NCAA Tournament: Kansas rolls Maryland, heads to Elite Eight
Kansas continued their run through the NCAA Tournament’s South region with a win over Maryland.
Kansas strategy was a simple one on Thursday night: attack the rim against a team that allows opponents to shoot 59 percent at the rim.
And the Jayhawks, particularly Perry Ellis, did that early and often, en route to a 79-63 win over Maryland to advance to the Elite Eight. Ellis finished with 27 points.
Kansas, who shoots 19 threes per game this season on average, shot just nine on Thursday night.
Maryland connected with the first punch of the game, going up 5-0, and leading 26-21 a little later in the first half, but Kansas fought back to take a 36-34 lead at the half that they would never relinquish.
The lead hovered between seven and 11 for much of the second half. Seemingly every time Maryland made a push, Kansas came right back with either Ellis or Wayne Selden, who was licking his chops with Jake Layman guarding him for most of the game. Selden finished with 19 points and six assists.
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Outside of Rasheed Sulaimon, Maryland couldn’t get much offense going. He finished with 18 points.
Melo Trimble had 17 points, but shot just 5-of-16 from the floor, and his shooting struggles from the past few months continued as he went just 1-of-7 from three. Diamond Stone struggled with foul trouble, and neither he nor Robert Carter or Layman got many touches in the post.
Ellis and Selden are playing their best basketball of the season
No question about it. Even better is that it’s when Kansas needs them the most.
Selden is averaging 18 points per game on 48 percent from the floor in Kansas’ three games in the Big Dance, and Ellis is averaging 23 points per game on 66 percent from the floor. Those two alone have combined for almost half of the Jayhawks points in the tournament.
Maryland just had no match for Ellis, whether he caught it on the block, or attacked off the dribble from the top of the key. They tried Carter, Damonte Dodd, and others, but none of them had a chance.
As for Selden, he dominated the weirdest matchup of the game, which was him versus Layman. Layman, normally a power forward, has been forced to play the three this season because of the addition of Stone and Carter. He was way too slow to guard Selden and the Roxbury native showed it.
For some odd reason, Maryland never really had Layman take Selden to the post, where you would figure he would dominate since he has about five inches on the Jayhawk.
The rule of thumb is generally that if one team has a mismatch, so does the other. It certainly didn’t appear that way. Layman had just eight points on 3-of-8 from the floor.
The point guard play for the Jayhawks is a cause of concern
13 points, 4-of-13 from the floor, seven assists, six turnovers. That’s the combined stat-line for Frank Mason III and Devonte’ Graham tonight.
Even worse, Mason was constantly getting blown by on the defensive end. Sulaimon had 12 of his 18 points in the first half when Mason was the primary defender on him. He was 4-of-6 from the field.
In the second half, Graham switched over to Sulaimon and he went just 2-of-6 for six points.
While Mason was pretty bad on defense, it was Graham who was almost invisible on offense, as he took just two shots all game, making none of them. Maybe it was just an off game for Graham, but he needs to be more aggressive than that.
Mason is reportedly dealing with a foot injury, but the bottom line here is that they both need to be much better for Kansas to win in the Elite Eight against Villanova.
Villanova is full of great guards, and these two will likely be matched up with Ryan Arcidiacono and Jalen Brunson. Arcidiacono is coming off one of the best games of his entire career in Villanova’s Sweet 16 victory.
It was an upsetting season for Maryland
The Terps had high expectations coming into this season. They returned one of the best point guards in the country in Trimble and three-year starter Layman. They also added top recruit Stone and two good transfers in Sulaimon and Carter.
And they were meeting those expectations for some time. They were ranked second in the polls on February 8th. But they finished the regular season 2-4, and then won just one game in the Big Ten Tournament.
Trimble’s shooting was down in almost every category, Mark Turgeon couldn’t quite find a lineup that included his five best players since Layman isn’t really a small forward, and they got very little bench production from guys like Dodd who were major contributors last year.
Now, they lose Sulaimon, Layman, and probably Stone. Trimble is projected as a second-round draft choice on most mock drafts, so it’s tough to tell if he will stay or go.
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Either way, it could be awhile before Maryland has this much of a chance to make a tournament run again.