4. Furphy’s rough night has a small chance of actually benefiting KU in the long run
Ever since Bill Self added Johnny Furphy into the starting lineup, NBA scouts have been clambering over him as a potential lottery pick in the upcoming draft. On Tuesday night, over half of the NBA franchises had a scout in attendance to watch the Jayhawks face off with the Cougars to evaluate prospects like KU’s Furphy and Hunter Dickinson, as well as BYU’s Jaxon Robinson. Furphy having an awesome memorable night in front of all of these scouts would have been another stepping stone towards him improving his draft stock and increasing the likelihood that he would declare for the NBA draft after this college season.
Instead, Furphy shot 4/12 from the field and 0/5 on 3-pointers, resulting in just the third game in Big 12 play that he failed to hit a three. He did pull down 9 rebounds in the game, but Tuesday night was arguably his worst game in the last three weeks. While the immediate results of Kansas losing at home and Furphy not playing well is not fun, it could bode well for the Jayhawks if this nudges him in the direction of staying at KU for his sophomore season.