Halftime Musings: Despite mistakes, Jayhawks lead Cougars 35-29 at half
The Kansas Jayhawks knew they needed to dominate their matchup against the BYU Cougars in the paint. And despite allowing too many extra chances and making some unfortunate mistakes, they have done exactly that, making a push late in the first half to take a 35-29 lead into the break.
There has been plenty of good and plenty of bad so far, but here are three things that really stood out to me in the first half.
Inconsistent Defensive Pressure
Kansas has picked up where they left off against Texas, with a defense that is holding BYU to just 30% shooting. The Cougars are routinely taking possessions deep into the shot clock. But that hasn't been consistent enough, as BYU has created multiple opportunities in transition to knock down three pointers. BYU hasn't handled the Kansas defense well unless they can keep the Jayhawks from having time to set it up. Bill Self might need to bring more pressure to slow the ball coming up the court in the second half.
No answer for Adams
As big as the highlights have been for Johnny Furphy, the Cougars have been struggling with Adams all night. He has two huge blocks on what looked like sure buckets, and he has routinely drawn fouls on some big BYU players, making defending him much more difficult. He leads all scorers with X points and has created gaps all over the floor for everyone to utilize.
Missed Chances
Kansas has given up a lot of opportunities on the defensive end to let BYU stay in this game. But they have just as many missed opportunities on the offensive end, with 6 turnovers that mostly came on great scoring opportunities where the pass was just a bit long. Timberlake has struggled shooting, and multiple players have struggled to finish wide open chances at the rim. That has to get cleaned up in the second half.
