After an extremely disappointing loss at home against West Virginia to begin conference play, Bill Self adjusted and the Kansas Jayhawks have been in a groove. They bounced back immediately by throttling UCF 99-48 and handling Arizona State 74-55. The biggest change? Bill Self has found more minutes for Shakeel Moore and it has solidified the identity of the team.
In the 62-61 loss to WVU, Moore saw the floor for just two minutes. Against UCF, his time on the court jumped up to 20 minutes. Most recently against ASU, the fifth year transfer guard saw 22 minutes of action. Bill Self appears to be trusting Moore more and more, thanks to his defensive intensity, on-ball pressure, and his ability to cut and quicken the pace of play.
His numbers do not pop off the screen in the two huge victories, averaging just 7 PPG, 3.5 APG, and 2 RPG, but he has been doing all of the small things for the crimson and blue. Most notably, his impact has popped up in the steals department where he has three steals across the last two wins, allowing Self to even employ a full court press defense at times.
What does Shakeel Moore’s emergence mean moving forward?
The addition of Shak to the starting lineup was obviously the right move by Bill Self, but this is now the fifth iteration of the starting five for KU. David Coit, Rylan Griffen, AJ Storr, and even Zeke Mayo have come off the bench for a number of games each this season. While Mayo has likely secured his starting spot for the long haul, will Self stick with Moore long term as well?
The answer: Continue to start Moore unless Griffen proves that he is simply too good to come off of the bench. The 6-foot-6 transfer from Alabama has been solid in the last two games as well and likely presents more upside than Moore. He proved last season that he can be a starter on a Final Four caliber team, yet has been shaky with Kansas and has lacked consistency.
There is also still a world in which both could start at some point later this season if the questionable spacing of Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams, and Hunter Dickinson becomes a repeated problem. For now, Shak has given no reason for Self to switch things up again and should be the starter for the foreseeable future.
Moore gets his next chance to shine on Saturday, Jan. 11, when the Jayhawks face off with the Bearcats, who will be hungry for a Big 12 win after dropping their first three games of conference play.