By Blake Schuster
They are the sort of numbers Kansas fans have come to expect from Tyshawn Taylor — which made Elijah Johnson posting them all the more sweet.
26 points on 8-11 shooting, a career high for Johnson in Kansas’ 83-66 first round victory over Texas A&M.
By the time Taylor made his first field goal with four minutes left in the first half Johnson had already scored 13 points — looking more like Taylor than himself.
“Elijah got us over the hump,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.
The hump was the first ten minutes of the game, where KU only managed 12 points and trailed the Aggies by five. Coming out of a timeout with 10:39 left in the first half, Johnson hit his first of five threes on the night. From there the Aggies began saying goodbye to their lead — and the Big 12 — while Kansas went on a 21-3 run over the next 6:30 to put the Jayhawks up 40-28 at the break.
“After the second shot I made I told Tyshawn [Taylor] that it felt great,” Johnson said. “He took advantage of it and came to me whenever he could.”
For the second time when Kansas got in an early dogfight with the Aggies, Johnson put the Jayhawks back on track. On February 22, in College Station, Texas., Johnson led KU in scoring with 21 points while Taylor only put up 12.
But going into that game Johnson had much less on his mind.
Last week Johnson’s uncle — who had lived with him for a few years when Johnson was younger — passed away and he made the trip back to his hometown of Gary, IN. to attend the memorial for him. After spending a few days with family under unfortunate circumstances, Johnson returned to the normalcy of Lawrence.
“I get to go home once a year, so whenever I get to go home I feel good about it,” Johnson said. “It just had to be under these conditions, going through the whole service, and being able to cry with my family, and then realizing I had to get back to business. “
If there is one coach who can get someone to focus on basketball after tragedy it’s Bill Self. So once Texas A&M began forcing contested shots from behind the arc, and collapsing to the paint — making it tough for Taylor to get going — Self got Johnson to step in.
“It’s huge,” Taylor said of Johnson’s outburst. “It makes us a better team when you have someone that can come out and light somebody up.”
Overall the Jayhawks were 10-15 from behind the arc, including two from Thomas Robinson who posted his 23rd double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
But what gave Johnson the confidence to drop what seemed like endless threes didn’t come from warm-ups, or yesterday’s practice, it came from one little conversation in passing between Self and Johnson right before tip-off.
As Johnson was walking out of the locker room Self told him he liked how he was shooting in practice yesterday. Johnson didn’t know Self had noticed.
“He said ‘I know everything’,” Johnson said. “Hearing that from your head coach, if you don’t feel special, there’s not many people who can get through to you.”
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VIDEO COURTESY OF OUR CAMPUS MEDIA PARTNER KUJH-TV