Kansas head coach Bill Self sat down for his postgame presser — with his jacket off after wearing a suit for the game — following a 77-68 win over Kentucky Saturday night at Rupp Area. And the first question directed at Self basically summed up what led to the Jayhawks ending their three-game skid.
Self was asked about KU’s pick-and-roll offense and how his team was able to control the glass against one of the best rebounding teams in the country. The former was a deliberate plan by the coach who has never lost four in a row at Kansas, but the latter? Not so much.
“I’ll be candid, we hoped to attack them on the pick-and-roll,” Self said. “We were just praying on the rebounding stuff.”
Either way, both strategies worked in KU’s favor on Saturday — and it was the story of the game. The Wildcats, who came into the game ranked No. 1 in the country in offensive rebounding, were held to an offensive rebound rate of 13.3% and had their four-game win streak snapped. It was their worst rebounding performance of the season, with their previous season low being 25.6% against Gonzaga.
But we are going to focus on the offensive side of the equation, as KU’s ball-screen offense was critical to a much-needed win for the defending national champs.
“I don’t know how many points we scored off ball screen, but it had to be close to 20 tonight,” Self said. “So that was really good for us.”
According to Synergy Sports Technology, Kansas ran a pick-and-roll 40 different times against Kentucky and averaged 0.875 points per possession on such plays. The roll man scored 13 points on the pick-and-roll, while the ball handler produced 12 points, according to Synergy’s charting.
The 13 points by the roll man matched KU’s best performance of the season, which was previously done against Seton Hall, and was the first double-digit showing since the team’s last win against Iowa State. The dozen points by the ball handler marked the most since a 19-point effort against Oklahoma.
“We work on that pretty much every day and that was the emphasis tonight,” Kevin McCullar Jr. said.
It was a priority because of Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe. The reigning National Player of the Year was supposed to have his way with a smaller Kansas front court, but instead struggled to match the quickness on the defensive end.
KJ Adams, who scored a total of eight points over the last two games, finished with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. He made scoring look easy, thanks to all his layups and dunks after setting a screen and flashing toward the basket.
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Even when Adams had to come out of the game, reserve big men Ernest Udeh Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor were able to keep the offense humming as the roll man. Udeh was on the receiving end of a couple lobs from Dajuan Harris Jr. to finish with two highlight-worthy dunks.
“We have guys like Dajuan and Bobby (Pettiford) that can get in there and create different looks for different guys coming off the pick-and-roll,” McCullar said. “KJ is great at (the) short roll and catching. Then we got air-space guys like Zuby and Ernest that when you throw it up there, they are going to go get it.”
If that all sounds simple, it is only because the Jayhawks made it look so easy on Saturday.
For the season, Kansas ranks in the 77th percentile in the country at scoring with the roll man on pick-and-roll sets. This team is averaging 1.118 points per possession in such scenarios, which is considered “very good” based on Synergy’s charting. For comparison, Kansas ranked in the 72nd percentile in that category last year.
As for the ball handler, Synergy labels the Jayhawks as “below average” with the initiator of the pick-and-roll averaging 0.713 points per possession on such plays. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though, as Harris is more of a facilitator and proved as much with his eight assists against Kentucky.
Whenever Kansas faces a talented big man, much of the pregame discussion tends to be about how a smaller front court will handle such a tall task.
Yet the Jayhawks continue to prove they have offensive advantages in such matchups, as these bulky centers can’t keep up with Adams in space. Look no further than the 24 points on pick-and-rolls scored against Indiana or the 25 points against Seton Hall. And that’s not even counting the potential kick-out options along the 3-point line, including Gradey Dick.
None of this means Kansas won’t ever be overwhelmed by a bigger team, of course. But Saturday’s win was the latest example of how the Jayhawks are making it work as they continue to figure out what they are capable of this season.
Pick-and-roll points
Points scored by KU’s roll man (via Synergy)
At Kentucky: 13
At Baylor: 2
Vs. TCU: 2
At Kansas State: 9
Vs. Iowa State: 10
Vs. Oklahoma: 11
At West Virginia: 7
At Texas Tech: 0
Vs. Oklahoma State: 9
BOX SCORE: Kansas 77, Kentucky 68
