How KU basketball won the kind of game it has lost so many times before

Their shots clang off the rim and their point guard tries to act like he's not hurt and their best shooter isn't playing. They can't get to the rim, which might otherwise not be such a problem but, well, their shots are still clanging off the rim. Kansas has lost this basketball game before.

The Jayhawks have lost this game many times before, in fact, in NCAA Tournament games they were favored to win in arenas across the Midwest and beyond. Against Northern Iowa in Oklahoma City. Against VCU in San Antonio. Against Stanford in St. Louis, and against Wichita State in Omaha.

They have lost this type of game so often, on stages so big, that Kansas falling short in the tournament has become something of a tradition this time of year. The Jayhawks lose, tears are shed in the locker room, rinse and repeat.

Not this time. Not on this day, not in this arena, not with this group.

Top-seeded Kansas beat No. 5 Maryland 79-63 in a South Regional Sweet 16 game here on Thursday. The Jayhawks will play No. 2 Villanova for a spot in the Final Four at 7:49 p.m. Saturday on CBS.

The idea that Kansas has lost this game in many recent Marches is not the creation of some sports writer. These are the words of Perry Ellis, the senior star who's been part of three early losses before — this was a game Kansas would've lost a year ago or two or three.

"Yeah, I can say that," Ellis says. "Before, we let the offense get into our heads, almost give us a sense of giving up. Now, we know how to hunker down defensively. That's key for us."

The Jayhawks won this game because Ellis continues to make a bigger place for himself in the program's history, this time with 27 points on 17 shots. If Kansas wins that game on Saturday, Ellis' jersey will hang in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters someday. Heck, by now, it might either way.

The Jayhawks also won because Wayne Selden continues to play with a raw emotion he often tries to hide, and a growing confidence obvious to everyone. He went for 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

But those are symptoms of something bigger. The Jayhawks won because of a toughness that coach Bill Self craves with all of his teams, a toughness this particular team found sometime after being overwhelmed in three consecutive road games in January.

That toughness is most obvious on defense, which as much as anything else is why the Jayhawks keep winning. This was a concern early, but in the last two months they've defended as well as any team in the country. Maryland hit only 40 percent of its shots, its fifth-worst success rate in 36 games this season. The Jayhawks did a particularly good job on Maryland star guard Melo Trimble, who hit just five of 16 shots, including one of seven three-pointers.

Frank Mason is playing hurt, and Devonte Graham was largely ineffective with an illness. They combined for 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting with six turnovers, but their work against Trimble helped tilt the balance toward KU's side.

The Jayhawks haven't always had that kind of subtle toughness.

"These past couple years we weren't as good as we should've been defensively," senior Jamari Traylor says. "That's probably why we haven't advanced this far."

If the score went the other way, those of us who spend our time on such things could've found any number of reasons. Mason and Graham were diminished. Brannen Greene could not play through back pain. Maryland is among the biggest and most talented teams Kansas has faced, and led for most of the first half.

KU's Bill Self was raised in coaching by Eddie Sutton, who taught him that the value of being able to count on defense and rebounding is that you can feel like you're playing poorly and then realize you're up by two.

That's exactly what happened in that first half, with Kansas forcing bad shots and running bad sets but guarding well enough to not let Maryland get out in front.

"I don't know if the key to winning games is playing great all the time," Self said. "The key to winning games is when you're not playing great, not allowing people to go on runs against you. We were able to do that in the first half."

Those past March failures have tended to take on a kind of shorthand to reference the pain. Andrew Wiggins scoring four points in his last college game. Elijah Johnson's meltdown against Michigan. Markieff Morris' eight turnovers against VCU.

This March push has taken on something much different. The references are about team, about one guy picking up for the next, about parts fitting together, a defense that's been among the nation's best over the last two months, and a team that has beaten more ranked teams than not during a 17-game win streak that stretches back to January.

This team is different. Different in how they play, and different in how they win. One more, and they are back on their sport's biggest stage.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 1:17 AM with the headline "How KU basketball won the kind of game it has lost so many times before."