1 – Jalen Wilson – He did his best to carry this team on an awful offensive day but it wasn’t great and it wasn’t enough. Still, he capped off his stellar regular season with a 23-point performance and his 10th double-double of the season. It’s wild to think that on a day when Wilson scores 23, the Jayhawks lost to Texas and on a day when he scored just two points, they beat Texas. Tells you everything you need to know about what this team needs to lock in on heading into the postseason.
2 – Dajuan Harris Jr. – Harris shot the ball horribly (2-for-12) and looked out of sorts for most of the day. But he still finished with 7 assists, 0 turnovers, 5 rebounds and 3 steals in 39 minutes. The best thing he did, though, was communicate clearly to reporters after the game that Kansas can’t win when it plays hero ball and tries to win a one-on-one game.
3 – Kevin McCullar Jr. – McCullar had moments where he really competed. He just couldn’t get anything going consistently and he also led the team with four turnovers on a forgettable day across the board.
4 – KJ Adams – Adams’ numbers don’t look too bad, but he certainly never looked too comfortable out there. Maybe he was pressing while playing in his hometown. Or maybe it was just one of those days for everyone. He had a stretch of five straight, including an and-one bucket that cut the lead to seven. It was one of the rare times when Kansas showed life. But the Jayhawks had nothing to back it up and could never crawl closer.
5 – Gradey Dick – No one had a worse single-game plus/minus than Dick (-19) and he didn’t do anything elsewhere to try to get himself going. That’s not from an effort perspective. He did try. But he lacked energy, was clearly frustrated by the way Texas defended him and could not find anything to help him impact the game elsewhere. That’s a couple of bad games in a row for Dick, who needs to find it again in order for the Jayhawks to be at their best. He believes he will. His teammates do, too. And that can go a long way.
6 – Joe Yesufu – We’ll base this ranking off the fact that he played more minutes (11) than anyone off the Kansas bench. That’s not to say he did much with them, scoring just 5 points and missing four of the five 3-pointers he attempted. He also struggled mightily defensively and kept Self playing musical chairs with the bench throughout the game.
7 – Zuby Ejiofor – Zuby was thrown out there when the game was long over and should not be penalized or punished in any way for how this one went.
8 – Ernest Udeh Jr. – Nothing but a foul to show for the four minutes he played. It really seemed like this could’ve and maybe even should’ve been a game where Udeh stepped up and delivered, with Adams struggling. But instead of providing a spark off the bench, he, too, struggled when he got out there. That limited him to 4 minutes and little impact. Udeh’s game on Saturday was indicative of KU’s entire bench right now. All of them collectively leave you asking the question: Which one can you trust to go in and make plays?
9 – MJ Rice – He got an early look, perhaps because Self was searching for a spark or thought Rice could match up athletically. It didn’t work. He struggled on defense, fouled once while he was out there and played just four minutes in the loss.
10 – Bobby Pettiford – Pettiford played two more minutes than Rice but all that did was give him a couple of more minutes to add a turnover to his life that Rice didn’t have. This bench is in trouble right now. And they’ll need a good week of practice and a solid showing across the board in the Big 12 tournament — at least on Thursday — to build a little confidence back up heading into the NCAA Tournament.
11 – Zach Clemence – Played his first game since injuring his knee in a loss at Iowa State on Feb. 4 and scored a bucket but also fouled three times and turned it over twice in 4 minutes. Clemence likely only got the nod because of how much everyone else was struggling, but he didn’t do a lot to warrant much more playing time than he got.
Season standings
———–
1 – Jalen Wilson, 249
2 – Dajuan Harris Jr., 227
3 – Kevin McCullar Jr., 202o
T4 – Gradey Dick, 199
T4 – KJ Adams, 199
6 – Bobby Pettiford, 110
7 – Joe Yesufu, 108
8 – Ernest Udeh Jr., 85
9 – MJ Rice, 66y
10 – Zuby Ejiofor, 62u
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
*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*
