What this means…from Ames
Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer
“Brandon Rush did a nice job forgetting about his mediocre-to-poor play for most of the game and responded well late, first in guarding Mike Taylor and second taking over in overtime.
The Jayhawks didn’t shoot well, didn’t play particularly well, with a batch of turnovers, but grabbed a key league victory on the road.
It’s not easy to win on the road. KU did.”
Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor
“Mike Taylor, a junior college transfer who torched Minnesota for 25 points in one half, was on his way to shooting Iowa State to a victory over Kansas when coach Bill Self called a timeout, switched Brandon Rush onto him and Russell Robinson onto Rashon Clark, who finished the game without a point.
Rush kept Taylor in front of him, and the one time he didn’t, he picked the ball from him and took it all the way for a slam.
Rush won this game for KU more than any single player won any other game this season. Thanks to Rush, Kansas survived bad three-point shooting, bad free throw shooting and sloppy ballhandling.”
Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor
“Well, it shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone that when this team doesn’t hit its three-point shots, things don’t tend to go so well.
KU went just 2-for-11 Saturday, shooting about as cold as the weather in much of the midwest (Ames included, trust me). Only one other time this year has KU hit so few three-pointers – when the Jayhawks went 2-for-10 in a Nov. 15 loss to Oral Roberts.
So what does that say? This team is much better now than it was Nov. 15, which is nearly eight weeks ago. And it rightfully should be. Eight weeks ago, Kansas doesn’t win this game. Now, it goes down as a road win in conference play, which Bill Self made sure to repeat after the game is never an easy thing to do.
Also, now comes Missouri. Mike Anderson coached the last team (UAB in 2003-04) that a Bill Self-led team scored 100 points on. It was also KU’s last NCAA Tournament win.”
Inside the numbers
24: Sasha Kaun’s jersey number was pretty hard to miss Saturday, as the 6-foot-11 junior was as active as he’s been all season in playing 26 minutes and leading KU with 13 points. While his free throw shooting left much to be desired (1-for-5), he was integral in repeatedly silencing the Hilton Coliseum crowd following hoops from ISU big man Jiri Hubalek, who scored 13 as well. Seemingly everytime Hubalek scored, Kaun matched it. He also was able to brush off the ISU students, who razzed him all day.
2: That’s how many points ISU’s Mike Taylor scored after Brandon Rush switched onto him at about the six-minute mark in the second half. Taylor forced up four straight bad three-point looks which almost appeared to come out of frustration when going against the longer, more athletic Rush. The sophomore wing also held Rashon Clark scoreless while blanketing him.
16: That many turnovers nearly did in the Jayhawks, who had 11 of those in the first half. KU could have blown the game open early, but allowed ISU to hang around thanks in large part to giving the ball back on golden offensive opportunities. KU only had two takeaways Saturday, compared to 17 steals in Wednesday’s 87-57 win over Oklahoma State.
10: Sherron Collins continues to blossom as the conference season begins, and Saturday afternoon, for the first time this season, his acrobatic layins in traffic fell regularly. Collins was 5-for-8 on the day, hitting four tough runners in the lane, as he’s starting to figure out how to score inside the same way he did in becoming a McDonald’s All-American at Crane Tech in Chicago.
Just in case you missed it…
Even with four fouls sending him to the bench for a key chunk of the second half, Mario Chalmers was still a statistical beast, with 11 points, seven rebounds and four dimes. It was only the second time this season in which he went an entire game without a steal, but he was still effective. It was also only the fifth time this season he didn’t hit a three-point shot.
Hopefully you didn’t miss it…
Brandon Rush was the reason KU won, and Bill Self hinted at it after the game without exactly saying it. Rush shutting down Taylor proved that KU has a piece which is extremely valuable for the rest of this season’s run – A guy who you can throw on just about anyone who is having a hot offensive night. Plus, Rush never went away from his trusty three-point stroke, even when it was broke for most of the day. He hit a huge three late in regulation which made overtime possible. Hard to believe how important he was on a day where he goes 4-of-14 from the field.
They said it…
Brandon Rush on the physical toll – if any – of the performance he put on Saturday: “I don’t get tired at all. I’m in pretty good shape. I played 40 minutes today and I’m not tired.”
Sasha Kaun on Rush’s defensive prowess late on Mike Taylor: “He’s one of the best defenders, one-on-one, containing his man, especially late in the game. Late in the game, you put him on their best perimeter player, he slides his feet, doesn’t try to get the steal, he just plays solid (defense).”
Bill Self on Rush’s defense: “If you really study the game, Iowa State was going to win the game until Brandon guarded (Mike Taylor).”
Bill Self on comparing the OSU and ISU games: “I don’t want to say lathargic, but we didn’t have the same energy we had against Oklahoma State. Our pressure didn’t bother them, and we missed a lot of shots, a lot of layups. We not only had a lot of turnovers, we had bad turnovers…You look at our team, Julian one assist, seven turnovers. Brandon 4-of-14. Mario 3-of-9 didn’t have his game. Russell definitely didn’t have his game. We were fortunate to come out of here with a win considering how well we’ve been playing.”
