Not Great!
Whoops!
One of the tenets of this newsletter is to, when I can, try not to unfairly drift into narratives happening in other sports or other leagues. But, after Saturday’s at-times-brutal-to-watch loss to Baylor, I have to say… how about those CHIIIIIIIIEEEFFFSSS?
But yeah, Baylor. Damn. The Jayhawks offense that cooked the Cyclones grinded to a halt with a hobbled Devon Dotson—who made a heroic return, only to immediately show how limited his leg injury made him. KU’s defense could not, would not stop ducking under picks for Baylor guard Jared Butler, whose frighteningly uncontested shooting down the stretch doomed the Jayhawks’ hopes for a comeback. Part of coming back from behind involves scoring. I’ll get to that in a minute.
After a career’s worth of faceplanting against Kansas, Scott Drew outcoached Bill Self, quickly countering every adjustment KU made in the second half. (Not great!) So what happens now?
When it comes to the “sometimes losses are good!” talking point, I believe that it depends entirely on the team that’s doing the losing. Mid-conference season, is there time to enact meaningful change to our style, or are we looking at a Band-Aid situation? Will KU take a deep look at their shortcomings—the fact that they physically could not get the ball into the post being the chief offender here—and build something more sustainable?
As Baylor made even more apparent, in many games, playing both Doke and McCormack at the same time is a no-go on offense. While those two dominate the other end of the floor, there’s just not enough juice on offense when they’re both in there and the shots aren’t falling. This team is a defensive juggernaut, but that’s not the key to salvation in this particular college season—just ask Virginia, who has won one road game so far.
Eventually, Self needs to make a few big rotation decisions. While young players—Christian Braun being the most notable—have gotten a little more rope lately, KU hasn’t found their one killer lineup on offense. But they’re certainly experimenting with smaller line-ups, which is encouraging because small-ball and shooting is going to win KU some games down the road.
Tonight’s tilt is @ Oklahoma, against a team in the 70s in defensive efficiency. (Baylor is fifth, behind UVA, West Virginia, KU and Duke. Baylor is good). Can KU find a flow on offense? Tonight will be a good look at whether the Baylor beatdown at Allen helped snap something into focus, or if that game is the beginning of a more prolonged offensive spiral.
Back to football-related silver linings: At least we held Baylor football under 67.
