Inside Kansas basketball’s late defensive strategy vs UCF that didn’t work, but also did

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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.

RELATED: Pushed to the edge, Kansas basketball avoids deflating upset, beats UCF at home

“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…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/inside-kansas-basketballs-defensive-strategy-213754882.html

Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2025-01-29 21:37:00

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