Kansas doesn’t wait until March Madness to disappoint in a big game

The Kansas Jayhawks turned the ball over 28 times in their 68-66 loss against the Duke Blue Devils in the 2019 Champions Classic.

On a night where each of the preseason top four all faced off, the Kansas Jayhawks looked unprepared for the big stage. That sentiment is usually reserved for this program when they play in March, but their flaws peaked early this season.

The Jayhawks bring back most of their key pieces from a season ago. Experience is usually a big factor in separating the good teams from the talented, and the Jayhawks are returning a lot of players from last year’s team. Udoka Azubuike was named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Naismith Player of the Year watch lists, and Devon Dotson was on the Bob Cousy Award watch list.

Kansas is one of the better teams and despite all the hype around incoming freshmen around the nation, they are leaning on their veterans in hopes of following through on title aspirations. Tuesday night’s game against Duke was an opportunity for them to really make a statement.

It’s just one game, but what we saw from them during the Champions Classic opener suggests that they are still a long way from being the type of team many expected at the onset of the season.

It is widely accepted that teams are never at their best to start the year, but Kansas looked absolutely abysmal for prolonged stretches of play. They threw the ball all over the floor, shooting themselves in the foot in transition with poor passing. In the half-court, they routinely were forced into shot clock violations by a stingy Blue Devils defense.

Between Azubuike, Dave McCormack and Silvio De Sousa, the Jayhawks are flush with size. They started this game with both Azubuike and McCormack on the floor together and tried working the ball into the interior to take advantage of a young Duke frontcourt.

However, the Blue Devils were ready for this and constantly doubled Azubuike on the catch, forcing McCormick to try and make plays against them with the pass. Neither big was able to get comfortable and that awkwardness extended to their teammates as well.

Their 28 turnovers against Duke Tuesday night were the most by a Jayhawks team since 1988. The glass-half-full viewpoint would note that the 1988 team went on to win the NCAA Tournament courtesy of Danny Manning and the Miracles.

This performance was just plain ugly on the offensive end, however. Bill Self will surely want to tape his eyelids shut when reviewing the game film from this game. It will be on the shoulders of the players that have been there before to tighten things up. The amount of returning players on the roster was supposed to be a strength of this team. Yet, Dotson and Azubuike alone combined for 10 turnovers.

Last season saw their streak of 14 straight Big 12 titles come to an end. This year’s group doesn’t only have their eyes set on reclaiming the crown as the best in the conference; they want to be the best in the nation by April.

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