Big 12 Basketball: Texas Tech only Big 12 team to make the Sweet 16

By Chris Kern | Mar 25, 2019

TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 24: Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders celebrates his three pointer against the Buffalo Bulls in front of his bench during the second half of the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at BOK Center on March 24, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – MARCH 23: The Kansas Jayhawks bench reacts in the final moments of their 89-75 loss to the Auburn Tigers in the Second Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 23, 2019, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

Kansas Just Wasn’t Very Good

The Kansas Jayhawks had extremely high expectations coming into the season. They had lost many key players from last seasons Final Four team, but they still were the top-ranked team in the preseason poll. They brought in a high ranked recruiting class as well as multiple impact transfers becoming eligible.

So many players disappointed this season. Quentin Grimes, Charlie Moore, and KJ Lawson are a few guys who didn’t live up the hype as they were all expected to be big-time players. The team dealt with many injuries and suspensions that led to those guys being forced into larger roles and they never were able to step up.

This team did have some players who were very good though, most notably Dedric Lawson and Devon Dotson. Those two guys made an impact each and every game for this team. On a team with so much inconsistency, it was good to see these two perform the way they did. Outside of those two, it was tough to know who was going to play well on any given game.

Kansas struggled all season long and that was put on full display in the loss against Auburn. After a very impressive performance against Northeastern, they really struggled, but they weren’t able to repeat that performance in the next game. They struggled from the get-go in their 75-89 loss.

The loss exemplified all the struggles they went through this season. All season long they found ways to win games largely due to having such a dominant home court advantage, but at the end of the day, they just weren’t good enough. Auburn was the much faster and better team as they did a good job at pushing the pace and lighting up the scoreboard.

Despite all the struggles they had this season the future is still bright in Lawrence. One of the positives from some of the struggles the team went through is that they could bring back more players than they were originally expected to. If they can do a good job finishing up the recruiting class then expect the Jayhawks to be a Final Four contender again next season.

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