Kansas basketball loses Maui Invitational matchup against Marquette as miscues mount

Kansas basketball came up short during its second Maui Invitational game this week, losing 73-59 on Tuesday in Hawaii against Marquette.

Here are a few takeaways from the No. 1 Jayhawks (4-1) defeat against the No. 5 Golden Eagles (5-0):

It’s still only November

It can be easy, after a tough loss like Kansas just experienced, to cast a lot of doubt on what’s possible for the Jayhawks this season. Marquette is a team that head coach Bill Self and company could see again in the NCAA tournament, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Suffering a defeat like this could lead one to start to put a ceiling on what Kansas is capable of.

But it’s still November. The Jayhawks haven’t even gotten through their non-conference slate, or started to make their way through the Big 12 Conference gauntlet they’re going to experience. There’s still a lot of time for the likes of freshman guard Elmarko Jackson, graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake and freshman guard Johnny Furphy to improve and become more reliable parts of the rotation.

Turnovers prove costly for Kansas

Kansas turned the ball over 18 times and allowed 20 points off of those turnovers. Comparatively, Marquette turned the ball over 12 times and allowed nine points off of those turnovers. Overcoming a disparity like that is going to be tough for any team, and the Jayhawks weren’t able to do that against the Golden Eagles.

Kansas saw graduate guard Kevin McCullar Jr. turn it over six times, and senior center Hunter Dickinson turn it over five times. Those 11 combined turnovers nearly matched the 14 the two had combined for across the first four games of the season for the Jayhawks. Look for taking better care of the ball to be an emphasis as the team’s Maui Invitational run wraps up and they all move forward with the season.

Kansas has to have more reliable scoring outside of Kevin McCullar Jr., Hunter Dickinson

McCullar finished with 24 points, as he shot 9-for-14 from the field, 2-for-4 from behind the arc and 4-for-6 from the free-throw line. Dickinson finished with 13 points, as he shot 5-for-10 from the field, 1-for-2 from behind the arc and 2-for-4 from the free-throw line. And those ended up being the only two players who finished in double figures scoring for Kansas.

No other Jayhawks player finished with more than five points. Jackson, one of the five starters, didn’t score at all. That’s not a winning formula, especially with the challenging schedule Kansas has this season.

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball loses Maui Invitational matchup against Marquette