Kansas flips script at halftime with ‘great’ second-half defense

Kansas went into halftime trailing for the second straight game at Allen Fieldhouse, falling behind Arizona State 42-36. The 42 points were the most the Jayhawks had allowed in a first half all season.

The next 20 minutes completely flipped the script, as the Sun Devils scored just 13 points on five made baskets. It was the lowest amount an opponent had scored during a half since 2013 when TCU scored nine points in the first half.

“We understood we were having trouble guarding there for a while, that first half,” Zeke Mayo said postgame. “[We] let up a couple of shots that the scouting report we didn’t really want to give up, including myself. It was kind of an emphasis at halftime to dig down, play desperate, play with a lot of intensity. I think we did that in the second half.”

Kansas didn’t blow away Arizona State with its offense. The Jayhawks shot a worse percentage in the second half, but their defensive effort allowed them to come away with a comfortable victory.

“We were great defensively,” Bill Self said. “Who would’ve thought we shot the ball worse the second half from two, we shot it worse from three, and basically held them to 11… that was exceptional.”

Shakeel Moore was one of the catalysts of the second-half defense. Moore had a sequence where he picked up steals on consecutive possessions, leading to two dunks as part of a 20-5 run in the first 10 minutes.

“If I was gonna pick an MVP of the game, I’d pick Shak, just because of the energy that he brought,” Self said. “He doesn’t score a ton of points, but he makes plays that, to me, give teams confidence and spark energy as much as anything.”

One of his steals came out of the full-court press, which Kansas opted to implement more often in the second half. It helped ratchet up the pressure, but it also wore out an Arizona State team that played just seven players.

“When you’re playing everybody 33, 35, 37 minutes, the more you make them have to earn things and not give them times where they can rest, I think it makes it harder,” Self said. “That’s one thing we wanted to do, but we actually talked about that a lot in practice, that we were gonna try to be different.”

Mayo echoed that pressure was a part of the team’s scouting report. The Sun Devils played with one true ball handler, and he thought the full-court press was a good way to attack them defensively.

“A lot of their guys didn’t really handle pressure very well,” Mayo said. “That second half, coach emphasized getting after them, picking up full court. It kind of messed with their offense a little bit.”

Self added that he thought the press was good, and he thinks Kansas may use more of it going forward.