Kansas Jayhawks, playing shorthanded, bounce back in big way with blowout win at TCU
As a senior starter for the No. 6 team in the country, Kansas point guard Marcus Garrett desperately wanted to play his usual 30-plus minutes Tuesday night against TCU — a school located in Fort Worth, Texas — a mere 20-minute drive from his hometown of Dallas.
“Can you imagine the one game where his family can all be here and he couldn’t go? I felt bad he couldn’t,” KU coach Bill Self said of last year’s national defensive player of the year. Garrett took a shot to the head from Texas’ Jericho Sims in Saturday’s 25-point home loss to Texas, and according to Self, “was feeling some symptoms this evening so there was no way he was going to go.”
Ruled out about an hour and a half before the Big 12 game, Garrett took on the role of cheerleader. He encouraged and instructed freshman point guard Dajuan Harris, who scored seven points and dished seven assists and emerged as one of several stars in KU’s 93-64 win over the Horned Frogs at Schollmaier Arena.
“It created an opportunity (for Harris),” Self said of Garrett’s absence. “He (Harris) was really solid and got the ball where it needed to go. He definitely looked like he belonged,” Self added.
Garrett’s involvement in the game from the bench was noticed by a fired-up KU team that won its 11th-straight Big 12 road game. The Jayhawks (9-2, 3-1) tied their own league record of 11 straight road wins set from Feb. 25, 2001 to Jan. 6, 2003.
“Marcus or any player would be hurt not to play. He was still a leader. He talked to us and cheered us on,” said junior power forward David McCormack who had his best game of the season (20 points, eight boards). “Marcus helped Dajuan from what he was seeing on the bench. He still helped us out,” McCormack added.
The 6-foot-10 McCormack hit 7 of 9 shots and was 6 of 6 from the line just three days after KU’s 25-point blowout home loss to Texas. He not only dunked during the game, but hit an 18-foot jump shot in which he was fouled and completed a three-point play.
“Of the nine shots he took (just) one was off balance. He had his legs underneath him,” Self said of McCormack. “There’s a time with everybody when things haven’t gone well that you just finally just have to say — I don’t know the correct terminology — ‘screw it’ and just go play. That’s kind of the impression I got from him. He’s a good player. He’s not played his best. Tonight was the first night I thought he was dominant,” Self added.
Of his “dominant” play, McCormack said: “I played with a clear mind; clear heart. It’s how I went about it. Everything worked out.”
Meanwhile, junior wing Ochai Agbaji scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He was 3-of-6 from three. It was a stellar effort especially considering he suffered a hamstring injury at practice Monday and was not 100%.
“We didn’t know if ‘Och’ could go,” Self said. “I thought he was great. He went through some pretty rigorous stretching and movement at shootaround. He got a ton of treatment and said he’d give it a try.”
Also Agbaji, who Self said had the COVID-19 virus this past summer, had a false positive test this week that kept him out of practice one day.
“That happens. I had one the last two weeks,” Self said, noting “it (false positive) has happened to us several times and probably will happen some more moving forward. We didn’t think it was an issue ‘Och’ has already had it this summer. It’s something we had to deal with. All he had to miss (in quarantine awaiting further testing that proved negative) was one practice.”
Sophomore wing Tristan Enaruna had career highs in points (12) and rebounds (seven). He also scored two points for TCU when he was bumped by teammate Tyon Grant-Foster in chasing a rebound and inadvertently tipped the ball in the goal.
“I mean that’s very unfortunate,” Enaruna said “We both went for the ball hard. Coach wanted us to do that when we both were in the game.”
Of his own performance, Enaruna said: “Coach let us know that was a really good team (now 9-3, 2-2). Knowing we were missing a couple guys (including sixth man Bryce Thompson with back injury) I knew I’d be somebody who had to do something extra. My mentality was to come out and play hard.”
Also for KU, Jalen Wilson flirted with a triple double in scoring 16 points with eight boards and six assists. Christian Braun contributed 10 points.
“I’m proud of the guys,” Enaruna said “We knew the way we played Saturday is not the team we are.”
Noted. Self: “The guys were terrific. It was a bounce-back game in which we didn’t know if Marcus could go, didn’t know if ‘Och’ could go. To not be full strength and have the guys kind of rally around that after what happened Saturday I thought was terrific. I won’t be nitpicking on anything right now. I thought the guys played great, shared the ball, did a lot of things that should give us confidence moving forward.”
KU, which led 49-35 at halftime in the blowout victory, outrebounded TCU 41-20. Kevin Samuel, the league’s leading rebounder, had zero boards in 18 minutes. KU will next meet Oklahoma at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks, playing shorthanded, bounce back in big way with blowout win at TCU."
