KU gears up for Big 12 leader Texas ... with a laundry list of improvements to make

Bill Self most assuredly is hoping the Kansas basketball team that plays host to Texas on Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse does not resemble the squad that imploded in a 68-53 loss to Iowa State on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.

“I didn’t like what I saw at all. Of course it’s on the coaches not getting them ready, (but) there were a lot of guys out there on an island by themselves. There weren’t many guys looking at anything but how it impacted themselves today. That’s a formula for getting your (butt) handed to you,” Self, KU’s 20th-year coach, said on the Jayhawk Radio Network’s postgame show.

Improved shooting, ball-handling, decision-making on offense and greater effort on defense and on the boards might be necessary ingredients if KU (18-5, 6-4) — one of four teams tied for third place in the conference behind Texas (19-4, 8-2) and Iowa State (16-6, 7-3) — plans on halting Texas’ four-game Big 12 winning streak on Monday.

Tipoff is 8 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse with a live broadcast on ESPN.

“It was a bad day right from the get-go. The very first possession we were backdoored and gave up an uncontested layup after no movement at all,” Self said. “It all seemed to go downhill from there.

“We didn’t shoot well (38.6% overall, 6-of-23 from three vs. Cyclones). We didn’t attack the rim. We were not as good off the ball screen as we were the first game (a 62-60 win over ISU in Lawrence). They whipped us from start to finish. They were better. We were awful. Our ball-screen defense and attention to detail and focus was not very good. It was a bad day. There were a lot of things we were pitiful at.”

Self said it was discouraging “their point guard (freshman Tamin Lipsey) was the best rebounder in the game (eight rebounds, plus nine points and 10 assists). Even though Kevin (McCullar, KU guard, 11 rebounds) got some defensive rebounds, he (6-foot-1 Lipsey) kicked our (butt) on the glass. We didn’t pay any attention to him. He wore us out, almost had a triple double.”

There were more situations in Saturday’s defeat that bothered Self greatly.

“We did such a bad job attacking their 1-3-1 (defense),” Self said. “Sometimes a coach can look at it and say, ‘We’re getting our butts handed to us but, you know what, we just got three good looks in a row and none of them went down.’ We had a few possessions like that but few and far between. When we got down 15 or so (in second half), panic mode kind of set in and then guys tried to play one-on-one and do it themselves. There’s no 15-point play.”

Now the Jayhawks, who have lost four of their last five conference games for the first time since the 1988-89 season, face the challenge of trying to get well against the first-place Texas Longhorns, who won Saturday at Kansas State 69-66.

“They are super athletic, as athletic as any team in our league,” Self said. “You are probably not going to play against four better athletes in America on the perimeter (Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter, Timmy Allen, Dillon Mitchell) than what Texas has.

“Of course Carr (16.4 points per game, 93 assists to 38 turnovers with 38 steals) is having an All-America type year. They have balance, too. They’ve got a real good team.”

How good?

“Their talent level is definitely top 10 talent without question, maybe top five,” Self said. “It will take a real good effort on our part.”

Texas is 12-3 since assistant coach Rodney Terry took over as acting head coach for Chris Beard, who left the program in December after Beard’s arrest.

“Those kids (at UT) have rallied around a situation and rallied around coach Terry in a way that you’d expect winners to do,” Self said. “That is one thing about teams that are real committed. I can look at them and I can look at Iowa State this way, too. They rallied around T.J. (Otzelberger) the two years he’s been here.

“(The Longhorn players) have done a phenomenal job. You can see their players rally around that situation because they know it’s not easy. A lot of times when it is not easy it brings everybody together more. They certainly rallied around that.”

KU senior guard McCullar said the Jayhawks have “got to stay with it. Every night is a gauntlet. We learned from this one to not give up. We’ll get back at it and Monday go out to win it.”

Entering Big Monday, the Big 12 standings look this way: Texas is 8-2 followed by Iowa State (7-3), KU, Kansas State, Baylor and TCU (all 6-4), Oklahoma State (5-5), West Virginia (3-7), Oklahoma (2-8) and Texas Tech (1-9).