Kansas Jayhawks hold off Texas Tech and claim Big 12 championship outright
Bill Self learned that his 2019-20 Kansas basketball team had claimed an undisputed Big 12 regular season championship, courtesy of West Virginia’s victory over Baylor, early in the second half of Saturday’s 66-62 KU victory over Texas Tech at United Supermarkets Arena.
“At the first TV timeout I asked who won. Doc Magee (Larry, KU’s team doctor) told me West Virginia did by 10, 12 points (76-64),” said Self, fully aware a Baylor loss at WVU or a KU victory over Tech would guarantee no ties in the standings.
“I didn’t say anything to the players,” Self added, deciding his No. 1-ranked Jayhawks (28-3, 17-1 Big 12) had enough on their minds trying to grind out a win over Tech.
Self — his Jayhawks led 32-24 at halftime but were deadlocked with the Red Raiders, 37-37, with 14 minutes to play — finally decided to let the Jayhawks in on his little secret at the 8-minute timeout, KU up 48-46.
“I said, ‘Gosh dang guys, I don’t know why you are playing so tight. West Virginia won. Let’s go have fun,’’’ Self said. “That didn’t have anything to do with us winning. I do think it’s nice for that pressure to be lifted a bit.”
The undisputed league title assured, KU was tied with Texas Tech (18-13, 9-9) at 57-57 entering the final two minutes.
Udoka Azubuike (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Christian Braun (five points, four boards) scored inside to give the Jayhawks a 61-57 advantage with 1:26 left. After a bucket by Kevin McCullar, KU’s Marcus Garrett hit a driving layup with 35 seconds to play and KU led 63-59.
Devon Dotson (17 points, seven rebounds, five assists) hit two free throws with 19 seconds left that gave KU a 65-59 lead. But Tech’s Davide Moretti (18 points) swished a three from the corner with 11 seconds left, slicing the six-point deficit in half.
Garrett missed a free throw, giving Tech a chance at overtime. Moretti missed a three, KU’s Garrett rebounded and was fouled. He hit the front end of a 1-and-1, missed the back end and the game was over.
“We wanted to win it outright,” Dotson said of the regular-season crown. “We didn’t want to share the title with anybody. Coach (Self) before the game said, ‘Do what we do.’ At the end of the day we’re playing basketball. We try to win every game.”
As it turned out, KU, which assured itself at least a tie for the crown by beating TCU on Wednesday, would have been undisputed champs even with a loss to Texas Tech.
“We didn’t want to share anything,” KU freshman guard Christian Braun said. “Our whole mindset going in was we had to close it out. You don’t go in any game thinking it’s OK to lose. It was in our minds not to share.”
Braun said it was interesting to hear Self report the Baylor-WVU score with eight minutes left in the KU game.
“He threw it in at the end of the timeout,” Braun said of Self. “At that point, it was a close game. We had to take it anyways. We had to go win.”
The Jayhawks, who won their 16th straight game Saturday, finished 9-0 in Big 12 road games.
“I think we guard. There is that old adage, ‘Defense travels.’ For the most part that has been the case with us,’’’ Self said after the Jayhawks held the Red Raiders to 37.1% shooting (to KU’s 41% mark). Tech hit 8 of 26 threes to KU’s 4 of 17.
“You go back and look … at West Virginia, ugly offense; at K-State ugly offense; today not very good; at Texas not very good; at TCU not very good. We won that one 60-46. The consistent thing has been the defense.”
Of the 17-1 mark and league crown, Self noted: “We were down one game with four left and end up winning by two. Baylor (26-4, 15-3) deserves a lot of credit. They had an unbelievable year. Our guys deserve the lion’s share (of praise) for grinding. It could have gone either way. They win league by two easy if the game in Waco (KU’s 64-61 win on Feb. 22) went in a different direction. We played our best when it counted the most.”
Self could have, but did not play KU junior forward Silvio De Sousa on Saturday. De Sousa was eligible to play after serving a 12-game suspension.
“We weren’t in foul trouble,” Self said. Backup big man David McCormack had seven boards and five points in 11 minutes. Starting center Azubuike played 29 minutes.
“I told you guys (media) before what the deal was. I’m sure Silvio is disappointed. We’ve played pretty well the last 12 games. Certainly if we can utilize him we will. I am not going to take minutes away from David just to make sure Silvio gets in the game.”
Self who said he definitely had “fun” coaching Saturday’s game, had no comment when asked to give his first public statements about Thursday’s release of KU’s response to NCAA allegations of rules violations in men’s basketball.
“No, I’m not going to comment,” Self said. “I think there’s a 230-page (document) that speaks for itself,” he said, smiling.
The coaches and players filed to the team bus quickly — within a half hour or so after game’s end — for the charter flight back to Lawrence. The players were ecstatic after claiming the 15th league title in the 17-year Self era.
“I want to say it is a good conference,” Azubuike said. “The Big 12 is a good conference. In most conferences, you lose four games and you win the league. People don’t know how hard it is to win this conference with the defense so good and everything.”
KU will next play in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals around 2 p.m. Thursday in the Sprint Center. KU will play the winner of Wednesday’s game between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds, Oklahoma State and Iowa State.
KU basketball news with Jesse Newell
Sign up to get the inside scoop on Kansas Jayhawks basketball from Jesse Newell, and text him back your questions and thoughts on the team and its season.
Sign upWooden finalists chosen
KU senior Udoka Azubuike and sophomore Devon Dotson are two of 15 players on the 2020 men’s national ballot for the John R. Wooden Award, the Los Angeles Downtown Athletic Club announced Saturday.
Other candidates for national player of the year: Saddiq Bey, Villanova; Jared Butler, Baylor; Anthony Cowan, Maryland; Malachi Flynn, San Diego State; Luke Garza, Iowa; Markus Howard, Marquette; Tre Jones, Duke; Jordan Nwora, Louisville; Filip Petrusev, Gonzaga; Myles Powell, Seton Hall; Payton Pritchard, Oregon; Obi Toppin, Dayton and Cassius Winston, Michigan State.
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 3:10 PM.
