Why Dajuan Harris’ teammates say they trash-talked him during KU’s win vs. Iowa State
The first shot to leave Iowa State guard Gabe Kalscheur’s hands followed a rebound, and that’s what caught Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris a bit flat-footed. The shot fell through the net because of it, same as six of his three-pointers had done a night earlier.
And that’s when the trash talk, aimed at Harris, began. But with a bit of a twist.
It was coming his own sideline.
“If he gives up one bucket,” KU guard Bobby Pettiford said, “me and Joe (Yesufu), we’re messing with him during the game — telling him he can’t guard him.”
Oh, but Harris would get the next word.
And the next.
And the last one too.
That’s kind of the whole point of the trash talk. To provoke moments like these.
The Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year sparked KU’s 71-58 victory against Iowa State in the conference tournament semifinal with, well, his defense.
There are several reasons why KU is positioning itself to return to Kansas City in a couple of weeks in the NCAA Tournament, when the real title defense begins. And if you saw the opening six minutes Friday evening at T-Mobile Center, you’d probably peg Jalen Wilson as the primary one. He scored 13 before many of his teammates had even taken a shot.
But KU isn’t headed back to another conference tournament final because of its offense. In fact, the game plan included hardly a mention of it.
In the quick-turnaround nature of these postseasons, Kansas coaches occupied the bulk of their limited time focusing on a tweak to their defense. And that focus narrowed to one player in particular.
Kalscheur had pried lose in a quarterfinal against Baylor, hitting the six threes and scoring 24 points. Before he even heard the scouting report, Harris already knew what awaited.
“Once they won, I was going to be able to guard him,” he said. “We had a little scouting meeting, and Coach told me. But I figured.”
When you hear the conversation about Harris being underrated ... though we’ve heard it so frequently that we’re certainly past that, right? ... or when you hear an opposing coach, like Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger, call Harris “the heartbeat of the team,” this is the justification.
The tempo of the game runs through him.
And he slowed Kalscheur to a virtual stop. Kalscheur got him once. And then once more before halftime on another three.
But not again. He finished 3 of 12 for eight points. Scored only one bucket after the half, and that came against Gradey Dick after Dick picked up him in transition.
“As good as the other guys are, and as much as Jalen Wilson is a tremendous scorer and great talent, Dajuan Harris controlled that game,” Otzelberger said.
The kinds of teams that win this time of year are those capable of getting the opponent out of their best stuff. It’s team-oriented, to be sure, but the Jayhawks have a luxury. They can unload the work on one player.
They don’t do it often, actually. They are known to switch screens with as many as four defenders. But Kalscheur required special attention — as did the type of offense ISU prefers to run to pry him loose.
Usually.
“They run a lot of actions that are kind of false motion that (make) you switch,” said Norm Roberts, filling in for Bill Self as KU’s interim coach for the tournament. “And now you got the wrong player guarding (Kalscheur), and now he can really get off and score. We told our guys we’re not going to do that. We’re going to keep Dajuan on Kalscheur the whole time.”
Harris was credited with four steals. Oh, he also scored 11 points on just four shots. Had six assists, too. And not a person in the post-game locker room was eager to mention that.
Because they knew. Earlier in this column, I said the trash talk began the moment Kalscheur dropped his first bucket. That’s actually not entirely true.
It started in that scouting meeting Thursday night. You see, Harris’ teammates aren’t the only culprits.
The coaches do it, too.
“He gets motivated like that,” Pettiford said. “And then you can see he’s a step ahead of everyone, and then it’s over.”