Brown @KU 2024-12-22 - Post game notes from JayhawkSlant

• KU 87, Brown 53.
Zeke Mayo in 25 minutes had
25 points (10/15, with 5/8 from 3; game-high)
8 rebounds
4 assists
3 turnovers
1 steal
1 block

Second game in a row the home-grown Lawrence HS Chesty Lion has had a solid offensive game.

• JayhawkSlant’s Shay Wildeboor with the Jayhawks after the game:

Zeke Mayo
“I mean first of all, we played great as a team overall from start to, I mean I guess we struggled there early in the first half on the defensive end, didn't rebound the ball very well. But as far as me personally, obviously on the offensive end, things were clicking for me, but I played atrocious on the defensive end. I've got to do a lot better individually guarding my man and keeping him in front, but my teammates had my back.”

KJ Adams on how KU’s offense looks different when Mayo is clicking on all cylinders:
“It just connects everything together. When he's shooting threes like he is, it's almost like move out of the way and let Zeke work and when you get to that point of the game and he's hitting shots, it all clicks together. Everybody has their intensity up during an offensive end.”

Coach Self on how he feels about this team heading into Big 12 play:
“I actually thought we were pretty good today. They made shots early, and three of the shots they made early were hard shots, the threes, but I thought we were pretty good today. I thought we shared it, we just didn't defensive rebound very well, but that would be the thing I would say we didn't do well. All the other stuff, we were pretty good. And, of course, Zeke was terrific again, but I feel better.”

“I mean, that's not a true indication of what conference play is going to be like by any stretch, but hopefully, we are better than we were a week ago, and we get a chance to practice for about five more days and hopefully tighten some things up and maybe add a couple of wrinkles and see what happens.”

In the presser Self also indicated that Zach Clemence is going to miss an extended period of time due to a significant groin injury. “Yeah, the media I don't think knew this beforehand, Brian Hanni, but Zach pulled his groin pretty significantly about three days ago, so he's going to be out and he may be out a while. We don't know yet. So it's more significant and sometimes, those groins, if you come back too early then you're going to tweak it again more likely. So we'll wait and see how he responds after Christmas, but that's the reason why he didn't play.”

• Additional info from Shay

Rylan Griffen has a big knot on his forehead due to the incidental headknocking he took. He did not return to the game. Self said "He's fine. He got just a knot on his eye or right above his eye, so they made it sound like to me that it would be Rocky Balboa and Rocky 2 the way his face was. But he can still see out of it and everything, so he'll be fine. He'll get some pity sympathy when he gets home and maybe get some more home cooking or whatever because of it. That's about it."