Player Grades

Now that's more like it. What a slugfest. Duke played 6 players while KU played 8, actually 9 but Lightfoot played only a few minutes. There were 49 fouls called, 27 on Kansas. Josh Jackson fouled out in one of the weirdest combination of 5 fouls I have ever seen. But there are only two numbers that matter. 77 and 75, the final score. KU has now won 3 of the last 4 against Duke. KU led by 11 late in the game and there legs looked lost on defense but we made the shots. The other big issue was rebounding. KU definitely got the message outrebounding Duke 38-29. Azubuike had 12 rebounds. This game ended up close but KU missed 10 of 19 FT's and Svi missed a straight up layup in the final minute or it would not have been nearly as close. Duke shot extremely well. Another nice thing is we won the TO battle. Duke had 16 TO's to KU's 14. Just an all around good win.
Here are my grades.

Mason (A) - Really probably an A+ but he did miss 2 FT's and had 3 Assists to to 2 TO's. But his play down the stretch was the key to the win. He led the team again with 21 points. Frank is working his way into All-American status.

Graham ( - Mostly his grade is for his defense. He defended Allen and did a great job. Allen scored about half of his points after Graham went to the bench. Devonte' is still not shooting well hitting 1 of 5 threes. But he also had some super sweet drives. He was 5 for 6 on 2-pointers.

Lucas (C-) - He got in foul trouble early and played minimal minutes. His defense was not great and rebounding not great. He did set some nice screens which is his greatest strength. He played some nice D down the stretch though.

Jackson (B-) His play was better than a B- but that Tech was bad and he missed all 4 FT's. He showed some signs of dominance in the 2nd half. I liked what I saw from him.

Bragg (B+) - Foul trouble kept him off the floor and his rebounding was okay but not great. He shot well and mostly played defense well. 9 points and 5 rebounds is okay but he needs to do better.

Vick (B+) - He played at an A level but went 0-4 from the three point line.
Other than that his defense was good until the last 3 minutes. He looked tired. But I really liked his energy and positioning and defense.

Azubuike (A-) Heck I hate that this is not an A but let's be fair. He missed some shots and had a couple bad TO's. But geez louise, what a beast on the boards. 12 rebounds is fantastic. He was great on the boards. And he played only like 17 minutes. What a great game for Dok.

Svi (C+) - Svi plays smart and with energy. His defense was solid. But only 2 boards is not enough and 2 assists to 2 TO's is not okay. Plus he shot 1-5 and 0-4 from the three point line. I liked his play but he has to hit his shots.

Overall, this was a good win against THE NUMBER 1 TEAM in the country. That is always huge. KU is now 8 wins to 17 losses against teams ranked No. 1.
Bill Self is an amazing 3-2 against top ranked teams. Way to go Bill.