ST. LOUIS — Kansas didn’t miss Joel Embiid. For one round, at least.
Despite the absence of the game-changing freshman center, the second-seeded Jayhawks remained dominant inside, and survived their opening contest of the NCAA Tournament South Regional, thwarting No. 15 Eastern Kentucky’s valiant upset bid, 80-69, at the Scottrade Center on Friday.
Kansas owned the paint, overcoming dogged Eastern Kentucky’s 3-point bombs, and avoided becoming the latest favorite to fall in a wild opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
“The team needs more out of everybody, not just me,” sophomore forward Jamari Traylor said after notching career-highs of 17 points and 14 rebounds. “All the bigs did a great job tonight. The team stepped up and locked down better in the second half.”
Kansas (26-9) will face No. 10 Stanford in the third round on Sunday with a shot at the Sweet 16 in Memphis on the line.
Sensational freshman Andrew Wiggins led the way with 19 points, but it was the contributions of two role players — Traylor and Tarik Black —that proved to be significant. Traylor, a sophomore, had by far his best game of his career — he had reached in double figures just twice before this breakout performance — and the senior Black had 12 points.
“Monster, man, a monster,” Black said of Taylor. “Jamari played huge for us. I’m so proud of him.”
Glenn Cosey scored 17 points to lead Eastern Kentucky (24-11), which hit 12-of-31 3-point attempts. Kansas played a solid second half after a sloppy first half. It committed just a single turnover after halftime, compared to 13 before the break, resulting in a number of easy baskets around the rim.
Freshman point guard Conner Frankamp played a significant role in the turnaround, scoring 10 points and notching four assists off the bench. Most importantly, he did not turn the ball over, creating opportunities for Kansas and negating run-outs for Eastern Kentucky.
“I thought he handled everything beautifully,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Frankamp.
The Jayhawks made up for a lack of production from their starting backcourt by asserting their physical prowess inside, manhandling the Colonels on the glass, 43-19, and hammering the Kentucky school, 54-20, in the paint. It balanced out the 36-0 edge Eastern Kentucky had from behind the 3-point line.
“That was huge for us because that was the advantage we had,” Black said. “If we didn’t take advantage of our advantage over them, most likely we’re going to lose to them. We weren’t going to win the ball game playing their style, which is putting up shots. They knock down shots at a high rate.”
Eastern Kentucky wasn’t intimidated by the spotlight, building a 23-14 lead. It was ahead 56-53 with 9:13 left before Kansas woke up in earnest and ripped off an 11-1 run, all 11 points coming in the paint or at the free-throw line.
“The key was really to pound the ball inside and play aggressive and we did that, and good things happened,” sophomore forward Perry Ellis said.