Kansas basketball returns to Allen Fieldhouse, earns 74-69 win against Cincinnati

LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball’s 2023-24 season continued Monday as the Jayhawks picked up a 74-69 win in Big 12 Conference play against the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Here are a few takeaways from No. 8 Kansas (16-3, 4-2 in Big 12) topping Cincinnati (13-6, 2-4 in Big 12):

Kansas continues to protect home court

Kansas has had its issues in road games this season during Big 12 play. Both of the Jayhawks’ conference losses leading into the game Monday came away from home. But with this latest win, Kansas remained undefeated at home — 10-0 overall inside Allen Fieldhouse, and 3-0 against Big 12 foes.

The Jayhawks’ upcoming schedule will continue to feature its share of challenges, at home and on the road. It’ll be no easy task for them to continue to come out on the right side of these games as they did Monday. But as long as they can continue to protect home court, they’ll put themselves in position to be in the Big 12 regular season title race.

Kansas’ lack of scoring from its bench is putting more pressure on its starters

With players like graduate senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. and senior center Hunter Dickinson, it’s not a surprise that Kansas’ starting lineup is going to likely finish most games with many more points than its bench. Considering how much they spearhead the Jayhawks’ offense, and how many opportunities are going to go to the other starters before the opportunities arise for someone on the bench, that’s not much of a surprise. But a game like Monday’s, where the bench finished with only two points, shows how much pressure there is on the starters to deliver in that regard.

Freshman guard Elmarko Jackson and graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake are two players who come off of the bench who have the potential to score the ball. There are going to be games where Kansas needs Timberlake’s 3-point shooting ability. But games where those two have actually done that at a considerable rate have been few and far between.

“I think there’s some concern,” Kansas coach Bill Self said about the lack of bench scoring against Cincinnati. “The two bench points came with 13 seconds left on free throws. So, yeah, so they basically out-scored us 32-0 from the bench. So, yeah, I don’t know if that’s ever been heard of and a team wins.”

Self alluded to the way Cincinnati plays being a style that allows for more bench scoring opportunities.

Johnny Furphy sets new career high for points

Freshman guard Johnny Furphy has been excellent as a starter in recent weeks for Kansas, and that held true Monday against Cincinnati. Furphy set a new career high of 23 points while shooting 7-for-8 from the field, 3-for-4 from behind the arc and 6-for-9 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed 11 rebounds as he collected his first career double-double.

With stars like McCullar and Dickinson, who both finished in double figures scoring Monday, the Jayhawks were always going to be a team that could contend for a Big 12 title. Furphy’s emergence makes Kansas’ path a lot easier. It also allows Jackson to develop more without the pressure of having to deliver starter minutes.

“He’s settled into the role and he’s gotten us off to a good start all three games,” Self said about Furphy’s recent play. “I mean, that’s him. I don’t know anybody else that’s gotten us off to a good start. And, yeah, he played great. I mean, offensively he was terrific and he was great in transition, he can really run.”

Self also praised Furphy’s rebounding, while alluding to a need for some of Furphy’s teammates to be better in that area.

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.