Kansas vs Iowa State: Player Ratings to the Theme of Raining Threes
The original title of this article really didn’t work so well.
It was originally titled Player Ratings to the Theme of Why Does the Opposition Always Seem to Shoot Lights Out from Three Against Kansas? but that was too long. Back to the drawing board.
I amended it to Player Ratings to the Theme of Nailing Every Three in Sight Who Cares How Well You’re Being Defended or How Far Away You Are, but that one was too wordy. Plus it's a run-on, so that couldn’t stand. I needed brevity but also something that all Kansas fans would immediately recognize, so it got shortened to what you see above.
No need to explain anymore, you watched the game, so you get the idea of what this ratings article will entail. On to the criteria but feel free to use the table of contents if you know the drill.
5 Stars: Out of this world performance. This is a hard to achieve rating and is only reserved for the most impressive or impressionable performances.
4 Stars: A strong performance that falls just short of the standards above.
3 Stars: Average performance. Also could be a very strong game in one aspect but a very poor game in another such as 15 points but seven turnovers. Could also be that the player played, did their job, but didn't do much spectacularly.
2 Stars: Below average performance, or we simply have higher expectations for the player on this particular night.
1 Star: Rare, but if a player has a stinker in all aspects.
Memorial No Star: Named after former KU walk-on Chris Teahan and is awarded to the player(s) who didn't have enough playing time to contribute or whose performance isn't worthy of a rating for another reason.
5 Stars: Guy who shoots 20% for the year suddenly goes 5 of 6
No one was a five star
4 Stars: Guy who has taken three treys all year goes 5 of 6
Hunter Dickinson missed too many baskets to be higher than a four, but 20 points and 15 boards is still a very solid game. Played some decent defense on some of the baskets that Iowa State made, including that dagger of a fade away scored against him late.
Johnny Furphy was the second best player for KU and did well from deep making three of four. The Australian finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
3 Stars: Tall guy that isn’t known for making threes nails 5 of 6
A three is harsh for Dajuan Harris in this one, but with no half star categories, he gets saddled with this rating. He scored nine and added six assists.
KJ Adams got in foul trouble in the first half and did all of his damage in the second frame. He went seven of ten from the line as well in this one.
Parker Braun was the best player off the bench, making an alley-oop basket while playing five minutes.
2 Stars: Bench guy that never plays hits a key three
Kevin McCullar scored 16 but he had to put up 18 shots to do it. That is not efficient. He tried to force things that weren’t there far too often. He was five of 18 for the game and two of eight from downtown and when you add in his five turnovers, you get a two star rating. I will say that it appeared that Kevin was manhandled on a few attempts at the rim with no call, but this was not a good performance in a place where Kansas needed a good performance from one of their stars.
Elmarko Jackson was unlucky on at least one of his three fouls, but the Jayhawks need more from their heralded freshman on a nightly basis if they are going to go deep in March.
1 Star: Kansas simultaneously shoots lights out from three
This never happens and no one was a one-star in this game.
Chris Teahan Memorial No Star:
Nick Timberlake and Jamari McDowell played sparingly and didn’t score.
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