Kansas Basketball: 3 takeaways from blowout loss at Tennessee

With both squads struggling to put points on the board entering the game, the general expectation for the showdown between Kansas Basketball and the Tennessee Volunteers was for their SEC/Big 12 tilt to be a low-scoring affair – but instead, the Volunteers rolled over the Jayhawks in dominating fashion, claiming an 80-61 victory.

For the Jayhawks, this is, obviously, an extremely disappointing setback.  Bill Self’s squad has now lost four of their last five games, with the lone victory coming last Thursday in an unimpressive eight-point win over TCU.  With the exception of a win over Oklahoma, the Jayhawks have failed to pick up a win over a top-tier program in the 2021 calendar year, falling to Texas, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and the Sooners – and now, Tennessee.

This game was a struggle for the Jayhawks on both ends of the court.  Offensively, Kansas put up just 0.953 points per possession – with that mark being 0.813 in the first half.  The Jayhawks necessarily did not play badly in the second half – they were outscored by just five – but the opening stanza greatly ailed them, with Kansas maintaining clips of 26.9% (FG) and 8.3% (3PT), and their 14-point halftime differential eventually ballooned to a 26-point lead for Tennessee in the second half.

The Volunteers desperately needed this win, having endured similar struggles with disappointing back-to-back conference losses to Florida and Missouri – and, like Kansas, were coming off an extremely unimpressive 56-53 win over Mississippi State on Tuesday.  This was their highest scoring output since putting 81 up against Vanderbilt back on January 16th and is their best win since toppling Missouri back at the end of December.

Much of Tennessee’s offensive woes have come from not having a go-to guy to score – but that did not hurt them at all against the Jayhawks.  The Volunteers had four double-digit scorers, with Yves Pons tying the game-high with 17 points (5-7 2PT, 2-2 3PT, 1-1 FT).  Joining him were Jaden Springer (13 points), John Fulkerson (11 points, six rebounds, three assists), and Victor Bailey (11 points, four assists) off the bench.

With their step out of Big 12 play now done and over, the Jayhawks have numerous issues to figure out heading into February.  They will not have much time before their next game – they play Tuesday against Kansas State – and two giants in West Virginia and Oklahoma State await them afterward.  If they hope to remain in the Big 12 race – and not drop out of the AP Top 25 – then they will need to address the following issues.