The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
A shockingly bad week of basketball from Kansas leads to questions of if they should be considered contenders.
I’ll admit it. I was wrong. It felt like the Creighton game was a confluence of events that led to a poor game from Kansas. Instead, Kansas followed up a disappointing loss with a game that began with another slow start against a Missouri team that is…not great, to say the least. Personally, I was hopeful that the loss to Creighton would serve as a motivator going into Sunday’s game. Instead, Missouri was in control from the opening tip, building a 24-point lead with 14:15 remaining. While the last 14:14 was somewhat encouraging in the sense that Kansas showed some fight and gave themselves a chance (it was only a two-point game with 2:20 left), they haven’t shown they have the capability to finish off a game when they let the opponent take an early lead.
There are certainly some question marks at this point, and the blame is split between the coaches and the players. Luckily, Kansas has a week break before a home game against NC State followed by another week off before their last non-conference game against Brown. There is quite a bit to figure out, but here are some of the areas I’ll be focused on over the next three weeks.
Will the real Zeke Mayo please stand up? Mayo was touted as Kansas’ best player over the summer by Bill Self in two separate national interviews. He’s currently second on the team in scoring (10.9 points per game), assists (3.3 per game), and third in rebounding (3.9 per game). At the same time, something is off. Mayo came home to Lawrence to leave a legacy, but he hasn’t been able to replicate his offensive success he had at South Dakota St. If you’ve watched any of the recent games (including Duke despite the floater that ended up being the game-winner), Mayo has been frustratingly reluctant to take open and easy shots. This was punctuated by his decision to pass out of an open 3 for a Hunter Dickinson 3-point look with a nine-point deficit with 1:10 remaining. In almost any situation, Mayo is the preferred shooter. In that specific situation, Mayo is the Jayhawk most fans would want to take that shot.
What adds to this frustration is he gets good looks. He’s missing floaters, pump-faking two times when he has an open look at the first, and overdribbling when he drives into the paint. It feels like he’s overthinking in order to not upset Self, but that’s not what Kansas needs from Mayo on this team. They need him to be able and willing to get buckets on a consistent basis. Mayo has a chance to be an all-conference level player, but he needs to get his confidence back in the next two games.
Will AJ Storr or Rylan Griffen show up? Both players needed to take a leap on the defensive end this season, but the transition to playing under Self hasn’t been smooth. Both players seem timid and more worried about not making mistakes than they are about making winning plays. We’ve seen flashes from both where they have shown stretches of playing to the best of their abilities: Griffen in the final six minutes against Duke and Storr when he scored nine straight against Creighton. At the same time, both have made poor decisions with shot selection at inopportune times in those same games: Griffen with his 3-point attempt right before half against Duke, and Storr with his pull-up jumper down 41-38 against Creighton when the offense was humming.
At least one of these two needs to be the impact player Kansas expected when they transferred this offseason. It would be even better if they both found a way to at least get close to the expectations placed on them heading into the season. One of these two should be the fifth starter alongside Dajuan Harris, Mayo, KJ Adams, and Dickinson once conference play starts. As Self said after the Missouri game, “I know who should be our starters, but it hasn't translated from practice to games or anything else like that yet.” The biggest reason is the underperformance and an alarming lack of effort at times from these two.Will Bill Self loosen up? Kansas fans saw this happen during Remy Martin’s year at Kansas. Martin would ebb and flow in the lineup, playing between 4- and 25- minutes during conference play in 2021-22. It’s difficult for transfers to meet Self’s expectations early in the season, but at the same time, Self might need to do some self-reflection on how he handles players coming into his program. He gives longer leashes to players who have been around (Harris, Adams, and Dickinson) which makes sense! They’ve built up trust with Self, and he knows what they expect from him. At the same time, when the new players see the returning players being allowed to play through the same mistakes that newcomers are benched for, it is probably tough to comprehend. Griffen and Storr were allowed to play through mistakes at their previous schools, which allowed them to play looser. While I don’t think it’s a negative that Self has his own standards, at times you have to let players work through them on the court. This season, his stubbornness has led to three transfers playing passively for the first month of the season.
Self is rightfully considered one of the best coaches (if not the best) in all of college basketball. In the last few years, he’s mostly struck out in the transfer portal. He’s a demanding coach, and he expects players to modify their games and approach to basketball the second they enter the program. Other programs have found success by letting transfers play through mistakes as they work their way into their new programs. If everything works out this year and the transfers can find a fit in their new roles, then obviously Self’s method can work. However, at this point there’s more evidence that points to transfers struggling to adapt to his standards than seamlessly finding their spot. Will Self loosen up a little and allow players like Storr and Griffen to play through some rough patches in order to feel more comfortable moving forward?
All-in-all, this past week has served as an opportunity for Kansas fans to reset their expectations. Last season’s team didn’t have their “coming to Jesus” moment until conference play had already started. It snowballed with injuries and a lack of depth adding to the dismal second half of the season. It’s tough to adjust when a number of changes happen in January and February. This year still has a significant amount of promise. This past week highlighted the flaws of this time, but there is still plenty of time to correct them. The transfers need to find their roles, the returners need to play like seniors. Harris and Adams have had high points, but they’ve been forced into even larger roles than they probably should be due to the struggles of the transfers. Dickinson looked like a shell of himself for the Furman, Creighton, and first half of the Missouri game. It’s possible getting ejected (and subsequent win by his teammates) messed with his head. Kansas needs the Dickinson who plays on the edge and is a villain.
These next two games will be what propels or limits this team heading into conference play. What looked like a lax start to the conference schedule suddenly looks tougher: West Virginia owns wins over Gonzaga and Arizona, UCF beat Texas A&M in the opening game of the season and a worse version beat Kansas last season, Arizona State played Gonzaga close and beat Saint Mary’s, and Cincinnati is 18th in KenPom (albeit against the 332nd toughest schedule out of 364). This team will need to be playing at a higher level in two weeks. So much to do, so little time.