Waco, Texas — Whenever a team is suffering through a losing streak like the 9th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks currently are, people tend to look everywhere for answers.
From the players and coaches to stats and trends, every aspect of the game is under the microscope.
While Kansas coach Bill Self and his assistants are doing their share of dissecting the Jayhawks’ issues right now, they’re also doing what they can to remember to breathe during the process.
Self summed up that idea with a pretty pointed bit of perspective after Monday’s 75-69 loss at Baylor, which dropped the Jayhawks to 16-4 overall and 5-3 in conference play after a 5-0 start.
The three-game losing streak is just the fourth such streak for the Jayhawks in Self’s 20 seasons. KU has never lost four in a row under Self. The last time that happened came during the 1988-89 season — Roy Williams’ first — when KU lost eight in a row.
“There is time to be reactive in a negative way if your team’s not doing well,” Self said. “This is not one of our times. We have gotten beat. And, granted, we got beat (by) a team that was projected to win the league tonight (Baylor) that’s really good and they went through the same crap we’re going through right now.”
The Bears (15-5, 5-3) responded to their own three-game Big 12 losing skid by winning five in a row, including Monday’s win over the Jayhawks.
Self continued: “We got beat by a team that’s 5th in the country (Kansas State) at their place by one, and we got beat at home (by a team in TCU) that could’ve beat anybody in the country Saturday. So, our league is that good. It’s going to be a grind. 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 have in years past and that’s OK. (When) you don’t have as much margin for error and the other teams in the league are a lot better, it makes it tough.”
It also makes it borderline inevitable, Self believes, for every team in the league to go through something similar to what the Bears and Jayhawks already have.
Half of the teams in the Big 12 already have suffered a losing streak of at least three games during conference play, with KU, Baylor and Oklahoma State all hitting three losses in a row, West Virginia topping out at five losses in a row and Texas Tech still looking for its first Big 12 win at 0-7 in conference play.
Two others — TCU and Oklahoma — have lost back-to-back games, leaving Kansas State, Iowa State and Texas as the only Big 12 teams to avoid back-to-back losses so far this season.
“There’s just not games that you can look to (and say) we can get well here,” Self said of life in the Big 12. “I mean, there’s none of those games.”
Because of that, Self said he believes he needs to take “a different approach” to coaching this team the rest of the season.
“It’s a marathon,” he said Monday night. “It’s not an immediate reaction (thing). Because you can react immediately in this league and you’ll have nine other teams go through the exact same thing at some point in time during the season.”
Self said recently that he thought the team that avoided losing back-to-back games in Big 12 play this season would have a great chance of finishing as the regular season champ. That prognostication is looking better and better by the day. It also remains to be seen whether K-State, Iowa State or Texas can actually pull that off.
Analytics guru Ken Pomeroy has his doubts.
Factoring in Monday’s win by Baylor, KenPom.com’s predictive metrics have the Big 12 ending in a four-way tie for first place, with K-State, Texas, Iowa State and Kansas all finishing with an 11-7 record in Big 12 play.
The prediction also has Baylor and TCU lurking just one game back at 10-8.
With that kind of potential logjam a very real possibility, the Jayhawks were happy to leave Waco, licking their wounds but looking forward.
“We knew tonight was going to be a tough game,” KU forward Jalen Wilson said after Monday’s loss. “It’s always a tough game in Waco, no matter what’s going on. Right now, we just need to focus on what’s next. … We’re fortunate enough to have some time before Kentucky.”
The latest blue blood battle is up next on KU’s schedule — 7 p.m. Saturday in Lexington on ESPN.
While it certainly does not figure to be easy for the Jayhawks to get right against a team with as much talent as John Calipari’s Wildcats, the mere fact that Self’s squad is stepping away from the grind that has become Big 12 basketball for a few days might actually prove to be good for the soul.
“It is difficult when you’re playing in a league like this and there’s no gimme games,” KU freshman Gradey Dick said after the loss to Baylor. “But we’re going to get back home and figure this out and get back to it.”
