LAWRENCE, Kan., Sporting Alert – Frank Mason III just missed a triple-double and the No. 2 ranked Kansas Jayhawks knocked off Washburn 92-74 in the first of their two exhibitions before the start of the new college basketball season. PDF Game Box Score
Mason finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and one steal in 32 minutes, while shooting 6-for-11 from the floor and knocked down two of his four 3-point attempts to lead the way for Kansas.
He was more focused on the team performance, though.
“It doesn’t really matter (missing a triple-double), I’m just disappointed with the way we played as a team,” Mason said.
“We definitely have a lot of things we have to get better at. I’m just looking forward to the next game.”
The senior guard averaged 12.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists last term in helping the Big 12 champions reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
On Tuesday night, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk supported Mason with 16 points, which included four 3-pointer to go with five rebounds, while freshman Josh Jackson added 14 points and four boards and Landen Lucas finished with 10 points in the win.
As a team, the Jayhawks were 32-for-59 from the field for 54-percent and were 45.5-percent from 3-point range.
“It was good for our freshmen to get an eye-opening experience,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said.
“I’d say we labored; it wasn’t a great outing by our freshmen but certainly I don’t know that that is all bad because it opens their eyes to things we need to do a lot better.”
Coach Self was also happy that everyone finished the night healthy.
“Nobody got hurt,” he noted. “I’d say that’s the biggest positive. We didn’t play well at all as a team or individually.
“We said we weren’t going to show anything, which we didn’t, but still the couple of things that we did try to do were pretty brutal.”
Cameron Wiggins led the way for Washburn with 14 points in the loss at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Junior guards went 4-for-7 from 3-pointers and shot 45.5-percent from the field overall in 20-minutes for the Ichabod, who were 38.4-percent as a team from the floor.
Kansas led 50-34 at halftime after shooting 61.3-percent from the field and 53.8-percent from long-range going into the break.
“I thought there were some good things when we drove down the hill but I don’t think our ball movement was very good,” Self continued.
