As Kansas continues to win in different ways, Ochai Agbaji shines in Final Four

NEW ORLEANS — Ochai Agbaji didn’t waste much time.

Less than a minute into the game Saturday against Villanova, in fact less than 30 seconds into it, the Kansas basketball senior guard rose up for a 3-pointer on the wing. The Jayhawks had won the opening tip, and while Agbaji didn’t get the lob pass he was looking for a handful of seconds earlier, the ball still found its way to him eventually. And with Wildcats senior forward Brandon Slater in Agbaji’s face, Agbaji nailed the shot to set the tone for the evening.

For a player who’d struggled at times to consistently hit shots in this NCAA tournament, especially from behind the arc, it was a sign that the night would go much differently. Heck, he didn’t miss a shot in the first half and finished the game 6-for-7 on 3s. And behind his 21 points, Kansas topped Villanova for an 81-65 win in the Final Four in a way that draws a similarity to recent Jayhawks wins in its differences.

Because throughout this tournament, Kansas has continued to top opponents in different ways. The driving forces for the victories that have the Jayhawks in the national championship game have continued to shift, with super-senior guard Remy Martin certainly being the main one prior to the team's trip to New Orleans.

On Saturday, Agbaji was one of them.

“Our starting five was just like, we’re just all going to go out and be aggressive and see what happens,” said Agbaji, who had been averaging about 12 points per game — about 7 under his yearly average — in the NCAA tournament before Saturday's game. “We’ll throw our cards and place our cards in that moment … This is what I play for. This is what I work for, is being here and just performing in the moment.”

There was one 3-pointer Agbaji hit that he knows he celebrated at a higher level than some of the others he made, and after the game he didn’t hesitate to explain why. In that moment, while it was too early in the game to say it, he wanted people to see him and see the national player of the year. A day after Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe was recognized at the Caesars Superdome with a national player of the year honor, Agbaji played like someone deserving of that honor.

Agbaji said he doesn’t feel slighted by Tshiebwe receiving that recognition instead. He praised the year Tshiebwe had, and noted he’d rather win a national championship over winning that accolade. But it’s clear how much confidence he has in himself, and clear as well how dangerous he can be on the court when his play reflects that confidence.

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According to Kansas senior forward David McCormack, Agbaji has the same mindset every day. Whether it’s a practice or a game, McCormack watches Agbaji go in with the mentality that he’s not going to force anything and let the game come to him. Every night, McCormack said, feels like it’s going to be Agbaji’s night.

“You would never notice,” said junior guard Christian Braun, asked what Agbaji was like behind the scenes earlier in the tournament when he wasn’t scoring like he usually does. “He’s humble. He’s confident. Just the way he carries himself. He doesn’t care who scores. He just wants to win and he knows that if we win that’s going to be the best situation for him. So, you would never know how many points Ochai scores in the locker room.”

Braun continued: “He’s happy for everybody, and I would say that for the whole team. But, yeah, Ochai, he’s humble and he’s confident in what he does. He knows that his shots will fall. And obviously tonight they fell.”

Jayhawks coach Bill Self said he heard people say that Agbaji needed to become more aggressive. But in Self’s mind, Agbaji was playing the same way he was all year. Self didn’t think that needed to change, although the numbers Agbaji was getting weren’t what fans were used to seeing this season.

Playing that way, saw Agbaji nearly match his career high in made 3s of seven. It saw Kansas be able to say it went 13-for-24 on shots from behind the arc against Villanova. It’s a shooting performance that reminds Self of the Jayhawks’ win earlier this season at home against Kansas State.

“Did we go 13-of-24, maybe, against K-State?” said Self, whose team actually went 15-for-24 on 3s in February against those Wildcats. “But we just shot it so well, and I think the guys like shooting in this building, to be honest, just because the depth perception doesn’t seem like it’s different, even though it is. And the rims are pretty soft. And I think that how well we shoot it, in large part, probably depends on Ochai in many ways because he’s going to take the majority of the 3s. And the start he got us off on, I think he just gave everybody else confidence.”

Agbaji understands the expectations there are at Kansas, that teams reach the Final Four. He remembers what it was like to be eliminated in the round of 32 of the NCAA tournament in 2019 after the program reached the Final Four the year prior. And now they’re not just in it like the Jayhawks were in 2018, but in the championship game like they were back in 2012.

Kansas didn’t know its opponent for Monday’s national title game when its players and coaches walked off the court Saturday. Duke and North Carolina had yet to tip off. But the way the Jayhawks played, the way Agbaji played, it almost seems as if it didn’t matter which one advanced.

Agbaji will be receiving quite a bit of attention in the hours between now and tip-off Monday. If he’s not described as the national player of the year when people talk about him, what he is described as will be pretty close. And he’ll deserve it.

“We always talk about it, this is what you want in the summer,” Agbaji said. “Everyone’s kind of like, ‘National championship.’ Every school can say, ‘National championship.’ But then, actually to be in the game and in the moment, it’s actually surreal now. But it’s just wild, we’ve got one more to go. One more. It’s my final game here at Kansas, and I wouldn’t want to close it out any way other.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas' Ochai Agbaji stars in Final Four as Jayhawks seek NCAA title