Kansas Jayhawks’ turnovers, poor free-throw shooting were costly at Iowa State
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self didn’t cite “Hilton Magic” as the reason for a pair of statistical oddities that cost the Jayhawks a shot at an upset victory against No. 2-ranked Iowa State on Wednesday night at Hilton Coliseum.
There’s no way of telling if the roar of a soldout crowd of 14,267 accounted for No. 9-ranked KU’s 17 turnovers and contributed to the Jayhawks’ 4-of-11 shooting performance from the free-throw line in a 74-57 defeat at a building where ISU has now won 28 games in a row.
The Jayhawks (12-4, 3-2) entered 42-of-49 from the line in four Big 12 games for a sizzling 85.7% mark. What’s more, KU had averaged just 9.3 turnovers a game in its initial four Big 12 contests.
“All year long we’ve been really good at not turning the ball over,” Self said. Counting the nonconference portion of the schedule, the Jayhawks entered with a 10.1 turnovers-per-game average.
“That tonight was a turned-up team that we played against defensively. They were so good with their hands and so active on the perimeter and athletic. I just don’t think we were prepared to go against that speed like we need to be. We’ll get better at handling it. That was disappointing tonight,” Self added Wednesday.
The Cyclones (15-1, 5-0) had 11 steals to KU’s six, three apiece by guards Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise.
“It’s something you can’t really emulate in practice. They are so aggressive. They pressure 94 feet,” said KU senior guard Zeke Mayo. “It’s hard to experience that before you play them. Most of our team has had experience playing against them. I have played against them myself (previously at South Dakota State) and a lot of returning guys have played against them,” added Mayo, KU’s only double-digit scorer Wednesday with 17 points.
The turnovers, plus chilly 5-of-16 3-point shooting contributed to KU’s 57-point total. The Jayhawks suffered 10 turnovers the first half and trailed, 40-30, at the break.
“We’ve obviously got a lot of things to try to iron out from an offensive standpoint,” said Self. “Just brutal as far as to be able to pass, catch, cut and play to the open look. It’s unbelievable. I bet you when we were forced to use a majority of the clock the first half we usually got a good shot and had a better chance to score during the last seven seconds on the shot clock. Still we were too impatient to get it to that point to move them around (on defense). We didn’t do a good job attacking what they do.”
Defensively … “We said we were going to take away the guards. Other than Jones playing out of his mind, I actually thought we did a good job on (Keshon) Gilbert and Lipsey,” Self said.
Buffalo transfer guard Curtis Jones scored 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting (5 of 6 from 3). Lipsey scored 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting. He was 2 of 5 from 3. Gilbert scored seven points on 2-of-7 shooting (1 for 1 from 3). Gilbert had eight assists to one turnover and Lipsey three assists to three turnovers.
Then there’s the free-throw situation.
Overall KU entered 143-of-190 from the stripe for 75.3%
“Gosh dang you go 4 of 11 from the free-throw line. Our point guard is 1 for 6 and he’s a great free throw shooter,” Self said.
Point guard Dajuan Harris, who indeed was 1 for 6 Wednesday, had marched to the line just six times total in the first four Big 12 games, converting all six chances.
For the year, Harris entered 19-of-22 for 86.4%.
“It (stinks) to miss a lot of free throws,” said Mayo, who did not attempt a free throw in 36 minutes Wednesday. For the year he’s made 26 of 30 for 86.7%. “Some guys stepped up, (and) the ball didn’t go in the rim. It happens. It’s not the end of the world. It’s something we’ll work on at practice for sure. It’s tough to not see the ball go in.”
Now the Jayhawks prepare for Kansas State (7-9, 1-4), which visits Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday for a 12 p.m. tipoff.
“After the game we kind of tried to get that game out of our mind quickly,” KU senior center Hunter Dickinson said after scoring six points on 3-of-10 shooting with eight boards in 29 minutes. “We know it is a quick turnaround for K-State. We know they’ll be very fired up to try to come in our building and get a win to try to turn their season around.”
“It’s very important we try to learn from this game but also kind of let it get behind us an and prepare for a big game against K-State. We know they are going to play their tails off to try to get back on track,” Dickinson added.
KU coach Self did not have an update on the status of senior forward KJ Adams on Thursday. Adams hurt his shoulder in the second half of the Iowa State game. He returned after getting checked out in the locker room, but did not play down the stretch. Self could provide an update Friday during his regular pre-game news conference to be held in advance of the KSU game.
“We’ve got to get ready for K-State and hope like heck KJ’s shoulder isn’t a situation where he misses significant time,” Self said after Wednesday’s game. “I’m not a doctor. The doctor said his range of motion was fine. It was the right decision for him to try to play (after being checked out in locker room), but after getting it hit another time it definitely hurt him to the point he had to come out and that’s not like KJ to want to or have to come out under most circumstances. He has to be pretty sore.
“It’ll be an intense game,” Self added of the KSU contest. “They are desperate. We should play desperate. It should be two teams getting after each other.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 8:57 PM.
