KU Jayhawks basketball: 21 stats, facts and quirks about this year’s team
Let’s keep the intro short: Here are 21 numbers I found interesting about this year’s Kansas Jayhawks basketball team.
All stats are from KenPom, Hoop-Math, BartTorvik.com, KU Athletics or Synergy Sports Technology.
• KU will end the 2020 calendar year — like the Kansas City Chiefs (thanks to heritage30year on Twitter for the tip) — with no true road losses. The Jayhawks were 10-0 in 2020 road games, while the Chiefs went 8-0.
• The Jayhawks are averaging 1.8 dunks per game this season against D-I competition. That’s less than half of what the team averaged last season (4.6 per game).
• KU’s 45.6% two-point accuracy is on pace to be the worst of Bill Self’s 18 seasons in Lawrence. The Jayhawks have only shot below 50% from two-point range in one other campaign under Self: 2014-15 (46.4%).
• Marcus Garrett has made 16% of his mid-range jumpers so far (3 of 19) but 42% of his threes (8 of 19).
• Christian Braun’s three-point accuracy (43%, 22 of 51) is just three percentage points lower than what he’s shot at the rim (46%, 10 of 22).
• Braun has made 11 of 20 threes in transition settings (first 10 seconds of the shot clock off a steal, defensive rebound or opponent score).
• Jalen Wilson has made 46% of his threes in half-court settings (13 of 28).
• Out of Wilson’s 91 field-goal attempts, a combined 83 have been either at the rim or threes.
• Ochai Agbaji is averaging 1.543 points per possession on “unguarded” spot-up attempts, according to Synergy. On “guarded” ones, he’s at 0.545 PPP.
• Wilson, in a small sample, has been the opposite. He’s at 0.75 points per possession on “unguarded” spot-up attempts ... but 1.667 PPP on “guarded” ones.
• As a team, KU has averaged 1.074 points per possession on jump-shots off the dribble, via Synergy. That ranks 25th nationally.
• David McCormack has made 80% of his free throws, which is on pace to be near the best mark for a KU big man over the last decade. As it stands now, only Dedric Lawson in 2018-19 (81.5%) and McCormack last season (81.3%) have posted higher season-long free throw percentages among KU forwards and centers since 2010.
• KU has grabbed 36.3% of its missed shots against D-I opponents. If it stands, it would be the Jayhawks’ highest mark in the last seven seasons.
• The Jayhawks, so far, have a nearly identical adjusted shooting percentage in transition and non-transition situations. KU’s effective field-goal percentage is 51.6% on fast breaks and 51.3% in the half-court.
• Thirty percent of KU’s assists this season have been on shots at the rim, while 56% have been on threes. Last season, 50% of KU’s assists were on shots at the rim, while 37% were on threes.
• KU’s leader on blocked shots at the rim is Tyon Grant-Foster, with six. That’s despite him ranking seventh on the team in minutes with 90.
• The Jayhawks have six players who have attempted 10 or more shots at the rim. Only two — Wilson (66%) and Grant-Foster (73%) — are shooting better than 55% on those tries.
• Bryce Thompson is 11-for-21 on two-point jump-shot attempts (52%) but 2-for-8 on shots at the rim (25%).
• KU has scored 1.071 points per possession on baseline out of bounds plays, according to Synergy, which ranks in the 90th percentile nationally.
• The Jayhawks allowed 25 transition field goal attempts to Gonzaga in the opener. In KU’s last two games against Texas Tech and West Virginia, the Jayhawks allowed 15 transition attempts combined.
• KU’s Dajuan Harris has taken more charges this season (five) than KU had as a team in 31 games last year (four).
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 1:18 PM with the headline "KU Jayhawks basketball: 21 stats, facts and quirks about this year’s team."
