RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.14 (Men's Basketball)
?? Devonte’ Graham lit up South Beach Saturday with another 35 pt outing as #KUbball handed Syracuse its first loss of the season, 76-60. pic.twitter.com/oT2J5t6zgW
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) December 3, 2017
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A post shared by Kansas Basketball (@kuhoops) on Dec 3, 2017 at 11:47am PST
Senior guard Devonte’ Graham scored a career-high 35 points twice last week in Kansas’ victories against Toledo (11/28) and Syracuse (12/2). Graham entered the Toledo contest averaging 12.0 points per game and now ranks third in the Big 12 Conference in scoring with an 18.6 ppg average.
“Being confident and shooting the ball, being aggressive,” Graham told reporters after the Syracuse contest about his scoring uptick. “Coach (Self) kept telling me to be aggressive and Coach Rob (Norm Roberts) kept telling me to try and be a spark.”
Graham is not just leading Kansas per game in scoring, he ranks second in the Big 12 in assists at 8.0, fourth in steals (2.3), third in free throw percentage (92.3), fifth in 3-point field goals made (2.9), seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8) and tied for third in double-doubles with two.
“The thing with Devonte’ is he is a point guard, but he is also a scoring point guard,” KU head coach Bill Self said following the win over Syracuse in the Hoophall Miami Classic. “He’s a guy who can score or make a pass to finish a play. I don’t think him taking that many shots is a negative, 17 isn’t a lot of shots to get 35 (points vs. Syracuse). I don’t think that will be a negative at all but I don’t think it will be a nightly thing. I think we’re better when we have balance. On a night when we didn’t have anything going on, he needed to do that (score).”
For his efforts last week, Graham was named the Big 12 Player of the Week, as announced by the conference on Dec. 4, an honor he earned for the second time in his career with the other being Feb. 15, 2016 when he scored his previous career high of 27 points at Oklahoma. He was also named the national player of the week by numerous media outlets including NCAA.com, the Lute Olson Award, Dick Vitale and the USBWA.
Graham’s pair of 35-point games marked the first back-to-back 30-point efforts by a Jayhawk since Andrew Wiggins accomplished the feat toward the end of the 2013-14 season. It also was the 25th and 26th time a Jayhawk has scored 30 or more points in a game in the Bill Self era.
30-Point Games Under Bill Self
41 – Andrew Wiggins at West Virginia (3-8-14)
39 – Elijah Johnson at Iowa State (2-25-13)
36 – Ben McLemore vs. West Virginia (3-2-13)
35 – DEVONTE’ GRAHAM VS. SYRACUSE (12-2-17)
35 – DEVONTE’ GRAHAM VS. TOLEDO (11-28-17)
33 – Wayne Selden Jr. vs. Kentucky (1-30-16)
33 – Ben McLemore vs. Iowa State (1-9-13)
33 – Marcus Morris vs. Iowa State (1-12-11)
33 – Sherron Collins vs. Cornell (1-6-10)
33 – Julian Wright at Missouri (2-10-07)
32 – Frank Mason III vs. Iowa State (2-4-17)
32 – Perry Ellis vs. TCU (2-15-14)
32 – Sherron Collins vs. North Dakota State (3-20-09)
32 – Wayne Simien vs. Oklahoma State (2-27-05)
31 – Josh Jackson at Texas Tech (2-11-17)
31 – Xavier Henry vs. LaSalle (12-12-09)
31 – Wayne Simien vs. Missouri (3-7-04)
30 – Frank Mason III vs. UMKC (12-6-16)
30 – Frank Mason III vs. Indiana (11-11-16)
30 – Perry Ellis vs. Iowa State (3-14-14)
30 – Andrew Wiggins vs. Oklahoma State (3-13-14)
30 – Ben McLemore vs. Kansas State (2-11-13)
30 – Thomas Robinson vs. North Dakota (12-31-11)
30 – Mario Chalmers vs. Texas (3-16-08)
30 – Wayne Simien vs. Oklahoma State (3-12-05)
30 – Wayne Simien vs. UAB (3-26-04)
Multiple 30-Point Games Under Bill Self
4 – Wayne Simien
3 – Frank Mason III, Ben McLemore
2 – Devonte’ Graham, Perry Ellis, Andrew Wiggins, Sherron Collins
