TCU scored 81 points, but Bill Self was more concerned about KU’s offense. Here’s why

TCU’s high-octane men’s basketball team has topped the 80-point mark in its last two games played in Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse.

Shahada Wells came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting — 3-of-4 from 3 — in last season’s shocking 83-60 road rout of the Jayhawks, while Trevian Tennyson, a transfer portal addition from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, hit 6 of 8 3s and was 9-of-12 shooting overall, scoring 24 points in Saturday’s 83-81 loss to KU in the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.

Wells averaged 5.9 points a game last season and is now at McNeese State. Tennyson, meanwhile, entered Saturday’s contest with a 7.3 scoring average.

KU as a team allowed 70.8 points a game in conference play in 2022-23. The No. 2-ranked Jayhawks (13-1) entered Saturday’s contest having allowed an average of 65.3 points in 13 nonleague contests.

“Our defense needs to get better,” KU coach Bill Self said Saturday after the unranked Horned Frogs (11-3) hit 30 of 65 shots for 46.2% to KU’s 32 of 60 shots for a sizzling 54.4%. TCU hit 8 of 21 3s; KU 5 of 14.

“That wasn’t our problem today,” Self quickly added. “Our problem today was our offense.”

TCU scored 22 points off KU turnovers Saturday after totaling 20 points off KU miscues in Lawrence a year ago.

Senior point guard Dajuan Harris, who had 10 points and eight assists in 39 minutes, suffered five turnovers. Senior center Hunter Dickinson and senior guard Kevin McCullar had three turnovers each. Junior forward KJ Adams had two turnovers, while squad newcomers Elmarko Jackson, Johnny Furphy, Parker Braun, Nick Timberlake and Jamari McDowell each had one.

“With their transition offense, you can’t get back on 3-on-1s or 2-on-1s if you turn it over,” Self said. “That’s what happened today. Our ball-handling and passing (were) poor. Fortunately we rebounded well (40-28 advantage) and shot a good percentage when we didn’t turn it over.”

The Jayhawks are well aware they must take better care of the basketball.

“Obviously that wasn’t the game plan going in,” Dickinson, who finished with 30 points and 11 rebounds, said of turning it over. TCU, led by Avery Anderson’s six thefts, piled up 16 steals, two off an all-time KU opponent high of 18 set by South Carolina State in 2001. KU had five steals.

Anderson’s six steals were one shy of a KU opponent-record seven thefts accomplished three times, the last by Baylor’s Terry Black in the 1999-2000 season.

A year ago in Lawrence the Horned Frogs had nine steals to KU’s eight.

“We knew they were going to try to speed us up. The pace they play … sometimes that makes the other team fall into their hands. (It) kind of speeds them up and those turnovers happen,” Dickinson said. “Obviously in the Big 12 a lot of teams know each other’s sets. A lot of times they were reading what we were trying to do. I need to be more careful with the ball. I had a couple bad passes. I need to try to limit those if we are going to try to win this thing.”

Adams, who scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, suggested to reduce turnovers the team might need to “slow down. Really athletic teams like TCU can beat us up (the court) a lot — slow down and not force things.”

As far as TCU’s Tennyson exploding for 24 points (17 more than his average), KU coach Self said: “He was great; Jamie (Dixon, TCU coach) has said publicly he is their best shooter since Desmond (Bane). He played great and we did a terrible job guarding him.”

Adams said 6-3 senior Tennyson was hard to contain.

“We knew he was a really good shooter,” Adams said. “We tried to limit his touches. When you have a fast guy like that who doesn’t need too much time to shoot it’s really hard to guard that. He made some tough shots. Trying to slow a guy down who is hot like that is nearly impossible. We still won the game. That’s all that matters.”

KU did ultimately gain revenge for the loss to TCU in Lawrence a year go. The Horned Frogs were trying to become the first team since Iowa State in 2000 and 2001 to win in Allen Fieldhouse in successive seasons.

“Of course there was definitely a mindset (of gaining revenge),” Adams said. “They embarrassed us at our home place (last year). To not let it happen twice in a row was an emphasis. They guys that weren’t there (last year), we showed them a lot of clips when they played us here. They understood why we couldn’t let that go.”

KU will next meet UCF at 6 p.m. Central on Wednesday in Orlando, Florida.