Bill Self expresses frustration after ‘beatdown’ by TCU. What bothered KU’s coach...
After winning four Big 12 Conference games by four points or fewer and losing Tuesday’s contest at Kansas State by one point in overtime, Kansas men’s basketball experienced the second blowout of the league season on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
It wasn’t a runaway win like the the No. 2 Jayhawks’ 14-point victory over West Virginia on Jan. 7 in Morgantown, West Virginia.
It was a near-historic loss — an 83-60 setback to the No. 14-ranked TCU Horned Frogs.
“That was a beatdown,” KU coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks’ second-largest home defeat in the 20-year Self era. The Jayhawks lost to Texas by 25 points in Allen Fieldhouse on Jan 2, 2021.
According to KU records, Saturday’s result is believed to be KU’s fifth-largest defeat in Allen Fieldhouse history. KU lost to Texas by 25 and Missouri by 25 on Feb. 1, 1989. KU also fell to Iowa State by 24 points on March 10, 1973, and K-State by 24 on Feb. 22, 1964.
The building opened in 1955.
“Not right from the jump, (but) the way we guarded we gave them confidence early. They took that confidence and ran with it,” Self added after the Jayhawks fell to 5-2 in the Big 12 and 16-3 overall. TCU improved to 15-4, 4-3.
Self knows exactly what went wrong on Saturday.
“We can talk about the bench. That’s not the problem,” Self said after TCU outscored KU’s reserves 39-5. (Walk-on Michael Jankovich hit a three in the final minute to technically give the Jayhawks eight bench points.)
“The problem is guys playing the majority of minutes didn’t do anything, nor did we (coaches) get them to do anything to get the other team to play poorly. That’s where the issue lies. We’ve got to clean that up,” Self added.
Of the rotation players, Self said: “I’m worried about them guarding somebody more than scoring. If you worry about the right things you score more points. The right thing with those guys is we need to lock in and get stops. Understand that this guy goes right, this guy goes left. Understand on an out-of-bounds play they are going to dive the guy from the weak side all the time.
“There are a lot of simple things we didn’t do today that ... put us in a situation (where) we had to play too good on a day that we weren’t that good. We put ourselves in a hole,” Self added of falling behind 22 points after 11 minutes.
“There have been a lot of games we’ve had in this building like that. Somehow or another we make the other team shoot a low percentage the second half, climb our way back in, can’t make a shot, but we’ll get a second or third opportunity and knock down that three. We just didn’t have any of that today.”
Of the rotation players, Self said: “Scouting report is a big deal with a couple of our guys. That’s disappointing to me. In the first half, Jalen carried us on offense and Juan (Harris) did a great job defensively. Other than that I didn’t recognize too many individuals doing a lot on either end.”
KU did cut the 22-point deficit to 10 points (48-38) at halftime, but the Horned Frogs never wavered, running away from KU 35-22 in the final 20 minutes.
“I thought it got a little bit like we were playing like we had a 10-point play in our back pocket as opposed to just trying to win that possession. That happens a lot when you get behind like that,” Self said.
Shahada Wells hit three threes and scored 17 points off the bench for TCU, while Mike Miles had 15 points and Damion Baugh 11. Jalen Wilson scored 30 points for KU on 11-of-21 shooting.
Asked what TCU did so well, Self said: “The way they chew gum. The way they tied their shoes. Everything they did was perfect today. They played great. They are so fast. They are so athletic off the bench. Their bench was unbelievable. We actually got a ton of good looks in the first half.
“We missed a lot of layups, didn’t finish some plays. Gradey (Dick, eight points, 3-of-13 shooting) got some looks, didn’t knock them down. Over the course of time, you have to be able to defend somebody and stop somebody and we never defended them today.”
Wilson, who grabbed seven boards on a day KU was outrebounded 36-30, said the defense must improve.
“We’ve got to take pride in guarding, getting stops. Teams are way too comfortable against us,” Wilson said. “Today they got anything they wanted to get.”
The Horned Frogs accomplished a great feat Saturday in winning their first-ever game in Allen against 10 losses.
Fans started filing out of the building as early as the 5:47 mark with TCU up by 21. Many more departed during a timeout with 2:56 to play and TCU up 25.
“We did,” said TCU guard Miles, asked if the Frogs saw the fans departing. “We noticed it. We had to keep playing. A good team like that they can come back at any time. But when we saw the fans leave, we knew we had the game..”
KU will next meet Baylor at 8 p.m. Monday at Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.
Self said the team entering this Baylor game must realize “fresh minds and bodies are probably more important now than a lot of things. There has to be a mindset. Last year we struggled with it. This is not last year’s team by any stretch. Last year’s team had a couple alpha dogs. We certainly have got one this year in ‘J-Will’, no doubt about that.
“Last year’s team was experienced enough they understood ... (concepts like): ‘In this situation, this is how they (opponents) play high/low. This is where they catch it. We’ve got to deny this. We can’t let them catch in their spot.’ ... We haven’t quite got there yet. There are some things we can do to tighten some things up to put us in position to play better Monday.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2023 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Bill Self expresses frustration after ‘beatdown’ by TCU. What bothered KU’s coach...."
