CHICAGO — In recent years, as head coach Bill Self said on Tuesday night, Kansas has fielded groups of players that he’s had to push to heighten their emotions in certain moments.
“You’d much rather coach a team that you want to try to calm down than you’d have to do this,” he said, lifting his hands in a sort of “pump-up” gesture. “And I think the last couple years we’ve been doing more of this.”
There is apparently no such need to get a team hyped when it contains forward Tyran Stokes. The top-ranked freshman forward, whom Self has repeatedly called emotional but in a complimentary sense, leveraged the complicated feelings of facing Kentucky — a team he grew up rooting against and also spurned in the recruiting process — into a 23-point, 10-rebound showing in KU’s 89-69 win over the Wildcats in the Champions Classic.
“I actually thought he handled the moment better than I actually anticipated (him) doing,” Self said postgame. “He’s very emotional, which is a big, big plus — nobody should take that as a negative — but I didn’t want him to be too geeked up where he couldn’t play.
“What helped him a lot tonight was seeing that first 3 go down. After that, I thought he played under control, I thought he played within what we were trying to do and still found a way to be aggressive at the same time. I thought it was pretty impressive.”
This was always going to be a loaded matchup for Stokes. As he explained, he grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, in a family split between the two dominant teams of the region — the hometown Cardinals and the blue-blood Wildcats. Stokes was on the side of Louisville (and also supported North Carolina, he added).
And that was all before Kentucky pulled out all the stops to try to get the highly touted Stokes to campus — only for him to pick the Jayhawks last spring, knowing all along that this meeting in the Champions Classic was going to be “personal for sure.”
“Being from Louisville, I kind of still got that same emotion as if I was playing for Louisville, but I’m here at Kansas, so obviously being able to play against a school like that is just one of one,” Stokes added, “and this is my first time to step on the big stage and show what I can do.”
He did just that, although it didn’t come to him right away. Stokes missed a 3-pointer on KU’s opening possession and another two minutes later, then got blocked shortly before subbing out for the first time.
When he reemerged, he started to find a groove, putting back his own miss for a three-point play, knocking down a 3 to put the Jayhawks ahead (as Self referenced), setting up Christian Reeves for a fast-break layup and then scoring a couple more times for good measure. KU outscored Kentucky 15-3 beginning when Stokes came in as part of a four-man substitution at the 12:35 mark, and 17-6 until he next left the floor.
Stokes explained his success against the Wildcats’ defense: “They were kind of helping off a little bit. I don’t think they were trying to really key in on my jump shot, more so my driving, so when I seen the guys step back, I practice those shots every time coming off a screen. If a man goes under, my coaches tell me to step back and shoot it, and they really instilled the confidence in me this game to just go out there, live free and shoot.”
Stokes knocked down two more 3s in the second half and finished 4-for-8 from deep on the night as well as 8-for-19 overall. The outside shooting hasn’t necessarily been the most highly regarded facet of his game, but Self said he has always believed Stokes could shoot: “There’s no reason why he can’t be in that 40% range as a 3-point shooter, in my opinion.”
The freshman didn’t lay off when the outcome was sealed. He helped inject some energy when the Jayhawks were lagging late and also hit a couple free throws off a foul by Malachi Moreno with 26 seconds left.
“I was really trying to get a dunk so I could celebrate a little bit more, but we got the win, so I’m happy,” Stokes said.
And in the process, he displayed a certain sort of aggressive mindset that forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who prides himself on making teammates better, is trying to bring out of him.
“He’s aggressive today, he’s the best player on the floor,” Kaufman-Renn said.
