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Tough Upcoming Schedule Will Test Kansas’ Mettle
It's tough to argue against a 17-game winning streak, but the Kansas Jayhawks will need to start playing better with a rough schedule heading into February.
January 17, 2017
It’s tough to argue against a 17-game winning streak, but the Kansas Jayhawks will need to start playing better with a rough schedule heading into February.
Attempting to explain flaws the nation’s No. 2 college basketball team may or may not possess can be tricky. Fans of said team will make you feel like you’re digging for dirt on Mother Teresa.
A 17-game winning streak following an overtime loss in Hawaii nine weeks ago doesn’t leave much room for criticism. Nor do the five wins over six teams in the top 50 of the KenPom rankings. Or the fact that the team trots out a leading candidate for National Player of the Year each night.
And yet, as of this moment, the Kansas Jayhawks are not the best team in the country. Nor are they the second-best. A combination of the eye test and actual metrics proves as much.
I see a team that won by six at TCU. One that KenPom has ranked seventh in adjusted efficiency margin and 29th in adjusted defensive efficiency. A team that needed Svi Mykhailiuk to take roughly 37 steps in order to hold off Kansas State at home. The same team that trailed a bad Oklahoma squad by nine at halftime before having to storm back in the final 20 minutes – something it also had to do against a so-so Oklahoma State team a few days later.
Then Frank Mason III had to save Kansas in a 76-72 win at Iowa State on Monday, during which the Jayhawks committed 18 turnovers. Mason had three of those giveaways to only one assist, putting his assist-to-turnover ratio at a paltry 1.13-to-1 over his last five games.
Kansas did shoot 54.8 percent against the Cyclones, that despite freshman Josh Jackson scoring only six points. He’s 8-for-24 from the field in his last two contests.
It’s true that the Jayhawks have gone unbeaten with a win over Duke since a 103-99 overtime defeat against Indiana on Nov. 11. It’s also true that Kansas has been wildly inconsistent of late. That’s the main reason some AP Top 25 voters don’t believe in the Jayhawks as the nation’s best team, and why Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal ranked them all they way down at No. 13, thus earning himself a nice scolding.
The Jayhawks can make their doubters red-faced by successfully navigating the upcoming gauntlet in their schedule. Kansas hosts a mediocre Texas team on Saturday, then plays back-to-back road games against No. 7 West Virginia on Jan. 24 and No. 5 Kentucky on Jan. 28. A home date with No. 6 Baylor looms Feb. 1.
The Mountaineers lead the nation in turnovers forced per game at 24.3 and beat the Jayhawks in Morgantown last season. Kentucky has won five in a row with help from arguably the best freshman in the nation, Malik Monk, while Baylor is fresh off being ranked No. 1 in last week’s poll.
If Kansas can get through that stretch unscathed, there won’t be much doubt that the Jayhawks are the best team in the country. But right now, there’s even some confusion about that in their own locker room.
“We feel we should be No. 1,” sophomore guard Lagerald Vick said after the Iowa State game.
Then, Landon Lucas offered his own assessment.
“We’ve got to be better.”
Maybe they’re both correct.
