Morgantown, W.Va. ? It’s always the end of a close game that haunts the player on the team that finishes on the wrong side of a one-point outcome, as Kansas University did, 62-61, Monday night in WVU Coliseum, where 7,033 spectators found their way through the blizzard and were treated to an entertaining two-hour break from winter.
But the scoreboard doesn’t play favorites based on different stages of the game. It awards one point for a free throw, two points for a field goal inside the semi-circle, three points for one outside of it.
Perry Ellis and Frank Mason III rightly kicked themselves for failing to make plays on the final two possessions, but those could have been avoided had Kansas not been so rattled coming out of the chute. The press spooked KU for a stretch again, just as it did in the final minutes at TCU and at the start of the second half at Oklahoma State.
West Virginia exploited it by taking early leads of 8-0 and 19-8. Kansas didn’t hit double figures until the 9:22 mark of the first half. Before the first TV timeout, Wayne Selden Jr. had dribbled a ball off of his shin and stepped out of bounds for another turnover, by which time Ellis had turned it over as well. Kansas had nine first-half turnovers and could have trailed by a far bigger margin than 33-30 if West Virginia had better shooters.
Bad ball security, a recurring theme when facing teams that turn up the heat defensively, hampered the Jayhawks in the first half and the inability to limit West Virginia to one shot dogged them for the whole game.
Blowing one down the stretch can be written off as a momentary problem, but the main causes of this loss are issues Kansas has to face on an ongoing basis. KU typically has a mix of tough veterans and super young talents in the post, but as West Virginia exposed Monday night, it’s not the case this season. West Virginia rebounded 22 of its 40 missed field goals. Jamari Traylor had just two defensive rebounds in 26 minutes.
Cliff Alexander certainly could have snagged more defensive rebounds than that, but did so little in six first-half minutes that Kansas coach Bill Self never went back to him. Every time Devin Williams had the ball in his hands at the high post, you could almost see his lips moving, reading the scouting report, “When Alexander’s on you, blow right by him on the dribble and you’ll get an easy two, maybe three points.” Visions of Alexander firing two extra-long overthrows in Lubbock might have made Self cautious to expose the freshman center to the Mountaineers’ trapping defense.
“The game was too much for him this early,” Self said. “We thought it would be tough for him, getting trapped and passing out of it.”
Aside from Kelly Oubre Jr. (14 points, team-high seven rebounds), Kansas received no production from its freshmen. Devonté Graham, Alexander and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk combined for 17 scoreless minutes, took one shot, had one rebound and three turnovers.
Kansas had more than a bad finish. It was a bad night, fraught with signs that so much growth must happen in so little time for the team to be where it wants to be come tournament time.
