Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Kansas’ second-half surge against Georgetown shows how good they can be

Aaron Bowen

Kansas’ Joel Embiid (21) blocks a shot by Georgetown’s Aaron Bowen (23) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013, in Lawrence, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

AP

Later in the season we’ll all surely have a laugh about how Kansas was once the No. 18 team in the country. This Jayhawks team is far too talented for that ranking and showed how good they can be during a monster second-half surge in its 86-64 win over Georgetown on Saturday afternoon.

The Jayhawks played well in the first half and showed how great their defense can be, as they held Georgetown to without a field goal for over 10 minutes, but in the second half, the Jayhawks completely dominated every facet of the game on their way to the easy home victory.

Although Andrew Wiggins (12 points, 3-10 from the field) didn’t have a great game on the offensive end, others stepped up in his place, led by freshman big man Joel Embiid and reserve big Tarik Black. Embiid went for 17 points and eight rebounds while Black, the senior Memphis transfer, hadn’t scored in four straight games before unleashing his best game as a Jayhawk on Saturday, going for 17 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

With Perry Ellis leaving the game in the first half after taking an elbow to the head, Embiid, Black and Jamari Traylor (eight points, seven rebounds) all stepped up and played very well on the interior for Kansas and the three combined to go 12-for-12 from the field on Saturday as they made life for Georgetown’s bigs miserable.

Georgetown big men Joshua Smith, Nate Lubick and Moses Ayegba all fouled out during the game and none of them were particularly productive, in-part because of the depth and athleticism that Kansas has on the interior. Even without Ellis in the second half, the Jayhawks had tremendous production from Embiid, Black and Traylor and even got some minutes for freshman Landen Lucas late in the first half, as he registered two points, two rebounds and a block in limited minutes. It just shows how deep Kansas is on the interior going forward and it should help them protect the rim and rebound against any opponent in the country.

Credit is also due to Kansas’ perimeter defense. Wiggins might not have had a stellar offensive afternoon, but he did a nice job on the defensive end making it tough for D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (12 points, 4-9 shooting) while Naadir Tharpe (10 points, four assists) had a solid afternoon on both ends of the floor.

In the second half in particular, with Georgetown’s bigs struggling with foul trouble, Wiggins, Tharpe and company really buckled down on the defensive end by putting pressure on the ball and making it very difficult for Georgetown to feel any comfort running half-court sets.

The Hoyas are going to need to figure out how to play with Joshua Smith against a team as big and athletic as Kansas going forward, because Smith was a complete non-factor. The Jayhawk bigs did pretty much whatever they wanted on the interior when Smith was in the game, as Smith had only five points and zero rebounds during a tough afternoon in which he couldn’t defend anybody without fouling. Georgetown needed either Lubick or Smith to step up and ease the burden on Smith-Rivera, Jabril Trawick and Markel Starks (19 points) and they’ll need more production out of their frontcourt as Big East play nears.

Follow @phillipshoops