With the Jayhawks only six games into their schedule, head coach Bill Self admits it’s sometimes hard for him to know from one matchup to another how he will deploy the players on this Kansas basketball roster.
No. 5 KU’s 73-72 home win over No. 8 Creighton on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse provided the latest example of Self’s flexibility. Not only did the Jayhawks’ crunch time lineup include backup freshman guard Bryce Thompson instead of veteran starter Ochai Agbaji, but a different combination featuring reserves earlier in the second half provided a crucial push in a tight game.
The Bluejays (3-1) were far too talented for the Jayhawks (5-1) to ever pull away from the visitors from the Big East, and KU’s largest cushion of the first half — just six points with less than four minutes to go — had completely disappeared a few minutes into the second half.
As Creighton went up three points with 14:38 left, Self didn’t go to a five-guard lineup like he had in recent games. Instead, he replaced David McCormack down low with Mitch Lightfoot, while also bringing in Thompson for Agbaji. The lineup of Marcus Garrett, Christian Braun, Thompson, Jalen Wilson and Lightfoot proceeded to turn a 48-45 deficit into a 58-50 lead — KU’s largest of the game — in a little more than three minutes.
Lightfoot, who had played five or fewer minutes in three of KU’s first five games, logged just 6:20 of court time against Creighton, and only scored two points to go with his three rebounds. But the energy the senior forward brought to the floor at that juncture couldn’t be ignored. Self said the 6-foot-8 fifth-year senior gave KU “some great minutes” in the second half.
Right off the bat offensively, a screen and roll Lightfoot ran with Garrett forced Creighton’s defense to collapse into the paint to prevent a Lightoot layup, leaving Thompson wide open for a 3-pointer. A couple trips down the court later, Lightfoot tipped out a rebound on the offensive glass, his first of two offensive boards that extended possessions. The veteran big got his two points at the foul line after slipping a screen quickly to get a feed from Thompson just a couple feet from the rim and drawing a foul.
Even when he wasn’t directly involved in actions that led to baskets, the offense just had a better flow and spacing to it, with Lightfoot as the big, playing with Wilson, Braun, Thompson and Garrett — a lineup that, surprisingly, was the best of any Self used, outscoring Creighton 13-4 in the 4:55 that it played.
Conversely, the lineup KU played most versus Creighton — Garrett, Agbaji, Bruan, Wilson and McCormack — got outscored 29-24 in 13:50 of playing time. Creighton bested that KU lineup, 13-6, in a stretch that covered the final 51 seconds of the first half and the first 5:22 of the second.
Self admitted after the narrow win it has seemed strange to him that some KU lineups look good against certain teams and then don’t against other opponents.
“I’m not settled in on anything,” Self said of his feeling out process for lineups from game to game.
In other KU wins it has been Wilson or freshman point guard Dajuan Harris — or both — who have keyed an important run with a non-starting five lineup. Just three days before the Creighton game, junior college transfer Tyon Grant-Foster pushed the Jayhawks past North Dakota State. But on this particular day Self found another lineup — one that included backup big Lightfoot, who is only averaging 6.2 minutes a game — to give KU some bounce before Creighton could build on an early second half lead.
Junior big man McCormack, who played a season-high 27 minutes in the win over Creighton, and was “really good early,” as Self put it, said the Jayhawks could keep finding different players to lead them for stretches in different situations.
“I think we have so many pieces that it could be anybody’s game any night,” McCormack said, “and I think that’s one of the hardest things about us as far as scouting, because anybody can have their game. And that’s the best part of it.”
Self’s flexibility with lineups came in handy in a matchup of top 10 teams, and he found some combinations that helped offset a scoreless outing for junior Agabji (0-for-6 shooting and three turnovers in 24 minutes).
“We had some guys off the bench play pretty well, even though it was kind of somewhat limited,” Self said. “To win the game without Och having an effective game I think does speak well for us. For the most part our guys competed their butts off the whole game. (Creighton is) good. They’re really good.”
