Kansas basketball: Road woes a thing of the past for Jayhawks

Kansas basketball picked up their third conference road win of the season yesterday against Texas, matching their total conference road wins from last season.

Kansas basketball finished last season 12-6 in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks went undefeated at home which is certainly good, but also went 3-6 on the road — not so good. The worst part was that most of the games weren’t that close, with five out of the six losses coming by seven points or more.

This season, the Jayhawks seem to have corrected their road problems.

So far, Kansas has taken down Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Texas on the road, helping them jump out to a 4-1 conference record. The Jayhawks are still one game behind the 5-0 Baylor Bears, who escaped with a win yesterday on the road against Oklahoma State after being down nine points at halftime.

Kansas’ victory at Texas was a hard-fought one too. Devon Dotson started and put on a show after missing the Jayhawks’ last game against Oklahoma. He totaled a team-high 21 points, plus six rebounds, and three assists in 39 minutes. It was a gutsy performance, given Dotson’s been fighting a hip pointer injury he sustained against Baylor.

Udoka Azubuike also put on a clinic, scoring 17 points and pulling down nine rebounds. Had the big man gotten one more rebound, he’d have had his second straight double-double.

The biggest takeaway from the game (other than Dotson being good to go) has to be the fact that this team is capable of winning on the road, unlike last season. This team is more experienced and better defensively, and who could forget the fact that they have the dominating presence of Udoka Azubuike unlike last season?

Despite how good Baylor is this year, the Big 12 is still very much in Kansas’ reach. If the Jayhawks continue to win consistently at home and most of their road games, there’s no reason why Kansas can’t claim Bill Self‘s fifteenth Big 12 title.

Kansas basketball will take on in-state rival Kansas State next Tuesday to try and move to 5-1 in Big 12 play. The game is scheduled to tip at 6:00 and be broadcast on ESPN2.