Written by Ryan Musich
Kansas City, Mo - On a beautiful day in Kansas City, Missouri the #1 seed Kansas Jayhawks went head to head with the #4 seed Purdue Boilermakers. The winner of this game will advance to the Elite Eight, where a solid Oregon Ducks team will be waiting for them. Oregon matches up well with either Purdue or Kansas, and will be a pretty tough matchup. All 3 teams (Kansas, Purdue, and Oregon) are stellar three point shooting teams, and whichever team advances will combine with Oregon to put on a hell of an Elite Eight matchup. Purdue will have to play hard and give it everything they have in this hostile environment if they want to have any chance against this stellar Jayhawks team.
The Boilermakers started out well on defense getting 4 consecutive stops on Kansas, before finally scoring the first basket of the game. After a Devonte Graham jumper, Purdue guard PJ Thompson drained a three and put Purdue on top 3. A possession after that though, Purdue forward Vincent Edwards drained a corner three, but Kansas would answer with a three of their own from Frank Mason. Purdue would answer that three with one of their own from big man Caleb Swanigan. Swanigan’s three would be answered by Kansas’s Devonte Graham knocking one down from deep. A total of 4 straight threes were knocked down. 2 from each team. A very explosive start for both teams. The quarter would go on as after two free throws from Purdue center Caleb Swanigan, Purdue extended it’s lead to 5. Kansas’s Devonte Graham was off to some kind of start. Graham knocked down 3-5 shots and recorded 8 points before he had to take a seat due to foul trouble. The Jayhawk’s defense would eventually set in which helped their home crowd get into the game. The Jayhawks would go on an 8-0 and tie the game, as Frank Mason and Devonte Graham would lead the charge. Issac Haas would end that run after a 30 second timeout, on nice hook shot down low. But the Jayhawks would answer. Svi Mykhailiuk would do what he does best and knock down a three. A vicious one handed slam dunk along the baseline from Jayhawk guard Josh Jackson would swing the momentum Purdue had back over to the Jayhawks side and get the crowd up on their feet. Something that Purdue will have to fix in the 2nd half is rebounding, as they allowed 8 offensive boards in the first half. The final two minutes of the first half were great to Kansas. After Purdue had cut the lead to 2, Kansas extended the lead back up to 7 on a Frank Mason III three pointer, and a Legerald Vick alley oop dunk on a fast break. That would wrap up the first half. Not the way Matt Painter and his Boilermakers would have wanted to end the half. On the bright side, Purdue’s three-point shooting was great as they shot 46% from beyond the arc. Kansas will be looking to extend that lead, and build off the momentum in the second half. If you’re a Kansas fan, that half couldn’t have ended better. The score was 47-40 at the end of one.
Purdue came out with what looked to be like a new offensive game plan. It seemed like in the first half, Matt Painter’s strategy was to mainly shoot threes. In the second half though, Purdue’s offense went inside out. It looked like the main point of Matt Painter’s offense was to get Caleb Swanigan the ball and let him go to work. Kansas’s game plan seemed to change as well. Kansas looked like they wanted to speed up the pace of the offense and get out on the fast break. As the half started to open up, Caleb Swanigan started to heat up from deep. Swanigan would score 8 of the first 11 Boilermakers points of the 2nd half. Even showing some range by going 2-2 from the three-point line.
Devonte Graham would continue his aerial assault from deep as he buried a couple triples to start the half as well. With 14:08 to play, Caleb Swanigan would be subbed out of the game. And that’s when Kansas would go to work inside and would extend their lead to the biggest it’s been for either team. Graham would extend the lead to 12 on a ridiculous 360 slam dunk on the fast break, and would force Matt Painter to put Caleb Swanigan back in the game. The deficit would continue to swell for Purdue, as Legerald Vick would add another 3 to his stats, and raise the run that Kansas is on to a 16-2 run.
This second half was all KU. Josh Jackson, Frank Mason III, Devonta Graham, and Legerald Vick led the way for Kansas in the 2nd half. Purdue just seemed to have no energy in the 2nd, and the Jayhawks smelled blood in the water. Caleb Swanigan tried his hardest in the 2nd half to keep Purdue in it, but with nobody else stepping up to contribute Kansas pulled away. KU would go on another 10-0 run before Vincent Edwards of Purdue ended it. But by that time, the Jayhawks had run away and hid. Devonta Graham would add insult to injury, when he would hit a 3 pointer over Caleb Swanigan and get fouled in the process. At the 2:11 mark, the Jayhawks would put their bench in, as their starters left the floor to a standing ovation. Just was an ugly 2nd half for Purdue as they only shot 31% from the field and 28% from beyond the arc, compared to KU’s 67% and 58% beyond arc. Your final score is Kansas 98 Purdue 68.
