There are certain programs in college basketball that can't help but embody cliches. After 10 consecutive Big 12 championships and 11 first round NBA draft picks over the last seven years, Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks fit the profile.
College basketball scores: Kansas is winning despite some strange question marks
Scores, highlights and reaction from Sunday’s college basketball slate. Now with 100 percent more DePaul.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Kansas doesn't rebuild, it reloads. Even after losing the No. 1 and No. 3 picks from the 2014 draft, Kansas wasn't expected to take a step back. They started the year No. 5 in the polls and had natural replacements for Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid with blue chip freshmen Kelly Oubre and Cliff Alexander. With a 61-56 win over a tough Michigan State team on Sunday, the Jayhawks solidified a 5-1 start through the first month of the new season. All things considered, this is where Kansas is supposed to be.
While the end result isn't a surprise, how Kansas ended up here is. For as good as Kentucky was expected to be, top five matchups aren't supposed to end with one team blocking as many shots as the other team has made field goals. No one thought sophomore Landen Lucas would be installed as the starter next to Perry Ellis in the front court, but that's exactly what's happened in Kansas' four-game winning streak. Wayne Selden was supposed to establish himself as a star without Wiggins around, only now Selden is struggling as much as any player in the country with his type of pedigree.
And the freshmen? Oubre is ninth on his own team in minutes and Alexander’s ascension hasn’t been as immediate as some might have thought.
No matter how they’re getting it done, there’s no denying that Kansas has rebounded nicely from the national embarrassment that came with that defeat to the Wildcats in Indianapolis. With wins over Rhode Island (who beat Nebraska), Tennessee and the Spartans, the Jayhawks ended the month right where most expected even if the path was one no one saw coming.
Has the start been encouraging, or is Kansas showing real signs of vulnerability? It’s all a matter of perception.
Selden was brutal against Michigan State. He shot 0-of-10 from the field to finish with five points and five rebounds in 36 minutes. On the season, Selden is shooting just 26.5 percent from the floor and averaging just over seven points per game. His true shooting percentage is 38.7. You would expect a sophomore projected to be a first round draft pick all summer to eventually break out of a slump this severe. If it happens, a team that’s already beating quality opponents will be primed for another step forward.
The way Self has buried Oubre is bordering on the bizarre with each passing game. Against Michigan State, Oubre played all of six minutes and missed his only shot once from the field. As Self has relegrated Oubre to the bench, though, another freshman wing is getting a big opportunity.
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk is the 17-year-old freshman Self plucked out of Ukraine late this summer. He enjoyed a career-best performance against the Spartans, pouring in 11 points and hitting three three-pointers. With a relative lack of shooting being one obvious question mark coming into this season for Kansas, Svi’s ability to hit from deep is only going to earn him more PT.
Alexander is coming, too. He scored 16 points against Tennessee on Friday, mostly on dunks. These are three different plays even if they look identical.
All the while, Self has kept perspective on how he’s handling Oubre and Alexander. Just because Oubre is struggling to find time now doesn’t mean that will be the case into conference play and beyond. Just because Alexander is coming off the bench in November doesn’t mean he will be all year.
“I do know this: Who we play the most now won’t be who we play the most later on,” Self said. “That’s why guys just got to hang in there and keep grinding because this is a big transition. People don’t understand. These guys know it. It’s a big transition from high school and AAU ball, where things aren’t really ball.”
We know Kansas is miles away from Kentucky at this point. The Jayhawks probably aren’t on the level of Wisconsin, Duke or Gonzaga yet, either. Self is simply too good of a coach to get spooked by anything that happens in November, though. Few teams would be able to overcome an 0-for-10 shooting night from their best perimeter scorer and still be able to beat a team as disciplined as Michigan State. In a sense, even Kansas’ struggles could be seen as comforting at this point.
DePaul ... wins?
Did DePaul win? Against a team that went to the Sweet 16 last year? Believe it, haters. Oliver Purnell is your new overlord.
OK, so there’s a reason the Blue Demons have spent the past seven seasons as the biggest punchline in college basketball, but a new look roster with plenty of local ties at least makes this team a little intriguing for Chicagoland college basketball fans. In a shocking 87-72 win over Stanford, it was DePaul’s homegrown players that were leading the way.
Myke Henry was once the No. 97 recruit in the country in 2011, and a member of an Illinois recruiting class that included four top 100 prospects. Henry transferred after Bruce Weber was fired and is making his debut for DePaul this year with a year of eligibility remaining after this one. The early returns are promising for the 6'7 forward out of Orr High School on the south side of the city.
DePaul fell to an 0-4 Lehigh team on Wednesday, but Henry was unstoppable, finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds and three steals on 9-of-16 shooting. He was even better against Stanford, scoring 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting, blocking three shots, dishing out three assists and powering the program to its most unlikely victory in years.
DePaul also got a big game from Tommy Hamilton, a 6’11, 280-pound sophomore center who was once considered a prized recruit at Whitney Young High School before struggling to control his weight. A big man one year behind Hamilton at Young would eventually win over the scouts he couldn’t -- you might have heard of Duke’s Jahlil Okafor -- but the presence of a legit big man with soft hands was still a nice coup for the Blue Demons. On Sunday, Hamilton scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Even in the Big East, there’s not going to be many players capable of stopping Hamilton if he can get position on the block.
Billy Garrett Jr., the reigning Big East Freshman of the Year, is a steady point guard with tremendous size (6'6) and improving shooting range. Shooter Aaron Simpson (three three-pointers against Stanford) and wing defender Jamee Crockett are the other Chicago-area players in the rotation, while former Farragut High School standout Rashaun Stimage will be eligible after the first semester and could start from day one.
Obviously DePaul has a long way to go, but a core of Garrett Jr., Henry and Hamilton should be fun over the next two seasons. If nothing else, DePaul has the potential to actually win a few conference games this year and get out of the cellar of the Big East. After years of being weighed down by out-of-area gunners like Brandon Young and Cleveland Melvin, the new faces of DePaul basketball at least come with local ties and a clean slate.
Yeah, DePaul only beat UIC (currently 2-5) by one point. Yes, they lost to a winless Lehigh team by 12 at home. Whatever. For the first time in years, DePaul is actually putting a product on the floor worth rooting for. That in itself is the biggest victory the program has had in some time.
Absurd Kentucky moment of the weekend
Breaking down film and watching @THEwillieCS15 throw one down in todays game. pic.twitter.com/9kty9qWdh6
— UKBBall Coach'sVideo (@3UKCoachesWide) November 30, 2014 That is not a scene from the new J.J. Abrams “Star Wars” trailer, but it might as well be.
Sunday’s play of the day
Jonathan Holmes was shooting 3-for-13 for Texas before he hoisted an off balanced corner three with his Longhorns trailing UConn by two as the clock ticked to zero. Holmes would swish the shot to give the Huskies their first home non-conference loss since 1993 and more importantly keep Texas undefeated before it's Dec. 5 game against Kentucky.
Holmes has been a revelation so far in his senior season. Myles Turner and Cam Ridley might get more attention, but the 6’8, 240 pound forward proving to be Rick Barnes’ best player in the young season.
It's a major bummer Isaiah Taylor is injured, because with him, a Texas-Kentucky matchup would have even more potential for an upset. Even without him, Texas should have enough skilled big men to keep things interesting.
See More:
