The Kansas Jayhawks are tough and other takeaways from the Champions Classic
The Kansas Jayhawks moved to 3-0 on the season with an impressive win over the Duke Blue Devils in the Champions Classic, and they started to answer some big questions in the process.
Before the team is back in action tonight, I wanted to take a few moments to look at the main things we have learned about this team so far in this young season.
This team is already "tough"
It's the one trait that Bill Self talks ad nauseum about: whether a team is tough enough. And these Jayhawks have really shown some of that toughness early in the season so far. We saw that ramp up in the Duke game, as Kansas saw a big first half lead nearly evaporate going into half, only to fall behind by 6 midway through the second half.
But they were able to stop the Duke momentum and then find the push that they needed in order to take back the lead, thanks to an offensive spurt from Gradey Dick that took just enough pressure off of Jalen Wilson to allow him to close the game out strong.
There are plenty of open spots remaining
We knew coming into the year that there were going to be a lot of positions and roles that were going to need to be discovered, with multiple starters moving on and plenty of holdovers with very limited experience, but I don't know that we quite expected it to be like this.
It seems that Gradey Dick has locked down the second main scoring option on this offense, but as we saw during the Duke game, there is potential for him to either not be effective or not be trusted enough to have the huge impact that he needs to have. Kevin McCullar (more on him below) has filled in as the utility guy, doing pretty much whatever the Jayhawks have needed similar to the role Wilson had last year, but I'm not sure that's where he is best suited. There are still questions about the second ballhandler behind Dajuan Harris, whether that should be Bobby Pettiford or Joseph Yesufu (or a combination of the two). And of course, the giant question is still what to do about the post. KJ Adams has been somewhat effective in that role, but Ernest Udeh looks to be making a push for significant playing time.
We've barely scratched the surface with Kevin McCullar
When McCullar came over from Texas Tech, the consensus was that he was going to be a strong defender that could help run the offense and make the occasional three, but it was tough to figure out what else he was being expected to bring to the team. Obviously he talked about his leadership and trying to help continue the winning culture here at Kansas and all the other things you expect to hear leading into the season.
But his performance against Duke showed a flash of the possibilities for him, with him doing a little bit of everything. He had 6 rebounds, including some in key moments to keep the game from getting away from the Jayhawks. He had two assists and in general showed a court vision that I wasn't expecting. He had two blocks, and is actually one of the better shot blockers on the team so far. And his shooting touch has been great to begin the year. Overall, he could be a very underrated piece of a long run in a role that seems to be much different that what he came to be known for at Texas Tech.
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