KJ Adams’ return sparks Kansas Jayhawks to win over UCF: ‘He’s got so much heart’
After missing three straight games because of a shoulder injury, Kansas senior forward KJ Adams returned to play 26 minutes in Tuesday’s 91-87 victory over UCF at Allen Fieldhouse.
Grateful teammate Zeke Mayo insists each and every one of the minutes were appreciated on a night KU senior point guard Dajuan Harris, who had started 98 games in a row, missed the Big 12 battle because of an ankle sprain.
“KJ was huge, somebody we needed Saturday (in double-OT loss to Houston),” said Mayo, who was sensational with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists in 38 minutes.
“He’s got so much heart, plays with so much aggression, so much passion. He kind of brings an energy to our team that is hard to find in somebody else. He’s very gritty and that’s a guy that we need for the rest of the year. He means so much to us, to our program, to our coaches. So, I mean, it was great to have him back out there, for sure,” Mayo added.
Adams — he suffered a separated shoulder against Iowa State on Jan. 15 — scored 12 points with five rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes.
He saved his best for the end of the game, making plays that helped KU (15-5, 6-3) survive a UCF team (13-7, 4-5) that led by nine points early in the second half.
“For him to be out of rhythm as much as he is and still deliver like that is pretty impressive,” KU coach Bill Self said of the 6-foot-7 Austin, Texas native.
Asked by a reporter if it was “KJ’s night,” Self said: “That was his five-second segment for sure.”
Here’s what Self was referring to. …
KU led 87-86 with 10 ticks left when Adams missed a short shot in the lane.
UCF came up with the rebound, thus would have a chance to score on a final possession and hand KU its second consecutive loss in Allen — a first since the 1988-89 season.
Instead, closely guarded by Adams, TCU sensation Keyshawn Hall, who had 34 points in 39 minutes, lost the basketball about eight feet from the goal. After the turnover, Adams was fouled with 4.6 seconds to play and would head to the line with KU up a point.
“KJ played great defense on that possession,” Self said. “It was KJ. He (Hall, who hit 9 of 19 shots, 5 of 7 3s and 11 of 11 free throws) put his head down and drove left and KJ played his left hand.”
Adams, who was 6-of-7 from the line, connected on both free throw tries and KU led 89-86 with 4.6 seconds to play.
“I thought KJ did great. But the whole deal is he had three or four of those little push shots that he usually makes 70% of that didn’t come close tonight. I think that’s just rhythm,” Self said.
UCF had plenty of time to force overtime. Thus Self was forced to decide whether to let the possession play out or foul to send the Knights to the line with them needing three, not two, to force OT.
Darius Johnson was fouled hard by Rylan Griffen after he had crossed halfcourt with 3.1 seconds remaining. Johnson missed the first of two free throws then hit the second and KU led 89-87 at :3.1.
“The strategy was to foul before they got to halfcourt, though I said, ‘Don’t foul after they get to halfcourt,’’’ Self said. “So we did not execute what we wanted to do, but that was what we talked about. ... (Fouling after halfcourt) gave him an opportunity maybe to get into a shooting motion (for three free throws), but in the backcourt that wouldn’t have been the case. So we didn’t do a good job with that at all.
“And that’s a reason why I very rarely foul (up 3), because there’s a lot of bad things that can happen when you do. And it was close to being a bad thing tonight..”
KU still had to get the ball inbounds with 3.1 ticks left, up just two.
Instead, Mayo, who hit six 3s in 10 attempts, was fouled before Hunter Dickinson threw the ball in bounds. Mayo went to the line and hit two free throws at 3.1 to account for the 91-87 final.
“For me personally it’s tough to move past the situation Saturday,” said Mayo, who failed to get the ball in twice as KU blew a pair of late six-point leads — in regulation and the first overtime vs. Houston.
“I felt those were two possessions that were arguably the biggest of the year for us. I didn’t capitalize so going into those two free throws there today, I definitely needed to deliver just in order to get my mindset back right.”
Self said he was “proud” of the team for winning without point guard Harris and having to use “makeshift” lineups, such as one with big men Dickinson (24 points, seven rebounds), Flory Bidunga (10 points, 11 rebounds) and Adams together.
“It’s tough when you’re down an All-American point guard arguably in Juan. He’s typically out there to help us a lot down the stretch and help us close games,” Mayo said. “But we just didn’t want this to turn into something like Saturday. Honestly, we didn’t want one (loss) to turn into two. So, you know, it took a took a lot of heart, a lot of grit from our guys to dig down deep. Obviously, a lot of a lot of us played a ton of minutes, so it was definitely a tough win, but it was what we expected.”
KU will next meet Baylor at 3 p.m. Saturday in Waco, Texas.
