Moments That Popped: No. 1 KU 86, Furman 51

It was a battle of unbeatens at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday and one of the two left beat up.

After a bit of a battle for the first 12-15 minutes, No. 1 Kansas flipped the switch and rolled over Furman, 86-51, to stay perfect on the season.

KJ Adams led the Jayhawks with 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting — which tied a career-high — and he also added 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

Meanwhile, KU guards Dajuan Harris Jr. and Zeke Mayo combined for 14 assists and just 2 turnovers, while the Jayhawks emptied their bench

Next up, KU (7-0) will hit the road for back-to-back games away from home next week. Both big ones, too – Wednesday at Creighton and next Sunday (Dec. 8) at Missouri.

Here’s a look back at some of Saturday’s action against Furman.

LIKES

• Confidence cultivated – You all surely remember Flory Bidunga’s clutch play in last Tuesday’s win over No. 11 Duke, when he filled in for an ejected Hunter Dickinson and helped lead KU to the big blue blood win. There was already plenty to like about Flory’s game and potential. But that game showed a ton. And I think this coaching staff and team are looking forward to expediting his development now that he’s got some confidence to build upon. Case in point, on the first two offensive possessions after Bidunga checked in early in the first half, the Jayhawks made sure to give him a touch in the low block area. He was fouled on a take to the basket after one of them and scored on the next. The freshman big man played

• KJ on the glass – It was a big scoring night for the KU senior, who picked up right where he left off in dominating the game against Duke by putting up even bigger numbers in this one. But one of the more notable parts of his night came on the glass, where he finished with 6 boards, including 3 offensive and 5 in the first half alone. Adams doubled his season average (3.2) and, if you can believe it, looked even more comfortable and confident out there on the floor on both ends of the court. He’s in a zone right now, and I think we’re still just seeing the beginning of it.

DISLIKES

• Leaving 3-point shooters 1st half – Furman opened the game on fire from 3-point range, knocking down 4 of its first 7 3-point attempts while hanging with the Jayhawks for the majority of the first half. Some of the makes were tough shots over an out-stretched hand. But a couple were wide open shots after the Kansas defense broke down late in the shot clock. KU coach Bill Self was clearly frustrated by the open looks but the Jayhawks figured out a way to fix it, limiting Furman to just 3 makes in their next 18 attempts and only 5 more for the game. Furman finished 9-of-38 on the night from 3-point range.

• Shot selection – If you spend any time during a game watching Bill Self on the bench, one of the most common things you’re going to see is him rubbing his head, wincing in pain and telling his guys, with the two-handed chest pass gesture, that they should’ve just moved the ball instead of forcing the shot. There were a handful of those moments in the first 10-12 minutes of this game, and a couple of them came after positive plays by the player who took the jumper. One was by Zeke Mayo after a jump steal following a KU miss. Rather than setting it back up, he got stuck and forced a fade-away that missed. KJ Adams took another — a free throw line jumper early in the shot clock — and Rylen Griffen had another moment where he was a little sped up and forced a shot that could’ve been passed up. All three guys more than made up for the early miscues, especially Adams who was a monster.

WHAT THE?

• Dickinson’s back-to-back turnovers in about 12 seconds – Neither did much to hurt the Jayhawks in the game, but the first one left a stunned look on KU coach Bill Self’s face on the bench. It was the definition of a “What the?” look. It turns out, the KU big man was passing to Rylan Griffen who was walking to the scorer's table getting set to check in. After Dickinson caught a pass on the right block, he turned away from the defense and then back to the paint to fire a pass. It looked like it was going to be perfect timing to a cutting KJ Adams who was all alone in the lane. But Dickinson had other ideas. He fired a pass all the way to the scorer’s table, leaving everyone on the Kansas sideline in shock about what just happened. Dickinson walked to the other end with his head down — perhaps afraid to look up and see who was laughing — and then grabbed a rebound on a Furman miss on the next possession, but turned it over with a misstep on his outlet pass.