Three keys for Kansas basketball to be better than “good”

The Jayhawks have struggled compared to past seasons but there are still three ways Kansas basketball can be better than just “good”.

Living up to pre-season expectations is always a difficult task at a blue-blood school such as Kansas. And it’s no secret that the 2018-19 Kansas basketball season has been a disappointment up to this point.

The Jayhawks came into the season knowing without question that their greatest strength lied in the frontcourt and their weakness was from behind the three-point line. That weakness glared its ugly head as Kansas lost two dominant big men in junior center Udoka Azubuike and sophomore forward Silvio De Sousa, along with 45% three-point shooter senior guard LaGareld Vick, due to a personal leave of absence.

While the team still has four McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster in freshmen guards Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes, freshman big David McCormack and junior forward Dedric Lawson, nobody outside of Lawrence will feel sorry for the Jayhawks. But nevertheless, they have has continuously struggled to find their identity.

And a big reason for this identity search is due to a certain five-star recruit looking more like an 8th man off the bench than a lottery pick.

But regardless of suspensions, injuries and lackluster performances from McDonald’s All-Americans, Kansas is still ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll and in contention to win a 15th straight Big 12 title.

With three games left in the regular season, all of which Kansas is currently favored to win, the Jayhawks have the opportunity to work out the rest of their kinks and improve from a good team to a great one before postseason play begins.

Three areas of improvement to make this possible are: Creating energy outside of Allen Fieldhouse, limiting turnovers and keeping Grimes confident.

1. Creating energy outside of Allen Fieldhouse
What’s been glaringly obvious is that Allen Fieldhouse has been a safety blanket of sorts for this young team. Kansas is undefeated at home this season but has been atrocious on the the road, boasting a 1-6 record at opposing team’s venues.

That comforting home feeling was on full display as Kansas held Kansas State to its second-lowest scoring total of the season just two days after giving up 91 points to Texas Tech on the road.

Dominant home performances are commonplace under Bill Self coached teams, but losing on the road the way this team has, is not.

Whether it’s giving up leads or carelessly handling the basketball, some of these road performances have been blatantly bizarre.

Is every Big 12 game going to be difficult? Yes. But it’s clear that Kansas’s energy and confidence levels outside of Lawrence has not been high enough.

It’s the killer mentality and pride that guys like Devonte’ Graham, Frank Mason and Tyshawn Taylor had that has been lacking from this year’s group on the road.

But those guys played until they were seniors. And when they were young, there were seniors before them. This season’s Jayhawks start four freshmen.

And of course, when 16,300 people are screaming at the top of their lungs all in an effort to help you win, it’s easy to attract energy from that. But when the roles are reversed and you get the other team’s fans pushing you down, energy isn’t always easy to find.

It’s great to play your best and most energetic basketball at home. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. But the only issue is, only one home game remains for the Jayhawks.

In tough road environments and even neutral courts for that matter, it takes more than one guy to find that contagious energy. Junior forward Mitch Lightfoot can’t be in the only spark plug. Consistency in that area is dependent on a collective team effort.

At this point, it’s all about pride with these guys. And with the next two away games being against lesser opponents, Kansas has the opportunity to get that irritating road monkey off of its back.

2. Limiting turnovers
In its five conference losses, Kansas has averaged 18 turnovers a game. Again, this goes back to the road versus home disparities, but that number is far too high for a team that has difficulties scoring at times.

Last season, Kansas had three shooting threats in its starting five. It had spurts where it didn’t score, but a moment later it could hit 4 three-pointers in a row.

This current roster doesn’t have that.

And in the Jayhawks’ five conference losses, their defense wasn’t enough to overcome their carelessness with the ball.

There are three more games left until postseason play. And in those games, every possession is crucial.

If they can just improve on their average turnover rate (which is 13 over the entire season) by two or three fewer turnovers, that can go make a huge difference in the outcome of games.

It goes without saying that Kansas fans would feel more confident if Lawson was given extra scoring opportunities each game.

Teams go deep in March because of consistent guard play. And given that this team often times plays a four-guard lineup, limiting turnovers would help its chances exponentially.

3. Keeping Quentin Grimes confident
As prefaced earlier in the article, Quentin Grimes is the disappointing 5-star recruit I was speaking of. Shocking, I know.

While his freshmen campaign has been underwhelming to say the least, he had a very solid performance against Kansas State, tallying 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting, three rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Kansas basketball fans everywhere would take that stat line from him any day of the week.

But Grimes shooting a great percentage wasn’t the impressive part. It was the fact that through all of his struggles this season, he had the confidence to step up in the biggest game of the year and make quality shots in rhythm.

It would be easy for him to accept his role of scoring five to seven points a game and a couple of rebounds. But he stepped up during a moment where Kansas truly needed another scorer.

And the Jayhawks truly can’t ask for much more from their freshmen shooting guard.

Anyone who has access to YouTube has seen what Quentin Grimes is capable of on the basketball court, which is why watching him struggle up to now has been so difficult. But Grimes is a player who’s capable of taking over a basketball game if his confidence starts rising.

We’ve seen guys like Malik Newman save their best basketball until the postseason, and perhaps Grimes is trending in that direction.

But with Lawson consistently doing his thing, Dotson and fellow freshman guard Ochai Agabji turning into stars and Lightfoot quickly becoming a Kansas folk hero, a confident Quentin Grimes could be the key to a deep March run for the Jayhawks.