Kansas Jayhawks clamp down on Providence’s three-point shooting in Sweet 16 win
Providence, a Big East Conference basketball team that hit 12 three-pointers against Richmond and eight versus South Dakota State in first- and second-round NCAA Tournament victories a week ago in Buffalo, New York, made just 4 of 23 threes in Friday’s 66-61 Sweet 16 loss to Kansas.
“We wanted to take away their catch and shoot shots. We wanted to make sure they didn’t catch the ball, rise and shoot it. We were able to do some things to frustrate them,” KU senior forward Mitch Lightfoot said after the victory that propelled KU into the Elite Eight.
Of course the Friars (27-6) didn’t take all outside shots. When they went inside, Lightfoot swatted away four of their attempts. Ochai Agbaji also had four rejections. KU (31-6) had 11 blocks to the Friars’ four. In all, Providence hit 19 of 45 two-point tries for 42.2%.
“I was glad to help our guards erase a couple shots,” Lightfoot said.
No doubt three-point shooting, or lack of it, was a huge factor in the game. Kansas hit just 2 of 14 threes.
“We switched on top of their guys,” KU junior guard Christian Braun said after his 10-rebound, six-point performance.
“They are a hard team to guard. They run a lot of sets, get off clean looks. Whatever they were doing … we didn’t hit a shot either,” Braun added with a laugh.
Of KU’s defense, Providence guard Al Durham (21 points, 8-of-18 shooting, 1-of-5 from three) said: “They amped it up. They had a lot of ball pressure. They were switching and trying to make it hard on us to run our stuff. It took us a little minute, a little bit to get adjusted to how they were defending. They were just trying to take us out of our stuff, really.”
Friars coach Ed Cooley noted: “I thought our players had to adjust with the physicality on and off the ball. We’re accustomed to playing against that level of defense when we play a team like Villanova because they switch on and off the ball. I thought we made the right adjustment. We definitely made the right adjustment to get the game where we needed it to be.”
Providence outscored KU 44-40 the final half.
Another factor was free throwing. KU, which didn’t attempt a free throw the first half, went 20 of 28 from the line to Providence’s 11 of 16.
“I think the refs tightened it up a little bit. They were calling fouls they weren’t calling the first half,” Braun said. “They were letting us play. That’s something we like to do.
“We saw they started to tighten things up the second half so everybody started attacking,” Braun added. “Guys went to the line and were knocking them down. Remy (Martin, 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting but just 8-of-13 from line) hit every shot but his free throws. Remy was great. It is important to hit those free throws.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks clamp down on Providence’s three-point shooting in Sweet 16 win."
