Kansas Jayhawks’ Jalen Wilson explains NCAA title-game moment lauded for sportsmanship
Kansas forward Jalen Wilson accepted a pass from point guard Remy Martin on the wing, then decided to hold the ball rather than push a 5-on-4 advantage and attack the basket with 45 seconds left and the Jayhawks leading North Carolina 70-69 in the NCAA title game April 4 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
“Pretty incredible sportsmanship by Jalen Wilson,” college basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy wrote on Twitter in response to Wilson allowing UNC’s Armando Bacot to hobble back on defense after spraining his right ankle as he (Bacot) committed a turnover on the Tar Heels’ previous offensive possession.
“That is one of the great examples of sportsmanship you will ever see,” Ricky O’Donnell of SB Nation wrote. He was impressed that third-year sophomore Wilson flipped the ball back to Martin, ultimately allowing the refs to stop play to tend to the injured Bacot with 38.5 seconds left in the one-point thriller, which was won by KU, 72-69.
“Jalen Wilson should get Most Outstanding Player for showing great sportsmanship by pulling the ball out when his team had a clear 5-on-4 with a minute left,” Twitter user Femi Abebefe wrote on his social media account.
Another Twitter user, Holden Walter-Warner, added in a Tweet written during the late-game time out for injury: “Jalen Wilson will get crap if Kansas loses this, perhaps deservedly so, but the sportsmanship in that moment will be a memorable takeaway.”
One of the three announcers calling the game, veteran analyst Bill Raftery, held an opposite view regarding Wilson’s reluctance to force the action with an opponent in obvious physical distress.
“I am shocked Kansas didn’t attack,” Raftery said as the teams huddled on their respective benches. “You feel terribly for Bacot, but you’ve got to take advantage of that situation. (It was a) good piece of officiating as well, too. Once it was settled down, 5-on-5, take care of the injured player, but boy, you’ve got to punish people when you’ve got an opportunity like that (having numbers on the crunch-time possession).”
All’s well that ended well for KU as Wilson and the Jayhawks were able to hold off UNC and claim the school’s fourth NCAA Tournament crown and second in the Bill Self era.
In an attempt to set the record straight regarding one of the most talked-about plays of the 2022 championship contest, The Star asked Wilson last weekend during a Barnstorming Tour event at Blue Valley Northwest High School if “sportsmanship” indeed was the reason he didn’t shoot a three or take the ball to the hoop and perhaps attempt a driving layup that could’ve extended the Jayhawks’ narrow lead.
“Yes,” Wilson said without hesitation. “I saw he (Bacot) was down. I thought they (refs) were going to call it (injury timeout). I wasn’t going to force anything like that.”
Wilson added: “I was dribbling the ball (after accepting a pass from Martin who stole the ball from Bacot on the other end then dribbled slowly up court), just wondering what was going on. I thought the ref was going to stop it. I said, ‘Oh, I’m going to wait.’’’
Wilson had to make a split-second decision in the heat of the moment.
“Trust me, there was a lot going on,” he said with a smile.
KU’s Wilson was a factor again once play resumed. He passed the ball to power forward David McCormack, whose inside bucket over UNC’s Brady Manek gave KU a 72-69 lead with 22 seconds to play.
Yes, KU wound up scoring on the possession despite initially turning down that 5-on-4 opportunity.
“One of the dumbest plays we made … Bacot turns his ankle and he’s laying on the ground and we’re playing 5-against-4 and we don’t attack,” KU coach Self said last week on former KU forward Landen Lucas’ “Glue Guys” podcast. “Nobody really knew what to do. Och (senior guard Ochai Agbaji) was actually yelling at Jalen, ‘What are you doing? Let’s go.’ And we did such a bad job that the officials let everything get set up and did the right thing by stopping the game. Well … what a blessing that was for us.”
Self went on to explain.
“Bacot was hurt. He had to come out,” Self said of the 6-foot-10 Bacot. “Manek (6-foot-9) had to guard David (McCormack, 6-foot-10) and that was the exact play we would run because we had a mismatch inside. If we (Wilson) had attacked, we may not have been smart enough to play through that, and we were smart enough to play through that (after time out). Of course David turned and made a beautiful jump-hook to basically win the game. I’d like to say ‘good coaching,’ but also we were kind of lucky, too.”
A bucket by McCormack after a timeout is what Wilson envisioned when he waited for the injured Bacot to pass the halfcourt line and the refs to stop the action.
“We scored. Dave scored. It worked out,” Wilson said with a smile.
It turns out Denton, Texas native Wilson also played a key role in KU senior big man McCormack converting a stickback basket after McCormack’s own miss with 1:21 left. McCormack’s bucket gave KU a 70-69 lead.
“If you go back and watch the tape where David scored his first basket of the last two that put us up by one, he got an offensive rebound. Instead of fanning it, he went back and Manek and Bacot were both guarding him,” Self said. “What Jalen Wilson did that was very subtle … he cut to the baseline when David worked the middle.
“Bacot backed off him (McCormack) to guard Wilson’s cut and it gave David a free no-contest basket. (It was) luck,” Self stated emphatically. “If Jalen didn’t cut, Bacot would have probably still stayed on David.
“David didn’t have to score over an opponent on the basket that put us up one because Jalen cut and Manek was on one side. Bacot backed off him to guard Wilson. That allowed him (McCormack) to turn and be naked.”
Wilson finished the game with 15 points, four rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes. He was pleased he was able to produce during crunch time while also serving as an example of good sportsmanship on such a big stage.
“I don’t know whether he did it on purpose or not — sure looked like it — but how about the incredible sportsmanship from Jalen Wilson not going for the jugular on UNC in the final minute of the national championship up one with a 5-on-4 while Bacot was down and in obvious pain,” wrote Twitter user Derek Dunning.
“Jalen Wilson with the ‘Sportsmanship of the Century’ award, holding while Bacot hobbled up. My goodness,” chimed in Adam Prescott on Twitter.
From Twitter user Sheila Dokken: “@KUHoops should be proud of Jalen Wilson — amazing sportsmanship not taking advantage of an injury. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Way to show up! #empathy #sportsmanship.”
Finally, from Twitter user Sodak: “Jalen Wilson showed incredible sportsmanship by not taking advantage when UNC’s Bacot went down. In the last minute of the national championship, Wilson’s and the KU players’ character was amazing. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson raised that young man and deserve credit.”
Wilson concluded this discussion by saying Bacot is not only a fierce competitor, but a friend.
“We went to camps together in high school. He’s a good guy,” Wilson said of Richmond, Virginia native Bacot, who finished the title game with 15 points and 15 rebounds in 38 minutes.
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 9:38 AM.
