How KU’s most underappreciated player was crucial in the crucible against Villanova
As Kansas was dismantling Villanova in the first half of their NCAA Tournament national semifinal game on Saturday at the Superdome, you weren’t alone if you thought this had a familiar vibe to it … in the opposite direction, that is.
Between the dazzling revival of Ochai Agbaji’s three-point touch and 6-foot-10 David McCormack overwhelming Villanova inside, the Jayhawks led by 19 in the first half.
The dynamics were so about-face reminiscent of their meeting four years ago, when Villanova seized a 22-4 lead in the same round of the tournament, that then-Wildcat Jalen Brunson tweeted that this was “legit revenge” for what became a 16-point Kansas loss that night — and, indeed, became an 81-65 KU win on Saturday.
“It was kind of a little bit of a reversal, (but) not near to the extent (of 2018),” Kansas coach Bill Self said afterward.
Parallel result notwithstanding, though, there was an entirely different element to the victory that earned KU a berth in the national title game on Monday against North Carolina — which beat Duke 81-77 later Saturday.
And much as Jayhawk fans might have preferred the steamrolling to proceed, how it played out speaks to a revealing dimension of a Kansas team that has gotten grittier and thornier and more versatile and complete by the game this postseason.
Because they flexed when they might have buckled, and the key was their most underappreciated player. The one Self would later tell TBS was the best player on the floor Saturday:
McCormack, who finished with a season-high 25 points (on 10 of 12 field goals and five of six free throws) along with nine rebounds … and one particularly shining moment that replenished an evaporating lead.
McCormack, who in a certain way embodies a team that isn’t Self’s most talented but is among his most cohesive and complementary.
McCormack, who isn’t as spectacular as some KU big men of the recent past such as Udoka Azubuike … but has produced more and more and again and again in the crucible.
Like he did when KU needed him most on Saturday in a game that wasn’t quite the carbon copy of that matchup four years ago that it might have appeared.
Four years ago, you might recall, Kansas never rallied back to closer than 13 points down before falling 95-79.
On Saturday night, though, Villanova wouldn’t fade out until the final moments and made repeated forays into what had seemed an insurmountable advantage.
With McCormack sitting out the last 6 minutes, 2 seconds of the half after being assessed his second foul, Villanova whittled the 19-point lead down to 40-29 at halftime.
The Wildcats cut it to 10 and then to eight and fell back. And then with some ebb and flow it was back down to seven and, finally, to six on Jermaine Samuels’ free throw to cap a three-point play.
Suddenly, it was a two-possession game with just over six minutes to go. And it wasn’t hard to envision an epic collapse in the making, especially when Christian Braun missed a three-pointer on the next possession.
But in a victory underscored by KU repeatedly rebuffing on-charging Villanova, the most pivotal stiff-arming was delivered in that sequence: McCormack grappled away the rebound, kicked it out and ultimately made a turnaround jumper to restore order.
That triggered an 11-1 KU run, the pinnacle of what Self would later characterize as “we always seemed to have an answer to kind of stem that momentum.”
“But that’s what good players do; they make plays,” he said. “When you’re playing well, you want to extend the momentum. When you’re not playing as well, you’ve got to cut the momentum off.”
Sounds simple, and it looked simple enough on Saturday when Kansas enjoyed a size advantage it won’t have on Monday.
Just the same, McCormack will be as vital as he has been despite some ups and downs along the way that included struggling with a foot injury and perhaps more than has been publicly revealed.
When Self was asked Saturday night about “sticking with” McCormack, he rejected the premise.
“I don’t look at it that way at all, ‘sticking with him,’ ” he said. “He was our guy from the jump. And I think so much of a performance maybe has to do with things that the media and the public doesn’t know about, and primarily health.”
McCormack has “sacrificed just to be out there,” Self added, and suggested that he has needed “two to three hours of treatment every day just to be out there.”
“There was never a question who our guy was,” Self said. “I think he knew that, too, no matter how frustrated at times I could get. But he’s our guy.
“And I’ve said all along he’s the one guy on our team that can get 15 (points) and 10 (rebounds) just by being a presence. Tonight he got 25 and nine. He was fabulous.”
He was. But that also was a function of a role on a surging team that knows how to riff off each other, a team with seven essential players.
It all begins with Agbaji, but it all runs through McCormack, too.
“It’s not just (McCormack) being outstanding,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “It’s their execution and their schemes to get him the ball at the right spots … It’s because they move the ball so well, and he seals really well. And sometimes we did a good job, and he hit some shots.”
More than many might have appreciated along the way.
And certainly a bunch on Saturday that put KU in position to compete for their first national title since 2008 after a game that might have played out quite differently without him.
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 11:22 PM.