Kansas fell at the hands of Arkansas 85-69 in its first exhibition of the 2024-25 season. The Jayhawks were without Hunter Dickinson, Rylan Griffen, and Shakeel More and it showed. Kansas struggled offensively for a majority of the game. Bill Self spoke with the media after the game, discussing what he saw from both Kansas and Arkansas.
Kansas is not a complete team, newcomers struggle other than Rakease Passmore
The Jayhawks looked stagnant and out-of-sync on the offensive end as they missed having Dickinson in the middle. Self said the team they played with “wasn’t their team.”
“I’m thinking that it’ll be a different team when some other guys get out there,” Self said.
The product on the floor was what should’ve been expected of a team missing three key players in its first action against someone other than themselves this season. It was sloppy at times, with Kansas turning it over 17 times and committing 23 fouls.
“As bad as it was, we missed quite a few open looks, we had some unforced turnovers that led to layups and dunks for them, and statistically, if you make four free throws and your opponent makes 23, that tends to create a little bit of a scoring difference,” Self said. “I’m not going to leave out of here happy by any stretch, but I won’t leave out of here discouraged because I know that’s not who we are and that’s not what our team is.”
Kansas’ newcomers largely underperformed, with Self calling them “slow and lost.” He took the blame for that, saying the way they played did not align with the way they’d practiced.
“We didn’t run anything,” Self said. “We didn’t try to do anything tricky, but the way that we have practiced playing for a long time, it did not resemble that without Hunter out there.”
Rakease Passmore was a bright spot, finishing with 11 points, second on the team behind Dajuan Harris. Self called Passmore the best player on the floor for the Jayhawks against Arkansas.
“I think Rakease Passmore, for what his role is, he was the best player in the game for us,” Self said.
Arkansas a very talented team
Self was complimentary of the preseason No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks. He highlighted their guard play, as DJ Wagner finished the game with 24 points and Boogie Fland added 22 points, six steals, and five assists.
“That’ll be the best trio of guards we play against this year,” Self said. “There won’t be anyone better than that that we play against.”
Zvonimir Ivisic was another player who came over from Kentucky to play for John Calipari at Arkansas. He didn’t play against Kansas in the Champions Classic this season but had 18 points and six rebounds in Friday’s exhibition.
“He’s long, he’s got skill, he can shoot, he can pass, he can protect the rim” Self said. “I thought he was good. We didn’t do anything to put him in ball screens – we didn’t set one screen. We didn’t take advantage of some things or force him to help or do some things, which I would think we would if we played him better or maybe better coached.”
Self said that he thinks this Arkansas team may be better than some of the teams Calipari had at Kentucky.
Scheduling makes it tough to find a way to play Arkansas again
Self joked that playing Arkansas again was at the top of his Christmas wish list after Friday night’s beating. The exhibition was originally scheduled as an NIL event but transitioned into a charity event promoting mental health.
While Calipari and Self have a good relationship, it’s yet to be seen when the two will be scheduled to play again. Kansas plays 20 conference games and already has a number of high-profile non-conference games scheduled for the near future.
“The reality is I don't know [when we’ll play again], the way it’s done now, playing 20 league games,” Self said. “Without playing Arkansas, we’ve still got North Carolina, Duke, Michigan State, at Creighton, NC State, at Missouri… That’s 26 of your 31, so I don’t know if we need to toughen it up much more than we already have.”
