MANHATTAN -- The Jayhawks struggled offensively during their 75-70 overtime loss to Kansas State on Monday night. The Jayhawks shot just 3-of-15 from three-point range and missed some key opportunities on the night.
“The thing about it is folks, we’re not good enough to not execute, not play smart,” head coach Bill Self said. “When you go on the road you need to make free throws, you need to do a lot. You need to take advantage of your opportunities and we didn’t do that well enough.”
The Jayhawks left plenty of points on the board against the Wildcats. Perhaps most notable was Kevin McCullar going 1-of-5 from the free throw line, including missing the front end of a one-and-one deep in overtime that could have tied the game. Earlier in the season, McCullar had a streak of 22 straight made free throws but has cooled down since.
Self mentioned free throws, but there were plenty of other missed opportunities that his team did not capitalize on.
“We didn’t do a good job with the opportunities we had,” Self said. “[Dajuan Harris] underthrows Hunter [Dickinson] on an uncontested layup, Parker [Braun] throws a high-low pass when it was wide open and it went out of bounds, Kevin missed a layup at the end of the first half. You score four points on those you wouldn’t be asking the same question.”
Harris scored 15 points for the Jayhawks to go along with his eight assists. Before the Kansas State game, Kansas’ only loss when he scored more than 10 points came in last season’s NCAA tournament loss to Arkansas.
The individual who had the most uncharacteristic night offensively was Johnny Furphy. He had scored in double figures in every game since entering the starting lineup, but against the Wildcats only scored four.
"With all of the success he's had, his book's grown," Self said of Furphy.
As teams see him on film more, they are starting to pick up tendencies. Self is not worried about it long term, however.
“He’s obviously a good player, great prospect, and we’re going to need him to be an offensive threat for us, but I just think today he was kind of due one of these,” Self said.
Furphy’s teammates believe that there is more that can be done to involve him in the offense, as he is not getting many chances to show his athleticism.
“I feel like they were quicker with their closeouts with him,” Dickinson said. “Like coach said earlier, they’re going to adjust how they guard him. I think teams are realizing he’s a really good catch-and-shoot guy so I think as a team we’ve got to try to adjust to that because he’s so talented that he’s more than a spot-up shooter. We’ve got to be able to exploit his talents out there.”
