There's really no way around it — Saturday's 16-point loss to Cincinnati at Allen Fieldhouse was bad.
Not because Cincinnati, which entered at 14-12 overall, was some trash team. They certainly proved they're not in taking it right to Kansas.
Instead, because of the way the Jayhawks played — lethargic from the start, with very little urgency and intensity in giving up 84 points for just the fifth time all season and falling 84-68.
We've seen that this team can beat anybody, with wins over Arizona, Iowa State, Tennessee and others proving that point. But we also know that this team, on any given day can lose to anyone when they don't play right and aren't turned up out of the gate, like we saw on Saturday.
A lot of what went wrong will be covered below.
But the outcome likely decided a couple of things.
First, KU's done in the Big 12 race. Second, the Jayhawks may have just played their way out of a potential 2 seed with a strong finish and now are much more likely to land in the 3/4 range in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Third, the questions and criticism surrounding Darryn Peterson isn't going away. Yes, he played 32 minutes, which was obviously a good sign. But he didn't play particularly well — that marks 2 Saturdays in a row now — and the critics are almost certainly going to get louder while pointing to his in-and-out status as a distraction for both him and the team.
Whether it is or not is up for debate. And I haven't seen it. But games like this, at home no less, certainly give the critics some data to work with.
Next up, KU (20-7 overall, 10-4 Big 12) will take on No. 2 Houston at Allen Fieldhouse on Monday night on ESPN's Big Monday. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.
Here's a look back at some of the action from KU's rough day on Saturday.
LIKES
• Postgame frustration was real - Whether you're talking about Bill Self's comments about this team lacking energy and needing to be better in that area or the players discussing how they might've overlooked Cincinnati and being disgusted at the thought of that happening, it's clear that this loss resonated inside the KU locker room. Taking one like this is never a good thing. Especially at home. But if they respond to it well and learn from it, maybe it can carry value. After KU lost to Iowa State in Ames last weekend, Self laughed at the idea of a loss like that being a wake-up call. And that certainly made sense. Ames is tough. Iowa State is a Top 5 team and they had revenge on their minds. But maybe calling this one a wake-up call is fair.
• One good sign with DP - He didn't play great, so we're not going to act like he did. His defense was below average and he shot just 7-for-17 from the floor, including a 1-for-7 clip from 3-point range, with 4 rebounds, 1 assist and zero turnovers in 32 minutes. But, if you're looking for one good thing to highlight with the talented freshman — outside of him actually playing a full game — you might look at the number of times he was looking to the refs and asking for fouls. Normally, I'm not a fan of this. But with a player as smooth, steady and stoic as Peterson, seeing a little fire on the floor might not be the worst thing.
DISLIKES
• Sluggish first half a sign of things to come - The Jayhawks were a step slow on just about everything in the first half and they paid for it big time. Rotations, close-outs, ball reversals, drives to the rim and even a few shots. All of that and more looked just a bit off. And it turns out the Jayhawks were way off for most of the day. They got beat up on the boards, gave up 30 points in the paint and allowed Cincinnatit to score 15 points off of 10 KU turnovers while getting just 3 points off of 10 Cincy turnovers. Worse than that, after a pair of free throws by Flory Bidunga cut the Cincinnati lead to three with just over 7 minutes to play, Cincinnati outscored Kansas 23-10 the rest of the way, with a 17-2 run from 7:17 from 1:54 being the knockout blow.
• 3-point D stunk - It's been hot and cold all season, but in this one, it was downright brutal. Not only did the Jayhawks allow 39% shooting (12-for-31) from 3-point range by the visitors, they barely contested more than half of those shots. Credit Cincy for good ball movement and a great game plan for some of that, but even when the Jayhawks were in position, their challenges were slow and lazy and did not affect the Cincinnati shooters even a little bit. Cincinnati made five triples in the first half and seven more in the second half. To compound the problem, KU made just 4-of-18 (22%) from 3-point range all day. Had they defended the arc better and made a few more, this one might've been up for grabs in the final minutes. Instead, it was merely Cincinnati adding to its highlights and relishing the win down the stretch.
• One sequence says a lot - There was a stretch in the first half of Saturday's loss that illustrated a whole lot about where KU senior Tre White and freshman Bryson Tiller are at in their seasons. Neither side of it was bad or good. It was just telling. The sequence began with Tre White catching a pass and exploding down the lane toward the rim. As he got closer to the basket, he cocked the ball back and try to posterize a Cincinnati defender — or maybe the whole Cincinnati team — with a vicious dunk. But he lost control of the ball and didn't get points or draw a foul. In fact, the miss started a fastbreak opportunity for the Bearcats. That's where Tiller came in. With the two teams racing toward the other basket, Tiller recovered behind the play and got all the way back to the other end to block a shot a the rim. Both were big-time effort plays. And I get where White was coming from. Being aggressive is rarely frowned upon. But in this instance, drawing the foul or trying to finish a layup might've been the better play. And, given where he's been with his offense and production lately, it's pretty likely that he was hoping one big highlight might zap the funk altogether. It didn't come, but Tiller was able to respond by showing how his development continues in a whatever's-best-for-the-team type of effort. It was just one play. It didn't matter in the outcome. And I'm not dogging either guy. But it was pretty telling.
• Tiller stumbles - He's been so good lately and so strong inside, that you can almost give him a pass on this one. After all, he is still a freshman and still learning. But it's important to see what him shutting down a little now does to the team as a whole. And it's not pretty. The surging freshman finished with just 4 points and 2 rebounds on 3 shots in 28 minutes and struggled to defend the Cincinnati bigs inside and out. He'll learn from it. But this was a bummer of an outing for an increasingly important KU player.
WHAT THE?
• That schedule, though - Yikes. KU needed this one to stay in the Big 12 hunt. But now the Jayhawks are facing a potential scary stretch in the week ahead. In fairness, it was always going to be scary. You're talking about two of the three or four best teams in the country — Monday vs. Houston and next Saturday at Arizona. But when you realize that those two games are now following this one, it's hard to think that KU will take much confidence into these two critical games. We've seen this dance before, of course. And the Jayhawks — as well as Allen Fieldhouse — have typically responded well. So, it's not crazy to think that things will be rocking on Monday night and the energy will be off-the-charts good. But even if it is, Houston is good enough to beat KU on any night and in any building, putting Self's 40-0 home record on Big Monday in jeopardy and positioning Houston coach Kelvin Sampson to become the first coach to ever beat Self twice in the Jayhawks' home gym. Win or lose on Monday night, the Jayhawks are going to have to keep that energy way up for the trip to Arizona next weekend, where the Wildcats will be waiting and certainly remembering that it was KU that knocked them from the ranks off the unbeaten and out of the No. 1 spot in the polls with an 82-78 win at Allen Fieldhouse two weeks ago. A three-game losing streak, though far from a guarantee, is certainly now possible, and that's not the kind of stretch anyone wants with March right around the corner.
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