Kansas fell to Houston, 65-59, on Monday night. It was a closely contested affair and neither team led by more than 10 points in the contest. There were six lead changes and three ties over the 40 minutes and despite the close nature of the contest, Houston was in control for the majority of the game. Down the stretch, poor defensive rebounding and multiple turnovers doomed the Jayhawks and they couldn’t get over the hump.
As a team, KU allowed a season-high 17 offensive rebounds that turned into 11 points. KU also turned the ball over a Big 12 play-high 20 times and those opportunities turned into 18 points for Houston. As a team, KU shot 45% from the field while Houston shot 35%, but Houston took 26 more shots than KU. Individually, Hunter Dickinson led KU with 17 points and 12 rebounds. KJ Adams finished with 15 points and David Coit scored 14 points in a season-high 29 minutes.
Postgame, Bill Self met with reporters to discuss the game. Here’s what the KU head coach had to say about the Jayhawks and their performance…
On the turnovers and what led to KU giving away possessions frequently…
“I actually thought that their defense had a lot to do with it. But we were careless with the ball early, but I think that we did some good things offensively when we didn’t turn it over, our execution was pretty good. But, yeah, 20 turnovers and 17 offensive rebounds. That’s 37 times they had a chance to at least shoot the ball that was created by us or them, where we only took advantage of 13 situations in the same thing. And that was a difference.”
On KJ Adams and what it meant to have him back, unlike the first game…
“I thought he was great. What he did best was ball screen defense. And he did a good job on Roberts, without question. I thought KJ was great.”
On the rotating group of players who were at the three…
“Yeah, we didn’t get any production. So Rylan and AJ, obviously labored and gave Rakease a shot, but to be honest with you, our best team was, was with Diggy out there, because he at least is a threat to score the ball.”
