LAURENT — Kansas basketball recovered Sunday with a 99-48 road victory in Big 12 Conference play against UCF.
Jayhawks No. 7 (10-3, 1-1 in the Big 12) has just won its first championship victory of the season. This came after a disappointing home loss a few days earlier against West Virginia. UCF (10-3, 1-1 in the Big 12) never led or even came close to having the potential to rush the field late in this game.
Here are some takeaways from this game:
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Kansas showed the energy it lacked in previous road games
Kansas earned its first real road victory on Sunday, and for good reason. Not just because of how well the Jayhawks shot the ball or defended, but because of how well they started the game with so much energy and kept it up for 40 minutes. In the last two road games they played this season, at Creighton and Missouri, that wasn’t really the case.
Look at the way a starter like senior forward KJ Adams stepped up and bounced back after a disappointing performance against West Virginia. Watch the way bench players stepped up, like junior guards AJ Storr and Rylan Griffen, as they ensured offensively that just the fact that head coach Bill Self played against those beyond his holders for significant periods did not mean that UCF would be able to mount them. a kind of return. And perhaps freshman forward Flory Bidunga’s play proved that more than anyone else’s.
Flory Bidunga has chance to make Big 12 freshman team
No matter how early it is to start discussing which freshman will be the best in the Big 12 this season, Bidunga has earned the right to be part of that conversation. After thriving in the loss to West Virginia, he could have played even better in the win against UCF. This time, he finished with 12 points, six blocks and five rebounds.
It might be easy to say that Bidunga simply benefited from a stellar performance from his entire team, but that wouldn’t be fair to him. For example, take a look at a sequence in which he blocks a shot, grabs the rebound and sends the ball toward a bucket on the other end. A number of Kansas players made noteworthy plays on Sunday, but none likely matched what Bidunga did in that moment.
Now it’s up to Kansas to keep this effort going
It’s not enough to prove that it can play just as well in Big 12 competition, or on the road anywhere, for a Kansas team that aspires to win the league and compete for a national championship. The Jayhawks need to make sure they can maintain this type of effort in the future as they face even tougher competition – both at home and on the road. That joy that fans could see on the sidelines throughout the UCF game, and especially late among KU players celebrating their teammates playing, should be a common occurrence in the weeks to come.
The next three Big 12 games see Kansas face Arizona State (home), Cincinnati (away) and Iowa State (away). All three can be losses if the Jayhawks play like they did against West Virginia. All three can be wins if they play like they did against UCF.
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas sports at the Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association Sportswriter of the Year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article was originally published on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball shows potential in road win at UCF
