Kansas basketball: Despite a couple close runs, the Jayhawks fall to Baylor on the road in Waco, TX

Kansas basketball tried to run Baylor’s winning streak off the road last night but would come up short, losing on the road by a score of 77-69.

For Kansas basketball, last night’s contest with Baylor was a pivotal point in their season and had been closely anticipated by fans. Combine defensive struggles with a lack of consistent offensive production and you’d have the two factors responsible for last night’s loss.

The Jayhawks came into Waco, TX with a six-day break and a postponed contest against Iowa State. Controlling Jared Butler was going to be a major factor and it proved true last night.

Butler havoc on Kansas from the perimeter, dropping thirty points and going perfect from the free-throw line. The junior also knocked down seven three-point buckets and seemed to always click when the Bears needed it.

Kansas got off to a rocky start and found themselves struggling to utilize their inside attack. This would further their deficit to 13 points at halftime. Kansas would come out a little stronger in the second half, finding multiple bursts of offense from Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun.

Working their way back into the conversation, Kansas would find some key steals in traffic and cut the lead down to 7 at two different points in the second half. In the later minutes, Kansas seemed to have caught fire. Mitch Lightfoot helped fuel the momentum with a few rebounds and contributed refreshingly well offensively.

Just when the Jayhawks seemed to be back in it, Baylor turned on the jets. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua helped surge the Bears back into a commanding lead with a pair of blocks, staving off any avenues for a potential comeback. He was a lethal defensive weapon for the Bears.

The major problem for the Jayhawks is the inconsistency from our offense. Kansas has shown before that they can lay the power on, but this failed to prove itself against the Bears. Allowing for the leads to build-up didn’t help Kansas, as our defense struggled to hold off the high-speed ball movement from Baylor.

Baylor creates a good amount of traffic when moving the ball and this seemed to throw Kansas off from time to time, creating confusion defensively. By the second half, the Jayhawks were finding a couple of steals and it seemed as if they were catching on to Baylor’s rhythm.

Unfortunately, Jared Butler was able to find an extreme amount of success from the perimeter. He was the undeniable leader for that offense and was an absolute juggernaut for the Bears.

Regardless of the bad mood the loss left us in, I’m sure a lot of you got quite a kick out of Chris Teahan’s near half court shot at the final buzzer.

https://twitter.com/Jifhawk/status/1351385238220500993?s=20

This loss will likely push the Jayhawks further downward in the Top 25 and has fans re-evaluating what the season will look like. Kansas will meet Baylor again down the road, but until then the Jayhawks will have to re-group and try to balance things out.

Kansas will be back on the road again Saturday against Oklahoma, a program that gave Kansas quite a bit of trouble last time around. Kansas will have a target on its back going forward and will need to find a way out of this hole to change current attitudes about their season.