Bill Self says Kansas played better against Indiana than Missouri game

Kansas cruised to its 11th victory of the season with a 84-62 romp of Indiana. Head coach Bill Self was impressed with the fast start in the first half, even more so than the team’s hot start against Missouri. The Jayhawks led 44-29 over the Hoosiers after the first 20 minutes.

“I thought we played better today than we did against Missouri,” Self said postgame. “You know, I guess Missouri, they got some looks that were pretty good looks they didn’t make it. And they got some layups and things like. Today I mean, for the most part … their best offense was in the second half when (Trayce Jackson-Davis) blocked a shot and that led to numbers. And at least from the way I saw it, so it’s hard to defend that, but when we play five on five, I thought our defense was the best it’s been.”

Kansas limited Jackson-Davis to just 13 points, six rebounds and one assist in 29 minutes of play. Jackson-Davis is one of the better pro-prospects nationwide in college basketball.

The Jayhawks also limited Miller Kopp to just six points and Race Thompson and Jalen Hood-Schifino had just 11 points a piece for Indiana.

“Yeah our bench was good,” Self said. “We decided to go with Zuby (Ejiofor) as the first big and Zach (Clemence) was going to be the guy that we went to if you know if things didn’t go well with Zuby. Zuby was great. He did a good job on Trayce with the time he guarded him. He played big and set good screens and, you know, played to his athletic ability. I thought he played terrific and I thought Bobby (Pettiford) was fantastic too. Bobby played great as well.”

Gradey Dick was the leading scorer for Kansas Saturday as he put up 20 points and six rebounds in 33 minutes on the floor. The Jayhawks had five other players in double-figures in the win.

Jalen Wilson (11), KJ Adams Jr. (11), Kevin McCullar (11), Dajuan Harris (10) and Pettiford (10) all had solid contributions.

“The way they guard ball screens with Trayce, is they drop coverage a lot,” Self said. “So we tried to force them to go over and keep attacking the big and hopefully get the floater. And Dajuan did a good job of that and Bobby scored twice on that in the first half as well.”

With the 15-point lead at halftime, the Jayhawks did not take their foot off the gas. Kansas outscored Indiana 40-33 in the second half en route to the 22-point victory.

No. 8 Kansas (11-1) is back in action Thursday at home against Harvard (7-4).