Rare is the basketball team that’s more enjoyable to watch play defense than offense, but Kansas University has developed into that sort of group.
In a way, the Jayhawks have become a more talented version of the KU football team: strong on defense, forever in search of the right quarterback to run the offense early in the year.
It has become clear KU’s best offense comes from a defense that ignites the audience and the running game. When one of the guards is pressuring the opposing ballhandler, you can feel the anticipation building in an Allen Fieldhouse crowd that knows something good is about to happen.
That something good so often is another one of the guards jumping into a passing lane for a steal. A couple of dribbles and a couple of passes later, a KU player is laying it in or stuffing it, or somewhere in between, as was the case on the only bucket of an extremely efficient Wednesday night for Russell Robinson (Jason Swanson?) in an 87-46 blowout of Yale University.
By the time the basket is scored, the decibels already have peeled some more fresh paint off the walls.
If the Jayhawks sometimes are painful to watch move the ball in the half court, they are vastly entertaining when on the run after forcing a turnover.
A team in search of an identity for much of the season is in the process of establishing one that can be summed up in two words: defensive tenacity.
Jeff Hawkins has been bringing it since the first day of practice. Robinson was next to catch onto its importance. Mario Chalmers has brought it in a big way recently.
“I think the guards are starting to realize that to get on the court, you have to play defense first before offense,” Hawkins said after a career night. “They’re starting to understand that’s what coach wants.”
Nobody did that better than Robinson, who contributed five steals and played the new quarterback role well enough to distribute eight assists with two turnovers.
The Jayhawks had 13 steals, and Yale turned the ball over 22 times. Once the Jayhawks turned up the defensive intensity, they never dialed it down.
With 31â2 minutes left in the first half, Yale led, 23-22. For the next 20 minutes, KU outscored the Bulldogs 54-19 and turned the ball over just three times. Playing at that pace and taking care of the ball isn’t easy against any opponent, and for half the game, KU did it to near perfection.
“Coach has been preaching to us all week to run because the more points we get, the better off we’re going to be,” Chalmers said after his first career start.
They can score when they run, and they can run when they force turnovers. That’s going to be a lot tougher to do Saturday morning, when Kentucky point guard Rajon Rondo visits Allen Fieldhouse. Still, it’s the best approach for the Jayhawks (8-4).
“Other than (Yale’s) No. 20 (Chris Andrews), they don’t really have guys who, if you gamble and miss, those guys don’t get in the lane and beat you,” Self said. “You can recover a lot of times. You can’t play the same way against Rondo, obviously. You can’t gamble and miss. He’ll get to the rim.”
And when one of KU’s guards gambles and doesn’t miss, he or a teammate will get to the rim at the other end with the crowd going nuts.
