The Kansas Jayhawks' loss to the Iowa State Cyclones was a completely different from the first meeting in Lawrence
The Kansas Jayhawks made easy work of the Iowa State Cyclones when the teams met earlier this season in Lawrence.
It was much different on Saturday in Ames, Iowa.
The Cyclones returned the favor with a relatively easy 74-56 victory. It was the Jayhawks' lowest point-total since a 61-56 loss to the UConn Huskies in early December.
“They pressured the crap out of us," KU coach Bill Self said. "You guys saw what I saw. They pressured us and strung us out or trapped us off ball screens and we didn’t handle that well at all. Our ability to move the ball and drive gaps to force help was pretty weak the entire first half. Second half, we actually did a better job with it. But they had so much pressure on the ball, even when guys were open we didn’t think about passing to them because we were just trying to survive. So give them credit. That game today mirrored the game in Lawrence. It was us in Lawrence doing that. Today it was them doing that, and we didn’t handle it very well at all.”
The loss snapped the Jayhawks' eight-game winning streak, which began with the win against Iowa State Jan. 13. Self noticed the different and basically said his team has to make the next adjustment if the teams meet in the Big 12 or NCAA Tournament.
“They were a lot better today than they were against us the first time," Self said. "TJ and I have actually talked about this, the season’s long. We caught them when they weren’t very good. They had a terrible seven to 10 days, worst stretch they’ve had this season. We were the same way coming off a stretch like that and bowed our neck that game. They bowed their neck this game. It’s a long season. It ebbs and flows. It’s disappointing we left out of here not putting game pressure on them. You can come up here and play great and not win, but we certainly didn’t put any significant game pressure on them.”
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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of HeatRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com