Bill Self shares key to changes in second game vs. TCU

Kansas‘ two games against TCU have been the low and high points of their season. A few weeks back, the reigning champs shockingly lost to the Horned Frogs by 23 points in Phog Allen Fieldhouse, which was the second loss in a three-game losing streak. Fast forward to this past Monday, and the Jayhawks extracted revenge over TCU in Fort Worth to win their fifth in a row. It wasn’t a blowout, but the Jayhawks eked out a 63-58 win over a healthy Horned Frogs club — who, at full strength, play like a top-10 team. Another impressive victory following their 16-point win over Baylor two days prior.

After the evening the score with TCU, media asked Kansas head coach Bill Self what had changed between the first and second matchups with Jamie Dixon’s team. Self pointed to defense and rebounding as two keys on Monday:

“Well, the one in Lawrence we played awful and they played great. And we didn’t do anything to make them not play great. Today, at least we guarded and rebounded for 40 minutes for the most part and we did a good job on the guys that we felt could really have big nights.”

Self added that even though Kansas scored in the low 60s, he thought the offense got good looks, but just missed a few too many easy ones.

“We didn’t play as bad offensively as our stats show because we got some great looks and we missed some layups and got the ball we need to go. But that’s not very good offensive execution. And it was just like, no matter what we did offensively, score or not score, it was never let them get the lead. And we really guarded there late.”

Lastly, Bill Self singled out Kevin McCullar for his strong performance against TCU, saying, “Kevin McCullar was terrific,” after he finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

McCullar is typically the third or fourth option on the offense, yet is still capable of carrying the load on any given night. That’s the strength of this Jayhawk team: they have four guys between 6-6 and 6-8 who can serve as go-to options on offense depending on the matchup. Jalen Wilson is the All-American, but McCullar, Gradey Dick and KJ Adams have all had big scoring nights throughout the year.