Losses tend to expose all kinds of weaknesses and quickly send the focus of both the team and the fan base to what is not going right as opposed to what is.
> “We’re not a good execution team,” KU
> coach Bill Self said after the loss.
> “When we’re playing well, we’re a good
> playing team, but we haven’t scored
> all year on plays. We had some plays
> that we tried to do, but our
> execution’s so bad. We got the ball
> where it needed to go, for the most
> part. I just thought our defense was
> horrendous and our hustle plays
> weren’t very good either.”
While those reality-check moments can often be a good thing in the eyes of the coaching staff, one national college basketball writer believes that Wednesday’s loss to Washington was anything but good for Kansas.
Gary Parrish, of CBS Sports, on Friday [released the latest version of his Top 25 (and one) rankings][1] which he tracks throughout the season. And KU’s newest spot was more than a little shocking.
After entering Wednesday as a 22-point favorite and ending the day on the wrong end of a nine-point loss to unranked and unheralded Washington, Parrish dropped the Jayhawks from No. 2 in his rankings all the way down to No. 24.
While that free fall is eye-opening enough, here’s the best part: Five Big 12 teams — count ’em FIVE — are ranked ahead of KU, according to Parrish, with West Virginia (9), TCU (13), Baylor (17), Texas (19) and Texas Tech (21) all surfacing before the picture of the Jayhawk.
Here’s what Parrish had to say in the rankings about dropping the Jayhawks 22 spots.
> “The Jayhawks were 21.5-point
> favorites when they lost to Washington
> late Wednesday. Devonte’ Graham missed
> seven of the eight shots he took.”
There’s not a lot there that explains the massive drop, but it’s clear that Parrish is punishing Kansas for laying an egg and may believe the Jayhawks are only as good as Graham.
Somewhat expectedly, Parrish fielded more than a few questions in the comment section and on Twitter about his treatment of the Jayhawks.
Only then did we gain a little more insight into why he dropped Bill Self’s squad 22 spots.
> “Lots of questions about Kansas at No.
> 24,” Parrish Tweeted. “Here’s the
> simple answer: No team I have ranked
> ahead of KU has a loss anywhere close
> to as bad as KU’s loss to Washington.
> And if I’m going punish other teams
> for crazy-bad losses, I felt like I
> had to do the same to the Jayhawks.”
Fair enough. And, really, none of it matters much now.
What will be interesting to see is what happens to Kansas in Parrish’s poll if the Jayhawks respond to the bad loss with a good win over No. 16 Arizona State (No. 12, according to Parrish) on Sunday. Or, on the other side of the coin, if he drops Kansas out of the Top 25 (and one) altogether if the Jayhawks lose to the Sun Devils.
Interesting stuff to kick around. But, again, Parrish’s point of view does not mean much for the Jayhawks in terms of the big picture of their quest to win a 14th straight Big 12 title and snag a high seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament three months from now.
Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, ESPN.com’s Joe Lundardi, Mr. Bracketology himself, penned a quick piece on Thursday called, [“Behind the Bracket: Why Kansas is still a No. 1 seed.”][2]
While calling KU’s loss to Washington “surprising” and saying that it maybe should have knocked the Jayhawks down to a No. 2 seed, Lunardi explained his reason for keeping them as a No. 1 seed by saying simply, “all (the loss to UW) did was drop the Jayhawks from No. 2 overall to No. 4. The reason is that a bevy of teams sitting just behind KU also went down, some in equally ignominious fashion.”
Lunardi continued:
> “Notre Dame? No thanks, lost at home
> to Ball State in a game the Irish were
> given a 93 percent chance to win.
> Florida? Double disaster, lost a pair
> at home to Florida State
> (semi-understandable) and Loyola
> Chicago, averaging 62.5 points in the
> process. Texas A&M, Virginia and
> Cincinnati were among other highly
> ranked unbeatens to suffer their first
> defeats. So Kansas lives to see
> another day on the top line. This is
> significant in large part because the
> Jayhawks have pretty much made it
> their permanent home for a staggering
> seven of the past 11 years. What
> happens next? Kansas will likely be
> favored in all but one of its
> remaining regular-season games (Jan.
> 15, at West Virginia). Even with
> Wednesday’s loss, the Jayhawks retain
> No. 1 seed odds of nearly 80 percent.
What happens next for Kansas in the more immediate future is an even tougher test at 1 p.m. Sunday against a red hot and unbeaten Arizona State team that has proven to be an offensive juggernaut so far.
That will put a lot of pressure on the KU defense to play better than it did on Wednesday night. But the Jayhawks, this time out, will have the advantage of playing at Allen Fieldhouse, where the home team often gets the help of a sixth defender that is 16,300 fans strong.
Fan support or not, Self is looking for his team to find another gear to help overcome some of its obvious flaws that may be fixed in time or may linger throughout the rest of the season.
> “We’re not extremely quick and we’re
> not very big,” he began. “Those are
> facts. That was evident (Wednesday
> night). So if you don’t play with that
> chip on your shoulder and play
> scrappier than your opponent, we’re
> going to have more nights like
> (Wednesday).”
[1]: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-rankings-no-13-in-top-25-and-1-tcu-faces-no-22-nevada/
[2]: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/21699134/behind-bracket-why-kansas-jayhawks-no-1-seed
