Well, that was, wow.
Full disclosure: I didn’t make it to Waco today because of a prior commitment. I was able to watch the first half but had to go at halftime.
At the time I left, I thought, all in all, KU had played one of its better halves of the year and looked to be in great shape for a solid road win.
Boy, was that jumping the gun.
The Jayhawks did play a solid first half. But the second half not only undid it, it actually started cutting into any and all of the good the Jayhawks did in the first 20 minutes. And, maybe, in the first 20 games of the season.
From up 19 at halftime to losing by 11 in an 81-70 setback? That’s a difference of 30 points in the second half, and that’s only the start of it.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Baylor became the first team EVER to trail by 20+ in a game and win it by double-digits. The Jayhawks led by 21 late in the first half, 38-17, with 1:28 to play.
What’s more, KU surrendered 60 points — SIXTY!!! — to a Baylor team that scored just 21 in the first half.
Both teams made six 3-pointers and both teams had about the same number of field goal attempts (58 for BU and 57 for Kansas). Where the game got squirrelly, was Baylor dominating the boards 40-27 overall and 11-5 on the offensive glass, and the Bears’ ability to capitalize on KU’s turnovers. Baylor scored 24 points off of 14 KU turnovers — 7 in the first half and 7 more in the second.
Kansas, meanwhile, scored just 11 points off of 17 Baylor turnovers.
The Jayhawks led 40-21 at the break and had every reason in the world to go into the locker room feeling good about where they were at.
The reality of it was, though, Kansas maybe should’ve been up by more than 19 after the way Baylor played. And, beyond that, it seemed that all the Jayhawks had to do to break Baylor’s will was show up with great energy to start the second half.
Instead, a season-long issue that has plagued the Jayhawks reared its head again, and it was Scott Drew’s team that opened the second half hungry and ready to compete.
It worked. And KU’s opportunity to take a nice step forward and build a little momentum heading into what could’ve been an important Monday night game disappeared completely and left the Jayhawks (15-6 overall, 6-4 Big 12) facing the very real possibility of dropping three of four during the middle of the Big 12 season, including two of those at home.
Oh, and don’t look now, but a road rematch with K-State is the next game after Monday night on Saturday, Feb. 8.
Speaking of K-State, 3rd-ranked Iowa State lost at home by 19 to the Wildcats on Saturday.
ISU will have to come into Allen Fieldhouse and win to send Kansas into an even deeper depression. But given that the Cyclones (17-4, 7-3) already defeated the Jayhawks in Ames on Jan. 15 and are now facing a KU team trying to get past its latest disappointment, the three-losses-in-four-games scenario for Kansas certainly appears possible.
Tipoff for KU-Iowa State slated for 8 p.m. on ESPN.
Here’s an oh-so-brief look back at some of Saturday’s action against Baylor.
LIKES
• Flory still the starter? – We forgot to ask Self the other day how he was going to handle his starting five with KJ Adams back in the mix, but he went with freshman big man Flory Bidunga in this one and brought Adams off the bench. I liked the move. Bidunga did start the second half with the same fivesome that started the game. But Adams went in for him at the 18:13 mark after a quick 7-0 Baylor run to open the half, and the freshman big man played just a few more minutes the rest of the half and only 15 for the game. Adams, meanwhile, played 16 second-half minutes and 31 total in his second game back from injury. It’ll be interesting to see what Self does on Monday night with Adams and Bidunga. If KU had won this one, it would’ve been easy to see him going back to KJ. But now that they lost, in pretty brutal fashion, who knows what he’ll do. Probably not even him at this point.
• Dajuan’s back – The Kansas point guard returned to the lineup after missing Tuesday’s win over UCF with an ankle injury. Harris was able to practice in the days leading up to Saturday’s game and, while he wasn’t quite at 100% by tipoff, he was able to go. He didn’t always go great, though. And that was particularly evident in the second half, when BU freshman Rob Wright III went for 20 of his game-high 24 points. Harris wasn’t the only one who struggled to stop him, but he certainly found it tough at times. Overall, Harris played a team-high 33 minutes in the loss, finishing 4-of-9 from the floor and 0-for-3 from 3-point range, with 3 missed free throws and 3 turnovers.
