2017 Kansas Jayhawks

The 2017 Kansas Jayhawks finished with a record of 31-5 (16-2), winning the Big 12 Regular Season. The team earned a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Elite 8 before losing. The team’s Sports Reference link is here.

Offense

The 2017 offense is Bill Self’s best since coming to KU (through the 2021 season), and it was led by Frank Mason and Josh Jackson. These two accounted for nearly half of the team’s points. Mason shot an incredible 61.3% true shot on a 26.0% frequency. It was this side of the ball that won Frank his Naismith Player of the Year award. Jackson was a high-impact player, and he added offensive value in the areas of scoring, shooting, assisting, and rebounding. Devonte’ Graham was also a positive value player.

Defense

The 2017 team was offense-led, but had some decent defenders. Devonte’ Graham and Frank Mason produced over a point per game in value, and Landen Lucas was a solid rebounder and paint defender. However, there were some holes in the defense. Josh Jackson was a poor on-ball defender who gave up 15.0 points per 60 possessions played. He did do well at getting steals and rebounds. The bench was neither great nor awful on the defensive side.

Adjusted PPG +/-

Frank Mason’s PPGAB score of nearly +8 earned him numerous accolades (including college basketball’s best), and when compared to the great seasons in KU history since 1993, is a very close-second to the estimated score Wayne Simien produced in 2005. Josh Jackson’s season, while very good, was overrated on the whole due to his poor defense. Devonte’ Graham had a solid year on both sides of the ball, and Landen Lucas was the final starter to post a positive value score. The bench was lightly used in 2017, although Dwight Coleby emerged as the second-best big after Carlton Bragg had off-court issues and Udoka Azubuike had a season-ending injury.

Points Above Bubble

Total Points Above Bubble (PAB) show the outsized effect the play of Frank Mason had on the team. KU’s five starters contributed to produce an elite team and got would it could from the bench.

Value 3-Way

The 2017 roster’s Per100 PAB percentiles, compared to all KU rotation players since 1993, shows the following skill-levels:

• Frank Mason – 98.6%
• Josh Jackson – 75.3%
• Devonte’ Graham – 64.4%
• Landen Lucas – 48.9%
• Svi Mykhailiuk – 32.7%
• Carlton Bragg – 24.7%
• Lagerald Vick – 17.2%

Video Coverage

The 2017 season had a coverage of 97.95%. This tells us we are confident in the accuracy of nearly 98% of the possessions that were played that season. This range can theoretically be between 65% (just box score information) and 100% (all games are video-charted). We have full game video for 28 of the 36 games and the other 8 games are supplemented through a mix of video highlights, play-by-play/box score detail, and radio coverage. Therefore we are confident to state there is only a very small error in the above value stats.