The Jayhawks will advance to take on a tough Oregon team as I mentioned. The game will take place Saturday in KC at the Sprint center. If Kansas shoots and defends like they did tonight, you can bank on Kansas being in the Final Four next week in Phoenix. Have a great night everybody!
The Boilermakers started out well on defense getting 4 consecutive stops on Kansas, before finally scoring the first basket of the game. After a Devonte Graham jumper, Purdue guard PJ Thompson drained a three and put Purdue on top 3. A possession after that though, Purdue forward Vincent Edwards drained a corner three, but Kansas would answer with a three of their own from Frank Mason. Purdue would answer that three with one of their own from big man Caleb Swanigan. Swanigan’s three would be answered by Kansas’s Devonte Graham knocking one down from deep. A total of 4 straight threes were knocked down. 2 from each team. A very explosive start for both teams. The quarter would go on as after two free throws from Purdue center Caleb Swanigan, Purdue extended it’s lead to 5. Kansas’s Devonte Graham was off to some kind of start. Graham knocked down 3-5 shots and recorded 8 points before he had to take a seat due to foul trouble. The Jayhawk’s defense would eventually set in which helped their home crowd get into the game. The Jayhawks would go on an 8-0 and tie the game, as Frank Mason and Devonte Graham would lead the charge. Issac Haas would end that run after a 30 second timeout, on nice hook shot down low. But the Jayhawks would answer. Svi Mykhailiuk would do what he does best and knock down a three. A vicious one handed slam dunk along the baseline from Jayhawk guard Josh Jackson would swing the momentum Purdue had back over to the Jayhawks side and get the crowd up on their feet. Something that Purdue will have to fix in the 2nd half is rebounding, as they allowed 8 offensive boards in the first half. The final two minutes of the first half were great to Kansas. After Purdue had cut the lead to 2, Kansas extended the lead back up to 7 on a Frank Mason III three pointer, and a Legerald Vick alley oop dunk on a fast break. That would wrap up the first half. Not the way Matt Painter and his Boilermakers would have wanted to end the half. On the bright side, Purdue’s three-point shooting was great as they shot 46% from beyond the arc. Kansas will be looking to extend that lead, and build off the momentum in the second half. If you’re a Kansas fan, that half couldn’t have ended better. The score was 47-40 at the end of one.
Purdue came out with what looked to be like a new offensive game plan. It seemed like in the first half, Matt Painter’s strategy was to mainly shoot threes. In the second half though, Purdue’s offense went inside out. It looked like the main point of Matt Painter’s offense was to get Caleb Swanigan the ball and let him go to work. Kansas’s game plan seemed to change as well. Kansas looked like they wanted to speed up the pace of the offense and get out on the fast break. As the half started to open up, Caleb Swanigan started to heat up from deep. Swanigan would score 8 of the first 11 Boilermakers points of the 2nd half. Even showing some range by going 2-2 from the three-point line.
Devonte Graham would continue his aerial assault from deep as he buried a couple triples to start the half as well. With 14:08 to play, Caleb Swanigan would be subbed out of the game. And that’s when Kansas would go to work inside and would extend their lead to the biggest it’s been for either team. Graham would extend the lead to 12 on a ridiculous 360 slam dunk on the fast break, and would force Matt Painter to put Caleb Swanigan back in the game. The deficit would continue to swell for Purdue, as Legerald Vick would add another 3 to his stats, and raise the run that Kansas is on to a 16-2 run.
This second half was all KU. Josh Jackson, Frank Mason III, Devonta Graham, and Legerald Vick led the way for Kansas in the 2nd half. Purdue just seemed to have no energy in the 2nd, and the Jayhawks smelled blood in the water. Caleb Swanigan tried his hardest in the 2nd half to keep Purdue in it, but with nobody else stepping up to contribute Kansas pulled away. KU would go on another 10-0 run before Vincent Edwards of Purdue ended it. But by that time, the Jayhawks had run away and hid. Devonta Graham would add insult to injury, when he would hit a 3 pointer over Caleb Swanigan and get fouled in the process. At the 2:11 mark, the Jayhawks would put their bench in, as their starters left the floor to a standing ovation. Just was an ugly 2nd half for Purdue as they only shot 31% from the field and 28% from beyond the arc, compared to KU’s 67% and 58% beyond arc. Your final score is Kansas 98 Purdue 68.
The Jayhawks will advance to take on a tough Oregon team as I mentioned. The game will take place Saturday in KC at the Sprint center. If Kansas shoots and defends like they did tonight, you can bank on Kansas being in the Final Four next week in Phoenix. Have a great night everybody!