John Calipari’s KU compliment is true, illogical ... and also why the Jayhawks won
John Calipari regretted one play the most, and perhaps it’s best to start there following Kansas’ 65-62 victory over Kentucky on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic.
Here was the situation: 25 seconds left, Wildcats down three, KU’s Ochai Agbaji missing a pair of free throws.
And then ... the game-changer, according to Kentucky’s coach.
“Let me tell you what they did to us in the second half,” Calipari said, “They punked us.”
This was just one example, but a fitting one for sure.
KU guard Christian Braun, at 6-foot-6, stood outside the lane with 6-10 forward Kentucky forward Isaiah Jackson in front of him. This was crunch time during one of the most anticipated matchups of the college basketball season, with the two colliding for a free-throw rebounding situation that, on NCAA average, goes to the defense 6 times out of 7.
What happened next would be a theme of the final minute. Braun gave Jackson a little boost. The Kentucky big man was a bit soft and unfocused with his boxout. Jackson failed to go up with two hands for the rebound while also struggling to keep his balance.
And then suddenly — somehow — Braun had the ball, dribbling it out to waste time before getting fouled himself.
“We guarded them,” Calipari lamented afterward. “We just weren’t rough enough.”
Read that statement again. Now one more time.
These sentences shouldn’t be true. They don’t make logical sense, considering all the circumstances.
Yet this was the reality Tuesday, reflecting one of the biggest revelations for this KU team of the early season:
The Jayhawks, even when playing small, have shown an ability to punch well above their weight.
Let’s be clear: If you had the choice of one team winning the physicality battle by appearance alone, you’d take Kentucky.
The Wildcats, coming in, had the tallest rotation in the country. They have two projected 2021 Lottery picks, while also featuring enough wingspan and athleticism to block 12 shots against KU without making it look difficult.
And when the game was on the line in the final minute? KU countered all that with ... zero true big men. No one above 6-foot-8. And five players with an average weight of 197 pounds.
Yet, play after play, situation after situation, there were instances that showed the qualities of KU coach Bill Self’s best teams.
There was a late Kentucky missed three-pointer, when 6-8 Jalen Wilson bodied up 7-foot Olivier Sarr, ensuring the latter wouldn’t get to an offensive rebound.
The game’s final shot was even more telling. After Kentucky’s three-point try missed with 5 seconds left, there’s a moment where Sarr appears to be in a perfect spot to pick off the carom.
When you freeze-frame the broadcast, Sarr is going up. Others are not. He’s also at least half a foot taller than anyone else around him.
Yet what happens next? Somehow, he doesn’t get it. Somehow, Braun does below him.
And KU, not surprisingly, wins this particular battle with willpower.
KU’s Marcus Garrett elevates to tip the ball from behind. Braun reacts quickly and wrestles it away underneath.
Then the Jayhawks run out the clock, securing both a rebound that seemed improbable and a result that should’ve been unlikely.
“I’m really pleased,” Self said, “with how tough we played.”
Stick around Self long enough, and you know the descriptors he loves to use for players: “Bulldog.” “Alpha.” “Tough.”
He had quite a few Tuesday who fit the description.
There was Wilson, who muscled his way into the paint time and again while fearlessly attacking shot-blockers. There was Braun, who scrapped his way to a game-high 13 rebounds, mostly by wanting the ball more than everyone else.
There was Garrett, who played 35 minutes through obvious illness. And finally there was Agbaji, who kept focus through early shooting woes to anchor KU’s switchable defense.
“When the ball’s not going in the hole, and you have to shoot threes, and they’re blocking everything you’re putting up on the glass it seems like early on,” Self said, “those are hard games to win.”
KU won it all the same, using a common Self formula with somewhat unlikely protagonists — ones who wouldn’t appear to be physical but actually are.
Self can work with this. KU is probably less talented than a year ago, and there are times when the roster’s deficiencies could be exposed by clever coaches or schemes.
One still won’t be able to count KU out, though, simply because of a lesson it proved Tuesday.
Punking, it turns out, can be a winning formula too.
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 3:46 AM.
