Honestly, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when No. 10 Kansas and No. 20 Iowa State took the court in Ames on Tuesday night. Hilton Coliseum has always been a difficult place for the Jayhawks to play, even at full strength, so without Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin in the lineup, I really thought Bill Self’s squad would be in for a long night. Those weren’t negative thoughts about the team and in no way did my thoughts have any disrespectful meaning behind them. Kansas was coming off a pounding at home against Kentucky and two key pieces wouldn’t be available against Iowa State.
Maybe I’m the only one that thought this, but in my mind, there was no way Kansas was going to win this game. I figured the Cyclones would come out and hit some big shots, build a lead early and the Jayhawks would find themselves in an uphill battle the entire night. In my mind, that script had already been written.
Well, I couldn’t have been any more wrong about this Kansas team. Self’s squad moved to 18-3 overall and 7-1 in the Big 12 with a 70-61 victory over Iowa State. Let me say this before I get too far ahead of myself. Had it not been for the 16 first-half turnovers, the outcome might have been even more impressive for Self’s squad. I believe Kansas ended the game with 22 turnovers, so the team did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the second half.
Obviously, David McCormack was big with 14 points and 14 rebounds. He was 7-of-7 from the field and hit a couple of deep jumpers against Iowa State.
Dajuan Harris also scored 14 points, pulled down two rebounds, dished out eight assists, and was credited with four steals in 38 minutes of action. His 14 points tied a career-high.
Christian Braun added 13 points, three rebounds, one assist, one block, and two steals in 37 minutes of action. For the game, Braun was 5-of-13 from the field, 1-of-3 from behind the arc, and 2-of-3 from the free-throw line.
KU’s final double-digit scorer, Jalen Wilson, tallied 13 points, six rebounds, four assists, and two steals in 36 minutes of action. Wilson, against the Cyclones, was 5-of-8 from the field, 1-of-2 from behind the arc, and 2-of-3 from the free-throw line. For Wilson, all of his points came in the second half.
However, I’m not sure that Kansas wins this game without the play of Joseph Yesufu. With Agbaji and Martin out of action on Tuesday, Self called on Yesufu, and boy did he deliver. In 23 minutes of action, Yesufu scored seven points, pulled down five rebounds, dished out four assists, and was credited with three steals. Offensively, Yesufu was just 2-of-7 from the field, 1-of-4 from behind the arc, and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line, but every play he made was big. Of KU’s 12 steals, seven came from Harris and Yesufu.
Self, when asked about the performance of Yesufu, said he might have been playing the wrong guys this season.
“Yea, I thought he was great,” said Self. “Maybe I’ve been playing some of the wrong guys. I’ll be honest, that’s the Joseph we thought we would have. And I do think he can be instant offense. If I’m not mistaken, he could have had two points on the runout when David overthrew him, and then he missed a couple of open looks.
“He just didn’t have any confidence, but now, hopefully, this will give him some,” he added. “I’m really, really happy for him. And Juan Harris, what a layup shooter he is. I mean, he had eight assists, 14 points, and four steals, and they dogged him the whole game and he played 38 minutes. I mean, pretty special.”
Yesufu, the 6-foot-0, 180-pound guard from Bolingbrook, Ill., arrived at Kansas following a two-year run at Drake. Last season, Yesufu averaged 12.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. Overall, he shot 44.2 percent from the field, 47.9 percent from inside the arc, and 38.4 percent from three.
This season, in limited action, Yesufu is averaging 1.9 points and 1.3 assists per game. However, up until last night, he’d averaged just 8.4 minutes per game. Even at full-strength, it sounds like Self is going to allow Yesufu the opportunity to play some extended minutes the remainder of the season. If you listened or read what Self said last night, you came away with the feeling that Yesufu is going to be given extended minutes moving forward.
Self, during his postgame celebration with the team, basically said that Kansas wouldn’t have beat Iowa State had it not been for Joseph Yesufu. He gave credit to a number of guys but made it clear that Yesufu was the difference maker last night.
Shortly after Yesufu made the decision to leave Drake and transfer to Kansas, here’s the bio that was written by KUAthletics.com: Yesufu is an explosive guard with great range and speed. He averaged 12.8 points per game in 2020-21 for Drake and was even more impressive down the stretch averaging 23.2 points during the final nine games of the year. The Bolingbrook, Illinois, native scored 30-points twice against Evansville, including a career-high 36 on Feb. 22.
Yesufu started the last seven games of the 2020-21 season, including four post-season contests, and was the 2021 Missouri Valley Conference Sixth Man of the Year and was chosen to the league’s all-bench and most improved teams. He was also named to the 2021 MVC All-Tournament and was a league scholar-athlete. Drake finished 26-5 in 2020-21.
Self made it clear after the Kentucky game that, if given the choice, a win over Iowa State, not the Wildcats, would be the top priority. A loss to Kentucky changed nothing, but a loss to the Cyclones in Ames would have certainly tightened the Big 12 race with Baylor coming to town on Saturday. A loss in Ames last night and KU’s margin for error would have changed dramatically.
A win on Saturday and Kansas takes somewhat of a big step forward in winning another Big 12 regular-season championship. However, much of that depends on what Self’s gameday roster looks like.
Bobby Pettiford, Joseph Yesufu, Christian Braun, Dajuan Harris, Jalen Wilson, Remy Martin, Zach Clemence, KJ Adams, Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack, Mitch Lightfoot, and Jalen Coleman-Lands have all had impressive moments this season. Obviously, some way more than others.
Still, at this point, when Kansas takes the court on Saturday against Baylor, Agbaji, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound guard from Kansas City, Mo., could find himself back in the start lineup against the Bears.
“It will meet protocol for him to come back, as long as he can pass everything else,” Self said.
Martin, the 6-foot-0, 175-pound guard from Chatsworth, Calf., could find himself back on the court against the Bears.
However, just one day removed from winning in Ames, nothing is certain at this time. I’m not sure getting both Agbaji and Martin back against Baylor is realistic, but nobody will know for sure, I’m guessing, for a couple of days.
My guess is Self will meet with the media a day or two before the Baylor game and, at that time, will provide some type of update. Obviously, Baylor is on a completely different level than Iowa State and will provide Kansas a completely different challenge.
Getting both players back on Saturday would be a huge boost and would likely go a long way in determining the outcome of the game. Defeating Baylor, even at home, without Agbaji and Martin, would be a tall task for sure.
With that being said, Self learned a lot about his team on Tuesday. Toughness, grit, determination, overcoming some early adversity, playing through some careless mistakes and, most importantly, maintaining a lead on the road for nearly 40 minutes (39:22), and bouncing back from an absolutely brutal performance at home against Kentucky, are signs of a team that took a step forward in the right direction when very few, if any at all, expected it.
“We knew we had to do it as a unit,” Braun said. “(Self’s) most important message was, if you want to replace a guy that’s the national player of the year, you have to do it collectively. There’s not one person that can step up and score 20 more points than they normally do. We just knew that if we did it as a team, collectively, there’s nothing we can’t do.”
Early on Sunday afternoon, I was on a Podcast and was asked if finishing out this stretch against Iowa State, Baylor, and Texas with a perfect 3-0 record was an option. At the time, I wasn’t sure if winning all three was possible, but the first step in the process was winning in Ames. Kansas, on Tuesday night, did just that, 70-61.
For the Jayhawks, the next step is defending their homecourt against Baylor at 3:00 p.m. (CT) on Saturday.
