Kansas 89, Nebraska-Omaha 64

The Kansas Jayhawks won their 50^th consecutive home-opener as they defeated the Omaha Mavericks for the third time in the past six seasons (2018, 2021).

Freshman Gradey Dick led all Jayhawks with +4.03 points of value above bubble. Gradey scored a majority of his points off an assist, with Dejuan Harris and Jalen Wilson setting him up on multiple occasions.

Other positive performances came from Bobby Pettiford (13 points on 6-7 shooting) and Ernest Udeh (7 defensive possessions won in 14 minutes). Both of these bench players showed why they should be part of the rotation due to how they played in the opener.

Walk-on Michael Jankovich made a long 2 with his toes on the line in his only shot attempt.

Junior forward Jalen Wilson also contributed value, producing the most points (21 points produced), but giving up 15 on the defensive end.

The TEAM as a whole was only +2.37 in value. KU only won by 25 against a team that it was favored to beat by 30+ points. On paper, Omaha wasn’t a tough matchup, which is why the value scores look so low. Harris, McCullar, Adams, and Yesufu had positive unadjusted scores; but didn’t do enough to overcome the opponent discount of the Mavericks. Omaha was ranked #330 on KenPom coming into the game. If they improve upon this ranking as they play more games, the value scores for KU will also improve during the season.

The offensive score (+6.74) was more efficient than the defensive effort (-4.37). Although KU only allowed 64 points to UNO, this was on 69 charted possessions. Given Omaha’s discount factor, this graded out to be a poor defensive effort. On the flip side, 89 points against Omaha graded positively in 69 possessions (1.29 Off_eff).

Kansas is back in action Thursday against North Dakota State. The Bison fell to Arkansas 76-58 in their opener, and sit at #205 in KenPom. KU is favored by 23 points according to the computer metric.