What happened to the KU Jayhawks’ rebounding in Saturday’s loss at West Virginia?
The Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team had plenty of chances to come away with a road win against West Virginia on Saturday night.
Instead, KU suffered its second conference defeat.
No. 3-ranked Kansas, a 10-point pre-game favorite, fell 91-85 to the Mountaineers at West Virginia Coliseum.
One thing will stick out when the Jayhawks (15-3, 3-2 Big 12) watch the tape from this contest: They lost because they executed the game’s fundamentals poorly down the stretch.
Saturday’s matchup largely came down to boxing out and getting rebounds, and West Virginia won the rebounding battle 31-22. KU collected a mere five rebounds on the offensive glass.
“Got to execute,” Kansas guard Kevin McCullar said. “That’ll cost you a ballgame down the stretch if you don’t block out.
“We’re talking about free-throw block-out all the time and work on it all the time. Today, we didn’t (box) out there at the the free-throw line at the end of the game and it cost us.”
The last minute of the game was a disaster for the Jayhawks — KU gave up three pivotal offensive rebounds in that decisive span.
WVU grabbed a key rebound with 39 seconds left. Noah Farrakhan missed a jumper for the Mountaineers, but KU’s Johnny Furphy failed to box out and Raquan Battle slithered in to grab the ball.
Furphy tried to get the ball back but fouled Battle on the ground. Battle missed the front end of the resulting one and one, but WVU fortward Quinn Slazinski gathered in the rebound and was fouled by KU’s Dajuan Harris.
Slazinski made his first free throw and missed the second. But then Slazinski, who was standing between Furphy and KJ Adams, got another offensive rebound because neither properly boxed him out.
Slazinski was fouled again and sank both free throws to put the hosts up by four, 85-81.
KU is typically a robust team when it comes to rebounding, ranking No. 67 in defensive rebounding percentage. But on Saturday, the Jayhawks essentially gave up three offensive rebounds in five seconds of game time.
Even KU coach Bill Self was left bewildered.
“I think Battle made an unbelievable play, and of course Slaznski made a great play on the free throw,” Self said. “Johnny ... he blocked him out, and then he froze. Then, he went around him on the long rebound on the free throw.
“Whenever Johnny is your lead rebounder, with six or whatever in the first half, and your second-leading rebounder had one ... Now, granted, they didn’t miss a lot of shots, but that tells you a lot right there. We didn’t come as turned up as we needed to be.”
