The Kansas Jayhawks lows continue to dip lower as the 2024-2025 basketball season seems to be slipping away. The home loss to open conference play against West Virginia seems like it was years ago at this point. The back-to-back Saturday losses in which the Jayhawks had a 98% chance to win in both games against Houston at home (leading by six and at the free throw line with 18 seconds left in overtime) and Baylor on the road (leading by 19 at halftime and losing by 11) seem like so long ago now.
The latest disaster came during a road trip to Utah where the Jayhawks took on the Utah Utes this past Saturday and the BYU Cougars on Tuesday evening. Kansas did not have a lead during the entire trip to Utah. The Jayhawks fell behind 5-0 to the Utes, and 8-0 to the Cougars, and were never able to bounce back in either game. It’s not like playing at Utah and BYU are supposed to be easy wins, the Utes are 14-3 at home and the Cougars are 13-2, but the Jayhawks were pushed around and not very competitive in either contest.
Kansas allowed 25 three-pointers over the two-game road trip. The Jayhawks were outrebounded by 10 rebounds in each game. They failed to score 70 points against Utah and failed to score 60 points against BYU. The 91-57 loss to the Cougars was the third worst point differential loss in program history and tied head coach Bill Self’s worst point differential loss at Kansas. It looked like there was no heart, no hustle, and no competitiveness on the court from the Jayhawks. Self had scathing words after both losses, including calling himself out.
“I’ve obviously done a Sh*t job of getting these guys to understand the way we have to play in order to give us a chance to win… I’m tired of regrouping… as an entire organization we need to accept responsibility… coaches, players, everybody,” Self said after the loss to Utah on Saturday.
Self sounded even more defeated after the horrific loss to BYU.
“We need to get away from each other, I’ll tell you that point blank. I thought this would be a great opportunity to be a team bonding situation, but it hasn’t been. It hasn’t been a good trip,” Self said.
“Right now, our intangibles are not where they need to be,” he added. “Which leads to looking a step slow, which leads to being on an island, which leads to poor communication, which leads to a lot of different things.”
It’s incredible how far this team has fallen off since the beginning of the season. Kansas was the AP preseason No. 1 team. The Jayhawks came out of the gates firing with big wins over North Carolina at home along with Michigan State and Duke on neutral court sites. North Carolina hasn’t had a great season, but Michigan State is a top-15 team, and Duke is a top-five team. It’s not like the talent Kansas possesses just went away after beating those teams.
What could be the case here is that teams like Duke and Michigan State have grown as a team, while it seems Kansas has taken a step back. No one seems to know completely why this has been the case for the Jayhawks. As the season inches closer to March, Kansas still doesn’t seem to have an identity. This is a huge problem. Getting those early season wins against Duke and Michigan State may help the Jayhawks get into the tournament when all is said and done.
Kansas has winnable games coming up against Oklahoma State and Colorado to wrap up the month of February, but then faces a tough stretch against two top 10 teams—Texas Tech and Houston—as well as a top 20 Arizona team to close out the regular season. Despite the steep fall-off as the season has progressed, the Jayhawks still have a lot to play for moving forward with the Big 12 and national tournaments on the horizon.
