How Kansas Jayhawks basketball steamrolled Miami in second half of Elite Eight victory
Bill Self, who posed for pictures with his Midwest Regional-champion Kansas men’s basketball players on a stage on the United Center court, then climbed a ladder and snipped a piece of net, grinned at a reporter and uttered one simple sentence as he headed toward the locker room Sunday afternoon after his Jayhawks’ 76-50 NCAA Tournament victory over Miami.
“(It was a) tale of two halves,” Self, KU’s 19th-year coach assessed succinctly after the No. 1 seed Jayhawks (32-6) turned a 35-29 halftime deficit into a 26-point rout of the 10 seed Hurricanes (26-11) in the Elite Eight.
Kansas’ 47-15 onslaught in the game’s final 20 minutes was relentless.
KU, which trailed by six points at the break after going 0-for-5 from three-point range and 3-of-9 from the free-throw line in the first half, hit 5 of 9 threes and 10 of 17 free throws during its second-half surge.
“We weren’t very good the first half and played tight a little bit and couldn’t guard McGusty,” Self said of former Oklahoma Sooners guard Kameron McGusty, who scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting (4-for-4 from the line) in the initial half.
Guarded by Dajuan Harris in the final half, McGusty scored four points on 2-of-7 shooting and finished with a team-leading 18 points.
“For whatever reason, the lid came off the second half and the intensity picked up defensively,” Self said. “And then we had about two good plays turn into four, four turn into eight, which turned into 16. That was about as well as we could play the second half.”
Driving the improvement were some significant turnarounds from several individuals.
KU senior guard Ochai Agbaji, who scored six points on 3-of-5 shooting in the first half, scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting over the final 20 minutes. His only two threes of the game came during the second half.
Junior guard Christian Braun scored seven points on 2-of-3 shooting in the second half after scoring five points on 2-of-6 shooting in the first. Sophomore forward Jalen Wilson had eight of his 11 rebounds in the final half, and senior guard Remy Martin scored six of his nine points after intermission.
Also, senior forward Mitch Lightfoot had six of his nine points in the final half and senior forward David McCormack scored eight of his 15 points in just seven second-half minutes.
“I told them we need to play better,” Self said of his halftime message to his team, with the Jayhawks down six points. “But I did tell them that (freshman forward) KJ Adams (who entered in the last minute of the first half) gave us the best 29 seconds defensively than anybody did the entire first half.
“And I just challenged our guys to guard them. But that was an impressive start of the second half, to go from down six to tie it in, what, two minutes? And then get control of it right after that. So it was nothing anyone said — it was just these guys went out and did it.”
According to Agbaji, “At halftime it was basically a matter of kind of a challenge against us. We didn’t come this far to lay down or give up at this point. So just going out there and playing our style of basketball.”
For history’s sake, here’s a blow-by-blow of the punches delivered by KU to open the final half.
McCormack hit one of two free throws at the 19:30 mark. Following a miss by former KU guard Charlie Moore (who finished with five points, two assists and three turnovers for Miami), McCormack rifled in a slam dunk at 18:51; then following a blocked shot, McCormack scored again to cut the gap to nine, 35-34, at 18:21.
“I thought David was fabulous, especially the start of the second half,” Self said. “We had a size advantage inside and also they were playing through some foul issues. We just kept trying to throw it to him as much as possible.
“I’ll give Dave credit for the start of the second half. But I also think Juan (Harris) keyed — David and Juan, more than anybody — keyed the good start in the second half, because Juan did such a great job defensively on McGusty.”
After McGusty scored a bucket and Moore made a free throw to make it 38-34 Miami, Agbajji and Wilson scored on layups and it was 38-38 at 16:51.
Isaiah Wong scored to make it 40-38 Miami. Then, Braun followed his hard dunk with a three-pointer — KU’s first three of the game — to stretch KU’s half-opening run to 14-5 and give KU a 43-40 lead at 15:24.
“The lid was going to come off eventually. I think C.B. made the first three. And then the lid came off,” Self said.
Braun agreed his five straight points were big.
“I think we needed some energy more than anything,” Braun said. “When I hit that three it was a big confidence booster for me and I’m sure for the rest of the team. We just needed some energy, I thought we were flat in the first half. That shot and the dunk, I know it helped me and I think it helped the team just get going.”
Agbaji hit a layup, then McCormack converted a huge and-one. KU stretched the run to 19-4 and led 48-40 at 14:21.
“I think it was a big momentum changer just getting an and-one basket,” McCormack said. “And trying to get them in foul trouble as well, that changes the momentum and how they would need to guard us. I just know it pumped energy into the bench and everyone on the court, which makes us guard better, move faster. It just helped the team all around.”
It was 49-42 and still a game when Lightfoot took a charge at 11:45. Wilson hit two free throws at 11:37, then, after a Lightfoot block of a McGusty shot, Agbaji drilled a three to up the margin to 54-42. Miami called a timeout at 10:14 with the crowd roaring.
The break didn’t slow KU. Remy Martin hit a three and Braun two of three free throws at 8:11 and KU led 59-46 at 8:11. Harris scored a basket, Lightfoot hit two free throws and a layup and Agbaji ripped a dunk, and KU suddenly was up 65-46. That was at the 6:09 mark, and Miami didn’t threaten again.
KU had run away with the game.
“I think Miami is very good in transition,” Self said. “But that’s been one thing we’ve been pretty good at ourselves all year long. I think the first half there weren’t as many opportunities to run because we took the ball out of bounds too often off makes.
“The second half, I don’t know what it was, but we controlled the defensive glass and their shooting percentage went down. So there were more opportunities to run off misses. And we did get out and run very well in the second half.”
By game’s end, here’s how the numbers panned out: KU hit 50% of its shots and went 5-of-14 from three-point range and 13-of-26 from the line. Miami hit 34.5% of its shots and went 3-of-21 from three-point range and 9-of-13 from the line.
The Hurricanes had seven assists to 14 turnovers, KU 18 assists to 11 turnovers with seven steals. Miami also had seven steals. KU outrebounded Miami 41-28.
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 4:49 PM with the headline "How Kansas Jayhawks basketball steamrolled Miami in second half of Elite Eight victory."
