1 – Jalen Wilson – KU’s leading scorer and the Big 12 player of the year did everything he could to carry his team offensively in this one, scoring 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting. But that has not proven to be the best recipe for the Jayhawks this season. Wilson can put up big point totals. He’s proven that. And he can score with the best of them. But when he feels like he *has* to do that, that’s when the problems arise. His teammates get passive. They tend to stand around and watch and wait for him to do something. And they make Kansas much easier to guard. That was part of what happened on Saturday night, but even if they all had been scoring, KU would have had trouble winning the game because they just could not stop the Longhorns.
2 – Joe Yesufu – Starting in place of the injured Kevin McCullar Jr. — held out with back spasms — Yesufu provided some early scoring punch and did his best to use his athleticism to help on the glass. It led to 11 points and 4 rebounds, but he still continues to shoot the ball poorly from the outside, making just 1 of 5 in this game and just 5 of his last 23 (21.7%) over the past eight games. He has to take those shots because they’re coming in the flow of what Kansas does offensively. Not taking them is just as bad as a miss because it makes KU even more one-dimensional and that much easier to guard. But it’s definitely hard to expect much from Yesufu when he’s in the game right now, even if his effort is top-notch and his confidence, he told me after last night’s game, is as good as ever.
3 – KJ Adams – Adams’ quiet night had a heck of a lot more to do with Texas than anything he did wrong. He made three of four shots and grabbed four rebounds with two assists in the process. He also did not get to the free throw line, was harassed on the roll to the rim every time and was far too quiet far too much. Adams’ intensity is so important for this team because he brings real fire to the floor. But it’s hard for him to tap into that when teams gameplan to take him out of the equation the way Texas did. He can — and needs to — find ways to impact the game elsewhere when that happens, with defense, getting on the glass and even leadership skills being options in that department.
4 – Gradey Dick – After a pair of hot-shooting games, the KU freshman struggled a bunch in this one. He made just three of 11 shots overall and missed all five 3-pointers he attempted. He did grab eight rebounds, which showed that his poor shooting didn’t take him out of the game completely. But KU’s going to need him to stay dialed in from the outside if it wants to make a run this month. The first two games in KC this week served as a reminder of what that looked like and KU won easily. Saturday’s loss, however, was a reminder of what can happen when he’s not hitting.
5 – Dajuan Harris Jr. – This was one of Harris’ worst games of the season — maybe of his entire KU career so far. He just looked off. He shot 3-of-7 from the floor and wasn’t close on the ones he missed. He was reluctant to pull up from 3-point range and he finished with as many turnovers (4) as assists. It was a very un-Harris-like game and the Jayhawks suffered as a result. Part of it was the absence of Kevin McCullar Jr. There was an extra element of defensive burden on Harris as a result of McCullar being out. The other part of it was the matchup. Texas is good. Like, national-title-contender good, and they’re loaded with talent. That showed up in this one the way it did in Austin a week earlier and Harris suffered as a result.
6 – MJ Rice – Rice played 15 minutes in this one and actually had a couple moments where you saw a peek at the player who could help Kansas. But he also still made the mistakes and bad decisions that have led to the player he has been all season. Give him this: He competed better and with more fire and purpose than in nearly every other game he’s played this season. If that’s something the Jayhawks can get from this game, for whatever minutes Rice is going to need to play the rest of the way, I guess Saturday wasn’t a total loss. We’ll have to see it before we believe it, though. And the smart money is still on him not getting many minutes in the coming weeks.
7 – Bobby Pettiford – Pettiford continued to look just a little off as a ball-handler, but he only turned it over once and also grabbed three rebounds. He continues to pose no real threat as a scorer, though, and that makes Kansas easy to guard. Norm Roberts even mentioned after the game that they’ve got to get Bobby attacking the rim or at least looking to do it more often than he has in recent weeks. Right now he’s just a passing outlet, someone who can relieve the pressure on a teammate when he picks up the ball but not someone who’s going to look to do much when he gets it. Pettiford has the potential to change that. But I’m not sure if the confidence is there right now. And I’m also not sure KU wants him trying to force a bunch at this stage in the season. It’s a fine line to walk and they all may just have to deal with a pretty low ceiling for the back-up point guard the rest of the way.
8 – Ernest Udeh Jr. – After one of his best games of the season on Friday, Udeh struggled to follow that up with much to talk about on Saturday. He played 16 minutes but didn’t score, did grab three rebounds but also turned it over three times. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly he can flush this one from his memory, because the Udeh that had played in the first couple of games of the Big 12 tournament was the one who looked like he could really help this team with a late-season surge. That should still be the case in Round 1, but it remains a question for any games the Jayhawks play after that.
Season standings
———–
1 – Jalen Wilson, 274
2 – Dajuan Harris Jr., 248
3 – Gradey Dick, 218
4 – KJ Adams, 215
5 – Kevin McCullar Jr., 212o
6 – Joe Yesufu, 121
7 – Bobby Pettiford, 117
8 – Ernest Udeh Jr., 96
9 – MJ Rice, 71y
10 – Zuby Ejiofor, 63u
11 – Zach Clemence, 45z
12 – Cam Martin, 11q
13 – Kyle Cuffe Jr., 2x
*x – Out for 10-12 weeks with a knee injury starting Nov. 13*
*y – Missed 3 of the first 5 games of the season because of injury and illness; also sat out games because of COVID, kidney stones and back spasms*
*z – Missed Duke, Southern Utah and NC State games because of injury. Also injured a knee in road loss at Iowa State, which caused him to miss more time*
*o – Missed Nov. 29 game vs. Texas Southern with a groin injury; Also missed Big 12 title game with back spasms*
*q – Missed first nine games of the season with shoulder injury*
*u – Missed a few weeks during the middle of the Big 12 season with a foot injury*
