What Kansas basketball accomplished in Monday’s 71-64 win at Colorado didn’t come without its imperfections.
The Jayhawks (19-9, 10-7 in Big 12) were not the rebounding team they should have been, and allowed 18 offensive rebounds while grabbing just five of their own. Add on to that the reality the Jayhawks had just one second-chance point, while the Buffaloes (11-17, 2-15 in Big 12) collected 16.
The Jayhawks also didn’t take anywhere near as an advantage of getting to the free-throw line as they should have, despite taking 18 more attempts than the Buffaloes over the course of the game. The Jayhawks shot 16-for-28 (57.1%) from the free-throw line, while the Buffaloes shot 7-for-10 (70%).
But this was still a Big 12 Conference road win for a Kansas team that had lost its last four opportunities to win a road game in league play. It’s a win, in general, for a team that just dropped out of the top 25 ahead of this game because of how it’s struggled for consistency in recent weeks. And so much of it has to do with the reality that veteran center Hunter Dickinson collected a 32-point and 13-rebound double-double, with both of those totals being more than any other player on either team put together during the matchup.
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“That was a great win,” Kansas coach Bill Self said on the Varsity Network postgame show. “Guys have been laboring and trying hard and not having much to show for it — especially away from home. And we did a lot of good things offensively early, and defensively, and it’s unbelievable to dominate the game like we did and go into the halftime up five. We made a bad play at the end of the first half, terrible defensive play, (Dajuan Harris Jr.) had the ball in his hands, he throws it to the other team to give them the last shot, and then we didn’t rebound the ball all night. If it weren’t for (Dickinson), we would have just gotten annihilated on the glass and they beat us bad anyway.”
What Kansas can point to as a positive, outside of the play of Dickinson and more, is the fact it held onto the game down the stretch. Despite the issues the Jayhawks have experienced with consistency during Big 12 play, especially on the road, they didn’t allow the past to dictate how the present would play out. It’s not going to give the team the momentum the recent home win and rout of Oklahoma State did, but it’s still going to matter moving forward.
Kansas was able to survive winning on the road despite being anything near a 3-point threat, in part because Colorado wasn’t that either. Bench points weren’t nearly as big a factor for the Jayhawks as they were for the Buffaloes, with the home side collecting 20 and the visitors collecting six. For the first time in some time on the road this season, Self and company proved they could win with some adversity put in their path.
Playing No. 10 Texas Tech at home on Saturday now becomes the next opportunity for Kansas to test just how resolved it is in its mentality that it’s in the midst of a new season. That new season, which started with the Oklahoma State game, puts the Jayhawks at 2-0 in their minds. Remaining on a winning track, though, will face its most significant test yet against Texas Tech.
“We’ll hook up Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and be ready to hopefully play a team that cleaned our clock last year,” Self said. “And, obviously, they’ve been the most pleasant surprise of anybody in our league. So, we need to be turned up and ready to go.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Nowhere near perfect, Kansas basketball emerges with win at Colorado
