Kentucky Cruises Against Kansas: Four Factors

After a 72-40 drubbing at the hands of the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, Bill Self needed a drink. He sat down for his post-game press conference, took a drink from a water bottle, and announced, “I was hoping that was vodka.” The coach wasn’t the only one needing a way to drown his sorrows as Kansas fans mourned the biggest defeat of the Bill Self era. Kentucky’s platoon strategy–or “reinforcements” as John Calipari calls them–simply wore down the Jayhawks throughout the game contributing to the worst offensive performance for Kansas since at least 1997-98, according to Jesse Newell of the Topeka Capital Journal. Unfortunately for Kansas, the most important statistic in basketball is shooting–both how well you shoot and how well you defend your opponent from shooting. On Tuesday night, Kansas simply couldn’t score.

As you can see in the above chart, the effective field goal percentage (eFG%) statistic heavily favored the Wildcats. Effective field goal percentage is a measure of how well a team shoots the ball with a slight adjustment for the value of 3-point shots since they are worth an additional point. The comparison of those first two columns is likely sufficient to explain the result in the Champions Classic. The Jayhawks struggled throughout the game with the length of the Kentucky Wildcats. Kentucky fields 10 players taller than 6-foot-6 and four players taller than 6-foot-10. They have, by far, the biggest team in college basketball this season.

When asked about his game plan, something I challenged last night, Self responded, “We play to our strengths, and you don’t just change offenses because the other team is tall. Our whole deal early on was drive to pass. And we didn’t; we drove to shoot.” The drive to pass strategy was successful at times when implemented well. Driving puts pressure on defenders to make decisions, and in the following clip, Aaron Harrison leaves Wayne Selden on the perimeter to close down on a Perry Ellis drive leading to an open Kansas 3-pointer.

However the pass wasn’t often the option for Kansas as their guards looked to penetrate into the Kentucky trees. In particular, starting point guard Frank Mason III struggled with the size of Kentucky often finding himself in the air with no shot to take. Here, Mason, a 5-foot-9 guard, drives immediately after a reset from a dead ball and is turned away by two Kentucky defenders.

Mason has a habit of falling away from the defender once contact is made, which, on more than one occasion created an opportunity for a second Kentucky player to block his shot. The Kansas guards needed to go into the chest of Kentucky’s bigs in an effort to draw fouls and get to the line. Freshman Devonte’ Graham opted for another option, looking to hit a floater over Karl-Anthony Towns early in the shot clock only the have it turned away.

The Jayhawks even rebounded their misses well on the offensive end, but simply weren’t able to convert those opportunities into points, finishing with only nine second chance points. What Kansas needed was patience. The Jayhawks needed to move the ball and allow plays to develop as they did here with freshman Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk utilizing the screens of Jamari Traylor and Cliff Alexander to hit one of Kansas’s three 3-pointers.

Kentucky isn’t the only team the Jayhawks will face this season with substantial size up front. The team many have predicted to challenge them for the Big 12 title, the Texas Longhorns, will feature players like Cameron Ridley and Myles Turner that will present similar problems to Kansas. Bill Self will need to prepare his team to challenge to move the ball and create better driving in order to challenge that length or encourage the Jayhawks to take more 3-point shots in order to avoid the length altogether.

Kansas is not as bad as they played on Tuesday night, but they are a team still in search of their identity that is often criticized by Self for not being where they’re supposed to be on offense. Luckily, the season is a long one and Kansas fans will remember that the last time they lost to Kentucky in the Champions Classic, they finished the season in the NCAA Tournament’s championship game.

This post originally appeared on Ain’t No Seats. Follow Chris over on Twitter @cstonehoops.