8. Kansas (8-2)
While the Jayhawks are a Blue Blood program, there’s no question that we would have lopped praise on anyone who beats North Carolina, Michigan State, and Duke in the opening month of the season. Kansas is showing us that they belong among the top teams in the nation again and could push for the Big 12 crown after complications last season. However, December really started on the wrong foot with that 13-point loss at Creighton and it didn’t get much better.
Sunday saw another road loss, as the Jayhawks fell 76-67 at Missouri. Hunter Dickinson produced 19 points and 14 rebounds, while David Coit had 14 points, but Tamar Bates and the Tigers played a strong game and got the job done. We saw a much better performance this weekend, with the Jayhawks winning 75-60 at home over NC State. Zeke Mayo had a splendid performance with 26 points while Dickinson had 21 points and 14 rebounds.
We don’t mean any disrespect to Creighton or Missouri, but Kansas’s struggles in hostile environments against those two teams doesn’t bode well for Big 12 play. This team has looked like a world-beater at times, with Dickinson extremely capable and a flurry of nice shooters and defenders, but sometimes it just doesn’t click. No major challenges await the Jayhawks before New Year’s; we won’t even see them in action for another eight days.