Why this Kansas Jayhawk — and a Bill Self wink — were the biggest story in win at ISU
Joseph Yesufu broke the huddle with teammates before his free throws, then turned toward the Kansas bench after his coach yelled his name.
“Joe,” KU’s Bill Self said from a few feet away. “You got these?”
ESPN cameras caught the very end of the moment. Self smiled at Yesufu, then gave him a quick wink.
Yesufu laughed about that late-game sequence while speaking to reporters following the Jayhawks’ 70-61 road victory against Iowa State, saying he believed Self made the comment “just to mess with me.”
“I said, ‘Of course,’” Yesufu said, describing his response to Self. “I’m really confident in myself on my free throws.”
Yesufu followed through on his promise. After having attempted just one free throw all season before that, he knocked down both, adding to what had already been a standout night.
With Ochai Agbaji not available because of COVID protocols and Remy Martin out with a lingering knee injury, the Drake transfer Yesufu thrived with extended minutes.
He was disruptive defensively and explosive off the dribble. He opened up teammates with quick transition decisions and took some pressure off teammate Dajuan Harris as a secondary ballhandler against Iowa State’s pressure.
“He needs to play more. That’s obvious,” Self said of Yesufu afterward. “I mean, the kid was fearless.”
Let’s not undersell the wink either, because that’s important too.
Self often goes through these chicken-or-the-egg scenarios with his team’s newcomers and bench players. To get extra playing time, he has to trust a player. But to trust a player, that person usually has to — at some point — get a bit of extra playing time too.
So joking around with Yesufu late? A welcome sign of trust in a guy who hadn’t gotten the benefit of that before Tuesday.
Yesufu initially slipped through KU’s rotation cracks after a few low-confidence performances late in the non-conference schedule. Most notable was Dec. 29 in a blowout win against Nevada, when he had two turnovers and two fouls in five minutes with poor body language that made it apparent he was being hard on himself.
What came next is a credit to Yesufu’s character. Coming into Tuesday night, he’d entered just four of KU’s previous eight contests, while playing a combined 20 minutes since the team began its Big 12 slate on Jan. 4.
Since then, Yesufu only pushed harder. He continued individual workouts outside of team settings 2-3 times a week. He leaned on family members and KU players and God, he says, to keep up the faith when a natural human reaction would’ve been to get discouraged.
“I believe every day is gonna be my day,” Yesufu said. “You got to stay ready for each and every week, each and every day, so I stayed ready for it.”
Yesufu remained impactful Tuesday without shooting it that well. His three steals tied KU’s best mark by an individual in conference play, while he also added five assists and five rebounds in his 23 minutes.
He also made Iowa State’s guards uncomfortable, constantly getting into them while using quick hands for deflections and takeaways.
It took some sacrifice from Self to make it possible. The KU coach values offensive play calls and proper execution, and some of that control has to be surrendered when playing guys like Yesufu for significant minutes.
“We didn’t really run anything. We just kind of played,” Self said. “That turned out to be the best thing for us today.”
And it should be considered a more viable option moving forward.
Three days after looking slow and unathletic in a home rout against Kentucky, KU received some much-needed juice from Yesufu. And even without two of their twitchiest players in Agbaji and Martin, KU still was the speedier team Tuesday, helped by Yesufu emerging at a perfect time.
The opportunity opening up with two rotations players out could change the trajectory of Yesufu’s season — and perhaps KU’s as well. Yesufu didn’t get frustrated after he got benched in recent games. He never stopped working.
“This is all just a big journey to me,” Yesufu said. “And although I wasn’t playing, I learned from it.”
Self learned something too. There’s another player he can confidently go to during a game’s most important moments.
And even mess around with when the time is right for that too.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Why this Kansas Jayhawk — and a Bill Self wink — were the biggest story in win at ISU."
