Quick Hitters: Towson

Towson did not so much play in the first half so much as it just happened to them. The Jayhawks were utterly dominant for most of the period before following it up with a mediocre effort in the second half. It was fun to watch, especially since this is still November basketball. Here are a couple quick hitters from the game.

Embiid had his fingerprints all over the game. He may not have had a stat line like he did against Iona, going 4-for-5 from the field for eight points and adding eight rebounds, but he was a huge component of the game all around. He blocked shots, ran the floor in transition, threw precise outlet passes and more. He is probably responsible for another 10 points just from his outlet passes alone. None of that shows up in the box score, but if you watched the game, you remember seeing a lot out of him. He continues to develop his game at a nice clip.

Wiggins aggressive from start to finish. I think this qualifies as Wiggins’ best overall game. Sure, he had a huge stretch in the Duke game that was more important for the season, but this was his most complete performance. Wiggins finished with an efficient 16 points off of 6-8 shooting. He also added seven rebounds (4 offensive), one assist, one block and one turnovers in a team-high 30 minutes. He looked to attack throughout the night, took care of the ball, and made the most of his opportunities.

Self still has a 12 man rotation. A big surprise for me at this point, Self is still playing 12 guys meaningful minutes. As many of you know, Self likes an 8 man rotation from game to game that might consist of nine guys with the bottom two rotating time. By the middle of the non-conference season ,he has usually gotten this down to 8-10 regulars. Not so this season. 12 guys got more than 5 minutes last night and 10 logged double-digit minutes. A total of 16 guys saw the floor. I don’t know how much longer this goes on. Self has said he has been pleased with how little if any drop off there is when he goes to the bench. If that continues to be the case, we may see an atypical number of guys see the floor all year long. I don’t think it will be 12, but it is hard to see Self backing off now with the way everyone is contribution.

What to Watch for Recap: 

1. Tarik Black’s first 4 minutes. Better, much better. Black was more focused and brought more energy in the first four minutes of this one. He had some run-outs and dunks, and stayed out of the early foul trouble. This was his best game as a Jayhawk.

2. First half defense sparking a classic Fieldhouse run. Finally KU put a team away early. The first half was dominated by Kansas, and even though Towson led in the very early going, KU had a double digit lead and all of the momentum before the second TV timeout.

3. Rebounding margin. KU was +12 on the boards. They really dominated inside throughout the game on both sides of the court.

Beware of  the Blog’s Player of the Game: See above. Wiggins had his best overall performance as a Jayhawk in this game. Lets hope his aggressiveness carries over to the Bahamas.

Current Standings:

• 1. Andrew Wiggins (2)
• T-2. Perry Ellis (1)
• T-2. Joel Embiid (1)

You Let the Whole Team Down Award: I let Jamari off the hook after Iona, but he firmly secured this award against Towson. For s guy that played 12 minutes in this one, he was nowhere to be seen in the action or on the stat sheet. He posted bunch of zeros for the night aside from one assist. He didn’t turn the ball over, but he also didn’t turn his chances into anything positive for the team. He needs to be one of the leaders of team. We don’t need him to pour in buckets, but we do need his energy out there. Bottom line: we need him to be better.