Reeling from a harsh defeat in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, No. 5 Kansas returns to conference action Tuesday night.
The Jayhawks (17-3, 6-1 Big 12) remain first in the league race, though an 80-62 thrashing at home Saturday against Kentucky leaves a nasty sting entering a matchup against No. 23 Iowa State (16-5, 3-5) in Ames, Iowa.
“It’s not the end of the world or anything like that,” the Jayhawks’ Christian Braun said. “We have a lot of games ahead of us, so this is just something we have to forget about and move forward and get some wins.”
The message Kansas coach Bill Self delivered after the setback was that the team learn must from its mistakes. Kansas dug an early hole and never recovered from a 51-31 halftime deficit.
“I’m not going to dwell on it at all. We weren’t tough; we didn’t take away what you must do to win,” Self said after Kentucky shot 50.8 percent in snapping the Jayhawks’ five-game winning streak.
“There are no six-point plays, it’s two at a time,” Self added. “The kids were trying, but they weren’t trying for the right reasons. They were trying because they wanted to individually … rather than playing five-against-five.”
Braun (15.2 points per game) and Ochai Agbaji (the Big 12’s leading scorer at 20.9) managed just 13 points apiece.
The defeat pointed to two ongoing problems for the Jayhawks.
One is the lack of consistent big-time play from Big 12 preseason player of the year Remy Martin, who had five points and one assist in 13 minutes. Martin still is trying to gain Self’s complete trust on running the attack.
Second is the inconsistency hampering veteran David McCormack, who could not counter Kentucky’s size inside. In his 15 minutes of action, McCormack contributed three points, one rebound and two turnovers.
Under first-year coach T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State remained unbeaten in nonconference play with a 67-50 win over Missouri on Saturday in another game of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
The Cyclones turned up their defensive intensity, holding the Tigers to 42.9-percent shooting while forcing 18 turnovers. Their second-half pressure fueled a run of 15 unanswered points.
“We can be really good, and we will be really good when we do that,” Otzelberger said of the defensive surge. “It’s my job to demand that every day. It’s the cornerstone of how we’ll move our team forward.”
Not everything has translated perfectly into Big 12 play for Iowa State. The Cyclones have dropped four of their last six league games, including their last conference home game, a 59-44 loss to TCU.
Iowa State battled Kansas to the wire on Jan. 11 in the Jayhawks’ 62-61 win at Lawrence, Kan. Izaiah Brockington, who leads the Cyclones in scoring (16.8) and rebounding (7.8), scored a team-high 17 points in the game, which included four lead changes in the final 38 seconds.
Agbaji led Kansas with 22 points in the previous meeting between the teams.
–Field Level Media
