Kansas at Kentucky recap: 3 things we learned

Here’s what we learned from a clash between blue bloods when the Kentucky Wildcats lost to the Kansas Jayhawks Saturday.

John Calipari doesn’t lose often at Rupp Arena, but the Kansas Jayhawks handed his Kentucky Wildcats a 79-73 defeat on Saturday night as part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge. Senior Frank Mason led the way for Kansas with 21 points. Freshman Josh Jackson added 20 points and 10 rebounds. Malik Monk and Derek Willis both scored 18 points in defeat.

The win for the Jayhawks comes after a big loss to West Virginia early in the week and makes two straight losses in a row for the Wildcats. Here’s a look at what we learned from Saturday’s big clash.

1. Kansas flustered Kentucky with its zone defense

Kansas head coach Bill Self has always been known for having his team play a tough man-to-man defense, but at several times this season Self has switched it up and played zone because of his smaller lineup. Early in the season, the Jayhawks rolled out a 2-3 zone to help defend Georgia, and did the same on Tuesday in a blowout loss to West Virginia. On Saturday, Self went back to the well switching between the standard 2-3 and a hybrid triangle-and-2.

The move hampered a Kentucky team that lacks many outside shooters and wanted to pound the ball inside to Bam Adebayo versus the Jayhawks’ limited frontcourt. Instead, Adebayo struggled to find open opportunities to receive the ball as he was functionally blanketed by two players for most of the second half.

In the end, Kansas held Kentucky’s offense — one of the five best in the country — to 0.973 points per possession, their third-worst performance of the season.

2. We got a look at Kansas’ offensive potential

Kansas’ first half offense was terrible. The Jayhawks scored 0.711 points per possession and made zero of their eight 3-point attempts. The second half, though, was a different story.

Kansas scored 1.40 points per possession in the final 20 minutes, hitting 5-of-11 3-point attempts and unveiling some of Josh Jackson’s offensive potential. Early on, the Jayhawks frequently used Jackson as the screener in high ball screen actions forcing Kentucky to switch bigger players onto point guard Frank Mason. The actions got Jackson a pair of open 3-pointers and created plenty of driving opportunities for Mason. The wrinkle gives Kansas another way to attack opponents going forward.

It’s also worth noting that the Jayhawks closed the game out from the free throw line, but there are still concerns about how the team will shoot from the stripe down the stretch. Kansas entered the game shooting 63.2 percent on free throws and shot just 10-of-18 tonight. If the Jayhawks don’t get the right guys to the foul line, it’s a statistic that could come back to bite them in March.

3. Derek Willis was great, but where does he fit?

Derek Willis had a fantastic game for the Wildcats, scoring 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbing six rebounds. Willis showed off his outside shooting by hitting five of his six 3-point attempts. The senior’s shooting is valuable for a team that really only has one other outside shooter in freshman Malik Monk, but he has obvious defensive limitations.

Willis was the victim of several of those Mason-Jackson pick-and-rolls, often finding himself upright as Mason barreled into the lane. It’s an issue that puts Willis’ position on the team in question. If he can’t defend, his offense has to be consistently good enough to justify being on the court. Saturday night it was, but that can change on a game-to-game basis.

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For my money, Willis’ offense is too valuable to leave him on the bench. Kentucky needs him to spread the floor to help open up driving lanes for point guard De’Aaron Fox and keep double teams away from Adebayo on the block. If those two things can happen, the Wildcats’ halfcourt offense becomes much more dangerous.