Playing with ‘free mind,’ McCormack scores 17 points in KU’s narrow 63-59 win over OU
Kansas junior big man David McCormack appears to be emerging as a force inside after leading the Jayhawks in scoring the past two games.
“(I’m) playing with heart and a free mind, doing what I can to help the team win, playing with energy. That’s all I can say,” McCormack, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound native of Norfolk, Virginia, said after scoring 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting in KU’s narrow 63-59 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
That performance followed his 20-point effort in Tuesday’s 93-64 road rout of TCU.
He’s looked quite different of late from the guy who was awarded just three minutes of playing time the second half because of nonproductive play in last Saturday’s 25-point home loss to Texas.
“It definitely takes a lot of energy and a lot of work,” McCormack said of strong post moves that led to two of the biggest hoops in No. 6-ranked KU’s win over the unranked Sooners (6-4, 2-3), a team that was playing without senior starter Brady Manek and reserve Jalen Hill, out because of COVID-19 protocols.
“It’s definitely heavy on the legs because you are in the post battling for position, spinning. It’s probably the most contact you’ll play with on the basketball court. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what we train for and practice for,” McCormack added.
McCormack accepted a pass from Jalen Wilson and flipped in a short hook shot with 2 minutes, 19 seconds left, to erase OU’s 57-56 lead. Following an OU miss, Wilson drilled a three that gave KU (10-2, 4-1) a 61-57 advantage at 1:24.
After a bucket by OU cut the gap to two, McCormack accepted a pass from Christian Braun and scored again, pushing the margin to 63-59 with 12.8 to play. Austin Reaves missed a three-point try on the Sooners’ final possession. Reaves finished with a game-high 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
“Obviously I thought he played well offensively. He made two of the biggest plays without question,” KU coach Bill Self said of McCormack, who played 25 minutes. “I thought he was good. I thought Mitch (Lightfoot, backup big, seven points, two blocks, 15 minutes) was good too for the most part. In the second half, they plugged the gap, didn’t allow the guards to get to the rim for the most part. That was positive.
“It’s hard to get too excited,” Self added, “when our two bigs play 40 minutes and combine for one rebound. I’m happy for him. Certainly he came up big late.”
McCormack had one rebound; Lightfoot none as KU outboarded OU 35-32.
Had the Jayhawks not won the last 3 1/2 minutes, they’d have lost back-to-back games at home for the first time since the 1988-89 season.
“I thought we actually stunk the first half,” Self said. Wilson had six turnovers the half. KU committed 10 turnovers (off nine OU steals) and trailed 33-31 at the break.
“The second half, I thought considering we didn’t really make free throws (11 of 19 to OU’s 7 of 10) and didn’t shoot particularly well (6 of 20 from three to OU’s identical 6 of 20) I thought we played better the second half.
“The thing I’ll take out of this game more than anything ... when we were down one with 3:22 left, we actually executed and played well down the stretch, which is obviously the most important time to play well. Jalen responded after a rough day in a big way,” Self noted.
Indeed, Wilson’s three gave the Jayhawks a bit of breathing room with that four-point advantage and just 1:24 remaining.
“They (Sooners) don’t have to earn everything. We have to earn everything,” Self said. The Jayhawks hit 48.9% overall to OU’s 38.3% mark.
“We get two steals the first half; they get nine. If you look at it that way it’s a pretty good win. They get easy stuff. We don’t.”
KU junior wing Ochai Agbaji scored 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting, while Wilson finished with nine points and 11 boards and Christian Braun nine boards and five points. Marcus Garrett, who missed the last game because of concussion-like symptoms, scored seven points with five rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes for Kansas.
Agbaji gave a lot of credit for the win — KU’s 20th in a row over OU in Lawrence — to McCormack.
“He was being a presence playing against their big (Kur Kuath, eight points, four boards), helping out the guards when they were running their actions and ball screens. Offensively he was being aggressive. When he caught it in there he was aggressive, had his mind made up, played loose and relaxed,” Agbaji said.
McCormack had the best individual reaction of the day when he flexed his muscles after scoring the bucket that game KU a four-point lead with just 12.8 ticks left.
“I know he’s always going to have some kind of reaction after a bucket, a big bucket,” Agbaji said. “It’s great energy for us moving back to get a stop on defense.”
KU is set to meet Oklahoma State at 7 p.m., Tuesday, at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Playing with ‘free mind,’ McCormack scores 17 points in KU’s narrow 63-59 win over OU."