• Key 5 minutes set the early tone – The Jayhawks led 40-21 at the break, so, obviously, things went well for much of the first half. But it was really about a 5-minute stretch that set the tone for the first half and allowed Kansas to take control. After a feeling out process by both teams, with BU leading 9-8 at the 14:08 mark of the first half, the Jayhawks ripped off an 18-1 run to take a 26-10 lead at the 9:14 mark. The teams played nearly even the rest of the half, but that 17-point run gave Kansas a ton of confidence and put the Bears in a bit of a scramble. Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, that scramble led to Baylor ripping off runs of 21-6 and 17-0 in the second half alone, therein totally erasing the boost KU got from its first-half run.
DISLIKES
• 2nd-half rotation – KU basically played just 6 guys in the second half, with Shak Moore (2), AJ Storr (2) and Flory Bidunga (4) combining to play just 8 minutes in the second half for the Jayhawks. That left Zeke Mayo and Dajuan Harris Jr. playing 19 of the 20 minutes and Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams to play 16 apiece. David Coit and Rylan Griffen played 12 and 11, respectively, to round out KU’s second-half usage. This came in stark contrast to what Self and company did in the first half, when eight guys played 8 minutes or more and no one played more than 15 by himself.
• KU on the glass – The Jayhawks had just one offensive rebound in the first half and yet still led by 19, perhaps masking a slight lack of aggression. When Baylor came out of the locker room with fire and determined to get back into the game, the Jayhawks’ effort on the glass quickly became a real problem. Baylor’s first points of the second half came off of second-chance points, and Kansas was out-rebounded 22-13 in the second half en route to a 40-27 deficit for the game. Defense and the glass — both ends — are the two most obvious areas to see where and how a team competes. And KU got beat in both areas on Saturday, including being beat badly in the second half.
• Shak Moore fading? – Remember when Moore was inserted into the starting lineup and everyone talked about how that was the missing ingredient for this Kansas team? He brought toughness, a defensive presence and was a sparkplug of sorts for the Jayhawks. If the last two games are any indication of where he’s at, though, he might be going backwards. On Saturday, Moore started but played just 10 minutes and didn’t score. He also didn’t pick up any assists or steals. Moore was also scoreless in the Jayhawks’ recent win over UCF and played just 12 minutes in that one. Injuries could be an issue here, but if he's good enough to start, he should be expected to be good enough to produce more than he has of late.
• What gives with Griffen? – I really think we’re at the point where, if KU wing Rylan Griffen could play anything resembling consistent defense, Self would put him out there for 30+ minutes a game every night. He’s just not doing it, though. Griffen is such a weapon on offense and can get red hot in a hurry. When that happens, he’s capable of winning games almost by himself. But he was limited to 23 minutes on Saturday, presumably because of his on-again/off-again defensive effort and intensity, and he now has played more than 30 minutes just three times all season. It’s not an AJ Storr epidemic we’re dealing with here. But, boy, it sure seems that if KU could give Griffen more minutes it certainly would. That all comes down to his ability to guard and give great effort. Nothing more.
WHAT THE?
• A real head scratcher – The Jayhawks have lost their share of tough games this season, but none were quite like this. Creighton and Missouri came out on fire and just played harder, building big leads early and never letting Kansas get on track from there. The Iowa State loss was at the No. 2 team in the country on the road and came down to execution when it counted. That was more or less the same thing with the home loss to West Virginia. And then the Houston loss was a collapse in the final 20 seconds. All of those, maybe with the exception of the WVU loss in the Big 12 opener, at least had reasons behind them. This one, though, was just a collapse. As Self said after the loss, Baylor was as good, plus some, in the second half as KU was in the first half; and KU was as bad in the second half, plus some, as Baylor was in the first half. That sums it up pretty well, but it doesn’t do anything to take the sting away. The Jayhawks had this game in hand at halftime and should’ve been able to cruise to victory. Even after Baylor made its run early in the second half to get back into it, the Jayhawks still led by as much as 8, with the ball, with 6:20 to play in the game. And they couldn’t finish. They’ll move on because they have to. But this was a rarity. We just haven’t seen KU teams — no matter who was on them — blow these types of games in this manner over the years.
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