Nuni Omot's chance to shine; Jayhawks' three-pointers only the start

Nuni Omot’s chance to shine against Kansas

Big-time players step up for big-time games, at least that’s long been the motto. It still holds water and Baylor has seen just as much from its top players like Johnathan Motley’s historic performance that took down Texas or even Manu Lecomte’s role taking down Oregon and Xavier early in the season.

But against Kansas, while Motley and Lecomte need to bring their A-game, there’s a greater opportunity for the bench players to contribute more. Simply put, Kansas for all its recruiting success is not a deep team whereas Baylor has proven time and again its depth.

Players like Nuni Omot should take on new meaning to combat the Jayhawks’ sheer talent.

“With Nuni, it’s somebody that gives you great length, athleticism,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said Tuesday. “[He] gives other teams a matchup issue, so he’s done a great job really giving us a great lift.”

Despite Omot coming into the season late with only 11 games under his belt, he has really come into his own the past couple weeks starting with his emergent performance against Texas. If not for Motley’s 30/20 box score, Omot would have been the highlight with his 14 points and five rebounds that re-energized a rough crowd.

Against Ole Miss on Saturday, Omot once again helped lift the Bears to victory. This time it was shooting from the perimeter that gave the Bears the edge. Omot left Mississippi hitting 3-of-6 treys, following in the footsteps of Lecomte. Those three buckets were Omot’s only points of the night, but nonetheless left Drew impressed.

“[He’s] someone that can stretch the defense,” Drew said. “Similar to Taurean Prince.”

Comparing someone to Prince isn’t something to be taken lightly considering Prince was a two-year starter that worked his way into the first round of the NBA Draft last year. But it’s an apt comparison looking at how the two, despite their typical big-man builds, also work as a perimeter threat.

In Prince’s career in Waco, he shot 37.6 percent from beyond the arc. His sophomore year while averaging 14 minutes a game, he shot 36.6 percent, virtually identical to Omot’s perimeter efficiency while also averaging 14 minutes per game.

The parallels run deep with between the two, but one area Omot has been continually better at is in the turnover game. He has one turnover every other game compared to Prince committing more than nearly two per game. Even with Mot’s increased minutes the past couple weeks, he hasn’t turned over more than one ball. In 18 minutes against Texas Tech, he was flawless in ball security.

But it’s easy to wax poetic about the 6-foot-9 forward when he hasn’t faced a tournament-ready team like Kansas, just like it was easy when talking about Prince’s early career before facing top programs.

Come tournament-time for Prince, he put up just five points in 30 minutes with little contribution elsewhere. A big performance from Omot against Kansas would both breed confidence for the rest of the season as well as what’s to come from him next season. Looking at how West Virginia used its bench to attack and wear the Jayhawks out, it could be Omot’s time to shine again.

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Jayhawks much more than just perimeter shooters

Despite suspending Carlton Bragg, the Jayhawks had no issue taking down Kentucky (on the road, mind you) in their first game without the five-star recruit. Kansas put just eight players on the court, only six put in more than 10 minutes.

Kansas has already been shown to be a thin roster and the absence of Bragg off the bench would appear to be a hurdle to get over a top-five team in a hostile environment. But the core group coach Bill Self has shoved out all season fed off each other more and was too much for the Wildcats to handle.

Of course, all this should be marked with an asterisk considering the Jayhawks lost to West Virginia (much like Baylor did) the previous game. But if something can be learned between those two games — Kansas’ biggest win and its worst loss — it’s that they’re more than three-point shooters.

The Jayhawks rank eighth in the country in three-point shooting percentage and have been markedly better in conference shooting 43 percent. That said, the Jayhawks had one of their best nights beyond the arc against West Virginia hitting 13-of-29 shots. Still, Kansas left with a 16-point loss.

Against Kentucky, the opposite was true. Kansas hit just 5-of-19 treys and still managed to get the W. So while stopping a barrage of threes is important (just look at Baylor’s 28-point loss at Lawrence last year), it’s not the only thing that propels this team

Before taking on Kansas on Wednesday, Baylor guard/forward Ish Wainright pointed out what he believes to be the Jayhawks’ keys to success.

“They’re just a great team,” Wainright said Tuesday. “They have a great point guard, Frank Mason. Landen Lucas is a monster down low. That’s their two [impact] guys. And Josh Jackson, that’s three guys right there.”

Coach Scott Drew had similar sentiments, specifically citing Mason as the team’s nucleus at point guard. He’s shooting over 50 percent from the perimeter, the makings of a true marksman but he also averages over five assists per game, giving plenty of love to his fellow starters, especially Jackson and Lucas.

Jackson came to Kansas as the No. 2 recruit in the country and hasn’t disappointed. While Baylor boasts forwards that can shoot from bonus range, Kansas has Jackson grabbing seven rebounds per game as a guard. Those skills was much needed against Kentucky and go to show that focusing energy on stopping Kansas’ threes is near-useless.

Self’s crew is coached to beat you other ways if the jumpers don’t fall but it might be the approach taken in the early running to shrug off Kansas’ home crowd. Baylor should be stretched thin all night, true testing for tournament teams.