Five logical takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks basketball's brutal loss to BYU
By Tyler Key
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It can be easy to feel like the sky is falling after gut-wrenching losses such as this one against BYU, but there are still a handful of objective takeaways that can be made as Kansas Jayhawks fans cope with this loss. These five takeaways can help evaluate what went wrong on Tuesday night, what changes need to be made in the future, and how the BYU loss shapes the future of this KU team overall and a few of the individual players.
1. If Kansas does not make free throws in addition to not making (or even taking) 3-pointers, their margin of error becomes razor thin
Kansas ranks 338th in 3-pointers attempted and 315th in 3-pointers made in D.I this season. Kevin McCullar Jr., who is currently injured, leads KU in made threes per game at 1.6 and Johnny Furphy is the only other Jayhawk who makes more than one per game (1.4). Due to this, Kansas must dominate in the paint and make their free throws when they get fouled. While earlier in the season, they received praise for being the best FT shooting team in KU history, the BYU loss proves that the charity stripe is still not always a reliable source of points for the Crimson and Blue.
On Tuesday Night, BYU shot 13/34 (38.2%) from beyond the arc compared to Kansas’ 3/15 (20.0%) from distance. Losing the 3-point battle by 30 points will always cause there to be an uphill battle. Additionally, BYU shot 19/24 (79.2%) from the FT line, which clearly bested KU’s 19/31 (61.3%) FT effort. Hunter Dickinson by himself accounted for nine of those 12 misses, as he shot a career-worst 6/15 from the foul line. It’s not likely that Kansas will suddenly start jacking up threes at a higher rate, so moving forward Dickson must make the shots labeled as “free”.