During Friday’s long flight over the Pacific Ocean, I spent some time looking over the stats for the Chaminade Silverswords, KU’s first opponent at the 2015 Maui Invitational — 8 p.m. central Monday night — and a couple of things jumped out immediately.
The biggest, by far, had to do with Chaminade’s scoring.
Despite dropping their first two games of the season, the Silverswords have averaged 96 points per game. Six Chaminade players have averaged double digits in scoring to start the season, with Oscar Pedroso (20), Kuany Kuany (16) and James Harper (15) leading the way.
A closer look at how those points have come created a bit of a head-scratching moment until I got to one key statistic.
Chaminade has scored the exact same number of field goals as its opponents — 61-of-122 shooting vs. 61-of-133 shooting — and even outshot opponents, 28-21, behind the three-point line.
Those numbers, especially this early in the season, likely would lead one to believe that the Silverswords had won both of their games instead of losing them.
But that’s where that key stat comes in. During losses to Alaska Anchorage (92-90) and at Alaska (112-102), Chaminade surrendered 75 trips to the free throw line and got to the line just 55 times. Those numbers led to a 61-42 free-throw-shooting advantage for the two Alaska schools and ultimately led to both losses.
Chaminade has out-fouled its opponents 55-46 and had three players foul out, including junior guard Kiran Shastri, who started one of the two games and fouled out of both of them.
Without having seen the Silverswords play, it’s hard to know exactly what kind of team they field and how they run offense and play — or don’t play — defense. But based on the stats, it looks like they’re a fast team that likes to chuck up three-pointers and doesn’t worry too much about defending.
It will be interesting to see if the Jayhawks get caught up in that style and try to run up and down with the Silverswords or if KU coach Bill Self elects to make this more of a half-court game, perhaps in response to KU’s struggles in the half-court in last week’s loss to Michigan State at the Champions Classic in Chicago, where KU senior Perry Ellis led Kansas with 21 points but did not get nearly enough touches in the paint, especially in the second half.
The nice thing about Ellis’ game and the Wichita native’s versatility is that it allows KU to play just about any style necessary without having to worry about him being taken out of the game. Ellis seems to be equally comfortable doing work inside, both on the block and out of the high post, or running the floor, leading the break and knocking down outside jumpers.
Either way, you can bet that he’ll be a huge point of emphasis for Kansas (1-1) in Maui, against Chaminade in the opener, simply because it’s the next game after Michigan State, and as the Jayhawks try to run past the rest of the field to deliver Self his first Maui title in four tries.
