Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self explains second-half meltdown in loss at Baylor
Kansas, a team that had won three of four Big 12 road games entering Saturday’s contest at unranked Baylor, led the Bears by as many as 21 points in the first half Saturday at Foster Pavilion.
Despite their success outside of Lawrence, the No. 11-ranked Jayhawks suddenly, inexplicably fell apart despite being up by 19 at the break: KU was outscored by Baylor (14-7, 6-4), 60-30, the final 20 minutes of an 81-70 loss.
That’s right. ...
Kansas (15-6, 6-4) led by 21 and lost by 11 despite the fact Bears freshman sensation VJ Edgecombe, who had scored 14 points, missed the last 14 minutes because of injury.
The loss for Kansas was historic in that KU squandered the biggest lead in school history in a defeat. The Jayhawks previously relinquished a 20-point lead to Arizona (44-24) in a loss to the Wildcats on Jan. 25, 2003 at Allen Fieldhouse..
What the heck was the difference in the two stanzas on Saturday?
“I honestly believe the oranges we ate at halftime that Baylor provided is probably the reason we (stunk) the second half,” coach Bill Self said jokingly.
On a more serious note …
“I didn’t think they were any good the first half and we were terrific,” Self said. The Jayhawks led 40-21 at the break.
“The second half we came out I thought with the mindset the score is 0-0, (and) let’s win the first five minutes. You get outscored (26-6) to score the second half … they had all the momentum. They were as good as we were the first half, plus. And we were as bad as they were the first half, plus. It was kind of a tale of two halves,” Self added.
Baylor freshman guard Robert Wright sliced through the KU defense for 24 points, 20 the second half. He also had six assists and two of Baylor’s six steals. The Bears’ full-court press harassed the Jayhawks during the comeback.
“We didn’t guard anybody the second half,” Self said. “Their ball-screen, our ball-screen stuff. A lot of it is what we told them (Jayhawks) to do. That’s on me. The freshman (Wright) is going to be a really good player. He wore us out the second half. We had no answer for him.”
The Jayhawks’ offense was spotty at best the final half. KU went 2-of-12 from 3 and committed seven turnovers. The Jayhawks were 6-of-10 from the free-throw line while hitting 11 of 31 shots in the half overall (35.5%).
Hunter Dickinson had eight of his team-high 20 points the final half for Kansas. He was 8-of-15 from the field overall.
KU after seeing its 21-point lead turn into a one-point deficit, actually rebuilt the lead to 10 points and led 59-49 with 9:11 to play.
“I never felt we had momentum the second half,” Self said. “We got it back to eight (10, but) I never felt we had momentum.”
Self went with KJ Adams (six points, six rebounds) and David “Diggy” Coit (eight points) in the lineup down the stretch, instead of Flory Bidunga (two points, zero boards, 14 minutes) and Shakeel Moore (zero points, zero assists, seven minutes), who started.
“Flory and Shak didn’t score today. At least the other two, the lid was off the basket a little bit,” Self said. “That wasn’t a real difficult decision.”
Asked the difference between the first and second half, Dickinson said simply: “The difference was they scored 21 in the first half and 60 in the second. I don’t think I’ve ever beat a team that scored 60 in a half. It’s hard to overcome even when you have a 19-point lead going into halftime.”
He acknowledged that Baylor’s press fueled the team’s comeback. A week earlier, a Houston press helped the Cougars defeat the Jayhawks in double OT at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We’ve got to figure out something,” Dickinson said. “Teams are noticing we have trouble with the press. We’ve got to fix something there.”
All in all, the Jayhawks were a somber group after letting the 21-point lead evaporate into a double-digit loss.
“Not much,” Self said, asked what he told the team after the game.
“Just get out of here, get back to Lawrence and regroup. We’ve got less than 48 hours before Iowa State comes into town. I did not say much,” Self repeated. “I don’t think in situations like that there’s a lot to be said. Any type of pick-me-up talk isn’t going to be heard. There’s no reason to get on anybody. I didn’t say much.”
Tipoff for KU-Iowa State is 8 p.m. Monday at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published February 1, 2025 at 7:32 PM.
