NCAA Basketball: Kansas, Purdue, Marquette, and Tennessee takeaways from Maui Invitational

3rd place – Kansas Jayhawks

Positive takeaway: Jamari McDowell and Jonny Furphy earned extra minutes

The major issue for the Jayhawks is that outside of its top-4 players, there’s next to no scoring depth. But they got some solid minutes from its two freshmen off the bench. McDowell, who didn’t play much to start the season, played 27 minutes in the win over Tennessee, scoring seven points and making a couple of three-pointers. And Furphy, a 6’6 wing from Australia, chipped in with five and made both of their shots.

Asking Dajuan Harris and Kevin McCullar to play 37-40 mpg in Big 12 play is going to be a tough task and foul trouble will inevitably occur. So seeing these two develop is going to be key for the program for the rest of the season and their play in Maui earned them some more time.

Negative takeaway: Nicolas Timberlake’s struggles continue

Two players that had preseason hype were top-30 freshman guard Elmarko Jackson and Towson transfer Nicolas Timberlake. Yet so far, both have given the Jayhawks next to nothing. Jackson has been starting because there aren’t other options but McDowell may be eating into his minutes.

Timberlake is the bigger issue, as he’s a 5th-year senior that shot over 40% from deep. He’s averaging just 4.0 ppg on 27% shooting from deep and played just three minutes against Tennessee. Considering that there’s little depth to begin with, him not being in the rotation is very problematic. Kansas needs him to find some confidence in December before league play.