Quick grades for five aspects of KU’s 103-99, overtime loss to No. 11 Indiana in the Jayhawks’ season opener Friday night in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Offense: B
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Scoring 99 points and shooting 52 percent in the first half generally sounds like a nice start toward a good offensive night. But too many key contributors — most notably Devonte’ Graham and Josh Jackson each going 3-of-11 — struggled in this one, leaving the door open for Indiana to walk out with the win.
Defense: C
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KU allowed the Hoosiers, who shot 43.7 percent for the game, to make 48.4 percent of their three-point attempts. That alone was enough to kill Kansas, saying nothing about KU’s difficulty keeping the IU guards in front of them at times.
Frontcourt: C-
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Landen Lucas’ 11 and 7 were good, but he had an opportunity to do better and didn’t. Carlton Bragg took a nice step forward but still had a few mental mistakes and no one else was much of a factor up front. KU also was out-rebounded 50-39 and blocked just 2 shots.
Backcourt: A-
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Anytime you have a player do what senior point guard Frank Mason III did in this one, that’s going to be enough for an entire unit to get an A of some kind. Mason flirted with a triple-double by pouring in 30 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds in 40 minutes.
Bench: C-
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Although Svi was one of KU’s better players in the game, his bench mates — though lacking for opportunity — did not do much to help the Kansas cause. Lageraled Vick scored 7 points and grabbed 1 rebound in 28 minutes and Udoka Azubuike, Mitch Lightfoot and even Tyler Self did not even combine to play 10 minutes.
