PROVIDENCE—The Kansas Jayhawks had rallied from 10 points down to a three-point lead with a 2-3 zone and a barrage of missed Arkansas Razorbacks shots. The Hogs had scored two points in a span of seven-plus minutes. A little over three minutes remained, and a miserable Kansas season was close to getting a smidge brighter.

Then KJ Adams tried to take off downcourt with a defensive rebound and suddenly went down, turning the ball over in the process. It looked bad in the moment, and it is—an Achilles injury that coach Bill Self said postgame could cause Adams “to lose a year.” 

What followed that injury was a complete collapse in a winnable game against a No. 10 seed—echoing a home loss to the Houston Cougars and a blown 20-point lead to the Baylor Bears and a brutal loss to the Utah Utes. Without Adams, Kansas turned the ball over on its next four possessions with a flurry of careless passes. By the time the Jayhawks finally got up another shot (which missed), they had gone from three up to four down. Final score: Arkansas 79, Kansas 72.

“We did a lot of the damage ourselves,” Self said, a statement that was true Thursday night and for the season as a whole.

It began with the No. 1 ranking and ended with a first-round punch-out. The 2024–25 Kansas season was the cautionary tale of a team that got what it paid for in the portal era—the wrong guys. The Jayhawks spent a ton of money for a mismatched, un-clutch, underachieving roster that flailed all season offensively and couldn’t finish games. Their 13 losses were the most for the program since 1982–83.

And truth be told, it continues a regression from elite status for the Jayhawks since winning the 2022 national title. They’re 2–3 in the NCAA tournament since then, and their Big 12 record the past two years is 21–17 in a league they dominated for decades. 

It’s almost like some of the advantages gained from years as Adidas’s favored program have worn off after the federal investigation of corruption in college basketball. Kansas was sanctioned in that scandal, though not as severely as some thought it might be. Turns out the real sanction might have been losing T.J. Gassnola and Jim Gatto as recruiting concierges.

This inglorious end forced Self to acknowledge what became increasingly clear as the season spiraled into the dumpster. “We’ve got to reevaluate how we do things,” he said.

Building the program around 7′ 2″ Michigan Wolverines transfer Hunter Dickinson for two seasons was a failed plan. Dickinson exits college as a stat compiler more than a big-time winner. The teams he played on went to the Elite Eight as a freshman, the Sweet 16 as a sophomore, the NIT as a junior, the NCAA second round as a fourth-year senior and the first round as a fifth-year senior. Declining returns on large investments.

The addition of AJ Storr from the Wisconsin Badgers was a season-long fiasco that ended with him belatedly playing his best game against Arkansas, scoring 15 points. South Dakota State Jackrabbits transfer Zeke Mayo was inconsistent at best. Alabama Crimson Tide transfer Rylan Griffen was a non-factor who played much better last season for the Crimson Tide. 

Kansas’s two program mainstays, fifth-year point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. and fourth-year forward Adams, were role players who couldn’t carry a bigger load this season when needed. Yet in the final minutes of the season, the absence of Adams suddenly loomed large.

Add it all together and you have a bust of a team.

“You can’t afford [portal] misses, but I will say this … there’s an element of luck involved,” Self said. “I think now more than ever [it] was even before. You can go after the kids that you get a great bargain on. You get a good deal on it but it doesn’t matter unless they fit in and can help you win.

“We’ve got to do a better job of evaluating the portal but I’m happy with the roster we had. It just didn’t turn out to be the team that we had hoped it was.”

Next year’s team will be built around guard Darryn Peterson, the No. 1 or 2 player in the country depending which recruiting rankings you prefer. But he will be a freshman in a sport that skewed old years ago—Cooper Flaggs don’t come along every year. The Jayhawks will have to mine the portal heavily again this offseason, and they can’t afford to get it wrong.

In addition to the roster, Self probably needs to take a critical look at his staff. It’s not the freshest collection of guys, most of them having been in the program for ages. Staff continuity can be a good thing until it’s suddenly not, and this inflection point might be a time to shake things up on that front.

Self pointed out that, in a way, this Kansas team is a victim of the program’s historic success. Most of the nation would take 21 wins and an NCAA berth—but in Lawrence they’re accustomed to conference titles, high seeds and NCAA runs. The Jayhawks’ consistency has been the envy of the entire nation.

“No matter what you do in life, there’s going to be some ups and downs,” Self said. “And we just haven’t had very many downs, to be honest with you.”

The question now is what Kansas will do about this down year. The Jayhawks have to be smarter (and luckier) in the portal. They have to coach the players they bring in better. But first, they head home after their earliest tournament exit since 2006, and with their most losses in more than 40 years.

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