Kansas women’s basketball continues to thrive at home, but needs to sustain it on the road

LAWRENCE — What Kansas women’s basketball accomplished Wednesday has become an expectation of sorts in recent seasons under head coach Brandon Schneider.

The Jayhawks protected home court in a 60-58 win against Iowa State to improve to 8-1 in Lawrence this season. That record inside Allen Fieldhouse, while unfinished, follows a 19-3 one last season and a 12-4 one the season before that. Kansas has been difficult to beat at home and it doesn’t appear that’s set to change any time soon.

But as the Jayhawks (10-9, 3-5 in Big 12) look to embark on a turnaround during Big 12 Conference play, and make a better case to make the NCAA tournament, success in those endeavors will require more than an impressive record inside Allen Fieldhouse. It’ll require an ability to sustain that success to some degree on the road, where Kansas is 1-6 so far this season in away games and 1-2 in neutral-site games. And for Schneider the roadmap to that is clear: the Jayhawks will have to defend.

“I think that’s something that we’ve placed a lot of focus on in the last few days and going into this particular game, and discussions about — we’re going to get this thing going the right way,” Schneider said. “And that’s easy to say, but how do you go about doing it? And you do a better job defensively.”

The most direct example of what Schneider is talking about is clear, because Kansas lost its previous game against Iowa State (12-6, 6-2 in Big 12) this season when the two sides met at Iowa State. That game saw the Jayhawks lose 69-61 in early January. Offensively the result for Schneider’s side wasn’t all that different, but defensively allowing 11 more points in the first meeting certainly had its ill effects.

To date, Kansas is scoring an average of 72.1 points per game at home and allowing 59.1 points per game. To date, Kansas is scoring an average of 64.3 points per game in neutral-site and away games and allowing 70.3 points per game. That means the Jayhawks are averaging 13 more points per game than their opponents inside Allen Fieldhouse and six less points per game than them anywhere else.

Overall, Kansas’ schedule in neutral-site and away games has been tougher than what it’s faced at home. Just look at some of the matchups in non-conference play, and how the Jayhawks faced Nebraska at home and won but elsewhere faced Penn State (away, loss), now-No. 19 Virginia Tech (neutral, loss), now-No. 8 UConn (neutral, loss) and Texas A&M (away, loss). But the Jayhawks also sought out a more challenging schedule.

“I just think just going on the road and just being us,” super-senior guard Zakiyah Franklin said postgame Wednesday, as she provided her own perspective on what it’ll take. “We’ve talked about how there’s really no difference in what we do inside of Allen to on the road. Like, we’ve sat and had a lot of talks as a team, and I think just going on the road just performing how we performed tonight — I think we can get the job done every night.”

Freshman guard S’Mya Nichols added: “She got it.”

Kansas won’t have to wait long to test its progress. The Jayhawks next play Saturday on the road against an Oklahoma (12-6, 6-1 in Big 12) team that’s in contention for the Big 12 regular season crown. A win this weekend could do more than just give Kansas a second-straight win, given how the schedule appears to ease up a bit from there.

Regardless, there isn’t reason for Schneider and company to panic just yet. Capture the right amount of momentum as the regular season wraps up and the Jayhawks could even be a favorite to win the Big 12 tournament this year. And if there are any close games, Wednesday was another indication Kansas has what it takes to execute in them.

“When you play in this league, especially in the close games, it’s one shot here or there, a missed free throw here or there,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said Wednesday postgame. “We have a layup to go ahead, we miss it. A funny bounce here and there, a call here and there, I mean it’s just — that’s the nature of Big 12 basketball and tonight KU made the plays that we couldn’t make.”

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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 women’s basketball needs to sustain its quality play on road