I’m sitting here inside Mizzou Arena, and, to be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure what to say. Kansas, in dropping to 7-2, just lost its second straight game, both on the road, and this one, like the game against Creighton on Wednesday, wasn’t particularly close. Facing the Tigers in Columbia on Sunday, Bill Self’s squad led for a couple of seconds, 2-0, trailed by as many as 24 points, cut the deficit to two points with 2:20 left, but would get no closer.
There was a point in the game where Kansas committed six turnovers in a span of four minutes and just couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end of the court. When Kansas pulled to within two points, Missouri looked a little shaken and the Jayhawks, without question, should have taken full advantage of the situation.
Instead, Mark Mitchell drilled a three from the corner, and that pretty much put an end to KU’s comeback attempt.
In trailing a majority of the game, Kansas was led by Hunter Dickinson. In 34 minutes of action, Dickinson scored 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 shooting from behind the arc, and was 1-of-1 from the free-throw line.
To me, it felt like a quiet 19 points, but I’m guessing that’s due to the fact that Kansas trailed for much of the game and, despite pulling to within two points, would get no closer and found itself down by double-digits once again.
It was another struggle for Dajuan Harris on the offensive end of the court. Against Missouri, he was just 5-of-14 from the field, 1-of-5 from behind the arc, and 2-of-3 from the free-throw line. He also dished out five assists, committed three turnovers, and was credited with two steals.
Still, hitting from behind the arc and finishing at the rim was a struggle.
KJ Adams added 11 points and four rebounds in 31 minutes of action. He was 3-of-7 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line, but also committed three turnovers. Dickinson led the way with seven turnovers and, as a team, Kansas committed 22 total turnovers.
The best player on the court for Kansas was probably David Coit. In 25 minutes of action, Coit scored 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three.
Zeke Mayo added four points, Rylan Griffen three points, and AJ Storr chipped in two points.
For the game, Kansas shot 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from the field, 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from behind the arc, and 81.8 percent (9-of-11) from the free-throw line.
Kansas won the battle on the glass, 40-29. Self’s squad scored 10 points off turnovers (Missouri scored 23), scored 30 points in the paint (MU scored 32), added 13 second-chance points (MU scored 6), six fast break points to MU’s 10, and six bench points to MU’s four.
The truth is, I’ve got no idea what the identity of this team is at this point. If you look at the last two games, at Creighton and at Missouri, both came ready to play and delivered some blows early on and set the tone against Kansas.
Kansas had a chance to steal both games but failed to make game-winning plays when presented the opportunity. There are a number of individuals on this team who have talent, but it hasn’t come together as a complete unit yet.
“Well, I thought after the Duke game I thought we were closer to establishing an identity,” said Self. “Then we played really well the next game against Furman, who's got a good team and really looked good. But this last week, we haven't been any good at all the last five days. So I don't know. I don't know that we're close to finding identity yet because who are we? Are we a skilled team? Are we an athletic team? Are we an execution team? What do we really hang our hat on? Are we a toughness team? Do we make people play bad? I'll be honest with you: I think right now we're kind of in a situation that it'd be hard for me to say from game to game what we are now. That doesn't mean we can't do any of those things in any particular game, but you would think and college football team that allows ten first downs a game or doesn't allow a hundred-yard rusher all season long, you would think going into the next game they could bank on that still being the case and I don't know that we can do that right now.
“Well, if we don't find it then it won't be a fun year,” he added. “We'll find it. But teams become teams at certain times throughout the year. This may have been a big step for Mizzou in becoming a team. I don't know that for a fact because I'm not in their practices, but I know with us, we are going to go through ebbs and flows the whole time until we actually become a team. And at this point in time, we have not yet because in order to be a team, you have to have an identity."
