Kansas basketball: Thompson continues to impress despite narrow road loss to Texas

Bryce Thompson made strong contributions for Kansas basketball yesterday but despite a decent lead at halftime, the Jayhawks would fall short in OT.

Going into Austin with a vengeance, Kansas basketball was looking to add a sixth straight win to their schedule.

Despite a double-digit halftime lead, the Jayhawks would be outscored by 11 points in the second half and drop the contest to the Longhorns in overtime, 75-72.

While the loss doesn’t do much justice for Kansas, we did receive a very impressive performance from Bryce Thompson with 11 points on the evening.

It seems he’s recovering well and it should’ve been common knowledge that he was going to make an appearance against Texas.

The freshman would have an exciting first half, even finding back-to-back dunks on transition takeaways.

We should be excited about this young playmaker. His speed has been lethal against opposing defenses. Coming off his injury, some might’ve expected his recovery to be gradual but I’d believe he’s comfortable taking on more minutes.

With help from Agbaji and Wilson, who both had excellent performances as well, Bryce looked comfortable on offense. It didn’t seem like he needed a whole lot of direction and his playing style looked very organic.

His contributions are starting to stack up and it’s only so long before he starts finding consistent attention. He’ll need to stay healthy going into this weekend for sure.

The road loss is a tough one for Kansas but they shouldn’t be counted out. With that being said, they’re not out of the woods yet either and Baylor will be the next major task.

Despite falling behind in the second half, Kansas was able to fight well into overtime. This is a good sign for the Jayhawks, knowing that they can pull games back within 1 or 2.

The Baylor Bears should be the primary concern right now. The Bears managed to escape a 2-17 (0-14 Big 12) Cyclones team in a scare yesterday evening in Waco. Baylor would pull ahead in the end by a score of 77-72.

The Bears have been off the floor for a while due to pandemic concerns, and this presents an opportunity for Kansas to take advantage of that.
It’s a game that in my opinion, Kansas really can’t afford to lose after the loss to Texas.

While they’d still find an NCAA tournament seat, they’d also have a long break before the conference tournament. It would be very beneficial to go into that tournament with some momentum built up.