Halftime Musings: Jayhawks lose lead, tied with Bearcats at half
It's the story of the season for the Kansas Jayhawks: a big lead inevitably turns into a huge drought to give most or all of that lead back. Against Cincinnati in the first half, Kansas did exactly that, going up by 12 with thirteen minutes left in the first half.
But over the course of the next 6 minutes, the Jayhawks gave back nearly all of that lead, resulting in a back-and-forth battle to end the half that saw Kansas go down by 2 before a couple free throws and good defense kept it tied.
But it was a very up-and-down half for Kansas, which isn't something you really want to see. Here are my thoughts at halftime.
Jayhawks Need More Toughness
I feel like I'm shilling for Bill Self here, as this is something that he says all the time. But it was never more apparent than during the quick run for the Bearcats. Kansas, and especially Kevin McCullar, seemed to be bothered by the amount of contact that was being allowed on both sides. His shooting was clearly affected, as he missed his final 6 shots of the half. He wasn't the only one, but he was probably the biggest culprit.
Consistency is lacking
There is no reason I can think of that properly explains why this team is so streaky. They look like the best team in the nation by far for 5 minute stretches. Then they look like a low level MAC team for the next 5 minutes. It's maddeningly frustrating. Dajuan Harris had the perfect example of this, where he made one of the worst passes I've seen in a while to turn it over, then hustled back and made the Cincinnati player dribble the ball off his own foot.
Officiating isn't helping
This isn't the "the refs are against us" section. This is the "refs don't know how they want to call the game" section. It's difficult for either team to settle in when you don't know if the same move/contact/challenge is going to draw a foul this time or be let go again. And both teams are having to deal with this. Hopefully it's better in the second half.
