KU basketball trailed by 3 against UConn. What happened on the next possession?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KU called late play for a 3 with 0:23 left; coach told McDowell to drive if guarded.
- McDowell attacked rim after no clean 3; Alex Karaban blocked his tying layup.
- UConn freshmen Mullins and Reibe scored; KU lost due to poor rebounding, turnovers.
No. 21-ranked Kansas would have certainly liked to knock down a 3-point shot in the final 10 seconds and perhaps force overtime in the Jayhawks’ 61-56 loss to No. 5 UConn on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
As things turned out, however, with the Jayhawks trailing 59-56, sophomore guard Jamari McDowell after seeing no open teammates behind the arc drove to the basket and had a layup blocked by Alex Karaban with 9.2 ticks left.
After a KU foul on the rebound, freshman Braylon Mullins (17 points, five rebounds) hit two free throws. Elmarko Jackson missed from 3, and the Jayhawks suffered their third loss of the season in nine games.
The Huskies (7-1) avenged a loss in Allen Fieldhouse from the 2023-24 season, leaving the Jayhawks wondering what might have been had they converted a possible game-tying 3.
For the game, KU was 5-of-18 from 3, UConn 7-of-26.
“Yes. We had a play (called during a timeout with 0:23 left and KU down by three). I mean obviously we needed a 3,” said McDowell, who in the absence of the injured Darryn Peterson scored eight points on 2-of-6 shooting (2-of-5 from 3) in 32 minutes.
“So that was the ideal, but we still have enough time to get a little 2 and foul possibly. I think we’ve just got to be a little tougher, stick to our principles when it’s crunch time ...” he added.
KU coach Bill Self explained what happened on the key possession in which the Jayhawks, who were outrebounded 25-10 the second half, came up empty following a final timeout.
“We didn’t have a lot of options,” Self said, “but we’re looking for — and we didn’t run it great, but that’s what we run — fade (screen) on one side, fade on the other side, and then a pindown … if we don’t have either one of those, back to the strong side.
“I told ‘Mari, I said, ‘Shoot the (3) ball, but if it’s not there, take the ball to the hole.’ So he did what I asked him to do. (Karaban) just made a really good defensive play.”
UConn coach Dan Hurley said “yes” when asked if he thought KU would hoist a 3 to try to tie the game rather than attack the goal for a 2 that if converted would have cut the gap to a single point in the final 10 seconds.
“Yes, I think we were (expecting a 3) because it just gets tricky,” Hurley said. “We had a lot of good free throw shooters on the court. And then if you don’t get it … if you don’t start looking for 3s around that 22-second, 15-second mark, now you’re going to be dealing with getting fouled as it goes later.
“So I thought what they did was obviously really smart. They ran a couple screen, re-screen, flare, re-screen things to try to get a good look at a 3, and then they attack the rim as a Plan B to score, and then obviously get into the foul and press game.”
Hurley said the UConn players were told not to foul a 3-point shooter, but also not to leave the 3-point line unguarded.
“Two doesn’t hurt us,” Hurley said. “No three-point plays, no fouls, don’t foul the 3-point shooter, don’t leave the line.”
A pair of UConn freshmen, Mullins and Eric Reibe, hurt the Jayhawks. Mullins hit 6-of-12 shots (3-of-9 from 3) with five rebounds in 23 minutes. Reibe had 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and eight rebounds in 31 minutes.
Asked what his own team could take away from the loss, Self said: “A lot. We should have been up a lot more than four at halftime. Bad offense, unforced turnovers, the ball sticking, trying to play one-on-one. All that stuff led to us probably having six, eight, 10 bad possessions in the first half where we had no chance to score. Second half the same thing.
“Defensively, the way I look at it, I thought we actually other than the two switches that we screwed up at the end (that led to key UConn layups), I thought we did a good job on that. And then we screwed up two big switches, and they got layups, but I thought we actually guarded them pretty well (UConn hit 42.1% of its shots; KU 35.3%). We just didn’t rebound the second half, and and then course, we didn’t play the way we have to play without Darryn — ball and body movement, don’t let the defense catch up as opposed to hold it, hold it, hold it.”
KU will next meet Missouri at 12 p.m. Sunday at T-Mobile Center.
This story was originally published December 3, 2025 at 12:34 AM.
