Game Summary:
For the second consecutive game, Ochai Agbaji had the best game of his career. Finishing with 37 points, Ochai only gave up 9 points on defense, a stout number in 46+ minutes of play. Agbaji also grabbed 7 defensive boards, including a few clutch ones in double-OT. Remy Martin had the second best game of any Jayhawk. Despite scoring only 4 points, Martin only gave up 2 points, and produced additional value with 6 assists and 3 forced-turnovers. His energy really sparked the Jayhawks, and hopefully there is more to come.
Coleman-Lands didn’t play a ton, but he was solid in his nearly 5 minutes of play. He made a jump shot while not giving up points on defense. Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson, in 48+ and 47+ minutes each, had slightly positive contributions overall. Both had nice plays toward the end of the second OT, sealing the win for the Hawks.
K.J. Adams has the most misleading score, as he was guarding Tech’s Bryson Williams for most of the time he played. Adams gave up 9 points (3 off a banked in jump shot), but scored 6 of his own to go with 6 rebounds and 0 misses/turnovers. Unlucky defense will even itself out over the course of a 35 game schedule, and Adams showed he is capable of playing at this level moving forward.
Mitch Lightfoot was in foul trouble for much of the night, and ended up giving 9 points while only scoring 4. He’s had better outings for sure. David McCormack had his second-worst performance of the season, partially due to Bryson Williams playing outstanding. Still, whenever Tech needed a pop-out 3 they did so going against McCormack. Big Dave also failed to collect important defensive rebounds in crucial times.
Last, Dejuan Harris had a poor outing on both ends. He has produced 4 consecutive negative games since hitting the game-winning shot vs. Iowa St., his worst performance being against Texas Tech.
The team’s score of +5.62 was about 4 points below expectation, as you’d want KU to win a bit more comfortably than they did. KU built up a 12 point lead with about 6 minutes to play, and it was still 8 before Tech won a few offensive rebounds off missed free throws and converted to cut the lead to 4. Personnel questions were also abundant; KU seemed to struggle once Martin came out for good with 5:04 left in regulation. The final 15:04 were played by Harris as the sole ball-handling guard, and KU was -5 in that stretch.
Charting the Hawks 