How Will Kansas Respond to Being Blown Out?

At the start of this brutal three-game stretch to open conference play against Texas Tech, West Virginia, and Texas, I sent a text to a friend of mine (and fellow KU diehard) that said if Kansas wins two of three, I’d take it.

That’s what happened, but the way that loss on Saturday took place changes the perception a bit. It’s impossible for it not to change things. There’s no use dwelling on the game and what went wrong. There’s already been plenty of time for that. The question is what comes next. Because how Kansas comes out the next time it takes the court will speak to if this team has the potential we thought it did and if the Texas game was an outlier of sorts—the Longhorns couldn’t miss, Kansas couldn’t finish anything, and the long holiday break seemed to hit the Jayhawks hard.

A staple of the Jayhawks’ dominance under Bill Self is that one bad game has not turned into a worse stretch. Kansas rarely loses back-to-back games, but it definitely doesn’t happen when that first loss was by more than 10 points. Dominate the Jayhawks and, historically under Self, the next opponent KU faces has to pay the price for it.

I went through the Sports Reference game logs to see how Kansas has bounced back from double-digit losses during the regular season over the last four-and-a-half seasons.

2020-21 season

Loss: 102-90 to Gonzaga

Next game: 94-72 win over Saint Joseph’s

2019-20 season

Loss: 67-55 to Baylor

Next game: 66-52 win at Oklahoma

2018-19 season

Loss: 77-60 at Iowa State

Next game: 77-68 win against TCU

Loss: 73-63 at Texas

Next game: 79-63 win against Texas Tech

Loss: 91-62 at Texas Tech

Next game: 64-49 win against Kansas State

Loss: 81-68 at Oklahoma

Next game: 78-70 win against Baylor

2017-18 season

Loss: 95-85 against Arizona State

Next game: 73-72 win at Nebraska

Loss: 85-73 against Texas Tech

Next game: 88-84 at TCU

Loss: 80-64 at Baylor

Next game: 83-77 at Iowa State

2016-17 season

Loss: 85-69 at West Virginia

Next game: 79-73 against Kentucky

Every single time, Kansas has come back the next game to get a strong win. Even in the painful 2018-19 season, Self had his team ready to go the next game. In fact, the last time Kansas lost a regular-season game by double digits and went on to lose its next regular-season game was at the Maui Invitational in 2005 when the Jayhawks lost to Arizona 61-49 and then the next day dropped a one-point game to Arkansas 65-64. That’s an incredible steak.

There are some similarities between this team and the Final Four team of 2017-18 (and the 2018-19 team, if we’re being honest). Both play small with athletic wings and streaky shooters, and there were nights when the 2018 team couldn’t make a shot and it led to some lopsided losses (the 2018 team had multiple double-digit losses where it scored less than 65 points).

To take it a step further, the 2018 team loss by 12 to Texas Tech at home on January 2. KU’s next game in 2018? At TCU. What is the 2021 squad’s chance at redemption? At TCU on Tuesday.

History says you should feel good taking the Jayhawks to win on Tuesday.