Kansas head coach Bill Self, right, and assistant Kurtis Townsend chat at half court during a day of practices and press conferences prior to a March 2017 KU game at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.
On the surface, today’s match-up between top-seeded Kansas (30-4) and No. 4 seed Purdue (27-7) in the Midwest Regional semifinals at Kansas City’s Sprint Center seems like a clash between two completely different teams.
On paper, however, these two teams appear much more similar than many are saying.
From both scoring in the 80s and shooting similar percentages all over the floor to impressive defensive numbers and closer-than-expected rebounding totals, the Jayhawks and Boilermakers have at least as many things in common as they do differences.
To take things a step farther, KU coach Bill Self has stressed throughout the week that even though the talk has been about Purdue’s big front line — and understandably so — the two teams even play similar-looking lineups for a good chunk of the time.
“They’re not a big time shot-blocking team,” said Self, whose team actually blocks more shots per game than Matt Painter’s squad. “They’re a wall-up team. What gets lost a lot is Purdue plays, a majority of the time, the same way we do, with one big and four guards…. There’s more similarities in how the game will start than what a lot of people think.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the numbers.
A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.
