What We Learned in the Loss to Texas
The loss to Texas was as frustrating as it gets. We've become used to having an advantage in close games, especially when Kansas is up two possessions with just over a minute remaining. These are positions where Bill Self thrives, and to see the team fail to deal a win under those circumstances, even on the road, was tough.
That said, I don't do much analysis of coaching decisions or play calls down the stretch in these reviews. I'm more interested in what the entire game can tell us about how the two teams played, and eventually arrived at the result.
Zooming out, the first thing concerns me is Texas scoring 1.14 points per possession. It was the first time since a January 25th win over TCU that Texas had exceeded 1 PPP, and was their second highest mark in league play. It would be one thing if the Longhorns did this thanks to some hot three point shooting, but UT was only 3-20 (15%) from deep. Kansas, who has the best two point defense in the Big 12, not only let Texas shoot 53% inside the arc, they also sent them to the free throw line far too often. Texas has been an excellent free throw shooting team, and they hit 20 of 23 (87%) on Monday. As we all know, KU struggled at the line in crucial situations, and was just 65% at the line.
This was truly a game where the defense let the offense down. Texas plays elite defense, and the Jayhawks scored 1.10 PPP on them. They were good from three (39%) but feasted inside the arc (66%). With numbers like that, even a mediocre performance at the free throw stripe shouldn't cost you the game. Given the level of opponent, and the game being on the road, this was one of KU's best offensive games this year. The defense had looked a bit better after the Kentucky disaster, locking down Iowa State and, more impressively, Baylor. This was a return to the defense that has let teams hang around and mount comebacks on Kansas for too much of the season.
The last thing I'll go over here is rebounding. Kansas has been excellent on the offensive boards this year, even if they've been pretty average at defensive rebounding. They were held to just six offensive boards in this game (just a 25% rebounding rate) while allowing 15 (38%). Both are well worse than their season averages. Aside from scoring efficiently, this wasn't a game where Kansas did a whole lot of things well. That's not Self's brand of basketball, and I'm sure he was not happy watching the film on this one, for a variety of reasons.
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