Bad news: Jayhawks are on the road; Good news: They're at TCU
Kansas has struggled to carry its home dominance to the road, where it faces the possibility of its longest losing streak in 12 years.
A visit to TCU should at least solve that problem temporarily.
The seventh-ranked Jayhawks go for an eighth straight win over the last-place Horned Frogs in this Big 12 matchup Saturday.
Kansas (18-4, 6-3) has won 36 straight games at Allen Fieldhouse and outscored opponents by an average of 20.5 points in the 12 victories this season.
It's a much different story on the road, where the Jayhawks are 2-3 and have lost three in a row by an average margin of 14.3 points.
They haven't lost four straight away from Lawrence since Jan. 31-Feb. 23, 2004.
Things may not improve with trips to top-ranked Oklahoma, No. 15 Baylor and Texas among Kansas' final four road games.
That only increases the pressure on ending the skid against TCU (10-12, 1-8). The Jayhawks are 11-1 all-time against the Horned Frogs -- the lone defeat a 62-55 upset when ranked No. 5 on Feb. 6, 2013 -- and have outscored them by an average of 14.6 points over the last seven meetings after a 70-63 win at home Jan. 16.
Perry Ellis had 10 points and nine rebounds after totaling 55 and 15 over the previous two home victories. He was in foul trouble early and was limited to eight points in 15 minutes of a 64-61 win at Fort Worth on Jan. 28, 2015.
The forward hit 8 of 11 from the floor and finished with 19 points in Wednesday's 77-59 home victory over Kansas State.
Coach Bill Self, however, wasn't entirely pleased with the effort. Kansas committed a season-high 16 turnovers and was outrebounded 36-21 while grabbing only two offensive boards.
"I'll be candid," Self said, "they outplayed us. They beat us to loose balls, they outhustled us. ... That's about as soft as I can remember one of our teams playing."
Frank Mason III is more concerned about improving upon his eight points against the Wildcats. The junior guard converted only 1 of 5 from the field, four days after he had 13 points on 3-for-11 shooting in a 90-84 overtime win against No. 20 Kentucky.
Mason has 11.5 points per game over his last four against TCU. His impact was felt beyond scoring Jan. 16, getting 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
The Horned Frogs have lost six straight Big 12 games by an average of 15.8 points after being routed 95-72 by the Sooners on Tuesday.
"We weren't very good, but they had everything to do with that," coach Trent Johnson said.
Vladimir Brodziansky had 17 points and eight rebounds Tuesday after failing to get a point in the two previous games. The sophomore forward had a season-high 12 rebounds with eight points at Kansas last month, while Michael Williams' 13 points led TCU.
Williams, however, has averaged 2.8 points on 4-of-15 shooting totaled in five games since.
Chris Washburn, who had 15 points at Oklahoma, is emerging into a strong contributor -- averaging 12.0 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 48.6 percent over the last four games.
