LAWRENCE | Saturday afternoon, Allen Fieldhouse, and I kept waiting for the moment. One thing that you learn is that the moment always comes in this building. Texas led Kansas by 14 in the first half. Didn&#8217;t matter. Texas led Kansas with eight minutes left in the game. Didn&#8217;t matter. Texas&#8217; Damion James could not miss, and Kansas&#8217; Sherron Collins could not hit, and the Jayhawks were coming off a beating in Lubbock, Texas. None of it mattered.</p><p>I just kept waiting for the moment when Allen Fieldhouse would win the game.</p><p>All in all, I don&#8217;t believe in magic. Over the years, I&#8217;ve been lucky enough to see college basketball at most of the great places in the country: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Rupp Arena, Pauley Pavilion, Assembly Hall, the Dean Dome and so on and they&#8217;re all loud, they&#8217;re all intimidating, they&#8217;re all tough places to win. That&#8217;s as far as it goes.</p><p>But there really is something about Allen Fieldhouse, something that goes beyond the noise, beyond the history, beyond the officiating, beyond the Phog. There is something that makes it almost impossible for a team, no matter how good, to come in here and win.</p><p>That&#8217;s not just hyperbole. The Jayhawks came into Saturday&#8217;s game against Texas having won 40 in a row at Allen Fieldhouse, the longest home winning streak in the country. Funny thing is it&#8217;s only the <em>third</em> longest streak at Kansas the last 25 years. This place is absurd.</p><p>And you never know how it will happen at Allen Fieldhouse. Sometimes like last week &#8212; when Kansas played Missouri &#8212; the Jayhawks will jump on a team early, and the crowd will get wild, and the old ghosts will start howling, and the game will get out of hand. Sometimes &#8212; like earlier in the season against Tennessee &#8212; the game will be a back-and-forth boxing match, each team takes a lead, each team lands big shots, each team seems about ready to put the other away. And then it is Kansas left standing at the end.</p><p>And sometimes, it is like Saturday. It was Senior Day, which added a whole other layer of emotion to the day (Kansas has not lost on Senior Day in 25 years). Seniors Matt Kleinmann and Brennan Bechard started the game. Kansas was playing for the Big 12 championship as well. Technically the Jayhawks had already secured at least a share of the championship, but nobody likes to share the trophy. The crowd was hyped.</p><p>Then Texas came out more hyped and absolutely destroyed Kansas in the first half. &#8220;We played terrible defense,&#8221; Kansas coach Bill Self would say, &#8220;and Texas played great.&#8221; He did not have to say any of that since the box score clearly shows that the Longhorns made 17 of 30 shots and outrebounded the Jayhawks by seven. Self kept trying to change defenses, kept trying to get his players through Texas&#8217; screens, but nothing worked. Texas led 44-30 with 1:40 left in the half, and if the Longhorns had managed to go into the locker room with that lead, things might have ended different.</p><p>But it&#8217;s not that easy to get into the locker room with a big lead in this building. Kansas&#8217; Marcus Morris made a layup. Kansas&#8217; Sherron Collins stole the ball and then fed Travis Releford for a layup. Cole Aldrich blocked a dunk attempt. And finally, with 8 seconds left in the half, Tyrel Reed made a three-point shot. Suddenly &#8212; and it was sudden &#8212; Texas&#8217; 14-point lead had become seven, and the place was impossibly loud again, and there was this unmistakable feeling then that the Longhorns had blown their chance, and they were not going to win the game.