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Published Mar 4, 2023
Jalen Wilson: "Our season is really just beginning now"
Shay Wildeboor  •  JayhawkSlant
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Late on Saturday afternoon, No. 3 Kansas, for the first time since losing at Iowa State on February 4, walked off the court in defeat. Bill Self’s squad, in losing to No. 9 Texas, 75-59, saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end.

Minutes after the game, Jalen Wilson, who led the way with 21 points and 10 rebounds, talked about what went wrong for Kansas on Saturday.

“I think we just needed to move the ball more,” said Wilson on Saturday. “They’ve got a lot of quick guards. I think it's been clear all season that if we get stagnant, our offense doesn’t look its best, so we’ve just got to fix that.”

Kansas, the outright winner of the Big 12 regular season championship, led for a total of 2:49 of game time against Texas. After scoring the first two points of the game, the Jayhawks failed to regain the lead again for the rest of the game.

Kansas trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, tailed by eight points at the half, and pulled to within seven points in the second half, but failed to get any closer. The Longhorns, in the second half, led by as many as 17 points.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Kansas, for the first time in seven games, walked off the court in defeat.

How much, if any at all, did Kansas winning the Big 12 regular season championship outright have an impact on today’s outcome?

“None at all,” said Kevin McCullar, Jr. “There's another Big 12 game we wanted to come out and win it. We just came out a little flat I would say. And yeah, like J (Jalen Wilson) said, we just got to move the ball a little better, get some stops and get back in transition a lot better, and just clean some things up.

“We missed some easy ones, we got to make those too,” he added.


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Saturday's Big 12 Showdown in the Moody Center was certainly frustrating for Kansas, but nothing was lost with the setback in Austin. The Jayhawks, the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, are still very much in the running for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The last time Kansas lost a game, Self’s squad responded by rattling off seven straight wins. With the most important part of the season up next on the schedule, don’t be surprised if Kansas responds with a similar type of response.

“We're good,” said Wilson. “Tough losses in the Big 12 happen and have happened all year and can't really guarantee when you're on the road to play your best. But they have a great atmosphere and that gym, it's great playing and they're going to play hard on senior night so, things like this happen and luckily we have the opportunity to play them again soon.

“We got the tournament coming up so, just getting locked in for that and understanding that our season is really just beginning now,” he added.

Moving forward the rest of the season, a big key to KU’s success will be getting freshman guard Gradey Dick back on track from behind the arc. Against Texas, Dick was just 2-of-5 from the field (both makes from behind the arc) and scored just six points.

Dick, against Texas Tech, was 0-of-7 from the field, 0-of-5 from behind the arc, and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. The first time Kansas and Texas met on February 6, Dick led the way with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, including 2-of-3 from behind the arc, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

In that first meeting, Kansas defeated Texas, 88-80.

“Everyone knows he's an elite shooter and they're not going to let him get any good looks off,” said Wilson when talking about Dick. “So, it's up to us to continue to try to get him screened and get him some good looks. A team like that understands that if he gets hot that our offense, like I said, looks a lot better so they're playing him tight and not let him come off any ball screens and stuff like that.

“So, like I said, we’ve just got to continue to try to screen for him and show some different actions to throw them off,” he added.