In their first 11 years under Bill Self, the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team lost by at least 25 points just once. In the last 35 days, they have done it twice. Once to Kentucky as a part of the Champions Classic in Indianapolis, and now to the unranked Temple Owls in Philadelphia. It was outright domination through much of the game for the Owls, cruising to a 77-52 win over KU.
The Owls clearly came to play, while very few of the Jayhawks did. Right from the get-go, Temple was outplaying Kansas in terms of pure performance, as well as in hustle plays. The bigs for Kansas struggled to hold on to rebounds and the entire team was making sloppy ball-handling and passing decisions, and the Owls were able to take advantage. Kansas took their first timeout of the game just over 6 minutes into the first half, and they were already facing a 10 point deficit. KU continuously turned the ball over and missed shots, while Temple got to the costless throw line frequently and took advntage of the host of turnovers early. It was not a close game to start and it would remain that way throughout, with the Jayhawks never being ablwe to catch up.
One of the most telling statistics for Kansas on the day was that starting point guard Frank Mason had 20 points in the game; the rest of the team (consisting of the 10 other players who saw minutes) only scored 32. All three starting guards for Temple (Jesse Morgan, Will Cummings and Quenton DeCosey) all scored in double digits, and their totals alone would have outscored Kansas in this game. KU could not shoot well (just 32.1% for the game) and played a sloppy game, committing 17 turnovers, while Temple played just the opposite (shooting 58.3% from the field with 12 turnovers). When it was all said and done, the Temple Owls took down the Kansas Jayhawks 77-52.
It was a rough day all around for Kansas. Frank Mason, one of the team's most consistent performers, had himself another very solid game, leading all scorers with 20 points, also contributing 3 steals defensively. Kelly Oubre, a freshman guard, led KU with 7 rebounds.
Temple had a very efficient, very effective offensive day against the Jayhawks. While all three starting guards finished in double digits, Will Cummings poured in the most points with 19. He also led the team in assists with 4. The Owls' leader in rebounds for the day was Jaylen Bond with 10.
Temple has had a solid start to their season, as they are now 8-4, including an impressive 6-0 at home at the Liacouras Center. The Owls have not been the most formidable of opponents in the last few seasons, but they have looked very good to start the season, and this is an incredibly impressive victory. Once conference play starts in the American Athletic Conference, it will be very difficult to take down Temple this year, especially in Philadelphia.
While they only have two losses thus far, it does seem as though the first stretch of the season has been a bit of a failure for the Kansas Jayhawks, especially considering those two losses were blowouts, one of which to an unranked team. Lawrence, Kansas, has come to expect Big 12 championships from the Jayhawks, but this squad needs a great deal of work before that can even be considered at this point. The team turns the ball over too much, their shooting can be incredibly poor at times, and several players, who were expected to be studs, have fallen flat throughout much of the start of this season (including Svi Mychaliuk, Wayne Selden and Perry Ellis, who was just 1-10 from the floor tonight). You can never completely count out the Kansas Jayhawks, but at this point in the 2014-2015 season, they are not a typical KU team, and not in a good sense.