Invoice Self’s season continued to slide away Wednesday evening.
Cincinnati held on to knock off Kansas 72-52 within the second spherical of the Massive 12 match Wednesday. Whereas each Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar weren’t accessible resulting from accidents, the loss marked the fourth in Kansas’ final 5 video games in what’s turning out to be a horrible stretch on the worst time for the staff that was ranked No. 1 within the nation to begin the season final fall.
[Free bracket contests for men’s & women’s tourneys for shot at $25K]
Cincinnati — which needed to rally from a 16-point gap within the second half to beat West Virginia within the opening spherical of the match on the T-Cellular Middle in Kansas Metropolis on Tuesday evening — flew forward of the Jayhawks simply earlier than halftime within the second spherical of the match. The Bearcats used an enormous 14-1 run late within the first half to briefly take a 17-point lead, they usually held Kansas to simply two discipline objectives within the closing 8:26 of the opening interval. That gave them a 13-point lead on the break.
Whereas Kansas minimize the deficit to simply two factors out of the break after rattling off a 13-2 run to begin the second half — eight factors of which got here from Okay.J. Adams — that was as shut because the Jayhawks bought. Cincinnati rapidly pushed again forward and simply held on to seize the 20-point win.
Dan Skillings Jr. led Cincinnati with 25 factors and 7 rebounds whereas capturing 10-of-23 from the sector. John Newmann added 12 factors and 10 rebounds, and Simas Lukosius completed with 10 factors and 6 rebounds. Cincinnati will now advance to the quarterfinals of the match to tackle Baylor on Thursday.
Adams completed with 22 factors for the Jayhawks within the loss, although he was the one participant to hit double figures for Kansas. Dajuan Harris added eight factors and 5 assists, and Jamari McDowell added seven factors off the bench. Kansas shot simply 3-of-20 from the sector as a staff, and was out-rebounded by 11.
Dickinson dislocated his proper shoulder in Kansas’ loss to Houston on Saturday, and McCullar has been battling a bone bruise in his left knee. Each had been dominated out of the Massive 12 match, however the plan is for each of them to be accessible for the NCAA match.
Whereas they’re nonetheless very secure to make it in on Choice Sunday — ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Kansas slated as a No. 4 seed in his newest mock bracket earlier than Wednesday’s sport — that is in regards to the worst potential means for the Jayhawks to enter the postseason. They’ve misplaced their final two video games by a mixed 50 factors.
If Dickinson and McCullar aren’t accessible for the NCAA match subsequent week, Kansas may very simply be dealing with one more fast exit. That’s one thing that didn’t seem to be an actual chance just some months in the past.
