Hawking Points: Adding Insult to Injury, Houston Rolls Kansas 76-46
The Kansas Jayhawks came out flat and never got it going as they were demolished on the road in their regular season finale. The Houston Cougars got started scoring early and often, and the result was never really in doubt as they won 76-46 to officially clinch the #1 seed in the Big 12 Championship next week in Kansas City by a full two games.
Key Plays
After the initial tipoff, won by Houston, the closest the Jayhawks came again was on the jumper immediately after from KJ Adams to tie it up. After that bucket, the Cougars went on a huge 17-2 run over the next 7 minutes to go up by 15 points, with KJ Adams getting the only points for Kansas until Dajuan Harris got three points at the halfway mark of the half.
But just a couple minutes later, the Cougars started another double digit 10-0 run to stretch the lead all the way to 25. The lead was so big that a quick 7-0 didn't really do much for the Jayhawks, and they entered halftime down by 19 points.
The second half wasn't really any better, as Kansas got no closer than 18 , and that came just two minutes into the half. Houston had runs of 11-0 and 9-0 at different points in the half, and the biggest run from Kansas was a 12-4 run over a 5 minute stretch.
Kevin McCullar didn't play in the second half, and Hunter Dickinson left with 11:10 left on the second half clock (more on that below).
Eye-Catching Stat Lines
As Derek noted in the live blog, Kansas didn't hit the halftime score for Houston (40) until there were only 6 minutes left in the game. It was an abysmal offensive showing.
The Jayhawks shot only 33.3% on the night, including an abysmal 3-21 (14.3%) from beyond the arc. They were outrebounded 13-7 on the offensive glass, turned the ball over 18 times and gave up 30 points from those. Overall, it was probably their worst performance from start to finish this season.
Areas of Improvement
It's easy to just say "everything" on this one, and I'm sure the player ratings will reflect that a lot. But specifically this was a game that Kansas seemed to come out flat, with KJ Adams the only player really showing fight early in the game.
It seems cliche to just say "energy", but that was really the big problem. They didn't come out with any, got down early, and then struggled to find any that could let them even think about a comeback.
Takeaways
Kevin McCullar didn't play in the second half, with the broadcast citing knee soreness. Hunter Dickinson suffered a shoulder injury in the second half, immediately holding onto his right shoulder after a hit.
After the game, Bill Self said "Hunter dislocated his shoulder," noting that "he popped it back in, which was a good sign." However, that doesn't rule out further ligament damage, so there is a good chance that Kansas may be without both Dickinson and McCullar in the Big 12 Tournament.
That will be a big blow to the Jayhawks as they look to set themselves up for a good postseason run. We'll see how the committee handles this situation.
