What's up with Kansas?
Back-to-back home losses to Washington and Arizona State have soured the Jayhawks' December before conference play begins — during which they will try to win a 14th consecutive Big 12 regular-season title.
The loss to Washington, at Kansas City, was unexpected. And as good as Arizona State has been this season — surging to No. 6 in the coaches poll this week — losing at Allen Fieldhouse is not something the Jayhawks do very often.
The issue is a major lack of frontcourt depth. Outside of 7-footer Udoka Azubuike, who provides a serious backbone for this team, Kansas has no one bigger than 6-8. The top reserve big man is sophomore Mitch Lightfoot. Kansas football player James Sosinski was added to the roster to help the frontcourt bulk up.
One of the missing pieces, of course, is five-star 6-10 freshman Billy Preston, who is being held out while the university looks into an on-campus car incident involving Preston. His presence in the lineup could alleviate some of the problems.
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The frontcourt issue has led to a heavy reliance on perimeter shooting. That's fine when Kansas' guards are making shots (41% from beyond the arc on the season), but when they're not — they shot 25% from three against Washington and hurled up a staggering 38 three-pointers (making 14 of them) against Arizona State — then the Jayhawks are vulnerable. More than that, the guards aren't feeding the ball in the paint nor attacking the rim at a high rate, so easy buckets have been hard to come by. The Jayhawks rank in the 300s among Division I teams in free-throw rate, via KenPom.com.
Devonte' Graham, a preseason first-team All-American, is now at the controls of this team with national player of the year Frank Mason gone, but he's been trying to do too much in games instead of letting the game come to him.
LaGerald Vick has been a pleasant surprise as the team's leading scorer, Mississippi State transfer Malik Newman has transitioned nicely, and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk has taken a huge step forward as a senior. That's all on offense, though. Coach Bill Self is going to have to get this team to an elite level defensively — with or without a major frontcourt presence — if it wants to win another Big 12 title and finally break through to the Final Four this season after back-to-back Elite Eight losses.
Arizona State transfer Sam Cunliffe, a 6-6 guard, becomes available in the next game, Dec. 16 against Nebraska, but he will just add more backcourt depth. Elite recruit Silvio De Sousa of the 2018 class, a 6-9 power forward, could graduate high school early and enroll in Lawrence in the next few weeks. Speeding a kid into service this quickly to fill holes might work, but it seems a little desperate.
Outside of frontcourt depth, there's a punch missing to this team that's most noticeable outside the stat sheet. Self told USA TODAY Sports at the beginning of the season that he sees ample talent on paper, but that a needed toughness factor wasn't fully developed yet.
"We're not even close," Self said in October. They aren't in December, either.
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