A presumably angry group of Jayhawks will take the floor when No. 9 Kansas hosts Kansas State on Saturday afternoon in a Big 12 game in Lawrence, Kan.
The Jayhawks, after all, saw their three-game winning streak end with a 74-57 loss at No. 2 Iowa State on Wednesday.
With the Wildcats struggling to score, a low-scoring affair is likely on Saturday in the latest edition of the “Sunflower Showdown.”
Kansas State (7-9, 1-4) has lost four straight games and seven of its last eight, and the Wildcats haven’t scored more than 70 points since the first of those eight games.
They’re tied for 13th in the 16-team Big 12 Conference in overall scoring at an average of 73.2 points per game, thanks to a soft non-conference schedule.
Kansas (12-4, 3-2) is struggling a little on offense as well, but the Jayhawks still are playing outstanding defense. In the two games before Iowa State, they held Arizona State and Cincinnati to a combined 28 second-half points. Even against Iowa State, Kansas held the Cyclones to just 40.7 percent shooting from the field.
Turnovers did in the Jayhawks against Iowa State. They had 17, compared to just 16 assists.
“I actually thought our effort was good,” Kansas coach Bill Self said after the game. “I thought our competitiveness wasn’t very good. Iowa State’s got a good team. They’ve got talented guys. TJ (Otzelberger) and his staff have done a terrific job.
“But really, what makes them who they are (is) I bet they get 75 percent of every 50/50 ball. If there’s a ball in the air, they seem to get it. I thought in the first half there were probably five or six balls that they got that could have been our balls. We tried hard, but there’s a difference between trying hard and actually competing.”
Kansas depends heavily on the inside presence of Hunter Dickinson, who averages a double-double with his team-leading totals of 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. The only other double-figure scorer is Zeke Mayo (14.4 ppg).
Mayo is a native of Lawrence, Kan., who spent his first three seasons at South Dakota State before coming back to Kansas in the transfer portal.
Kansas State is looking for anything to click.
After the Wildcats won their Big 12 opener against Cincinnati on Dec. 30, they’ve lost four straight games — two on the road and the last two at home, where they scored 57 points in each contest.
Against Texas Tech on Tuesday, points were difficult to find. The teams combined for 13 in the final 10:09. The Wildcats went scoreless in the final 5:50.
“What we’re going through, you know, it’s not fun,” Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said after the loss. “But there’s something to be learned from this. I was really proud of our fight.
“We have to just be better, execution-wise, and can’t go 5 minutes … at the end of the game and not make a bucket.”
–Field Level Media
