Here’s what stood out about KU Jayhawks basketball roster from Late Night scrimmage
Kansas coach Bill Self — following his team’s NCAA Tournament loss to USC last March — vowed to address his team’s needs in recruiting, which included a goal to “get a little bit more athletic.”
Though Friday’s Late Night in the Phog’s 20-minute scrimmage only offered a small glimpse of what KU’s 2021-22 season will be like ... it certainly seemed to indicate Self had succeeded the last few months in increasing the team’s speed.
In the end, point guards Remy Martin, Dajuan Harris, Joseph Yesufu and Bobby Pettiford all had flashes where they showed quickness in the Crimson team’s 41-30 scrimmage victory over Blue.
“You can’t tell anything by tonight, but yeah, we’re pretty athletic, fast. We play faster,” Self said afterward. “We’ve got more guys that can push it. Even our veterans push it better than they did last year.”
On Friday, that not only led to some fastbreak points, but also scoring on unselfish plays. Harris had three assists, while Martin and Yesufu added two apiece and Pettiford had one.
Senior Ochai Agbaji, on the Blue team, was the one who benefited most, as his 12 points led all scorers.
“All the little guards that we’ve got can get up and down,” Agbaji said. “Defensively, picking up full court, they can do stuff like that — good stuff that we haven’t seen in a couple years.”
Earlier this week, Self praised Harris, saying he’d be the point-guard starter if the season started this week, as Martin is still learning KU’s system while recovering from an ankle injury. Harris had one of KU’s most complete stat lines Friday, scoring seven points on 3-for-5 shooting with his three assists and two steals in 18 minutes.
Self also lauded Yesufu on the ESPN+ telecast with broadcasters Brian Hanni and Greg Gurley, saying the 6-foot transfer from Drake had a vertical jump of around 43 inches.
KU’s point-guard additions come a year after the team often struggled on the run. The Jayhawks’ adjusted shooting percentage in transition ranked 290th nationally a season ago according to Hoop-Math.com, which was more than 200 spots lower than the previous season with point guard Devon Dotson (85th).
Iowa State transfer Jalen Coleman-Lands said he’d enjoyed playing with KU’s shifty point guards in early drills.
“I feel like I mean having those type of guys on the team just raises the level for everyone else,” Coleman-Lands said. “We’ve got some guys who can run — from the guards to the bigs — and I think that was strategic. That’ll be our game style for this upcoming year.”
Self said he also envisioned KU’s offensive approach would shift with the new weapons available.
“Playing fast doesn’t necessarily mean shooting fast, but I think we’ll be a team that can definitely have really good ball and body movement by the time we get to play in games, at least I’m hopeful for that,” Self said. “That wasn’t ball tonight, but we’ve really done a good job of doing that the first couple of practices.”
