In February, the Kansas Jayhawks dropped out of the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2021 following their abysmal 34-point loss at BYU. They somewhat bounced back with two wins over struggling Big 12 teams in Oklahoma State and Colorado, but are back to their losing ways again after losing at home (again) to Texas Tech, ruining KJ Adams Jr.'s amazing performance.
The reason for the loss? It can be boiled down to the three-point disparity and the atrocious guard play from Dajuan Harris Jr. and Zeke Mayo, among others. The starting backcourt for KU combined to shoot 4-for-14 on FGs, 0-for-5 on 3FGs, and had six turnovers. Much of this was Mayo, who had all the missed threes and five of six turnovers, but Harris also played passively and poorly.
More specifically, Harris had the worst turnover of the game with 21 seconds left in the game, when Kansas was coming out of the timeout down three and needed to score quickly. He threw the ball out of bounds giving the ball back to the Red Raiders. Shortly after, Mayo forced up an ugly three-pointer with plenty of time on the clock and Kansas went on to lose 78-73.
Looking at the three-point disparity at the end of the game could make any Jayhawks fan queasy as well. Kansas could not limit Texas Tech from getting wide-open or lightly-contested threes and the Red Raiders ended up taking 43 of them, connecting on 15. While the 34.3% isn’t amazing, KU shot just 4-for-18, leading to a 33-point advantage for TTU in that area.
KJ Adams was one of the only positives of this embarrassing L
Although this game was another horrible home loss, perhaps the only reason it ended up being so close in the end was thanks to Adams Jr. and his incredible play. He has faced some criticism for the poor spacing this season, but against the Red Raiders he was unstoppable on offense, shooting 10-for-12 from the field for a game-high 21 points.
In regards to effort and rebounding, he was superb as well, pulling down a career-high 13 rebounds in the contest. Of those 13 boards, five of them were on the offensive end and at least three of them were him full-out diving or leaping to secure the ball before his opponent. Not only this, but his effort was maintained throughout his entire 37 minutes of court time.
This season may be making fans already look forward to next year and Darryn Peterson, who has been called the top prospect since LeBron James. This is understandable as even some of the current Jayhawks squad look mentally checked out of the season already. Sadly, their next two games are against Houston and Arizona, who punish teams that are not locked in.
If nothing else, at least fans know that KJ will be giving it 100% on the road against the Cougars and then at home against the Wildcats for Senior Night.