photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (10) and Kansas center Udoka Azubuike (35) have a talk at half court during the first half, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 at Allen Fieldhouse.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (10) and Kansas center Udoka Azubuike (35) have a talk at half court during the first half, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Quick grades for five aspects of KU’s 84-79 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Offense: C-

Despite reaching 79 points, it certainly was an off day for the Kansas offense. The Jayhawks made just one 3-pointer in the first half and struggled throughout the day from the outside and also turned it over 11 times, most of them coming as they tried to initiate offense while digging the first-half hole. A few late shots made the percentages respectable and KU certainly did not lose this one on the offensive end. But had the offense been its normal, 3-point shooting machine, KU may have had less of a hole to crawl out of.

Defense: C-

After the loss, KU coach Bill Self said the team’s first-shot defense was decent. Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, when you give back nearly half of the 30 shots the opponent misses, that’s not going to show up in the box score. Beyond that, Kansas could not find a way to get the late stop it needed, allowing OSU to shoot 51.6 percent from the floor for the game and 44.4 percent from 3-point range.

Frontcourt: C

Stop me if you’ve heard this one… Udoka Azubuike was great when he was out there, but too many silly fouls limited his minutes. Azubuike played just 21 minutes and grabbed 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in that time. He snagged just five rebounds and also turned it over twice. There were plenty of effort plays on Azubuike’s behalf. And his free throws, for the second game in a row, looked much better. But KU needs him to be more of a factor all over the stat sheet and not just in the points column.

Backcourt: B-

Devonte’ Graham and Svi Mykhaililuk (17 points apiece) did what they could, though neither player delivered a particularly solid game. And Malik Newman had one heck of an eight-point spurt in the second half en route to his 16-point total. But Lagerald Vick was nowhere to be found — 2-of-10 shooting, five points, three rebounds, three turnovers in 34 minutes — and Marcus Garrett’s 14 minutes in relief were mostly quiet.

Bench: D

Mitch Lightfoot had a couple of moments, but was nothing like the player KU fans now know he can be. And Silvio De Sousa and Marcus Garrett didn’t do much to affect this one.

By the Numbers: Oklahoma State 84, Kansas 79.