This Kansas Jayhawks Men’s Basketball team truly does find a way to make losses as painful as possible. After the incredibly disappointing loss against the Houston Cougars, they now added yet another inexcusable loss, blowing a 21-point first half lead against the Baylor Bears in Waco. This blown lead is the largest in Kansas basketball history.
Entering the game, there were nerves as usual about watching this KU team, since they have been the epitome of inconsistent this season. That uneasiness subsided when the Jayhawks absolutely dominated the first half, holding Baylor to 12 points through the first 15 minutes of the game.
They even entered the half up 19 points and many fans, as well as the announcers, felt that this game was already over. Turns out, the Jayhawks players and coaches thought the game was over as well and came into the second half with no effort, no intensity, and no mental focus. They allowed the Bears to cut down the 19-point lead to 12 in under two minutes.
Kansas then went on to lose the lead entirely, but that’s not what made this loss sickening. It was the fact that KU stifled the storm after losing the lead initially and built the lead back up to 10 with 8:35 left in the game… just to choke away the lead yet again and lose to Baylor 81-70, getting outscored by a 60-30 margin in the second half.
Bill Self no longer feels like one of the elite coaches in college basketball
Coach Bill Self is having one of his worst coaching campaigns since he took over the duties for Kansas back in 2003. While other teams may have been worse than this team, such as the 2023-2024 Jayhawks from last season, there is no reason that this KU team on paper should be this poor in practice. He has so many more weapons and tools at his disposal.
His reliance on his “stars” has proven to be costly and the inability to convert a simply inbound pass is still baffling. This was the biggest problem in the abysmal end-of-game performance against Houston and it seemingly hasn’t gotten better with Kansas turning the ball over and struggling to get the ball in bounds in the second half against Baylor too.
Entering the year, Kansas had high expectations, best showcased through the No. 1 ranking in the country. Instead of thriving behind three experienced seniors and a slew of intriguing transfers who performed well for various teams last season, the team looks sloppy, passive, and lost.
Things don’t get any easier as the Jayhawks will play their next game in Allen Fieldhouse against No. 3 ranked Iowa State, who will be hungry for a victory after they just lost to Kansas State on their home court. The Big 12 regular season title is out of reach at this point, but KU needs to play with pride down the stretch for this year to not be viewed as a failure.