If the Utah Jazz felt good about their 2020 first-round NBA Draft selection of former Kansas big man Udoka Azubuike, they probably felt even better if they just so happened to flip on the Jayhawks' game on Thursday. Noticeably missing from that game, a 102-90 loss to No. 1 Gonzaga? The dominant paint presence and rim protector who spearheaded the No. 1 defense in college basketball last year.
To put it lightly, the 2020-21 KU basketball team has a long way to go on defense to match that of its predecessor. To put it more bluntly, well...
“Our transition defense was nonexistent,” coach Bill Self said in his post-game radio interview. “Our ball-screen defense was awful.”
At the center of those issues was the team's center. Of course, not all 102 points scored by Gonzaga were at the expense of David McCormack. And the big man actually contributed eight points to the No. 6-ranked Jayhawks' ultimate total of 90.
But on offense, McCormack could not offer Azubuike's same efficiency inside. He committed four turnovers and shot only 3 for 9, bricking several 18-plus-foot 2-point jumpers. On defense, McCormack didn't record a single block and totaled six rebounds in 20 minutes. The Bulldogs, on the other side, shot 64.5 percent from the field and scored 62 points in the paint.
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Entering the game, Self has talked up McCormack as potentially the team's leading scorer — and arguably the top performer of the preseason slate as recently as a couple weeks ago.
“We missed an inside presence like we had with Doke,” Self said after Thursday's loss. “David was kind of off balance and kind of sped up today a little bit.”
Care to elaborate?
“He struggled today,” Self said. “He struggled on both ends, off balance, trying too hard, sped up. He’ll get that back. David’s been terrific in the preseason workouts. I think he was a little bit too amped up today. And when things didn’t go well early, it kind of set him back a little bit.”
He continued.
“Certainly David is not Doke,” Self said. “We’ve got to figure out some ways to help him whenever big guys have the ball. ... David, he’s got to be a better ball-screen defender and certainly has got to be a better lane and rim protector, but I think he can. I think he can. He just didn’t have one of his better games today.”
Interesting enough, while McCormack is a downgrade size-wise from Azubuike, another potential answer may be going even smaller. Self hinted at potentially turning to five-guard looks in the preseason, and that came to fruition in Thursday's opener.
Redshirt-freshman wing Jalen Wilson, who actually earned the start for the game as the small-ball four, spent time at the five. He was one of a few KU players to earn some praise from Self after the game.
“I thought Jalen did some good things,” Self said. “If you’re not going to rebound the ball as a unit, and certainly with our bigs, why don’t we play small? We haven’t practiced that a ton, but I liked him. I thought he did a good job for the most part of kind of hipping [Gonzaga big man Drew] Timme and keeping him off his spot. ... I thought Jalen did well. I thought he had a pretty good game. Defensively he didn’t, but offensively he did.”
When Self refers to the concept of "hipping," what he means is Wilson using his lower-body strength to keep Timme, listed at 6-10, 235 pounds, from getting to his spot — or knocking him further out when he does establish position. Wilson, by the way, is listed at 6-8, 215.
Wilson, like the rest of the Jayhawks, had difficult moments on the defensive end. But the young wing, coming off a season-ending ankle injury in 2019-20, actually held his own against Timme at times, moving him completely out of the restricted area with a boxout on one occasion and scoring inside against Timme on several others. (Timme finished with 25 points on 11-for-15 shooting, as he found success against most defenders he saw on Thursday.)
Funny enough, it was a conversation in October — not of 2020, but rather 2019 — in which Wilson revealed why he might be capable of playing such a role. In fact, Wilson was a small-ball four in high school and came to KU with the body type to play in the frontcourt, at least when it came to having large legs and significant lower-body strength.
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"It's genes," Wilson said at the time, asked about his legs. "It's all my mom's side of the family. We're all built like this. ... It's crazy."
That could lead to Wilson being a potential answer for the Jayhawks in the frontcourt. Or, perhaps, Self could turn to redshirt-senior Mitch Lightfoot (four points, four rebounds and one block in nine minutes) or even, in certain situations, true-freshman Gethro Muscadin (one rebound in one minute of mop-up duty).
Regardless, it was McCormack (20 minutes, all at the five) and Wilson (22 minutes split between the four and the five) who logged the most minutes for the KU big men on Thursday. Wilson finished with 11 points, four rebounds and two assists. Self said he felt Wilson had "a pretty good overall game."
What about a teammate?
“Great,” said KU senior Marcus Garrett. “He was in attack mode. He was downhill. We went five guards out there and [he] guarded Timme. I felt like he was battling and he was competing.”
"five" - Google News
November 27, 2020 at 05:05AM
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Life after Doke: KU basketball looking for answers at the five - 247Sports
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