Baylor Bears tried to ‘blitz’ Kansas Jayhawks basketball. Here’s why it didn’t work
Baylor’s Dale Bonner put up the perimeter shot, but teammate Kendall Brown was the more important one to watch while standing just outside the three-point line.
This was midway through the first half of Kansas’ 83-59 rout of Baylor on Saturday afternoon, and to see how it got away from the Bears — while understanding why the Jayhawks played so close to their ceiling — one needs to focus on Brown.
After the shot goes up, Brown charges toward the lane for the offensive rebound. He is 6-foot-8, one of the most athletic players in the country and projected as a future NBA first-round pick.
He’s trying to get around KU’s Joseph Yesufu, who has a great vertical jump but is listed at 6-foot — and that measurement is probably 3 inches too generous.
This is coach Scott Drew basketball, and what it’s been for a while: Get up a shot, and crash the hell out of the glass. Baylor entered ranking fifth nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, and under Drew, it hasn’t been worse than ninth in the statistic in ten seasons.
There’s only one way to get those results, though: You have to send bodies to get the basketball.
It’s not a particularly encouraging situation for KU under the rim after this three-pointer misses.
Yesufu doesn’t get much of a body on Brown, which allows him a mostly free run at it. KU’s Mitch Lightfoot (6-8, 225) is trying to wall off hustle-player extraordinaire Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (6-8, 245), while the Jayhawks’ Christian Braun (6-6, 218) is attempting to hold his ground against Jeremy Sochan (6-9, 230).
In this instance, Braun fights to pin Sochan under the goal where he has a more challenging angle. Both go up with two hands to grab the ball before it deflects toward the baseline, where Lightfoot is quickest to the ball.
This is where basketball becomes a lot like football. An NFL defense choosing to blitz has to get to the quarterback, because if it doesn’t, the team is exposed on the back end without much help.
Baylor chose to send three to the offensive glass, making it 3-on-3 in the pursuit of a second-chance opportunity.
When the Bears don’t get it, though, one pass from Lightfoot to Braun makes it a 3-on-2 for the Jayhawks.
This played out over and again on Saturday afternoon: a rebounding fight between KU’s greyhounds and Baylor’s pit bulls.
And when the greyhounds won? Look out ... because they’re about to be dangerous taking off the other direction.
This score takes less than five seconds. Braun dribbles three times, scoops a pass to Dajuan Harris, who then touches it to Jalen Wilson for an uncontested layup.
It’s what happens when KU gets scrappy on the boards. KU can become one of the quickest teams in America to transition from defense to offense.
What it needs first, though, is the chance to get out and run — and the Jayhawks earned plenty of those opportunities Saturday.
In the postgame, KU coach Bill Self admitted that this isn’t the biggest team he’s had. It also doesn’t have the above-the-rim leaping ability of some of his rosters past.
“We know we’ve got to gang rebound,” Self said. “We know we’ve got to hit somebody and rebound the ball with two hands.”
It’s one thing to talk about it, though. KU did it against Baylor, a week after being embarrassed by Kentucky in a home loss where the Jayhawks looked slow and unathletic.
Since that result, the Jayhawks have appeared more motivated to punch above their weight.
KU improved on the glass against Iowa State in a road win Tuesday. Then, at a certain point late in the first half against Baylor on Saturday, Self noted the box score showing his team up 12 on the boards.
And again, those hustle and strength plays help unlock the best part of KU’s offense. At the 17-minute mark of the first half, Agbaji and Wilson pinching in to ensure the Jayhawks secured a defensive board — along with some hesitance from Baylor — led to another easy two, eventually getting Braun free for a close shot.
This is how KU pulled away from Baylor when the game was still competitive. The Jayhawks entered averaging eight fastbreak points per Big 12 game; in the first nine minutes against the Bears on Saturday, they had 11.
Some of it was effort too. KU’s first basket, for instance, came after a steal but wasn’t the result of fancy X’s and O’s or scheming. Instead, it was Agbaji — coming off COVID protocols this week — simply outracing everyone down the court, opening himself up for a layup and foul at the rim.
Even without dynamic point guard Remy Martin, sidelined with a knee injury, KU has continued to be lethal on the run. According to Synergy, the Jayhawks’ 1.15 points per possession on fastbreaks ranks 29th nationally, which is quite the feat considering how far the team has come from its plodding ways a season ago.
The trick for KU, though, is getting those scoring chances to start with.
To do that, the Jayhawks have to perform the tough part: They need to play bigger than they are while holding their ground against oversized opponents.
When they accomplish that, though, watch out.
Because no one makes teams pay for a basketball blitz quite like this year’s Jayhawks.
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Baylor Bears tried to ‘blitz’ Kansas Jayhawks basketball. Here’s why it didn’t work."
