The Jayhawks are 1-0 to start the college basketball season for the 53rd straight time, and if that is not impressive, then I do not know what is. Kansas continues to be a standard for college basketball, but the Jayhawks were perfect in their first game vs. Fordham.
It took some time for Kansas to warm up on the court together, struggling to get the offense going. Defense was fairly good, other than allowing Fordham a few too many opportunities on second and third chances.
It also did not help that Kansas had 17 turnovers, four from both Tyran Stokes and Melvin Council Jr. each. The Jayhawks were able to get away with that against a team like Fordham, but against teams like Kentucky, whom Kansas faces next week, and other Big 12 programs, they might be as lucky.
There is also the age-old saying in basketball that free throws win games. Well, if Kansas was trying to win the game with free throws, they did a poor job at it. The Jayhawks saw the foul line quite a bit, but making their shots was a different story, going just 16-for-30 from the stripe, a measly 53%.
Kansas cannot afford not to clean up its turnovers and missed free throws this season
Missed free throws are simply leaving easy points on the court. The biggest culprit in missed free throws was Stokes, who was already a known problem given how many he missed in the exhibition games. Stokes was just 4-for-7 from the free-throw line, and if he plans to create a lot of contact on his drives, he better either finish at the basket or from the free-throw line.
Again, Kansas can afford to miss out on these easy points against a team like Fordham, where solid defense works just fine, but against higher-powered offenses, like those in the Big 12, missed free throws can be the difference between a win and a loss.
The good thing about free throws is that it is a fairly easy fix. After practice, shoot 50 shots from the line, see how many you make, and then do that every day until you get closer and closer to 100%.
When it comes to the turnovers, those will be a little tougher to fix. Those fixes will have to come with more time on the court together. Many of the turnovers were due to errant passes or miscommunications on the court. The more the Jayhawks play, the more comfortable they will be knowing where guys are gonna make a cut at the right time.
These stats may seem small, especially in a big 96-65 win over Fordham, but small stats like these really are the difference between staying in an NCAA Tournament game, still playing in a National Championship, and the season coming to an end. So, Self may want to work on getting it fixed now rather than later.
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