KU junior Mitch Lightfoot letting trust in the process dictate his approach

Kansas forward Mitch Lightfoot (44) gets up for a dunk against New Mexico State during the second half on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018 at Sprint Center.

His front-court teammate called him the player of the game and, not five minutes later, his coach said he was merely OK.

That was Kansas junior Mitch Lightfoot’s Saturday night during the Jayhawks’ 63-60 squeaker against New Mexico State, and few players on this KU roster are better equipped to handle that kind of hot-and-cold critique about the same body of work.

KU junior Dedric Lawson was not painting a false picture for the sake of talking up his buddy.

The eyes will tell you that Lightfoot did enough good things, made enough winning plays and, perhaps more important than any of that, was enough of a reliable option that he stayed on the floor for most of the crucial second half, including winning time.

But Self was not wrong either, and Lightfoot will be the first to tell you that, as much as he appreciated the praise from Lawson, it’s the criticism from Self that he’ll choose to remember.

“You’ve got to take it as motivation,” said Lightfoot of Self’s postgame comments, which emphasized Lightfoot’s inability to slow down NMSU’s post players in the paint. “He’s not wrong. I wasn’t all that. I had a couple of stupid mental mistakes, so I’ve got to take that out of the game and it’ll make it more sound for me.”

The irony there is that, had it not been for Lightfoot’s mental approach in the first place, the 6-foot-8, 225-pound junior from Gilbert, Ariz., who now has played in 72 career games at Kansas, may not have been in a position to help Kansas pull off the victory over the Aggies.

From day one of his freshman season to now, Lightfoot has prided himself on staying ready. Undersized as a center and even a little light as a major college power forward, Lightfoot has never let the challenge, nor limited minutes, keep him from giving everything he has to the program.

Every once in a while, when his number is called because someone is out or struggling or not giving the coaches what they want to see, Lightfoot responds with a big game. It’s happened at TCU. It happened in the Big 12 tournament a year ago. And it happened again last Saturday night.

Lightfoot still has logged way more single-digit nights than game-changing performances, but he never has let the result impact the process.

After Saturday’s victory, he explained the mindset he brings to each and every day in a Kansas uniform.

“Whatever it takes for us to win and get better, I’m going to try to do it,” Lightfoot said. “Obviously, I’m going to make some mistakes along the way, but I’m trying to do the right thing. You just have to understand that you’re going to play when you’re needed, and if it’s your opportunity, you’ve got to make the most of it.”

After playing just four minutes during Saturday’s first half, Lightfoot played 14 in the second half. His response to having his playing time more than triple in the final 20 minutes was to flush a couple of momentum-inducing dunks and to grab five of the six rebounds he had during the hard-fought game.

But the lift did not come from anything Lightfoot did or anything anybody said during the 15-minute halftime break. Its roots were put days, months, even years earlier.

“Show up in practice and realize that you’ve got to take every practice like it’s a game and give coach some confidence in you,” Lightfoot said. “That’s my approach to every practice.”

During a three-minute breakdown with the media following Saturday’s win, Self said his biggest hope for his team in the immediate future was to see the Jayhawks start playing with freer minds.

That’s harder to do for a player like Lightfoot, who so often has had to think through each possession and rely on his mental preparation over his feel and flow on the floor. His limited usage has not always afforded him the opportunity to get into a good rhythm.

But that has not stopped him from trying or from trusting in Self — about whom Lightfoot constantly says “knows a lot more about the game than I do” — to push the right buttons and make the right moves, even if they come with a hint of criticism.

“You are playing at Kansas,” Lightfoot said. “You can’t complain too much. This is one of the best places to play in college basketball, and you have to understand that there are certain things that are a part of it. Whenever coach gets on you, you’ve got to think you are at Kansas and that’s what comes with the job.”

Asked if he thought any single player, be it a veteran or a newcomer, could help lead Kansas out of the mental block and into freer, faster basketball, Lightfoot said: “Yes and no. You can have a player that leads the way for the team when it comes to playing free and stuff like that. But at the same time, it’s going to take everybody take a step forward. We’re all going to have to take a step in the right direction.”

COMMENTS

Welcome to the new LJWorld.com. Our old commenting system has been replaced with Facebook Comments. There is no longer a separate username and password login step. If you are already signed into Facebook within your browser, you will be able to comment. If you do not have a Facebook account and do not wish to create one, you will not be able to comment on stories.