Quick grades for five aspects of KU’s 75-54 victory over Stanford at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Thursday night.
Offense: A
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62.5 percent shooting from the floor in the first half, including 46 percent from 3-point range, was all Kansas needed to run away from Stanford. The fact that it came from a monster effort in the paint and some hot shooting from the outside just made Kansas that much harder to beat on Thursday. The ball moved effortlessly, guys played under control and on the same page and Stanford’s defense stood no chance of slowing the Jayhawks down.
Defense: A
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The plan to put smaller, quicker players on 6-foot-8 forward Reid Travis worked to perfection, as Svi Mykhailiuk, Sam Cunliffe, Marcus Garrett and a couple of other Jayhawks all did a masterful job of frustrating Travis to just four first-half points on four shots. The Cardinal got buckets from other spots on the floor, but taking Travis away completely stifled everything Stanford wanted to do offensively and helped Kansas cruise.
Frontcourt: A-
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Udoka Azubuike scored KU’s first 10 points and finished with 24 points and 7 rebounds in 26 minutes. Mitch Lightfoot had an up-and-down night, with a couple of unnecessary fouls combined with terrific effort on the offensive glass. Lightfoot was not quite as good as he had been in KU’s past two games, but he did not take a major step backwards by any means. Toss the work Svi and Cunliffe did as big men into this grade and it’s an easy A.
Backcourt: A
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Devonte’ Graham set the tone early with some deep 3-pointers to stake Kansas to a double-digit lead and Mykhailiuk, Malik Newman and Lagerald Vick took it from there. KU’s upperclassman trio all reached double digits and also played great defense on Stanford’s young, inexperienced and overmatched guards.
Bench: B
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Marcus Garrett had another hot-and-cold night, Sam Cunliffe played some terrific first-half minutes and Lightfoot did what Kansas needs Lightfoot to do for the most part. There was not really anything wrong with KU’s bench effort other than scoring just three points.
