Wednesday Tip-Off: What's wrong with Kansas?

AT THE WATER COOLER: In a top 25 battle Tuesday night featuring two teams coming off setback, buzzer-beating losses, No. 19 Florida emerged as a team effectively turning the corner in 67-61 victory over No. 13 Kansas victory over Kansas. The Jayhawks, meanwhile, have now lost three of their last four (including this stunning loss to Colorado) to fall to 6-3 on the season. More importantly, Kansas looked sluggish and uninspired. Despite a double-double from Andrew Wiggins (26 points, 11 rebounds), it wasn't a pretty showing for the Jayhawks.

The Gators, led by the return of their sparkplug point guard Scottie Wilbekin, used a 21-0 run to build an insurmountable lead. Billy Donovan's 1-3-1 zone caused plenty of headaches for a young KU squad and subsequent timeouts by Bill Self. Florida looked like a better team on its homecourt — scoring 28 points off a whopping 24 KU turnovers — before Kansas mounted a too-little-too-late comeback.

"I think we should have had an electrical shortage and canceled the game after (leading 10-3)," Kansas coach Bill Self said after the game. "We made a couple of shots and played pretty well the first four or five minutes. But we were awful after that. ... That was not a good team playing there at all, and when things started to go bad, we didn't do anything to stop it. That was frustrating. ...We've got to get everyone playing together. ...I can't blame it all on youth. ... A lot of it may be youth, but I think we can still play better individually."

On the positive side, this Kansas team is young and much like Kentucky, has a learning curve it needs to experience in order to be great. A sloppy team in December is a lot less worrisome than a sloppy team in March. Still, there are major concerns. There's definitely a chemistry issue here. The Jayhawks can't seem to find a way to play together and rally around Wiggins, who let's not forget is the projected No. 1 NBA Draft pick come June. That's a fixable issue, of course, but Wiggins needs to step up and start putting the team on his back more instead of having Self draw up plays for him to do so or simply scoring in transition. And the supporting cast, Frank Mason, Naadir Tharpe, Joel Embiid and Perry Ellis, need to find a way to complement him. Another issue is there appears to be no leader on the court. When a call doesn't go your way, there needs to be a player who huddles the team and helps them regroup when adversity strikes. KU faces New Mexico and Georgetown in the next two weeks so time is of the essence.

REWIND: In other games Tuesday, Kentucky used a stifling defense to limit the nation's top scoring team to 55 points. The Wildcats cruised for a 70-55 victory over previously unbeaten Boise State. And Gonzaga used an 18-2 run to pick up a much-needed road victory over West Virginia.

THE HIGHLIGHT REEL: Nevada's Deonte Burton landed an impressive jam against California on Tuesday night.

BEST BET TONIGHT: Nobody could accuse Bryant of playing a soft schedule. The Bulldogs (6-4), hoping to make some noise in the Northeast Conference this year, are going against an ambitious list of non-conference opponents. The teams that account for Bryant's losses — Gonzaga, Harvard, Notre Dame and North Dakota State — have a combined record of 30-7. On tap tonight for the Bulldogs is No. 2 Ohio State (7:30 p.m. ET, BTN). Leading the way for the Bulldogs is 6-2 G Dyami Starks (22.1 ppg), who is also a 90.9% free throw shooter. But getting to the line won?t be easy against noted Buckeyes defensive standout Aaron Craft.

ALSO ON DECK TONIGHT: Other top 25 games in action.

— Milwaukee at No. 6 Wisconsin (8 p.m.)

— New Mexico State at No. 1 Arizona (9 p.m., PAC-12 Networks)

NUMBER OF THE DAY: 89.9

Brigham Young entered the week averaging a healthy 89.9 points a game, good for eighth in the country. That figure probably doesn?t bode well for the Cougars? opponent tonight. Prairie View is giving up 85 points per outing, 337th out of 345 Division I teams in scoring defense.

WORDS OF THE DAY: "I think it's something we feel like we've earned. We know that being ranked No. 1 doesn't mean that we won the championship or the season's now over, but I'm not going to play the negative card at all. To be ranked No. 1 is maybe the greatest compliment you can have." ? Arizona coach Sean Miller. The Wildcats? first defense of their top ranking is tonight at home against New Mexico State.

DAYS UNTIL SELECTION SUNDAY: 95

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Scott Gleeson, a national college basketball writer/digital producer for Paste BN Sports, is on Twitter @ScottMGleeson.

Eddie Timanus, a colleges sports writer and the polls editor for Paste BN Sports, is on Twitter @EddieTimanus.