On a Saturday full of stunning upsets in college basketball, the loss by Kansas basketball against unranked Cincinnati may have been the biggest stunner of the lot. Despite coming into the game just above .500 on the season and well out of the NCAA Tournament conversation, Cincinnati went into one of the toughest places to play in the nation and got a shocking 84-68 victory.
This was a bit of a trap game for Kansas, which may have been looking ahead a bit to Monday night's titanic home clash against No. 2 Houston. However, head coach Bill Self knows a lot has to change if the Jayhawks are going to rebound from this loss against a very good Houston squad, via Jack Ritter of 247 Sports.
“We'll meet tomorrow at two, and go over. Things happen, and we got to stay together,” Self said. “I think that we will, without question, they're great kids. But we weren't competitive today. And the message is, ‘If you can't make other people play poorly, no matter where you're playing, it could be a long afternoon or evening,' and that's exactly what happened. We didn't do anything to get them out of rhythm.”
Kansas struggled in a lot of areas on Saturday, but scoring the basketball and rebounding were two of the biggest. The Jayhawks shot just 44% from the field and had 10 turnovers in the game while losing the rebound battle by 11, giving up 14 offensive rebounds to Cincinnati.
“I'd say they were more aggressive,” Self said. “They were more physical, and we played soft.”
Cincinnati has had a solid season offensively, but it was still a major surprise to see the Bearcats shut Kansas down in the manner they did. Houston has one of the best defenses in the entire country, so Self has a lot to figure out if his squad is going to rebound and beat the Cougars on Monday night.
“Yeah. Houston's numbers are even better in Cincinnati's, and Cincinnati's defensive numbers are really, really good,” Self said after the loss.
There is no time to rest for Kansas, as after Houston the Jayhawks will get ready for another top-10 tilt against Arizona on Saturday in Tucson.
