Figuring out its road issues will have to wait as the Kansas men’s basketball team comes home to host Baylor on Saturday.
As is often the case, the Jayhawks have looked their best this year at Allen Fieldhouse, most recently when they dominated then-No. 4 Houston last weekend in a 78-65 victory as it seemed like practically everything went right.
Then the home-road disparities were laid bare as KU went on the road and lost to its previously reeling rival Kansas State 75-70 in overtime at Bramlage Coliseum.
Road struggles are not unique to KU, as most of the Big 12 Conference has struggled away from home, but either way it’s back to the drawing board for this year’s up-and-down Jayhawks, who are running out of time to string together a winning streak and stake their claim for the league title.
“Games like K-State and any loss here, you don’t want to weigh on it too long because you got quick turnarounds,” center Parker Braun said, “and you’re going to be in front of TV in front of thousands of fans in a couple days, so you can’t weigh on it too much.”
The Jayhawks sit at 6-4 in the extremely muddled conference race, and so as they keep finding themselves playing from behind in the standings, they would do well to knock off the Bears, who are nearby at 6-3, in Saturday’s matchup. The game will be featured on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which could bolster the fan enthusiasm for a second straight week.
“I would think GameDay would certainly add something to it, without question,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I know we’ll be jacked, and, I’m sure, I know they’ll be jacked too.”
Baylor is ranked No. 13 in the nation and just won 79-73 on Tuesday at home against 23rd-ranked Texas Tech.
It’s not exactly the 2020-21 national championship squad (and KU beat that team in Allen Fieldhouse anyway), but Baylor has a strong roster as always under Scott Drew. The Bears’ three conference losses — all in a row, at Kansas State, at Texas and at home against TCU in triple overtime — were by a combined nine points. They beat Iowa State last weekend in their brand new home arena, Foster Pavilion.
Much of the credit goes to a balanced offense with six players averaging at least nine points per game. Ja’Kobe Walter, the preseason Big 12 freshman of the year, announced himself with 28 points in his collegiate debut, a win over Auburn, and despite a few quiet games continues to lead the Bears with 14.2 points per game. Fellow guard RayJ Dennis, a veteran Toledo transfer who Self said “can get where he wants to go, he can post, he can back guys down, he’s got great vision,” is close behind at 13.8 on an efficient 50% shooting — not quite as efficient, though, as another star freshman in center Yves Missi (10.5 points on 64% shooting, plus a team-high 5.8 rebounds), who recently exploded for 25 against TCU.
Jayden Nunn, formerly of VCU, is the third option at guard and hit the game-winner against ISU, and forward Jalen Bridges is back for a second season in Waco. Fellow returnee Langston Love is the third-leading scorer as the first man off the bench.
“They got a terrific cast of players,” Self said. “They’ve done a great job in that regard, recruiting and developing.”
It’s a roster loaded with offensive talent that shoots 49% as a team — one of the best marks in the nation but still a couple points below KU’s 51% — and a league-best 40% from deep.
“We’ve kind of struggled with the 3-point line a little bit in some of the recent games,” Braun said Thursday, “so it’ll definitely be one of the points of emphasis on the next couple days going into it, running them off the line and then building a wall behind them, kind of taking away some of their strengths.”
Defensively, the Bears aren’t quite as distinguished, with middling numbers in blocks, steals and turnovers forced. They also are vulnerable on the glass as they grab just 23.5 defensive rebounds per game, worst in the conference.
It’s a late first meeting for Baylor and Kansas, who play again in Waco on March 2.
No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks (18-5, 6-4 Big 12) vs. No. 13 Baylor Bears (17-5, 6-3 Big 12)
• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 5 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)
Keep an eye out
The first bounce-back: Johnny Furphy had his first noticeably poor game since entering KU’s starting lineup a week into conference play; Self said he was “kind of due one of these.” Against Kansas State, he went 2-for-7 from the field and 0-for-4 from deep with just four points and four rebounds. He also gave up Arthur Kaluma’s offensive rebound on an airball by Cam Carter that led to Kansas State’s go-ahead putback late in regulation. But his struggles were most noticeable on the offensive end as the Wildcats blanketed him more than any team has all year. As Self put it, “People will get a book on everybody, and with all the success that he’s had, obviously his book’s grown.”
And when Furphy did get the open looks he had reliably drained, his touch was off Monday.
“Shooters are going to struggle some games and I think he just had that today,” point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. said, while center Hunter Dickinson added that K-State closed out quicker on Furphy than most other opponents, and that KU needs to figure out how to best exploit his talents beyond spot-up shooting. Baylor represents the next chance for Furphy and his teammates to respond now that opponents are viewing him as a significant threat.
The stat has fallen: Monday was just the second time in Harris’ career that KU lost a game in which he scored double-digit points. That may not stop pundits from citing the still-striking mark (now 30-2). But it helps stress further that the Jayhawks let a strong offensive showing — 15 points, eight assists to three turnovers — by its point guard fall by the wayside. Self has repeatedly stressed that Harris is not built to play insanely high numbers of minutes, but he stayed on track Monday even as he stayed on the court for 43.
Another manic Monday: On that note, both Harris and Dickinson denied that fatigue played a role in the Jayhawks’ defeat. Harris said, “I played the whole game last year, so there’s no excuses,” referencing KU’s last overtime visit to Manhattan, while Dickinson said simply, “No.” Self had his players take both Tuesday and Wednesday off after this last Saturday/Monday turnaround, as opposed to just one day off like they might have had in the past. KU played with energy, though lost, the last time it came back after a Saturday/Monday stretch (its Iowa State game). Now it faces more of those post-rest games in a row — first this weekend against Baylor, then next weekend in Oklahoma following its road game Monday at Texas Tech. The coaches and players will be charged with figuring out the best way to approach these repeated stressful stretches.
Off-kilter observation
Though a native of Cameroon, Baylor forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua is a graduate of the same Australian Centre of Excellence program that produced Furphy.
