FURPHY!!!

Furph ate his Wheaties yesterday.

The kid was nothing short of outstanding in that opening half, which is precisely when KU broke the Cowboys’ back.

He was killing it in literally every facet of the game.

The light clearly has begun to turn on for him on D, and his length is posing serious problems for opposing wings. He’s grabbing tough and contested rebounds, getting steals, making quick and strong outlet passes, galloping on breaks and finishing with authority at the rim, and crushing 3s within the flow of the offense.

Before he attempted and made his first 3 about midway through the first half, I texted HawkE that what was amazing about his performance up to then was that he was playing completely unselfishly - he was doing everything but taking 3s.

Most freshmen suddenly given the starting nod for a team that’s struggling on O would go straight to chucking up the ball to try and make an instant impact. But instead, Furph just focused on all the other aspects of the game and excelled at them.

The beauty of that is you just knew the 3-shot attempt(s) was eventually going to come as a result. Right after my comment to HawkE, Furph took his first 3 - and it was completely in the flow of the offense. (An unselfish shot that made sense and was higher percentage) Boom! And then another. And another later.

The kid was just incredible. If he can bring that kind of effort and energy each game, we will have definitely solved our 5th starter problem. But beyond that, we will have started the evolution toward our true ceiling as a team - and elite capacity for the Big 12 race AND a deep run come March-April.

So stoked at how we played tonite as a team, and how pivotal a role Johnny had in the outcome.

Johnny was the sparkplug in the first half, and then just continued to play well in the second.

Even though he did not score in the last 20 minutes, he did not need to as everyone else contributed.

21 Hunter (30 minutes)
18 Kevin (35 minutes)
16 KJ (34 minutes)
15 Johnny (33 minutes)
11 Dajuan (31 minutes)

It is true that KANSAS only got 9 bench points tonight, but when all five starters score in double figures as they did tonight, and with all of them playing at least 30 minutes so bench time is minimal (35 of a possible 200 minutes → 10.9 points per 40 minutes), that's a pretty good result in my book. Of course, this was just one game and we will see if the Furphy-charging of the Jayhawk offense continues on Saturday, but man, ya gotta feel good seeing a game like tonight. Especially in an environment where the Jayhawks have not excelled during Self's tenure. Bodes well for KANSAS playing next in the arena that can boast of being home to Self's worst conference record -- and the Mountaineers seem to be righting their ship, beating then #25 Texas last Saturday in the hills of "Almost Heaven".

Is the future so bright that I gotta ?

Let's hope that more and not less is in the future!