The 9th-ranked Kansas men’s basketball team, as it has been prone to do over the years, bounced back from a tough loss on Wednesday with a home win over none other than Kansas State on Saturday.
How often have the Wildcats found themselves in that position over the years?
A lot.
• PHOTO GALLERY FROM KU-K-STATE
And this time, they fell to Kansas 84-74 on a day that started with a 14-0 KU run and ended with the Jayhawks closing out the game with Zeke Mayo having the ball in his hands and either getting to the free throw line or getting KU into something good.
Mayo had another monster day for the Jayhawks, opening the game with three 3-pointers in the first 4 minutes and finishing with 22 points and four 3-point makes.
Hunter Dickinson also had a big day for the Jayhawks with 25 points and 8 rebounds in 34 minutes.
Kansas was never able to close the Wildcats out despite that hot start. But the Wildcats (7-10) also never really threatened to make the home team uncomfortable.
Next up, KU (13-4 overall, 4-2 Big 12) will travel to TCU on Wednesday night to take on the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, Texas.
Here’s a look back at some of Saturday’s action against K-State.
LIKES
• Bidunga’s debut – The KU big man got the start in place of injured KJ Adams and made an immediate impact, picking up an offensive rebound on KU’s first possession and following that up by dishing an assist to Zeke Mayo on the same possession to get the scoring started. One of the more underrated elements of the reason Bidunga got the nod to start over Rylan Griffen and AJ Storr was his ability to matchup with K-State big man Coleman Hawkins. Bidunga had some big moments after that one, but that certainly set the tone for his day. He finished with 6 points, 9 rebounds and a block in 25 minutes. Hawkins, meanwhile, finished with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists while playing all 40 minutes. Look for more on this soon.
• Jayhawks hit the glass – KU assistant coach Jeremy Case said before the game that rebounding would be a big key in this one. Consider the message having got through. On the Wildcats’ first five possessions of the game — all misses — KU’s defense went gangbusters to the defensive glass, wiping away any chance the Wildcats had of snagging a second-chance opportunity. The Jayhawks were so aggressive to the boards in the opening few minutes that they even knocked the ball away from each other on a couple of occasions. No harm, no foul, though. K-State didn’t score its first points until the 15:32 mark of the first half. For the game, KU out-rebounded the Wildcats 35-25, including a 23-13 clip in the first half.
• Dickinson’s response – It wasn’t a perfect game by the KU big man, but it also wasn’t one that would land him in the dog house either. After a sluggish night in the loss to Iowa State on Wednesday, Dickinson responded with much better effort, across the board, against the Wildcats on Saturday. He hustled after misses, got on the glass on both ends, tried to impact the game as both a scorer and passer and played a lot more turned up than he did the other night. The result? Not only did he help KU control the game, but he also finished with 25 points and 8 rebounds in 34 minutes. Also of note was the fact that he scored the first 10 points of the second half for Kansas. KU coach Bill Self said Dickinson's aggression was "as aggressive as he's looked in a long time."
• Bechard honored – KU volleyball coach Ray Bechard retired after 27 seasons in late-December and, on Saturday, he was honored with a special tribute during the first half. It featured a video with former players thanking him for his time at Kansas as well as an on-court introduction, with Bechard and his family — most notably his grandkids — taking their spot at center court to receive the ovation. His son, KU hoops staff member Brennan Bechard, was out there with him during the timeout, and, toward the end of the ovation, KU point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. was clapping for Bechard, as well. On his way off the court, Bechard stopped by the KU bench and got some love from Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, who hugged him and slapped him on the back as he went back to his seat. Earlier this week, KU announced that Oregon head coach Matt Ulmer had been hired as Bechard’s replacement.
DISLIKES
• Couldn’t close it out – Dajuan Harris Jr. and Hunter Dickin-son both said that they would’ve liked to see the Jayhawks close this one out with a little more oomph on Saturday. Dick-inson said a 10-point win was nice but that he felt like it should’ve been more. And Self said he thought the 14-0 start was great but that it also made the 10-point victory seem a lit-tle less than great. “We did some good things today; don’t get me wrong,” Self said. “But when you start out that good, you certainly want to finish better.”
• No turnovers – Kansas did a great job of taking care of the ball against the Wildcats, keeping itself to 10 turnovers for the game, but the Jayhawks’ defense didn’t do much to force K-State into any trouble. KU forced just 5 Kansas State turnovers, and one of the biggest factors in that number being so low was the absence of KJ Adams, who, as Self reiterated after the game, does a lot to cover up for mistakes by his teammates on the defensive end of the floor. In fact, Self went as far as to say that the first 10 minutes of the game were great — especially on offense — but that, for the next 30, “we missed KJ.”
• Shot selection iffy at times – This showed up in a big way after the 14-0 run to open the game and it may have been unfairly magnified because of that hot start. Still, there were a few possessions where KU’s offensive players jacked up quick shots or questionable shots, allowing the Wildcats to climb back into it on occasion. It never got too close or too scary, but KU certainly could’ve maintained a more comfortable lead throughout if it had eliminated those moments. Nit-picking a little here, though. KU shot 55% for the game and had a pretty damn good day on both ends.
WHAT THE?
• Zeke the freak – Forget about the 3-point makes. We know those are coming. What about Mayo’s ability to get the rim and be crafty as heck when he’s there. It’s not picture-perfect or always pretty, but it is often effective. One such moment came with around 6 minutes to play on Saturday. Mayo drive baseline along the right side and battled his way through a few bumps and moments of contact along the way, only to get all the way to the rim, go up on the right side with very little room to shoot and then find his way to the other side of the rim in the air while finishing with his left hand on a scoop shot from below his shoulders. All year, people have wanted to label him a shooter. And all year KU coach Bill Self has reminded people that he’s just a basketball player. That’s the latest example of that in a season that has been sensational from the start for the Lawrence native.
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