The Kansas basketball team took on Cincinnati basketball on Monday night at home, and after a hot start from the Jayhawks, it turned into a pretty close game. Kansas got out to an early 19-7 lead, but Cincinnati quickly stormed back and went up 35-33 just before halftime. The two teams went into the break all tied up, and it made for an exciting second half. The Jayhawks ended up creating a little bit of separation in the final 20 minutes and they held off the Bearcats for a close 74-69 victory.

One issue that Kansas basketball has been having is bench production, and that was once again an issue in their game against Cincinnati basketball. The starters for the Jayhawks had a fantastic game as they had two players over 20 points and four out of five in double figures. The bench, however, combined for just two points. Kansas head coach Bill Self spoke after the game, and he admitted that the bench production is concerning.

“Yeah, I think there’s some concern,” Bill Self said after the game, according to an article from 247 Sports. “The two bench points came with 13 seconds left on free throws. So they basically out-score just 32-0 from the bench. I don't know if that's ever been heard of and a team wins. That’s how Wes plays. Wes has got guys and you know when whenever you don't start, obviously Skillings, and he gets 14 or whatever in the first half. So, that's obviously a bonus. We don't have that luxury. I guess if we brought Johnny off the bench, we would have more bench points but we got to get more production from that. But they didn’t play much either. Parker played plenty and Elmarko played 10 or whatever. Elmarko played 12 and Parker played 10 so yeah we can get more out of that. Obviously, Nick and Jamari didn't get a chance to really get in any rhythm.”

After a win in Big 12 play, there is usually a lot to be happy about and to celebrate, but that wasn't really the case for Kansas on Monday. Self also discussed the rebounding issues that hurt the Jayhawks after the game.

“Well we just didn’t rebound it well,” Self said. “If you’ve followed us we rebounded it great up until a certain point. We're not going to be a great rebounding team. We need to be a good rebounding team. That's what our ceiling is to be a real good rebounding team and an opportunistic offensive rebounding team, which we've actually done a decent job of. That team we played tonight is without question one of the best rebounding teams in the country. And we didn't do a great job in that regard. But I also think long rebounds, balls going through our hands, that's not actually blocking out. That's just attacking the ball, and we got to do a better job of attacking the ball.”

Kansas basketball had the bench production issues, they had the rebounding issues and they also had some turnover trouble. By halftime, the Jayhawks had already turned the ball over 10 times.

“Well, the second-half turnover was awful, with Dajuan throwing the ball,” Self said. “That play was bad. But I think we've done a pretty good job taking care of the basketball. It seemed like, to me, we turned it over the first two possessions of the second half and then we turned it over at the very end so we probably went 18 minutes without a turnover in the second half. When you shoot as a team around 50% even though it's not a lot of 3s, you got to get shot every possession. Those are the little things, eight instead of 16 you score on half of those that's eight points when you don't make a ton of 3s. So those are the things that are actually more important when you're not probably a prolific three-point shooting team yet.”

There were clearly a lot of things that Bill Self wasn't thrilled about during the Kansas victory on Monday, but the most important thing is that it was a Kansas victory. The Jayhawks hold themselves to a very high standard, and if they want to win a national title, they know what needs to improve. Kansas is back in action on Saturday for a difficult road test against Iowa State.