No. 2 Thing We Learned About Kansas Basketball: A lack of outside shooting will limit KU’s ceiling
Kansas followed up a 3-for-12 3-point performance against Illinois with a 6-for-28 showing against Fort Hays State. Mind you, they were open for a good portion of those, and six of their nine makes came from a player who shot sub-30% from beyond the arc one year ago. So… yeah. That’s gonna be a problem.
In 2022-23, Kansas only had one consistently solid outside shooter. His name was Gradey Dick. Bill Self brought in Towson transfer Nick Timberlake to fill that void, but he’s had a horrid start to his Jayhawk career and isn’t even sinking his threes.
Most of the team’s flaws right now are correctable, but there isn’t much of a reason to believe their poor shooting will change over the course of the season. They’ll have on-and-off nights as every team does, but unless half of the players on the roster suddenly become sharpshooters, Kansas basketball will need to win games with pesky defense and inside scoring.