How one freshman helped KU basketball past Oklahoma — with plays you might’ve missed
Mitch Lightfoot had the best look, so it was only fair to ask him about the most impressive pass from Kansas’ 69-62 victory over Oklahoma on Thursday night.
KU’s 23-point lead had been trimmed to three with about three minutes left. The Jayhawks were laboring offensively, and point guard Dajuan Harris needed to make something happen ... and quickly.
He ended up doing so with a simple ball screen. Lightfoot set it, then rolled to the basket before receiving a bounce pass that narrowly missed two pairs of Oklahoma hands.
When recalling the moment during a Zoom call afterward, Lightfoot held his thumbs and forefingers in “L” shapes, leaving about a postcard of space in between them.
“You look at that,” Lightfoot said, “and he fit that into a window that was about this big.”
Harris has made more than his share of these types of winning plays for KU lately. That included the ensuing possession, when he took a charge on Oklahoma’s Austin Reaves to help KU seal its victory.
“Dude, he’s everywhere,” Lightfoot said. “He impacts everything.”
And unconventional as he might be as a mostly unheralded 6-foot-1, 170-pound freshman, Harris — much like the last game he played — proved to be a vital contributor for KU just ahead of the season’s most important games.
He was dominant defensively early, with KU coach Bill Self labeling him as “arguably best player of the game in the first half.” Harris showed the full defensive arsenal, sneaking in for a steal with help defense on one possession before raking it away from the much bigger Brady Manek when Manek tried to muscle him down low.
Harris had four steals in the first half alone, and he also was the biggest reason the normally ball-secure Sooners appeared spooked while turning it over 13 times ahead of the break.
“He can make teams second-guess themselves,” Lightfoot said.
And with the game in the balance later, Harris came through with unselfish plays as well.
When Ochai Agbaji scored 14 straight in the second half during a dazzling shooting stretch ... he owed Harris some credit for more than half those points.
An out-of-bounds play that helped start the run? That was Harris seeing Agbaji come open and lobbing it to him in the correct spot for an easy two.
Agbaji’s first three of the stretch? That was Harris, unguarded, taking a few dribbles into the lane before keenly flipping it back, knowing full well that Agbaji’s spot-up attempt was a better shot for the team.
Harris made sure the hot hand got it after that too, screening Agbaji’s man to open him up for his third consecutive three with a subtle movement that likely wasn’t caught by most fans in real-time.
“I thought Dajuan was special,” Self said afterward.
And KU’s coach is human like the rest of us. Self admitted afterward he loves watching Harris play when he’s aggressive, with part of the reason for that being that “I guess the little guy — always — you want to see the little guy do well.”
Harris is still early in his development. He could stand to gain a lot of muscle, and his lack of shooting ability still has the potential to give KU spacing issues.
There are times he loses focus as well. A couple plays in the second half, Harris appeared to have open layups before fumbling it out of bounds. On one of those instances, he didn’t attempt to grab a pass with two hands — one of Self’s biggest pet peeves.
And even considering all that ... things just seem to go better for KU when Harris is in. Self says Harris has the team’s best hands defensively when he’s engaged, and his constant hounding on Thursday seemed to frustrate the Sooners to the point that they were too uncomfortable to pick apart KU’s other deficiencies.
Offensively, Harris’ best strength might be his own awareness. He knows who he is, and is smart enough to understand areas his teammates are better than him. Often, that means he looks to find them first, then adjusts quickly if a defense chooses to completely lay off him too.
His playing time is increasing. Harris’ 29 minutes were a career-high Thursday, and though that came when KU had two rotation players sitting out because of COVID-19 protocols, it’s likely he’d have come close to that regardless thanks to his level of play while he was in.
Self, in retrospect, marveled at his team’s ability to win on a night when so many starters were off. Christian Braun went scoreless. Bryce Thompson was almost a non-factor. Jalen Wilson was 2 for 10 overall with multiple misses at the rim.
These things sometimes happen in March. The good teams still win when they play defense, and also when they have guys who make those around them better.
Harris proved invaluable with both of those Thursday.
While showing some flashes his best is ahead.
