Jayhawks have been ‘hard to watch’ of late, Self concedes, after 80-61 loss to Vols
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self may wait a good, long while before reviewing the tape of the Jayhawks’ 80-61 blowout loss to Tennessee on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
“I may not even watch this one,” Self said of an eyesore of a game contested just two days after a somewhat ugly, yet certainly welcome 59-51 KU victory over TCU at Allen Fieldhouse.
“The last two games … it’s been hard to watch offensively. Against TCU we hang 18 and tonight we hung 26 at halftime. That’s not a way to start a basketball game,” added Self, whose Jayhawks trailed TCU 19-18 at halftime on Thursday and Tennessee 40-26 on Saturday. That TCU game, by the way, snapped KU’s three-game losing streak and pushed the Jayhawks to 5-4 in conference play.
On Saturday, Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun combined to hit 1 of 13 three-pointers against the No. 18-ranked Vols, who improved to 12-3 overall. As a team, the No. 15-ranked Jayhawks (11-6) cashed 1 of 12 threes the first half in digging a 16-point hole early.
“We wanted to win tonight without question,” Self said of the game in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
“Like I told our team before we came down here: ‘Let’s play with freedom, play with a free mind and let it fly then we’ll play on Tuesday and be at our best then (at home against Kansas State in resumption of Big 12 season).
“I guess when I said ‘let it fly,’ I meant to ‘let it fly and make a few of them.’ That certainly wasn’t the case,” Self added.
Self on Saturday tinkered with the lineup a bit. He went with Dajuan Harris over regular starter Jalen Wilson because he felt the Jayhawks, who stumbled to a 3-5 record in the month of January, needed “some life, some zest, some energy.”
Instead, Harris picked up two quick fouls and Tennessee rolled to early leads of 17-8 (at 11:09) and 21-10 (9:10). By halftime, KU had made 7 of 26 shots overall and trailed by 14.
The Jayhawks never clicked offensively, hitting 37.7% of their shots overall while bricking 18 of 24 threes.
Power forward David McCormack scored 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting and Marcus Garrett 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting for Kansas. The rest of the players were a combined 8 of 34. Agbaji went 1 of 9 from three, Braun 0 of 4 and Wilson 2 of 5. Self conceded at this point some of the shooting woes may be result of lack of confidence.
“Maybe have an outside person come visit us, maybe (do that),” Self said, asked how he can bring back the swagger of the Jayhawks on offense. “I’ve never been big on that ... maybe let them get with some people that are experts and that kind of stuff.”
Self was displeased with KU’s defense. Tennessee hit 8 of 13 threes and 52.8% of its shots overall. Torrid shooting helped the Vols cruise to a 25-point lead midway through the final half.
“I am pretty frustrated,” Self said after his team was torched by four players who scored in double figures (Yves Pons, 17 points; Jason Springer 13; John Fulkerson and Victor Bailey 11 apiece). Josiah-Jordan James grabbed 11 rebounds and scored nine points.
“I think we’ve had some pretty good defensive teams in the last 18 years. I can’t remember a defensive team that was so giving as far as allowing people to basically execute what they want to do as opposed to us kind of taking them out of what they want to do.
“We haven’t done that in quite some time. We are not giving up on that by any stretch,” Self added, “but we are not near as aggressive or near as athletic on the perimeter as what we have been in the past.”
The Jayhawks, who had hoped to build on Thursday’s home win against TCU, instead returned to Lawrence with a fourth loss in the last five games.
“I think there’s definitely frustration. It’s to be expected,” KU’s McCormack said. “The atmosphere is to get better. We’ll take what we can from this game and again use it to get better. There’s a lot of things we can learn defensively, offensively what we can do to change our game.”
What’s the solution heading into the K-State game Tuesday, which is set to tip at 7 p.m., and be shown live on Big 12 Now at ESPN+.
“Coach was talking about a lot of intangible things,” McCormack said. “Just kind of go into the game having better energy, getting off to a better start. All these things can get the ball rolling earlier in the game for us.”
What is KU missing at the start of games during its recent slump?
“We are in the process of figuring that out, honestly,” McCormack said.
The Jayhawks suffered the second-biggest blowout of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, which the SEC won 5-4. The Texas-Kentucky game was called off because of COVID-19 protocols.
KU lost by 19 points, while Iowa State fell by 39 to Mississippi State. The only other double-digit outcome was Baylor’s 12-point victory over Auburn. Also, Texas A&M beat Kansas State 68-61; Oklahoma beat Alabama 66-61; Texas Tech stopped LSU 76-71; Florida defeated West Virginia 85-80; Missouri topped TCU 102-98 i overtime; and Oklahoma State beat Arkansas 81-77.
The Big 12 is now 4-2-2 all-time against the SEC in the eight years of the event. The Big 12 teams have 44 overall wins against 35 defeats.
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Jayhawks have been ‘hard to watch’ of late, Self concedes, after 80-61 loss to Vols."
