Kansas basketball has lost three straight games, but Bill Self isn't sounding any alarms
WACO, Texas — At first glance it's alarming to see Kansas with three consecutive men's basketball losses.
Ahead of Monday, only Jayhawks redshirt junior guard Dajuan Harris Jr., redshirt junior forward Jalen Wilson and senior guard Michael Jankovich had experienced a third-straight loss under coach Bill Self once. That was during the 2020-21 campaign in their second season at Kansas. The season after, when the Jayhawks won the national championship, Kansas suffered back-to-back losses just once.
Then came Monday, and a matchup on the road against No. 17 Baylor. No. 9 Kansas came in already having lost back-to-back games against other Big 12 Conference opponents also ranked in the current top 25. The Jayhawks suffered a 75-69 defeat in a game they held the lead for less than a minute.
Self wasn’t sounding any alarms postgame as he reflected on his team’s recent slide out of first place in the conference standings. Neither he nor the players who spoke with reporters afterward came across as dejected. And for Kansas to turn this around, especially with a SEC/Big 12 Challenge game at Kentucky looming, that kind of perspective can’t dissipate.
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“There is time to be reactive in a negative way if your team’s not doing well; this is not one of our times,” Self said. “I mean, we have gotten beat, granted. We got beat to a team that was projected to win the league tonight that’s really good, and they went through the same crap we’re going through right now. We got beat by a team (Kansas State) that’s fifth in the country right now at their place by one. And we got beat at home (against TCU) that could have beat anybody in the country Saturday. So, our league is that good. It’s going to be a grind.”
Self continued: “Our team isn’t talented enough that we can be disappointed when teams of equal talent play better than us and get frustrated with it. We don’t have as much margin for error as we’ve had in years past, and that’s OK. But you don’t have quite as much margin for error, and the other teams in the league are a lot better, it makes it tough. So, the difference in our league than in past — there’s just not games that you can look saying, ‘We can get well here.’ I mean, there’s none of those games.”
The first step to ensuring three-straight losses don’t lead to a fourth could be uncovering why Kansas (16-4, 5-3 in Big 12) struggles to keep pace with its opponent early in games. Baylor led by as many as 13 points in the first half, TCU as many as 22 and Kansas State as many as 14. Twice the Jayhawks nearly rallied to win, against Baylor and Kansas State, but each time the deficits took their toll.
As Wilson said, once they give another team that much confidence it’s hard to take that edge away. As Self allowed, Kansas’ issues in the first half aren’t exclusive to these three defeats. And while better play wouldn’t have guaranteed the Jayhawks the lead at halftime in any of the three contests, they would have had energy to spend later on that they used up attempting to claw their way back in.
Against Baylor (15-5, 5-3 in Big 12), Kansas allowed the Bears to have a plus-nine advantage in offensive rebounds and plus-12 advantage in second-chance points. Kansas also committed 15 turnovers to Baylor’s nine, and scored eight points off of turnovers to the Bears’ 19. Kansas weathered Baylor’s initial storm and saw success in Wilson reaching 23 points and freshman guard Gradey Dick 24, but ultimately fell short again.
“We knew tonight was going to be a tough game,” Wilson said. “It’s always a tough game in Waco, no matter what’s going on. And right now, we’ve just got to focus on what’s next. The good thing is, we don’t play again until Saturday. So, we get to rest a little bit, regroup a little bit and just be aware of what we need to do better.”
Wilson knows no one is going to feel sorry for the Jayhawks. He thinks the rest of the league is probably pleased to see their slump. Saturday's Kentucky game presents Wilson and his teammates with another formidable opponent, again away from home, despite the issues the Wildcats have encountered this season.
Kentucky beat a Tennessee team that topped Kansas earlier this season. Kentucky has a record at home in Lexington that rivals Kansas’ success in Lawrence. And last season, the Wildcats routed the Jayhawks.
“Get back to work, that’s all you can do,” said redshirt senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr., who had a double-double against Baylor. “Short-term memory, that’s what coach Self is preaching to us. Short-term memory. Learn from it, have a great week of preparation and go out there and compete.”
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: Bill Self isn't sounding any alarms after Kansas basketball's loss
