Tuesday night, following KU’s thrilling, 90-88 victory over Sunflower State rival Kansas State at Allen Fieldhouse, one thing rattled around inside my brain about junior guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk’s game-winning shot at the buzzer.
Yes, Svi traveled. Nobody’s disputing that. The closest anybody even came to doing so on Tuesday night were those who said they hadn’t seen it yet.
So, we know Svi traveled. We know, travel or not, that it was still a pretty impressive play to get a layup despite having to go the length of the floor in five seconds. And we know that, again, travel or not, Svi’s hanging scoop shot was no easy play, especially with the game on the line.
But none of that was what stuck with me following Tuesday’s game.
What stuck with me was the fact that, for the last time, travel or not, the shot was probably one Svi would not even have attempted a couple of months ago.
That’s how much confidence can help a player, and few players are playing with as much confidence right now as KU’s Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, who, on Tuesday, reached double digits in scoring for the eighth consecutive game and 10th time overall this season.
Let’s take another quick look at the play and see what route a less-confident Svi could have taken instead of the one he chose, which won the game.
Svi wins it for KU at the buzzer — with contact. It is near-impossible to steal one from Kansas at the Phog. pic.twitter.com/b85I4ttPt1
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) January 4, 2017
There’s a point, just across halfcourt, when K-State’s Wesley Iwundu is closing in and, under different circumstances, easily could’ve been enough of a bother to coerce Svi into getting rid of the ball, especially when you consider that his only option from this position would’ve been to toss it back and to his right to Frank Mason III, who was crossing the mid-court stripe at about the same time and has a recent history of hitting game winners.
Mason even put his hand up briefly, calling for the ball. But Svi either never saw it or disregarded it because he felt good enough about his own ability to go win the game.
Let’s keep moving.
Once Svi reached the free throw line, where two KSU defenders greeted him and two others trailed closely, it would have been easy for him to (a) decide to throw a lob to Landen Lucas on his left or (b) zip a pass to Josh Jackson on the right for a baseline jumper to win the game.
A pass to Lucas would have made sense given the fact that the Jayhawks love lobs and Lucas delivered a career-high 18 points against the Wildcats. But it also might have taken too much time and there’s a chance Svi sensed that, with his internal clock surely a half-second or so ahead of the actual game clock thanks to adrenaline and the chaotic nature of those final few seconds.
Finding Jackson, who was more in Svi’s line of sight, also would have made sense because the KU freshman is known as a terrific scorer and has a knack for getting to the rim. That, too, might have taken a tad too long and such a decision could’ve cost the Jayhawks their shot to win it in regulation.
That’s three separate options — all of which would have made sense — that Svi passed up in order to put the game on his shoulders.
Again, there’s little-to-no chance he makes that decision a couple of months ago.
And the fact that he made it (both the shot and the decision) on Tuesday night should be viewed as perhaps the best news of all to come out of a game that people will be talking about for quite some time.
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk has finally become a player. And I can’t help but get the feeling that the best is yet to come for KU’s most recent hero.