Big man David McCormack drills huge three-point basket in KU’s 59-51 win over TCU
Kansas 5-man David McCormack accepted a pass from well-covered wing Ochai Agbaji and let fly a three-point shot in crunch time of Thursday’s low-scoring KU-TCU basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I was talking to one of my teammates. I told him once it left my hand I knew it was going in. I was already getting back on defense,” the 6-foot-10, 265-pound McCormack said after swishing the first three-pointer in his three-year Kansas career in KU’s 59-51 slump-busting win over the Horned Frogs.
So why was the KU junior pivot, who finished with a team-leading 15 points and six rebounds, so sure he’d launched a shot that would splash successfully through the net?
“I had some previous plays where I kind of felt I was in a groove. I took the shot with confidence,” said McCormack. He hit 2 of 7 shots for four points the first half and was 5 of 6 the final stanza for 11 points.
That three followed two buckets from reserve wing Tyon Grant-Foster and turned a 43-43 tie into a 50-43 KU lead with just 4 minutes, 6 seconds remaining.
After a TCU free throw, Agbaji and Marcus Garrett (eight points, seven boards, four turnovers) scored on back-to-back dunks, and KU, which scored just 18 points in the first half and trailed by as many as seven early in the second, led 54-44 at 3:11.
“I thought it was the biggest basket of the game,” KU coach Bill Self said of McCormack’s trey after the Jayhawks improved to 11-5 overall and 5-4 in the Big 12 Conference. TCU, which was led by Mike Miles’ 18 points, fell to 9-6, 2-5.
“Yes, I was hoping he would shoot it. There were 2 seconds on the shot clock,” Self added of McCormack not hesitating and knocking down his first career three-point basket in three attempts. He entered the game 0 for 0 this season and 0 for 2 a season ago.
“He didn’t have time to pass it,” Self added, “so he had to shoot it. David’s a good shooter. David and Mitch (Lightfoot, two points, four boards, three blocks, 14 minutes) can both make that. Neither one has had a chance to shoot them. That was big by Dave. He had to take it, stepped up and made it,” Self added.
Agbaji, who scored 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting (2 of 9 from three), said initially he was thinking about driving on the play.
“I called him (McCormack) up for a screen. He picked and popped up to the top,” Agbaji said. “I saw his man stay in. I threw it to him. It was a huge shot. That was good (he made it).”
It’s a shot Agbaji doesn’t see attempted a lot.
“He doesn’t even shoot those in practice,” Agbaji said of McCormack launching threes. “It was kind of different. I’ve seen him shoot threes before, (but) when we’re playing 5-on-5 he doesn’t really shoot those.”
McCormack said head coach Self has actually seen him hoist a three or two, but not in games, of course.
“Coach and I talked about it a little in the preseason. I would shoot some in practice, in pickup games. He said if it fees good and you are wide open you can shoot it,” McCormack said.
Asked if he has a green light for threes now, McCormack joked: “I would say yellow light right now until I get some more to fall.”
Junior-college transfer Grant-Foster had those two big buckets prior to the McCormack three. He had a driving layup then a rebound and follow shot that helped open the lead.
Grant-Foster and Dajuan Harris (seven points, three assists, three steals in 22 minutes) started the second half with McCormack, Agbaji and Garrett.
Grant-Foster finished with nine points, five rebounds and three turnovers in 17 second-half minutes.
“He was great today,” Agbaji said of Grant-Foster, the former Indian Hills Community College and Schlagle High School standout. “He’s been kind of struggling in practice for a while now. We needed him as a spark the second half. He gave us that. I’m proud of him.”
Grant-Foster hit 3 of 6 shots and 3 of 5 free throws.
“We were going to try anything,” Self said of the new lineup the second half in response to a horrid first half in which KU scored just 18 points and trailed by one at the break.
“Tyon did some things athletically. That was good. He sparked us. He is an athlete who has not had the chance to play at all,” Self added. “I was happy for him. It was his first real chance to contribute in a crucial situation.”
Grant-Foster — who entered the game with 12 points the entire Big 12 season — said after the game: “When Coach told me at half that I’d start, at that moment I knew we needed a spark, not on the offensive end but defensive. We weren’t scoring. I knew if we started to get stops the lid would come off the basket.”
NOTES: The Jayhawks’ 18-point first half was the team’s lowest point total in a half since scoring 13 total in the first half of a 62-55 loss at TCU on Feb. 6, 2013. … KU won for the first time in four games, following an unsuccessful three-game road trip that featured losses at Oklahoma State, Baylor and Oklahoma. ... KU had defeated TCU by 29 points earlier in this season — 93-64 on Jan. 5 in Fort Worth. … KU is set to next meet Tennessee in an SEC/Big 12 Challenge game at 5 p.m., Saturday, at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Jayhawks are set to return to Big 12 competition Feb. 2 against Kansas State (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 9:14 PM.
