West Virginia’s Sean McNeil was on fire early against KU. He even banked in a three
West Virginia’s Sean McNeil launched a 25-foot, straight-on three-pointer with one second left in the first half of Kansas’ 79-65 victory over the Mountaineers Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
Of course it not only went in, but banked in, capping a half in which the 6-foot-3 junior from Union, Kentucky went 6-for-6 from three-point range and 7-for-7 overall, good for 20 points in 15 minutes.
That last three-pointer brought the Mountaineers all the way back from an early nine-point deficit and gave the No. 7-ranked team in the country a 36-35 lead over No. 3 KU at the break.
“I told them, I said, ‘Guys he’s got 20 (points), three of them don’t count because that (last one) was luck. He’s got 20. How did we lose him (on defense)?’’’ KU coach Bill Self recalled when asked what he said to his team in the locker room at halftime.
McNeil — he once scored 55 points in a game for Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio — finished with the most threes in a half by a KU opponent since Farad Cobb swished six in the first half for Chattanooga on Nov. 15, 2012. KU won that game, 69-55.
McNeil’s first-half surge also had to remind some of the 2,500 fans in attendance Tuesday of Marchello Vealy’s 7-of-8 shooting clinic in Oral Roberts’ 78-71 victory over KU on Nov. 16, 2006 in Allen. Five of Vealy’s threes came in a 3 1/2-minute span in the first half and helped ORU build an early 10-point lead. Vealy hit his first seven attempts from three in that contest, missing only his final try.
Or maybe McNeil reminded some of Gerry McNamara, whose six threes in as many attempts in the first half sparked Syracuse to an 81-78 victory over KU in the 2003 NCAA title game in New Orleans.
“That last three didn’t have anything to do with bad play or anything like that. We played perfect defense,” Self said of McNeil’s banked-in three.
Self, who actually was upbeat at halftime — “I was not discouraged at all,” he said. “I thought we played much better than to be down one” — shouldered the blame for McNeil’s shocking three-point shooting display.
“A lot of it was my fault,” Self said. “A lot was scouting report that the emphasis was he’s a good shooter, don’t get me wrong (12 of 40 entering the game) but we would probably live with him taking semi-guarded shots moreso than throwing the ball in to Derek (Culver) or Oscar (Tshiebwe). We did a good job in that area.”
Big men Culver and Tshiebwe combined for seven points and six rebounds in the first half and 11 points and 13 rebounds for the game.
“We didn’t do a good job of perimeter defense as much, getting to him as a shooter,” Self said of McNeil. “In the second half we locked in and did an equally good job in both areas.”
The Jayhawks players were not downtrodden over McNeil’s three-point shooting display in the initial half.
“We still had a great mood (at halftime), stay positive, stay encouraging,” KU junior forward David McCormack said after his own 10-point, 11-rebound effort helped KU to its eighth win in nine games and second Big 12 Conference victory in as many tries. West Virginia fell to 7-2, 1-1.
“We had to shut him down the second half the way we did. He didn’t really get anything the second half. We had to just hunker down and play to scouting report,” McCormack said.
McNeil went 0-for-4 from three-point range and 1-of-5 from the field overall, scoring four points the final 20 minutes as KU, which hit nine of 19 second-half three-point tries to WVU’s one of 11, stormed to a 14-point win.
“The first half he kind of banked in one. He hit another late at the buzzer. I feel the second half the way we guarded was great,” said KU senior guard Marcus Garrett. “We guarded the three-point line better.”
McNeil explained the difference in the two halves from his own perspective.
“My body felt really good going into the game in warmups. I felt pretty good then I saw that first one go in, that was a big confidence builder from there,” he said. “I felt I didn’t get a whole lot of good looks,” he added, referring to the final 20 minutes.
He played the entire second half and 35 minutes in all.
“This whole year I’ve been kind of stressing and pressing and putting so much pressure on myself to get myself going,” McNeil said. “One of the biggest things in the first half I thought I did well is letting the game come to me. I didn’t want to take any bad shots (second half). I knew I had it going a little bit. We unfortunately didn’t get it done.”
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said he was not surprised by McNeil’s early onslaught.
“Yes, we thought he could shoot it like that. He shoots it like that in practice,” Huggins said. “What hurt us is he and ‘Deuce’ (Miles McBride, 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting) were the only two that made shots. We couldn’t throw it in close to stop the bleeding (after KU scored).
“Whenever we needed to throw it in close, they did a good job with ball pressure and they were physical inside. We didn’t handle the physicality as well.”
Huggins, as a head coach, fell to to 0-10 in games played at Allen Fieldhouse (he’s 0-9 at WVU and was 0-1 when he coached at Kansas State).
By game’s end, KU’s Christian Braun had hit six threes, the same number as McNeil. Also Jalen Wilson hit four and Marcus Garrett and Ochai Agbaji three apiece.
KU’s 37 three-point tries were most ever taken by a KU team in a Big 12 game. The Jayhawks’ 16 made threes were one off the school record for conference play.
“The surprise was they shot it as well as they shot it from the perimeter,” Huggins said. “They shot it very consistently. Everybody shot it from the perimeter and then when they missed they rebounded the long rebounds. We didn’t.”
Both teams had 19 offensive rebounds. KU had 21 defensive rebounds to WVU’s 18.
“They were, for whatever reason, a lot quicker to the ball than we were,” Huggins said.
Self was pleased with KU’s effort on the boards.
“The three-ball helped us win because we made them,” he said. “The three-balls also allowed us to offensive rebound because long shots mean long rebounds.
“We were lucky a little bit. It’s also running down loose balls. We did a great job running down a ton of long misses. If we missed 21 threes, which is a ton, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got 10 of them back. That’s also something to think about from a strategy standpoint. Do we need to shoot more threes just so we can become a better rebounding team offensively?
“Very few of our rebounds were within three feet of the basket. They had a lot more within three feet of the basket. We thought 50-50 balls and long rebounds would be key. They turned out to be important for us.”
The Jayhawks will next meet No. 10-ranked Texas at 11 a.m. on Jan. 2 at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 11:41 AM with the headline "West Virginia’s Sean McNeil was on fire early against KU. He even banked in a three."
