braun said he understands why he was awarded 30 minutes Saturday against No. 16-ranked West Virginia (11-2) compared to limited duty in some other games. He has played 15 or more minutes in each of the last five contests.
“I knew there’d be ups and downs all year,” Braun said. “Things I had to work out. Early on I wasn’t doing the little things, wasn’t being myself or playing my role. I started doing the little things.”
Such as … “Make extra possessions for the team, offensive rebound, try not to do too much. When you don’t turn it over (he had no turnovers and two steals) and guard your man, coach will keep you in the game.”
Braun’s big bucket that gave KU the lead for good was a simple drive with soft touch on the floater.
“I think it was on Oscar (Tshiebwe). We had to get him back. He got us a lot the first half. It was a good bucket,” Braun said.
West Virginia freshman big man Tshiebwe scored 17 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, but, shadowed by Azubuike, scored just two points the final half. Derek Culver scored just five points to go with 12 rebounds. Garrett held the forward to 1-of-6 shooting.
Meanwhile for KU, Azubuike scored 17 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had a career-high six blocks. Azubuike was 6 of 6 from the field and 50 percent from the line (5 of 10).
“Oscar was the best player in the first half,” Self said, calling him a “monster.”
“Doke was the best player in the second half,” Self added.
KU held a 52-44 lead with 3:11 to play only to see West Virginia cut the gap to 52-49 with 1 minute, 18 seconds left. Garrett responded with a bucket to up the lead to five. But West Virginia cut it to 54-51 at 46.3 seconds on a pair of free throws. Garrett was then fouled and hit the two free throws to make it 56-51. Dotson (16 points, four steals) hit two free throws to make it 58-51 with 29 seconds left.
Tshiebwe, a 6-9 freshman from Democratic Republic of the Congo, scored 15 points and grabbed 10 boards while playing 17 minutes the first half to pace West Virginia to a 30-24 halftime advantage. He hit 6 of 8 shots the first half, his teammates 6 of 26. Jordan McCabe (seven points) chipped in five points in a half in which KU hit 2 of 11 of its threes and 6 of 13 free throws.
Dotson scored 12 points the initial half on 5-of-9 shooting. His teammates were 3 of 13 from the field.
“We’ll get a lot better,” Self said after a game in which the Jayhawks went 19 of 30 from the line and missed 14 of 17 threes; WVU was 12 of 22 from the line and 3 of 14 from three. “We’ve got to get a lot better. It’ll be more fun getting better with this under our belt,” he added.
KU in fact had just three players score the entire half. Azubuike had six points and seven boards in the half and was 4 of 8 from the line. Garrett also had six points in the half.
KU will meet Iowa State at 7 p.m., Wednesday, at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.
Game Notes: Twelve of KU’s conference opening wins have been at home and 17 on the road. … KU leads the all-time series against West Virginia 13-5 with wins in seven of the past eight meetings. … KU is 8-0 vs. WVU at Allen Fieldhouse, 2-5 at WVU Coliseum and 3-0 in the Big 12 Tournament. … Bill Self is 484-108 while at Kansas, 691-213 for his head coaching career. He is 13-5 versus WVU. … Kansas is 2,286-861 all-time. … KU has won 26 games in a row at Allen. … KU snapped WVU’s four-game win streak. … Bob Huggins is 5-17 all-time vs. KU; he’s 5-13 vs. KU as WVU coach. … Huggins is 871-364 in his 37th season as a head coach. He needs five more victories to tie Adolph Rupp for seventh place all-time.
This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 5:36 PM.
