Although it was closer than expected, KU’s talent shown through at crunch time, and the Jayhawks held on to win, 80-72 over Stephen F. Austin. With Kansas being about a 22 point favorite from the computers (Vegas had it at 23.5), the 8 point win meant this was KU’s second-worse performance of the season. Below are the value scores:
Christian Braun has now produced positive value in all ten games this season. He was the most valuable Jayhawk against SFA with a value above bubble of +6.76 points. As in most games, he filled the stat sheet. Along with being the leading point producer, he won 9 defensive possessions Saturday night, the most on the team.
Ochai Agbaji did not have his best game finishing scoring chances (two missed dunks), but played solid defense in 39 minutes, only giving up 7 points defensively. He produced +3.12 points above bubble, showing that his improvement in the off-season has brought up his “floor” immensely.
Jalen Wilson had a nice night off the bench in about 20 minutes. His one 3-point attempt didn’t fall (making him 1-15 on the season), but he made some shots in the midrange. His defense has remained steady in 7 games this year, and it helped provide value for his team last night.
Zach Clemence didn’t play much but scored on a put back attempt following an offensive rebound. His defense wasn’t great in the few minutes he played, but still managed to produce an overall positive value game.
Remy Martin was clutch, making a late 3-point basket to give Kansas a more comfortable 6 point lead during the final minute of play. However, he gave up a quick lay-up soon after. He struggled to get going and had some defensive lapses, leading to a slightly negative game.
Jalen Coleman-Lands made a couple free-throws in a few first-half minutes (he didn’t play in the second half), but also played poor defense.
Joseph Yesufu gave up two buckets in his few minutes of play, once on a mismatch inside and once giving up a drive to a guard.
Mitch Lightfoot played the bulk of the minutes inside, giving up some scoring to SFA’s skilled big Gavin Kinsmil. However, he hit the offensive glass to the tune of 4 boards.
Dejuan Harris only took one field goal attempt, a missed dunk. He did put in four FT’s to ice the game away. While he struggles to produce points aside from assisting, his defense last night was as good as it could have been.
David McCormack had a very poor game, finishing with only 2 points and battling foul trouble all evening. Still, you need more than 10 minutes out of him.
TEAM was at -3.70, meaning a similar type performance against a bubble team on a neutral site would result in a 3-4 point loss. Kansas is getting very consistent positive performances from Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun. The team normally gets at least an okay game from Martin and Wilson. But it is the others; in particular McCormack, Lightfoot, Coleman-Lands, and Harris; who mix good to great games with bad ones.
Note that K.J. Adams was out sick and was unavailable. Bobby Pettiford is also still recovering from his injury, so KU only dressed 10 scholarship players (all of whom played) for this game. Agbaji, Braun, and Martin all played season-high minutes (39, 36, and 35), which resulted in a game which saw the least amount of bench-play so far this season. Using the HHI player rotation metric (higher means less substitution), the SFA game was at 0.73, well beyond the range of 0.50 – 0.66 that the season’s first 9 games had seen. The rotation is being tightened as conference play nears.
Charting the Hawks 