1 – Dajuan Harris Jr. – The KU point guard had a career-high six steals, including five in the first half alone, and his emphasis defense did nothing to limit his offensive production. In fact, it may have fueled it. In one of his most efficient offensive games of his career, Harris led the Jayhawks with 17 points to go along with 6 assists and one turnover. That talk about Harris needing to score and play aggressive on offense for Kansas to be at its best is real. Harris did that and the Jayhawks, as a whole still looked to be far from their best in this one. Can you imagine, though, if Harris had not played as well as he did? Harris has called Jalen Wilson this team’s best player and Kevin McCullar Jr. its heart and soul. But he’s not far from owning both of those titles himself.
2 – Kevin McCullar Jr. – KU coach Bill Self said it best after the victory when he said McCullar has been making a lot of winning plays for Kansas in the past couple of weeks. That continued in this one, with McCullar delivering a couple of clutch and crucial plays on both ends of the floor in the final few minutes to ensure a Kansas victory. His jumper is not KU’s first choice on offense, but he’s also not afraid to take it right now, which opens up a lot for him and his teammates. McCullar appears to be more comfortable right now than at any point in his Kansas career. He knows what’s right around the corner and it’s fueling him to bring everything he’s got night in and night out.
3 – KJ Adams – Forget the 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting for Adams, complete with a couple of his signature, vicious dunks. How about these numbers for the KU big man: 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 0 turnovers. Kansas knows what it’s going to get from Adams on most nights on the offensive end. But if they can get those numbers everywhere else, that’s only going to increase the team’s odds of winning. Adams has always been a good passer with good vision, partly because he often plays at the proper pace and doesn’t allow himself to get too sped up. When he can be a multi-faceted offensive weapon, though, the balance on this team becomes almost a given. And it was certainly there on Saturday afternoon.
4 – Gradey Dick – The KU freshman quietly made five 3-pointers in this one, if you can even do such a thing. He also grabbed 6 rebounds, dished 3 assists, swiped 2 steals and turned it over 4 times. More of his night was good than bad, but there were a few plays that drew the ire of Self. Few players on this roster — particularly when you consider that he’s just a freshman — know how to handle that better than Dick, who continues to be aggressive on the offensive end and will become a killer if he can consistently find one other area that he can excel besides scoring. Rebounding would be the best bet there. And he’s close. But if he gets there it will give the Jayhawks a major lift.
5 – Jalen Wilson – Wilson never really got it going on the offensive end, outside of a couple of long 2-point jumpers. He also only finished with 6 rebounds — a low number by his standards — and turned it over four times. Still, with the game on the line and KU needing a stop to save the game, Wilson dug in and helped them get it. He’s always been this way, a true gamer who can be and often is his best when the stakes are the highest. Wilson isn’t reaching the 20+ points per game clip that he had going for a while right now. But he’s not disappearing either. If you think about it, him producing modest numbers while the team continues to win might wind up being the best thing for the Jayhawks in the long run, should they need him to crank it back up in postseason play. The mental break from having to carry the load has to have been nice.
6 – Joe Yesufu – He played through illness and hit a big 3-pointer before the first half ended to put the Jayhawks up two at the break. As it turned out, that was a pretty massive shot. Good thing, too, because he missed the four other shots he attempted and didn’t do much else on the stat sheet on a day when the Jayhawks got next to nothing from their bench.
7 – Ernest Udeh Jr. – Udeh competed, which led to a couple of fouls and one rebound, and he also played just 3 minutes as a result of WVU finding an easy way to attack him with their multitude of big men who can step outside and shoot it from distance. Udeh wasn’t out there enough in this one to get a true grade — pass or fail. So we’ll move on quickly and give him the nod at No. 7 above the other two as a sort of lifetime achievement award for the solid few weeks he has put together of late.
8 – Bobby Pettiford – Pettiford played just 4 minutes, fouled twice and turned it over three times without attempting a shot. All of this after he wasn’t even expected to play because of illness. We’ll chalk up the rough stat line and limited production to the illness and assume he would’ve been better, particularly in this matchup against those WVU guards, had he not been ill.
9 – MJ Rice – Rice got a shot in this one because of the illnesses to others and he immediately gave up an easy layup as soon as checking in. That kept him out there for less than 2 minutes and he never got another crack. Anyone who watched the possession was surely not surprised.
1 – Jalen Wilson, 230
2 – Dajuan Harris Jr., 211
3 – Gradey Dick, 188
T4 – KJ Adams, 186
T4 – Kevin McCullar Jr., 186o
6 – Bobby Pettiford, 107
7 – Joe Yesufu, 100
8 – Ernest Udeh Jr., 78
9 – MJ Rice, 63y
10 – Zuby Ejiofor, 57u
11 – Zach Clemence, 44z
12 – Cam Martin, 11q
13 – Kyle Cuffe Jr., 2x
*x – Out for 10-12 weeks with a knee injury starting Nov. 13*
*y – Missed 3 of the first 5 games of the season because of injury and illness; also sat out games because of COVID, kidney stones and back spasms*
*z – Missed Duke, Southern Utah and NC State games because of injury. Also injured a knee in road loss at Iowa State, which caused him to miss more time*
*o – Missed Nov. 29 game vs. Texas Southern with a groin injury
*q – Missed first nine games of the season with shoulder injury
*u – Missed a few weeks during the middle of the Big 12 season with a foot injury*
