Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. (15) drives against TCU guard Micah Peavy (0) tduring the first half on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

The Kansas men’s basketball team benefited from a flagrant foul call against TCU in the final minute during its 83-81 win in Allen Fieldhouse. And while that call will certainly command much of the conversation following Saturday’s Big 12 opener, the sequence leading up to the foul was just as much of the story.

Facing a 79-77 deficit with a minute to go, Kansas senior Kevin McCullar Jr. tried to force the ball inside to big man Hunter Dickinson. The pass was bad, and never got to Dickinson. TCU’s Ernest Udeh Jr., a transfer from KU, ended up intercepting the pass for the steal.

McCullar’s mistake was the final turnover of the night for the Jayhawks, who committed 18 in the narrow win after they were favored by nine points via the closing spread. The 18 turnovers matched a season high for Kansas, which also recorded as many in its lone loss of the season against Marquette in Hawaii.

“The difference in the game was that their best offense was our offense,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “I mean we threw the ball to them, (had) unforced errors. They forced some too.”

On some level, the Jayhawks (13-1) had to know they were going to struggle taking care of the rock ahead of this one. The Horned Frogs (11-3) rank 10th in the nation in turnover rate, forcing opposing teams into a turnover rate of 23%. They entered the game 11th in the country by forcing 16.9 turnovers per contest.

But what really made the turnovers costly was what the Horned Frogs did with them on Saturday. TCU scored 22 of its 81 points (27%) off turnovers, which is also a big reason why the visiting team made a dozen layups in the loss.

“Transition offense, you can talk about it all you want to, but you can’t get back if it’s three-on-ones and two-on-ones if you turn it over,” Self said. “That’s what happened tonight. Our ball handling and passing was so poor, but fortunately we rebounded the ball fairly well and we shot a pretty good percentage when we didn’t turn it over.”

Of course, TCU’s ability to turn the ball over and push it out in transition is nothing new. That was the identity of this team last year, when the Horned Frogs came into Lawrence and recorded an 83-60 thumping of the Jayhawks last January. This year’s group has forced 13-plus turnovers in all but one game thus far.

In fact, the Horned Frogs have become so good at forcing mistakes that head coach Jamie Dixon actually thought they could have done better in that department on Saturday.

“It’s something we do, something we work on and we take great pride in,” Dixon said. “We were trying to get some push-off fouls and charging fouls, but couldn’t seem to get those turnovers. Moving screen fouls, we couldn’t get those, because I thought we did a good job of fighting over ball screens.”

For Kansas, the concern is that turnovers might be becoming an issue. The Jayhawks only rank 168th with a turnover rate of 17.4%, but it’s been a theme in the biggest games of the year to this point.

KU has finished with 15 or more turnovers in four different games, including 16 against Missouri and 15 in a neutral-site matchup against Tennessee. The Jayhawks had nine such games all of last year.

“Obviously that wasn’t the game plan going in,” Dickinson said of KU’s 18 turnovers. “We knew they were going to try to speed us up. Just the pace they play, sometimes that makes the other team fall into their hands and kind of speeds them up and those turnovers happen.”

KJ Adams, who is the most athletic player on KU’s roster, agreed that TCU’s athleticism was a big reason for many of the costly turnovers.

“With really athletic teams like TCU, they speed us up a lot,” Adams said. “Just slowing down and not trying to force things. That’s pretty much what’s going to help that.”

Kansas will try to clean up its turnover issues on Wednesday when it travels to UCF for its first Big 12 road test of the year.

photo by: AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann

Kansas head coach Bill Self watches his team in action against TCU during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Lawrence, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024.

photo by: AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann

TCU guard Micah Peavy (0) and Kansas forward K.J. Adams Jr. (24) chase after a loose ball during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Lawrence, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024.

photo by: AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann

TCU guard Trevian Tennyson, right, tries to steal the ball from Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr., left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Lawrence, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024.

Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. (15) and TCU guard Micah Peavy (0) wrestle for a ball during the second half on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) swings a pass to the wing tduring the first half on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug