LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball had options Tuesday, late during its home game against UCF.
The Jayhawks had just seen forward KJ Adams connect on a pair of free throws with little more than four seconds left, to put them up 89-86. UCF, set to potentially go the length of the court for a score-tying 3-pointer, found itself in a desperate situation. As KU exited the timeout it called, following Adams’ second made free throw, it could defend without fouling or foul and send UCF to the free-throw line while eliminating the threat of a score-tying bucket on that possession.
What unfolded, was an in-bounds play that saw a UCF player catch a medium-length pass and continue his motion toward half-court. That player continued to move, made his way across half-court and toward one sideline with the 3-point line not far off. And not long after that, Kansas guard Rylan Griffen made contact with him and committed a foul — one that was not ruled a shooting foul.
The sequence worked out in the Jayhawks’ favor, as UCF split those two ensuing free throws and later on KU guard Zeke Mayo hit a couple of his own to clinch a 91-87 win for No. 11 Kansas. UCF never got a chance to tie the score and force overtime. But just because the Jayhawks went on to win the game, doesn’t mean the plan they came out of the timeout with unfolded as intended.
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“The strategy was to foul before they got to half-court,” Kansas coach Bill Self explained. “I said, ‘Don’t foul after they get to half court.’ So, we did not execute what we wanted to do. … That’s what we talked about and we went and fouled in half court — that gave him an opportunity, maybe, to get into a shooting motion. But, in the back court, that wouldn’t have been the case. And so, we didn’t do a good job with that at all. And that’s the reason why I very rarely foul, because there’s a lot of bad things that can happen when you do and it was close to being a bad thing tonight.”
Watch the replay again, and it’s clear there are a number of people on UCF’s bench indicating the player fouled was in a shooting motion. The player himself, who was fouled, seemed to be pleading for that call as well. This night, the call went in Kansas’ favor.
That meant the Jayhawks (15-5, 6-3 in Big 12) earned a much-needed win during Big 12 Conference play against a challenging UCF squad. Self and company recovered from a disappointing loss at home this past weekend. There’s momentum again, ahead of a road game this upcoming Saturday at Baylor.
Of course, as of Self’s comments postgame Tuesday it’s unclear if guard Dajuan Harris Jr. will return for that next matchup after missing the UCF game due to injury. Harris’ presence was missed during the nail-biting win. Regardless, Kansas can review the foul-or-not-foul sequence it faced late against UCF and be better prepared the next time that moment happens.
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball: Inside the late defensive strategy in win vs UCF
