By Alex Burr | @alexburr4
Sports Capital Journalism Program
INDIANAPOLIS — With 14:22 left in the first half of his team’s first-round NCAA tournament game, David McCormack of the Kansas Jayhawks dove on the floor for a loose ball and crashed into the scorer’s table near his bench. McCormack had arrived in Indianapolis on Friday after COVID-19 protocols caused him to miss the team’s only game in the Big 12 Tournament. “We felt his energy, we felt his presence and we were glad he was back on the court,” said Kansas teammate Marcus Garrett.
“It was pretty impressive how he played, given his conditioning,” said Kansas coach Bill Self, who had expected McCormack to play 15 minutes, maybe 20. “I don’t feel like he looked as good moving, but I thought considering all the time off I thought he looked very patient offensively once we got into the second half.”
McCormack scored 20 points of his 22 points in the second half to help propel the third-seeded Jayhawks to a 93-84 victory over the No. 13 seed Eastern Washington Eagles. Kansas (21-8) will meet Southern California in the second round.
For the Eagles (16-8), brothers Tanner Groves and Jacob Groves had 35 and 23 points, respectively, and scored 26 of the Eagles’ 38 second half points. Tanner Groves, the Big Sky Most Valuable Player, did it all over the floor. He shot 6 for 7 from inside the arc, 5 for 11 on 3-point shots, and 8 for 9 from the foul line.
“The Groves brothers were the best players in the game in the first half,” Self said. Self did not see Tanner Groves playing on the perimeter as much, because he simply had not done it all season.
“They played Tanner on the perimeter far more than what we thought they would,” Self said. “He’s made 17 threes on the season, and he makes five in one game. If I’m not mistaken, three of them were in the first half pretty early. That was a strategy by them, I’m sure, to try to play to that when we had two bigs in the game. I thought he was great.”
Jacob Groves started off the game with seven of the Eagles’ first nine points, and helped the Eagles jump out to a 9-0 lead. Kansas managed to take a lead at 23-17 with 9:52 in the first half, but by the half the Groves brothers each had 16 and the Eagles secured the lead, 46-38. In the second half, the Eagles at one point led by 10, but a 3-point shot by Dajuan Harris gave Kansas the lead for good. Kansas pushed its lead to 12, and Eastern Washington was never able to get it closer than 8 after that.
For Kansas, Garrett was able to contribute 20 points and eight rebounds, while Ochai Agbaji chipped in with 21. The Eagles attempted 26 3-point shots and the Jayhawks took 30 shots from beyond the arc. In the second half, the Jayhawks were able to limit the Eagles to 3 for 12 shooting from 3-point range, while they went 7 for 13 from distance.
Garrett, who made two 3-point shots all of February, made three in this game alone. Garrett said he is just willing to do what it takes for his team to win. “I know it’s winning time,” he said. “I know I have to knock down shots. Stepping up and having confidence in shooting the ball more.”
Eastern Washington coach Shantay Legans was proud of the effort of his players, and how they were able to hang with a team like Kansas. “Our guys came out and played,” he said. “We came up a little short, but you can’t tell me we played against Kansas, and we shoot 58%, 38% from three, we only miss two free throws and we lose. If you would have gave me those numbers before the game, I’d say we won.
“For the most part we did a good job,” Legans said. “They just hit some timely threes when we didn’t need them to. They haven’t been a great three-point shooting team all season long, but they were tonight.”
