Post-game awards: Rhode Island

On Thanksgiving, Kansas took down Rhode Island in the Orlando Classic quarterfinals, 76-60. Kansas got out to an early lead and never let it go.

Kansas was fantastic in the first half, scoring 43 and giving up 25 points. Kansas moved the ball around and they made five of their first seven three-point attempts. Kansas dominated in every aspect of the game from field goal percentage, to rebounds, assists, turnovers, etc.

Player of the Game: Wayne Selden

Wayne Selden was almost our player of the game on Monday but he earned his spot early on in this game. Between Selden and Frank Mason, Kansas was moving the ball on offense and it led to easy baskets.

Selden ended up with just 10 points but he made his first two three-point shots (then missed his next two), had seven rebounds including four on the offensive end, four assists, two blocks, one steal and just one turnover. Essentially, he did a great job on both ends of the court.

Honorable Mention: Perry Ellis — Ellis was a close second with 17 points and five rebounds but he got into some foul trouble and ended up only playing 34 minutes. I’d like to mention his third “foul” wasn’t really a foul. A Rhode Island player faked being elbowed and the ref called it a foul. After looking at the monitor, they decided he didn’t even hit the player in the face with his elbow so he wasn’t even given a flagrant one (aka he didn’t actually foul the guy). Still, Ellis was great on offense.

If Kansas can get performance from Selden and Ellis like this every night, they’ll be hard to beat.

You Let the Whole Team Down: Jamari Traylor

This is another game where it was hard to pick a player who really didn’t play that well.

I’m mainly giving this to Traylor because 1) I have to pick something and 2) he had the most fouls (4) and turnovers (3) on the team.

Instead of dwelling on that, I want to point out Traylor made the most of his limited, foul-troubled minutes by hitting both of his field goal attempts and making up for his three turnovers by getting two blocked shots and two steals.

And that’s why it was hard to make this selection… because he still ended up making a positive contribution to the game.

 

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Kansas takes on Tennessee on Friday in an 11 am matchup that will decide which team will play in the Finals of the Orlando Classic. If Kansas wins, expect them to play Michigan State on Sunday.