Defensive rebounds per inch. The statistic doesn’t exist yet, but the way the world is going, it won’t be long in arriving.
It’s a shame the stat’s time has not arrived because it’s possible Kansas University junior guard Frank Mason III, all 5-feet-11 inches of him, just might lead the nation.
This much is certain: Fearless Frank leads his team in defensive rebounds without the per-inch qualifier. Mason always seems to be right around the ball after an opponent’s shot goes up, thanks not just to being so quick but also being a human pogo stick.
Mason has 27 defensive rebounds, Perry Ellis 24, Landen Lucas and Jamari Traylor 22 apiece.
Other interesting numbers produced by what is shaping up as an entertaining basketball team that operates efficiently at warp speeds:
Jamari Traylor is more active and less sloppy than in his his junior season. He averages a rebound every 3.7 minutes and a turnover every 28.8 minutes. A year ago, he had a rebound every 5.3 minutes and a turnover every 15.2. He probably won’t ever be the team’s most valuable player in a game, but he knows his role and is performing it well.
Even with Brannen Greene, the team’s best three-point shooter, four games into a six-game suspension, Kansas has shot way better from the outer limits this season (.457) than last (a not-too-shabby .379). Greene (1.000), Evan Manning (.667), Wayne Selden (.571), Perry Ellis (.444), Svi Mykhailiuk (.393) and Devonte Graham (.391) all are shooting at a higher clip than last season’s team percentage. KU has shot 40 percent or better in all five of its victories, 20 percent in the Michigan State loss.
The only area in which opponents have performed better than the Jayhawks, who do their best work on the run, has come when the room grows quiet and everybody stands still. Kansas is shooting .693 from the line, opponents .748. Greene (.875) leads, followed by Graham (.833), Mason (.792), Traylor (.786) and Hunter Mickelson (.750). Freshmen Cheick Diallo (.250) and Carlton Bragg (.400) are the only Jayhawks with more misses than makes.
Kansas has scored 53 or more points in 6 of its 12 halves of basketball this season, a stunning figure regardless of the level of competition. Six scorers average in double figures: Selden (17.2), Ellis (15.3), Diallo (13.0), Mason (12.5), Greene (12.0) and Graham (10.2). Averaging 9.5 points, Svi is knock, knock, knockin’ on a seventh’s door.
— Tom Keegan appears Sunday nights on “The Drive” on WIBW-TV.